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Biden & Harris Campaigning Together in Pittsburgh on Labor Day; Aide: VP Harris to Oppose U.S. steel takeover by Japanese Company; Trump Claims He had "Every Right to" Interfere with Election; Netanyahu: "Hamas will Pay a Heavy Price" for Killing Hostages; Netanyahu Asks for Forgiveness After 6 Hostages Killed. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 02, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:01:08]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Surrogate number one, President Biden returning to the campaign trail this holiday to stump for Vice President Kamala Harris. The two appearing together in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania for the first time since Harris took over the top of the ticket.

And Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says Hamas will pay a heavy price for the killing of six hostages as pressure grows in and outside Israel to reach a hostage and cease-fire deal. We are live from Tel Aviv.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Plus, why the U.S. just seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's airplane.

We are following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

Next hour, Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden will co-headline a Labor Day event at a local union hall in Pittsburgh. This is their first joint campaign appearance since Harris became the Democratic nominee. As the two look to shore up support from union workers ahead of November, we're learning that Harris plans to, for the first time, wade into the controversial proposed sale of U.S. Steel to Japan's biggest steelmaker. CNN's Kayla Tausche is live in Pittsburgh.

Kayla, what more do we know about what Harris plans to say about this U.S. Steel deal?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pam, Vice President Harris and President Biden are expected to address a range of union workers from a range of industries here in Pittsburgh at an electrical union headquarters here. But we've learned that Vice President Harris personally plans to use this appearance to express her own opposition to the proposed $15 billion takeover of Pittsburgh- based U.S. Steel by Japan's largest steelmaker, Nippon Steel. A campaign official tells us that Vice President Harris believes that U.S. Steel should remain American-owned, essentially echoing a position that President Biden first staked out here in Pittsburgh with the United Steelworkers back in April. Here's what Biden said then.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: U.S. Steel has been an iconic American company for more than a century and it should remain a totally American company - American owned, American operated, by American union steelworkers - the best in the world. And it's - that's going to happen. I promise you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAUSCHE: It's worth noting that an American company, Ohio-based Cleveland-Cliffs, had already proposed to buy U.S. Steel for less than half of what Nippon eventually offered. And U.S. Steel CEO, David Burritt, tells me in a statement that that price, in addition to the billions of dollars in additional investment that Nippon proposed, are something that the company simply cannot replicate.

He told me in a statement, "U.S. Steel will be a much stronger company as a result of the transaction and investments - the entire American steel industry will be stronger and more globally competitive, too."

Now, Harris and Biden in lockstep on labor policy, as you mentioned, will be appearing here in Pittsburgh together on the campaign trail for the first time as Vice President Harris tries to strike the delicate balance of leveraging Biden's popularity with working-class voters like those here in the key battleground of Pennsylvania with her message of moving forward. Guys?

BROWN: All right. Kayla Tausche, thank you so much. Brianna?

KEILAR: Former President Trump is off the trail today, but he is expected to hold a rally on Saturday in Wisconsin. Last night, during an interview on Fox News, Trump appeared to make a significant admission that he had, quote, every right to interfere with the 2020 Presidential Election. CNN's Kristen Holmes is following this story for us.

[15:05:03]

Kristen, what more did the former president say?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, these comments came after we saw that superseding indictment from Special Counsel Jack Smith, which was a reaction to what he had to do filing another indictment because of that immunity ruling in the Supreme Court.

So Trump sat down for an interview and essentially talked about this indictment and said something that is similar to what he has said before, but lacking a little bit of context. Take a listen.

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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's so crazy that my poll numbers go up. Whoever heard you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election where you have every right to do it, you get indicted and your poll numbers go up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, of course, it sounds like here he is saying that he was indicted for interfering with the election and that he had every right to interfere with the election. Now in the past, he has not said this exactly, but essentially said that he had every right to question the election. He has said that he is being accused of interfering with the election. This obviously took it a step further.

Now, if you talk to his senior advisors, they say this was just a misspeak on what he traditionally has said in the past. But you also speak to some of those same advisors. They say this is just another thing that they don't want to have to deal with, particularly as they get into the more heated stretch ahead of November.

KEILAR: All right. Kristen Holmes, thank you for that report.

BROWN: And joining us now to discuss this, Errol Louis, political anchor for Spectrum News and Jackie Kucinich, Washington bureau chief for The Boston Globe. Thanks for coming on.

