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The Lead with Jake Tapper
North Carolina GOP Nominee For Governor Made Dozens of Disturbing Comments On Porn Forum; Former First Lady Opens Up About Marriage With Bill; U.S. Hostage Families Warn Against Escalation In Middle East. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired September 19, 2024 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:06]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: That is amazing.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yeah, it's like a Hollywood stunt, yeah.
KEILAR: So, was her partner then in the first car?
SANCHEZ: I hope so.
KEILAR: Otherwise, it gets really tricky, right?
SANCHEZ: Yeah, I hope so.
KEILAR: Unbelievable.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Pop quiz, hotshot, was that from "Speed"?
KEILAR: Yeah. That's right.
SANCHEZ: Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper.
KEILAR: That's what Dennis Hopper would say to Keanu Reeves.
SANCHEZ: Sandra Bullock.
KEILAR: Sandra -- great movie.
SANCHEZ: Yeah.
KEILAR: We'll see if it stands the test of time. You know, who does though?
SANCHEZ: Keanu Reeves.
THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER --
KEILAR: Jake Tapper.
SANCHEZ: -- starts right now.
(MUSIC)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: A truly unbelievable story breaking now from CNN's KFILE.
THE LEAD starts right now.
Breaking right now, Mark Robinson, North Carolinas controversial lieutenant governor and candidate for governor, is in the hot seat once again for offensive comments, but these you really have to see to believe. He made them on a porn site.
He called himself a black Nazi. He said that slavery is not bad. And what you're going to hear, what Lieutenant Governor Robinson just told CNN about the comments our KFILE team found.
Plus, Israel says that they are in a new era of war. A third straight day of attacks on the terrorist group Hezbollah. The Israeli military, striking targets in Lebanon as Hezbollah continues to reel from the back-to-back attacks targeting members of Hezbollah's electronic devices such as pagers. There are hints that more is to come.
And the mayor of Springfield, Ohio, is giving himself emergency powers after weeks of false claims about Haitian migrants in his town, eating cats and dogs. The Ohio congressman who represents Springfield is going to be here with his first national interview on the issue.
(MUSIC)
TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.
And we start with a CNN exclusive in our panel politics lead. CNN'S KFILE has uncovered shocking new details about the Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina. He is the state's current lieutenant governor. He is a man who says a lot of wild and offensive things. His name is Mark Robinson.
A CNN investigation finds that Robinson posted on a porn site starting in 2008. He described himself on the porn site as a quote, black Nazi. And he wrote posts expressing support for reinstating slavery. And that's just the stuff we can tell you on television.
CNN's Andrew Kaczynski did the digging, broke the story and he spoke with Lieutenant Governor Robinson today.
I want to warn viewers that this report disturbs and includes some disturbing and rather graphic comments.
Andrew, first tell us what you discovered here.
ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: Jake, CNN found a series of highly disturbing posts made on the message board of a pornographic website more than a decade ago. And we trace them directly to Mark Robinson.
We did interview Robinson today and he categorically denies making these posts. And I'll get to that in just a moment here. But first, I'm going to walk people through just some of them.
Take a look right here at this one in one post, Robinson called himself a, quote, black Nazi. And when describing then President Barack Obama writing, quote, I take Hitler over any of the shit that's in Washington right now. It even goes beyond that.
Another disturbing post, Robinson defended slavery, writing quote, slavery is not that bad, and I wish they would bring slavery back. I would certainly buy a few all of these comments and many others that you can read on saying at CNN.com were made on the message board of a porn website called Nude Africa.
And, Jake, in addition to those posts, he also expressed views on Nude Africa that sharply contradict his current policies as a socially conservative candidate for governor. For example, he has been vocally anti-transgender, but look at what Robinson wrote on the porn message board more than a decade ago, writing that he quote, liked watching transgender porn, adding quote that f-ing hot and called himself a quote, perv.
And another thread that was discussing the story of a woman who said she was raped by her taxi driver while drunk, Robinson wrote, quote, and the moral of the story, don't F a drunk white bitch.
TAPPER: So he wrote all of this stuff years ago before he got into politics. How are you sure that it's him?
