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Anti-Semitic Attacks Rose 57 Percent in 2017; Netanyahu: Jewish Experts Will Help U.S. Jewish Institutes Strengthen Security; Right- Wing Candidate Wins Brazilian Presidential Race; Far-Right Party Rises in Germany as Chancellor Merkel Announces Early Departure; Synagogue Shooter Has First Court Appearance; Pennsylvania U.S. Attorney Briefs Reports on Shooter's Court Appearance. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired October 29, 2018 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:32:56] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Pittsburgh is mourning and vowing to come together as a unified front after the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history. The Anti-Defamation League has found an alarming trend. Last year, there was a 57 percent increase in anti- Semitic incidents here in the United States, including this unforgettable moment, Neo-Nazis marching through the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, chanting, "Jews will not replace us."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHANTING)

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BLITZER: Now just one year later, 11 murdered in the synagogue during a place of worship. The Pittsburgh mayor is making it clear hate has no place in his city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM PEDUTO, (D), PITTSBURGH MAYOR: We will drive anti-Semitism and the hate of any people back to the basement on their computer and away from the open discussions and dialogues around the city, around the state, and around this country.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Joining us now to discuss Ambassador Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations.

Mr. Ambassador, thanks so much for joining us.

It's pretty alarming to think, here in the United States, a 57 percent increase in these incidents in 2017 and now this, the deadliest anti- Semitic attack in American history. How do you think we got here?

DANNY DANON, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Good afternoon, Wolf. Unfortunately, anti-Semitism is not only in Europe, but here in the U.S. We are very happy with the quality of the social media but, unfortunately, it's a very effective tool to promote hatred, to insight. We saw the results only last Saturday when an insane man entered the synagogue in the middle of the service. We need to take action. The condemnations are very important and we appreciate that, but we should speak about the next step of how we can prevent the next massacre. And we should do two things. First of all, we should make sure that you have more security in synagogues. It is unfortunate. When I walk into a synagogue in France or in London, I see security. It is not the case in the United States. We have no other option but to put more guards and security in synagogues. The second issue is monitoring the social media of potential terrorists. We do it in Israel and we are able to prevent many cases of people who want to commit a crime. We prevented. In the U.S., you will find the mechanism to do that. And I'm aware of the freedom of speech. It's not freedom of hate. You need to find the mechanism, the ethical, legal mechanism to monitor and thwart the plan to kill innocent people.

[13:35:40] BLITZER: I know Israel has a lot of experience in dealing with terrorism, with violence. I'm told that the prime minister is putting together a group of Israeli experts to come here to the United States to work with the American Jewish community to help strengthen security at Jewish institutions and synagogues and schools, Jewish community centers. Tell us about what the prime minister has in mind.

DANON: We're offer support to the Jewish community worldwide, but we expect that the authorities will take care of the security of the Jewish people. That is the case in Europe and that is the case in the United States. We will not replace the authorities. And I believe that the authorities with the Jewish community need to sit down. We can give them some of our experience that we have how to do it. But the responsibility is for the U.S. government and for the Jewish community to find a way to promote a better environment for the people who come.

BLITZER: The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had this message for the people of Pittsburgh, and I'll quote, "After the Holocaust, many hoped that anti-Semitism would finally be relegated to the dustbin of history. It wasn't. While these attacks are nothing new in the history of our people, what is new is our ability to fight back against the anti-Semites."

Where do you think all of us go from here?

DANON: Now in the Jewish tradition, we have a week of schiffa (ph), where we focus on mourning and praying for the fall, the death. We will take our time. But a week from today, we have to sit down and see what we are doing practically to prevent the next massacre. It happened in Charleston in 2016 in the church and it happened a few days ago in Pittsburgh. We don't want to see in a few months or a year if something like that happens again. Monitoring social media is crucial and adding security to the synagogues.

BLITZER: It's a dangerous situation. I know you have been in the United States for a while. Did you ever think you would see anything like this here in the United States?

DANON: In 2014, I was the deputy minister of defense, and I entered Jerusalem after a similar attack. I will never forget the horrible pictures. I never imagined I would come to the U.S. in 2018 and we would see similar pictures of a Holocaust survivor being killed while practicing their religion in the United States.

BLITZER: You just heard once again that awful sound at Charlottesville when you heard the Neo-Nazis declaring, "Jews will not replace us." The timing was depressing to a lot of people that President Trump, in his response to going on in Charlottesville, said there were very fine people on both sides. I know you are not going to give advice to the president of the United States, and you are a diplomat, but give us your reaction when you hear that kind of stuff.

DANON: We are not going into your politics. We have enough politics in Jerusalem. But it should be about politics, but we should not allow hatred to be around us. We heard the chants. We heard Louis Farrakhan only two weeks ago speaking against the Jews and he's welcomed in many communities, welcomed by the media sometimes. Those people should be denounced and we should not accept this language. We see Farrakhan speak against the Jews and then the tweets against the Jews and, at the end, they enter and kill Jewish people.

