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The Situation Room

Plane Crash Kills At Least 61 People in Brazil; Trump in Montana as Harris and Walz Ramp Up Battleground Blitzer; Renewed Push for Ceasefire as Israel Braces for Strikes; Harvard Study Shows Celebrity Voices Matter In Elections; Rare Look Inside Notorious Detention Facility In Israel. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired August 09, 2024 - 18:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[18:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, a horrific plane crash kills at least 61 people in Brazil. Authorities say the aircraft's black box has just been recovered, as we learn new details about the final moments before it dropped 17,000 feet from the sky into a residential neighborhood.

Back in the United States, the presidential candidates are heading west, as the race for the White House heats up. Donald Trump about to hold a rally in solid red Montana as Kamala Harris and Tim Walz make a play for battleground Arizona.

And we're also following developments right here in the Middle East, where a new push is underway for a ceasefire and hostage deal. This as Iran is now insisting its plans to retaliate against Israel for the assassination of a Hamas leader in Tehran is, quote, totally unrelated to Gaza ceasefire negotiations.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Tel Aviv, Israel, and you're in The Situation Room.

First up this hour, the breaking news out of Brazil, authorities are releasing new details tonight about a passenger plane crash just outside of Sao Paulo that killed at least 61 people on board.

CNN's Brian Todd is tracking all the latest information for us. Brian, update our viewers.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, a Brazilian security official says the plane's black box has been found and that relatives of those on board are being contacted. We have to warn viewers some of the video in this story could be disturbing to some.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice over): A terrifying spiral from the sky. A Brazilian passenger plane dropped straight down into a residential neighborhood. The woman who filmed this video told CNN the plane crashed onto the property of her next door neighbors in the city of Vinhedo. Voepass Airlines Flight 2283 carried 61 people on board. Brazil's president delivered the news of the worst possible outcome.

LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA, BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT: First, I have to be the bearer of very bad news. The plane has just crashed in the city of Vinhedo, in Sao Paulo, and it appears they all died.

TODD: According to the Flightradar24 website, the plane fell about 17,000 feet in just over one minute.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: At this point where we see it in the video where the plane is falling, the pilots would have had no ability to control that plane, so they could not have directed it away from houses or populated areas.

TODD: The plane had taken off from Cascavel, Brazil, for a flight lasting less than two hours and was only about eight minutes from landing at its destination near Sao Paolo. The exact cause of the crash is under investigation. Safety Analyst David Soucie told CNN what he observed from the jarring video.

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: It looks to me at this point, like this and listening to the video as well, is it's a power on stall, which is one of the most difficult things to recover from once you're into this stall is you have power on the aircraft, but yet it's still stalling and it rotates around. It's like a flat spin, they sometimes refer to it. So, those are some of the most difficult things to get out of, and they just didn't have enough altitude to recover from it.

TODD: As first responders swarmed the neighborhood, a witness described the impact.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I heard the sound of the plane falling, I looked out my window at home and saw the moment it crashed. I ran out of the house to see where it fell. I saw it fell on the house of a couple of elderly people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on camera): But according to one local city official, no one was killed in the residential area where the plane crashed. A man who missed the flight told a Brazilian news outlet that at least ten people were waiting at the wrong gate and missed the flight before it took off. Wolf?

BLITZER: They were the lucky ones. Brian Todd reporting for us, Brian, thank you very much.

Let's dig deeper right now with CNN Aviation Analyst Peter Goels and retired United Airlines Captain Kit Darby.

Peter, new video just into CNN shows this plane dropping out of the sky. So, how do authorities get to the bottom of what caused this crash now that they have the black box? PETER GOELS, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, if the black box hasn't been damaged, and it likely has not been, that will give you the plane's operational activities by the second leading up to the crash. And that will be a huge advantage. They'll also recover the voice recorder, which will have the discussions of the pilots. It'll show whether there was anything going on unusual inside the cockpit and it will -- these two pieces will help explain what happened.

