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Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Is Interviewed About Israel, Hezbollah Exchange Attacks In Major Escalation; New Drama Over Debate As Campaigns Battle Over Details. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired August 26, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

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[11:00:38]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. You're live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. We begin this hour with a new explosion of violence along Israel's border with Lebanon.

In a major escalation, Israel and Hezbollah exchanged heavy fire this past weekend, Israel struck across the border into southern Lebanon, in what it calls preemptive strikes targeting Hezbollah's rocket launchers. The Iran-backed terror group says it still fired 320 rockets toward Israel. And CNN's Nic Robertson joins us now from Tel Aviv. Nic, both Israel and Hezbollah are claiming victory. What can you tell us? What's the latest?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, both are saying that this may not be the end of it. Prime Minister Netanyahu said what you've seen may not be an end of it. And Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, over the weekend, said, you know, there could be more. So both are implying they could do it again.

But from Israel's perspective, it -- it looks very much like that attack back in April, earlier in the year, when Iran had that massive attack against Israel, and Israel fended off pretty much every single missile, and that's what Israel is saying at the moment, only this time, it fended off Hezbollah because it had advanced intelligence, because it was able to target them while they still had missile systems on the ground, preemptive strike, and then able to intercept the majority of the missiles that were fired at Israel.

Hezbollah has said that it targeted infrastructures, military infrastructures, the north of Israel and in the center of Israel. There's no evidence to support that -- that -- that actually happened. So the perception is here in Israel at least, Israel has defended itself. Hezbollah really came up short.

And at the moment, there's still the small strikes across the border, but nothing on the scale that we saw Sunday. And I think at the moment, indications are we're not going to see Hezbollah tried that again soon. Jim? ACOSTA: And Nic, let's pivot to the ceasefire talks. Is this escalation that we saw over the weekend going to have an impact to those talks get threatened by this somewhat, what do you think?

ROBERTSON: The -- there was always this sort of likelihood that Hezbollah was going to do a strike, and I think that was begged into the calculations of the mediators that were going to have to power through that. And actually, the Israeli delegation and the Hamas delegation turned up in Cairo for those talks on Sunday. Hamas left late in the day, their spokesman, so I think you've got to read into this when their spokesman speaks, this may not be what's actually going on inside the negotiating room, basically rejecting the bridging proposals as this put forward, wanting to accept President Biden's proposal in May, that they accepted early in July, that says no Israeli troops, that there would be a freedom of movement of -- of -- of Palestinians back to north of Gaza, no controls on prisoner exchange, all the things that they've said before.

What's actually happened behind closed doors, we don't know. But what we do know, and what people are seeing positivity and -- is that the technical level talks, lower level delegations during the technical bridge work here, if you will. In the proposal, they are still working this week in Cairo and in Doha, so this progress of sorts. That said, publicly at least, is very hard to read. We have no indication that any substantial movement forward, has -- has happened, that this is aspirational at the moment.

ACOSTA: All right. Nic Robertson, thank you very much.

Let's continue this discussion with Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey. He's also a member of the Intelligence Committee. Congressman, your assessment of this escalation that we saw over the weekend?

REP. JOSH GOTTHEIMER (D-NJ): Well, I think, as was just reported, there were literally thousands of rockets on the ready from the north, from Hezbollah in Lebanon and Israel was -- obviously had intelligence and preemptively stopped it. But the intention, of course, was Hezbollah, which is an Iranian proxy, to fire, as they have been now since October 8th, fire missiles and drones into Israel.

They -- they put hundreds in that were knocked down and -- of missiles and dozens of drones, this is just more of what they've been doing Hezbollah now for months, since October 8th.

ACOSTA: And Congressman, a U.S. official, says progress was made over the weekend and the ceasefire and hostage release talks, we've heard that before and -- and it hasn't come to pass. Are you optimistic that a deal can be reached?

[11:05:07]

GOTTHEIMER: Well, I'm hopeful, especially because they're at the technical level now, as was just pointed out, working on some of those details. But -- but listen, the -- we've -- we've been here before, so I think we should be cautiously optimistic. We've got to get the hostages home, right? That is -- that remains the absolute key here is, how do we get the hostage home, especially the American hostages.

There's someone in my district who's one of the hostages and -- and been gone for so many months away from his family, but we -- but we know that's the key. We've got to get this pause on and -- and make sure we crush all of these Iranian proxies that continue to not only do harm against Israel, our key ally, but aim at the United States of America.

And I think that's the bigger picture here, we always have to focus on. Iran, these are all Iranian-backed proxies, all of their whether you're talking about Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, those that have attacked Americans our interests in the region, our service members. These are the same people who are obviously allied with Russia, involved with Ukraine, who are allied with North Korea and with China, right? So this -- this is the axis of evil that we're up against the Americans here.

