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Protests Rage As Angry Israelis Demand Hostage Deal; Netanyahu Doubles Down, Says Israel Must Control Philadelphi Corridor; Acknowledges Dissent In Cabinet; State Dept: U.S. Not Pushing Israel To "Compromise Its Security" In Hostage Talks; Harris & Trump Prepare To Face Off In First Debate Next Week; Analysis: Trump Repeats False Claims He Used During 2016 Campaign. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 03, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: A new phase in an already brutal war. Hamas is now releasing footage of what it describes as the last messages of some of the hostages killed last week, and warning that it will kill more hostages if Israeli troops close in. All of this adding to the pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a hostage ceasefire deal.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Plus, one week to their first debate, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump taking different approaches as they prepare to face off. We're going to take a closer look at these two different strategies.

And embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accusing the U.S. of piracy after the Justice Department took custody of his presidential airplane.

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

KEILAR: All right. We are getting some chilling details about some new tactics that Hamas is using to try to shake Israel's resolve. The terror group is now releasing videos showing some of the six hostages found dead over the weekend before they were killed. One family saying it amounts to psychological terror.

Hamas says its fighters have new orders to kill hostages across Gaza if Israeli troops close in. Part of a brutal new campaign aiming to capitalize on public outrage in Israel against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not securing a ceasefire deal.

SANCHEZ: Right now, large crowds are gathering for the third straight night across Israel pleading with Netanyahu to compromise. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is live for us in Tel Aviv.

Jeremy, earlier we saw moments of real tension between protesters and uniformed officials. There was a bonfire going off at one point. How is the government responding to all of this? JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, so far what we have seen is the defiance of the Israeli Prime Minister, who is watching this pressure very closely, but is choosing to ignore it or at least cast it aside. We saw the Israeli Prime Minister last night doubling down on what has become a major sticking point in these ongoing hostage and ceasefire negotiations, and that is the presence of Israeli troops along that Philadelphi corridor, that critical stretch of land along the Gaza-Egypt border.

And he is showing no signs of stepping back from that position, insisting that he believes it is critical to Israel's security needs, despite the fact that many in Israel's security establishment disagree with that position, including the Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who has said that he believes it is more worthwhile to get to a hostage deal right now, to get dozens of hostages out potentially, and that ultimately Israel could return to the Philadelphi Corridor, recapture it within hours, is what he actually said in a recent cabinet meeting.

But you know who else is defiant is these protesters. Because now for the third night in a row, we have seen these protesters come out in the streets in thousands of them tonight in Tel Aviv. Yes, they are in fewer numbers than they were these last two nights, but the very fact that you are seeing thousands of people now in Tel Aviv for the third night in a row is something quite remarkable and something quite rare in the course of this war.

And so we are seeing the divisions in Israeli society over this hostage release deal being borne out, because the Prime Minister, he is joined by many allies in his right-wing governing coalition, among right-wing voters in Israel. And so he is quite secure in his position right now, despite what we are seeing in the streets.

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The question is, if this continues for days on end, weeks perhaps, will that change the political calculus of the Israeli Prime Minister, who clearly for now believes that it is more politically advantageous for him to stick to his guns, to not agree to any conditions in a ceasefire deal, to insist on this notion of the Philadelphi Corridor, which many of these protesters, as well as members of the opposition are pointing out. Israel only captured in May and that demand about keeping the Philadelphi Corridor was not included, we should note, in the July framework that Israel and Hamas had previously reached that was going to be the basis for an agreement.

KEILAR: All right. Jeremy Diamond, thank you for that, live for us from Tel Aviv.

CNN's Kylie Atwood is at the State Department. And Kylie, we just heard from a State Department spokesman about the hostage negotiations. What did he say?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, he said that the new proposal that the United States is working on, along with Qatar and Egypt, that they will hopefully present to Israel and Hamas, remains in the works. He wouldn't give a time frame for when they might actually roll out that new proposal, we heard yesterday from President Biden saying that they are very close to that.

And he also said one day at a time, one step at a time, when asked to describe this new proposal that would be put on the table. We have heard from some administration officials describing what would be put forward as a final proposal. That is not how the State Department spokesperson surmised what would actually be put down, effectively saying that the United States isn't at the end of the road here in terms of its efforts, and they really can't be. There are still Americans who are part of that group of hostages that are still being held by Hamas.

