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RFK Jr. Suspends Campaign, Endorses Trump; Some Republicans Endorse Harris, Slam Trump At DNC; Ceasefire Talks Resume In Cairo Even As Israel Strakes Hit Gaza; Manslaughter Probe Opened In Italy In Superyacht Sinking; A Mother's Tragic Tale From Gaza; According To Neilsen TV Ratings, DNC Dominates RNC; "Surprise Guest" Hype During Final Day Of DNC. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired August 24, 2024 - 17:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:59:44]

PAULA REID, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Paula Reid in Washington, sitting in tonight for Jessica Dean.

Now it's only about ten weeks to go in the election for the Harris and Trump campaigns. Vice President Harris is riding high after accepting her party's nomination during an energetic convention in Chicago this week.

She'll be heading out on a bus tour through Georgia next week, while former President Donald Trump hits Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

And in a race with so many twists and turns, we're seeing yet another shakeup. This time with third-party candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspending his campaign and throwing his support behind Trump.

Let's go to CNN's Steve Contorno for more details. Steve, how is the Trump campaign feeling about this endorsement?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Paula, this is something that his team has been working on for quite some time. There have been back-channel conversations between RFKs orbit and individuals and Trumps orbit like Donald Trump Jr. and Tucker Carlson trying to lay the groundwork for RFK Jr. to not only get out of the race, but to throw their support behind Donald Trump.

And here's the reason why they are so ecstatic about this move. It's because they had felt for quite some time that there is a small but sizable share of that RFK support that is pulling directly from people who they think they can win over and would otherwise be voting for Donald Trump.

And so they have been working to get those supporters on board for their campaign and getting RFK's support goes a long way toward those efforts.

Because look, at the end of the day, this is going to be a very tight race in a number of battlegrounds and these margin difference makers could ultimately be decisive.

Now, what' sort of awkward about this alliance, like many of Trump's alliances, is that just a few weeks ago Trump was trashing RFK Jr. Take a look at what he said then versus what he's saying now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: RFK Jr. is a Democrat plant. A lot of people think that Jr. is a conservative. He is not, he is more liberal than anybody running on the Democrat side.

His chief funder is the VP candidate that nobody ever heard of. She did a hell of a big number on the husband, that's her business.

I'm very pleased to welcome a man who has been an incredible champion for so many of these values that we all share and we've shared them for a long time. He's highly respected. He has a great person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Trump also said that RFK Jr. is well-liked by everyone, but Paula, even some of RFK Jr.'s own family members have disavowed him and they are supporting the Democratic ticket over their former family members -- or their family member, I should say.

REID: Steve, I also want to ask you about this surge of enthusiasm, the momentum that we've seen for Harris after the convention this week. How is the Trump campaign combating that?

CONTORNO: Well, we're going to see a far more energetic Trump going forward. We saw it last week where he held events every single day in battleground states, two events yesterday.

And you can expect him to have a stepped-up schedule going forward.

In the immediate aftermath of these conventions, though they are expecting to be playing a bit of an underdog role. They know that conventions usually bring a poll bump for the candidate who is just coming out of their convention.

And Harris, after having a convention in Chicago that by all accounts stirred up her base and galvanized a lot of their support, they think that that's going to probably register for her in the polls as well.

The question is, how long does that bump last and can carry her through the rest of this race. We only have a little over 70 days to go here. And that's not a lot of time for Trump to turn things around.

So that's why you're going to see him getting out there a lot more, deploying J.D. Vance strategically. And now they have someone in RFK Jr. who they hope can go speak to some of those anti-establishment audiences in the Joe Rogan podcast space and such Paula.

REID: Steve Contorno, thank you.

Let's turn now to our panel. Joining me now, CNN senior political commentator and former special assistant to President George W. Bush, Scott Jennings, and CNN contributor, podcast host and journalist for "The New York Times", Lulu Garcia-Navarro.

All right. Scott, let's -- first of all, it's good to see you in person.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. Not since Chicago.

REID: You are a big part of -- yes, big part of our DNC coverage every night. You know, sort of advocating for your side, not an easy thing to do. So it's good to see you in person.

