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Tennessee Democratic Lawmakers Could Be Expelled over Gun Control Protest; Rockets from Lebanon Fired into Israel; French Unions Refuse to Give In after Failed Talks. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired April 06, 2023 - 11:00   ET

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

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SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Three major stories breaking at this hour: a contentious hearing inside Tennessee's capital building is underway right now as Republican state lawmakers aim to expel three Democrats over their protest for gun control inside the chamber. An expulsion vote is set to happen very soon.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Also right now, violence is erupting in the Middle East. Dozens of rockets fired into Israel from Lebanon. Lebanon claims Israel is firing back. But Israel denying that. We're live in Jerusalem.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And in Paris, scenes of outrage, cars getting smashed bottle rockets (ph), paintballs flying as protesters clash with police. These breaking stories and more all coming in right now to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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SIDNER: These are live pictures from inside the chamber there in Tennessee, as lawmakers prepare for a big vote. Right now, a potentially historic legislative session has begun in the statehouse, as lawmakers prepare to vote on a resolution to expel three Democratic state representatives.

All three are accused of breaking house rules while calling for stricter gun control measures alongside dozens of protesters. But they did so inside the chamber. Ryan Young is following this story from Nashville.

Ryan, this is a really contentious situation because we've seen, throughout the day, first the protesters outside surrounding you. And suddenly they all start pushing in to the capital. But they are seriously upset over what these legislators are doing when it comes to making schools safer.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely true. And let's talk about this. They told me, almost down to a woman -- because there's a lot of women here who are stressing the fact that they were here not just for these three lawmakers. They are here for the children. A lot of people who showed up here today are teachers themselves. And

they say they are tired of all the talk, all the back and forth across this country when it comes to protecting kids in school.

They say how many shootings will have to happen before someone in this country does something to stop it?

So we saw thousands of people lining up and you're, of course, asking what happened next?

They all went up to the capital. They knew it was going to take hours before they could get inside. Some of them made it in. This is braving all the rain here. But they are upset that now this has turned into a conversation between Democrats and Republicans, about these three lawmakers, who could be thrown out.

Yes, they believe that is important. But they say the focus should be on the fact that, in this community, six people lost their lives to a weapon. They don't feel it should be on the streets anymore. And they want to do more to protect schools.

So that's been the conversation. So far, we know it's been heated on the inside. This is not a standoff. If the Republicans want these three members out, they could totally vote them out this afternoon. That could happen, as you said, within the next hour.

One of the members took to the floor to talk about the reasons why he feels they're being persecuted and this should not happen. Take a listen.

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STATE REP. JUSTIN JONES (D-TN): We are making this political statement today by trying to act like we're doing something that is not going to do anything to prevent what occurred.

More police officers in schools; yesterday passed a bill to arm teachers, this is not going to make our students safe.

And I think that we owe it to these young people that the thousands here, who we who we try to speak for when we were silenced, the thousands who are gathered outside, demanding that we take real action to address the crisis of easy access to military grade weapons in this state.

And so with that, I must say that I cannot support this bill because this bill is a Band-aid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will withhold funding --

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YOUNG: Yes, that was Justin Jones. And now you're looking inside the statehouse, where they're having this conversation. Republicans are admonishing these three Democrats, talking about they did not follow decorum. The idea that they were not called upon when they decided to take to

the floor, use a bullhorn and then start making those statements and protests. And that has now become the focus.

When you put this in, front and center, Sara, there's also people in this community who are hurting, who have lost loved ones. There's a school that had a door shot out with a high powered rifle and we're not focused on that. And that's what a lot of the protesters were telling us today, that they can't believe how this conversation has shifted.

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YOUNG: In fact, in the last hour, we were talking, one of the women that we talked to, a teacher, says this is a distraction from what we should be talking about in terms of trying to have common sense measures to move forward.

You can understand the passion here. You can understand that people are hurting and they're passionate about how they should move this forward. But right now, all the focus is inside that state capital to see exactly what happens next.

And will Republicans move forward to do something that, of course, has not been done many times here in this state; I believe it's only been done four times since the Civil War, that someone has been thrown out of the statehouse. This could be very interesting, how this plays out.