And we have heard from U.S. officials, from the White House in recent days, that after the murder of those six hostages over the weekend, that the United States is going to hold Hamas accountable. They are going to seek justice for the death of those hostages and ask the State Department spokesperson if they're putting any new resources into that goal. He said they are not. They're not doing anything new to try and pursue that goal. It has been a goal of theirs for quite some time, he said, since October 7th, to try and bring justice to Hamas after the horrific attack that started this entire war.

So they're still pursuing that, but that is not something that they're putting new resources into at this time. And he continued to say that the deaths that occurred over the weekend underscore, of course, the urgency to try and get a deal done here, but there still remain those sticking points, as Jeremy was pointing out, and it remains unclear how they're going to actually mount those. Brianna?

SANCHEZ: Kylie Atwood, live for us at the State Department, thank you so much.

Let's discuss those sticking points and more with former hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin. He's the Middle East Director for the International Communities Organization.

Gershon, great to see you. Thanks so much for being with us.

So the reporting indicates that the latest roadblock to a deal is now the presence of IDF troops in the Philadelphi Corridor, Israel arguing to keep them, Hamas saying that it is a nonstarter. Do you see either side budging on that?

GERSHON BASKIN, FORMER HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR: It's difficult to see them budging on any of the sticking points that remain between them. The main one being Hamas' demand that Israel end the war and Israel's refusal to end the war. The Philadelphi Corridor is a made-up problem. It's not really an issue. It's put there by Netanyahu to prevent an agreement.

It was reported tonight in Israeli news that not a single tunnel was found by the Israeli army along that 14-kilometer corridor that actually entered Egypt, that in fact the Egyptians have done the job of sealing that corridor over the years. And in any event, if there is a need to guarantee its sealing, it has to be done on the Egyptian side of the border where they are sovereign. I would assume that they would ask for the help of the United States to assure Israel that it is in fact sealed. American verification, American oversight of that border would resolve the issue of Israel needing to stay on the Gaza side of the border. It can be easily removed as a problem in these negotiations.

SANCHEZ: You have been critical of Netanyahu in recent days, posting on social media that Netanyahu is, quote, "Sacrificing the hostages on the altar of his personal political survival." I think it's fair to say that a lot of the protesters on the ground in Israel share that criticism of Netanyahu. He argues that what is immediately needed to beat Hamas is internal unity. How do you see this discord, this disagreement shaping the outcome of the war?

BASKIN: I think it's very important to realize that we've always known there is no military solution to this conflict.

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There is no military solution to dealing with Hamas.

Ultimately, Hamas is an ideology and an idea and a political movement, and it has to be attacked politically. It has to be done in a way that offers the Palestinian a much better alternative than what Hamas has offered them, and I think that most Palestinians today would agree to that.

What they are ultimately seeking is freedom and liberation and dignity, and Israel is seeking security, and those things need to be achieved together.

But I think what's really important now to say is to the American administration that's working on a new plan, that it has to be a lot better than what they put on the table until now. Their three-phase, six-week starting plan with 32 hostages being released just doesn't do it. It's a bad plan. The Americans need to put a plan on the table that ends this war quickly and returns all the hostages, and Palestinian prisoners will be released, and humanitarian aid will be stepped up. But the main thing is to get this done.

The Israeli military people that I've consulted with in the past week have all verified that the war can end in three weeks. Hamas has told me that they're willing to release all the hostages in a deal that would end the war in three weeks.

That needs to be verified by the Americans, by the Qataris and the Egyptians, because no one should listen to me. I'm not important here. What is important is hearing from Hamas, and they've told me that they would say yes to Qatar and Egypt if they're asked if they would accept a three-week deal that would return all 101 Israeli hostages.

SANCHEZ: I do disagree on the idea that it's important to hear what you have to say, because obviously you're very well-versed on these matters, Gershon. I do want to get one final question in. It sounds like you believe the U.S. could do more to perhaps move Netanyahu to accept a deal in which the war would end. I'm wondering what you think they can do to facilitate that, and conversely, if there's anything they can do, as some Israeli officials have tried to argue, to move Hamas as well, to try to pressure Sinwar into accepting some kind of deal.

BASKIN: So my understanding is that the most important thing to Sinwar and the Hamas leadership is to end the war. With regard to Israel, Israel is so dependent on the United States. The relationship between the United States and Israel is so deep and so wide. There are so many tools that the Americans have in their diplomatic toolbox with Israel.

