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Israel Marks Two Years Since Hamas Attack; Attorney General Pam Bondi Testifies on Capitol Hill. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired October 07, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

PAM BONDI, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: They don't want our officers to be protected from -- with their identity, yet they're wearing gas masks, they're wearing goggles, and they're ramming a car...

SEN. MIKE LEE (R-UT): So it's OK for them to be safe. It's OK for Antifa to be safe. It's OK for those doing the bidding of international violent drug cartels to be safe, but heaven forbid our ICE officers should be safe.

SEN. MARSHA BLACKBURN (R-TN): Thank you, Senator Lee.

Time has expired.

Senator Coons, you're recognized.

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Thank you, Senator Blackburn. And thank you to the committee for holding this oversight hearing.

Attorney General Bondi, thank you for your service and for being with us.

I want to start with an area where I think we have a lot to agree on. In may, your Bureau of Prisons issued a directive to expand the availability of home confinement. The directive said it was rooted in the principle of smart, fair, criminal justice reform, and explained that smart reform and public safety can go hand in hand, and that second chances are not just possible, they're necessary for a justice system worthy of the American people.

There's more to do to implement this directive, but I appreciated the BOP's recognition of these principles. Could you briefly speak further about the work BOP Director Marshall and Deputy Director Smith, himself a former inmate, are doing with regard to reform and what opportunities you see for us to do more?

BONDI: Thank you, Senator Coons, and you have been a champion of that, and we believe in second chances. As a career prosecutor, I know that most people, even violent criminals, are going to be locked up, and then they're going to be released.

And that's why we need everyone to be a productive member of society, I believe in halfway houses. And that's part of what the second -- the FIRST STEP Act did. It gives people a second chance at life, and that's what Billy Marshall and Josh Smith have been doing, working hand in hand at the Bureau of Prisons.

I talk to them constantly, and they are working so hard. In fact, they inherited a dysfunctional and neglected agency, and they are taking -- despite more than $450 million being appropriated between 2019 and 2024, we found that funds had been diverted away from the Department of Prisons, the Bureau of Prisons.

And so they are doing everything to create more halfway houses and to give inmates everything they need to be successful upon release, but also by keeping America safe. And I just learned from Billy Marshall we just made an incredible case that someone -- I believe the case was in Texas, one of our federal prisons.

No one was monitoring this. And there was someone who was caught with a drone dropping off recently cell phones, paraphernalia.

COONS: Yes.

Let me follow up on that point, if I might, Attorney General.

BONDI: Many, many things that could cause violence within our prisons and allow criminal cartel networks to function within our federal prisons. And that's what a lot of this money is going for, to make our prisons safe within and so these criminals cannot function while they are in prison.

But one good thing I can also add is, we have given inmates -- I think we have over doubled the amount of minutes they can have on their phones so they can talk to their family members because we believe that is important.

COONS: One of the challenges federal probation officers face is massive caseloads. And I am about to introduce, hopefully reintroduce soon, a bill with Senator Lee that would improve our federal supervised release system by focusing resources on those who really need to be supervised and providing incentives to reduce oversight of those who've really made progress and who've changed the direction of their lives.

It is broadly supported by law enforcement and a variety of policy groups. And I'd love to work with you on that, Madam Attorney General.

BONDI: Yes, Senator, can I just add, because I just got the numbers, so what we have is $8.7 billion for the Bureau of Prisons. And what that does is it adds 587 correctional officers to help with the things that we just discussed, $95 million for new hires.

We have to recruit and we have to retain. We know that's a really tough job to be a corrections officer. And that's why Josh Smith is such a valuable part of that team with Billy Marshall. And I would welcome working with you on that. And President Trump is the one who signed the FIRST STEP Act because he believes in second chances. We all do.

COONS: Thank you.

BONDI: Thank you, Senator Coons, for that question.

COONS: One of the things I have been concerned, even upset about is how, early in this administration, at the behest of DOGE, the department cut hundreds of grants totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, many of which serve critical public safety needs, supporting victims, assisting with reentry, violence prevention, including in my own home state.

[11:05:12]

This was literally defunding the police. And I have some concerns about how DOJ is putting at risk public safety by assigning thousands of agents and prosecutors away from drugs, firearms, corruption, violent crime to help ICE arrest people without criminal records.

You have indicated a willingness to review any grant that a member of Congress has concerns about and noted a number of them have been restored on appeal. And I appreciate that willingness to admit some misjudgments or mistakes in some of the many grants that were canceled.

