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Donald Trump Jr. Testifies in New York; Israeli Military in Gaza. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired November 02, 2023 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:01]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: It's not like the best...

(CROSSTALK)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Have you heard the whole song yet? We haven't.

BERMAN: I did. I listened to it...

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Oh, I haven't had time yet. You clearly are better...

BERMAN: Yes. When I should have been preparing for the rest of the show, I was listening to "Now and Then" by the Beatles. And it's haunting.

I mean, it's haunting to hear something you have never heard before. As a Beatles fan, I feel like I have heard everything that they have done and everything that John has sung. To hear something that I haven't heard before, it was moving.

And then, look, you know they're not going to produce more music, obviously, but when you hear Paul McCartney say it's their final song, that's poignant. And it's just -- it marks the end of something that's lasted for generations.

MARK GOODMAN, SIRIUSXM: There is a real romance to this moment. There's no doubt.

And to end the Beatles, if you can say this, to sort of end on this note, as opposed to the note in 1970, when they broke up and there was everybody fighting with each other, here they are all together, that classic Beatles harmony, you get a little bit of that. No one had harmonies like those guys.

So there's a romance to the moment, no question.

BOLDUAN: Do you think there's any -- have you heard of any hesitation about how this has come together from McCartney or any of them?

GOODMAN: Famously, George Harrison called it rubbish in the '90s. But the question that I'm asking is, was he referring to the demo, the quality of the demo, or was he referring to the song?

I choose to believe he was referring to the technology.

BERMAN: Me too. I'm going with that option.

BOLDUAN: We will go with that one.

BERMAN: All right, Mark, thank you so much for being with us. Appreciate your time. Let's all go listen to it again as soon as this show's over.

GOODMAN: Thanks, John and Kate. Great to be on. Thanks.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much.

BERMAN: NEWS CENTRAL continues right now.

The Israeli military chief just said that Israeli troops are inside a significant part of Gaza City. We're getting new details just in on the offensive, as the estimate on the number of hostages is rising.

BOLDUAN: The gates at the Rafah Crossing are open once again. We have just learned that 20 to 25 Americans have arrived in Egypt through -- from Gaza through that crossing. We have got an update to come.

BERMAN: Happening now, Donald Trump Jr. is testifying in court. We just learned the questioning so far this morning has been about the Trump Tower penthouse apartment.

I'm John Berman, with Kate Bolduan. Sara is off. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

All right, just in to CNN, the Israeli military chief of staff says troops are in very significant areas of Gaza City. He says Israeli troops have been operating within Gaza City for days. What we had heard up until now is that troops were moving toward Gaza City, they were at the gates of Gaza City. This is kind of the first confirmation they are within the city itself.

They have been moving in from several directions.

Jeremy Diamond is live right near the Gaza border in the Israeli city of Sderot -- Jeremy.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, as you said, the Israeli military chief of staff saying that his forces are inside of Gaza, have been operating inside Gaza City for several days now, and that they are operating in -- quote -- "very significant areas" of Gaza City.

But even as he says that, we are still witnessing a lot of very active fighting here on the northeasternmost edge of Gaza City. You can see behind me here, there's still some smoke that's been hanging in the air. That is in large parts to kind of just the way the air has been today. The smoke has just been hanging here. And, normally, those streaks that you see in the sky would be what's

left from rockets coming out from Gaza. But, instead, that appears to be artillery fire that was fired from here going into Gaza, and those streaks remaining just because of how the air is kind of holding the smoke in it tonight.

But, all afternoon, we have been listening to active battles between Israeli forces and Hamas militants. We have heard what appears to be mortar fire inside of Gaza. We have also been hearing some small-arms fire, gun battles actively happening between Hamas militants and Israeli forces inside of Gaza.

And what that tells us is that, obviously, as Israeli forces move deeper into the Gaza Strip, into Gaza City, which is Hamas' stronghold in Northern Gaza, they are also still confronting Hamas militants here in the northern part.

And part of that has to do with the tunnel infrastructure that Hamas maintains inside of Gaza. We know that last night, we were told by the IDF that Israeli troops in Northern Gaza were actually ambushed by Hamas militants. And that's likely due to the fact that they have that tunnel infrastructure, which allows them to not only evade Israeli forces, but also potentially to ambush them -- John, Kate.

[11:05:09]

BERMAN: Jeremy Diamond in Sderot.

