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Israeli Tanks, Troops Line Gaza Border For Possible Incursion; Volunteer Medic Describes Horrors Of Conflict; House Paralyzed With No End In Sight To Leadership Vacuum; Rep. Jordan Demurs When Asked If 2020 Election Was Stolen; Israel Tanks, Troops Line Gaza Border For Possible Incursion; Two Trump Lawyers Plead Guilty To GA Election Interference. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired October 21, 2023 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. My colleague, Erin Burnett is live for us in Tel Aviv right now.

We begin this hour with a growing death toll in the war. Palestinian health officials say more than 4,300 people have died in Gaza since the start of the war. That number, of course is almost certain to rise. A short time ago, Israel's military says it is increasing airstrikes beginning today.

This new CNN video shows Israeli troops and machinery positioned along the border awaiting the order to launch a ground invasion of Gaza. Israel's top military leaders are telling commanders that forces "will enter Gaza" and for the first time since the war began two weeks ago, humanitarian aid briefly rolled into Gaza, but the Rafah Border Crossing between Egypt and Gaza is now closed again after the 20 truck convoy made its way through.

Relief agencies say additional shipments of water, fuel, and food are urgently needed and that Gaza's hospital system is teetering on the verge of collapse.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: I mean, we just keep hearing, Jim about the water, the water, how there is just not enough water. It comes after a day after -- sorry, these two hostages were freed by Hamas, an American mother and daughter, one step closer to coming home to the United States.

Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter Natalie are reuniting with family today at an Israeli military base. Natalie's father says he is expecting her home by Tuesday, her 18th birthday. Her brother said he hoped that she would be home on that day.

And Jim, you know, of course, the real question is will there be more hostages released? Obviously we know of at least eight other American hostages, but about 200 Israeli ones and none of them have been released. Hamas has indicated that they would talk to what they called what was a friendly power like Qatar or Russia for the release of foreign nationals, very explicitly not including Israeli hostages. So there is a huge question around that.

ACOSTA: Absolutely. And the president, President Biden was asked about some of this earlier today and he said to reporters, "I am talking to the Israelis." And I suppose one of the questions and you might have a better insight into this on the ground in Israel, Erin, is whether or not Hamas releasing these two American hostages, and the Israelis aren't going to want to admit this, but has to some extent hit the pause button on the ground incursion. Might that possibly be the reason why we are still waiting for that to occur?

BURNETT: Yes. I mean, look, the speculation here is that as well, and whether they will then, you know, put out a few at a time to try to get this to delay and delay that that could be a possible tactic Hamas is using.

Now Israel said nothing's going to have them put anything on pause. Nonetheless, obviously here we are two weeks past, two weeks past today the horrific attacks. And I was talking to a woman today. Gosh, she was saying, "I can't believe it was two weeks ago today that this happened to me. I cannot, I still cannot process what actually happened." She had been in the kibbutz of Be'eri, one of the survivors there.

Meantime, of course, Jim, those strikes that you're talking about in Gaza, when they say they're stepping them up, just to give everyone some context. The day before yesterday, the IDF put out numbers saying that they had struck Gaza 205 times in one day. That's one day, right? We are 14 days past and the people in Northern Gaza are under constant bombardment.

We've been trying to talk to some of them. Obviously, the cell service is really spotty. Sometimes they'll talk to you with 40 percent left power on their phone, but they choose to do it because they want the world to hear them.

Wafa Elsaka is a teacher in Tallahassee, Florida. She's a retired art teacher. She went to Gaza to visit her mother, her elderly and unwell mother and she is stuck there and she has been sort of filing for us, Jim these little updates on what is happening and this is just what happened to her yesterday.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

WAFA ELSAKA, RETIRED ART TEACHER FROM TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA: Thankfully, no one is hurt, but it's just glass, the windows on the second floor shattered. But, all the kids in here, all 10 of them traumatized. Many of them with fever this morning and body aches from being scared and adults as well. Everybody is just so exhausted because we didn't have any sleep since then.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BURNETT: They say there, they're afraid to go out in the night and then they wake up and are afraid to go out in the day.

