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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson
Social Media Accounts Suggest Co-Pilot's Radical Leanings; Trump Stumps For Republicans In Alabama Ahead Of Midterms; Trump Says Messaging To Blame For Republican's Problems; Putin Oversees Military Drills In Russian Border Region; U.S. Pressed Europe To Release Diesel From Emergency Stockpiles; U.S. Rep. Obernolte Introduces Bipartisan Bill To Regulate AI; U.S. Veterans Agency Struggles To Staff New Health Clinics; Aired 1-2a ET
Aired October 03, 2026 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Now the braves will take on the Dodgers with game one of the best of five division series here in LA on Saturday night. And no Dodgers fans don't do something like that for the early rounds. They only do that after they win World Series, which they've done the last two years in a row.
Thanks for watching, and you can tell who I'm rooting for. Thanks for watching the first hour of "The Story Is." The next hour starts right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles, the story is with Elex Michaelson.
MICHAELSON: I'm Elex Michaelson live in Los Angeles. Coming up, "The Story Is" stunning revelations. New details about the pilot suspected of attacking the captain on an Israel bound flight. What is now deleted social media posts reveal.
"The Story Is" one month in the mid-terms, President Trump hitting the campaign trail in a blitz to boost Republican candidates. But could his handling of the economy hurt his party at the polls?
And "The Story Is" a global shortage. The G7 agrees to tap into its diesel and oil reserves after President Trump threatens to cut off U.S. supply.
But we begin with new information about the suspect in Wednesday's violent incident on a Fly Dubai flight. He was the copilot accused of attacking and injuring the captain in mid-flight. That is before passengers rushed into the cockpit and subdued him. Officials have released little information about him and his motives still under investigation, but CNN looked into social media accounts associated with his name, which has now been confirmed by multiple sources.
And as Jeremy Diamond reports, we found some disturbing posts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: This is the first time that we are able to report the name of the suspected attacker of that Fly Dubai flight. According to one of the sources we spoke to, his name is Hamam Al-Hammami. He was born in the United Arab Emirates to an Omani father and a Syrian mother. We found a LinkedIn page, that has since been taken down with that name, which one of those sources confirmed as being the same copilot of that Fly Dubai flight.
This LinkedIn page shows him having worked for Oman Air for seven years until February of 2025 before joining Morocco's flagship airline. I also spoke to a source who confirmed that the copilot of this Fly Dubai flight had indeed worked for that very same Moroccan national airline. There is a video that was posted from the cockpit of an airplane at Dubai Airport that shows El Al planes, Israel's flagship carrier. That video ends with a photo of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Al-Qaeda leader who took over after Osama bin Laden's death.
Another man is also shown at the end of that video. That man was responsible for a 2009 suicide bombing in Afghanistan. Now that video was actually posted about 9 hours after Hammami allegedly tried to hijack that Fly Dubai flight. So it's not clear how that video got off, whether it was prescheduled, whether he had somebody else post it. We've also analyzed a deleted Twitter account that shows Hammami railing against mixed gender workplaces and expressing other misogynistic and some deeply religious views as well.
So you take all that information, you also take the fact that we have multiple sources saying that he was removed from flight training, at Oman Air last year over concerns about his extremist views. And then somehow he gets hired at Fly Dubai. Now we don't know whether Fly Dubai was aware of these radical views that he had, whether they had conducted a thorough background check. All of that is still unknown at this point and Fly Dubai for now is not commenting saying that there is an ongoing investigation.
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MICHAELSON: Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv for us. President Trump is now back in Washington D.C. after a whirlwind trip to Alabama to stump for Republicans. The midterms just over a month away, control of Congress hanging in the balance. Some folks already voting by mail, but the President's team believes that high voter turnout might boost the GOP's odds of holding power and that the President can help with that, get out of the base.
