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Hamas Political Chief Killed, Stoking Fears of Wider Conflict; Today, Harris Continues Cross-Country Swing, En Route to Houston; Harris Campaign Says Trump is Hateful and Despicable in Response to His Jewish Comments. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired July 31, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning to you. You are live in the CNN newsroom. I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. Jim Acosta is off.

And we begin this hour with breaking news out of the Middle East. The world is watching as the region inches closer to the very real possibility of a widening war. This morning, Hamas accuses Israel of assassinating its political leader, Ismail Haniyeh.

The airstrike taking place during a visit to Tehran, and now Iran's supreme leader is vowing to avenge the killing, quote, you killed our dear guest in our house and now have paved the way for your harsh punishment. We consider it our duty to ask for the blood of our dear guest.

When asked, Israel's military said it is not responding to reports about the attack, which would not be unexpected. The U.S. says it will defend Israel if attacked, but hopes that the sky high tensions in the region can be diffused.

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LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: I don't think war is inevitable. We're going to work hard to make sure that that, you know, we're doing things to help take the temperature down and address issues through diplomatic means.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Israel is claiming an airstrike hours earlier in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. This blast killed the top Hezbollah military leader that Israel blames for this past weekend's attack that killed 12 children in Israel-controlled Golan Heights.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in northern Israel. CNN's Ivan Watson is in Beirut.

Jeremy, I want to start with you. How significant is this strike, both in terms of the target and the fact that it occurred on Iranian soil? JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: And it is extremely significant for both of those reasons, Pam. We know that the Israeli government has previously carried out assassinations on Iranian soil, but none quite as significant with so many implications for the region at large as this one, as it relates to Hamas' political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who, according to Iranian state media as well as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Hamas itself, was killed while he was in a residence in Tehran.

He was killed with an airborne-guided projectile, according to an Iranian state news agency, but we don't have many more details other than that. The Israeli officials, for their part, are neither confirming nor denying their responsibility for this assassination.

What is clear, though, is that this is going to have enormous implications for this region. Even before this assassination, this was already a region very much teetering on the brink of a broader regional war, in particular after that strike in Beirut last night that took out a senior Hezbollah commander. In addition to that, we know that those ceasefire and hostage deal negotiations that had been picking up some steam over the course of the last few weeks, those talks are effectively dead in the water for the time being, at least in the short-term.

And part of that stems from the fact that that Ismail Haniyeh was a key interlocutor in those talks, even viewed as a more pragmatic voice in those negotiations as far as Hamas was concerned. We're now hearing from the Qatari prime minister, one of the key mediators in those ongoing negotiations. And he says this, political assassinations and continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue leads us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side?

Now, as far as those regional implications, the Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant, he today visited an air defense battery, saying that Israel is preparing for all possibilities, sending a very clear signal about Israel's preparedness should retaliation come. Pam?

BROWN: All right. Let's go to Ivan Watson in Beirut on this. Ivan, what is the reaction there on the ground to this attack on Hamas' leader in Iran?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's been, there's been a chorus of condemnation coming from the governments of Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Russia, Iran, China and, of course, the harshest criticism coming from Iran, which was hosting Ismail Haniyeh and where this assassination took place.

So, all the different levels of government there have come out condemning this and also calling for revenge. The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, we've seen a red flag of vengeance raised over a mosque in the Iranian holy city of Qom.

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And then we've seen a statement coming on from Iran's admission to the United Nations in New York, saying, quote, the response to an assassination will indeed be special operations, harder and intended to instill deep regret in the perpetrator.

Iran's foreign ministry has gone on and basically accused the U.S. government of being responsible for what it describes as a heinous act of terrorism, saying that Washington is a supporter and accomplice of Israel. And as we turn to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, he gave an interview earlier today in which he said that the U.S. was unaware and not involved in this purported Israeli assassination of Ismail Haniyeh. He also made an appeal for a ceasefire. But as Jeremy just indicated, it looks like a possible ceasefire is further away than ever since the Gaza war began more than nine months ago. Pam?

BROWN: Right, because this leader played a key role in those negotiations as well. And Israel, for its part, it's not taking responsibility for the strike in Iran, but it is for the strike that killed a Hezbollah leader there in Beirut, where you are. How significant is his death to the militant group?

