Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Hezbollah Says it Launched at Least 17 Attacks on Northern Israel; Lebanon: At Least 37 Killed in Pager & Walkie-Talkie Blasts; Israel Military Chief Approves Plan for "Northern Arena"; Speaker Facing Pressure to Pass bill as Trump Calls for Shutdown; Speaker on Failed Funding Bill: Time to "Draw Up Another Play"; Study: U.S. has the Worst Health Care Among Wealthy Nations; Report: Despite Spending the Most Money, Americans have Shortest, Sickest Lives Among Wealthy Nations. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 19, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:00:31]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: An act of war: Hezbollah's leader responding to the Israel-coordinated attack that killed dozens of people and wounded thousands more by detonating pagers and walkie-talkies. Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, saying, quote, "crossed all red lines," that that's what the attack did. The militant group now launching new strikes on northern Israel.

And Americans spending trillions on health care more than any other high-income country. But what do we have to show for it? A new report says, quote, "Americans are sicker, they die younger and struggle to afford essential health care," a harsh indictment of our medical system.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And what happens when your fantasy football chat goes horribly wrong? In what case it led to bomb threats and international investigation and federal charges? We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: We begin this hour in the Middle East, and this just in to CNN. Hezbollah says it has now launched at least 17 attacks into northern Israel in a new escalation that is bringing fears of a wider war closer to a boiling point. Israel's military is saying that it hit dozens of Hezbollah targets inside of Lebanon today, including infrastructure sites and a weapons storage facility.

This follows, of course, days of intense threats from Israel and Hezbollah. The Israeli defense minister vowing that the terror group will pay an increasing price, while the militia's leader warning, quote, the reckoning is coming. Right now, Lebanon is on edge after two days of attacks on wireless devices.

The booby-trapped devices detonated in a series of complex explosions that killed dozens of people and injured thousands more. Let's go now to CNN's Senior International Correspondent, Ben Wedeman. He is live for us from Beirut.

Ben, what can you tell us about these volleying attacks?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, what we're hearing is that within the space of about 20 minutes, within the last hour, more - there have been more than 50 Israeli airstrikes in various - on various targets in southern Lebanon. That after Hezbollah has claimed 17 strikes on Israeli targets.

This definitely would indicate certainly the number of Israeli strikes, a decision by the Israeli military to intensify its attacks on Hezbollah. We know that the Israeli government is under increasing pressure from the population to allow the more than 62,000 Israelis who fled their homes in the north of the country to be able to return.

But what we heard from Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah, in his speech this afternoon in Beirut, that Hezbollah will continue to target Israelis on the other side of the border and Israeli military positions until Israel stops its war in Gaza. That has been Hezbollah's position essentially going back to last October.

Significantly, while that speech was being broadcast, at one point, Israeli jets flew over Beirut, central Beirut, dropping flares. And about a quarter of an hour later, more jets flew over, breaking twice the sound barrier. So, clearly, the Israelis sending a message that there's much more they can do to put pressure on Hezbollah.

Now, what we have seen is that the last Tuesday and Wednesday's blasts involving pagers and walkie-talkies have put not only the populace on edge, but also Hezbollah itself. Nasrallah conceded in his speech that the group had suffered a serious blow, an unprecedented - with these unprecedented attacks, a blow to not only its personnel, but its security, which has clearly been compromised. Compromised going back to late July, when that senior Hezbollah military commander was killed in Beirut.

But certainly, the fact that Israel has been able to infiltrate Hezbollah's communications systems is a real blow to an organization that, until recently, prided itself on its ability to stop Israel from infiltrating its ranks. Brianna?

[15:05:04]

KEILAR: Certainly. Ben Wedeman, thank you for that report live for us from Lebanon. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Let's discuss with CNN Analyst and columnist for the Global Opinion section of The Washington Post, Josh Rogin. He's also the author of "Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi, and the Battle for the Twenty-First Century."

Josh, great to see you, as always.

Let's start with the comments this morning from Nasrallah, this Hezbollah commander talking about the reckoning will come. We know that Hezbollah launched at least 17 attacks into Israel today. What do you expect the retaliation to be for these Israeli strikes on the communication devices and then the airstrikes that we've seen since?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Well, Boris, as we have seen in previous instances, these threats of retaliation are specific enough that we can be sure that there will be some retaliation, but vague enough that we don't know exactly what that retaliation would be. And, moreover, we're not yet at the point where we can conclude that this latest round of escalation will spill over into what hopefully neither side wants, which is an all-out war that could rope in the United States and Iran and Lord knows who else.

