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Israel At War; During Hamas Gunmen's Invasion Of Kibbutz, A Brave Medic Ran Toward Danger; Anger Flares At GOP House Leadership Meeting; Interview With Freedom Caucus Member Rep. Matt Rosendale (R- MT); U.S. Destroyer Intercepted Multiple Projectiles Fired By Houthi Rebels Headed Towards Israel. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired October 19, 2023 - 15:30:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:30:00]
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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN, the world's news network.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, THE SOURCE AND CNN CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: There are so many stories we are still learning about from that horrific day on October 7th here in Israel. This next one, I want to warn you, it does contain graphic images, disturbing images. Just to give you a heads-up of what you are about to see, but this is a story about a young medic who could have possibly saved herself and stayed in a safe place as that attack unfolded and as gunman attacked.
Instead, Amit Man, left that safety and instead went toward the danger, sacrificing her life to try to help others. In the process, she documented those final moments of life with photos and messages to her sisters. CNN's Anderson Cooper has the story.
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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): When Hamas gunman arrived at the entrance of Be'eri kibbutz around 7:00 a.m., Sunday morning, they waited for a car to arrive and open the gate. Then they executed the people inside. A 22-year-old medic, Amit Man was already in the community clinic. She'd run there when rocket sirens first sounded at 6:30 a.m. She could have stayed in her apartment's saferoom but wanted to help in case anyone was wounded.
For the next seven hours, Hamas gunmen roamed the grounds, burning homes, breaking into houses, hunting residents. Slaughtering more than 120 men, women and children.
HAVIVA IZIKSON, AMIT MAN'S SISTER: She wrote us that there is terrorists in the kibbutz. They heard shooting. They heard Arabs talking. They were there and she let us know that.
COOPER (voiceover): Haviva and Lior are two of Amit's sisters. They exchanged messages with her on WhatsApp all during the attack.
COOPER: She says, at 7:51, she says there are a lot of dead and injured here. IZIKSON: Yes.
COOPER: The situation, I don't have any way to help.
IZIKSON: She was so upset that she can't help them. All she ever wanted to do is save life and help people.
COOPER (voiceover): At 9:13, Amit wrote, the shooting is just continuing. 14 minutes later, sent them this photo. A man lies dead in the clinic hall. We blurred the image of his body. The floor is smeared with blood. At 11:02, Amit messages her sister about the gunmen. They went into houses and slaughtered people. 11:27, she writes, there's no way to get out.
Her sisters wanted to see Amit and asked her for a photo. You can see blood in the hallway behind her. Minutes later Amit wrote, where is the army? I don't understand. It's been hours.
IZIKSON: They told her it will be OK. I promise, I wrote that. I promise you, and they didn't keep my promise. I really believed she will be OK.
COOPER (voiceover): At 1:50 p.m., Amit messaged, the terrorists, they're here. Coming to us. They were coming inside the clinic.
IZIKSON: She had in there with a nurse and the doctor, the doctor got murdered as well, and two members of the kibbutz that they came with weapon to protect the clinic, the -- both of them also got murdered.
LIOR MAN, AMIT MAN'S SISTER: They ran out of ammunition.
COOPER (voiceover): At 1:54, Amit wrote, they are here. I love you. Then minutes later her last text, I don't think I'll get out of here. Please, be strong if something happens to me.
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IZIKSON: And we, as you can imagine, we go crazy. And we write her, Amit please Amit, what's going on? And she doesn't answer. Then she sends us an audio recording say, you hear a lot of shooting and screaming. She sends it to us.
COOPER (voiceover): This is the recording Amit sent them at 2:05 p.m. We want to warn you, it's disturbing.
AMIT MAN (through translator): Shahar, Shahar, Shahar. Please. Please, please, please. Please let it stop. They're here.
IZIKSON: She's screaming, please, make it stop. They are here. Please, make it stop.
