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we begin this hour on cnn with breaking news tonight. the u.s. has conducted an air strike against an isis-k planner. the spokesman for u.s. central command saying initial indications are the target was killed. this coming just moments after the u.s. embassy in kabul warned u.s. citizens at a number of gates at the kabul airport to leave immediately. and earlier today, president biden's national security team alerting the president of a specific, credible, and imminent threat in kabul just a day after the attack that killed 13 u.s. service members and at least 170 afghans. i want to bring in now cnn's senior national security correspondent alexander marquardt and white house correspondent john harwood.

also senior international correspondent ivan watson. gentlemen, thank you all for joining us on this friday evening with the breaking news. alex, i'm going to start with you. what are you learning about the strike? >> reporter: don, we heard these vows of revenge for yesterday's attack by isis-k from president joe biden, and now we appear to have seen some of it though we should be clear that we don't know whether there's a connection between yesterday's attack, which killed scores, and the targeting of this isis-k planner. so we're hearing from centcom, which is the part of the pentagon that is in charge of afghanistan. a spokesman for centcom saying an over the horizon counter-terrorism operation was carried out. that means it came from abroad, and that it was an unmanned air strike, so that means it came from a drone and targeted this i isis-k planner in nangarhar province. it says the strike was successful in taking out this planner and that it appears that

no one else was wounded, that there were no civilian casualties. this is a major test, a moment for the biden administration to prove that once all these troops are pulled out of afghanistan, that it can still carry out operations against terrorist groups, and particularly a group that just yesterday killed 13 american service members, navy, army, and marines. now, don, as you mentioned, this comes at the very same time that we're getting another worrying alert from the u.s. embassy in kabul about another possible imminent attack. this is the same kind of alert that we got from the u.s. embassy, from other embassies in kabul right before yesterday's attack. it is telling u.s. citizens and people at the gates around hamid karzai international airport to leave immediately. we have heard for days of the likelihood, the strong likelihood the biden administration believes of yet another attack by isis-k.

so, again, the u.s. embassy in kabul telling americans who are trying to get out to leave the area immediately because they believe in the potential for another attack. of course these u.s. troops are due to leave the country by next tuesday, and with today's -- tonight's air strike, again carried out by a drone against this isis-k planner, this is -- this is going to be held up, i believe, as a model by the biden administration as proof that they can continue to carry out strikes against terrorist groups even after they've left the country. don? >> john, what's the white house saying about the president's decision to go after this isis-k planner just a day after the airport bombing? should we expect more? >> i think we should, don. think about the qualities that the white house has been trying to project over the last two weeks and particularly over the last 36 hours.

one of them is resolve, that president biden is determined to carry out this mission on his timetable because he clearly believes in it. the other is strength as commander in chief. remember, the ferocious criticism that he's received from republicans and from democrats centers around the idea of weakness in leadership, american retreat, abandoning our allies. so the fact that the administration so quickly is able to step forward and hit a target with the president having used this muscular rhetoric yesterday, saying, we're going to hunt you down and make you pay, jen psaki, the white house press secretary today saying president biden doesn't think these people should live on this earth anymore. so that they were able to hit this target, and you can bet they will hit other targets as soon as they can identify them while they try to carry out this mission. and they've been warning all day

that, as alex said, another attack is likely to happen, and this attack lets them show that they're not just sitting on their back foot waiting for it to happen. they're reaching out, taking action, trying to disrupt the operations of isis-k. >> ivan, this isn't the first air strike that you and i have covered. we've, you know, been here for more than a decade during the bush administration covering this. you have been on the ground covering afghanistan for decades and spent a lot of time there. what kind of response do you expect from these terrorists? >> reporter: well, it's good you point that out. i mean i was covering massive u.s. bombing campaigns of parts of this very province, nangarhar, 20 years ago when the u.s. military was pursuing al qaeda and osama bin laden, who were believed to be in the mountains of torah bore ra, and are largely believed to have escaped massive bombing campaigns carried out by b-52s that were using a daisy cutter

