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The Lead with Jake Tapper

At Least 25 Killed As Helene Batters The Southeast; Israel Says It Struck Hezbollah's Central HQ In Beirut; No Word On Fate Of Hezbollah Chief After Israeli Strikes On Lebanon. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired September 27, 2024 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: It's fascinating conversation. Be sure to tune in. It's a new episode of "TV ON THE EDGE: MOMENTS THAT SHAPED OUR CULTURE". It'll air Sunday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific on CNN.

And THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER starts right now.

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JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

And we are following our breaking news on Helene, a monstrous deadly storm that is leaving large parts of the southeastern United States in shambles. Life-threatening conditions continuing across multiple states in the U.S., as at least 25 (VIDEO GAP), including a 4-year-old girl killed in a car wreck in Claremont, North Carolina.

Right now, hundreds of miles, hundreds of miles north of where Helene made landfall as a category four hurricane in Florida, emergency situations are still unfolding more than 50 people are stranded on the roof of a hospital in Irwin, Tennessee, right now, that complex surrounded by many feet of water.

Nearby in the western mountainous region of North Carolina, Helene is compounding a rainstorm from Wednesday together more than 30 inches if rain fell in 48 hours. We're learning that a dam failure in Lake Lore is, quote, imminent.

The state's transportation department says all roads in western North Carolina should be considered closed.

On to Georgia, where more than 11 people have been killed and multiple people are still trapped inside buildings, flash flood emergencies have led to at least 100 water rescues including in the major metropolitan city of Atlanta.

And, of course, there's ground zero, in Florida's big bend region where the panhandle meets the peninsula. Search and rescue efforts are underway in areas hit by significant in storm surge there. The Pinellas County sheriff compared barrier island roadways to a war zone. We're going to take you live to those areas in a moment.

But we are following another major breaking story in the Middle East.

Several huge explosions earlier in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, Israel's Defense Forces say they've struck Hezbollah's headquarters and Israeli official tells CNN that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the target. His fate is currently unknown.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is speaking now after Israel says it targeted the leader of Hezbollah. Let's listen in.

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: -- the parties, to urge them to choose that course. Also, I want to be clear that anyone using this moment to target American personnel, American interests in the region the United States will take every measure to defend our people.

Let me also say a word about Ukraine this week, we took important steps to support the people of Ukraine as they continue to defend themselves against the ongoing Russian aggression and continue to stand up for their sovereignty and their independence, their right to write their own future. At the Security Council --

TAPPER: All right. As he has turned away from the Middle East to discuss Ukraine, let us get right to CNN's Jeremy Diamond, who is in northern Israel covering this story for us.

And, Jeremy, what do we know about the intelligence behind this strike in a residential area of Beirut, we should note? And what are we hearing about whether the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah is alive or dead?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, this is a tremendously significant strike carried out by the Israeli military, not only because we expect the death toll to be very significant after seeing the south highs and the power of this tremendous explosion that rocked the Lebanese capital, but also, of course, because of who an Israeli security official tells me was the target of this strike and that is indeed the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah.

We don't have a tremendous detail as of now about exactly the process that led up to this strike, although we do know that the Israeli the prime minister approved it while he was in New York attending the United Nations General Assembly. He is also now set to return a shorter, sooner than expected to Israel in a rare overnight Shabbat of flight back to Israel as this security situation intensifies. I'm told by an Israeli security official that they are still working to assess whether or not Hassan Nasrallah was indeed killed in this strike.

And, of course, if he was, Jake, that will be an earth-shattering moments for this region, not only because of the potential for escalation following that, but also of course, because he has been the leader of Hezbollah for so long. He has been in such tight control of this militant group that has been battling Israel on and off for years now.

[16:05:01]

Now, in terms of the strike itself, the death toll is only just beginning to come in, but we do expect that it will be quite significant.

Some multiple buildings, six according to the Lebanese state news agency, were absolutely flattened in this strike. And when you look at the fact that the Israeli military said that they were targeting Hezbollah's central headquarters beneath residential buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut, when you look at the size of this explosion, it seems very likely that these really military use very heavy munitions. We know, of course, in Gaza when they have targeted underground bunkers like this, they have used those 2,000 pound bombs which not only reach deep underground to kill their targets, but of course, caused tremendous devastation aboveground.

