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Israel Launches Strikes In Gaza, Lebanon After Rockets Attacks; Soon: Sheriff To Announce Arrests In Shooting Deaths Of 3 FL Teens; GOP Led TN House Expels 2 Black Dems Over Gun Reform Protest. Aired 9- 9:30a ET

Aired April 07, 2023 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Israel strikes back. After a major rocket attack, Israeli Defense Forces launched a series of strikes aimed at Southern Lebanon and Gaza. And we're learning this morning that the IDF has mobilized its reserve forces. The latest on this fluid situation. CNN is on the ground.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Important new jobs numbers just in moments ago. 236,000 jobs added but that is below expectations. The unemployment rate is down to a low, low, low 3.5 percent. There are signs that things might be cooling off.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Expelled. In an extraordinary move the Tennessee House Republicans vote to remove two young black Democratic members for protesting on the Capitol for. The backlash and how Republicans are defending it. We are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: A major retaliatory strike in the Middle East. Israeli forces firing rockets overnight hitting Palestinian targets in Lebanon and Gaza and the IDF is now ordering the mobilization of reserve forces. Israel strikes are in response to the dozens of rockets fired from southern Lebanon into northern Israel that we were bringing to you in real time yesterday.

The most severe violence at the Israeli-Lebanese border since 2006. Now this round is seen as stemming from those raids by Israeli police at the Al Aqsa Mosque. CNN's Fred Pleitgen is near Israel's border in Gaza want to bring him in right now with the very latest. Fred what is the very latest from there?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there Kate. I'm standing in front of those Iron Dome missile defense system, obviously very active time here overnight, as there were dozens of rockets that were fired from Gaza, but also, as you mentioned, a big retaliation from the Israelis as well.

And I do have with me right now the international spokesman of the IDF Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht, tell me tell me some of the things that you guys were doing around Gaza, but also in South Lebanon overnight. LT. COL. RICHARD HECHT, INTERNATIONAL SPOKESMAN, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: So there's been a convergence of frontiers right now for Israel of regions. And that started off in Jerusalem, got expanded to Gaza, Hamas and into Lebanon. So basically, due to the events that happen. And again, we're in very volatile times, two nights ago an event and temperament kicked off a response from Gaza who is trying to escalate with a lot of social net - social networks, this region.

And it started firing rockets. After that some Palestinian factions in Lebanon, predominantly Hamas also started firing Israel. So we had like a multi arena with (inaudible). The Palestinian capabilities.

PLEITGEN: You are saying, it's a very volatile time, obviously, we saw that last night. What we're hearing today is that Israel is calling up some reservists specifically in air defense and also in the Air Force. Can you tell us how many and while you're making that move now?

HECHT: So I won't go into the numbers. But I will tell you that we are ready for any developments, you can understand from the language of how this event is unfolding, that we want to deescalate. I mean, there's a very, very sensitive weekend ahead with Passover, Ramadan, and Easter all aligning.

And we're looking for - hoping for a quiet weekend, although we had another attack, right after the prayers in Jerusalem in the Jordan Valley. But we look we're looking to deescalate.

PLEITGEN: Do you feel that on all sides? Do you think there is a chance for deescalation right now? Or do you see this as you say, it's very volatile? Do you see that there is the potential for this to blow up into something bigger, especially right now, when you're dealing with two fronts?

You're in South Lebanon and here in Gaza as well.

HECHT: So again, there was a language here that we spoke, we were very focused on the things that were threatening us specifically. Also, there's rockets from the north and also the rockets from Gaza. And again, we are now trying to keep the worship and keep this weekend open because it's the sacred time.

All the crossings from Judea and Samaria are open and also from Gaza, there's people coming in, and if it's quiet, it will be answered with quiet.

PLEITGEN: There was an attack also in the West Bank today killing two Israeli sisters whose car got shot at. Can you tell us a little bit about that and how that could also play into this.

HECHT: So a treacherous event, which is aligned with a lot of events we've had in the last few months in this big build up. And again, Judea and Samaria for the last year and a half, it's been very unsettled, very volatile.

22 bullets, a guy who was sticking out for a car with a family traveling on their Friday to go and do their regular errands and he killed two ladies who have a family and there's another third female fighting for life as we speak.

[09:05:00]

PLEITGEN: Lieutenant Colonel Richard, I thank you very much for - for joining us so as you can see guys as lieutenant colonel said it is a very volatile situation here on the ground. It does seem as though at the moment it is a little more quiet even though a couple of say about half an hour ago, there was another mortar attack apparently coming out of Gaza.

