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Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY) Is Interviewed About House Speaker Race; Documents Detail Hamas Plans; Joran Van Der Sloot Confesses To Murder; Sidney Powell Pleads Guilty. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired October 19, 2023 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:02]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: You voted against Jim Jordan. You voted -- twice now you voted for former congressman from New York, Lee Zeldin.

What do you think is going to happen today?

REP. NICK LALOTA (R-NY): We're told that we might be voting around noon today. And if we do, I don't expect a different result. In fact, I expect there to probably be more Republicans against Mr. Jordan.

For weeks, for as long as he's been campaigning for this office, I have asked him, Mr. Scalise and Mr. Hern, who were also campaigning for this office, to show me a plan - to show me a plan to keep the government open, while securing the border, while cutting spending, while at the same time, for my constituents, funding the World Trade Center health program, to fund the flood insurance program, to do other things vital for our country. And so far nobody has the notes, nor has assuaged mine and my constituents' concerns. That's why my vote wont' change today.

BOLDUAN: You have been clear about what you want to hear from the next speaker to earn your support. It seems very obvious then that one can assume that Jim Jordan has done none of that. Is there - is there one - is there a promise or a -- I won't even call it a concession. Is there a promise he could make to you that would win your support at this point? Would -- do you trust him?

LALOTA: Well, first things first, the campaign for speaker is usually something that takes months, if not years to build. One builds a team and relationships and builds a legislative record and a consensus around him or her to get to the speakership. And now we're trying to do it within 14 days. And those relationships are not quite mature just yet.

I have been speaking for those couple of weeks about what it would take to get me to yes. I am in discussions with Mr. Jordan and his team about it. But, no, I haven't been assuaged yet. And I'm not just going to settle for a promise. Oh, yes, hey, Nick, that sounds good, I'll work on that. I want to see people co-sponsor bills, sign letters, and maybe make social media posts making a firm commitment to keeping the government open while we make progress on the budget and border and to do things important for my constituents. I'm not just going to take somebody's word for it and be disappointed a couple of weeks or a couple months later after they take the gavel. I want to see demonstrable plans with solid commitments before I lend my vote to anybody.

BOLDUAN: You have been open to seeing Patrick McHenry's powers expanded as a temporary speaker in light of the mess, if you will. If it takes Democrats to get that approved, are you OK with it?

LALOTA: Well, let's take a step back. I don't think a single vote on -- of the House is required for the temporary speaker to act. It's inherent in the title. In the absence of a bona fide speaker, a temporary speaker can, and I would suggest should, act. That is the very point of having the job. It was contemplated post 9/11 for the continuity of our government. If there was a vacancy in the office of speaker, all business should not stop. That's purely illogical and counter to the very title itself. Don't get confused because there's a couple of Latin terms in there called pro-tempore. It's a temporary speaker. Mr. McHenry absolutely has the authority to act. And I think this is the time where he should act.

BOLDUAN: You have shared on social media one of the threats that you have received because you have voted against Jim Jordan for speaker. Other members -- other Republicans have received threats. Even spouses of some members have received threats. Why do you think this is happening?

LALOTA: Because there's a couple of jerks in our world who, if they can't get their way, they need to take to social media and make those sort of threats. It's probably some kid in their mom's basement just having a bad night. I won't be deterred by those threats. They're an American, but I'm not going to be deterred by those threats. I'm a military veteran. My dad was a cop. And both my grandfathers were cops. My stepdad was a Navy man. My brother, a Marine sniper. These sorts of things won't move me off of my position. I am resolved to ensure that my constituents get what they deserve along this process.

It's unfortunate that some of the dialogue, especially on the internet, has devolved into this. But I tell you what, there's some pretty strong members who are standing their ground right now and I'm one of them and I won't be deterred.

BOLDUAN: President Biden is going to be speaking tonight to make, as the White House has said it, a direct appeal to the American people to continue supporting and funding Ukraine and, you know, in -- obviously in the war against Russia, and also to fund and support Israel amid those war efforts. The White House is requesting - is going to be requesting something north of like $100 billion from Congress to deliver. And this is for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and also the U.S. border with Mexico.

Are you going to support that? Obviously, details matter, but do -- are you open to supporting that?

LALOTA: I think it's problematic to jam each of those three initiatives into the same discussion. There are significant issues at our border and the Biden administration is failing miserably every day with securing our border.

