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Antony Blinken Speaks in Israel as Conflict Intensifies in Gaza; Hezbollah Leader Makes First Public Speech Since War Started; October Jobs Report Out with 150,000 Jobs Added; Trump Civil Fraud Trial Continues in New York. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired November 03, 2023 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:38]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening right now, the Secretary of State Tony Blinken is on a mission, back in Israel for the third time since the October 7th Hamas terror attack.

We're going to be hearing from Tony Blinken we believe in a short time. Tony Blinken also spoke just a short time ago. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: We stand strongly for the proposition that Israel has not only the right but the obligation to defend itself and to do everything possible to make sure that this October 7th can never happen again. How Israel does this matters and it is very important that when it comes to the protection of civilians who are caught in the crossfire of Hamas's making that everything be done to protect them and to bring assistance to those who so desperately need it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Yes. Blinken saying standing next to the president of Israel that how Israel does this matters. That's part of the discussion today.

This moment appears a critical one in the Israel-Hamas war. IDF forces now say they have Gaza City completely surrounded, encircled is how they said it this morning. The IDF says 28 days in now there are still 241 hostages being held by Hamas.

And despite the big development of the Rafah crossing opening up once again, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues. 79 Americans have now been able to finally leave through the Rafah crossing, that's the latest number, but there are still hundreds of Americans remaining inside Gaza and so many more still suffering and stuck -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Kate, as you mentioned, we are waiting to hear from the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. But the whole world watching another speech right now that might have even bigger implications, coming from this man, Hassan Nasrallah, who is the leader of Shia militia group Hezbollah which operates inside Lebanon. Nasrallah has been quiet since the Hamas terror attack on Israel on

October 7th. This will be his first major speech to the world since then. Hezbollah, the militia group that the United States considers a terror organization, has estimates of somewhere around 150,000 rockets inside Lebanon, high-technology, very accurate, that they could shoot into Israel at any moment if Nasrallah decides he wants to escalate this conflict.

The Israel Defense Forces say they are on very, very high alert this morning listening to this speech from Nasrallah. We'll bring you details as soon as we get them.

We have our teams everywhere around the world standing by. Inside Lebanon, in Tel Aviv, in northern Israel, at the Pentagon.

Let's go first to Tel Aviv. CNN's Ed Lavandera is there -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we are waiting to hear from Secretary of State Antony Blinken who has wrapped up several hours of meetings with Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli War Cabinet, as well as the Israeli president, but this all unfolding, as you mentioned, we are waiting to hear what the leader of Hezbollah has to say.

This comes just the night -- the morning after here in Tel Aviv where we saw one of the most significant firefights and attacks there inside of Gaza by Israeli forces. Several hours of intense airstrikes and ground operations. Israeli military officials say they have completely surrounded Gaza City.

They say they are focused on dismantling the Hamas military operation, which operates largely in the sophisticated tunnel system that stretches for dozens and dozens of miles underneath Gaza, and it is from there that Israeli officials say that Hamas has been able to launch the attacks on Israel since October 7th. So they say they are focused on all of that.

And as their ground operation and their attacks on the civilian -- that have hurt the civilian population there in Gaza has come under intense criticism from people around the world, Israeli officials here on the ground at least so far -- and it will be interesting to see if this changes here after the secretary of state's visit -- have been pretty much straightforward as to Netanyahu said yesterday that nothing will stop them.

Other military officials say that they are focused right now on dismantling Hamas and putting maximum pressure on that.

[09:05:01]

So it will be interesting to see if after the secretary of state's visit if the operation on the ground here or in the airstrike capabilities changes in any way, but right now Israeli officials have been saying quite clearly that it doesn't appear that they will change. That they are focused on putting maximum pressure on Hamas military fighters on the ground there inside of Gaza -- John. BERMAN: All right, Ed Lavandera in Tel Aviv.

Just to keep track of the events unfolding right now, we just got word that Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, has begun speaking. We're going to get details from the speech. We will bring them to you as soon as they come in. Meanwhile, Ed was just talking there about the mission, the diplomatic mission from Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state. He is in Tel Aviv.

Let's get more of a sense of what he is trying to get out of these conversations. Natasha Bertrand in Washington with that.