BLITZER: Yes, Louis Farrakhan said that the Jews were maybe not Semites, but termites. Called them termites. That was clearly an awful, awful statement on his part.

Ambassador Danon, thanks so much for joining us.

DANON: Thank you very much, Wolf.

BLITZER: This just coming in right now. We get word from the federal courthouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that the suspect in the synagogue massacre entered court in a wheelchair. He was released from the hospital this morning. The federal judge is currently reading the 29 federal charges. Our own Jean Casarez is in the courtroom and we will have a live report as soon as she can walk out.

[13:39:41] We'll be right back.

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BLITZER: The synagogue shooting suspect, Robert Bowers, just made his first court appearance in Pittsburgh.

Jean Casarez was inside the federal courtroom.

Jean, you just walked outside. Tell us what happened.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this just ended minutes ago. First, U.S. Marshals entered the courtroom and there were three of them. They went through the door where the defendant was to enter. Two public defenders were already on the defense side. The defendant was wheeled in in a wheelchair. He had civilian clothing on. He had a blue pull over shirt. It appeared -- as though I could see his right leg -- I saw a white bandaging on that leg. He appeared to be very aware. It was a packed courtroom. All media, from what I could see and tell. He did not look into the gallery at the courtroom, but straight ahead. He was wheeled to the center between the two defense attorneys. He was cuffed at his hands but had to sign paperwork. They had plastic gloves on their hands undid his handcuffs and he consulted with one of the public defenders before signing the documents. And took a couple of minutes to read, acknowledge, and sign the documents. Once that was done. The U.S. Marshals recuffed him.

[13:45:38] And that is when the judge entered, sat down. It was the magistrate judge. He began to ask him questions. First question was, are you the defendant, stating his name. The answer was, yes, I am. Are you charged in the criminal complaint -- and went through charge one through 11 and what it was, 12 through 22, up until 29. Have you received a copy of the complaint? Yes, sir, the defendant said. Are you choosing to waive the reading of the complaint? The defense attorney spoke that they would be waiving that. And then asked if he would want to hear the possible penalties that are involved in convicted on all of these counts. There was a consultation and the public defender said, Your Honor, we waive the reading of the penalties. The judge said we have to state a date for the preliminary hearing, which is where evidence is put on to probable cause that he committed this offense. The date was set to be this Thursday, at 10:00 in the morning, for the preliminary hearing. He is committed to the custody of the marshal and the public defenders waived any issue on bail. They have waived it -- Wolf?

BLITZER: He's going to be in jail for a long, long time.

Jean Casarez, thank you very much.

We will take a quick break. Much more on all the breaking news right after this.

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[13:51:32] BLITZER: The U.S. attorney in western Pennsylvania, Scott Brady, is about to make a statement following the first court appearance by the suspect in the synagogue mass murder. We're going to have live coverage of that. You're looking at live pictures coming in right now. Stand by, that's coming in momentarily, we're told.

In the meantime, there's other important news we're following. In Brazil, the far-right candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, is declaring victory in the country's presidential election. Some of Bolsonaro's critics call him the Brazilian Donald Trump. In a country staggering from corruption scandals and rising crime, he ran on a platform of draining the swamp and fighting crime. But also accused of making racist statements and comments against women and declaring he would rather his own son die in an accident than have a gay family member. During the campaign, he also threatened to eliminate or exile his political opponents.

President Trump tweeted out his congratulations, saying he's already spoken with the president-elect of Brazil. Joining us, Susan Glasser, staff writer at the "New Yorker," CNN

global affairs analyst.

It looks like there's a trend going on, not just in Brazil, but elsewhere around the world, in Europe, especially.

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: That's right. Another data point to consider is, yesterday, there were key regional elections in Germany. Once again, Chancellor Angela Merkel's party not only did poorly, it even caused her to announce an early decision to step aside as the leader of her party, has been for 18 years. But most significantly, I think, it marks the rise of the far-right party in Germany, known as the AFD. It's now represented in all of the regional parliaments around Germany for the first time. And again, you see this kind of right-wing populism in Germany, of course, in neighboring Hungary, for example. The Viktor Orban, the leader of Hungary, has forced a liberal university funded by George Soros to leave the country. This has all just happened in recent days.

BLITZER: Susan, the U.S. attorney in Pennsylvania, in western Pennsylvania, Scott Brady, he is about to make a statement. We're told he's going to be walking out to the microphones momentarily, following this first hearing, which just took place with a suspect in this mass murder.

In fact, there he is, right now.

SCOTT BRADY, U.S. ATTORNEY, PENNSYLVANIA: Good afternoon.

