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Netanyahu Tells Trump His Plan Is "Consistent" With Israeli Goals; Trump, Netanyahu Speak After Meeting On Gaza Ceasefire Proposal; Trump Says He Will Lead Transitional "Board Of Peace" In Gaza; Police: Everyone Now Accounted For After LDS Church Shooting; Motive Still Unclear After 4 Killed, 8 Wounded In Michigan Church Attack. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 29, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: The next step will be the establishment of an international body charged with fully disarming Hamas and demilitarizing Gaza.

I appreciate your willingness to lead the body, Mr. President. I really appreciate it because you have a lot of things to do, and this is important. And it reflects the confidence that this will give everyone that things will be followed up on all the commitments made. The fact that you're taking this on, I think, helps a lot to make sure that everything flows in the direction that we want.

Now, if this international body succeeds, we will have permanently ended the war. Israel will conduct further withdrawals linked to the extent of disarmament and demilitarization, but will remain in the security perimeter for the foreseeable future.

I think we should understand that we're giving everybody a chance to have this done peacefully, something that will achieve all our war objectives without any further bloodshed.

But if Hamas rejects your plan, Mr. President, or if they supposedly accept it and then basically do everything to counter it, then Israel will finish the job by itself. This can be done the easy way, or it can be done the hard way. But it will be done. We prefer the easy way, but it has to be done. All these goals must be achieved, because we didn't fight this horrible fight, sacrifice the finest of our young men to have Hamas stay in Gaza and threaten us again and again and again with these horrific massacres.

Mr. President, I was encouraged by your clear statement at the U.N. against the recognition of a Palestinian state. That would be an outcome that, after October 7th, would reward terror, undermine security, and endanger Israel's very existence. As for the Palestinian Authority, I appreciate your firm position that the P.A. could have no role whatsoever in Gaza without undergoing a radical and genuine transformation.

In your 2020 peace plan, which you mentioned just now, you made clear what that transformation requires. It's not lip service. It's not checking a box. It's a fundamental, genuine, and enduring transformation. And that means ending pay-to-slay, changing the poisonous textbooks that teach hatred to Jews, to Palestinian children, stopping incitement in the media, ending lawfare against Israel at the ICC, the ICJ, recognizing the Jewish state, and many, many other reforms.

It won't come as a surprise to you that the vast majority of Israelis have no faith that the P.A. leopard will change its spots. But rather than wait for this miraculous transformation, your plan provides a practical and realistic path forward for Gaza in the coming years, in which Gaza will be administered neither by Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority, but by those committed to a genuine peace with Israel.

I think this can be not only a new beginning for Gaza, I think it can be a new beginning for the entire region. Under your leadership, we can re-energize -- well, I've got to contribute my own -- we can re- energize the Abraham Accords -- that's what it's called in the original Hebrew -- Abraham. Abraham is fine -- Abraham, however you want to call it.

Under your leadership, Mr. President, we can re-energize the Abraham Accords that we forged five years ago. We can expand them to many more Arab and Muslim nations that choose moderation over extremism. I think there's an opportunity here. It's not going to be easy, it's tough going, but I think if we succeed, you're absolutely right. We're going to open possibilities that nobody even dreamed of. But I think we dream of them.

As you've told me, Mr. President, and you've told the world many, many times, you said, remember October 7th. Remember October 7th. And we do. We will never forget the horrors of October 7th, and we will do whatever is necessary to make sure they don't happen again.

Since October 7th, Israel's enemies have learned a hard truth.

[15:05:04]

Those who attack us pay a heavy price. But those who partner with us advance progress and security for their peoples. President Trump just said it, it's also in the Bible. It says, those who will bless you will be blessed, and those who will curse you will be cursed. And that's actually what is happening. We want the blessings. I think we've done a lot in the past two years to end the curse. We're not finished, but we've done a lot, and we've done a lot together to end the curse.

I want to thank your entire team for their efforts to get to this point. I especially want to thank Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for their indefatigable work to bring Israel and Arab states and the region closer together. I am deeply grateful to both of them for their work. We had a phone call today, just to make it clear.

