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Israel Recalling Its Negotiations From Qatar; Negotiations Between Israel And Hamas Breaks Down; Israel Stepping Up Its Attack On Gaza; Representative George Santos Expelled From House; Santos Facing 23 Felony Charges; Interview With The New York Times Reporter Grace Ashford; Prosecutor Attempts To Set Herself On Fire In Atlanta; Trump And DeSantis Hold Dueling Iowa Campaign Events; Trump Heads To Iowa; DeSantis Stopping In All 99 Iowa Counties; DeSantis And Newsom Takes The Stage In Prime Time Debate; CNN Films' Chilling Crime Documentary "Chowchilla"; Antisemitic Incidents Rattling Jewish Communities; Interview with Congregation L'Dor Va-Dor Rabbi Barry Silver; Geomagnetic Storm Amplifies The Norther Lights. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired December 02, 2023 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:00:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: And these weapons systems integrating A.I. are being developed now. I spoke to the head of Lockheed, who used to be a pilot himself, who was describing a circumstance where a pilot is flying. There are a couple unmanned drones flying along with him and artificial intelligence in his visor gives him four options for what to do next when he's being attacked.

It doesn't tell him what to do, right? Because they often talk about how you will keep a human involved, but you have A.I. kind of whispering in your ears, so to speak, what you might do next. Of course, You also have circumstances where you have to know what the standards are then. Who's actually making the firing decision? How do you control so no one else that's not a human being can make those firing decisions? These are all things that are being developed as we speak. But one consistent point, Jessica, that age is already here.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: It is here now. And before we let you go, I also want to ask you about U.S. aid, both to Israel and Ukraine. But that -- specifically the Ukraine aid seems to be somewhat in limbo. Both of them need to get over the finish line. What are you hearing on that front?

SCIUTTO: Yes. And the irony of this, right, and I hear this from lawmakers here of both parties, is that large majorities in both parties, both in the Senate and the House, want to pass both Israel and Ukraine aid. There is a small population, particularly among Republicans in the House, who are standing in the way. The leadership won't even bring this to the floor.

So, negotiations are underway to get over that. They've been focused in the Senate where you would have a combination of things, Ukraine, Israel, but also new measures for border security. And that appears to be the price that Democrats, the administration are going to have to pay in order to get both Ukraine and Israel aid together over the finish line.

And we discussed this earlier, Jessica. There's not necessarily broad democratic opposition to that. A lot of democratic -- border state Democrats, they are for some changes, some increase in standards, restrictions at the border, particularly for asylum seekers, but those negotiations are still underway, and it's happening with enormous urgency on the ground, certainly in Gaza and around Israel, but also in Ukraine as well, because the prospects right now for major progress for Ukrainian forces they don't look very rosy at this point.

DEAN: Right. All right. Jim Sciutto for us out in Simi Valley. Thanks so much for that reporting and the update. We really appreciate it.

SCIUTTO: Thanks.

DEAN: Let's go now to our top story, Israel's war against Hamas, where negotiations to free more hostages have hit a "dead end," that's according to Israeli officials.

Today, Israel recalled its team of negotiators from Qatar, even though there are still more than 130 hostages still trapped in Gaza.

A short time ago, Israel's defense minister blamed Hamas for "explicitly violating their truce agreement to return all women and children," saying there are still 15 women and two children being held by that terror group.

With the truce now broken, Israel has stepped up its attacks on Gaza, saying it's launched more than 400 strikes on the enclave in the first 24 hours since the truce expired.

And Israel is expanding its strikes as well, hitting targets in Southern Gaza. We're going to take you there in just a moment.

But first, we're going to stay here domestically, we will go back out to the Middle East in a moment. But we're going to turn first to the historic expulsion of the indicted Congressman George Santos. The New York Republican was ousted in a 311 to 114 vote yesterday, and it's leaving some people wondering what happens to Santos now, he's still facing criminal indictment, which includes allegations of defrauding his constituents, using campaign funds for Botox, designer clothes and luxury trips.

