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At Least 19 Killed in Israeli Airstrike on Gaza Humanitarian Zone; Harris and Trump Square Off Tonight at High-Stakes Debate; Thousands Evacuate as Wildfires Ravage California and Nevada. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired September 10, 2024 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: There was a chaotic scene overnight in Gaza, an Israeli airstrike killing and wounding dozens in an area that Israel itself designated a humanitarian zone. Survivors say entire families disappeared in the sand after a massive explosion. Israel says it was targeting Hamas fighters embedded in that area.

And just a short time ago, the IDF released video showing the tunnel where they say six hostages were held before being murdered by Hamas last month.

CNN's Matthew Chance is live for us in Tel Aviv. Matthew, what more is the IDF saying about these tunnels about this video?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, this is extremely dramatic and pretty disturbing video. Actually, the IDF, the Israeli Defense Force, has released over the course of the past few hours because it shows just one of the tunnels that they've uncovered in the south part of the Gaza Strip, which has been dug by Hamas, used by the militant groups there to, you know, to fight the Israeli Defense Forces. And in this occasion, to hide hostages, including the American hostages, Hersch Goldberg-Pollin, killed late last month, just before the Israeli Defense Forces, Israeli military, could get to them.

Look, I mean, the spokesperson for the Israeli military, who sort of led the cameras down there, you know, showed that the entrance to the tunnel was actually in a civilian house, in a children's bedroom, a child's bedroom. And then, you know, there was a sort of false floor that you could climb down something like 20 meters, 65 feet or so deep into the ground. And then the actual main bit of the tunnel stretched nearly 400 feet underground in very cramped conditions.

It was obviously dark. It was obviously very hot. You couldn't stand up straight in the tunnel. It was so low. But that's exactly the place where it's believed that the six hostages who were killed last month were kept for months on end.

And of course, the real horror is there's still 101 hostages inside Gaza, probably being kept in similar appalling conditions -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: And Matthew, talk to us about this strike on the humanitarian zone in Gaza. Has the IDF clarified any other detail about what happened?

CHANCE: Well, I mean, they issued a statement and they've been pretty clear about what happened, which is that they were targeting Hamas militants who they believed were operating a command and control center inside that humanitarian safe zone. They said they surveilled the area from the air very carefully. They said they adopted measures to mitigate civilian casualties during the strike.

But in the end, you know, as they proved they will do in the past, they went for the target as it presented itself. And of course, that had pretty horrific consequences for the for the for the civilian people there on the ground -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Matthew Chance live for us with an update from Tel Aviv. Thank you so much.

Still with CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We're back in just a few minutes.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The anticipation is building. The clock is ticking here as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump get set to confront each other just hours from now on the debate stage in Philadelphia. And we do have some new video here of the stage.

Trump at the left podium. Harris will be on the right. They'll be face to face, by the way, for the first time ever.

So keep that in mind. CNN's Randi Kaye gives us a look at some of their past performances for insights into their debate styles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Wait a minute. Let me shut you down for a second.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When it comes to debates, Donald Trump is not afraid to go on offense. That aggressive approach can backfire, though, like it did in his first 2020 debate with Joe Biden when Trump interrupted more than 100 times.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: People out there need help.

TRUMP: But why didn't you do it over in the last 25 years? His family's lost a fortune by coming down and helping.

BIDEN: That's a bad idea.

TRUMP: Can I tell you what?

BIDEN: You have no idea.

TRUMP: Antifa, Antifa is a dangerous radical.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gentlemen, we're now moving on to the Trump and Biden records.

KAYE (voice-over): Trump doesn't always come out swinging. Sometimes he's more restrained, staying out of the fray during some primary debates.

CHRIS CHRISTIE, FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: It's to make sure --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here's the problem, Governor.

CHRISTIE: -- that you use the system the way it's supposed to work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here's the problem, Governor.

[15:40:00]

KAYE (voice-over): Kamala Harris has a playbook for taking on interruptions, which she used during her 2020 vice presidential debate with Mike Pence.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking.

MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: I have to weigh in.

HARRIS: I'm speaking.

KAYE (voice-over): Harris's debate style is deliberate, mirroring her practice as a prosecutor, waiting for opportune moments, like when she sat back and waited to rebuke her rivals during this 2019 primary debate.

HARRIS: Hey, guys, you know what? America does not want to witness a food fight. They want to know how we're going to put food on their table.

KAYE (voice-over): Harris leaned on that tactic, a pause, then quip on Joe Biden in one of the most memorable primary debate moments of the 2020 campaign. It had to do with busing and desegregating schools.

HARRIS: There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.

KAYE (voice-over): Trump, for his part, is well-practiced at delivering zingers that don't feel rehearsed.

TRUMP: I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don't think he knows what he said either.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald, relax.