So, Natasha, what is the secretary trying to accomplish this morning?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, he's reflecting in his conversations with the Israelis a growing belief within the Biden administration that the current pace and nature of Israel's operation in Gaza is becoming increasingly untenable when it comes to the civilian casualties that have been emerging from the rubble of these Israeli airstrikes.

And so his conversations, they are really going to be focusing on he says discussing with the Israelis concrete steps that they can take to minimize civilian deaths and injuries. And it is also going to focus on getting aid into Gaza, getting additional fuel, supplies, medical equipment to the Palestinians, obviously at a moment when they really, really need it.

And so the Biden administration behind the scenes in conversations with their Israeli counterparts over the last few weeks, they have told them that their military objectives in Gaza are going to become increasingly difficult to achieve as the world watches the kind of destruction that is being wrought on everyday civilians who are in the Gaza Strip.

And some presidential advisers close to Biden believe that it is only a matter of weeks and not months until it becomes increasingly untenable for the administration to rebuff calls for a broader ceasefire.

Now, it remains unclear at this point just what Israel is willing to agree to when it comes to some kind of humanitarian pause because they have said that a ceasefire is off the table at the moment, but will they agree to some kind of a pause in hostilities for a few hours, a few days, to get the hostages out and to allow civilians to leave Gaza? That remains to be seen, but it is certainly something that Blinken is going to be pushing with his Israeli counterparts according to sources familiar with what he's planning.

BERMAN: All right, Natasha Bertrand in Washington.

You're looking at live pictures of a lectern right there. We are expecting to hear from Secretary of State Antony Blinken any minute now -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Keeping an eye on that, and as John just said, we do know that Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, has begun to speak. His message to his followers, to his supporters, to Israel, and to the world could be key in the next direction of this war with Hamas for sure.

CNN's Jim Sciutto is in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon.

And Jim, you've been there. Talk to me about the significance of Nasrallah's necessary today and also what you have already been seeing in the north with these skirmishes, this deadly fire picking up.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: No question. We're in Qiryat Shemona in northern Israel right now and we're on a high point here overlooking the town of Qiryat Shemona, and that ridge line there on the other side of it is Lebanon, and that's the direction that Hezbollah fire and fire from other militant groups in southern Lebanon has been coming into northern Israel over the last several days.

In the last 24 hours we've seen an uptick in rocket fire coming in. In fact, one of them struck right on a main street here in Qiryat Shemona just yesterday evening. And just as I've been standing here, Kate, a number of Israeli army soldiers have come up to this high point as well and we're told that they are spotters in effect. They're going to -- if a rocket were to come in and strike its target, their job is to figure out where in town it is and then direct the emergency response.

That gives you a sense of this very high level of alertness that IDF officials say Israel is under right now for an expansion of Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel. It's already been happening over the last several days. We've been reporting on that repeatedly, artillery strikes, rocket strikes, et cetera. Their concern is that Nasrallah today will amp it up. That in this speech that is now under way, he will signal a greater Hezbollah involvement in this war.

We don't know. There are reasons why Hezbollah might want to get in. They like to see themselves -- he likes to see themselves as the leader of resistance to Israel in this part of the world, in Lebanon, but also he's conscious of what the costs of what such a conflict would be.

[09:10:07]

In the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war southern Lebanon was devastated by Israeli airstrikes and ground incursions. Do his own people want greater involvement and the potential cost of that involvement? We don't know. So we'll be watching those words very closely as we know Israeli officials are and as we know these soldiers here in Qiryat Shemona are. Will his words be connected to any increased military action in northern Israel?

A great deal of anticipation and one reason why the world is watching the leader of Hezbollah as he makes this speech today.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And it's important to have you there. The way I've seen it described in one regard is that the escalation that we're already seeing at the Israel-Lebanon border is the deadliest escalation in this frontier since the 2006 war. So it's already bad, but how close are they for it to becoming so much worse, that's what everyone is wondering today -- John.

BERMAN: Yes. Absolutely. All right, Kate, and as we wait to hear some of the details from Nasrallah's speech, let's focus on what's happening inside Gaza.

With me now is CNN military analyst and former NATO Supreme Allied commander General Wesley Clark.