Let me just situate everyone so they understand the areas we're talking about right now. Gaza City is right there, and we just heard from the IDF chief of staff that he says there are now Israeli troops within Gaza City.

Jeremy just outside the borders in Gaza, the Israeli city of Sderot, and what Jeremy has been seeing over his shoulder is some activity, it appears, in Beit Hanoun right there. And as far as we know, Israeli troops moved in from three directions, these three directions, and now not just in circling Gaza City, but according to the IDF chief of staff, have troops inside the city itself -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, these are some significant developments coming in we're going to continue tracking, and also this.

The Israeli military says it is now responding to fire from Southern Lebanon, this as the ground operation, as John and Jeremy were just talking about, into Gaza intensifies.

Earlier today, our colleague Jim Sciutto, he got a look at Israeli special forces conducting a live-fire exercise.

Want to get to Jim Sciutto now. He is in Northern Israel.

And, Jim, you have been -- there's been incoming coming in from Lebanon?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, the live-fire exercise ended a short time ago, but, as we were

driving back to where we're staying, we heard two consecutive booms in the sky just above me here. It's the reason I got my gear on now. And that was Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system engaging incoming rockets coming from Lebanon.

North, due north, is just here to my left. And we have since here from the IDF that 25 rockets were fired in from Southern Lebanon, most of them, as far as we know now, landing in open areas, but those two big booms, again, it engaged some of them. So, it was able to destroy the missile system defense system in the air.

That is a higher pace of rocket fire than at least I have experienced here in the last several days of being up north. It's been a daily event, sporadic fire, some rockets, some artillery, some attempted ground incursions.

But that pace is higher. And that's notable because, as you and I, all of us were talking earlier, the concern is that Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, might order his forces to enter this conflict in a more aggressive way with the attention focused on his speech tomorrow.

This is a little sample of that. It's also a sample, I should say, that it's been a low-grade, I think sort of a slow-boil kind of threat up here for these couple of weeks since October 7, over three weeks now. But that is enough to have really emptied out large parts of the northern part of this country, because folks make the calculation, understandably, they don't want their family living under this threat, right?

We heard this happen. We threw our kit on, made sure we knew whether the threat was over. You don't want to have to do that every day. And that's why big portions of the northern part of the country have decided to move south.

BOLDUAN: Jim, so great to have you there. Thanks for being there.

And what you're seeing in the box next to Jim is some of what he and his crew saw earlier this morning during the show, which is this live -- this training exercise of Israeli special forces, which was fascinating to see -- John.

BERMAN: Yes, I mean, this is where Jim was. He was in Golan Heights right up here during that live-fire exercise. And he's talking about the situation at the border between Israel and Lebanon, talking about a large number, a larger number of rockets that he's seen going back and forth.

I want to move the focus back into Gaza itself, where we're getting some new information.

With us now is retired Brigadier General Peter Zwack.

General, great to have you here.

And we just heard from the chief of staff of the IDF that there are Israeli troops inside Gaza City. Explain the significance of that.

BRIG. GEN. PETER ZWACK (RET.), U.S. ARMY: John, good to see you again.

Yes, this is -- I think what we have seen is -- and wondered in the beginning why the Israelis seemingly were so slow in getting their forces arrayed and pushed into Gaza proper. I think, first of all, what we didn't see, we heard about, there has to have been a lot of reconnaissance operations, special operations, kind of getting in there and filling in, identifying, obviously with air as well.

And then you start to see the Israeli heavier equipment, armor and things like that beginning to push into Gaza and on the edges of Gaza City, the heavily built up.

One reason they're so careful is, I mean, we're -- they -- while their casualties -- they have had about -- they were quoting 16 dead, a bunch of wounded. And seven of those killed in action were in an armored personnel carrier hit by an anti-tank, and another two in a Merkava tank by an IED.

[11:10:17]

And this is the slow, nasty fight in the city, especially when you're in vehicles. As we have seen in the past, they're vulnerable. I think the Israelis mostly doing this dismounted now with tanks and armored personnel carriers and airstrikes backing them up.

It's slow, deliberate. You go in fast in an urban environment, where the enemy is ready and well-armed, you will get a disproportionate amount of casualties. And that's one reason the Israelis have been so careful.

BERMAN: And, again, our information is three separate fronts here from the northwest, from the northeast, also from the south. The one from the south might be moving more quickly than anticipated, again, to surround Gaza City and maybe move some troops into Gaza City.

