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Protesters Demanding Hostages' Release Disrupt Israel's Parliament; Trump, Haley Battle For NH Voters In First-In-The-Nation Primary; New Study: Blood Test That Screens For Alzheimer's Looks Promising. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired January 22, 2024 - 11:30   ET

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

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[11:32:45]

SARA SIDNER, CNN HOST: We've received some new video this morning of Israeli protesters forcing their way into the Israeli parliament and disrupting proceedings. They are distraught and demanding Israel do more to free hostages still being held in Gaza by Hamas. Over the weekend, families of hostages showed up at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home to deliver their message that they wanted their loved ones back.

This comes as Netanyahu says he has rejected outright the latest conditions set by Hamas to secure the release of hostages, terms that would include things like an end of the war and withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza. Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv for us.

Jeremy, Netanyahu's office -- the prime minister has told the families, look, he has an initiative to win the release of hostages. What are you hearing about this? And what are the hostages saying if they've heard it yet?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he's saying that there is an initiative on the table that the Israelis have put forward as part of these negotiations. But he said that he would not elaborate on exactly what is in there. What he is elaborating on is what Hamas seems to have put on the table. And he is rejecting that outright, saying that Hamas is demanding an end to the war in Gaza, the release of all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, and basically saying that that is untenable and that agreeing to such a deal would basically mean that the deaths of Israeli soldiers in Gaza since the beginning of this war would have been in vain.

It is clear, though, that there are active negotiations right now to try and find some kind of a next-level deal on hostage release. And perhaps even a grander bargain that would see a longer-term ceasefire in the war in Gaza. There have been active negotiations between the Egyptians, the Qataris, Israel, Hamas, and the United States.

Brett McGurk, a top aide to President Biden traveling to Egypt and Qatar this week to see if a deal is possible. And as all of this happens, the Israeli prime minister is facing renewed and increasingly heightened pressure inside Israel. You showed that video of protesters storming the Knesset.

About a dozen families -- relatives of hostages going into a finance meeting of the Knesset and basically telling the ministers that they are not doing enough. You will not sit here while they die there is a message from one of those family members inside that meeting. And separately, there was another protest outside calling for elections.

[11:35:05]

And this just kind of leads us to this broader picture of the kind of political pressure that the Israeli prime minister is under. This, as a new poll today shows that he is deeply unpopular in Israel, that if the elections were held today, he would lose that election to Benny Gantz, who is a member of the opposition, a member of the war cabinet right now. But certainly, a lot of pressure on the prime minister and all of this as the hostages are really demanding more after more than a hundred days of captivity for their loved ones.

SIDNER: Yes. Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much for all your reporting there in Tel Aviv for us. Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: This morning, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York says that she is grateful for all of the messages and support that she's received after revealing she has been diagnosed with malignant melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer. Her second cancer diagnosis since the summer. And this also comes after news of health issues keeping two other -- two of the most senior members of the royal family, King Charles and the Princess of Wales out of the public eye. CNN's Max Foster has details.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Kate, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York has had her second cancer diagnosis since the summer. She says she's in good spirits but wants to raise awareness that people should be checking their moles. In June, she had a mastectomy, and that was followed by reconstructive surgery. Several moles were removed and checked. And she was diagnosed with malignant melanoma.

She said it was a shock. And many of her fans had been expressing that shock too on her Instagram page. And it comes after we heard that her former father-in-law, King Charles, is going to hospital because he has to have a procedure in relation to an enlarged prostate. That is benign, we're told, by a source.

And the Princess of Wales is still in hospital as well, having had surgery on her abdomen. We're told by a source that that isn't related to cancer, either. But a lot to take in for royal fans with three members of the family or two members and a member of their extended family as well all suffering from these medical illnesses, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Max Foster, thank you. John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: A new study finds that a blood test already used by researchers can now be used to screen for Alzheimer's disease with high accuracy. A new round of bad news for Boeing. The FAA is now urging airlines to inspect so-called door plugs on even more jets.