On Saturday, October 27th, 2018, my office charged Robert Bowers with federal murder and assault charges relative to the horrific acts of violence he committed at the Tree of Life Synagogue. Today, Robert Bowers made his first appearance in federal court. The judge advised him of the charges against him. He is detained in jail without bond. The federal magistrate judge scheduled a hearing for Thursday, November 1st at 10:00 a.m. At that time, we will have the opportunity to present evidence demonstrating that Robert Bowers murdered 11 people who were exercising their religious beliefs and that he shot or injured six others, including four of whom were police officers responding to the shooting.

Our investigation of these hate crimes continues. Under the law, we must present this case to a federal grand jury within 30 days of today.

Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the victim's families and with the community. And rest assured, we have a team of prosecutors working hard to ensure that justice is done.

Thank you.

[13:55:01] BLITZER: All right. He's not taking questions from reporters. That's Scott Brady, the U.S. attorney in western Pennsylvania, following this first, this first court appearance by Robert Bowers, the suspect in the mass murder of 11 Jews who were simply practicing their religion Saturday morning, shabbat services, when they were gunned down.

Jean Casarez, you were in the courtroom when the charges were leveled. And now we've heard directly from Scott Brady. No cameras in federal courts, as we know. But this seems to be moving the rapidly.

CASAREZ: It does appear to be rapidly, but also, there are constitutional concerns. And you have to do certain things in a certain amount of time. You know, when I saw him wheeled in that wheelchair, just a moment ago, not only did he appear very aware to me, his eyes were open, alert, but he seemed calm. There was nothing nervous about him as he was wheeled in to this courtroom that obviously was a very new room that he had never been in before, packed with people. U.S. Marshals, law enforcement, all over the room. They wheeled him between his two defense attorneys. And almost immediately took his handcuffs off. The reason why, he had to sign some paperwork. And later on, the judge did say to him, I understand that you have signed a financial disclosure document saying that you need to have an attorney appointed for you. "Yes," he responded. The question, is everything that you put down in that form accurate. "Yes." And then the public defenders said that there may be others that will actually represent him, but they are here today.

BLITZER: The -- so he is represented by public defenders, not some lawyer who's simply doing pro-bono work, is that right?

CASAREZ: That's correct. These two were from the public defender's office. They may not ultimately be who represents him, but they will be public defenders, according to the magistrate judge.

BLITZER: I want you to stand by, Jean.

Susan Glasser is still with us.

Susan, you've spent a lot of time overseas and you have seen anti- Semitic incidents in a lot of the countries you've been reporting from. Did you ever think we would see something like this here in the United States?

GLASSER: You've been reporting and others about the dramatic uptick in anti-Semitic incidents just over the last year, since 2017. You know, this follows on, basically, over the last decade, you've seen an alarming rise, even in western Europe, in France, in Germany, when we were briefly stationed in Jerusalem in late 2016. In some neighborhoods in Jerusalem, you could hear French spoken in the streets, it was so common, because so many French Jews were concerned about the rise of anti-Semitism in their country, they were moving to Israel or buying second homes there. You know, I don't -- we're nothing like that right now, but I think it's one of those moments that causes you to sit back and to say, uh, you know, what is going on that this happened, over the course of the last year. We didn't stop to note it before something as horrific as this mass killing causes us to pay attention to it.

BLITZER: And in the midst of this -- and we're not blaming the president of the United States for what happened in Pittsburgh -- but in the midst of this, this morning, he starts the tweet that the news media once again is causing all of this, all of this uproar, the true enemy of the people. Doesn't he realize, potentially, how dangerous that is? The words he utters, the message he sends to deranged people out there, if the news media is the enemy of the people, well, they've got to do something about this?

GLASSER: You know, Wolf, the president first used this expression "enemy of the people" all the way back in February of 2017. He's clearly been told over and over and over again by his advisers, by the critics who he does pay attention to on television and on Twitter that this is language that we've never seen from an American president before. I lived in Russia for four years where Stalinism, the actual term by which people were sentenced to the gulags, was to call them enemies of the people. That was the official phrase. So to me, the idea that a president is just ignorantly saying this, I don't think so. I think that President Trump is doing this on purpose. And it's at its core, a part of the political campaign he's constructed. It's not enough to run against Democrats, he's decided that he needs to frame journalists as the enemy.

BLITZER: Yes. So many people have come to the president, supporters and others, and said to him, stop using this phrase "enemy of the people," it's very dangerous, it's very reckless, it could cause a lot of problems. As you know, CNN, even today, we discovered another pipe bomb that was in the mail to CNN headquarters in Atlanta. It's an extremely worrisome development. I hope he stops, even at this late stage.

Susan, thanks very much.

GLASSER: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. We're standing by for a White House press briefing. We're looking at live pictures right now. We're going to bring that to you live as soon as it gets underway. It's been a long time since we saw and heard from the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

NEWSROOM with Brooke Baldwin and Anderson Cooper, in Pittsburgh, starts --