KACZYNSKI: Yeah. So CNN, Jake, we found that Robinson consistently used that same username "Minisoldr" that he used on Nude Africa in all of these social media, you can see it here.
He used it on Pinterest, Black Planet, YouTube. He even use it as his Twitter handle. His full name was also listed on Nude Africa and an email we found he used on Nude Africa, he used on several other websites.
[16:05:04]
Now the biographical data from multiple websites using the name "Minisoldr" matches Robinson exactly the exact date of birth for his hometown. The fact that his mother worked at an HBCU, that his favorite episode of the "Twilight Zone" is number 22.
TAPPER: And, of course, this was all before he was a public figure, which would factor into the identification that this all happened back then when he was just a common citizen.
So what did Lieutenant Governor Robinson have to say about all this today when you talk to him?
KACZYNSKI: So Robinson calls the story trash. He says it's not him. We asked the campaign for comment. We gave them 48 hours to respond. That deadline was this morning and that's when Lieutenant Governor Robinson agreed to do a brief interview with us about that. Here is just a little bit of that interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KACZYNSKI: Lieutenant Governor Robinson, thank you so much for being willing to talk to us.
I think we'll just jump right into it. Do you deny that this account is you?
LT. GOV. MARK ROBINSON (R), NORTH CAROLINA GOV. CANDIDATE: Well, first of all, let me say, thank you so much for allowing me to come here and clear it here. We absolutely do. I do. This is not us -- these are not our words, and this is not anything that is characteristic nor has it ever -- has it ever been.
The people here of North Carolina know I have been completely transparent about my history. All the warts and we put them all out. We let folks know about it.
But the folks here also know my character. They know who I am. They know my voice, so to speak. This is not my voice. This is not things that we would ever say or even think. So absolutely we do.
KACZYNSKI: How do you explain all of the matching details on this profile? The profile on Nude Africa lists your full name as Mark Robinson, the email listed on the account is an email that you used us. You have used elsewhere on the Internet, including with your photo. You have used that name "Minisoldr" on multiple social media accounts, including Twitter, Pinterest, Black Planet, and YouTube.
How can you deny with all of these matching details that this is you?
ROBINSON: Look, I'm not going to get into the minutia of how somebody manufactured this all, these salacious tabloid lies. But I can tell you this: there's been over $1 million spent on me through A.I. by a billionaire's son who's bound and determined to destroy me. The things that people can do with the Internet now, it was incredible.
But what I can tell you is this, again these are not my words. This is simply tabloid trash being used as a distraction from the substantive issues that the people of this state are facing we have addressed it. We have said it's not true, and we wish we could move on and get busy with the business of the people of the state.
KACZYNSKI: Okay. Well, these posts, did you take place over a five- year period from 2008 to 2013. You mentioned A.I. Are you saying that somebody was somehow manufacturing biographical details to exactly match you using your username?
ROBINSON: Look, I have no idea how this was done. I have absolutely no idea how it was done, and I have five weeks left in this campaign to focus on the substantive issues that North Carolina's price. I do not have time for tabloid trash.
KACZYNSKI: There have been rumors that some of your campaign staff have -- have quit. Can you tell us if that's true or not?
ROBINSON: Absolutely not. And we are not getting out of this race. There are people who are counting on us to win this race because again, we don't want a governor who's going to be a person that cant be counted on to tell the truth.
And I can assure you my opponent has been taken to court offer not telling the truth in campaigns. And he's been completely dishonest in his ads against me. His camp is so desperate to destroyers.
It's just like Clarence Thomas said years ago, this is a high-tech lynching, and, you know, back long years ago, they used to use rope. Now, they're using table.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KACZYNSKI: And, Jake Robinson, reiterating with a public video after that interview that he is staying in the race.
TAPPER: Andrew Kaczynski, remarkable reporting and thank you so much.
I want to bring in CNN's Dianne Gallagher, who is in Charlotte, North Carolina, as well as in studio here with me, CNN political director David Chalian.
First to you, Dianne, what are you hearing from your sources about the immediate impact of this story? And we should note in general, this story I think that most people don't believe his denials.
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I will tell you, Jake, that before the story even dropped this afternoon, North Carolina political social media has been blowing up wondering exactly what was going to be in it because I think -- we should emphasize that it is not unusual for there to be stories about past lets to inflammatory or even bigoted remarks from Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson. There's a whole host of them.
