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Surveillance Video Shows Hamas Militants Entering Be'eri Kibbutz; Interview With Representative Mike Waltz (R-FL) About House Speakership And Israel Conflict; Biden's Dilemma In Israel Response. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired October 12, 2023 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:05]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, tonight in Israel, families sheltering after hearing sirens days after the massive attacks against their country. Amid widespread reports of atrocities, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that every member of Hamas is, quote, "a dead man," end quote, and says it's time to, quote, "wipe this thing called Hamas off the face of the earth."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAEL PRIME MINISTER: President Biden was absolutely correct in calling this sheer evil. Hamas is ISIS, and just as ISIS was crushed, so too will Hamas be crushed. And Hamas should be treated exactly the way ISIS was treated. They should be spit out from the community of nations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Israel today hit refugee camps in Gaza with airstrikes. We want to warn you the video is graphic obtained by CNN. It's taken in the wake of one attack. You're seeing the aftermath of a strike on the Al-Shati refugee camp killing what a Palestinian minister of health said was a large number of people.

Now U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visiting Israel to show support said earlier that the U.S. is working to find safety for women, children, and civilians in Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We did discuss ways to address the humanitarian needs of people living in Gaza, to protect them from harm while Israel conducts its legitimate security operations to defend itself from terrorism and to try to ensure that this never happens again.

We also talked about possibilities for safe passage for civilians who want to leave or get out of the way in Gaza. And that's a conversation and a discussion that we will pursue in the coming days, including some of the countries that we'll be visiting.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COOPER: That may be very difficult, though, to arrange. Days after the massacre in Be'eri Kibbutz near the Gaza border, Israel is now allowing journalists to see the horrors there firsthand. Not only the images difficult to see, the stories of survivors are tough. Very disturbing.

Our Clarissa Ward was among the many few journalists allowed to enter Be'eri. Here's what she witnessed yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was 7:11 a.m. on Saturday morning when the militants arrived at Be'eri Kibbutz. Surveillance footage shows them lying in wait until a car arrives. They shoot the driver and enter the compound. More poured in on motorcycles, eerily at ease and in no apparent hurry.

Thomas Hand heard the gunshots, and immediately thought of his 8-year- old daughter Emily who was staying with a neighbor.

THOMAS HAND, KIBBUTZ BE'ERI RESIDENT: She doesn't do it very often but unfortunately that night, that particular night, that Friday night, she went to sleep at her friend's house.

WARD: For 12 hours he says he was pinned down under heavy gunfire, unable to reach his daughter as Hamas went door-to-door executing his neighbors.

HAND: Waiting, I'm thinking the army are going to be here soon. You know, just hold on a bit longer, and longer and longer.

WARD: By the time the military gained control of Be'eri, this is what remained of the once tranquil community. Late Wednesday afternoon Israeli forces let journalists in for the first time after days of pitched battles.

MAJ. GEN. ITAI VERUV, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: I saw how the soldiers fight here and I fight here myself in the first hour, only to get inside the kibbutz. Only to come from, you know, apartment to apartment. It took a lot, a lot, a lot of time.

WARD (on-camera): Does that weigh on your conscience to know how long it took?

VERUV: You know, we have a very difficult question to ask ourself. Now we look forward to defend the people, to take the survivors out of Be'eri, and to switch ourselves from defense to offensive operation. I'm sure that we ask ourself all the difficult question after it.

WARD (voice-over): For now, there are more pressing questions. The bodies of more than 100 residents have been recovered, but the army says that many more are still missing.

(On-camera): You can see the amount of blood. This was a massacre.

(Voice-over): And full scale of the horrors that transpired here are just starting to come to light.

(On-camera): Pictures, family photographs on the wall.

(Voice-over): Thomas waited two agonizing days before getting the news.

HAND: They just said, we found Emily, she's dead.

[14:35:08]

And I went yes. I went yes, and smiled because that's the best news of the possibilities that I knew. That was the best possibility that I was hoping for. She was either dead or in Gaza. And if you know anything about what they do to people in Gaza, that is worse than death. That is worse than death. The way they treat you, they'd have no food, they'd have no water. She'd be in a dark room filled with Christ knows how many people, and terrified every minute, hour, day, and possible years to come. So death was a blessing, an absolute blessing.