[18:05:06]

But until they get downloaded, we're just going to be speculating.

BLITZER: We just have to wait for that information to be released. Captain Darby, you're a retired United Airlines captain. Give us a sense of what it would have been like in the cockpit when the pilots were navigating this truly horrifying moment.

KIT DARBY, RETIRED UNITED AIRLINES CAPTAIN: Well, it would have started at altitude, which is very unusual, normally a quiet time for pilots and passengers. Extremely unusual to have something initiated at altitude. So, when this happens, there are procedures, of course. But if you need help, it's in a book. And when it happens like this, you don't have time to get to the book, so you fall back to your basic training.

So, this would likely start with a stall. It does appear to be a flat spin. This type of airplane has had a history with some icing situations, and there was icing at altitude today. So, those are the clues that I have. There's very little other information other than once they're low by the time they're on the video, the chance to recover the airplane is extremely low.

BLITZER: Peter, as you know, 61 people are confirmed dead. Many passengers actually missed this flight because they went to the wrong gate. Talk to us a little bit about the human impact here and the very long road ahead.

GOELS: Well, it is a terrible and shocking event. And, you know, the United States, after TWA 800, in 1996, the United States, under the direction of President Clinton, revamped how family members were treated. And they've really set the standard since then with the NTSB taking the lead on how you respond. But it is a very difficult time for them, Wolf. I've met with literally hundreds of family members and have talked to them about these tragedies, and it is a very difficult road ahead for them.

BLITZER: It's so painful, indeed. Captain Darby, a devastating and deadly crash like this is, of course, rare, but it does come at a time where the airline industry, particularly Boeing, as you well know, has been roiled by safety issues. What should flyers understand about this moment?

DARBY: Well, to put it in perspective, you know, there's 30 million flights a year. A lot of airlines have a million flights themselves, one airline. So, to know, overall, that this is probably 20 times safer than driving yourself to the airport. Somehow, it's particularly offensive if someone else hurts you. It's less so if you hurt yourself. But this is the fastest, covers great distances, 35,000 feet, 600 miles an hour, and we have a 20 times safer system than driving a car.

BLITZER: Yes. But for those of us who fly a lot, this is obviously very, very scary, indeed. Kit Darby. Peter Goels, to both of you, thank you very, very much.

Just ahead, why Donald Trump is heading to deep red Montana as Kamala Harris and Tim Walz fight for swing voters in the crucial battleground state of Arizona.

You're watching The Situation Room. We're live from Tel Aviv, Israel.

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[18:10:00]

BLITZER: The race for the White House is moving west tonight with Donald Trump now on the ground in Montana, just ahead of a rally and a fundraiser tonight, and the new Democratic ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the Sun Belt right now.

Our political experts are joining us to discuss. Ron Brownstein, Harris and Walz are continuing their campaign swing with stops in Arizona and Nevada. What does Harris need to do to win these key battleground states?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. You know, we had seen when Joe Biden was still in the race, kind of an inversion of the politics that we've grown accustomed to really throughout this century. I mean, Democrats have been improving in the Sun Belt states, Georgia and North Carolina in the southeast, Arizona and Nevada in the southwest, precisely because they are younger and more diverse. But those were the voters who are moving away from Biden in the biggest numbers from 2020 to 2024. So, you had this surprising situation where Biden was at a stronger hand in the older, whiter Rust Belt states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, then again in the southwest.

For Harris, the equation is pretty much to go back to the drawing board of 2020, try to maintain the level of support that Democrats had among Latino voters then, which was down from 2016, but still enough to win and continue Biden's inroads into the white collar suburbs. He was the first Democratic candidate to win Maricopa County, which is centered on Phoenix, since Harry Truman in 1948. And doing that while avoiding further erosion from them, what Democrats saw in 2020 among Latino voters, is what would allow her to get over the top.

BLITZER: Maria Cardona is with us as well. Maria, Republicans, as you know, they're slamming Kamala Harris' record on the border, a key issue in these Sun Belt states, to be sure. Watch this video they released on X, formerly known as Twitter, using Harris' and Walz's own words. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is your position on San Francisco as a sanctuary city?