And I want to ask you about this RFK endorsement because Steve just pointed out, Trump has previously attacked him. Now of course, he's embracing him. What impact could these previous attacks have or is it just -- look, that's part of politics.

JENNINGS: I think for that party, it's just part of politics. You know, regarding impact. I mean, look, he does have a little bit of an audience. I mean, he was riding at around 5 percent in the surveys.

You know, if half of those people come over and the race is as close as we think it is, obviously that will inure to Trump's benefit.

[17:04:44]

JENNINGS: The downstream thing I worry about for Trump is that RFK does have detractors. He's prone to saying, you know, weird things sometimes. And when you take on someone as a surrogate, you sort of own everything they do. So there are some downstream risks.

But you can see why he would want to pull him in because, you know, they need to -- they need to build ballot share. He's running a little bit behind Harris in the national polls right now.

So I guess it makes sense for his campaign today. And if you're willing to assume some of the downstream risk that you don't know about tomorrow.

REID: Lulu, what do you make of this? And how can the Harris campaign maybe frame this as an opportunity?

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN COMMENTATOR: I think it is an Opportunity. I think -- I don't think that RFK Jr. is going to be actually much of a benefit to the Trump team. I think a lot of his voters are low- propensity voters. They are anti-establishment, they don't really have a true sense of commitment to the candidate.

It wasn't like RFK was going out and people were cheering his name and he had a real movement behind him. He was kind attracting a lot of the people who, you know, basically embrace conspiracy theories.

And I think by adding his name to the Trump team, it just adds fuel to this, you know, basically accusation that the left makes about Trump, which is that first of all, he's a political opportunist. This is clearly a marriage of opportunity.

And secondly, that he's willing to take on people with very strange ideas in order to kind of grow the people who will vote for him. And I just don't think it's going to benefit him in the long-term.

REID: In a race that could be decided, right, by a handful of votes once again, these narrow margins, is it worth taking the risk on someone who little bit of a risk? Let's put it that way.

JENNINGS: Well, you raise the prospect of his appeal to low propensity voters. Interestingly, that's actually Donald Trump's biggest opportunity. If you look at the polling the farther you go down the list of people and their likelihood to vote, the more they tend to like Donald Trump.

And so he needs high turnout among low-propensity voters, no propensity voters, even people who aren't registered but could get that way. And so to the extent that they like someone like RFK Jr., he could be a messenger.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: They like him enough. I don't think they like him --

JENNINGS: I don't know. Hard to say.

(CROSSTALK)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: It's hard to say. I mean, I think that's the other thing. It's really hard to say --

JENNINGS: Yes, hard to say.

(CROSSTALK)

JENNINGS: I'm like the worst Republican to analyze this because I'm a Bush-Cheney guy and I'm old enough to remember when RFK was out saying we hotwired the voting machines in Ohio to steal the election. So yes, I'm still holding a grudge 20 years later.

(CROSSTALK)

JENNINGS: I mean, I get the -- I get the desire for the marriage even if it is of opportunity of these two movements.

I'm skeptical of the dramatic nature of the impact of this. But look, he's a Kennedy. There are people who want to see the Kennedys. I mean, if his name was Bob Johnson and he was wearing a sandwich board and had a, you know, a megaphone and was from Idaho, we wouldn't care.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yes.

JENNINGS: But he's a Kennedy, so there are people that will want to see him.

REID: And in many ways, a Rorschach test, right, for how you feel about the Kennedys, how you feel about the candidates.

JENNINGS: Sure.

REID: So it's going to be fascinating to watch his impact.

But I want to talk to you about the DNC. There -- this one, of course, featured a lot more Republicans than we're used to hear from at a DNC. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLIVIA TROYE, FORMER ADVISER TO VP MIKE PENCE: To my fellow Republicans, you aren't voting for a Democrat, you're voting for democracy.

GEOFF DUNCAN, FORMER GEORGIA LT. GOVERNOR: If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, you're not a Democrat. You're a patriot.

