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Soaring Violence Follows Israeli Raids On Al-Aqsa Mosque; Tennessee House Expels Two Democrats, Spares Third; Police Clash With Demonstrators During 11th Day Of Protests; Macron Urges Xi To "Reason" With Russia On Ukraine Peace; Israel Strikes Gaza And Lebanon After Flurry Of Rocket Attacks; Biden Admin Report Blames Trump Limiting U.S. Options, Says President Biden Followed Military's Recommendations; Dimon: U.S. Banking Crisis Increasing Odds Of Recession. Aired 2-2:45a ET

Aired April 07, 2023 - 02:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:00:40]

PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Hello, and a warm welcome to our viewers from all around the world, I'm Paula Newton.

Ahead right here on CNN NEWSROOM, Israeli airstrikes target Lebanon and Gaza in response to rockets launched by Palestinian militants. It's an escalation of tensions not seen in years.

Tennessee expels two democratic lawmakers accused of violating House rules after they demanded action in the wake of the Nashville school shooting. Hear why another lawmaker involved in the protests says, race played a part.

And protests in France take a violent turn. We're live in Paris where anger over pension reforms show no signs of lesson.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Paula Newton.

NEWTON: Violence erupting again in Israel, Gaza, and now Lebanon. Two days after Israeli forces stormed one of Islam's holiest sites, the Israeli military announced new strikes on both Gaza and Lebanon, saying it went after targets belonging to Hamas militants, and that's after a flurry of rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israel, most of them reportedly intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome.

Now, the U.S. Israel Defense Forces retaliated with yet another round of airstrikes on Gaza, which Hamas controls. The Palestinian health ministry meantime says one of those strikes damaged a pediatric hospital. And, of course, it terrified the children inside.

Israel blames Palestinian militants for a barrage of rocket attacks from Lebanon into Northern Israel. Meantime, many were intercepted, but there was some damage. It was the largest attack from Lebanese soil since the war with Hezbollah 17 years ago. Now, meantime, Hamas released a statement saying it, quote, holds the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the consequences of such grave aggression, which reflects the atrocious nature of the fascist Israeli leaders and their policies.

Hamas is calling on the Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation to intervene. Now all this anger began boiling over after Israeli police raids on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which is extremely sacred to Muslims. CNN's Hadas Gold has our details.

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HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Streaking across the sky in Northern Israel, dozens of rockets fired from Lebanon Thursday, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow.

GOLD: Which said it intercepted most of them, but some made impact. This car hitting the Israeli town of Fassuta. And in Shlomi, the storefront of this bank was destroyed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hear the siren, I hear the boom. I was in my home. It was very, very scary.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I'm still shaking because children not supposed to say this in this age.

GOLD: The Lebanese army says it found these rocket launchers and rockets close to the Israeli border Thursday and is working to dismantle them. Israel has pointed the finger at Palestinian groups and doesn't think the Lebanon based, Hezbollah, was responsible.

Not since the war between Lebanon and Israel in 2006 have so many rockets been fired across the border, a worrying sign of escalation and an already tense time for the region. Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque multiple times this week as Palestinians gathered for Ramadan.

Footage from inside the mosque showed Israeli police beating some worshippers with batons and rifle butts. Police say they moved in after Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the mosque, threw rocks and set off fireworks.

Jordan, the custodian of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, told CNN that it believes Thursday's rocket attacks were a response to Israeli actions at the mosque.

AYMAN, SAFADI, JORDANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: The two are obviously interconnected. We're unfortunately at the exact moment, a dangerous moment, which we -- that worked for months to avoid, which is a moment where violence is erupting.

GOLD: As the first day of the Passover holiday came to an end, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called a meeting of his security cabinet. BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAEL PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We will strike our enemies and they will pay the price for any act of aggression.

[02:05:00]

GOLD: Multiple hotspots flaring up at once just as Easter begins in this holy land and all three main religions are supposed to be celebrating.

Hadas Gold, CNN, Northern Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Aviv Aviv Bushinsky is a former aide to Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and he is with us now live from Tel Aviv. Thanks for joining us.

