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Gaza Rocket Fire Kills One; Link to Khashoggi's Murder; Democratic Candidate Power Rankings; Uproar over Nazi Salute Photo. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired November 13, 2018 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:31:36] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news.

More than 400 rockets have now been fired toward Israel from Gaza in just the last two days. And for the first time since 2014, there is a fatality from rocket fire on the Israeli side of the border.

Our Oren Liebermann is live in Sderot, Israel, with the very latest.

Oren.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, it was just a few minutes ago that there were more red alerts that we received indicating the possibility of more rockets or mortars fired from Gaza into Israel, into the Gaza periphery, where we're standing now.

According to the Israeli military, more than 400 rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza into Israel. A number of those have been intercepted but others have hit residential areas, including the city of Ashkelon, not far from where we're standing right now. One rocket hit a residential building, killing someone in that building, according to Israeli emergency response services.

As you point out, it is the first person killed in Israel by rocket fire since the end of the 2014 war. The mayor of the city of Ashkelon identified the deceased as a Palestinian man from the West Bank city of Hebron (ph).

Meanwhile, the Israeli military has carried out a wide range of air strikes against what they say are Hamas and Palestinian Islamic jihad targets in Gaza. They say they've hit a number of facilities, as well as weapons manufacturing facilities, weapons storage, including strategic assets. They say they took out and destroyed the Al-Aqsa TV channel, a Hamas run news channel that Israel has long accused of carrying out propaganda and being behind incitement. According to the Palestinian ministry of health, six Palestinians killed -- six Palestinians have been killed in the wide range of air strikes carried out since earlier this morning and into last night.

Erica, the question now, where does this go from here? Egypt and the United Nations have been involved, have been in contact with both sides to try to mediate some sort of cessation of hostilities. They have done so over the course of the past six months and succeeded in bringing about that cessation of hostilities. But this time it's different. It is a much bigger, longer round of hostilities and one senior international official we spoke with said he is pessimistic about where this is headed right now.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: All right, interesting words here, pessimistic.

Oren, thank you.

New evidence of a possible link between the death of Jamal Khashoggi and the Saudi crown prince. According to "The New York Times," that evidence comes directly from the lips of a member of the kill team that murdered the "Washington Post" journalist.

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh is live in Istanbul with us with the very latest for us this morning.

What more are we hearing?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erica, as you mentioned there, this reporting coming from "The New York Times." They've spoken to three officials, people they say were familiar with the recordings with the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, who say that shortly after the journalist was killed, a phone call was made by one of the 15 Saudis who were dispatched here to Istanbul to carry out this operation. And this call by the man they identified as Mahad Abdul Aziz Amujib (ph), who CNN has extensively reported on, who's a former diplomate and intelligence officer, a security officer who's within that inner circle of the crown prince. He makes a call to his superior in which he says, quote, tell your boss something along the lines of the deed is done. Now, he doesn't specifically identify who the boss is, but intelligence officials believe that is a reference to the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

Now, several U.S. officials have told us, told CNN last month, that an operation like this, to be carried out by members of the inner circle, could not have happened without the direct knowledge of MBS, as he is known, the crown prince. But the Saudis throughout have denied that he had any knowledge of this. They've blamed it on rogue elements and they've repeated this denial to "The New York Times" in this statement.

[06:35:18] You know there's some in the intelligence community believe that this is as close as they are going to get to a smoking gun linking the crown prince to the killing, and this definitely puts pressure on the Saudis and the United States and other western allies who have heard this recording to really answer the question that Turkey has really been trying to get the answer to, and that is who ordered the killing of Jamal Khashoggi.

John.

BERMAN: Jomana Karadsheh for us in Istanbul.

And, again, as more evidence mounts, and it is building and building and building, it does put more pressure on the White House and the president to see whether he will take a stand about the Saudi crown prince.

Thanks, Jomana, appreciate it.

So we are one week since the congressional election, the midterms, which means we are way into the presidential election season already. It's like halfway through the 2020 race practically. Which Democrat has taken the lead in our internal analysis? Harry Enten here with his rankings, next.

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[06:40:10] BERMAN: The midterms were exactly one week ago, which means we are full on into the presidential election. By full I mean 720 days or 103 weeks away from Election Day 2020. So it begs the question, who's winning? There is one person with the answer to that question. There's something about Harry. Harry Enten here with CNN's power rankings in the Democratic field.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER AND ANALYST: Who wants to have some fun? I know you want to have some fun.

HILL: I am excited about this. Let's get on it.

ENTEN: Let's go. Just start right here in part one. I love these things. It's easy to click on it.

OK, so number one that we have on our rankings is Kamala Harris. Number two is Liz Warren. Number three is Joe Biden. Number four is Amy Klobuchar. We can get into that a little bit. And number five is Cory Booker. Who do you want to talk about?

BERMAN: I want to talk about number one on the list.

ENTEN: Yes.

BERMAN: Why is Senator Harris there?