I said to the -- sorry -- the prime minister of Qatar, Israel was targeting terrorists. It wasn't targeting Qatar. And, of course, we regretted the loss of the Qatari citizen. It wasn't our target. And I very much appreciate President Trump's proposal to have a trilateral body -- the United States, Israel, and Qatar -- to work out respective grievances. There are quite a few. But if we can try to mitigate them or put it on a different footing, I think that would be good for everyone.

Above all, all the people, the fine team, and many helpers who have done this, I want to thank you, Mr. President. History has already shown that under your leadership, Israel and America can change the face of the Middle East. And today, I am hopeful that your plan to end the war in Gaza will do so again and do so soon. It will free our hostages, end Hamas' tyranny in Gaza, and enable a more secure and prosperous future for the peoples of our region.

Thank you, Mr. President. May God bless America. May God bless Israel. May God bless the indispensable alliance between our countries. And may I add, in Hebrew, Gmar Hatima Tova. May we all be inscribed in the Book of Life. Thank you.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you very much, Bibi.

So, I think while we wait for these documents to be signed and get everybody in line, I think it maybe is not really appropriate to take questions. I'm meeting with, as you know, a couple of Democrats in a little while about the country, about keeping our country open. They're going to have to do some things because their ideas are not very good ones. They're very bad for our country. So, we'll see how that works out. But this is something that was really historic today. This was something that was amazing.

I think, Bibi, I mean, depending on you, I think while we're waiting for signatures and waiting for approvals from a lot of different countries that are involved in this, we probably shouldn't take questions. Or would you like to take a question or two from perhaps a friendly Israeli reporter, if there's such a thing?

NETANYAHU: That's a very, very tough proposition. But I would think, Mr. President, that I would go by your instinct that this is -- we'll have enough time for questions. Let's settle the issue first, I think.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreeing to a framework. So, President Trump bringing Netanyahu along on this, a framework towards a peace deal in Gaza. Of course, Hamas will get a vote in this, but there is a lot of external pressure.

But also, Omar, just a very interesting moment there where they seemed to kind of broker off the cuff about whether or not they were going to take questions in a press conference, which normally does have questions from reporters.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: Yes, that's usually the basis of a press conference there. And it did put the Prime Minister in an interesting position. Clearly deferential to his host president here in the United States. We should also note, just as we meld a few stories together, 3 P.M.

Eastern Time was the time that the President was supposed to be meeting with a bipartisan congressional leadership as negotiator -- as lawmakers on Capitol Hill negotiate ahead of a potential government shutdown. But let's put that to the side for right now. So, that's likely where he's going to go.

[15:10:00]

But still very interesting that on a day that he called -- and I don't want to misquote him here -- one of the great days in the history of civilization, quoting the President, coming out ahead of Prime Minister Netanyahu there, did not take questions.

We want to go to the room right now, because one of those people that would have asked a question, I'm very sure, is our chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, who is standing there in the room for us.

You've been at a lot of these, and we do typically see questions. Do we know why that didn't happen? And what did you want to know from the President at this point?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, THE SOURCE: Yes, this is the second time in memory that President Trump has been in the room with a world leader with a setup like this one and not taken questions. The other one was with Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska. Obviously, that was a deal that wasn't fully finalized either. And now, in this room, the President said he was waiting for those signatures to be signed to this agreement or for even Hamas to accept it, which we have not heard of yet, before they would take questions on this deal.

He actually turned to the Israeli prime minister and asked him if he would like to take questions. He said he would go with the President's instinct there to not take questions from reporters, obviously an extremely rare circumstance with President Trump.

But actually, I'd gotten some indication before we came into the room that they likely would not be taking questions today, because there is still so much in the air. Because while we know that the President came out here and he said, yes, Israel agrees to this, and that the prime minister then said that he does agree to the President's plan, there are still a lot of questions, because when you read through this incredibly detailed 20-point plan of how that would be carried out, of whether or not Israel is fully committed unconditionally to every point in that plan, including the references to the Palestinian Authority, which it said would have some kind of role in Gaza, depending on reforms that happen. But you heard the prime minister here say that, no, the Palestinian Authority wouldn't have any kind of role in this.