And General Clark, we do know that Israeli troops, they say they have now moved in from three directions and have largely encircled Gaza City here. What will they be doing? What does this encirclement allow the Israeli troops to now do?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, this is a pretty logical move, actually, John. They're going to -- if they encircle it they cut off the retreat of Hamas, provided they can get into the tunnels. They also can hold the hostages, if there are hostages there and keep them from being shipped out. It's a logical thing to do. Surround it, clear it on the inside, it's the right military strategy.

You don't try to eat the elephant in one bite. But it also has a potential political-diplomatic dimension because if they focus on the center of resistance in Gaza, maybe that opens the opportunity to give a pause in the operations in southern Gaza. Maybe it's a pause that's not a real pause, they still reserve the right to defend themselves, to attack high-valued targets, but it might be spun diplomatically in a way that takes some of the pressure off the United States and Israel for the welfare of the Palestinian population there. So it's a logical military move with diplomatic consequences or opportunities, let's say.

BERMAN: The suggestion you're making is if you have Gaza City surrounded, you have the ability to say, OK, we're pausing right now because we have this contained, you know, the pause could be hours, it could be days, but they have the ability to wait a little bit?

CLARK: Well, you wouldn't pause in Gaza City probably. You can't. Your troops are there, they're in contact, they're vulnerable to ambush, to strikes, to sniping. So you keep the fight up in Gaza City and go after the -- what many believe is the real center of Hamas there, but in the south, you could slack off, you could say it's a pause. You would still use your air power or maybe even a ground raid to go after a high-valued target there. But you would get some diplomatic benefit out of this. It's a logical move at this point.

BERMAN: Let me ask you about the south, in conjunction with another report we just got this morning, and if we can push into this map, I think this requires a close-up here so people can see what I'm talking about here. "The New York Times" reported this morning that U.S. drones have been flying missions over Israel. Surveillance drones. And "The Times" reported that these drones are trying to gather information about possible hostages.

And "The Times" put up a map from publicly available flight radar of the path that these U.S. drones have taken. I don't know if you can see this, General Clark, but I'll just describe it to you. That almost all of the drone activity published in "The Times" today, the U.S. drone activity is over southern Gaza. It's over the southern part of the Gaza Strip, not where Israel is conducting the majority of its operations right now.

I just wonder if you could talk about that U.S. involvement. Why it would be focused on the south?

CLARK: Well, there's two possible reasons. One is because we think that's where the bulk of the hostages are. And second is perhaps because the Israelis either don't have the assets to focus on all of Gazans. So we've divided the task, we'll take the south, looking for hostages. They'll put their intensive intelligence collection in the north, looking for hostages and targets, or perhaps there's some other reason for it technically.

[09:15:06]

But it's probably a division of effort. Remember, we do have our special forces teams there. We have hostage rescue capability and we probably are sharing intelligence with the Israelis. So this is probably a logical way to deconflict intelligence collection efforts.

BERMAN: All right. General Wesley Clark, always great to have you on. Thank you so much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, the latest read on the U.S. economy and the jobs report and the jobs market, that latest read is just in. We have that for you and the context around what it means.

Plus, Eric Trump back on the stand. He's soon going to be wrapping up his testimony in the fraud trial against his family. Next up after that, Donald Trump himself. What's that going to mean? We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: So is the U.S. jobs market cooling off in a real way? That's a question today.

[09:20:01]

The latest jobs report just released showing 150,000 jobs were added in October. That is lower than September's stronger than expected total, and slightly lower than what economists were actually anticipating for this time around. The unemployment rate ticked higher to 3.9 percent.

Let's try to make sense of it all. CNN's Rahel Solomon has much more. She's here with us.

OK. Take us inside the report. What are you watching?

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I feel the pressure now, Kate. I feel the pressure.

BOLDUAN: All on you.

SOLOMON: Yes. OK. So how many times have you and I talked about in the last year and a half or so that jobs growth actually came in stronger than --

BOLDUAN: Exactly.

SOLOMON: Exactly. That's what we hear a lot. But this is actually the opposite where job growth actually came in cooler than what we are expecting. So the expectation was closer to 180,000, so 150,000 jobs being added, still strong but cooler. And as you said the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9 percent.

But to put this in perspective we've been in this range of about 4 percent, below 4 percent for about the last two years. So pretty much a continuation. Now when you look at sort of a job growth by month, you actually saw that the prior two months were revised lower to the tune of about 101,000 jobs, fewer than what we had previously expected.

BOLDUAN: OK.