To my fellow Republicans at home that want to pivot back towards policy, empathy and tone, you know, the right thing to do. Now, let's have the courage to do it in November.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: I want you both to weigh in on this, but let's start from the Republican angle. Do voices like that, statements like that make a difference?

JENNINGS: Well, I don't know if they make a widespread difference. There is certainly that cohort of Nikki Haley voters that people have advocated that the Democrats tried to go for. That's obviously what they're trying to do.

I will tell you, and I love our colleague Geoff, and I don't want to speak ill of him. I didn't love the line, "If you vote for Harris, you're not a Democrat, you're a patriot."

The idea that if you decide you don't want to vote Democrat somehow you're not a patriot, that's how it struck me. And I think it could strike some Republicans that way.

Also, he's talked a lot about pivoting the party back to policy but there's no -- from my perspective -- there's no conservative case for voting for Harris.

And the idea that I have to vote for the most liberal Democrat the Democrats could find in order to get back to the conservative -- I don't, I just don't follow the logic trail.

So not persuasive to me but they're obviously competing for the Nikki Haley voters who sort of turned against Trump a while back.

REID: Lulu, what do you think?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I think it is persuasive. I think it was actually a bit of a master touch here because one of the criticisms of the Democrats have been they were not making a strong enough play for those Nikki Haley voters, 20 percent of the Republican Party if you saw all some of the, you know, some of the turnout in the primaries.

And so you know, again, when we're talking about margins and a few people here and there. I mean, that's not just margins, that's a big group of people.

And so having Republicans speaking to Republicans, I think is a much more effective way than having Democrats speaking to Republicans.

[17:09:49]

JENNINGS: The algebra for Trump on this is, can you lose some of these, you know, suburban, you know, more moderate type Republicans or you know, old-+style Republicans while -- replacing them with the working-class Democrat, you know, former Democrats or low-propensity voters who may not identify really with either party.

That's really the equation. Lose some here, fill it up here. Which one ends up being more, you know?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: And it's the same thing with men and women. Women are high, you know, voted higher rates than men do. Women are obviously much more pro-Harris. It's really a numbers game and which one is going to win out? That's the big question.

REID: Well, let's look at this numbers game coming out of the convention, Harris has momentum. She's expected to get a one or two- point bump in the polls how does she now get elected? What is the strategy over the next several weeks?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I mean, the strategy is what you're actually going to see happen right now. She's taking a bus, she's going to Georgia and she's not only going to be trying to hit the places where we know there's a lot of support for the Harris-Walz ticket, which is of course, in Atlanta and the suburbs where there's big communities of color -- black, Asian-Americans.

But, you know, one of the things that the campaign really wants to do is move outside of those areas and go to places in rural areas where there are, you know, pockets of Democrats black voters, other types of voters that would actually vote for Harris ticket because this is actually a state-wide race.

You win the state, not county to county. You win it by how many people are going to vote you know, the ticket for Harris and Walz. And so they really want to take a message farther outside of the traditional places where they are strong.

REID: And as part of that campaign, should she be answering questions from journalists and/or voters?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yes, I'm a journalist. So yes --

JENNINGS: And you say that because -- not everybody in our profession agrees with that. Now look, when you run campaigns you want to minimize risk, maximize results. And they have minimize the risk to her and it has worked so far. But at some point, I think voters expect candidates to be tested?

REID: Yes.

JENNINGS: And tested via questioning. Tested, you know, during the rigors of a campaign, she will get a test at the debate on September the 10ths.

But the idea that she's going to be able to wash away the fact that she's the sitting vice president and minimize having to answer for her record by minimizing her interactions with journals. I don't think voters are going to put up with it forever. They've put up with it so far, but it won't last forever.

REID: The debate you just mentioned, right? Trump in some ways seems to be struggling a bit on how to approach Harris. What does he need to do during this debate and what does he not need to do during this debate to succeed?

JENNINGS: Well, focus is number one. And number two is not let her off the hook for her record. To me, the greatest argument the Trump campaign has against the Harris ticket is you're currently in office, you know.

