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Donald Trump Allowed By Judge A Special Master To Review Materials; President Biden Campaigns In Pennsylvania; Manhunt In Canada For Two Suspects On Mass Stabbings; At Least 10 Dead, 18 Wounded In Stabbing Spree In Canada; Memphis Police Searching For Teacher Kidnapped During Morning Run; Liz Truss Named Next U.K. Prime Minister, Replacing Boris Johnson; Israeli Army Admits One Of Its Soldiers Likely Shot And Killed Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh In May; Biden Delivering Labor Day Remarks In Pennsylvania. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired September 05, 2022 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: The latest once in a thousand years flooding event has forced yet another water treatment plant to shut down, this time in Summerville, Georgia. The area got about a foot of rain within 12 hours yesterday causing dangerous flash flooding as people in Summerville are now supposed to boil all water before using it. Our coverage continues right now in THE SITUATION ROOM.

BRIANNA KELLAR, CNN HOST: Happening now, a federal judge orders an independent review of documents seized in the search of Mar-a-Lago, granting former President Trump's request to appoint a special master. We're breaking down the ruling and what happens next.

Also tonight, President Biden marks the traditional kickoff of campaign season with a midterm push for Democrats in key swing states. He speaks in Pennsylvania this hour.

And in the U.K., conservative Liz Truss winning the contest to be the next prime minister, taking over for Boris Johnson, as the leader of a country in crisis. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Wolf blitzer is off today. I'm Brianna Keilar, and this is a "Situation Room" special report.

We begin with the major new development in the Mar-a-Lago search and the Justice Department investigation into former President Trump's handling of classified documents. A federal judge granting his request for an outside attorney to review the materials that the FBI seized. CNN's senior justice correspondent Evan Perez is working the story for us. So, Evan, what exactly did the judge rule here?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, the judge cited her concern about the fairness and of course this extraordinary situation of the search of a former president's home. I'll read you just a part of what she ruled today.

She said that, "The court hereby authorizes the appointment of a special master to review the seized property for personal items and documents and potentially privileged material. The Court also temporarily enjoins the government from reviewing and using the seized materials for investigative purposes pending the completion of the special master's review or further Court order."

She goes on, Brianna, to cite just the fact that the former president is the one who was the subject of this search. I'll read you another part where she says, "As a function of plaintiff's former position as president of the United States, the stigma associated with the subject's seizure is in a league of its own."

She cited several reasons, Brianna, for ruling this way. She said that the interest of ensuring the integrity of an orderly process amid swirling allegations of bias and media leaks. She's also allowing the Director of National Intelligence to conduct this ongoing intelligence community review, a risk assessment of the documents that were seized from Mar-a-Lago.

We know that part of the reason why she cites for ruling in this fashion, for giving the former president his request for a special master, was that she said there were at least two instances where this special team of lawyers that was reviewing the documents had separated it out for potential attorney/client privilege material. At least two instances where they had turned over material to the investigative team.

She raised a concern about that and the fact that the FBI, she said, seized some records related to the former president's taxes, accounting information, and medical information. Again, these are part of the reasons why she said she ruled the way she did.

KEILAR: Yeah. The DOJ's point there was, look, it's hardly happened, and her point is, hey, it's happened here.

PEREZ: Right.

KEILAR: So, what happens next in all of this?

PEREZ: Well, now the Justice Department and the Trump team have to get together and have to agree by Friday on a potential -- a candidate to be the special master. This person who is going to oversee and overlook all of these documents.

The other thing that they need to do is they need to outline what the special master is going to be doing, the limitations of what the special master is going to be doing, including potentially looking at executive privilege material, which is sort of a totally different animal from the attorney/client material that the special master typically does in these types of investigations.

KEILAR: Alright, Evan Perez stands by for us if you will. We do want to bring in now CNN legal analyst Jennifer Rodgers, defense attorney and former federal prosecutor Shan Wu, and the state attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida, Dave Aronberg with us. Dave, what do you make of this order and the language that the judge used here describing the stigma that Trump faces?