bomb. and a lot of those people made it across the border to pakistan. and over the 20 years after that, there have been many more air strikes with american troops on the ground targeting those air strikes and with an allied afghan government that could help gather intelligence. here you have a demonstration that the biden administration is willing to use force. whether or not they actually killed their target remains to be seen. it depends on the quality of the intelligence, but this is just one -- compared to the last 20 years of war, this is just kind of one pin prick potentially. what could the isis branch in afghanistan do? well, its american targets have shrunk dramatically in just the last couple of weeks and are believed to disappear in the coming days. they have also demonstrated that they are willing to murder large numbers of afghan civilians, more than a hundred in a single go, and they will still exist on

the ground and pose a threat to the ordinary afghan civilians who are going to be trapped in uncertainty going forward now that the taliban has presumably taken over. >> so i was speaking to general hertling earlier, ivan, and he said this will potentially put the taliban -- or at least certifies their leadership role because they certainly don't like isis-k, and the taliban will be happy about this air strike against isis-k. what is next for afghanistan? how can the taliban and isis-k coexist there? can they? >> reporter: well, they have a history of conflict between them. the taliban doesn't seem to like isis-k. it has to establish that it has some kind of command and control over afghanistan. i think one of the big questions going forward, 20 years ago when the taliban was last in power, afghanistan was almost a medieval state. there were no paved roads outside of the center of kabul

and the main cities. you had to go across the border to pakistan to make a phone call because there was no telephone infrastructure. now you have paved roads, functioning airports, cell phone networks that ironically the taliban used to fight against the u.s. during the 20 years of the u.s. presence there. a big question will be, will the taliban maintain open trade and relations with its neighbors and allow investment to continue to come in so that there can be kind of ordinary commerce, or will it go back again to the medieval times and look like it did the last time the taliban was in power? there are also still pockets of opposition, and this is incredible, the cycle of history. 20 years ago, the valley north of kabul was the fortress of anti-taliban resistance. now his son is ostensibly

leading an anti-taliban movement in that kind of same geographic fortress to the north of kabul. we don't know if that can hold out or if there will be a negotiated solution, but it's just kind of stunning how we see history repeating itself in this country that has, you know, the cliche, the graveyard of empires. >> gentlemen, thank you so much for your reporting. i appreciate it all of your perspectives. thanks so much. i want to turn now to cnn military analyst general wesley clark. he is a former nato supreme allied commander, and he joins us this evening. first of all, thank you for your service, especially we've just gotten some of the names of some of our service members who sadly perished in that bombing yesterday, in that explosion yesterday. general clark, the president vowed to make these terrorists pay just yesterday, and then today he has approved a strike.

lightning fast or what you expected? >> of course we're going to strike, wherever we can find them, whenever we can hit them. we're going to strike and strike and strike again. this is isis. this is isis-k, and they are an enemy to humanity. so, yes, we're going to continue to strike. but this was a strike apparently by an unmanned vehicle, may have hit an suv, may have hit a house or something. it's not a killing blow against isis. these are necessary strikes. how many of them are sufficient? unknown. these terrorist groups have proved over two decades to be very, very resilient. and even when you take out the top leadership, someone else comes in. got to get in on the ground. we've got to disrupt the networks. you've got to rip up the papers, destroy the communications, and disperse the groups and finish

them. we haven't been able to do that. in fact, all these terrorist groups have metastasized. they're in north africa now. they're in libya. they're threatening nigeria. they're going down the east coast of africa. there are elements in south america. so we know we've got a significant problem. we will do the best we can with these kinds of kinetic strikes, but we're still searching for the real solution here. >> so, general, is it more dangerous for our troops for the u.s. to conduct this attack while our forces are defending the airport and trying to evacuate in just a few days? and that deadline is tuesday. it's friday. it's coming quickly. >> absolutely not more dangerous. the more you can do right now to disrupt these groups, the better. they are not deterred by the thought that some of them may die. they're not deterred by the fact that the united states may retaliate, and they're not going to wait for the fact -- they're not going to be softer because