Everything you say you want to do lower costs or fix the border or anything you say, you have to answer for your role in causing the problems in the first place. Now to prosecute that case, he has to show up and focus on it and just do it over and over again and not get bored with it, right?

I mean, it's a simple argument and it's a simple question to ask. Why would I put the same people in charge who've run the country off the side of the road in the eyes of about two-thirds of Americans. You just got to focus and stay with it in the debate.

REID: Last word.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I think he's going to be in trouble. And the reason he's going to be in trouble is because of the visuals. It's the same problem that Biden had.

This time, orange makeup isn't going to actually help him show the difference between him and Harris. She is 20 years younger than him she looks like the future. He looks like the past.

REID: Scott, Lulu -- this has been fantastic.

JENNINGS: Absolutely.

REID: Thank you so much for joining us.

JENNINGS: Thank you. Thank you.

REID: And still ahead. High level talks are happening today in Cairo. Hamas now sending a delegation despite indicating they are unhappy with the latest ceasefire proposal. We'll talk with one former State Department official about where things stand and what could happen if things fall apart.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

[17:13:38]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to the CNN NEWSROOM.

I'm Jim Sciutto in Tel Aviv.

Hospital officials in Gaza say that Israeli airstrikes in the early morning killed more than 45 people. This as the Israeli military says, it had begun a targeted operation going after terrorist targets as described by the IDF in Gaza.

Ceasefire talks are resuming though this weekend in Cairo. A Hamas delegation is now in Egypt to hear what mediators have to say as is the CIA director.

Joining me now is Andrew P. Miller. He is the former deputy assistant secretary of State for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs.

Andrew, I wonder where you think these talks stand. They have been stop-and-start talks, I think in the most generous description in recent days and weeks.

There has been some talk of progress in recent days, but Egyptian officials seem to be throwing some cold water on that just in the last 24 hours, describing still-wide differences.

What's your view?

ANDREW P. MILLER, FORMER DEPUTY ASST. SECRETARY OF STATE: It remains very unclear, Jim, and that's due in part to two variables. One is Prime Minister Netanyahu's ultimate bottom line position on these negotiations. And the other is Yahya Sinwar's position which is even more inscrutable, given that he's presumably hiding somewhere in the tunnels under Gaza.

[17:19:46]

MILLER: We have gotten indications of the Israeli position on the Philadelphi Corridor, a strip of land about 14 miles long that spans the Gaza-Egypt border. The Israelis are willing to thin-out some of their forces as part of the first stage of a ceasefire/hostage release.

But it really is unclear whether that would meet Sinwar's needs. And even if it does, there are other outstanding issues such as Netanyahu's demand that the Israelis maintain a presence at the Netzarim Corridor, which bisects the Gaza Strip to potentially inspect all returning Palestinians into the north.

And that doesn't even get into the question of which Palestinians are allowed to return and move freely. So it really is a black -- a black box that we're dealing with.

SCIUTTO: I mean, there's also the question of whether it's a temporary ceasefire or lasting one.

I want to ask you about urgency, though, because U.S. officials involved clearly have urgency, Secretary Blinken, as he visited Tel Aviv last week, said that this may be the last best chance.

But is it clear to you that Netanyahu or Hamas' Sinwar that they, the actual parties to this negotiation have any urgency to come to a deal.

MILLER: No, it is not. And in Sinwar's case, it does appear that he wants to wait to see what Iran, Hezbollah, other actors do in the hope that the threat of a wider war would soften the Israeli position.

The IDF spokesperson said earlier today that Israel is expecting a significant week in terms of the north indicating that Hezbollah may respond to the assassination of Fuad Shukr sometime this week. That is the major incentive for Sinwar to hold back on final agreement.

And with respect to Netanyahu, in his perspective, this is only a temporary ceasefire after six weeks he isn't bound and he said that now publicly. That is his position.

I think many Israelis, including the security establishment, aren't necessarily on board. Is Sinwar prepared to agree to what he knows will be a temporary transitory agreement to release hostages or is he going to insist that he will need a permanent ceasefire, an end to the war in order to move forward with releasing that asset.

