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Labor Strike Across Israel to Pressure Government to Make Hostage Deal; Biden Returns to Campaign Trail as Harris' Top Surrogate; Millions Expected to Hit the Roads and Skies for Labor Day. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired September 02, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, anger, grief, and frustration in Israel as protesters call for an immediate ceasefire deal with Hamas after Israel's military recovered bodies of six hostages murdered in Gaza. In just hours, President Biden and Vice President Harris will meet with the U.S. team working on a negotiating deal.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: and new this morning, President Biden making the shift from candidate to surrogate as he returns to the campaign trail in Pennsylvania.

And the Labor Day travel rush is on, millions of people passing through airports and highways. Kate is one of them. She's out.

I'm John Berman with Sara Sidner, and this is a special holiday edition of a show like no other, CNN News Central.

All right.

SIDNER: John, you always try to take over. That's what happens at the beginning of the show on a holiday weekend.

All right, happening right now, there are mass protests intensifying in Israel as grief and outrage over the killings of six hostages in Gaza now threatened to cripple Israel's economy. Overnight, police using tear gas and stun grenades to control the crowd. Hundreds of thousands of workers now on strike, hoping Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hand will be forced into an immediate ceasefire deal.

Among the six murdered hostages was Israel-American Hersh Goldberg- Polin. This morning, his funeral will be held and we are standing by for a critical meeting in the White House Situation Room to begin with negotiators.

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with U.S. hostage negotiators as Israel says 101 hostages are still being held by Hamas, including seven Americans and their families, four of whom are still believed to be alive.

Kylie Atwood is in Washington. Kylie, what can we expect from the meeting this morning between Biden, Harris and the negotiating team?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, listen, this is a meeting that will take place in the Situation Room at the White House here in Washington today. And according to the White House, what they're going to discuss are efforts to drive towards a deal to secure the release of these hostages.

Now, Sara, this is something that we have heard time and time again over months, but what U.S. officials say now is that there is added urgency to these efforts, and that's because of the execution of those six hostages by Hamas over the weekend.

Now, just to remind our viewers, there are a total of 101 hostages believed to be held by Hamas, 68 of those alive, seven of those are Americans and four of those Americans are believed to be alive. And one of the complicating factors that they're going to have to discuss this week is the fact that, according to a senior U.S. official, the U.S. had been discussing a final package with Qatar and Egypt that they would presumably present to both Israel and Hamas that would try and actually break this logjam, secure a deal for the release of these hostages and a ceasefire agreement.

But one of the problems is that some of these hostages that were killed over the weekend were involved in that package that they were putting together. So, they're going to have to put their heads down and figure out what that new final package, according to a U.S. official, could look like.

And we also heard from President Biden over the weekend after the execution of those six hostages. And I want to read to you a portion of what he said, Sara, saying, quote, make no mistake, Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes, and we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages.

Now, he also said that negotiators had been on the verge of securing a deal. So, this is a devastating moment, not only for the families of these hostages who were killed over the weekend, but also for these negotiators who had been working tirelessly to try and get to a deal. I want us to listen to a portion of what the cousin of one of the hostages killed over the weekend said earlier.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIL DICKMANN, COUSIN OF CARMEL GAT, HOSTAGE KILLED IN GAZA: Of course, they blame Hamas and I also blame my government.

And right now we know the decisions that our Prime Minister Netanyahu has made it impossible for Carmel and other hostages to return and put their lives in great danger. And that's what killed them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ATWOOD: Now, we should also note that a senior U.S. official said that the execution over the weekend, of course, calls into question just how serious Hamas is about coming to a deal, but it also puts added pressure on Israel and on Prime Minister Netanyahu personally to try and come to that deal. So, this is something that we will be monitoring incredibly closely this week. Sara?

SIDNER: There is so much fear, so much heartbreak on both sides of that awful war. Thank you so much, Kylie Atwood. I appreciate your reporting this morning. John?

BERMAN: All right, we want to try to get to CNN's Jeremy Diamond, who is in Tel Aviv amidst the protests and demonstrations there. The signal's been going up and down. Jeremy, are you with us?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I got you, John.

BERMAN: Go ahead. Why don't you set the scene? Tell us what you're seeing there.

