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Trump Campaign Says It Has Been Hacked; Harris-Walz Wrap Up Battleground Blitz With Rally In Las Vegas; Dozens Of Civilians Killed In Gaza By Israeli Airstrike; U.S. Stocks Mostly Steady After Wild Week; Father Of Son Killed In Israel-Hamas War Speaks To CNN; USA Men's Basketball Wins 5th Straight Gold Medal; Jordan Chiles' Floor Exercise Bronze Medal Challenged By Romania. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired August 10, 2024 - 17:00   ET

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

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[17:01:21]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Hi, everyone. I'm Jessica Dean in New York.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Wolf Blitzer in Tel Aviv.

Tonight outrage spreading around the world as officials in Gaza reported deadly Israeli strike on a school and mosque killing at least 90 people, including children. Israel's military says it was targeting Hamas members but has not offered any evidence to back up that claim.

We're also keeping a very close eye on Israel's borders as Iran and its proxy group Hezbollah in Lebanon, vow to strike Israel in retaliation for the killing of a top Hamas leader in Tehran and a Hezbollah commander in Beirut, Lebanon.

We have our reporters covering all angles throughout the Middle East.

First, let's get back to Jessica in New York.

DEAN: Wolf, thanks so much.

And we're going to begin this hour with breaking news back here in the U.S. where the Trump campaign says it has been hacked claiming, quote, "foreign sources intended to interfere in the 2024 election".

CNN has reached out to the FBI for more information. We're waiting to hear back from them.

But in the meantime, we want to check in with CNN's Jeremy Herb, who has been tracking this breaking story. Jeremy, what more do we know?

JEREMY HERB, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Jessica, the Trump campaign revealed today that it has been hacked and these documents were sent to "Politico", which reported that it received from an anonymous account thousands of internal campaign documents.

Now in a statement, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said that these documents were obtained from foreign sources, suggesting that it was Iran who was behind this hacking.

Cheung pointed to a report published earlier this week from Microsoft. He said in a statement, these documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout the democratic process.

On Friday, a new report from Microsoft found that Iranian hackers broke into the account of a high-ranking official on a U.S. presidential campaign in June 2024, which coincides with the close timing of President Trump's selection of a vice-presidential nominee.

Now, this Microsoft report which was released earlier this week, it said that a hacking group associated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, they attempted to break into the account of a high- ranking campaign official in June. They did not say which campaign it was or if it was successful. So it's not yet clear that it was a Iran that was behind this hacking, Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Shades of 2016 as well.

All right. Jeremy Herb. Thank you so much for that latest reporting. We appreciate it.

And just hours from now, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Governor Tim Walz will take the stage at a rally in Las Vegas. They'll be wrapping up a nearly week-long tour through some of the most critical battleground states of this election.

The Harris campaign has seen a jolt of voter enthusiasm in the last three weeks since President Biden dropped out of the race and she became the party's presumptive nominee. She's -- new polling showing it's not just vibes (ph).

CNN's Harry Enten here to break that polling data down for us.

Harry, what do these new "New York Times" polls show? I've heard from a lot of people about these today, a lot of people with eyes on these.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes, a lot of people. I think this was the type of polling we've been waiting for, right?

We've seen that national polling showing movement towards Kamala Harris. Now we get some swing state polling showing something very similar.

All right. These are in the Great Lakes battleground states. We're talking about Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan.

You go back to May, what you see, you saw that -- a pretty tight race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. But you see more red than blue on the screen. Of course, all three of these states were states that Joe Biden carried last time around.

[17:04:51] ENTEN: You saw a three-point lead for Trump in Pennsylvania, one well within the margin of error in Wisconsin, and then a one-point lead for Biden in Michigan.

But look at where we are now. This is the type of movement the Harris campaign has been looking for. Look in Pennsylvania, a four-point advantage; Wisconsin, a four-point advantage; Michigan, a four-point advantage.

And in all three of these states, we see clear movement towards the Democratic nominee. I will point out we're still in no-clear-leader land in this particular instance. But the Harris campaign has to love this movement: seven points in Pennsylvania, five points to Wisconsin, and three points in the great state of Michigan. All moving towards Kamala Harris and she has the advantage in all three, although again, no clear leader within the margin of error.