Despite the fact that his approval rating is at an all-time low and some Republican candidates are openly breaking with him. His advisers have put together a calendar that has him on the campaign trail for much of October. The rally in Mobile, part of that strategy, and President Trump talked about it Friday night.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: In the case of Oklahoma and Alabama, I'm here to say, hello, I love you, and I'm coming really as a sign of respect. (END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: A new AP-NORC poll finds most Americans believe the country is economically worse off since President Trump's second term began. 61 percent of adults say the national economy is much worse or somewhat worse.
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Just 23 percent say it's better. In Mobile Friday night, Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville defended the President and insisted that the economy would improve.
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TOMMY TUBERVILLE, U.S. SENATE REPUBLICAN: Just remember this. I know President Trump's taken a hit on gas price and diesel price. Folks, let me tell you, we're all hurting from that. We all are struggling from that. Our farmers are hurting. It's at a tough time during the harvest. But let me tell you, this guy works 18 to 20 hours a day every day of the week, and he's working to make this country better. And I promise you, in a very short period of time, those prices are going to drop. And when they drop there, the bottom's going to drop out of them. And the Democrats, we're going to send them home.
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MICHAELSON: Well, those Democrats are seizing on the sour national mood and hammering Republicans on the economy. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries laid the blame on President Trump's tariffs and the war with Iran.
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HAKEEM JEFFRIES, U.S. HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: Expensive. You got millions of folks working hard, playing by the rules, can't thrive, can barely survive. People are drowning in this failed Trump economy, and we've got to do something about it across the board. We have to lower the price of groceries, lower the price of gas, lower the price of housing. We're fighting to make health care affordable for every single American, and Republicans clearly have done damage to the economy.
The Trump tariffs have increased cost on everyday Americans by thousands of dollars per year, and this reckless war of choice in the Middle East has skyrocketed gas prices. So, no, it's too little, too late. The damage has been done. There's going to be one way to reverse it, and that's to make sure that we retire these Republican majorities in the house and in the senate.
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MICHAELSON: Hakeem Jeffries speaking with Erin Burnett there. Joining me once again on "The Story Is" our panel, Republican California State Senator Tony Strickland and former Democratic California State Assemblymember Christy Smith. Welcome back, both of you. So that was the Democratic pitch we just heard from the man who wants to be the speaker of the house. This is the Republican pitch from President of the United States.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: But if the Democrats win, you will have an economic depression, in my opinion, the likes of 1929. Not a good time. If the Republicans win, you will each have $5,000 in your pocket and economic success for our country like we have never seen before.
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MICHAELSON: Your response to that pitch?
CHRISTY SMITH, FORMER DEMOCRATIC CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLYMEMBER: It is unproven. There is economic data now over decades that shows that when Democrats are in control, the economy performs better. Most recently, it's been after Republicans have driven the economic car into the ditch, and Democrats have to come and pull it back out by reducing the debt and the deficit, getting spending back in line to support those among us who need it the most, to put more money back into our schools, more money back into the military where it belongs. And, this President has just done everything wrong, and he can't even manage to message himself out of it.
But there is no messaging when people have to work an hour at minimum wage in some states to afford a pound of ground beef or to put a gallon of gas in their car.
MICHAELSON: 1 gallon.
SMITH: Yeah. 1 gallon of gas. Yeah.
MICHAELSON: Well, let's talk about, the democratic argument there is basically, President did two things he did not have to do. Basically, nobody asked him to do tariffs, and nobody asked him to do with the war with Iran. And both of those things have driven up prices, and people are seeing that with their own eyes, which is why his poll numbers are so bad.
TONY STRICKLAND, REPUBLICAN CALIFORNIA STATE SENATOR: Well, let's look at working class people across this country that what people are not talking about is the fact that we have no tax on tips. We don't tax on Social Security. We don't tax on overtime. Those are things that no one's talking about in terms of -- that help the working people across the country.
Now I will say, just like Governor Tuberville, yes, gas prices are skyrocketing because of war on Iran, and he says we couldn't afford them to have a nuclear weapon. But I will tell you, what my response was as a State Senator is to drop the gas prices by offering a bill to suspend the gas tax. A lot of other states did, Georgia, Utah, Indiana. But what we did here in California, I offered it a whole bunch of times. Not one democrat voted for my bill that would drop gas prices by a $1.80 gallon, put $1,100 back in hardworking California families.
