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Gaza Aid Worker Deaths Cause Global Outrage; New Polls Shows Tight Presidential Race; Earthquake Rocks Taiwan. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired April 03, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:23]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Right now, we're following breaking news.

Search-and-rescue operations are under way across Taiwan amid fears of aftershocks. We're live from Taipei with the latest on the deadly earthquake.

Plus, the fallout from the Israeli airstrike that killed several aid workers with the World Central Kitchen. The group's founder, chef Jose Andres, responding with an essay saying -- and I'm quoting him now -- "You cannot win this war by starving an entire population."

Meantime, family members of Hamas hostages storm the Israeli Knesset, as anti-government protests grow more intense in Jerusalem.

Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington, and you're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

It's now 11:00 p.m. in Eastern Taiwan, and search-and-rescue operations are stretching into the darkness of night after this morning's earthquake. Nine people are confirmed dead and more than 900 people are injured. This is the most powerful earthquake to strike the island in 25 years.

The quake hit during morning rush hour. It measured a magnitude of 7.4. This dash camera video captures the violent jolt sharply rocking these cars and a bus and bringing traffic to a standstill. And take a look at this video. The earthquake has triggered landslides like the one you see here.

Dozens of people have been freed from highway tunnels that were cut off. Dozens more are awaiting help. We're covering all the angles right now.

CNN's Ivan Watson is in Taiwan's capital of Taipei.

Ivan, what's the latest? What are you seeing as far as the rescue efforts are under way?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right.

Well, as you pointed out, Wolf, this was the most powerful earthquake to hit this island in a quarter-century. People are used to earthquakes here, but even my colleagues behind the camera, one of them shaken awake this morning, another one running to embrace and hold on to his wife and children, as things kind of started falling off the walls.

And Taipei is a good 100 miles away from the epicenter in Hualien County. That is this rugged mountainous region that is popular for tourists who try to go there for hiking, for the cliffs and very high mountains. And it's largely cut off from the north of the island because of avalanches and landslides.

Some of the people that have been killed there, they were killed by falling rocks, one person killed by a rock hitting them on a highway, others hikers who were hit on a hiking trail. There have been rescues going on throughout the day, up to 70 people that were trapped in different highway tunnels where they were blocked off by avalanches fortunately rescued.

But the authorities are saying there's still perhaps around 140 people in different parts of that county that are still cut off and still requiring rescue. And we don't really have any account from the authorities on what their situation is right now.

Take a listen to two survivors of this earthquake.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It was very strong. It felt as if the whole house was going to topple.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): All the things fell off. Everything's damaged.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Now, here in Taipei, even though the traffic is moving and it feels like life as usual, there's still one hospital that is reportedly not fully functional because of some damage it had.

There are about 100 buildings that reported damage. There are still rescue efforts that are under way right now, more than 900 people injured in this disaster. And there are still aftershocks. The Taiwanese authorities are predicting that you could still get aftershocks as powerful as 7.0 magnitude over the next three to four days.

The U.S. Geological Survey has reported more than two dozen aftershocks, some with a magnitude of 5 and 6. And that is hitting areas that have already been very much shaken up by the power of this historic earthquake.

BLITZER: Yes, I'm really worried about those aftershocks, so stay safe over there. Ivan, thank you very, very much.

I want to go to the CNN Weather Center right now.

Our meteorologist Elisa Raffa is joining us.

Elisa, why is this area seemingly so prone to earthquakes?

ELISA RAFFA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: They are so prone.

And we call it the Ring of Fire. This is where our tectonic plates that make up the Earth all kind of meet, at that point, they can move. We have got live magma underneath. And once they move, they can move, they collide, they can crash. And that's where we get the earthquakes.

[11:05:13]

And you can see Southeast Asia, Eastern Asia all the way up to Japan is really ground zero for where we get all of this seismic activity. That's where more than 450 of our volcanoes are; 90 percent of the world's earthquakes all happen in this region because that's where the tectonic plates meet.

Now, this 7-plus-point magnitude earthquake is kind of rare -- rare. Worldwide, we only see about 15 of them per year. You can see, the smaller ones are much, much more common. But when you get the big one, the destruction is just incredible.

We're looking at buildings that are crooked, toppled, upside down, rescue missions needing to happen all day. And, like you mentioned, we're going into the night, so an incredibly massive 7-point-magnitude earthquake on the east coast there of Taiwan. There actually were some tsunami alerts overnight.

Those have been cleared. And we have had 29 aftershocks that have been 4-point-magnitude or higher. Most of them have been on the order of 5- point-magnitude. So those aftershocks can really do even more damage, especially for the structures that are already vulnerable. They're already crooked and upside down.