Jeremy Diamond is in Ashkelon, not far from Gaza and Jeremy often you can hear a lot of the incoming and outgoing and as we wonder when these next steps from Israel may commence, what are you hearing? What are you learning where you are?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well tonight, Erin, what we are certainly hearing is a lot of outgoing, as the IDF says that it is intensifying its strikes on the Gaza Strip in preparation for a ground invasion to try and minimize the risk to its own troops as they prepare to go in.

Tonight, we have been hearing thud after thud, the rumbling sounds of bombs dropping on the Gaza Strip. What we saw today as well as we drove around along the border with Gaza is an enormous massing of troops of tanks and of armored personnel carriers.

You can see in a video that we shot here just one of those staging grounds, one of four different staging positions that we saw in an area of you know, about a square mile or so.

[18:05:08]

We saw hundreds altogether on those four areas, hundreds of tanks, armored personnel carriers, as well as those D-9 bulldozers, which are used to clear the roads of IEDs and other obstacles for those ground forces to go in. All of this, as Israel's military chief-of-staff says that we will enter Gaza, telling troops that their task will be to destroy Hamas infrastructure and operatives.

At the same time, of course, Hamas is continuing to fire rockets on Israeli cities and right here in Ashkelon, this is actually the most fired upon city in all of Israel, receiving about 25 percent of Hamas' barrage of rockets on Israeli towns and cities.

We spent the day going around and meeting with residents in the city and also their operation center to get a sense of what life is like under fire.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADINA MORDECHAI, SUPERMARKET CASHIER: Go inside, go inside.

DIAMOND (voice over): This is life in Ashkelon.

(ADINA MORDECHAI speaking in foreign language.)

MORDECHAI: Go to the drinks --

DIAMOND (voice over): The most fired upon city in Israel since Hamas launched its first rockets 12 days ago. Here, fear still grip some; others carry on ignoring the sirens' wails.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): When we're outside, we're very careful. When we are inside, God is protecting us. Every missile has an address, we don't need to be afraid.

DIAMOND (voice over): In a city where 90 percent of businesses have closed, this supermarket is a lifeline.

DIAMOND (on camera): There's a lot of businesses that are close.

MORDECHAI: They are closed.

DIAMOND: But this supermarket --

MORDECHAI: It is working because people have to eat. They have to drink.

DIAMOND: You come what? Once a week or --

ETI GILBOA, ASHKELON RESIDENT: Once a week, enough, enough. We are afraid. And they are saying now, rocket, I was laying on the road and to put my hands on my head.

DIAMOND (voice over): Getting to a bomb shelter isn't an option for everyone here, prompting the city to help evacuate thousands.

HERZI HALEVI, ASHKELON CEO: We still have around 35,000 people that actually live without shelters. So each and every rocket, it means a direct risk for them, so we are trying to find solution for them.

DIAMOND (voice over): More than 1,200 rockets have targeted Ashkelon, and while most are intercepted by the Iron Dome, about 200 have made direct hits, displacing families from their homes, causing casualties and shuttering businesses like this bakery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): When we got here, everything was in pieces. The door was out of place. There was a smell of gunpowder. A lot of nails and shrapnel was spread out. Everything was destroyed. We are starting to put things right.

DIAMOND (voice over): In the basement of an unassuming building, Ashkelon CEO takes us into the city's emergency operations center where officials try and shorten response times tracking incoming rockets headed for the city.

HALEVI: Rescue teams, police, ambulances -- everything is going from here.

DIAMOND (on camera): So before the rocket even lands, you can see where it would land.

HALEVI: Yes, we have some estimation where it's going to land.

