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New Explosions in Lebanon; DOJ Sues Over Baltimore Bridge Collapse; Interview With Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL). Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired September 18, 2024 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:05]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Florida Republican Congresswoman Laurel Lee is on the bipartisan task force investigating these attempts, and she's joining us now live from Capitol Hill.

Representative, thank you so much for joining us.

Are plans in the works for your task force to visit the site of Sunday's incident?

REP. LAUREL LEE (R-FL): So it is an important step for us to get to actually visit the site of an incident like this.

One of the task force's first things we did was go out to Butler so that we could walk those grounds and understand the proximity of the shooter to where President Trump was standing. So I do expect that task force members will absolutely want to visit the Florida site as well, so that we can get a sense of what happened there, the type of perimeter that was being maintained, and how this person was able to get into that area that made him such a significant threat.

BLITZER: Yes, I hope you get to see that, and see it soon. I know you guys are doing very important work.

Questions are also being raised, Congresswoman, about the Secret Service's ability to protect Donald Trump, a former president, current Republican presidential nominee. The agency says it needs more resources.

Listen to what Senator Richard Blumenthal said about that. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): The Secret Service has a management issue in the use of its money and manpower. Until it does better in accountability and management, it will continue to be short on resources because it is diverting resources and mismanaging them. We should consider more resources for the Secret Service.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, what's your reaction, Congresswoman, to what we just heard from the senator?

LEE: Well, I think it's clear that we need more Secret Service agents assigned to protective details right now.

The threat environment is intense. They need to be able to adequately protect President Trump, along with their other protectees. However, the senator makes a good point in this way. The larger Department of Homeland Security has a very large budget and need to be able to demonstrate to members of Congress that they're using it appropriately and that the resources that they are getting, those taxpayer dollars that are going to the broader Department of Homeland Security, are being spent correctly.

So, Wolf, I believe both of those things are true. We need more Secret Service agents, who are the best and the brightest, who are working protective detail. But before we just send more money, we need to be sure that the resources that are sitting over there at the Department of Homeland Security are being used appropriately.

BLITZER: Good point.

Sources tell CNN, Congresswoman, that, back in August, the White House actually submitted a request to Congress for a funding boost for the Secret Service. What's the status, if you know it, of that request?

LEE: I do not know the status of that request.

But I can tell you that one of the things that our task force is working on is understanding what those needs are, both the supplies, the agents. What is it that it takes for the Secret Service to continue to operate effectively in this threat environment, which really appears to be unprecedented?

And that we have a former president, presidential candidate, and then also the other -- we still have Vice President Harris and Joe Biden, who also need to be protected adequately. So that's certainly one of the very important questions for us all to be considering.

BLITZER: Based on all my reporting over the years of the Secret Service, I know the highest level of protection is for a sitting president, but there are reduced levels of production for former presidents, even for Republican and Democratic presidential nominees.

Should those levels be escalated to include the highest level of protection for a former president of the United States and for presidential nominees?

LEE: So that level absolutely needs to be elevated to a full presidential protective detail for President Trump, because there are two things that are significant there.

One is, as you describe, what is this person's role currently, but the second is the actual threat environment. And the evidence is clear that the actual threat environment here is grave. And President Trump needs that full, active presidential detail. Every resource that they have needs to be deployed at this point to ensure that he's kept safe. BLITZER: Yes, I think that's an important point as well.

Congresswoman Laurel Lee of Florida, thank you so much for joining us.

And we will be right back with more news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:38:51]

BLITZER: We're following the major breaking news out of the Middle East right now, walkie-talkies, yes, walkie-talkies detonating in a fresh wave of explosions in Lebanon today.

That's what a security source is telling CNN. And this comes one day after pager explosions killed at least 12 people and injured nearly 3,000 in Lebanon.

CNN's national security correspondent, Kylie Atwood is joining us live in Cairo right now. She's traveling with the U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken.

But let me start with CNN's chief international security correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, once again.

What else are you learning right now, Nick, about these latest attacks involving walkie-talkies?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Lebanese health officials saying one preliminary dead and 100 injured.

A separate Lebanese security source telling my colleague Tamara Qiblawi that we're talking about 30 to 40 explosions here, 15 to 20 of which, about half of which appear to have targeted the southern suburb of Beirut. I think they're talking about Dahiye there, a Hezbollah stronghold, where we have seen scenes today of funerals for those killed in yesterday's pager explosions, some of the images showing panic after this second wave of devices detonated.