DAVE ARONBERG, STATE ATTORNEY, PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA: Brianna, this is why Trump's legal team traveled 68 miles north of West Palm Beach. They wanted this judge, Judge Cannon. She was appointed by Donald Trump. She was confirmed a week after he lost the election.

[17:05:00]

And she rewarded their faith in her because not only did she grant a preliminary order that essentially granted the special master before the Department of Justice even had a chance to respond, but now she grants a special master and even granted an injunction, a halt to the investigation when Donald Trump's legal team did not even request it.

And so, if you read this opinion, it's really a very pro-civil libertarian decision for a judge who had a reputation of being very pro-law and order. She's a former assistant U.S. attorney herself. So, it is really surprising. I guess when Donald Trump is the potential defendant, she somehow found her inner Alan Dershowitz.

KEILAR: Jennifer, what do you think? I mean, this is an unprecedented situation.

JENNIER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It is. I mean, the problem with this opinion though, Brianna, is legally it's a mess. In order to appoint a special master and in order to issue an injunction the judge has to find certain things. There are certain elements that have to be met and the burden of proof is on the move, its Donald Trump. And it's just a legal mess in terms of the judge trying to be persuasive about him actually meeting his elements.

He has to show irrevocable harm. He has to show a likelihood of success on the merits. I mean, just on the executive privilege point, the judge says she doesn't really get into the analysis at all with respect to executive privilege. All she says is it's not 100 percent precluded.

So, she's saying if you come in with a 1 percent chance of succeeding on this executive privilege argument down the road, that's a likelihood of success on the merits, it's just absolutely insupportable.

KEILAR: Shan, is there any way that this could, you know, let's just say, let's play this out, in the chance that Donald Trump was to be say, indicted, and yes, he has done the politicizing of the FBI and the DOJ, but is there any way in which having had a special master could actually bolster the legitimacy of the investigation?

SHAN WU, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It could simply because DOJ could say, look, we had a third party look at this and they have been very careful to protect the former president's potential rights. But, I mean, I agree with both Dave and Jennifer. It's a very flawed opinion, but I think it's a very dangerous opinion, Brianna.

It really seeks to derail the criminal investigation and rather than ultimately help DOJ, I think this could cause big problems for their investigation down the road because anything that the special master thinks was improperly handled or maybe disagrees with the department about, this could be big issues about how do you use that later or if it's already been relied upon at this early stage in the investigation.

Trump's lawyers can later argue there's a taint. So, this is potentially to me, I don't want to be hyperbolic about it, but it's potentially disastrous. It really can derail the criminal investigation.

KEILAR: Evan, how is the Justice Department approaching the fact that we are so close to the midterms and there are growing political implications here?

PEREZ: Absolutely. And look, I think the fact is, Donald Trump is not on the ballot in November. And so, the Justice Department has this rule, 60 days, right, which begins this week, during which time they can't take any overt steps that could be interpreted as trying to influence the election.

So, what we were expecting, Brianna, was that the Justice Department was going to go quiet anyway during the next, you know, between now and November. The prospect here is that you might have the special master doing reports, maybe surfacing every few weeks or, you know, every month to provide updates to the judge.

In some ways, maybe disturbing, that quiet period that we normally have during the next 60 days or so. So, it's not clear to me, you know, the practical impact of this because I think we're all sort of in new territory.

The fact that a special master is going to be reviewing executive privilege material, which no one really knows how this will work with the fact that this is an investigation being run from the executive branch.

KEILAR: Shan, I want to listen to the former president lashing out at this investigation over the weekend. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: They rifled through the First Lady's closet drawers and everything else. And even did a deep and ugly search of the room of my 16-year-old son. The FBI and the Justice Department have become vicious monsters controlled by radical left scoundrels.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Should that have played into, Shan, whether or not he is granted the ability to have this accommodation?

WU: Absolutely not. I mean, the judge makes reference to sort of like the cloud of spin going on. That's exactly the kind of thing she is paid not to think about here.

