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Poland Shoots Down Russian Drones, Accuses Moscow of Aggression; Trump Says, Very Unhappy About Israeli Strike in Qatar; Trump Faces 30-Day Deadline Today in D.C. Police Takeover. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired September 10, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, quote, act of aggression. Poland shoots down Russian drones in its airspace in an alarming escalation. NATO calls Moscow's actions absolutely reckless.

And speaking out in her new book, Vice President Kamala Harris says it was, quote, reckless to let Jill and Joe Biden decide if he would run again.

And what is it? New video revealed during a hearing on so-called UFOs showing a missile bouncing off an unknown object. So, is the truth out there?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And what did the U.S. know and when? New CNN reporting into when President Trump found out about the Israeli attack in Doha, and what this means for Gaza ceasefire negotiations.

Race to save the sequoias. A wildfire is threatening the giant trees as firefighters rushing to protect them.

And later find for spitting, an Eagles player is finding out just how much it will cost to spit on one of the league's top players.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

And we begin this hour with the breaking news. There's growing international concern this morning after Poland says Russian drones violated its airspace 19 times overnight. This is new video just coming into The Situation Room taking inside Poland showing one of those drones being shot down.

And this is the home, a home in Eastern Poland believed to have been heavily damaged by the debris from one of those intercepted drones. It's about ten miles from the border with Ukraine.

And these are new pictures of Polish officials patrolling an area where one of those drones fell. This is about 25 miles from the Ukrainian border. In all, Poland says it shot down seven Russian drones and accuses Russia of an act of aggression, their words, act of aggression.

This morning, the head of NATO says, the military alliance scrambled a number of jets to defend its member nation.

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MARK RUTTE, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: Whether it was intentionally or not, it is absolutely reckless. It is absolutely dangerous. But as I said, the full assessment is ongoing.

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BLITZER: Let's go live right now to CNN's Chief International Security Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh. Nick, this is truly a significant development, very worrisome. What more are you learning?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf. It's hard to understate really how a different moment has been marked by this remarkable intrusion. 19 separate intrusions, the Polish government says, into their airspace since about midnight local time last night. As you mentioned, seven drones shot down, but, really, here, the startling scenes of Polish airspace being closed, including a key Warsaw airport, Chopin, being shut down as they dealt with this threat using Dutch fighters, Polish fighters, early warning aircraft, multiple assets scrambled, and in what we've just been hearing here from the U.K. defense secretary, marks the first defensive action of its kind by NATO since the start of Russia's invasion in Ukraine. Those jets shot down, seven separate drones.

Now, the key question here obviously is intent. There was no clear answer here as to whether there'd been an assessment, whether Russia meant to do this. Russian Defense Ministry has said that they did not intend to target sites inside of Poland and opened a dialogue. That's not the same as saying they didn't actually enter into airspace and there have been suggestions from a Russian ally, Belarus, that perhaps this was down to some kind of navigational problem.

But I have to tell you, honestly, I think many assessments here will struggle to add credulity to what Russia has said given the fact we're talking about 19 separate intrusions here. That does not sound like an accident.

And I think the ultimate question really here is regardless of whether people decide to assign full purpose and blame to Russia quite what they intended with this escalation, it is clearly Putin feeling emboldened from recent shows of support from China and India. We've seen a lot of escalation over the past three or four days.

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He's basically throwing the question to NATO now, where Trump and the U.S.'s role is somewhat in doubt. He's saying, what are you going to do about this? What response do you have? And so far, a lot of talk here definitely about more defenses for Poland, but there's no immediate sign of an imminent deterrent that NATO can wheel out to perhaps, for example, stop this happening again next week. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, we shall see, obviously a very tense situation. Let's not forget, the NATO alliance, the charter of NATO stipulates specifically that an attack on any NATO allies is an attack on all of the NATO allies, and they must respond. We'll see what happens.

Nick Paton Walsh, once again, thanks very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Happening now, Israel is now facing global anger over its attack on Hamas leadership in Qatar, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East and the leading mediator in the ceasefire talks. Qatar is condemning the strikes as, quote, state terrorism. President Trump, for his part, says Israel notified him only when it was too late to tell Qatar before the attack happened.

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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I was very unhappy about it, very unhappy about every aspect, and we got to get the hostages back. But I was very unhappy about the way that went down.