[09:35:03]

Yes, we need more technology. Yes, we need more border agents. And absolutely we need more physical barriers to secure our southern border. It's the cause for many drugs and weapons and human trafficking coming across our border and the president, and Secretary Mayorkas absolutely must do a better job at that. Congress has given them the sources to do so. Now the executive branch has to step up.

As far as Ukraine, public support for sending more and more money to Ukraine is cratering in my district and others. And my constituents have questions as to where the money is going, what is the actual mission there? I don't subscribe to just throwing more money at winning the war. Absolutely, Putin is an evil dictator. Absolutely, he was wrong to invade Ukraine. But we need to hear a bona fide plan from the secretary of defense, from the president, as to what those dollars will actually buy Americans and for - and an audit to make sure they're not falling into the hands of - of others.

BOLDUAN: I hear that. I mean I've heard that from a lot of Republicans, Congressman. But, if it is wrapped together with critical support for Israel, and also includes money for the border, do you vote against that?

LALOTA: Well, we need to see the entire package. And the secretary of defense and the president need to tell the Congress specifically, what is the war plan in Ukraine? How do we ensure that those precious American dollars, while we have priorities in our own country, aren't wasted. So, if they're going to package them all as an omnibus bill, concurrent with that they must come and explain themselves to representatives in the House to ensure our taxpayer dollars are protected.

BOLDUAN: That will begin tonight with the president's primetime address.

Congressman, thanks for your time today.

LALOTA: Thanks so much.

BOLDUAN: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the Hamas terrorists who infiltrated into Israel on October 7th, killing as many as 1,400 people, we are getting an extraordinary level of new detail. Israeli officials say new documents reveal just how precise the Hamas plans were before attacking these Israeli civilian communities.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:41:26]

BERMAN: New reporting this morning about how Hamas terrorists executed their assault on Israel, largely in these towns here, these kibbutz (INAUDIBLE), right over the Gaza border. Videos and documents obtained by CNN reveal a shocking level of precision about their civilian targets. One document identified what Israeli officials say is detailed security information with an objective to inflict, quote, "the maximum possible human casualties within a kibbutz. Photos of the plan were said to be recovered from the body of one Hamas terrorist. CNN has not independently verified the document's authenticity.

CNN chief global affairs correspondent Matthew Chance in northern Israel with the latest on this exclusive investigation.

Matthew, what are you learning?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've been learning quite a lot from a whole range of sources, including Israeli government officials, who have been giving us a lot of this documentation that was taken, as you say, from killed Hamas gunmen who were actually attacking Israeli communities. We've been talking to Israeli first responders, as well as residents who witnessed the attacks firsthand. And we built a disturbing picture of exactly how much intelligence and who much information Hamas had gathered on the Israeli communities it targeted.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE (voice over): CNN has gathered chilling, new insights and details on the Hamas assault inside Israel, including disturbing video taken by the attackers themselves as they rampaged through Israeli homes, killing on site, and then being killed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

CHANCE: Searches of their dead bodies revealing a trove of highly specific Hamas battle plans, including these detailed maps, now shared with CNN by the Israeli government, showing communities near Gaza, like Kfar Aza, targeted by the attackers. These were the terrifying scenes inside as Hamas gun recorded themselves moving freely through the gardens of Israeli homes.

Code red, code red, the Israeli loud speaker blares in Hebrew, punctuating the sporadic gunfire. After the attack, Israeli first responders saw bullet holes and bloodstains in room after room in what looks like a coldly, methodical killing spree.

CHANCE (on camera): But while hundreds of Israelis were killed, some Israeli communities managed to repel the Hamas gunman and save lives. At kibbutz Mefalsim, also near Gaza, residents pushed back a Hamas attack and found documents on the bodies of the militants they killed with disturbing, highly accurate intelligence on their homes (ph).

CHANCE (voice over): Including precise numbers of armed guards there, regional defense force, at least 20 residents, one document reads, and 10 soldiers.

YARDEN RESKIN, KIBBUTZ MEFALSIM RESIDENT: They knew basically the size of our security team. They knew about the other three or four entrances to the kibbutz.

CHANCE (on camera): It sounds like they knew everything.

RESKIN: They knew everything. Where the generators are. They knew where the armory is. They knew about rural roads around the kibbutz.

CHANCE (voice over): Security footage shows how Hamas gunmen killed an Israeli outside the kibbutz gates before being repelled.