So I think that Nasrallah is leaving himself enough room to take a couple of retaliator steps back, see what happens and then make another decision. And that's why I think you see a lot of regional leaders, including Secretary of State Blinken, who is in the region, and the Egyptians, and et cetera, trying to intervene to stop this thing from spiraling out of control.

And, you know, if that can't be done, if the escalation ladder continues to proceed, Israel could be facing an enemy that's a hundred times more powerful than Hamas, which could rope in the United States and Iran and that's a risk that nobody really wants to take. But we'll have to wait a couple of days or a couple of weeks to see how it plays out.

SANCHEZ: What do you read into that description from the IDF about a complete approval of plans for the northern arena? What do you think those plans entail? Is that in itself too vague to read much into?

ROGIN: Right. Again, I think they're leaving themselves some room to choose, actually, between - what's certain is that the Israeli defense forces are refocusing on the northern theater. What's not certain is whether or not their intention is to escalate, to de-escalate, in other words, to escalate, to re-establish a deterrence that will hopefully convince Hezbollah to back down and return safety and security to northern Israel. That's one possible goal.

The other way that they could go is a ground force invasion, which would be sort of how this - the regional war sort of kicks off. Now, we know that the U.S. administration, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, are warning the Israelis in public and private not to do that. But when you see that comment, that's clearly what they're threatening, whether or not they're actually going to do it. Again, we just don't know.

SANCHEZ: I wonder, Josh, how you think that Israel's domestic politics influence this move to adjust the focus from Gaza now to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

ROGIN: Right. It's really interesting because on the one hand, you have a huge split inside of Israeli's politics and Israeli society over whether or not president - Prime Minister Netanyahu should strike a deal soon to release the hostages and have a ceasefire in Gaza or continue to fight Hamas in Gaza until, I guess, it's over and avoid the deal.

But there's very little sort of, at least from what I can tell, disagreement over the idea that the problem in the north needs to be dealt with one way or the other that the Hezbollah attacks, such as they are, need to be stopped. So, of course, they're related. And, of course, what Secretary Blinken is saying is that if you continue to escalate in the north, then there'll be no way to strike a ceasefire in the south.

The problem is that it's not clear that the Netanyahu government wants to strike a ceasefire deal in the south anyway, and it's certainly not clear that they care at all what the Biden administration is saying.

SANCHEZ: So you don't think that this will have much of an impact, these hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel on a ceasefire deal itself between Israel and Hamas?

ROGIN: No, I'm saying that it will surely make the ceasefire deal harder and - but I'm just saying that that doesn't necessarily cut - is simply inside of Israeli politics, as some would like to believe. And it's complicated, but there's no doubt that the more violence there is, the farther away we are from peace. That seems pretty clear.

The question is what's the way to end the war. And on that, I think nobody really has any really good answers.

SANCHEZ: Josh Rogin, appreciate the analysis. Thanks so much.

ROGIN: Anytime.

SANCHEZ: Brianna?

KEILAR: Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson facing a pressure campaign from the leader of his own party.

[15:10:03]

Former President Trump pushing for a government shutdown on September 30th unless he gets his way on the latest spending bill. CNN Washington Correspondent Sunlen Serfaty is with us now from the Hill with details on this.

Sunlen, what are lawmakers saying there?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, there certainly is a growing frustration that there is not a clear path that the Speaker has chosen forward yet. And just moments ago, Speaker Johnson, for the first time today, talked with reporters as he made his way around Capitol Hill. And he said, I'm not making any announcements today in terms of what path forward he has chosen. He goes on to say, now we go back to the playbook and it divides another one.

He mentions, he says, we have got time. We'll get it done. We're having thoughtful conversations right now. But very clear that he has not chosen a path forward and that's what's concerning and frustrating many members up here. He had that big defeat in the House last night on his spending bill that, of course, included those voting provisions that former President Donald Trump wanted and extended it through early next year. That was defeated.

So the big question is what will Speaker Johnson do next. There's a growing sense on Capitol Hill that the Speaker needs to embrace a clean continuing resolution, a clean spending bill, get through the elections, get through potentially the holiday season to sign another one, but leave those fights for another day after the November election. But, as of now, Brianna, he has not chosen a path forward.

Now, meantime, in the Senate, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, he took some procedural steps this afternoon to kind of put the ducks in a row should the Senate need to move before the House. But that's all to say right now on Capitol Hill, Speaker Johnson, again, reiterated that he's not chosen a path forward, whether he will accept a clean continuing resolution. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. Sunlen, thank you so much for that report from the Hill.