the united states doesn't take military action. this is -- this is a brutal, head-to-head, hand-to-hand struggle, and you've got to do as much as you can to destroy their networks and keep them off balance. that is the key to helping secure americans. >> general, just before the strike, we learned that the u.s. embassy in kabul put out this warning to u.s. citizens to leave the airport gates immediately. you know, there was a similar warning, right, the other day, and then you had that explosion, that suicide bomber. are you concerned that this will make isis-k more likely to attack again, or what do you think? >> well, i think we've got credible intelligence. obviously the last set of warnings was accurate. this one has the same characteristics. so we probably heard something very, very specific that's coming. what would it be?

would it be another suicide bomber with a vest? would it be a truck loaded with explosives? we don't know what it would be. at least we publicly don't know. we may know on the inside what it would be. but we've got to take these warnings very seriously. and at the same time, we're still doing the best we can do to continue with the mission of evacuation. the hard part is there's so many thousands trying to get into that airport who are in fear of their lives if they stay, and they're trying to calculate how to get in and what the risks are for getting out to that area, being checked by the taliban. what if they're stopped? what if they're on the wanted list the taliban's after? what's their best chance, best hope for survival? this is a really tough thing, and it's not only tough on us, but it's tough on our nato allies, the french, the germans, the brits all have people on the ground who work for them, who they've promised safekeeping,

safe passage out, and it's not going to happen, at least not with this mission. >> you know, when i introduced you, i mentioned the service members. i thanked you for your service especially when we're finding out some of the names. two marines have been identified so far. 25-year-old rylee mccollum, and dagen page. also maxton soviak. you led men like this. true heroes. >> it's such a tragedy. it's a tragedy obviously for the families. and, don, i just want to see these are people -- these service members, they're people who give back to this country, and so are their families. there's so many americans who won't let their children serve, who talk them out of it. i've been to some of the most prestigious colleges in this country. i've given speeches. i've had young people say, gee, i'm so worried about the armed forces because people like me

don't serve. and i say, go ask your parents. i'll get the recruiter here for you. you can sign up. i promise you you'll have a great experience in your life. it will change your life. and they come back and they say, my parents said i'm not well suited to be in the military. i would be better as a diplomat, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. so you've got to believe in these families. they have let their children give their all for this country. we should all be grateful. >> yes, sir. you're right on. thank you very much, general. thank you so much. we'll be right back with more on our breaking news. you put on your septic system. but rid-x does. in a 21 month study, scientists proved that rid- x reduces up to 20% of waste build up every month. take the pressure off with rid-x. hey, i just got a text from my sister. you remember rick, her neighbor? sure, he's the 76-year-old guy who still runs marathons, right?

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yesterday's attack. so walk us through this. did this attack come from intelligence that the government already had considering how fast this was? >> well, i think it certainly built on that. but in order to have the tactical accuracy, if you will, in order to conduct a pinpoint strike -- and apparently they did, took out an isis-k planner without any collateral casualties -- that's a very good sign. and i think it makes -- it points out or emphasizes the fact that we're not starting from scratch here like we were 20 years ago in afghanistan. i was in the intelligence community then as director of what's now national geospatial intelligence agency, and quewe were kind of nowhere, almost starting with a blank piece of paper when it came to afghanistan. well, 20 years of built-in corporate memory and data that we've built up, we still had a lot of residual capability despite the fact that we're

leaving or have left. just for an example, the telecommunications system in afghanistan is largely dependent on wireless communications, which are susceptible to intercept. as we've seen, we still have an isr, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capability. human intelligence, acquisition of information from other human beings, is certainly problematic, but we've built up -- the cia built up a lot of contacts and assets in afghanistan, many of which will still be available to us. admittedly, it will degrade over time. and the taliban, for its part, is kind of like the dog that caught the car because they've got their own problem. so if they are infighting factions within the taliban and the taliban in turn are fighting with the likes of isis-k, then that will generate intelligence. so the situation is not entirely