WARD (voice-over): Clarissa Ward, CNN, Be'eri Kibbutz, Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: The House of Representatives remains frozen as Majority Leader Steve Scalise tries to shore up enough support to win the speakership. He's currently in a meeting behind closed doors trying to sway Republicans that are holding out because several members of the Republican conference have spoken out about why they are not fully sold on giving him the gavel.

Let's speak to someone who is just in that room. Florida Congressman Mike Waltz joins us now. He's a member of the House Armed Services, Foreign Affairs and Intelligence Committees.

Congressman, thanks so much for being with us. What did it seem like the mood was in the room?

REP. MIKE WALTZ (R-FL): Well, I appreciated Majority Leader, Speaker- designate now Scalise having this forum. We needed to, and I certainly encourage everybody who has a concern, let's hear it, let's have it out, give Speaker-designate Scalise a chance to address it. Some announced a switch in their votes. I don't want to get ahead of who that was, but I think at the end of the day, you still have a couple of groups, Boris.

You have some that are saying, look, I for one supported Jim Jordan, but Scalise won the majority of the vote. And we need to get behind him. We've got to move forward as a country. Others are still upset about what happened with Kevin McCarthy. And others are saying I'm not seeing or hearing transformative change yet. Let's keep talking.

From my perspective, this war in the Middle East has changed things. We have men and women in uniform that are literally depending on us to get our act together, move the country forward, because I think this administration is going to have to be pushed to go after the real culprit here, and that's Iran. Iran is behind all of this. They always have been. They have funded Hamas. They have resourced Hamas.

They are pulling the strings. And Hamas and Hezbollah would not dare to so much shoot a squirt gun in the Middle East without Iran giving the green light. And it's only Republicans in the House that are going to push this administration to truly take on the head of the snake. And that means we need a speaker. And we've got to move forward.

SANCHEZ: You've covered a lot of ground there. And Congressman, I do want to speak to you about the situation in the Middle East and Iran's place in the current crisis. But I want to take a step back because you mentioned that some Republicans had switched their votes now in favor of Scalise. You said you didn't want to get out ahead of anyone, but can you give us numbers? There are razor-thin margins for Scalise to get to 217. How many switched their vote, would you say?

WALTZ: A few. Several. The point is they stood up and said, look, we've had conversations. I like what I've heard. And this is what I'm announcing. There are others who've said we still need to talk more. I haven't heard, and I was elected to bring true change to this swamp, to Washington, and to how Congress has worked. And, you know, let's talk about that some more. And like I said, there are others who are very upset at why we're here in the first place.

They feel like moving forward rewards chaotic behavior. So those are things that I think those are the conversations that are happening right now as we speak. But again, I applaud Scalise for having that forum to do so. And yes, I know you want to talk about this and then talk about the war in the Middle East, but in my mind, this is now in that context. And there are no differences that I heard in that room, any differences that we're talking about pale in comparison to what we're talking about with radical Islamic extremists that are literally trying to destroy our greatest ally in the Middle East, as we speak. We've got to get it together and move forward.

SANCHEZ: Sure. So quickly, Congressman, are you confident there will be a vote before the end of the week?

WALTZ: I don't know. I just don't know. The other two opinions that you heard?

SANCHEZ: Sure.

WALTZ: Where we've got to work this out as a family, we have to work these internal differences out. We can't repeat January. And then there are others who are saying no, enough behind closed doors.

SANCHEZ: Sure.

WALTZ: Our constituents deserve to hear it all and that's what's getting hashed out.

SANCHEZ: Let's talk about the Middle East, Congressman. You seem to have zero doubt that Iran had awareness that Hamas was going to attack Israel over the weekend. According to sources in U.S. intelligence that have spoken to CNN, there is no smoking gun and they see evidence that Iran was actually surprised by this assault. That is not in line with what we've heard from Israeli intelligence, but what do you say to those in the U.S. intelligence community who seem to have a different point of view?

WALTZ: Well, number one, let's not gloss over your point.

[14:45:02]

That's not in line with what Israeli intelligence and folks there are saying. I want to sit down and get those wholesome briefings. The ones we've been provided so far literally told us nothing more than we've read in newspapers. They were not acceptable. And we told them they need to come again.