You and I have talked about them for years on your show. There was something different and my phone started going off from -- with Republicans and Democrats asking what was different about this because there was this idea that there was something moving within the campaign.
[16:10:04]
Part of that is what today is. Today is the last day before the state sends out those delayed absentee-by-mail ballots to military and overseas voters, which means that 11:59 p.m. is the deadline if a candidate wants to withdraw from the race.
Now there are still some questions on whether they could actually remove their name from a ballot. We saw what happened a few weeks ago with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but there were a lot of discussions and questions about whether or not this could finally end a campaign that's been lagging in the polls, and there has been fear that he could be bringing the down-ballot down with him here in North Carolina.
TAPPER: And we should know, David Chalian, I mean, one of the reasons why this is so resonant is because Lieutenant Governor Robinson has a long history of saying wildly offensive things about Jews, about women, about LGBTQ people. I mean, like this is not necessarily out of character.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Right. You might even say it's of a pattern. Obviously, it's new unearth information that we didn't have before. But I have not heard from a Republican source yet who has expressed shock or surprise that Mark Robinson could be in this kind of moment, right? Given what you've just described.
I mean, to Dianne's point, we should stress -- this was one of the most high-profile gubernatorial contest of this entire election year. And it was largely due to Mark Robinson and his nature, his comments, what he said in the past and the way he put portrays himself on the campaign trail now.
But this has been a race he's been losing. Most recent poll, Quinnipiac University last week had to pull out, he was losing by 10 points, 51 percent to 41 percent to Attorney General Josh Stein. So, this -- this is a race that was already a loser for Republicans, probably now, even more so.
The question is, what about the reverse? Not just the down-ballot damage. What about to the top of the ticket?
David Plouffe, Kamala Harris adviser, just tweeted "16 important electoral votes" in response to this story. We know that both campaigns, Trump and Harris, are very focused on this state. I -- this has always been the case of, can he lose the governor's race so badly that actually Harris could flip this state blue for the first time since 2008? We don't know what the outcome of the presidential will be in North Carolina, but it's looking more and more likely there's going to be a very uphill battle for Republicans in that state.
TAPPER: And we should just note, there was a much more for mainstream Republican Congressman Mark Walker, who was running for the nomination. You know, I think he's a pastor, didn't have all the baggage, and North Carolina Republicans went primary process went with a much more riskier bet.
David Chalian, Dianne Gallagher, thanks to both you.
We're going to get more reaction to this breaking news from CNN's KFILE. We're going to squeeze in a quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:16:50]
TAPPER: And we're back with our exclusive a political lead. CNN's KFILE has uncovered dozens of disturbing comments made on a porn site by North Carolina's lieutenant governor and GOP nominee for governor, Mark Robinson.
This -- these were comments he made before he was in politics. There are comments in which he called himself a Black Nazi. He expresses support for reinstating slavery. And then there's a whole bunch of other stuff, but were not going to kink shame here on the show.
Let's bring in the panel.
Let me start with you. Well, I'm just done -- you know, people are allowed to have their stuff, but, you know, calling herself Black Nazi, expressing -- he was already a really risky bet.
MAURA GILLESPIE, FORMER PRESS ADVISER, SPEAKER BOEHNER: He's already a problem.
TAPPER: Yeah.
GILLESPIE: He's already a problem for the Republican Party, and this just reaffirms that they have let someone come in and again, this is the problem with the GOP right now and other Republican, it's really frustrating. We're letting people who are on fringes --
TAPPER: Mark Walker right there.
GILLESPIE: He's right there, right there, and we're letting these fringe candidates get into the race, and it's isolating Republican voters from who are in the moderate, who are in the middle, who don't, you know, want to be dealing with -- again, I'm not trying to belittle it at all, but I'm just saying dealing with these things that aren't focused on the issues that matter to them at home.
And we're constantly being driven away from talking about policy issues that matter to everyday Americans because we have these horrible candidates that are from fringes and none of it's excusable and none of it is acceptable. And we shouldn't even be in this position in the first place.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: But Trump called him a Black Martin Luther King, said he was better than Martin.