DIAMOND (voice over): Until then, the first responders wait and pray.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND (on camera): And four people have now been killed in the city of Ashkelon in just these last two weeks, 35 people have been injured by rocket fire and 1,200 have been displaced after rockets hit their homes. Now the Iron Dome missile defense system does intercept the

overwhelming majority of those rockets coming in, but many of them -- but some of them still do indeed get through, which leads to this kind of fear and anxiety, the psychological impact that this war has here.

And even just yesterday, three of those rockets making it through the Iron Dome system in the city, two of those hitting residential buildings and one of them hitting a parked vehicle -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, Jeremy Diamond there for us in Ashkelon, Israel.

Jeremy, thank you very much.

Coming up, a volunteer medical join us, how she is living through the horrors of war and what could be ahead. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:13:23]

BURNETT: For two weeks now, Israel and Gaza have been at war. Israel and Hamas have been at war, and the region is confronting all the horrors of what that actually means.

I want to bring in Naomi Galeano, a volunteer medic with United Hatzalah. Now, Naomi, on the afternoon of the Hamas attack -- and I just want everyone to know when they're looking at you now, you're at work. You're out saving lives. That's what you do.

NAOMI GALEANO, VOLUNTEER MEDIC, UNITED HATZALAH: Yes.

BURNETT: Yes, I know you are. So I really appreciate you just taking a few minutes to talk to us because I know that you want the world to know and to be very aware of what happened and you think it's important.

That day, on the afternoon of the Hamas attack, you were -- you were on call looking for anyone who survived. You were getting those calls. You were going to the kibbutzim along that border.

How do you even cope with what you saw? Before we even talk about what you saw? How do you cope with it now, Noemi?

GALEANO: So right now, thanks to United Hatzalah and other organizations in Israel, I now have a full psychological treatment there the other day, special treatment of -- it is called EMDR. It's a system that works on the brain that helps you cope with traumatic events before you develop post traumatic symptoms.

So I have that. I have the support of my family next to me.

BURNETT: Well, I am very glad that you're getting -- yes.

Naomi, I know that you witnessed horrific things with your own eyes as you were trying to save lives. I know that again you have chosen to talk about this because you don't want the world to be able to turn away and forget what happened what you saw with your own eyes. What do you want people to know about what you saw?

[18:15:15]

GALEANO: The first thing that I want them to know that probably, Hamas is ISIS. The act and the horrific things that we saw are beyond -- beyond words -- beyond anything we could compare to or any movie or any horror movie that you could ever, ever imagine seeing anywhere.

We begin with the babies that we saw dead, bleeding, beheaded to the women that we saw in the same situation, the same odors -- the blood, the elderly, take your pick --everything.

BURNETT: Naomi, I have, I think along with many others felt frustration that beheading became a part of this, the horrific things that everyone knows occurred that why that would be something that needed to be proven when so many horrific, other things also happened. But I just want to be clear that you did see those acts, you did see people who had been beheaded.

GALEANO: Fortunately, I have seen that, I've seen people that their limbs had been taken out. I've seen mothers dead on top of their babies, that were also dead. I've seen burnt bodies of young girls, young men, people of all ages, babies -- burned babies. They just burned them.

I can't even start to describe the smell. At the beginning, you don't even realize what you're smelling. It smells like barbecue, it doesn't make any sense this type of horror and when you take a look a little bit closer and closer inside of people's houses, you realize that it is burnt meat and its people -- people, and it is something that I don't think I will ever be able to erase from my head or from my mind, or my dreams.

BURNETT: Naomi, was there anyone that was in a position that you were able to help them when you got there?

GALEANO: It was it was around -- it took us so, so much time until we found people that were actually alive, and when we did we were able to help yes, thank God, but compared to the dead people and the amount of dead, it wasn't a lot. It wasn't a lot.

But yes, we were able -- we were able to save few families from Be'eri that we loaded the ambulance with four or five injured at the same time because there is no time. We are under fire and we have to load the ambulance with as much injured as we can.