ENTEN: OK. I think there are a few things that we're looking for in a nominee. Number one, we saw the great success of women candidates during the Democratic primary this season. A record number were nominated. A record number won. And so, if you notice, we have three of the top five are women, which is, of course, unusual because no party actually nominated a woman to be their major party nominee until last time around with Hillary Clinton. So that's one thing that's going on.

Number two, we like Kamala Harris because she's from the state of California. A ton of delegates there. She'll be able to raise a lot of money, get a lot of name recognition very, very quickly.

And, number three, if you look, the Democratic Party's becoming more and more non-white. Kamala Harris has that going for her. It could also be, she can go down to South Carolina, one of the first primary states in the season, and win a lot of votes there. So we just like a whole bunch of things as we sort of look at the stew and we try and figure out how are we picking -- how is the party going to pick its nominee. We think she matches a lot of those.

HILL: So as we're looking at all of this, and I know -- I know we have more in terms of where our front runners are, we can look at those other five. But I'm curious, because as we're looking at her and as we're looking at everybody who's in the top five right now, how have things changed in the last month, because I think that tells a really important story too?

ENTEN: Yes. So I think that there are a bunch of ways that things have changed. And one of them the way that it's changed is Elizabeth Warren, who was number one in our last rankings and she's now at number two. And I think, you know, there are going to be a lot of tests as we go along in the primary season, see how different people react to the pressure of being on the big stage. And obviously Liz Warren conducted, had that DNA test conducted to prove her Native American ancestry. And she thought she was going to get the best of Donald Trump.

I think most people agreed that that was not actually a very wise decision. Donald Trump just dismissed it. Oh, she has one whatever percentage of Native American blood in her. Forget about it. And, more than that, it took away attention during the midterm season and sort of gave Donald Trump this thing where he was able to say Pocahontas, Pocahontas, Pocahontas. So it was just not a very good first run for her.

Look, we have plenty of time left, but, yes.

HILL: Yes.

BERMAN: This is like Casey Kasem's "American Top 40" here.

ENTEN: Yes.

BERMAN: Amy Klobuchar, if we go back to that list there, I believe this is Amy Klobuchar's first week in the top five.

ENTEN: Yeah.

BERMAN: Why has she risen so much in your eyes?

ENTEN: So, if we go back, for instance, she was at six. She's now at four. She's been rising up.

I think there are a few things about Amy Klobuchar that I like. Look at her re-election margin in Minnesota. Democrats really, really want to play in the Midwest, right? She ran for Senate this past time around. She won by a larger margin percentage point wise in Minnesota than Liz Warren won in Massachusetts. Minnesota is much more towards the center of the electorate than Massachusetts is. So clearly Amy Klobuchar is doing something very, very right in the eyes of the Midwest voters.

More than that, I thought she had a very good -- she did a very good job during the last Supreme Court nomination hearings with Brett Kavanaugh. So that was very key. And I think she just kind of plays in some way.

Now, if you talk to some people in Washington, they're very skeptical of this. You know, I was talking to one of our colleagues who said, oh, she should be all the way down at ten. I don't know what you see. Have you ever seen her give a speech, debate? But, you know what, she's playing well with voters and that, I think, is what's most important.

HILL: Speaking of someone, though, who is at ten. Beto O'Rourke is at ten.

ENTEN: Right. So let's take a look at the second part of our list. And we see a slew of people here. We see Bernie Sanders, who ran last time around, Julian Castro, who is number seven, first appearance (INAUDIBLE). Steve Bullock, Sherrod Brown, who, again, won re-election in the Midwest, and Beto O'Rourke, who's at number ten.

I think that this field is going to be so wide open, there are going to be people running that you would never have possibly thought would run. And Beto O'Rourke, I was always very skeptical of him, but, you know what, he came closer than anybody has during my generation, at least of winning as a Democrat statewide in Texas, especially for a Senate race. And so we're kind of looking at people who perhaps get into that liberal base, who really inspire people.

Look at how much money he raised. I mean my friends in New York, D.C., you know, these young liberals, these hip people supposedly, I'm not hip, I know nothing, but she -- he did a very, very good job of connecting with them.

BERMAN: And in a field that could reach 25 people, it's all about what part of it can you carve out? Can you carve out the progressive lane --

ENTEN: Right.

BERMAN: The conservative lane, the Midwestern lane.

ENTEN: Right.

BERMAN: Who are the wildcards here?

ENTEN: So let's take a look at a few of these wildcards, and I think this gives you an idea of what's going on. So we have -- we have kind of lost track of billionaires who were running and Mike Bloomberg spent a ton of money and got a very -- did very, very well, you know, with these ads that he ran.

BERMAN: Yes.

[06:45:09] ENTEN: A lot of these competitive congressional districts. In fact, Kendra Horn, a lot of people say that he helped out a lot in Oklahoma by running some last second ads there. Kristen Gillibrand is a perfect example of a wildcard in my mind

because she said in October, oh, I'm not running. Then all of a sudden she says, oh, I'm going to seriously think about it. We're going to see a lot of that song and dance, right, where people say, oh, I'm not running and actually no I'm going to consider running. And then Richard Ojeda, we just threw him on here for no other reason. He announced yesterday that he's, in fact, going to run for president. He was running in West Virginia's Third District and lost that race this past time around. And so I think that this just gives you an idea that this field is going to be huge.