hopeless, and i think this strike is proof of that. now, i think, personal opinion, we shouldn't be too picky about whether or not we can clearly identify those who are involved in the attack adjacent to the airport. the wild card here obviously are the neighboring nations, most importantly pakistan and what they do, whether or not pakistan will help us even if we don't operate from pakistan, but help with sharing intelligence. >> director, another terror attack in kabul is likely. the threat is immediate. what are national security officials looking for right now? what is happening right now on the ground and with our officials that they're trying to figure out what's happening on the ground? >> i would surmise that the most recent warning that was issued was more based on a general

assessment of the situation. i mean it's bad there. outside the immediate periphery of the airport, that's the wild west. so clearly they want people out of that area. so what they're looking for, they've got all the sensors going, and any personal contacts they still have to try to pin down the tactical data that's so critically important to blunting or averting an attack. >> we are learning that federal officials are on high alert for threats to the homeland following the mass evacuation from afghanistan. we know that there is thorough vetting. there's a thorough vetting process. but what else are authorities looking at to stop this kind of a threat in the future? >> are you speaking in the homeland? >> yes. >> well, obviously the continuation of the stringent

vetting processes that we've built up over the years to include those that we've evacuated. so we want to be sure we're not bringing in inadvertently more terrorists disguised as innocent refugees. so we've actually been pretty successful at avoiding an attack on the homeland, certainly the magnitude of a 9/11. so all the apparatus that we've built up to -- i flew today, you know. we still have tsa protecting our air travel, for example. so we have to sustain that. i think general clark made a good point. this is not going to be -- this is something we'll be doing in perpetuity regrettably. >> director, thank you very much. >> thanks, don. our breaking news tonight, the u.s. has conducted an air strike against an isis-k planner. that as the u.s. embassy in kabul just now again warning

u.s. citizens at a number of gates at the airport to leave immediately. and we've got an incredible story coming up for you. the daring mission to rescue hundreds of afghans. that's next. ourself? yes. -great. how? uhhh... how long does credit repair take? i don't know, like 10 years. what? are you insane? what's a good credit score? go. 600. maybe if you're trying to pay thousands extra in interest rates. cut the confusion, get started with a free credit evaluation at creditrepair.com.

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darkness. they call their mission the pineapple express, named for the graphic of yellow pineapples on a pink field that the afghans flashed on their phones to identify themselves. they've helped bring over 600 people into the airport. the mission was under way yesterday when the attack happened. so joining me now is army lieutenant colonel scott mann, a retired green beret commander who led the rescue effort, and jason redman as well. he's a combat wounded former navy s.e.a.l. who helped the afghans evacuate. gentlemen, i am honored to have you both here. thank you for your service and thank you for doing what you're doing. now, let's talk. scott, tell us about this mission. how did you get involved, and tell me how it all went down. >> well, it really all started don -- first of all, i got to say there are right now thousands of special operator veterans who are doing the same kind of work and really, really working hard to do it. and these are retired folks with

jobs and who own businesses, and they're just doing this to fill a gap that needs filling. but the way it started with us was getting an afghan commando and his family out early on when kabul fell. we got a couple of green berets together, collaborated, painted the picture using our phone apps that were encrypted and we realized that getting through that wire, the perimeter, was the key and communicating with people on the inside and just helping move them and shepherd them. so we started to become shepherds using this right here and leveraging the relationships, don, that we have with these afghan commandos, special forces, and interpreters that we've had for years. but it was really guys like jason who were talking to their counter-parts, their interpreters, throughout the night and moving them through sewage canals and everything else to get them there. i didn't lead anything. i was simply -- i was just simply there to help out. >> okay.