I'm joined now by CNN's Alayna Treene. And Alayna, we should note that it's a bit of a hallmark of the former president's to influence his party's legislative agenda, even though he's out of office.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Oh, absolutely. I mean, this is obviously not the first time we've seen Donald Trump, you know, try to influence what is happening on Capitol Hill. Remember earlier this year, a lot of Republicans actually were very angry with Donald Trump because he helped to sink that bipartisan border bill deal that they had come up with and prevented it from happening.

And now you've heard Manu Raju, who's been interviewing a lot of people on Capitol Hill for us, hearing similar things now from Republicans as well, that they are frustrated because a lot of people do not want a shutdown. And now, as Sunlen walked through, I think it's important to keep in mind what exactly Donald Trump is asking for and we saw him post about this.

He's posted about it a couple of times now, but yesterday, just hours before that House vote, the former president went on Truth Social and said, Republicans need to pass the SAVE Act, every single ounce of it or not move forward with this continuing resolution.

But remember, the SAVE Act is about having non - keeping noncitizens from voting in elections. But that is illegal in every single state already. So a lot of people are kind of like, why is this such a big problem? And that's why you're hearing Democrats push back on this effort.

I think one interesting thing that I've been paying attention to is that this is actually the same issue that House Speaker Mike Johnson went to Mar-a-Lago for in May. He did that joint press conference with Donald Trump to talk about this bill. And part of that was because he recognized at the time his speaker gavel was on the line. And that's really what a lot of this, I think, is coming down to.

Donald Trump is still such a kingmaker, not only in Republican politics, but very much on Capitol Hill. And what he says is absolutely influencing their decisions.

KEILAR: His speaker gavel on the line again, right?

TREENE: Yes.

KEILAR: We'll see that. So he - tell us about this event, Trump is going to be speaking tonight in Washington before the country's largest pro-Israel conference.

TREENE: Yes. He actually has two events. One is going to be a little bit earlier, where he's sitting down with GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson. And then later, he's going to be addressing the Israel American conference, as you mentioned, the largest kind of gathering of these pro-Israel supporters. And a lot of this is him trying to court disaffected Jewish Americans, especially ahead of November, particularly those who are not exactly happy with the way that the Biden administration has been handling the war between Israel and Hamas.

Now, I do want to note that, of course, Donald Trump often refers to himself as the most pro-Israel president that they have had in recent American history. But at the same time, we also know that he's made a lot of disparaging remarks about Jewish Americans. Many that people have argued are anti-Semitic. He said that people aren't exactly Jewish if they're voting for Democrats, things like that.

So I think it's important to keep that in context when we hear from Donald Trump this evening. But this is definitely a move by him and his campaign to kind of pull as many voters in that camp as they can, as they look forward to November 5th.

KEILAR: All right. Alayna Treene, thank you so much for that.

[15:15:01]

Still ahead, a new study shows Americans are the sickest and die the youngest of any high-income nation. We are digging into the report and asking two doctors how to improve our health.

Plus, fantasy football gets out of hand. How a feud led to a fake bomb threat, an international investigation and federal charges.

And saving Florida's coral reefs from climate change, how scientists are relocating hundreds of endangered sea corals to Texas. Those stories and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:19:56]

KEILAR: Some disturbing news about the state of American healthcare. A new report finds that even though Americans spend more on healthcare than any other high-income country, Americans are sicker, they die younger and many can't American healthcare.

SANCHEZ: Now, the study compared the 10 richest nations and ranked the United States last on access to care, life expectancy, rates of death and disease, and experiencing the most avoidable deaths. All of the nine other countries have universal health coverage, and the best healthcare came in Australia, the Netherlands, and the U.K., while the U.S. again came in 10th.

Here to discuss primary care physician and public health specialist Dr. Saju Mathew and Dr. Chris T. Pernell as well, director of the NAACP Center for Health Equity and a Regent-at-Large for the American College of Preventive Medicine. Thank you both for being with us.

Dr. Mathew, based on what you've seen as a primary care physician, do you agree with the findings of this report?

DR. SAJU MATHEW, PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIAN & PUBLIC HEALTH SPECIALIST: You know, unfortunately, Boris, you know, we are the richest country in the world as you just mentioned there, but we have the poorest outcomes and that is absolutely true. We spend all this money, we pay more, but we get less. And, you know, there's so many different reasons for this, but ultimately it's also what you mentioned in the opening, we don't have a universal healthcare policy.