And, again, these gas prices will move down, and this shouldn't be a partisan issue. We should work together. That's the problem with Washington. We should work together on these things because the Governor -- the senator of Arizona Mark Kelly has the same exact kind of bill in Washington that I had here in California. But the problem was not one democrat in Sacramento agreed with my bill that would have given much needed relief to hardworking California families.
MICHAELSON: You spent a lot of time in Sacramento.
SMITH: I did. And I got blamed for a gas tax that I didn't vote for. Look, yeah, if there had been a bipartisan effort for that in this legislature, I'm sure many, many Californians will have supported it.
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It didn't pass. And so it really is up to the federal government at this point to make this turnaround. And I think the fact that people are feeling it so intensely every time they go to the gas station, to the supermarket, to try to provide basic necessities for their house, that's what's making the difference in these races across the country.
MICHAELSON: So there are so many people who are feeling it, and then there are a few people who are not, which is the billionaires. There's more billionaires in California than any other part of the country. There's more people in California than other part of the country as well. And there is an initiative, which the organizers told us on this show, hopes to be a national model, that they want to do this in a bunch of other states, which is to be a wealth tax on the assets of billionaires, a onetime 5 percent tax on all of their assets. There's a pushback. It's splitting the Democratic party. One person who's very in favor of this is Bernie Sanders, who's going to be in town, this weekend to campaign for this.
In February, he was here at a rally, and I spoke to him, and I made the argument against it. Here's what he had to say.
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ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: But we've already seen, Larry Page, Peter Thiel, David Sacks, Larry Ellison start to move out of the state?
BERNIE SANDERS, U.S. SENATE INDEPENDENT: That something? Oh.
MICHAELSON: But the argument --
SANDERS: Here's what the argument is.
MICHAELSON: Yeah.
SANDERS The argument is it is outrageous. What they are saying to the people of California is it doesn't matter to us. We're billionaires, and we're getting richer and richer. And if children die because they can't get to a doctor, tough luck. We have the power, California. Yes. And we are going to punish you.
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MICHAELSON: There's a lot of anger at billionaires. There's a lot of people that want to give them the middle finger. What do you say to this?
STRICKLAND: Anybody who knows our California state budget knows if this passes, we would have deficits in perpetuity. We rely heavily on capital gains here in California. That's why even Gavin Newsom, I don't agree with Gavin on very much, but I agree with Gavin on this because we've already -- there's already been a study that says we've lost almost $1 trillion in our economy in California just based on this being proposed because people leave.
Now, I'll remind you. When the billionaires leave, it's not just their net worth that's leaving. It's their money and their investment. I never got a job from a poor person. And so they're not investing in new technologies, and they're taking those investments to states like Texas and Florida, and they're leaving the state of California. And on a national level, if you start, stifling, investments -- because what happens is these billionaires, they take that money and they reinvest and they create jobs.
If you start stifling that investment, you're now going to hurt hardworking people across the state of Cal -- across the country because, again, these are the people who create the jobs and also help us have a better life. A lot of these billionaires have made our life a lot better because they broke through on a certain technology.
MICHAELSON: Well, and the way that this state basically is almost entirely funded by rich people paying taxes on their capital gains. That is the way that it is funded, which is why Newsome, Xavier Becerra, Democrat don't running for Governor, and Steve Hilton, the Republican running for Governor, are all against this. But a lot of progressives are for it in a passionate way. Right now, polls show it maybe 50-50.
SMITH: Right.
MICHAELSON: Your thoughts.