So it continues to be very, very tense here and obviously, all sides here very much gearing up for what could happen next guys.

BOLDUAN: Yes, a cautious calm. Fred, thank you so much. And please thank the Lieutenant Colonel for coming on. It's important to hear directly from the IDF in this time. Thank you very much. John, they want to deescalate. That was very clear.

BERMAN: It was very clear and it was great to have him there. All right, any moment now we are expecting a major update in the case of three teenage teenagers killed in Florida. The Marion County Sheriff will hold a press conference announcing arrests in the case involving these three teens who were killed last week.

Their bodies were found in three different locations. But the sheriff believes they were together before they die now. CNN's Carlos Suarez has been following this story for us. Carlos, an important press conference where we do expect this major announcement. What have you heard?

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right, John. So we're expected to hear from the Marion County Sheriff at 9:30, this morning. He's expected to detail these arrests as well as some additional information. Last night, the Marion County sheriff said that there is surveillance video that captures the car that the three victims were in before and after the murders took place.

That's an important development in this case, because as you mentioned, the sheriff's office believes that these three teenagers were all together at - in the moments leading up to their deaths. Their bodies were found last Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Now the car in question belongs to 16-year-old Layla Silvernail. She was the first teenager that was found on Thursday.

The bodies of a 16-year-old girl were found. The body rather of a 16- year-old girl was found the following day. And then a 17-year-old boy was found as well. A one outstanding question in this investigation right now is this apparent detail that the sheriff provided early on, which is they believe that at least one of these three teenagers were caught up in some sort of gang activity.

John, it's still unclear at this hour if the sheriff believes that one at least one of these teenagers were involved in a gang or whether they were killed by a gang member. Again, we're expected to get a lot more information, come the half hour here as we learn that several arrests have been made in the debts of these three teenagers in Marion County, which is about a 90 minute drive north of Orlando.

BERMAN: Carlos, thank you so much for your reporting. And again, this news conference is really just what a few minutes away right now. So we are expecting major new details there. We'll bring it to the live when it happens, Sara.

SIDNER: All right. The political battle is far from over in Tennessee. After a Republican supermajority in the State House made a historic decision to expel two Democrats for breaking House rules of decorum. The GOP led House kicked out representatives Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, two young black men both in their 20s but a third Democratic Representative Gloria Johnson survived the expulsion vote.

All three had interrupted House proceedings to call for stricter gun control measures days after a mass shooting inside a Nashville school.

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JUSTIN JONES, EXPELLED TENNESSEE HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE: Rather than pass laws that will address red flags and banning assault weapons and universal background checks, they passed resolutions to expel their colleagues. And they think that the issues over. We'll see you on Monday.

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SIDNER: Now former representative Jones Republicans have also responded last night I asked Tennessee Republican Caucus Chair representative Jeremy Faison if they considered how this would affect the expelled representative's constituents.

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REPORTER: Sir, who are you punishing? Because yes, you have kicked out these two Democrats. But there are 10s of 1000s of constituents that are also being punished and don't have any representation right now. What do you say to them?

JEREMY FAISON, (R-TENNESSEE): I'd like you to go back and watch. Watch what took place today. They literally control the crowd. They control the protesters. They look at them. They do their hand like this. They do their hand like this. It's like leading the choir.

REPORTER: They were already quite worked up because they love their state. And they love their kids. And they want to see a safer place for the children and themselves.

FAISON: How can we get to the answers of what are we going to do about gun violence? What are we going to do about guns and cards? What are we going to do about Red Flag Law? The conversation can't happen because they're drowning out and sucking all the air out of the room.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: CNN's Ryan Young is live in Nashville at the statehouse and watch all of this go down. I guess the big question now is what happens next. We heard Representative Jones. I know you interviewed him as well saying, See you on Monday.

[09:10:00]

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: See you on Monday. And guess what there's going to be several news conferences this afternoon to talk about what the next steps are. We do believe the Democratic Party of Nashville will also make some statements about what they plan to do in support of these members.

We also talked to a national council member yesterday who told us on Monday, they plan to vote to put Jones back into office. That's something they plan to try to do. But I can tell you, the excitement around what was going on yesterday was something that was unprecedented. You had so many protesters show up from across the state, even from outside the state to have their voices heard, Sara, we're not talking about what so many people want to talk about.

