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Republican Candidates Prep Final Iowa Pitches; Israel's Supreme Court Strikes Down Judicial Overhaul Bill; Powerful Earthquake Rocks Japan. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired January 01, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:56]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: A powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake rocking Western Japan, causing serious damage and triggering significant waves. We are following the latest.

And it's a law that sparked a fierce debate and protest inside Israel. Now the nation's top court just struck down the plan to limit the powers of the judiciary.

And it is a drug that millions and millions of Americans need to survive. Starting today, it just got a lot cheaper.

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

Hello. I'm Brianna Keilar. Boris Sanchez is off.

2024 beginning in catastrophe for Western Japan. A short time ago, the tsunami warnings were lifted some 10 hours after what the USGS labels as a very strong 7.5-magnitude earthquake hit at a depth of six miles beneath the earth surface in the Ishikawa prefecture.

Japanese broadcaster NHK reporting multiple incidents of people trapped beneath the rubble and rescues under way, the quake igniting fires like this one that you see here. It crumbled buildings, it cracked roads and disrupted power and rail lines. We are going to show what happened in one parking lot in the prefecture next to Ishikawa, the shaking lasting for more than 30 seconds.

And as you can see later in the clip it actually seemed, to intensify before easing.

CNN's Marc Stewart is joining us live from Seoul.

Marc, incredibly scary as we see these videos. It is, of course, the middle of the night there in Asia. What can you tell us about rescue efforts that are under way?

MARC STEWART, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, we have received some late news that is significant to pass along, the fact that 1,400 people have been stranded basically on the Shinkansen, Shinkansen being the Japanese bullet train system. The fact that there is a disruption, the fact that there is a delay

and that these trains are not able to move really shows the intensity and the magnanimity of this disaster. This is a system that prides itself in being able to run in all sorts of conditions.

So, I think that's an important point to stress. If these trains are not running, it's very indicative of the challenges facing the country. And as we look at what Japan is facing right now, there are really two big issues. One is infrastructure, the second being injuries.

Let's first talk about these infrastructure issues. We have some video, some new video of an office building shaking, and you can see just how intense that quake was at 4:10 in the afternoon. At this point, we are receiving reports that 33,000 people are without power and that five highways are closed.

This is a big deal because, as we talk about the number of injured, we talk about people who may be trapped under rubble, under their homes, doctors are having a hard time getting to hospitals and getting to disaster scenes, because the roadways are in such poor shape.

So, infrastructure is going to be a big issue. When this quake struck, a lot of people were enjoying the New Year's holiday. Some people were at the convenience store. They were at their bowling alley. They were on the trains, the local trains.

So this is really impacting all facets of life. In addition, we are receiving reports that, so far, four people have reported cardiac arrest, but, at this point, no -- no definitive list as far as number of injuries, other than, this is going to be a very big concern.

[13:05:07]

It's something that the prime minister talked about in a statement earlier today. As far as resources, the fact that so many roads are damaged, even some of the airports are having challenges, it's going to be difficult in getting people and materials into these damaged areas.

So far, 1,000 members of the military force, the SDF, the Special Defense Force, as it's known in Japan, have been activated. However, another 8,500 are on stand by. In addition, a lot of people right now in Japan, especially in this northwest portion, where the quake hit most intensely, they have been stranded. They can't go home. So many people are spending the evenings in shelters.

And, according to government officials, 21 schools have now been converted into evacuation centers.

Brianna, unfortunately, the risk as we move in the hours ahead is not going away. The weather service in Japan is warning that we could see aftershocks for at least three days, perhaps, Brianna, even a week.

KEILAR: Even a week.

Marc Stewart, thank you for that report. We appreciate it.

Now let's go to meteorologist Allison Chinchar, who is in the Severe Weather Center.

Allison, we are glad to note that the tsunami warnings have been lifted. Tsunami advisories are in effect. Explain the current risk in Japan.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right.

I think it's important for people to understand that these advisories could be in place for a while, because, while the main quake and the tsunami that came from it may start to be dwindling down, you can have landslides that could trigger additional tsunamis. You can have aftershocks that can trigger them.