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I support our sanctuary law.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Should Minnesota be a sanctuary state.

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: If the definition of that is that the federal government enforces immigration law and local law enforcement enforces local law, then yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Should cities be allowed to be sanctuary cities? Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: How damaging, Maria, are attacks like this for the Democratic ticket?

[18:15:03]

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't think that those attacks, Wolf, are going to land very credibly for a couple of reasons. First of all is because the Harris-Walz campaign is coming out strong on the offense, on border security and immigration. They already have a couple of ads out that underscore what Kamala Harris has done throughout her career as a prosecutor, as attorney general in California, and as senator, and as vice president, to push budgets that actually focus on strong and smart border security.

They're also pointing to the complete hypocrisy of Republicans who are supposedly so worried about border security, but that falls flat because Donald Trump himself told his most conservative Republicans who had negotiated a very strong border security bill with Democrats to say no to it because he needed to weaponize the issue during the election. So, they have nowhere to go on this.

Meanwhile, Democrats have been the ones who always have known what the solution is. The solution is strong, smart border security along with a common sense, balanced approach that opens up legal pathways, especially for the long settled immigrants that have been here for years, like DREAMERs who have contributed trillions of dollars to our economy.

So, that reality, I think, is what Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are going to focus on. They're going to go on offense on this, and I don't think the Republicans are going to be able to fight against that, especially with the lies that they're going to tell about her.

BLITZER: Shermichael Singleton is with us as well. Shermichael, as Maria just mentioned, Kamala Harris is touting her support for that bipartisan immigration bill that Trump asked Republicans to kill. Given that, are their attacks against her on this issue disingenuous?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Absolutely not, Wolf. I mean, Maria stated that Democrats have always known what to do. Well, Democrats controlled the House, they controlled the Senate in the first two years of President Biden's administration. Why didn't they do anything then? The idea that we would have sanctuary cities all across the country, I can tell you many Americans living in suburban cities, living in urban cities do not want that.

I think my Democratic friends oftentimes forget that immigration is not a right guaranteed by the United States Constitution. It's a privilege that we grant when it's in our interest. You know who stated that? Barbara Jordan, a Democrat back in the early 90s when she chaired the Immigration Committee for former President Bill Clinton. That's when Democrats once upon a time believed in having tough immigration reform. So, I don't think Republicans' message on this particular issue will fall flat at all.

BLITZER: We're showing our viewers some live pictures of Kamala Harris in Phoenix getting ready to speak to voters over there in the key battleground state of Arizona. We're watching all of this unfold. Stand by for more on that.

Today, Ron, and I want to get your thoughts, Kamala Harris won the first ever presidential endorsement from one of the nation's oldest Latino civil rights organization. How potentially significant do you believe this is?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, Latino voters are the key to whether she can put Arizona and Nevada back into play after they had largely fallen out of play for Biden. You know, as I said, if you look from 2016 to 2020, Democratic share of the vote among Latino voters fell from somewhere between 67 to 70 percent, maybe a little over 60 percent, Wolf. It was a broad based decline. They lost ground among women. They lost ground among men. They lost ground among Mexican-Americans, other nationalities, Catholics and Protestants.

2022 was really interesting. Democrats didn't lose further ground. Democrats didn't recover really any of the ground that they had lost, but that still left them at a level that they were able to win Arizona and Nevada when combined with their improving performance among white collar suburbanites, particularly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe.

That is the formula for Harris in this election. If she has the potential to put Arizona and Nevada back in her column, it will not necessarily be by improving on Biden in 2020 among Latino voters, but by reversing the further decline polls had shown him suffering since then and continuing to make even bigger gains than he did four years ago among those white collar voters.

It's so important to remember, Roe was not overturned until after the 2020 election. So, the opportunity to run even better in those socially moderate to liberal white collar suburbs, like those communities outside of Phoenix that tip Maricopa to the Democrats for the first time in like almost 80 years, that is there for them. But it can be offset if they can't hold their numbers among Latinos.