The focus on the fact that we should talk about gun control, and what happened to those children. And those moments that happened last week when someone opened fire. That's what the focus should be, according to the folks who we talked to yesterday. Now, the focus is about what the fight here is at the Statehouse. And of course, when talking to Jones yesterday, he said, all his options are not off the table just yet, take a listen.

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JONES: Rather than pass laws that will address red flags and banning assault weapons and universal background checks, they passed resolutions to expel their colleagues. And they think that the issue's over. We'll see you on Monday.

CROWD: Yay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: So you heard that. See you on Monday. It's something that has been repeated over and over again, I can tell you, Sara, there is a plan to maybe come back Monday and force with a lot more people in terms of putting a lot more pressure on this body because they really want the Republican Party to understand they don't plan to go away.

And of course, the fight will be over gun control, but also be those empty seats now that are inside that state house. One thing that you talked about Representative Johnson pointed it out, did she survive because of her race, and that was something that people were talking about, on the way back of their cars last night.

They said the focus here in the country looking at this state, and the fact that the two black members were voted out, and the one white member got to keep their seat so it's something that the focus will be for quite some time to figure out exactly what happens next, and also the stain that it may leave on the state moving forward.

SIDNER: Yes, there was a perception that racism may have played a role in the expulsion of these two young black representatives. Ryan Young, thank you so much. Great job out there in Nashville, John.

BERMAN: Right, brand new numbers just released by the Labor Department show the U.S. added 236,000 jobs in March, the unemployment rate dropped to 3.5 percent. That's a low number. CNN Business Correspondent Rahel Solomon is here with what this all means. I guess, after so much surprise in the economy over the last several months, maybe the nice thing here is not so surprising.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's funny because we don't often get to say these days that this largely matched expectations. But this larger data was a touch light. 236,000 jobs, the U.S. economy added to put that in context, the expectation was closer to 239. Now this is cooler than we have seen in the past year or so. Right?

But in terms of historical standards, still robust jobs growth. And that's important to point out. I'm glad you said that 3.5 percent is very low, because it is. 3.5 percent is pretty much matching a 50 year low. So unemployment remains very low. And we can sort of show you the unemployment rate as of March 2022, we can see certainly we had a spike during the pandemic.

But then, of course, we've been sort of hovering around 3.5 percent lower than 5 percent. Let's take a look at where we saw some of the largest job creation. And some of this is still because of the pandemic as we claw our way out of the pandemic, Leisure and Hospitality still has jobs to add. And I should say when we look at consumer spending where folks like you and I are still spending, John, it's leisure and hospitality.

It's the services. Government also adding about 47,000 jobs and professional and business services adding jobs. So bottom line here, is this a cooling? Absolutely. Is this still historically strong growth? Absolutely. Both things can be true.

BERMAN: It's interesting, you know, jobs in the service sector going up, where maybe banking technology, media dropping a little bit.

SOLOMON: Yes.

BERMAN: Now, one of the things that people have been watching, you know, the Fed is watching wages, what are we seeing there?

SOLOMON: Yes, the Fed has been watching wages really closely because of concerns that higher wages could make its way into higher prices and could make the inflation problem a bit harder to solve. Right?

So this was also in line with expectations. Month over month, wages increased 0.3 percent on an annual basis, that's 4.2 percent. So we don't get to say often that economists have pretty much predicted what we actually saw on the data. This was a report that they did in terms of do investors like this? Do economists like this? Does Jay Powell like this?

I would argue yes. I mean, this is not a recessionary report by any means. But it is certainly showing a normalizing economy back to levels that perhaps many people argue, we need to return to. BERMAN: I mean, everyone likes being right. I wouldn't know. But I'm told that people like being right.

SOLOMON: I try to be right.

BERMAN: Great to see you. Rahel Solomon. Thank you so much. Kate.

BOLDUAN: The White House it admits mistakes were made in a newly released report on the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, but the administration is not taking all the blame. Why it's pointing the finger at Donald Trump.

[09:15:00]

Plus calls for a Supreme Court Code of Ethics after a new report claims Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife took luxury trips on the dime of a Republican donor and friend and did not disclose them. And millions of Americans are right now at risk of losing their Medicaid coverage. Where, when and what you need to know. That's all coming up on CNN News Central.

