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Trump's Immigration Rhetoric Echoes Hitler, Draws Criticism; Austin Urges Targeted Approach In Israel Amid Gaza Concerns; Florida GOP Chairman Faces Calls To Resign Over Assault Allegations; Nikki Haley Gains Momentum Ahead Of Iowa Caucuses; Israel Details Tragic Hostage Incident In Gaza. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired December 18, 2023 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Former President Trump unleashing extreme new attacks on the campaign trail, railing against immigrants with language that some say echoes Hitler. Plus, the pressure is mounting. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is in Israel right now, meeting with officials there as tensions grow over civilian casualties in Gaza.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And the Republican Party of Florida now censoring and calling for the resignation of its embattled chairman following accusations of sexual assault. But he's refusing to say. Step down. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

SANCHEZ: We are fewer than 30 days out from the Iowa Republican caucuses. The rhetoric is ramping up and in some cases, getting uglier. During recent campaign stops in New Hampshire and Nevada, former President Donald Trump stoked fears about undocumented immigrants coming across the U.S.-Mexico border. Par for the course, since the day he rode down the escalator and declared himself a candidate for president back in 2015.

But the themes and choices of his words this weekend are significant. The former president again repeating language that echoes white supremacists. Trump saying that illegal immigration is poisoning the blood of our country. And on Sunday, that migrants are invading from foreign prisons and mental institutions. Suffice to say, he offered no proof for any of that.

Among others, former New Jersey governor and Trump GOP rival Chris Christie called Trump disgusting and his words dog whistling. The Biden campaign meantime responded to those poisoning comments saying that Donald Trump parroted Adolf Hitler. Now, is that a fair comparison?

Let's dig deeper. About 15 years before he systematically murdered millions of people, Hitler put that phrase in Mein Kampf. Quote, Great civilizations died out as a result of contamination, of the blood, calling it a poison to the national bloodstream and infecting public life. Hitler was warning about German blood being, as he described it, poisoned by Jews. At his prior event in New Hampshire last month Trump also used the word vermin to describe his political rivals. Comments that were condemned by President Biden as well as language you heard in Nazi Germany. Now, is that an accurate claim?

Hitler's Nazi party came to power partly by pounding the idea that the German government was being overrun by Marxists. Something that Trump has suggested now is happening in the United States for years. When he wrote about rooting out Marxists and Jews, Hitler wrote, quote, there was time enough at home at least to exterminate this vermin. The Trump campaign did respond to criticism over his speech this weekend, saying that Trump's speech was great. They previously shot down that vermin comparison this way.

Those who try to make that ridiculous assertion are clearly snowflakes grasping for anything because they are suffering from Trump derangement syndrome. And they added this. Their sad, miserable existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House. An interesting choice of words there, Brianna.

KEILAR: Certainly. And here's the thing. Trump's interest in Hitler and Nazi Germany, it's not a recent development. Several journalists have documented it. Michael Bender of The Wall Street Journal wrote in his 2021 book about, how in 2018, Trump told his then chief of staff, retired four-star general John Kelly, as Kelly was explaining to Trump who the allies and enemies were in both world wars, quote, well, Hitler did a lot of good things, praising the Fuhrer for his economic policies.

Now, Kelly pushed back as Trump reportedly persisted speaking positively about Hitler. Trump later denied making those comments. But in 2022, Susan Glasser and Peter Baker wrote in their book, The Divider, about how Trump, frustrated by his military leadership, exclaimed to Kelly as well, you effing generals, why can't you be more like the German generals? Which generals, Kelly asked. The German generals in World War II, Trump responded. You do know that they tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off, Kelly said. But Trump insisted, no, no, no, they were totally loyal to him.

[14:05:09]

That model of the Third Reich, bastardized as it was, was how Trump wanted the American military modeled the book claims. But this isn't new as well. Let's rewind all the way back to 1990, when Vanity Fair reported that Trump's former wife, the late Ivana Trump, had told her lawyer that Donald Trump occasionally read from a book of Hitler's collected speeches, My New Order, which he supposedly kept in a cabinet by his bed. And a friend of Trump told the magazine on the record that he had given Trump the book, saying he thought Trump would find it interesting.