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BROWN: Let's go live now to CNN's Nic Robertson in the Qatar capital of Doha. Nic, the relationship between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was already strained. Where does it stand now?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It's going to come under a huge amount more pressure from President Trump's Gulf allies, not just the Qatar, the prime minister, showing anger last night calling the action, the state terrorism describing Israel as a road player and a bully in the region. But today, you've had the president of the UAE, another staunch and strong U.S. ally visiting Doha today, calling Israel's actions criminal, calling them treacherous. The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman, another key partner of the United States in the region here, he's expected to come to Doha tomorrow, again, to show support for the Qatari leaders. His language has also been very strong saying, that he'll support Qatar in however it wants to respond.

So, the frustration among United States President Trump's key Gulf partners is extreme. They would've expected him to have a relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that would have curtailed and not allowed the Israeli leader to make a decision to strike inside the territory of one of the United States' key allies in the region. So, when it comes to the talks with Hamas over Gaza, Hamas is saying no talks are going on. The Qatari leadership and the others here really looking for a recalibration, it appears, of that relationship and those discussions.

BROWN: All right. Nic Robertson, thanks so much. Wolf?

BROWN: All right, Pamela. Also happening now in North Carolina, a Charlotte city councilman is now set to speak out as a political firestorm ignites over the fatal stabbing of this woman on one of the city's trains. This comes as the U.S. Justice Department now says it's charging the suspect in this killing with a federal crime, could face potentially the death penalty.

Let's go live right now to CNN's Dianne Gallagher in Charlotte for us. She's covering all of these developments.

So, the victim's family, Dianne, as you know, is now speaking out. What are they saying?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. And, look, they have a call to action for not just the city, but the public as well. I do want to address what you said about the death penalty there. President Trump posting this morning that this suspect, 34-year-old Decarlos Brown, should face the death penalty. He has state charges of first-degree murder and those federal charges that were announced yesterday. The U.S. attorney of the Western District of North Carolina said that while the death penalty would be available under the statute, they haven't determined yet if that's something they could actually pursue. They said they're still going through the facts and they need that support and some additional investigating. CNN has reached out to Brown's attorney.

Now, that statement that was released by Iryna Zarutska's family, very lengthy, and I want to read part of what they said. They said, quote, we are heartbroken beyond words. Iryna came here to find peace and safety, and instead her life was stolen from her in the most horrific way. This could have been anyone riding the light rail that night. We are committed to making sure this never happens again.

Her family says they are seeking accountability. They're demanding systemic change. They put out a call to action that basically addresses and they want the city to address a lack of visible or effective security presence on the Charlotte area transit system's Blue Line. That's the light rail where she was killed. They say there is a failure of oversight in the contract between CATS and the professional security services, and they say there is an absence of adequate safety measures that they believe could have prevented this tragedy. CNN has reached out to CATS to see what their response is to Zarutskas family's claims.

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Lastly, they are also asking the public and the media to stop sharing that unedited graphic footage of her killing. They say that it is disrespectful to Iryna's dignity and to the family's own grief at that time. It began going viral a few days ago, that unedited version of her last moments there on that train.

BLITZER: All right. Dianne Gallagher, thanks very much for that update. It's so heartbreaking always, Pamela, this woman, a refugee from Ukraine to escape the war, comes to the United States thinking she'll find a safe haven, and all of a sudden this horrible murder occurs.

BROWN: And it was so senseless. It's awful. And as the family said, it could have been anyone, right? It's just horrible. Also happening now, Wolf, the clock is running out on President Trump's takeover of the nation's Capitol Police under the 30-day declaration after house Leaders decided this week not to extend President Trump's takeover, but this doesn't necessarily mean the National Guard is going away in D.C.

So, let's go live now to CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House. And, Alayna, you have some new reporting on how the White House is viewing this deadline.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: And that's right. I talked to a number of White House officials, Pamela, about this, particularly because we know that the president had previously vowed to call on Congress to pass legislation, essentially extending that 30 days that he was able to under the D.C. Home Rule Act, you know, federalize the D.C. police force. But they said essentially that he is fine to let that deadline, it expires today, to let it lapse because of an executive order that D.C.'s Mayor Muriel Bowser signed last week. It essentially said that they would -- that D.C.'s police force would coordinate indefinitely with federal law enforcement. One official told me this. They said that the mayor committed indefinitely to coordinate with federal law enforcement. The key word is indefinitely. That is what we want.

