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Laura Coates Live

Hurricane Milton Eyes Florida; "60 Minutes" Grills Harris in Wide-Ranging Interview; Trump Says There are a Lot of "Bad Genes" Among Migrants in U.S.; FEMA Faces Conspiracies; Israel Marks a Year Since October 7 as Multi-front War Rages. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired October 07, 2024 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: We got "Laura Coates Live" coming up for you right now.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): This is CNN Breaking News.

LAURA COATES, CNN HOST AND SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Good evening, everyone. I'm Laura Coates. We begin with breaking news on Hurricane Milton. The 11:00 advisory has just now been released with new information on the Category now 5, Category 5 storm and its track. Right now, Milton is set to hit Florida's Gulf Coast late Wednesday night. Tampa potentially in the bullseye.

And the city's mayor is not mincing words. She is warning people who don't evacuate -- quote -- "You are going to die." It appears some are taking her very seriously with those foreboding words, hitting the roads and streaming out of the area before it gets too late. The storm is described as extremely dangerous with sustained winds of 165 miles per hour. Milton now the strongest storm to occur anywhere on the planet this year.

I want to bring in CNN meteorologist, Chad Myers. Chad, we've heard these strong words from the Tampa mayor.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST AND SEVERE WEATHER EXPERT: Yeah, right.

COATES: What does this new advisory show?

MYERS: It shows that we lost a little bit of pressure. The pressure went up. That's good news. We lost a little bit of wind speed from 180 to 165. That's still Category 5. Okay? We're not -- we're not bringing this down to a Cat 2 or a Cat 1 or a tropical storm. A very dangerous storm.

But hurricane hunters, both NOAA and also Air Force, have flown into the eye over the past couple of hours and found that we've lost a little bit of intensity. That is great news because just in 36 hours, from yesterday morning to this afternoon, we went from 50 to 180. Okay, so now, we're 165. Close enough.

Here's the hurricane warnings are in effect for almost the entire central part of Florida because the winds will be all the way to the East Coast at hurricane force. There will be millions of people without power. And we know where a lot of these power company trucks, these mutual aid trucks are. They're in the Carolinas trying to put the power back up here.

But look at the purple. This is major category winds all the way from Cedar Key all the way down to Fort Myers. That's 110 plus. And then, yes, hurricane force all the way to Cape, all the way to Cape Canaveral, all the way to the East Coast of Daytona Beach.

We will have surge. This is the next thing. Are we going to have wind damage? Absolutely. Are we going to have surge potential? Without a doubt, because this is a Category 5. And even though the forecast is for it to go down a little bit, it will still carry a four to five surge with it, 10 to 15 feet of surge.

How does that compare to Helene where things were wiped out around Tampa? Six to seven. Now, we're talking 10 to 15. If your house got damaged in Helene, you've got a lot of work to do, and you need to get out of there for sure. About 48 hours before it makes landfall but certainly about 36 before we start seeing some damage. Laura?

COATES: Chad Myers, thank you so much. We will have more information on that storm later this hour. Really stunning and unbelievable. Thank you so much.

We are now less than a month, less than a month away from Election Day. And if it sounds unbelievable to you that we're that close, it does to me as well. And with the election shifting now into the highest of gears, Vice President Kamala Harris is shifting to a new strategy: Walking in front of camera after camera, microphone after microphone and, frankly, interviewer after interviewer. Case in point, a tense appearance on "60 Minutes" tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL WHITAKER, CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT: They say that the reason so many voters don't know you is that you have changed your position on so many things. You were against fracking. Now, you're for it. You supported looser immigration policies. Now, you're tightening them up. You were for Medicare for all. Now, you're not. So many that people don't truly know what you believe or what you stand for, and I know you've heard that.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In the last four years, I have been vice president of the United States, and I have been traveling our country, and I have been listening to folks and seeking what is possible in terms of common ground.

I believe in building consensus. We are a diverse people, geographically, regionally, in terms of where we are in our backgrounds. And what the American people do want is that we have leaders who can build consensus.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COATES: So, decide for yourself if that answer was sufficient for you. Well, that sit down is all part of a broader media blitz. And after weeks of accusations from Donald Trump that she's incapable of giving interviews, well, it started yesterday with the "Call Her Daddy" podcast, popular with women Gen Zers and millennials.

[23:05:00]

And tonight on "60 Minutes," Harris was asked tough questions on the economy, on immigration and, of course, the Middle East. We'll talk more about that in just a moment.