As we go through the next couple of days, Taiwan is looking at some showers. So that could really hurt some of the rescue and some of the cleanup efforts there, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, we will watch it together with you.

Elisa Raffa at the CNN Weather Center, thank you very much.

Meanwhile, President Biden is expressing his anger and grief over the senseless deaths of aid workers in an Israeli airstrike. Seven members of the nonprofit organization World Central Kitchen were killed Monday in Gaza while delivering food to starving civilians. The organization has since paused its operations in Gaza.

In a statement, President Biden said he was outraged and heartbroken. Israel says the strike was a grave mistake and has vowed to investigate. Meanwhile, World Central Kitchen has shared the names of those workers, calling them beautiful souls and heroes.

And in an op-ed for "The New York Times," the organization's founder, chef Jose Andres, writes -- and I'm quoting him now -- "Israel is better than the way this war is being waged. It is better than blocking food and medicine to civilians. It is better than killing aid workers who had coordinated their movements with the Israel Defense Forces."

Our White House correspondent, Priscilla Alvarez, is with me here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Priscilla, we're hearing some fiery language also from the president of the United States.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

And that term outraged, that is significant. That is one of the strongest terms that President Biden has used so far in discussing Israel's war against Hamas. And he said it in his statement overnight.

Now, we know within the White House that that frustration has been raised among the president and his top aides as this continues to unfold, culminating in what was very blunt language in the statement last night.

Let me read you part of that. It says -- quote -- "This is not a stand-alone incident. This conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed. This is a major reason why distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza has been so difficult, because Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians. Incidents like yesterday's simply should not happen."

Now, of course, Wolf, this also has political ramifications for the president here at home. And, on Tuesday, the president met with Muslim American community leaders to talk about the situation as a whole, but also the deaths of these World Central Kitchen employees.

One of those participants did walk out, just showing you that, even in these most intimate settings, there are protests against the president and his policy.

BLITZER: Yes, a Palestinian-American doctor walked out to protest the Biden administration's policies towards Israel during this entire war in Gaza.

As you know, Priscilla, the U.S. is planning to sell dozens of F -- additional F-15 fighter jets to Israel. Is the White House facing increased pressure right now to stop sending these weapons, including bombs, to Israel right now?

ALVAREZ: They have continued to face pressure from members of their own party, Democrats, who say that there should be restrictions on this type of aid that the U.S. could provide to Israel, in the absence of humanitarian aid going into Gaza or the release of hostages.

Now, this $18 billion F-15 sale would require congressional notification. So, there is still a process that needs to unfold here, but there is no doubt that the White House continues to face questions and pressure from Democratic lawmakers over whether this is the right thing to do and whether there should be conditions or restrictions on the type of aid that's provided as the humanitarian crisis worsens in Gaza.

BLITZER: And Congress needs to authorize and approve...

ALVAREZ: Right.

BLITZER: ... appropriate the funds for these F-15s as well.

Priscilla Alvarez, thank you very much for that update.

Joining us now, CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger.

David, Israel knows everyone and everything seemingly that goes in and out of Gaza. They're watching it so closely. So, how did this happen?

[11:10:09]

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It's a remarkable set of events, Wolf.

And the Israelis have said they're conducting an investigation, which would be followed by what they call an independent investigation. It's not clear who would be conducting that.

But they have not given us a detailed account yet of what happened. And there are a few interesting elements, just based on what Priscilla just mentioned to you, about the White House response here. The use of the word outrage was unusual, but the president did not say that he was going to do anything differently.

In other words, he could put conditions on the sale of those 2,000- pound bombs and say, you cannot use them in Gaza, similar -- just the way we put conditions, the United States puts conditions on arms that go to Ukraine, and they say you cannot use them to launch attacks into Russia.

But, so far, the White House has declined to do that. It has declined to say that it would conduct its own investigation into whether U.S. weapons were used in these killings. So we have heard much stronger words than the president, but, so far, we haven't seen much stronger action.

BLITZER: I want you to listen, David, to what the chief of staff of the Israeli military said about the strike that killed these workers from the World Central Kitchen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GEN. HERZI HALEVI, CHIEF OF STAFF, ISRAELI DEFENSE FORCES: It was a mistake that followed a misidentification at night during a war in very complex conditions. It shouldn't have happened.

Israel is at war with Hamas, not with the people of Gaza. We are sorry for the unintentional harm to the members of WCK. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The president of Israel, President Herzog, did call chef Jose Andres to apologize.

