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Florida's Tampa Bay Region Bracing For Hurricane Milton; Israel Strikes Lebanon And Gaza; Thirty Days Left Before Election Day, Trump And Harris Campaign Ramps Up; Israelis Mark One Year Since Horrific Hamas Terror Attacks; Jack Smith Reveals New Evidence in Trump 2020 Election Case. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired October 06, 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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TRACY NEWMAN, WRITER, ELLEN: So I had the same stalker.

UNKNOWN: Wow.

DAVA SAVEL, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AND WRITER, ELLEN: People didn't understand and when people don't understand they get scared. And when they get scared, they get angry. And that's what we're getting a lot of.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: All right everyone. Thanks for joining me today. I'm Omar Jimenez. "CNN Newsroom" continues with Jessica Dean tight now. See you later.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You are in the "CNN Newsroom" and I'm Jessica Dean in New York. We are following breaking news tonight as Florida is bracing for another major hurricane and we have new information about that intensifying storm. Hurricane Milton now forecast to become a Category Four and is expected to make landfall later this week as a major hurricane.

Fifty-one counties across Florida now under a state of emergency and mandatory evacuations have already been ordered in some areas. Governor Ron DeSantis is expected to hold a briefing just moments from now. We'll continue to monitor that. And of course, all of this is happening just 10 days after many of these same communities were devastated by Hurricane Helene.

Meteorologist Elisa Raffa is in the CNN Extreme Weather Center tracking this storm for us. And Elisa, I know we're getting all this new information. What are you what are you seeing?

ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Jessica, I was literally just reading the latest update moments ago. The latest right now from the hurricane centers, we still have a Category One hurricane on our hands, Hurricane Milton. The winds keep ticking up 85 mile per hour winds. At this time yesterday, winds were just 40 or 45 miles per hour. So it has rapidly intensified in these very warm ocean waters.

It is something that we keep talking about this season with the ocean temperatures that have just been so warm, still sitting about 800 miles west and southwest of Tampa Bay. Here is the latest track again. This is brand new that just came in from the Hurricane Center. Because these ocean temperatures are incredibly warm, we are looking at rapidly intensifying again to that major hurricane status.

The track now explicitly calls for a Category Four hurricane with 145 mile per hour winds -- 145 mile per hour winds as a Category Four hurricane. I'm sorry, it looks like my monitor just -- but I'll keep telling you -- there it is.

Let me just keep telling you about this forecast. Okay, Category Four, but I want you to look at something. Notice that it becomes a Category Three at landfall, right? So I want to walk you through this for a second if we keep it on this track. Basically what the Hurricane Center is worried about is that the ocean temperatures are so warm that we're going to find this peak at a category four hurricane with those 145 miles per hour winds.

However, there is a front that's sitting over Florida that is what's tracking Milton into Florida. That front has wind energy that will try to chip away at Milton's intensity as it heads towards the West Coast. So that's why you're seeing it come back down to a category three right before landfall.

The caveat with this is as it is playing with this intensity going up, coming down, weakening a little bit, it could get fatter, it could get wider. We have this problem with Helene, right? That Helene was so wide that the impacts for the wind and the rain and the surge just span for so many people.

So it could be that problem too. While the intensity might come down just a little bit, it could also get a little bit wider, which means that those impacts can spread to farther points across the state. Okay? So again, we're kind of splicing hairs here when we go for a Category Three or Category Four.

Still a major hurricane. We're still looking at impacts of, you know, devastating, potentially devastating, definitely life-threatening storm surge. We're still looking at damaging wind impacts from this. And we are still looking at rain, okay?

You don't need any of these winds to create rain, right? So the rain forecast is still looking like it will be some five to eight inches of rain, even up to a foot or so. We're looking at -- we haven't had any watches issued yet. We are expecting watches to be issued for Florida, possibly by tonight.

Hurricane and storm surge watches will be needed, but we have not had those issued yet. They need to be issued within 48 hours. We're still outside of that because this is looking like a Wednesday landfall. So something that we'll need to keep watching. But again, category (inaudible) hurricane right now expected to rapidly intensify again. Jessica? DEAN: And likely hitting people who, as we just mentioned, were hit not 10 days ago with Helene. Elisa Raffa there in the Weather Center. Thank you so much for that update.

