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CNN International: Kamala Harris to Meet with Israeli War Cabinet Member Benny Gantz; Harris Escalates Administration Calls for Gaza Ceasefire; Haley Heads into Super Tuesday with First Primary Win; Why Fewer People are Leaving El Salvador for U.S.; Ranchers Coping with Path of Destruction in Texas. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired March 04, 2024 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire.
NIKKI HALEY, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think I've thrown out the idea that they think I'm running for vice president. That's not happening. If this was about my political career, I would have been out a long time ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A record is a record. I don't want that to be the reason people remember me. I hope people remember me for the way I played with a smile on my face, my competitive fire.
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ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Max Foster. Bianca will be up later in the day. But it is a Monday, March the 4th, 9 a.m. here in London, 4 a.m. in Washington, where a key member of Israel's War Cabinet is set to take part in high-level talks amid growing calls from the U.S. for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza. Benny Gantz is expected to sit down with the Vice President Kamala Harris, in the hours ahead, and meet with the Secretary of State Antony Blinken tomorrow.
But even as these meetings are set to kick off, Israel has decided to skip ceasefire talks in Cairo that are being attended by a Hamas delegation. An Israeli official tells CNN that Israel is not sending a delegation to Egypt after Hamas failed to respond to two key demands, one being a list of hostages indicating which are alive and which are dead, all this seeming to dash hopes of an imminent deal. Still, the U.S. is ramping up its push to address the dire situation in Gaza.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: The threat of Hamas poses to the people of Israel must be eliminated. And given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire.
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FOSTER: CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has details now from Washington.
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PRICILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Vice President Kamala Harris forcefully called for more humanitarian aid to get into Gaza during remarks on Sunday. She said that people in the region were, quote, starving and also called conditions, quote, inhumane. She also urged Israel to do more to get assistance into the region, saying that there were, quote, no excuses.
This has been a situation that the vice president has been closely monitoring and has been involved in discussions about the humanitarian situation as well as the day after planning for Gaza.
But on Sunday, she took a moment to reflect on what is happening on the ground in Gaza, saying this.
HARRIS: What we are seeing every day in Gaza is devastating. We have seen reports of families eating leaves or animal feed. Women giving birth to malnourished babies with little or no medical care. And children dying from malnutrition and dehydration.
ALVAREZ: Now, the vice president also called for an immediate ceasefire within the context of a deal that is currently on the table. That includes a six-week ceasefire that would allow for the release of the most vulnerable hostages. That includes the wounded, women and the elderly. And allow also for more aid to go into Gaza.
Now, all of those talks are still ongoing as U.S. officials try to get a deal across the finish line by Ramadan. All of this, of course, looming over the State of the Union address by President Biden that is set to take place on Thursday as he grapples with this both abroad and domestically.
Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, Washington.
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FOSTER: Elliott is here to look at this. Some frustration amongst the Netanyahu camp about this visit, presumably?
ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Well, Benny Gantz is a member of the War Cabinet, so he decided to join Netanyahu's government after the Hamas- led terrorist attacks of October 7th to put on a show of unity.
And it seems that he only informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday that he was going. Netanyahu said to be not especially happy about that. Indeed, some of his ministers are posting on X saying that Gantz is almost like a Trojan horse that he's kind of trying to position himself as, I suppose, a future leader of Israel, which opinion polls suggest that he would be.
And although he is going to be advocating for Israel and its war objectives and the way that it's managing the war in the Gaza Strip and also talk about tensions in the north, of course, with Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy in southern Lebanon.
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It is also perhaps a subplot, if you like, that this is someone that maybe the U.S. could feel, certainly the Biden administration feels that it could do business with more easily than Netanyahu, if after Israeli elections. But of course, you know, that assumes that President Biden would still be in power after any Israeli elections as and when they come about.
But certainly he's there representing Israel. But at the same time, Netanyahu's camp feels a little bit like it's kind of been outmaneuvered.
FOSTER: Not with their authority, as it were.
GOTKINE: Right.
FOSTER: In terms of the negotiations about possible deal, you were talking last week about how there's a couple of sticking points and they just haven't gone away. And that's really demonstrated by Israel's lack of presence at the meeting today.