DIAMOND: Well, John, over the last 24 hours, we have been seeing an outpouring of grief, of anger, of frustration, so many different emotions since the news of the killing of those six hostages who were being held in Gaza. A lot of that anger being directed not only, of course, at Hamas, who the Israeli military says executed these six hostages just shortly before Israeli soldiers entered the tunnels of Rafah and found their bodies, but there has also been so much anger being directed at the Israeli government. I'm here in front of HaKirya, which is the Israeli military's headquarters. This is Begin Gate, and we are standing on Begin Road here.

This is where you have seen those weekly Saturday night protests. But today, we saw something extraordinary. Not only after last night we saw large crowds of hundreds of thousands of people showing up in Tel Aviv to demand that this government reach a deal to secure the release of the hostages, but today, in the middle of the day on a Monday, we saw both sides of this main road blocked off by protesters. It was only just minutes ago that protesters moved and allowed buses and traffic to resume on this street.

They've just removed the barricades that were blocking this road, but you can still see that some of these protesters are sitting down. They do not want to allow traffic to resume here as they try and make this point that they believe that these six hostages could have returned to Israel alive had this government prioritize a hostage deal appropriately. We know from our reporting to Israeli officials telling me that three of those hostages were on the list to be released during the first phase of a ceasefire agreement. They were in what is known as the humanitarian category that was set to be released.

And so many of the folks that we've been talking to here today, as well as the families of those hostages, have expressed anger, that this is really government could be doing more to reach a ceasefire deal, and that if urgent action isn't taken now to change the position of the Israeli government, that many more Israeli hostages being held in Gaza could die as well and could return home in body bags rather than alive to be hugging their families. John?

BERMAN: All right. Jeremy Diamond for us in Tel Aviv, Jeremy, now that we have your signal up, we will be coming back to you again shortly. Thank you so much for being there.

This morning, President Biden taking on a new job title, top surrogate for the Harris-Walz campaign.

In a new interview, Donald Trump debuts a new and maybe legally perilous defense strategy against accusations of election interference. He said he had every right to do it.

And this morning, millions of Americans hitting the roads and airports as they try to head home from their Labor Day travel, why this holiday weekend is breaking records.

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[07:10:00]

SIDNER: New this morning, President Biden is returning to the campaign trail as Vice President Kamala Harris' top surrogate. He will head to the critical blue wall state of Pennsylvania today and Wisconsin and Michigan later on in the week.

His reemergence on the campaign trail coincides with Harris preparing to scale back her public appearances as she gets ready for her first debate with former President Donald Trump that's in just over a week from now.

CNN Senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak is joining us now this morning. Good to have you, Kevin. What are you hearing about this sort of new strategy for Harris with Biden really featuring at the top of her push?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, this is kind of a new phase for President Biden. He's no longer the candidate, but he is going to act as kind of the validator-in-chief for his vice president in this final sprint towards November. And we do know that over the last several weeks, as President Biden has remained somewhat out of view, his team has been talking and debating and coming up with this strategy for the fall as he works to get Kamala Harris to the White House. And we will see the start of that today in Pittsburgh, as both of them look to woo union workers at a union hall in Pittsburgh.

This is something of a strategy for them. And that is what we expect President Biden to be focusing on in his own campaign role, is to really look at those blue wall states, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. He'll be in all of those states this week as he looks to capitalize on what his team still views as some political capital among those blue collar workers.

[07:15:06]

Of course, President Biden had been operating on that strategy when he was a candidate. Now he will operate on that strategy as a surrogate for Kamala Harris.

And it has been interesting in the time since President Biden dropped out of the race. He's actually seen his approval rating tick up somewhat. And I think his team will very much want to capitalize on that as they look to get Kamala Harris into the White House.

How much we see them campaigning together, as we'll see them do today, I think, remains to be seen. What advisers describe as more of a divide and conquer approach as they each look to take their relative popularities onto the campaign trail.

Now, for Kamala Harris, I think it's also something of a balancing act. She is trying to portray a new way forward, but, of course, she's also the sitting vice president and has, you know, been very vocal about her loyalty to President Biden and to the accomplishments that they had in office. She will be preparing for the debate coming up in a week's time, but over the weekend, we did see a poll showing her taking a slight lead among likely voters, but her campaign says that they are still very much the underdog.

The campaign chair, Jen O'Malley Dillon, said as they head into the final stretch of this race, they are the clear underdogs clearly looking to guard against any overconfidence heading into the fall.

SIDNER: What can you tell us about what the events are today, Kevin?