SCIUTTO: I mean, listen, that's one of the more interesting factors in this negotiation. That there are disagreements it seems between Netanyahu and even his own negotiators.

I want to ask about the threat and the degree of the threat today about an expansion of this war because a couple of weeks ago, there were almost daily warnings that Hezbollah might attack now. Those dissipated for a time.

Is it your sense that that might be imminent again? A Hezbollah attack or I should say a more significant one because every day there are missiles and rockets that fly in each direction across the northern border.

MILLER: well, we've already seen an increase in the tempo of both Israeli and Hezbollah strikes. On multiple days in the past week, Hezbollah has fired over 100 projectiles. Israel is conducting deep strikes into Lebanon, targeting additional Hezbollah and IRGC officials.

It does appear the temperature is increasing and the remarks from the IDF I don't think are part of a propaganda campaign. I think that was a message to the Israeli public that they need to be prepared.

So there does seem to be a higher risk which underscores the imperative of trying to break through with the ceasefire.

Iran is the one actor that can actually rein in Hezbollah. Iran seems to be willing to wait longer for a response in the hope that they can leverage their pressure into a ceasefire agreement.

As you noted the United States government, the administration, Director Burns, others are trying their best to bring the agreement to a fruition. You have to wonder, given how high the stakes are, whether at some point the administration consider its shuttle diplomacy and perhaps at the level of Secretary of State Blinken, or even a President Biden, where they're flying between Cairo, between Jerusalem and between Doha, to try to negotiate a deal themselves.

But the administration has been reluctant to be to expose the president in that way previously. And we haven't seen that in many years. Historically presidential involvement makes it much more difficult for Israel and for other actors to say no.

[17:24:48]

MILLER: So everything needs to be on the table precisely because there is this magnitude of risks that is unacceptable from a U.S. national security perspective.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Listen, I mean, there's been a lot of calls between Biden and Netanyahu delivering it seems pressure to come to an agreement. That has not moved this across the finish line.

Andrew Miller, good to have you on. Thanks.

MILLER: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: In France, authorities say they are treating a blast outside a synagogue in southern France as a possible terror attack. At least two cars were set on fire just across the street from the synagogue before one of those cars then exploded, injuring a policeman.

Police say they are still searching for what they believe to be a lone suspect. Of course, Saturday morning is the Sabbath. It's a time when synagogues hold their services.

authorities say that anti-Jewish incidents in France nearly tripled in the first half of this year compared to 2023.

Still ahead, Italian authorities are now opening a manslaughter investigation into the deadly sinking of a super yacht. We're going to have new details when we come back.

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[17:30:27]

REID: New developments today in the sinking of that superyacht off the coast of Italy. Italian authorities opened a manslaughter investigation, Prosecutors say it was not just bad weather that caused the ship to sink. Seven people we're killed, including tech giant, Mike Lynch, and his

teenage daughter. Twenty-two people were aboard.

CNN's Barbie Nadeau is tracking this case.

And, Barbie, what are officials saying today?

BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN REPORTER: Yes, you know, they gave a press conference this morning in Sicily and there were three really big takeaways from this.

The first being the fact that this is a manslaughter case. They didn't take anyone into custody.

Now, all of the crew members are foreign nationals. That is to say they're not Italian. So if there are eventually going to be arrests, they would have to extradite them, if they're allowed to leave.

The second big takeaway is that they didn't do any drug or alcohol tests on any of the crew members. They said they were in a state of shock and some of them were injured.

And so they didn't test them for drugs or alcohol, which would seem to be a key element in potentially finding someone guilty of criminal negligence.

And the third takeaway, which is a tragic detail that we heard this morning, is five of the people who were -- whose bodies we're found in that ship were in the same underwater compartments, the same apartment.

And they said it's likely because there was an air pocket and that these people, these five people, including Mike Lynch, could have been there for holding out hope.

And the idea, you know, the 50 meters below the surface of the water, 164 feet, is very likely that there were moments in which they thought they might survive before they became completely inundated with water. A horrifying detail -- Paula?

REID: Barbie Nadeau, thank you.