But the most important thing is to understand it is that the people of Israel are the sovereign, and not Mr. Netanyahu. And if there's a real deal on the table that guarantees the Israeli people that 101 Israeli hostages will be returned, and the war will end, Hamas can be dealt with later, but right now we need to do those two things, end the war and bring the hostages home.

I would add, because this is a concern of the whole world and the American people as well, that between 40,000 and 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, and Gaza is destroyed, and there are humanitarian reasons why this war should end as well. So I think the United States has an interest in getting this done. It needs to use the pressure that it has over Israel to get it done. It needs to appeal to the Israeli people to stand up and tell Netanyahu that your political career is not worth saving. What is worth saving are the 101 Israeli hostages. We don't know how many of them are still alive.

SANCHEZ: Gershon Baskin, appreciate you sharing your perspective.

BASKIN: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still to come, fact-checking Donald Trump. A CNN analysis finds the former president is telling the same lies he's been telling for years. Is that strategy working for him?

KEILAR: Plus, fake ads claiming the Philadelphia Eagles endorsed Kamala Harris for president started popping up at bus stops around the city. Here what the team is saying about all this.

And later he did it again, Joey Chestnut beating his own record in a hot dog eating showdown. The true glizzy gobbler, how many glizzies did he gobble? We'll have that ahead.

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SANCHEZ: We are just one week away from potentially the most consequential moment of Vice President Kamala Harris' accelerated campaign when she goes face-to-face with former President Donald Trump on the debate stage in Philadelphia. And as both candidates step away from the campaign trail today to prepare, top allies of the Harris campaign are launching a battleground bus tour focused on reproductive rights, beginning in Florida.

KEILAR: And this comes as the Vice President's team is going on offense when it comes to inflation and the economy, releasing a new ad highlighting her plan to ban corporate price gouging. With us now, we have CNN National Politics Correspondent Eva McKend, who's covering the Harris campaign, and CNN National Correspondent Kristen Holmes on the Trump campaign.

All right. Eva, what more can you tell us about Harris' plans here ahead of the debate?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, part of the strategy seems to have this more pared-down schedule so that she can prepare. We know that historically she has prepared strenuously for big moments like this one.

In terms of the campaign strategy that has come into focus the last couple of weeks, she's really focused on affordability and trying to frame herself as a real champion for the middle class. I think that this argument is landing in some corners. I was at her Detroit rally yesterday speaking to union workers. I was speaking to a union carpenter, and he told me, listen, the reason why I vote for - I'm going to vote for Vice President Harris and by extension Democrats is I feel as though I don't make enough money to support Republicans.

The first part of her economic plan focused on going after what she would characterize as greedy corporations.

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On this issue of price gouging, it also focused on $25,000 for first- time homebuyers. The second part of her economic strategy will come into focus in New Hampshire, where she will talk about policies to help small businesses.

SANCHEZ: And we are just getting some new information about Vice President Harris' schedule. She's set to go to Pittsburgh later this week, and apparently she's going to stay in Pennsylvania after that event in Pittsburgh in order to prepare for the debate so we can look forward to more conversations previewing what will be a big night next Tuesday.

Kirsten, do you - how is the Trump campaign preparing for this final sprint toward Election Day now that we're past Labor Day?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we can talk about the debate as well. Donald Trump's team, they had said this going to be - this being the campaign, it was going to be Trump on steroids, but we really haven't actually seen that yet. We saw one week of several events, and this week he has a streaming of the Republican Jewish Coalition. He is going to speak at the New York Economic Club.

He has a potential court appearance, but not that ramped-up visits to swing states that we had heard talk about. Now, I'm told that part of this is because he is holding these policy sessions routinely during the day. He's currently in his Bedminster resort. He's going to be ducked out in Mar-a-Lago over the weekend with various lawmakers, with his senior advisers, getting ready for the debate with Kamala Harris.

And even if his team will tell you that he is ready, that he is born ready to debate Kamala Harris, they are still taking this very seriously. They know that he could have issues when he takes the stage against Kamala Harris, and they are hoping to avoid any of those problems.

Remember, they were very happy with the way the debate went against President Joe Biden, but leading up to it, they were very nervous. They weren't sure how he was going to react. They weren't sure what it was going to look like. A lot of them brought up that 2020 debate with President Joe Biden in which he was incredibly aggressive. He had to backtrack in the debate after that.

