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Global Outrage After Israeli Strike Kills Aid Workers; Doctor Says He Walked Out Of Biden Meeting In Gaza Protest; WSJ Poll: Close Presidential Race In Battleground States; 100 Plus People Trapped After 7.4 Magnitude Quake Hits Taiwan. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired April 03, 2024 - 15:30   ET

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

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[15:01:23]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The White House says President Biden is outraged over an Israeli airstrike that killed seven aid workers, but the administration is not easing up on its support for Israel. This comes after a Palestinian-American doctor walked out of a meeting at the White House in protest. That doctor is here in studio ready to chat about it in just moments.

Plus, rescue efforts are underway right now after a deadly earthquake in Taiwan, toppling buildings and triggering landslides. We have the latest on the ongoing aftershocks and the race to help those still trapped under rubble.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And for the first time, the FDA has cleared a digital treatment for depression, the new app that you need a prescription to download.

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

SANCHEZ: Anger is growing across the world after an Israeli airstrike killed seven aid workers for World Central Kitchen. But even as President Biden expresses outrage over the incident, the White House is reaffirming its support for Israel's war against Hamas. And the frustration is also mounting in Israel, as president, rather, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces pressure for failing to reach a deal to get those hostages held in Gaza released.

Today, members - family members of the hostages stormed the gallery of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. Watch this.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Foreign language).

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SANCHEZ: Some demonstrators chanted, and as you saw in that video, others climbed over the seats as authorities tried to contain everyone. Earlier, a key Netanyahu war cabinet member called for early elections in September, echoing what protesters have demanded for weeks now. Demonstrators are also calling for Netanyahu's resignation.

Let's get perspective from the White House now with CNN's MJ Lee.

MJ, let's start with your new reporting. The White House, again, reaffirming support for Israel, even amid backlash over the deadly strike on these aid workers. What is the White House saying?

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris. I can tell you that the deaths of these seven aid workers has touched off fury and indignation here at the White House. And you certainly sense that from the statement that we got from President Biden last night, where he said that he was outraged and heartbroken. And a senior administration official saying that frustration here at the White House has really reached new levels.

What was striking about that statement from the President last night was how explicitly he blamed Israel for the incident. He said Israel has simply not done enough to protect civilians and protect aid workers. And he said what happened to these World Central Kitchen aid workers simply should not happen.

Now, despite the President being completely furious over this incident, the White House is making clear today that the U.S.' stance in supporting Israel and its current war against Hamas is not changing. Take a listen.

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KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I can say that nothing has changed and we've been clear about that since - certainly since yesterday, we are going to continue to have those really tough conversations, right? Important tough conversations about how Israel moves forward with their operation. We want to make sure that civilians are kept safe, that are protected and also folks who are providing humanitarian aid.

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[15:05:07]

LEE: The U.S., of course, has been urging Israel to change its conduct for months, sometimes too little effect. I should also note the White House says it is waiting for the results of that investigation that Israel is conducting into that incident. The President says that he wants to see accountability, but it's unclear right now what accountability there would look like.

SANCHEZ: And MJ, what is the White House saying about this meeting where a Palestinian-American doctor walked out? Dr. Ahmad is here with us and we're going to chat with him in a moment. But what is the White House saying about that meeting?

LEE: Yes, this was initially supposed to be an iftar dinner hosted by the White House, a breaking of the Ramadan fast. But it was revised to a meeting when participants raised concerns about this idea of having a celebratory meal, given the situation in Gaza and how many people there are starving right now. And among the participants, of course, is Dr. Ahmad, who traveled to Gaza earlier this year.

He stood up and left the meeting as a sign of protest. And one of the things that he says he did was hand the President a letter from an eight-year-old girl who has been orphaned in Rafah, basically begging the President to stop Israel from going in.

Obviously, just one more vivid example of the furious backlash that the President continues to confront as this war rages on, Boris.

SANCHEZ: MJ Lee live for us from the White House. MJ, thank you so much. Brianna?

KEILAR: As we just heard, tensions high at the White House last night as the President met with a small group of Muslim community leaders and that included emergency medicine physician Dr. Thaer Ahmad in that group before he walked out in protest. He recently traveled to Gaza as part of a delegation of doctors from the NGO MedGlobal, where he was treating patients in Al-Nasr hospital in Khan Younis. And he's here with us in studio now.

