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Biden to Address Nation from Oval Office; Israeli PM Netanyahu to Address Congress; FBI Chief Testifies on Trump Assassination Attempt; Delta Airlines Emerging from Chaos. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired July 24, 2024 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: What we're learning about his speech laying out why he's exiting the race for the White House. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: In just a few hours, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address a joint session of Congress for the first time since 2015. He'll look to shore up support and put the focus back on his war in Gaza, which has killed an estimated 39,000 Palestinians, left the enclave in the grips of a humanitarian disaster.

But Netanyahu is receiving a less than warm welcome here in Washington. Hundreds of protesters are expected up on Capitol Hill. This was the scene yesterday as Capitol Police arrested protesters at a sit down -- sit in, I should say, calling for a ceasefire. And dozens of lawmakers have also said they will not attend the speech either in protest or due to previously scheduled events, among those Vice President Kamala Harris will be on the campaign trail. She says she plans to meet one on one with Netanyahu a little later this week.

Joining me now is Democratic Congresswoman Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania. She serves on the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committee. Congresswoman, I suspect you probably need to get into that hearing that we've been monitoring this hour. But let me ask you about Prime Minister Netanyahu's address this afternoon, will you be attending that?

[10:35:00]

REP. MADELEINE DEAN (D-PA), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: Well, thank you for having me. And I thank you for playing that hearing. I will be going into the hearing room to speak with Director Wray about the critical issues of violence in this country, about the critical issues of political violence and other violence, not to mention fentanyl and opioids. So, thank you for covering that. I'll be heading there.

Today is a consequential day here in Washington, D.C. And so, I want you to know -- I want my constituents to know I've spent the last few days, as I have actually the last few months, deciding whether or not to attend. I will not be attending the address today. I've spoken with hostage families who have been here, as you know, all week. I spoke with the eight American-Israeli hostages -- hostage families, wanting just to get their family members home, sadly living and deceased. They had hoped that Mr. Netanyahu would be here in attendance to simply say he has brokered the deal to get the hostages home to end the suffering. But sadly, we don't see that happening.

I also have met with Palestinian and members of CAIR, the Council on Islamic American Relations. They are baffled by Mr. Netanyahu's attendance today. How could he, in the face of the inhumanity that is going on in Gaza and in the West Bank, how could he be here in this politically fraught moment? His attendance is the one that should be questioned.

I stand with Israel with every fiber of my being. I stand against the horror that came to them on October the 7th. I've been to Israel twice. I've met with Mr. Netanyahu, his defense minister and ministers of his war cabinet. And I warned Mr. Netanyahu back in November that the horror that befell Israel and the videos that we watched will be his fate if he pursues this war in the way that he has pursued it, slaughtering. As one doctor said to me, shattering, slaughtering, shredding, and incinerating innocent lives.

So, I will not be at the address today, and I wish Mr. Netanyahu would not be here.

ACOSTA: And, Congresswoman, as you probably know, the president -- Vice President Kamala Harris, they're meeting with the prime minister tomorrow, we're told. As you know, your Republican colleagues are going after Kamala Harris for that. She's the new leader of your party. She's now the presumptive Democratic nominee. Is it a mistake for the vice president to not meet with the prime minister or attend his address today?

DEAN: I bet it's been as difficult a decision as it was for me. Because I revere our institution. I'm a deep ally of Israel. But I don't question her decision at all. She has a job to do. She has made her decision. She will meet with Mr. Netanyahu and express her concerns about the prosecution of this war. I don't question her decision at all.

ACOSTA: And, Congresswoman, I'm sure you've heard some of the attacks on Harris as a DEI vice president. I want to play you a clip that's been resurfacing of what Former President Trump said about Harris presidency back in 2020. This is some of the comments that he made about her back then.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And by the way, Kamala will not be your first female president. She will not be your first female president. It's not the way it's supposed to be. We're not supposed to have a socialist. Look, we're not going to be a socialist nation. We're not going to have a socialist president, especially a female socialist president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: As you know, Congresswoman, Trump's running mate, J. D. Vance, has made reference to "childless cat ladies." There's been a lot of this floating around the last several days. How should Democrats respond to these kinds of attacks?

DEAN: With the enthusiasm that we feel for the vice president and her candidacy to become our president. Donald Trump's language and credibility was shot long ago. Mr. J. D. Vance, oh, my, cat lady, what in God's name do you people have? What we have in this candidate, and the enthusiasm that we feel behind her, is a woman of substance, a woman who is a patriot, a woman who will prosecute this case against the convicted former president extraordinarily well.

When you hear the comments, the DEI hire, that does -- that might play here in some small circle of ignorance here in Washington, D.C. The rest of the country doesn't speak in those terms. It shows you they have absolutely nothing. And so, they're going to some crude courage list level.

[10:40:00]

The contrast could not be starker of an administration with Kamala Harris at Joe Biden's side. It could not be starker to the administration that we suffered under Donald Trump. And if I may, I just want to say a word about our president. Man, oh, man, what a man to be proud of. How lucky have I been to serve by his side for the last three and a half years in Congress. A man of accomplishment, a man of patriotism, a love of country, a man of selflessness. Contrast that with Mr. Trump and his cronies who care only for a single man, not for the country.

ACOSTA: All right. Congresswoman Dean, thank you very much for your time. We'll be watching President Biden's address later on tonight as he lays out why he's exiting the race. Thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it. We'll be right back.

DEAN: Thank you. Hostage is home.

ACOSTA: Thank you.

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[10:45:00]

ACOSTA: All right. We're continuing to watch Capitol Hill and we can show you a live picture where the FBI director, Christopher Wray, is going to be in the hot seat. He probably got out of that seat just a few moments ago, as it appears they are taking a brief recess in this hearing as lawmakers dig deeper into the investigation of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

In just the last several minutes, our understanding is Director Wray did confirm some details that have been laid out by law enforcement officials over the last couple of days about the number of shell casings recovered and so on. If we can, let's play a little bit of that sound of the director and talk about it on the other side.

CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: So, we have recovered a drone that the shooter appears to have used. It's being exploited and analyzed by the FBI lab. The drone was recovered in his vehicle. So, at the time of the shooting the drone was in his vehicle with the controller. In addition, our investigation has uncovered --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If he flew it on the day -- oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead.

WRAY: So, in addition, it appears that around 3:50 p.m., 4:00, in that window, on the day of the shooting, that the shooter was flying the drone around the area about 11 minutes. I want to be clear, but when I say the area, not over the stage and that part of the area itself, but I would say about 200 yards, give or take, away from that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

WRAY: We think, but we do not know. So, again, this is one of these things that's qualified because of our ongoing review, that he was live streaming, you know, viewing the footage from that. Again, about 11 minutes and around the 3:50, 4:00 p.m. range.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two hours before he's flying a drone in the vicinity of the route?

WRAY: Yes, about 200 yards away. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 200 yards. OK. That's important information. What about the bombs that we've heard about in the shooter's car?

WRAY: So, again the FBI lab is exploiting those -- if there were. We've recovered three devices, two in his vehicle -- his residents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are these what you would call -- your experts would call sophisticated operations or this when we -- I mean -- I think, I mean, I don't know. That's what I've been told by people who have some understanding of this area.

WRAY: Yes. I think it's -- we've seen more sophisticated and less. I would say these are relatively -- again, keyword, relatively crude devices themselves. But they did have the ability to be detonated remotely. And so, to that point, in addition to the two devices that we recovered out of his vehicle, there were receivers for those two explosive devices with the devices. And then on the shooter himself when he was killed by law enforcement, he had a transmitter with him.

Now, I do want to add one important point here, is at the moment, it looks to us -- again, ongoing review, and I can't say that too many times, at a moment, it looks like because of the on-off position on the receivers, that if he had tried to detonate those devices from the roof, it would not have worked, but that doesn't mean the explosives weren't dangerous.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sure we're going to get in all these subjects a little bit. ACOSTA: All right. There's the FBI director, Christopher Wray, laying out some new details, including that the shooter was overlooking the rally area with a drone in the hours before that assassination attempt, that he also had a couple of explosive devices and transmitters to detonate those devices.

I believe you just heard the director say just a few moments ago that he was so far from those devices that he might not have been able to set those off. But the director was emphasizing they are still in the early stages of the investigation. So, as more of those pertinent details come up, we'll try to go back to it and bring that to you. So, stay with us for that.

In the meantime, coming up. Is Delta Airlines finally emerging from the chaos as flights begin to return to normal? We'll hear from one passenger who's still stranded there at the airport, still dealing with all this. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:00]

ACOSTA: New this morning. Finally, some good news for Delta Airlines passengers. Flight cancellations are showing signs of slowing down after six days of disruption stemming from last week's global tech outage. An estimated half-million people have been impacted and mountains of luggage are still waiting to be reunited with their owners. Take a look at some of the luggage there. My goodness.

In a statement this morning from Delta's CEO, he says the company expects tomorrow to be a quite "normal day" with the airline fully recovered. Don Hooper joins me now. He's a Delta passenger who is stranded in Montana from Sunday morning and was just able to fly back into Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta Airport. Don, thank you very much. I'm glad you're on your way back. What has this ordeal been like for you and your family?

[10:55:00]

DON HOOPER, STRANDED DELTA PASSENGER: Well, it's just my wife and I and we were actually stranded in in Salt Lake City. We were coming from Montana and had to connect through Salt Lake City. The flight from Montana was perfectly fine, on time. We knew that there was going to be a two-hour delay in Salt Lake City. No problem.

So, we get into the club room and it's pretty evident something's going on that's not good. And, what was it, two-hour delay went to a three-hour delay, went to a four-hour delay, went to a five-hour delay, and then went to a six-hour delay. And once it hit six, our delay, soon after that, the flight was canceled.

I -- mine was not the only one. Matter of fact, it was virtually everyone. In the club room there in Salt Lake City, I tried to get with a service representative. I had -- I was given a time of 222 minutes before I could speak to anyone. So, I called Delta and was on hold for over two and a half hours, and my 222 minutes came up before, and I actually did get to speak to someone.

I was also trying on their Delta website to rebook a different flight, and it would never rebook. It would never answer me. It was just shut down.

ACOSTA: Wow.

HOOPER: So, long story short, when it -- as soon as the flight was canceled, not knowing if I would get on another one, I booked a hotel room. All the hotel rooms near the airport were already sold out. I got one of the last rooms available in downtown Salt Lake City.

ACOSTA: Wow.

HOOPER: We got a room. So, that was good.

ACOSTA: Wow. Well, Don Hooper, I --

HOOPER: And it became clear -- when it became clear that we couldn't get a flight on Delta until Thursday or Friday, I booked a Spirit Air flight from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas to Atlanta. And although, two hours late this morning, we are here.

ACOSTA: Wow. Well, Don, I'm glad you were able to get home. Sorry for all the trouble that you've been through, and I hope you get home safe and sound. Don, we have to go. Lots of other news developing at this hour, but thank you for joining us. We appreciate it. Tough hearing all those stories from those stranded passengers. I hope they get that sorted out very soon. Thanks so much.

In the meantime, we're continuing to watch Capitol Hill where the FBI director, Christopher Wray, is in the hot seat. He's not literally in the hot seat at the moment. You could see they cleared out the hearing room. But he will be shortly, as lawmakers continue to dig into the investigation of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Be right back.

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[11:00:00]