ACOSTA: And Congressman, last month, you led an official Intelligence Committee trip to Israel met with the families of American hostages held in Gaza, it's now approaching 11 months. I mean, we're getting close to one year since October 7th. I had a chance to speak with the parents of one of those hostages at the DNC last week. It -- it's just heartbreaking that they've been waiting this long. I mean, are they any closer to being --

GOTTHEIMER: With no -- with no word, right?

ACOSTA: Yes, yes.

GOTTHEIMER: With no -- you can imagine that with no word.

ACOSTA: Yes.

GOTTHEIMER: I mean, I was with the hostage families last week at the DNC as well. You know, I -- you just can't imagine what the -- the strength that they have, these families to continue fighting and waking up every day and thinking about their children, their loved ones, old and young. And the bottom line is, we can make sure they come home. We've got to get this pause on get these hostages home, of course, and crush the terrorists who seek to do us harm, seek to do Israel harm.

And I'm -- I'm optimistic cautiously so that these talks can achieve that. We have to just keep focused on that and recognize that Hezbollah has more than 5,000 attacks on to Israel and to Israel since October 8th in the region. That whole area of families have not been able to go home. School is supposed to start for children on Sunday. Obviously, that's going to be difficult. They can't return to that region right now. So, you know, there's a lot of work to be done, but we just have to keep doing it every single day and keep the negotiators in the room.

ACOSTA: I do want to ask you about something that happened this morning. Former President Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery here in the nation's capital. He laid a wreath to remember the 13 U.S. service members who died in the withdrawal from the Afghanistan war. He also, on this anniversary, has -- has obviously tried to make this political going after Vice President Harris, saying, this is the third anniversary of the botched Afghanistan withdrawal. This is he -- his post on Truth Social the most embarrassing moment in history of our country, goes on talking about Russia and Ukraine.

Congressman, should -- should the president -- former president be doing this, if he's -- if he's going to be going to Arlington National Cemetery to pay tribute to these service members in this kind of a ceremony. Should he be posting those kinds of comments on Truth Social?

GOTTHEIMER: No, obviously not. It's an embarrassment that the former commander of chief of our country would do that. You know, the -- this, we don't play political games with our national security, with our service members who are lost. You know, none of that should be political.

This is opening our country first, and remembering who our enemies are, and that we're all in this together as a nation, and that -- that to me, should always be the case, and -- and I -- I really will -- will hope, and I -- I know maybe that's foolish for me to hope that he would reconsider playing politics with -- with this, but -- but the bottom line is this, you know, what we need to focus on as a country is making sure that we stand together, up against our enemies, up against Iran and Russia, as they continue to do what they -- as you see right now, into Ukraine, what they did overnight, attacking, again, threatening our allies, threatening democracy.

Let's remember that is about protecting our democracy up against China, North Korea, Russia, Iran, you know, those are the enemies. Let's stick together as a country, in the greatest country, in my opinion.

ACOSTA: All right. Congressman Josh Gottheimer, thank you very much for your time this morning. We appreciate it.

GOTTHEIMER: Thanks for having me.

ACOSTA: All right, good to see you.

[11:09:33]

In the meantime, still ahead, new drama over the first presidential debate set to take place in 15 days. The Harris and Trump campaigns clashing over a key rule, muting the microphones. What we're learning behind the scenes, next.

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ACOSTA: All right. Some fresh drama in the 2024 presidential race is raising questions over whether Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will actually debate next month. Two campaigns are at a stalemate, we are told over the rules. Sources tell CNN that Trump's team wants microphones muted when a candidate is not speaking. But the Harris campaign wants the mics left on, and Trump posted scathing remarks about "ABC" and some of its journalists over the weekend asking, quote, why would I do the debate against Kamala Harris on that network?, end quote. Let's bring in CNN's Priscilla Alvarez. Priscilla, tell us more about this dispute. What's going on here?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, the debate about the debate continues.

ACOSTA: Yes.

[11:15:00]

ALVAREZ: And in this case, the dispute is about microphones. So we have to rewind a little bit, because when these debates were agreed upon, it was with then candidate, President Joe Biden, and at the time, one of the red lines for the Biden campaign was that they wanted the mics turned off when the other candidate was speaking.

Well, now it's different with the Harris campaign. They actually want to keep the mics on for the duration of the presidential debate. That is not what the Trump campaign wants. Their pushback being that the rules were already agreed upon. But here is what the campaign is saying in a statement. It says, quote, the Vice President is ready to deal with Trump's constant lies and interruptions in real time.

Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button, so they're clearly trying to needle him a little bit here as they try to get this dispute over the mics settled. Now, the Trump campaign has suggested that the Harris campaign is also wanted the candidates to be seated and have notes. That is not the case, according to the Harris campaign. This is very much about the microphones.