So Errol, to kick it off with you, whenever Trump is talking about the 2020 Election, obviously what he is not talking about are the key issues in this election, the economy and inflation, immigration. That, of course, is frustrating many in his orbit.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, for sure. But also, look, let's keep in mind the future of democracy and whether or not we're going to have free and fair elections is very much on the agenda. Trump can't leave it alone because he's never really resolved, either legally or politically, the fact that he tried to overturn the results of the last election. It's not going to go away as an issue. It's one of his key, frankly, support lines that he likes to throw out to his core base. And Democrats are trying to take advantage of that as well. So like it or not, that issue is here in front of us, which is why he was talking about it on Fox News.

KEILAR: Do you see any differences, Jackie, between how the Harris campaign, this campaign with Harris at the head of it, is tackling that issue of kind of democracy in peril compared to how the Biden campaign was targeting the issue?

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: You're not hearing about it as much as you did. It was a very central to the Biden campaign. And while it is definitely still a part of the Harris campaign, it's usually discussed in terms of the former president rather than, you know, the - saving the nation, Joe Biden's whole, you know, reason for being.

So - and I think as a result, that's why you're hearing more about, you know, moving forward, the future, not looking back from the Harris campaign. She's trying to do it in a really delicate way, as was discussed before, to not cast aspersions on Joe Biden and anything that the two of them did over the last four years, but just talk about generally a new era of politics going forward. That's what they're trying to sell to the American people right now.

BROWN: It's interesting, Errol, you know, that Kamala Harris is trying to walk this fine line, right, of trying to present herself as someone who represents change and, you know, a new pathway forward, but also putting very little daylight between herself and President Biden. And what does it tell you on that note that Harris is campaigning with Biden today - Biden as her new top surrogate in places like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan this week?

LOUIS: Well, Pennsylvania is the right place to do it. You know, one of the things that Democrats often struggle with is to win senior citizens over. The last presidential candidate, the last Democrat to actually win seniors was Al Gore back in 2000. So it's been pretty much a generation before Democrats got - since Democrats got a majority of 65-plus-year-old voters.

Joe Biden breaks that mold. There's something about him that seniors like. Either it's familiarity or it's the way he comports himself or the fact that he fought for prescription drug price caps for them. But whatever it is, he's very valuable.

And, of course, of the 10 states that have the highest concentration of senior citizens, well, one is Florida, we all know, but one of the others is Pennsylvania. So he's going to be a very valuable asset. And we should expect to see him continue to campaign there with or without Kamala Harris at his side.

BROWN: So he is still very popular there, but is there some risk on some of these other states with Biden campaigning with Harris, such as Wisconsin, later this week, Jackie?

[15:10:01]

KUCINICH: So I think Joe Biden can help. He obviously won Wisconsin. But I think what Joe Biden's greatest gift to Harris has already passed, and that is clearing the field for her and uniting the Democratic Party behind her when he decided to step down. We're at Labor Day, this is when the real campaign really starts.

And I think as - surrogates can be an additive for sure. But really, at this point, it gets down to the candidate and her running mate and on the other side of former President Trump and his running mate. That's what voters are going to be really focused on and how they're making their cases rather than what anyone else is saying about it when it comes down to actually going in that voting booth and casting their vote.

KEILAR: And Jackie, there's a new ABC News-Ipsos poll where you see Harris, she's got a narrow lead over Trump with numbers nearly identical to those pre-Democratic National Convention. So essentially, no DNC bounce for Harris. I do recall ahead of the DNC, there was this talk of, well, not sure if there's going to be a bounce because of the momentum she saw out of the gate. But I wonder how you are seeing that no real bounce and how maybe the Trump campaign may be seeing it.

I think what you've been hearing from Democrats and I'm sure you all have been hearing the same thing, they're not taking anything for granted, be it, you know, the bounce you received out of the gate or what wasn't out of the DNC. They know this is going to be close no matter what. We're in the margin of error right now in several states. She has made up some ground than what we were seeing as opposed to Biden.

But I think neither side is taking any of these numbers for granted and are just going to run hard for the next, what is it, 64 days until Election Day. And it's not even 64 days, let's be real here. Early voting starts even sooner in a number of states.

KEILAR: I was going to say, but who's counting? But who is counting?

KUCINICH: We are.

KEILAR: Jackie Kucinich, Errol Louis, thank you so much to both of you, we really appreciate it.

And still to come, Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, asking for forgiveness for not bringing the six killed hostages back alive. You are seeing live pictures here from Jerusalem, some of the thousands, hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have taken to the streets for a second straight day demanding a hostage and ceasefire deal.

BROWN: Plus, thousands of U.S. hotel workers go on strike. We're going to tell you what they're demanding and how the walkout is affecting travelers.

And then later, a record number of people are expected to shuttle through the nation's airports this Labor Day. Those stories and much more coming up on this very busy Labor Day CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[15:17:11]

BROWN: Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is asking for forgiveness today and vowing Hamas will pay a heavy price after the bodies of six hostages are recovered from Gaza. And he spoke just a short time ago as another day of mass protests ramp up the pressure on Netanyahu to finally finish a ceasefire deal. CNN's Jeremy Diamond joins us now from the streets of Tel Aviv.