Now, Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul says she's prepared to name someone to fill that vacancy for the rest of the term.

Joining me now is "New York Times" reporter Grace Ashford and CNN senior political analyst and senior editor of "The Atlantic, Ron Brownstein.

Ron -- it's great to have both of you. Ron, let's start first with you. Long Island has evolved toward the Republican Party in the Trump era. It's become a bit more red. Can the Democrats reverse that trend with the Santos replacement and help people understand why the Republican leadership was very nervous about this? Because it makes their small majority even smaller?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST AND SENIOR EDITOR, THE ATLANTIC: Right. They have an historically small majority. They're down another seat. And on paper, this is a district, of course, that voted for Joe Biden in 2021 of the 18 districts held by House Republicans that that voted for Biden. And many Republicans have worried that if you kick out Santos, the Democrats inexorably would pick up the seat.

They may still be favored, Jessica, but it is going to be tougher than, I think, you know, the kind of conventional wisdom has it, because Long Island, as you know, really is one of the few suburban areas anywhere in the country that is trending toward Republicans in the Trump era, largely around immigration -- crime and immigration and also affordability.

[15:05:00]

It's -- you know, 80 percent of this district is Nassau County. Biden won Nassau County by 10 points, but Lee Zeldin, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, won it by 10 points himself in 2022. And in polling, that was just done by Siena College with Newsday, Trump led Biden in Nassau County by seven. Biden's approval was only 41.

Democrats have an advantage. They have a well-known candidate in the -- likely candidate and the former representative there, Tom Suozzi. But this could be a rougher ride than generally assumed.

DEAN: Right. It's not just a sure thing. Grace, Santos is still facing these 23 felony charges to which he's pleaded not guilty. What's next for his court case? Could he go to jail? What does it look like within the criminal justice system?

GRACE ASHFORD, REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Sure. Thanks so much for having me, Jessica. So, as you said, you know, Santos is facing 23 felonies and up to -- you know, potentially up to 22 years in prison.

Some serious charges, we've got wire fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft, which has a two-year mandatory minimum. He is due in court next -- in a couple of weeks. But his -- and his trial date is set for September of 2024. That's obviously sometime off. You know, if we could see a sooner resolution if he makes some sort of a deal with prosecutors, but thus far, he seemed somewhat uninterested in doing that.

Beyond his criminal case though, he's suggested that we have not seen the last of him. You know, he said that he wants to write a book. He has not ruled out some sort of political future, although he said definitely not in the State of New York. And, you know, he's sort of -- he didn't even really rule out reality TV, at one point, sort of in a joking exchange with reporters, sort of said, you know, maybe not now, but maybe in the future "Dancing with the Stars."

DEAN: Yes. And it is kind of just a remarkable story arc. And, Ron, I would -- I want to know if you could kind of help us zoom out for a minute. And it is -- it's a moment in time in the sense that we don't see -- expulsions are very rare and also, we -- and especially in the era of Trump, Republicans are loathed to really punish their own or hold them accountable. And yet, in this case, many Republican members did vote to expel him, including a lot of the New York Republicans.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

DEAN: But we did see the Republican leadership trying to keep him. What do you make of this moment? We're -- honestly, the average Americans looks at the House of Representatives and goes, what's going on up there?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. I -- look, I think Santos was so blatant and so unrepentant in what he did. And, you know, you saw yesterday, even a Republican member of Congress put up on social media that Santos had, you know, misused his own credit card and his mother's credit card to charge campaign contributions that I think he just offended -- you know, at some level, just fundamentally offended the sensibility of his colleagues.

And of course, compared to Trump, George Santos really can't threaten them. I mean, you know, what we've seen, as you know, is this incredible deference to Trump among Republicans really up and down the ballot. And that is both because they feel that they need his constituency, his ability to mobilize those irregular voters, but also because they also fear what he can do to them if he stands up against him.