And still ahead, a Palestinian woman shares her tragic story with CNN after her husband and daughter were killed in an attack in Gaza.

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[17:36:57]

REID: Palestinian officials say more than 45 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes today across southern and central Gaza. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have been killed in the ongoing war. CNN cannot independently verify these numbers.

But we are hearing stories from loved ones, including the story of one Palestinian woman whose husband and daughter were killed in an attack on their home.

She and her other daughter shared their painful story with CNN's Jeremy Diamond.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Five-year- old Sham's eyes are a portal to the past she cannot forget.

There are the streets and homes scarred by war. This building where she recited her final prayers.

And then there is the indelible sight of her father and sister shot dead before her eyes.

(EXPLOSION)

DIAMOND: Sham's mother, Sanaa, who suffered burns as a child, will never forget that day.

SANAA ABU TABAQ, SURVIVED ATTACK THAT KILLED HUSBAND AND DAUGHTER (through translation): I wish we hadn't returned. I lost the most precious people. I lost the most precious thing for me, my daughter.

DIAMOND: But there is more to that story than tragedy and loss in war- torn Gaza. Sham and Sanaa's story is unlike any other we have come across in 10 months of war.

That's because Sanaa doesn't just accuse Israeli troops of killing her husband, Akram, and daughter, Yasmeen. An Israeli soldier may also have saved her life.

(SHOUTING)

DIAMOND: On November 24th, the week-long truce between Israel and Hamas begins. Thousands of people begin heading back to their homes in northern Gaza. Sanaa and her family are among them.

But as they approach the Salati (ph) neighborhood where they lived, they find themselves walking alone and then shots ring out.

SANAA ABU TABAQ (through translation): May God bless her soul, Yasmeen. One bullet in her back and one in her shoulder.

I was hit in my leg and my husband was hit in his stomach. So we all sat on the ground. We couldn't move and we were bleeding. Sham is the only one who wasn't hit.

DIAMOND: Her husband soon decides to crawl away to try to find help. But moments later, he is shot again, fatally. Sanaa lies on the ground bleeding, cradling her eldest daughter, Yasmeen.

SANAA ABU TABAQ (through translation): She was saying, '"om, did you die? Please don't die and leave us. I'm still alive." I held her and I told her, "No my dear, we are not going to die. The ambulance is coming." I was trying to give her hope even though I know there was no hope.

DIAMOND (on camera): As a mother, I mean, you must have felt absolutely helpless in that moment.

SANAA ABU TABAQ (through translation): I wasn't able to do anything and that was the hardest situation. I couldn't. She was even asking for water, and I couldn't give her water.

[17:40:08]

DIAMOND (voice-over): Yasmeen soon died in her mother's arms. For hours, Sanaa lies here with Sham, unable to move, until she finally finds the strength to crawl down the street and into this nearby home.

We obtained footage from that house after our first interview with Sanaa. This is the first time she and Sham are seeing it.

SANAA ABU TABAQ (through translation): This is the bathroom we hid in.

DIAMOND: And Sham begins to tell my colleague, Abeer Salman, what happened to her.

ABEER SALMAN, CNN PRODUCER (through translation): What happened in the morning?

SHAM ABU TABAQ, SURVIVED ATTACK THAT KILLED FATHER AND SISTER (through translation): The tanks came.

SALMAN (through translation): How do you know the tanks had come?

SHAM ABU TABAQ: I heard their sound.

SANAA ABU TABAQ (through translation): I told her, "They've reached us." We recited the Shahada. She said, "Hide me so I don't see them when they shoot me."

DIAMOND (voice-over): An explosion then rocks the bathroom. Israeli soldiers enter the house and call out in Arabic.

What happens next is captured on muted body camera footage provided by the Israeli military. Two soldiers treating Sanaa's gunshot wounds.

SANAA ABU TABAQ (through translation): I told him, "Please have mercy. Didn't you see my daughter who was killed at the door? I beg you, please don't kill us, it's enough."

He told me, "It wasn't us who killed her. It was Sinwar." I told him, "I have nothing to do with Sinwar, or anyone else. You took my daughter and you took everything."