You know, you're someone who has seen obviously up close how Netanyahu -- how Netanyahu responds in these situations. What do you believe is his next move here? And I want to ask how perhaps the recent political situation in Israel might affect that.

AVIV BUSHINSKY, FORMER AIDE TO BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Yes. Netanyahu is now facing a huge challenges. You mentioned, Paula, because he was elected mainly because people in Israel believe -- those still believe that he has the ability to restore security and governance in Israel and around Israel.

But the last 100 days of his term, it seems that there's more violence than anyone expected, especially what happened in the last 20 hours, over 100 rockets were launched, some from Lebanon, as you mentioned, which we hardly ever experienced, and the rest from Gaza.

I think that Netanyahu is trying to limit the scale of violence by pinpointing only the Hamas as the ones who are responsible for the violence, and not talking about Iran or its proxies like Hezbollah and others. So I think that what we saw now, the retaliated by the Israeli forces, will be relatively limited, but no one knows what will happen. This is the third week of the Ramadan, and who knows what will be the -- in this Friday. So I think that Netanyahu's intention is to try and retaliate and stop here and maybe ask for some mediators to ease the tension, but things like that may go out of control.

NEWTON: Yes. And you bring up the point -- the point there that this could get escalated. These are old and very familiar cycles of violence, though. And yet again, what do you think is the risk of a miscalculation right now? And I take your point that Netanyahu may be trying to show some restraint but you know that Palestinians would never see it that way.

BUSHINSKY: Yes, but first of all, if you will look at the Israeli intelligence, how they read the map, they think or believe that what the Hamas is trying to do is to drag the entire Arab world and to unite them against Israel or Israel presence in Al-Aqsa, or even Israel presence around Al-Aqsa. And then sometimes it works. No doubt that the Hezbollah knew about this, what's going to happen. But I think that Netanyahu is -- knows that a overall clash, and not only with the Hamas, but also with Hezbollah, or maybe Iran, would be very, very difficult to handle.

But, you know, you mentioned the scale of violence. Luckily, we had no fatalities. Imagine if today, tomorrow, there will be some Israeli fatalities, then the prime minister will not be able to settle with just hitting back with aircrafts, especially since he has a harsh right-wing coalition that he needs to satisfy their views, their ideology and their beliefs.

NEWTON: And I want to get to that point with you, you know, you bring up the fact that, look, it's Passover right now. And yet Israelis may be thinking about having to go into bomb shelters at this point, especially if things escalate further.

But, you know, this is something that Netanyahu always says right that he is united, that his government is united in terms of their national security response. But how do you think the character of what he will do, the very measures that he will take will change because he is beholden to that right wing a portion of his coalition?

BUSHINSKY: Yes, it's true. And you mentioned it's paradoxically we are celebrating the -- our transformation from slavery to freedom and, yet, so many people found themselves in shelters in the last couple of days.

Knowing Netanyahu, I was working for Netanyahu for many years and he is a very well experienced leader. I think that he will try to minimize the chance of escalations no matter -- no matter what are the voices around him in down south or up north or in his cabinet.

It doesn't serve Israel's interest. What Netanyahu says that we have enemies that they want to diminish us, to destroy us and that we have the, as he defines it, the incitement in Al-Aqsa Mosque that instigates all the -- this violence.

[02:10:16]

I think that as long as the Ramadan will be over in probably a couple of weeks, then things will gradually slow down and the level of tension will ease, but it doesn't mean that the problem will disappear.

NEWTON: Yes, absolutely not, hasn't disappeared for decades now.

Aviv Bushinsky, thank you so much. Really appreciate your perspective on this.

BUSHINSKY: You're welcome. Thank you.

NEWTON: Now, coming up later, we want to remind you that you will hear from a key Palestinian voice, Mustafa Barghouti, he is a member of the Palestinian parliament and we will look for his perspective. Now, U.S. President Joe Biden is condemning the expulsion of two

Democrats from the Tennessee House of Representatives as, quote, shocking and undemocratic. Republicans say their actions last week violated House rules.

