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IDF: Bodies Of 6 Israeli Hostages Recovered From Gaza; Blinken Meets With Leaders In Egypt, Qatar Ahead Of Ceasefire Talks; Trump, Vance Counter DNC With Events In Michigan, Wisconsin as Harris, Walz Hold Rally, DNC Watch Party In Wisconsin; DNC Enlists Social Media Stars To Spread Harris' Message. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 20, 2024 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:33:23]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Developing now, an urgent effort is underway as we're entering a critical phase for a possible ceasefire in Gaza.

Right now, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling to Qatar, continuing to push for what he is describing as perhaps the last chance to broker a deal.

Today, he met with top officials in Egypt hoping to get word from Hamas after Israeli Prime Minister Bemjamin Netanyahu agreed to a U.S.-backed binding proposal, a bridging proposal, I should say, on Monday.

Blinken says that all Hamas has to do now is say yes, with high-level negotiations expected to resume as soon as this week.

Let's take you now live to Tel Aviv with CNN's Jeremy Diamond.

And, Jeremy, the IDF, meantime, is saying that it recovered the bodies of some hostages overnight. Tell us more about that.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Boris. The bodies of six hostages we're recovered in an overnight Israeli military operation.

They were found in a tunnel in -- underneath Khan Younis, that southern Gaza city. All but one hostage had previously been confirmed dead by the Israeli government.

But for the family today of Avraham Munder, very, very sad news as they learn not only that his body has been recovered, but that he is, indeed, confirmed dead after being held since October 7th.

That leaves us now with 105 hostages who are held in Gaza, 34 of whom are confirmed dead by the Israeli government. But as we know, many more are likely dead as well, but just not confirmed at this point by the Israeli government.

[13:34:59] And all of this, of course, is just a reminder of how essential, how urgent a ceasefire agreement is. And that is where the families of the hostages are putting their focus today, calling once again on the Israeli government to accept a deal for a ceasefire agreement.

And also some anger from the families of some of these hostages, believing that there were opportunities in the past to have struck a deal that could have seen their loved ones emerge from Gaza alive rather than in body bags.

Now, we do know that these negotiations are still very much ongoing. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that the Israeli government accepted this bridging proposal aimed at trying to bridge the gaps between the Israeli and the Hamas positions on these negotiations.

But Hamas says they believe this bridging proposal caves to a series of Israeli bans, indicating that it is a nonstarter for them.

Those negotiating efforts are still ongoing though. The secretary of state is set to arrive in Doha, Qatar, where he will meet with Qatari officials. And that will be key because they are the key interlocutors with Hamas. They will be able to give him a better sense of Hamas' position behind the scenes.

It does seem, at times, like the United States is the only very optimistic party in these negotiations, almost like they are trying to will this ceasefire agreement into existence with these efforts.

There's no question that the U.S. views this as very much a last chance for a long time to actually reach a ceasefire agreement. They also know that there are a number of regional tensions that would be resolved or at least quieted down if a ceasefire agreement actually they came through.

But for now, just very uncertain, very hard to see how a deal comes together, in particular, this week, which has, of course, been the United States' goal -- Boris?

SANCHEZ: Yes, and as you alluded to Jeremy, all of this comes with a potential threat of a response from Iran and its proxies to the assassination of a Hamas commander in Tehran.

Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much for the latest.

Still to come, just because the convention started doesn't mean campaigning is over. Vice President Harris is fighting for votes in the battleground state of Wisconsin on this same stage, we should mention, that former President Trump celebrated his own nomination a few weeks ago. Details straight away.

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[13:41:27]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: We are back live from Chicago. Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz will not be here at the convention tonight. They're doing some battleground state campaigning. They're up the road in Wisconsin, a big rally and a convention watch party there in Milwaukee tonight for them.

Republican vice-presidential nominee, J.D. Vance, also in Wisconsin today. And former President Trump has an event in battleground, Michigan.

New surveys from both of those swing states show Harris is now ahead of Trump, but within the margin of error.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is in Howell, Michigan, for the Trump event.

Kristen, what is the former president's plan there?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I just want to start off, Brianna, by saying I'm going to be speaking very low because we're very close to the podium and I don't want to be rude as people are listening very intently.

Now, they've begun the preprogram of this Trump event. This is clearly on crime and immigration that is linked to crime.

And, Brianna, it's a very different setting than almost anything that I've seen with the former president. This is a much smaller crowd. He's still very hyper-focused when it comes to crime and immigration.

And this is not the same kind of rowdy atmosphere that we've generally seen.

Now internally, his team is calling these, quote, unquote, "messaging events." Remember, they want Donald Trump to continue to focus all those messages that they believe will help him in November.

And that includes inflation, talk about the economy, crime, talking about that today as well as immigration.

Overall, their goal is to try and get the poll ahead of Kamala House on those issues, which they believe are central to voters.

So what you're hearing now is a series of sheriffs here in Michigan coming out and talking about crime and linking them to immigration.

Now, I do want to note, yesterday, during Donld Trump's speech on the economy, he really did stay focused on his messaging.

The reason why that's important is because I have heard from a number of allies, a number of his campaign staff who say they're deeply concerned about the state of the race.

You just mentioned those polls in Michigan and Wisconsin, where you see this boost in the numbers for Kamala Harris. And the only way they believe Donald Trump can succeed in November is if he focuses on those issues that voters care about.

Obviously, he has had a hard time with that. So expect him to come out here in just a moment and give this speech on crime. We will see if you can stay focused on issues or if he's going to devolve into those personal attacks, as he does time and time again when it comes to Kamala Harris.