[17:10:01]

Even the comment that Evan quoted about the stigma, to Jennifer's point, it doesn't make any sense legally. The stigma -- the search already happened. The stigma is there. Appointing a special master is not going to take away the stigma, but appointing a special master could stall or derail a further stigma of being charged. So, that kind of spin absolutely has no place in the judge's legal reasoning or being she should not be concerned about that. She should have applied the law.

KEILAR: I want to thank all of you for being a part of this discussion. Thank you so much.

WU: Thanks.

ARONBERG: Thank you.

KEILAR: Coming up, you are looking at live pictures of West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. This is where President Biden is testing his political strength on the campaign trail. He's about to speak in his home state this hour and we'll go there live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: We're just over nine weeks from the midterm elections and President Biden is on the campaign trail trying to capitalize on his recent legislative wins. He's also stepping up his attacks on former President Trump's fiercest defenders. CNN chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny is near Pittsburgh for us where the president will be speaking soon. So, Jeff, he seems to be fine tuning his midterm message. What are we hearing from him today?

[17:15:02]

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, he definitely is and tonight I'm told we're going to hear some of his accomplishments, talking about his economic agenda, of course, talking about the Inflation Reduction Act that was just passed, that bipartisan bill, infrastructure, other matters.

But of course, politics is at the heart of this visit back to Pennsylvania, the third time in a week's time that President Biden has visited the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Of course, he will be talking about the races here and writ-large.

You can see the crowd has started to gather here. Really, a modest sized crowd of union members. We're at the Steelworkers Hall here just outside of Pittsburgh. But earlier in the day when President Biden was visiting Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he made clear how he views the Republican Party in two different lights.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I want to be very clear up front. Not every Republican is a MAGA Republican. Not every republican embraces that extreme ideology. I know because I have been able to work with mainstream Republicans my whole career. But the extreme MAGA Republicans in Congress have chosen to go backwards, full of anger, violence, hate, and division. But together, we can and we must choose a different path. Forward. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So, the president clearly trying to open the door, if you will, to some perhaps establishment Republicans, but more likely independent voters who are indeed concerned about the threats to American democracy, who are concerned about the divisive nature that they are seeing from the former president, Donald Trump, as he, of course, is coming front and center back into the fold here. So, Brianna, certainly a political message that the president is delivering here. We're two months before the midterms.

KEILAR: Is he meeting with John Fetterman, Jeff, the Democratic Senate candidate in Pennsylvania today?

ZELENY: Brianna, I'm told that meeting just happened and I'm going to turn around here as we're seeing the president walk out. Actually, Gisele Fetterman is just walking out of the union hall here. I'm told the meeting happened. It went on for several minutes. The reason this is significant, Democrats have been wondering how John Fetterman is doing.

Democrats have been wondering if he'll be at full strength to campaign against Mehmet Oz. Of course, he's lieutenant governor but he's running for the Senate seat here. This is one of the most important Senate seats in all of the country, at least in terms of Democrats trying to picking up a seat.

We'll turn around again if we see him out here. But we are -- we do actually see him, John Fetterman right next to the American flag there. And again, the reason this is important is because he suffered a stroke a few months ago, days before his own primary campaign, and he has been sort of steadily returning to the campaign trail, but still not been out full circle.

So, him appearing here today certainly is a relief to many Democrats. Of course, President Biden first and foremost, because he wants to hold control of the Senate. That dictates so much of his agenda for the second half of his first term.

KEILAR: Alright, Jeff, thank you so much. We'll keep an eye on those pictures. I think we saw Gisele, Fetterman's wife, there. Maybe we'll get a picture of Fetterman if the frame broadens there. Well, you see President Biden there in West Mifflin ahead of delivering remarks in Pennsylvania for the third time in a week.

Let's get more now on all of this with CNN senior White House correspondent, Phil Mattingly and CNN political commentator and former Republican Congressman Charlie Dent. Phil, the president is trying to deliver a two-pronged midterm message. He's touting his accomplishments while also painting some Republicans as extremists. Which does the White House see as the more politically potent message here?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Look, Brianna, I don't think they see them as mutually exclusive to some degree, right? They kind of dovetail together. I think that's why the sound that Jeff played from his rally earlier in Wisconsin is critical in terms of how the White House is approaching these next couple of months when it pertains to Republicans.

