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Today: Trump, Haley, DeSantis Hit The Trail In Iowa; U.S. Intel: China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, Tried To Meddle In 2022 Election; U.S. Launches International Mission To Combat Houthi Attacks In Red Sea. 1-1:30p ET

Aired December 19, 2023 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And we are so, so grateful. Thanks to all of you for joining us. And to our viewers, thanks very much for watching our special coverage of the funeral for the Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor.

I'll be back at 6:00 P.M. Eastern in the Situation Room. Much more news coming up then.

In the meantime, CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Showdown in Iowa. The major Republican candidates running for the GOP nomination are on the trail and their attacks are escalating. But the central question remains, can any of them catch up to Donald Trump?

And the worst attacks in two generations. That's how one senior U.S. military official describes recent assaults in the Red Sea. And what's happening there could have a big impact on your wallet and supply chains, from what you pay at the pump to what might be missing from store shelves.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And after weeks of seismic rumblings, a volcano in Iceland erupts with rivers of lava and smoke billowing over Iceland. So could it get bad enough to impact international travel?

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: Good afternoon and thanks so much for joining us on NEWS CENTRAL. I'm Boris Sanchez alongside Brianna Keilar in the Nation's Capital. And all eyes are on the Hawkeye State.

The 2024 presidential primary officially will be underway with the Iowa Republican caucuses in just 27 days. And the candidates are hitting the ground game hard.

Donald Trump, of course, is a commanding polling lead, not only in Iowa, but nationally as well.

And we have brand-new reporting about just how quickly his campaign thinks he can lock down that Republican nomination. KEILAR: The two candidates with the strongest chance of getting in his way are Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis. But here in recent days, they have been sharpening their attacks on one another, racing against the clock to emerge as the alternative to Trump.

We're covering all the angles with CNN's Alayna Treene and Steve Contorno.

Alayna, the primary, of course, hasn't yet begun, but the Trump campaign already talking about when it will be over.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: That's right, Brianna and Boris. The Trump campaign actually is predicting that the former president could be able to secure enough delegates by mid-March in order to secure the Republican nomination.

And that's according to a senior Trump campaign official who spoke with me and other reporters yesterday in Florida. But I mean, that is a startling prediction that they have, given that that is months before the GOP convention, when often you see the nominee really emerge and accept the nomination.

Now, some of that is based on data and polling analysis that they've been collecting. And, of course, you need 1,215 delegates in order to secure the nomination. And so that's what they're going after.

And I have to point out here, Brianna and Boris, that this is based on current data and polling. And, of course, as you mentioned, Donald Trump has a very commanding lead in the polls. He's doing very well ahead of the start of primary season just weeks away with the January 15th caucuses in Iowa.

So some of these dynamics, though, could change depending on what happens in the primaries, of course, if another candidate fares much better than they are anticipating, this will all shift.

Another very interesting thing that we can report today is that they're also looking at a general election rematch with Biden and what the battleground situation there would look like. And they actually think the battleground map would be expanded in -- expanded, excuse me, in a Trump versus Joe Biden rematch states that are normally democratic leading places like Minnesota, Virginia, New Hampshire, things that Biden is normally looking to take himself.

They're seeing that as potentially being more swing state for Trump. And so a lot of interesting things that, again, all predictions, all things that can very much change given how early on it is in the cycle right now, but giving you a little insight into how the Trump campaign is looking at this.

SANCHEZ: Steve, DeSantis and Haley have slightly ramped up their attacks against Trump in recent days, but it seems like they're much more focused on each other. What's the thinking there?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Boris, this is that race within a race that we've been seeing for the past few months now. This fight to be the Trump alternative. And it's really heating up in these final weeks before the Iowa caucuses.

We saw DeSantis and Haley in the Hawkeye State yesterday. Take a listen to how they sort of went back and forth at each other, even though they were at separate events.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[13:05:05]

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): She represents more of the old Republican establishment, which quite frankly did not serve this country well and has been rejected time and time again.

NIKKI HALEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And if you punch me, I'd punch back. Ron DeSantis has lied in every one of his commercials.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Now as they fight each other in the Hawkeye State, it's actually have been interesting to see, they're kind of responding to each other in real time.

Take this Ukraine yesterday, where we saw Ron DeSantis calling out Nikki Haley's position on Ukraine and her just hours later in the state saying that's not true.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DESANTIS: I think there's a real risk that she would send American troops to Ukraine to fight.

HALEY: Today, he said that I want our troops to be in Ukraine. I've never even said anything like that. Nowhere near it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Now you don't have to take my word for it that these two are really intensifying their battle against each other. Just look at how they're spending their money. They have spent combined $12 million attacking each other on the air, at least their super PACs have, and they have spent to combine $380,000 going after Trump.

To put that number in perspective, Chris Christie has outspent both of them combined going after the former president.