L. MAN: Kasha (ph) means, please, please, please --
IZIKSON: Please make it stop. And she's calling the name of Shahar, is the member of the kibbutz that was murdered. Probably, she saw him dying and then she understood -- L. MAN: That she is next.
IZIKSON: -- they're coming for her. She's next, exactly. So, in a desperate move, I call her on the phone. And she answers. And she's telling me, they shot me in the legs. And she's telling me, they murdered everybody in the clinic. She's telling me, they are on me.
L. MAN: On top of me.
IZIKSON: On top of me.
L. MAN: On top of me.
IZIKSON: And I am crying and I'm telling her, Amit, what do you mean? What do you mean? And she's telling me, I don't think I'm going to make it and that's it. The last -- the call goes down and that was the last time we heard from her.
COOPER: That was the last thing she said to you, I don't think I'm going to make it?
IZIKSON: Yes.
COOPER (voiceover): It was two days before they found out for sure Amit was dead. Her family buried her this week.
L. MAN: At least we got to say goodbye.
IZIKSON: Yes.
L. MAN: So many other families --
IZIKSON: We got to say goodbye. We got bury her, you know. There are so many dead --
L. MAN: All --
IZIKSON: -- bodies that are missing. We tried to find comfort in that thing. And also that she died doing what she loved the most, which is save lives.
A. MAN: When I was younger, I saw my daddy cried --
COOPER (voiceover): The other thing Amit loved was singing. And before we left, Haviva and Lior wanted us to hear her voice. Not as it was in those final awful seconds of her life, but as it was when she was at peace.
A. MAN: And my mama swear that she would never let herself forget. And that was the day that I promised I never sing of love if it does not exist. But, darling --
COOPER (voiceover): Amit Man was just 22 years old.
Anderson Cooper, CNN. Tel Aviv.
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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: The drama and chaos inside the House Republican conference, well, it just evolved into yelling, screaming and cursing. Jim Jordan had decided not to call a third vote this morning on his bid for speaker and sources said, he would back a plan to empower the interim speaker Patrick McHenry until Jordan could get the votes needed. But then Republicans emerged from a three-hour closed-door meeting with a new plan which was to scrap the resolution to empower McHenry and go forward with more floor votes for Jordan.
Joining us now is Republican Congressman Matt Rosendale who supports Jim Jordan. Sir, thank you so much for being with us. We heard many of your Republican colleagues telling our Manu Raju this plan to empower McHenry is dead. Is that your understanding?
REP. MATT ROSENDALE (R-MT), MEMBER, FREEDOM CAUCUS: It is my understanding. I'm really pleased with that, Brianna. I don't think that it's a good idea to grant special, additional powers to the speaker pro tem. In all fairness, Patrick McHenry himself also said that he didn't think it was a good idea. He felt that the purpose of having the speaker pro tem was to just keep functions going until such time that the speaker was elected.
And so, everybody came to that consensus in the room after -- we don't describe it as chaos. Every time I go to the conference, we can count on a couple of things. There's always going to be a sports analogy, there's always going to be a wartime analogy, there's always going to be a couple of bible verses, and then the cursing ensues pretty soon thereafter. But after everybody goes through --
KEILAR: But, we -- I mean, Sir -- OK. This one sounded extraordinary. It sounded like there was at least one eff word being bandied about. And this was not the normal, kind of, conference meeting. I think that we should be very clear about that. The reporting on that is very clear. Ken Buck said he doesn't think that Jim Jordan can actually get to that all-important 217 votes, and that he needs to be convinced. That Jim Jordan needs to be convinced of that, and when he is, he will drop out. Is that your expectation?
ROSENDALE: No, as a matter of fact, I disagree with my very good friend Ken Buck. I think that Jim Jordan will get the 217 votes. Right now, he has 21, 22 people that have not voted for him. But Jim is showing that he's an honorable man and he's trying to earn that support. He's not using the D.C. cartel to try and strongarm these people. He's having conversations with them. He's trying to dissuade their opposition. Find out exactly what their issues and concerns are. And again, he's trying to earn those votes and I believe that he will.