Specifically, day to day here, what will those troops in the city be doing?

ZWACK: Well, I mean, now you're in a three-dimensional fight that really is four- or five-dimensional when you add cyber and electronic.

They are -- have to do, John, the nasty business of clearing every structure. And that means getting in there, clearing all the way up, if it's a high-rise, up to the roof, and then digging down into the basement and clearing every room, and then getting into this awful tunnel complex that is built.

We have read, heard reports that just now that Israelis will be in the fight, and, all of a sudden, Hamas fighters will pop up behind them coming out of tunnels and cellars in buildings that they thought they'd cleared. So this is methodical. It takes manpower. There's no easy, clean way to do it. The heavy vehicles are generally there to provide backup and firepower

when the infantry hit a structure. The infantry also protects the tanks and armor personnel carriers that if they get out too far in front, they become very, very vulnerable.

Also, remember, we have got IEDs, we have got drones. I mean, it is -- there is a lot going on, and the only way to do it is slow and methodically. And I think that's what the IDF is doing on several fronts.

BERMAN: All right, retired General Peter Zwack, thank you for helping us understand what we're hearing, these somewhat limited reports from inside Gaza, piecing it all together. Thank you so much -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: That was important perspective there, John.

Coming up for us: Donald Trump Jr. back on the stand in the civil trial against his family. This is some of the limited images, video that we can get from the beginning of the trial when he was back in there this morning. He's now facing questions about Donald Trump's penthouse apartment, even the size of the apartment. We have got an update on that civil fraud trial ahead.

Plus, anger boiling over in the Senate, Republicans calling out fellow Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville for the monthslong effort that he has been putting in place, blocking hundreds of military promotions. Why it's coming to a head now and where is this going today, we will give you an update on that.

And one of the five former Memphis police officers charged in the beating death of Tyre Nichols plans to change his plea. An update on that.

We will be back.

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[11:18:28]

BOLDUAN: Happening right now Donald Trump's eldest son back on the stand for the second day, Don Jr. testifying in the civil fraud trial that implicates him, his brother, his father, siblings and their business empire.

This morning, the questioning has centered around Donald Trump's penthouse apartment in New York, its value, its size even.

CNN's Brynn Gingras is outside the courthouse.

Brynn, bring us up to date. What's -- where is testimony right now?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, Don Jr. is actually not quite on the stand right now just because they are in a break. He's going to return to the stand, but certainly feeling confident. One of our colleagues inside asked him how's it going when he came

into the hallway. He gave two thumbs up. He's been seeing actually overlooking the sketch artist to see how she's doing with her artwork of him, so definitely in a confident mood.

And, as you just mentioned, all the questioning has really been about what does he know about the preparation of those financial documents when it comes to the penthouse apartment in Trump Tower, but also other New York properties owned by the Trumps, not only just here in New York, but also around the country.

And he remains confident and direct and keeping to the story, his story, that he had nothing to do with the preparation of those documents. That is what accountants are paid for, according to him and his words. And so that's really it. He's sticking to that story. He even said at one point while the state's attorney tried to go through year by year of the financial documents, he said, listen, rinse and repeat.

So, it doesn't seem like he's going to waver from that. And, remember, keep in mind, the state's attorney is now trying to prove that he, his brother, his father, Trump Organization sort of worked together in this larger fraud scheme to perpetuate fraud for decades, which fraud that the judge already has determined that the company and they are liable for.

[11:20:18]

So it's important that their testimony be heard in the courtroom. Now, when he is finished with this direct examination from the state, we don't expect his defense lawyers to ask him any questions. We do expect Eric Trump then to get on the stand.

He is in the courthouse, not in the courtroom just yet. But we do expect those questions to be a little bit more pointed, as we have heard his name said many times by other witnesses in this case when directly being questioned about those financial documents. So we will see what that testimony looks like.

But it's certainly a long day today of the both Trump oldest sons here trying to answer for the fact of these financial documents, which were said by the state's attorney inflated for better insurance premiums and better tax rates -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Brynn, thank you so much for being there.

We will get back to Brynn for updates coming from court.

BERMAN: And we just did get word he's back in the courtroom now. So his testimony will begin again any second.

BOLDUAN: Stand by. Just stand by.