It is now past midnight in Israel marking exactly one year since the Hamas terror attacks on October 7th.

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And moments ago, a fresh barrage of bombings lighting up the sky there in Beirut as Israeli forces target Hezbollah. Lebanon's government's saying more than 1,400 people have been killed, more than a million people displaced.

With so many bombings and military operations ongoing, fear is also rising that a full-fledged war may break out across the region. We have CNN's Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv and Ben Wedeman in Beirut. Ben, let's start first with you. I know in the last couple of hours, even in the last hour, you have been seeing some of these explosions behind you.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, we've had about four airstrikes in the last, say, two hours, one of them very large in the southern suburbs. What we saw was after the strike itself, a variety of explosions and things popping off into the air.

So it would appear that there were some sort of ordinance being stored in that particular site. Now, what we've seen in the last 24 hours is certainly Saturday into Sunday, overnight there were many airstrikes, more than 30 according to the official news agency here.

And what we saw throughout the day was almost every hour a strike occurring in the southern suburbs to the point where, you know, it got to a point where just the entire southern suburbs was covered in smoke from all the fires caused by those blast there. Now the Arabic spokesman for the Israeli military has put out on Twitter or X a few warnings for four specific buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

But oftentimes those warnings don't come. I think it's about one in five there's actually a warning, otherwise, there's nothing. And keep in mind that yes, it's midnight here in Beirut at the moment. Oftentimes, people aren't glued to their phones or their computers to watch these warnings come in on Twitter.

We've been to the southern suburbs a variety of times. Many people have left, but oftentimes it's the women, the children, the elderly that leave and find shelter elsewhere. They usually leave behind a male relative just to keep an eye on the property. So there are still many people in that part of Beirut despite these airstrikes.

DEAN: All right, Ben Wedeman there in Beirut for us tonight. Ben, stand by. I'm sure we'll be talking to you over the next couple of hours. And I want to go now to Jeremy Diamond, who's in Tel Aviv. And Jeremy, where you are, it is now one year since October 7th, since Hamas attacked Israel. And today we are learning about a new Israeli ground operation that's underway in northern Gaza amid signs that Hamas is regrouping. Tell us more about this.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right Jessica. I mean, one year later it is remarkable to think that not only is this war in Gaza still going on, but that the Israeli military is carrying out yet another offensive in an area that over the course of the last year, its forces have entered three previous time because this is indeed the fourth time that Israeli troops have now encircled and are preparing to enter the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza after they say that Hamas militants have begun to regroup and re- constitute in that area, posing a threat, they say, to Israel.

The Israeli military overnight carrying out a series of air and artillery strikes, forcing hundreds of people to already begin to flee that area, where they have -- those people who were fleeing this morning expressing fears about whether or not they would actually truly find safety in this humanitarian zone, which has been struck multiple times before by the Israeli military. And now the IDF is also issuing evacuation orders for the majority of the territory of northern Gaza, potentially forcing hundreds of thousands of people who are living there to flee their homes.

But as you said, we are also now marking today, October 7th, one year later after Hamas carried out this deadly attack that killed some 1200 Israelis, the majority of them civilians. And across Israel, in the morning hours today, we expect that there will be multiple commemoration ceremonies for the victims of October 7th, but also, of course, for the hostages, near -- about 97 of whom are still believed to be held inside of Gaza by Hamas. Some of them are dead, but many of them still very much alive.

And of course, the families of those hostages trying to emphasize the point today, as they do every single day, that their time is limited and that a deal needs to be struck in order to get them out. But a year in, a year after that dark, dark day, the Israeli government still very much at war not only in Gaza, but now also intensifying military operations in Lebanon. And of course, there is also this threat of Israeli retaliation directed at Iran after that barrage of ballistic missile attacks.

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I spoke earlier today actually with the Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, who told me that even though Israel is consulting with the United States, he is expected to travel to meet with the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, later this week. He also made clear that Israel will ultimately choose its own path as it retaliates against Iran. And even as the U.S. has urged Israel not to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, the defense minister telling me that all options are still on the table. Jessica?

DEAN: All right. Jeremy Diamond for us in Tel Aviv, thank you so much for that reporting. Let's talk more about what's unfolding in the Middle East with two experts, CNN military analysts, retired Army Major General Spider Marks. Also with us, Dana Stroul, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East. Good to have both of you here. Thanks for being here. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you, Jessica.