GILLESPIE: How embarrassing is that for the GOP?
BORGER: Well, how embarrassing is that?
GILLESPIE: Uh-huh.
BORGER: You would think for Donald Trump.
GILLESPIE: Well --
BORGER: But -- and how bad is it for the Republican Party? Because the Democrats are in a very tight race for North Carolina's 16 electoral votes, very important state. Does he stay on the ballot? What happens if he -- if they forced him to quit? Who goes on the ballot? These are all unanswered question.
MO ELLEITHEE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yeah.
TAPPER: So, we should -- we should note that we heard Lieutenant Governor Robinson deny that its him and talk about some sort of conspiracy theory in which somebody time traveled back to 2008 and pretended to be him using his name, email address, and all his same characteristics before he even was a figure in politics, I guess knowing because it came from the future, knowing that he was going to be the nominee coming back in time.
Does this actually put or at least help put the 16 electoral votes of North Carolina in play for Kamala Harris?
ELLEITHEE: Look, they were already in play. This is a state that's already -- already competitive though, right?
TAPPER: Sure.
ELLEITHEE: Anything helps at this point or anything hurts, and here we are with now we're going to see intense scrutiny, intense spotlight on this state all of this stuff voters are going to be reminded of, stuff that maybe had been discussed earlier in the campaign. And then moved into the back of their minds?
All of it, they're going to be reminded of as ballots are being mailed out now.
TAPPER: Wild stuff.
Everyone, stick around.
We got a lot more to talk about, including a new level of fighting along the Israel Lebanon border.
Plus, the new emergency steps by the mayor of Springfield, Ohio, after those evidence-free claims about Haitian migrants eating your dogs and eating your cats. And Donald Trump now promising to visit that town.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:23:56]
TAPPER: In our 2024 lead, it is Springfield, Ohio, again. Springfield's Republican Mayor Rob Rue has issued a proclamation granting him temporary emergency powers as threats linked to these completely false claims about Haitian migrants in that town eating pets, as these threats continue to disrupt daily life in Springfield. In recent days, the city has reported bomb threats as well as shooting threats, which forced multiple grocery stores and clinics to evacuate yesterday, according to CNN affiliate WHIO.
"The A.P." reports that in one school, 200 of 500 students were absent on Tuesday, amid these ongoing safety concerns.
Mayor Rue says these emergency powers will allow departments to respond faster to incidents, including acts of violence or cyber threats, all necessary. Why? Because of these crazy rumors elevated by Republican officials, including vice presidential candidate Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, and then exploding once former president Donald Trump repeated them to millions of viewers in the September 10th presidential debate.
[16:25:00]
These rumors now even being denounced by the people who maybe started them. It turns out part of this false story began as many false stories do with a cat named Miss Sassy. A Vance spokesperson this week provided "The Wall Street Journal" with a police report in which a resident named Anna Kilgore claimed that her pet might have been absconded by her Haitian neighbors. But when "The Journal" reporter went to Kilgore's house, Kilgore said that her cat, Miss Sassy, had actually returned safe and sound a few days after she filed the police report.
So where did she turn up? She was in the basement. Classic Miss Sassy.
Kilgore, while wearing a Trump shirt, told "The Wall Street Journal" she apologized to her Haitian neighbors with the help of her daughter and it translation app. Separately a different woman in Springfield, Erica Lee, also now says that she regrets writing a Facebook post over the summer, spreading the rumors that Haitian neighbors might have stolen her neighbor's cat. She said when she went back to that neighbor, that also turn out to be not true.
In a tearful interview with "New York Times", she said she regrets her Facebook post.
But you know, who does not seem to be regretting anything that they have posted or stated? President Donald Trump and Senator J.D. Vance.
Not only have they not apologized or even corrected the record, they are indignantly defying city and state Republican officials who are pleading with them, telling them, please, stop your comments are not helpful to Springfield.
Donald Trump, in fact, has promised, quote, large deportations from Springfield despite the fact that Haitian migrants in that town are largely living and working there completely legally through what's called TPS. That's temporary protected status, granted by the federal government to them because of how dangerous Haiti is these days.
The migrants are in Springfield, by the way, at the request of companies and factories because there is a need for labor in Springfield, Ohio.