DEAN: Right. Important to keep that context in mind.

Now, these aren't the only swing state polls that are showing Trump slipping.

ENTEN: That's exactly right. You know, if we were just talking about the "New York Times"/ Siena College and say, you know what, hold on a second, hold on, you know me, Jess. You know that I like to see confirmation of an individual poll.

So there were Ipsos polls that were conducted in these same states. And I want you to look. This is an aggregate, of course, across Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. You go back to June, what do you see? You saw Trump on average up by two points, very similar to what we saw in the "New York Times"/Siena College poll.

Look at where we are now -- the August margin between Harris and Trump. And look at what we see here. We see Harris up by two points. Again, no clear leader, but that four-point movement, very similar to what we saw in the "New York Times"/Siena College poll.

And this is what we're seeing across the polling data. It's not just one poll, it's not just one pollster. It's across pollsters. It's across polls. And of course, in these Great Lakes battleground states, they're going to be so important.

We're seeing this four-point move with, instead of seeing a small Republican lead, were seeing a small Democratic Party lead. And in this particular case, a small Kamala Harris lead over Donald Trump, the reverse of what we were just seeing just two months ago.

DEAN: Yes. And of course, the reason we care about these particular states so much is because of the electoral college and how this all is decided in the Fall.

What does this data mean for the Electoral College more broadly and how that's playing out.

ENTEN: Yes. So look, this is what we're talking about, the race to 270 electoral votes. And I want to give Kamala Harris those Great Lakes battleground states where she was leading, although within the margin of error. We're talking about Wisconsin, we're talking Michigan, we're talking Pennsylvania.

If we give those three states to Kamala Harris, even if she loses in Nevada, Arizona and Georgia, which are far from guaranteed. These, of course were three states that Joe Biden carried last time around, but in which the Democrats were falling a little bit short of their 2020 numbers, at least in recent data, at least when Joe Biden was in the race.

But if we give Harris Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania -- look at that. She doesn't even need these Sun Belt battleground states. She gets to exactly 270 electoral votes.

So the fact is, when you see those polls in those Great Lakes battleground states, and you see that Harris has turned the tide around from basically, you know, Donald Trump being slightly ahead to now Harris being slightly ahead, that could be the entire ball game.

Even if she loses down south, if she wins up north, that's enough. That gets her to exactly 270 electoral votes. And that's why those "New York Times"/Siena College poll as well as those Ipsos polling data, why it means so much.

DEAN: And so here we are, were probably -- I'm ballparking it here -- 80-something days away from the election at this point. How much can things change from now until the election?

ENTEN: Yes. So we have seen a lot of movement in the last two to three months and I just want to note that the movement that we've seen towards Harris could easily reverse itself. And the reason I say that is because how far off were the polls on August 10 compared to the final margin in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin on average in 2016?

The average from the polls at this point to the final margin nine points across those three states. How about in 2020? Look at that. The average movement from the final poll -- from the polls at this point to the final margin. Look at that. Five points.

So the fact is, yes, Kamala Harris may be slightly ahead right now. Again, though, a race which -- in which there's no clear leader within the margin of error, but that could easily turn around in the final, let's say, a little bit less than three months to go.

There's still a lot of campaign to go. We've got a Democratic National Convention to go. We probably have at least one more debate to go. So still a lot can change.

But at the end of the day, Jessica, if you're the Democratic Party and you were looking at the polls to three months ago and you compare it where you look now, I think for no doubt they'd rather look at this picture in August than the picture they were looking at in May. It's a much more rosy picture for the Democratic Party.

But still a lot of campaign ago, Jessica.

DEAN: Yes, that's right.

All right. Harry Enten always great to have you break it down for us? Thanks so much for that.

ENTEN: Thank you.

DEAN: Let's turn back to our breaking story this hour. The Trump campaign saying it has been hacked by what it's calling quote, "foreign sources looking to interfere in the election".

Joining us now, national political reporter for "The Bulwark" Marc Caputo.

Marc, thanks so much for being here with us.

[17:09:47]

DEAN: I know you've covered -- you've been covering the Trump campaign extensively. We remember back to 2016 when Trump asked Russian hackers to find Hillary Clinton's emails. Now the Trump campaign saying it's been hacked by what it calls a foreign source.