WATSON: Well, you know, that came as a shock here. There had been warnings coming of a retaliation from Israel to a deadly incident that took place over the weekend in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, which killed 12 Syrian Druze children. Hezbollah the Lebanese militant group denied any link to this. Israel and the U.S. government accuse it of carrying out the deadly strike there.

So, this city and this country was on edge waiting to see how Israel would respond. And around sunset yesterday evening, we saw a strike taking place, shearing off the side of a five-storey building that this senior Hezbollah official was in, Fouad Shukur. We don't know his status right now.

We do know that at least four people were killed, two women and also two children, a 10-year-old Hassan Fadlullah (ph) and his six-year-old sister, Amirah Fadlullah, and their older brother, Ali, is wounded and being treated in hospital. Here's what their uncle had to say in the aftermath of that Israeli strike.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I called my mother who told me that my sister, her children and her husband were under the rubble. I left work, got my family and left to Beirut. As soon as I arrived to Beirut, I was told they were first looking for the children. Then we were told they were martyred.

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WATSON: So we've had these two assassinations here in Beirut and in Tehran within a matter of hours. The question now looming over the region, how will Iran and its allies, Hezbollah, respond?

BROWN: All right. Ivan Watson, Jeremy Diamond, we'll be tracking that. Thank you so much.

Vice President Harris is continuing her momentous cross-country swings, stumping tonight in Houston, and it comes after her high- octane rally yesterday in Atlanta, headlined by rap artist Megan Thee Stallion. The crowds rivaled even Donald Trump's. And as the largest Democratic rally of the year, it gave Harris an electric platform to prosecute the case against her political rival.

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KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, PRESUMPTIVE DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He won't debate, but he and his running mates sure seem to have a lot to say about me. And, by the way, don't you find some of their stuff to just be plain weird?

I do hope you'll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage, because, as the saying goes, if you got something to say, say it to my face.

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BROWN: Donald Trump, meantime, is road-testing attacks of his own while his campaign is hitting Harris hard on immigration. He is zeroing in on how he thinks she'll be perceived on the world stage.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think they'll walk all over. She'll be so easy for them. She'll be like a play toy. They look at her and they say, we can't believe we got so lucky. They're going to walk all over her. And I don't want to say as to why, but a lot of people understand it.

Number one, she doesn't like Israel. Number two, she doesn't like Jewish people. You know it, I know it, everybody knows it, and nobody wants to say it.

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BROWN: Again, she is married, her husband is Jewish.

Staying with the Trump campaign in just a couple of hours, Donald Trump will address the National Association of Black Journalists Conference in Chicago. And his invitation has brought some backlash and infighting among some members of the organization, and protests are expected outside the hotel where he's scheduled to speak. But Trump is hoping his visit can grab a few of the headlines that have been dominated lately by the Harris campaign.

Let's bring in CNN's Sara Sidner live from the NABJ conference in Chicago.

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Sara, what do we expect to hear from Trump today amid all of this backlash?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, it's pretty clear that if you're talking to the National Association of Black Journalists, you are looking to try and encourage black voters to come to your side. He will be sitting down with a panel of journalists from several different news organizations and ask questions. He will also, according to NABJ, be fact-checked in real time.

Now, what made this clear that it's as part of his sort of reach to black Americans is a statement that he put out after it was announced that he would be speaking at NABJ. And there's certainly a lot of controversy around the fact that he is here, and yet the woman who could become the first black female American to become president is not here.

Here's what Donald Trump said after it was announced that he would be speaking to this group of journalists. He said, President Trump's accomplished more for black Americans than any other president in recent history by implementing America first policies, on the economy, immigration, energy, law and order, etcetera, which, of course, can be disputed in the sense when it comes to the economy, when it comes to black Americans, yes, numbers did of unemployment went down during his administration, but they're even lower with the Biden administration. So, some of these things you'll hear in the fact checks. That's what we're expecting today.