And the images that we are getting out of Beirut are very much indicative of the same type of damage. And so Jake, we expect that whether or not Nasrallah is dead or not, this done as mark a significant inflection point in this war, and one that is likely to further heat up the situation in this already very, very tense region.

TAPPER: And, Jeremy, there has been some activity behind you tonight as well. What are you seeing in terms of retaliation?

DIAMOND: Yeah. Jake, we have been seeing Hezbollah fired multiple barrages of rockets towards northern Israel, both on the eastern side as well as the western side we have seen multiple rocket interceptions. Hezbollah has fired some 65 rockets in just the last hour since this strike in Beirut and we anticipate that more are likely soon to follow.

At the same time, the Israeli military has also been continuing to strike targets inside of Lebanon. And so this situation is only continuing to escalate.

However, what we have yet to see, Jake, from Hezbollah is what Israeli officials have been telling me for months now, they anticipated in the event of a major escalation and that is Hezbollah firing not just hundreds of rockets a day, but hundreds of rockets simultaneously to try to overwhelm Israeli -- Israel's air defense systems. And as of now, we have yet to see Hezbollah use that kind of firepower, used that kind of synchronized attack against Israel.

Part of that may be due to the fact that Israeli attacks over the course of the last week-and-a-half have significantly -- have dealt a significant blow to Hezbollah, a part of it may also be that they were have been calculating what could potentially lead to that Israeli ground invasion. That multiple Israeli generals have now said the Israeli military is preparing for.

And certainly Jake, that is on the minds of many tonight in this region, whether or not Israeli ground forces could soon move into Lebanon. I was driving up in northern Israel today, we actually did see multiple groupings of tanks in certain areas, although it's not clear whether Israel has amassed the kind of manpower and resources yet to carry out such a ground operation. And certainly, Jake, that decision has not yet been taken.

TAPPER: All right. Jeremy Diamond in Haifa, Israel, thank you so much. Let's bring in Republican Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska. He's on the

Senate Armed Services Committee, also a colonel in U.S. Marine Corps.

Senator, let's start with this strike. First of all, I don't know if you've been briefed on it, if you know anything about it, do you know if the Israelis actually achieved their goal of hitting and killing Hezbollah leadership including Hassan Nasrallah?

SEN. DAN SULLIVAN (R-AK): I don't know that yet, Jake.

TAPPER: Okay.

Let's start with the general conflict because before the strike, the U.S. was pushing a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Us officials say Israel did not give them what they qualify, what they would consider heads up on this strike.

What do you make of that?

SULLIVAN: Look, I think right now we need to be a strongly backing Israel. I think actually in terms of the concerns about escalation and a broader conflict, the best way to avoid that is to make sure that it's clear that the United States is strongly backing Israel. What they're trying to do right now, Jake is, you know, they're trying to re-establish deterrence against Iran and its proxies. And that is something that's very difficult to do.

And we should be backing them not only in that, but in our own ability to re-establish deterrence. One things that I've been really critical of the Biden-Harris administration on is the appeasement policies they've had with regard to Iran.

And I think you're starting to see deterrence has collapsed in the region. The Biden-Harris administration actually had a good start because at the end of the Trump administration, you had the maximum pressure campaign. You had the Abraham Accords, peace initiative. You had the killing of Soleimani, the lead terrorists of the Iranians, and there is definitely the sense that Iran was back in the box.

And when you come in and pretty much reverse all those policies, you're seeing the chaos that we've had right now. Deterrence has collapsed, and I think it's really important to help Israel re- establish deterrence against Iran and its proxies.

[16:10:03]

That's what they're trying to do, but it's hard work. (INAUDIBLE) worth.

TAPPER: Take a listen to your Republican counterpart from the House of Representatives, House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We're on the verge of World War III. This is the most dangerous time since World War II. And you have to have steady hands at the wheel. You've got to have strength. You have to have a leader in the White House that our adversaries fear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: He's -- I mean, he's invoking World War III, how perilous this moment is right now. Do you agree?