Now, Trump denied this, saying, quote, if I had these speeches and I'm not saying that I do, I would never read them. More recently, Trump has unapologetically entertained anti-Semites. Trump had Nick Fuentes and Kanye West as dinner guests just last year at Mar-a-Lago. Fuentes, well-known as a white nationalist and a Holocaust denier. Trump's team saying that West invited him without their knowledge. Still, Kanye West, just the month before, threatened to go, quote, DEFCON 3 on all caps, Jewish people. West had, according to one of his former business executives, praised Hitler and what the Nazi party achieved for the German people. So, we're seeing a pattern and the pattern here very clear.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

KEILAR: We are about a month out now from the presidential, the first presidential caucuses, the primaries of 2024. It's really closing in here. And there's some new polling showing Nikki Haley's bid is gaining ground, a whole lot of ground.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. Despite that momentum, though, she, like the other Republican presidential contenders, they remain very far behind Republican frontrunner Donald Trump. CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten is here taking a look inside the numbers for us. So, Harry, where is Haley pulling her support from? Is it Trump, DeSantis, Christie?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: It's perhaps a combo of all three. So, you know, New Hampshire is the place where she's gaining ground. Iowa, she's not gaining any ground at all. But let's take a look at New Hampshire. Top choices for the GOP nominee. This was a CBS News YouGov poll that came out yesterday. You look at September. Trump was at 50 percent. Where is he now? He's at 44 percent. Look at the rise at Haley. She was at 11 percent in September. She's now up to 29 percent. I will note that is the best percentage for a non-Trump candidate anywhere. Iowa, New Hampshire, national, anywhere since June.

You mentioned Christie. He actually rose a little bit. He's at 10 percent now. And I want you to keep an eye on Christie. Why is that? Because I want you to take a look back at our last UNH CNN poll. The second choice of Christie voters in the state of New Hampshire. They overwhelmingly say that their second choice is Nikki Haley at 53 percent. Just 11 percent say Trump. So, if Christie, for whatever reason, decided to get out of the race, that could be beneficial to Haley. And Haley, who's closed the gap to 15 points. Maybe she could close that gap a little bit more.

Why is New Hampshire such a good state for Nikki Haley? Well, Iowa isn't and she's not doing anywhere near as well nationally. Well, one big reason why is take a look here. Moderate share of the GOP primary electorate. That is the group that Donald Trump does worse with and the group that Nikki Haley does best with. In New Hampshire, they make up 36 percent of the electorate nationally, just 27 percent. And in Iowa, way down at 17 percent. But I think Boris and Brianna, the question is, can Nikki Haley just win New Hampshire, even though she's in back in nationally? And at this point, looks like she's likely to lose Iowa.

Well, let's look back at history. National GOP front runners who won in Iowa and lost New Hampshire. There were only two. It was Bob Dole in 96 and George W. Bush in 2000. And I will note both of these folks went on to win the nomination. So even if Trump loses in the state of New Hampshire, he's still got a pretty good portfolio going forward. Nikki Haley is going to have to blaze a new track for herself, if even if she does win New Hampshire in order to win the nomination, guys. KEILAR: Because when you look, Harry, at where she stands in Iowa, I mean, how does that normally work if you don't do well in Iowa, but you do well in New Hampshire? Is there a precedent for that?

ENTEN: This is a great question. And the answer is actually it doesn't necessarily matter how well you do in Iowa. It's how well you do in Iowa relative to expectations. If Nikki Haley outperforms her polls in Iowa, that may actually be good enough. Think back to 1984 in the Democratic side. Gary Hart came in a distant second place in the state of Iowa, but he outperformed his polls. And Walter Mondale, even though he won the state of Iowa, they then went in New Hampshire and Gary Hart had all this momentum and he came back from an even larger deficit than Nikki Haley has at this point.

So, there is a pathway forward to win in New Hampshire, even if you lose in Iowa by a lot. Gary Hart didn't win the Democratic nomination in 1984, but he came awfully close. That, I think, is the closest historical parallel that Haley wants to look forward to. If, in fact, she does want to win the nomination, she's just going to have to do a little bit better than Gary Hart did after New Hampshire.

SANCHEZ: Harry Enten, a lot to break down there. Thank you so much, Harry.

ENTEN: Thank you.

[14:10:09]

SANCHEZ: Let's discuss this primary battle with a pair of CNN political commentators, Alice Stewart and Bakari Sellers join us. So, Alice, Nikki Haley's momentum in New Hampshire, do you think she can replicate that elsewhere?

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, hopefully she can, because there are a lot of Republicans that are ready to turn the page from Donald Trump. Obviously, the first challenge is Iowa. And there's a couple of things about Iowa. As Harry mentioned, if you overperform expectations, that is a huge win for any of these candidates. Now, if Nikki Haley were to come out of Iowa in the top two or three with a good showing, that does two things. It gives her momentum into New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. And it also is an opportunity to winnow the field.