Tomorrow, she's going to head up to "The Big Apple," appearing on daytime talk show, "The View." She'll also speak with famed shock jock and Sirius XM Howard Stern, host of his own radio show, as you well know, and even take a crack at late night on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." Thursday, a town hall on Spanish language network Univision. Kind of a whirlwind, right?

But real talk for a moment. "60 Minutes" didn't hold any punches, and the Univision town hall could bring some real substance. It's unlikely Harris will get thrown a curveball, maybe on the other different mediums that she'll be on.

But that said, each and every interview gives her a chance to define herself on her own terms at this maybe 10th, not 11th hour. And these are big and these are broad audiences that we're talking about here. And doing them does not come without risks, of course. I mean, any mistake, any botched answer, and it gives Trump a new line of attack. But it also gives Harris a chance to go on the offensive and to push back on her critics. Take tonight, for example, where she went after Trump for dodging his own "60 Minutes" interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: If he is not going to give your viewers the ability to have a meaningful, thoughtful conversation, question and answer with you, then watch his rallies. You're going to hear conversations that are about himself and all of his personal grievances. And what you will not hear is anything about you, the listener.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Joining me tonight, Laura Barron-Lopez, CNN political analyst and White House correspondent for the PBS NewsHour, Ramesh Ponnuru, editor of the National Review, and Ashley Allison, CNN political commentator and former national coalition's director for the Biden- Harris 2020 ticket, also my twinning in black leather. Thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

Laura, let me start with you here, though, because Harris, she has been under a lot of pressure to have a number of interviews. She was criticized very early on about being not only absent from the visible part of the Biden administration as much as she could have been, and also now about top of the ticket. Do you think that the "60 Minutes interview, which is one of the toughest she's had to date, is that going to quiet her critics?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT FOR PBS NEWSHOUR: For critics in D.C. and in the Beltway, maybe not. But I think that there are voters that that answer really stood out to me in terms of that answer's ability to speak to them, where she was talking about, I want to be someone who builds consensus.

And I say that because I was just in Arizona. I talked to a two-time Trump voter there and a number of others who had voted for Trump in the past. But this two-time Trump voter, moderate, lifelong Republican woman who considers herself in alignment with Harris on abortion isn't necessarily convinced she's going to vote for her yet because she wanted to hear more from Harris about what exactly she would do to find compromise on a host of issues, how exactly she would work with Republicans, whether it's on immigration, whether it's on the economy. And so, Harris kind of sounded like that voter in that answer.

So, I wonder if that voter is listening to the "60 Minutes" interview and seeing someone in Harris, who may be willing to compromise with the party that this voter has been a part of their entire life.

COATES: Well, she talked about immigration with "60 Minutes" and gave a response about how the numbers had shifted, shall we say, when they took office. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WHITAKER: Was it a mistake to kind of allow that flood to happen in the first place?

HARRIS: I think the policies that we have been proposing are about fixing a problem, not promoting a problem. Okay?

WHITAKER: But the numbers did quadruple under your watch.

HARRIS: And the numbers today, because of what we have done, we have cut the flow of illegal immigration by half.

WHITAKER: Should you have done that? Should you have done that?

HARRIS: We have cut the flow of fentanyl by half. But we need Congress to be able to act to actually fix the problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Of course, Ashley, his question was, should you have done that sooner? Is now too late for some voters to believe that they have the recipe for course correction?

ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It may be for some voters. But I think her answer is accurate. Congress needs to act. Congress still has not acted. And when you actually figure out why Congress hasn't acted, it's because the person at the top of the ticket for the Republican Party doesn't want the problem to be fixed.

I think these interviews are smart. I don't know if the voter in Arizona that you were just talking about is going to see "60 Minutes," but she might see "The View," she might see "Call Her Daddy," she might see Stephen Colbert. She's got to see one of them. It's got to hit somewhere. And if she doesn't see it live, she's going to see it on social media somewhere.

[23:10:02]

So, ask and you shall receive. People said do interviews. And now, she's on a blitz. Does that mean criticism is going to stop? No, she's a candidate. That's the nature of politics.

COATES: Uh-hmm.

ALLISON: But that doesn't mean you stop playing your game, it doesn't mean you don't go on offense, and it doesn't mean -- you tell the American people what you would do for them.

COATES: Ramesh, the consistent theme, though, throughout her entire candidacy now has been, and for Biden when he was top of ticket, what would you do now that you couldn't have done in those first three years? That's a question lingering. That will be the very ammunition Republicans use.