And they were severely, severely injured in their lungs because they breathed smoke for at least three or four hours because the terrorists, Hamas burned their houses once they realized they cannot go into the safe room, so they just burned the whole place down. And the families that stayed inside, some of them were alive and we were able to help them and save them and some of them not.

BURNETT: My God, the fact that some of them were alive and you were able to save them. I mean, what a miracle. What a miracle that is.

I mean, Naomi, obviously, this is how you reacted in a moment that no one can comprehend being in, you reacted by going in. You talk about being under fire as you're trying to save people. Did you realize that you could have died? Did you realize that this was all still happening while you were there? Did you even process it?

GALEANO: At that time, you don't start to process it, you just think I'm here. I'll do my best to stay alive. Because I have to save more lives. I have to get back to my family. So even you're under fire, you try the best as you can to stay alive, if it's lying on the floor, if it is trying to hide behind cars, if it's staying really, really quiet even though if you're an ambulance even though you're driving through the night, but you don't turn the light on. You drive in complete, complete darkness.

Because you know if you stay alive, then you could save more lives and that's what you do, hour after hour.

[18:20:08]

BURNETT: Well, that's what you do. I think so many of us, I listen to you, and it's truly unbelievable. It's an inspiration that it's hard to even comprehend and you're still doing it, Naomi, you're still -- you're still going out, you're still able to work now.

GALEANO: Yes. Well, I took few days off this past week. Now I'm back here, I'm in Ashkelon right now. I have my crew with me, my ambulance on the other side over here. We have my ambulance behind me.

BURNETT: Yes, I see you're trying to show me. I see it. Yes.

GALEANO: Right now, I can't be inside the ambulance -- I can't be inside the ambulance. We have to be outside. We have safe places here because if there's any alarm on, we have to go into the safe place and only when it stops, we could go out and start safe with the rescue of people and hoping that no one got hurt. That's our best hope.

BURNETT: Well, Naomi, I want to thank you very much. Before you go, I just want to ask you a very simple question, which is now that you've taken the time to share these horrors and to relive them because you want people to hear that. Is there anything else you want to tell anyone watching about what's happening in Israel, about how you feel? Is there anything else you just want the world to hear?

GALEANO: I just want the world to know that this thing should never happen again. You should know that Hamas is ISIS. The acts that we saw are against any humanity that possibly be existing in this world.

And go home to your families and hug your kids and love them and be with them, because from what I saw, maybe you could never know if it's the last day or the last moment and just tell your family that you love them every day, and if you're in a situation, try to do your best to help others because sometimes even the smallest help could change the world for someone else.

BURNETT: Naomi, thank you very much.

GALEANO: Thank you.

BURNETT: Thank you so much for taking the time. Naomi Galeano, as you can see in Ashkelon, Israel, out, EMT right now, going to save lives even after what she has endured and taking the time and agony to share with all of us.

Our coverage continues in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:26:39]

ACOSTA: Twenty days later, and there is no end in sight for House Republicans' quest to find a new speaker. Moments ago, I spoke to one of the eight GOP lawmakers who voted to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker, and he says he has zero regrets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): The trouble is, is that we followed the rules, the rules that Kevin McCarthy voted on that were voted on unanimously by our conference, and we followed them to a tee. And if they didn't like those rules, they shouldn't have put them in place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Joining us now to discuss, "Vanity Fair" special correspondent, Molly Jong-Fast and CNN senior political commentator and Republican strategist, Anna Navarro.

Anna, let me start with you. No regrets, but also no plan for a new speaker right now.

ANNA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, when I look at the news, I really feel like a level of emotional and political schizophrenia, right? It's so ridiculous to be on the one minute listening to heroic Israelis, who have to confront terrorists. People who are having to bury their dead, a war going on in that region. And then the next minute, here we are covering this embarrassing clown show.

This organization, the stupidity. Republicans cannot look more petty, more small, and more disorganized. It really is. I feel like vicarious embarrassment for the Republicans in the House, and yes, there is no plan.