And Santos, I think, also has to be seen as part of what is a worrying trend of more members, particularly on the Republican side, viewing a seat in the House less as an opportunity to make law or to represent their constituents and more to kind of establish a critical -- a political brand, almost a showmanship brand and treating it like a reality show, even while they are in office.

And, you know, he's not the only one I think you could apply that characterization to, but he's certainly the one who combined that with the most overt lawbreaking.

DEAN: Right. And, Grace, to that end, Santos said yesterday, to hell with this place. He said he's -- you know, he's getting out of there. But you mentioned, he could be on "Dancing with the Stars," maybe he wants to write a book. Does he still have congressional privileges? What comes next? Because to Ron's point, it is this kind of really the most direct example of people really making a seat in the House of Representatives about them and how they can further their brand as it were.

ASHFORD: Right. Well, yes. So, to do -- to answer your question, he could return to, you know, make use of those House privileges. I believe to use the gym. He's indicated that that's not high on his list of priorities. Understandably, perhaps.

That said, you know, I think he still has a lot kind of unfinished business in the House. He made some threats as he was leaving in the kind of days leading up to his expulsion, saying that he would be, you know, kind of showing the receipts, as they say, about other members of Congress. And we've even seen some of that. He's been tweeting allegations against some other members of the Republican conference, saying he's going to be filing ethics reports against other people.

[15:10:00]

But really, his chief concern is going to be in the coming months this criminal case. And I think that's really the place to watch.

DEAN: Yes. All right. Grace Ashford and Ron Brownstein, we're going to leave it there. Thanks to both of you. We appreciate it.

ASHFORD: Thanks so much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

DEAN: And we want to go now back to Tel Aviv where CNN's Matthew Chance is standing by. And, Matthew, you were just hearing sirens where you are there in Tel Aviv. Tell us what you are seeing.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Within the past few minutes, I mean, we've been at a vigil for the hostages that are still being held inside Gaza. Within the past few minutes, the sirens here in Tel Aviv started wailing and the whole area, as you can see clear, I think we've got video of the moment that happened. If you can play that. You can hear there's some police going past now as well.

But, yes. So, I'm not quite sure what you're seeing, because I -- there you are.

Right. There you are. You can see that that's the kind of sort of nightly occurrence that's happening now. That's the sort of thing that's happening every night now in Tel Aviv as the military operation by Israel inside the Gaza Strip continues.

Militants there, Hamas, other militant groups as well, are still -- they still have the resources, it seems, to fire rockets out of the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory. And that's what that was a response to there.

As I say, Jessica, I was here at a vigil for the hostages inside the Gaza Strip that are still there's some 130 or so Israelis and other nationalities that are still held by Hamas and other militant groups inside the Gaza Strip. This was a vigil to -- you know, to sort of make sure that, you know, everybody was doing whatever they could to get them out. And of course, it's the priority of the families and many people in Israel to get those hostages out as soon as possible.

There's a bit of a difference of opinion in to how best to do that. There are those that believe that negotiations and everything should be done as soon as possible to make sure those people come out and come out alive if possible.

And there are others that think, well, maybe the course of the current phase of negotiations has run out and it may be better, and this is what the Israeli government is doing, to put more military pressure on Hamas, hopefully -- to hopefully get that to bear fruit and forget -- to get Hamas to release more hostages.

But a difference of opinion about how to get there, but underlying a great deal of unity across Israel that the country needs to do everything it can to get those hostages back alive if possible.

DEAN: All right. Matthew Chance, glad you all were able to take cover there and thank you for that reporting. We sure do appreciate it.

Coming up, officials say a protester is in critical condition after setting herself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta. What we are learning about that incident next.

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DEAN: Officials say a woman is in critical condition after attempting to set herself on fire yesterday outside of an Atlanta building that houses the Israeli consulate. Police are calling the incident an extreme act of political protest.