SULLIVAN: It's a perilous moment, but again, from my perspective. The key thing here is I don't think the Iranians want a broader war in what we need to do is show strength. Let me give you one example. Everybody talks about kinetic action that we may with the United States may or may not need to be taken.

I think the most important thing we can be doing right now and I've actually talked to President Biden about doing this, Jake Sullivan, the national security advisor, is to re-impose the Trump administration maximum pressure sanctions on the oil and gas regime.

Why is that so important? At the end of the Trump administration, Iran had about $4 billion in foreign reserves. That's not a lot. Their economy was in a freefall.

When those sanctions were essentially not enforced by the Biden administration, Iran's exporting about 7 -- almost 3 million barrels a day they now, and they've got about $80 billion in foreign reserves. And we know what they're doing with that, Jake, they are funding equipping, and training Hezbollah, the Houthis and Hamas.

These are the kind of actions we can take now to help Israel re- establish deterrence in the region.

TAPPER: Before President Obama gave the okay to go -- for the Navy SEALs to go in and get bin Laden, there was discussion of bombing the compound where he was guiding in Pakistan and ultimately the Obama administration did not do that for two reasons. One, they weren't 100 percent sure about the intelligence and two, they were worried about civilian casualties.

Obviously, the Israelis have made a different, a different calculation when it comes to Nasrallah going after him, we still don't know if they got them or not. Is it the right decision to do that? I mean, blowing up four buildings in the middle of downtown Beirut?

SULLIVAN: Those are always tough decisions and you and I've talked about how the IDF does not normally target civilians. But remember, this is the top terrorists of one of the most lethal terrorist organizations in the world. They've killed hundreds of Americans. Let's remember that.

TAPPER: Yeah, before 911, they'd killed more terrorists, I mean, they've killed more Americans than any other terrorist groups.

SULLIVAN: Correct, including over 240 marines in a Beirut bombings and remember this, their only reason for being is to destroy Israel. That's what they say.

TAPPER: And to take over Lebanon.

SULLIVAN: And -- so when there's discussion of like, well, this is Israeli escalatory action, let's also remember this. The escalation from Hezbollah started on October 8. They started lobbing missiles and rockets into northern Israel right after the October 7 attacks. And you have 50,000 Israelis who have been displaced from their homes in that part of Israel.

So, this is a huge issue. You're raising a really good question in terms of civilians but getting the top, one of the top terrorists in the world that has been running Hezbollah for many, many years I think is very important.

TAPPER: Lastly, I just want to ask you about the U.S. lead ceasefire proposal between Israel and Hezbollah. Sources tell CNN that Prime Minister Netanyahu threw cold water on the deal Wednesday night, even though one of his closest confidants, former U.S. -- I'm sorry, former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Ron Dermer, he had given U.S. officials every assurance that Netanyahu was on board. That's our reporting.

This coupled with the multiple failed attempts at Israel-Hamas deal might lead one to conclude that President Biden doesn't have much sway with Netanyahu, or that Netanyahu just doesn't care what a U.S. government tells him to do.

SULLIVAN: Well, I think -- I mean, look, I'm not going to speak for the Israeli government. I'm not going to speak for the Biden-Harris administration, but I think there's been a divergence, particularly as it relates to this issue. I keep beating the same drum.

But deterrence with regard to Iran -- Iran is the agent of chaos in the entire region. In this administration, whether it's not in the Biden-Harris administration, not enforcing the sanctions, letting our navy ships in the Red Sea essentially be attacked without any kind of deterrence action against Iranian navy ships that were providing targeting information to the Houthis. I was hearing yesterday, we had senior military official those from the United States military who requested permission to sink those Iranian spy ships, they were denied by the top Biden-Harris administration officials and even Jake standing up and speaking out for these brave Iranian women who have been murdered by the hundreds, 22,000 have been arrested.

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You barely hear a peep out of the Biden-Harris administration on those courageous Iranian.

So I think this is where Israel in the United States have kind of split. It's not good for either country. This is our strongest ally in the Middle East, but we need to help them re-establish deterrence against Iran.