[18:20:00]

BLITZER: Maria, as you saw, we're also seeing a Governor Walz there on the scene in Arizona. Trump has seen his support, as you well know, grow with Latinos. Trump has seen his support grow with Latinos. How does the Harris campaign compete for this truly critical voting bloc?

CARDONA: I think that what we are going to see is an erosion of support for Trump among Latinos. Because here's the thing, Latino voters, even since 2020, they have grown by more than 5 million voters. Latino voters are overall younger than the mainstream population. They have been so excited and energized and mobilized and inspired by the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket that I think that Kamala Harris has a tremendous potential to not just get what Joe Biden had in 2020, but to increase that support among Latino voters, especially among Latina voters, who, to the point that we were making earlier that Ron Brownstein just made about the choice issue, is huge among Latino voters.

And when you have a contrast with the Trump-Vance campaign, who the only thing that they talk about when they're in front of Latinos are that they are rapists, that they're coming here to commit crimes, that they are coming here because countries in Latin America let out their mental institutions. Let's remember what he said at the very beginning of his first campaign, that they were rapists and criminals.

And so you have a campaign that understands what immigration has meant to this country, the trillions of dollars it has brought to this country, the hard work that immigrants bring to this country. And you have a campaign that has promised through Project 2025 to instill mass deportation camps around the country. And that is a contrast that wins, not just with Latino voters but with those moderate suburban voters who were so disgusted when they saw babies ripped from the arms of their mother during Donald Trump's deportation issues during his first four years, and he's just going to do it again.

BLITZER: Shermichael, I want to get to Maria's point and get some follow-up from you. As you know, in the latest polls, Harris is actually polling better with Latinos than President Biden did. How big of a problem, potentially, is this for the Trump campaign?

SINGLETON: I mean, look, Wolf, I'll give Vice President Harris credit here. I mean, her campaign has improved, their margins and almost every single group, comparatively speaking, from where President Biden was. And that's something that I don't think anyone strategically can overlook. It certainly makes the race far more competitive.

I do think from a conservative perspective, you do need to focus on speaking to Latino voters, like you would speak to African-American voters, about, you know, academic attainment for their children, educational opportunities beyond high school and economic opportunities, which I think most people of color would certainly love an equal playing field to.

You certainly can't guarantee outcomes, but you certainly could adopt policies that would make access to capital access to affordable education, access to trade school programs, something that we no longer talk often about. You can make those access -- those things more accessible, rather, to the average person. And I think that's a potential good strategy. BLITZER: All right. To everyone, thank you very much for your excellent, excellent analysis.

Coming up, the Situation Room is live here in Tel Aviv, Israel, as the U.S. and other key partners push Israel and Hamas to strike a ceasefire and hostage deal. Iran just issued a new statement on those talks, as Israel continues to brace for an attack.

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[18:25:00]

BLITZER: We're live here in Tel Aviv tonight as Israel says it's expanding its operations in Gaza. We're learning new information about an airstrike in Lebanon as well that Lebanese media says killed a Hamas official, as the U.S., Qatar and Egypt are now urging both Israel and Hamas to come back to the negotiating table this coming week.

CNN's Clarissa Ward is joining me here in Tel Aviv. Clarissa, Iran just weighed in on the ceasefire talks. What are they now saying?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, this is interesting, Wolf, because we've been talking a lot recently about whether Iran could be persuaded to put off some kind of a retaliation with an emphasis on those ceasefire agreements. We now have this statement from Iran's permanent mission to the U.N., where they give the biggest clue yet. They say, our priority is to establish a lasting ceasefire in Gaza. Any agreement accepted by Hamas will also be recognized by us. The Israeli regime has violated our national security and sovereignty through its recent act of terrorism.