Last night, Trump told a rally crowd that he plans to visit Springfield sometime in the next two weeks despite the Republican mayor again asking him, please don't. It would already strain the already taxed resources of the town.
Also in, our 2024 lead, CNN's Fareed Zakaria got a chance to sit down with former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Clinton took a look at some of the 2024 campaign trail rhetoric. Fareed asked specifically about Senator J.D. Vance's suggestion that those in need of childcare in the United States should consider leaning on grandparents, aunts, and uncles, and how that relates to Clinton's invocation of the "it takes a village to raise a child" proverb.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, FAREED ZAKARIA GPS: J.D. Vance sort of agrees with you what the talks about it in a very strange and much more punitive way.
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Yeah, I can't imagine he agrees with me because remember, he said, let the grandparents take care of children. I'm a grandparent. I'm also very active person. I loved being with my grandchildren.
But I also have, you know, interests of my own. And so, it's not either/or. Obviously, I want to help my daughter and son-in-law with these three wonderful little kids, but they're very active. They go to work. They need childcare support especially when the children were very young.
And when Vance talks about childless women with cats or talks about grandparents being the childcare system in America, it's almost impossible to understand his worldview. What -- where is he coming from? Where does he get these ideas?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Fareed, what do you make of her perspective here?
ZAKARIA: It was very interesting. She was -- it was a wide ranging interview. We talked about lots of things, and she was much more open. I think she sees the election as really about a big contrast between two visions. One, optimistic about America sees America doing well, can do better lifting people up. The other very dark sees America in decline, kind of gloomy doer picture of America. And her view is that Vance in particular has almost turned this into an ideology, an ideology of decline and despair and hate.
So, it's very interesting that even though as I pointed out in some ways, he does talk about helping with things like child tax credit. She saw it as fundamentally a very different revision from hers.
TAPPER: You got Secretary Clinton to open up about her marriage a bit. But, you know, one of the most public relationships in history. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Nobody really knows what happens in a marriage, except the two people in it. And every marriage I'm aware of has ups and downs, not public, hopefully, for everyone else, and you have to make the decisions that are right for you.
[16:30:02]
And I would never tell anybody else -- stay in a marriage, leave a marriage, whatever the easy answer is.
And, you know, for me and for us, I think it's fair to say we are so grateful that at this stage of our life, we have our grandchildren. We have our time together. You know, I write about how we start the morning playing spelling bee in bed and, you know, Bill is such a great player. He gets to queen bee almost immediately it feels like.
We just have a good time. We have a good time sharing this life that we've lived together for now, nearly 50 years of marriage.
That's what is right for us. And that's really my -- my message.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: I don't know that I've heard her speaks so candidly about ups and downs of marriage.
ZAKARIA: I felt exactly the same way, Jake. I think she -- that this was the most authentic Hillary Clinton I've heard. I kind of -- I wish I had, you know, if she could have been like that on the campaign trail in 2016, who knows what things would have been like.
But I think maybe it also -- it must take a lot of time to process the scars and the wounds and do and feel ready to talk about, you know, something that's really such a deeply private part of ones life.
And as you said, this is one of the most public marriages in the world, you know, in modern history. And she's had to -- she's had to react and public to all these things that happened to her that were both private events, deeply private events, but also public events.
TAPPER: It is interesting, and this is what's right for us. That's what's right for us. Just an interesting take on one of the most studied marriages in the history of the world.
Fareed Zakaria, thank you so much.
And you can get too much more from Fareed's sit down with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, where they discussed her new book, "Something Lost, Something Gained", that will be on "GPS" this Sunday at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN, after "STATE OF THE UNION".
As we near the one year mark of the horrific attacks by Hamas on Israel, I'm going to be joined by the families of American hostages taken by the terrorist group Hamas. We'll talk to them about the uptick of violence in the region, whether it makes it even harder to get a ceasefire and hostage deal across the finish line. That's coming up.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:36:54]
TAPPER: Tonight in our world lead, a violent new development in the Middle East unfolding right now, Israel and the Lebanon-based terrorist organization Hezbollah, proxy of Iran, are exchanging fire across the Israel-Lebanon border. And the world is, of course, watching, waiting to see if Israel, already battling Hamas in the south after that group murdered thousands of civilians and kidnap dozens more on October 7, last year, will move more of its troops to the north, anticipating sustained fighting there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Israeli airplane overhead. Israeli air -- okay. Eleni, there's an Israeli fighter jet flying, dropping flares.