SMITH: Right. Look. I agree with the senator. This how our state's budget is funded and this matter is not without risk on both sides because once that those resources expatriate our state, they probably don't come back. And that creates a real challenge for what our economy looks like after that. But what progressives, what the labor movement are saying is that real people are really struggling and really suffering right now. And most of the cuts of the big -- Trump's Big Beautiful Bill are set to start next year after these elections. And we're talking about people like adults with intellectual disabilities who have been long-term on Medicare to support their care and their needs, right?
There are people in dire circumstances whose lives will get worse if we don't do something to shore up the cuts that are part of that draconian bill. And that, my friend, is something that should also be bipartisan. We need to start caring about every American.
MICHAELSON: So you're voting against it?
SMITH: I haven't decided yet.
MICHAELSON: OK. You're voting against it?
STRICKLAND: Oh, 100 percent. Thank you, guys. Tony Strickland, Christy Smith, thanks for being here on this Friday night.
Still ahead on "The Story Is" Spain's parliament angers thousands of protesters after it rejected a housing bill ahead, what demonstrators are planning to do next.
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MICHAELSON: A show of military might in Russia where Vladimir Putin oversaw drills, he says, involved tens of thousands of troops. They come a day after Putin warned the West against attacking the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, saying Moscow was prepared to use, "All weapons in its arsenal, including nuclear if its territory comes back under attack." The White House is counting on some close U.S. allies to help lower fuel prices before the upcoming midterm elections on Friday. G7 leaders said that they would release some 100 million barrels from their stockpiles in the coming months.
Europeans have been under heavy pressure from the Trump administration, which is hoping that the move will make fuel cheaper in the U.S. Experts say Europe didn't really have a choice because the U.S. threatened to cut off its fuel exports. President Trump described the decision as a deal between all sides.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: And earlier today, I spoke with members of the G7 nations, and I'm pleased to report that we have reached an agreement for Europe to release massive amounts of diesel fuel from the heavily stocked reserves, and that's starting immediately.
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MICHAELSON: For more, we're joined live from Toronto by Marco Mendicino, a Senior Counsel at Cassels. He's also a former Cabinet Member and Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney.
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Marco, welcome back to "The Story Is."
MARCO MENDICINO, SENIOR COUNSEL, CASSELS: Great to see you, Elex. MICHAELSON: Great to see you as well. So you've been in the room negotiating deals before. What happened here?
MENDICINO: Well, I think the key takeaway building off your clip from President Trump is that international cooperation with oil producing countries like Canada is by far the best way to lower prices at the pump and solve the current global energy crisis, which is being caused by the wars in Iran and Europe. So what does that cooperation look like? Today, G7 leaders agreed to coordinate the release of 100 million barrels over four months, including a front load release of diesel, which is crucial for farmers and transport trucks which ship our goods.
It's especially important for the American people to know what Canada's role is in helping you with your gas prices. Not only do we ship you 4.5 million barrels roughly of crude oil a day at a discount, we also committed last March to increase our crude oil production by 23.6 million barrels, which is in line with the G7 statement today. And the vast majority of that additional production will go to the United States.
So the key message, I think, for the American people is -- and our partners is that when the chips are down and you're hurting at the pump, you can count on Canada.
MICHAELSON: At a time when the negotiations have not been especially warm, between the President and Prime Minister. In terms of what happened today, what kind of impact does that have on Canada's market, on the gas prices there?
MENDICINO: Well, it's a great question. Canada is a tremendous source of reliable and affordable energy, and that is especially valuable when you're fighting a war in an increasingly destabilized world. We have an abundance of oil, diesel, LNG, LPG, critical minerals, And it is in light of the global demand and the pressures that you've just described that Prime Minister Carney is laser focused on turbocharging our domestic capacity to get that energy to market even faster.
Just this week, the federal government announced milestones for two major projects, including an LNG pipeline in British Columbia that will double our export capacity from 14 to 28 million metric tons per year, and a new oil pipeline in Alberta called the Pacific Link, which will add an additional 1 million barrels of oil production per day when fully operational.
So these are game changers for Canada that will create jobs and keep energy affordable for Canadians and for our allies abroad.
MICHAELSON: What about the politics of all of this in Canada? How is the war playing or potentially changing the politics?
