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Hamas Acknowledges Israeli Forces Killed Leader Yahya Sinwar; U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Say Death of Hamas Leader Represents Opportunity for Peace; Family Member of Hostage Held by Hamas in Gaza Discusses Latest Developments in War between Israel and Hamas; Trump Insults Harris at Catholic Charity Dinner as She Campaigns in Wisconsin; Biden: Death of Hamas Leader is Opportunity for Gaza Peace Deal. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired October 18, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

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BEN MARSH, PASTOR, FIRST ALLIANCE CHURCH: Is that it's all designed to make people think that they're doing something for Jesus when they're really not. They're doing something for Trump. And look, they're going to do something for whoever replaces Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So interesting. And Donie O'Sullivan joins us right now. That final discussion right there gets to the crux of it all, the connections between religion and politics. Now, whether or not there should be these connections the way they are. And the connections, and you got to this in your piece between election denialism, right, in some forms, or people pushing some forms of this Christian nationalist.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. And if you followed that through line, which is we live in a culture right now and politics of election lies and election denialism. So if you have people who believe, and many of them truly believed that Trump was sent from God, a divine intervention, that he is the chosen candidates, if he loses, or not even if he just loses. But if he loses and it was stolen as a result of fraud, well, we saw what happened last time on January 6th. Christians going into the Capitol under the Christian flag, praying, prayer circles. And there's concerns there that could all happen again.

BERMAN: Donie O'Sullivan, you do such great work.

SULLIVAN: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: Thanks so much for coming in. Appreciate it.

We have a brand new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL beginning right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Biden speaking out from Berlin this morning saying the death of the leader of Hamas is a moment of justice and also a moment, an opportunity for peace.

The Kamala Harris campaign making new pitch with a new ad to win over Latino voters with the help of a musical superstar, just as both Harris and Donald Trump are headed to battleground Michigan today. Not just the same state, even the same county.

And new this morning, the surviving members One Direction are now speaking out for the first time about the tragic death of their former bandmate, Liam Payne.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. Sara is out today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BERMAN: This morning, new important developments following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Just moments ago, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the top priority for the U.S. is the 101 hostages still inside Gaza. This comes after President Biden said a short time ago that Sinwar's death is a quote, moment of justice. And he called again for a ceasefire deal.

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JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The death of the leader of Hamas represents a moment of justice. He had the blood of Americans and Israelis, Palestinians and Germans and so many others on his hands. I told the prime minister of Israel yesterday, let's also make this moment an opportunity to seek a path to peace, a better future in Gaza without Hamas. And I look forward to discussing Iran.

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BERMAN: Just minutes ago, we learned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had met with the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, and they discussed what they called a significant window of opportunity to get the hostages returned and to eliminate Hamas.

Let's get right to CNN chief global affairs correspondent Matthew Chance, who is in Tel Aviv. A lot of discussions, a lot of words, Matthew. What's happening on the ground?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. I mean, there's a lot of discussion of hope that this could be a pivotal moment in the yearlong, more than a yearlong conflict in Gaza against Hamas by Israel. The killing of Yahya Sinwar is being seen as a pivotal moment, or a potential one anyway, in the sense that it could offer an opportunity for a deal to be done to get the hostages out. There were more than 100 hostages, of course, Israeli citizens, that are still being held that are alive inside the Gaza Strip.

You mentioned there the Israeli president, the Israeli prime minister as well, Benjamin Netanyahu, have been talking about this over the course of the past several hours, about how there's a window of opportunity potentially that could lead to a release of hostages. Netanyahu last night talked to talked to, directly to Hamas members, calling on them to lay down their arms and to surrender the hostages and promising that they would live, they would be spared if they did that.

And as you mentioned, within the past few minutes as well, the U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said this represents a significant opportunity, speaking in Brussels, take a listen to what he had to say.

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LLOYD AUSTIN, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Our top priority is the 101 hostages still kidnapped and Gaza, including our own American hostages. They have been through hell, and so have their families. And the hostages should note have to suffer one more hour in captivity. Those who are holding hostages should release them immediately.

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[08:05:07]

CHANCE: There you are. that's another iteration of this idea that the killing of Yahya Sinwar by Israeli forces on Wednesday represents a moment that could see hostages released from the Gaza Strip.

