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Israel Declares Gaza City A Dangerous Combat Zone; Pentagon Reinstalling Robert E. Lee Portrait At West Point; Remembering Hurricane Katrina's Devastation, 20 Years Later. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired August 29, 2025 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Israel has now declared Gaza City a dangerous combat zone and is ordering the nearly 1 million people who live there to move as its military intensifies its bombardment ahead of a full takeover and occupation that it is planning.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says the death toll in Gaza has now surpassed 63,000 people and that hospitals continue to record daily deaths from famine and malnutrition. Many of those deaths are children.

Also today, the Israelis recovered the remains of two hostages in Gaza. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv with the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Israeli military bombardment and artillery shelling of Gaza City is indeed ramping up as Israel prepares for a full-scale invasion of Gaza City where nearly 1 million people live and are now at risk of being forcibly displaced.

The Israeli military indeed carrying out a number of strikes that have set off huge plumes of smoke, particularly in the northern part of Gaza City. Much of this seems to be a precursor for ground troop movement into that city.

As we know right now, there are Israeli troops that are operating just north of Gaza City in Jabalia, as well as in the southern Gaza City neighborhood of Zeitoun. It's not clear how close we are to that ground troop movement actually happening in Gaza City, but the Israeli military now declaring Gaza City a, quote, dangerous combat zone. Ending the temporary 10-hour-per-day tactical pauses that were meant to allow humanitarian aid to flow in, in terms of that part of Gaza City. Those tactical pauses effectively over now in Gaza City.

As an Israeli military official tells me, these are the initial stages of this Gaza City operation.

Fifty-nine people have been killed over the course of the past day, according to the Palestinian health ministry. But, of course, there are the broader risks of exacerbating the already awful humanitarian crisis in Gaza as a result of this military operation, with nearly a million people at risk of being forcibly displaced, and Gaza City, of course, already gripped by famine, according to U.N. experts.

Now, Israeli troops also operating elsewhere in Gaza and have recovered the bodies of two Israeli hostages. We only know the identity of one of those hostages so far. His name is Ilan Weiss. He is 56 years old. He was killed in Hamas's attack on October 7th on Kibbutz Be'eri, and his body was then taken into Gaza and has been held as a bargaining chip until now. But his body has now been returned to his family and will finally be able to get a proper burial.

The fate of so many other hostages still hangs in the balance, though. There are now 48 hostages remaining in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to be alive. But we know, of course, that the conditions in which they are being held in are desperate.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Now to some of the other headlines that we're watching this hour. The U.S. State Department is denying and revoking visas for Palestinian officials ahead of the U.N. General Assembly. The move is a significant step, given multiple U.S. allies are expected to recognize a Palestinian state at the UNGA, which kicks off in about 10 days. It's unclear how many officials will be affected or if it includes Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott just signed new Republican-friendly congressional maps into law. Republicans are hoping that the new map will lead to five additional seats in Congress. Several lawsuits have already been filed over the effort.

And sources tell CNN that Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst will not seek reelection at the end of her second term. We're learning she has been wrestling with this decision for months but began telling friends here in recent days.

People familiar with the decision say she'll make a public announcement next week. Her retirement creates an open seat in Iowa, where a crowded field of Democrats are already running.

Ahead, a controversial portrait, reportedly coming back to the halls of West Point.

Stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: The New York Times is reporting that the Pentagon has ordered a portrait of General Robert E. Lee restored to the West Point Library. This is according to Pentagon officials. The move comes three years after a congressionally mandated commission ordered it removed.

This is a huge painting. It's 20 feet tall, and it had hung at the United States Military Academy for 70 years. It was taken down after a 2020 law stripped the names of Confederate leaders from military bases.

[15:40:00]

This naming commission was unanimous about relocating or removing this specific portrait. Putting the Lee portrait back up comes as part of the Trump administration's effort to restore Confederate names and monuments nationwide.

We're joined now by retired Army Brigadier General Ty Seidule. He is also the upcoming book, A Promise Delivered, Ten American Heroes and the Battle to Rename Our Nation's Military Bases. General, thanks for being with us.

First off, let's start with where the commission was on this. You were part of that naming commission. Tell us why the commission ordered this portrait be taken down.

BRIG. GEN. TY SEIDULE: It's a great question. We ordered it taken down because that was our remit from Congress. So Congress passed a law, President Trump vetoed it, and Congress overwhelmingly overrode the veto, the only one that they did, telling us to create this commission, but to rid all of Department of Defense anything that commemorated the Confederacy or those who served voluntarily.