Doctor, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. Can you just tell us about this meeting at the White House, how it started and why you decided to walk out?

DR. THAER AHMAD, BOARD MEMBER, MEDGLOBAL: Yes. I mean, my understanding was that in lieu of the traditional annual White House iftar, that given the circumstances and the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, that it was going to be some sort of like working dinner. And it would be the first time that the President would hear from people who were actually on the ground in Gaza since October 7th.

But over the course of a week, many things developed and changed and really kind of soured people's intentions and expectations for the meeting. And so it was a few members from the Muslim-American community, people who had also been on the ground in Gaza ready to give their firsthand eyewitness testimony and myself, the only Palestinian-American.

KEILAR: Tell me how the meeting went. It starts - how does it start?

AHMAD: Yes, I mean, we had showed up into - at the White House and the President walks in. He shakes everybody's hand. He sits down and then he says a few words. He just says, this is a listening session. We're here to hear you guys out. Did we know a little bit about what's going on, on the ground and we're working very hard on it.

There's no mention of Gaza or Palestine, of the World Central Kitchen, people who have been killed, the starvation or the famine in the north or the looming invasion in Rafah of which we're all very concerned about and we are trying to communicate a sense of urgency.

KEILAR: You began - he asked you to speak.

AHMAD: Yes.

KEILAR: Tell me about that and tell me what you said. AHMAD: Yes. I mean, he looked at me, said, we'll start with you. I let him know that I'm a Palestinian-American ER doctor, that I was in Gaza, in Khan Younis in January at Nasr Hospital. And what I saw at Khan Younis was devastating.

I mean, that hospital was the largest remaining hospital in Gaza at the time. It was overwhelmed with people who had been injured in airstrikes. And there was 10,000 thousand people sheltering in and around the hospital.

You cannot walk in that hospital without seeing families sheltering in the hallways. And I said, all of those people after that hospital was surrounded and shut down and raided, they went to Rafah. Hundreds of thousands of people went to Rafah to make 1.7-, 1.8 million people there.

Anybody that's communicating with you and telling you that there's a strategic or tactful way to do this, to do a military operation in Rafah is lying to you. I can tell you that firsthand. I was in Rafah, I was in Khan Younis, it would be a bloodbath. It would be a massacre. Do - there is no way to do this and the war has to stop. There has to be a ceasefire.

KEILAR: When did you walk out and what did you say to him?

AHMAD: Right at - as soon as I had finished communicating the urgency with respect to what's going on in Rafah, I looked at him, I said, out of respect for the Palestinian community, people who are mourning, who are grieving the tremendous loss of life in Gaza, I have to get up and leave this meeting.

But before I do that, I want to give you this letter from an eight- year-old, Hadiv (ph). She's an orphan in Gaza, in Rafah, staying in a camp. And she wrote him a letter and I wanted to give it to you. And I gave him a picture of her as well as the letter.

And the letter basically begged President Biden to do whatever he could to make sure that there was no invasion of Rafah by the Israelis.

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KEILAR: And what did he say to you?

AHMAD: He looked at the picture and then he said he understood and then I walked out.

KEILAR: Did you know you were going to do that ahead of time?

AHMAD: Initially, when I had heard that I would have an opportunity, along with other medical professionals, to brief the President about the situation on the ground, I thought this was my chance to be able to at least communicate what I saw and to elevate the stories of the people that I interacted with. But over the course of a week, all of these different stories broke. There's more fighter jets being sold, 2,000 pound bombs being transferred. There's - John Kirby just tenaciously and impassionately defending the Israeli military after what happened to World Central Kitchen convoy. I mean, for me, it really was upsetting and it enraged me. But I wanted to make sure that I was calm, I was collected, I was able to deliver a message, but to also walk away from an administration that I feel has walked away from my people.

KEILAR: What's your biggest concern right now with the war?

AHMAD: I mean, it's gone on for six months. There has been no reprieve. And we're talking about a famine in the north and an invasion in the south. I cannot imagine what hell looks like, but Gaza is hell on earth. And I need to - whatever we can do, everybody in our community is doing whatever they can to shout at the top of their lungs that there cannot be an invasion, there needs to be a ceasefire.

