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Harris and Trump Set to Debate Next Week; Protests in Israel. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired September 03, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:31]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Fury and frustration, enormous crowds demanding Israel find a way to bring hostages from Gaza home, as negotiators seek concessions to push a cease-fire and hostage deal forward, anger in the streets over how Prime Minister Netanyahu has handled the war.

And just one week to go to the debate, each candidate preparing for a showdown that could potentially change the race, Vice President Kamala Harris leaning into her promise to protect reproductive rights, while former President Donald Trump makes promises and conflicting statements on an issue that could prove decisive in November.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And mosquitoes aren't just a pest. They're actually causing a health crisis, spreading disease in some towns and forcing people indoors.

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

SANCHEZ: We start this afternoon with Israel on edge. The country is facing a third straight night of protests. Outrage is spilling into the streets after the IDF recovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza over the weekend.

Protesters are demanding the government strike a deal to end the war against Hamas. And this is putting immense pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

KEILAR: But he remains defiant. He is vowing to exact a heavy price on Hamas, while refusing to budge on a key sticking point affecting cease-fire talks.

That stance putting him at odds with some senior members of his own Cabinet.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is joining us now from Tel Aviv.

Jeremy, what are you seeing there so far today?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, for the third night in a row, protesters are once again assembled right in front of the Israeli military headquarters demanding that the Israeli prime minister change his tack.

They are out there in smaller numbers, certainly, than we saw yesterday, and certainly than we saw on Sunday night, when there was that massive demonstration, perhaps the largest since October 7. But there's no question that these protesters are trying to keep the momentum alive since the bodies of those six hostages were brought back to Israel, sparking this movement, sparking these protests that we have seen not only in Tel Aviv, but across the country, demanding that this government prioritize striking a cease-fire and hostage release deal.

And yet, amid all of this pressure that the Israeli prime minister and his government are facing, last night, we saw Benjamin Netanyahu come out, hold a press conference, and what he did was he doubled down. He defied the pressure that he is currently facing, insisting that he will not be flexible on what has become one of the major sticking points in these negotiations.

And that is his demand that Israel retain security control of the Philadelphi Corridor, that critical strip of land along the Gaza-Egypt border, which the Israeli prime minister sought to explain last night to the Israeli public why it is so essential to Israel's security.

But one thing that he left out is the fact that his contention that it is so critical to Israel's security, that it cannot be -- Israeli troops cannot withdraw from there in order to get dozens of hostages out.

It is contradicted by the advice of many of the Israeli security establishment, including the Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who has been arguing in one Cabinet meeting after the next that Israel should prioritize getting several dozen hostages out, rather than keeping troops along the Philadelphi Corridor, arguing that Israel could always return to the Philadelphi Corridor ultimately, a notion that the Israeli prime minister cast aside in his remarks last night.

And so it is very difficult to see where these negotiations can go from here, even as the United States and the mediators are keeping up their efforts. The U.S. is set to put together a kind of final proposal of sorts to present to both Israel and Hamas to try and get their agreement.

But, right now, Hamas is dug in on the notion that Israeli troops have to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor. The Israeli prime minister is insisting that they must remain. And so it's very hard to see where things can go from here.

And we also know that there are increasing threats, it seems, to the lives of the hostages, not only because the war is continuing in Gaza, but also because Hamas has now admitted that they executed those six hostages as Israeli troops were closing in on their position.

And they are now warning that, should Israel try and free additional hostages through military operations, that more hostages, they say, will return in coffins, rather than alive through a deal -- Brianna.

[13:05:07]

SANCHEZ: A stark warning there from Hamas.

Jeremy Diamond live for us in Tel Aviv, as we look at live images on what it looks like there on the ground.

Let's turn now to CNN's Kylie Atwood, who's at the State Department for us.

Kylie, the U.S. is still pushing for this hostage and cease-fire deal, with President Biden saying that he's almost ready to present the final version of this deal. What's the latest on progress with these diplomatic efforts?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, just to take you through the last 48 hours, the president had a meeting with his national security team on this specific topic yesterday at the White House.

And heading into that meeting, he made some pretty blunt and interesting remarks. He was asked if Netanyahu is doing enough to get to a deal, and he simply said no.

He wouldn't expand on those comments when asked about them later in the day by our colleagues, simply saying that we are in the middle of negotiations, and he said he was referring to the ongoing negotiations between the U.S., Qatar and Egypt to try and come up with some sort of proposal to put on the table, of course, that then Israel and Hamas could review.

Now, we do know, however, privately -- we have reported this time and time again -- there have been frustrations with Netanyahu. And those frustrations within the U.S. government grew yesterday after speech that Jeremy detailed for you, which in part Netanyahu said that Israel would never leave, could not ever leave the Philadelphi Corridor.