The trouble is, we're not seeing at that being accepted by the other side, as it were, by Hamas has been at the first acknowledgement within the past few hours that Yahya Sinwar that has been killed by Israeli forces, by the Hamas leadership itself. But within that statement, it basically said that Hamas will be victorious. It offered no sense in which this was a fragmentation of the group, that the group was backing down in any way. In fact, it essentially promised to fight on.

And so yes, it is a hope that this is a pivotal moment, but it's not a certainty at this stage, John.

BERMAN: The difference between hope and reality. The question is, just how large is that this morning. Matthew Chance in Tel Aviv. Matthew, thank you very much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So joining me now to talk about this is Abbey Onn. Abbey is an American citizen who lives in Israel, and five of her family were either killed or taken hostage in the Hamas attacks. Weve talked about them, and let's talk about them again, 80-year-old Carmela Dan, 13- year-old Noya Dan, they were killed in the horrific attacks. Two young siblings, Erez and his sister Sahar, were taken hostage. And they were released from captivity last November. Their father, Ofer Calderon, is still being held in Gaza today. And Abbey is with us once again. Abbey, thank you very much for being here.

What was your reaction to hearing that the mastermind of the October 7th attacks was dead?

ABBEY ONN, TWO FAMILY MEMBERS FREED, ONE STILL HELD HOSTAGE IN GAZA: Thank you for having me, first of all. And second, I'm not someone, and I don't think I come from a culture of people who celebrate death. It's not something I felt joyful about, but I do think that it opens an opportunity to put pressure and come back to the table for the release of all the hostages. I think Sinwar was standing in the way of any sort of deal, and his elimination opens up the possibility to bring these people home, and now.

BOLDUAN: And now, I mean, we've heard from, as we just played some of that, the comments from the defense secretary Lloyd Austin, saying that is where the U.S. focus is right now, on the 101 hostages. The prime minister of Israel saying, calling it a significant window of opportunity right now to get the hostages home. I keep hearing that the next 72 hours or just maybe shy of that now, is going to be critical in the direction that this heads, Abbey. Do you think that Ofer is more safe with Sinwar gone, or in some ways, I've seen it suggested that people are afraid that they may be in more danger now because of the uncertainty of what fills this void.

ONN: I think for sure uncertainty can definitely breed danger. But as you said, if people leveraged the next 72 hours to make significant change, then that could create a positive outcome for him and the other 100 hostages that are there. I think that the citizens of Gaza have been held hostage by Hamas as well and that by the elimination of Sinwar, it opens up the possibility for different leadership for them and a reduction in terror coming toward Israel.

And so I would call on all our leaders, on leaders in Israel and the United States and anyone that's at that table, whether its Qatar or others, to put massive pressure for the release of all of the hostages.

BOLDUAN: When this all started, we started reporting it out that they -- it could have been Sinwar yesterday during our show, and we also had heard the reporting that the prime minister had instructed the IDF to reach out to all the families to give them the news, and also to inform them and talk to them about how no hostages were hurt in that encounter. Do you know, was your family, did your family receive one of these calls? Can you give me an idea of kind of what those conversations were like?

ONN: I'm sure they did. I don't know the exact conversation, but what I do know is that things often come faster on social media than they do from the government. So we in Israel are beginning to hear things before anything is official. So I'm sure by the time they got the call, there was no surprise in what was happening. And by the time we -- by the time the rumor was out, it was already confirmed, basically. And so I think we kind of knew early on.

BOLDUAN: The reaction we hear from President Biden, and a little, we've heard from President Biden, we heard him this morning, but he also had said that its time to move on, time to move toward a ceasefire. And we've also heard some of the reaction from the prime minister was the war is not over yet.

[08:10:00]

What would you want to say to both leaders right now, speaking as one of your family members is still being held hostage in Gaza?

ONN: Look, I would say what I've always maintained, which is this war will end, or I would hope this war would end when the hostages are home. Currently sitting at my kitchen table in Israel, there are multiple friends in this war, and it's only getting worse for the people who are getting sirens, whose homes are being destroyed, who are continuously displaced from where they should be living, and for the hostages and the citizens and Gaza. By the way, those in Lebanon also.

It's not getting better. It's becoming now a regional war, and that means that if the hostages come home, and these, what we call superpowers, can come to the table, negotiate, create some sort of understanding, and get the hostages home, then they believe it will ease the tensions not only between Gaza and Israel but around the region. And I think that's absolutely necessary. No one wants to see more loss of life. No one wants more war.