And that's what Iowa is about, winnowing the field. These other candidates that are polling in single digits or in the teens will realize, you know, maybe it's time for me to step aside and put my support behind someone who can actually pose a real threat to Donald Trump. And as we look at those numbers that we just saw, if the field were to consolidate, which the GOP does need to do behind a non-Trump candidate to win not only the primary, but in the general election, right after Iowa and as we get into New Hampshire is the time to start consolidating behind a strong candidate.

KEILAR: That alternative can really stretch out the race, right, and get a lot of interest. We've seen that before. Bakari, Nikki Haley, of course, hails from South Carolina. Your state and that's pretty soon after New Hampshire. How do you think she's going to do there?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, first of all, let me just say this for the record. I think Nikki Haley, I've said it before, and Democrats have given me hell about it, but I think Nikki Haley is one of the most talented politicians in the country. Just pure skill set, oratory, the ability to do retail politics, all of those things, she has it all. The problem with Nikki Haley, however, is that usually when the light shines brightest, when you have to stand for something, she's a bit adiaphorous (ph). She plays back and forth on her policy positions, and that's going to hurt her when the light shines bright if it is a Donald Trump, Nikki Haley race.

I think Donald Trump is in it by himself, and I do think that even when they come to South Carolina, where she was a former two-term governor, although she quit in the middle of her second term, it's going to be really tough for her to win in South Carolina. The former president has the governor, has Lindsey Graham, has all of these individuals who are supporting him up and down. Andre Bauer, former lieutenant governor, congresspersons, everybody supporting him, and he actually came to the Carolina Clemson game and got a rousing ovation from the crowd.

I mean, it was mixed with a few boos, but you can tell his popularity here. Nikki Haley can't command that. So, I think even if she does well in Iowa and gets close to New Hampshire, which I think is her path, I think she gets trounced in South Carolina.

SANCHEZ: Bakari, you mentioned several lawmakers, prominent lawmakers in South Carolina. Could Senator Tim Scott potentially give her a boost now that he's out of the presidential race? I mean, she's riding high from the endorsement of Chris Sununu in New Hampshire. Could we see that play out in South Carolina?

SELLERS: Probably not. And there are a couple of things. One, I don't think Tim Scott would do it. That's first. I think Tim Scott is in a great position to be one of the two or three finalists to be vice president of the United States if Donald Trump wins the nomination, which he likely will do. So, it would be just terrible politics for him to do that, one. And two, Tim Scott is a very love Tim. We get along very well. But he doesn't have that popularity of some of the other elected officials here in South Carolina that can move those type of votes.

Donald Trump came into South Carolina last year and secured all of these endorsements. He's been back. I don't think there's any real hope. Tim Scott is a great player in South Carolina politics. He just won't be able to push the state in one direction or another. And it would just be awful politics on his part.

KEILAR: Really interesting there. Alice, there's something that we are seeing that's a little different from before, and that is that you have Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis hitting former President Trump. when it comes to his role on January 6th. You have DeSantis saying Trump was responsible for supporters being there that day. Haley says Trump failed to use the bully pulpit to stop the attack. Listen, they could do more to hit him on that. But this is a really interesting thing that we're seeing. Do you think it'll make a difference?

STEWART: A lot of people think so. Look, they could have done more a long time ago. They could have really taken the gloves off against Donald Trump earlier on in the campaign. But they were cautious about that for a couple of reasons. A, they didn't want to face the wrath of Donald Trump. And they're also banking on the fact maybe some of the former Trump supporters that are a little disaffected will come around and they will be able to peel off some of those Trump voters.

But look, Nikki Haley, certainly it's good that she's going after him on January 6th. She has also been one not as forceful as Chris Christie, who's really thrown a lot of attacks on Donald Trump. She's pushed back on Donald Trump for his rhetoric, the way he talks, his demeanor. She's also pushed back on how he contributed to the economy. She pushed back on how he dealt with foreign policy. So, she's been a little bit more out front on criticizing Donald Trump.

[14:15:09]

But the most important thing that Haley and DeSantis can do to push back on Trump is, look, they are young, they are fresh, they're a new generation, and they are an optimistic leader potentially for the future and not someone who's going to go in there and litigate their past grievances, which is what Donald Trump has been doing and will continue to do.

