Return to Transcripts main page
CNN News Central
Israel Orders Evacuation Of 28 Villages Near Lebanon Border; Rocket Warning Sirens Sound In Tel Aviv; Rep. Keith Self (R-TX) Discusses Jordan Speaker Bid; Hate Crime Charges In Stabbing Death Of Muslim Boy. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired October 16, 2023 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Yes. And in the south, we're hearing this, no food really, no water. Certainly very much dwindling supplies and dwindling supplies of fuel as well. It's obviously at a critical point there.
General Hertling, always great to have you. Thank you so much.
LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thanks, Brianna.
KEILAR: And please stay with CNN for our special coverage.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: As we've been talking about today, so much uncertainty for civilians in Gaza and in Israel.
Today, Israel's government ordered evacuations in 28 villages that lie within two kilometers or just over a mile from the border with Lebanon. That region has seen numerous exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and
Israel in recent days.
CNN's Matthew Chance is in northern Israel for us right now.
[14:35:02]
So what's the situation you're seeing, Matthew?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, it's still very tense here. We're hearing almost every hour now fighting taking place or at least exchanges taking place from Israeli forces firing artillery rounds across the border into positions inside Lebanon.
That's in response to firing that's coming in the other direction into northern Israel as well.
It hasn't reached the point of escalation yet, which is the phrase Israeli officials use to describe the point at which they would regard this as a second front that's opened up. But nevertheless, there's evacuations that have taken place in those 28 villages near the Lebanese border because of the increasingly dangerous security situation here.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(GUNFIRE)
CHANCE: They're bracing for a dangerous second front. But we're gained exclusive access to Israel's tense northern front here.
The Israeli Army have now sealed off a security zone some of the areas close to the Lebanese border because of the threat being posed. But they're taking us now to the closest period -- the closest place they can that they say is safe to see the lay of the land.
(voice-over): And that land is hostile.
None of the Israeli soldiers here wanted their faces shown to hide their identities from Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese militia with a vast arsenal trained on these positions across the border.
LT. COL. "M.K.", ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: We're ready. If they choose to come, they will make a huge mistake.
CHANCE: "War with Hezbollah would be brutal," said this senior Israeli commander, who asked not to be identified. "But it is now also necessary," he told me.
CHANCE (on camera): Do you believe there will be a second front open here or are you hopeful still that Hezbollah will stay out of this war?
UNIDENTIFIED ISRAELI COMMANDER: I hope there will be another front. We need to destroy Hezbollah.
(CROSSTALK)
CHANCE: You hope there will be another front? You want the war?
UNIDENTIFIED ISRAELI COMMANDER: Yes.
CHANCE: Why?
UNIDENTIFIED ISRAELI COMMANDER: What Hamas did in Gaza, it didn't come from nowhere. It came from Hezbollah. It came from Iran. And in order for us to stop what happened from Hamas, we need to stop them also.
CHANCE: All right. Well, this is as close as the Israeli military say we can go. Just across there is territory of Lebanon controlled by Hezbollah, the Lebanese military.
And Israeli soldiers in this position tell us, over the past few days, there have been multiple attempts by Hezbollah fighters to penetrate the fence and to come into Israel but they've been fought back.
If there is going to be a second front in this war in Israel the likelihood is it's going to start here.
(GUNFIRE)
CHANCE (voice-over): Already, there have been exchanges of fire, forcing local Israelis to free, terrified what happened in Israel's south could happen here, too.
NOGA, RESIDENT OF KIBBUTZ MISGAV AM: A terrorist attack of this scale has never happened. And I'm scared that I live on the border, what's to stop them from doing it here?
I want to be strong and I want to come back and live here, but I need to think about my kids first.
CHANCE: Back from the border, Israel is bolstering its forces with some of the 360,000 troops mobilized after the Hamas attacks last week.
If war in the north is coming, Israel seems ready, even bristling to fight.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHANCE: Well, Anderson, I can tell you, after the attacks from Gaza last weekend, Israel feels like it is in no need to compromise.
Because every civilian we speak to, every soldier and a lot of the politicians as well, say that they will unleash destruction on Lebanon if a second front opens up here in the north of the country.
Back to you.
COOPER: Matthew Chance, thank you.