And there was nothing more clear than this portrait of Lee in Confederate gray with an enslaved servant in the background dressed in rags. He's wearing the three stars of a Confederate general. It clearly commemorated the Confederacy, and we voted unanimously.

And by the way, our commission was three Republicans, one Democrat, and four retired generals.

KEILAR: So what's your reaction to it going back up?

SEIDULE: Well, I think there's two. First, I think it's illegal because Congress did say that the Secretary of Defense shall remove him. The second is, as the Secretary often says, that this is changing history. No, it's changing commemoration.

Every year at West Point, they study the Battle of Gettysburg, and every year Lee loses, and that won't change. That's history.

But who we commemorate reflects our values, and this honors Lee, and we should not honor Lee. He chose treason to preserve slavery. There were nine U.S. Army colonels in Virginia in 1861. Eight chose to remain loyal to this country, and only one chose treason. Lee killed more U.S. Army soldiers than any other enemy in our history.

And one other thing, he's a loser, and Americans don't like losers. No other enemy in our history lost as completely as he did. So I'm against it. I think it's wrong morally, I think it's wrong legally, and I think it's the wrong message to send to our cadets.

KEILAR: West Point has gone through a lot of changes since President Trump took office. On his orders, on the orders of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, we've seen clubs dedicated to women and cadets of color canceled. Syllabuses have been reviewed, and readings purged from them, including that of Frederick Douglass and other prominent, historic, revered Black figures.

Putting this portrait up -- back up, when you have those other things happening, what message does that send to cadets, and specifically what does it send to Black cadets at West Point?

SEIDULE: Yes, I think it, well, first, I think it's terrible, and I think this sort of reminds of what George Orwell said, that whoever controls the past, controls the future. And they're trying to set up a way of thinking about the future, and I think it's helpful to understand this portrait as a means of doing that. So this portrait isn't put up in the 19th century, it was put up in the 1950s, and it was put up for a specific reason, to protest against integration.

So the Secretary of the Army who ordered it put up was a racist, and thought, was trying to slow roll the integration of the U.S. Army during the Korean War. And when he did that, he said, I want to show the Confederacy, because the values of the Confederacy were the values that he had himself. And that's why he ordered it put up there.

So in fact, West Point refused to put Confederates up there until the 1930s. And this one in the 1950s was the first time West Point put anything up there that reflected Lee in Confederate uniform, because Lee was a traitor who killed U.S. Army soldiers. That's what West Point grads grew up on.

And that's why it sends the wrong message, that somehow you should not listen to the President of the United States. That's what Lee did. You should kill U.S. Army soldiers. That's what Lee did. It could not be a worse message to send to cadets at the United States Military Academy.

KEILAR: Oh, and I wonder, because obviously there are going to be many opinions, right, among the student body there. They don't get a say in this. They don't. That's just the way it goes.

But I wonder what you would say to cadets who have concerns about this, and if you're confident that West Point leadership can still provide an inclusive place for all cadets.

SEIDULE: Well, this is the problem that so much of what's happening is, is that it's lawful, but awful. The mission -- the President, in many cases, has the right to be wrong. And so what they have to do is follow lawful orders. They don't have a choice on that.

[15:45:00]

You know, people that are wearing the uniform, they don't practice democracy. They execute democracy -- they enforce democracy. And so the fact that the President was elected and can do these things, he can for the most part. He is shattering the norms that we thought.

So at West Point before, often they have had people that have said, you know, you must teach it. Teach more languages. Teach military hygiene. But it's the first time we've ever had someone that said you can't teach something. So it's incredibly stressful. I feel for everyone that's there, because they're trying to do the right thing and they have to follow orders.

So it is incredibly stressful for everyone that's at any of the service academies right now. My heart goes out to them, because they're good people that love their country and want to serve it. And yet they're in an impossible situation.

They're supposed to educate, train and inspire cadets to create leaders of character for the nation. And that is made so much harder right now.

KEILAR: General Seidule, it's always great to speak with you. Thank you so much for being with us.

SEIDULE: Thank you.

KEILAR: And we'll be right back.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: 20 years ago today, Hurricane Katrina unloaded on the Gulf Coast, wiping away entire communities. And the storm's effects were worsened by the disaster response on the national, state and local levels. Failures that led to a complete overhaul of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to prevent another Katrina-like disaster from happening.