TRUMP: I'm relaxed. You're the basking case.

HILARY CLINTON, FORMER DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country. TRUMP: Because you'd be in jail.

KAYE (voice-over): There's always plenty of bravado from Trump.

TRUMP: I think my strongest asset, maybe by far, is my temperament. I have a winning temperament. I know how to win.

KAYE (voice-over): With Harris, it's more confidence.

HARRIS: We need someone on that stage who has the ability to go toe- to-toe with Donald Trump and someone who has the ability to rebuild the Obama coalition and bring the party and the nation together. I believe I am that candidate.

KAYE (voice-over): While Trump usually sticks to broader themes and familiar talking points.

TRUMP: I want to be able to preserve -- he will never be able to do it.

KAYE (voice-over): Harris strikes more of a balance between shaping narratives and sharing specific data.

HARRIS: And women are paid 80 cents on the dollar. Black women, 61 cents. Native American women, 58 cents. Latinas, 53 cents.

KAYE (voice-over): But just because she's prepared doesn't mean she's always ready for incoming fire. During this 2020 primary debate, then- candidate Tulsi Gabbard had Harris defending her record as a California prosecutor.

TULSI GABBARD, FORMER DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT CANDIDATE: In the case of those who were on death row, innocent people, you actually blocked evidence from being revealed that would have freed them until you were forced to do so. There is no excuse for that.

KAYE (voice-over): For this debate, Harris says she is prepared for Trump to deliver personal attacks, a strategy the former president has used in past debates.

TRUMP: Marco is not a negotiator. I watched him melt down, and I'll tell you it was one of the saddest things I've ever seen.

TRUMP: Such a nasty woman.

KAYE (voice-over): How the candidates performed could prove to be a consequential moment for the presidential race.

Randi Kaye, CNN, Palm Beach County, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Thanks to Randi Kaye for that breakdown.

Let's discuss with Todd Graham. He's a professor of debate at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Sir, thank you so much for being with us.

One of the things that I think is going to be at play right away in this debate tonight is that the vice president wants to use this as an opportunity to talk to the largest audience that she's likely going to get between now and November and introduce herself to a lot of folks that aren't as familiar with her. How does one do that over the course of a 90 minute debate?

TODD GRAHAM, PROFESSOR OF DEBATE, SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY CARBONDALE: Well, I think one of the first things you do in a debate is just show your personality. So if I was coaching her, I would say that Vice President Harris should show the people who she is in how she speaks and how she answers the questions. First off, she's got a great place to start with the Mike Pence one versus one debate that she had four years ago.

I thought she was excellent in that debate. And so always when you're coaching someone for an upcoming debate, you try to take a starting point. And the starting point would be the Pence debate.

And she handled everything pretty darn well in that debate. So I think that's where you begin. And that's how you let America know who you are, is you give them a little bit of your personality and you give them a little bit of policy.

SANCHEZ: Trump undoubtedly is going to seek to tie her to some of the more unpopular parts of the Biden administration and sort of play up her role in the administration. How do you think she should try to counter that?

GRAHAM: I think she should own it. Listen, from what I've been reading, the Trump administration -- the Trump debate prep team, they're talking about trying to tie the two of them together on things like government spending for infrastructure, etc. I think she's got to own that.

I think that a lot of Biden's policies were popular, but Biden wasn't popular. So she's got a tricky way. Obviously, you don't want to offend your sitting president, but there's a lot of ways you can do this and you can own these policies and say, yes, I'm fully behind that.

Because a lot of times when people would say why they didn't like Joe Biden, it came down to things like age, etc. But it wasn't really the policies he was doing. So if I were her, I would just turn it, we call it a turn in debate, and I would own that stuff.

[15:45:00]

I would go on the offense and say, you're darn right, I did help him with that. And I'm proud of it. Let's tell you what it's doing for the country.

SANCHEZ: On the other hand, Donald Trump doesn't really have to introduce himself to the American people the way that she does. This is going to be his seventh general election debate. It's a record. I think the question there is, which of the Donald Trumps that we've seen at debates previously would be most effective tonight? Because he's been sort of on the attack and he's been restrained at times, which do you think works best?

GRAHAM: Well, the two times he's been restrained in a one-on-one debate, like you said, he's had seven general election debates. In a one-on-one debate, and those is what these are, the only times he's been restrained is when the microphone is muted, which it will be tonight. So I think that's what we have to go on.

You can look at the last debate against Biden and the previous one in 2020 against Biden when the microphones are muted. Trump does become more restrained, and unfortunately what that does is it sets up kind of a double standard for what is acceptable in the debate. A lot of people tend to think Trump wins these debates as long as he's not excessively rude, and we've got to remember that's not really the bar we're looking for.