RAMESH PONNURU, EDITOR, NATIONAL REVIEW INSTITUTE: And it sets her up with a bunch of no-win questions. So, Bill Whitaker, who I thought did an excellent job asking succinct and pointed questions, three times came back at her with the question about whether the early immigration policies of this administration were a mistake. And what's she going to say? She can't say yes.

COATES: Hmm.

PONNURU: She's not going to -- she's not going to repudiate Biden, but she also can't defend those policies which have put them in such a political hole. So, she evaded that three times because she doesn't have a good answer on it.

I would say that her answer on the economy is another place where there's a political vulnerability for the Harris team, and she hasn't quite figured out a way to address it. Talking about macroeconomic indicators, as she did, that is -- I've seen many, many politicians talk about macroeconomic indicators using those words.

COATES: And many voters glaze over when you say the word "macroeconomics."

PONNURU: It does not land. It does not land even if it's true. And she's got a bit of a case there. It doesn't land.

COATES: Well, I doubt Howard Stern is going to talk about macroeconomics more broadly. He might surprise everyone at that point. He might. He's very sharp. And tomorrow, Howard Stern actually interviews Harris. And I want you to listen to what he had to say about Trump just a few weeks ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HOWARD STERN, AMERICAN PRESENTER AND MEDIA PERSONALITY (voice-over): I don't agree with Trump politically. I don't -- I don't think he should be anywhere near the White House. I don't hate the guy. I hate the people who vote for him. I think they're stupid. I don't think I -- I do, I'll be honest with you. I have no respect for you. I - I mean, I don't know at what point you want someone who -- who can't even accept the fact that, all right, so Taylor Swift doesn't like him. Move on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Is this the new basket of deplorables that Harris has to navigate around?

BARRON-LOPEZ: What Howard Stern said?

COATES: Uh-hmm.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Uh, I think that voters are going to, you know, see if she says something like that. And so far, she hasn't said anything like that. She hasn't said that she hates Trump voters. She's, in fact, trying to win over Trump voters --

COATES: Uh-hmm.

BARRON-LOPEZ: -- win over Nikki Haley voters. That has been one of the most aggressive elements of her campaign so far. So, look, I don't know that he's necessarily going to make those comments in the interview with her because Howard Stern --

COATES: He's not -- he's not going to provoke that conversation?

BARRON-LOPEZ: Yeah, he's not going to provoke that conversation.

PONNURU: If he does, she's got to distance herself from it, because everything she said tonight on "60 Minutes" about finding unity and common ground would be undermined if she didn't.

ALLISON: I mean, she could. There's a perfect answer for this, like, Howard Stern, you don't have to hate people who disagree with you. I'm trying to convince you to see that I can be your leader. And if you don't disagree with me and I run and I win, I still will be your president, too. There is like a perfectly workshopped answer for this. She does not have to take Howard Stern's bait, and I don't think she will because that is just not the essence of who she is as a leader. There have been so many opportunities where she could disparage people who have not supported her, and she doesn't.

COATES: So, is it a lesson learned, though, because she obviously is aware, even if she's not the one saying it, that there is a perception that there is an antagonistic viewpoint towards somebody who is a Trump supporter, and that has been used by Trump strategists to suggest they don't like you, they don't think you are smart, and they go on with this? She's aware of that. How does she confront that perception to get them under her fold? BARRON-LOPEZ: Well, I think she and President Biden have repeatedly said, we're talking about MAGA Republicans, not about like Republicans or people who have been lifelong Republicans, you know, their, uh, their entire lives.

And I think she also said it at the convention where she really made pointed appeals, saying, if you feel as though you potentially can't vote for Trump a second time or a third time, that you have space in my campaign. I mean, she has tried to surround herself with very conservative Republicans like Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and say, look, I can work with some of the most conservative Republicans, has said she may even put a Republican in her cabinet, and I think that is how she's trying to really make this case to people who have voted Republican in the past, that she's trying to build a coalition. I mean, it may upset some progressives, but she's trying to win over voters who have never even voted for a Democrat, like, in their entire life.

COATES: I wonder if the gun comments that she has made recently also is going to increase her electability among some populations. Listen to what she had to say about being a gun owner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WHITAKER: What kind of guns you own, and when and why did you get it?

[23:15:00]

HARRIS: I have a Glock, and I've had it for quite some time. And, um, I mean, look, Bill, my background is in law enforcement. And so, there you go.