So this is something we're still going to have to keep a close eye on, not just for the Ishikawa prefecture, but all of these areas up and down the west coast here, where you do still have that tsunami advisory. Here's a look at some video from earlier. You can see all of those waves kind of sloshing over that break wall there into a lot of the communities.

And it's been kind of that back and forth, where you get one wave and then another wave comes in. And part of that has to do with the topography here, this Suzu area here. Even though you have this little bay here, what's happening is -- think of it like this. You drop a toy or a stone inside of a bathtub or a hot tub, that wave will go back out to the walls and then it's going to come right back in.

So, you're going to have this sloshing back and forth taking place. Now, some of the highest waves, we have seen as much as 1.2 meters, which is just about four feet, some of these other areas picking up just under one meter, roughly about two-and-a-half to three feet there.

What's happening is, when you have that earthquake take place, the land that's there, that plate gets thrust upward. It displaces all of that water, and that water instantly starts moving outward. Now, for a while, it's just over water, but, eventually, that water will spread inland.

And, again, that topography and that coastline shape is going to play a factor into how quickly that water comes in and how high up that water goes as well. The main quake itself was a 7.5. We already had several aftershocks take place, at least 25 or more of them that have been 2.5-magnitude or higher.

This is important, because, even if those aftershocks are, say, 5- or 6-point magnitudes, they can still cause damage, because that initial quake, Brianna, of a 7.5, buildings and homes are now structurally compromised. So, even a slightly weaker earthquake that comes after can still cause further damage.

So this is something we're going to have to keep a close eye on in the coming hours, as more aftershocks are going to be expected throughout the day today and the coming days as well.

KEILAR: All right, Allison, we know you will be keeping an eye on things for us. Thank you for that.

Let's talk now with seismologist Jeffrey Park. He is a professor of earth and planetary sciences at Yale University.

Professor, thanks for being with us.

It's been more than 10 hours since this 7.5 quake. The tsunami warning is over. Walk us through the damage that we are seeing here and how this happened. We saw one video where you had cars moving forward and backwards and then they sort of shifted, you could see, to go side to side.

JEFFREY PARK, PROFESSOR OF EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCES, YALE UNIVERSITY: Yes, there's going to be a lot of local shaking in the area right above where the fault zone ruptured.

And, in this -- in cases like this, you're going to have that much shaking and damage, and then later aftershocks could cause more damage. The immediate worry is for a few days, but, actually, this area has been an area of the swarm activity, swarms of small earthquakes.

So I would be concerned about it having significant aftershocks over the coming months or even another year.

KEILAR: Over the coming year.

So, tell us a little bit more about that, if we're not familiar, as I am certainly not, with what this could mean for the longer term.

PARK: Well, what's interesting about this earthquake is that the western coastline of Japan does not have a lot of earthquake activity.

[13:10:00]

However, underneath the Noto Peninsula, a small earthquake started to accumulate in 2019. And at least 10,000 of them have been located and identified in the region. Now, these are often very small earthquakes, down to magnitude 1. But we can -- with modern seismic networks and sophisticated data processing, we can actually identify and locate them.

KEILAR: So does this necessarily mean that this is the big one that you would have been expecting to build up from some of that tension, or could you see something bigger than this coming?

PARK: I think that this is probably the -- what would be the largest one.

The fault zone associated with the Noto Peninsula is probably not larger -- large enough to sustain an earthquake that's significantly larger than this or even a second one of this size. However, in May, there was a -- magnitude-6.5 earthquakes in the same general area, so I would be worried that a repeat of that is possible.

KEILAR: How much -- and, listen, this is incredible as we look at this damage, but this is a 7.5. And we should put that up as well against what was a 9.1 back in 2011 that caused the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster.

How does this compare, and how much has Japan learned since then?

PARK: Japan has learned a lot from that, from that experience. And so a lot of what you're seeing is damage, but probably the total death toll will be relatively muted. And there's also a lot of tsunami warning associated with earthquakes in coastal Japan these days.