DEAN: Dana, I want to start first with --

DANA STROUL, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR THE MIDDLE EAST: Thanks for having me.

DEAN: -- yes. I want to start first with you. We just heard my colleague, Jeremy Diamond, in his reporting talking about the Israeli Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, meeting with Lloyd Austin and making clear that Israel will go on its own path even as it consults with the U.S. about what moves it will take moving forward, particularly with whatever they decide to do to retaliate against Iran. How do you see this playing out and how do you think the U.S. will maneuver in these really key moments over the next several days?

STROUL: Well, first of all, what's clear is that the defense consultations between the United States and Israel are intensive and ongoing. The head of U.S. Central Command, our military headquarters based in Florida, flew out to Israel, was on the ground over the last 24 hours and now in the middle of what are clearly deep consultations within Israel about when and how they respond to Iran's ballistic missile attack.

The Israeli minister of defense is going to get on a plane and come here to meet with Secretary Austin at the Pentagon. The reality is that without U.S. munitions supply and without the U.S. military posture increases in the Middle East supporting Israel's defense, it would be very difficult for Israel to consider more action and whatever the next round of retaliatory response would look like.

And for the United States, we have more than 40,000 U.S. forces deployed across the region and aircraft carrier. And we already know that Iran will target U.S. forces just as they target Israel. So there are implications for the United States and our security just as there are for Israel.

DEAN: And General Marks, what do you make of Yoav Gallant coming to the U.S. to meet with Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon?

MARKS: I think it's an important decision on his part, and I think it really demonstrates the fact that there is very little daylight in terms of consultations as described between Israel and the United States. That does not mean that Israel is completely aligned in terms of what the Biden administration wants to try to prevent them from doing and what their objectives might look like.

Israel will make a decision, and clearly because Gallant is on his way to the United States. I think it's fair to say that the Israeli -- well, first of all, the Israelis could strike at any time, but I don't think they're in any hurry to do that. Look, the center of gravity in terms of what the IDF is trying to achieve is now against Lebanese Hezbollah, not Hamas in Gaza. That's a holding action. That's a requirement that needs to be taken down.

But the focus of what the IDF wants to take on, it's Hezbollah. The response against Iran is something that probably is already pre-baked, and they're working around the edges in terms of increased intelligence, what the target list looks like, and where do they want to try to inject the most pain against the regime in Tehran. But I think it's fair to say the fact that he's en route to the United States doesn't necessarily mean that there's going to be a delay, but I think it's a pretty good assumption that there might be in terms of when the IDF chooses to respond.

DEAN: And Dana, as General Marks just alluded to, and as we all know, the IDF in Israel now fighting multiple fronts here. And we're marking the one year anniversary, very somber anniversary of these terrorist attacks on Israel. As someone who's an expert in that area, is this where you thought we would be one year later?

STROUL: No, I certainly did not. When it comes to Hamas, I definitely thought we'd be at a different stage of the dismantlement of Hamas. But what we've learned over the past year is that they're a terrorist organization who can adapt and merely being able to say that they survived a year of IDF pressure is enough of a victory for a terrorist organization.

And the other challenge with the which the U.S. military learned the hard way is that without a political strategy on the other side of military operations, it's very hard to prevent the resurgence and reconstitution of a terrorist group who is entrenched across the civilian fabric of Gaza.

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When it comes to Lebanon, the decapitation of Hezbollah senior leadership and taking out what is reportedly 50 percent of Hezbollah's weapons arsenal across Lebanon is also something that I don't think we we're thinking about immediately after October 7th in 2023.

It's really an astounding operational achievement and yet Israel is going to face the same challenge here, which is translating battlefield success into sustainable political outcomes across Lebanon that will provide that reassurance and security for Israeli people, especially the 70,000 Israeli civilians from the North that would like to return to their homes.

DEAN: General Marks, we have to go in just a moment, but I did want to just get your final thoughts on that topic as well. One year out here, what do you think?

MARKS: Yeah, a political solution must be achieved. But in order to achieve that, I mean, apriority there was not any idea of what that political decision or what that political situation might look like. So you've got to provide some type of an alternative. But apriority that, you've got to be able to eliminate Hamas and its capacity to wage terror.