SOLOMON: One thing that of course has been happening in the labor market that we've talked a lot about is the strike, the UAW strike.

BOLDUAN: Yes. When is that going to show in the numbers, right?

SOLOMON: It showed up in the numbers. That's a great point. So that is actually one of the first things you see listed in the report, that manufacturing, auto workers, those job gains fell by about 35,000. Now on the flip side we saw job gains. Continuation in industries like health care, they added 58,000 jobs, government added 51,000 jobs.

What might be happening here in government is we might be seeing teachers returning to work, right, returning for the school year. So we might be seeing that. In terms of what this means broadly speaking a few ways we can think about it. What it means for the average American worker, it's a sign that the labor market is cooling but still strong, right.

In terms of the Fed, there are a few things here that I think the Fed will actually welcome. One, the cooler job growth just to sort of create a bit more balance in the labor force in terms of the supply of workers and the supply of jobs, and so creating a bit more balance there, but also wages. Wages moderated.

And that's something we've been watching very closely because of its potential impact on inflation. And so both on a monthly and an annual basis we saw wages cool. And on an annual basis, Kate, we saw actual cooling of annual wage growth of 4.1 percent. That's a slowest annual growth we've seen in two years.

So there is something here for I think a lot of people. It's part of the reason why you saw markets spike after this crossed.

BOLDUAN: Still I -- SOLOMON: How did I do?

BOLDUAN: I'm saying -- obviously, yes, you're always a win. I'm thinking still it's not yet time to remove your seat belt and move about the cabin. That's what I'm thinking.

SOLOMON: Absolutely. Fair.

BOLDUAN: I feel like everyone is still buckled up.

SOLOMON: Yes. We're still on this roller coaster.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, Rahel. John?

BERMAN: All right. There's -- I'm looking at you, I don't know. Very sure --

BOLDUAN: When we stun him to silence I call that a good thing.

SOLOMON: It's a win.

BERMAN: Eric Trump will be on the witness stand very shortly, testifying in a civil fraud trial. It's already found his father and the family business liable for fraud. A judge has ruled they fraudulently over valued assets. Eric Trump we just saw him walking to the courthouse a short time ago. Both Eric and his brother Don Jr. in their testimony have tried to shift the blame to accountants. Donald Trump the father testifies as soon as Monday.

CNN's Kara Scannell is outside the courthouse in New York.

What are we going to hear from Eric today, Kara?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, as you said, Eric Trump will begin testifying just around 10:00 a.m. when the trial resumes. He had a bit of a rocky day on the stand yesterday when both he and his brother, Donald Trump Jr., were testifying, and as you say, that they both were shifting the blame, distancing themselves from the financial statements that are at the heart of this lawsuit.

Donald Trump Jr. saying he relied on the accountants. Eric Trump saying he didn't even know that these financial statements existed until the New York attorney general launched its investigation. Well, that prompted one of the lawyers for the AG's office to then question him and confront him with e-mails for about an hour and 15 minutes showing him that some e-mails that went back as far as 2010, others indicated that he was providing values for golf courses to one of the internal accountants.

So he kept confronting him one after another over this period of time, asking him if he really didn't know and if he wanted to change his testimony. And Eric Trump just dug in, he became frustrated, he raised his voice and he said he knew that the company had financial statements. He said he just had no involvement with his father's personal financial statements, and he said it never registered to him that when he provided a value to one of the accountants that it would have been used in those financial statements.

It was a bit of a testy exchange that carried on for a long time today. Now we do expect him to be on the stand for maybe about an hour today and then that should wrap up this week leading up, as you said, into Donald Trump's testimony which is now set for Monday -- John.

BERMAN: And what can we expect there, Kara?

[09:25:02]

SCANNELL: So Donald Trump is expected to be on the stand. It's expected to be a lengthy direct examination. And he has as he has been saying all throughout this trial saying that, you know, yesterday he said his sons were being persecuted. He's been attacking the judge, he's been attacking the New York Attorney General's Office. There's going to be much more tension in the room when he is pressed on his involvement in the financial statements.

I mean, stark contrast, his sons inside the courtroom have had friendly exchanges with the judges. There was a break yesterday and Donald Trump Jr. was getting off the stand just as the judge was getting off the bench. He paused, put his arm on the judge's shoulder, they exchanged a smile and some words. So it has been more of a pleasant exchange in there versus Trump's vitriol toward the judge, toward this trial, toward all of the trials that he's facing.