KEILAR: Yes. Very good perspective there. Steve Contorno, Alayna Treene, thank you so much to both of you.

Let's bring in a pair of Republicans now. We have former Congressman Charlie Dent and former RNC communications director, Doug Heye.

All right, Doug. It's interesting. The race within a race, of course, we're watching, but you also have the Trump pack hitting Nikki Haley for the first time. And the Trump campaign is saying that this primary is going to be wrapped up by mid-March. Do you think that's how it's going to play out?

DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Most likely that's the scenario. And in fact, I would say -- they're talking about delegate math, which really gets into RNC nerd talk, which I sort of love, but audiences don't.

The reality is if Donald Trump wins in Iowa, then New Hampshire, then South Carolina. Forget the delegate math. This is over.

And this is why it's been interesting, and I would say as a Republican, somewhat depressing to see DeSantis and Nikki Haley slightly sharpened their attacks against Donald Trump and really sharpening their attacks against each other.

What we've seen is that Donald Trump is still, by and large, the massive favorite here. We see some surges for Nikki Haley saying New Hampshire, but that's about it.

And the clip that we just saw, Nikki Haley said, if you punch me, I punch back. Donald Trump is punching her right now.

And what did we learn in Star Wars? We learned that Luke Skywalker has to take on Darth Vader. He can't sit back and hope that Han Solo or somebody else takes care of it for him. You have to take on Trump. He is the front runner.

And you can make the case that Donald Trump made in front of the courthouse just last week. He said, I should be in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis can say, we need somebody who's going to be in Michigan and Arizona and North Carolina and Georgia. You can use that. Use Trump's words against him, but they're not doing so.

SANCHEZ: Charlie, over to you, using the reference that Doug just made, is Darth Vader going to wrap this up by mid-March?

CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I tend to agree with Doug that if Donald Trump would run the tables in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. I really don't see a path.

But I do think that if, you know, Donald Trump is convicted on -- you know, in one of these trials, I mean, that could perhaps change the calculation a little bit.

I still would like to think that Republican voters might, at some point, say, hey, maybe Donald Trump's too great a risk. We really want to throw away a presidential election on a guy who's been a convicted -- who's a convicted felon.

So that's the only thing out there. But hey, look, Nikki Haley, I believe, if she can make a strong run in New Hampshire, it looks like she's surging. We often know that if Iowa voters go Trump, and sometimes New Hampshire likes to -- they like to zig when the other state goes zag. And so I do think that Nikki Haley may have a path here in New Hampshire that could perhaps change the trajectory of the race a little bit, but it's all on New Hampshire for her.

KEILAR: And to borrow on it. And the force has to be with her a little bit, at least in Iowa, right? She can't just sink in Iowa and then rely. I mean, how do you see -- even if she's pulls it out very well in New Hampshire, how does she have to do in Iowa?

HEYE: I think she has to do well. And, you know, politics is funny. You can come in a strong third and a weak second. Go figure. But that's part of how Iowa works. Iowa is not about who wins that necessarily. It's about winnowing that field down.

And so if you get to the place where the conversation coming out of Iowa is, these are the three people, and let's then have that conversation, or if she somehow finishes ahead of Ron DeSantis, that changes that math for. She needs to not do super strongly in Iowa, but she can't be forgotten in that conversation either.

SANCHEZ: It's about exceeding expectations.

HEYE: It's about exceeding expectations, but also she doesn't have the organization in Iowa that Ron DeSantis has. He's been to all 99 counties in Iowa. He's banking everything on Iowa because he's not got really much of that organization in New Hampshire that Haley does.

[13:10:05]

SANCHEZ: To that point, Charlie, if Ron DeSantis does, let's say pretty well in Iowa, he comes in second, perhaps not too far behind Donald Trump, right? But he doesn't win New Hampshire. Nikki Haley probably favored in South Carolina. She was the popular governor there.

Where does Ron DeSantis wind up winning a race? Is it Nevada potentially?

DENT: Well, his campaign has been descending for some time. He's been on the descent. Haley's been on the ascent.

So bottom line is, I think we spend way too much time talking about Iowa. I mean, just ask, you know, presidents, Cruz, Santorum, Huckabee, all of whom won the -- won Iowa, but really didn't get the nomination.

But right now, I keep coming back to this thing that Haley's got some real momentum here. She's not -- she's probably not going to win Iowa, obviously, but if she places well there, exceeds expectations in New Hampshire, then she goes to South Carolina.

I mean, there's still a shot. At least I hope there's a shot. So -- but Haley is the one that everybody is looking at is the only candidate in the race right now who seems to be attractive to general election voters on the Republican side. I mean, she pairs up so well against Joe Biden compared to say DeSantis and Trump. But that's the good news for Republicans. We got a candidate out there who's got some appeal.

