Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Hostage And Ceasefire Talks Enter Critical 24-Hour Stretch; Inflation Cools In January In First Report Of 2024; Super Bowl Most- Watched TV Event In A Generation; Jon Stewart Returns To "Daily Show," Roasts Biden, Trump. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired February 13, 2024 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Now of course, we have also heard from officials from Hamas speaking to CNN, who has said that Hamas considers the next 24 hours of these discussions in negotiations to be critical, that they know more, that the picture will be a bit clearer in 24 hours.

At this stage, one official telling CNN that the talks have been difficult, but they are nudging forward. But at this stage, we are not believed to be anywhere close or at least a deal is not believed to be imminent right now.

But of course, some progress on that front. And another Hamas official telling CNN that the organization stands ready to return to Cairo for further discussion.

Of course, a delegation was sent last week. They are prepared to return if, indeed, there is progress in these talks and negotiations. Again, focused on that prolonged truce with a hook. This could eventually lead to a lasting ceasefire.

But there is concern around the situation in Rafah, the potential for a ground operation by the Israeli military. We've had concern expressed by a number of international allies of Israel.

Of course, Hamas has said that if there is, indeed, a ground operation by the IDF in Rafah, that could put any talks and negotiations in jeopardy -- Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right. Nada Bashir, with the latest from Cairo, thank you for that.

Jim?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: For more on these ongoing hostage negotiations, let's speak now to former deputy operations chief for the FBI Hostage Rescue Team, Rob D'Amico.

Rob, good to have you.

ROB D'AMICO, FORMER DEPUTY OPERATIONS CHIEF, FBI HOSTAGE RESCUE TEAM: Good day. Good to be here. SCIUTTO: So we now have some video of the operation that rescued two

Israeli hostages, as well as some details. Two hostages rescued. Perhaps some 100 Palestinians killed in that operation.

I wonder, what does that mean for those who remain in captivity? I imagine Hamas might look to protect their hostages more. But also you have the issue here of civilian collateral damage.

D'AMICO: I think there's two things. I think Hamas understands that there may have been some hostage rescues going on. They planned for that, knowing that Israel was going to hunt down their hostages and try to rescue them. So I don't think that surprised them.

I think the hundred casualties on the Palestinian side could -- could throw a roadblock in -- a little bit into the negotiation because they're so close.

I think it just gives Hamas something to push back on saying you -- you rescued two, but you killed 100. But it's still all part of the play.

True negotiators are going to go back down like don't let something like this interfere with the overall bigger picture that we're trying to do?

SCIUTTO: I wonder how that impacts, though, any public support for Hamas in Gaza, particularly as this operation is zeroing in on Rafah, where the civilians have paid such a heavy price for this.

And yes, the hostages are being held, it appears, in heavily populated areas that the population might then have pressure as well, would they not, on Hamas to say, why are you holding these Israelis behind us, in effect.

D'AMICO: It is a good point, but I think everyone knows that that was going on. This is just public now, bringing it to light.

We'll see if Israel starts playing that. It's all that information game to begin with. And if they start putting pressure and start releasing stuff on that to try to get to turn some of the Palestinians against Hamas.

But I think they're at a point now where it was understood because, in the neighborhoods, they knew there were hostages there. You never did one of these in Iraq or Afghanistan where the civilians didn't know that hostages were being held.

SCIUTTO: Yes, the word gets out.

OK, big picture here. Israel is at two goals since October 7th. One is, and they've stated it publicly, eliminate Hamas. The other is to get the hostages home alive.

Those are fundamentally in conflict because, from a practical standpoint, those hostages are leverage for Hamas to some degree to survive, right, to survive as a group there. So as a negotiator, how do you get around that fundamental

contradiction in effect?

D'AMICO: Absolutely. Hamas took the hostages just for this purpose, in order to be able to negotiate the end of the war. So I think it's one of those things that you have to sometimes just play to exactly what's going on.

And Israel says that there are two firm things. They may be willing to get to a point where they've destroyed a percentage of Hamas or the intelligence chief comes back and says, look, we got 80, 90 percent of them, we can now start looking at -- at doing a ceasefire because they have plans down the road.

So it's one of those things that goes back and forth. The stated objectives are not always the true objectives. I think that's what you're starting to see in some of this on the last negotiation pieces.

SCIUTTO: Well, let me ask you now, as you have this major military operation in Rafah underway, and this is apparently over the objections, it seems of the Biden administration talking -- who has spoken, Biden himself, about how the civilian population there is exposed and vulnerable.

[13:35:07]

Does that allow -- does that reduce the chances of an agreement here? Would Hamas agree to give up a significant number of hostages knowing that what immediately follows might be this major operation?

I mean, obviously, they're going to -- they're going to have to negotiate some sort of pause here. But the Israelis have telegraphed that that's their intention to go into Rafah.