But the controversy still swirling, where you are seeing people, members, someone who was the vice chair of the board of this conference stepping down partly due to this decision to have only one of the candidates. But the reason for the one candidate, NABJ says, is pretty clear, that they reached out to both candidates and they reached out to Kamala Harris before Joe Biden stepped down, they say, and that her comms people said, look, her schedule couldn't accommodate this. And she was not able to do it virtually, she was not able to do it in person, but Donald Trump ended up accepting, and so they went with the candidate that said they could be here even though the other presumptive nominee cannot.

Here is the justification that we're been hearing from the president of NABJ, and remember, it's the National Association of Black Journalists, he points out the last word in their moniker.

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KEN LEMON, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BLACK JOURNALISTS: We have people whose lives are depending on what happens in November. For us as journalists, people who go into and have very uncomfortable conversations for the sake of our members. This is an important time. This is a great opportunity for us to vet the candidate right here on our ground. And that's what we do.

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SIDNER: And there are a couple of those controversies. He's talked about Chicago very negatively over the years. So, we do expect there to be also protesters here who dislike Donald Trump's platform. But he's also called several black journalists, including our very intelligent Abby Phillips, dumb and stupid. That, I'm sure, will also be addressed. Well, that's part of why the controversy is swirling here today. Pam? BROWN: Yes. And interesting that as of now, Vice President Harris will not be there, even though she was invited, her team saying that her schedule was too busy, she couldn't accommodate. So, we'll see what happens on that front.

Sara Sidner, thank you so much.

And coming up next cat ladies coming together along with other pet lovers to send a message to the Trump-Vance campaign, the tongue in cheek Zoom call with a serious agenda, up next.

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BROWN: The Harris campaign is hitting back after Donald Trump falsely claimed that Harris doesn't like Jewish people and agreed with a right wing radio host that the second gentleman is a, quote, crappy Jew. The campaign saying in a statement, quote, Donald Trump is hateful, despicable, and should not be our president. He roots against America. He insults America. Why would we want to put him in charge of America? Donald Trump thinks he can score points with Jewish voters by denigrating them. He is wrong.

So, let's discuss with CNN Senior Reporter Isaac Dovere and Senior Political Correspondent at The Wall Street Journal Molly Ball.

This is a pattern from Trump, Isaac. I mean, he has repeatedly now denigrated Jews who are Democrats, right? And you are continuing to see this from him, even as his campaign is trying to focus on other issues, like immigration.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes. Like what this stems from in Trump's mind is that he moved the embassy -- the American embassy to Jerusalem. And he feels like that was a big move on behalf of America toward Israel. And so he feels like Jewish people should support him because he did that. And so he's mad about disloyalty.

But, really, what that is rooted in is the idea that Jewish people should support whatever is good for Israel, and that there's a dual loyalties thing. That tracks back into a lot of complicated tropes that are through our history in this country and for Jewish people.

And, look, what it really comes down to for Harris is, he says she doesn't like Jewish people, she's married to a Jewish person, she's spent a lot of time in her life around Jewish people. I think if she had a real problem with Jewish people, it would be clear by now. What Trump is talking about is in this political context about dual loyalty, and I don't know that it's anyone's place to call anyone else a crappy Jew or a crappy Catholic or a crappy Protestant, but that is what he is doing here.

BROWN: That is what he is doing and he has done. Molly, I also want to zero in on another part of what we just heard. Not only did Trump call the president -- the vice president, I should say, a play toy, he also said that he doesn't -- he won't say why foreign leaders will walk all over her. He won't explain that. What is he trying to get at here?

MOLLY BALL, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Well, he isn't explaining it. He's just trying to imply something.

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I think on the one hand, this is in keeping with the traditional attack on all Democrats and the attack that the Trump campaign was making against Biden as being weak on foreign policy, arguing -- and I'm trying to be as charitable as possible and inject some substance here, right, arguing that the Trump foreign policy was muscular and therefore scared people into staying in line on the international stage, whereas the approach of the Biden administration and the approach of a potential Harris administration would be to project weakness and therefore allow things to get out of hand, all these wars to start that he claims wouldn't have happened on his watch.

But, you know, the way he tends to imply these things, I think invites people to read something else into it. Is he alluding to the fact that she's a woman? Is he alluding to the fact that she's a woman of color? He doesn't come out and say that. But I think that's what a lot of people hear when he makes these kinds of comments.