WHITAKER: Have you ever fired it?

HARRIS: Yes. Of course, I have.

(LAUGHTER)

At a shooting range. Yes, of course, I have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Why are you nodding right now?

(LAUGHTER)

ALLISON: I mean, I think -- I think -- I think that this is applied stereotype to Black women right now, that we don't have the right to own firearms and protect ourselves like every other American. Kamala Harris has been very clear she supports the Second Amendment, but she also supports common sense gun violence laws to stop mass shootings in churches and grocery stores and at schools.

So, sure, I mean, I don't think her -- that answer is for a Republican. I think that answer is the truth. And most people who do have guns, I hope they have gone to the shooting range and have trains so they can use them safely. So, I think this is a little bit of application of like a box that you might want to keep Black women in, then she's saying, I'm not fitting in it.

COATES: You bought at that perception of this being an issue with race. What was your reaction to this now?

PONNURU: We know -- I just thought that a lot of people who worry about the Democrats being too far left on guns are going to look at that answer and think this is somebody who is perfectly happy supporting a ban on handguns in San Francisco, supporting in her last presidential campaign, mandatory confiscation of certain kinds of weapons, commonly held weapons and -- but she doesn't want to have these rules apply to her. And I don't think that that's going to appeal to those voters at all. I think it's going to regard -- they're going to regard it as this is the ruling class having one set of rules for itself and another for other people.

COATES: We'll see what the Tim Walz effect has on that very notion as a hunter and talking about that as well. Everyone, please, stand by because up next, Kamala Harris's answer when "60 Minutes" asked why she thinks so many people are still supporting a man that she herself has called racist.

And later, as Florida braces for Hurricane Milton, a new controversy emerges between Harris and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: This is utterly irresponsible and it is selfish.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She is being selfish by trying to blunder into this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WHITAKER: With so many people supporting Donald Trump, a man you've called a racist, how do you bridge that seemingly unbridgeable gap?

HARRIS: I believe that the people of America want a leader who's not trying to divide us and demean. I believe that the American people recognize that the true measure of the strength of a leader is not based on who you beat down, it's based on who you lift up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Well, Harris's remarks today come after Donald Trump claimed people coming over the border have -- quote -- "bad genes."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (voice-over): She has no clue. How about allowing people to come to an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers. Many of them murdered far more than one person and they're now happily living in the United States. You know, now a murderer, I believe this, it's in their genes and we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: And tonight, Trump is saying he will hold a rally in Aurora, Colorado this Friday. Now, Trump has repeatedly claimed without any evidence, mind you, that that city is being taken over by Venezuelan gangs.

Laura Barron-Lopez, Ramesh Ponnuru, and Ashley Allison are all back with me. First of all, the White House has called this language that Trump has used not only hateful, but disgusting. Frankly, it's not the first time you've heard this language from Trump in the past. It actually goes back decades. His obsession with genetics. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They're poisoning the blood of our country. That's what they've done.

There is something to the genes. And I mean, when I say something, I mean a lot.

You have to be born lucky in the sense that you have to have the right -- the right genes to go out, and if it's in my business, if it's making deals --

I'm a gene believer. Hey, when you connect two racehorses, you usually end up with a fast horse. And I really was -- you know, I had a good gene pool from the standpoint of that.

A lot of it is about the genes, isn't it? Don't you believe? The racehorse theory, you think was so different? You have good genes in Minnesota.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Ramesh, is this strategy effective? Forget if it's right or wrong. I believe it's wrong. But is it effective? Is that why he continuously employs it?

PONNURU: I don't think it's a strategy. I think this is what he truly believes.

COATES: Hmm.

PONNURU: This is something that he dwells on and comes back to over the years. Now, I don't know that he is somebody who has done a lot of time studying genetics and behavior or anything like that, but I think that we are getting something close to a kind of unfiltered Trump when he says these things. And it's not as though it comes out of a clear blue sky.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Right.

PONNURU: This is the person who came into presidential politics via the birther conspiracy theory about Barack Obama. This is somebody who, in 2015 and 2016, was accusing a judge of not being able to be an unbiased judge because he's Mexican-American. So, it's all of a piece.

COATES: It's also about eugenics.

UNKNOWN: Right.

COATES: It's also professed by many supremacists and Nazis.