But can you assure us this process is going to be fixed going forward so better decisions are made at the start and not just after appeals? And can you assure us that we are not leaving doors wide open for crime and criminality in our communities and overfocusing on arrest and deportation of those without criminal records?

BONDI: Yes, Senator, thank you for that question.

And, as I said earlier, we are reviewing all the grants, and I believe we have, I would say, turned some back on for senators who have called. It doesn't matter what state you're from. If it's a law enforcement grant, if it's protecting victims, let us know and we will work with you. And I'm not sure if we have done any in your state yet, but I would be happy to work with you on that.

What I can tell you is, there have been -- out of the 5,800 discretionary grants that were reviewed, only 376 around the country, 7 percent, were terminated; 225 of the grant recipients have appealed that termination. And so far we have turned back on 18 of those; 17 appeals have been denied and the rest are being actively reviewed.

If any of you know of any of those that you believe should -- call me -- should be turned back on, call me. We don't want to jeopardize anything that's hurting...

COONS: I will be calling you.

BONDI: Please do.

And, Senator, to go to what you said about the FBI and my federal agencies and being pulled to work on immigration cases, they're working hand in hand because we believe that we have ICE officers out there, as we just discussed, I don't want to repeat that, who are being harmed.

We're going to work with them. And I have directed all of my law enforcement agencies to work with ICE to make sure they're safe in Chicago, to make sure they're safe in Memphis, to make sure they're safe right here in Washington, D.C., but also at President Trump's direction, we are not stopping the core function of what we're doing.

And that is fighting violent crime. And I think Director Patel made that very clear with all of the arrests that our FBI have been making on violent criminals. And there's so much that we can't talk about here. But if any of you are on the Intel Committee, you know we are fighting terrorists around this country every single day.

Our lawyers are shut down right now. They're not getting paid. The crime is not stopping. They're working around the clock to not only keep our country safe, Senator, but to keep our world safe. And they have continued to do that.

COONS: Madam Attorney General, I think all of us hate that there's a shutdown and its impact on the federal work force and are working to find a way out of this shutdown, but one that will also restore cuts to health care.

We could spend a lot of time on that, but let's focus on, if I could, two more questions related to your service as the attorney general. The government is asserting the authority to summarily kill people it says are cartel members through military strikes against boats on the open ocean in the Caribbean.

Congress has never authorized such a use of military force. And it's unclear to me how the administration has concluded that these strikes are legal. I'm concerned with what the limiting principle is, whether the government could summarily kill people it just declares are cartel members, as well as unlawful combatants inside the United States, or if they were American citizens.

This isn't about defending cartels. These aren't hypothetical questions. President Trump assembled military leaders and said they would be needed to fight the enemy from within and to train in cities in the United States that he describes as chaotic and violent.

Due process is the cornerstone of our Constitution. I'm deeply concerned about the authority our president seems to be asserting to summarily kill people suspected of criminal activity outside the law. As the chief lawyer for our federal government, you have a unique responsibility to ensure maintenance of our constitutional standards.

How did you conclude that these strikes on ships or boats on the open ocean are legal?

BONDI: Senator Coons, I'm not going to discuss any legal advice that my department may or may not have given or issued at the direction of the president on this matter.

Regarding Venezuela, what I can tell you is, Maduro is a narco- terrorist, and we announced a historic, I announced $50 million reward for his capture to bring him to this country to face charges. He is currently under indictment in our country. Drugs coming from Venezuela are killing our children at record levels. They have been flowing into this country.

[11:10:25]

COONS: And members of this committee are as passionate as you at protecting our families and our communities from fentanyl, but we also need to protect our sailors on the high seas who are conducting freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: A very sensitive subject coming up by Senator Chris Coons of Delaware.

Carrie Cordero, our legal analyst, is here with us.

This is -- the specific question he's asking, is it legal for the U.S. right now to attack these boats coming in from Venezuela, from other countries suspected of having cartel members aboard and then killing those individuals on board?

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, I think that was actually one of the most important questions that we have heard asked this morning, because it gets to the heart of a fundamental legal analysis that the Department of Justice under Attorney General Bondi appears to have made and is giving advice to the White House.

And so far throughout this hearing and in response to Senator Coons' question, she has effectively deflected providing the department's legal rationale. The issue that he raises, these strikes on these drug-running boats in the Caribbean, is a really significant legal issue and legal question.