DIAMOND: The medic soon realizes her condition is serious. She needs to get to a hospital.

SANAA ABU TABAQ (through translation): The one who spoke Arabic started to make his calls. Then he told me, "We decided to help you and take you with us." DIAMOND: Israeli soldiers carry Sanaa out of the building on a stretcher, her hands clutching Sham.

Nothing about this footage should be extraordinary. Militaries must protect and care for wounded civilians when possible under international law. But in this war, this site is exceedingly rare.

For eight months, Sanaa and Sham have lived in this Jerusalem hospital. Their journey here was no less traumatic. Interrogation and strip searches came before treatments at an Israeli hospital.

Israeli authorities are now planning to send them back to Gaza next month, unless another country takes them in.

The Israeli military for its part, told CNN in a statement that Sanaa and her family were caught in the crossfire. The IDF says its soldiers issued verbal warnings after the family stumbled upon a concealed military position, drawing a militant attack.

"The four people who entered in the area were caught in the intense exchange of fire between the terrorists and our troops. The troops did not open fire at the four people, nor did they aim at them."

SANAA ABU TABAQ (through translation): They are lying. There was nobody in that area.

DIAMOND (on camera): I wonder, what would you say to that one soldier if you could see him again?

SANAA ABU TABAQ (through translation): It's true he helped me. But he also took from me the most precious thing I had. I can't event thank him because he had mercy for us by the will of God, not by his own will.

Because if he had compassion, he wouldn't have deprived me of the dearest people to my heart.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Sanaa's pain is as raw as ever. And seeing her home again in footage filmed this spring brings a flood of emotion.

SANAA ABU TABAQ (through translation): These are Yasmeen and Sham's shoes. I bought these shoes for Eid.

DIAMOND: Mundane objects are transformed into relics.

SANAA ABU TABAQ (through translation): This is Yasmeen's dress. And this is Sham's dress. She always loved pink. This is her dress.

DIAMOND: And Sanaa is taken back in time to the life she will never get back.

[17:44:08]

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

REID: A re-energized Democratic Party managed to turn that enthusiasm and support into a win, at least when it comes to TV ratings.

Every night of the DNC had more Americans tuning in compared to the corresponding night at the RNC.

CNN's media correspondent, Hadas Gold, joins us now.

Hadas, what do the numbers show?

HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Well, the numbers show -- this is according to Nielsen -- so across the television networks that Nielsen ranks, the DNC out shown the RNC every single night.

You could see there all four nights of the DNC outshone the RNC when it comes to the ratings. And across the four nights, on average, was also even greater, 21.8 million for the DNC versus 19.07 million for the Republican National Convention.

Then when you look at the actual candidate speeches of Kamala Harris versus Donald Trump, Harris' speech brought in 28.9 million, whereas Trump spot brought in 28.4. That's not a huge, huge difference.

But we all know that Donald Trump is obsessed with ratings. So I'm sure this is something that might be rankling him.

Now, though these ratings beat out the 2020 DNC and RNC ratings, but they do lag behind 2016, 2012, 2008.

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But keep in mind that the way we watch TV, it is, of course, changing. And Nielsen does not rank things, like streamers, YouTube, Twitch, social media, and those. So we could even have even more millions of people who were watching on those streamers.

But if you look at also where we were when these conventions took place, when Trump took the stage at the RNC, it was just days after his assassination attempt. It was the first time he was making a major speech after he almost lost his life.

But Joe Biden was still the candidate at that time. He ended up dropping out just days after that. So there's a lot of interest in Kamala Harris as the candidate. There's a lot of excitement of a re- energized party.

Also, the Democrats just had bigger names at their convention. They had the Clintons, they had the Obamas, they had Oprah and they had big performers like Stevie Wonder, John Legend and Pink.

And, yes, there was Kid Rock and Hall Cogen at the RNC. But just when you look at the -- you know, the number of names, big names, these sort of marquee speakers, the Democrats just had more people. Well, then, of course, there were all of those rumors that Queen Bey, Queen Beyonce was going to show up and potentially perform or somehow appear at the DNC. Of course, that did not end up happening.