MENDICINO: Well, certainly, when it comes to the war in Europe, Canada is a staunch ally of Ukraine and has made additional commitments to that country, has made additional defense spending commitments to NATO, tracking up to 5 percent of our GDP, within the next, I believe it's seven years now. We'll hit 4 percent of our GDP by 2030, and that will be good for both, our allies in Europe as well as the United States.
When it comes to the war in Iran, of course, like all fair minded democratic countries, we condemn any terrorist regime, including the Iranian regime, which is a suborn terrorist activities in the region and poses a threat. The real way in which we are contributing to the energy crisis is by continuing to be a stable, affordable source of energy. And the partner that benefits the most from that supply is the United States. I would sum up my intervention here by saying that is plenty good motivation to get back to the table as we have discussed before.
There is a win-win deal, I believe that can be negotiated. It does require, I think, sorting through some, what we describe as irritants in the business, but we can get there. And I think today's announcement shows that international cooperation is the best way to solve the energy crisis.
MICHAELSON: Marco Mendocino, a strong advocate for Canada joining us live from Toronto. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Have a great weekend.
Protests turned violent in France as students and police fought openly in the streets. Several schools were set on fire as students railed against an underfunded education system. More than 400 schools remain closed on Friday. Some officials banned gatherings nearby. Many protests have been peaceful, but hundreds of teenagers have been jailed over the violent demonstrations.
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We want to take you to some live pictures right now from Madrid where it is Saturday morning and thousands of protesters remain camped out after the Spanish parliament rejected a housing bill aimed at protecting certain vulnerable tenants from being evicted. That bill was an attempt to quell widespread anger over the recent eviction of an 87-year-old woman.
Despite the bill failing, the demonstrators reiterated their commitment to continue their encampment as well as organizing protests across the country. Spanish media report that the country's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez may call a snap parliamentary election in the wake of that bill's defeat.
You're watching "The Story Is." For our international viewers, Africa now is -- Africa, Inc. is next. For our viewers in North America. I'll be back with more of "The Story Is" including the top Republican on the issue of AI.
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MICHAELSON: President Trump's expected to name Jay Clayton, the Director of National Intelligence as his new AI czar. According to two sources familiar with the matter, the move comes as voters are putting growing pressure on the government to set guardrails for the rapidly expanding technology. Just this week, the President met with top tech leaders at the White House. They signed a commitment to self-police their own companies and technology. But in an interview last month, Clayton signaled his opposition to new AI guardrails or regulation. Listen.
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JAY CLAYTON, U.S. DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: As the President so noted, we have consumer protection laws. We have product liability laws. We have the DOJ. We have architectures for dealing with developments in all of the verticals, transportation, energy, financial services, and the like, to somehow say we should back away from this and let the rest of the world develop these models and implement these models. I don't think anybody in that room, and I don't think any American should think that that's a good strategy.
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MICHAELSON: Here is a live look at the U.S. Capitol where there is a push to pass new legislation in response to voters' growing concerns about how quickly artificial intelligence is advancing. The bipartisan bill sponsored by Democrat Lori Trahan and Republican Jay Obernolte. Let's bring in one of those lawmakers. His name is Jay Obernolte. He is a Republican from here in Southern California. Welcome to "The Story Is" for the first time.
VOICE OF JAY OBERNOLTE, U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICAN: Absolutely.
MICHAELSON: Let's put up on the screen what this would do. It's called the Frontier Act, and it would create national standards, for the largest AI developers, require transparency and incident reporting, and federal oversight and emergency authority, especially for extreme cases. How would that work and why is it important?
OBERNOLTE: Well, what we're trying to do here is basically implement the White House AI accords that were just signed this week in Washington, D.C. This pairs transparency with accountability. It requires the largest frontier AI model developers to create a safety plan and be transparent about what their plan is, and transparent about the way that their plan addresses catastrophic risks. But it also pairs that with accountability, requires those developers to hire independent auditors to verify that they are following their safety plan and that their safety plan is adequate to address the catastrophic risks that we are concerned about. And we think that that is just basic common sense.