We know that remains a sticking point in these ongoing negotiations to get a hostage deal and a cease-fire agreement in place. So we have heard from U.S. officials that they're working on a final proposal to put on the table here to both sides, Hamas and Israel.

But we also just heard from the NSC's John Kirby, saying he wouldn't use the term final. And it's hard to imagine that U.S. officials would put a final proposal on the table and back away, particularly when there are still American hostages who are part of those 68 hostages still believed to be alive held by Hamas.

So where we are now is U.S. officials say that the murder of those six hostages over the weekend does underscore the urgency that has existed for some time, for months now, to try and get a deal in place. But what's unclear is how they actually translate that urgency into action to getting a deal done, particularly after the speech from the prime minister just yesterday when he was speaking with reporters -- guys.

KEILAR: All right, Kylie Atwood, thank you so much. And for more now on all of these developments in the Middle East,

let's go to CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger. He is also the author of "New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West."

David, is Netanyahu's insistence in his press conference in these negotiations on maintaining control of the Philadelphi Corridor, is this a strategy of politics or a strategy of national security? What are the vectors here?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, it's probably a bit of both to it, Brianna.

First of all, as a matter of national security, he clearly has a disagreement with his own defense minister who has said, we don't need (AUDIO GAP). And they have got a lot of strategic priorities here, but the most important one in the view of the defense minister, Defense Minister Gallant, is get the hostages back.

The most important one for the prime minister is make sure that you cut off that corridor from being a supply of new weaponry to Hamas. But there's politics involved as well. And many in the administration, the Biden administration, have suspected all along that Bibi Netanyahu is stretching this out because he knows that the minute that the hostages are released and a cease-fire is declared, that's the start of the investigations into how October 7 happened.

It's the start of the investigations into why the Israeli Defense Force was caught flat-footed and responded so slowly. And it's probably the end of his time as prime minister.

So these two are intertwined. Hamas has been a big element of this too. Let's remember one of the reasons we're having a problem right now and coming up with a final deal is, they just executed six hostages, including one America.

KEILAR: Yes, look, no doubt they seem to not have a big interest in coming to a deal. They're not feeling that pressure that certainly so many civilians are feeling in Gaza.

What would happen if Netanyahu budges on this Hamas demand? What would happen when it comes specifically to that question of national security, as you have Israeli forces saying they found a number of tunnels, a number, dozens and dozens, along that corridor to bring in supplies from Egypt? Unclear exactly when they were last used. But what would this mean?

[13:10:19]

SANGER: Well, if it became an active source of secret supply, then -- to Hamas, then it's a problem.

What you're hearing from other Israeli officials, including the defense minister, Gallant, is that they have the intelligence means to go guide that, and if they need to go in and deal with that corridor, which is right on the Egypt border, they have ways in the future of doing that.

It's not that the border isn't important. It's not that cutting off Hamas isn't important. It's that, when you're in a situation like this, you have to set a priority to your strategic objectives. And, clearly, the Israeli government is divided on that. And from those images that we're looking at of tens of thousands of people in the streets, none of those people in the streets are in support of Hamas or the awful killings, the tragic killings over the weekend.

It's just that they believe that the first priority has got to be getting the hostages back, because you never completely defeated a terror group. We never completely defeated al Qaeda. What you do is hamstring their ability to conduct an attack again.

KEILAR: President Biden said one word, "No," when asked if Netanyahu is doing enough to get this deal done. Vice President Harris is not particularly vociferous on this either.

What leverage does this administration have at this point in time?

SANGER: Not a whole lot.

I mean, first of all, we haven't had a lot since the beginning. Remember, President Biden took that trip, for which he was widely praised, I think, rightly so, to Israel right after the October 7 horrific acts and said the U.S. is completely behind you, we will support you, but don't overreact, as we did after 9/11, and commit actions that later on you will come to regret, as the U.S. itself did.

That advice was largely ignored. And that was the beginning of the tension that you now see between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Biden. At this point, Netanyahu is sort of riding this out to see how the election turns out.

If in two months it turns out he's dealing with Donald Trump, instead of Kamala Harris, then it's a very different situation for him, because he will be under very little pressure from Washington. And that's why everybody is sort of riding on every word Vice President Harris is uttering on this topic to see if there is any difference in what we have been hearing from the Biden administration.

And so far she's been very careful to make those differences only of tone, not of substance.

KEILAR: Yes.

David Sanger, thank you so much for your analysis. We do appreciate it.

And ahead this hour on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, we are one week away from the first debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, and the campaigns are preparing in very different ways. We're following the candidates next.

SANCHEZ: Plus, video shows the moment U.S. Marines are assaulted in Turkey. What we know about this attack and the group allegedly behind it.

And a New Hampshire dad is fighting for his life after testing positive for three mosquito-borne viruses, including EEE.

Those stories and much more still ahead this hour on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[13:18:17]

SANCHEZ: Ramping up to the big day.

