Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Naftali Bennett, Former Israeli Prime Minister, Discusses Gaza Ceasefire Deal Negotiations, Israeli Bracing For Iran Attack; Hunter Biden Tax Trial Weeks Away Amid Stalled Plea Talks; Ferguson PD Releases Footage Of Alleged Assault On Officer; Ernesto Upgraded To Hurricane After Hitting Puerto Rico. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 14, 2024 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: You've said that you believe the only policy that can reverse that is toppling the Iranian regime. There was a lot of instability that we saw come after regime change in Iraq. You really believe that is the only path forward?

NAFTALI BENNETT, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Yes, I do. It's reminiscent of the former Soviet Union. It was an empire of making a mess in the world,

The Iranian -- the Islamic Republic of Iran is a horrible regime despised by its own people, stoning women, stoning the gays and exporting -- manufacturing and exporting terror like no one else in the world.

It sent its arms across the world, across the Middle East, the seven different arms of terror. The only way to turn off this whole huge terror machine is to topple this terrible regime.

Any regime will be better than this one. I think that since the Iranian people are a great people, they seek freedom. It's a very advanced culture. I am convinced that the regime that would come after would be much better than this exporter of terror.

SANCHEZ: But you don't see more danger in the process of potentially getting there, especially if they're this close, if not already having a nuclear weapon?

BENNETT: No. I think it's -- the safer way is to focus on toppling the regime.

By the way, I'm not talking about necessarily bombing Iran. There's many ways. I noticed that today there was a massive cyberattack on their banking system that has shut down the entire Iranian banking system. Very interesting.

And I think there's many ways to topple that regime, short of war.

SANCHEZ: Which candidate for president in the United States, whether Vice President Kamala Harris are former President Donald Trump, do you believe best helps to advance your goal? BENNETT: Israel will never intervene in domestic American politics. It's none of our business. We have a strong friendship, a deep friendship with the United States of America.

Whichever president will be elected, we will work with that president. And we know that we have no better friend in the world than the United States of America.

I would also say that we are doing a lot of tough work on behalf of the United States of America and the West by fighting this huge wave of radical Islam by breaking the wave before this wave reaches the rest of the world.

SANCHEZ: Former Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, we have to leave the conversation there. Appreciate you sharing your perspective with us.

BENNETT: Thank you very much.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, the start of Hunter Biden's tax evasion trial is just a few weeks away, but can his new high-profile defense attorney score a plea deal before it even begins? We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:37:37]

SANCHEZ: We have new details into CNN on Hunter Biden's upcoming tax evasion trial. It's set to begin in Los Angeles next month.

And representing him is a name you might be familiar with. High- profile criminal defense attorney, Mark Geragos.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Some of Geragos' previous clients include Michael Jackson, Colin Kaepernick, Wynonna Ryder, Chris Brown, we can keep going.

CNN's Paula Reid is here with more on this.

This is an interesting development.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It is because, of course, this will be potentially Hunter Biden's second criminal trial this year. He was convicted on gun charges in Delaware back in June.

And during that trial, he was represented by Abbe Lowell. But we've learned -- it's public record that Geragos has joined the team. But we've learned he's going to take a lead here.

And there are many reasons for that. Obviously, Geragos is Los Angeles based. But Abbe Lowell has been spread pretty thin across this more litigious approach that Hunter Biden and his lawyers have been taking, filing lawsuits against him detractors, again, two criminal trials in one year.

But we've also learned that there were some initial discussions before Geragos came on about trying to reach a deal with a special counsel to resolve this case and avoid trial.

And we learned those didn't yield anything significant. And at this point, there's no indication that they will reach a plea deal and they are preparing to go to trial with Geragos as the lead attorney.

But there is another issue out there hanging over this whole case, and that is the fact that the defendant's father is the president of the United States, and he could potentially get a pardon or a commutation.

Now the president has said repeatedly that he will not pardon his son or commute his sentence. But let's remember, that was before he stepped aside and said he wouldn't run for reelection.

And it's really hard to contemplate a situation, right, where President Biden comes to the end of his political career and he's going to let his son sit in jail, particularly for these unusual cases, right?

Even jurors we talked to you after Hunter Biden was convicted, some of them told us, yes, we think this case is a little weird, but they proved it beyond a reasonable doubt.

The tax case, unusual to go to trial in something like this. It just seems hard to believe that President Biden would not use the power that he has to keep his son out of jail based on these cases.

And you would expect that would be a factor in these negotiations. Why would you put yourself and your family and some family members or witnesses and spend all this money on a trial if this is going to be resolved with a pardon?

Which is one of the reasons that we're really paying close attention to what happens in this Los Angeles case.

But as of now, Mark Geragos is the lead attorney. They're expected to begin this trial the first week of September.

[13:40:04]

DEAN: That's coming up very soon.

Paula Reid, thanks for that reporting.

Still to come, police in Ferguson, Missouri, released body camera footage showing a violent incident that left an officer severely injured. We're going to tell you what that new video shows. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: Police in Ferguson, Missouri, just releasing surveillance and bodycam video of the moment they say shows an officer being violently attacked.

The incident happening last Friday as protesters marked 10 years since the police-involved shooting of Michael Brown. Authorities say the footage shows a man charging and hitting Officer Travis Brown who suffered a severe brain injury.

[13:45:03]

CNN's Ed Lavandera is here with us and has a closer look at this video.

