Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Day 4 of Ceasefire, Hostage Negotiators Encounter New Difficulties; Interview with former U.S. Ambassador to NATO and "The Empty Throne: America's Abdication of Global Leadership" Co-Author Ambassador Ivo Daalder; Remembering Rosalynn Carter; At Atlanta's Carter Center, Rosalynn Carter Will Rest in Repose; After 3 Palestinian Students Were Shot, Suspect in Court; DOJ Looking into Possibility of Hate Crime in Vermont Shooting; Agreement Closes on Fourth Hostage Group Release, According to Sources. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired November 27, 2023 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

AMBASSADOR IVO DAALDER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO AND CO-AUTHOR, "THE EMPTY THRONE: AMERICA'S ABDICATION OF GLOBAL LEADERSHIP": ?You know, every day there's no fighting allows two really important things to happen, hostages to be released to be reunited with their families. And very much needed humanitarian aid to be coming in, and a lot of aid has been coming in. Of course, not enough, given the needs that exist in Gaza.

But even if the fighting resumes, and I assume actually it will, even if you get one or two more days of extension, the fighting will resume. The gains that you've had, hostages being released, much needed aid coming in, are important. And we should never forget that ultimately people are the ones who suffer in war and they are now being helped at least a little bit.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: Ambassador, you've been talking about the challenge, the bind that President Biden finds himself in, in supporting Israel forcefully and publicly. Asking Israel tough questions about how they reach their goals privately, and also trying to prevent this from all spilling over regionally. Do you see the challenges getting harder or easier as this heads now into its, you know, seventh week and this first truce may be coming to an end?

DAALDER: I think the challenges continue to be very difficult. The one glimmer of hope is, I think, That the original and early fears back immediately after the events of October 7, that this would lead to a regional conflagration that would not just involve Israel and Gaza, but would bring in Hezbollah from the north and perhaps even Iran directly. I think fears of that kind of escalation have died down a little bit.

But now there is the concern which has been there really from day one, and that's when Biden has been expressing that privately in all kinds of ways. And increasingly, publicly, that the strategy that Israel has embarked upon is not going to be able to succeed in eliminating the threat of Hamas without causing incredible and untold damage to the people in Gaza. And that ultimately the strategy doesn't have a good sense of what comes after.

And so, the president, while supporting Israel, something he feels in this core, also given the events of October 7, inevitable for any American and any American president to support them, has used that support to try to convince Netanyahu to find new ways to alter his strategy, and he's been successful to some extent.

He -- Israel did not attack Hezbollah, which some people wanted. Israel delayed the ground invasion. It didn't have as many troops in the ground invasion as possible. And of course, now we see humanitarian aid coming in, which Israel prevented and hostages coming out. That is all due to President Biden using his private diplomacy to try to get the Israeli government to move in a direction that is more successful than it was initially engaged on.

BOLDUAN: One area where the president, to this point, hasn't been successful in terms of his engagement in trying to support Israel is having to do with the aid, the emergency aid to Israel as well as future aid to Ukraine. Because the future of this aid, these -- now these two that they would like to be linked is really coming to a head this week and next as the Senate majority leaders promise that they're going -- he's going to hold a vote on the Senate floor over this emergency aid funding that's really been caught in limbo now for weeks over interparty and intraparty kind of disagreements over how much aid, any aid, conditions on aid that is needed.

From your unique perspective, where are you on this?

DAALDER: Well, Kate, I -- you know, it's sad that politics within and between parties are stopping something that is so obviously needed. We need to help Israel. We need to provide humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza. And we need, absolutely, to help Ukraine defend itself against the attack that it has been suffering from Russia. This is something that all Americans and, frankly, Republicans and Democrats ought to be agreeing on. And yet, we have now been waiting for weeks and weeks and weeks to even get a vote.

And we know that if there is a vote in the House and in the Senate, there will be large bipartisan majorities in favor of aid to Ukraine, in favor of aid to Israel, in favor even of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians and the people in Gaza. And it's a -- it's this strange congressional politics that has prevented that.

I remain optimistic, I think the administration remains optimistic that we will get to a vote. Luckily, the Senate Majority Leader and the Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, are very much in favor of moving forward in -- with the whole package of aid.

[10:35:00]

And let's hope we can get that vote done as soon as possible and stop the internal politics that is preventing the much-needed aid to reach the people who really need it. And those are the people who are on the ground fighting in these disparate places and wars that they are facing.

BOLDUAN: Ambassador Daalder, thank you so much for coming on. It's good to see you again.

DAALDER: My thanks.

BOLDUAN: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: All right. Just a few moments ago, the family of Rosalynn carter Gathered around not far from their home in Plains, Georgia. You can see the casket carrying the former first lady loaded into the hearse. This will begin a process, a motorcade from Plains all the way to the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, Georgia. A week of remembrance for former First Lady Rosalynn Carter.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:40:00]

BOLDUAN: All right. You're looking at live pictures from not far from Plains, Georgia. Obviously, the hometown of former President Jimmy Carter and the late Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. And what you're looking at right now, live pictures as a motorcade begins to take her from Plains all the way to the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, Georgia. This will kick off or this does kick off several days of national memorials to honor the former first lady. President Biden will, himself, go to Atlanta tomorrow to be part of this.

