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The Situation Room
GOP Gov. Candidate Rick Jackson Facing Scrutiny; Israel Opens Criminal Probe Into 2024 Killing of Girl in Gaza; WH Pressure on News Media Intensifies in Trump's Second Term. Aired 11:30a-12p ET
Aired August 20, 2026 - 11:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:30:00]
PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, new this morning, the Republican candidate for Georgia governor, billionaire Rick Jackson, is facing scrutiny because of a lawsuit against one of his companies that hired foreign-born nurses. The suit claimed the company threatened to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement on its employees and charge massive fees if they decided to leave.
Now, Jackson has been a strong advocate of cracking down on immigrants in the U.S. illegally. Here's what he says he'll do if he wins in November.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK JACKSON (R), GEORGIA GOV. CANDIDATE: Too often, criminal illegals commit sick, violent crimes. Do that when I'm governor, and you'll end up deported or departed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: CNN senior reporter Steve Contorno has been covering the story. So, the company has settled this lawsuit, Steve, but tell us more about what the employees were claiming.
STEVE CONTORNO, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Pam, these immigrant nurses that work for Jackson's company, which is called Avant Healthcare Professionals, effectively accuse it of violating labor trafficking laws.
[11:35:00]
These nurses were brought to the United States to work at American hospitals by Avant, and they were basically sold on the American dream, that they were told that they would get a great wage and a great chance to live out the dream that many immigrants have led. But they instead found themselves trapped, they said, in a contract that was especially harsh, and it made it difficult for them to leave. They were threatened with fines if they tried to quit and were told that they would be reported on to ICE. And they had very little understanding of what they were getting into and the kind of contract that they were getting into and how their wages would make it, they said, almost impossible for them to get by. Now, Avant, I should point out, has denied any wrongdoing, both during the court case and in a statement to us. But they did, as you say, ultimately settled for $3 million, and 5,200 current and former employees were eligible for some sort of recourse against the company as part of this class-action lawsuit.
BROWN: And, Steve, you reported that Jackson's tough immigration rhetoric also differs from Avant's business practices. What did you find there?
CONTORNO: Yes. Just take a look at what Jackson has said about immigrants coming to the U.S. in this campaign ad that ran very often in Georgia all through the spring.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACKSON: I don't care if you're Muslim or Mongolian. You don't have the right to force your culture on our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CONTORNO: But here's what Avant tells its own workers, its immigrant workforce, about coming to the U.S. and the culture shock they may face. They say, quote, "You don't have to choose between the culture you came from and the one you're adapting to. Finding harmony between the two creates a well-rounded multicultural identity that enhances both your personal and professional life."
And it's also interesting because Jackson is promising to be a partner with the Trump administration and immigration services if he's elected governor. But his company has actually sued the Trump administration back in 2020, trying to make it easier to bring foreign workers into the United States and is also cheering on lawsuits that would eliminate the $100,000 fee that the Trump administration has placed on certain visas.
Now, we took all this to the Jackson campaign for response, and they've noted that his focus is on stopping criminal undocumented immigrants and said, quote, "Avant nurses came to America legally, waiting several years, learn English, pay taxes and save lives. Avant entered into the settlement to avoid the cost of litigation, allowing the company to focus entirely on connecting the U.S. health care system with qualified nurses." Pam.
BROWN: All right. Steve Contorno, thank you so much for bringing that reporting to us. We appreciate it. Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Just ahead, an update to a story that sparked international outrage. For the first time now, the Israeli military is admitting involvement in the death of a Palestinian girl. We have details of the new investigation right after the break.
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[11:40:00] BLITZER: Happening now, Israel's military has acknowledged for the first time the it opened fire on a vehicle in Gaza that was carrying a five-year-old Palestinian girl. She pleaded on the phone for help for hours after her family in the car was killed. An ambulance sent to rescue her also came under attack. Israel's military had earlier denied any involvement in the tragedy, that was two and a half years ago, but now says a criminal investigation is underway.
Here are some of CNN's reporting from February of 2024 with our own Nada Bashir. And a warning, some details are disturbing. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Little Hind trapped in a car beside the bodies of her uncle, his wife and their four children, all killed by Israeli fire, the Palestine Red Crescent says, while attempting to flee fighting in northern Gaza. All contact with Hind and the ambulance crew dispatched to rescue her lost just hours after her desperate call for help.
For 12 days, there was collective hope that Hind would be found alive. Her mother, desperate for her daughter's safe return, waited every day at the hospital gates. But now, that hope is lost.
She was in the car for 12 days. May God punish all those who could have helped her and did not, Wissam says. And what did the Red Crescent crew that went to rescue her do to deserve this? To be burnt and killed? Why did you execute them when their sole mission was to rescue Hind?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Well, let's go to CNN's Jeremy Diamond. He's working this story for us in Tel Aviv. Jeremy, so heartbreaking. What can you tell us about the latest developments in this investigation?
JEREMY DIAMOND, JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the Israeli military has something called the fact-finding mechanism, and that is the mechanism that conducted an initial inquiry into the killing of Hind Rajab and six of her family members, as well as the two paramedics who were killed when they went to try and rescue her.
And in addition, now to the Israeli military acknowledging for the first time ever that its troops did indeed fire on that vehicle carrying Hind Rajab, they are also launching a criminal investigation now, finding that it is warranted to do so following that initial inquiry. It was one of two criminal investigations that the Israeli military announced yesterday into alleged war crimes.
I will get to what the other one is, but first I want to show you the statement that we've received from Hind Rajab's mother, Wissam Hamada. She says that opening an investigation is not justice, but she says, I do not want a closed military investigation. I want an independent, transparent investigation and genuine accountability for everyone responsible. [11:45:00]
Hind is not just a news story or a case reopened because of international pressure. Hind is my daughter, and I will continue to demand the truth and justice for her, my family, the paramedics who tried to save her. Opening an investigation is a long overdue step, but she says, justice has not yet begun.