And then, also questions about point 19 on that 20-point plan, which says that if all of these proposals and reforms are put in place, that there could be a potential pathway to a Palestinian statehood. That is something that Prime Minister Netanyahu actually just ruled out a couple of days ago when he was speaking at the United Nations. So, it raises a ton of questions there, and obviously we had a ton of

questions for both of these leaders about what is going to happen next year. The next big question, though, that everyone in this room has is how Hamas is going to respond to this. So far, as of last night, they said they had not seen a detailed proposal here. Just today, it was changing. It was actually 21 points that had been circulating. It was 20 points that was ultimately released by the White House here.

And so, it raises a lot of questions of exactly what that looks like, what is going to happen next year, and whether or not the future of Gaza changes in the immediate future. Because what it says is that if Hamas does agree in the next 72 hours, they'd release those 20 living hostages and the 28 hostages whose bodies we know are being held in Gaza. Obviously, that's a lot of action to happen in three days, and so that remains to be seen if that is actually going to be something.

And then, the timeline for the rest of this is still a huge question. I do want to note one thing, Omar, because while we're standing here, the last time we saw these two leaders in a room together holding a press conference was at the White House back in February. That was when President Trump had this idea of the United States taking over Gaza and relocating people from Gaza because he said they just couldn't live there given the level of destruction that is present in Gaza.

This plan is basically the opposite of that. It says not only can they stay, that no one will be forced to leave, that they will be guaranteed return should they choose to leave. It also says they are going to actively encourage them to stay in Gaza while they rebuild it. So, that obviously is a huge change as well. But yes, it was a striking moment to see President Trump come out here with another world leader and not take questions at such a sensitive moment. But it does speak to the fact that they are hoping to get this over the line, and they don't want any of their comments clearly to derail this potentially as they wait to see what Hamas says in response to this.

KEILAR: Yes, I mean, it speaks, Kaitlan, to the fragility of this moment, right, even as it is extraordinary to see these two leaders together.

COLLINS: Yes, and one thing -- I did try to stand up and ask a question there at the end as the President was saying, you know, he wasn't going to take any -- is whether or not Hamas has this deal in its hands or whether or not they're just seeing it posted online by the White House, all 20 points, obviously a lot of them that Hamas doesn't want to agree to, but the question is if they -- whether or not they will. That does speak to the nature of whether or not all of this is where it is.

I've been talking to a lot of White House officials over the weekend. They were hopeful that they are closer than they've ever been, and they've certainly felt close before for things to only fall apart. And so that is really the next question here in terms of, does this actually get over the line. We're not there yet. We simply aren't.

And so, if we get there, certainly it could happen if Hamas says yes, but that is no indication that they have said yes yet or whether or not they even actually have this plan from the White House yet.

JIMENEZ: Kaitlan Collins, stay close, appreciate the reporting live in the room as this press conference or as these comments from the heads of state wrapped up.

I want to bring in Jeremy Diamond as well.

[15:15:00]

Because Jeremy, in recent days you spoke with Hamas leadership, and some of what we have seen come out of this -- this plan, this 20-point plan seems to go in direct conflict with what Hamas seems to want at this point. I mean, you just look at one saying that Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee. It also mentions that some of these frameworks will happen in the meantime, that the Palestinian Authority can then come in at a point later on down the line.

Is there anything that stood out to you in this plan, this framework that was reached between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump that may just be non-starters for Hamas as we wait to hear how they react to this framework?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, there's no question already that Hamas will not like the fact that this plan calls for it to be completely demilitarized without any guarantees about the establishment of a Palestinian state.