well, jason, let me bring you in here. so what was involved in this because we were talking about these pineapples. so what happens? how does this work? >> well, don, i think, you know, it's just a testament to the can-do spirit of america. i think right now one of the biggest things -- i mean unfortunately for whatever reason, the american government decided -- you know, they told a lot of people, a lot of afghans who helped us for over 20 years, and this government said, hey, we're going to support you and we're going to get you out, and that didn't happen. and i know that didn't sit well with me, and it did not sit well with a lot of our military partners that are out there. a lot of retired guys and gals that worked on that battlefield hand in hand with some of these individuals. so i know for me, all of us coming together, i mean it's just a testament. this is what america is about. and if the government was unwilling to do it, we were all willing to come together and do

it. and like scott said, it was just a -- it was a network of amazing individuals. it was all of us coming together to build our network, and it all came down to the fine actionable movements several nights over the last several days. different individuals working with different people on the ground to shepherd these individuals to different locations, different places that we could get them to the airport and on to safety. >> so, jason, you provided these photos from former special forces. this is captain zach lois, who is helping lead these afghans to safety. you called them passengers. they've traveled just a few people at a time on this clandestine run to the airport under the cover of darkness. listen, they face some very serious threats there. they're repeatedly encountering

taliban foot soldiers. so i'm sure people at home are wondering how did this work? how did you get through these taliban checkpoints, and how did you know who and when and, you know, how? >> you know, one of the things i'll say, don, if i could -- jason, i didn't mean to step on you, but these folks that went through these checkpoints, don, with guys like jason and me and others on the phone talking to them, they would go through a checkpoint and be beaten. their wife would be beaten, their children beaten, and they're talking to our shepherds while they're moving, you know, that they're beating me. and you could hear it. and, you know, we would just encourage them. you have to press. you have to get through. this is freedom for you. you've just got to go. you know, the courage belongs to the afghan people who endured that and made that journey and got -- and the ones that did get to the other side and those that didn't make it, and there were quite a few that didn't make it. >> scott, before i bring jason

back in, as i understand, that it was -- you said that the underground railroad, harriet tubman, that was your inspiration for this? >> well, i have to say that gentleman's act that really designed this plan in very, very austere circumstances, you know, he cited that right up front. he said this is going to be an underground railroad, and that's how we're going to do it. and we had hundreds that we had to move, and what got it through was the trust between the shepherd that had known them for years, you know, thousands of miles away, and those afghan families who relied on that trust and the conductors on the other side that pulled them across. and i can't say enough about them either. >> jason, this whole operation to get these afghans to the airport was under way when the suicide attack happened. when you heard about this attack, what went through your mind?

>> i mean we were -- you know, up to that point, we had heard that there were threats. we were hearing, hey, you've got to watch out for specific locations. you've got to watch out for this. you've got to watch for the threats. you talked obviously about the taliban checkpoints and i won't get into the details on how we managed to move people because obviously we're still trying to do that. but the bottom line, it was just -- it was -- i think there's a lot of people in america who when they think of afghanistan, it's just this place. and they think that it's just filled with terrorists, and that's not the -- i mean there are a lot of terrorists in afghanistan. there's no doubt about that. but the reality is there's equally as many human beings, moms and dads and brothers and sisters and sons and daughters, and they're no different from you and i. and all they're hungering for is freedom. we gave them a taste of that freedom for a while and then that freedom was suddenly ripped away again. that's why i think it's so

critical for all of us, that's something we fought for for decades of our lives to help protect the freedom of our own country here in america and now to help protect and prolong the freedom of these individuals who gave so much to us. so i hope that anybody out there will think about what does it truly mean to be an american because what happened in afghanistan right now, to me, that's un-american. but what is totally american, what's amazing about it, what can bring this country together, what can unite anyone from the right or the left is the fact that we take care of those who took care of us. and that's exactly what task force pineapple is about, and that's what i know we are continuing to do. we're going to drive forward on that. we're going to continue this mission. >> i am so grateful to have you guys on, and i'm so proud of what you're doing. and america and the afghan as people, i can't thank you enough. and best of luck to you guys. keep doing what you're doing. thank you, guys. >> thanks, don. >> thank you. be looking for them when they

come home here. we've got to bring them home. >> all righty. thank you, guys. be in touch and be safe. thanks. we'll be right back. so we don't have to worry about it" conversation. so you're calling about the $9.95 a month plan -from colonial penn? -i am. we put it off long enough. we are getting that $9.95 plan, today. (jonathan) is it time for you to call about the $9.95 plan? i'm jonathan from colonial penn life insurance company. sometimes we just need a reminder not to take today for granted. if you're age 50 to 85,