Officials say a security guard tried to stop the woman and received burns in the process. They say gasoline was used as an accelerant and a Palestinian flag was recovered at that scene. CNN's Rafael Romo is joining us now. Rafael, knowing all of that, what else are you learning in this investigation today?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you can imagine, Jessica, the incident prompted a robust response, not only from the Atlanta Police Department, but also federal law enforcement agencies.

The site of the incident is a building that houses the Israeli consulate here in Atlanta. First of all, in addition to the two individuals that you mentioned, the woman who set herself on fire and the security guard who tried to stop her, no one else was hurt.

Atlanta police say at 12:17 p.m. Friday, the woman set herself on fire using gasoline as an accelerant outside the building located in the midtown neighborhood here in Atlanta. The security officer rushed and tried to stop her but was unsuccessful and suffered burns to his wrist and leg.

According to police, the woman suffered third-degree burns throughout her body and is now in critical condition at Grady Hospital here in Atlanta.

Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum describe the incident as an extreme act of political protest. He also wanted to make something very clear. Let's take a listen.

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DARIN SCHIERBAUM ATLANTA POLICE CHIEF: The community is safe. This department is aware of the tensions that are present right now in the Jewish community and in the Muslim community. We actually have dedicated patrols that are occurring at this location and at other Jewish and Muslim communities in the city.

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ROMO: Jessica, Chief Schierbaum also wanted to make it very clear that the incident appeared to be an isolated protest and that there was "no nexus of terrorism." The chief also said the staff inside the Israeli consulate were safe and did not appear to be in any danger during the incident. He added that at this point there is no credible threat against the building, the Israeli consulate or its staff. Jessica.

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DEAN: All right. Rafael Romo with the reporting there. Thanks so much.

And still to come, Former President Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis both hitting the campaign trail in Iowa today. Our team is there and we will take you there next.

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DEAN: Countdown to the Iowa caucuses with both Former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis holding dueling campaign events in that key state today, but with very different objectives. Iowa serves as the Republican Party's first presidential nominating contest. It's a spot that can often launch or even end a campaign.

CNN's Steve Contorno is following the DeSantis campaign. Kristen Holmes is with the former president.

Kristen, we'll start first with you. What are you hearing both from the president, his campaign today, and also voters?

[15:25:00]

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, what I'm hearing from the president's team is that they are feeling increased levels of confidence.

Look, Donald Trump has been leading in the polls in the GOP primary for quite some time, but now, with roughly six weeks to go until that Iowa caucus, I am hearing them start to embrace those numbers.

Now, senior advisers still say that Iowa could be a wild card. But we are expecting to hear Donald Trump really taking that confidence and pivoting to a general election today. We are told by a senior Trump adviser he's going to be focused on attacking President Joe Biden. And this really is just the latest signal of a pivot to the general election.

Trump's team just launched a six-figure ad buy here in Iowa, it's a television ad buy, and one of the ads focuses almost exclusively on attacks on the president. Now, Donald Trump's criticisms come at the same time that President Biden seems to be ramping up his criticisms of Donald Trump, both of them looking at these poll numbers clearly and looking towards a general election.

Last week, Trump started this renewed interest in overturning Obamacare, something that Democrats seized on Biden campaign, even releasing an ad on that, using that opportunity as ammunition as the Affordable Care Act has grown increasingly more popular.

But one thing to note here is that even though Donald Trump is looking at the general election, even though he is planning on attacking President Biden, I just listened to him speak across the state, and that speech was focused on mostly Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, who he has still clearly not gotten over that he endorsed -- that she endorsed Ron DeSantis over him in Iowa.

DEAN: All right. Kristen Holmes for us with the Trump campaign. Let's go now to Steve Contorno, who's with Ron DeSantis, who, Steve, now completes the full Grassley as it's known. He's visited all 99 Iowa counties. It's a big deal for that campaign that's going all in on Iowa that really sees that as the place where it can launch DeSantis forward as not only the Trump alternative but the candidate to watch who can win the nomination. What are you hearing from his team as they cross this 99-county threshold?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Well, Jessica, right now, we're hearing a lot of clearance -- clearwater revival because this campaign event is about to get started here and we're in a venue called the Thunderdome, which perhaps is a fitting host for a candidate who's in the fight for his political life.