MICHAELSON: The Democrats were pushing speaker Johnson to bring the house back to try to pass some AI regulation. He says he's not going to do that. You guys are going to go back after the election. Do you have the votes to pass this, and is this something that you think will pass during the lame duck session?
OBERNOLTE: I think that we do. And, to be clear, this is not something that is come up all of a sudden. We've been working on this for over three years. In the last congress, I was the Chairman of a Bipartisan AI Task Force that was charged with creating a federal plan for the regulation of frontier models, and we produced a nearly 300 page report with 85 different concrete policy recommendations that were broadly bipartisan. And this bill, the Frontier Act, has been in drafting for over a year, and we really think this meets the moment by pairing common sense requirements for frontier AI developers while avoiding overregulation.
I think that's very important to achieve a balance between, on the one hand protecting Americans from some of the very real risks of the use of AI by malicious human actors. But on the other hand, as the President has said, to avoid overregulating. And that's very important because we want to make sure that America stays at the forefront of AI innovation, development, and deployment, and that we enable some of the beneficial effects that AI is going to bring to our economy and our society, and we think that this bill does that.
MICHAELSON: Does this pass by the end of the year, and has the White House signaled that they support it?
OBERNOLTE: Well, it certainly has the potential to. We have divided this bill up into lots of different pieces, designed to fit through the policy purviews of all of the different policy committees in the house. So, we had 11 different bills within the science, space, and technology committee that passed in July. And the Frontier Act that we're discussing tonight is queued up for a hearing and markup, hopefully, in the energy and commerce committee in November.
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And our aim is to have this in a format where we can reunify it in One Big Bill, at the other side of committee and have it eligible for floor action by the end of the year.
MICHAELSON: Yeah. There seems to be a lot of urgency on this particular issue now, something you've been working on for a while. Some people might say, why are you the chair? Why you? Well, you were way ahead of the curve on this. You got a master's degree in artificial intelligence from UCLA back in 1997 at a time when a lot of people didn't even know what the concept of AI is. And you now are basically charged with teaching your colleagues, some of whom are not the youngest people in the world or maybe the most tech savvy, how AI works. How do you explain it to them? And what has that process been like?
OBERNOLTE: Well, AI is obviously a very technically complicated topic, but this is not unique to, just artificial intelligence. Congress regularly legislates on a wide variety of topics with this level of complexity, and we depend on our colleagues to get spun up on the issues. I actually think that people should be encouraged by the fact that the AI task force in the last congress took 24 members of congress who had no background in artificial intelligence, and now we've created a nucleus of Members of Congress that are highly engaged and educated on this issue.
So if we could do that in the last congress, we can do it in this congress. I think that my colleagues are up to the task. I am encouraged by the fact that our legislation is broadly bipartisan. Certainly, there is nothing about AI regulation that should be a partisan issue, and only in achieving bipartisan regulation can we create a framework that is durable. We certainly don't want to have the rules governing a major industry of the United States be subject to vast changes every time the winds of political fortune shift one way or the other. And the only way to do that is to make this bipartisan. That's what we hope to accomplish.
MICHAELSON: And real quickly, your thoughts on Jay Clayton as AI czar.
OBERNOLTE: I think it's tremendously helpful that the administration is appointing an AI czar. There's been kind of a void since the departure of David Sachs in day-to-day management of that role. And so, certainly, we welcome Mr. Clayton's engagement on this issue. And it's only going to be with a unified effort with everyone pushing in the same direction, the executive branch and the legislative branch pushing together, are we going to be able to create some durable rules of the road that achieve, guardrails around this, very potent and important technology that avoid overregulating, but still enact the guardrails that we think are necessary. We welcome the executive branch's engagement on this issue.