GOTKINE: Right. I mean, there are -- there are kind of the largest sticking points, which I suppose were about the number of prisoners that Hamas was demanding be released, for example.
And also its original maximalist demands for Israel to end cessation of hostilities completely and pull out of Gaza. Now, a couple of sticking points regarding these negotiations in Cairo appear to be that Hamas hasn't given Israel a list of the hostages that are actually alive or indeed given a list of the prisoners that Hamas wants Israel to free. And so without those lists, the Netanyahu government has taken the view that, well, there's no point sending a delegation there because we don't know exactly what we are negotiating for or which Israeli hostages are going to be free.
FOSTER: How easy is it, though, for Hamas to produce that list when, you know, different groups might be holding the hostages and, you know, obviously the state of Gaza?
GOTKINE: We don't know exactly which hostages, I suppose, are under Hamas control. We know that originally that some Israeli hostages, when they were abducted on October the 7th, were taken by other groups.
And let's not forget that it's assumed that Yahya Sinwar, while the main leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, is somewhere underground. And there are reports that he hasn't even communicated with the Qataris for the best part of a week. And indeed, it may, some are saying that maybe Hamas would be quite happy for this to roll over into Ramadan with a view to trying to get inflamed tensions or perhaps have more conflict, which would put Israel in a more precarious position when it comes to negotiations and the war.
FOSTER: OK, Elliott, thank you so much.
Meanwhile, schools have reopened in an Israeli border town for the first time since the October 7th Hamas attacks. Thousands of children in Sderot returned to their classes on Sunday. Most of the city's residents were evacuated soon after the attacks. Many parents have been fearful of returning home, especially as the fighting raged nearby just across the border in Gaza.
Another busy week ahead in U.S. politics as the 2024 presidential race heads towards Super Tuesday. There's a spot of good news for Republican candidate Nikki Haley. She won Sunday's GOP primary in Washington, D.C., her first win so far. But it's not enough to get close to Donald Trump. She's still a big -- she'll need a big showing on Tuesday to stay even in the race.
Republican votes in the 15 states and one U.S. territory are on the line tomorrow. GOP voters in North Carolina talked about their concerns ahead of their primary.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that immigration is a key issue for most Americans right now. And I think that it's a big problem. And the next one would be inflation. A lot of families are suffering because of inflation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, immigration, government, I think is out of control. Crime is another, those are the three big issues.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Immigration is going to be a big one in the fall, I believe. Because we know a lot of seniors that really have a difficult time making ends meet now. And it seems that they need some help too, you know, in addition to new people coming into the country.
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FOSTER: We are waiting to hear whether the U.S. Supreme Court will issue an opinion on Trump's eligibility to appear on Colorado's primary ballot, which is Tuesday.
His name is already on it, but there's no guarantee his votes will be counted if the justices rule that he's not eligible to serve. The court could announce an opinion in the coming hours, but there's no guarantee. Colorado's secretary of state says voters deserve to know Trump's eligibility before heading to the polls.
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JENNA GRISWOLD, COLORADO SECRETARY OF STATE: I had hoped for this decision last week, the week before, because our ballots actually went out several weeks ago. And over 400,000 ballots have already been returned for the Republican presidential primary. At the end of the day, Coloradans and Americans deserve to know as they go into Super Tuesday, whether Trump is a qualified candidate or not.
Two courts in this country, both in Colorado, have looked at the question of whether Trump engaged in insurrection. They both determined that he did. And from my perspective, it's clear as day what he did. He incited that violent mob to try to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential authority.
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And when it comes down to it, I do not believe that the president should be above the law or above the Constitution. That's what Trump consistently argues.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has clear language. If someone swears to uphold the Constitution and then engages in insurrection, they're disqualified.
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FOSTER: If Trump were officially disqualified from Colorado's ballot, it would likely be a boon for Nikki Haley. She's far behind the former president in delegates. But she says no matter what, she'll make her own decision on whether to endorse Trump. Here's what Haley told NBC's Meet the Press about breaking with a Republican National Committee pledge to support the eventual nominee.