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florida's governor smacked down in court today when a judge ruled against his ban on mask mandates in schools. let's discuss now. cnn medical analyst and political commentator amanda carpenter. amanda, we're talking about ron desantis. he threatened school funding saying they were breaking state law by requiring masks. this judge clearly disagrees with that. that is a big loss to this governor. >> yeah, it's a big loss in the courtroom, but i think politically speaking, it's more important to look at the fact that the majority of school districts in large populated areas rebelled against him first. i mean ron desantis has not only

lost on the masks. he's lost on the mandates also in court, and he also had a terrible social media ban that he tried to do. so there's a chance he's just not good at this kind of stuff. but he is sort of an avatar for a lot of republicans right now who have taken this position, no m masks, no mandates. that sounds like a good slogan, but it's a pretty bad medical doctrine. the numbers in florida are terrible right now, but he wasn't betting on this. he took his victory lap last february when he was rising into the polls. people were looking at him as the next potential 2024 nominee should donald trump not take the field. and now that has caught up to him, he's trying to blame joe biden by saying that this is biden's fault because biden didn't stop the virus. but when you have a position against simple medical advice, it's pretty hard when it comes back on you. >> doctor, amanda is right.

florida reported more covid cases in the past week than any other week since this pandemic began. there have been more than 17,000 covid cases reported in schools. nearly 30,000 students have been quarantined. i can't even believe i'm reading that. 30,000. is this all because of attitudes like the governor's? he's saying, joe biden didn't stop the pandemic, but he's doing it. he's putting so-called freedom over not only keeping yourself healthy but your community too. >> don, thanks for having me back. amanda's right. you know, the pediatric icus all throughout the south are filled with children. last week, 190,000 children got covid. more than 2,000 of them were hospitalized. this delta is a different disease. we want to open up the schools. we've got exactly three tools as epidemiologists. one, masks, vaccines, and testing.

the kindergarten kids, they can't get vaccinated. testing's too expensive. we've really got one effective tool, and that's masking. and the governor has said himself not against political enemies, not against biden. he set himself against the children. we have an obligation for these elementary school kids who can't get vaccinated. we have to protect them. the only weapon, the only tool that we have right now is to mask them. >> would you feel comfortable sending a child back to school in florida if they didn't have a mask mandate in place? >> no. no, i wouldn't. and i would insist that all the adults get vaccinated as well before i would send my child there. i lived in florida for a while, so i understand it a little bit. my mom lived there. so it's a complicated place. but the schools are schools, and the parents are wonderful, and they really want to keep their kids safe, and they want them to go to school. >> amanda, i'll give you the last word on this.

the last time we talked about this, you talked about, you know, so personally about your kids and sending them back to school. you know, they can't be vaccinated. they're young children. i'll give you the last word on what's happening in florida. >> i think it's sad. it's a larger political story in that people are catering to the rights of the unvaccinated, trying to eke out some kind of medical, political philosophy out of this. i'm not sure it works. but the language that people like ron desantis use, accusing joe biden of medical authoritarianism, and you have people in the streets protesting for their, quote, medical freedom, that's a larger issue that's not confined to florida unfortunately. and it's something that plagues our politics. >> yeah. amanda, dr. brilliant, thank you both. i appreciate it. 58 years after dr. martin luther king jr.'s "i have a dream" speech, marches taking place all across the country to fight for voting rights.