Now, they're setting up behind me for, like, what you said, is going to be his 99th county visit. This is something that they have been embarking on for months now, trying to blanket the state with appearances, hoping to generate some momentum for this candidate. But his support in this state has not really moved very much since this 99-county tour began. He's still well behind Former President Donald Trump in this state. He's now also facing competing pressure from Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. So, it's additional competition for him in this state that is just going to complicate the math for him.

But his campaign tells me they have not only done a lot of appearances here, but they are doing the work of building out a large ground campaign.

Here are some of the stats that they have been pushing out in the last couple of days. They have 41 endorsements from state lawmakers. They have 120 county level chairs. He has the support of 100 faith leaders and 26 Iowa sheriffs, and 30,000 Iowans have already committed to caucus for him. So, that is what they are building on -- have built, and that's what they're banking on.

They still need to get some momentum though going into these final states and wondering if now is this a chance to catch a spark before the final six weeks of the Iowa caucuses.

DEAN: Right. All right. Steve Contorno and Kristen Holmes, the countdown is on. January 15th is when the Iowa caucuses will happen. We'll see you both soon. Thanks so much for that reporting.

Meanwhile, Florida governor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate, Ron DeSantis, taking the stage in a primetime debate against someone who's not running for president, that would be California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Things got a little bit messy as they went toe to toe on issues like President Biden's age, immigration, and even human waste.

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GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, he's in decline. Yes, it's a danger to the country. He has no business running for president. And you know, Gavin Newsom agrees with that. He won't say that. But that's why he's running his shadow campaign. He should not be running. He is not up to the job. And it is dangerous for this country.

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): Well, I'll take -- I will take Joe Biden at 100 versus Ron DeSantis any day of the week. I think the asylum system is broken. I believe that we --

DESANTIS: I understand that.

NEWSOM: I'm the one that -- I'm the only guy here. It's a border state governor. You're trolling folks and trying to find migrants to play political games to try to get some news and attention so you can out Trump Trump. And by the way, how's that going for you, Ron? You're down 41 points in your own home state.

DESANTIS: You have the freedom to defecate in public in California. This is a map of San Francisco. There's a lot of plots on that. You may be asking what is that plotting? Well, this is an app where they plot the human feces that are found on the streets of San Francisco. And you see how almost the whole thing is covered because that is what has happened in one of the previous greatest cities this country has ever had. Human feces is now a fact of life.

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NEWSOM: There's one thing, in closing, that we have in common is neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: All right. So, now, that we've seen all of those highlights, we have CNN Senior Political Analyst and Senior Editor at The Atlantic Ron Brownstein back with us.

Ron, this was dubbed the Great Red vs. Blue State debate. But really, it also, too, was a look ahead to what we could see in the future. Gavin Newsom definitely looks like he would love to run for president at some point. What did you make of this whole thing even happening?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. I mean, it was unusual. In the 88 campaign, there were a couple of these cross party debates. I remember Jack Kemp debated Dick Gephardt over trade policy, for example. But this is obviously a very unusual thing to do, and it was trying to serve multiple purposes. And, you know, they kind of collided at various points, certainly between the moderator, Sean Hannity and Ron DeSantis.

You got a strong preview of some of the general election arguments that Republicans are going to make against President Biden. In many ways, that was kind of the weakest moments, I thought, for Newsom in responding to some of those. And it gives you an idea of the challenge that Democrats are going to have and to developing arguments about his record about crime and immigration and prices.

But to me, the two big takeaways was we're -- first, just the enormous gulf that we are living through in the way red states and blue states are separating on virtually every issue. I mean, there were -- there have been times in our history, obviously, Jim Crow segregation and before the Civil War, between slavery and free states, where there was a single issue that divided the states maybe more profoundly than what we're seeing now.