Stay with CNN for our special coverage ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:43:42]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We want to go straight to Anderson Cooper, who is in Tel Aviv.
I believe there are sirens going off where you are, Anderson?
(AIR RAID SIRENS)
COOPER: That's right, Boris. The sirens just started 15 seconds before we came back to air. And the location we are in, they're calling for people to go to the shelters.
There have been sirens throughout the day in Tel Aviv. We were on air about an hour ago, I think, there was sirens as well.
We're now just waiting to hear or see any -- OK, there you see some interceptors from the Iron Dome going, there's one, two, three, four, five going up into the air right now. These ones are actually relatively close.
COOPER: We have not actually seen rockets, but clearly the Iron Dome has picked up -- we may hear, then, the echoes of the interceptions shortly.
That seems to be about it.
Again, this has occurred throughout the day here in Tel Aviv, which is an uptick over the last several days that we've seen. But it seems as if all is fine.
So let's go back to you -- oh, there.
(BOOMING)
[14:45:03]
COOPER: You hear the echoes of the interceptions there.
Boris, back to you.
SANCHEZ: We will, of course, keep watching the situation there as the Iron Dome is intercepting rockets ostensibly from Hamas.
Anderson Cooper, please keep us updated. And stay safe. Thanks so much.
Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan says he's ready to force a vote on the floor to become the next speaker of the House of Representatives. A vote that is scheduled to come tomorrow at noon.
Tonight, Republicans will meet to try to get everyone on the same page, something that has proven difficult for the conference.
Jordan's team say they're confident they can flip any remaining holdouts and they have flipped about a handful.
Let's discuss with one of Jim Jordan's backers, Congressman Keith Self of Texas.
Congressman, thanks so much for being with us.
So Jordan can only lose four Republicans. By his team's count, there are at least 10 against him. What's your message to those holdouts?
REP. KEITH SELF (R-TX): Well, I think Jim is doing a great job of building the momentum, of pulling those people on his side, and I think he will do that.
I don't know how many votes it will take, but I believe that Jim Jordan will be the next speaker of the House.
SANCHEZ: So he told CNN that he's taking this up for a vote on the floor. That's something that Steve Scalise declined to do because he didn't have the votes.
Are you concerned we're going to see a repeat of January when it took Kevin McCarthy 15 rounds over four days to become speaker?
SELF: Well, I was one of the 20, as you know. And I will tell you I don't know how many rounds it will be. I don't think it will be 15.
Because I think that we will have a speaker of the House either tomorrow or the next day. And I think that Jim will be the next speaker of the House. He will have the support he needs. And we will have a conservative speaker of the House.
SANCHEZ: You're right, you were part of the reason it took Kevin McCarthy 15 rounds to become speaker. You're obviously now calling for unity among Republicans.
Why Jim Jordan? You have no concerns about him becoming speaker?
SELF: I do not. Jim has been a conservative leader in the House for a while and he represents new leadership. We need new leadership in the House. We could go into the reasons why, but Jim represents that.
And he also represents the movement across America of frustration, of even anger with the federal government because, pick your issue, southern border, inflation. It's chaos under the Biden administration.
And Jim Jordan represents a different approach, new leadership.
SANCHEZ: Congressman, what should he offer as incentives or concessions to those holdouts?
SELF: Well, I have no idea. Those discussions are going on. As we've seen today, several people have come out. I have no idea of those discussions.
Because I think what he needs to offer is good leadership, good conservative policies.
You've seen Mike Rogers say that he has agreed to a strong national defense, which is exactly what Mike Rogers is interested in.
So he is doing the best he can to get the momentum. He's doing a great job with momentum, talking to the people about their concerns, which is what it takes to get unity in the Republican conference.
SANCHEZ: As you describe momentum and good leadership, are you concerned that electing Jim Jordan as speaker potentially makes it more likely that we will see a government shutdown on November 17th?
SELF: Oh, absolutely not. Jim Jordan's plan is that we will pass a C.R. quickly to get the 99 percent C.R. that is in law in the Fiscal Responsibility Act kick in as of January.
No, his plan is no shutdown. He's been very clear about that.
SANCHEZ: I ask because he did engineer shutdowns back in 2013 and 2018. But it appears you don't have concerns about that.