KEILAR: All right, Kristen, we know you'll be keeping tabs on that for us in Michigan. Thank you.

I'm now joined by CNN political director, David Chalian.

And it's -- it's interesting, we were talking about this in the break, about how so much of the convention is truly about rallying the people who are in this arena. But there's also an eye to people outside of the arena, particularly in states where we're seeing these candidates' campaign today.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: A far more important eye. The convention, yes, it rallies the faithful. But if it doesn't accomplish the goal of converting some voters to your cause out there in the battleground states, then it's a lost convention.

And I think we saw that -- I mean, you see Donald Trump and J.D. Vance in Michigan and Wisconsin today? Well, when you saw Shawn Fain, the head of the UAW, the big auto union, on the stage last night calling Donald Trump a scab, yes, it rallies the faithful here, but that is a message directed at the battleground states.

[13:45:09]

Also, so you can see that in the components of the convention here where they're targeting certain voter slices in these critical places.

KEILAR: And there's -- you know, it's an interesting place that Kamala Harris is in. I wonder if she had been in this for the whole shebang, if she would be here tonight for this big night for the Obamas but she is instead going to be in Wisconsin.

I assume there were deliberations about that. What is the thinking behind having her away?

CHALIAN: So first of all, it's not unprecedented. We've seen this before. If you remember, in the 2008 convention, when Michelle Obama spoke, her first time doing so -- well, I guess she introduced her husband in 2004, but she spoke as a keynote speaker in 2008 at the DNC in Denver.

And you may recall the moment she brought her girls on stage afterwards and they waved in a big moment.

KEILAR: That's right.

CHALIAN: Their father, who was on the road and the campaign trail in Kansas City, and he was at a house party and beamed into the convention. And so -- by the way, the fact that he was in Kansas City shows you have different things are --

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KEILAR: I know. I was there.

CHALIAN: But -- but having -- you know, being on the road in a battleground state while the energy of your party is happening at the convention is not unheard of.

In fact, until Donald Trump came along, it was not all that typical for the nominee to be in the hall every single night for the convention. There is this -- there is this notion of how you roll into a convention if you're the nominee and try to keep this suspense building.

Now it's become more than norm to give the convention audience like a little bit of the nominee throughout before their big speech on Thursday night.

But listen, it's just up the road. They're making a strategic choice about the geographic, you know, locale to be able to get both Harris and Walz to a critical battleground state.

KEILAR: Yes. And taking yourself off that path for four days is tough.

CHALIAN: Well, they're doing the rally in the arena that Donald Trump held his convention in just last month. So they want to do that contrast.

KEILAR: Yes, very interesting.

David Chalian, thank you so much.

CHALIAN: Sure.

KEILAR: We have much more from the Democratic convention ahead, including a crucial part of the Harris campaign's strategy to win over younger voters by finding influencers, particularly influential influencers who can spread their message online. And we'll have that next.

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[13:52:05]

KEILAR: Welcome back to our special coverage of the Democratic National Convention.

Add another first to the Harris campaign's growing list of historic milestones. And that would be a major injection of social media stars.

The DNC credentialed more than 200 content creators to cover the convention in person, with at least one influencer scheduled to speak each night.

They include an immigrant rights activist, a homemaker, and a self- described dirt bag. Sorry -- these self-described dirtbag journalists. I need to be very clear about that.

Combined -- check this out -- they have nearly 20 million followers on TikTok. So they have quite the reach.

CNN's Betsy Klein is with me now on this.

All right, this is -- I mean, it makes sense. Tell us about this strategy.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Yes, I mean the Biden campaign and now the Harris campaign has long had the strategy of they're going to meet voters where they are, specifically young voters. And that is more and more on social media platforms, like TikTok, like Instagram.

And they have this two-pronged digital strategy. One is putting out their own content on platforms like TikTok, the Kamalahq that we've seen be so popular.

But also engage in outreach with influencers and content creators. So as you mentioned, 200 folks are credentialed. Now, by comparison, there's 15,000 journalists credentialed in Chicago this week.

But it really is a range and diversity of the type of content that they put out.

So as you mentioned, there's Nabela Nor. She has 7.6 million followers on TikTok. She's a designer and a homemaker. She's a Millennial. She does not generally put out political content. But she's here and she is one of the featured speakers tonight at the convention.

And there are also more political groups who will focus on immigration, reproductive rights. So really just trying to reach voters who are looking at this content and getting their news this way.

And they've given them a workspace. They also have a platform right off the floor behind us. Really prime real estate to watch the convention, so.

KEILAR: They can get very close to the people who are speaking, which will include all of these big names tonight, the other nights as well.

They're recording a lot of content. And there's always fun, interesting stuff going on that they can find. But are they recording content with Harris herself?

KLEIN: Yes. So we're actually learning right now that Vice President Harris yesterday taped three TikTok videos with three of these 200 influencers.

We don't know much yet about the substance of these posts, whether they're political, whether there's something else, but they will be rolling out in the coming days.

And again, I think it just underscores their commitment to reaching voters who aren't coming to CNN for their news anymore.

KEILAR: Yes, it's very much in line with the strategy that we've seen, which you've been reporting on so well, Betsy.

Thank you so much for doing that. We appreciate it, Betsy Klein.

And next hour, I'll be speaking with the youngest member of Congress, Congressman Maxwell Frost, about how the campaign appeals to Gen Z and wins those votes in November.

[13:54:54]

And ahead, we have more from the Democratic National Convention here in Chicago. Democrats turning the page today to the future with speakers from the past as the Obamas speak to the convention. We'll preview what to watch for tonight and what the campaign is hoping to do.

Stay with us.

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