I mean, last I read, and that may have changed to less or more, there were eight people running. So these people, you know, these Crazy Eight took out Kevin McCarthy, absolutely no plan, and I think that as of today, there is no plan.

ACOSTA: Yes, Molly, I've seen less chaos at Chuck E. Cheese's, but you know, former Speaker candidate, Jim Jordan, he didn't become the speaker, he is only the candidate, was asked during a press conference yesterday whether he still thought the 2020 election was stolen. Let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Do you think the 2020 election was stolen?

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): I think there were all kinds of problems with the 2020 election, I've been clear about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Molly, how can you become the speaker of the House of Representatives for the United States government and be that delusional or dishonest?

MOLLY JONG-FAST, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, "VANITY FAIR": Well, a lot. He is reflecting the view of a lot of the base and it's a view that the Republicans in power, the Trump has really nurtured and grown.

I would say what's pretty interesting, I think about this Jim Jordan thing is that Jim Jordan had the endorsement of Trump. It is hard to think of a speaker who would be more trumpy and more friendly to Donald Trump than Jim Jordan.

Jim Jordan was not able to get the votes, so either Trump is so distracted by his criminal cases, which he may very well be, or he has diminished power with the base, because Jim Jordan was not able to get the votes.

So I do think it's very bad time. I think it's very upsetting, but I do think it's worth wondering if this is a sign of Trump's diminished power.

ACOSTA: Yes, Anna, what about that? Do you think that that is the case that Trump has been diminished in all of this? And is this a sign that the moderate Republicans, the GOP establishment that they're starting to stand up for themselves?

NAVARRO: You know, you asked Molly a question about can somebody who thinks the 2020 election was stolen be speaker of the House, and if I can just weigh in on that?

ACOSTA: Sure. Of course.

NAVARRO: Kevin McCarthy wasn't, you know -- he didn't think it was stolen, initially, but just a few days later, he was at Mar-a-Lago kissing Trump's ring, and that wasn't enough.

And so many of the eight that are running have said, and do think that the election was stolen and it is unbelievable to me.

[18:30:36]

When I heard the phone calls to the wife of Congressman Bacon, who had not voted for Jim Jordan, and the things that were being said, how every single Republican in the House is not loudly condemning that and feeling shame for the level of discourse and just how low they have gotten. How - I just - I have no words for it.

As to Trump, look, his ability to control the House may have changed. Interestingly enough, some of the people that did not vote for Jim Jordan are people that Trump has endorsed and that have endorsed Trump already, including some from South Florida that I know personally, Carlos Gimenez and Mario Diaz-Balart.

But regardless of what may be happening there, at the other end of the spectrum, that Trump leading by leaps and bounds with the Republican primary, I think that actually matters and you've got a Republican primary going on where Trump is not really participating and beating everybody else like a drum.

ACOSTA: Yes.

What about that, Molly? I mean, he's still - I mean, he's - it's still his party, even though he didn't get his own speaker, it's his party.

MOLLY JONG-FAST, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, VANITY FAIR: Yes. No, it's definitely his party. He's - you know what, nobody else is anywhere close to him in this Republican primary contest. But it is interesting to me that he wasn't able to sort of whip the votes. And Kevin McCarthy - Jim Jordan is like the most Trumpy of this crew.

Now there are a ton of people running, just like with the Republican, this sort of non-Trumpy Republican field. And eight, nine, I think Pete Sessions just jumped in. So it's going to be a big group. I think that it's interesting to me that people still want this job because it really is not a great job. And this Republican Party is - has such a schism right now between the burn it out, all down caucus, which really just wants to burn it all down, the Matt Gaetzes and this sort of more traditional Republican that wants to at least try to do some legislating.

ACOSTA: Yes. Ana, I mean, the fact that there's ...

NAVARRO: Well, (inaudible) ...