But what you saw last Thursday was the breath of the separation that we are living through on economic, health care and social issues between red states and blue states, and just a fundamental centrifugal force that of modern American politics.

And the other thing I think was just how hard it is for Democrats to penetrate that red state bubble. I mean, I interviewed Newsom before the debate and, you know, he said his principal goal was not so much to rebut or counter DeSantis, it was to make the case for Biden and for Democratic governance to the Fox red state audience.

He really never got a chance to do that because Sean Hannity cherry- picked over and over again data points that make California look as bad as possible while ignoring all of the comparisons that make California look better than Florida.

So, in many ways, it was kind of a tag team two on one in which Hannity was trying to present this in a very familiar and comfortable frame for his audience that red states are thriving and blue states are chaotic hell holes.

DEAN: It is so striking how people get kind of stuck in wherever they are, and that is all they see, and breaking through that is very hard. What does this do for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who we just saw? He's in Iowa. He's -- you know, we've been talking about his 99. He's in the Florida full Grassley, all 99 counties. He's trying to run for president. Does this help him in any way make the case with persuadable voters out there who, at this point, would be Republicans because we're in a primary, do you think this was a good use of his time?

BROWNSTEIN: I actually do. I mean, I think it allowed him to kind of show Republican voters what kind of general election nominee he would be in terms of making the case against Biden and against Democratic governance. Look, you know, whether any of that is enough to reverse the kind of downward trajectory of his campaign in the last few months is another question, but I don't think this was crazy for either of them. I think for Newsom, you know, it showed Democrats that he was willing in effect to go into the lion's den and make the case for democratic governance and make the case for Biden, certainly stored up some goodwill for 2028 if he's running then and it continues what he's been doing in terms of trying to make the case in red states.

DeSantis' real problem is that he has chosen a strategy that has been proven to be insufficient in the past. I mean, he's basically following the tracks of Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and Ted Cruz, all of whom put all of their chips on Iowa, focused overwhelmingly on mobilizing and consolidating the large evangelical population there, and then struggled, even after they won Iowa, to win voters beyond that base in the Republican coalition.

All of them kind of careened off the track immediately in New Hampshire, and DeSantis faces that same risk, which may be even more magnified in his case, because it's going to be so difficult to actually win Iowa.

[15:35:00]

DEAN: Right. That even getting to that hurdle is really hard. All right. Ron Brownstein for us. Always great to see you. Thanks so much. We appreciate it.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me. Yes.

DEAN: And coming up, a look at one of the most shocking true crime stories you've probably never heard of. How three masked men boarded a school bus in Chowchilla, California and kidnapped the driver and all 26 children aboard in 1976.

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DEAN: Since October 7th, there's been a sharp increase in the antisemitic incidents here in America and across the world.

Rabbi Barry Silver is the founder of what he calls Cosmic Judaism that mixes science and religion. He also leads his congregation there in Florida. Rabbi Silver is joining us now. Thanks so much for coming on and making time.

Rabbi, I know so many Jewish Americans are afraid right now. They're afraid for themselves, especially their children. Some people feel kind of this hopelessness. What has been your message to people in this moment?

[15:40:00]

RABBI BARRY SILVER, CONGREGATION L'DOR VA-DOR: Well, thank you for having me on. My message is that there's a phrase in French (INAUDIBLE), which means that it's at the darkest hour that has borne the greatest light. In fact, every day Jews are reminded of that because the day starts in Judaism in the evening, and it's always followed by the dawn of a new day. My message is this, it is dark right now, but this is an opportune time, perhaps the best time to make peace.

In 1973, Israel faced an existential threat with the Yom Kippur War attacked by Egypt and others. And before the year was out, peace was established with Egypt. The United States dropped up atomic -- two atomic bombs on Japan in World War II, and almost overnight, Japan became our closest allies, as did Germany, who fought bitterly against us.

My message is this, this is the opportune time for us to make peace because we can see clearly and graphically that warfare and conflict is not working. This is a disaster for Jews, Palestinians, and everyone else. Our heart breaks for Palestinians who are under the yoke of Hamas.