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the assault on voting rights is spreading across the country. 18 states have enacted 30 new laws just this year as democrats

try to pass federal legislation to protect the vote. house democrats passed the john lewis voting rights act this week, but the bill faces an uphill climb in the senate. it's all prompted nationwide marches for voting rights on the anniversary of the march on washington. here's cnn's suzanne malveaux with more. >> protect the vote! >> reporter: the fight for voting rights taking on a sense of urgency across the country. this weekend, culminating in marches in dozens of cities and washington, d.c. ♪ we shall overcome ♪ >> reporter: where martin luther king jr. delivered his iconic "i have a dream" speech from the steps of the lincoln memorial in 1963. 58 years later, king's son is mobilizing americans to follow in his father's footsteps, to fight to make voting accessible and equitable. >> my father would probably be greatly disappointed in where we

are on this particular issue. some gave their lives, i should say. >> i am -- >> somebody. >> reporter: civil rights leaders are continuing the work to wpush for voting rights, an old fight with a renewed focus. >> when we vote, things happen. >> reporter: reverend jesse jackson, currently battling covid, but just a few weeks ago front and center in the fight in washington. >> we must fight in fact for democracy, if that means going to jail. >> reporter: just the day before, jackson was arrested outside the u.s. capitol with faith leaders and activists. he's been crisscrossing the country during the covid-19 pandemic, using a familiar peaceful protesting tactic from the civil rights era of putting his body on the line. >> the right to vote is everything. >> reporter: another outspoken critic, lucy baines johnson, daughter of the former president lyndon b. johnson, who signed

the 1965 voting rights act into law. >> limiting access to that vote will strangle liberty and justice for all. >> reporter: the voting rights act of 1965 was quietly brokered between president johnson, reverend martin luther king jr. and other civil rights leaders. one of those leaders and one of king's closest advisers, former u.n. ambassador andrew young, recalls the critical turning point. a secret white house meeting between president johnson and king. >> then we went to see him, and we were talking about voting rights, and he was tied up with the war in vietnam. >> reporter: young says he and king urged johnson to put forward a strong voting rights bill before congress. but the president was reticent about the potential political pushback, having just signed the sweeping civil rights act of 1964. >> he agreed with us and said, but i just don't have the power.

and when we left the white house, walking out, i said, look, the president is right. he can't go back to congress. he really doesn't have the power. >> reporter: king's response stunned him. >> he said, we're going to get the president some power. that's the most arrogant thing i've ever heard you say, that you're going to get the president some power. and then i realized he was serious. >> reporter: the power, king surmised, would come from some irrefutable evidence that black people were, indeed, being denied their constitutional right to vote. king targeted selma, alabama, where less than 2% of black residents were registered to vote. the first attempted march for voting rights from selma to montgomery drew several hundred to the edmund pettus bridge. >> no money, no real plan, but i was thinking politically and

practically. he was thinking spiritually. >> reporter: as the marchers crossed the bridge, they were brutally beaten and teargassed by alabama state troopers and local police. bloody sunday broadcast around the world, providing johnson the political momentum he needed to urgently get the voting rights legislation back in play. >> there is no negro problem. there is no southern problem. there is no northern problem. there is only an american problem. >> reporter: the voting rights act passed about five months later and was signed into law on august 6th, 1965, forbidding racial discrimination in voting. >> we have to stay engaged, have to stay on the battlefield because things don't permanently change unless you're there in the fight. dad did a sermon called "sleeping through a revolution," and we have to make sure that we do not sleep through the revolution. >> reporter: suzanne malveaux,

cnn, washington. >> suzanne, thank you very much for that. and thank you, everyone, for watching. our coverage continues. hey, i just got a text from my sister. you remember rick, her neighbor? sure, he's the 76-year-old guy who still runs marathons, right? sadly, not anymore. wow. so sudden. um, we're not about to have the "we need life insurance" conversation again, are we? no, we're having the "we're getting coverage so we don't have to worry about it" conversation. so you're calling about the $9.95 a month plan -from colonial penn? -i am. we put it off long enough. we are getting that $9.95 plan, today. (jonathan) is it time for you to call about the $9.95 plan? i'm jonathan from colonial penn life insurance company. sometimes we just need a reminder not to take today for granted. if you're age 50 to 85,

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after hammering cuba, hurricane ida is heading toward the united states. it could become a monster category-four storm before making landfall. the u.s. strikes back. we'll look at how the american military took aim at the group behind the kabul airport bombing. and the fight over face masks. american courts are weighing in. live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta, welcome to all of you watching in the united states, canada, an