LIPTAK: Yes, and this is interesting because you really can't imagine a more Joe Biden-type event than Labor Day in Pittsburgh. He's been in that city multiple times for Labor Day over the last several years. And they really are looking to court the union voters. Democrats view them as a mobilizing force in the election.

Of course, some of the rank and file union members have been tilting towards Donald Trump over the last several elections. And what they're trying to do today is to really try and galvanize support among a voting bloc that they think can pay dividends and kind of be an exponential force for voters going forward, whether it's talking to voters, volunteering, knocking on doors. And that is really the objective today. And it's something that I think you'll see President Biden doing going ahead.

He has described himself as the most pro-union president in history and it's very much something that he wants to sort of translate to his campaigning for Kamala Harris.

SIDNER: Yes, you got to have a strong ground game, and that's what they're trying to pull off. Kevin Liptak, thank you so much, I appreciate it.

All right, in just hours, President Biden and Vice President Harris will meet with the U.S. hostage negotiating team when it comes to the Israel-Gaza war in the Situation Room. What to expect.

And surging holiday travel numbers, it's happening you all. Today, might just be the worst day to hit the road. Sorry about that. We'll try to help you get around some of that traffic too.

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[07:20:00] BERMAN: All right. This morning, millions of people across the country are on the road or at the airport. Gas prices are a bit lower, $3.33 a gallon. And the TSA expects as many as 17 million passengers to head through the airports through Wednesday.

CNN's Pete Muntean will be there every minute from now until Wednesday at Reagan National Airport. Pete, give us a sense of what you're seeing.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You know, John, this is a huge day for air travel, the last to get away for so many this summer on what's been a huge summer for air travel. In fact, the biggest ever, a quarter billion people, 250 million people passed through TSA checkpoints between Memorial Day and Labor Day. We're averaging about 2.6 million people each day. Friday was an even bigger number than that, 2.9 million people. In fact, the TSA was anticipating only about 2.8 million people. So it's a 6 percent increase over this time last year.

The good news is the cancelations really peaked back on Thursday when bad weather moved through the Mid-Atlantic. The numbers have been relatively low, although the FAA is warning of some possible ground stops today due to thunderstorms as the day progresses in Texas and in Florida. So, we are not totally out of the woods just yet.

One thing that TSA is pointing out that is keeping things moving smoothly at airports is more facial recognition technology. They say, even though there's a bit of controversy around it, people have really taken to it. You can't opt out. And the way this works, is that you put your I.D. in the machine. The camera live on the machine matches your face with your picture on the I.D. and that gets you through security. They say it's more accurate than a human checking it.

Right now, here at the Terminal 2 north checkpoint here at Reagan National Airport, this is about the busiest we're going to see. The live numbers about 17 to 20 minutes to get through standard screening here, about five to eight minutes to get through TSA pre-check.

TSA used this analogy with me on Friday. I have to say it again. It's Chick-fil-A when the line is long, it is long, but it's moving pretty efficiently. They're just trying to get so many people through on this last getaway for the summer.

BERMAN: I bet no one going through security gets a chicken sandwich though when they go through the mags. I will say that. So, in that way, it's unlike Chick-fil-A.

MUNTEAN: Chick-fil-A is actually beyond security here at TSA.

BERMAN: It's a good point, point well taken. Kate Bolduan at an undisclosed location this morning. Sara and I are concerned about whether she'll make it back. What's the likelihood that if she's driving back that she will be here by tomorrow?

MUNTEAN: The driving is going to be pretty chaotic today, because you have to remember that some people are still working today. [07:25:00]

And so the big time for traffic is when the normal commuting rush meets the holiday travel rush. So, the worst times today, according to AAA, in general, are between about 11:00 A.M. and 8:00 P.M., with so many people coming home all at once. You got to think about the beach destinations, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, the Bay Bridge Tunnel coming back from Virginia Beach. Those places are going to be really jammed.

The best time to go, according to AAA, is in just a few minutes, before 10:00 A.M. So, hit the road now maybe after CNN News Central ends.

BERMAN: Definitely after CNN News Central ends. Pete Muntean, great to see you. Hang in there, my friend. We appreciate it.

So, was it an admission of guilt? Donald Trump claims he had every right to interfere with the 2020 election.

And this morning, unfinished beef, and lots and lots of finished beef, as patriot and legend Joey Chestnut takes on Japanese rival Kobayashi and a live stream hotdog eating contest.

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