D'AMICO: It could be the last stick in for -- as far as the carrot and stick. They also may have some very definitive targets in that area that they want to eliminate before they actually go to this ceasefire.

So it may be a smaller point, that as far as operations that they want to get to, to finish some things off before they actually go into this ceasefire because they know they won't have the ability then.

So it may be, hey, this is the big stick. But in reality, what they're looking at is, we have this last leadership cell that we want to take out. Hopefully, they do it very surgically, if they do it, and don't do a broader military campaign that could cause issues.

SCIUTTO: Yes, we'll have to see.

D'AMICO: Right.

SCIUTTO: I mean, when you look at that hostage rescue, it does not appear to be surgical, given the number of civilian casualties.

Rob D'Amico, thanks so much And back at home, cooling, but stubborn. What the new inflation report tells us about the economy, possibly where it's heading. Please do stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:40:52]

SCIUTTO: The first inflation point report of the new year shows consumer prices continuing to cool off. A bit less than some of the forecasts expected. It reveals annual inflation slowing to 3.1 percent in January, down from 3.4 percent in December.

KEILAR: That's right.

Vanessa Yurkevich is with us now on this.

Vanessa, what do these new numbers mean for consumers and for the economy?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: It's certainly a cooling from the numbers that we saw in December, but we're sort of going back to the prices that we saw in November.

Analysts were expecting a rate of below 3 percent. That did not happen. We're at 3.1 percent year-over-year inflation for consumer prices. And on the month were up 0.3 percent.

Now one of the reasons that we've seen cooling in January, because energy prices have continued to fall, down 0.9 percent in the month of January, and actually coming down 4.6 percent over the course of the year.

That's really encouraging for people who are filling up at the pump and heating their homes.

But what has really kept these inflation numbers high is shelter. So that's rent. Shelter on the month up 0.6 percent and on the year up 6 percent. And that is really where Americans are feeling the pain the most. That's the biggest share you're going to be paying every single month.

And shelter alone accounted for two-thirds of the monthly overall increase. And that increase that we've seen on the year at 3.1 percent.

Food prices also still pretty stubbornly high at the grocery store. We also saw some upward trends in services. People may be taking trips at the beginning of the year. We saw lodging increase, airfare increasing, medical costs increasing.

Some savings, though, for folks, used car prices continuing to fall. That was a big pain point for people over the last couple of years.

And maybe something that makes people feel a little bit better is wages are still outpacing inflation. Hopefully, that helps people grapple with these still too high prices.

As we know, the Fed really wants to see inflation down closer to 2 percent. So we do still have a ways to go -- Jim and Brianna?

SCIUTTO: I wonder how the markets are reacting because they were pricing in a whole slew of interest rate cuts this year, not quite clear that all those cuts are going to come.

YURKEVICH: The markets are not liking this report at all. They were hoping for a CPI number below 3 percent. Look at the Dow, almost down 600 points.

They are not liking this because they were hoping that the Fed would cut rates earlier, maybe March, May. But that is not looking likely, right now.

The forecast, based on this report that we have, signify that the first rate cut would come maybe in July. So that is why you're seeing investors really not loving what they're seeing right now.

And they're going to have to hold out a little bit longer to get those cuts from the Fed that they were hoping for -- Jim and Brianna?

SCIUTTO: Vanessa Yurkevich, thanks so much.

Now to some of the other headlines we are watching this hour.

Authorities are investigating the cause of a helicopter crash that injured two Utah National Guard pilots. It happened during a training exercise Monday afternoon at an Army aviation facility about 20 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

You see the pictures there. The National Guard says the pilots were treated on scene and are thankfully in stable condition.

A federal judge has temporarily clearly blocked an Ohio law that would regulate children's access to social media, saying the law is likely unconstitutional.

An emergency order was issued last month to stop the legislation from going into effect. It would have required social media platforms to get parental consent before children under the age of 16 could create accounts.

And a new study shows that in the past three decades, Greenland has lost 11,000 square miles of ice sheets and glaciers . That's about 36 times the size of New York.

Areas of the territory that were once covered in ice and snow are now barren rock. Wetlands or shrubs, scientists say --scientists say warmer air is to blame.

And that the ice loss is a major contributor to rising sea levels worldwide. Where does all that water go?

[13:45:09]

Coming up, he is back, one of the GOATs of late-night satire. What and who Jon Stewart tore into during his big return to "The Daily Show." You'll want to see this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:50:00]

SCIUTTO: So what do you get when you mix the mega pop, mega superstar of pop with the Super Bowl? The most-watched television event since the moon landing.

You heard that, right, 123 million people tuned in on Sunday when Kansas City beat San Francisco in overtime. Crazy numbers there.

It was a real nail-biter, you remember, one of the reasons analysts think the game became the most-watched Super Bowl ever.

KEILAR: You really did need to watch the whole thing --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

KEILAR: -- to see how it turned out.