Our Eva McKend is not far from Plains, Georgia, in Americus with the latest on what we expect. Eva.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, John, the tribute here at her alma mater will kick off in just a little bit. You can see people here from the campus community gathering here right in front of the statue, and that is where the wreath laying ceremony will take place with members of her family, as well as folks from the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers that has been on this campus for several decades. That was an issued caregiving near and dear to the former first lady's heart.

You can feel her presence all across this campus. Earlier this morning, I spoke with the president of the university and he was telling me that she was so important for this campus community for the students here to see from this region that just because you are from a small town, maybe a town like Plains with a few hundred people, it isn't an impediment to your success that you can go on to have global impact.

So, we are waiting now about 11:00 for the family to come on the motorcade, ad that is when the wreath laying ceremony will take place. And then her body will move to Atlanta where she will lie in repose, and then members of the public tonight will have the opportunity in Atlanta to pay their respects. John.

BOLDUAN: And in Plains and in Americus, where you are, the Carter's such an integral part of that community for the better part of three quarters of a century. Eva McKend in Americus this morning. Eva, thanks so much for being there for us. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:45:00]

BOLDUAN: Right now, the man accused of shooting three Palestinian college students is being arraigned in Vermont. Two of the injured men are known to be in stable condition, while the third sustained more serious injuries, according to police. Police also say that that suspect you just saw on that video, Jason Eaton, shot the men without saying a word beforehand. Attorney General Merrick Garland, he just announced that the Justice Department is now investigating whether this attack was a hate crime.

Here with me now is CNN Chief Law Enforcement Intelligence Analyst John Miller. John, what are you hearing about, first and foremost, what led them to this man?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, aside from all of the technology they usually rely on after doing quite an extensive video canvas, looking for that ring doorbell or that security camera in a building, none of that was very productive.

So, they went back to plan A, which is, well, let's just knock on the doors and talk to people. In the course of looking for witnesses who heard what, who saw what, they encounter this individual, Mr. Eaton. And, I can't tell you what happened between them, but something in that encounter made them want to focus on him more directly. At that point, they were able to get a search warrant for his house. And at that point, they recover a shotgun, we are told by law enforcement sources, and a 380 Ruger pistol. A semiautomatic 380 matches the caliber used in the shooting.

Right now, the ATF Ballistic Lab is looking at the projectiles they recovered from the victims in the scene. The shell casings they recovered on the ground, and attempting to make the determination whether that gun scientifically matches it. So, that's where we are on the suspect.

BOLDUAN: I want to play what we just heard from the Attorney General, Merrick Garland. He's in New York and he just spoke about this whole thing. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERRICK GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Even as we speak, the ATF and the FBI are investigating the tragic shooting of three men of Palestinian descent in Vermont. That investigation, including whether this is a hate crime, is ongoing. Investigative updates by law enforcement officials in Vermont will be coming soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BOLDUAN: And we heard police said that they believe that he shot these men without saying a word beforehand. So, where are they in terms of trying to find a motive here?

MILLER: Well, that's -- and that's right. The witness statements from the three victims were that there was no verbal encounter between them. He opened fire. So, right now on the motive, they still don't know.

[10:50:00]

When Mr. Eaton was taken into custody, the first thing he said is, I want a lawyer. So, that means the people the Attorney General was talking about, FBI and ATF, are going to go back through his social media, peel back his life, and see if they can find an indicator.

BOLDUAN: It's good to see you, John. Clearly much more to come on this.

MILLER: Thank you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

MILLER: Thanks.

BOLDUAN: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, THE SOURCE AND CNN CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back. I'm Kaitlan Collins in Tel Aviv. We have breaking reporting right now as we are learning something that we were telling you about earlier, the issues surrounding the release of this fourth group of hostages from Hamas and back to Israel.

[10:55:00]

Those issues now are close to being resolved. Multiple sources are telling our team here at CNN, including that main issue, which was centered around the fact of how many mothers were on the list of hostages.

As a part of this agreement that has been struck by Israel and Hamas, Hamas is supposed to release any mothers who are being held in captivity with their kids with those children, not separate them as they are being released. And we were told that in the initial list that Hamas handed over to the Qataris, which they then provided to Israel, there was a dispute over mothers not being included on that list with their children. That is something that Israel protested against. And we're now told there is a new list with additional mothers who have been added to that list.

And so, it does appear that day four of this truce is set to take place with the release of those hostages, and then later the release of the Palestinian prisoners as we are told that they are negotiating a two-day extension to this truce. Much more here on this breaking reporting on the ground in Israel in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:00]