So, this is how they're framing this. And I know that the White House has also discussed this with house Speaker Mike Johnson, who, as you mentioned, said that he has no plans for Congress to take up a law on this, saying he doesn't think it's pretty much necessary.

Now, I will tell you from Bowser's point of view, she's essentially argued that that order was her way of trying to let this deadline expire, get rid of the crime emergency that she has argued is unnecessary. All to say, as you mentioned, we will likely still see some federal law enforcement agents in D.C. as well as the National Guard.

BROWN: All right. Alayna Treene, thanks so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. And there's more news we're following this morning. The former vice president, Kamala Harris, is slamming President Biden's decision to run for reelection in her upcoming memoir, a significant break from the dutiful stance she took as vice president. And I'm quoting now from the book, quote, it's Joe and Jill's decision. We all said that like a mantra, as if we'd all been hypnotized. Was it grace or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high. This wasn't a choice that should have been left to an individual's ego and individual's ambition. It should have been more than just a personal decision.

This is an incredibly revealing excerpt from this new book published just hours ago in The Atlantic, the excerpt published in The Atlantic Magazine.

Joining us here in The Situation Room, CNN Senior Reporter Edward- Isaac Dovere. Isaac, what more are we learning from this excerpt? And I printed out the excerpt in The Atlantic. It's very long, very detailed, very stark.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: It's a chapter of the book. The book is called 107 Days. It comes out in two weeks, and it's about the 107 days of her campaign last year. As you point out, she, in her time as vice president, when she was running for president last year, was notably always very loyal, always shying away from any kind of criticism of Joe Biden. There was this famous moment on The View last year when she was asked, was there anything you can think of that you would've done differently than Biden? And she said, nothing comes to mind.

That was a problem for her during the campaign. It turned out, in this book, she takes a lot of jabs at Biden, at his team at the way that she was covered. And some of it, really, I read to you another part of it that gets into how she felt like she was treated by the White House staff. She said, when Fox News attacked me on everything, from my laugh, my tone of voice to whom I dated in my 20s, or claimed I was a DEI hire, the White House rarely pushed back with my actual resume. She says Lorraine Voles, my chief of staff, constantly had to advocate for my role at events. She's not going to stand there like a potted plant. She quotes Voles as saying, give her two minutes of remarks, have her introduce the president. They had a huge comms team. They had Karine Jean-Pierre briefing in the press room every day, but getting anything positive said about my work or any defense against untrue attacks was almost impossible.

Now, Wolf, I was covering the White House day-to-day and what was going on with Harris. A lot of that is true. She allies over some of the problems that she was having herself with what was going on.

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But also there were times when the White House staff did sort of defend her. I will tell you this is now creating more problems for the way that the Biden people are looking at Harris and tension between the two of them as they continue to go through what happened last year and what we're all living in given how the election turned out.

BLITZER: And, Isaac, what do these comments say to you about Kamala Harris's potential future political ambitions?

DOVERE: Well, it is very clear that she sees her future as charting her own path and not about being part of Joe Biden's orbit anymore. Whether that will lead her to another run for president, we'll see. There are some people around her who tell me that they think that she will, some people around her very skeptical that she will. But whatever it is, she will not define herself by Joe Biden. It seems very clear anymore.

BLITZER: All right. Isaac, excellent reporting, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Happening now a Korean airplane that will help repatriate more than 300 Korean workers just landed in the United States. The workers were detained during a massive immigration raid at a Hyundai facility in Georgia just last week. The South Korean government has been actively working to secure their release.

Let's bring in CNN Correspondent Gustavo Valdes at Landis Hartsfield Jackson Airport. So, Gustavo, this flight was originally expected to take off tonight, but then South Korea's Foreign Affairs Ministry says that was looking unlikely. What's going on?

GUSTAVO VALDES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, the plan that just landed at 747 chartered specifically to return the Korean workers and perhaps avoid the images we've seen in other deportation flights, in which the deportee are shackled and taken by immigration agents, this is a way to return them in a more, different way than what we've seen in the past. But, apparently, they have not worked out all the administrative paperwork or how they're going to be sent back.