Now, I tell you, when I talk to patients and other doctors, most people agree that we do need some type of a universal healthcare. The problem is how do you pay for it, and that is where we get lost in conversation after conversation. And ultimately what happens is if you are rich, if you have a good healthcare plan, you're probably good to go, especially if you're healthy.

One of the biggest problems is healthcare inequity, where minority populations are affected the most with decreased access to healthcare and using the system more at the very end when they are really sick versus when they are healthier.

KEILAR: So Dr. Pernell, what are the things that people are experiencing on just a day-to-day basis that would be supported by this report? Like it talks about access to care, you know, is it access to specialists, is it access to primary care and these avoidable deaths. Can you tell us a little bit about some of the findings there?

DR. CHRIS T. PERNELL, DIRECTOR, NAACP CENTER FOR HEALTHY EQUITY: Yes, Brianna. On an average day across the United States, what we see is that far too many Americans experience a tale of two Americas. And what I mean by that is you have certain populations and groups that disproportionately don't have primary care physicians available. They don't have the health insurance to have access to those primary care positions.

When they do have health insurance, it may - they may be underinsured or they're using their emergency room for issues that would be better served in an outpatient setting. And then finally, you have a host of social conditions or those social determinants of health as we define them that are impressing upon their health outcomes and they're living sicker and they're dying sooner. And bottom line, this is an equity disaster.

SANCHEZ: So what lessons can be learned, Dr. Pernell, from the report? Like, what do you see as the solution? How can it be improved?

PERNELL: Basically, it's not just how much money you invest, but it's what you invest the money in. In the United States, we spend over 16 percent of our GDP on our health system. And does that show up in things like quality and safety or even in clinical preventive services.

Yes, it does, but it does not impact people across the diversity of zip codes, across the diversity of communities. So we need to invest in our pipelines to provide more physicians from diverse and inclusive backgrounds. We need to assure universal health care and we need to look at the environmental or the social conditions in which people are living and thriving.

KEILAR: Yes, I think that's the thing too, Dr. Mathew. People feel like they're getting fleeced just to get care in order to have a decent outcome. And I wonder what you see in the long-term for people health-wise and financially when that's the case?

MATHEW: Well, you know, Brianna, the bottom line is if you look at our culture, this system is basically set up where people say, you take care of your health care, I will take care of mine. And it's almost like a individual responsibility to seek health care. And that's really one of the bigger problems is that we don't have, again, a universal where we're all in this together. That's one of the biggest problems.

Also, high administrative costs. I see about 20 patients a day and I can't tell you the number of times that my nurse has to be on the phone trying to get this very costly, expensive medications paid for.

[15:25:07]

Even medications like Ozempic and Wegovy, they're extremely expensive. You've got to get a prior authorization. That's also the problem. And then ultimately, as doctor, you know, Pernell mentioned, we need to create an incentive for doctors like me to want to go into primary care. Most medical students are not picking primary care. They're picking nephrology, cardiology. And ultimately, if you spend more money in preventive care, we can prevent a heart attack from happening before they have to go in and see a cardiologist.

SANCHEZ: And Dr. Pernell, there was one area where the United States ranked fairly highly and that was the care process. What exactly does that mean?

PERNELL: Good point, Boris. So again, that drills down on issues around quality. In the United States, we put a fair amount of investments around value-based care, incentivizing physicians and providers to do those things that will keep people healthy before disease sets in or before disease worsens. And there's a fair amount of investment around safety, knowing how best to take care of people for, say - for instance, when they're in a hospital to prevent infection.

So while that is a bright spot, I cannot underscore. The reason that we can perform well in that area, but bottom out amongst all of our peers is because we don't make the right comprehensive investments. And those investments will not just be in our health care systems but in our social settings as well.

SANCHEZ: Dr. Pernell, Dr. Mathew, appreciate you both. Thanks for joining us.

Still ahead, we're going to figure out how that light just turned off, Brianna.

KEILAR: Did we not pay the bill?

SANCHEZ: What was that? That was ...

KEILAR: I'd better check.

SANCHEZ: Still to come, a fantasy football beef turned into a full- blown international investigation ending with one person facing federal charges.

KEILAR: And you get a live stream - and you get a live stream. Tonight, Oprah campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris, hosting a Zoom call for more than 90,000 people. We're going to look at how black women could decide this election.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)