MICHAELSON: And you are factually right, that if this sort of thing is done by executive order, it can be wildly different rules depending on the president. But bipartisan legislation, which is very hard to do these days, is the most lasting thing, that Washington can do. And Representative Jay Obernolte is trying to lead on that front. Thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it.
OBERNOLTE: It's great to see you.
MICHAELSON: Up next, new video of Luigi Mangione's arrest moments after the fugitive was found. Our exclusive CNN report after the break.
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MICHAELSON: Cornell University is pausing some of its fundraising efforts as it faces growing scrutiny over its handling of a former student's gang rape allegations. The former student says she was sexually assaulted by multiple men over the course of several hours at a fraternity party and alleges that the university failed to adequately address the crime after it was reported.
New York's Attorney General Letitia James now taking over the criminal investigation as a special prosecutor after Governor Kathy Hochul said she lost faith in the local DA's ability to fairly oversee the case.
Governor Hochul also said Cornell's university police failed to pass along crucial information to authorities.
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KATHY HOCHUL, NEW YORK GOVERNOR: She spoke to the police. She sat for hours and told them exactly what happened to her. And according to new reports, she could not have been clear that she was 100 percent confident that she had been raped. Yet, shockingly, those words never made it into the account that the Cornell police sent to prosecutors.
In what world would the police learn from a victim that she'd been literally gang raped while intoxicated by five men in a fraternity house and not elevate those allegations to the district attorney.
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MICHAELSON: Earlier, CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke with the Mayor of Ithaca, New York, where Cornell University is located, about the university's handling of the case.
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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Should the Cornell police have brought local police in on this immediately?
ROBERTO CANTELMO, ITHACA, NEW YORK, MAYOR: Unequivocally, yes. I don't see any reason why something like this, a crime of this magnitude, violent crime, sex crime, these things should be handled with the local agencies or state police where there is professionalism, there's experience, there's training for trauma informed care for the survivor and to ensure that we can have justice.
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MICHAELSON: We have newly unsealed body camera footage of Luigi Mangione's arrest inside a Pennsylvania McDonald's. That video was taken just days after Mangione shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York. It shows the moment an officer found a gun linked to the crime scene. Mangione pleaded guilty in August to federal charges in that killing. CNN's Kara Scannell takes us through the footage.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just do me a favor. Go ahead and stand up. I'm going to pat you down. Perfect. Stand up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the jar of peanut butter by the way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can take that, but I'm just letting you know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yep. Just put your hands on the wall. I'm pat you down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure you're on. Sure.
KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Newly unsealed police body cam footage first seen on CNN shows the moments Altoona, Pennsylvania police officers handcuffed Luigi Mangione and took him into custody ending a five day manhunt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep your hands on the wall.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Left hand first. Good. Bring your right hand back. All right.
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SCANNELL (voice-over): A New York state judge unsealed the footage at the request of CNN after Mangione pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges and admitted to fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The videos were played during a suppression hearing last December, but have not been publicly released until now. Officers responded to a 9/11 call on December 9, 2024 that the suspected New York City CEO shooter may be in a McDonald's restaurant.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How you doing? Can you put your mask down real quick for me?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. Sure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Appreciate it. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
SCANNELL (voice-over): The officers immediately thought it was him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's 100 percent him. I told you, man. That shooter checked into a hostel with a fake ID.
SCANNELL (voice-over): Officers confront Mangione about a fake driver's license bearing the name Mark Rosario.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that your name Mark Rosaro?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then what's your real name?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Luigi.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Luigi?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mangione.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll write it down. Give me the date of birth then too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you spell your full name?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: L-U-I-G-I.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: L-U-I-G-I.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mangione.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: M-A-N-G-I-O-N-E.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you lying about your name?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clearly I shouldn't have.
SCANNELL (voice-over): A search reveals a gun magazine. About 10 minutes later, Mangione is taken to the police station. Mangione is asked to remove layers of clothing so he can be searched more thoroughly while another officer unzips his backpack and finds a gun that authorities later link to the crime scene.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So the back start? Sorry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a weapon. So you want me to clear it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's just clear it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Clear it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good. There's another magazine that was hidden in his underwear. Silencer.