Some of the reporting is that the Korean government is trying to avoid that these workers are deported, which means legally they might face a ban returning to the United States. If it's a voluntary return, that might allow them to come back sooner to the United States, especially those workers that might be needed to complete the work in the Coastal Georgia plant where they were arrested last week.

And this has also set off a debate in Korea in particular, where they are requesting that the U.S. government, and this is apparently part of the negotiations going on between the two governments, to create a special visa, a number of work visa for the Korean companies that are investing billions in the United States so they can bring workers they say they cannot find in the country.

For now, we expect the plane to wait here in Hartfield Jackson for -- we don't know how many days. The first sign we'll have of anything happening will be the buses leaving the Folkston Detention Center in South Georgia. That is about a four-hour drive.

BROWN: All right. Gustavo Valdes, thanks so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: all right, Pamela.

Still ahead, relationship frayed? What the Israeli attack on Qatar means for U.S.-Israel relations. I'll speak to the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. Danny Danon, that's coming up just ahead right here in The Situation Room.

BROWN: And then later, unidentified orb. What is flying through the sky? And this new video released by a lawmaker, is it a UFO?

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BROWN: Well, new this morning, federal investigators are sharing their early findings on what caused that deadly Florida condo collapse several years ago.

A warning for you, some may find this video graphic. 98 people died in June of 2021 when part of the building in Surfside gave way. And since then, investigators have been trying to work out what happened. Now, an advisory committee says what led to the collapse were possible structural issues with the building's pool deck and not the tower itself.

Peter D'Oench from CNN affiliate WFOR explains.

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PETER D'OENCH, WFOR: The latest findings come from the National Construction Safety Team at NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It follows an exhaustive study of the partial collapse of the 12 story Champlain Tower South building in Surfside just before 1:30 in the morning on June 24th, 2021. 98 people died.

Investigators in the past had said there had been a long-term degradation of the concrete support in the basement level parking garage under the pool deck, and cited water penetration and the corrosion of reinforced steel.

Now, in a virtual meeting, lead investigator Glenn Bell revealed problems in the pool deck.

GLENN BELL, MEMBER OF TEAM INVESTIGATING SURFSIDE COLLAPSE: The pool deck slab column connections had critically low margins of safety. The bulk of the critically low margins of safety was caused by design under strength and misplaced slab reinforcement. Once failure initiated, the structure's low resistance to progressive collapse allowed the collapse of the pool deck to spread into and throughout the middle and east parts of the tower.

D'OENCH: Investigators said there were visible indications of distress on the building weeks before the partial collapse. Investigators had combed through aerial photographs, building maintenance records, eyewitness reports, and studies of what was discovered below the ground.

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BROWN: Our thanks to Peter D'Oench from WFOR and Miami.

BLITZER: Yes, I covered that Surfside collapse, that building. So heartbreaking to hear the stories from, you know, the families who lost their loved ones. It was really tragic.

BROWN: It's awful. I remember you were there for, what, two weeks?

BLITZER: Yes, I was covering it. It was very sad indeed.

Other news we're following right now, lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee here in Washington have held a hearing to show transparency on UFOs and what the government now calls unidentified aerial phenomena. Look at this.

Republican Congressman Eric Burlison of Missouri says this is a drone tracking a flying sphere off the coast of Yemen about a year or so ago. At the top left of your screen, Burlesin says, you're seeing a hellfire missile fired from another drone, and it bounces off the object. The object then corrects course and appears to continue on its way.

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GEORGE KNAPP, UAP JOURNALIST: You know, the public should be seeing this stuff. And why you're not allowed to, I don't know. But that's a hellfire missile smacking into that UFO and just bounced right off. And it kept going.

REP. ERIC BURLISON (R-MO): It kept going. And it looks like the debris was taken with it.

KNAPP: Yes. What the hell is that?

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BLITZER: Military witnesses were asked if the U.S. had any aircraft that could withstand a hellfire missile strike, like what was seen, and they all said no.

BROWN: Very intriguing.

BLITZER: Yes.

BROWN: All right. Coming up, not mincing words. Former Vice President Kamala Harris is speaking out and sharing her true feelings about Biden's decision to run for reelection. What that means for the future of the Democratic Party. We're going to ask the House Democratic whip ahead,

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