Israel is apologizing, taking responsibility for the strike. But, David, will this change Israel's military tactics in Gaza moving forward?

SANGER: Well, so far, we -- look, I think it's a big step that they have immediately said this was a mistake, that it was them, that they had no intention of doing this.

But there's an alternative possibility here. The president has been pressing and others have been pressing the Israelis for some time to not only provide access into Gaza for the food and other supplies, but then to help assure that they could get distributed to civilians.

And this convoy clearly did not have the protection around it of Israeli troops or Israeli vehicles moving around it. Had the Israelis been moving with them or near them, then, clearly, they would have -- it would have been clearer to the IDF that this was a civilian relief effort, even though the cars were quite clearly marked.

So I think one of the big questions is, does -- do the Israelis now have to actually escort the food in, so that the IDF is invested and taking time and resources into this? And, so far, that has not happened.

BLITZER: And, as we pointed out, David, the president's statement was a pretty strong rebuke of this attack by Israel, but it didn't come with any specific policy changes on the part of the United States.

So, do you think this could represent potentially a turning point in President Biden's approach to Israel's war in Gaza?

SANGER: That's the big question. And it's a question that people in the White House will not answer.

We just had a lengthy briefing from John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council. And he condemned this in the same language that the president had used, but stopped short of saying that there would be any policy changes.

If, in fact, U.S. weapons were involved in this -- and we don't know that for a fact -- that would give some leverage. The provision of additional 2,000-pound bombs is something that has raised a lot of questions. I have had members of Congress even today tell me they were questioning this, because those bombs are exactly the kind that seem to cause wide injury when used in dense civilian areas.

So I think the White House, which has sort of avoided these questions in public while they have been debating them in private, I suspect they're going to have to come up with some answers. But I could be wrong on that.

BLITZER: We will find out sooner, rather than later.

David Sanger, as usual, thank you very much for your expertise.

[11:15:01]

SANGER: Sure.

BLITZER: And, before we go, an important note to all of our viewers.

David has a brand-new and very important book coming out on April 16. That's not very far away, April 16. It's entitled "New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West."

There, you see the cover. Be sure to check it out, and you will have an opportunity very soon.

Still to come: New "Wall Street Journal" polls show a razor-thin margin right now between Donald Trump and President Biden in several key battleground states. We're going to break down the numbers. That's coming up next.

Plus, in Trump's classified documents case, the special counsel now goes after the judge over her request for jury instructions. We're going to explain Jack Smith's stunning rebuke.

And, later, hundreds of musicians, including Katy Perry and Jon Bon Jovi, slam artificial intelligence developers. Why they're not exactly singing the technology's praises.

Stay with us. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[11:20:47]

BLITZER: A new poll from "The Wall Street Journal" suggests a very tight Biden-Trump rematch in seven key battleground states.

Former President Donald Trump leads President Biden in two of them, while the other five are within the margin of error, with no clear leader.

CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten is joining us now to break down these latest numbers.

Harry, what stands out to you -- and I know you study this closely -- in this new poll?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes, I go deep into the crosstabs, dive deep in.

You mentioned the seven states, but I think it's important to sort of zone out and look at the seven states from an aggregate point of view, because it does show, although it's close in the individual states, that Donald Trump has an advantage overall. So, if we look in the two-way, what do we see? We see Donald Trump 47

percent, Joe Biden at 44 percent. If we add in the third-party candidates, look, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is an impressive 11 percent, but, again, the Trump margin over Biden holds, 39 percent for Trump, 36 percent for Biden, a close race, but one in which Trump has the advantage.

You mentioned those individual seven states. These are the margins in these seven states when we include the third-party candidates. Again, it's a close race, no clear leader in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, though more red on the screen than blue. And, in fact, in the only state where Joe Biden has even a nominal advantage, within the margin of error, is Wisconsin.

And you will also note that, in Michigan and Pennsylvania, closer races than, let's say, in Arizona and Nevada. So, Biden's doing better in the Great Lake battleground states than he's doing in those Sun Belt battleground states, but, again, a close race in the individual states. In the aggregate, though, it does seem that Donald Trump does have the advantage.

And, remember, Biden carried six of these seven states back in 2020. So Trump is in a better position than he was four years ago.

BLITZER: We have still got a ways to go until November. So we will see what's going on.

Harry Enten, thank you very much. We will stay in close touch with you.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has been campaigning in some of those key battleground states this week. I want you to listen to what he told people in Michigan what he thinks will happen if he actually loses the general election in November.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If we don't win on November 5, I think our country is going to cease to exist. It could be the last election we ever have. I actually mean that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: "I actually mean that," he says,

Let's discuss with CNN senior political commentator former special assistant to President George W. Bush Scott Jennings and CNN political commentator and former South Carolina State Representative Bakari Sellers.