TAPPER: Alaska Republican Senator Dan Sullivan of the Senate Armed Services, thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate it.

We're going to be back with more on this escalation in the Middle East where Israel claims an attack in Beirut targeted the headquarters of Hezbollah and its leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Stay with us.

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[16:19:31]

TAPPER: And we're back with all the latest developments from the Middle East. Israel says today that it struck Hezbollah's headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon with the intention of killing Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

Moments ago, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken briefly alluded to today's developments. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLINKEN: The events of the past week. In the past few hours underscore what a precarious moment this is for the Middle East and for the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Let's get right to Barak Ravid. He is a CNN political and foreign policy analyst and "Axios" politics and foreign policy reporter.

[16:20:03]

Barak, what do we know about Nasrallah's fate?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND FOREIGN POLICY ANALYST: Well, what I hear from Israeli officials is that Israeli intelligence had, I think, very strong indications that Nasrallah was in the compound that was attacked and Israeli official say that they think that whoever was in the compound when it was attacked has a very, very, very small chance of surviving.

So I think -- although the Israeli intelligence doesn't know for sure that Nasrallah was killed or what his fate is. I think they, the Israelis have, let's say, a very strong assessment that he was hit in this strike and likely have been killed.

TAPPER: It's a lot of big buildings that he took down and obviously, it seems as though there are probably a lot of civilian casualties as well. What do you know about why Israel decided to strike at this moment?

RAVID: So the decision was made on Wednesday, the decision in principle, when Netanyahu, before Netanyahu traveled to New York, he had a security meeting and the decision there was to take up Nasrallah, but -- but they needed an operational opportunity in this operational opportunity only arrived today.

But the rationale from what Israeli officials tell me was that the Israelis tried for a long time to force Nasrallah, to decouple themselves from Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and Hamas in Gaza, and agree to some sort of a separate settlement that will end the fighting in the north and will allow tens of thousands of Israelis to go back to their home, Nasrallah refused to do that. He doubled down again and again and again.

So, an Israeli official told me we just decided that maybe its time to take him out of the decision-making process and then maybe like that will push Hezbollah to decouple from Hamas.

TAPPER: All right. Barak Ravid, thank you so much.

RAVID: Thank you.

TAPPER: Scary scenes playing out in areas hundreds of miles away from where Helene made landfall as a category four hurricane. We're going to bring you the latest forecast for those areas of the United States still under threat.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:26:38]

TAPPER: To our national lead in the breaking news in the United States on Helene, that catastrophic storm that is still creating deadly conditions across the southeastern United States, including historic and remarkable flooding in the western region of North Carolina, the storm came ashore in Florida as a category four hurricane.

CNN's Carlos Suarez rode out the storm, witnessing extensive damage, especially near Tampa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIA VARTSAKIS, OWNER, NEPTUNE GRILL: We've lost everything in this building.

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Taking stock and feeling heartbreak after Hurricane Helene slammed Florida's West Coast.

MAYOR LIZ ALPERT, SARASOTA, FLORIDA: This is the worst probably we've seen in our area in 100 years. I know. Ive been in Sarasota for 22 years and I've never seen anything like that.

SUAREZ: Heavy rain dumping, historic flooding, forcing water rescues.

MATTHEW HELLER, TAMPA RESIDENT: Holy cow, that storm surge the whole lower level of my homeless told with water, I ended up hopping on to one of my little kayaks to float around in my living room. This has been just a heck of a storm surge. It's wiped out all my neighbors. I see just the destruction going on down the road.

SUAREZ: Down many roads, boats run aground, power lines down, homes and businesses destroyed.

VARTSAKIS: Some of its outside, some of it's in here. This is by far the worst I've ever had.

SUAREZ: And some ablaze amidst the flooding, rescuers pass a burning home.

Using their resources instead to search for survivors.

RANDY VON ALLMEN, GULFPORT RESIDENT: Boy, it's devastating. I've never seen something like this. I've known people that lived there 20 years. I said they've never seen anything like it.

SUAREZ: After slashing Florida, Helene pushed north battering Georgia and the Carolinas, also leaving life-threatening flooding.