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[11:42:02]

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NIKKI HALEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've watched the entire political elite yesterday and today. I've watched the entire media elite yesterday and today say that I should drop out for the good of the country to support Donald Trump.

Let me get this straight. Donald Trump won 56,000 votes out of three million in Iowa. He got one and a half percent of the vote in Iowa. America doesn't do coronations.

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BOLDUAN: That is Nikki Haley on the campaign trail in New Hampshire just this morning. Now, in the final hours before the polls open in this critical first-in-the-nation primary. With Ron DeSantis now out of the race, Haley gets what she has wanted for weeks, a one-on-one contest with Donald Trump. New Hampshire voters are famous for making decisions late. Will it come in time to give Haley the momentum she's fighting for to carry her through the primary season?

Joining me right now is someone who knows New Hampshire, Judd Gregg. He was a Republican senator for New Hampshire -- from New Hampshire for nearly 20 years. Senator, it's great to have you on. You've been supporting Nikki Haley. What is your sense of where things are right now in New Hampshire and headed?

JUDD GREGG, FORMER U.S. REPUBLICAN SENATOR FOR NEW HAMPSHIRE: Well, I think they're a little bit unpredictable, to be honest with you, Kate. As you mentioned, the voters tend to decide late. Polls really don't aren't that accurate, usually in our state. And this election is going to have the highest turnout in the Republican primary ever.

And I tend to think that that bodes well for Governor Haley if there's a very large turnout. I don't think President Trump can get to 50 percent if there's a very large turnout. And if it's one-on-one, I think Haley's going to beat expectations.

But this is an election where people actually vote, not a poll. And it's unpredictable.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. I was going to ask you about the predicted turnout because the secretary of state, I think it was just late last week, said he's predicting as you said record turnout. Hearing Scanlan say that he is -- it says -- he's saying it could be 322,000 votes cast in the Republican primary. I was going to ask you, that says what to you?

GREGG: Well, first off, Kate, Secretary Scanlan has almost always been right, as was his predecessor, Secretary Gardner on predicting the size of the vote. I actually think it may be higher than that. I think you're probably looking at around 340, which is huge by our standards. And that means a lot of people are going to be coming to the polls who have historically voted in our primary maybe. Republicans who sat it out and independents who are allowed to vote now in our primary.

[11:45:00]

And my sense is that if you're going to go in and vote for Trump, you already decided. I mean, that's a decision that's been made. But if you're undecided about Trump as your -- as our nominee, that's a decision still to be made, and that's the vote that Haley's looking at to move her numbers up.

Even these polls, and I'm not a big fan of polls, show a 20 percent on the side. Well, if you're undecided now, you're not for Trump. So, my view is those folks are going to vote. It's going to work in Haley's favor.

But it's unpredictable. Again, I hate to use that word over and over but that's the thing about New Hampshire. It tends to be very unpredictable.

BOLDUAN: What can go wonderfully unpredictable? And we can just keep saying it. I think it's unnecessary to continue saying it.

Ron DeSantis has dropped out. He quickly endorsed Donald Trump after dropping out. And I also just saw that a Republican congresswoman from South Carolina Nancy Mace, she came out this morning endorsing Donald Trump. And here's what she told the Associated Press, Senator. I don't see eye to eye perfectly with any candidate. But she goes on to say the time has come to unite behind our nominee.

And that speaks to that soundbite I played off the top where Nikki Haley's pushing back on this idea of it's time for everyone to coalesce around Donald Trump. When you hear Nancy Mace saying something like that this morning, what do you say to that?

GREGG: She comes from a district where she couldn't lose if she ran over somebody. These elections are won in swing states. That swing states are dominated by independent voters.

Most of the independent voters, at least in New Hampshire are educated women who used to be Republicans in many instances, and they won't vote for Donald Trump. He's cost us the presidency once. He costs us the Senate twice. He almost costs us the House of Representatives. At the head of the ticket, he will be an extremely weak candidate. Even though if Biden is the nominee, obviously, he'll be an extremely weak candidate too.

