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Israel Launches New Round of Airstrikes on Lebanon; Trump to Deliver Remarks on Manufacturing, Economy in Georgia; Florida Gulf Coast Braces for Storm as Potential Hurricane Forms in Caribbean. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired September 24, 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, nearly 500 killed, 1,600 wounded, as Israel amped up strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon. The U.S. racing to try and stop the conflict from exploding into a wider war.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Heading to the border in what could be, would be, her first visit to the border since becoming the Democratic nominee. What's driving the Harris campaign's travel plans now?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And it could hit as a major hurricane and soon, Florida bracing for what could be the most powerful storm of the season.

I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan and Sarah Sidner. This is CNN News Central.

SIDNER: Breaking overnight, Israel intensifying airstrikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon, sparking major concerns the conflict could spiral into a wider regional war. Over 500 people have been killed in the strikes so far, in what's being described as the deadliest day in Lebanon in nearly two decades.

Hezbollah firing back overnight, launching more than 100 rockets from Southern Lebanon into Northern Israel. So far, no one has been injured from those rockets. All of this coming as President Biden prepares to address world leaders on the global stage at the United Nations just hours from now.

CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson is in Tel Aviv. Nic, a ground invasion would spell all-out war. Has Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu ruled that out at this point?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: You know, his IDF spokesman was precisely asked that question and he didn't rule it out and neither has the prime minister ruled it out. For the Israeli government, it does seem that all options are on the table when it comes to a ground incursion. What they're talking about, they say, is whatever it takes to allow those 60,000-plus Israelis to get back to their homes close to the northern border. And the way that has been spelled out is Hezbollah has to pull back from the border region. So, strikes that Israel has had today into Lebanon. There's been two waves of them, airstrikes deep and into the north of Lebanon in the Bekaa Valley again, as yesterday, and closer to the border towns very much along the border, not only airstrikes as well, artillery and tank fire going across the border.

But when it comes to actually putting troops over, it's not clear that that's going to happen the incoming over, well, approximately 100 incoming missiles from Lebanon into Israel today, some of those landing as far as sort of 30 miles inside Israel, some closer to the border, fires sparked in some areas on one man when a missile hit a road, got moderate shrapnel injuries and was evacuated to hospital here, according to medical authorities.

But, by and large, there is no significant toll on the Israeli civilian population. Across the border in Lebanon, as you say, 558 now people killed since yesterday. And we understand that more than 90 are women and 50 of them are children.

The tension remains extremely high. There are regular now sirens sounding in the north of Israel along the border and towns even deeper into the country.

SIDNER: All right. So, what are you learning about the U.S. military's response to all of this and what's been happening on the border with Israel and Lebanon?

ROBERTSON: The focus is on diplomacy. The focus that we're hearing from Lebanese officials is that there is still active diplomacy underway. We know the U.S. is involved. The French are involved. Other nations are involved. But when it comes to troop deployment, what we're understanding from U.S. officials that they are sending a small number of U.S. troops into the region because of an abundance of caution, because of the upscale of tensions at the moment.

[07:05:07]

But what they're not saying, what officials aren't saying is precisely how many troops they are, what sort of troops they might be, what they're capable of, or, importantly, where they're going.

But, clearly, this represents a growing level of concern and acting out of an abundance of caution now.

SIDNER: And we're certainly expecting to hear from President Biden on all that is happening there in the Middle East. Nic Robertson, thank you so much. I appreciate your reporting there from Tel Aviv for us. Kate?

BOLDUAN: And President Biden's is preparing to speak to world leaders this morning, his final address to the United Nations General Assembly and this dangerous moment in the Middle East likely to overshadow most other topics that are going to be coming up during this gathering this time around.

CNN's Kayla Tausche is out front at the United Nations for us in New York. Kayla, first and foremost, how is the escalation in the Middle East impacting events in New York?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Kate, senior administration officials acknowledge that the escalation in the Middle East is going to be front and center for world leaders in their discussions, both on the sidelines of the assembly here in New York, but also in the formal remarks to the forum throughout the course of the week, as senior officials say that these discussions are going to be focused on stabilizing the situation, with President Biden being briefed around the clock, and trying to present a further urgency for the need for peace in the region.