Hamas in Hebrew means violence. In Spanish, Hamas means never. And never again should Jews be wantonly and barbarically slaughtered without a response. But our response is not just to save Israel, our response is to protect the Palestinians from being run and governed by a terrorist group, by Hamas.

DEAN: And Rabbi, I believe you're battling cancer right now, that's right? And you've recently --

SILVER: Yes, that is correct.

DEAN: -- we hope you're doing all right. I'm sorry you're having to go through that. But you recently wrote about the lessons that you're learning both from your treatments and you feel like they can kind of be extrapolated into this moment in time. What is it that you've learned?

SILVER: Well, I do try to find lessons in whatever life throws at me. And I'm very fortunate to have a very strong support staff and family, friends and a congregation. My lesson from cancer is this, you could fight cancer in the old days with chemotherapy. What that does, it obliterates everything in sight, healthy, unhealthy, and it destroys the cancer as well as healthy cells.

We've now come up with better treatment called immunotherapy, which fortunately I'm on. What that does is it targets the cancer so that it spares healthy cells. What's going on in Gaza now is kind of like chemotherapy, where Israel is obliterating everything in sight.

Do they have the right to do it? Yes. Is it the right way to do it? I don't think so. I think what we should do is seek out those forces for peace within Palestinian society and declare tomorrow the existence of a Palestinian State on the West Bank once they respect and acknowledge Israel's right to exist and then take out Hamas surgically, not wantonly.

And I think if we do that, we can spare the suffering and we can let the people of Gaza see that there's hope. There's a way. Make peace with Israel and your future will be bright. Elect a terrorist to represent you and it'll be more death and destruction.

DEAN: All right. Rabbi Barry Silver, thanks so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

SILVER: Thank you for your time. My pleasure.

DEAN: And coming up this Sunday, we are bringing you the all-new CNN film, Chowchilla, which tells one of the most shocking true crime stories you've probably never heard about. It follows the 1976 kidnapping of a school bus full of children and their driver, who were buried underground for more than 12 hours before they orchestrated their own dramatic escape.

The incident captivated the nation at the time and really became a turning point in our understanding and treatment of childhood trauma. CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more. And we do want to warn, you may find some of the following images disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're trying to locate 26 lost children along with their driver.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): This is a story that stopped the nation dead in its tracks. July 1976 a bus full of children on their way home from summer school, held at gunpoint by three masked men, forced into a trailer and then buried underground. The kidnappers, hoping to be paid a huge ransom.

[15:45:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bus has been found. There are no signs of violence and there are only horrified guesses as to what may have happened.

GUPTA (voiceover): Ultimately, after 28 hours, somehow, they managed to escape and authorities were quick to say there was "no indication of harm." That was something child psychiatrist Dr. Lenora Terr did not believe.

DR. LENOR TERR, CHILD PSYCHIATRIST: The kids were not OK. Somebody got a psychiatrist to come to town and he made a prediction. He said, one kid in this 26 is going to have a problem. But what happened was that no parent wanted to admit that his kid was the one in 26. By the time I got out here, 100 percent of those kids were having problems.

DR. SPENCER ETH, CHIEF OF MEDICAL HEALTH, MIAMI VA HEALTHCARE SYSTEM: Well, there was no diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder in 1976. It not only didn't exist for children. It didn't exist for adults either. There was no protocol. There was no way that we knew how to respond after this event at that time.

GUPTA (voiceover): They did what they thought was best, send the kids on a trip to Disneyland, never speak about it again, and just allow those children to move on with their lives. It didn't work.

LARRY PARK, CHOWCHILLA BUS KIDNAPPING SURVIVOR: The trip to Disneyland was an intrusion into the nightmare. That's all it was.

GUPTA: But children are resilient. They will forget. Best not to bring it up because that could cause harm. That seemed to be the thinking, right?

ETH: I think that there was the wish that children would recover, forget about the event, and go on with their lives as though it never happened.