He's only had two votes on the floor. Kevin McCarthy took 15 rounds to finally secure the speaker's gavel with six of us just voting presence so that he could do so. I am sure that Jim Jordan will be able to secure the speaker's gavel. [15:45:00]
KEILAR: Is Ken Buck part of that D.C. cartel?
ROSENDALE: I didn't say any of the members were part of the D.C. cartel. What I said is the D.C. cartel tends to try to use some arm- twisting tactics to persuade members to vote certain ways.
KEILAR: Well, so he is trying to convince them, right? He is trying -- he is meeting with them and trying to convince them. He's actually lost support over the course of votes. He delayed a plan to have a vote clearly for fear that he could lose even more votes than he did yesterday. Why shouldn't he drop out?
ROSENDALE: I think that's a false premise. I think that the reason Jim Jordan started talking about that resolution today is because he had concerns about other business that he wanted the House to be able to conduct. He wanted to bring the resolution to support Israel forward. He wanted to make sure that we could do some additional things that Patrick McHenry has decided that he's not comfortable doing based upon the way the rule is written and what powers he felt that it granted him. That's why Jim Jordan did that.
My thought is that the department of defense right now, we've passed the appropriation bills for department of defense and for state and foreign operations which actually grants an additional $3.8 billion of aid to Israel, the House of Representatives has done that. We sent those pieces of legislation over to the Senate. And unfortunately, the Senate hasn't taken them up and passed them. If they would --f the Senate would, please, continue to do their work, then we could take care of a lot of this.
KEILAR: There -- I mean, there's a lot of business outstanding at this point in time. You along with Ken Buck were among the eight who supported that motion to vacate Kevin McCarthy. I want you to listen to what Florida Republican, your colleague, Michael Waltz said about that.
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REP. MICHAEL WALTZ (R-FL): I'll just leave it at this, the eight who did this clearly did not have a plan. Where I come from as a veteran, if you're going to blow a bridge, you better have another one to cross. And those eight clearly didn't have another one to --
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KEILAR: He's saying you better have another bridge to cross. So, as you did this, where was that bridge?
ROSENDALE: The bridge to change, Brianna. The bridge to change, and that's what the American people want. Jim Jordan has had two rounds of votes on the House floor. And why everybody is getting so worked up when it took Kevin McCarthy 15 rounds to secure that very same seat is bewildering to me, quite frankly.
KEILAR: Well, Congressman, he moving --
ROSENDALE: And Jim Jordan is trying to earn those votes.
KEILAR: Well, he's moving backwards and his deficit is bigger than Kevin McCarthy's ever was. What do you say to that?
ROSENDALE: I say that's false. He picked up two additional votes actually on the second round. And so, there was some additional people there --
KEILAR: You're saying he picked up --
ROSENDALE: -- that hadn't been there.
KEILAR: -- you're saying he picked up votes. He also -- he net loss.
ROSENDALE: He had a net loss of one vote, Brianna. One vote. And again, Jim Jordan is trying to earn those --
KEILAR: Two.
ROSENDALE: No, a net loss of one vote. He went from 200 to 199, OK. Check the tally. And what --
KEILAR: He --
ROSENDALE: And -- no, check the tally. He went from 200 to 199.
KEILAR: Yes. He had a net loss.
ROSENDALE: Of one vote. Of one vote. He had a net loss of one vote. After the second round --
KEILAR: How is that heading in the right direction?
ROSENDALE: Hey, Brianna, check the record, OK? On the second round of Kevin McCarthy's --
KEILAR: But it --
ROSENDALE: -- he had a net loss of, like, 10 votes. We went from about 10 or 12 to 20 votes against Kevin McCarthy.
KEILAR: But he continued with the votes, right? He continued voting.