Bakari, let me start with you.

President Biden has also painted this election as an existential moment for the American people. Do you think the American people actually see it that way? BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Unfortunately not.

And the reason, Wolf, is because we hear this every single year. I think this would be the third election that we have had where Donald Trump's on the ballot and people are making the argument that it's an existential threat.

I firmly believe this is an election about what type of country you want to have. But I think most people are just desensitized to the rhetoric that comes out of both candidates' mouths and are worried about who's going to be the person best to improve my livelihood and work on those bread-and-butter issues.

I don't think that -- although I agree with, I guess, both in this scenario that this race is about the future of our country, I think most people, most voters are just focused on what's happening in their household and how they make ends meet.

BLITZER: You know, Scott, Trump once again used brutal, incendiary rhetoric to describe immigrants. Here's what he said yesterday. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It's a border bloodbath and it's destroying our country. They're country-changing, country-threatening, and they're country- wrecking.

We're going to end up with the largest deportation in American history. They're not humans. They're not humans. They're animals. I will use the word animal, because that's what they are. We don't want them coming into our country with contagious diseases. And they have it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Do you feel the American people are becoming desensitized to this brutal language?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I mean, look at the polling. Immigration has rocketed to the top of the list as one of the number one concerns that people have about problems we're having in the country.

[11:25:00]

The border is judged right now by the American people to be in total crisis. This is a failure for Joe Biden. So I don't think they're being desensitized to it. I think they're being woken up to the fact that this is a major problem, and it's gotten much worse in the last three years.

BLITZER: But when he says these immigrants are animals, they're not humans, what does that suggest? I mean, isn't that brutal? Shouldn't people be condemning that?

JENNINGS: I listened to the entire tape. He was specifically talking about the person who murdered Laken Riley in Georgia.

And to be honest with you, Wolf, if somebody murders another human being, I think they deserve to be called animals. And I don't think any American is really going to reject that kind of rhetoric. That poor girl was murdered in cold blood. Is that person who did it not an animal? I think that's an apt term.

BLITZER: So you think he was only referring to those murderers, not referring in general to illegal immigrants who are coming into the United States?

JENNINGS: I listened to the tape. That's exactly what he was talking about, in my opinion.

BLITZER: What do you think, Bakari?

SELLERS: I think people are growing desensitized.

I mean, I think that even the father of Ms. Riley stated that she didn't -- he didn't want her legacy to be politicized. But we know -- we have known Donald Trump to use xenophobic and bigoted language.

And so my heart goes out to that family. But I can also say that Donald Trump is a xenophobic bigot. I mean, I can say that. But I don't think -- we have said that enough. We -- that's my point. We have said that for the past 10, 15 years when describing who Donald Trump is, and people are no longer hearing that message.

BLITZER: I want to get to another sensitive issue while I have you, Bakari.

I just want to point out that President Biden faced another protest vote in Wisconsin last night, with nearly 50,000 Democrats, Democrats, voting uninstructed. He won the state by less than 2,100 votes back in 2020. If he doesn't convince these voters to actually turn out and vote for him in November, Bakari, will he lose reelection?

SELLERS: Yes, I mean, he will. I mean, that's a fact. I mean, I think Harry can go and do the math on the board.

And like I have echoed this many times before, Wolf, that I don't think the greatest threat to Joe Biden is Donald Trump. These voters aren't going to jump over Joe Biden to vote for Donald Trump, because of all of the things we know to be true about Donald Trump. They may stay home, though.

And that's the most important thing. I mean, if these voters stay home and don't participate -- and, listen, Donald Trump has a really, really low ceiling and a high floor. He is not going to do better than 44 or 45 percent. He's going to maintain that point and that margin right there at that very high ceiling -- I mean -- excuse me -- high floor.

The problem with Joe Biden is that he has to be able to go out and woo many of these voters who are somewhat uninspired, who are looking for cessation of fire in the war in Gaza. It's a number of issues, motivating young voters, making sure that black voters understand what your message is and how this is going to look going forward. They have the time. They're doing the right things.

The question is, will that -- is that going to be enough when November comes around?

BLITZER: Bakari Sellers and Scott Jennings, thanks to both of you for joining us.

And when we come back, why special counsel Jack Smith is slamming Judge Aileen Cannon's request for jury instructions in Trump's classified documents case.

We will be right back.

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