How significant is this?

MARC CAPUTO, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE BULWARK: Well, the significance of the breach, I don't know. The significance of this as a new story is pretty big because it's probably going to reverse some of the roles of the right and the left in 2016, the left for saying, oh, my God, news media don't publish hacked stuff from the campaign and the right was saying, yes, yes, do it.

Now, the right is saying no, no, don't do that. And I've just seen now, Twitter is a bad judge of public sentiment, but I'm saying a lot of people on the left saying, ok guys, you need to publish this as well. Turnabout is fair play.

How that plays out and the position is political and it's kind of unique.

DEAN: Yes, it will be very interesting to see how this plays out. What -- is the Trump campaign concerned? What is their level of concern about this at this point?

CAPUTO: I can't really tell what their level of concern about it is, genuinely. But they're certainly freaked out that someone appears to have hacked into their campaign in some way, shape, or form. From what we understand it's a spear-phishing attack.

This is kind of a thing where someone has sent up an email or a link by email. You click it and they gain access to your equipment, your controls, your system.

But just what was compromised and what is in the hands of whichever actors these are is not clear. And if you're a campaign that's going to make you pretty damn nervous. Especially lately now, exactly when the hack happened and what information was gleaned is unclear.

The past few weeks have been just sort of a murderers' row of bad news for the Trump campaign. And this sort of is really a final bit of terrible news for them to sort of subsume or to be hit with.

I think going forward, the campaign is going to have to fix its security protocols and do a triage to figure out just what happened.

DEAN: It has been interesting, you mentioned the last several weeks, to see one of the greatest stretches for this, for the Trump campaign that came back several weeks ago before President Biden dropped out of this race.

Now that pendulum, of course, has swung in the Democrats' favor with incredible momentum for Vice President Harris and her campaign. We now see Trump has been off the campaign trail getting back on it last night in Montana.

What do you make of how he's metabolizing all of this and what the campaign and his advisers are trying to advise him to do versus what Trump the candidate and his instincts are.

CAPUTO: Well, it's never quite clear what his advisers say that they're advising him to do, because that's just considered a no-no in the Trump campaign. In Trump's prior two campaigns and in the Trump White House, they're all these always these various circles of advisers who would leak to the media this information about how they were advising Trump to be better.

And that was really damaging to both his white House's information flow as well as that of the two prior campaigns. You're not hearing that out of this Trump campaign, at least not yet.

Now, there was a really fantastic report in "The New York Times" this morning and it jives with some of the things I knew, although they've got a lot of news in there. You should read it, where Trump is angry. He's not handling this well.

And even prior to this, I think it was on CNN on Thursday on "OUT FRONT" on Erin Burnett's show. I guess Erica Hill was there, of course.

And one of the things that I made clear there was that even though Trump is not admitting that he was losing, and that doesn't mean he's lost, his body language is communicating that he is.

He's acting in such a way where you can just tell that he's nervous, he's unsettled and "The New York Times" reported quite clearly that he's told people, he's told donors, look I'm angry.

They want him to get on message. They want him to be clearer and more concise. He's not doing it. So they're in a bit of a troubling death spiral at the moment. Maybe death spiral is a little too strong, people can misconstrue that.

They're in a negative feedback loop. With positive -- or positive feedback loop with negative consequences. How he gets out of that, it's not very clear.

DEAN: It will be interesting to see how the next few weeks go, as we settle into the Fall.

Marc Caputo, great to have you on. Thanks so much.

CAPUTO: Thanks, Jessica. Appreciate you.

DEAN: We'll have much more news ahead, including Wolf Blitzer live in Tel Aviv, Wolf.

BLITZER: Jessica, thank you.

Straight ahead from here in Tel Aviv, we're getting reaction from across this region to Israel's deadly early morning strike on a school and a mosque in Gaza. Dozens are dead.

Plus sources now say Lebanon's a militant group Hezbollah is ready to strike Israel in a matter of days.

[17:14:48]

BLITZER: And dozens of hostages are still being held in Gaza tonight. We'll speak to the father of one of them just ahead.

Stay with us. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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BLITZER: Welcome back.

I'm Wolf Blitzer in Tel Aviv.