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(CHANTING)

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NEWTON: That's Justin Jones, Justin Pearson, and Gloria Johnson protesting the lack of action on gun violence after that horrific Nashville school shooting. Jones and Pearson were expelled, Johnson was not.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHANTING)

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NEWTON: Now as you can see, there are spectators in the gallery erupted and chants of "Shame on you" after Thursday's expulsions. Here's what the lawmakers had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN PEARSON, EXPELLED TENNESSEE LAWMAKER: We are losing our democracy. This is not normal. This is not OK. If you look at what it takes to expel a member or what it should take, most of the times that a member in the Tennessee State Legislature they've gotten expended the last two times, in particular, one guy committed sexual assault against 22 people, the other committed bribery. We broke our House rule because we're fighting for kids who are dying from gun violence and people in our communities who want to see an end to the proliferation of weaponry in our communities and that leads to our expulsion? This is not democracy.

JUSTIN JONES, EXPELLED TENNESSEE LAWMAKER: What we saw today was authoritarianism. What we saw today was the undoing of the will of my voters, of my constituents, of 78,000 people in my district were silenced. It's still one of the most diverse district. I'm the youngest black lawmaker in this -- I was the youngest black lawmaker in this body.

And so what we're seeing is a very dangerous step in Tennessee that should signal to the nation that this is -- if it can happen here, it can happen anywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: OK. And CNN asked Johnson, meantime, a key question why she thinks she was spared while Johnson -- pardon me, Jones and Pearson, who you just heard from were voted out. Listen.

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GLORIA JOHNSON, TENNESSEE STATE HOUSE DEMOCRAT: I'm 6-year-old white woman, and they are two young black men. I am listening to the questions and the way they were questions, and the way they were taught to. I was talked down to as a woman mansplain to, but it was completely different from the questioning that they got.

And this whole idea that, you know, why -- you know, that you have to almost assimilate into this body to be like us.

And just in a demeaning way and saying that, you know, if you're going to come into this body, you have to act like this body and that sort of thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Now, the two expelled lawmakers could be reappointed to their seats or they could win them back in upcoming special elections.

CNN's Gary Tuchman has those details from Nashville.

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GARY TUCHMAN, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was a tumultuous day here on Thursday at the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville outside the Capitol and inside the Capitol. There were hundreds of protesters here, afraid of what might happen, the three Democratic legislators, and indeed what they feared did happen.

The Republican supermajority in the House of Representatives voted to expel two of them. Those two representatives expelled were Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, accused of disorderly conduct after an incident last week. A third member, Gloria Johnson, was also part of it. She survived by one vote. She's still in the legislature.

But those three legislators said they were not being acknowledged. They walked into the well of the House of Representatives last week, and started talking about what they wanted to see with gun reform after the horrifying school shooting that happened here in Nashville, but they were declared out of order that violated the rules typically in a legislature or in Congress or in a city council.

If you violate the rules, you get a slap on the wrist or maybe you're censured, but the decision was made to fire them, to expel them despite the fact that they were elected in their districts by tens of thousands of voters, they are now gone.

When the decision was made for those two men to be expelled, people scream and yell. They actually had a die-in where people were lying down in the halls of legislature. And when it all ends, and when the representatives came out, there were Tennessee troopers separating the protesters from the legislators as they came out. It was a wild day and a very unusual day in American politics.

[02:15:14]

This is Gary Tuchman, CNN in Nashville, Tennessee.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: A new round of nationwide protests in France against the government's pension reforms plans, escalate into clashes with police Thursday. Now the French interior minister says more than 150 police officers were injured and authorities detained more than 100 people.

Right across the country, nearly 600,000 people attended those protests. We get more now from Nada Bashir in Paris.

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NADA BASHIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Heavy clashes in Paris on the 11th day of nationwide demonstrations. The protest quickly taking a violent turn. Demonstrators seen here throwing smoke bombs towards the capitols armored riot police, in response, tear gas to disperse the crowds.