BARRON-LOPEZ: And it is -- and those words that you played, the poisoning the blood of the country, is words that were used by Adolf Hitler. But the -- it is a pattern with Donald Trump and it's something that he is doing -- you know, maybe his campaign won't admit that it's a strategy, but they are dehumanizing and demonizing immigrants, essentially to convince their base that immigrants may be stealing the election, that there's hordes of non-citizens voting.

[23:25:04]

There's no evidence of noncitizens -- hordes of noncitizens registering to vote or voting. I've talked to Republican election officials in states like Michigan who have said, in their 20 years of administering elections, they've never caught a noncitizen casting an election ballot, that maybe some have inadvertently been registered to vote, and then they self-report because they know that it's illegal and they're not going to be doing it.

When I hear that, though, I also, like, in terms of whether it's a strategy or not, it reminds me of when he said to a reporter, I can't remember what year it was, either when he was in the presidency or right before he was elected the first time, and he said, the reason I discredit reporters and the reason I say that you lie is so that way my base doesn't believe you anymore.

COATES: Hmm.

BARRON-LOPEZ: So, the reason he may be trying to demonize immigrants and immigration and have this strong antiimmigration message is so that way, when he's elected again, he and his advisors like Stephen Miller can carry out and have Americans accept mass deportations on a grand scale that we haven't seen in modern history.

COATES: I mean, yeah, that's a really important point you raise, both of you, especially on the idea of providing that context to try and discredit, therefore, you have carte blanche in the future and all the things that you're saying.

And I wonder, Ashley, when you hear the comments and, of course, the question that Bill Whitaker asked Vice President Kamala Harris, how do you reconcile and bridge that disconnect between something that she calls racist, the statements that have been made, the eugenics references and beyond, and the popularity and the willingness of people to say, okay, he's got my vote?

ALLISON: I think you have to continue to try to talk to the American people and call a lie a lie. I agree with everything they have just said. I think this is who Donald Trump is. And I think she is trying to be the bigger and better adult and a leader in this moment and say, I won't, again, demonize you because you don't agree with me. I want to tell you there is a different way. And you might not agree with me all the time, but we can do this by treating and speaking about people with humanity.

I think that Donald Trump is a racist. I don't think everyone who votes for Donald Trump is a racist. And I think right now, he is hoping that leaders in his party don't call out those disgusting comments and use it like sliding on his coattails.

But the only way that we can bring trust back into the media, the only way we can bring trust back into institutions, is people have to stand up regardless what political outlet and say when terrible things like that are said, we cannot accept it.

We can fix immigration, but we cannot accept this, because words have power, and those type of words cause violence, those type of words cause hate, and we have to fight for something different.

PONNURU: Can I add one thing on this, about the idea of it as a strategy? I think we should remember that some of Trump's lowest political points have come exactly when he has indulged this instinct.

UNKNOWN: Yeah.

PONNURU: Charlottesville, the attack on Khizr Khan, family separation. Those things didn't help him solidify and strengthen his support. They cost him. I think what's different now is that we're all so used to it, we're also inured to it. There are a thousand different Trump stories that compete for attention and other things that are competing for our attention, and it's harder for it to break through.

ALLISON: But we can't normalize it. You know, we have to -- we have we have to call it out on all fronts, from the dogcatcher all the way up to the speaker of the Senate. We have to say this is not acceptable. And I think Republicans need to say this is not the type of leader we want.

COATES: I want to show you guys, because there's a new "New York Times" article I found really fascinating. The title of the article is "Trump's Speeches, Increasingly Angry and Rambling, Reignite the Question of Age." And now, they did a computer analysis of Trump's rhetoric and they compared 2016 Trump to now, and they found -- this is Trump rallies and how it all went from there.

Look at this. The Trump rally is 2020 versus 2016, 82 minutes compared to 45 minutes. You're talking about how much he's using terms about the "all" and "always" and "never," the increase of swear words and going on from mayor about this.

I do wonder, Ramesh and Laura, when you're thinking about this, the then versus now, the changing approach to the electorate and its communication, at one hand, perhaps, more disciplined, if that's even a phrase to associate with Donald Trump compared to right now, what does that indicate to you and to the electorate?

BARRON-LOPEZ: Well, there are some voters that he's clearly losing because of it. I mean, there are, you know, these moderate Republicans that say that every time they hear him speak, that they are being pushed away from him, but also other Republicans who continue to associate with him.

Now, again, in a game of margins, is that enough? Is it enough if Kamala Harris is going to lose, you know, working class Black and brown voters because of the economy?