SCANNELL (voice-over): She also finds Mangione's handwritten notes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Looks like a journal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two minutes later, you can check it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would.
SCANNELL (voice-over): While a different officer ticks off the evidence, including a checklist --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has a handgun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pretty cool.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Suppressor, his cell phones, in a Faraday bag. He has a checklist for today. Tomorrow, he's supposed to do an intel check-in and get a survival kit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Wow. Fascinating to watch. Coming up on "The Story Is" a $300 million health center for America's military veterans with empty hallways and patients being turned away. When we come back, why the U.S. is building new clinics when it can't find doctors and nurses to actually staff them. Stay with us.
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[01:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MICHAELSON: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is struggling to keep its new health clinics staffed. The agency has built or updated about 40 facilities after VA benefits were expanded under the Biden administration. But the effort is being impacted by staff shortages and hospital closures, especially in rural America. CNN's Brian Todd has more.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have new reporting on staffing problems at VA clinics, including a brand new VA clinic in Fredericksburg, Virginia, which was supposed to be a real crown jewel. It cost more than $350 million to build. The VA touted it as the largest VA health care clinic in the U.S., spanning more than 470,000 square feet, completely state-of-the-art. But now, 19 months after the ribbon cutting, the VA is struggling to staff the facility, according to our sources, and some veterans are telling us their care has suffered as a result.
Now according to VA data obtained by CNN, the Fredericksburg Clinic has a staffing vacancy rate of nearly 40 percent, which means more than 350 positions there have not been filled. The VA says it's opened 41 new clinics across the U.S. That same data that we obtained shows that roughly half of those new facilities had double-digit vacancy rates as of July.
At Fredericksburg, that's translated into hardship for some veterans. I spoke with one marine veteran who sought treatment there, Michael Dunlap, who told me he's gone through four primary care doctors in the span of a year and a half at the Fredericksburg Clinic. They've all quit, he says, just sending him a form letter saying they wouldn't be there anymore.
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MICHAEL DUNLAP, U.S. VETERAN: You have to start over every time. They can look at your records but until they talk to you and know you it slows everything down. And you build up a rapport with a doctor and now you lose a little bit of confidence because now you got to explain everything all over again.
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TODD: Other veterans told us they had problems getting in for initial appointments at Fredericksburg and one was turned down for urgent care visits. All they say because of staffing shortages. Now those veterans described going to a gleaming clean facility without many people in it and with a huge parking lot, much of it very empty as these recent pictures that I took show. One health care provider at Fredericksburg who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution told us doctors and other providers at Fredericksburg are burned out, exhausted, and that's why they're leaving.
This provider likened the work atmosphere there to quote a car production line. That was reiterated to us by Democratic Congressman Eugene Vindman, a veteran himself who represents that district where the Fredericksburg VA Clinic is located.
[01:55:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EUGENE VINDMAN, U.S. HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE: It is the fact that they can't keep staff, that they can't hire staff, that it's taking too long, that's making wait times too long, that's making it impossible for veterans to actually get in the door, and that's what needs to get fixed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: The VA is staunchly defending its operations at Fredericksburg. VA Press Secretary Quinn Slaven in a statement to CNN said "The Fredericksburg VA clinic is opening in phases. It met its hiring goals in the first three phases and is now in Phase 4. In less than two years since opening, the clinic has already completed more than 245,000 appointments and is ahead of schedule for enrolling new patients."
Outside analysts tell us some of this is not the VA's fault. They say the VA opened these clinics as the entire country is experiencing a shortage of doctors, nurses, and other providers with even greater shortages projected in the next decade. And they say the VA has to deal with an unwieldy bureaucracy and often cannot pay doctors the same salaries that they would make in the private sector. Brian Todd, CNN Washington.
MICHAELSON: Thanks to Brian, and thanks to you for watching all week long. I'll see you on Monday. Enjoy your weekend.
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