BOLDUAN: Yes. It has been hard to maintain hope throughout. I know in our conversations we've discussed that many times, but maybe a glimmer of that today as there is this big moment of opportunity. Abbey, thank you very much. It is good to see you. Thank you so much.

John?

BERMAN: The richest person in the world hits the campaign trail for Donald Trump in the middle of lies and conspiracy theories.

A death row inmates spared for now, why Texas lawmakers are taking a new look at the case of a man convicted of killing his daughter.

And a brand new ad released just minutes ago, Vice President Harris courts Latino voters with the help of a music superstar.

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BERMAN: A big day in Michigan, both Donald Trump and Vice President Harris will be there. In one case, they are going to be in the same county just hours apart.

Now, they were not together overnight at the Al Smith dinner here in New York City. Donald Trump was there in person. Vice President Harris sent in a video. This is a little bit of what they each said.

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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Right now, we have someone in the White House who can barely talk, clearly put together two coherent sentences, who seems to have mental faculties of a child they said.

There is a person that has nothing going. No intelligence whatsoever, but enough about Kamala Harris.

MOLLY SHANNON, COMEDIAN: Don't say anything negative about Catholics.

KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would never do that no matter where I was, that would be like criticizing Detroit in Detroit.

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BERMAN: All right two things, you just saw right there. Number one, Donald Trump was reading off his notes there. He is doing an interview right now where he actually is complaining about the fact that he wasn't allowed to use a teleprompter and interestingly, said that he got help writing jokes from people at Fox.

So this is something we will discuss going forward, but what other joke you heard right there from Molly Shannon about -- and Kamala Harris about Donald Trump was Donald Trump insulting Detroit while in Detroit while he will be again in Detroit today.

Let's talk about Michigan. CNN chief national affairs correspondent, Jeff Zeleny with us.

Good morning, Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, John.

Yes, former President Donald Trump is going back to Michigan, back to Detroit.

His insulting Detroit just last week when he was there speaking was likely not about Detroit, but about perhaps suburban Republican voters throughout Michigan who often look at Detroit as a Democratic liberal city. So he was trying to gain favor there, but we will see if he cleans that up when he goes to Detroit.

But Vice President Kamala Harris was actually in Wisconsin last night. That of course is a place where battleground voters matter a little bit more to the outcome of this race and the people in that room there at the Al Smith Dinner.

But their paths will cross today and all eyes are on Michigan once again. There are 15 reasons why, 15 electoral votes in Michigan. It is the center of that so-called blue wall, if you will.

But the Harris campaign is out this morning with the new ad. They are targeting Latino voters specifically with songwriting superstar, Marc Anthony.

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MARC ANTHONY, SINGER: This is Marc Anthony. Even though some have forgotten, I remember what it was like when Trump was president.

I remember after Hurricane Maria devastated our island, Trump blocked billions in relief while thousands died. I remember when our families lacked clean water and electricity, Trump threw paper towels and called Puerto Rico dirty and poor.

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ZELENY: So this isn't just a celebrity ad, of course it is a celebrity ad with a specific message for a specific set of voters. This just shows you how close the campaign is. Both sides are targeting narrow demographic groups across the line here.

But the Harris campaign for their part, she will be in Grand Rapids, Michigan this morning, then meeting with union workers in Lansing and then going to Oakland County.

Oakland County, of course, just north of Detroit, a key suburban area. It is the second biggest county in the state, but it is clear that both candidates there, they are beginning to talk at each other. Of course, criticizing each other and now they are also crossing paths in the same battleground state today -- John.

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BERMAN: Jeff Zeleny for us, again Michigan, where -- Nebraska born, but Michigan raised.

ZELENY: That's right, Gerald Ford, Michigan raised.

BERMAN: Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much.

All right, this morning, a Texas death row inmate's life spared for now. The legal battle stopped the execution and where the case goes next.

And just in time for Thanksgiving, Butter Ball unveils a new way cook a turkey that says well solve the biggest problem for Thanksgiving.

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BOLDUAN: So, this just in. We are now seeing -- Hamas is now announcing in a televised address that the terror group says it will not release Israeli hostages until Israel completely withdraws from Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israel are released.

This after, President Biden speaking from Berlin this morning called the death of Hamas' leader, Yahya Sinwar an opportunity to carve a path to peace and we just heard from the family of one of the hostages still held in Gaza and her message today for world leaders.