So expect a lot more tension on Monday which always happens when Trump is here but he's no stranger to this courtroom, he's been here seven times already -- John.

BERMAN: Yes. This one -- this time it's different, though, for sure.

BOLDUAN: This one matters.

BERMAN: This -- well, they all matter. This one he's on the stand for a day potentially.

Kara Scannell, thank you so much.

BOLDUAN: All right. Let's talk about all of this right now. CNN's senior legal analyst and former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Elie Honig, is here.

Let's first talk about Eric Trump heading back on the stand. Kind of all this week we have been pontificating and asking the question of what can the state use -- how can they use them.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Right.

BOLDUAN: The brothers, the sons. You think that yesterday it was proven with Eric this is -- this is how they can use them.

HONIG: Yes. Yesterday went really poorly for Eric Trump. We stood at this table 24 hours ago and you asked me what do you do as a lawyer with a witness who just flatly denies everything? And what I said yesterday before Eric Trump took the stand is ideally you would have some sort of evidence, documents, that disprove it and you confront that person with it. That's exactly what happened with Eric Trump.

He got on the stand and he said I knew nothing about the preparation of these financial statements. I had nothing to do with it, and then the attorney general, assistant attorney general, took out documents, e-mails from 2013, showing that he did have some involvement, not major involvement, but some involvement in preparation of financial statements. And Eric Trump was cornered.

He was left with no choice but to say, OK, I guess I did have that level of involvement which does two things, one, it establishes that he did have some involvement, but, two, more importantly it really damages his credibility. The judge can look at that and say, OK, I don't believe other aspects of your testimony as well. Not a good day for Eric Trump.

BOLDUAN: Yes. He's not forthright on this one, what about the others?

HONIG: Exactly.

BERMAN: So Donald Trump, the father, the presidential candidate, the former president of the United States, will be on the stand on Monday. He was deposed in this case already and took the Fifth many, many, many, many times.

HONIG: Yes.

BERMAN: He has the right to do that on Monday of course. In a civil trial there can be a negative inference from that. The judge can say, aha, you're not testifying, that means you might be hiding something, I can assume the worst here.

HONIG: Yes.

BERMAN: What's the calculation for Donald Trump in this case between taking the Fifth and not? Why might he change and talk this time? Why might he not?

HONIG: Right. So it's such an interesting and really difficult strategic decision Donald Trump and his lawyers are going to have. When he was deposed in this case over a year ago he took the Fifth. He wouldn't answer anything literally other than his name. He took the Fifth as he is entitled to do. But the world has changed for Donald Trump since then because back then there were all these swirling criminal investigations none of the indictments, none of the four indictments we have now had landed.

So the world was a bit more uncertain for him. Now here we are a year and change later he's been indicted on four things, none of them relating to this particular fraud. If he takes the Fifth he protects himself against any of those cases roaring back to life. It's possible he takes the stand. He says something that piques prosecutors' interest. They go, oh, maybe we should reopen a potential criminal case on him for fraud.

But as you said, John, the risk of taking the Fifth is that the judge in this case, this civil case, can say I'm using that against you. BOLDUAN: I can say, I've been thinking about this. If the judge has

already determined that he is guilty of libel, of fraud, why not take the Fifth? Like why even become close to exposing yourself to anything else?

HONIG: So you're channeling my brain here, Kate, because if I --

BOLDUAN: That's a scary thing.

HONIG: I know. Maybe that's not good for you. If I'm Donald Trump's lawyer and all you can do as a lawyer is advise, you can't force, I would say you are taking the Fifth because you've already lost this case --

BERMAN: Elie, hang on one second.

HONIG: Yes.

BERMAN: Let's going to Israel right now. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaking there.

BLINKEN: Days after Hamas's attack on October 7th, I came to Israel, followed soon thereafter by President Biden, to make clear that as long as the United States stands, Israel will never stand alone.

Today in my fourth visit to Israel since October 7th, I reiterate that in all my discussions with Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Herzog, the security cabinet. I reiterated and made clear our support for Israel's right to defend itself, indeed its obligation to defend itself. That includes through the additional assistance that we've worked with Congress and we're working with Congress now to provide for Israel.