SIDNER: Yes, it's happened just a couple of times since the Civil War. And in those times, it has been criminal behavior or alleged criminal behavior. This is just about a rule of decorum.

And there are a lot of protesters I know that you've talked to that have looked at this and said, "Decorum? We should be upset about the killing of children while they're in a place they expect to be safe."

Can you tell me how long this might take as the protesters have sort of gone in and are waiting to see what the result of this vote to expel Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson?

YOUNG: So this is what has been explained to us. First, you had some of the protesters who made it inside. You can tell the conditions outside are terrible. So some protesters who've been out here for hours have decided they're going to wait somewhere nearby to see what happens and then maybe come back and try to get out of this rain for -- at some point.

The big question is, when will this end?

We believe there are several, obviously other resolutions that are going on.

Will the vote happen in the next half hour?

No one seems to know exactly the timing. Of course, they're discussing it right now. And then, when this happens, these people plan to swell back in; the hope: to push lawmakers that make some sort of change there because, at the end of the day, if this happens or doesn't happen, the conversation still has been changed from the focus, which should be gun violence.

SIDNER: Ryan Young, thank you for all of that. Appreciate it.

BOLDUAN: So we are following more breaking news right now. The largest attack from Lebanon on Israel in more than a dozen years. Israeli military officials say at least 34 rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel today. Officials in Israel say that 25 of those were intercepted by the Iron Dome.

We should note the IDF also says, though, that, at this moment, the numbers are not final. This is a major escalation in the Middle East. All of this comes after days of tensions over Israeli police operations that played out in violent fashion at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

CNN's Hadas Gold is back with us from Jerusalem.

Hadas, what's the latest that you're hearing, that is coming into you and your reporting on the damage caused by these rockets?

HADAS GOLD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we're seeing is that there has been damage caused by some of the rockets that did manage to bypass the Iron Dome because, as you know, the 25 of these rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome.

But what we're seeing, images of rockets, that one of them seem to have damaged a car and we do know that at least two people were injured by shrapnel, one of them while they were on the road. So it is possible that the damage we're seeing to the cars from somebody who was inside.

We're also seeing extensive damage to what seems to be shops. And I'm hearing from Israeli media that one of them was actually a bank, to the point that it blew out all of the glass windows on the outside trap.

Shrapnel, you can see shrapnel marks all the way to the back side, to the back wall of these offices and shops. Now today is actually a holiday in Israel because it's the first day of Passover. So nobody was out at the shops or in their offices.

So it seems to be a stroke of luck that more people were not injured in these rockets that managed to fall.

But as you noted, this is the largest barrage of rockets from Lebanon into Israel since, I mean, many people are pointing to the 2006 war between the Israeli military and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

So it is a very, very significant escalation. While we've seen one-off rockets being launched from Lebanon into Israel over the past few years, usually in response and in connection to things that are happening, especially here in Jerusalem at Al-Aqsa, as we've seen over the past two days, this is a new level; 34 rockets. That, A, does not happen on a regular basis. And that sort of thing

also doesn't happen likely without Hezbollah at least knowing about it. Doesn't necessarily mean that Hezbollah was behind it. It could have been Palestinian militias because the area where these rockets came from, there's a lot of Palestinian refugee camps in there.

But the big question, of course, will be what will be the Israeli military response?

Earlier, we were reporting that Lebanese media was saying Israeli military was responding with artillery. But the Israeli military is denying that, saying that they will decide when and how they will respond.

They will respond. Just in the last few minutes, the Israeli security cabinet was meeting to discuss what their response will look like and I think we need to keep a close eye on that.

Now I don't think that either Hezbollah nor (sic) the Israelis want an escalation to the point of what they saw in 2006. But there will be some sort of response.

And will this potentially cycle into something that just goes out of control and turns into something like what we saw, massive war of 2006.

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GOLD: But keep in mind, the power of the artillery that Hezbollah has, the power of the Israeli military, we will see untold scores of damage and lives lost. This has the potential to really turn into one of the biggest wars, potentially, that Israel or Lebanon has seen in years.

BOLDUAN: Hadas, thank you so much for your reporting, sticking close and bringing, honestly, by the minute, you're bringing in some new stuff for us. I really appreciate it.