KEILAR: Yes, there certainly is, and they take it incredibly seriously.

Professor, we appreciate your time. Thank you so much for being with us.

PARK: Thank you.

KEILAR: We have some breaking news out of Israel, a major legal blow to Prime Minister Netanyahu's plans to overhaul Israel's Supreme Court. Justices there just struck down a bill that would have limited their power and their oversight.

We have journalist Elliott Gotkine, who is in Tel Aviv, with more on this.

Elliott, what does this mean moving forward?

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, what this means is a couple of things, I suppose, first of all, the one part of Netanyahu's government's flagship judicial overhaul legislation that he managed to get passed is now dead in the water. It has been struck down by the Supreme Court.

And I suppose the other broader implication is that this has the potential to reopen these very deep divisions that these judicial overhaul plans created for the most part of 2023, and which were only really pushed aside because of the Hamas terrorist attacks of October the 7th.

Indeed, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who was the architect of this judicial overhaul, very close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, coming out and assailing the Supreme Court for the timing of this decision, saying that it's the opposite of the unity that's required right now.

Now, I won't go into too many -- too much into the weeds and talk about why the Supreme Court had to issue its decision right now, but just to recap in terms of the significance, it was an 8-7 ruling, so very, very close. All 15 of the Supreme Court justices were there to hear this and to issue their ruling.

It was an 8-7 decision. And what they said is that the government changes to a basic law -- this is the equivalent of Israel's Constitution. The government changes to this basic law to remove the Supreme Court's powers, to strike down government decisions on the grounds of reasonableness, the Supreme Court said that, no, you cannot do that.

And I will give you an example. The government wanted to appoint a minister named Aryeh Deri, a key ally of Netanyahu who heads up the Shas Party, which is part of the governing coalition. Deri was appointed a minister by Netanyahu's government, but he's been convicted three times, most recently of tax fraud.

The Supreme Court said, no, it's unreasonable for you to make this man, who's been convicted three times, most recently of tax fraud, as a minister, and, therefore, the government couldn't make him a minister. So, by passing this legislation, the government wanted to be able to appoint whoever it wants as a minister or make decisions that the Supreme Court couldn't strike down on the grounds of reasonableness.

The Supreme Court has said that law cannot stand. And, as a result, it's a big blow for Netanyahu, but one that does potentially threaten to reopen those divisions in Israeli society -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, and at such a critical time.

Elliott, thank you for that report from Tel Aviv. We appreciate it.

The first major test of the 2024 election year is just two weeks from today. How Republican hopefuls are making their closing pitches ahead of the Iowa caucuses.

Plus: U.S. helicopters, military helicopters, seeking three Houthi boats. These are boats that were captained by Iranian-backed rebels, killing them in the Red Sea, killing those crews, after they came under fire. What the White House is now saying.

[13:15:14]

And major news for Americans with diabetes, as another drugmaker lowers the cost of insulin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: 2024 is here at last, and that means we are officially in a presidential election year. In fact, it's a presidential election month, the big one, the Iowa caucuses in two weeks.

The Republican candidates are making their closing pitches. And as Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis try to put a dent in former President Trump's election lead in the polls, he is contending, Trump, with dozens of criminal charges and cases that could head to the Supreme Court.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is following this sprint to Iowa.

Kristen, how are these GOP hopefuls kicking off the new year? KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, well, just so

you know, when you mentioned that we were officially in a presidential year, I could actually feel my eye twitching.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLMES: So, sorry if that comes up again during this.

KEILAR: That's how you know.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLMES: It was a little bit nerve-wracking to actually hear those words come out.

[13:20:00]

So, we are in the final sprint to Iowa. We expect to have all the candidates on the ground. They are going to be really hitting the pavement, trying to reach as many voters as they can to kick off this primary caucus season.

So let's start with taking a look at the calendar, and we can kind of go over what's really important, what dates we're watching, first, of course, January 15 in Iowa. Those are the caucuses. What we're watching here is that Ron DeSantis really went all in on this date. He needs to have a strong showing. Now, the polls still show Donald Trump leading by a very big margin.