So what stood out to you, Jeremy, about Netanyahu's remarks amid these protests?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, on the one hand, the Israeli prime minister did something that he rarely does, which is apologize and ask for forgiveness from the families of these six hostages who saw their relatives returned not alive from Gaza, but in body bags. The Israeli prime minister, though, beyond that, mostly doubled down on his positions, despite the enormous pressure that we have seen from the Israeli public over the course of the last 36 hours, as 10s of thousands of people have taken to the streets to demand that Netanyahu and his government prioritize a hostage release deal over everything else relating to the war.

And tonight, the Israeli prime minister came out and doubled down on the importance, in his view, of demanding that Israeli troops retain control of that Philadelphi corridor, that route between the Egypt- Gaza border over any other conditions in a ceasefire deal.

And Netanyahu insisted that despite what his own security advisers have been saying privately to him, that he believes that Israel will not be able to return to that Philadelphi corridor if he moves forward with the first phase of a ceasefire agreement. And that goes against what his security establishment, including his defense minister, have been arguing privately, which is that a deal to free the hostages should be prioritized over the Philadelphi corridor. The Israeli prime minister also vowing that Hamas will pay a heavy price for killing those six hostages.

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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through interpreter): Israel is not going to ignore this massacre. The Hamas will pay a heavy price for this, a very heavy price in the war against the evil axis, in this specific war against Hamas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: And so this doubling down by the Israeli prime minister and his vows that Hamas will pay a heavy price, rather than saying that Israel will reach an agreement with Hamas, it really upends a lot of the hopefulness that we have seen amidst these protests over the last 36 hours. And that is to say that so many who are protesting have hoped that perhaps the deaths of these six hostages could be a catalyst to wake up the Israeli government, in the words of some protesters who I've spoken to, and to get the Israeli prime minister to reach a deal for the freedom of the remaining hostages in Gaza.

[15:20:08]

BROWN: Right. And now you have Hamas warning that more hostages will die if Israel tries to free them for military action.

DIAMOND: That's right. And Hamas appears to be acknowledging for the first time that it did indeed execute these six hostages, despite previously falsely claiming that they had died in an Israeli bombardment. Hamas is now saying that the reason these hostages were killed is that the captors, the guards who are holding these hostages, were given what they described as, quote, new instructions following a previous Israeli operation that did rescue hostages alive, effectively suggesting that they are now being told to kill the hostages if Israeli troops approach their position. And indeed, that appears to be what happened hours before Israeli troops reached the underground tunnel where these hostages were being held. These six hostages were killed, shot in the head, it appears, according to the Israeli military, before those Israeli troops were able to reach them. And now Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades is warning that Netanyahu's insistence on liberating prisoners through military pressure instead of concluding a deal, they say, will mean that the hostages will be returning inside of coffins instead of alive in a prisoner exchange. Pam?

BROWN: All right. Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much. Brianna?

KEILAR: Family members, friends and loved ones of the murdered hostages are in mourning, and that includes Gil Dickmann. His cousin, Carmel Gat, is one of those six Israeli hostages who was killed in Gaza after spending more than 300 days as a hostage.

Gil, I am so sorry for your family and for all of Carmel's friends. Can you tell us how you all are getting by since learning of the news?

GIL DICKMANN, COUSIN CARMEL GAT AMONG SIX HOSTAGES KILLED BY HAMAS: So we're devastated. I just came out of the funeral, Carmel's funeral. And we can - we still can't believe this, because we held the hope that we will get her back for so long. I mean, we're trying to convince our own prime minister, and our own government and the Israeli public to come with us. And we said that they are in grave danger, that they could die at any moment. We said it again and again and again. And it turned out to be true.

And right now, all we feel is that we missed her by so - it was so close. We were so close to get her. Carmel was on the list for the eighth day of the ceasefire, which Israel missed. They just - the ceasefire collapsed and they went back into fighting. And Carmel was supposed to come on the first day of this new ceasefire in the new deal and we missed it as well.

And by we, I mean like (INAUDIBLE) Benjamin Netanyahu, and I must say that I've heard - I was just out of the funeral. I heard that he's going - he said that Hamas is going to pay a heavy price (INAUDIBLE) what Hamas has done. Netanyahu is using, in such a cynical way, killing my cousin and all the other hostages to keep the war going. This is exactly the opposite of what we want. Exactly the opposite of what Carmel would have wished for. And exactly the opposite of what the hostages that are still held in captivity deserve.