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NIKKI HALEY, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The RNC pledge -- I mean, at the time of the debate, we had to take it to where would you support the nominee? And you had to in order to get on that debate stage, you said yes. The RNC is now not the same RNC. Now it's --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you're no longer bound by that pledge.
HALEY: No, I think I'll make what decision I want to make. But that's not something I'm thinking about.
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FOSTER: CNN's Eva McKend has more details on Nikki Haley's campaign strategy heading into this week.
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EVA MCKEND, CNN U.S. NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Despite long odds, Nikki Haley continuing to crisscross the country in an effort to connect with as many voters as possible. A disciplined messenger. Her message largely remains the same.
She argues that she is the best person to confront President Biden in a general election. And she says that she is the unifying force that Republicans really need to appeal to as many voters as possible.
There is something to this argument when you show up at her rallies like a rally she held in Vermont. You see Democrats showing up, independent voters, Republicans who say that they would rather vote for President Biden than support Trump in a general election. Let's listen.
HOPE MARTEN, BRIDPORT, VERMONT RESIDENT: I just feel at this point we need a change in government wholesale. I voted for Biden. I voted for other Republicans at other times. I consider myself an independent. And, you know, we need the next generation up there. Nikki has good, solid values. Her record is strong. She's got good experience as governor, as ambassador. And I think she can issue in a new era for this country. And we desperately need it.
MCKEND: The problem for Haley, of course, is that some of these states are winner take all states. And ultimately, this Republican contest is a delegate battle right here in Vermont, in Massachusetts and in Maine, where she's been campaigning. These are winner take all states. And that means if she doesn't outright win, if she doesn't get above 50 percent, that means she's not awarded any of the necessary delegates.
Former President Donald Trump is on track to have the necessary delegates by mid-March.
Eva McKend, CNN, Burlington, Vermont.
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FOSTER: Meanwhile, President Joe Biden preparing to deliver his State of the Union address, which is on Thursday. It comes at a crucial time where he's seeking to convince Americans to give him a second term. Voters seem to be undecided on whether they want another Biden versus Trump showdown this year. The latest CNN poll of polls suggest that so far there's no clear leader in the race for the White House.
As a shutdown deadline looms in the U.S., top lawmakers have unveiled six funding bills, setting off a race against the clock to pass them by the end of the week. Top Democrats and Republicans in both chambers back the package of bills, which are a breakthrough for negotiators. Until now, lawmakers struggled to reach consensus. The package includes bills to fund government agencies until early fall.
South Korea and the United States have begun their annual joint military drills. The 11 day long exercises will focus on deterring nuclear threats from North Korea, according to South Korean military officials.
They also say twice the number of troops than last year are participating in field and air training. The annual drills routinely spark fierce criticism from Pyongyang, though Washington and Seoul say they are purely defensive exercises.
Haiti's government has imposed a state of emergency amid a wave of gang violence that's included kidnappings, killings and looting. A curfew has been imposed after two prison breaks over the weekend. The U.N. estimates some 3,500 prisoners escaped from the national penitentiary in Port-au-Prince. Officials say police confronted heavily armed individuals but were unable to stop them from freeing the prisoners. The violence left several inmates and prison staff injured.
The U.S. embassy in Haiti is urging citizens to leave the country due to escalating violence. The embassy added it would be on limited operations starting today and possibly through the week due to all the unrest there.
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U.S.-based airline JetBlue says it'll waive change and cancellation fees for passengers travelling to and from Port-au-Prince through to Wednesday. And the French embassy in Port-au-Prince is also suspending its visa and administration services today as a precautionary measure.
Now still to come, a significant show of support in Moscow as hundreds of mourners flock to the gravesite of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny For a third straight day. We'll have a live update for you.
Plus, how El Salvador's crackdown on crime is affecting migration to the United States.
Lawmakers in Ghana pass a bill that has the country's LGBTQ citizens fearing for their safety, their freedom and their lives.
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FOSTER: A controversial Texas immigration law is one step closer to going into effect as long as the U.S. Supreme Court doesn't intervene.