We've got much more we want to talk about with regard to this, how this could spiral, what this means in this moment. Joining us right now is Aaron David Miller, longtime State Department Middle East negotiator and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment.

It's great to see you, Aaron, thank you for coming in.

What are you thinking as you are seeing this play out, 34 rockets from Lebanon in to Israel today?

AARON DAVID MILLER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: It's clearly an escalation. And thanks for having me. But I think Hadas says it right. The reality is, since 2006, the prospects of a serious escalation, which could morph into a major war between Israel and Hezbollah.

The last time, of course, in the summer of '06, both sides sought to avoid it. This is a very curious issue. Maybe Palestinian groups fired those rockets; Hezbollah is in control that area. It's hard to believe that Hezbollah had no foreknowledge of it.

Palestinian groups clearly are supporting Hamas' rockets from Gaza into Israel over the last 48 hours. And both groups are supporting Palestinians in their confrontation with Israeli police on the Haram al-Sharif, the Temple Mount.

We always knew that Ramadan and Passover, when religious sensitivities are high, would be a period. And now particularly with an Israeli government, the most extreme clearly and fundamentalist in the history of the state, you do have the makings both with respect to Lebanon and on the Palestinian front a major escalation.

And it's occurring at a time, all those extraordinary demonstrations in the history of the state of Israel, right now Israel has a, quote, "fired defense minister," unquote, Yoav Gallant, who is clearly still in his office, being briefed and apparently instructing the Israeli chief of staff, even though Benjamin Netanyahu was about to -- I mean his security cabinet has not yet officially decided what to do about his status.

BOLDUAN: I wanted to ask you about that, Aaron, because what you're just talking about earlier, what was it, just last week?

Is that the news out of Israel that we were covering were these mass protests over Netanyahu's move to overhaul the judiciary. Also, as you're talking about leading to the defense minister being pushed out.

How does -- how does -- if I'm calling them domestic political issues, how does -- how does this -- how does that complicate what we're seeing unfolding now?

MILLER: I mean, I think, had these demonstrations gone on, I think they will persist after the recess if the prime minister decides to push through this judicial reform, an effort to fundamentally alter the nature of Israel's democratic system.

Clearly for the first time also in the Israeli Defense Forces, you've seen extraordinary demonstrations and protests. There is great concern that this can affect morale and Israeli military readiness, particularly since Israel hasn't fought a ground war in some time.

The reservists are very, very critical, both to Israeli air force operations and to Israeli intelligence. My gut tells me, frankly, that Middle East wars don't happen by accident. They're usually preceded by a relatively long trail of actions, actions and reactions, actions and reactions.

I don't see this morphing into a major sustained confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah, because there's also one other factor, which is Iran. And Iran, I think, relies on Hezbollah in the event there is an Israeli-Iranian confrontation to open up its high trajectory weapons.

I suspect there's still a good chance to put this back in the box. But Middle East is no shortage -- no shortage of unexpected crises, as we've watched today's play out. BOLDUAN: As you have covered so many of unsuspecting and surprising

turns over the years, Aaron, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate your time.

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BERMAN: -- breaking news. We are also watching Paris very closely because protesters have been clashing with law enforcement on the streets there, 11 straight days of protest, turned somewhat violent today. We're live on the ground next.

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BERMAN: All right. You're looking at live pictures from the streets of Paris, where an 11th straight day of protest today turns somewhat violent, certainly extremely tense as protesters clashed with law enforcement.

What you're looking at right now is actually a bit calmer of a situation than we have seen over the last couple of hours or so. Let's get a sense of where things stand. I want to go to Melissa Bell, who is live for us on the streets of Paris.

Melissa, bring us up to speed.

MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, it is usually about nightfall that you tend to see that direct confrontation that has been such a characteristic of these marches for the last couple of weeks.

Today, it began a lot earlier. In fact, right here, just behind me, the scene of the images you were showing moments ago, (INAUDIBLE) that mythical (ph) Parisian restaurant attacks and part of it burns (ph) earlier on.

And you can see every year the march passes (ph) through here.

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BELL: It will head all the way to the (INAUDIBLE) the riot police as they line all of the side streets along the march's planned route to try and keep it as calm as they can.