Trying to make very clear that there's a delineation between those who are Trump supporters or very much in line with the former president, and as they view it, kind of regular mainstream Republicans. Now, those have been pretty difficult groups to separate over the course of the last couple of years. But it's what underscores President Biden's approach here as we head into this final eight or nine weeks of this midterm cycle.

Kind of underscoring the fact that the president has worked with Republicans on some pretty significant achievements, whether the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill just a couple weeks ago, a major manufacturing and science bill, about $280 billion, but also, for particularly in a midterm election of a first term president going into where you really need the base to turn out, where they very rarely do.

The fact that the stakes are enormous, that this can't be viewed as just a regular midterm election that people need to come out and vote. So, this message is trying to dovetail together, rally the base, but also reach out to, as Jeff pointed to or alluded to, the fact that independents, Republicans who may be not necessarily in line with the former president, need to come out in the president's view, support Democrats in the election.

KEILAR: And we are actually seeing John Fetterman there, the Senate candidate, the lieutenant governor, candidate on the Democratic side for Senate, in his trademark hoodie, I should mention. Charlie, to you. Do you think that Biden's approach is working?

[17:20:00]

CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, on Thursday, he spoke in Philadelphia and I did think that the president was far too partisan in his tone. His underlying theme of, you know, the election deniers, many of whom were very supportive of Donald Trump, you know, I think he made fair points about the threats to democracy and the rule of law.

But then he conflated it with a partisan message that painted with too broad a brush. I mean, he could have thrown a bone the other day. He could have said, you know, he could have said members of my own party who are spending money to help election deniers in primaries, knock it off. He should have said that. He didn't say that.

And I think he's conflating some of the policy issues with the threat to democracy issues. And I think he's going to have to separate that a bit more. The tone he struck today in Wisconsin I think was better than what he struck in Philadelphia last week.

KEILAR: Do you think, Charlie, that Democrats can defy the odds of what we normally see in a midterm election?

DENT: Well, I think the Democrats, you know, certainly have shown much greater intensity and energy since the Dobbs decision. And that Republicans, you know, obviously, you know, by historical standards, Republicans should do well. But there are mitigating factors here and I think all of us should speak about this midterm with a certain degree of humility because I don't think we have seen anything like this.

A former president injecting himself into this race, which no Republicans want. They want this to be a referendum on Biden and the Democrats. But with the January 6th issues, the raid on his place down in Florida, and the Dobbs decision, I'll tell you what, this midterm is going to probably be a bit closer than the Republicans would like right now.

KEILAR: Alright, you guys, thank you so much for the conversation as we're monitoring this event there outside of Pittsburgh. We're going to bring it to you live when it happens.

Also, authorities in Canada are desperately searching for two men suspected of stabbing more than two dozen people, killing at least 10. Stay with us for that. This is a "Situation Room" special report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[1725:00]

KEILAR: In Canada tonight, a sprawling manhunt is under way for two men suspected of a stabbing spree that has left at least 10 people dead. Authorities warn the suspects are armed and dangerous, urging communities across Saskatchewan to remain on high alert. CNN's Nick Watt has our report with the very latest here. Nick?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: At least 10 people are dead, 18 others injured, at least 13 crime scenes across a remote indigenous reservation and beyond. Two suspects now on the run.

EVAN BRAY, CHIEF, REGINA POLICE SERVICE: The two males are still at large. This despite ongoing relentless efforts.

WATT (voice-over): This woman says her elderly neighbor is among those murdered.

RUBY WORKS, WELDON RESIDENT: Now I'm terrified to go to sleep at night. Terrified to open my door.

RHONDA BLACKMORE, ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE: We are undertaking every effort to locate them as quickly as possible to ensure the safety of the public.

WATT (voice-over): At 5:40 a.m. Sunday, the first call came in. A stabbing on the James Smith Kree Nation. Within minutes, more calls, more stabbings. At 7:57 a.m., authorities release photographs of those suspects, Damien Sanderson and Myles Sanderson, both early 30s, same last name, but their relationship remains unclear. At 8:20 a.m., a dangerous person's alert is extended across all of Saskatchewan. The suspects believed to be on the move in a black Nissan Rogue.