So, obviously, the timing of that overflight with no mistake or coincidence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Hours ago, our CNN team, you saw Ben Wedeman there, reporting in Lebanon, was interrupted by the thunderous engines of Israeli -- of an Israeli warplane flying over Beirut while the leader of Hezbollah in the middle of his speech, reacting to this week's attacks involving pagers and walkie-talkies being detonated, attacks that Hezbollah blames on Israel, though Israel has not accepted responsibility.
Hezbollah aligned with Hamas's goal of completely eradicating Israel, says that it will not let up on the fighting in the north if Israel continues its war against Hamas in the southwest. These are both groups funded by Iran.
The Israeli defense minister visited the north, vowing to totally reshape the region.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YOAV GALLANT, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): I believe that we are at the start of a new phase in the war. The center of gravity is moving north, meaning we are moving resources, forces, and energy in the northern direction.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Israel's new goal in its war, it says, is to try to secure the north of the country. So the nearly 60,000 residents who've had to flee the north because of Hezbollah shelling that began right after the October 7 attacks are allowed to come back home.
Also, in our world lead, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is warning against escalatory actions in the Middle East that could derail talks for a hostage deal and/or ceasefire in Gaza. The last time I sat down with Israeli or Israeli American hostage families, there were five Americans still being held by Hamas in Gaza, five who were presumed to be alive.
Sadly, that number is now four after Hamas's brutal murder of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was born in California and lived in Virginia for awhile before moving to Israel. In addition to those four, Hamas continues to hold the bodies of several other Americans or American Israelis that they've murdered as I recently discussed with, several of these families.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TAPPER: Let's remind our viewers who are familiar with many, if not all, your stories, who are.
Adi Alexander, your son, Edan, is still being held hostage.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen, your son, Sagui, is still being held hostage.
Ronen Neutra, your son, Omer, still being held hostage.
Aviva Siegel, you were held hostage for 51 days. You were released. Thankfully, your husband, Keith, is still being held hostage.
[16:40:04]
Ruby Chen, I hate even saying this, but your son Itay was killed and the body is still being held and you've been on the show so many times, and I'm so sorry.
And Iris Weinstein Haggai, your mom, Judi, and your dad, Gadi, were murdered on October 7 while they were on a walk and their bodies are still being held by Hamas.
Thank you all for being here at this horrible, horrible time.
You're in town as we approach the one-year mark from October 7, you're meeting with White House officials.
Are you expecting to hear anything new?
RUBY CHEN, FATHER OF ITAY CHEN, KILLED ON OCTOBER 7: I think this is the tenth time that I've come into Washington and I have to say that my expectations are low, and I think we need to all look at one of the other and say, we've been doing this for one year, and we have not been successful, as we have seven U.S. hostages still held by this terrorist organization.
And I think we need to challenge ourselves and say, let's look at the fundamental assumptions and say, okay, do we need to do something else?
TAPPER: What would you like to see done to get your husband back?
AVIVA SIEGEL, HUSBAND HELD BY HAMAS: Everything. I want him back now. I want him back as soon as possible. He's 65 years old. He's not young and he's not well. I want him back alive.
TAPPER: Adi, is there more that you would want the United States, President Biden to do than what -- than what they are doing right now?
ADI ALEXANDER, FATHER OF HOSTAGE EDAN ALEXANDER: I would call on President Biden to have tight conversation with Israeli prime minister telling him to not delay any longer the deal, stop moving the goalpost and stop undercut your own negotiating team.
TAPPER: And, Jonathan, Prime Minister Netanyahu is going to be here in the United States next week. What do you want to hear from Prime Minister Netanyahu?
JONATHAN DEKEL-CHEN, SON HELD BY HAMAS: I think all Israelis are done listening to Prime Minister Netanyahu, because clearly there's a gap between what he says in terms of his commitment to getting the hostages home and his actions, certainly since the first round of releases in early December.