Clearly, they're incredibly resilient. But what we see is what we describe as mowing the grass. We're gonna kill as many -- Israel's gonna kill as many of these Hamas fighters as they can, eliminate as much of Hezbollah as they can, but the root causes need to be addressed. And those root causes go through Tehran. That's the bigger question.

DEAN: All right, General Marks, Dana Stroul, our thanks to both of you. We really appreciate it.

MARKS: Thanks.

DEAN: Still ahead, 30 days to go and tonight new CNN reporting about how the Harris campaign plans to put some distance between her and President Biden in the final month before this election. And while Florida nervously tracks Hurricane Milton, President Biden is sending even more troops to North Carolina, to the mountains there where hundreds remain missing or stranded, unable to communicate. You're in the "CNN Newsroom."

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DEAN: We are now just 30 days away from Election Day, and the Harris and Trump campaigns are racing to win over undecided voters that remain in the critical swing states. Former President Donald Trump just wrapped up a rally in the battleground state of Wisconsin. At least in CNN poll of polls in Wisconsin shows a tight race with no clear leader. The Trump campaign hoping to gain ground there in what could be a critical state to Harris's path to victory.

Meantime, the vice president is also racing to communicate to voters how her policies differ not just from Trump's, but also from her current boss, President Joe Biden. This week, Harris will sit down for a number of interviews ranging from "The View" to "The Howard Stern Show," as well as "60 Minutes." And today, she appeared on the hugely popular podcast, "Call Her Daddy." It's one of the most listened to podcasts among women. Here's a clip from that.

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ALEX COOPER, HOST, CALL HER DADDY PODCAST: Throughout this election, your identity has been called into question many times. Your opponent has called you crazy, weak, fake and dumb. How does that affect you?

KAMALA HARRIS, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think it's really important not to let other people define you. And usually those people who will attempt to do it don't know you.

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DEAN: CNN's Isaac Dovere is joining us now with his new reporting on how the Harris campaign hopes to create some distance between Harris and President Biden. Isaac, this has been really a fascinating dynamic from the start, but what are you hearing as we close in on Election Day?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, that's right, Jessica. In a story up on our website right now, I've got reporting that gets into what one person called to me the ultimate balancing act here, that Harris, in these last couple of weeks of the campaign, is trying to break through to the people who are still undecided, still wavering, say to them, I'm different from Joe Biden, even though I'm part of the Biden administration.

And you see various ways that this is becoming a part of the strategy from when she spoke very bluntly about abortion rights in Georgia two weeks ago to her trip to the southern border, but also some policy proposals that she's been rolling out and will continue to roll out.

It's a tricky situation, though, as I said, because when you look at, for example, the situation in the Middle East, Harris is facing political pressure to create some distance from where Biden is on that. On the other hand, she's in the situation, literally at -- in the situation room, literally at his right hand.

When she talks about the economy and wanting to say that she knows people are suffering and there's more work to be done, that is, of course, an economy that for the last three and a half years has been overseen by the Biden-Harris administration. So weaving through how to make this break and how to credibly say that she's different from Biden is the challenge that the vice president faces here with 30 days left of this campaign.

DEAN: Yeah, and I think it's so interesting too because even as she and her campaign are trying to figure that out, President Biden just keeps tying her to his administration. I want to play a clip from Friday.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I'm in constant contact with her. She's aware wherever we go, we're singing from the same song sheet. She helped pass all the laws that are being employed now. She was a major player in everything we've done, including passage of legislation, which we were told we could never pass. And so she's been, and her staff is interlocked with mine in terms of all the things we're doing.

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DEAN: And, Isaac, you note in the piece that the campaign was given a very last-minute heads-up. How did that all unfold in that particular situation? That's when -- just to remind everyone, on Friday the president surprised reporters in the briefing room and answered questions.

DOVERE: Right. He showed up. He's never done that in his time as president so far. As you said, yes, I can tell you that that was a surprise to the Harris campaign. They found out just a few minutes before that the president would be doing that. A lot of Harris aides did not find that to be helpful. They do not want Joe Biden to be popping up in that way. They also don't love the idea of him reminding people of their strong connection.