[11:40:01]

You're showing images there of one of those walkie-talkies, which appear to have been the focus of most of these explosions. And there are suggestions other devices may indeed also have detonated. But the walkie-talkies seem, according to this Lebanese security source, to have been used by Hezbollah members for crowd control at public events for security.

And, Wolf, we have seen this now in 24 hours an eyewitness saying that the second wave of walkie-talkies explosions, which they saw deprive somebody of their arms at a funeral in Southern Beirut, that occurred just after 3:00, almost exactly 24 hours after the first wave yesterday, these two waves of blasts, it seems, targeting the very low-tech equipment that Hezbollah has reached out to, the analog world they have retreated to stay away from the Israelis tracking their smartphones. First, it was the pagers, which appear to have emanated from a

Taiwanese production company who deny exporting straight to Lebanon, suggest a Hungarian firm called BAC was in between. And then it appears, according to reporting by "The New York Times," that perhaps explosives were inserted into these devices before indeed they got to Hezbollah, clearly a sophisticated infiltration of Hezbollah's supply chain.

The Israelis, who haven't said anything publicly, but CNN has learned were behind this, must have known that these thousands of pagers would have gone to Hezbollah directly. And it appears also too, if indeed these series of explosions are connected almost 24 hours apart, targeting similar individuals, highly unlikely that they're not, that they also were able to tap into the walkie-talkie supply chain, perhaps the devices that Hezbollah reached out to when they knew their pagers were unsafe.

They too have detonated. And the videos on social media, Wolf, are of more significant blasts than yesterday. Many of the explosions you saw on CCTV of fruit stalls, checkouts yesterday, large for a pager, suggesting perhaps an explosive that was from something more than a battery malfunction, but not as big as some of the explosions we have been seeing today, because obviously walkie-talkies are by themselves, by definition, bigger.

But, look, there's an important point here about the psychological impact of this. Yesterday will have got to the core, chilled a group like Hezbollah, proud about their operational security, their discipline, their training, what a kind of formidable foe they are to Israel, shattered yesterday by their most secure communications being, frankly, just torn apart, often in their hands, and again today now as they recover at funerals being hit one more time.

If this was Israel, they're clearly showing how significantly more capable and sophisticated they are in operations like this. That will either weaken Hezbollah's response. It may damage morale, but it may also too push them into a corner and a response that's perhaps less rational, less patient.

We will have to see in the hours ahead.

BLITZER: Yes.

WALSH: But one larger question, Wolf, finally, is this a prelude to a larger Israeli operation? That's something I think we will see in the next 72 hours.

BLITZER: Yes, this clearly could escalate potentially into a full- scale war. We're watching this very closely.

Nick, stand by. I'm going to get back to you. I know you're getting new information all of the time.

Kylie Atwood is joining us right now. She's in Cairo, Egypt. That's where the U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is right now for meetings with Egyptian officials. Kylie, you're there. What's been the U.S. reaction so far? We know we

know the U.S. government, the State Department considers Hezbollah an international terrorist organization, formally denounced them as an international terrorist organization.

But what is the reaction from the U.S. to what's going on in Lebanon?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, Wolf, we have actually just learned a new detail.

Sources tell myself and our colleague Oren Liebermann that Israeli officials notified the United States on Tuesday ahead of this attack. They didn't tell them, however, what they were going to do, just that there would be an operation that would be carried out in Lebanon.

So U.S. officials were left trying to figure out what was going to happen and when it was going to happen. This was communicated, including in a phone call between the secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, and his counterpart, Yoav Gallant, on Tuesday morning.

But we're hearing, of course, from the secretary of state here in Cairo today that the United States didn't have prior knowledge of this incident. They didn't know the specifics of what was going to happen. And he also said very clearly that the United States was not involved.

Notably, the U.S. has also communicated through back channels to Iran, according to a source familiar with the matter who spoke with our colleague Jennifer Hansler, that the United States was not involved in this, clearly trying to de-escalate this situation from turning into a regional conflict, which U.S. officials have been concerned about for quite some time now.

This was all unfolding, Wolf, as the secretary of state was on a plane over here to Egypt just in the last 24 hours or so. So, many U.S. officials were learning the details of these pagers exploding in Lebanon in real time, watching CNN on the plane, trying to figure out, gather information about what was going down.

[11:45:13]

I asked Blinken if there was any way for the U.S. to assess what kind of an impact that this attack would actually have on Hezbollah operations. He says it's too soon for the United States to make that assessment. They're still really in this fact-finding mission.

And the backdrop to all of this, of course, Wolf, is the ongoing U.S. efforts to try and get a cease-fire and hostage deal in place.