ACOSTA: Go ahead.

NAVARRO: ... it's a great job. It's a great job when you are Nancy Pelosi and you actually wield power and get legislation through, and you get a great office with the best view in the Capitol and all sorts of perks, including a hideaway, which I guess is now in high demand.

So it is a great job when you actually have authority. It is not a great job when you do the things that Kevin McCarthy did in order to become speaker, which is give away all the power, even before he had it.

ACOSTA: Right. Molly, Kevin McCarthy was complaining about the crazy eights, which I think I said earlier on this program, I thought was a card game I played with my mom when I was a kid. But Kevin McCarthy, he is - he has only himself to blame. He is - he went along with these ground rules and I asked Ron Brownstein about this earlier on this program, how does the next speaker come along and want to have the same ground rules in place where one person, one of the crazy eights can pull the rug out from under you.

JONG-FAST: Right. Well, no, I mean, I think that there has to be some kind of reckoning and the Republicans are going to have to agree to have a regular - to take away that motion to make it.

Look, Kevin McCarthy was so desperate for this job. He agreed to a lot of stuff and he made a lot of promises. And again, we still don't know nine months later, all the things he promised people, but it certainly was his downfall. I do think that this is - I think a lot of people don't want this job.

I mean, if you look at the Speaker pro tem right now, he doesn't want it. There's a lot of - the Republicans - since Trump came to office, there's been a lot of like this kind of threatening stuff like that. You already see some of Trump's people are threatening some of the candidates now. I mean, this is kind of the way MAGA does business and it's terrible, but it's not so surprising. And I think it makes the job 10 times worse.

ACOSTA: Yes. Yes. Well, I think we're going to go from crazy eights to go fish. No Jim Jordan, go fish. I think that's what we're going to be seeing this coming week.

Ana Navarro, Molly Jong-Fast, pardon the dad jokes, I'm trying to lighten things up just a little bit on this weekend.

[18:35:00]

Appreciate it.

NAVARRO: They are dad jokes (inaudible) ...

ACOSTA: They are. They're bad ones too, I know. I'm sorry.

NAVARRO: (Inaudible) that.

ACOSTA: Thanks.

NAVARRO: But listen, maybe you can be Speaker of the House.

ACOSTA: No way. No, thanks. Thanks, ladies. Appreciate it. All right.

We're going to go back to Israel in just a few moments. And you're looking at live pictures right now of Gaza. It's 1:34 in the morning. Tanks are lining up along the Gaza border. We'll see what happens next. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:39:31]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: A spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces, the top spokesperson, says that it will start firing more airstrikes starting from today and that a ground invasion will begin once the military conditions are optimal. Joining me now is a former State Department negotiator for the Middle

East, Aaron David Miller, along with former Department of Homeland Security official, Juliette Kayyem. And thanks very much to you both.

Let me just start, Aaron, with you.

[18:40:00]

We know that Israel has been ready to go for days. That the military has been ready, a state of incredible readiness. And when they now are giving 24 hour leaves to soldiers, we've heard they come in, they come out. I mean, they are ready. And yet they have not yet gone. What do you think is giving the pause?

AARON DAVID MILLER, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT FORMER MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR: First of all, Erin, thanks for having me. A lot of factors, I think.

Number one, there's weather. Number two, there's Israeli indecision about the breadth and depth, precisely how they're going to do this. Number three, the president's visit, I think, may have actually engendered a good bit of thinking on the part of the Israelis with respect to the way they're going to do this.

And finally, I think the cruelest dilemma is hostages. Israelis are torn between their commitment, not necessarily to avenging the deaths of 1,400 people, but to preempting the possibility this could ever happen again, on one hand, and their commitment to redeem the living.

I mean, you've been there, now you've seen, you've talked to the families, hostage redemption, retrieving Israeli soldiers and civilians dead or alive from the battlefield is a national priority. So this is the cruelest dilemma of all, although I think in the end, undermining Hamas and destroying its capacity to govern in Gaza would probably be the greater priority.