GUPTA (voiceover): Even when the kidnappers were caught, there were court hearings and they continued to bring up this question of harm.

EDWARD MERRILL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: There's very little physical damage at all, and practically it's a nonexistence.

GUPTA: There is no physical harm here. That was their case. Can we say definitively that emotional trauma causes physical harm?

ETH: Well, I think it causes brain changes which and the brain is a physical object. So, in that regard I would have to say yes. But I think the most important issue is that the psychological emotional harm is robust. It's life altering. And it is -- it is of a magnitude comparable to a physical harm.

GUPTA (voiceover): Life-altering, which is exactly what Doctor Terr found after studying the children of Chowchilla for five years. And it was her work that paved the way to accepting that childhood trauma was real, and it produced long lasting effects.

ETH: From the scientific standpoint, it was a landmark. And now, we know how to assess them, diagnose them, and offer them treatment. And the Chowchilla work of Lenore Terr and then subsequent work by others, has established child PTSD as legitimate.

GUPTA (voiceover): But for Terr, the children of Chowchilla are the ones who made the biggest impact.

TERR: They paved the way for us to understand more contemporary things. What happens when you force children away from their parents at a border? What happens to children at some of these horrible school shootings? PARK: Because of the Chowchilla kidnapping, there were counselors at

Columbine after the shooting. There are counselors at night clubs after shootings.

TERR: Chowchilla children are heroes and they continue to teach us what childhood trauma is 46, 47, 48, 50 years after the fact.

GUPTA (voiceover): Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Be sure to tune in the all-new CNN film "Chowchilla" premieres Sunday at 9:00 p.m. only on CNN.

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[15:50:00]

DEAN: It was a sight to see last night as a strong geomagnetic storm amplified the northern lights. This is incredible video. It captured a beautiful display of the Aurora Borealis in North Dakota, all thanks to the strong level three storm.

The Space Weather Prediction Center says cosmic events like these can brighten the northern lights visibility as far south as Pennsylvania, Iowa, and also all the way to Oregon, but can also disrupt radio signals and GPS systems. So, if you were lost in the stars last night, you now know why.

Major cities across the Northeast are seeing a record-breaking snow drought this winter. New York, Philadelphia, D.C., they've not seen a single inch of snow in more than 600 days with no end in sight. Here to discuss our snowless forecast for this part of the country is CNN Meteorologist Elisa Raffa. What's going on here?

ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is incredible. I mean, I was born and raised in New York. So, I remember those blockbuster storms, and they haven't had one in almost two years, 656 consecutive days since New York City has seen more than an inch of snow. That previous record was 383 days. So, not only did we break the old record, but we're totally obliterating it and smashing it.

The last time New York City served more than one inch of snow was back in February of 2022. So again, just incredible records here.

[15:55:00]

And it's not just New York. We looked in the record books, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, all with the top spot for the longest stretch without more than an inch of snow. Richmond rounds out the top five, again, all with way more than 600 days since they've seen some significant snow.

Looking at New York, looking at a stretch where they're not going to really see too much snow at all. Some rain going into Sunday. Temperatures below average, but not meeting up with any storms for snow. Where we will get the white stuff, that's up in the Pacific Northwest. All the pinks that you see here are winter storm warnings in effect for the cascades. Some of the high elevations going to Salt Lake City and Denver.

We have snow showers that have been pumping all day, not only with some heavy rain and snow, but with some 50 mile per hour gusts. And the atmospheric river is going to set up, going to continue to dump moisture through the next couple of days. It's a level 4 out of 5, meaning this could be hazardous, talking about some river rises and mudslides as well.

Rain could be up to 10 inches a spot. Some snow, two to three feet. So, someone is getting the snow.

DEAN: So, they're -- yes, they're getting it out there. All right. Elisa Raffa for us. Thanks for walking us through all of that.

And I want to thank you for joining me today. I'm Jessica Dean. "CNN Newsroom" continues with Jim Acosta after a short break.

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