Go back to that debate that Harris had with Trump a couple weeks ago, one of the best received lines that the Harris campaign found in their own research about the voter response to it was when she said, I am not Joe Biden. So to have Joe Biden standing there and saying she's been part of it, it gets into this really thorny situation for them.

DEAN: Certainly. All right. Isaac Dovere with great new reporting. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

DOVERE: Thank you.

DEAN: And still to come, we're going to talk with North Carolina's attorney general as the western part of his state begins the slow process of recovery and repair from the path of destruction left by Helene. You're in the "CNN Newsroom."

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DEAN: And we have breaking news. We want to go to Tallahassee where Florida officials, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, are holding a news conference on Hurricane Milton and how the state is preparing. Governor DeSantis speaking there. Let's listen in.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- particularly in areas that are very sensitive to storm surge. Just know that the surge is going to be the primary threat to your life and your safety. I'm not saying that you should want to hunker down if there's a -- with major wind speeds, if we had Cat 3, Cat 4, but in Florida, a lot of the buildings can handle it, particularly new, you could potentially do that.

The surge is just overwhelming. It's like trying to fight mother nature in a way that you're just not going to be able to win. And we saw that with Helene, places in like Horseshoe Beach that survived with almost no damage, and I'd tell you, which was almost a Cat -- it hit Category 4 then went down to three before it made landfall, and then Helene wiped it out because of the surge. There was just more storm surge and some of these places were just obliterated.

So, you're looking at potential major storm surge up and down the West Coast of Florida. And yes, if this -- if the storm, the eye of the storm goes in the southern part of the Western Peninsula, you will no doubt have less surge north of that than you would if that was the eyewall or if the eyewall was north of where you're at. That's just the way these storms work, but we don't have a way to know definitively at this point where on that peninsula the storm is going to make landfall.

So, you have time now to do what you need to do. If you're in one of those areas that can get whacked by this storm surge, to make the decision, to make sure you can be safe when the storm does come, as Kevin and Jared both said, I mean, people sometimes wait, and then when you wait till the very end, you get caught on the roads, you get have hazardous conditions. You have today, clearly you have tomorrow for sure. Probably you'll have some time Tuesday, but I think it will start to get more crowded. I think it'll start to become something that presents some risks of its own.

And then just finally on evacuations, if you are in one of those areas, you don't have to get on the interstate and drive 200 miles. Anywhere you go inland or any place that's not going to be a threat for the storm surge, you can hunker down there, and then go back when the storm passes. Now there will be a lot of shelters that are open. I don't know if anyone has opened them yet. I don't think so, but that will happen as we get close.

There's also going to be shelters open in other parts of the state where they may not be getting an impact if there's demand for that. I know Kevin has talked to people in the Panhandle. Some of those counties may do that. So, you're going to have a lot of options on this, but those people in those sensitive areas, you could potentially have some major, major storm surge.

I think a lot of people that just lived through Helene, seeing four, five, six feet in some of those places in the Florida Peninsula on the West Coast, that was major. That caused a lot of damage. This potentially can be more in some of those areas. And so, make sure you're taking appropriate precautions. Okay?

UNKNOWN (voice-over): After your conversation with the administrator today, how confident are you? Are you not or will be ready to help with this storm with or is still working?

DESANTIS: Well, so, we do the request for the pre-landfall. Has that been approved yet? Um, it will be. I mean, I have no -- every time we've asked, we've gotten approval. So, I fully anticipate that that will get approved. And then I think, unfortunately, because I think that we are going to have significant impacts, the approval for things like individual assistance, all that, we're going to qualify for all that. And so, I don't have any question about that. You know, that's going to happen.

I think some of the controversy with FEMA and some of the other parts of the country was about the rescue mission, some of this stuff and all that, but we have our assets ready for that. And, you know, we do have some of these urban search and rescue teams that are by and large local folks in Jacksonville, Miami who will be ready to go. I know they are sending some people from other parts of the country.

[17:35:02]

There's a lot of people in North Carolina and Tennessee right now. But I'm confident we'll be approved for that pre-landfall declaration. So, I anticipate it, yes.