BURNETT: And - yes, and it appears they've been making that as clear as they can. And as I said, the families of the hostages, sometimes with anger, sometimes with acceptance seem to know that, there isn't any ambiguity there for them, which only one can imagine that cruel reality for those families who are so desperately hoping.

Juliette, the thing is, of course, as Israel waits, is ready and waits, there's obviously the military issue of that, which is how long can you be at such a state of readiness with 360,000 people on a border and wait. How long can you stay like down on the start move - on the start line, right?

There's also the question that as they wait, the frustration builds around the world. The protests that we've seen, obviously, have been widespread around the region. But one particular one that stood out to me that I keep mentioning, because I think the scale just really hits me, 80,000 people protesting outside the consulate in Adana, Turkey.

Adana, Turkey is not a place that most people in the United States have even heard of, 80,000 people. They had to shut that consulate. So what are the risks here?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: The risks are multiple. I think these are the ones that President Biden has been trying to highlight to the Israelis based essentially on our lessons in Afghanistan. One is after being attacked, after we were attacked on 9/11, one is what is the end game.

It is one thing to say - for those of us in counterterrorism - we are going to make Hamas not able to govern in Gaza, then what? Right. Is it - are the Israelis actually anticipating being the governing body in Gaza? And if not, then who is, right? So that's the first question.

The second is the issue of civilian deaths. Going back 20 years, we were probably not thinking about what civilian deaths meant in Afghanistan. Well, it essentially meant that you were radicalizing populations that might not otherwise have been radicalized, right? So forget - obviously, the human rights issues are key and else.

The third is if you don't have an answer to the first two questions, how do you stop a regional conflict? If you - Biden's success so far, I have to say, is - it is what's not happened, right? I mean, (inaudible) the Israelis have not gone in yet. There hasn't been - there's regional anger and there's lots of criticism, but you haven't had the kind of unrest that one might have anticipated last Saturday.

So that's the dialogue that has to go on, but what's the end game here for Israel, you're not going to govern Gaza. I mean, that's their challenge.

BURNETT: And - but Aaron, it also comes as there's been this incredible backlash in the United States. It's not just pro- Palestinian rallies, of course. It's horrific things like - Polo Sandoval was just reporting with the head of a synagogue being stabbed to death outside her home.

I mean, there are horrific things happening, right? There is a backlash that is building. And the reality of it is, is how dangerous is this in the U.S., Aaron?

MILLER: Erin, that's a question you and I could talk about probably for days, given the divisiveness, the polarization, the hate speech, social media, the behavior of certain American politicians, which encourage this, I think it's extremely dangerous, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism.

[18:45:04]

And that's - those currents clearly are going to be fed by what happened on October 7th and Israel's response in Gaza. There's no question about that. Our own broken House, frankly, is in some respects as much on display and the President, I think, in his remarks a day before yesterday, addressed this question, but I think it's absolutely critical that we continue to talk about the importance of tolerance, of mutual understanding and, of course, as Juliet knows, Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, follow these groups, if in fact you're talking about organized responses ... BURNETT: Yes.

MILLER: ... as closely as possible.

BURNETT: Right, right, and the president did of course talk about how horrible both things are, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism that they - the U.S. must not succumb to those. Thank you both so very much. I appreciate it. And our special coverage continues after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:50:29]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you plead to count 15, conspiracy to commit filing false documents in indictment number 23SC188947?

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KENNETH CHESEBRO, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY AND CO-DEFENDANT: Guilty.

ACOSTA: That was Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro pleading guilty yesterday in the Georgia election interference case. As part of the plea deal, Chesebro admitted to conspiring with the former president to overturn the 2020 election, including creating false states - slates of electors. His plea comes one day after another Trump attorney, Sidney Powell, pleaded guilty to willfully tampering with voting machines among other criminal charges.