The bill would allow Texas law enforcement authorities to arrest and detain people they suspect of entering the country illegally. It will go into effect next Saturday unless the high court puts it on hold. Immigration advocates say the law will increase racial profiling as well as detentions and attempted deportations.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas pushed back on Republican accusations about the country's southern border.
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DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Is it the policy of the Biden administration to allow as many migrants to come across the border in order to change the political dynamics, the electoral dynamics of America?
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Of course not. And the facts indicate that that is absolutely false.
Since May of this year -- of last year, we have removed or returned more individuals than in any year since 2015. And we haven't even run 12 months. Over the last three years, we've removed, returned or expelled more people than in all four years of the prior administration.
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FOSTER: The comments come days after both President Joe Biden and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump visited the U.S.-Mexico border.
While the situation at the U.S. southern border is politicized, the number of migrants trying to leave El Salvador for the United States is dropping. CNN's Gustavo Valdez explains why credit and blame are being given to the hardline policies of El Salvador's president.
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GUSTAVO VALDES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Luis Martinez, this restaurant is a dream come true.
He said he already lived the American dream. So why not also have the Salvadorian dream?
After three decades in the U.S., Martinez returned to his native country four years ago, fleeing the civil war in El Salvador. It was 1992 that Martinez says he entered the U.S. illegally and opened a restaurant chain.
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He wants to show other Salvadorans in the U.S. that it is possible to return to their country and open a business, something that just a few years ago he would not have considered.
For years, El Salvador had little control over public safety. Local gangs, known as the Maras, terrorized citizens and extorted businesses. That began to change in 2019. El Salvador elected Nayib Bukele as president. And soon afterward, he launched a crackdown on gangs and crime through a controversial security policy.
JENNIFER MCCOY, PROFESSOR, GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY: He had a great success in lowering homicide rates in El Salvador, but at a huge cost.
VALDES (voice-over): But Georgia State University's professor Jennifer McCoy, an expert on Latin American affairs, says there is concern about Bukele and his anti-crime tactics.
Bukele deployed the police and army to areas controlled by the Maras and sent thousands of suspected criminals to jail after declaring a nationwide state of exception that suspended some constitutional rights, among them the right to due process. The result, a drastic reduction of crimes and murders as reported by the government.
MCCOY: There are a lot of people who also live there who are worried about and are fearful themselves for being caught up in the roundup of alleged people who are in gangs.
Marlon Agaton Vasquez says he was thinking about migrating to the U.S. illegally because of the lack of jobs in El Salvador. But he says things have changed, so he stayed and now has a job. And it seems like he is not alone.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the number of Salvadorans entering the U.S. illegally has decreased, especially between 2022 and 2023, when roughly 35,000 fewer migrants from El Salvador were detained attempting to cross the border. The Bukele government takes credit for that drop in migration.
NAYIB BUKELE, SALVADORAN PRESIDENT: We change the murder capital of the world, the world's most dangerous country, into the safest country in the Western Hemisphere. And the only way to do that is to arrest all the murderers. There is no other way to do it.
VALDES (voice-over): But Amnesty International warns that the international community must be vigilant to prevent abuses in El Salvador.
VALDES: Who gets to decide whether the policies in the country are right or an abusive power?
MCCOY: Definitely the people who live there should have the first say.
VALDES (voice-over): And they seem to have decided, re-electing Bukele to a second term with more than 80 percent of the vote. However, the election was also controversial because he was allowed to run for another term by the Constitutional Court despite the Constitution explicitly banning the presidential election in the country.
VALDES: The Salvadoran government declined our request for an interview and did not provide a response to the allegation. But in the past, Bukele has warned the international community to stay away from internal issues.
VALDES (voice-over): Bukele has also become a darling of hard right conservatives around the world, receiving a warm reception at one of the largest gatherings of conservative politicians in the world where he warned of the dangers of liberal policies regarding public safety.
BUKELE: We are already seeing these symptoms in the United States. Big cities in decline like Baltimore, Portland, New York, just to name a few.
VALDES (voice-over): The decreased migration from El Salvador to the U.S. gives the Biden administration a little bit of good news while having to deal with the huge number of migrants crossing illegally into the U.S. in recent years.