We have the legitimate right to self defense, a matter totally unrelated to the Gaza ceasefire. However, we hope that our response will be timed and conducted in a manner not to the detriment of the potential ceasefire. That seems to leave Iran with wiggle room to at least avert a retaliation while still withholding its right to defend itself after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh.

Now, obviously, for the hostages, for the people of Gaza, that ceasefire can't come quickly enough. What we're seeing in Gaza, though, at the moment, is a real continuation of operations.

[18:30:00]

The people of the beleaguered city of Khan Younis have been given evacuation orders yet again. 60, 000 of them, at least according to the U.N., have been displaced. Many of them are sleeping out in the open air because they simply have nowhere to go. And the IDF says that they've had to come back for the third time, Wolf, the third time. The second time they left was just two weeks ago, because they are seeing Hamas pop up again and continue to regroup in these areas.

So, still significant challenges for the people living inside Gaza, also for the IDF and its mission to try to route Hamas completely from Gaza. And one more important thing, Wolf, I think on this question of whether Iran can be averted from retaliation, we can't forget about Hezbollah, right? Because Hezbollah, the speculation goes, could attack Israel within the coming days.

And you mentioned in the introduction, and we saw today, a drone strike from the IDF on a senior Hamas commander, not a Hezbollah commander, but still all of this adding up to these ratcheting tensions in the Middle East as everybody holds their breath to see will diplomacy carry the day. It's not clear yet that will be possible, Wolf.

BLITZER: And amidst all of this, Clarissa, I know you're getting new information about the Israeli military now preparing, prepping for massive additional evacuations of Israelis from the northern part of Israel, elsewhere in Israel, given the fears of a potential Hezbollah attack.

WARD: So, that's right, Wolf. We've heard from the Home Front Command today, and they've said essentially what they're doing is they're trying to secure a large swath of area in the southern part of Israel that could be used to create a tent city. Because they are anticipating, in a worst case scenario, already 60,000 Israelis have been displaced, and just as many, if not more, on the other side of the border in Lebanon, too, from that northern border area.

Now, obviously, if you have a significant escalation with Hezbollah, you could be looking at many more people being displaced. So, they are already taking precautions to set up an area for where to move those potentially tens of thousands of people if things really do go very badly indeed.

BLITZER: 60,000 already have been forced to leave their homes in Northern Israel, Kiryat Shmona and elsewhere. And we've seen some of them right here in Tel Aviv. They're being placed in hotels just for a temporary purpose, but more may be on the way right now.

I know you're getting a little bit more information about the situation in Gaza right now. What else are you learning?

WARD: Well, we've had some pretty staggering statistics coming out today from the U.N. Satellite Office, which is basically saying that 30 percent of the buildings inside Gaza have now been completely destroyed. And the amount of destruction, the amount of debris in just ten months of fighting inside Gaza is 14 times that of the entire world global conflict debris in the last 16 years. I mean, these are the kinds of statistics, Wolf, that really make your head just like you can't comprehend. So, clearly, time is of the essence, real impetus to try to get that ceasefire into place and also de-escalate tensions regionally.

BLITZER: Right. These negotiations that the U.S., Qatar, and Egypt are now trying to revive on a ceasefire and a hostage deal are so critically important. We'll see what happens Thursday when these parties resume. Let's hope they do.

Clarissa, thank you very much for that report. Other news we're following right now here in The Situation Room, Russia is declaring a state of emergency amid a string of highly unusual cross-border Ukrainian attacks that appear to be penetrating further and further inside Russian territory.

Our Chief International Security Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is standing by with details. What can you tell us, Nick?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Wolf, this is staggering, really, because today, for the first time, we got a glimpse of an authentic claim by the Ukrainian regular army that it's them behind this attack. Everyone guessed it must have been. But we saw a video released of some of their soldiers in front of a key gas building for natural gas export from Russia through Ukraine to Europe, showing the Ukrainian flag and making it pretty clear, frankly, that it's been Ukraine behind this.