But, Boris, what is -- I mean, this is what the White House keeps getting asked. What is their definition of direct involvement? I mean, we have a long and known history of Iran funding, supporting, calling the shots for Hamas, and Hezbollah, and Hezbollah and Iran themselves have said themselves that they were behind it. And the terrorists are thanking Iran for their support.

So I guess if the bar is having the Ayatollah on the phone with the fighters as they are beheading children, if that's the bar for direct involvement, that's a ridiculous -- that's just a ridiculous statement. What I think is really going on here is that the administration knows they have been wrong on their Iran policy. They have allowed millions of barrels of oil to be sold when it was literally shut down just a few years ago.

SANCHEZ: Congressman --

WALTZ: $30 billion a year.

SANCHEZ: Quickly, I don't want to interrupt you. I just want to point out to our viewers we're watching Secretary of State Antony Blinken aboard a plane in Tel Aviv. He's now departing Israel. He has a long list, a long itinerary of places in the Middle East where he is headed, including the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia.

Congressman, to get back to your point about Iran. You posted a list on social media showing how the United States should assist Israel and it included blocking Iranian oil exports in the Strait of Hormuz. Is there any doubt in your mind that we would see a response from Tehran that included force? Wouldn't that lead to an escalation and a broader war with Iran?

WALTZ: No, it would lead to deterrence. That was the same narrative what you're saying right now, Boris, when we took out Suleimani, and the attacks on energy supplies from Iran stopped. The storming of our embassy stopped. The attacks on international shipping stopped when we took Suleimani out. That was an escalation to deescalate.

I'll take you back to 1988 when Iran was harassing international shipping and President Reagan launched Operation Praying Mantis, sank several ships, and Iran was deterred. and the harassment and the malign activity stopped. Iran will push until it meets steel. And right now, it smells weakness. It knows it can get away with it. It knows its proxies can get away with it and Iran will trade Hamas casualties for dead Americans and Israelis all day long. Until you go after the head of the snake and affect them where they care the most, which is their wallet, this is going to continue.

SANCHEZ: Congressman Mike Waltz, we appreciate your perspective. We have to leave the conversation there but thanks for joining us.

WALTZ: All right. Thank you, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

We have more from Israeli on our breaking news coverage straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Something of a delicate balance playing out at the White House as President Biden forcefully supports Israel in the wake of the deadly terror attacks that took place here, while at the same time trying to avoid being pulled into another foreign conflict.

CNN's Kayla Tausche joins us now from the White House with more.

Kayla, talk about what has been going on at the White House today.

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the White House is providing some new updates at this hour, Anderson, of the status of Americans in the region, increasing the number of those killed to 27 and 14 Americans remain unaccounted for. There's still a handful of American hostages, and the Biden administration says that their condition at this state remains unknown.

There are also thousands of Americans who have registered their interest to be evacuated from Israel, and that's led the State Department to charter flights beginning tomorrow to destinations across Europe, which is a departure from the White House's original plan to direct travelers to find commercially available options. But the White House remains adamant about one thing, and that is that there will be no U.S. boots on the ground in this war. They say that's Israel's preference, as well.

And it all underscores this challenge that President Biden and his team are facing. Trying to craft a calibrated response, one that doesn't draw other rogue actors into this conflict but also channels the widespread outrage toward the atrocities that Hamas has committed. And to that end yesterday, President Biden raised some eyebrows with some comments that he made about having seen and confirmed images of children who had been beheaded, but the White House later had to clarify and say that he was referencing unconfirmed media reports and comments by Israeli officials.

And when asked today about the importance of accuracy and the plethora of misinformation around this war, Admiral John Kirby of the National Security Council said they're going to focus on the bigger picture.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION: It's obvious what Hamas has proven and willing to do to innocent Israeli citizens. We're going to -- we're not going to shy away from talking about the grotesque nature here of what these terrorists have done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAUSCHE: Secretary of State Tony Blinken is in the region. Prime Minister Netanyahu showed Blinken some images of baby whose bodies had been bloodstained and burned beyond recognition, and Kirby says that everybody needs to steel themselves for more of those gruesome images to come out -- Anderson.

[14:55:03]

COOPER: All right. Kayla Tausche, thanks so much.

Stay with CNN's live special coverage. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)