Ed, walk us through what this video is showing.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, police in Ferguson, Missouri, say that this incident happened as they were trying to take a suspect by the name of Elijah Gantz, who is 28-years- old, into custody.

And that video shows, as officers are approaching him, that Gantz appears to like barrel through Officer Travis Brown, knocking him down to the ground, hitting his head on the concrete, apparently, as other officers swarm in to take him into custody as well.

Ferguson police say that Officer Brown suffered a severe brain injury, that he remains in critical condition.

And all of this happened, as you mentioned, last Friday night, as part of a 10-year commemoration marking the death of Michael Brown. That was a resident there in Ferguson who was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer.

That shooting kind of galvanize the Black Lives Matter and police protests -- protests against police all across the country and led to very violent protests.

But officers there in Ferguson say all of this really started after what were peaceful demonstrations, led to a group of demonstrators pushing and trying to take apart a metal fence that led to a parking garage -- a parking lot of the Ferguson Police Department.

Last night, there was a vigil outside the police department honoring Officers Travis Brown. And the police chief says that he is frustrated and doesn't understand why the current police force is suffering because of what happened 10 years ago.

The chief points out that most of the officers who now work in this force were not there in Ferguson 10 years ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TROY BOYLE, CHIEF, FERGUSON POLICE DEPARTMENT: This community has gone through a lot over the past 10 years. Again, recognizing what took place 10 years ago.

And, you know, and I think many of us would agree, policing needed to change. We needed reform. You know, there's some good things that came out of this.

But the Ferguson Police Department is doing everything that everybody is asking us to do. And it is at this time that we all come together and embrace this. (END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: So today, we are awaiting the latest update on the condition of that officer. We haven't heard anything new today beyond the fact that he is in critical condition.

Ferguson police say that that suspect, 28-year-old Elijah Gantz, remains in jail and he's being held on a $500,000 cash bond -- Jessica

DEAN: All right. Ed Lavandera, with the latest reporting, thank you very much.

Still to come, we are tracking Hurricane Ernesto. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost power in Puerto Rico. The storm is only getting stronger.

We'll have the forecast for you. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:52:23]

DEAN: We are following breaking news. An ongoing Mpox outbreak in Africa has now been declared a global health emergency.

The World Health Organization convened its Emergency Mpox Committee amid concerns that a deadlier strain of the virus had reached previously unaffected areas in Africa. Now, this strain had been previously contained to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Formerly known as Monkeypox. Mpox is a virus that can spread easily between people and from infected animals. And it can spread through close contact or through contaminated materials like sheets, clothing and needles.

Symptoms include a fever, a painful rash, headache, muscle and back pain, low energy and enlarged lymph nodes.

Boris?

SANCHEZ: Ernesto has just been upgraded to a hurricane as it takes aim at Puerto Rico. The category one storm already knocking out power for nearly half of all customers on the island.

Residents are now bracing for a dangerous storm surge and nearly a foot of rain.

The island is still rebuilding its vulnerable power grid after Hurricane Maria wiped out so much of its infrastructure some seven years ago.

Let's go to CNN's Chad Myers, who's live for us in the Weather Center tracking the storm.

Chad, bring us up to speed with the latest. CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, the storm has moved away from Puerto Rico. That's the good news, even from San Juan moving away. But the rain has not.

Yes, the circulation of the storm has moved well to the north, almost into their in the Turks and Caicos. But the wind was last night across parts, even from Culebra, all the way down to Gustavia (ph).

Temperatures there were again in the 80s and 90s yesterday. Storms built in the afternoon and then the wind blew through, 86-miles-per- hour was the highest gust.

But look what's happened. Even though this storm is now 150 miles away from Puerto Rico, it is still raining. That southern surge of moisture still coming on land and up in into the highlands here. This is not a flat little area.

We're going to see that rain go up the hill. Then it has to go down the hill. And that's where we're seeing the flooding there.

There are already reports now of some of the areas not having drinking water because, well, everything's just kind of oversaturated and we're not even getting the refreshing of the water because the water is in the plants. It is just here.

Temperatures are in the one-to-two-degree range above normal. The storm is still going to be making its way right toward Bermuda, possibly as a category three major hurricane. Lots of wind, lots of rain, lots of waves.

Going to stop you here for the weekend. Those are 10 to 20 footers out here in the Atlantic. Probably 10 to 15 at the reef, and maybe even five to eight on your beach.

[13:55:00]

That is going to cause the threat of you being carried out into the ocean with the rip currents. We have to be very, very careful this weekend.

Now Canada, I want you to pay attention to this, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland. This is the European model from last night. A new one is running right now and I'll have it later on in the day for you, as soon as it comes through.

But there you can see the middle of what would be an eye, obviously, of a very large hurricane into Nova Scotia, Newfoundland. No other models are really doing this. They're all out into the ocean. But you need to watch this.

I'll watch it for you as soon as this is updated, probably around the 3:00 hour. We'll get it back on here for you to see what's going on and see if that European model, hopefully, has changed its mind -- Boris?

SANCHEZ: We look forward to that update. Chad Myers, from the Weather Center, thank you so much.

MYERS: Thanks.

SANCHEZ: Still to come on NEWS CENTRAL, former President Donald Trump set to speak later today in North Carolina, focusing on the economy. The big question, even from his allies, will he stay on message? The latest from the campaign trail when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)