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Israeli President Addresses Joint Meeting Of Congress; New Details On U.S. Soldier's Whereabouts Prior To Crossing Into North Korea; Police Seek More Info From Woman Who Disappeared For Two Days. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired July 19, 2023 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: But how does that fit into how he talked to you about his campaign, about the target letter that Donald Trump received in just the state of it?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, again, I mean, with the exception of Chris Christie, Asa Hutchinson, and Will Hurd, all the other Republican candidates are doing everything they can to not criticize Donald Trump explicitly for fear of alienating his supporters. And they hope that some other force, whether it's a special counsel or something else will do the work of taking Donald Trump out of the race. And then they'll be there to pick up the pieces.

That's a big hope. I mean, presidential races are really not about hoping that a meteor hits your opponent. You have to take out your opponent. And I don't know that as of right now, the affirmative case for Ron DeSantis -- and there is one to make, he won reelection with 60 percent of the vote --

BOLDUAN: Right.

TAPPER: -- in a swing state, Florida. I don't know that he is doing what he needs to do in order to be the one that defeats Donald Trump, as opposed for -- as opposed to hoping for the meteor.

BOLDUAN: And we can -- I mean we can check the political history books. But I will agree with you. I think the political strategy of hoping and wishing for the meteor to strike your opponent has not been a tried and true strategy in past presidential primaries. We will double-check this.

TAPPER: Not in the last -- not in the last 2000 years. I mean, I can't -- I can't speak about the Mesozoic era. It's part -- it's possible that a T-Rex was taken out. I don't know.

BOLDUAN: You're such a failure if you can't go back to the primary of the T-Rex and the Brontosaurus. Anyway, let us talk about your book in the strangest turn of a conversation that I've done in a while. "All The Demons Are Here." As I mentioned, it is out now.

I like the characters a lot in this book. I like the characters of the past book. I'm just saying, I really like the characters in this book. One of the characters Evel Knievel, are there aspects of this character that nod to Trump.

TAPPER: I think so. I mean, I think that the DNA is there. And there is this Quin essentially American character, this archetype whether it's P.T. Barnum or Evel Knievel or Donald Trump, this person who is -- not in a pejorative sense --

BOLDUAN: Right.

TAPPER: -- but just somebody who is really good at getting media attention, really good at being a salesman, a showman, really good at getting followers, really good at drawing attention to himself, shooting from the hip, and that sort of thing. You know, I did a lot of research for this book because the -- one of the main characters, Ike is a -- is a motorcycle enthusiast and obviously Evel Knievel is in the book as well.

But I don't know anything about motorcycles. So, after I'd written the first draft, I brought it to this motorcycle enthusiast slash writer named Mark Gardner. And after he and I had done our business and he'd made the edits to make it seem as though Ike, who tells half the story in the book as if he knows anything about motorcycles because the reader needs to believe he's a -- he's an expert, Mark sent me an op- ed he had written in which he had compared Evel Knievel and Donald Trump.

Because the DNA is just there. There is this showman archetype. And Donald Trump is just the latest in that vein.

BOLDUAN: That's interesting. Why did you pick the seventies, Jake? What is it about the time period? Is it politic -- the politics of the time?

TAPPER: It's a really fascinating and weird time. I mean, I was only 8 in 1977 when this book takes place so I don't remember most of it. I remember gas lines and I remember disco and Elvis dying, but that's about it.

But in this one year, 1977, so many strange things happen. Stuntman superstar Evel Knievel literally jumps sharks. This is like eight months before fans do it on unhappy days.

Studio 54 opens and disco is huge. The New York City blackout happens. Jimmy Carter takes office.

There are UFO sightings all over the country. Culturizing all over the country. The sun of Sam's serial killer is right -- is terrorizing New York. And that comes with what -- with that comes, the rise of tabloid journalism. It's just this really exciting, bizarre --

BOLDUAN: There is so much -- there's also so much like --

TAPPER: No holds bar -- yes.

BOLDUAN: It's just like our time. Like just like now. Like you just listed out change the details slightly. It's like the seventies is just happening again.

TAPPER: Totally. Totally. A hundred percent. There's a lot of resonance.

The country was also going through this period of real disillusionment, post-Watergate and post-Vietnam war. And you hear a lot of the same echoes today. So, by writing about this period and having fun with it, it was also a way to kind of talk about today without talking about today.

BOLDUAN: So fun. It's good to see you. Thank you.

TAPPER: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: It's good to see you. "All The Demons Are Here." It is out now. Someone who I know read the book, what is it, three times? John Berman.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Very good. And one thing I did learn about motorcycles from Jake is all about the leather. He's you know --

BOLDUAN: Yes, it is --

BERMAN: -- very, very in, it turns out. He knew about the leather before he did the research.

BOLDUAN: When I think John Berman and Jake Tapper, I just think more leather.