Those efforts have stalled dramatically in recent weeks, the secretary of state is saying today it's really going to take political will on both sides, trying to focus the attention for the fact that this hasn't come to fruition not on the negotiators who have been involved, the U.S., Egypt and Qatar, but really putting the onus on Israelis and also on Hamas to make this actually happen.

But U.S. officials at this moment in time concerned about the explosion of these pagers and what it could mean for the escalation of the conflict -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Have there actually been, Kylie, any talks going on in recent days involving a potential cease-fire in Gaza and release of the Israeli hostages?

ATWOOD: Today, the secretary of state did have those discussions included in a broader conversation that he had here with Egyptian officials.

But, notably, the secretary of state is visiting Egypt, visiting the Middle East. But this is the first time that he is visiting the region since October 7 and not visiting Israel. So that is noteworthy. The secretary was asked exactly why Israel wasn't on his schedule. He didn't directly answer that question today.

But there are ongoing conversations. But based on what was said today at the press conference with the secretary of state and his Egyptian counterpart, there is no indication that the conversations that happened today are advancing those talks in any significant way.

BLITZER: All right, we will stay in very close touch with you, Kylie.

Thank you very much, Kylie Atwood in Cairo, Nick Paton Walsh joining us as well. Guys, everybody, thank you very, very much.

And still ahead this hour: The U.S. Department of Justice just announced it's suing the ship companies involved in the bridge collision that killed six immigrant construction workers near Baltimore.

A live report, that's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:51:45]

BLITZER: All right, this just coming into CNN right now, new developments in the deadly Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore, Maryland.

The U.S. Justice Department just announcing moments ago they are now seeking more than $100 million in emergency costs from the corporations that own the ship that hit the bridge.

CNN's Gabe Cohen is joining us right now.

Gabe, what more can you tell us?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so, Wolf, as you teed up, the Department of Justice filing this civil claim against those companies that operate the Dali seeking at least $100 million, likely much more than that.

But it's really the details in this claim that are so stunning, accusations of extreme negligence by those companies, Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine, that they knowingly, according to the Department of Justice, sent an unseaworthy vessel into U.S. water that eventually caused this catastrophe.

So the claim, it lays out how the ship lost power that morning when its circuit breakers tripped open because the circuitry had loosened over time from an excessive vibration on the ship, this excessive vibration that eventually caused a cascading series of failures on board.

But now we're learning that the Dali had a longstanding problem with that excessive vibration. It had damaged its electrical systems before and the crew had even raised concerns about it to those companies. But, according to the Department of Justice, they'd really just put Band-Aids on the problem, rather than actually addressing the root cause.

I want to read you a section from the civil claim that says: "Instead of taking steps to eliminate the source of excessive vibrations, petitioners jury-rigged their ship. They retrofitted the transformer with anti-vibration braces, one of which had cracked over time, it had been repaired with welds, and had cracked again. And they also wedged a metal cargo hook between the transformer and a nearby steel beam in a makeshift attempt to limit vibration."

We actually have photos that the Department of Justice provided as well that show some of that jury-rigging. And it's extremely concerning. Look, Wolf, a recent inspection found that the ship had loose nuts and bolts. Those are the photos, by the way, I was referencing. You can see that welding in the top left. That's the crane hook that I was talking about there.

And this inspection recently had found that there were loose nuts and bolts on the ship, and that electrical equipment was in such poor condition that the testing agency that was on board discontinued its electrical testing because of safety concerns.

The question now, Wolf, we know this is a civil claim. They're going to be seeking a lot of money, as is the state of Maryland, the city of Baltimore, and the families of those six construction workers who were killed. What we don't know is whether or not criminal charges may be coming.

The Department of Justice would not comment on that. We know that eight crew members from the Dali, including the ship's top officers, are still in Baltimore, so we're really in wait-and-see mode with those criminal charges. But, again, these accusations are stunning of the negligence they say was carried out by the ship's owner and operator.

BLITZER: All right, we will stay on top of this story as well.

Gabe Cohen, thank you very, very much.

And, to our viewers, thank you. Thanks very much for joining me. I'm Wolf Blitzer today in New York. I will be back tonight 6:00 p.m. Eastern in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

[11:55:00] Stay with us. Lots of news today.

"INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" starts right after a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Today on INSIDE POLITICS: goosing the economy.

Two hours from now, the Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates for the first time in four years. It's a signal that the Central Bank thinks inflation is finally under control. And it could have major political aftershocks.