Now, Hind's case gained international attention in part because of those horrifying voice recordings where you hear her pleading with paramedics to come and save her. It also became the subject of a movie that was nominated at the Oscars just this past year.
The second criminal investigation that the Israeli military has opened is also related to an attack on emergency responders, 15 paramedics and first responders who were killed in March of 2025 when Israeli soldiers opened fire on a convoy of ambulances and other emergency response vehicles. At the time, the Israeli military claimed that those vehicles were traveling without headlights, without flashing emergency lights, but then video surface showing the opposite, that those vehicles were indeed clearly marked with flashing emergency lights as they traveled and were nonetheless still fired upon. Now, the Israeli military says that this shooting, quote, "raises reasonable suspicion" of criminal misconduct and they have decided to investigate.
There were two other -- three other cases that the Israeli military says it has chosen not to pursue a criminal investigation involving attacks on aid workers. They include the killing of seven World Central Kitchen workers in 2024 and two previous strikes on Doctors Without Borders. The Israeli military said it decided that a criminal investigation was not warranted in those cases. Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv for us, thank you very, very much. Pamela.
BROWN: All right. Wolf, coming up, Disney and ABC versus the FCC, why the company is taking the agency to court as the Trump administration seeks to reshape the media landscape in ways that could affect millions of Americans.
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[11:50:00]
BLITZER: Happening now, the news media under pressure and a target of the Trump administration. The president often using tactics aimed at retaliating against coverage perceived by the Trump administration as either negative or critical. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: NBC and ABC Fake News have both said that they would not cover this speech. Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: From legal action to cuts to NPR and PBS and banning access for news organizations, President Trump has often called the press the enemy of the people, using his office to go after the news media.
BROWN: So, let's go to CNN Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter. Brian, how damaging has this pressure been on the news media and on the First Amendment? Why should every American be paying attention to this?
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Disney says it's being harmed every single day, and that's why this First Amendment showdown is so interesting. Because one of the biggest media companies in the country and in the entire world has laid out in a legal text all of the ways that it says it is being damaged, all the way it says it is being harmed right now.
Trump's FCC is pushing back this week and saying it's just enforcing the law. But a whole lot of outside observers on both the right and left say that Trump's FCC Chair Brendan Carr is weaponizing the agency against Trump's perceived opponents. And right now, it happens to be ABC and Jimmy Kimmel and Rosie O'Donnell and The View and other celebrities and programs on ABC.
But there's a broad concern that right now it's ABC, but it could be other networks and other news outlets in the future. So, you have Disney this week reluctantly, it says, going to court, choosing to fight this First Amendment battle because it says it needs to stand up for its own rights and for the rights of the media writ large. Later today there's going to be some filings in the case. Maybe next week a judge will start to hear the case.
So, it's going to be a very interesting test to have all the government's actions to date really scrutinized by a federal judge.
BLITZER: Brian, what have been the main federal actions during the Trump administration and the policy shifts that have been taken that have been so harmful to the press?
STELTER: Well, I think there's at least a dozen that we could name. Many different pressure points that have been invoked and that have been engaged. And I always try to point out there might be some we don't know about, you know, but there are many that are happening in public, whether that's journalists being subpoenaed in attempts to find out their sources, whether it's the defunding of NPR and PBS last year. I would say even just punishing journalists by trolling them on social media.
Some of these efforts are about words, but then others are about actions. And when it comes to Trump's FCC, that's where we've seen actions. Open investigations, for example, into Disney and NBC's parent Comcast. Past dealings with Paramount, which is now trying to buy CNN's parent Warner Bros. Discovery. So, there's been many of these actions by Trump's FCC. They're now in the spotlight because of Disney's lawsuit.
Disney's executives are aware that this lawsuit that they filed this week could invite further retaliation. And that's a very real concern. They know this isn't happening in a vacuum. They look at the NPR and PBS situation. They look at the open investigations into other media companies, talking with sources close to the company. There's a belief that the actions against Disney fit into that broader set of actions that we've seen against many different media companies. And there's a real concern about a chilling effect that's underway.
But, Pam, Wolf, I know this watching the situation every day. The work and the reporting is continuing every day, despite all of these pressure points that exist. The pressure is real. There's no doubt about it. But I think in some ways the chilling effect that is being attempted by the administration is failing, because there is so much great and important work still being done every day, even though journalists have been kicked out of the Pentagon, even though there's been attempts to pressure news outlets in many different ways. News outlets are pushing back.
And look at the legal system, for example, of that. You know, trump is suing the BBC and the Wall Street Journal and other outlets. But those outlets are standing up for their rights. And this week, Disney is as well.
BROWN: Brian, why does this fight matter to every American?
[11:55:00]
STELTER: I think for this simple reason, Disney, again, in the news this week, ABC has a big news operation and entertainment programs. And ABC's position is very simple. Governments, in this case the Trump administration, should not be able to dictate what gets on the air, even on the public airwaves, because this is about local stations that are being challenged by the federal government.
And I think that's a pretty basic principle most Americans agree about. They don't want the government deciding what you can know and what you can't know, or what comedian you can hear from or you can't hear from.
BLITZER: Brian Stelter, excellent analysis. Thank you very, very much. And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning. You can always keep up with us on social media, @wolfblitzer and @pamelabrowncnn.
BROWN: And we'll see you back here tomorrow morning and every weekday morning for two hours at 10:00 Eastern. Inside Politics with our friend and colleague Dana Bash starts after a quick break.
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