REID: Well, speaking of Beyonce, for example, the DNC have come out and just said on the record, she's not coming. But it did seem to create this parallel narrative to the obvious special guests, who was the vice president accepting the nomination.

In some ways, did all this buzz and the failure to just get on the record and tamp it down, did that backfire at all?

GOLD: Well it's not for nothing. Keep in mind, because multiple people close to the convention were telling CNN on Thursday that they believed that Beyonce was going to be in attendance.

And we had major media figures, including people like Gayle King, who was saying on air, on CBS, that she believed that the rumors we're true, that Beyonce was going show up.

TMZ also, keep in mind, was reporting full-fact that it was going to happen, that Beyonce was going to show up. And Beyonce's own camp didn't come out themselves and shut this down until literally 30 minutes before the vice president was supposed to take the stage.

So I think that there is something there, potentially maybe there was some sort of actual conversations happening. There needs to be more reporting done into exactly what happened between Beyonce and Kamala Harris' campaign.

For everybody, it kind of made sense, right? Because Kamala Harris is, of course, using Beyonce's song "Freedom." She got permission from Beyonce to use that song at her campaign.

And I think when everybody heard that song, "Freedom," right before the vice president took the stage, I think a lot of them we're thinking Beyonce was going to come out from behind the stage and sing it live on that stage. But didn't happen, unfortunately for us.

REID: And I want to say that CNN did not officially report that she was going to be there, because the sources that were telling us that did not have direct knowledge. It didn't meet our standards.

But with the DNC now over, Harris is now, of course, facing calls to do an interview or at least a town hall or a press conference. What do you think of her strategies so far to resist these calls?

GOLD: I think that she was trying to hold things off for as long as possible because she was getting a lot of attention. There was a lot of excitement. She was riding the wave as much as she could.

But she has said that she's going to do some sort of interview by the end of the month. She has about a week left until that end of the month. We have not heard anything from any major network or newspaper or anything like that that she is going to be sitting down and doing an interview -- doing an interview with them. And now, while this is mostly probably journalists and people in the

political world who are calling for this to happen, the drumbeat is definitely growing.

And this has become a regular attack line from the Trump campaign. You know, right before I went on air with you, I was watching FOX News and this was a segment they we're talking about. They were saying, where is Kamala Harris?

And she does need to sit down and answer some tough questions from independent journalists.

REID: And, Hadas, really quickly, the Foo Fighters right now in the political news. What can you tell us?

GOLD: Yes, so the Trump campaign played the Foo Fighters song, "My Hero" during that Kennedy endorsement that he got yesterday. As Kennedy walked out, they played, that Foo Fighter song, "My Hero."

The Foo Fighters have come out and said they did not approve of this. They want the Trump campaign to stop using it. And they actually said that any royalties that they get from the Trump campaign using the song, they're actually going to donate to the Harris-Walz campaign -- Paula?

REID: Hadas Gold, thank you.

And finally, this hour, in this week's "CNN Heroes, we are catching up with the top heroes of 2023, who recently gathered in Miami at the Make Good Famous summit. It's part of their "CNN Hero" award in collaboration with the Elevate Prize Foundation.

One key lesson focused on the ways self-care can make them and all of us more effective leaders.

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UNIDENTIFIED CNN HERO: Becoming a whole leader means prioritizing not only the work that I'm doing with the community, but also the work that I need to do for myself.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN HERO: Always learning, always be open and receptive. You're not only being good to others, but also being good to yourself.

[17:55:06]

UNIDENTIFIED CNN HERO: Self-care is something that's hard to come by in the social impact space. It feels selfish and not necessary to the urgent struggles that are in front of us.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN HERO: A nonprofit leader, we're always going, going, going.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN HERO: The most important thing I've learned is really keeping it balanced.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN HERO: I think it's incredibly important, in terms of being able to self-reflect, being able to cultivate inner awareness.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN HERO: When we combine purpose and passion, we're pretty much unstoppable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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