Chris Christie, by the way, I think is also, you know, really running a smart campaign, although he's not resonating as well by his constant attacks on Donald Trump, which Haley is going to have to sharpen hers if she really wants to take this guy down.

HEYE: And I'd say very quickly to Charlie's point, if I'm Nikki Haley and I see those polls that show that I'm beating Joe Biden by 17 points and Donald Trump only by 2 or 3, I'm saying that all day every day to voters and probably in my sleep as well.

SANCHEZ: Doug Heye, Charlie Dent, thank you both so much. Appreciate the perspective.

HEYE: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: And as we draw closer to the 2024 election, we have new details about foreign interference in the last election.

KEILAR: An intel assessment finds that four countries, China, Russia, Iran, and Cuba, all tried to meddle in the midterm election in 2022. We have CNN correspondent Katie Bo Lillis who's joining us now.

That is quite a list there, Katie Bo. What more did this assessment find?

KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Guys, this was a really interesting report. The intelligence community found that overall efforts by foreign governments to try to intervene in the 2022 midterms rose from 2018. But what they didn't see was the kind of broad, sustained whole of government plot like what Russia did in 2016, something that hasn't been seen since.

Instead, what they saw were efforts to try to influence sort of specific foreign policy objectives for these various different nations. So for example, the assessment found that Russia, in particular, sought to denigrate democratic candidates because they were specifically trying to undermine U.S. support for Ukraine.

The assessment also confirmed something that my colleagues and I had reported at the time, which was that Russian officials deliberately delayed their withdrawal from the Ukrainian city of Kherson until the day after the U.S. midterms in order to avoid trying to give Joe Biden a win on Ukraine.

China, meanwhile, intervened in races involving candidates of both parties, dependent entirely on whether or not those candidates, the candidate in question, was advancing a policy platform that China felt was aligned with its interests.

And interestingly, according to the report, the Chinese Communist Party has been directing its officials to really focus on Congress because they see it as kind of a locus of anti-China sentiment, which let's face it, right now it is.

KEILAR: Yes. No, that's a very interesting point. They're being so strategic about this.

Katie Bo, thank you for taking us through that. We appreciate it.

It is a quickly growing crisis for international shipping. The attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea, they are escalating and that is forcing companies to make some pretty tough decisions with huge consequences for the world's economy.

SANCHEZ: And an international NGO accusing Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. We're going to speak to the Israel and Palestine director of Human Rights Watch about what they are describing as a war crime. CNN NEWS CENTRAL returns in just a few minutes.

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KEILAR: A big change in course, because today one of the largest shipping firms in the world, we're talking about MAERSK, announced that it will reroute transit. It's going to completely avoid the Red Sea because of these increased attacks on commercial vessels by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels out of Yemen.

Instead, the company says it will send its ships on a much, much longer route around the southern tip of Africa.

SANCHEZ: MAERSK is just one of several big shipping firms suspending transit through the Suez Canal.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand joins us now live from the Pentagon. Natasha, the U.S. is now promising an international, multinational response to these attacks. What is that going to look like?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes. Well, Secretary Austin, he is traveling in the region this week, and he laid out what this initiative called Operation Prosperity Guardian is going to look like. It essentially is a multinational initiative made up of different countries that already fall under an existing task force charged with security in the Red Sea.

And basically, it involves an increased rotation of naval ships in the region, increased security, additional aircraft, to try to monitor this -- the vessels that are transiting the Red Sea and that are being attacked regularly by these Iran-backed Houthi rebels with missiles and drones.

There have been over 100 attacks on about 12 different commercial vessels in the last four weeks alone, and those vessels are tied to about 44 different countries. And so the impact here is extremely far- reaching. And so the reason that the U.S. wants to set up this task force to try to bolster security in the region is not only to try to deter, of course, these Houthi attacks, but also to try to increase confidence international shipping industry that they can continue to send their goods through that -- through the Red Sea and through the Suez Canal.

[13:20:17]

Because as you mentioned, BP, the oil giant, they have already suspended their operations there, which have sent oil prices spiking over the last day or so.

So Secretary Austin, he described a little bit earlier today why he feels this international coalition is now necessary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: And these reckless Houthi attacks are a serious international problem. And they demand a firm international response.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERTRAND: So about 10 countries, so far, have signed up to take part in this new initiative. And they will be contributing different amounts of resources to the security in the Red Sea. But the U.S., France, and the U.K., they have been among the most active defenders of this area so far.

They have actually shot down many of those missiles and drones that the Houthis have launched. Unclear if all of the countries that are involved in this initiative are going to take such an active approach to this, but still they hope that this bolstering of the presence there in the Red Sea is going to make the Houthis think twice about launching these attacks. But, of course, we'll have to see if that actually works.

Boris, Brianna.

SANCHEZ: Natasha Bertrand, thank you so much for the update.