Israel devastating Israeli attack on a school in Gaza is now threatening the possibility of restarting ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel. This after an Israeli strike earlier Saturday morning hit a school and a mosque compound in Gaza.

[17:19:53]

BLITZER: A warning the images you're about to see are disturbing. Gaza officials say at least 93 people are dead, including children and more are injured after the strike on a compound where displaced Palestinians were sheltering.

Israel tells CNN it was targeting, I'm quoting now, "Hamas terrorists" who were running a command-and-control center inside that compound but have yet to provide evidence to back up their claim. And they say they took steps to mitigate the risk to civilians.

CNN cannot verify those claims.

This is the IDF's fifth strike on a school in Gaza in just six days.

CNN's Clarissa Ward is here with me in Tel Aviv. She's monitoring what's going on. This was truly, Clarissa, a devastating attack.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This was a horrific attack. The Gaza Civil Defense is saying that among those 93 dead, 11 of them were children, six of them were women.

And it hit these worshippers just at dawn as they were praying the Fajr prayer, the first prayer of the day. Rescue workers arrived on the scene. And really the video we've been looking through all day, Wolf, it looks like a scene from a horror movie, honestly. Very, very gruesome indeed.

Now we have heard -- an English statement has come out from IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, where he acknowledges that they understand that the schools, while they're not in session, they are de facto shelters.

According to the Gaza civil defense 6,000 people -- people were sheltering in this specific location.

Hagari says that -- and we've heard this many times before -- that Hamas is using these types of shelters as command-and-control centers. And he goes on to say that this specific type of munition that the IDF used for this strike could not create those casualties, could not create that level of damage.

Now, we actually found some footage of one of the munitions used. It's called the GBU-39 small diameter bomb. It's U.S. made, produced by Boeing. We spoke to two different weapons experts, one of them a former U.S. army bomb technician, who said that if the room was crowded with a lot of people, that even smaller munitions like that can cause very high casualty rates.

Again, the Gaza Civil Defense is saying that there were 200 people roughly who were gathered in that room for that prayer. So we're not on the ground Gaza, we don't have eyes exactly to say how many people were killed but we are seeing international condemnation coming flooding in and judging from those pictures that I have been wading through all day, Wolf, it was a very gruesome and horrific scene.

BLITZER: I see those little kids on the ground. It's heartbreaking to see those images indeed. Clarissa, I know you're working your sources. Thank you very, very much.

All of this is unfolding as there are ceasefire talks scheduled for later this week.

Let me go back to Clarissa for a moment. Those talks are supposed to take place either in Cairo or Doha, Qatar on Thursday, this coming Thursday. What are we hearing?

WARD: Well, the first thing I would just say is that Hamas has not yet said whether they will even attend these talks. So there's is already that question mark hanging over.

Does this strike in Gaza, gruesome and horrific as it was, does that put something of a question mark around what Hamas' response might be. What the response as well, of countries like Qatar, like Egypt, Arab nations that feel huge amounts of pressure from their own people to really show that they're taking a strong hand against Israel but also feel a huge amount of pressure to deliver peace.

The thing we are hearing again and again, Wolf is people questioning -- and not just in Arab countries, in the West too -- is Israel really sincere at this stage about wanting peace. And that obviously comes into question much more when you have a strike like we saw today.

But diplomats from all over the world are furiously trying to push these ceasefire talks across the finish line.

Of course, it's not just what's happening in Gaza that is causing so much tension. You have a potential retaliation from Iran. You have an anticipated retaliation from Hezbollah and the entire region really on a knife-edge, Wolf.

The U.S. says it will send a representative to these negotiations Thursday, whether it's in Cairo or Doha. And the Israelis say they'll send a representative as well. We shall see what happens with Hamas if they send a representative.

All right. Clarissa Ward, thank you very much.

Right now Israeli firefighting teams are battling multiple fires that have just broken out in northern Israel after the IDF intercepted multiple drone launches from Hezbollah in south Lebanon, heading into Israeli territory.

The Israeli military says several areas are affected by the fires, but no casualties, at least not yet, have been reported.

All this comes as sources tell CNN that Hezbollah says it is ready to strike Israel independent of Iran, as fears of an imminent Iranian attack threaten to widen the conflict into a much wider regional war.