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ABBY ONN, TWO FAMILY MEMBERS FREED, ONE STILL HELD HOSTAGE IN GAZA: Look, I would say what I have always maintained, which is this war will end, or I would hope this war would end when the hostages are home. Currently sitting at my kitchen table in Israel, there are multiple

fronts open in this war, and its only getting worse for the people who are getting sirens, whose homes are being destroyed, who are continuously displaced from where they should be living and for the hostages and the citizens in Gaza. By the way, those in Lebanon also.

It is not -- it is not getting better. It is becoming now a regional war and that means that if the hostages come home and these -- what we call superpowers -- can come to the table, negotiate, create some sort of understanding, and get the hostages home, and then I believe it will ease the tensions not only between Gaza and Israel, but around the region and I think that's absolutely necessary.

No one wants to see more loss of life, no one wants more war.

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BOLDUAN: Joining me right now from Tel Aviv is the international spokesperson for the IDF, Major Doron Spielman.

Major, thank you for coming in. Your reaction to what we just learned from Hamas saying that the Israeli hostages will not be released until Israel completely withdraws from the enclave.

MAJOR DORON SPIELMAN, INTERNATIONAL SPOKESPERSON FOR THE IDF: Okay, thank you very much for having me. I think that this is par for the course. I mean, this is -- we know Hamas is the very organization that broke through the Israeli borders, came into communities and ripped these people, including this woman's family, in a heartbreaking way, ripped them from their beds, slaughtered them, some more raped, and they were carried off into the dungeons.

And this is why we are fighting the war we are fighting right now. This is a war we did not want to fight from the very beginning. It is a war we wish we didn't have to be in and it is a complicated war.

You have an enemy who is consistently refusing to return hostages, presenting demands that Israel, of course, can't accept because I think we can all agree that having a Gaza in which Hamas is still alive and still able to resuscitate itself is a truly a desecration of those who have fallen, a desecration of the names of the soldiers and puts Israel at enormous continuing risk as difficult as it is.

As a country, and I think as the world, we have to see this through and we have to see this through to the end.

BOLDUAN: Well, the question is, what does that mean? And what is the end? I mean, we heard the prime minister in announcing that Sinwar had been eliminated say that evil has suffered a heavy blow, but the task asked before us is not yet complete. This is the beginning of the day after Hamas.

But he also said the war is not over yet. Beginning of the day after means what militarily?

SPIELMAN: Well, Israel is facing war on seven fronts. Yahya Sinwar was the face of that evil from one of those fronts, which is Hamas. If we want there to dawn a new day in Gaza, the Old Guard, the guard that sucked all of Gaza into a web of terror, built tunnels underneath their homes and pillaged their own people, as well as Israeli people, that entire Old Guard has got to be dealt with and has got to be held accountable for what they've done, so a new generation can arise in Gaza.

I mean, I am looking at the news. I am sure you are as well. I am looking on Telegram and I am getting messages from people of Gaza who have taken to the streets and are saying this is the best day of their entire lives.

These people have a voice. It is these people who are the future. And when we eliminate someone like Sinwar, it shows not only Israel, I think it shows the world that it is possible to defeat evil piece-by- piece.

Just like when Osama bin Laden was eliminated. This did not end the entire war. This was an important step and we are on our way to vanquishing Hamas and eliminating them so they cannot rise again. But it is going to take determination and time. It is not going to happen overnight.

BOLDUAN: So is Israel going to de-escalate operations in Gaza now after taking out Sinwar?

SPIELMAN: Look there are 29 Americans who were killed and taken hostage. Seven of them are still underneath the ground. To leave them behind along with 101 Israelis, to leave them behind from a regime that took them so that they you can stay surviving is also not at all a possibility.

Israel cannot now, while Hamas is teetering, not deal Hamas the final blow. Can we imagine in World War II, if we had left an ember burning of Nazi Germany or of Imperialistic Japan, and there were a lot of voices that said we should, however, the United States carried it through to the end. And today we have a Germany and Japan that are peace-loving nations.

It is the same thing both for the people of Gaza and for the people of Israel. This has got to be seen through to the end.

To falter right now and allow Hamas to survive, as appealing as that may sound, is a horrible mistake and is a mistake for the future. The future will look back at this time and realize that it was difficult.

With enormous determination, we solve this through. That is what will bring a better world.

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