BLACKMORE: We're asking residents across Saskatchewan and our neighboring provinces to be vigilant.

WATT (voice-over): At 9:45 a.m., a victim is found off the reservation in a nearby town of Weldon. At 11:45 a.m., that black Nissan reportedly spotted nearly 200 miles to the south in Regina, Saskatchewan's capital city. All this death and damage done apparently by blades not bullets.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: In cases where it's not easy, countries where it's not easy to get guns, we have seen stabbings before. We have seen them in Europe and other areas. So, that might be one explanation.

WATT (voice-over): Sympathy and solidarity from Canada's Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations and, "This is the destruction we face when harmful illegal drugs invade our communities." No comment on a possible drug connection from the police.

BLACKMORE: It appears that some of the victims may have been targeted and some may be random. So, to speak to a motive would be extremely difficult at this point in time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATT (on camera): So, those two suspects, Brianna, have already been charged with first degree murder, but catching them is not going to be easy. Saskatchewan alone is 250,000 square miles. And it has now been more than 24 hours since the last reported sighting. We are expecting an update from Canadian police any minute now. We just heard from the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, within the past hour. His message to Canadians, please be careful. Brianna?

KEILAR: What a scary situation there. Nick Watt, thank you for that. And for more on the investigation, let's bring in CNN law enforcement analyst Peter Licata. He's a former FBI supervisory special agent. Peter, can you just walk us through the steps that authorities are taking right now as they are searching for these suspects?

PETER LICATA, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Good evening, Brianna. Sure. So, the manhunt goes on. We're talking at least over 24 hours, pushing 30 hours since the first reported crime scene, if you will, the first murder, the first set of stabbings. So, they already have the individuals identified, right?

[17:29:57]

So, they're trying to sew those pieces together. Who specifically are they, in fact, related? Who are their associates, family members? So there's a full canvas, a full dive, hard hardcore press into identifying specifically who they are and to be able to identify them, their friends and family. Then they're going to use the vehicle this, black Nissan, this black vehicle that is somewhere in Regina, the capital, at least the last time it was seen. Perhaps since Regina is a lot more populated. Some major city, it's the capital of Saskatchewan, they can do things, they can use things like LPRs, license plate readers. They're perhaps fully identify that vehicle and its last location as well as CCTV.

KEILAR: What do you think about the fact that these attacks, you know, as we listen to law enforcement in Canada, some of the victims appear to have been targeted and others were random?

LICATA: It makes absolutely no sense. Again, they're not specifically stating what the motive is, it's hard to speculate at this point. We always talk about motive opportunity and means. You're hearing law enforcement talk about the potential for drug use. So, were these people just high and went on this rampage in order -- and conducted these 10 murders now up to 18 people wounded?

So again, a motive is going to be hard to assess. We don't want to speculate on that. But authorities have already seated the use of narcotics to kind of give us at least a slightly forward and what the motive may have been.

KEILAR: Some in law enforcement have raised the possibility that these men could potentially acquire firearms if they remain at large. How concerning is that to you?

LICATA: It's always concerning, right? So they're armed and dangerous. They were armed with knives. So we, you know, we've been on the show too many times talking about gun violence, but gun violence to shoot somebody is a difficult thing. To pull a trigger on another human being is a difficult thing.

But actually stabbed someone, you've got to have that -- you have to be in personal -- their personal space in order to stab somebody, not just stab them but stab them to death. These are horrific crimes. And they're -- these individuals heads are definitely in the right place.

KEILAR: Yes. Peter, thank you so much for your insight here. Peter Licata, we appreciate it.

Now to another disturbing mystery, a kindergarten teacher in Memphis, Tennessee is still missing tonight, despite police arresting a man in connection with her disappearance. CNN's Gary Tuchman is joining us now from Memphis with details. Gary, what do we know about her whereabouts at this hour?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, what we can tell you this. Eliza Fletcher is a wife, a mother of two small children, a teacher, a member of a very distinguished and philanthropic family here in Memphis, Tennessee, and she is still missing. She was kidnapped from this very area where I'm standing right now when she was jogging early Friday morning, right next to the campus of the University of Memphis.