When I interviewed senior Hamas official, Ghazi Hamad, last week, he made clear that the only scenario in which Hamas envisioned giving up its weapons would -- would be in the context of establishing a Palestinian state. But I do have to say, in going through the 20-point plan here, this is an absolutely extraordinary plan that we are seeing here for several reasons, one of which is that this is a take-it-or- leave-it offer to Hamas, but it is also a plan in which Hamas, in which Israel and the United States can very much move forward even if Hamas disagrees.

In fact, this plan lays out two potential pathways, and in both of these pathways, Israel would basically agree to gradually hand over territory that it has conquered to an international security force. This is the first time that Israel has ever agreed or even been willing to publicly discuss the idea of handing over territory to an international force, to actually talking about post-war governance of Gaza, let alone agreeing to a plan that would lead to that kind of post-war governance of Gaza.

For the last two years, those plans have largely been discussed very quietly behind closed doors, but for the Israeli prime minister to be agreeing to a plan that would eventually, gradually lead to the withdrawal of Israeli forces and handing over some of that territory to an international security force is truly extraordinary.

In these two pathways, in one of them, you see that Israeli forces would withdraw to agreed-upon lines if Hamas agrees to release the hostages within the next 72 hours. But if Hamas refuses, Israel would continue its offensive, and once it has conquered territory, it would eventually hand over that territory to this international security force.

Now, this plan doesn't lay out how quickly that would actually take place, but once again, it is the first time that we have ever seen Israel agree to any such notion. This plan also indicates that Israel must significantly increase the flow of aid to Gaza in either scenario, whether Hamas agrees or whether it doesn't.

But Omar, one major question still does remain here, and that is over the fate of these 48 hostages should Hamas reject this proposal. If Hamas rejects this proposal, you don't see any other mention in here of how Israel is going to get those hostages back other than through military means, which so far have proved largely and wildly unsuccessful in getting these hostages back. And so, I think that is still a major question here for the families of hostages.

If Hamas rejects this proposal, Israel moves forward with this military offensive. But what is the alternative to getting those hostages back? That is not answered in this plan.

KEILAR: Yes, very good point, Jeremy.

Here on set, Brett McGurk and Jeff Zeleny are with us.

Brett, is there enough pressure on Hamas to force them to accept this?

BRETT MCGURK, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: This is -- in some elements here, it's a Hamas surrender document. But what's key, if you have Qatar and Turkey and all the Arab states and you have the Arab league and you have Indonesia saying Hamas, take it, that is hugely significant. And anybody that wants to end this war, I don't care what side of this awful issue, this awful war, what side you're on, call on Hamas to take this deal. This is the end of the war.

And Hamas will not like -- it basically says Hamas has to like it. (INAUDIBLE) in Gaza, they have to demilitarize, but yes, they're going to -- they're going to say no way. That is completely against what Ghazi Hamad told Jeremy in that extraordinary interview. But this is how you end the war and how you have a better life for Palestinians.

And there's stuff in here Israel and the members of Bibi's coalition will not like. It completely rejects, as Jeremy said, this idea that Gazans would be forced to leave Gaza. It says that cannot happen. Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza, very clear in here.

Again, I think this is a huge step forward. This builds, frankly, on a lot of work that has been done since this war began on October 7th. The original idea phase one ceasefire and phase two we'd get to this.

[15:20:05]

That was -- we hope we get there this spring. That cease fire broke down largely because of Hamas, I have to say. But this is where we are now, we have it -- look, Netanyahu was trying to be a little bit equivocal but he said I support your plan and he said this plan meets my war aims, his war aims that they declared as a cabinet -- Israeli government early in the war.

So, if Hamas says yes, this is the path. But even if they don't say yes, that's what's so critical here in paragraph 17, even if Hamas rejects the proposal, this will be implemented in those areas of Gaza that Israel currently controls. So yes, I commend the team for working on this. I think this builds on a lot of work that we did in the last administration I have to say, but it's significant.