[17:24:51]

BLITZER: Iran has vowed what it calls "blood vengeance" after a Hamas leader was killed in Tehran last week. Iran and Hamas blame Israel, though Israel has not confirmed or denied responsibility.

The U.S. meanwhile is warning of a quote, "major escalation" if Iran were to launch this kind of full-scale attack against Israel.

CNN military analyst Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton is joining us right now.

Colonel, will this turn into an all-out war? What's your bottom line assessment?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well Wolf, it's a -- one of those areas where I think it's highly-likely -- I'd give it about a 50 percent chance that war could break out of the type that we fear. There of course, are the diplomatic efforts that you and Clarissa were talking about, those could very well bear some fruit and could potentially delay some of these attacks that we think might happen.

But the bottom line is that both Hezbollah and Iran have various interests that they think they can only achieve -- various goals that they can only achieve through direct combat with Israel and that's something that we will probably see in the not-too-distant future.

BLITZER: And if they were to launch this kind of attack, whether Hezbollah or Iran, the Israelis would respond with massive force as well. This thing could escalate even more dramatically than a lot of people anticipated.

Colonel, Israeli officials told their American counterparts that they used small munitions. Their words "small munitions" as opposed to larger bombs in that airstrike specifically to mitigate civilian harm in Gaza. A U.S. official familiar with the matter says that's what the Israelis are saying.

What's your reaction to that.

LEIGHTON: Well, it's certainly true that they probably used the GBU-39 Clarissa was mentioning. That is what's called a small diameter bomb and the way that bomb is designed, it's designed to be a GPS guided munition that hits a specific target. So it is designed to minimize civilian casualties or collateral damage.

But as some of the other weapons experts have been saying, if a bomb like that goes off in a crowded area, it will still kill a lot of people because it has a blast radius that is quite effective for that limited area. But if there are people in that area, they will most likely be injured or killed.

BLITZER: Colonel Cedric Leighton, thanks very much for joining us. Appreciate it always to get your expertise.

I want to go back to Jessica in New York.

DEAN: Thank you so much, Wolf.

Still ahead, markets seem to have recovered a sense of calm after a wild week. The question is, what comes next? What you should know about mortgage rates, your 401 (k) and a looming interest rate decision.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[17:32:05]

DEAN: Turning now to a whiplash on Wall Street. Markets seem to have recovered after a lousy jobs report and a jolt of fear through the stock market with the Dow losing more than 1,000 points in a single day. Then later in the week, a separate report reassured nervous investors

back into buying.

Let's discuss what happened and what it could mean for the Fed's upcoming rate decision with CNN global economic analyst, Rana Foroohar.

Rana, thanks so much for being here with us. We appreciate it.

Let's just start with your analysis of the last week. We started with that dramatic Monday selloff. Now stocks seem to be basically back to where they started. Walk us through what happened.

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: Yes, for sure. So let me just start by saying that August has tended to be, for the last few years, the rockiest time in the market. So it's not a surprise that you have a blip.

Basically, what happened was we got some unwinding in various trades in Japan. At the same time, we got a bad jobs report in the U.S.

All that together, with some other data, kind of pointing to consumer slowdown, some of that Covid savings cushion being spent down, led investors to believe, hey, there might be a market slowdown coming.

And so people start trading. They're expecting the market to go down. That then creates a sort of a bit of a sell-fulfilling cycle where it does go down.

But the next day, you saw it go back up. And that says that we just don't know yet where we are.

I should also say that Wall Street and Main Street are very different things. I expect Wall Street to continue to be jittery, really through the election. Because there's just a lot of unknowns out there, economically and politically.

But I would want to see at least another month or two of jobs data to say for sure, yes, we are in an economic slowdown.

DEAN: And so, even with all of that, a drop does make people nervous if they have a 401K or they have retirement accounts, especially people who might be getting near needing those, right, needing to dip into those two because they're going to be retiring.

What is your advice to them?

FOROOHAR: Sit tight. This is not a time to be making rash moves. It's not a time to be selling.

I really, as I say, expect a lot of volatility through the election. You know, we are at a -- I would say a turning point moment in the economy. We're going to know within three months, four months whether or not we are going to go into slow down.

Which, by the way, would be about normal. I mean, the last time we really had a recession, aside from that very quick Covid blip and then quick come comeback, was 15 years ago. So we are due for something of a slowdown. It wouldn't be abnormal.