But it's not just about the bombs not dropping. It's not just about planes not flying overhead. It's about getting food, and water, and medicine inside, and getting people who need to be medically evacuated, the more than 9,000 of them, getting them out and getting them some treatment. I mean, all of Gaza has been devastated and it's basically unlivable at this point. That needs to change.

KEILAR: As you said, it's hell on earth, but you're going back.

AHMAD: Yes. I mean, I have to go back. I think many Palestinian- Americans like myself, we have this tremendous amount of survivor's guilt. We're living here, we're living very comfortably, and people who look like us, who could have easily - we could have easily been in their position, are suffering immensely. At the very minimum, we need to be over there and do what we can.

I'm a physician. I should go and practice medicine over there. Other people who can help in other ways, I'm sure that if they get the opportunity, they would do something similar.

KEILAR: Dr. Thaer, we really appreciate your time. Thank you for being with us.

AHMAD: Thank you.

KEILAR: Boris?

SANCHEZ: A very powerful conversation.

Meantime, President Biden's handling of Israel and the war in Gaza has cost him 10s of thousands of votes across Democratic primaries. A new poll shows it's just one of several key issues that voters trust Donald Trump on more than Biden. The Wall Street Journal's new survey drills down on the Biden-Trump rematch across seven battleground states and finds a race that's too close to call.

Trump leads in two of those states, and in the remaining five, according to CNN's methodology, there is no clear leader.

Let's have CNN Senior Data Reporter, Harry Enten, break down the numbers.

Harry, walk us through your big takeaways.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes. You mentioned if you drill down on those individual states, you may find that in most of them there's no clear leader. But I want to sort of take a 35,000-foot view and sort of aggregate those states together, because there you do have a clear leader.

You have Donald Trump, who's ahead of Joe Biden 47 percent to 44 percent. And given the large sample size, it is clear enough that Donald Trump is, in fact, leading and across those seven battleground states when you aggregate them together. Now, if you add in third- party candidates, look, what you see here is, look at this, RFK is getting 11 percent of the vote. That's a fairly significant chunk for a third-party candidate. If that held through the election, which, of course, we're still months away from, if that held through the election, it would be the strongest third-party performance since Ross Perot back in the 1996 and 1992 elections.

But again, what you see here is that Donald Trump is still ahead of Joe Biden, even when you add Kennedy in, that three-point advantage. Now, if you're, in fact, to drill down into those individual states that you hinted at, right, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, the only two states when you include the third-party candidates where we can say there's one candidate clearly ahead is Arizona and North Carolina, where we have that eight- point advantage.

So, again, it is a race that's close, but one at this point in which Donald Trump does, in fact, seem to have the advantage when you look at the overarching picture, Boris.

SANCHEZ: So, Harry, a moment ago, we alluded to the findings on Middle East policy. I'm wondering, which candidate do people prefer on the issues that were polled that stood out to you?

ENTEN: Yes. So you mentioned the Middle East policy. You mentioned the Israel-Hamas war. But take a look here, trusted more Biden versus Trump margin across, again, these seven battleground states. Economy inflation, Donald Trump by 20. Immigration border security, Donald Trump by 20. Israel-Hamas war, Donald Trump by 14. Russia-Ukraine war, Donald Trump by nine. Protecting democracy, something that Joe Biden has put at the forefront of his campaign and Democrats have in general. Too close within the margin of error. Joe Biden just preferred by one point, but again, within the margin of error.

The only issue that Joe Biden leads Donald Trump on is abortion, a 12- point advantage. But again, that is not at this particular point where this campaign is being fought on. It's much more being fought along the lines of immigration inflation and immigration and border security, economy inflation, excuse me, and immigration and the border security, where Donald Trump has clear advantages.

[15:15:03] And then I'll just sort of take a sort of big step out. Is the U.S. on the right track? And this is in presidential election years. Now in those key seven swing states, only 25 percent of Americans say the country is on the right track. If you look at the average when presidents lose presidential elections since 1980, 25 percent, which kind of matches up with the overarching picture. That is, Donald Trump does seem to be ahead in this race, at least looking at the seven swing states in aggregate, Boris.

SANCHEZ: And Harry, looking at the Electoral College map, what does this snapshot tell us?