BERMAN: Very into leather. All right. New details about the woman who disappeared for two days after calling 911 and saying she saw a toddler on the side of the road.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:38:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, you're looking at live pictures there. The Israeli President, Isaac Herzog is at the U.S. Capitol speaking, as we are speaking, addressing a joint meeting of Congress. He follows the footsteps of his late father whom he has already mentioned, former president Chaim Herzog, who also addressed the House and Senate members just three decades ago. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ISAAC HERZOG, PRESIDENT OF ISRAEL: We built a nation-state, which has faced relentless war, tell, and delegitimization since its birth. A country fighting to defend itself from enemy and foe yet, whose citizens continue to greet each other -- each other with the word peace, shalom. A country, which takes pride in its vibrant democracy, its protection of minorities, human rights, and civil liberties as laid down by its parliament, the Knesset, and safeguarded by its strong Supreme Court and independent judiciary.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SIDNER: Today's address comes after Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal walked back comments she had made referring to Israel as a racist state. She apologized for those comments. I want to bring in Aaron David Miller for more perspective on this. He's a former Middle East negotiator with the State Department and is a senior fellow with the Carnegie Endowment.

Aaron, can you first tell us how significant is it that the Israeli president is here? Although he is in a ceremonial role, he is not in a power broker role.

AARON DAVID MILLER, SENIOR FELLOW, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT: I mean, very, Sara, and thanks for having me. I mean, it's only happened once before as the president noted, his father, Chaim Herzog in 1987 addressed a joint session. And you know, even though Israeli presidents have symbolic roles, no legislative, no executive, no judicial authority, they can at key moments play several roles in bringing people together and bridging gaps.

[11:40:11]

And that's precisely what this president has tried to do on the issue of the current government's efforts to overhaul the Israeli political system and the judiciary and to undermine American democracy. He hasn't had much success. And I think the message he brought to Biden is the value of fitting, those common values are critically important to the sustainability of the U.S.-Israeli relationship.

He's navigating a tough line, though, Sara, because I think he would like to be prime minister at one point and he doesn't want to alienate out into the right-wing, or the left. And I listen to this -- to most of the speech and he really did take the high road, no criticism, Benjamin Netanyahu, very upbeat about the U.S.-Israel relationship, and optimistic about the future.

SIDNER: Yes. And he's still going. He just got a standing ovation from all the members of Congress bipartisan support, if you will.

I do want to ask you about Bibi Netanyahu. President Biden has not met with Netanyahu yet since he became the Prime Minister once again. Can you give us a sense of why that is, and what that tells us about that relationship?

MILLER: It's been difficult from the beginning. I think the president -- and again, I've worked for Democratic and Republican administrations, American presidents don't like fighting with Israeli Prime Ministers. It's messy, it's distracting, and it can be politically costly. But this American president faces the most right- wing and fundamentalist government in the history of the State of Israel, which is actively pursuing an annexation policy toward the Palestinians on the West Bank and trying to change these really democratic systems.

Joe Biden's, I think conundrum, Sara, is that he can't live with Benjamin Netanyahu and he can't live without him. He's trying to navigate a very fine line. So he did invite, not coincidentally, as President Herzog was here, did invite the prime minister to visit the U.S., no menu, no date, and I think sent a pretty strong signal. He does not want to go to war with Benjamin Netanyahu but he certainly seems unwilling to embrace him.

SIDNER: Aaron David Miller, thank you so much for that analysis. And again, we're looking at live pictures of the Israeli President speaking to Congress. Congress -- all of the members of Congress standing up and cheering some of the words he's been saying throughout the morning. John?

BERMAN: All right. Accusations of assault, 50 days in a detention facility. New details about the American soldier who crossed into North Korea.

And a man and his dog rescued after spending three months drifting at sea. How they were able to live to tell the tale? To be fair, I think it was the guy who did most of the telling after the fact.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:46:23]

BERMAN: This morning, a clearer picture of what happened before a U.S. soldier crossed into North Korea. We are told that Army Private Travis King was on a tour of the DMZ and willfully entered the North. The day before King was supposed to fly to the United States, he was going to be expelled from the Army as a result of an assault charge he faced in Seoul, but it does seem that he ducked his military escorts and never boarded the flight. This morning, we have a look of how the mechanics work at the DMZ. Will Ripley is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm standing less than five miles from the Korean Demilitarized Zone, or the DMZ where that U.S. Army Private made that illegal crossing very unusually from the South to the North. Just beyond that bridge there. The unification bridge.

You know, we're still quite a distance away from the DMZ but this is as close as we're allowed to get. And you can see the barricades, the spike strips, we can't even shoot the other side of this road where we saw military vehicles going in. This is a very heavily fortified area.