But again, it's possible that we could still have a soft landing. You really want to see three jobs reports before you say, yes, this is a trend.

DEAN: And there was some good news though for people who might be trying to buy their first home.

FOROOHAR: Absolutely. You're going to start to see interest rates go down. It's very likely the Fed will probably cut in September. Banks are already lowering ahead of that.

That's going to be a really great thing for people that want to buy and maybe people that want to sell, too.

[17:35:03]

One of the things that has kept the market so high is that, after Covid, you got price hikes. But you also had very high interest rates. So people just couldn't move. You know, the stock was not moving. Buyers didn't want to go and pay those high rates. Prices have still been high.

So if you start to see at least one part of that equation, the interest rate, getting a little bit lower, you might see some more supply in the market. That might loosen some things up and just make it easier for everybody that wants to be a homeowner.

DEAN: Yes, that would be welcome news for a lot of people.

All right. Rana Foroohar, thank you so much for your expertise. We appreciate it.

FOROOHAR: Thank you.

DEAN: Still ahead, 115 hostages still being held by Hamas. We're going to go back to Wolf Blitzer, who's live in Tel Aviv. He's going to talk with one father whose son was abducted, taken on October 7th, here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[17:40:34]

BLITZER: Major developments this evening out of the Middle East. Israel Defense Forces say a top Islamic jihad commander was likely at the school that was struck today in Gaza.

A warning, the video you're about to see may be disturbing.

At least 93 Palestinians were killed and more injured, according to Gaza officials. The Israeli military says it's not clear yet if that commander was at the location at the time of the airstrike. But it says there is a high probability that Ashraf Juda was at the school that was targeted. That's coming in from the IDF chief spokesman, retired Admiral Daniel Hagari.

Israel is telling CNN that they took steps to mitigate civilian casualties and that Hamas terrorists we're operating a base in that area.

All this comes as both Israel and Hamas were set to resume ceasefire talks this coming week, this coming Thursday.

I want to discuss what's going on, the latest developments in those ceasefire and hostage negotiations with Ruby Chen. His son, Itay Chen, an IDF soldier who was killed on October 7th.

Ruby Chen has been advocating ever since to bring home all the hostages, alive and dead, including his son's remains.

Ruby Chen is joining us right now.

Ruby, what's your thoughts right now? This Israeli attack on this mosque and the school, resulting in casualties. How's that going to impact the opportunity potentially to bring home all the remaining Israel hostages?

RUBY CHEN, FATHER OF ITAY CHEN, IDF SOLDIER KILLED ON OCT 7: Yes, so at least what I think, Wolf, is that there's a time, especially now, that we all kind of like at that two-minute warning before getting in. We need to think what is strategic and not strategic to help us get that hostage deal.

And I would question and ask, you know, is this attack helpful to get us to that finish line or not? Yes, of course, they feel unfortunate that these things happen. We did not enjoy seeing these things happen. We do not like to see people, innocent people killed.

It's time after 10 months put this to rest.

BLITZER: So you want the negotiation to result in a ceasefire and to bring all the hostages home?

CHEN: Now, the 115 families that have been through excruciating pain and psychological warfare, and my son is one of them. He is one of the eight U.S. hostages.

Unfortunately, as you mentioned, Itay, we were notified is most likely not coming back alive. But he is part of 45, 45, Wolf, U.S. citizens that were killed by Hamas on October 7th. That matters.

BLITZER: And I know you and some of the other family members of the American hostages had a chance to speak, what, yesterday with Jake Sullivan, President Biden's national security adviser. What was the upshot?

CHEN: So we've been fortunate that Mr. Sullivan finds time to talk to us. We have an ongoing call with the White House once a week. Yesterday, he did talk to us and give us kind of like the game plan that the U.S. has for next week. We understood Mr. Beklagod (ph) will be coming beforehand to the region and laying the game plan.

We told Mr. Sullivan that we wanted to congratulate him on the most recent deal of letting U.S. hostages out in a very complicated, with a number of countries involved deal of getting us hostages out.

And we urge Mr. Sullivant to say that if these talks do not consume to a deal, then maybe that template that was built to at least the U.S. hostages with Russia, where Mr. Biden made a very tough decision. But it was leadership. And he took that tough decision to get these U.S. hostages out.