But we are told by advisers on the ground, as well as Iowa operatives, that they think the margin might be smaller than those polls show, but, again, still a very big margin here. Then you go down to the 23rd of January in New Hampshire.

Here, you started to see Nikki Haley surge. She is still behind Donald Trump. But there's another factor in New Hampshire everyone's going to be watching, which is the Chris Christie of it all. He has gone all in on New Hampshire, and he wanted to make that his pathway.

Now, we have Nevada on February 8. That's kind of a weird one because they have both a primary and a caucus. No one's really spending any money there. Nikki Haley will be the only person participating in the primary. But there are no delegates there. Everyone else is going to be in the caucus, and whoever wins that gets the delegates, so an interesting system.

And then all eyes on February 24 in South Carolina. This is going to be huge, really big showdown here between Nikki Haley and Donald Trump. That is Donald Trump's bread and butter. His team thinks he will take it away. But it's also Nikki Haley's home state. So that would be critical for her.

So I do want to look through the polls really fast just to kind of go over where the numbers currently stand on the first day of the year of this presidential cycle. And we will start with the middle column. And you can see there Iowa, Trump at 51 percent. Behind him, we see, two down, DeSantis at 19 percent, Nikki Haley at 16 percent, and then Chris Christie at 4 percent.

Not surprising. Chris Christie has put almost no resources into Iowa at all. But the real numbers we're looking at here is, can Haley actually get the points to catch up to Ron DeSantis, which would obviously be very bad for Ron DeSantis, who went all in on this state?

Then you look at New Hampshire. See the Trump, number 42. He's still leading, Haley 20 percent, DeSantis 9 percent. But there's that Chris Christie factor at 14 percent. The last one, of course, South Carolina, Trump at 53 percent, Haley at 22 percent. Now, again, it is still early.

All of the different dynamics are going to come into play, depending on what happens in Iowa. That's really going to get the ball rolling. But this is where it stands right now, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, thank you for taking us through that, Kristen.

HOLMES: Yes.

KEILAR: I also get a bit of an eye twitch.

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: So I -- I -- or hives. I don't know, but I feel you on that. It gets a little crazy this time of year.

Kristen Holmes, thank you.

Let's bring in former Biden White House Communications Director, now CNN political commentator Kate Bedingfield and former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh. She's the director of Mission: Democracy and hosts the "White Flag" podcast.

It's mixed emotions, right? There's so much chaos. There's so much excitement here.

But, Joe, what can these non-Trump candidates accomplish here in this home stretch as you look at where things stand, as Kristen just took us through that?

FMR. REP. JOE WALSH (R-IL): Brianna, happy new year.

Not a damn thing. I don't want to sound like a broken record as we launch 2024, but there's nothing new or different they can do. Look, from the beginning, Haley, DeSantis, none of these candidates have been running to beat Donald Trump. None of them have thought from the beginning they can beat Donald Trump.

Their strategy has been be the alternative in case something happens to Trump. So I don't think you're going to see any changes this month. I don't -- I expect Trump to win Iowa going away. I expect him to win New Hampshire. I don't think this primary race has ever been much of a primary race.

I know we have to talk about it, but I think the general election, Brianna, is pretty damn close to already upon us.

KEILAR: Yes.

And that's certainly, Kate, what the Trump campaign is expecting. They recently said they think they will have the GOP nomination locked down by March. Is that what you think will happen?

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It certainly seems like the most likely outcome. I mean, I'm a little -- as a veteran of presidential campaigns, where it is true that really anything can happen in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, I don't want to say that it's impossible for somebody else to take the nomination.

I think it is -- I do agree with the congressman. It's hard to see. Nobody has really carved out a path or an effective case against Donald Trump that's getting traction with Republican primary voters. So, unless somebody really changes their tune in the next two weeks, it's hard to see somebody creating that momentum.