BERMAN: That's with a "y," that big.

Harry Enten, great to have you with us. Thank you very much. More on America's top 40 next week.

ENTEN: Yes, we'll invite Uncle Neal on and he can appear on the list.

HILL: Perfect.

BERMAN: Long distance dedication. We're going to ask for a long distance dedication next week.

HILL: All right, meantime, just ahead, a high school in hot water over this picture, which apparently shows a group of mostly white boys giving a Nazi salute. How did this happen? Why did it happen? One of the students in that photo who did not raise his hand joins us next.

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ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: A pre-prom photo taken on the steps of a Wisconsin courthouse last spring sparking a district investigation and international uproar. As you can see, dozens of then high school juniors seen making what appears to be a Nazi salute. Now, not all of the students in the photograph joined in that gesture, including Baraboo High School student Jordan Blue, who joins us now.

[06:50:13] Jordan, good to have you with us this morning.

Your arm is not raised in that picture. A lot of people are looking at this and saying, what happened? Take us back to that moment on the steps of the courthouse and how this all came together.

JORDAN BLUE, STUDENT SPEAKING OUT AGAINST NAZI SALUTE PICTURE: Just like any other day, it was a great day. Any junior was excited for their prom day. We were all, you know, getting excited and dressed up for the event. And I just remember going to that courthouse that day, meeting for my prom photos. It's most of my class, but not all of my class was there. We took our full group photo. And then our -- the female part of our class took their photo and they weren't asked to do any such pose or anything like that. And then the guys were asked to go up there. And we went up there and we took some casual photos, just like happy, smiley ones, and if -- knowing the outcome of this situation, I would not have gone up there. If I would have known what was going on. And it was a scary moment. And it was very shocking and upsetting. And it was a huge misrepresentation of the school district and the community of Baraboo.

HILL: You described that moment as scary.

BLUE: Uh-huh.

HILL: What happened in that moment? So who suggested that arms should be raised and how explicit was that direction? Was it, put your arm up in a Nazi salute? Was it raise one arm? What was the direction and who did it come from?

BLUE: I can't really speak on behalf of that, but I can say that it was -- it was clued by the photographer. But the way the students had taken it was out of control. The photographer said to raise your hand, but he didn't say a specific way. And my peers should not have raised it in the specific way that was the offensive way and hurtful way.

HILL: And do you remember in those moments -- you say the photographer said he didn't say to raise your hand in a specific way, and I do want to share with our viewers as well the photographer, Peter Gust, putting out a statement saying I didn't tell them to salute anything, it was waving good-bye to their parents, having a good time, high- five. There was nothing that diminished the quality of anyone's life. He says there was nothing that diminished anyone's stature in society. Nothing that was intended to point a finger at anyone in their class who may have some kind of difference. There was none of that.

So you say he didn't give a specific direction in terms of a salute, but that you were scared in the moment. You felt uncomfortable. Were there rumblings among the other guys standing there on the steps with you, oh, hey, let's turn this into some sort of a Nazi salute? Did you hear any sort of grumblings?

BLUE: I didn't hear any grumblings, but I did see the amount of intent that was in some of my peers' arms. And then, at that moment, I was uncomfortable. And I was very -- I was very hurt. I was very scared for the future. And even if they knew what they were doing, they still did it and it was wrong and it shouldn't be OK and it's not OK.

HILL: Before this photo went viral and there was all this attention, was this a point of discussion after that picture was taken with some of the people in the picture? Did anybody express to you that they had any regrets for taking part?

BLUE: I personally didn't hear any people have any feedback after this photo was taken. I know for myself I had a lot of questions, a lot of unknowns. I wasn't sure whether -- where this photo was even going to be. I didn't even know it existed until I saw it Sunday night. I knew it existed, but I also didn't know it was taken and published somewhere.

HILL: OK. I know in those moments you were feeling scary. I wanted to check in with you during the break so we could say hello before the interview and you said you're feeling encouraged today, that a lot of people have reached out to you with words of support, with messages of support. How is everyone in the community handling this today, Jordan? BLUE: Our community is very hurt, very distraught. Baraboo is a

phenomenal community and it is not a racist community. We're very close. So when an event like this happens, it affects all of us. And this photo is not a representation of the senior class at my high school. It's just a very bad situation that happened and we have a lot of growing and learning to do.

[06:55:31] HILL: And we should point out too, the -- as we mentioned, the superintendent said that they are looking into all of this. The local police have said they can assist in any way that is needed.

Jordan, we appreciate you taking the time to join us today. Thank you.

BLUE: Yes, no problem.

HILL: John.

BERMAN: All right, we do have breaking news this morning. The death toll continues to rise in the deadliest wildfire in California's history. We are live on the scene, next.

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[07:00:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Camp Fire now the deadliest fire in the history of California.