Now, five former heads of FEMA under both Democratic and Republican administrations say that recent cuts and changes at the agency are raising serious concerns.

We want to discuss this important day with Republican Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana Billy Nungesser. Lieutenant Governor, thank you so much for being with us.

Two decades after Katrina made landfall, what do you remember most?

LT. GOV. BILLY NUNGESSER, (R-LA): Well, I rode out the storm 14 miles from the Ike and my house was built above the Mississippi River. The only thing sticking out the water for months, south of New Orleans, rescuing 34 people by airboat, hundreds of animals and never seeing an elected official. I was a citizen then and ended up running for public office because of the lack of response.

And as I sit here as Lieutenant Governor today with a new exhibit at the museum about Katrina, it's some, some bad memories, but then some good memories about all the people that came to help.

SANCHEZ: What would you say were the most important lessons for you and not just from Louisiana but from the federal response for the nation? NUNGESSER: Well, we're not prepared on a local, state or federal level. We know that we are better prepared. And FEMA, while it took a long time to get things straight, there's a way FEMA can work. And I heard your testimony earlier about getting rid of FEMA.

FEMA is greatly needed. Even a state like Texas with more money than Louisiana, when there's a disaster, they rely on FEMA funds. So some kind of regional, more local FEMA representation may help cut out some of the red tape, but a FEMA organization is definitely needed in times of disaster.

And with the warmer weather, more storms being stronger, we're going to need it more than ever going forward and not just in Louisiana.

SANCHEZ: That would put you in disagreement with the Trump administration that they believe that because of, as you put it, red tape that FEMA needs to be phased out and disasters need to be handled at a more local level by the states. It seems like you're saying that Louisiana would have a really hard time if another Katrina came by and there was no FEMA.

NUNGESSER: Absolutely. Look, there's ways to fix things without throwing the baby out with the bath water. A regional manager that year round got to know the local government, the assets we have, both private assets, infrastructure have a number on those.

So when a storm hits that FEMA director is familiar on a regional level of what we need in this state and can work quickly to resolve it and put a dollar on it, not sending hundreds of people in to walk door to door. That's what they did after Katrina. And it took years and still have money from FEMA that's not approved to spend.

There's a better way to do it, but you don't get rid of the whole organization because it needs some serious overhaul. And that's what any agency, there's a lot of good that comes out of it. And that federal assistance is desperately needed.

SANCHEZ: Given that you have such an understanding of the importance of a federal response to these disasters, I have to ask you about the Katrina declaration. This is a document for more than 180 FEMA employees, many of them that have been put on leave after signing it, warning that the administration is undoing many of the very reforms that came out of Katrina.

What do you make of these warnings from these current and former FEMA officials?

NUNGESSER: Well, I haven't seen it, but I think probably a lot of it is good warnings. You know, I went up and worked with New York on the Sandy Act to fix some things with FEMA. It did make it better and it needs some more fixing.

But like you said, they had people that came to Louisiana that really had a passion to help us rebuild with FEMA. They had some FEMA folks that really didn't care, but that's with anything, you got to fix it and make it work better. [15:55:00]

But getting rid of FEMA would be a disaster for all of the states that rely on FEMA after a hurricane, and the flooding that's going on around this country, and the forest fires and all the other disasters that seem to be happening more frequently.

So an agency, federal assistance is needed more now than ever. We just got to get it organized and get it right, not just throw it out completely.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Lieutenant Governor, before we go, I was just wondering how you are commemorating this day 20 years later.

NUNGESSER: Well, we had a roundtable discussion with all the elected officials that went through it, and we have a new exhibit at the museum here that not only talked about the devastation, but all the great recovery and heroes and the thousands of volunteers that came from all over the world to help us that made a difference in New Orleans and Louisiana being better today than 20 years ago, and we're getting better every year.

SANCHEZ: Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser, thank you so much for the time.

NUNGESSER: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Stay with CNN. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:00:00]

KEILAR: College football season officially underway and this weekend one of the sport's most legendary figures will sign off.

SANCHEZ: Not so fast, my friend. Lee Corso has been a campus fixture for decades, using mascot headgear to make his big game picks on ESPN's College Game Day. A legend, of course, not just for the headgear, but for his personality. Shout out to Lee Corso.

Thanks so much for joining us. "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.