The alleged kidnapper has been arrested. He's in custody, but police say he's not talking. So the search continues for her. But there are very bad feelings about what they may find during the search. We can tell you we know that she was kidnapped right here because there is a surveillance camera on a university building over there. It shows a man coming out of a black SUV and coming up to Eliza, forcing her into his vehicle. They were struggling.

He then drove off into a parking lot. That's right next to me over here. They were here for about four minutes and then he pulled out and they disappeared. There was an affidavit that has been released by the authorities and it is disturbing. I want to read part of it to you. It says, "It is believed and supported by the facts and physical evidence that she suffered serious injuries. Further, it is probable and apparent from witness statements that these injuries left evidence, for example, blood, in the vehicle the defendant cleaned."

Police say they know the defendant thing the vehicle because they talked to a witness a couple of hours after this happened, who says she saw this defendant, Cleotha Abston using floor cleaner and acting very odd when he was by his vehicle. Indeed, we can tell you a couple of hours later, the U.S. Marshals key piece of evidence. They saw the vehicle. And the surveillance video they saw that had a damage in the back, damage on the side. They saw the license plate. They found the matching vehicle at the residence where this Cleona Abston is living.

One more thing I can tell you and this is very chilling information. This guy Abston, who was the alleged kidnapper right now, 22 years ago, was found guilty of kidnapping a man, a lawyer who escaped. He served 20 years in prison. He just got out of prison about a year and 10 months ago. And now tomorrow for this case, he will be arraigned in court. Brianna?

KEILAR: Incredibly upsetting details today. Gary Tuchman, thank you for that.

Just ahead, Liz Truss is set to become just the third woman to lead the United Kingdom. What you need to know about Britain's new prime minister.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:39:24]

KEILAR: Here in just a few hours, the United Kingdom will officially have a new leader. Liz Truss is set to take over as Prime Minister tomorrow succeeding Boris Johnson, who resigned after a series of scandals. CNN's Scott McLean is live was in London. Scott, what can you tell us about Britain's new leader?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brianna, well, Liz Truss will become the third woman to serve as British Prime Minister. She ran as a traditional conservative, low taxes, small government, pull yourself up by the bootstraps, the kind of thing that clearly resonated with Conservative Party members, the people who actually did the voting and group I should mention that represents less than one half of 1 percent of the British electorate.

[17:40:04] Now if you ask Liz Truss's critics, they will question whether she holds any genuine beliefs at all considering how often she has changed hers. She started off as a member of the more centrist Liberal Democratic Party before switching to the Conservatives. She voted to remain inside of the European Union. She's now a very staunch Brexiteer. She even once advocated for abolishing the monarchy, and yet tomorrow she may well be kissing the hand of the monarch, Queen Elizabeth, who will formally ask her from her Castle in Scotland to form the next government.

Now at the moment, Brianna, Liz Truss is still Britain's top diplomat though she's not always so diplomatic. Just recently, she said that the jury was still out on whether France was a friend or foe of Britain. Of course, France is a very close ally. She has talked tough on Russia. She has been a huge advocate for sending weapons to Ukraine. She was not though among the Cabinet ministers who resigned on mass to ultimately force Boris Johnson out of office. And earlier today, she paid tribute to her predecessor. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIZ TRUSS, INCOMING BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Boris, you got Brexit done. You crushed Jeremy Corbyn. You rolled out the vaccine and you stood up to Vladimir Putin. You are admired from Kyiv to Carlisle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: Now Conservative ideology may have won Liz Truss the keys to Downing Street, Number 10 Downing Street, but a lot of people in this country are now wondering whether she can also be pragmatic and that is because energy bills in this country, gas and electric, are, well, they have almost tripled in just the last year. Liz Truss said just a month ago that there would be no handouts to solve the problem. Now though, she may be softening her stance. She's promising a bold plan in the next week. Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes, cost of living crisis, very real there in Britain. Scott, thank you for that report for us.