At one point, protesters targeted Cafe de la Rotonde where French president, Emmanuel Macron, held celebrations during the 2017 election.

Union members and other protesters also stoned American investment firm Blackrock. Roughly 100 demonstrators entered the building, some wielding red flares and smoke bombs, targeting the financial center because of its connection to private pension funds.

The protest movement was sparked in January over the government's proposed pension reforms, which would see the national retirement age raised for many workers from 62 to 64. They're still below most other European nations. It's a move which has drawn fierce backlash.

SEVERINE TRICHET, CAREGIVER, PROTESTER (through translator): I'm a caregiver, we cannot work until 64 with the people we accompany every day. We will be the same age at one point so it's not possible physically and psychologically.

BASHIR: Last month, the French government bypassed its lower House and employed special constitutional powers to force the controversial legislation through without a vote.

(CHANTING)

France's Constitutional Council is expected to rule on the reform next Friday.

But with talks between the government and union leaders falling apart, yet another protest has been scheduled for next week with the potential for even more violence.

Nada Bashir, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE) NEWTON: CNN Senior producer, Saskya Vandoorne, joins me now live from Paris. And, Saskya, it's good to have you on the story. You know, given what we just heard from Nada, we know that Macron, you know, may feel that pushing through this pension reform has to be done. And yet how steep do you think the political price may be for this?

SASKYA VANDOORNE, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: I think he is going to pay quite a high political price, Paula, because, you know, you have to remember that the majority of French people are against this pension reform. And so we've seen his popularity rating taken quite a tumble. It's incredibly low.

In fact, the last time it was this low was in 2018, during the Yellow Vest protests. Now, back then to try and kind of appease tensions, Macron organize these great big town halls across the country to try and get the French people to air their grievances.

And this time, he doesn't seem to have offered any kind of solution or exit to the crisis. So, yes, you know, next Friday, the reform will go to the Constitutional Council, we'll hear if it's greenlit or not. They may decide that parts of it are unconstitutional or indeed the whole thing.

But we think it really is just going to be a formality. So let's say it does get greenlit and then the protests have died down, Macron will still be left with this problem. He will have to try and gain back that trust, win back popular opinion.

And I think, Paula, you know, if you look at these protests that have been going on for the last two and a half months, a lot of people thought that they would have run out of steam by now. But the reality is half a million people taken to the streets yesterday.

Yes, it was a lower turnout, but that is still significant. And the protesters have vowed to continue to protest because they say they want to be heard. They want to be listened to. So we will see more protests next Thursday. We'll see more strikes. Hospital workers will down tools, school teachers will down tools, factories will be blocked. And all of this is to try and bring the government back to that negotiating table, but also to be heard.

So Macron may be in China right now, but this is the biggest challenge facing his presidency, and he will have to do something to show that he is listening. Paula.

NEWTON: Yes, listening to what are becoming more and more provocative acts of protests as well. And as you point out, we will have more on Macron's visit to China coming up. Saskya Vandoorne for us in Paris, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

[02:20:04]

Now, all of this is happening while Saskya just said that the French president is in Beijing enjoying the hospitality of China. We'll look at whether there could be a blossoming relationship between France and China as leaders of the two countries need to discuss solutions to end the war in Ukraine.

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NEWTON: French President Emmanuel Macron is wrapping up a three-day visit to China. He is to visit with students at Sun Yat-Sen University. Later, Mr. Macron is set to meet with Chinese investors and, of course, then have dinner with President Xi Jinping.

On Thursday, the two leaders struck a deal on nuclear and wind energy. They also discuss solutions to end the war in Ukraine. Mr. Macron urged President Xi to reason in his words with Russia and try and promote peace talks. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMMANUEL MACRON, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE (through translator): The Russian aggression in Ukraine has dealt a blow to the stability. It ended decades of peace in Europe. I know I can count on you. Moreover, under the two principles I have just mentioned to bring Russia to its senses and everyone to the negotiating table.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: CNN's Mark Stewart joins me now from Tokyo. You've been following this visit as it started and continues. It is a very long visit, a momentous visit as far as Macron is concerned. And, yet, when we get to the issue of Ukraine, that was his mission there.