SCIUTTO: The whole family was up, man. We were watching.

KEILAR: I stayed up much later than I thought I would.

So they're are also guessing, you know, Taylor Swift maybe being there to cheer on her Chiefs boyfriend, Travis Kelce, that might have had a little something to do with it.

Still, Swiftmania cannot outdo outer space. The most-watched TV broadcast was in 1969 when an estimated 125 million to 150 million people watched the Apollo 11 moon landing.

SCIUTTO: Which should have been the biggest --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Yes, it should have been.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: -- should have been as big as this. Pretty amazing.

So from prime time to late night, there's another big TV event to talk about, and that is comedian, Jon Stewart, returning to host "The Daily Show" last night after nearly a decade away.

And in his signature style, he made fun of the major headlines. That includes President Bidens age and memory.

SCIUTTO: Last week, a special counsel report revealed new details about, according to the special counsel, Biden struggling to remember key events during his testimony.

Stewart added a twist to what investigators heard in those depositions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": The footage of the president unable to recall simple facts must have been brutal to watch.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: James Webb.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: I don't remember. I don't remember ever buying something for myself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you recall what you were doing (INAUDIBLE)?

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: I mean, I don't remember that.

My memory is so (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you don't remember saying you have one in the dustbin?

TRUMP: I don't remember.

(LAUGHTER)

EVC

KEILAR: That was a good one.

SCIUTTO: As good as my memory is.

Joining us now is Bill Carter, former "New York Times" media reporter. He wrote the book, "The Late Shift, Letterman, Leno and the Network Battle for Late Night."

Bill, good to have you.

It was fun to watch last night. I mean, it's good to have it back. It's fun. I was looking forward to it. I watched it.

You see some criticism of sort of both sides in this age issue there. I wonder what you thought part of his performance on his first night back. And does it match the audience

BILL CARTER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You know, I thought he was terrific. I thought he was right back in his element. I was wondering how he would approach it. Would he do something different? No, he came right at it. And, boy, he still has his fast ball. That's what I think heavy.

He managed to mix in a very punchy stuff about both guys. And, you know, pointed political commentary. That's what he was known for. And he pulled it off again, in my opinion.

KEILAR: Let's hear a little bit more from Jon Stewart. Really, this is about 2024 as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(APPLAUSE)

STEWART: Check out the age. There are no more age-related milestones to hit.

(LAUGHTER)

STEWART: They've got the Arrow or Piccard. They've got Social Security. They've got their movie discounts. There is no, oh, wait till you hit 88, you get to drink and drive. No.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: I wonder what you think, Bill, because when I talked to people, a lot of them, you know, they're just not interested in this race, right? They're not as interested as they have been in other races.

I wonder if you think the Jon Stewart treatment might change some of that.

CARTER: Well, he was able, in his run for 15 years, to bring in very casual news viewers. In fact, many young people said that's the only news they watched was Jon Stewart. And they went to him for their news.

Now, this is a different era. Obviously, people don't watch television the same way. But it's a different formula. Because John's only on once a week now. So how much he can bring in, that's going to be a challenge.

But I also think it's a challenge for the show because, you know, he's going to be so dominant on those Monday nights. It's very hard for someone else to do what he does that well.

So the rest of the week, you're going to say, well, I would much rather be watching Jon Stewart. I think that's going to be a factor for them.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this, though, because politics is a whole new world since the last time he was on the show, right? I mean, the partisanship, the information bubbles, they're further apart.

And also the reaction to them, right? That, where folks look to the other side and say that person is dangerous, right?

And I just wonder if that changes the way the audience reacts to his sort of equal opportunity poking of fun at both parties here. I mean, some of his audience, I have to imagine, a little left-leaning, are they going to look at that and say, I'm not in for that?

[13:55:00]

CARTER: Well, I think that's a really interesting question, Jim, because, in the past, what he would do that -- and I was there one night when he went after Obama a little bit. And his audience was very uncomfortable because they were very pro-Democratic in those days.

And you would assume they would do that again. But I noticed, last night, they had no hesitation laughing at the jokes about Biden because they were basically commenting on the age factor, which, let's face it, that is not necessarily partisan.

There are people who are Democrats who feel uncomfortable with that. So I think that was hitting a sweet spot for the audience.

I think you're right about the whole partisan thing and people may not be as comfortable as they were in the past with comedy like this. But I think it is very effective.

I always thought comedy is a very effective way to make political commentary. It's always been that way. People use -- used to do it in cartoons. Well, now they do it on late night shows.

KEILAR: It would have been weird if he had ignored that topic this week, especially.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Bill, always great to have you. Thank you so much, Bill Carter

CARTER: Great to be with you guys.

KEILAR: And just to add, voting is underway right now in New York to replace George Santos in a high-stakes race that could have national implications. We're live at the polls.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)