So they are still going through the policy. We know they brought in Tulsi Gabbard to play Kamala Harris at some point. Not really play her, but as an expert in Kamala Harris. She has actually been on the debate stage with her. They don't do the traditional kind of debate prep that we've seen the Democrats do with moderators, someone filling in as moderator, somebody filling in as the candidate. Instead, they have conversations.

I'll tell you, last time, leading up to the debate with President Joe Biden, one senior advisor told me, we don't use the word preparation when we talk to Donald Trump about getting ready for a debate.

SANCHEZ: Quite an interesting tidbit.

MCKEND: Exactly.

SANCHEZ: Kristen, Eva, thank you both so much.

As the race for the White House gets closer and closer to Election Day, former President Trump is going back to an old playbook. If some of the things he's saying on the campaign trail sound familiar, that's because he's said them before. A new CNN analysis finds that Trump is repeating many of the same false claims he's made in the past, some as far back as his 2016 presidential campaign.

Listen to this lie he's repeatedly made about tariffs.

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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're taking in billions of dollars from China in the form of tariffs, as you know. We're charging China tariffs. We've never taken in $0.10 from China. Now we're taking in billions and billions of dollars.

We took in billions and billions of dollars in taxes and tariffs from China. They never gave us $0.10.

I took in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs from China. Hundreds of billions of dollars, no president ever took in $0.10.

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KEILAR: CNN's Daniel Dale is with us now. He has the answers here. You've been fact-checking Trump for years. Help us break down what we just heard there and also some of the other false statements you've uncovered.

DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: So that's one of those Groundhog Day claims that I've been fact-checking on CNN for five-plus years now and previously at other outlets. So it is not true that China pays the tariffs. U.S. importers pay Trump's tariffs on imported Chinese goods. And study after study has found that American consumers tend to bear the overwhelming majority of the final cost. The importers pass on those costs.

In addition, it's also not true that no previous president had generated $0.10 from tariffs on China, as Trump has repeatedly said over the years. In fact, the U.S. was generating billions from such tariffs, again, paid by Americans, before Trump even took office. And that is hardly the only claim that Trump has been repeating for years. Listen to this one he's been saying for six-plus years now about the Veterans Choice health care program.

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TRUMP: We passed Veterans Choice, giving our veterans the right to see a private doctor rather than waiting online for weeks and months to see a doctor. Forty-four years they tried to pass it.

Ohio loves its vets and what we've done for our vets, choice and accountability. We got two things they've been trying for almost 50 years.

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Choice - Veterans Choice, how about that? We got that for you.

I created and have VA Choice. They've been wanting to do it for 57 years. I got it done, passed in Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DALE: He said it in 2018 - he said it in 2018, he said it in 2020, he said it again last week. CNN viewers are probably sick of me calling it false. It is still false. President Barack Obama was the one who signed the Veterans Choice bill into law in 2014. It was a John McCain-Bernie Sanders bipartisan initiative.

What Trump did sign in 2018, the VA MISSION Act, expanded, modified and made permanent the Choice bill. He could just say that. It was an accomplishment. Instead, he says he got it through Congress. He created it. It is still not true.

KEILAR: Yes, still not true. And as you point out, you said maybe CNN viewers get sick of me calling it false all these times. That's sort of the strategy, right, Daniel? Is that he says it, says it, says it, these things kind of age even as lies. And the hope is that as he's adding new lies, people might not be bothered to go fact-check the old ones.

DALE: I think that's it. You know, news outlets are in the news business, so you might fact-check it the first, second, third, even tenth time he says it. But he said that Veterans Choice stuff more than 150 times. And so eventually, I think most news outlets get worn down. You know, you hear old-fashioned football coaches be like, keep running the ball, keep running the ball. You know, they're stopping you now, but eventually they'll get tired.

I think Trump has successfully tired out much of the U.S. media, saying, well, we've got a lot of new stuff to cover. This is old stuff. But I think it's incumbent upon all of us that as long as he is still saying this stuff, we've got to fact-check it just as frequently. You know, there might be someone who's just tuning into politics, someone who didn't see or fact-check in 2018 or 2020 who's just tuning in now. And I think we have to continue providing the facts, continue providing the corrections, as long as he persists in making the false claims themselves.

KEILAR: Yes, that's such a good point. Daniel Dale, thank you for that.

And ahead, Venezuela is responding to the U.S. seizing a plane used by President Nicolas Maduro, accusing Washington of piracy and escalating aggression. Stay with us for more on this story.