Right now, intense negotiations are underway at the United Nations. It comes ahead of an expected vote on a resolution calling for a halt in hostilities in Gaza. So much needed aid can enter the enclave.

A major question right now is whether the U.S. is going to allow that resolution to pass. The vote was originally scheduled yesterday, but was delayed a day to allow for more time for negotiations. All this comes as the human rights watch and international NGO is accusing Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza.

The group's Israel and Palestine director told CNN that Israeli authorities, quote, have for months been deliberately depriving Gaza's population of food and water willfully impeding humanitarian assistance, intentionally destroying objects indispensable to survival, including bakeries, grain mills and water and sanitation facilities and apparently raising agricultural areas.

That director joins us now. Omar Shakir with Human Rights Watch. Omar, thank you so much for being with us. I want to get your response to what Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said to your organization's claim.

He said quote, "This is a lie. Israel has excess capacity to inspect more than twice as many aid trucks as are entering Gaza. We're still pumping water into Gaza through two pipelines and have placed no restrictions on entry of food and water. Direct your anger to Hamas, which hijacks aid."

What's your response to the Israeli government?

OMAR SHAKIR, ISRAEL AND PALESTINE DIRECTOR, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: I think Eylon Levy is not listening enough to his prime minister and other senior officials. They've actually directly spelled out in unequivocal terms that food, water, that aid will be blocked to reach the population of Gaza until their aims in this particular campaign, whether it be the release of hostages or the eradication of Hamas is achieved.

And starving population as a tool of war is a war crime under international law. The reality here is that the Israeli government before October 7th was facilitating the entry of goods, of electricity, of other basic services, not out of the goodness of their heart, but because they're obligated to do so as the occupying power.

There is no debate that they have shut down the entrance of goods, the exit of goods, the electricity, the water. Yes, the trickle of aid has been entering via Egypt. That's carefully negotiated with the Israeli government, but it's just a fraction of what the population needs to survive and the results are stark.

According to the World Food Program, 9 out of 10 households in northern Gaza have spent a full day and a full night without food. And half the population in North Gaza is facing severe starvation. The warnings have escalated in 10 weeks without these basic services and food. The population is very much on the brink.

SANCHEZ: What about that claim from Levy and others that Hamas hijacks aid? Would you dispute that?

SHAKIR: I think there's really no evidence of that. I mean, again, we're talking about food and water, which is necessary for human survival. The reality is throughout the world, when you have a situation of humanitarian catastrophe and crisis, yes, when there are very limited shipments of food, there are going to be situations where families do whatever it takes, you know, to survive. So certainly there are instances of people trying to access the aid, but that's not the problem here. Even if every ounce of the aid that has been getting through went through, it's not reaching all of Gaza, it's only in small pockets of the south. So entire areas of northern Gaza haven't received aid.

[13:25:04]

And again, these are areas where there are no bakeries, there are no sanitation facilities functioning. There are very few to no hospitals operating.

Israel has basically, you know, destroyed or made inaccessible the very objects necessary for human survival. We've spoken to people in Gaza that have had to spend hours just to be able to get water or to be able to get some bread for their families.

And the problem here is not, you know, a redirection of it. The problem is not enough is getting in.

Even when it's getting in, you don't have the fuel to let the water pumps work, the electricity that families need. And, by the way, people are under relentless bombardment where you have hundreds of people, mostly civilians dying every day.

SANCHEZ: Omar, I wanted to get your thoughts on the statement from Israeli President, Isaac Herzog, that Israel is ready for another humanitarian pause.

Our reporting indicates that there hasn't been significant movement toward new talks, though several U.S. officials have been in Qatar lately trying to get them restarted.

I'm wondering what your message is to all the players involved in the negotiations, not only to protect civilians in Gaza, but also to get those hostages out.

SHAKIR: The message is simple. Human beings are not bargaining chips. Hostage taking is a war crime. The hostages should be unconditionally released.

Similarly, unlawfully-detained Palestinians should be immediately released. Aids should be allowed in. I think we're facing the prospect that if all the people dying, we could have even more. We see disease beginning to spread because of the lack of clean water. We are seeing families struggling to find food to put on their table.

The U.N. Security Council needs to act to prevent further mass atrocities. Aid must be allowed in. Unlawful attacks must stop. And ultimately, to stop this cycle of bloodshed. There's a need to address the root causes like Israel's apartheid against Palestinians. There must be accountability for grave abuses by all parties. And ultimately, we must evaluate all forms of complicity in the ongoing repression, such as putting an embargo on U.S. arms to Israel.

SANCHEZ: Omar Shakir, we have to leave the conversation there. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on this.

SHAKIR: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: I had an eruption in Iceland. We're following the stream of lava and now gas pollution that could become a big problem for people living near a volcano.

This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We're back in just moments.

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