ENTEN: Yes. What does this snapshot tell us? If you just take a look at all of the polling based on recent polling and past results, what do we see? We see Donald Trump with 283 electoral votes, Joe Biden with 225. The only states when you aggregate all the polls together, not just this Wall Street Journal poll, but all the polls that seem at this point too close to call are Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Michigan, where, of course, there was that big uncommitted vote during the primary, does, in fact, seem to be leading Donald Trump, as well as Nevada state, that Joe Biden one last time around, Arizona and Georgia.

So the fact is, at this point, it looks to be advantage Trump, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Harry Enten, thanks so much for digging into those numbers for us.

ENTEN: My pleasure.

KEILAR: And let's talk now with CNN Political Commentators and the co- hosts of Hot Mics From Left To Right, Maria Cardona and Alice Stewart with us here.

We have a lot to talk about, and there are obviously a lot of numbers in those polls. But I do want to start on what could be a very important one for President Biden and former President Trump, which is, as Harry referenced, 14 points ahead on handling of the Israel- Gaza war. Clearly, when it comes to Trump, that would mean how someone, I guess, would think that he would handle it, obviously. But that's a pretty big number.

You just heard Dr. Thaer, who was in this White House meeting. And I wonder what you think about what this is saying about the situation for Biden and Trump.

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I think, clearly, former President Trump has been really steadfast in his support for Israel. He did so as president. Now we're looking at a situation where after - since the invasion by Hamas, Israel has every right to defend itself. It certainly should.

But you guys did an excellent interview with Gen. Wesley Clark in the last hour, where he talked about, look, Israel should defend itself. It has every right to do so. But they need to be extremely careful and calculated with how they go about protecting their territory and engaging with Hamas, and being very mindful of the loss of life and the collateral damage, which is what we're seeing and what the interview with the doctor talked so much about.

That is where we're seeing a lot of concern and frustration with Israel, and obviously compassion for the Palestinian-Americans, the Muslim-Americans, Arab-Americans. And the way that President Biden has handled it, he's getting a lot of backlash from those people because of the casualties in this war.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: So what I would say is, in doing the comparison, because it is kind of insane to me that people would think that somebody like Donald Trump would handle this war better, especially in light of the challenges that President Biden is facing with the Muslim community, with progressives, because it is very personal, as we heard what the doctor was saying.

And what I would remind people is that Donald Trump would instill a Muslim ban. Donald Trump has GOP extremist MAGA leaders who have said, and Donald Trump has not disavowed those comments, that we should handle Gaza the way that we handled Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

That is not something that we need right now, right? And so I think that President Biden is doing the best he can right now in an incredibly emotional, hard issue with the humanity right in the middle of it. Because he is saying to people like Dr. Ahmad, which was just soul-crushing what he was saying, that we need to continue to listen to you. We want to continue to listen to you and your community.

He - they need to continue to have those conversations. And while right now the stance hasn't really changed, I think there probably is going to come a time where the images and the actions of Israel, if Netanyahu does not change course, is going to be unsustainable.

SANCHEZ: The top two issues, as Harry laid out, immigration and the economy, both of them showing that those polled trust Donald Trump to handle those issues more, specifically on the question of immigration.

Donald Trump, Maria, has leaned into the fear-mongering. Yesterday at his appearance, he talked about Biden's border bloodbath. He's alluded to undocumented migrants as animals and not human. There are anecdotal cases where undocumented migrants have committed horrible crimes and atrocities.

But if you look at the data broadly ...

CARDONA: Yes.

SANCHEZ: ... undocumented migrants do not commit violent crime ...

CARDONA: Yes, absolutely.

SANCHEZ: ... at a more frequent clip than citizens.

CARDONA: Yes.

[15:20:00] SANCHEZ: It's not based in reality.

CARDONA: That's right.

SANCHEZ: And yet he's winning by 20 points on the issue of immigration, why?

CARDONA: Yes. I think this is an issue of voter amnesia. The Biden campaign and Democrats, and frankly, common sense Republicans and suburban voters who saw what Donald Trump was doing on immigration when he instituted the horrendous family separation policy, and by the way, we're about to come on six years of the anniversary of that, and Donald Trump is having an event tomorrow with the architects of that horrific policy.

He has said that he is very possibly going to implement that policy again. We need to remind the country of that. We need to remind the country that this is somebody who has said that the blood of your family, my family, your family poisons the blood of the country, and that is not something that equals an American value.