You know, what proof will we ever have that he was actually able to convince China to be part of the solution there? Because we have not heard much from the Chinese leader.

MARK STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Hi there, Paula. You know, on the surface, we are getting some headlines that could perhaps be viewed as encouraging. President Xi said he would join France in a call asking for a restraint and for nations not to do anything to perhaps make the situation in Ukraine even worse. We are hearing from a French diplomatic source that President Xi said he would get on a call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and hash out some of these issues, if you will, if the time was right.

But at the end of the day, there are some strong fundamental differences between President Macron and President Xi. President Macron has said that he blames Russia for disrupting decades of peace in the region, in Europe.

We also though have President Xi who is taking a neutral position, yet, is not condemning Russia for its invasion.

And as we look over the last few months, the relationship between Russia and China has actually been strengthened, both economically as well as on a diplomatic front. We just recently saw, just weeks ago, President Xi hosts -- or rather -- or rather Vladimir Putin host President Xi in Russia.

[02:25:00]

So for the moment, Paula, we are hearing just words, no wholesale agreements or indication that China will step in and be responsible for a bigger movement to try to encourage Russia to engage in peace in the region.

NEWTON: Yes. And through all of this, President Zelenskyy is waiting for that phone call from China. We'll see if that does happen in the days to come after this visit. Mark Stewart for us. Really appreciate it.

Now, a short time ago, China announced sanctions against two American organizations for hosting Taiwan's leader during her brief stopovers in the United States. China loudly condemned Wednesday's meeting between President Tsai Ing-wen and U.S. House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, in California.

Now in retaliation, China said it was sanctioning the Reagan Library where Tsai and McCarthy met. The other sanctions target the Hudson Institute which hosted the visit in New York. Here's what the Chinese Foreign Ministry had to say.

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MAO NING, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON (through translator): China will take resolute and strong measures to firmly defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

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NEWTON: Now, meantime, Taiwan's president is returning home at the same time that a bipartisan congressional delegation has arrived in Taipei, being led by House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul. McCaul said China should, quote, think twice before considering an invasion of Taiwan, boosting Taiwan's defenses against a potential attack from China has taken an added urgency ever since Russian forces invaded Ukraine.

And we now want to show you that grueling battle of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut through the eyes of Ukraine's Special Forces. The Ukrainian military released this video showing troops fighting house to house in damaged buildings. Ukraine says that it rappelled about 10 new Russian attacks in Bakhmut moved in the past day or so.

But British military intelligence says that it believes Russian troops have, quote, regained some momentum there and have likely advanced into the center of Bakhmut.

Meantime, in the Southern Kherson region, officials say seven people were wounded from Russian artillery fire on Thursday.

Now, still to come for us, the back and forth fire between Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon. I'll speak with a member of the Palestinian Parliament. That's next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) NEWTON: And welcome back. I'm Paula Newton and you are watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Palestinian authorities in Gaza claiming an Israeli airstrike deliberately damaged children's hospital there. No casualties were reported, but Ministry of Health says the attack caused, of course, immense distress among those young patients.

[02:30:00]

Now, the Israeli military says it's been carrying out strikes against Hamas targets in Lebanon and Gaza. Lebanese media reports several families were displaced by those attacks. It's the latest escalation since tensions flared earlier this week when Israeli police twice raided Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem during Ramadan prayers. Now, the strikes against Hamas come just hours after a barrage of rockets, nearly three dozen in fact, were fired from southern Lebanon toward Israel. The IDF says most but not all, were intercepted.

And I want to bring in Palestinian parliament member Mustafa Barghouti. He is also the Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, and he is coming to us live now from Ramallah in the West Bank. I really want to thank you for joining us on what must be another tense day. But I have to ask you, how does the involvement of Hamas, Hezbollah, perhaps even Islamic Jihad -- how could the involvement of these militant groups possibly help the situation in any way right now?

MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI, Well, SECRETARY GENERAL, PALESTINIAN NATIONAL INITIATIVE: these groups did not initiate this problem. This whole problem was initiated by two facts, first of all, that the Israeli establishment put the issue of security in Jerusalem and in the occupied territories in the hands of crazy fanatic fascists like Ben- Gvir and Smotrich. This Israeli government is extreme. It is doing everything to escalate the situation.

And the second problem was the attacks on worshippers in Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Hamas would not have done anything if things went well. But us -- let me tell you that the vast majority of us Palestinians are prevented from reaching Jerusalem, reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque to pray. That applies not only to Muslims but also to Christians.

And to add insult to injury, the Israeli army entered the mosque, beat people badly -- viciously, arrested 400 people while they were worshipping inside the mosque. And that attack, of course, precipitated reactions, including what we've seen in Lebanon. This evening, the Israel --

NEWTON: So, you're saying that the retaliation -- you're saying that the retaliation whether it comes from Hamas or Hezbollah is necessary and that they are defending Palestinian rights?

BARGHOUTI: I'm saying that the right of self-defense should be equal to everybody. You cannot say that Israel has the right to self-defense and Palestinians who are under occupation and under a system of apartheid and oppression for more than 70 years do not have the right to defend themselves. I am an advocate of nonviolence and nothing can be more nonviolent than just worshiping inside a church or a mosque.

Imagine if somebody attacked a synagogue and started beating people while they were worshiping, what would be the reaction? Imagine if some people came and said that people cannot enter a church in Atlanta unless they come on uncertain hours and they are above the age of 66. This is unacceptable. That is what's happening to us.

I am -- by the way, I was born in Jerusalem. I worked as a medical doctor for 15 years in Jerusalem. And they prevent me from reaching Jerusalem. If I want to reach Al-Aqsa Mosque, I have to break the law and find a way to sneak in. This is the reality of our life. So, the main problem is the continuous occupation since 55 years, a system of oppression and apartheid. And when that started, there was no Hamas --

NEWTON: Listen --

BARGHOUTI: -- there was no Jihad. Palestinians are responding to oppression.

NEWTON: But the cycle of violence is in fact quite familiar to you, as you're pointing out. I want -- I want to ask you. Right now, we had heard that hundreds of people were detained. Do you know the fate of those that were detained? Have they been released? Have you been able to get any information about that?

BARGHOUTI: Some were released. But even those who were released were given orders that they cannot get close to the Aqsa Mosque for at least ten days. So, actually, they were deprived from the right of worshipping in the most holy month for Muslim people.

And that kind of behavior is unacceptable. It's a discriminatory behavior. It's a system based on racial discrimination enhanced by the presence of extremists like Smotrich and Ben-Gvir in the Israeli government. Smotrich says openly and clearly that he is a fascist homophobe and he says that he will fill the occupied Palestinian territories with illegal settlers --

NEWTON: You know, you're speaking --

BARGHOUTI: -- and says that Palestinians have one or three, you have to live --

NEWTON: You're speaking right now --

BARGHOUTI: -- or die or accept a life of subjugation. (INAUDIBLE)

NEWTON: You're speaking right now -- I don't have a lot of time off but you are speaking right now about those far-right elements within the Netanyahu coalition government there. How do you think that will affect things going forward?

[02:35:00] BARGHOUTI: They are the ones who initiated this whole cycle of problems and violence. They are the ones who are dragging Israel into a disaster. They're trying to destroy even the judiciary system in Israel. And they are destroying what they call democracy for the Jewish people in Israel.

What -- and they are the result of the fact that we have such a long occupation and the system of oppression of other people. So, the way to peace, the way to ending this situation, the way to ending all forms of violence is very simple. It's allowing Palestinians to be free from occupation, ending the system of occupation, and apartheid. What we see today are symptoms of the disease. And the disease is military occupation that is the longest in middle -- in human history.