[23:29:57]

That's the big question in these battleground states, but I think that it is pushing some of the voters away from him.

COATES: Everyone, thank you so much. I'm really intrigued to see what happens in the next what? Twenty-eight days, 14 hours, 10 minutes, I'm not counting.

Southwest Florida, though, is bracing for a catastrophic hurricane as FEMA deals with pressure and politically-fueled misinformation from the last storm from just last week. So, how bad could this all get? Alas, the man who guided New Orleans through Katrina, Lieutenant General Russel Honore, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They send hundreds of billions of dollars to foreign nations. And you know what? They're giving our people 750 bucks. They're offering them $750 to people whose homes have been washed away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[23:35:00]

COATES: Donald Trump continuing to push misleading information about the federal response to Hurricane Helene. Trump has used his very powerful megaphone at his rallies and on social media to endorse or make up, frankly, bogus claims, claims the director of FEMA says are having a direct impact on their recovery efforts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEANNE CRISWELL, ADMINISTRATOR, FEMA: Frankly, that type of rhetoric is demoralizing to our staff that have left their families to come here and help the people of North Carolina. The biggest effect I would say is people that have been impacted are afraid to apply for our assistance. If I can't get them to apply, I can't give them the money and the resources that they're eligible for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: You know, people who have had their lives upended by a storm are now forced to deal with all of these conspiracy theories rather than focus on what they must do. And according to several accounts, FEMA's response has been satisfactory. Don't take it from us. Here's the mayor of Chimney Rock, North Carolina reacting to the very false rumors that had been circulating around.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR PETER O'LEARY, CHIMNEY ROCK, NORTH CAROLINA: I've got to be honest with you. I hear stuff like that. I mean, I'm here in the middle of this disaster, we're responding, and then somebody says, have you heard this? And you just kind of laugh because it's so outlandish. I've been satisfied with it. I've heard a few rumblings of some complaints but, I mean, we haven't seen anything in Chimney Rock, that's for sure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Joining me now, retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Russel Honore. He served as commander of Joint Task Force Katrina following the 2005 hurricane that devastated the Gulf Coast. He's also the author of "Leadership in the New Normal." Thank you so much for being here.

Look, FEMA now has a website set up. It's dedicated to addressing all of the false information, all of the rumors. I do wonder, what kind of impact have you seen this all have on the federal response?

RUSSEL HONORE, RETIRED U.S. ARMY LIEUTENANT GENERAL: Well, I think from my experience at Katrina, the targeted people are the survivors, and many of them don't have electricity, don't have media, but with current cellphones, and as the internet come back online, they have access, it's demoralizing, and then that rumor gets spread.

You know, we dealt with that in Katrina II, Laura. There were rumors of the government blowing levies and snipers, and you have to immediately engage with it through the media at large as well as the (INAUDIBLE) that FEMA is using it with the help of CNN and others who challenge those rumors and lies before they become a problem in the community.

COATES: And just thinking about the devastation of like Katrina and beyond and, of course, now, how do you combat that when it's difficult to even have people access their cellphones or loved ones? That might be -- that rumor mill could be out of your control. How do you address that misinformation on the ground?

HONORE: Well, the governors need to have daily news conference with FEMA, with the National Guard. That is a routine and it need to be a national news conference because it not only affects the people, the survivors, it affected the mood of the country and people confidence that the government is doing what they can to help people. But in a disaster, you're never there on time. You get there when you can because the disaster had an impact on airports, roads, communications, water accessibility, and you've got to get people evacuated. So, that's a disaster. If people are not complaining in a disaster, it wasn't a disaster, it was an inconvenience. And boy, did we have a big one with Helena. It was 600 miles long. It affected five states. I've never seen one that big before, Laura.

COATES: You know, you make such a sharp point on the idea of what it does to the confidence in the government and the ability of people to have faith and the response, and then maybe even heed the warnings from the government about what to do with a future hurricane. How would you assess FEMA's response so far specifically in places like North Carolina where -- I mean, we see these images. They are devastating.

HONORE: We've got to understand FEMA's role is to resource things that the governor needs. The governor hands his request to FEMA, and FEMA brings generators. They bring search and rescue teams. And if they need to, they will ask the Pentagon to bring more helicopters and troops. But the person in charge of the disaster preparedness and response is the governor. And FEMA is there to assist him with logistics.

COATES: You know --

HONORE: It's news conference before the hurricane and tell people evacuate, but its logistics, and that's what FEMA brings, to include the entire Department of Defense if needed.