TAPPER: Ronen, a few weeks ago, we learned that six hostages had been killed, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American. Thousands, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets to protest, blaming Prime Minister Netanyahu for their deaths.
Do you think he is hearing the Israeli public? Do you think he is listening to hostage families such as you and your loved ones?
RONEN NEUTRA, FATHER OF HOSTAGE OMER NEUTRA: But, first of all, we were all appalled learning about the murder of the six hostages, among them, Hersh, in cold blood.
And we're going to ask ourselves, where is the outrage? How can it be that an American was murdered, and yet people are industry to New York cheering for Hamas? It's the same organization just killed an American.
As far as Prime Minister Netanyahu, I don't think I have much expectations from him. I'm afraid what he says out of Israel, in front of the American public, and what he says in Israel, that those two don't correlate.
We all feel that it's all political. We all feel that this war is dragging and it has to stop. Prime minister must focus on what's important for the Israeli people, what's good for the Israeli people? And he's not doing that.
TAPPER: Iris, you're the only one that I have not interviewed before and I want to give a moment just to honor the memory of your parents, Judi and Gadi, that were murdered in cold blood when they were on a walk.
What's your take on where negotiations are? Where you want Prime Minister Netanyahu, what you want President Biden to do?
IRIS WEINSTEIN HAGGAI, PARENTS, JUDI WEINSTEIN HAGGAI AND GAI HAGGAI, KILLED OCT. 7: Obviously, not enough is being done because my parents aren't back to a respectful burial. The hostages aren't back.
I want not only Biden and Bibi Netanyahu to do everything they can, but also the international community to pressure both sides to do the same. I mean, the fact alone that my parents were murdered that day and were taking as bargaining chips is sickening by itself, and American was executed, you know, a few weeks ago and Hamas flags are being waived in the streets of New York and its unacceptable.
TAPPER: It's gross. It's horrifying.
I heard brother of one of the hostages talking about the campaign of sabotage against members of Hezbollah in Lebanon and he said it's not bringing my brother back. What's your take when you hear about these successful attacks presumably by Israel against Hezbollah?
CHEN: Look, you know, on macro level, how does this help us strategically, not just Israel, but also the United States, but as a strategic interest to de-escalate.
NEUTRA: The key too unlock the situation is a deal to get back the hostages, exchange of prisoners, and finishing the war. And what we see in Lebanon right now is the opposite direction.
[16:45:01]
We are starting to get into a position where a full-blown war is risk for Israel right now.
ALEXANDER: With this pager, "Mission Impossible" action, it's like treating agony with more agony. This vicious cycle of violence needs to stop.
TAPPER: Have you heard anything from the people running for president in this country that that has struck you in one way or another?
DEKEL-CHEN: Both sides, Republican and Democratic, understand the priority of getting the hostages home. At the very least, do not let Hamas win. If the hostages don't come home and Hamas is able to achieve its primary goal, which is its to incite a regional jihad against Israel, God help the rest of the world because that will then become a model for emulation of other fundamentalist terrorist organizations.
CHEN: Jake, we hear sentiment of some people saying that Netanyahu will wait until the election because then it would be easier maybe to get a deal done with President Trump, and I would like to ask all of our Republican friends and we have many that we've met over the last year to be vocal and say unequivocally that it is time to get a deal done and we do not have time to wait.
DEKEL-CHEN: The fact of the matter is over the last three or four weeks, 12 bodies of Israeli hostages have been recovered by the IDF from Gaza, all 12 were alive. It least until January, February, the sixth beautiful young people who were recovered a couple of weeks its ago including Hersh, were alive days, if not hours before their recovery.
And to our Republican friends, we can't wait until January, it has to happen now.
SIEGEL: I want everybody to just remember that Hamas took me with my pajamas and took Keith and the hostages and kill lots of people. The world is looking at United States to be the strongest in the world, and they're not, they're letting the evil one.
NEUTRA: We've seen the level of support that we, the American families, hostage families got at the RNC and DNC, and it was across the aisle. I mean, we are getting a lot of support, yet we can't seem to get enough international and political will to put it all together.
TAPPER: Iris, I'll give you the final word. What do you want people to know?