The administration appears to be taking the type of approach that the U.S. government and the Department of Justice have taken in the war against international terrorism for the last 25 years against al Qaeda and its progeny and applying that same type of legal rationale to these drug-running boats.

And yet there's a lot of questions about the extent to which that is lawful. The president has a lot of authority under executive power under Article II of the Constitution, but there's also really significant questions of international law.

But that's sort of the most meaty question that I think I have heard so far in the hearing since 9:00 this morning of a senator press the attorney general on a legal rationale, but I think she's really been able to deflect it so far.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Let me just follow up, because she did deflect on that. I mean, would you expect her to be able to talk about the legal rationale or was her answer to that what you would expect?

CORDERO: I think, because it is such a significant development and a significant change, I mean, we're talking about a quarter-century or more of change in the U.S. government's approach to drug trafficking, a fundamental change from treating it as a criminal matter to a national security matter, that some articulation of what the legal theory is would be appropriate.

What might be happening is that the Justice Department has issued a memorandum from their Office of Legal Counsel to the White House. Like, I would expect that in the course of interactions between the White House and the Justice Department. And Justice Departments under both types of political administrations would not want to and they would fight pretty hard before turning over those actual legal written opinions.

But I think it would be reasonable for an attorney general to provide at least the contours of the department's legal analysis.

BROWN: Then, of course, there's the politics of it. And as we have seen time and time again, the attorney general deflecting questions from the Democratic senators.

Still ahead, we are keeping an eye on Capitol Hill, where senators are pressing Attorney General Pam Bondi in that tense hearing we have been following.

Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

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[11:18:31]

BROWN: All right, welcome back.

We are going to continue to monitor Attorney General Pam Bondi's testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

But we want to get to some other news this morning happening now. Israel marks two years since Hamas launched its coordinated terror attacks on October 7.

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BLITZER: Today, a siren blared in Israel for the 1,200 people who were killed and the more than 250 people who were abducted; 20 of those hostages are still believed to be alive.

Today, also, smoke is once again rising over Gaza. The Ministry of Health there estimates 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, many of them women and children. And a second day of negotiations is now under way in Egypt, in Sharm el-Sheikh, for a possible cease- fire, threat first stage, that would return -- would aim to return, I should say, the remaining hostages.

CNN Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond is over at what's called Hostage Square in Tel Aviv for us.

Jeremy, tell us about the mood there on this, the second anniversary of that horrible terror attack in Israel. What is the level of optimism that those hostages could finally be returned soon?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, there is certainly a somber mood today across Israel, one that is perhaps mixed with a sense of hopefulness about the possibility of these negotiations in Egypt, potentially leading to an end of the war in Gaza and returning those 48 hostages.

[11:20:06]

Today, Israelis across the country are indeed commemorating those attacks that took place two years ago, in which nearly 1,200 Israelis, the majority of them civilians, were killed by Hamas militants who stormed across the border, killing people in their homes and bomb shelters, and, of course, at that Nova Music Festival in Southern Israel.

But the families of the hostages on this two-year anniversary are also more hopeful than ever about the possibility of a deal to free all of those hostages. I spent some time this past Saturday night, which is the night every week when hostage families rally in protest for their loved ones, I spent time with Vicki Cohen, the mother of one of those 48 hostages.

She was feeling hopeful, but said they will continue to fight until all of them are home.

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VICKY COHEN, MOTHER OF ISRAELI HOSTAGE: We will still fight and do everything we did before until it's settled, until it's final, until they are at home.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Cohen wasn't always at the forefront of the protest movement, but she ramped up her fight after losing faith in her government.

COHEN: Many other families realized that we need to be more polite -- less polite and be more aggressive with the fight.

DIAMOND: She soon realized she had real power.

COHEN: I heard from so many people who told me, I heard you are asking and you're calling for us to come, and we will come. We are coming because of you. This is so important.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND: And you can hear there this fight and this power that these hostage families realized that they had, and they are indeed continuing to raise their voices, even today on that two-year anniversary. Of course, today also marks two years since that war in Gaza began,

triggered by those Hamas attacks. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, more than 67,000 people have been killed inside of Gaza, more than 20,000 of whom are believed to be children, according to that same Health Ministry.

This has led to an absolutely horrendous humanitarian situation inside the Gaza Strip, where very little health infrastructure still exists there, public health infrastructure, and, of course, so many Palestinians there as well hopeful in this moment today that these negotiations will finally lead to an end of that war.