In Atlanta, communities, left underwater as Helene held its strength as a hurricane until halfway through the state of Georgia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the worst I've ever seen. I've seen the scene that creek high right up to the bottom of the bridge, but nothing like this.

SUAREZ: But it wasn't finished yet. Helene's massive size spread the rain and misery into North Carolina, where a relentless deluge cause its historic flooding in Asheville. Just one day after a one in one thousand-year rainfall saturated region.

GOV. ROY COOPER (D), NORTH CAROLINA: This is one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of western North Carolina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SUAREZ (on camera): Back here in Pinellas County, Florida, the National Guard has been deployed and they're the ones that are going to coordinate some of the safety and the recovery efforts moving forward, Jake, one of the first things they've got to figure out is how they're going to remove nearly half a dozen sailboats that crashed into several structures, including the one right here behind me -- Jake.

TAPPER: Yeah. We're going to talk to a general with the Florida National Guard in one second.

But first, let's check in with meteorologist Elisa Raffa.

Elisa, Helene is still causing life-threatening problems even though the storm has moved far beyond Florida where it made landfall.

ELISA RAFFA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We're still looking at the residual flooding across western North Carolina. The rain has starting to ease up there, but were still finding these wind gusts at 30 miles per hour in Charleston, 29 miles per hour, in Columbia, 43 miles per hour tropical storm force gusts still in Cincinnati, the rain wrapping as far west as southeast Missouri.

[16:30:05]

Look at the flood alerts that we still have in effect. There's still about 1 million people in flash flood emergencies -- emergencies is the highest level that we have to issue for flash flooding to let people know to get to higher ground because that water is rising.

All of them here in western North Carolina, even stretching up into Virginia, where they've had just relentless rain again, not just today, from Helene, both from the last couple of days as well. The radar is easing off for them. So at least the good news is there's no rain falling, not as much right now, but the rivers are still rising to record levels and will still be aggravated going into tomorrow.

You see these pink here. These are rain totals that have been over 10 inches, radar estimating very large amounts of rain in some places in North Carolina, getting up to 30 inches of rain, Asheville, 13 inches of rain -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Elisa Raffa, thank you so much.

Let's bring in now, Florida National Guard Brigadier General Alex Harlamor.

General, thanks so much for joining us.

So one of the ways citizens stay safe and disasters such as this is through the efforts of National Guards members such as yourself and your team. Right now, Florida has about 3,900 National Guardsmen currently engaged in response missions in 21 counties throughout the state.

What are you all seeing on the ground there? What areas appear to be the hardest hit?

BRIG. GEN. ALEX HARLAMOR, FLORIDA NATIONAL GUARD: Well, thanks for having me this afternoon, Jake.

You know, at the end of the day we got up early this morning and actually we had quite a few soldiers and airmen that were in the impacted areas. But, you know, as life started come up, we started to consolidate our forces in the Taylor, Dixie and the Levy Counties, is basically getting as close to ground zero as we could. That the road networks would allow and working with some of the local first responders and some of the other teams out there. It's pretty devastating to look at a lot of homes that have been wiped off the foundations, and a lot of people that are probably going to be having to restart their lives here pretty shortly.

TAPPER: The Florida National Guard has engaged in search and rescue missions, groundwater air, how many Floridians have been rescued do you know? How many more might still need rescuing?

HARLAMOR: So far today, we've rescued at least 76 adults and I know four children, so around 80. That number probably is going to increase as the days go forward. And then there have been handful of pads going into that number as well.

Also, we're working with -- we at least the point at least 13 rotary wing aircraft, their organic to our states and Mississippi was able well to give us three additional aircraft that we've been employed with search and rescue teams, also doing air observations as well as flying food and water and other commodities into the impacted areas.

TAPPER: And where are you rescuing most of these people from? Are they stuck in their house? Are they on their roof? Give us some sense of the needs of these people that your team is rescuing?

HARLAMOR: Sure. So it varies from location to location. Some people have been -- we've identified them prior to the storms landfall. And so as we go out to those locations, working with local law enforcement agencies who have a pretty good idea of where these residents are, are still residing we were able to take our high-wheel vehicles get as close to the residence as possible. If we have to, we can put boats into the water to go up to the house, pull those people away from their front porches, or maybe in some cases even the roofs get him back to the high-wheel vehicle the way we could transport to a safe area.