Obviously, one of the main priorities for the next speaker is going to be aid for Israel. There have been members of your party -- it's actually a bipartisan push -- to pair aid with Israel for additional -- with additional funding for Ukraine.
Would you be supportive of that move?
SELF: Look, we've passed the DOD appropriations bill. We've passed the state and foreign ops appreciations bill. The Senate has not taken them up.
What I want to see is the Senate taking them up, pass them, get them to the president's desk. If he signs them, we have everything the president needs to support Israel.
And frankly, he also has the presidential draw down authority at his disposal at any time. And I believe that's what he might be using now, either that or the $3.8 billion available today to rush aid to Israel, which we know has already started flowing.
So everything is in place right now through the $3.8 billion, through the presidential drawdown authority and through the DOD appropriations bill that is waiting on Senate approval.
[14:50:06]
SANCHEZ: What about the issue of perception? What message do you think it sends to world leaders, especially those authoritarians that are very much against the United States, like Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping, that Congress doesn't seem to be able to reach a consensus over something as basic as a speaker of the House of Representatives.
SELF: Well, the chaos today is because of the weakness in the Biden administration.
SANCHEZ: How?
SELF: The southern border --
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: It's your party. It's members of your party that ousted Kevin McCarthy.
SELF: The southern border is absolutely in chaos. The inflation --
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Congressman, respectfully --
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: -- respectfully, the reason the House doesn't have a speaker --
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: -- is not because of Joe Biden. It's because of members of your party. That's why the House doesn't have a speaker.
SELF: Look, democracy is messy. We're going to get through this. We're going to have a new leadership in the House of Representatives.
And then we're going to lead to the victory in 2024 of a Republican president, hopefully a Republican Senate, and we're going to change some of these policies that we see today.
SANCHEZ: Congressman Keith Self, we have to leave the conversation there. We very much appreciate your time and perspective.
SELF: You bet.
SANCHEZ: Right now, a funeral is underway for a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy who police say was stabbed more than two dozen times by his family's landlord. The boy and his family allegedly targeted because of their Muslim faith. We're following the latest details on this story.
CNN NEWS CENTRAL returns in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Right now, in the United States, a funeral is under way for a 6-year-old boy, a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy, who was killed during a horrific attack on him and his mother in the Chicago area.
Police say the young boy was stabbed 26 times and his mother was stabbed more than a dozen times by their landlord on Saturday.
The landlord is 71 years old. His name is Joseph Czuba. Allegedly targeting the family because they are Muslim.
Officials say, right before the attack, he had gotten into an argument with the boy's mother about the ongoing conflict involving Hamas and Israel.
CNN's Whitney Wild is live outside the mosque where his family is saying their final good-byes to their little boy.
What more are you learning, Whitney?
WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, this is so tragic. There are hundreds of people here to say good-bye because there is collective heart break, collective outrage here in this community.
The little boy's uncle spoke about him and said he was just like any other child. He was full of love. He was full of life. He spoke earlier today flanked by leaders in this community here in Illinois. There is a significant Palestinian community here.
[14:55:08]
At this very moment, you can hear people are very angry. They feel angry that because they feel that many people said that they were left out of this greater conversation, that the Palestinian community was not included in a conversation that is touching them on a very personal level.
Right now, there are cars driving to where this little boy will be buried. This is, again, collective outrage, collective heartbreak.
And, Anderson, what is perhaps the most excruciating is that this little boy's mother remains in the hospital. She's recovering from more than a dozen stab wounds.
She cannot say good-bye to the little boy. That is how much this man took from them -- Anderson?
COOPER: It's just sickening.
Whitney Wild, appreciate you being there.
CNN's live special coverage of the war in Israel continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: It is the top of the hour. And we are tracking the rush to get aid into Gaza and to get people out.
I'm Brianna Keilar here in Washington, alongside Boris Sanchez. Anderson Cooper is on the scene in Israel.
Ahead of an expected Israeli ground invasion of northern Gaza, there are roughly half a million people who have fled south at the urging of Israeli officials. But there is no power. There's also no way out. The border crossing into Egypt is closed.
[15:00:00]
SANCHEZ: Among those who are stranded, more than 250 American citizens and their families. U.S. officials are pushing Egypt to open the Rafah crossing to let aid and evacuations through.