ROSENDALE: That's what we want to do now. We want to continue to vote. Let's get back to the floor. Let's continue voting.
KEILAR: So, when will that be?
ROSENDALE: Jim Jordan -- oh, I don't make that call. I'm ready now. I assure you, I am ready now to go to the floor and vote. I'm ready now to go to my committees do my work. I'm ready to meet with the rules committees that we can continue to do our work on the appropriation bills and deliver the eight remaining appropriation bills over to the Senate so that they don't try to develop an omnibus bill and flood the American people with more debt and deficit. So, I'm ready to do my work right now but I don't get to make that call when we're actually going to the floor for the next vote.
KEILAR: When a vote is not held on Jim Jordan's wanting the speakership, vying for the speakership, what message do you think that sends?
ROSENDALE: Well, if anyone was in the room, what the message that it sends is that he is trying to meet with the remaining people that haven't supported him, so the 20, 22 votes. And he's trying to earn their support. And I think that that is extremely honorable and that's why Jim Jordan, quite frankly, is the second most popular Republican in this country, second only to Donald Trump, that he's trying to earn those votes from the people.
He has demonstrated that all the work he's done in judiciary, that he is the spokesperson for the Republican conference coming out of Washington, D.C.
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And I think that he'll wind up earning that support and securing the speakership.
KEILAR: We will certainly be watching, as we have been along with you. Congressman Matt Rosendale, thank you.
ROSENDALE: Thanks for having me on, Brianna.
KEILAR: Thank you. And we'll be right back.
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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN NEW DAY WEEKEND ANCHOR: We have new details on the breaking news regarding a U.S. Navy Destroyer that shot down multiple missiles and drones, we're learning that it had been launched from Yemen.
KEILAR: Let's talk now with CNN Max Anchor and Chief Analyst Security Expert Jim Sciutto. Jim, the Pentagon press secretary just addressed.
[15:55:00]
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: We reported earlier, Oren Liebermann and I, that the U.S. Destroyer, this was off the coast of Yemen, had intercepted multiple projectiles. At the time it wasn't clear where those projectiles were headed. Fired by the Houthi rebels, they operate in Yemen, they are backed by Iran, effectively a proxy force for Iran similar to, say Hezbollah or Hamas.
They weren't sure at that point, were they targeting the U.S. warship or were they targeting someone else? It is now the Pentagon's view those missiles were actually headed on a trajectory towards Israel. This is significant because that would, if it's true, potentially open up another front in this war. The idea that not just Hamas from the south attacking Israel but the Houthis from the eastern part of the country attacking Israel as well. Here's what the Pentagon Press Secretary Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said about this just moments ago.
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BRIG. GEN. PAT RYDER, PENTAGON SPOKESMAN: Information about these engagements is still being processed. We cannot say for certain what these missiles and drones were targeting, but they were launched from Yemen heading north along the Red Sea, potentially towards targets in Israel. Our defensive response is one that we would have taken for any similar threat in the region, where we're able to do so against other interest, personnel and our partners.
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SCIUTTO: Here's the thing, is the -- you have a lot of targets in the region, that's a concern. Normally, you have a lot of U.S. assets there, ship, air, et cetera. You have loads of bases. More have been moved in. You have those two carrier groups that President Biden ordered to the Eastern Mediterranean. That's good for Israel. A lot of sensory equipment, ability to fire -- to shoot down missiles, of course, their targets as well. And all of these proxies, Hezbollah and Houthis among them, have missiles that could potentially target U.S. ships.
SANCHEZ: And quickly, Jim, we're anticipating, we'll hear President Biden give another warning to Iran about this tonight?
SCIUTTO: It's possible. He's been very clear from the beginning. I wouldn't be surprised because he wants to say -- as he said in that first time around, don't even think about it, in effect. Whether they'll listen, that's an open question.
SANCHEZ: Jim Sciutto, thanks so much for the reporting.
Stay with CNN. "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPER" starts after a quick break.
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