And having Netanyahu say I support your plan is very important and now all pressure has to be put on Hamas.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: And President Trump talked a lot derisively about President Biden but it was clear as you said much of this work or some of the work began in the Biden administration of course which you were a part of. But interestingly, if Hamas does not accept the plan, the President and the Prime Minister were very much in lock step on that as well and I think one of the most notable take away moments from this was when Prime Minister Netanyahu says this can be done the easy way or the hard way.

It sounded to us like that was very much meant for a domestic audience here. It sounded like Brendan Carr at the FCC said last week of course some controversial comments but in this case of -- an entirely different context, but he said if Hamas rejects your plan Mr. President or they supposedly accept it and basically do anything to counter it, Israel will finish the job by itself and they have the green light from the U.S. obviously to do that.

So -- but after all of this, after reading the document, the ball at the moment at least is in Hamas' court to say what they're going to do with it and we don't have an answer to that question.

MCGURK: A couple of things in here having done these negotiations, 250 life sentences, that means Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prison. The life sentences are the guys that have mostly killed Israelis, that's a lot. The deal we cut and we closed in January for 33 hostages had I think 115 life sentences. So, that number being so specific suggests to me there has been some discussion between the countries and the Hamas leadership in Doha.

KEILAR: That they're hitting a discussed mark?

MCGURK: It's a specific number, it's a high number, that's probably what Hamas would want. But you know, Jeremy, your point -- President Trump also said if Hamas does not agree that Israel have his full backing.

ZELENY: Yes.

MCGURK: But that also puts pressure on Hamas. This is how you end the war. There is no other -- there's really no other way right now.

JIMENEZ: And they really spoke -- I mean the President was very clear in speaking to all of the coalition of Arab and Muslim countries that were involved in sort of putting this together and that goes to one of the points here that for those that are still in Gaza, it says members of Hamas who wish to leave Gaza will be provided safe passage to receiving countries which, of course, that doesn't happen without Egypt's involvement, without Jordan's involvement and others as well.

And they made mention of the reporting we've been talking about which was that conversation between Israel and Qatari leadership which, of course, have been mediating between Hamas and Israel to this point.

We've got to leave the conversation there at this point. A lot of news, a lot of things to break down. We've got 20 points here and a lot of implications as we wait to see what comes from Hamas side of this, but a lot of this doesn't quite matter what Hamas thinks. We will see. Appreciate you all.

MCGURK: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: We've got more news coming up. We're still learning new details about the deadly church shooting in Michigan. What the gunman told a city council candidate before going on the attack. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:28:02]

JIMENEZ: We're following new developments after that deadly church shooting in Michigan. Authorities now revealing that everyone is accounted for whose whereabouts were previously unknown.

On Sunday, a gunman rammed his truck into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel, opened fire and set the building on fire. At least four people were killed and eight others wounded. The shooter is also dead.

The FBI says the attack is being investigated as an act of targeted violence. I want to bring in CNN's Leigh Waldman, who's on the scene for us.

The motive, still unclear officially at this point from investigators. But what are you hearing? What is the latest we know at this point?

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Omar, you're exactly right. Still officially unknown what led up to this attack, what the alleged gunman's mindset was up to this attack. But we are speaking with people who spoke to him recently.

I sat down with Kris Johns. He's running for city council in a nearby community here in Michigan. And exactly one week ago, just six days before the shooting, but one week ago from today, he actually door knocked on Thomas Jacobs Sanford's door and sat and spoke with him. He said it was a 20-minute conversation, nothing political.

But in that conversation, Sanford himself quickly turned the conversation to guns and also to the community of the Latter-day Saints. Take a listen to part of our conversation here. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRIS JOHNS, BURTON, MI CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE: He did make the statement that Mormons are the Antichrist, which is a shocking statement. And again, you're -- this is somebody you're just meeting for the first time. There was anger. I mean, it was a longstanding anger that I just -- I'm speculating. But what he did took planning. It also took real motivation and real anger to ultimately do what he did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALDMAN: And now, Johns in that -- he said that there was nothing in that conversation besides some -- some elevated language, some pointed language towards the LDS community here.

[15:30:03]

He said nothing rose to the level where he felt he needed to report that conversation.