And we urged Mr. Sullivan to think again, if this week is not going to where we are planning to go. Then these U.S. citizens have been in harm's way for over 10 months. It's time to get them out.

BLITZER: Certainly, it is time to bring all the hostages back home.

If there is an escalation in the tensions and there's a war, a real war that Iran attacks Israel, Hezbollah from Lebanon attacks, how's that going to impact the effort to try to bring the hostages home?

CHEN: So I think that we, the majority of the people that live in Israel, you know, are very grateful for what the United States has done the last 10 days with mobilizing these forces into the region.

[17:45:06]

It has deterred until now Iran and Hezbollah from making an attack on Israel. We also are very thankful for that from the United States.

We see the efforts that the United States are putting on this. We also see a very interesting comment from Iran that came out the last 24 hours, saying that they are not a side to a deal between Israel and Hamas.

We've seen other countries come out. We've seen France and, of course, Qatar and Egypt urging for this deal to happen.

So we are optimistic because we have no other choice. But we are positive that this is the time, this is the window so of opportunity because of the political window opening in the United States and in Israel to get this done.

And we need everybody, everybody focused to get this deal done. And I would even urge the prime minister of Israel, that claims he is the best negotiator, he knows how to get a deal done, he knows how to stand for what is right for the state of Israel.

I would urge him, Mr. Netanyahu, please get on a plane. This is what I say. We see the prime minister of Qatar involved directly in these talks. I would urge him get on a plane. We'll be very thankful to see you negotiate and bring our loved ones back home after 10 months of this agony. BLITZER: So you want Netanyahu personally to go to either Cairo or

Doha, Qatar, and negotiate on behalf of Israel?

CHEN: He is the prime minister. He was responsible for what happened on October 7th. Then he claims that he knows how to do the best negotiation possible.

Show up. Do your thing. Bring our loved ones back home. It's about time.

BLITZER: Ruby, I want you to stay with us. The Democratic presidential candidate and vice president of the United States has just spoken out about the hostage situation and what's going on here in the Middle East.

I want to run a little clip. And listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- to go after the terrorists that are Hamas. But as I've said many, many times, they also have, I believe, that important responsibility to avoid civilian casualties.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) saying that, since October 7th, it's written policy for many, many months now as tens of thousands of civilians have been killed. I mean, there are people who are asking for limitations on arms to Israel, any kind of change.

What do you say to those folks who are looking for more than we should look out for civilians?

HARRIS: Well, look, first and foremost -- and the president and I've been working on this around the clock. We need to get the hostages out. We need a hostage deal. And we need to ceasefire.

And I can't stress that strongly enough. It needs to get done. The deal needs to get done. It needs to get done now.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: On the economy, I know you're going to speak about that this coming week --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, Ruby, I don't know if you could really hear. The audio was not that clear. But what did you think of what you heard?

CHEN: I think it's consistent with what the U.S. administration, the Biden administration has been advocating for a while.

The key to stability in the region and the de-escalation is the hostage deal. That will bring down tensions both here with Israel in the north and the south with Iran.

So this is the key. And this is where we see the U.S. putting a lot of effort, a lot of pressure on all the sides to get a deal. This is part of the strategic interest of the United States to bring

de-escalation to the region. And reminding you again, there are eight U.S. hostages that have been in harm's way for the 10 months.

So it's the U.S. has equity in this. It's not just being a facilitator.

BLITZER: And very quickly, you have a book that you brought. I just want to show our viewers. What is this book about?

CHEN: Yes, it's a book that was done by a famous photographer here in Israel called Eve Colin (ph). We, the families, who have been at the White House and the Pentagon meetings, the secretary of defense about 10 days ago.

My mom taught me, you don't come empty handed to people like that. So I thought, what would make sense to come and show. So this is the book that we -- documents what happened on October 7th.

And I think that the Pentagon is somewhat of a museum. And I think it's very important to have this documented album in the White House, as well as the Pentagon.

The secretary of defense was very grateful for this, seeing this book and taking time to look at it, as well as the president himself.

We, the families, the U.S. families, of course, put something at the beginning, thanking them for the effort, and urging them to get this done.