BROWN: And Harris, for her part, she went on offense last night on the immigration issue. Let's take a listen to that.

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HARRIS: And when I'm president, I will work to actually solve the problem. So, here is my pledge to you. As president, I will bring back the border security bill that Donald Trump killed, and I will sign it into law and show Donald Trump what real leadership looks like.

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BROWN: So, how does the Trump campaign fight against the fact that he essentially did kill the bill from the outside, right, and saying it was much better for the opposing side as part of his effort? How does the Trump campaign --

DOVERE: I mean, there are the politics around this issue, obviously, but there are the facts. There was a bipartisan -- I guess technically tripartisan, because one of the senators who negotiated was an independent, bill that was negotiated by senators, that there was a lot of support for in the Senate, both Democrats and Republicans. There was support in the House among Democrats and Republicans, until the moment when Donald Trump said, let's not do this. He said that in the spring, and he said very clearly then that it would be bad politics for him. He wanted the issue to be one that he could run on in the election.

Now, here it is. There's not an immigration bill. The legislation hasn't moved. Joe Biden said he would move with it if he had been sent to his desk. It didn't because of Donald Trump.

BROWN: And that will be brought up every time he tries to go after her on immigration. Go ahead, Molly.

BALL: Well, it's also the case that this immigration bill came together in late 2023 and border apprehensions had been going up for years until then. And the case that the Trump administration has -- the Trump campaign has made, I think, persuasively to a lot of voters is that it was this administration that let the border get so out of hand before belatedly realizing that it was a political problem that they needed to do something to try and address.

And, in fact, we've asked this question in our Wall Street Journal polling, which statement is closer to your views. On the one hand, you know, the Biden administration tried to fix this problem, but Republicans killed it, or on the other hand, that the Biden administration caused this problem by undoing many of Trump's executive actions on the border.

And most people continue to blame the Biden administration for letting the border get to this point and aren't necessarily persuaded by the idea that it's Republicans' fault for not agreeing to this action that they belatedly took to fix it.

BROWN: Yes, that's important context. As it pertains to Harris, though, and what her views are, right, we have this truncated time period, and it's important to know what her policy stances are. And the Harris campaign is having to clarify now which of her stances have shifted over the years since her last presidential race. In many ways, Harris has moved towards the middle on several issues, when it comes to fracking, when it comes to the single payer health care system, when it comes to defunding the police. How are voters responding to these differences from her more progressive agenda several years ago?

DOVERE: This is something that she obviously has to deal with. She was running a campaign in 2019 that was in one place, and she was part of the Biden administration. It's another place. And now she's trying to still just nine days here as a presidential candidate, where she is now, but those are three separate things. And I think her campaign is going to have to explain to voters how she changed, if there are changes, and already we see some, like on fracking.

BROWN: Right. And on, I mean, defunding the police, she had said several years ago, she had applauded the mayor of L.A. for moving millions of dollars out of the police department. Now, her campaign is trying to say she wants to fund the police, which the administration has done and be smart on crime. I mean, you are seeing this shift.

BALL: Well, I think the question is, you know, they are obviously scrambling to do a lot of things in this campaign that has been stood up in a matter of days, and one of them is pick a V.P. running mate. But another is, are they going to do some kind of policy rollout, right? Will she give a speech or a series of speeches where she sort of says where she stands? Or will they let it be this drip, drip, drip where they reverse these things on background from a spokesman one at a time and just let the picture be sort of muddied?

I think it would be in the interest of the campaign to have her, you know, give not just a campaign speech but a policy speech where she really lays out her platform.

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Maybe that's at the convention, maybe it's sooner. But I think this is, as the sort of sugar high of the honeymoon, the rollout fades, these are the questions she's going to need to answer.

BROWN: Yes, voters should know where she stands on policies, for sure. Isaac and Molly, thank you so much.

Well, from the West Wing to White Dudes for Harris, Bradley Whitford joins us next hour to discuss his part in the latest Zoom event backing Kamala Harris for president.

And also coming up, big shakeup at Boeing and CNN gets unprecedented access to the very key part at the center of one of the most recent 737 MAX controversies, up next.

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