But tour groups with special permission and a lot of paperwork are allowed to go in. And that's what is believed to have happened. This army private, Travis King, 23 years old, who had served almost 50 days in detention here in South Korea after some sort of an assault or a scuffle, whereas described it as a typical kind of potentially drunken confrontation. And yet it ended him not only in custody in -- here in South Korea, but he was being sent back to the United States to be separated disciplinary action from the army. And he would have basically been kicked out of the army.

So, instead, what is believed to have happened is that he joined a tour group, crossed the unification bridge, and went into the Joint Security Area. This is an area that might be familiar to you, even if you've never been there because it's where President Trump, the former president, and the North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un met and had an impromptu discussion several years back. And President Trump has stepped over what's known as the military demarcation line. And he became the first sitting U.S. president to step foot on North Korean soil.

Now, we don't have security video, which I'm sure exists somewhere, but we don't have it yet to show exactly what steps Mr. King took. But if indeed, he also made the same crossing in the same area, it's very likely his footsteps or perhaps a sprint as he might have had to go pretty quickly before getting taken back by security officers there. He would have taken the same path as the former president, Donald Trump.

Mr. King is likely in North Korean detention, perhaps even in isolation right now. It's because he's one of the first outsiders to actually go into North Korea since the start of the pandemic. They've had their borders hermetically sealed.

They're very afraid of COVID-19. Most of their population remains unvaccinated. So, after a period of quarantine that could last -- well, who knows how long? Then he'll likely be questioned about his military background.

He -- yes, he is active duty, but he does -- has a very limited amount of time in the military according to records about you know maybe less than two years. And so, if the North Koreans decide that his intelligence is not a special value to them, well, then they might basically just kind to try to get him back as quickly as they can, or he could sit around and wait for quite some time.

Because right now, the U.S. and North Korea do not have official communications as tensions have been rising here. Ballistic missile launches in the North and a U.S. nuclear submarine now parked just off the coast of the South.

Will Ripley, CNN, outside the DMZ in South Korea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. Thanks to Will Ripley on the scene there. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us. What really happened to Carlee Russell? We just got in dispatch audio of police responding to the 911 call from the woman who disappeared for two days after saying that she saw a toddler on the side of the road. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:52:29]

BERMAN: An Australian sailor and his dog are back on dry land after being lost at sea, they say, for three months. Timothy Shaddock was sailing with his dog Bella from Mexico to French Polynesia in early May when his small catamaran was overcome and damaged by a storm in the Pacific. They drifted for three months, until Monday when they were spotted more than 1200 miles from land by the crew on a tuna boat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM SHADDOCK, RESCUED AFTER THREE MONTHS LOST AT SEA: I love -- I love being alone on the ocean, you know? And a lot of it is about the love of -- you know, the love of being there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, we will find you out there again soon?

SHADDOCK: Probably not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, Shaddock says he and Bella survived on raw fish and rainwater. So, like sushi and water. Sara?

SIDNER: Thank you for that, John. This morning, police are sharing new details in that strange Alabama missing person's case. Carlee Russell disappeared after calling 911 to tell police she saw a toddler she thought was walking alone on the interstate.

When police arrived though, there was no sign of a baby and no sign of Russell herself. Today, investigators say they want to talk to Russell hoping to get a more detailed sequence of events about the night. Her family says she was abducted.

There is also brand new dispatch audio that has come to us. CNN's Ryan Young has been following this story from the start. Ryan, what can you tell us about this audio and what it reveals?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara, we're going to share that with everyone in just a second. But to say the internet has been interested in the story would be an understatement. People have been really trying to figure out exactly what happened to this young woman.

Let's stick with the good part. She's been found. And, of course, she's with her family.

We have to listen to this audio because of course this is what police have put out. And there'll be a news conference a little later this afternoon. But let's take a listen to that dispatch audio.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 459 South, mile marker 10. It's going to be a child walking on the -- 3 or 4-year-old child walking on the side of the interstate next to a -- (INAUDIBLE) -- going to be close by in a red Mercedes sedan with a hazard zone. Child's going to be a white male wearing a white T-shirt and a diaper. (INAUDIBLE) Advising there's no cars in the area. Looks like the child has been abandoned on the side of the road.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) Do you still got him on the phone? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Negative but she says that she would stand by for the police to call.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 42 call the -- (INAUDIBLE) back. She's not at her vehicle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: COA red in color to Nicole Russell out of Birmingham.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

[11:55:16]

YOUNG: Yes, you can see that right there. Sara, what we know is today at 3:30, there will be a news conference with the Hoover Police Department. Also, apparently, according to that police department, she did go to Target to buy some snacks.

Those snacks were not found in the car. So, many more questions. Also, no one else called 911 about a missing child, Sara.

SIDNER: Ryan Young, I know this has heated the internet up there. A lot of people sleuthing about trying to figure out what happened here. Thank you so much for your reporting. Appreciate it.

BOLDUAN: We will -- we will find out more --

SIDNER: Yes.

BOLDUAN: -- as police release it. Thank you all so much for joining us. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "INSIDE POLITICS" is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)