I know that Alice does not agree with that either. We need to remind people of that, and Biden and Democrats need to also come forward with real solutions, which is something that Republicans have also denied the country.

KEILAR: Let me ask you this, so she says amnesia. I wonder if you agree with that. But also it is Biden's job to help people remember, right? That's what he needs to do.

CARDONA: Uh-huh, that's right.

KEILAR: And I wonder, Alice, what you think about what he's doing.

STEWART: I think he should help people remember, which he will not do, but Republicans are doing.

CARDONA: He won't do it.

STEWART: So they will help people remember that under the Trump administration, we didn't have a massive influx of migrants into this country as we're having now. And the fact that ...

KEILAR: It wasn't great, let's just be clear.

CARDONA: They were ripping babies from the hands of their mothers, Alice.

STEWART: But when Biden ...

CARDONA: I know you don't agree with that.

STEWART: ... comes into office and reverses Trump policies, Remain in Mexico, an emphasis on building the wall, then we have a massive influx of migrants into this country. And they're being sent to other cities. Now we have Democratic mayors and governors pleading with the federal government, please do something to stop the influx of migrants into this country.

So it would be incumbent upon Republicans to remind people that things were much more secure under the Trump administration with regard to the border situation. That's why we're seeing battleground states. And state after state, they trust President Trump - former President Trump - to address the border crisis more than they do Biden.

CARDONA: Again, I think it's amnesia and I think it's critical to remind people that we had a border security bill ready to go, and who said no? Donald Trump told his people in Congress who had negotiated this bill, who would have given billions to security measures at the border, who would have given billions to these cities that your Republican governors have carelessly sent migrants to, and Republicans have said no.

They don't want to solve this issue. They want to keep weaponizing it. Democrats want to secure the border. They want to give a lot more money for smart border security. They also want to open up more legal pathways for dreamers and for the immigrants who have been here for a very long time, who, by the way, economists have said have injected $7 trillion into our economy.

SANCHEZ: We should point out that was not in the Senate deal, though, a pathway to citizenship.

Alice, I'm going to get yelled at by our producers, but we'll give you a quick last words.

KEILAR: (Inaudible) ...

STEWART: Just real quickly, the Biden administration has had three years to address this and to blame this all on Republicans at this point is just not accurate, because his policies led us to this situation. And given the fact that we have ...

CARDONA: That's just not true.

STEWART: ... now that these migrants are being sent to other cities, we're seeing that the border crisis, every state is a border state. Every city is a border city, and it cannot just put all of the blame and emphasis on these border states to handle this right.

CARDONA: The pandemic.

SANCHEZ: It's been generations of issues ...

CARDONA: Yes, the pandemic has (inaudible) the crisis, not Biden.

SANCHEZ: ... and Congress' inability to act on the issue of immigration.

CARDONA: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Maria Cardona, Alice Stewart, appreciate the perspective.

STEWART: Thank you. CARDONA: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Thanks for the conversation.

Still plenty more news to come on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

Happening right now, there's an urgent search for survivors continuing after a devastating earthquake. Hundreds still trapped under the rubble.

KEILAR: And eggs could soon get more expensive, after another outbreak of bird flu. We have those stories and many more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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KEILAR: Happening now, urgent search and rescue efforts underway after the most powerful earthquake to hit Taiwan in a quarter of a century. Officials say the 7.4 magnitude quake killed at least nine people and injured more than 900 others. Dramatic video into CNN shows emergency crews digging through the rubble of a collapsed building.

The quake triggered massive landslides. You can see here dash cam video capturing clouds of rocks and dust cascading down that mountain there.

And we have CNN's Hanako Montgomery, who is in Tokyo.

Can you tell us what you are learning about rescue efforts, because this is still very much underway?

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna. As you mentioned, rescue operations are still underway. They are continuing throughout the night because we know that there are still people trapped in Hualien County, which was very close to the epicenter of this powerful earthquake that struck Taiwan.

Now what Taiwanese authorities have told us is that about 137 people are still trapped in Hualien County, which is located on the east coast of the island. They're saying that most of these people are in a mining area. And in order to get them out, the Taiwanese defense ministry has deployed military troops who are working with local governments to get those people to safety, to get those people out.

Now, just for some context, we know that Hualien County is a very popular tourist destination.

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It's a part of Taiwan that many people visit, both domestic and international tourists.