Throughout the course of the week, we are going to hear from the leaders of Qatar and Iran. They're speaking today. But then later in the week on Thursday, we're expecting to hear from the Palestinian president as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

And so the focus is really on what they plan to say about the situation as it stands on Thursday and what they see as any potential for a ceasefire that the U.S. administration has been working so hard behind the scenes to try to get in place.

But it just underscores how much has changed since President Biden addressed this assembly this time last year. Then the focus was really on rallying world leaders around coming to Ukraine's defenses and trying to shore up support here at home for a massive funding package for Ukraine's defense.

And while President Zelenskyy is expected to address the U.N. Security Council today and the assembly later in the week, U.S. officials say this, they say the world has changed and it's gotten more difficult in many ways, but they say that is the reason why President Biden is continuing to place a focus on the partnerships that he's fortified in the last four years and those partnerships are, they say, more important than ever.

BOLDUAN: And, Kayla, what more are you hearing about President Biden's speech specifically today?

TAUSCHE: Well, he's going to talk about what officials describe as a very difficult year in the Middle East at the first nearly full year of this raging war between Hamas and Israel. And so he's going to talk about that. He's going to talk about the need for a ceasefire, but also peace efforts more broadly around the world with wars raging and more global flashpoints emerging by the day.

But he's going to talk about coalitions and partnerships and allies and the importance of those relationships, not just in the Middle East, also when it comes to NATO, for instance, and Ukraine and protecting and keeping stable relations in the Indo-Pacific as well. And so we're expecting to hear him hit on some of these very familiar themes, but also use it more as a capstone address to foment his legacy on foreign policy, to talk about what he's done over the last four years on climate policy. He's taking a meeting later in the day with a coalition of countries trying to fight fentanyl trafficking, all issues that he's worked on in the last four years as he tries to cement his place in history on the world stage. BOLDUAN: Kayla, thank you so much for being there. Much more to come from this from the United Nations and President Biden's big final address before the General Assembly this morning. John?

BERMAN: All right. Vote for me or you will lose your farm, the new message from Donald Trump.

A direct path right at Florida, breaking this morning, hurricane and storm surge watches up and down the Florida coast, bracing for the most powerful storm of the season.

And attention Kmart shoppers, words that might never be spoken again, a onetime retail giant says goodbye to his big famous stories.

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[07:10:00]

BERMAN: Donald Trump is headed to Georgia today after telling Pennsylvanians early voting is stupid as he tried to get them to vote early.

CNN's Alayna Treene is with us this morning. Sometimes best laid plans, Alayna, you know, don't work out quite so well.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It was quite a contradictory statement, actually, from Donald Trump on this. He had first told Pennsylvanians to get out and to vote early before calling it stupid. Look, I mean, the contradictory statements really, I think, exemplify how Donald Trump feels on this issue. He often argues that he thinks early voting is vulnerable to potential election fraud. He argues it cost him the 2020 election. But at the same time, Republicans have increasingly embraced early voting. You have the RNC and people like Lara Trump on the RNC pushing for people to vote early, recognizing that it is a necessary tool to help them win in November.

But, look, I do want to just shift gears a bit, John, about what we're going to see from Donald Trump today when he heads to Georgia. This is actually Donald Trump's first visit to Georgia in seven weeks, even as his team continues to argue that this is a state that is vital to him winning this fall.

[07:15:08]

And the key plan for him today is to talk about the economy.

Now, we actually heard Donald Trump briefly talk about the economy yesterday. He met with farmers in Pennsylvania. And one of the key things we know that is key to his economic plan is tariffs. Now, he has vowed to hike tariffs, a very broadly imposed sweeping tariffs on different manufacturers if he becomes elected once again. But that comes even as a lot of people are concerned about, yes, maybe this will help some domestic manufacturers, but it could hurt others.

And we did hear one farmer when he was meeting with them at a roundtable in Pennsylvania yesterday asking whether he was concerned about whether tariffs could potentially affect people like John Deere, manufacturers like John Deere. He immediately turned that into attack line on Harris, where he argued that if she were to win, that you wouldn't have a farm anymore.