The town of Sudzha has been the focus of so much of their assaults, but looking at some of the accounts from military bloggers, we have seen points around the compass that sort of a number of miles other claims that Ukrainian forces are now engaged in combat with Russians are moving near various population centers. Add to that too overnight startling damage done to a Russian military convoy, munitions personnel seen blown up, damaged, even further inside Russia. It adds up to the most significant incursion into Russia. We've seen by Ukraine and the first one that seems to be their regular military behind it.

It is startling, it's new, and it appears to have caught Russia entirely off guard. They're raising reinforcements, it seems, to this area, but Vladimir Putin was told by his chief of staff that the advance had been halted two days ago. That's clearly nonsense. And Ukraine is enjoying, I think, a brief moment of positive headlines here.

There are larger questions, though, Wolf, about exactly what the strategic goal is.

[18:35:01]

Is it that gas infrastructure we just talked about? Are they aiming potentially at munition dumps or railway lines? Or are they just simply trying to show to the Ukrainian people that Russia can be taken by surprise and can be defeated in certain areas? And, in fact, is it very badly defending its border?

I cast my mind back to a couple of months ago when it was Ukraine having to defend its border for a new Russian invasion. They flipped the coin here certainly, but a horrific turn of events to near the frontlines further east from where we're talking about inside Ukraine, where it seems like a Russian missile hits a supermarket killing at least 14. Officials saying three of those might be children. When Russia loses on one frontline, Wolf, we see them lash out against civilians on another. This would have been a busy supermarket on a Friday morning, civilians there maybe some military at a frontline town, but a horrific scene and one, of course, reminds people quite why Ukraine continues to fight.

They got some more good news today, $3.5 billion more US aid will be coming to them that may assist with weapons on the frontline. But I think, Wolf, some of the larger picture here about this incursion into Russia is about Kyiv showing strength, showing its military potency, possibly in the back of their mind concerns of a Trump presidency, of slow exhaustion amongst allies to continue this pace of arming them up and maybe wanting to show what they're able to do right now to put them in a strong position for the months ahead.

But remarkable, frankly, how poorly defended this chunk of Russia has been, and we're seeing some surveys suggesting that Ukraine may have put their troops over about a hundred square miles of this Russian border area. Town after town, we keep hearing reports that they're edging near. It is quite stunning, it is unprecedented, and it certainly heralds a new chapter in Ukraine's war here. They've taken Russia by surprise, and it's working, Wolf.

BLITZER: We'll see what this new chapter leads to. Nick Paton Walsh reporting for us, Nick, thank you very much.

Just ahead, the judge overseeing Donald Trump's federal election case delays a key hearing. Why the special counsel says he needs more time to grapple with the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity.

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[18:40:00]

BLITZER: A key hearing in Donald Trump's federal election subversion case has just been delayed, and for once, it's not at the request of the former president.

Our Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid is joining us right now. Paula, give us the latest.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, today was the deadline for defense attorneys and special counsel prosecutors to present to the judge a plan about how to move forward with the federal election subversion case after the Supreme Court's historic ruling granting former President Trump some immunity.

Now, I've learned in speaking with sources, there was actually a series of calls with the defense attorneys and prosecutors over the last week to try to discuss the case, see if there was any common ground.

Now, Wolf, I will tell you, there's a lot of bad blood between these two teams, so it's not surprising that they really weren't able to find any areas of commonality, but what was really surprising, the prosecutors said they weren't sure how to proceed and they were going to ask for more time.

And the reason that's so surprising is because prosecutors are the ones who have been pushing to bring this case to trial before the November election. So, the fact that they've now asked and been given several more weeks, that is really surprising here because they have said that they're going to go and consult with other experts inside the Justice Department about exactly how the Supreme Court case is going to change the criminal case they brought against former President Trump, because, as you may remember, the justices said, you can't charge a former president with anything related to official acts, but they also said you can't charge him for unofficial activity and use official acts as evidence.

So, it appears the judge has now given them a couple more weeks and it appears they're going to use that time to consult with experts and try to craft some sort of plan for how to proceed with this case and they'll be back in court on September 5th.