BLITZER: Yes, our thoughts go out to Itay right now. And we're so sad that you -- who informed you that Itay had died?

CHEN: It was a combined effort by both U.S. intelligence as well as the Israeli intelligence. And we were grateful on that very difficult day that the president himself actually give us a call as well as the vice president and the secretary of state.

[17:50:01]

And we, more or less, told them the same thing. And I asked him, and I'm asking you as well, do you know what a Shiva is? A Shiva is the Jewish tradition where the Israeli people mourn for their deceased loved ones. And --

BLITZER: Not just the Israeli people, but the Jewish people. Excuse me.

CHEN: Yes. And I told him, we decided not to do a shiva because, in our book, he's not back. And I asked the president, when are we going to have a shiva, as well as the vice president, as well as secretary of state.

And that's what we're waiting for because he is still a hostage. And he needs to come back and we need to be united with him and be able to have our next chapter of our lives begin and not be kept in this limbo for over 10 months.

BLITZER: It's a horrible, horrible situation.

Ruby, thank you so much. Good luck to you and your family. And let's hope all those hostages are coming home.

CHEN: Amen.

BLITZER: And coming home soon.

CHEN: Amen.

BLITZER: I appreciate it very much.

Jessica, back to you.

DEAN: All right, Wolf, thank you so much for that interview. We're sending our best to Ruby and to all the family members and friends of those hostages. Hopefully, they are home soon.

Still ahead, Olympic drama. The International Gymnastic Federation could potentially force American gymnastic, Jordan Chiles, to give back the bronze medal for her floor routine. We'll have more. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[17:56:02]

DEAN: The Olympic Games are winding down in Paris with some drama. Moments ago, the U.S. men's basketball team winning another gold medal by beating the host team, France.

Patrick Snell joining us.

Patrick, everywhere on the Internet, it's just clips of Steph Curry. People are so excited. Tell us how they did it.

PATRICK SNELL, CNN "WORLD SPORT" HOST: Yes, another gold medal, Jessica, for Team USA. They just dominate this competition, don't they? Over the years, it's been really one-sided. Only three other countries have ever interrupted that dominance.

Those nation on this occasion, France, led by Victor Wembanyama, the latest to try and stop the Americans. The young phenom with 26 points. But it wasn't enough.

A balanced American can attack, led by those superstars, as you mentioned. LeBron James, Steph Curry leading the way for team USA, beating France 98 points to 87. That's a fifth straight, yes, a fifth- straight gold for the American team.

And a developing story off the field. This is highly significant. The American gymnasts, Jordan Chiles, may soon have to return the bronze medal she won on the floor exercise earlier in the week after a ruling from the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Remember the bronze medal was originally awarded to Romanian teen, Ana

Barbosu. Chiles had finished fifth originally. But then successfully challenged, she thought, the difficulty score, which added 0.1 to a tally. The American was then moved up to third behind compatriot, Simone Biles, and Brazil's Rebeca Andrade, who won gold.

But earlier, on this Saturday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling the initial inquiry made by the USA was filed after the one- minute deadline. Now we're learning the International Gymnastics Federation saying it, too, would restore third place position to Barbosu, the 18-year-old. Following that cast decision.

But said it would now be up to the International Olympic Committee, the IOC, to restore the actual medal itself.

This is very much, Jessica, a developing story, and we are following it every step of the way.

Back to you.

DEAN: Yes, that decision seems to be a bit of a hot potato.

All right. Patrick Snell, thank you so much.

In sub-Saharan Africa, 90 percent of children born with sickle cell disease do not live to their fifth birthday. This week, "CNN Hero" has defied those odds. And he's fought his whole life to overcome all of the challenges of living with sickle cell.

And today, in her home country of Kenya, she's working to provide quality, affordable medical care for sickle cell patients and fighting stigmas around that disease.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEA KILENGA, CNN HERO: Sickle-cell is a genetic condition. And those who survive, you are frequently in the hospital, frequently transfused, you're frequently in pain.

These are the symptoms of this disease.

We are solving sickle cell in a holistic way. Those with sickle cell, they have been neglected.

HI, Daniel, how are you feeling?

I need them to know that they deserve good things. And sickle cell is not just what they are. It's a fraction of a fraction of their life.

My biggest message is that there's hope there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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