COATES: Thank you.

[23:40:00]

Just thinking about what needs to be done and the scope of this. And I couldn't believe when I saw this, lieutenant general, because the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, and President Biden, they did speak by phone tonight. But then a White House official told us that DeSantis has not returned Vice President Harris's calls. Harris called that selfish. DeSantis tonight said this in response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She has no role in this process. I'm in contact with the President of the United States. I've had storms under both President Trump and President Biden, and I've worked well with both of them. She's the first one who's trying to politicize the storm, and she's doing that just because of her campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: What do you make of this back and forth? Do you think that Governor DeSantis is accurate or woefully misguided?

HONORE: I think this is a case of misguided that he can turn it into a talking point. But the vice president was decisively engaged in Katrina and would send in requests for information because they're hearing from constituents, too, inside that state. So, they're a part of the government, the vice president. They need to know everything the president knows and to be there to assist the governor as he needs something.

So, I think that we need to move past this because this storm that's coming is going to be historic. Helene was a monster. This could be historic storm facing over three and a half million people, elevation of 10 feet in Tampa, 9 feet in St. Pete at best, and it could get 10 to 12-foot surge.

So, we need to focus on this storm and, hopefully, that story will go away, and tomorrow we can focus on preparing and getting the logistics ready to respond because we're going to need the air, we're going to need land, and we're going to need sea search and rescue to be able to assist if this storm comes in the way. Weather, people are talking about it, Laura.

COATES: Well, Lieutenant General Russel Honore, we're also going to need you and your expertise. Thank you for joining us.

HONORE: And the volunteers. Never forget the volunteers. Government ain't good enough to handle a storm by itself without the volunteers. And they're doing a great job.

COATES: A very important point. Thank you so much. Up next, you won't hear from a politician or an ambassador or an analyst about October 7th tonight. Instead, we'll have you hear from mothers, mothers who are living inside Israel, mothers inside of Gaza, for their reflections on a year of loss and torment.

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[23:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COATES: Today marks one year since Hamas terrorists brutally murdered more than 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 250 men, women, even babies, hostage. More than 100 of those people remain in captivity. Around the world, tributes, memorials. And today, the war in Gaza rages on. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed and nearly all of the 2.2 million Gaza residents have been displaced.

Now, CNN's Jeremy Diamond brings us the heartbreak from both Israeli and Gazan mothers. We must warn our viewers, you may find this report disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIMONA STEINBRECHER, MOTHER OF HOSTAGE IN GAZA: I want her back alive, not in a bag. I want her alive that I can hold her.

FATEN MERAISH, MOTHER OF KILLED CHILDREN IN GAZA (ON SCREEN TEXT): At night, I wish to hug my son Jude. I always hug his pillow all night. This is all I have left of him.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Words alone cannot capture a mother's pain. But the anguish on their faces paints a devastating picture of the countless lives upended by Hamas's October 7th attack and Israel's war in Gaza.

(EXPLOSION)

One year later, Faten Meraish is still grieving the loss of her two sons killed in an Israeli airstrike this summer. Simona Steinbrecher doesn't know her daughter's fate. She is being held hostage by Hamas. Stepping inside the home where she was abducted is like going back in time.

STEINBRECHER: They broke the windows. They come from the window.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Shards of glass still crunch underfoot in a home upturned and uprooted from the peace it once provided. And in the bedroom, a mother recounts her daughter's abduction.

STEINBRECHER: She was very afraid because you can hear from the voice that she said, 'they take me, they take me." She was really afraid.

DIAMOND: She was on the phone with you when she was being taken.

STEINBRECHER: Yes. And we don't know nothing about her. What happened with her. We don't know if she's alive. We don't know nothing.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Doron Steinbrecher's cry for help captured in one final voice note.

DORON STEINBRECHER, HOSTAGE (voice-over) (ON SCREEN TEXT): They've caught me, they've caught me, they've caught me.

DIAMOND (voice-over): She was one of 251 people taken hostage on October 7, 2023, after Hamas militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians. It was the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel's history, carried out at a music festival, in people's homes, and against those who fled into bomb shelters.

[23:50:06]

UNKNOWN: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

DIAMOND (voice-over): In Kfar Aza, this small kibbutz on the Gaza border, Hamas kidnapped 19, including Simona's daughter, Doron.

Did you ever imagine that you would be sitting here a year later?