BLITZER: Paula, I'm just wondering, how could the election results in November impact this case?

REID: Well, that's going to be everything, Wolf. If Trump is re- elected, he is expected to have his attorney general dismiss both of the federal cases against him, but also likely mean that the Georgia state case against him would remain on ice for a while. Unclear what that would mean in Manhattan.

Now, if he is not re elected, we do expect that the federal election subversion case would likely proceed in some form, but it's unclear exactly what that would look like. It is also widely expected, but no guarantee that the Mar-a-Lago documents case would also survive the appeals that are expected to proceed in the next couple of months. It could, though, have a different judge.

So, even if Trump is not reelected, it's unclear exactly whether he would go to trial for any of these cases. But he will continue to be, as he has been for many years, a lawyer for employment act if he is not re-elected.

BLITZER: We shall see. Our Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid, thank you very much for that update. I appreciate it very much.

Coming up, CNN celebrities -- let me repeat that. Can celebrities like Taylor Swift actually make a big impact on the election? Harvard shared an exclusive study with CNN that answers that very question.

Stick around. We'll update you.

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[18:48:38]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: A new Harvard study shared exclusively with CNN shows just how influential celebrities are in getting voters, especially young voters, to the polls.

CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We know she can sing.

TREVOR NOAH, TV HOST: You know the great thing about an Australian accent is that you always sound happy because always --

WAGMEISTER: We know he's funny.

But can stars like Trevor Noah and Billie Eilish get their fans to the polls on Election Day?

NOAH: Increase the chances of democracy succeeding.

BILLIE EILISH, MUSICIAN: Facing a nationwide co-worker shortage.

WAGMEISTER: The answer is yes, they can. According to a new study from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, released exclusively to CNN.

ASHLEY SPILLANE, AUTHOR AND CO-FOUNDER, CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY PROJECT: They have a group of people that also like the Swifties, who want to be affiliated with each other, not just with Taylor Swift, but with each other as well.

WAGMEISTER: This study dug into the civic campaigns of stars like Questlove, Hailey Bieber, Kerry Washington, and Taylor Swift, to see if celebrity endorsements really do matter.

TAYLOR SWIFT, CELEBRITY STAR: I need to be on the right side of history.

WAGMEISTER: In Swift's case, the study notes a 2018 Instagram post and others since have led to a quantifiable call to action. Swift helped vote.org registered 250,000 people in 72 hours, the study says. Eilish and Noah, too, had an impact.

The non-profit Power the Polls track unique web links that each celebrity shared with their fans.

[18:50:05]

Noah directly recruited over 35,000 poll workers in 2020, this study notes, Eilish's impact on a recent recruitment day was measured in real-time.

SPILLANE: With through the day, Power the Polls announced that she had signed up 2,500 people, which is amazing, that you can see that and see it in real time.

WAGMEISTER: The study only looked at civic campaigns.

HULK HOGAN, CELEBRITY WRESTLER: Let Trumpmania rule again!

AMERICA FERRERA, ACTRESS: I am with Kamala. No, no seriously, I'm with Kamala.

WAGMEISTER: Not partisan political endorsements.

Young people were often most influenced.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who says that?

DAVID DOBRIK, YOUTUBER: Yours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

WAGMEISTER: Like when YouTuber David Dobrik, known for car giveaways, teamed with non-profit Head Count to award five Teslas to registered voters. Of nearly a half a million raffle entrance, three-fourths were millennial and Gen Z. More than two thirds actually went on to vote.

With that kind of power, the study's author is urging other celebrities to follow suit.

SPILLANE: We hope celebrities will do it more often, more loudly, more boldly, more frequently and get your friends to do it, too.

WAGMEISTER: Actress Kerry Washington is doing just that.

KERRY WASHINGTON, ACTRESS: It's handled.