But it could also represent a challenge in how they deal with Bukele and other governments in the region who might want to duplicate his approach.
Gustavo Valdes, CNN, Atlanta.
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FOSTER: Conditions are set to improve across the Texas panhandle today after very dry and -- dry air, gusty winds as well, thwarted efforts to contain the worst inferno in Texas history. But the catastrophic wildfires have already decimated the state's cattle industry and livelihoods.
A Texas official tells CNN the region produces nearly 30 percent of U.S. beef. Our Camila Bernal shows you how the fires have impacted the ranchers and the cattle, and a warning part of this story can be difficult to watch.
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SHANE PENNINGTON, RANCH MANAGER, FIELDS/MAHLER RANCH: I'm guessing we may have found 50 dead so far. We're not find in many calves. So I know they burned up
CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shane Pennington is the ranch manager at the Fields/Mahler Ranch in Canadian, Texas. This is also where he lives and raises his family.
As the largest wildfire in the state's history began to encircle the ranch, Pennington was forced to evacuate.
PENNINGTON: I wasn't scared of it. I was -- I was more angry, I guess, just 20 years of, you know, taking care of this and it could all be gone. I wasn't really fearful for the house. I figured it would probably be OK. I was more worried about the cattle.
BERNAL: For you, the hard decision was actually leaving?
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PENNINGTON: Yes, yeah, and feeling like I didn't do enough to get them.
BERNAL (voice-over): Local officials estimate thousands of cattle among area ranches will be lost to the Smokehouse Creek fire, which has already scorched more than a million acres.
The state's agricultural commissioner, Sid Miller.
SID MILLER, TEXAS AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER: This fire was so intense, you couldn't get fire trucks anywhere close to the fire.
BERNAL (voice-over): Pennington says he did not have time or a place to move the cattle.
PENNINGTON: A lot of them have been blinded by it. It burned their eyelashes, eyelids, everything and just burned all the hair off them. Their feet are coming off, their hooves. They're bloody, burned the udders. And you know, even if they survive, it more likely they're going to get pneumonia. They're going to get sick. We've already had to put some down. Better than letting them suffer and just die, you know.
This is one little calf here. I don't know if he's going to be all right. His feet are burned really bad. It's extremely hard to see him suffering. I mean, they're just -- like I say, I've raised some of them since they were babies, you know.
BERNAL (voice-over): State officials called the impact of cattle and crops catastrophic.
MILLER: We blessed over 3,000 head, which is a very small number that will double or triple easily. We've got cattle that were going to have to euthanize because of the damage to their hooves, their udders.
BERNAL (voice-over): The ranch's owner says his cows bring in anywhere from $1,800 to $2,400 each, much of it for beef sales.
PENNINGTON: It's going to hurt the business extremely bad. So -- and it'll take years to recover because it takes years to put a cow herd together before they're productive and producing like they should be. The job is to keep them alive. It's not to destroy them. And it's tough.
BERNAL: And you see the hay here behind me. So many people donating hay, feed, water.
And, look, we were told that some of these ranchers are maybe 25 miles away from the closest small town. But these volunteers will do everything they can to get all of this to them. That's what you're seeing here, a community coming together to help those most in need.
Camila Bernal, CNN, Borger, Texas.
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FOSTER: From fire to snow, and parts of California are dealing with a massive snowstorm. The National Weather Service says more than seven feet of snow has fallen in parts of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Blizzard warnings remain in effect through the northern and central parts of the mountains.
This was the scene in Lake Tahoe on Sunday morning as the blizzard hit. In the coming hours, conditions are largely expected to improve across the West. High wind alerts for more than five million people are set to end. Meanwhile, state transportation crews are busy clearing the roads. The California Highway Patrol says many vehicles got stuck in the heavy snow. And you can see that in this video.
Still to come, Singapore stirs up controversy by paying for exclusive concerts from Taylor Swift. Why other countries in the region are saying not cool.
And three Americans and a Russian are on their way to the International Space Station. SpaceX Crew 8 gets off the ground ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.