Today, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are both off the campaign trail prepping for that critical debate in Philadelphia now just one week away.

But as the vice president steps away, her campaign is going full steam ahead with top surrogates hitting the road in Florida for a bus tour focused on reproductive rights.

KEILAR: The campaign also just releasing a new ad targeting inflation and her plan to ban corporate price gouging.

Joining us now, we have CNN national politics correspondent Eva McKend covering the Harris campaign and CNN national correspondent Kristen Holmes, who is covering the Trump campaign.

Eva, to you first.

What more can you tell us about the vice president's strategy here as she's getting ready for the debate?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, clearly part of the strategy is a pared-down schedule this week so she can prepare.

In terms of the campaign argument that she's honed in on, it's really centering on affordability and framing herself as a champion for the middle class. And this is at least landing in some corners. Yesterday, I was in Detroit for her rally there. I was talking to a union carpenter and he told me: "Listen, I don't make enough money to support Republicans."

So you see clearly a connection is being made there. And she's speaking directly to this in a new ad. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NARRATOR: We all know costs are too high, but while corporations are gouging families, Trump is focused on giving them tax cuts.

But Kamala Harris is focused on you.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: So that's centered on the policies that we heard from her in the first phase of the rollout of her economic plan.

The second phase of that rollout is going to come tomorrow in New Hampshire, where she really focuses on small businesses.

[13:20:02]

Democrats are spending a lot of money to advance their message, $297 million in ad reservations. And, for comparison, Republicans have $135 million, so lots and lots of money being spent to pump out this messaging.

SANCHEZ: Yes, Democrats more than doubling Republicans there.

Kristen, how is the Trump team now preparing for this final sprint to Election Day?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, this looks a lot different this week than it did in the last several weeks.

Talking to the senior advisers, they feel a lot better about the state of the race than they felt in the lead-up to this. Obviously, they have been saying for some time that they believe that the enthusiasm, the polling boost was all just a bounce from Kamala Harris. But when you actually started talking to them, there was a little bit of a fear.

This is not a long runway. How long could this bounce potentially last? But looking at recent polling, they believe that they are ahead of where they were in 2020, particularly in those battleground states, and they are feeling a little bit of a sense of relief, like this race is settling, like it is time for them to be able to get some of their messaging out, because some of the problems that they have had is that none of Donald Trump's attacks seem to be landing when it comes to Kamala Harris.

None of what they have put out there has gotten any traction, particularly as we have seen so much enthusiasm around Kamala Harris. So the hope is now, as they have seen the poll numbers kind of start to shift into a more moderate zone, they believe that this is time for the real race, where they hit the ground running.

They're going to be pouring money, resources into a lot of these battleground states. I'm told, in particular, Georgia, big focus there, as well as some of these other states. We know Donald Trump has been to Pennsylvania multiple times. He's going to go back again before November, several other times.

They really are starting to view this as a serious neck-and-neck campaign, and they feel like they have a little bit of breathing room, which they haven't totally felt for the last several weeks, as we have seen this acceleration of Kamala Harris.

SANCHEZ: And, Kristen, Eva, thank you so much for the reporting. Appreciate it.

Let's discuss now with our political panel. Meghan Hays is a Democratic strategist and DNC consultant. She served as director of message planning for the Biden White House. Also with us, Matt Gorman, Republican strategist who was the senior adviser for Tim Scott's presidential campaign.

Thank you both for being with us.

Matt, I want to pick up on something that Kristen just pointed out, which is this sense, even among some in Trump's team, that no line of attack on Vice President Harris from Trump has yet to really land and be effective. Why do you think that is?

MATT GORMAN, FORMER NRCC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: I think what you're seeing is a couple different attacks they're trying. I think you see J.D. Vance kind of does a lot when he talks about fraud and how she's kind of a political chameleon, emphasizing her flip-flops.

I think other parts of it, and you see this a lot with Trump on, say, TRUTH Social, talking about her as a radical and far left. I think how you reconcile those and especially what Trump does in the debate on next Tuesday should actually inform what they do through the fall.

Whatever he does in that debate, I would encourage him to stick with.

KEILAR: And I want to ask you, Meghan, about abortion because it does seem that Trump is waffling back and forth on the issue. He eventually landed last week on this voting on keeping Florida's six-week ban in place, which would be a vote against the state referendum in his state of Florida.

But he's had a hard time messaging this, and I wonder if you're surprised. It is a tricky issue, but I wonder if you're surprised by how difficult a time Trump has had trying to message this.

MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: No, I mean, I think that he made his stance clear when he took credit for overturning Roe v. Wade. So I don't think that it's surprising that he's now going back and forth, realizing that the polling is showing that this is an incredibly important issue for a lot of these swing voters in a lot of these battleground states.