S. STEINBRECHER: No.

DIAMOND: And she would still be in Gaza?

S. STEINBRECHER: No. Never. But, now we see that there's another day, another week, another month and nothing.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The first sign of life came nearly four months later. Doron, gaunt and pale, appears in a Hamas hostage video.

S. STEINBRECHER: I was happy that I can see that she's alive. But then I can -- I look at her, and I can see the difference.

DIAMOND: What does the government tell you?

S. STEINBRECHER: They tell us the family that they make everything, that they will come back. But they are still there. So, something is wrong. Something is not working.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Those frustrations shifted into overdrive in August after Hamas executed six hostages. Families like Doron's now fearing the worst.

You feel like the longer she's there, the less likely it is --

S. STEINBRECHER: Yes.

DIAMOND: -- that she could come back alive.

S. STEINBRECHER: They don't have time.

DIAMOND (voice-over): For nearly 10 months, Faten managed to keep her family safe, fleeing from one place to another as Israel pummeled the Gaza Strip with bombs and missiles, a school, a relative's home, a tent.

MERAISH (ON SCREEN TEXT): We tried as much as possible to create an atmosphere in which there was no terror, no bombing. Wherever there were safe areas, I would take the children there.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

UNKNOWN (voice-over): (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

DIAMOND (voice-over): No nowhere in Gaza is truly safe. CPR cannot bring her five-year-old son, Jude, back to life. But Faten cannot believe it. She had only just left the tent they were living in to buy Jude an Indomie, his favorite instant noodles. But as she cradles her youngest, her eldest son's body arrives at the morgue. Mohammed (ph) is dead, too. His mother and father in agony. Amid their unspeakable grief, there is also anger --

UNKNOWN: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

DIAMOND (voice-over): -- at Israel, at Hamas, and at a world she feels has abandoned them. This is all that is left of the tent where Mohammed (ph) and Jude were staying when a missile struck just a few feet away, where their mother now asks what her children did to deserve this fate.

MERAISH (ON SCREEN TEXT): They are more precious to me than the light of my eyes. When I lost them, I lost a piece of my heart.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Jude would have turned six years old last month. MERAISH (ON SCREEN TEXT): We used to celebrate his birthday every year with a cake, and invite the loved ones, because he is the youngest one in the family. But this time Jude was not with us. There was only a box of Indomie that I was handing to children his age.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

DIAMOND (voice-over): More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military over the last year, and at least 11,000 are children like Jude and Mohammed (ph), according to Oxfam (ph), making it the deadliest conflict for children in a single year this century.

How much is too much, sir? At what point is it time to end this war?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: Well, we'll end the war when we achieve our war goals, making sure that Hamas can't repeat such atrocities. I'm not going to change my policies, humanitarian policies, vaccination policies, combat policies, to minimize civilian casualties.

DIAMOND (voice-over): But is Israel any closer to achieving its war goals?

NETANYAHU: Even if we shall kill all Hamas activists and all the political leaders and we shall destroy all the military installations on the day after, two Palestinian children that lost their families will try to achieve, to get a knife and to kill Israelis, unless you will defeat the ideology. And the only way to defeat the ideology is to present a better ideology.

DIAMOND: And so, one year later, is Israel safer than it was?

NETANYAHU: No way. Israel is not safer because if you look on the day of tomorrow, no one can tell you that we shall not face a regional war in which Hezbollah and Iran and the West Bank and Syria and the Houthis will not fight.

[23:55:06]

It will be a regional war with a global impact. So, nobody can tell you today that we are safer than on the 6th of October.

DIAMOND (voice-over): But for two mothers at the heart of this painful conflict --

MERAISH (ON SCREEN TEXT): Who knows when it will end, or what else I might lose? Would I lose my sister, my brother, or some relatives, or someone dear to me? God knows. We don't know.

DIAMOND (voice-over): A plea for it all to end.

S. STEINBRECHER: There is no time for someone to finish wars or something like this. They don't have time.

DIAMOND (on camera): And Laura, those mothers' pleas for this war to end, so far, falling on deaf ears. The Israeli military expanding military operations in Northern Gaza. And at the same time, today, we have seen multiple rockets be fired on Tel Aviv from Hamas, from Hezbollah, as well as from the Houthis in Yemen. This as we're still waiting for the Israeli military's response to that barrage of ballistic missiles from Iran last week. Laura?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COATES: Jeremy Diamond, thank you. And thank you all for watching. "Anderson Cooper 360" is next.

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