[09:45:03]

Even with detailed intelligence on their targets, not every Hamas objective was achieved.

Nearby kibbutz Sa'ad wasn't even attacked, although we now have documentary evidence that Hamas intended to inflict the maximum possible human casualties there, and to hold hostages. A highly detailed street map found on another Hamas gunman, and obtained by CNN, shows individual buildings inside identified and accessed for their military value. The communal kitchen, for example, is described as the main place suitable for holding hostages. Inside the guard room, the soldiers must be neutralized, the Hamas instructions say. While the kibbutz dental clinic is designated a place for first aid for both enemies and friends.

Israeli residents of Sa'ad say they also found that level of detail astounding.

SARAH POLLACK, KIBBUTZ SA'AD RESIDENT: Shockingly, the details are very accurate. The map is a map of our kibbutz. It's very accurate. It's horribly accurate.

CHANCE (on camera): If they'd have come to your settlement, they would have known exactly where to go, exactly where to cause the most damage.

POLLACK: Yes. And we now see that their - their goal was to take hostage, including children.

CHANCE (voice over): Israeli officials say they found other documents too that advise attackers to kill anyone posing a threat or causing a distraction, to keep captives away from arms or means of suicide, and to use them as cannon fodder.

It is a dark turn. Even for a group seen here parading before the attacks that's come to symbolize the uncompromising face of Palestinian resistance and violence against Israel.

Israeli officials say a document referencing ISIS and al Qaeda, which CNN has not been able to authenticate, was found on one Hamas gunman killed during this attack on kibbutz Be'eri. The document, given to CNN by a senior Israeli government official, praises jihad against Jews and crusaders.

Israeli officials say that's evidence Hamas is in increasingly influenced by global jihad ideology, an assessment many experts have dismissed. But in the wake of the unprecedented brutality of these attacks, U.S. officials tell CNN the Hamas threat may now be reassessed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE: Well, John, what's also being reassessed is Israel's own security because it was partly an Israeli failure that led to these killings, these atrocities being allowed to take place. Security analysts here say that Israeli's depended far too much on technology and not enough boots on the ground, the people physically defending communities, especially close to Gaza, which allowed Hamas to exploit the intelligence it's gathered in such a brutal way.

Back to you.

BERMAN: A chilling level of detail there. Matthew, what an extraordinary report. Thank you so much. Stay safe.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us still, a murder confession nearly 20 years in the making. The new details we're learning about the killing of Natalee Holloway.

We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:52:30]

BOLDUAN: Eighteen years later, there are now new answers in the murder that captivated the world for quite some time. We're talking about the death of Natalee Holloway back in 2005. Now, as part of a plea deal struck over charges for extorting her family, Joran Van Der Sloot has finally confessed to killing her.

He said Holloway rejected his sexual advances, so he bludgeoned her with a cinder block and pushed her into the ocean.

CNN's Jean Casarez has been following this story, the ins and outs, for years.

What's going on?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Since it began.

You know, Joran Van Der Sloot has told so many stories of what happened to Natalee. Some involve the beach. Some involve the ocean. But they were all lies. And finally, in 2010, he went forward to Natalee's parents, Beth Holloway, Dave Holloway, and said, look, I'll tell you exactly where she is, but you just have to give me $250,000. It was an FBI setup. They worked with him since he came forward. He got to money. He led them to an area in Aruba and said, there's her body right there, later emailing them saying, ha, ha, once again, it's a lie. Boom, extortion charges.

We have been working with the Peruvian government for a long time under the extradition treaty, because he's serving a prison sentence in Peru, to have him temporarily come to the U.S., and they gave him a deal. They said, we will give you a plea deal, you will plead guilty to the extortion and fraud charge, but you also will tell exactly what happened to Natalee.

And it was done in a proffer. It was audio recorded. And we have some of that audio right there because he did say it was on the beach. He said that they were kissing. He wanted to go further. Natalee said no. He hit Natalee. Natalee hit him. And then what happened was he took a cinderblock to her head.

Listen to what he says he did, in his own words, after that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JORAN VAN DER SLOOT, CONFESSED TO KILLING NATALEE HOLLOWAY: I decided to - to take her and to put her into the ocean. So, I grabbed her, and I - I half - I half pull and half walk with her into the ocean. I -- I push her off. I walked up - up to about my knees into the ocean, and I push her off into -- into the -- into the - into the sea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:55:07]

CASAREZ: So, this is a 20-year sentence that he has gotten for extortion, but you say plea deal. So, what's in it for him? The sentence will run concurrently with the prison sentence in Peru, which is murder of another young girl. Concurrently, at the same time.