I want you to take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: A big factor here with all of you, as I speak, is energy in two ways. Number one, you want to be able to collect royalties and other things or even have a job in energy. That's very important to help your farm. And the other thing is you got to keep the prices down. So, we're going to do both and we'll do it fast too. It'll be largely taken care of within 12 months. I predict within 12 months it'll be down 50 percent. And if they get in, your energy costs are going through the roof, okay? They're going to go through the roof. You won't have a farm very long, I will tell you that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, John, that line there, you won't have a farm for very long, I'll tell you that. I mean, this is classic Donald Trump. It's some of that fear mongering we hear from him repeatedly, just like last week when he was speaking to Jewish supporters in Washington, D.C. And he warned that if they do not vote for him, that Israel would not be a country anymore, that it would cease to exist. So, this is the same type of rhetoric we can expect.

But I think looking ahead to Georgia, one of the reasons Donald Trump is talking about the economy is because we actually just saw that polling from The New York Times/Siena College poll that showed Donald Trump has a slight edge over Harris in Georgia. They, of course, want to keep that. But one of the key reasons in that polling that people voted for him was because they said that they believe that he could handle the economy better.

So, of course, that is a key message, really the key message that Donald Trump wants to convey to voters as we look ahead to this final sprint. John?

BERMAN: Alayna Treene for us in Washington. Alayna, thank you very much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right, ahead, a major hurricane on its way to Florida's west coast. A storm in the Gulf is expected to rapidly intensify. We're tracking that for you.

And why Ukraine's president says the war there may be close to its end as he prepares to address international leaders at the United Nations.

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[07:20:00]

BOLDUAN: So, at this hour, a storm system is forming in the Caribbean and is expected to soon become Hurricane Helene. The storm is forecasted to continue intensifying and is headed toward Florida's Gulf Coast this week. And then there's Hurricane John, another storm that made landfall early this morning in Mexico.

CNN's Derek Van Dam is tracking all of it for us. And it seems that there's quite a lot to be tracking at this moment. What's the latest?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it's hard to believe, Kate, that there's the potential for two major land-falling hurricanes in North America within a 72-hour period. We had hurricane, major Hurricane John, make landfall late last night. That surprised everyone, defied a lot of odds, made landfall along the southern coastline of Mexico.

But what we're focusing here that's threatening, at least in the near term for the United States, is what is known as Potential Tropical Cyclone 9. Actually being influenced by some of the sheer or the upper level winds on the west side from Hurricane John that made landfall in Southern Mexico.

Regardless, it's kind of keeping it disorganized in the western Caribbean. But believe me, it will strengthen, and that's associated and lined up with all the forecast.

New this morning at 5:00 A.M. Hurricane watches issued for the big bend, including Tampa Bay. And then further than that, there's also storm surge watches for much of the west coast of the Florida Peninsula. In fact, 10 to 15 foot storm surge possible across the Big Bend, the catcher's mid of Florida by the peak of this storm with the potential of four to eight feet for Tampa Bay, lesser amounts as you head a little bit further south.

Why are we getting impacts from this storm well away from the center? Well, we anticipate it to grow in size. So, the wind field and the storm surge component will expand as the storm approaches late Thursday into the day on Friday. It is forecast explicitly to become a major hurricane as it approaches the Big Bend late Thursday evening. That's why we have this category 3 just before landfall. And you can see the storm system traversing warm waters and really taking off, picking up in forward speed.

So, as it enters Florida, it will quickly reach Georgia as a tropical storm and will bring the winds along with it, along with the heavy rainfall and the potential for flash flooding. And remember, a saturated ground in Georgia, lots of pine trees in the Florida panhandle, this will take down trees. This will also cause power outages.

Rainfall totals from this storm could exceed half a foot. That's why we're anticipating this localized flashflood threat for the day on Thursday. That'll continue into Friday, right along the spine of the Appalachian Mountains.

So, lots to talk about these storms really interconnected, Kate, from John to PTC9, which will soon be Hurricane Helene. Back to you.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and many states that are going to be watching the forecast very closely as it changes in the next couple days.

[07:25:00]

Good to see you, Derek. Thank you so much. John?

BERMAN: All right. This morning, an announcement of more than 400 economists endorsing Vice President Harris.

And for the first time since the mass shooting that killed two students and two teachers, students at Apalachee High School returned to the classroom this morning.

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[07:30:00]

BERMAN: All right. In just a few hours.