TAPPER: How does the damage you're seeing from Helene compare with other hurricanes that you've seen in your experience?

HARLAMOR: You know, every hurricanes a little bit different and some are more rain events, some are more wind events. This one, we got a little bit of both considering how fast the storm was moving, thankfully, was north of the state in pretty short order, but we're anticipating some additional rainfall is going to come back into the state as those rivers begin to crest the next couple of days.

So it remains to be seen how much damage we're dealing with. But we're standing by ready to respond if that is in fact the case.

TAPPER: You've rescued people from these. I've been covering these for a while and I know one thing that we both know from this is that so many of the deaths and injuries actually happened in the wake of the storm after it's gone. What do you want Floridians and anyone listening to us who's in the path of the storm or such, to know right now in order to stay safe after the storm passes?

HARLAMOR: Well, it's important to make sure you can reach out to local law enforcement. We're doing -- we're working with those teams to make sure that we do the roving patrols, security presences, trying to identify who is still around so that we can get you the help you need. We're going to be knocking on doors. There's going to be lots of points of districts there'll be set up through these impacted counties. We'll be making sure that people have access to food, water, shelter facilities.

So we're going to come around, we're going to look for you and we're working with local law enforcement agents to basically confirm who's still in there that needs assistance.

[16:35:06] TAPPER: All right. Brigadier General Alex Harlamor, thank you so much and thanks for what you do.

The major -- the mayor of Cedar Key, that's a small island off Florida's west coast says devastation. There is so bad, it's not safe enough to allow residents are volunteers back into the community. A storm chaser who did make it there and captured some of the damage will join us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Let's listen in to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

LLOYD AUSTIN, SECRETARY OF DEFESE: I spoke by phone earlier with my counterpart in Israel, Mr. Gallant.

The United States was not involved in Israel's operation. We had no advanced warning. My call with Mr. Gallant took place while the operation was actually on already underway. As you know, this operation took place just a couple of hours ago and they're still making assessments. So I don't have any further information for specifics to provide you at this time.

What I will say is that you've heard me say a number of times that an all out war should be avoided. Diplomacy continues to be the best way forward and as the fastest way until that displaced Israeli and Lebanese citizens returned to their homes on both sides of the border.

[16:40:03]

I'll be talking with Minister Gallant again soon and I look to get an update from him when I only have that conversation.

Thank you very much.

REPORTER: What's your level of frustration --

TAPPER: All right. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin weighing in there at Andrews Joint Airbase.

We're going to squeeze in a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: And we are back with our breaking news out of the Middle East. We just heard a few words from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who with characteristic, laconicness and also bluntness, said the U.S. had nothing to do with you Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon and the United States did not have advanced warning.

CNN's national security correspondent Kylie Atwood is with me.

Kylie, very interesting words there. I don't want to read too much into it, but it seemed to be an expression of displeasure.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right. You also heard from the secretary of state in the last hour who really

hit at the gravity of this moment, just what this moment could mean in terms of the continued concerns about this turning into a wider conflict that the U.S. has been pushing against for months now, increasingly, over the last week, even though Israeli officials frustrated them by not getting on board with their efforts to drive towards a ceasefire.

[16:45:16]

Notably, the secretary of state did not endorse, but he also didn't say that he opposed this strike that. You guys have been discussing reporting on the Israeli strike against the Lebanese -- excuse me, the Hezbollah headquarters in Lebanon.

But what he did say was that Israel has a right to defend itself, but how it does so matters. Very clear in U.S. concerns about this situation potentially escalating and turning into a broader conflict. He said with regard to that strike the U.S. is still gathering information, making sure we fully understand what happened and what the intent was behind this strike.

So the U.S. is really trying to figure out what happened here. You heard from Austin that the U.S. didn't have advance warning, foreign advance at this strike was coming. And, Jake, the bottom line here is that this comes after a week when the United States had really been hustling in New York a diplomatically trying to find some sort of ceasefire solution to what we have seen is this incredible conflict along that Israel-Lebanese border.