Let's get some legal analysis from criminal defense attorney and former Georgia federal prosecutor, Amy Lee Copeland.

Amy Lee, we were talking to Shan Wu about this earlier on this program - in this program. And Shan had a theory and I'll bounce it off of you, that it's possible that Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, while yes, they did crack, they are going to cooperate with prosecutors, but it may not be a full on flip, that they're not - that they may go into the rest of this case and perhaps not provide as much information as that - that the prosecutors might like.

How does that grab you? Is that possible that they could get away with something like that or do you think they are cooperating?

AMY LEE COPELAND, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Good evening, Jim. The language of the plea agreements say simply that they will testify truthfully, not that they will cooperate fully and there's a real difference there. But to get these plea deals, both had to do a video proffer.

Sidney Powell got an extraordinary deal to be able to plead guilty to misdemeanors, even six misdemeanors. That's still an extraordinary deal when you were facing felony RICO charges. She had to submit the video proffer prior to the prosecution offering her that plea agreement. I think what she had to say in that video proffer, which she can't

back down from, is going to be pretty potent. I think that that's the reason why she got the misdemeanor deal. So they may not be embracing the rules of cooperation, they may not really be all in their hearts and minds, but they certainly have committed something to video that they're going to be stuck with.

ACOSTA: Got it. And how - so in your view, how damning is this for the former president? There are lots of analysts, a lot of folks out there saying, oh, this is devastating for Trump. Having covered him, he's a little like Harry Houdini in his ability to get out of all sorts of hot legal water. Your sense of it?

COPELAND: Jim, it certainly doesn't help him, that two people in the inner circle are testifying against him. You look at the acts against Sidney Powell in this indictment, and she was actually in the Oval Office on December 18th of 2020, where they discussed things like a military effort to remove voting machines from various polling places and she was going to be in charge of that.

She certainly can give some real background to what that call or that face-to-face conversation was about. That can't help the president. As far as Chesebro, I know his attorney has come out and said, listen, he didn't really implicate Trump. He'll testify truthfully, but the president doesn't have anything to worry about.

Nonetheless, he did have to give a video proffer and he did have to admit that he made a false certification and it was materially false. That's something that makes a difference. And the materially false certification that he made were that these folks were the duly elected and certified electors of the state of Georgia.

ACOSTA: And Amy Lee, I mean, it sounds as though the prosecutors have a strategy here to try to get these plea deals with these other co-defendants. Who do you think might be next? What would you be looking for?

COPELAND: Sure. Well, let me kind of step back from that and answer this other question, Jim, too.

So prosecutors will say that the investigation ends at the time the verdict is entered. And so you've seen this in the case. Mr. Hall, the bail bondsman who knows a lot about a number of different things. I was sort of surprised at the breadth of what he had been charged with in this RICO indictment was the first to cooperate. He got the misdemeanor deal.

One of the things that he knew about was the Coffee County voting breach. I think that that probably led to Ms. Powell's guilty plea, because that's where she was first and foremost in this particular indictment was - with respect to the Coffee County deal. Her plea agreement also came on the heels of the GBI discovering 15,000 emails on Misty Hampton's computer that Coffee County hadn't previously disclosed.

[18:55:00] So as more evidence comes out, as these video proffers circulate among

the defendants, I expect more people to plead guilty. I think the most immediate ones are the other two folks in the Coffee County scheme.

They have two people now, Scott Hall and Sidney Powell, who are all about the Coffee County scheme. And I would expect to see plea deals soon from Cathy Latham and Misty Hampton.

ACOSTA: All right, fascinating. We'll be watching.

Amy Lee Copeland, really appreciate it. Thanks so much.

On behalf of my colleague, Erin Burnett ...

COPELAND: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: ... Erin Burnett in Tel Aviv, thank you very much for joining all of us this evening. I'm Jim Acosta. See you again tomorrow night starting at 6 Eastern. Our special coverage continues after this quick break. Good night.

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