evidence collected by news media organizations in terms of surveillance video and witness statements that showed very clearly that the targets here were not terrorists, that this was an aid worker and his family, that the pentagon s account of what happened originally just didn t stand up to scrutiny. that s because this happened in kabul and there were lots of reporters around, but most of the airstrikes and drone strikes in afghanistan and other places occurred in rural areas where there s no journalists there to witness it, where they can only come in days later. so what is unusual about this case is that there was essentially video of what happened and it was pretty well documented that the official version was false. brown university cost of war project said this. in fact, that we had sort of amped up our strikes in 2019, 2020, then in 2019 airstrikes killed 700 civilians, more civilians than in any other year since the beginning of the war in 01 and 02.
in court or in the case of a few shown privately to a judge in chambers. the news media organizations are saying because these are being part of a public proceeding, a court proceeding, using taxpayer dollars, they should be released to the public. so that s exactly what s happening now, cnn in effect winning this court fight, and getting these videos released to the public. that s what you re seeing now. john? jessica, stand by, we appreciate the hustle on this breaking news. and have let s bring in the fbi deputy director andy mccabe, who s a senior law enforcement analyst. when you watch this, number one, as an investigator, the value of this direct on camera video evidence of one defendant in this case, but also obviously others in the scenes as well. priceless. in a word, priceless, john. as you try to build a case against someone you have to not only prove what they did, but what they were thinking when they did it to prove that element of criminal intent. and these videos, y
we have local senior living advisors who can answer your questions about dementia or memory care and, if necessary, help you find the right place for your mom or dad. we all want what s best for our parents, so call today. we ve got a couple big political developments to tell you about this afternoon. first, after that blue wave of democrats gaining 39 house seats, a 40th flip is now within reach. nbc and other news media organizations are retracting their call for california s 21st district as democrat t.j. cox has taken a narrow lead. in utah, meantime, republican mia love conceded her race. and as if to punctuate the point, the latest gallup tracking poll has president trump s job approval rating dropping to 38%. his disapproval sits at 60%.
this isn t the right way to do it. is he helping trump perhaps? i just want to say, we ve outnumbered them. hillary clinton got $3 million more results. we do outnumber that crowd in huntsville, alabama. we outnumber them. by the way, let s all be reminded that ben sass thinks the appropriate response when you hear something awkward is awkward silence. i want to say something. say it, say it, we have a few more minutes. go to our liberal brethren and if you will find trump would have a field day with this. if he would go to a production meeting of leading organizations, news media organizations, and see the blinding whiteness of it, he d say, wait a minute.
separately the obama administration amended a longstanding executive order allowing information intercepted through fisa warrants to be shared by a wider audience and 16 intelligence offices, it was spread throughout briefings to scores of workers and leaks began to appear in news media organizations often in stories lacking context of how national investigations are actually concluded. fox 3rd, fox chief anchor bret bier said, quote, intelligence surveillance court to monitor communications involving donald trump and several other campaign officials. then they got turned down. then in october, then renewed it and a wiretap at trump tower with some russian banks. surveillance courts get shut down