But yes, he has a better debate with that microphone turned off, he really does. And usually he has a much better demeanor. So that's what I think you should look for in him.

SANCHEZ: Abortion has been at the center of this election. There's no doubt that he's going to be attacked on that issue tonight because he's held over the years a multitude of positions on reproductive rights. Does he need to clarify that tonight, or is it as simple for him as pivoting away from that issue at every chance?

GRAHAM: I don't think he'll answer that question directly. One of the things, Boris, to look at is, does Trump answer any question directly? Now, when I was evaluating these debates for CNN four years ago, and I had to, you know, get my pencil and pen out and write them all down, I noticed that he didn't actually answer any of the questions in the final debate in 2020.

So if abortion comes up in this debate, I think one of the smartest things ABC could do is always keep the heart of the question on the television screen. I want to see what the question is at all times, so I know if they're answering it.

Will Trump talk about abortion? Yes. But will he answer the question they give him? Probably not.

No, he's going to go back to his generic sort of, you know, fly by night sort of approach, and it might even change tomorrow or if they had another debate, who knows?

SANCHEZ: Todd Graham, fascinating to get your perspective. Thanks for being with us.

GRAHAM: Absolutely.

SANCHEZ: Up next, wildfires in California and Nevada are driving thousands from their homes as firefighters race to contain these flames. The latest ahead. [15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Firefighters out West are battling more than 60 active wildfires combined. Those flames have destroyed more than 2 million acres and forced thousands of people from their homes. In California and Nevada, gusty winds and high heat are only making matters worse.

CNN's Nick Watt is in Running Springs, California. Tell us what you're seeing there, Nick.

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, just in the past four or five minutes we saw flames whip up the side of this dirt road which is a natural fire break and it's hard for flames to get across dirt. But the flames whipped up here and what you see now is a team was pretty quickly on the scene hosing it down and also digging up the vegetation. The vegetation is the fuel and that is a huge problem in this fire. So much dry trees, undergrowth, vegetation that just gets sucked up by that fire.

We're also dealing with high temperatures today. Around here it's going to peak at about 99. That is still very hot. It's going to dip tomorrow, which is going to help.

There's also a westerly wind. You can see the way the wind is blowing this smoke. You can see some flames over there and it's blowing these flames right now towards a little town called Arrow Bear Lake.

Now, in some senses the wind has been good today in that it's blowing the fire away from the most densely populated areas down on the plains but it's blowing these flames towards some of these little mountain communities like Big Bear, which you may have heard of, a ski resort in the winter, a lake resort in the summer. So that is what they are dealing with here.

There are homes right up there. We just saw some firefighters staged for a bit of a battle up there to try and save those homes.

We also see helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft in the air dropping on these flames trying to contain it. About 40 square miles burned so far and the fear is that there will be more burned today as these hot temperatures continue as this wind picks up over the afternoon and as it gets hotter.

So, right now, as I say, these guys managed to keep the fire just on this side of this natural firebreak but 1,700 plus personnel here doing all they can. It's going to be a battle -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, I'm from Orange County so I'm watching this with particular interest but I think everyone should be watching it, Nick, because it tells us a lot about what we're dealing with not just in California but around the world. Tell us about these other fires. You have one right there where you are but there's dozens.

WATT: Dozens. And, you know, the other one that we're particularly watching is the airport fire which is about 50 miles away in Orange County. Now, that broke out and went from about seven acres to about 1,900 acres in the space of just four hours yesterday.

And, interesting, we know what the cause of that was. That was sparks from equipment used by guys putting up some barriers. Just a few sparks.

Southern California, to use a cliche, is a tinderbox right now.

[15:55:00]

So just a couple of sparks can set off a wildfire. We don't yet know the cause of this but right now the priority is just trying to fight it -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Alright, Nick, we'll be watching that. Thank you so much for the update there and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: To our breaking news, the breaking news that had us doing the, the kangaroo. The breakdancer, you know her, Ray Gunn, whose performance in Paris caused a global uproar, is now ranked the number one breaker in the world, according to the World Dance Sport Federation.

[16:00:00]

SANCHEZ: Ray Gunn, whose real name is Rachel Gunn, failed to score any points during three rounds of Olympic competition, but Gunn won gold at last year's Oceania Championship, vaulting her to the world's top spot. The Federation apparently says the scores from the Olympics and Olympic qualifiers do not contribute to the ranking list.

She apologized for her performance. I say she has nothing to apologize about.

We've been practicing these moves. They require eminence flexibility. They're not easy to do.

KEILAR: I thought they would be easier than they are.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: But they're not.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: I can only do the arm part.

SANCHEZ: Doing that.

KEILAR: I'm just not flexible enough.

All right, we've got the kangaroo.

SANCHEZ: The kangaroo. They should make that like a silhouette. That's the one with that.

KEILAR: "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.

END