NEWTON: Mr. Barghouti, I do have to leave it there for now. But we'll continue to stay in touch with you and as you so rightly point out a very holy time for Muslims, for Jews, and in fact, for Christians as well. So, we hope we do not see an escalation in the coming hours. Thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate it.

BARGHOUTI: Thank you. Thank you.

NEWTON: And we will be right back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NEWTON: The Biden administration is blaming conditions created by Donald Trump for the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Now, the report summary released on Thursday doesn't admit any mistakes and says President Biden followed his military leaders' recommendations. The White House also put part of the blame on the former President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: Where we came down on was not calling for an evacuation sooner because we didn't want the Ghani government to collapse. And we had every assurance made by President Ghani that he wasn't going anywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: More now from CNN's Natasha Bertrand.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: The White House said on Thursday that it would be transmitting to certain congressional committees a long-awaited after-action report outlining lessons learned from the lead up to the withdrawal of Afghanistan and, of course, the aftermath, as well as that abrogate bombing that took the lives of 13 U.S. service members as that very chaotic evacuation was taking place. Now, this report is classified. And members of Congress are going to be able to read a hard copy of it but they, of course, will not be able to disseminate it widely. However, the White House is kind of getting out ahead of this. And they release their own summary of their perspectives of the lead-up to the withdrawal and the lessons that they believe the administration has learned since. Namely, among those lessons, are the fact that they will now begin evacuations much sooner than they did with Afghanistan. They say that they delayed those evacuations, essentially because they did not want the world to lose confidence in the Afghan government and for the Afghan government to collapse.

Well, now they say that they're prioritizing faster evacuations. And they're also working more aggressively to communicate the risks to Americans who may be in these situations where the security environment is deteriorating very rapidly, as we saw with the rapid Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.

[02:40:10]

So, while the White House says that they will be taking these lessons learned and applying them elsewhere, they also are arguing very fervently that this was a bad hand that was dealt to them by the Trump administration. And they say that everything that they did was really a reaction to deals that President Trump made with the Taliban that forced the Americans to withdraw from Afghanistan, reduce their presence there, and thereby leave the Afghan government and the Americans in the country a lot weaker.

That is the argument the White House is making. Obviously, this after- action report going to Congress. It will remain classified. But it remains to be seen, of course, whether any of this will be made public. For now, however, the administration really pointing the finger back at their predecessors.

Natasha Bertrand, CNN at the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: So, there's a new warning that the odds of a recession may be going up and it comes from Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the nation's largest bank. In an exclusive interview with CNN's Poppy Harlow, he said a recent collapse of two U.S. banks could push the economy just a bit closer to the edge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Has this banking crisis, even though you think it's almost over which I'm really glad to hear, though increased chances of a recession here?

JAMIE DIMON, CEO, JPMORGAN CHASE: Yes. But I look it like it's not definitive. It's just like another weight on the scale.

HARLOW: OK.

DIMON: And think of it as you know, people have said it's like raising rates another 50 basis points or something like that. I -- we are seeing people reduce lending a little bit, cut back a little bit, and pull back a little bit. It won't necessarily force recession, but it is recessionary.

HARLOW: Storm clouds ahead, you say may be some for the economy?

DIMON: Right. Yes. Have I mentioned, the QT and higher inflation for longer the war?

HARLOW: Yes. OK.

DIMON: Those are pretty strong things. If you look at history since World War Two, we've not kind of faced it like that. It's still early in that that we're going for longer. We don't really know the outcome of QT. I think we'll be writing about QE and QT for 50 years.

HARLOW: Quantitative tightening, quantitative easing?

DIMON: The quantitative tightening and easing, yes.

HARLOW: OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Dimon also said the current banking crisis is nothing like the financial crisis of 2008. And he believes U.S. lawmakers will in fact resolve their dispute over the debt ceiling and avoid a U.S. default.

I'm Paula Newton. I want to thank you for your company. "WORLD SPORT" is next, and then I will be back in 15 minutes with more news.

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[02:45:17]

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