For the first time, Israel is admitting there is a high possibility. One of its soldiers shot and killed Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Abu Akleh was wearing a vest labeled "press" when she was killed during an Israeli military operation in May. CNN's Hadas Gold is live for us in Jerusalem. Hadas, tell us what Israel is now saying and just how long it took them to get to this point.

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, this is a long-awaited report. It's been nearly four months since Shireen Abu Akleh was killed while covering that Israeli military operation in the West Bank. And this idea of the Israeli Defense Forces investigation essentially comes to the same conclusion that several investigations, including CNN's own has come to. And I'll read you from part of this report. They say, "It appears that it is not possible to unequivocally determine the source of the gunfire which hit and killed Ms. Abu Akleh. However, there is a high possibility that Ms. Abu Akleh was accidentally hit by IDF gunfire fired toward suspects identified as armed Palestinian gunmen during an exchange of fire."

Now what the IDF says is that they believe that it was a soldier in an armored military vehicle, who had a limited range of sight and was south of where Shireen Abu Akleh was standing, who fired that fatal shot. Now they say that the soldier had no idea that he was firing towards journalists and thought he was firing towards Palestinian militants who were firing at the soldiers. This despite the fact that it's very clear in the images and videos we've seen that Shireen Abu Akleh was wearing a protective vest and helmet that clearly says press on the front and back.

And CNN's own investigation did not find evidence of militants in the exact vicinity where she was standing. When I asked the IDF about this, they said that they do believe that the -- there were militants northbound of here and that they say the soldier is sorry, but most importantly, that the soldier will not face any criminal consequences. The Military Advocate General of the Israeli military says that's because they do not believe he deliberately fired his weapons towards a noncombatant. Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes, that will be pulled comfort to her family and to her colleagues. Hadas Gold, thank you so much for that report.

Coming up, extreme weather this Labor Day, including brutally high temperatures across the western U.S. Almost 50 million people under heat alerts. Well, the latest forecast next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:48:32]

KEILAR: Let's get straight to West Mifflin, Pennsylvania where President Biden is delivering Labor Day remarks as he steps up as midterm push for Democratic candidate.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I got involved in one thing led to another. And one day, a group came to me of the senior members of the party and said they wanted me to run for the Senate. I said I'm not old enough. And I wasn't, I was only 29 years old. And the former Chief Justice whose family had more United States senators, any family in American history, looked at me and he said, you obviously didn't do very well in law school, Joe.

He said you don't have to be 30 to be elected, you have to be 29. You can be 29. You just can't get sworn in to your 30. And so, one thing led to another and I ended up deciding to run but I was having great difficulty getting support. Even though people liked me, or at least the labor guys like me, they didn't think I could win. Until I got brought up to Pittsburgh by the local leader, the steel workers in Delaware and into Pittsburgh and came to here and met with the then- president of steel workers. And he endorsed me about nine weeks out and I won by 3,100 votes.

So the fact is, you guys own me. You've been with me from the beginning. And look folks, Bobby, Mayor -- Representative Boyle, Representative Lamb, Mayor Gainey, your County Executive is a hell of a guy, and John. If I have to be in a foxhole, I want John Fetterman in there with me.

[17:50:09]

I'll tell you what, I want John in there with me. I mean that sincerely. Look, there's a whole lot of folks here. I'm -- I don't want to keep you standing much longer, but let me just say a couple of things. Number one, the -- you know, I started my campaign because Tom jumped in and convinced me -- he didn't convince me, he made the case I should run. Because that train ride, I was running -- I was campaigning for Democrats. I was out of office, and I was campaigning for Democrats.

But you know what? This is not your father's Republican Party. This is a totally different party, man. These guys are different. I've worked with a lot of Republicans -- Conservative Republicans I worked with. Got a lot done. And we -- but it was always -- there was always something decent about the work.

But then we moved to this place where, all of a sudden, the reason that made me run -- I decided -- it was when you saw those people come out of the fields down in Virginia carrying torches -- literally coming out of the fields carrying torches, with swastikas, chanting the same anti-Semitic bile that was chanted in -- literally, the same anti-Semitic bile chanted in Germany in the '30s accompanied by the Ku Klux Klan.