And now, not only did the prime minister say in his speech this morning that Israel has the right to continue going after Hezbollah. But we also see that they're following that up with action later today. And so, we'll watch to see really how the U.S. continues to respond because they have tried, tried, tried once again to go for the diplomatic route. It's just not happening right now.

TAPPER: Yeah. And if you contrast what you heard from Secretary Austin with what we heard from Republican Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska, I mean, there's a real contrast in how much one is hugging the ally Israel versus some distance.

Definitely, Secretary Austin seemed to be putting at least some distance between the United States and Israel when it comes to the strike, which no doubt took a huge civilian toll based on the fact that several buildings were flattened in the middle of downtown Beirut.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is also joining us now from the Pentagon.

Oren, the secretary of defense does not usually make these kinds of statements getting off a plane and talking to reporters. The fact that we did just getting off the plane is significant and what he said and did not say also significant.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And, crucially, the Pentagon here as well as Defense Secretary Lloyd

Austin made it clear that they were looking for more information from the Israelis and were keen to repeatedly point out that they do not think the notification they got from the Israelis, which is just a few minutes heads-up with airplanes in the air qualifies as true advanced notification. And I think you've got a sense of that frustration not only from the Pentagon here in a briefing earlier today, but from Austin's words and it's worth pointing out, this isn't the first time we have heard this level of frustration over the course of the last several days right before Israel carried out an operation that exploded Hezbollah pagers in Lebanon ten days ago, Israelis were saying, yes, we gave notification the Americans were saying, look whatever you call that notification, we got no details on what was about to happen, especially because of the range of Israeli operations in Lebanon we have seen since Hezbollah started firing rockets on October 8.

So there's clearly an effort here to get on the same page and there will be clearly be more discussions between Austin and his Israeli counterpart, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Of course this happens with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York here for the U.N. general assembly. He's now rushing back to Israel, flying on the Sabbath, which is not something you see the Israeli prime minister generally do here.

And you also see the picture released of him ordering the strike while he was in New York. It's also worth noting that the call between Gallant and Austin, this call were the Israelis are claiming they gave lets sort of early notification that happened while Austin was on the flight back from London. So clearly this situation here, moving very rapidly, rapidly here, the U.S. trying to not only stay on top of it, but trying to see if there's some daylight here to get back to the diplomacy that seems so desperately far away at this point.

TAPPER: And, Kylie, one of the things that's really interesting and telling is that you're noting, you're talking about the United States, and Secretary Blinken mainly trying to push a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Ron Dermer, who is close aide to Prime Minister Netanyahu and a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, originally from Miami. In fact, if I believe saying to the administration, Netanyahu has signed off on it and then Netanyahu said, no, I haven't.

ATWOOD: Private indications to U.S. officials from Dermer himself, according to sources, we spoke to, were that Israel was going to accept the ceasefire, or at least cast itself as open to these conversations that could lead to a ceasefire.

[16:50:04]

But that's exactly the opposite of what actually happened, Jake, we saw the prime minister pour cold water on the ceasefire proposal in Israel, and then just less than 12 hours later, we saw his speech at the United Nations talking about the need to continue this war against Hezbollah and also the war against Hamas and Gaza. And now we see these strikes that have been carried out through the day, culminating with this massive strike against Hezbollah headquarters in Lebanon, which some are viewing as the potential to be a real pivot point in this conflict.

TAPPER: And, Oren, correct me if I'm wrong, but the issue I believe for the Biden administration would not be Nasrallah being killed. He had a group that the United States considers to be a terrorist group. And before 911, Hezbollah had killed more Americans than any other terrorist group in the world, the issue would the civilian casualties and the bombing of downtown Beirut and several apartment buildings where if the Israelis are correct and we still do not know if they were correct, there were many members of Hezbollah, this terrorist group, but also in all certainty, there had to have been civilians.

Now, there will be the argument made by defenders of Israel that this is what happens when terrorist groups embed themselves within civilian population. But still, this would be the issue, I believe.