WAGMEISTER: She played a political fixer on the hit show "Scandal". Now in real life, she's helping other celebrities find their own civic voices, telling CNN, I don't speak out because I'm an artist. I speak out because I am an American.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WAGMEISTER (on camera): Now, Wolf, as you pointed out, celebrities have a particularly strong influence on young voters and a fascinating finding from this Harvard study is that by the next presidential election in 2028, the majority of Americans voters will we made up of Gen Z and millennials. So it appears that celebrity influence can get even greater.

BLITZER: Elizabeth Wagmeister, thank you very much for that report.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:56:21]

BLITZER: Newly published footage from inside a notorious detention facility appears to show Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond has our report. We want to warn you. You may find it disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is a rare look inside Israel's notorious Sde Teiman detention facility. In CCTV footage obtained by Israel's Channel 12 News, masked Israeli soldiers select one of more than two dozen Palestinian detainees lying on the ground and take him away.

Behind a wall of shields obstructing the view of security cameras, the soldiers allegedly sodomized the detainee. Their victim was taken to a hospital in life-threatening condition with injuries to his rectum and upper body, according to Physicians for Human Rights Israel.

Weeks after the early July incident, military police detains nine soldiers on suspicion of aggravated sodomy, abuse and other misconduct, four have been released. But a military court extended the detention of five others, saying and there is reasonable suspicion they abuse the detainee.

It marks an extraordinarily rare pursuit of accountability at the Sde Teiman facility.

For months now, there have been allegations of torture, of abuse of these Palestinian detainees, but this is the first its time that Israeli soldiers have actually been detained and are now set to be tried for these allegations.

GUY SHALEV, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ISRAEL: Unfortunately, it's not a one-off incident. The information we're gathering on the ground indicates that they are several cases, at least ten cases that we know of, of people who are sexually abused in Sde Teiman alone.

DIAMOND: Why is this the case that has resulting in these nine soldiers being detained for questioning, and potentially about to be indicted?

SHALEV: This got out. This person was hospitalized in a civilian hospital where doctors and nurses and other staff members could see what happened to the person while he was incarcerated in Sde Teiman. So, the information leaked out and I don't think the military or other apparatus in Israel were able to keep it silent anymore.

DIAMOND: The right-wing blowback has been swift and ferocious. A few weeks ago, hundreds of protesters, including members of parliament, stormed Sde Teiman in the base where the accused soldiers were being held.

And in Israel's parliament, debates like this ensued.

MK AHMED TIBI: To insert a stick into a the rectum --

MK HONOCH MILWIDSKY: Shut up!

MK TIBI: Is it legitimate?

MIK MILWIDSKY: Yes! If he is a Nukhba everything is legitimate to do to him. Everything! Everything!

Everything to these people. Do you know what they did?

DIAMOND: At the Beit Lid military base where the accused soldiers face their first hearing, their family members decried their arrest. ORIAN BEN CHITRIT, RELATIVE RELEASED AFTER QUESTIONING: Today, it's my brother, yes. Today, it's them. But tomorrow, it's his brother, her sister, her -- his father. Here, this is our red line. We are here to stand and to talk and to say that this is not allowed anymore. We're not allowed to investigate our soldiers we are not allowed to let any Nukhba talk or to ask him, did you get a good time in our prison?

DIAMOND: Her brother, who she says is innocent, has been released for the time being. The allegation at Sde Teiman's detainees are Nukhba terrorists, the commandos who led Hamas's October 7 attack is the basis for nearly every defense of abuses the facility. It doesn't hold up.

SHALEV: The military released a third of the people it arrested and incarcerated in Sde Teiman, realizing they have no connection to military action or to Hamas there were the thing tortured and then released without charge back to Gaza.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND: And, Wolf, the Israeli military declined to comment on that surveillance footage from inside that state tame on facility, but it's just the latest piece of information pointing to rampant alleged abuses at that facility.

Earlier this week, Israel's high court actually convene to consider a petition to close down that facility altogether. They've given the Israeli government 10 days to provide more information about conditions at that facility, Wolf.

BLITZER: Jeremy Diamond, thanks very much.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.