So, the Holloways say they're fine with it. They wanted the answers because there was a polygraphy to - a verified polygraph that he was telling the truth. But the fact is, he won't spend a day in prison outside of that murder sentence in Peru for what he did to Natalee Holloway.

But I was reading the legal documents and they do say, if Peru would suddenly release him early, which could happen, he will have to come back to the U.S. to finish this 20 year sentence.

BERMAN: Oh, what a level of detail in there after all these years.

Jean Casarez, thank you very much for all that.

CASAREZ: You're welcome.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right, we have some breaking news just into CNN.

Well, Katelyn Polantz, I'm going to go to you since we're seeing you up on the screen with it. It involves Sidney Powell and a plea deal in Georgia.

Katelyn, what are you learning?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: This is quite a significant development this morning, John and Kate.

What we have now is Sidney Powell, one of the top lawyers that was working for Donald Trump after the 2020 election, she is pleading guilty in the election subversion case that she is charged criminally in, in Georgia. This is the state level case against her and 18 other defendants, including Donald Trump, including Mark Meadows, including Rudy Giuliani. And in that case she is not only pleading guilty to some charges there, she's in court currently at this very moment entering that plea before a judge.

She also is agreeing, as part of this deal, to testify at future trials. So, Sidney Powell is lined up essentially to go to trial at the end of this week, along one other defendant in that case, another lawyer, Ken Chesebro. She's not going to be going to trial now. So, she's taking this plea deal. She will not have that trial.

She will also be in a situation where prosecutors will be recommending her to avoid jail time as part of this deal. But it's significant that not only is she avoiding the trial, not only is she putting in this guilty plea, that she is very likely to become a witness against Donald Trump and the others as they go to trial in Georgia. And there's a lot here at stake, not only in Georgia, but also in the federal court in D.C., where another criminal case against the former president exists, and where Sidney Powell has been identified as a top co-conspirator there. And so what this means for Donald Trump going forward is, it's not good for him to have people pleading and agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors, whether it's at the federal level or state level. So, having Sidney Powell agreeing to testify is quite a significant step forward for the prosecutors in Georgia, as well as potentially any other prosecutors who are bringing and trying to prosecute cases against Donald Trump at trial.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And I'm being told that we just heard from Judge McAfee in Georgia, just a moment ago. Let's listen to this together, Katelyn.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course.

JUDGE MCAFEE: All right. Thank you.

And, Ms. Powell, I've been handed a document that's titled, a plea of guilty form. Is this your signature as well on the second page?

SIDNEY POWELL: Yes, sir, it is.

MCAFEE: All right. Thank you, ma'am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And, ma'am, do you understand that this is a negotiated plea which means that your attorney and I have agreed an agreement on - the state has reached an agreement as to the proposed tenants that will be made to the court.

POWELL: I do. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you understand that the recommendation being

made to the court as to this accusation on counts one through six that you be sentenced to 12 months of probation to run consecutively to one another?

POWELL: I do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you understand that the state is asking that a $6,000 fine be imposed and restitution of $2,700 be paid to the state of Georgia, an apology letter be written to the citizens of the state of Georgia, that you truthfully testify at all hearings and proceedings and trials involving the co-defendants in this matter, and that you have no communication with co-defendants, media, our witnesses, until this case has been completely closed against all defendants?

POWELL: I do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And do you understand as a special condition of this sentence that you are to provide what you've already done, a proffered - a recorded proffer to the state and provide any documents and evidence subject to any lawful privileges asserted in a good faith prior -- prior to entering this plea?

POWELL: I do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And, Judge, at this time the state will enter into evidence what's been marked as state's exhibit one, which is the apology letter that Ms. Powell has already communicated (ph).

And, Ms. Powell, do you understand that this court does not have to follow the state's recommendation in this case?

POWELL: I do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And do you understand that if the court chooses not to follow the state's recommendation, then you can withdrawal your guilty plea and move forward with the trial on the original indictment?

POWELL: I do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And do you understand that if you are currently on probation or parole, your probation or parole may be revoked based on entering this guilty plea?

[10:00:05]

POWELL: Yes.