BERMAN: Former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst Jennifer Rodgers is here with us now. So, counselor, we're told a smiling Donald Trump Jr. has been

testifying now for several hours. He didn't know much or anything about the accounting of the Trump Corporation here. So, what is the state, what is the attorney general's office getting out of his testimony?

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: So it's really interesting, John, because, as Brynn was just reporting, he seems very confident, thumbs up, oh, don't worry about that, same answers for that as the other, as if he's killing this examination that's going on.

He's giving the attorney general everything she needs. I mean, all they really need to prove is that he was responsible and that he had some substantive knowledge. And every single time, yes, he signed that. Yes, it says that he's responsible for the accuracy of it. Yes, he had substantive knowledge of a lot of these deals it turns out were fraudulent in terms of the numbers given over.

So, they're getting exactly what they need. And this kind of false sense of, I'm doing well, I think is not going to play with the judge.

BERMAN: Explain the discrepancy then between saying, yes, I signed it and what else he seems to be saying, which is, I don't understand the accounting, I left it to the accountants.

RODGERS: Yes. It's all the accountants' job. I'm just a Wharton- educated person who doesn't know anything about the generally accepted accounting principles.

I mean, there's a general sense of like, what should you know in his position? But there's also swearing by your signature that you actually did review the information and that you did also give the accountants all the information. That's a big part of this, because the Trump Organization swore by his signature that they had handed over all the relevant documents, and the attorney general is proving otherwise.

BOLDUAN: Look, this might be a small thing, but what do you -- do you think it is a strategy of kind of that upbeat tone, confident approach that he's having on the stand, as opposed to, I mean, when Donald Trump was brought to the stand, not really just the full testimony, but for that like momentary thing, very different?

RODGERS: Yes, it can be with a jury.

So you can kind of fool jurors sometimes into thinking, hey, my attitude suggests that I don't care, and so you should think that they're not getting me. It's the attorney general's job, usually in closing arguments, to make it clear that that's not what happening.

But, here, there's a judge, right? The judge is not fooled by anyone's kind of attitude and tone of voice and this and that. He's focused on the actual evidence and what's coming in. And, again, he's already decided that there was fraud here. The only issue now is how much they're going to have to give back. BERMAN: You get to something that I keep falling back -- really two

things. Number one, this judge has already found them liable for fraud, and, number two, that it's a judge, not a jury.

RODGERS: Yes.

BERMAN: And every day, when we cover this, I'm reminded that you must have to go at this in a different way as a lawyer, as both the plaintiff and the defense.

RODGERS: You really do.

And that's why we saw when Donald Trump was in the courtroom how different everything got, because the lawyers know they don't really have to play to the judge in the same way that you play to the jury, but they had to play to their client. So that's why you saw longer examinations, sarcastic tones of voice, all of this grandstanding that you typically don't have in a bench trial, because the judge is not impressed by it.

BOLDUAN: Does Eric Trump seeing the testimony of his brother, does it impact what his -- like, what his attorneys will advise him and his approach or what he needs to accomplish or not when he takes the stand?

RODGERS: I'm assuming he knows what was coming with Don Jr.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

RODGERS: And he knows what's coming, right? All of these witnesses have been deposed. So they know what's coming.

I think he has a strategy. And I think it's going to be largely the same: It wasn't my job. I did what I was supposed to do.

But, again, the judge has already determined otherwise. And this is just about the numbers. So I don't think this is going to be a successful approach.

BERMAN: And we will see if their father, Donald Trump, behaves differently on the stand on Monday.

BOLDUAN: That will be interesting come Monday.

BERMAN: Because he's the one running for president.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Really?

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: Yes, I'm told reliably.

BOLDUAN: At least this cycle.

BERMAN: Jennifer Rodgers, thank you very much.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, Jennifer.

BERMAN: So, right now on the Senate floor, Republican-on-Republican battles over military promotions. A monthslong standoff might be about to end.

[11:25:05]

A former Memphis police officer accused in the death of Tyre Nichols signaling he will change his plea.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We have Tuberville here, guys.

QUESTION: Senator, it's -- it's your Republican colleagues who say you're weakening the military.

SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE (R-AL): Oh, really? Well, that's their opinion. That's their opinion.

QUESTION: Are you at -- are you at risk of weakening the military?

TUBERVILLE: No. No. As I have told you all along, if I thought there was any problem with readiness.

[11:30:00]