SANCHEZ: And on that note about them going after Trump, I'm curious to see how they'll respond to some of his comments about immigrants poisoning the blood of the country. As a Republican, how do you react to fellow Republicans like Lindsey Graham saying that his words don't really matter on this when it's not a great historical precedent?

STEWART: His words do matter on this. His words are disgusting and they're certainly uncalled for. And for his campaign to come out and say that people have Trump derangement syndrome, what's deranged are these comments. And what's deranged is for them to act as their outrage that people are comparing this to a language of Adolf Hitler. When the words that he used talking about poisoning the blood of this country, those are words exactly from Hitler's manifesto Mein Kampf.

So, they cannot try to distance themselves. Republicans would be much better to talk about the real issue with immigration. Let's talk about how we can support legal immigration. Let's talk about the influx of legal immigrants into this country, 21,000 in a single day in the past month. Let's talk about the fentanyl crisis coming into this country. And let's talk about human trafficking. Real problems with immigration that can be done with rational, reasonable conversation and not divisive rhetoric.

SANCHEZ: And yet, Bakari, this doesn't appear to hurt Donald Trump. At least it hasn't since he was talking about vermin about a month ago in polling. Last word to you.

SELLERS: Yeah, no, I do. I do think it will hurt Donald Trump. I don't think it will hurt Donald Trump with the demographic that has been targeted by his vile rhetoric. I think, for example, college educated white women, independent voters are all taken back by the vile nature of his language. We've seen this book before. We've seen this movie before. This is who Donald Trump is. And unfortunately, he is a standard bearer for the Republican Party.

SANCHEZ: We've got to leave the conversation there. Bakari Sellers, Alice Stewart, always appreciate your perspective.

SELLERS: Thank you.

STEWART: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Of course. When we come back on News Central, applying pressure. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Israel right now meeting with top Israeli leaders on the war's next phase and the urgent need to protect civilians in Gaza. Plus, the Republican Party in Florida suspending its chairman and demanding his resignation after sexual assault allegations. Details on that in just moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:20:09]

KEILAR: Pressure is mounting on Israel to start lowering the intensity of its attacks on Gaza amid concerns over the growing civilian death toll there. Today, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Tel Aviv. He met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, other top Israeli officials as well. And he was there trying to get a clear picture of Israel's military operations as the U.S. is pushing for a more targeted approach.

SANCHEZ: Last week, Israel's military says it shot and killed three Israeli hostages in northern Gaza after misidentifying them as threats. CNN's Natasha Bertrand has been following the latest developments out of the Pentagon. But first, let's turn to CNN's Will Ripley, who's live for us in Tel Aviv. Will, Israel is sharing new details about the deaths of those hostages. How did this all go down?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's really a horrific tragedy all around. These men apparently were holed up in a building in Gaza. And they searched the building after this incident and they found, you know, scattered leftover food, messages asking for help and what the men were actually waving. They were shirtless, waving at Israeli soldiers a white cloth that was apparently written, just a simple plea for help, written with leftover food, it looked like some sort of a sauce in Hebrew, saying, help, three hostages. But from a distance, the IDF says that Israeli soldiers perceived these shirtless men waving a white cloth as a threat, fired and killed two of them instantly. And then, and the third, who was injured, retreated back into the building.

And even after a ceasefire order, when the third Israeli hostage kind of staggered back out, he was shot and killed as well. So, all three dead, which of course really means here that there is mounting pressure on the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure the release of the around 120 remaining hostages who are currently being held. The Israelis who were taken on October 7th in that horrific Hamas terror attack that Israel has vowed retribution for but is now facing mounting international criticism and pressure for the skyrocketing death toll. Many civilians included in Gaza, the numbers inching closer and closer to 20,000.

Israel trying to show and trying to make the point here on the ground that it is Hamas that is using civilians as shields. They even released video from inside a civilian home showing a child's bedroom and they lifted up the child's bed, a cot that a child was apparently sleeping on, the IDF says, showing a tunnel entrance, these tunnels that were used to stage attacks, to use as a command center for Hamas, used to smuggle in supplies from Egypt. Israel even releasing video of what they say is the largest Hamas tunnel in Gaza that they've discovered so far, more than two and a half miles long, wide enough to drive a very large vehicle inside, even construct a makeshift railroad.

Israel now in the process of trying to hunt down this labyrinth of underground tunnels and destroy them, possibly using means like flooding them with water or other methods as the death toll above ground continues to escalate and to rise every single day. Boris and Brianna.