[13:25:04]

But, again, we know that, historically, polling has been -- has not always accurately captured enthusiasm, intensity. So I would say the door is not shut for these other folks, but I do think it's tough to see a path forward, barring some sort of really fundamental shift in the race.

So we will see what happens.

KEILAR: If that's the case, Kate, how does a battle between Biden and Trump start to take shape?

BEDINGFIELD: Well, I think what -- you have kind of seen the Biden campaign over the last month, six weeks start to really ramp up their rhetoric and their framing of this race as a choice between -- sort of framing around an existential question about whether our democracy is going to survive, questions around who will protect your rights and your freedoms.

So, for the Biden campaign, this is an opponent they know, they know well. They know -- they know his vulnerabilities. And so this is -- as he presumably starts to move toward the nomination in the next few weeks, they will really start to, I would imagine, dial up the rhetoric on, if you're somebody who cares about the right to make your own decisions about your health care and your body, if you're somebody who cares about your right to vote and having your vote count, they will start to really draw those contrasts.

And I think, as Trump moves toward the nomination, it only kind of heightens the stakes and the urgency and the intensity as voters start to dial in, because that's the other factor here, right? I mean, those of us who talk about this for a living and probably the CNN audience has been dialed in. Most of the country really hasn't been dialed in on the presidential race and won't start to for months to come.

So we will see that start to ramp up as well as these contests get under way.

KEILAR: Yes, that's very important to remember.

Joe, Chris Christie has been resisting calls to drop out, including from New Hampshire governor, Sununu. But if Christie did, where do you think his supporters would go?

WALSH: Look, Brianna, they'd go to Nikki Haley. I appreciate what Chris Christie has done in this race, but I have been one of those people out there for a long time now calling for Christie to get out.

I don't believe any other candidate has a shot. But, as Kate said, it's not impossible. The only shot is, Nikki Haley wins New Hampshire. And I think the only way Nikki Haley can do that is if Chris Christie gets out. And his vote will go to Nikki Haley.

Look, I -- Christie has got to put the country first here. He's gotten a lot of traction, right, as the anti-Trump guy. He can't win. Republican base voters can't stand Chris Christie. So if he wants to put the country first and give somebody else just a little bit of a shot, he ought to get out and endorse Haley and see if Haley can win New Hampshire.

KEILAR: I want to listen to President Biden, pretty optimistic last night. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have brought a lot of jobs back to the United States. People are in position to be able to make a living now.

And they have created a lot of jobs, over 14 million. And I guess, when I'm -- I just feel good that the American people got up. They have been through a rough time with pandemic. But now we're coming back. They're back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: All right, Kate, you were his comms director for some time. Do you expect that he is going to shift this message at all? Or are you expecting that he keeps to it, hoping that economic sentiment catches up to some of these economic indicators we're seeing?

BEDINGFIELD: Well, one of the core messages that Joe Biden is -- always puts front and center is the sense of optimism, the sense of possibility.

He believes that that is actually one of the responsibilities that elected officials have and certainly that the president has, maybe more than any other elected official, to talk about the optimism and the possibility in the country.

So I think, regardless of the topic he's talking about, hearing him say just there that he feels good about where we are, that he believes the American people have been through a lot, they're resilient, I think you can definitely expect to hear that be a consistent theme throughout the campaign.

That's sort of core to who he is and to his public persona. I think, on the question of the economy, yes, I would expect you're going to continue to hear him make the case that wages have gone up, that inflation has gotten under control. We have not spiraled into recession, as many economists were predicting for two years now that we would.

And so he -- I would imagine he will continue to make that case. But I think you will also -- as the campaign heats up, you're going to hear him draw that contrast. Nobody has shied away -- nobody has shied away less from taking on Trump directly than Joe Biden.

And I think you will hear that contrast dial up as well as the campaign moves forward.

KEILAR: Well, Kate and Joe, here we are. Happy new year to both of you. And thanks for being with me today.

WALSH: Thanks, Brianna.

BEDINGFIELD: Happy new year.

KEILAR: A deadly -- happy new year.

A deadly battle on the Red Sea, the U.S. repelling an attack.