DEAN: You're listening to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis there as he is talking with reporters about preparing for this storm, Hurricane Milton. He's really concerned about the storm surge, warning people that that's the thing that could be the most dangerous in this storm. We're, of course, going to continue to monitor the track of Hurricane Milton, which is now projected to become a Category 4 storm in the Gulf before likely making landfall in Florida. Still ahead, we are talking with the grandson of a man still being held hostage in Gaza now for one year as thousands of people around the world demonstrate marking this one year since the October 7th Hamas terror attacks.

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DEAN: It is now one year since the deadly Hamas-led terror attack on Israel, in which Hamas killed more than 1,200 Israelis and took at least 250 more hostages. Nearly 100 of those people remain in Gaza as hostages one year later. And two of those hostages kidnapped by Hamas were Oded and Yocheved Lifshitz. Yocheved was released. Her husband, Oded, is still being held hostage.

And their grandson, Daniel, has been advocating for negotiating and the release of those hostages. And Daniel is joining us now live from Tel Aviv. Daniel, thank you so much for being here as we mark this very somber one-year anniversary. I am so sorry for what your family has had to endure this past year. What is the latest you can tell us on what the government has told you about your grandfather who remains a hostage?

DANIEL LIFSHITZ, GRANDSON OF ISRAELIS TAKEN HOSTAGE: So, the last thing we know about my grandfather, that one of the hostages that had been returned in the first deal, she was with him in captivity for about a month. She -- they didn't get any medicine there. They had no -- no -- no good food. They had very bad conditions. But she was with him for about 30 days.

And he fainted because he had blood pressure issues. And she is handicapped. He helped her all the time in captivity. So, she told him, I can't stay alone. So, they told her that, okay, they moved her for another place. And then we don't know anything about my grandfather. So basically, that's the last thing we know about my grandfather.

After it started, we thought that he was murdered because my grandmother, when she was kidnapped, she looked back and she saw him laying down. This 84-year-old man fought all his life for peace and human rights and defended Israel, the country of Israel, was laying down in his cactus garden, unconscious, bleeding, so she thought he was murdered. But we got another news about from those hostages who came back, but we have nothing for the last 11 months.

I'm here with a shirt of kibbutz Nir Oz, my family, and the community I'm coming from. We have 29 hostages still from kibbutz Nir Oz, 30% of the hostages.

DEAN: And I hear you talking about your 84-year-old grandfather. It sounds as he takes -- I'm assuming he maybe took medicine for his blood pressure. I'm sure you're very worried about his conditions. LIFSHITZ: Absolutely. The conditions were not good in a place where -- the hostage that was with him in captivity, she said they didn't get any medication there, and they didn't get enough food. And I'm very worried for 84 years old men. I mean a great grandfather in which world we live when we have such amazing mediators. The U.S., Qatar, Egypt need to negotiate between Israel and Hamas and couldn't release an 84 years old man, great grandfather, is the only great grandfather held hostage in the world.

This man lived for peace, for coexistence, for human rights. He fought in all the wars from '67 to '82. He found the kibbutz to expand the country in the mission of Ben-Gurion. He's a Zionist. He is -- but he's a man who care for everyone. He went to Rwanda with doctors without boundaries.

He tried to make everything for Gaza to be a good place. He said, you need education. From '84 to 2005, he went all the time to say, leave -- okay, Oslo agreements, Yasser Arafat, connection with Israel. You need education. Only education will make Gaza a good place. And in the end, he's there in the hands of those he was warning everyone from. Hamas leadership in Gaza, he said, is the worst thing can happen.

[17:45:00]

We have to take care of that. We can't live next to that. It's the biggest danger for Israel. And he's there, you know?

DEAN: And Daniel, what's your message to the Israeli government tonight?

LIFSHITZ: To the Israeli government, my message is, bring your people home. Really, like, find a way to do it. My grandfather is 84 years old. My best friend was murdered. And today, I've been in his memorial in Kibbutz Nir Oz. His sister, she's 28 years old, she's there. How come we are still negotiating for the women, for the old men, those people in every religion?

It's unacceptable. It's a sin in the Islam. They are the most holy for the Quran. The old man and they are still there for so long. I mean, everyone has to work much harder to bring a ceasefire in Gaza that includes the release of all the hostages, and it can be with an agreement in Lebanon, and it can be without an agreement with Lebanon. I mean, they have to work harder.

I know that there are more offers on the table and I call the U.S. government as well to shift, to be creative, and not wait until the election to maybe then release the hostages.