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SIDNER: On our radar this morning, the Biden administration is chiming in on the highly charged debate over transgender student athletes. They're proposing a new rule change that allows schools to enforce some restrictions on transgender athletes but would prevent categorical bans.

[09:20:00]

This is the first time the administration has taken significant action on that issue. Also a California dermatologist has been indicted by a grand jury on three felony counts for allegedly poisoning her husband with liquid drain cleaner. Her attorney says she will plead not guilty. He says the woman's husband engineered the events to take advantage of her in divorce court.

Tiger Woods is having a turbulent start at the Masters admitting he was in constant pain during his opening round. The fifteenth time major champion suffered severe leg injuries in a car crash back in 2021. Woods though continuing to playing hurt today, teeing off in just a few hours, John.

BERMAN: All right. Thanks, Sara. Major new developments for a man who has spent a quarter century on death row. Richard Glossip could soon have his capital murder conviction vacated. Oklahoma's Attorney General is asking for a new trial for Glossip who was convicted for ordering the 1997 killing of his boss and sentenced to death.

Glossip insists he's innocent. The AG's move follows the release of a report questioning the testimony from the state's star witness against Glossip. The 60-year-old is scheduled to be executed next month. CNN's Ed Lavandera covering this story for us. Ed, you know, why such a big change now? ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the details in this report by an independent investigator that was brought on by the Attorney General in Oklahoma, he's raising serious questions about this murder conviction and this death sentence. The Attorney General in Oklahoma is now saying that he can no longer stand behind the murder conviction and, in a statement, yesterday said that this is not to say that he believes that this man is innocent, but that he believes that the State of Oklahoma has serious reservations about the way the case was handled.

And he goes on to say that for the Oklahomans to have faith in the justice system that this murder conviction should be vacated. He goes on to say that, I do not believe that justice is served by executing a man based on the testimony of a compromised witness. And what the attorney general there, John is alluding to, is this testimony from a co-defendant the man who confessed to murdering the boss that they worked with back in 1997.

Glossip was convicted in large part because that other defendant implicated him in a murder for hire scheme. But defense attorneys for the death row inmates say that they have evidence that shows that this other defendant wanted to recant his testimony. So serious concerns about whether or not all of this testimony will be able to stand up at a new trial.

So that's where we are right now. And it's a quite a dramatic move at this late stage in, in this case, John?

BERMAN: All right, Ed Lavandera please keep us posted. You know, and Kate, the execution is scheduled for next month, so this process will have to move quickly.

BOLDUAN: It's really wild, this story. So coming up for us, millions of Americans stand to lose Medicaid coverage in the next month but five states are moving faster than most and could cut coverage as soon as tomorrow with a key pandemic era policy expiring. What you need to know, coming up.

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[09:25:00]

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SIDNER: You're taking a look at live pictures from Marion County Florida. That is the sheriff's office. We are expecting to hear some very important news and update on those three teenagers who were murdered over the last few days. We are expecting new information that is extremely important according to the sheriff's office in just a bit.

We will get to that in a bit. But first in Tennessee, two young black Democratic members of the State House have been expelled. This happened last night after House Republicans voted to remove the two members for protesting on the Capitol floor. The move was met with large protests. And this morning very fluid and dangerous situation in the Middle East. Israel retaliates after a major rocket attack from Lebanon. At least two women have been killed, in a shooting in the West Bank following a series of Israeli strikes on Lebanon and Gaza. The Israeli Defense Forces has now mobilized its reserve forces. We are following all these major developments, John.

BERMAN: All right, Sara. Starting this week, millions of people on Medicaid could begin losing coverage. A pandemic policy that helped 15 million people has expired. People in Arizona, South Dakota, Arkansas, Idaho and New Hampshire will be the first affected. They can begin losing coverage this month. The now expired policy bans states from kicking anyone off Medicaid even if they no longer qualified so state stopped checking eligibility.

As a result, last year, only 8 percent of Americans were uninsured. That's the lowest rate there's ever been but the spending package passed last December by Congress set April 1 as the date to unwind this guarantee. Anyone who no longer qualifies or fails to re-enroll will lose coverage. The concern is that this will include millions who are actually still eligible but slipped through the cracks because they did not get a notice or didn't understand the notice.

The Department of Health and Human Services says children, young adults as well as Black and Latinos will be most affected by this. CNN's Amara Walker has been digging into this story. Amara, I imagine there are a lot of people out there concerned thinking, how can I make sure I stay on if I still am allowed to be on?