So, I mean, it is surprising that he hasn't found his footing yet on this, but I do think it just goes to show how important the issue is and how well they realize it's polling for Democrats. And when you're talking about 10,000 votes in six or seven states, you're not talking a lot of wiggle room on really specific issues.

And if women and men are going to vote for this issue, and it's a top issue for them, they're not going to vote with someone who wants to take away freedoms and reproductive freedoms for someone. They're going to vote for Harris just based on that.

SANCHEZ: Matt, how difficult is navigating this issue for someone like Donald Trump, who's held so many different positions on this over the years?

Now that he's sort of zeroed in on it, it doesn't seem like it's clear what he believes.

GORMAN: A couple of things. And I think this is what always is tricky, whether it's Republican trying to make the case against Kamala on her flip-flops or Democrats with Trump on his, you almost don't want to concede that they have moderated.

And Meghan and kind of Kamala Harris campaign has done similar things. They don't want to concede that he's kind of moderated on this. They want to hold him to kind of what he said about Roe v. Wade. Same thing with Democrats -- Republicans who are talking about Kamala Harris and her kind of far left position she had when she ran for president in 2019 and 2020.

[13:25:02]

That's the tricky part about kind of when you prosecute the case against more of the flip-flops, you think, not only need to do that, but you need to paint a broader picture about trust. And I think that's what always is hard about doing that. You're more likely to kind of stick with what's unpopular at the position they might have had in the past.

KEILAR: There's a recent poll, Meghan, on the -- from "The Wall Street Journal," and it shows that, when it comes to issues like the economy, immigration, I mean, that is important. Look at it, 29, 19 percent, 14 percent on abortion.

But I wonder if you think that tells the entire story and if that explains, or maybe it doesn't, why Kamala Harris is focusing so much on abortion.

HAYS: I mean, I don't think it tells the entire story. I do think there's a lot of people who are just starting to tune in and pay attention. And I think that those people's focus is going to be on the economy.

So I mean, as we have talked about many times, that both campaigns are going to need to turn to focusing on the economy and how they're going to handle that issue moving forward. But I do think it does matter to a lot of people. It matters to the base and it matters -- abortion matters to the base to keep folks and reproductive freedom in general matters.

And so I think to keep the base there and to even expand a little on the margins, I do think it is important, but I don't think these polls are telling the whole story because I don't think everyone is fully engaged, as we are living in D.C. and on TV.

SANCHEZ: So, Meghan, what do you make of the polls that show that those who are asked have consistently believed that Donald Trump would be better on handling the economy than the Democratic candidate?

I mean, when Harris jumped into the race, those numbers actually went up and voters had more confidence in her than Joe Biden, but there's still nearly a double-digit, an 8 percent difference in polling.

HAYS: Yes, I mean, I think that the vice president needs to show what they did for the economy and the type of economy that they inherited during the pandemic in '21, which I think she was starting to do in the interview she had with Dana last week.

And I think that they need to continue to message what she's going to do to move forward, but I do think it is a problem and I think that is where the campaign is going to start to really focus. If you notice, their ad that came out talks about this. And, yesterday, they are starting to lay the groundwork.

And she has another step in the debate, where she can lay some of this groundwork more and move some of her policies forward. But it is concerning that voters are looking at that, but I do think that there is room for her to continue to go -- to -- for her numbers to move up.

KEILAR: All right, Matt, debate expectations. As you hear how these candidates are prepping, what do you think?

GORMAN: I mean, a couple of things, right?

Go back to what we saw in June. I think Trump really rose expectations for Joe Biden. And, at the end, he tried to really lower them. I think what you normally are doing if you're a candidate and whether it's Kamala or Trump, you want to control as many variables as possible. You want to know what the rules are going in, as we have had a lot of fights about them, so you can prepare for them.

What I will say is this. Kamala Harris, she didn't prove to be a very adept debater in 2019, 2020. She improved a lot in the V.P. debate in 2020. I'm curious to see what Kamala Harris shows up next Tuesday.

SANCHEZ: And, Meghan, what do you think? What does a successful debate look like for the V.P.?

HAYS: I think that the vice president needs to continue to do what she's doing and laying out her case of why she would make the best president and continue to get more specific on some of her policies.

The interview was a good step where she starts to lay out some more economic policies, but she needs to continue to do that and continue to tell people her story. She's relatively unknown to a lot of people, so if people are just tuning in and just starting to pay attention now, she needs to continue to lay out who she is and what she's going to do to help them and the economy.

And I think that will be a success for her.

SANCHEZ: Meghan and Matt, thank you both so much. Appreciate the conversation.

Up next: Some haunting new images of the Titanic reveal dramatic changes to this legendary wreckage, including the whereabouts of an artifact that's been shrouded in secrecy for decades. KEILAR: But first: two U.S. Marines assaulted in Turkey, one of them

heard on video shouting for help. The latest on who's behind the attack.

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