But it is generally when we get toward the end of the march to a destination point that you see some of the most angry confrontations between protesters and police (INAUDIBLE) the fact that we've seen them this early on, an indication that this crowd, although we're expecting it to be slightly smaller than some of the very massive demonstrations we've seen these last couple of weeks, much more determined to get that kind of direct confrontation, to make their anger felt and their frustration known.

Really what we've seen these last few weeks is these protests getting more violent as a result of the government's decision to force its pension reforms through parliament without a vote.

It is now almost certain to become law. It's going through one last constitutional hurdle but these protests will continue. In fact, the unions have said already today they intend in a very unified way to carry on making their voices heard and to keep people on streets of Paris.

By the end of the day, we should have an idea of what day next week the protests will come.

BERMAN: Yes, and Melissa Bell, so you know, we are looking at pictures now of a small barricade on fire in the middle of the street. And law enforcement on the move, trying to push the protesters back away from where this is taking place.

Again, as you pointed out, these protests are over pension reform, an effort to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 and do it without a parliamentary vote. That is what brought -- has brought people to the streets for 11 straight days.

Millions of people on some occasions, though, you say today, fewer -- we're seeing bicycles on fire right there. A smaller group of protesters, Melissa, but you say perhaps more determined for violence as the evening hours approach.

What more can you tell us about that?

BELL: That's right, John, those kinds of little fires that you'll see all along the protest line are where the protesters managed to successfully take on the (INAUDIBLE). What you're looking at over here are many more of the unions, the peaceful protesters.

It has been on the edges that you see those skirmishes. They have set barricades alight. There has been a lot of the trash, still been on the streets of Paris as well, the strikes that get set alight, they get charged by the police.

And the aim of these much more violent demonstrators, the Black Bloc, we call them, is really who seek out that kind of confrontation. And so you see it all along the march and through to the end.

By the time it gets to its destination, we expect perhaps some of the angriest scenes. Those far less protesters we've been interviewing in the last couple of weeks, John, and they've been saying that because they feel that the result of the people you see out here today, to continue protesting it there, they really intend to make these as violent as they can.

They don't feel the government (INAUDIBLE) and they want that much more (INAUDIBLE) angry noise to make itself heard as they try and take on the police. One of the difficulties for the police at this stage is trying to keep the security of these marches relatively intact without allowing the protesters to impose too much damage.

But without on the other hand the police themselves getting into (INAUDIBLE) some of the accusations, allegations of excessive violence that we've seen over the course of the last couple of weeks.

Really, the streets of Paris for the last two weeks, during every time there's a protest like this, much more successfully by that group of extremist supporters, extremist demonstrators into a sort of direct battle between the security forces on one hand and the demonstrators on the other.

BERMAN: And again, you see a small fire burning right there behind a few of the law enforcement. The other end of that picture, which was focused on just a moment ago, was a bit of a larger fire, where some of those flames seemed to be billowing.

Certainly the smoke was coming up before. Melissa, talk to us about these blazes that are apparently intentionally set.

Has there been a great deal of damage or are they mostly contained?

BELL: No, we have seen a lot of damage caused. I think the real moment when these protests and much more violent was last on the 23rd of March on Monday, there were 1,000 fires across Paris, all along the march.

I can give you an idea of how dramatic (INAUDIBLE). Since then, we've seen time (INAUDIBLE) demonstrators try and create fires as they try and take on the police. They're burning things like rubbish. They're burning (INAUDIBLE) barricade (INAUDIBLE) the exits.

There are scooters that will get burned; occasionally a car, all seen a bicycle and you see them really all the way up to the front of the protests. It is bearing in mind, John, 11,000 (INAUDIBLE). As you can see from these images, a great deal of determination to make that as difficult (ph) as they can for the security forces.

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BERMAN: OK, Melissa Bell for us on the streets of Paris.

We are going to keep an eye on these demonstrations as these fires continue to burn and the evening approaches, when Melissa Bell told us the demonstrations have actually become more violent the last few days. So stand by for much more on that.

SIDNER: Incredible pictures there from Paris.

And this is a live look inside the Tennessee state capital. Moments ago, protesters were just admonished by lawmakers, as three Democratic state representatives face expulsion. We will bring all of this to you and why, coming up next.