We know, of course, that there are still gaps between these two sides. And as these talks got under way last night, in the coming days, we will finally get a better sense of whether or not this is finally the moment that all of this horror can come to an end -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Jeremy Diamond reporting from what's called Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, we will stay in close touch with you.

Joining us now is Alana Zeitchik. She's an advocate for Israeli- American hostage families. Six of her relatives were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz. One of them is still in captivity.

Alana, thank you so much for being with us on this important day. I'm so happy that most of your family has been released. Today, as we all know, marks two years since that horrible, awful day.

Could you ever have imagined that we would still have as many as 20 living hostages still being held captive, including one of your relatives?

ALANA ZEITCHIK, RELATIVE OF ISRAELI HOSTAGES: No, I could have never imagined this. I mean, I couldn't imagine that October 7 was happening when it was happening. And it is surreal to still be here talking to you now.

BLITZER: How optimistic, Alana, are you and the other hostage families, for that matter, that this latest round of cease-fire talks now under way in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt will result in the release of all the remaining hostages?

ZEITCHIK: I think, by now, we have kind of learned to be really cautious.

I'm not even -- I'm not sure that I can call it cautious optimism. I think we're just kind of on edge waiting to see what happens. And we're hoping -- more than being optimistic, we are really hoping that this is finally going to be the end.

BLITZER: Do you have confidence that the Israeli and U.S. leadership are doing everything they possibly can to secure the release of all the hostages?

ZEITCHIK: You know, I mean, personally, I can speak for myself, I have lost a great deal of trust in our leaders in the last two years. So I am trying to have as much confidence as possible and that kind of the stars have perhaps aligned for our leaders to finally push this over the line.

BLITZER: You're talking about Israeli leaders or U.S. leaders?

ZEITCHIK: Israeli leaders primarily. I do think that the American government is doing a pretty good job at the moment. I know Witkoff is joining the talks tomorrow, and he has been very supportive of my family and all of the families.

So I do think that the American government is putting the pressure where it is needed right now.

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BLITZER: I know you know many of these hostage families in Tel Aviv and elsewhere in Israel, as well as here in the United States. What's the message that you want to share from them as we remember those tragic events of October 7 exactly two years ago today?

ZEITCHIK: You know, I think the message from all of us is that we are people. We are people who have been traumatized and have been suffering for two years now, and the only thing we have wanted since day one has been the return of our family members.

It is what we wanted then and it's what we still want now. We want to see an end to this war, an end to all of the violence, and we want this all to be over.

BLITZER: What are you most concerned about, Alana, as the remaining living hostages enter their third year of captivity?

ZEITCHIK: I'm most concerned about their well-being, to be honest. I mean, David is believed to be alive, but we have no idea what kind of condition he's really in. I'm concerned that, I mean, the likelihood that he will just be a different person than he was before, and I really want to see him come back to my cousin and their children.

And I'm concerned about how he's doing and how they are all doing.

BLITZER: The Trump cease-fire initiative that was launched a week or two ago basically said that all of the remaining hostages, including those who have passed away, will be allowed to come back to Israel immediately in exchange for a cease-fire.

Do you think that that 20-point plan that President Trump put forward has a good chance of success right now?

ZEITCHIK: I hope so. I do. I do think that it does. I mean, look, we have -- Hamas as to agree as well. It's not just on the Israeli government.

But I do think that -- I have seen that plan a while ago, and I think that it does have a good chance of succeeding if both parties will accept it.

BLITZER: And we know you have still one family member who's still being held hostage. Can you talk about this person?

ZEITCHIK: Yes, David Cunio is his name. He is a kibbutznik from Kibbutz Nir Oz. He grew up there, and he is my cousin Sharon's husband and the father to twin girls Emma and Yuli, all of whom were kidnapped on October 7.

And he is an incredible person, an amazing husband, and he is a doting father to his twin girls. He's also a twin. And he -- I know, I know right now he is sitting in those thinking about the three of them, longing to come home to them.

BLITZER: Well, we hope they all come home and they come home as soon as possible.

Alana Zeitchik, good luck to you. Good luck to your family. Good luck to all the hostage families. Thanks very much for joining us.

ZEITCHIK: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Pamela.

BROWN: I echo that sentiment, Wolf.

And we are continuing to monitor Capitol Hill, where Attorney General Pam Bondi is facing tough questions from lawmakers. We will bring you the very latest.

And a live look here at the White House right now, where Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is about to meet with President Trump to talk about tariffs.

We will bring that to you live after a quick break. Busy morning here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

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