They deserve to be home. They deserve to be rescued, not through a military invasion, but through a deal that will definitely bring them home, that is the only way to bring them home safe. And for us, this is just - it's continuing. We're going with the same strategy that actually killed hostages. Netanyahu explains that he's holding on to a piece of land to Philadelphi and chooses to risk the life of the (INAUDIBLE) to keep on moving it. That is out of the question. It is exactly the opposite of what we as Israelis believe and what we, as the families of the murdered Israelis, want to see happening.

KEILAR: So Gil, let me ask you about that, because he had his press conference. He says at the press conference that he apologized, which is rare for him, to family members. And then - and I wonder if you - did he apologize to your family?

DICKMANN: He tried to reach us. He first went on the media that he was going to try and reach us over the phone. And we knew that he was going to use it for his media circus, that he's going to go with his media circus and say that he apologized to us. So we didn't want to be a part of this horrible charade.

He is going to use the murder of my cousin in order to keep the war going. And this is exactly - I'm furious. You know, it's exactly what he does.

[15:25:01]

It's his responsibility that they were killed. He could have saved them. And if he just chose what most of the Israelis wanted, what most of the world wants, which is to bring the hostages home and get a cease fire, Carmel would have been home. And now it's his fault that she's dead.

And now he's using her death to make more and more hostages die in captivity. This is exactly what's going to happen. And Hamas is a terror organization. We blame him for the killing, the execution of the hostages, of course. But on the other side, I want to see a nation that believes in life and not another politician who believes that he can use death as a weapon, and the death of civilian hostages as a weapon in his political charade.

KEILAR: So, Gil, when you saw him do this press conference and he, obviously, acknowledges the loss of your family, of all of these families, of what is really the loss of a nation and a loss for America as well. And then you saw him turn and do sort of - it was almost like a PowerPoint presentation. You mentioned the Philadelphi corridor, but he spent a lot of time saying this is a porous border. Weapons, money have come through. This is what allowed October 7th to happen. We cannot turn over security. What did you think of that moment?

DICKMANN: He transferred that money. He transferred that money. He decided that the money would be transferred through this border. It's absurd. And he's now using in such a cynical way the death of my cousin in order to keep this war going, knowing that he doesn't give a damn about my cousin or any of the other hostages. He doesn't care because he doesn't have a heart. I tried talking to him. I tried to explain to him that the lives of the hostages are more important than anything, because that is the lives of all of us as Israelis. He doesn't care. He doesn't see the lives of people as valuable like we do, like we humans do. He doesn't care about it.

All he cares about is his own political gain and he wants to keep the war going so he can stay in his chair because he knows that he failed on October 7th. He knows that when he points at the map of Gaza, he points at his own failures. He knows that. And he's so cynical and he keeps on doing that. And he's going to sacrifice more and more hostages to keep this war going because he doesn't care. We, as the people of Israel, the people who came out to the streets, hundreds of thousands of Israelis, I think millions of Israelis don't buy this anymore. We know that he doesn't care about the hostages. If - he - for him, he might have seen them - all of them dead so we can bring them home dead and then say, I'm finished with this. I'll keep the war going in order to destroy Hamas and never destroy Hamas.

He funded Hamas with the money that he showed that he delivered through the border and he wants to keep the war going. He doesn't even want Israel to win this war. He just declares ultimate victory. What Netanyahu wants is to keep this war going and he doesn't care whether hostages will die.

And I know this because my cousin died because of him. I don't want more hostages to die because of this horrible, horrible man. He should stop the war now and get the hostages home because we've had enough of him and we've had enough deaths in this area. Two people on both sides of the border have paid a too heavy price - or two psychopaths running this war.

KEILAR: Gil, you - your pain is obviously so evident. Your anger is evident. We see it on the streets as well. I do want to take a moment. You said you were coming from the funeral of your cousin, Carmel. I do want to take a moment for you to tell us ...

DICKMANN: Yes.

KEILAR: ... about your cousin, a beautiful woman who gave so much to people. Can you tell us about her?

DICKMANN: She's the exact opposite of everything we talked about now. She is such a loving person, such a peace loving person. She has friends speaking all languages and from all backgrounds. She is an occupational therapist, only searching for ways to treat others and to take care of them in their most horrible places and in times of their lives.

She - we know that in captivity, she actually took care of two youngster hostages who were with her and she practiced yoga with them and meditation with them to treat them and to make sure that they come through this horrible experience okay. And I've - when they came back, we were so glad to hear this because this is exactly what Carmel is. And she managed to stay herself in captivity and to take care of others.

[15:29:58]

This is - it was such an amazing thing for us to hear, to know that after all of this, after 11 months in captivity, she lost her life in such a horrible way. And we missed her by so ...