DEAN: I know your heart aches. Daniel Lifshitz, thank you for being here, and I hope that your grandfather is home with you very soon.

LIFSHITZ: Amen. Thank you so much.

DEAN: Thanks for being here.

LIFSHITZ: I appreciate it. DEAN: Uh-hmm. We'll be right back.

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DEAN: A newly unsealed filing from Special Counsel Jack Smith is putting Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election back in the spotlight. The 165-page filing lays out the bulk of evidence in the government's case against the former president.

But our next guest, CNN legal analyst Elie Honig, is calling the move -- quote -- "a cheap shot" in a new piece accusing Smith of -- quote -- "bending ordinary procedure in this new filing." And Elie Honig is joining us now. Of course, he's also a former U.S. assistant attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Elie, great to have you here. I want you to talk more about your criticism because it seems to be really centered around the timing of this move. Of course, we're just one month out from the election.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yeah, Jessica. So, my criticism here is that what Jack Smith and the judge did is they reversed the ordinary process. The way it works under the rules of procedure, I handled thousands of cases every time, is the defendant, in this case Donald Trump, files his motion first, and then the prosecution responds, depending on whatever that motion is.

What Jack Smith did is he said to Judge Chutkan, well, I need to go first here, and I need to file a four times overlength brief. Judge Chutkan actually acknowledged that Jack Smith's request is -- quote -- "procedurally irregular," and then she let him do it anyway. And because of that flipping the ordinary procedure on its head, that's what enabled Jack Smith to put this brief in in October, shortly before the election.

So, I think there's a big problem with that. I think it runs counter certainly to the spirit, and I believe to the letter of DOJ policy, that you try to avoid doing anything that could impact an election too close to an election.

DEAN: And you've even compared this to James Comey reopening the email investigation into Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just days before the 2016 election. Clinton has actually responded to that idea, and I want to listen to what she had to say.

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HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE (voice-over): I think the situation is completely different and this is in the context of an ongoing criminal procedure that to the special counsel has brought against Donald Trump many, many months before the run up to the election. It was frankly motivated by the orders of the judge in this trial, who has, it appears to me, been extremely favorable toward Trump. So, I think that there's nothing out of the ordinary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: What do you think about that, Elie?

HONIG: Yeah, Jessica, well, all respect to Secretary Clinton. She's the one who suffered the consequences for James Comey's, I believe, outrageous conduct in 2016. DOJ found later that it was outrageous.

The problem, though, with Secretary Clinton's analysis of the Jack Smith case is, respectfully, she's got her facts wrong. First of all, she's confusing the judges here. I think she's thinking of Judge Cannon, who, yes, has ruled almost entirely for Donald Trump, but that's the judge in the other case. The judge here is Judge Chutkan. I get it, similar names. Judge Chutkan has ruled almost entirely against Donald Trump.

More to the point, the last thing we just heard Secretary Clinton say was -- quote -- "there is nothing out of the ordinary." But as I described before, the way they flipped this procedure is the opposite of the ordinary. They reversed the actual way that motions are done.

You can talk to a hundred former federal prosecutors who've collectively handled 100,000 cases. They will all tell you they never filed their motions first. And I think it begs the question, what was the rush here? Why did Jack Smith have to ask for this, to quote Judge Chutkan, procedurally irregular approach? So, I respectfully disagree with the secretary there.

DEAN: And so, what happens now?

HONIG: Yeah, so Judge Chutkan has to sift through this. There has to be briefing from both sides.

[17:55:00]

So, Donald Trump's team will get a chance to weigh in. What they're arguing about is how much of what remains of Jack Smith's indictment can stay in the case moving forward. Whatever Judge Chutkan decides, that will then be appealed. Donald Trump has the right to appeal that to the Court of Appeals, and then potentially to the U.S. Supreme Court. And the point of that is we are not going to get a trial in this case anytime soon. I think we are six months to a year or more away from a trial if the indictment survives appellate review.

DEAN: All right, Elie Honig, always good to see you. Thank you so much.

HONIG: Thanks, Jessica, all right.

DEAN: Despite his legal troubles, Trump does remain neck and neck with Kamala Harris with just a month until Election Day. Ahead, we're going to run the numbers on where both candidates stand in the handful of states that will determine this election.

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