And the guy that I beat in this elect -- last election -- when they asked what did he thought, he said there were really fine people on both sides. I said, "Something is really wrong. Something is changing." And that's when I talked to Tom and others about helping me out. They decided to help me out.

Because look, folks, here's where I think we are, and I'm going to be brief. The fact is that -- I think there are periods in history where we reach certain inflection points, where everything that's going to come after is going to change what's been before for the next generation.

And we're in one of those points. It happened six, eight -- every six or eight generations. Things are changing. They're changing rapidly. You see everything from what's happening in Europe and India, from Russia, China. Things are changing. And the United States has to regain its footing and remember who we are.

And so, one of the things that I concluded was that, you know, those inflection points are the places where you look back two, five, 10 years later and realize it's just not what it was before. It's either better or worse than it was before. Not the same. You're not going to go back to the same.

And I'm absolutely convinced -- and I mean this. No one has ever doubted I mean what I say. The problem is I sometimes say all that I mean. And -- but all kidding aside, one of the things that was clear to me is that this new group, headed by the former President -- the former defeated President -- we found ourselves in a situation where we really are going to look forward or look backwards.

And it's clear which way he wants to look. It's clear which way the new MAGA Republicans are. They're extreme. And democracy is really at stake.

You can't be a democracy when you support violence when you don't like the outcome of an election. You can't call yourself a democracy when you don't, in fact, count the votes that people legitimately cast and count that as what you are. You can't be a democracy and call yourself one if you continue to do what they're doing.

And so, folks, look, we have a choice. When we -- Trump and the MAGA Republicans made their choice. We can choose to build a better America or we can continue down this sliding path of oblivion to where we don't want to go.

You know, under the American Rescue Plan -- and I'm not going to go through all these things, but just to give you an example -- we -- you know, we created nearly 10 million jobs in my first 16 months. Ten million new jobs in America.

That American Rescue Plan also created and saved millions of jobs. Why? Because here in the state of Pennsylvania and almost every state, they didn't have enough money to keep teachers on the payroll, to keep firefighters on the job, to keep police on the job, to keep people -- nurses and docs on the job.

And so, what did we do? We, in fact, gave them the money to make sure they did it. And this governor, your governor, spent it well, hiring thousands of firefighters and the like.

And what happened was, we found ourselves -- because of the greed of some companies, we found that an awful lot of union members were about to lose their pensions. So we did something that hadn't been done in 50 years, significantly for labor: We passed the Butch Lewis Act. The Butch Lewis Act.

And they told me, I couldn't do it. They told me that. They really did. Remember, we didn't -- and we didn't get any Republican votes for it. But we got it done. We got it done. Because it's just about basic decency and fairness. And look, every single Republican voted against that -- every single one.

[17:55:17]

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. We're building roads and bridges and ports. As a matter of fact, I'm going to be back here not too long from now because we got $60 million to rebuild that bridge that collapsed the day I came here not long ago.

Folks, the money is going to go to expanding the nearby -- nearly 100- year-old failing lock and dam outside Pittsburgh. It's (INAUDIBLE), but it makes a big difference in terms of the economy. And so, we're going to build a new terminal at the Pittsburgh airport. We're doing this all over the country, all over the country. And it's creating good, decent jobs.

But the reason why I talk about unions is not just because it's where I come from. It's more than that. It's more than that. I said I spoke to the Business Roundtable, the CEOs of the largest companies in the United States, the National Chamber of Commerce. And I've been straightforward with them. I said, "Look, I'm a union guy, and I support them for one reason because it's in your interest." And they look at me like --

KEILAR: You've been watching there President Biden delivering Labor Day remarks near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, touting recent Democratic accomplishments, and also knocking former President Trump, though not by name. We'll be continuing to monitor that.

Also, the Justice Department review of documents seized from former President Trump's Florida home is on hold. A judge granting his request for an independent attorney, a so-called Special Master to review the material.

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