But we could put a candidate up who is strong and who will keep the Senate -- who will take the Senate and keep the House and that would be somebody like Nikki Haley. And so, I just don't understand Republican rank-and-file folks who want to change the government of Joe Biden, not looking at the obvious, which is, Donald Trump has lost. And he's nominated cases that are winning cases with independent voters for the last three elections. And we can't afford that if we expect to continue to take the Senate, keep the House, and take the presidency.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Judd Gregg, someone who knows New Hampshire, it's good to see you. Thanks for coming in.

GREGG: OK.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Live pictures now inside the courtroom in Georgia for a judge is hearing arguments on whether the Fulton County D.A. should be forced to testify in a divorce proceeding. And this could have a big impact on the election subversion case potentially, that she's prosecuting against Donald Trump. All of that ahead.

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[11:52:19]

SIDNER: "ON OUR RADAR" this morning.

He endorsed Donald Trump in New Hampshire and now former presidential candidate, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, has another announcement. He's engaged. The former Republican presidential candidate said he proposed to his girlfriend Mindy Noce on Saturday. Scott says he couldn't be more thankful for having found a soulmate and someone who has a lot of the same interests and passions. The couple had been dating for about a year now.

The FAA urging the model of Boeing 737 planes to ensure that they are properly secured. It says the Boeing 737-900ER has the same door plug design as the newer MAX-9. You will remember what happened there, a door plug ripped off in an Alaska Airlines 797 --37 MAX-9 in mid-air just a few weeks ago, leaving a gaping refrigerator-sized hole there. Boeing said it "fully supports the FAA on this decision." The MAX-9 has remained grounded across the United States since that incident.

And right now, in Georgia, a Cobb County Judge is hearing arguments over whether Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis must testify in the divorce case of a special prosecutor that she appointed, Nathan Wade. Willis is accused of having an undisclosed romantic relationship with Wade, who is now the lead prosecutor on Donald Trump's election subversion case in Georgia. The judge is also -- documents in his divorce case, John.

BERMAN: All right. Thanks, Sara. This morning, a newly published study shows a blood test could identify Alzheimer's before symptoms begin to show. CNN Medical Correspondent Meg Tirrell is with us now. Meg, tell us about the study.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, right now of course, we know that the hallmarks of Alzheimer's in the brain are these buildups of proteins known as Beta-amyloid and of tau. And the way we look for them currently is either by using brain scans or spinal taps or lumbar punctures to look at cerebrospinal fluid. Now, those can be expensive tests. They're not accessible to everybody. And so, there has been a hope that there could be a useful blood test that could screen people that would be less expensive and more widely available. And now, in this study published this morning, researchers showed that one such test uses a marker in the blood known as p-tau217. And has a pretty good accuracy rate for matching up with currently available testing methods. They estimate that this could reduce the need for confirmatory testing by 80 percent. So, really only 20 percent of the time, they say should you actually need to go on to get a spinal tap or a brain scan in order to confirm the findings here.

Right now, this test, which is known as all ALZpath, is available for research use only. But the company tells us it should be available commercially, starting within the coming months, John.

[11:55:02]

BERMAN: And what could larger impact beyond Alzheimer's care here, Meg?

TIRRELL: Well, there is a possibility people talk about down the line, could be screened for Alzheimer's using these sort of routine blood tests the same way we screen for things like cholesterol. Now, I was just talking with an Alzheimer's doctor this morning who said right now, that could be problematic because we don't have drugs if you came back positive for something like this if you're in the pre-symptomatic phase. But that is where therapy is thought to be headed in Alzheimer's right now.

There are new medicines either on the market or approaching the market that works for people in the early symptomatic stages. But the companies are testing these in folks who don't yet have symptoms but have the signs in the brain. So, potentially down the road, this could all come together in that way, John.

BERMAN: Any progress here is so important to so many people. Meg Tirrell, thank you very much.

TIRRELL: Thanks.

BOLDUAN: And thank you all so much for joining us today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "INSIDE POLITICS." Up next.

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