KEILAR: Yeah, well, I mean, it's so sad and it really speaks to these rules of engagement that Israel has. Natasha, I think that sort of goes to the point. Secretary Austin is the latest U.S. official to visit Israelis as the Biden administration is pushing for this shift in strategy. Questions about how Israel is engaging here. What is the message that the U.S. is hoping to send?

[14:25:19]

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN SECURITY REPORTER: Well, Secretary of Defense Austin, while he was in Israel today meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant, as well as the Israeli War Cabinet and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he was really trying to get a good assessment of what Israel's military objectives are remaining in Gaza and whether they can move to a more targeted, narrow phase of their campaign in Gaza in order to kind of limit the scope of civilian casualties, because as Will laid out here, this is really getting unsustainable.

U.S. officials believe, for Israel, especially in light of the growing international condemnation and scrutiny and pressure that the Israelis are under to move to a more limited phase. But today, Austin really, in his press conference, he tried to emphasize that, of course, the U.S. continues to stand behind Israel and its right to defend itself, and he emphasized that the U.S. is not going to dictate Israeli timelines for their own military operations. But it was very unclear whether the U.S. and Israel are actually on the same page when it comes to when and how to transition into this more targeted approach. But here's a bit of what Austin said earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LLOYD AUSTIN, DEFENSE SECRETARY: This is Israel's operation, and I'm not here to dictate timelines or terms. Our support to Israel's right to defend itself is iron clad. We also have some great thoughts about how to transition from high-intensity operations to a lower intensity and more surgical operations.

YOAV GALLANT, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER: We will continue to operate in different levels of intensity according to the situation in the region. So, all in all, there is no clock that is running.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERTRAND: So, Austin and Galant, neither of them wanted to put a timeline on the transition from this phase to this high-intensity, high-tempo operation that Israel is carrying out now to a lower- intensity, more targeted approach that is driven by intelligence about where these senior Hamas leaders actually are inside Gaza. But this was the public-facing message, right? Behind the scenes, we are told that the U.S. has been pressuring Israel and urging them to complete this phase of the operation within the next few weeks. And some officials in the administration want to see this done by the end of this month and or by early January, really at the latest.

Because, again, as President Biden has said many times to Netanyahu and to other senior Israeli officials, you know, the international condemnation is growing louder and they are losing international support and they risk losing it entirely if they do not do more to protect civilians, a message that Austin reiterated today as well.

SANCHEZ: Natasha Bertrand, live from the Pentagon, Will Ripley, live for us in Tel Aviv. Thank you, both, so much. Let's expand the conversation now with former spokeswoman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations and a former director on the White House National Security Council, Hagar Chamali. Hagar, thank you so much for being with us today. So we see Secretary Lloyd Austin in Israel today. A few days ago, it was National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Tony Blinken was there a few weeks prior. Do you think these meetings are actually moving the needle with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?

HAGAR CHEMALI, FORMER SPOKESWOMAN, U.S. MISSION TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Well, you've definitely had a flurry of U.S. officials going there and becoming very, very public in their tougher message, for sure, as you're noting. But the thing is, while we know that the Israelis are somewhat receptive to this message and the U.S. officials are saying that and the Israeli officials are saying that as well, I believe that with Prime Minister Netanyahu at the helm, there's only going to be so much difference that you're going to see on the ground.

And that's ultimately because their goal and that stated is to defeat Hamas completely. Hamas has said on a number, on a number of times that they will, they intend to pursue additional October 7th style attacks. And so, Israel believes very deeply that they need to neutralize that threat. They need to get rid of it. The United States is in agreement with that, that they need to release the hostages as well and prevent this from expanding into a global war. So, they're on the same page when it comes to the goals at hand.

But when it comes to how to pursue them and to transition to lower intensity operations, as you said, that Secretary Austin has reinforced, I'm not, I'm seeing, they're saying publicly the Israelis that they're receptive to the message, but personally, I'm not seeing it completely in practice on the ground. You're still seeing very intense operations and a high number of civilian deaths.

KEILAR: And it seems Hagar, that the response or certainly the sentiment from the Israelis when they're talking about this targeted approach is maybe an idea that they cannot really achieve their goal by doing that. What, what do you think?

CHEMALI: Yes, I believe that they, they can and should, first of all, that they can and should pursue war with this targeted approach, but that they also would be able to. And, and the way you can look at an example for that is the coalition war against ISIS.