HAGGAI: I think people seem to forget that were dealing with a terror group. This is not to governments that are trying to negotiate. This is a democracy that's trying to negotiate with a terrorist group who's terrorizing their own people as well.
You know, Aviva would -- would tell you what she's been through. Its not because of Israel, it's because of Hamas. They took my friends. They took my parents out of their peaceful daily lives, you know?
The people who are being held right now in Gaza as hostage are people who believed in peace, are people who are going to be at the front lines advocating for peace and yet they're still there and nobody's asking themselves why.
And it's just unacceptable that we're not doing all we can to push all countries and international community to pressure Hamas and release these innocent hostages who are rotting. They don't have time.
TAPPER: I hope next time, I'm talking to you all. It is with Edan and Sagui and Omer and Keith here with us, and may Itay and Judi and Gadi's memories be blessings. Thank you so much for being here today. We really appreciate it and I'm so sorry that it's under these conditions.
DEKEL-CHEN: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TAPPER: For nearly 11 months, some of those families were part of a group that called themselves the American Eight, American Eight hostages after the death of Hersh Goldberg-Polin now refer to themselves as the American Seven.
We'll be right back.
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[16:52:45]
TAPPER: In our world lead, stunning new video from the U.S. Coast Guard shows the wreckage of OceanGate's Titan submersible, which you may recall, imploded last year, killing all five people on board, the pilot, a technical expert and three tourists. This video you're looking at right now is part of new evidence this week, challenging earlier assumptions about the disaster, as CNN's Jason Carroll reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, troubling details emerging about a test of the Titan submersible, just days before it ultimately imploded.
STEPHEN ROSS, FORMER OCEANGATE SCIENTIFIC DIRECTOR: The pilot crashed into the rear bulkhead. The rest of the passengers tumbled about. One passenger was hanging upside down.
CARROLL: The revelations coming during a week of stunning testimony and harsh criticism before the U.S. Coast Guard's marine board of investigation hearing.
DAVID LOCHBRIDGE, FORMER OCEANGATE MARINE OPERATIONS DIRECTOR: It was a big push to get this done and a lot of steps along the way were a mess.
CARROLL: Marine operations director David Lochridge was one of a number of former employees testifying about safety issues that had been flagged.
LOCHBRIDGE: The whole idea behind the company was to make money, that's that. There was very little in the way of science.
CARROLL: The proceeding is part of an effort to determine what cause Titan's catastrophic implosion last year on June 18, and who, if anyone, was at fault and should be held accountable.
For the first time, the Coast Guard revealed never before seen video of titans wreckage on the ocean floor. All five on board were killed, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.
STOCKTON RUSH, OCEANGATE CEO: You know, I've broken some rules to make this.
CARROLL: Lochridge testified, Rush ignored safety concerns he raised about the Titan after inspecting it in 2018.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you have confidence in the way that the Titan was being built at this time?
LOCHBRIDGE: No confidence whatsoever. And I was very vocal of it.
CARROLL: Lochridge says he was fired in 2018 after relaying his concerns.
Experts warned Rush to get Titan classed or certified from a safety organization, citing concerns with materials used to construct its hull.
But Titan's former director of engineering testified Rush did not want to wait or bend on that.
TONY NISSEN, FORMER OCEANGATE DIRECTOR OF ENGINEERING: One of the days he was crying on my shoulder, take too long and way too expensive. It's ridiculous and in his words, it stifles innovation. CARROLL: Today, mission specialist Renata Rojas supported Rush. She says OceanGate was about making dreams come true.
RENATA ROJAS, FORMER OCEANGATE MISSION SPECIALIST: Nothing is going to bring our friends back. I hope that this investigation create an understanding that with exploration, there's risk.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (on camera): Now, Jake, during the hearing, OceanGate's attorney said that they hold that they hearing would shed light on what happened. They said that they hope that it would prevent something like this from happening again -- Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Jason Carroll, thanks so much for that report.
New reaction to the news that broke at the top of the hour unearthed comments on a porn site from Mark Robinson, North Carolina's already controversial Republican candidate for governor in which he called himself a "Black Nazi" and expressed support for slavery. Robinson's Democratic opponent for the governor's race has just weighed in.
Stay with us.
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