LIEBERMANN: Well, the concern for the U.S. is always civilian casualties and we heard that when it comes to Gaza, and now were hearing it when it comes to has strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the concern about how many civilians will die as Israel prosecutes a war against Hezbollah. You're absolutely right to point out that Hassan Nasrallah is the leader of an organization that the U.S. has considered a terrorist organization since 1997. I just looked this up on the State Department website a short time ago. So, four years before 9/11.

The issue of whether Nasrallah is alive or dead, of course, that's a critical intelligence issue. But this is somebody who the U.S. absolutely considers the leaders of not only one of the largest terrorist organizations in the world, but one of the most powerful non-state actors in the world. Clearly though, after nearly a year of war in Gaza and risks of inflaming the region that we have heard repeatedly, the U.S. concern is as you point out, not only the civilian death toll already and the potential for that to skyrocket in a wider war. But it is exactly the effort to try to avoid that wider war.

The question now isn't just Israel and Hezbollah, its does Iran feel the need to get involved at this point? And that's not just a question of they never responded to the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. They now have potentially the leader of their most powerful proxy in the world who the Israelis were going after.

So does that necessitate something above and beyond what we saw back in April, which in and of itself was a massive barrage from the Iranians. That's what the U.S. will be watching for right now, and certainly in the coming days.

TAPPER: Let's bring back CNN's Jeremy Diamond, who is covering this all for us from Haifa, Israel, on the west coast of Israel, in the north.

And, Jeremy, we're standing by to hear from the spokesman for the IDF, Hagari. What do you anticipate that he's going to say? JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, my

understanding is that this announcement by Admiral Hagari is not going to be the confirmation or anything about this strike on Hassan Nasrallah. Instead, it appears that it will be its related to something else tied to Hezbollah. And if you look at the Israeli military's Arab language spokesman on Twitter within the last hour, he has just started posting several different neighborhoods in southern Beirut that they are saying could be targets and where they are directing local Lebanese residents to evacuate from these areas.

They point out three specific neighborhoods in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, the al-Laylaki neighborhood, the al-Hadath neighborhood, and the el-Hadath district and that, Jake, appears to be the raise, at least the specter of additional Israeli military strikes inside the Lebanese capital.

And that, of course, is notable because we have just witnessed tonight, arguably, the most significant Israeli military strike inside the Lebanese capital since the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war. And now, these strikes which were once exceptionally rare, are becoming not only more commonplace, but we could even see more tonight following this already massive strike in the suburbs of Beirut, which I'm told were indeed targeting Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

Now, in terms of confirmation of whether or not Nasrallah is actually dead or not, I'm told that these really military is still working to assess that, the Israeli prime minister himself heading back to Israel in a rare Friday night Shabbat flight to Israel, as this security situation, as the tensions in the region are certainly escalating tonight -- Jake.

[16:55:06]

TAPPER: All right. Jeremy Diamond in Haifa, Israel, thank you so much.

We're standing by to hear from the chief spokesperson from the Israeli military, Admiral Hagari is as Jeremy just referencing, and is also getting some new reporting on Israel's strike today on the Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut.

Much more of this breaking news coming up. We're going to squeeze in a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Let's take you right to Israel. The spokesman for the IDF is speaking, Admiral Daniel Hagari, and there's a translation simultaneous.

REAR ADM. DANIEL HAGARI, IDF SPOKESMAN: And we are going to act according to all the instructions.

I promise to -- I promise to inform you the moment the end, we destroyed a lot of strategic means that Hezbollah is in basements.

Hezbollah developed in the last year, missiles against (INAUDIBLE). In the second Lebanon war, this missile destroyed an Israel ship and four sailors were killed, also an Egyptian ship was destroyed.

In the last days, we destroyed Hezbollah is hiding the homes. Hezbollah is hiding strategic weaponry in buildings (INAUDIBLE).

One residential buildings to use as a shield. In the basement, the storage for weaponry and missile. The strategic weaponry. The way this records have been stored, allows them to spend directly towards strategic (INAUDIBLE) Israel.

In the last hour, we instructed residents of residential buildings with a radius of half kilometer to get away because that's getting close to strategic hiding places.

And there's a risk of buildings to get away as soon as residents moving there because IDF is going to destroy (INAUDIBLE) stored under the buildings.