Of course, they know this is a critical moment. This is another opportunity to put these two candidates in front of a large audience for her to go toe to toe with former President Donald Trump, be in the same room with him. And it's something that she has spent the last several weeks preparing for. I am told that the next two weeks are going to be a lot of doubling down on those preparations for her.

We know that she has taken the time out of her day where she can to read up on Trump's statements on what he has said before about multiple policies. So there is clearly a lot happening here when it comes to the debate, because they are so well aware of how important a moment this is, when -- on a truncated timeline --

ACOSTA: Yes.

ALVAREZ: -- when they don't always have visibility, or when you -- Americans are not always tuning in to every development of the election.

ACOSTA: Yes. And this can -- compressed election schedule, I mean, she obviously has to prepare for the debate even before the DNC, as she's preparing for the DNC. And -- and Priscilla tell us about the fundraising numbers at the Harris campaign is announcing. These are pretty big numbers.

ALVAREZ: They're big. ACOSTA: Yes.

ALVAREZ: They're historic. They're record. And they're all something that the campaign is very pleased about, $500 million that they have raised over the last month, a big chunk, 82 million during the week of the DNC. The notable part about that 82 million is that a third of those are first time donors, first time contributors. This is something that the campaign has always latched on to, because it indicates, for them, some level of enthusiasm among voters if you have these first time contributions.

I will say, though, that part of the discussion happening within the campaign is, how do you keep this momentum going, especially because they had so many big time donors in the beginning of this and they're going to have to seize on moments. And so that is part of the discussion that they're having potentially splashy fundraisers in the future.

But certainly they're feeling good about these numbers. I also note Jim that they already have plans for some of that, so at least 370 million of that going to T.V. and digital advertising between Labor Day and Election Day. So they are pouring money into that period of time trying to take up --

ACOSTA: Yes.

ALVAREZ: -- as much space as possible.

ACOSTA: All right, Priscilla Alvarez, they -- they have raked in a ton of dough since she ascended to the top of the ticket. No question. All right. Thank you very much.

Let's bring in Democratic strategists and CNN political commentator Maria Cardona and press advisor to former House Speaker John Boehner, Maura Gillespie. Ladies, thanks to both of you for being with us. I -- I guess Maria reaction to you first. And I should note, I mean, the Trump campaign seems to be saying there's an issue over the mute button at -- at the debate. But he was just asked about this a few moments ago. We're trying to cut the sound. We may play the sound before the end of this segment.

But he -- we do have it. All right, let's play it. Let's go ahead and play it. All right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you want the microphones muted in the debate whenever you're not speaking?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We agree to the same rules. I don't know. Does it matter to me? I'd rather have it probably on. But the agreement was it would be the same as it was last time. In that case, it was muted. I didn't like it the last time, but it worked out fine. They -- they're trying to change it. The truth is, they're trying to get out of it because she doesn't want to debate. She's not a good debater. She's not a smart person. She doesn't want to debate. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump, how are you specifically preparing for the debate versus Harris --

TRUMP: I'm not. You know, I'm not -- I'm not spending a lot of time on it. I think my whole life I've been preparing for a debate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: All right. And -- and -- and I just want to repeat he said, quote, we agreed to the same rules, I don't know. It doesn't matter to me. This was in response to the question, would you want the microphones muted? It doesn't matter to me. I'd rather have it probably on. I don't know what that means. The agreement was that it would be the same as it was the last time. I didn't like the last time, but it worked out fine.

So Maria, it sounds as though what he's saying, and I -- we just listened to this few moments ago, is he's just fine how the -- the mute the mics are if they're muted, if they're not muted, whatever. He just -- it -- it sounds as though he's ready to do this debate. So what's going on here?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, it's Donald Trump, you never know what he's going to say from one moment to the next.

ACOSTA: Yes.

CARDONA: You -- you know, he hates all of the mainstream media. "ABC" is within that, the fake media, he said that earlier, which is why he said he didn't want to do the debate. And then there was this back and forth about the rules. But you know what, fundamentally, that says to me, Jim, what he just said that it doesn't matter. It says to me that the real worry is with his team, because his team understands that when Donald Trump is unleashed, he is his own worst enemy, and that every time something comes out of his mouth, it alienates the voters that he needs to win.

[11:20:18]

So I hope that he says yes, and he tells his team, yes, I want the mics on. This is what happens at the rallies when you have Republican strategists and advisers begging him to stick to teleprompter, to stick to the talking points and to stick to the policy --

ACOSTA: Yes.

CARDONA: -- they can say that until they're blue in the face. He doesn't do that because he doesn't want to do that. He thinks of what worked with him, what worked for him in 2016 is going to work with him again, and he's super wrong about that.

ACOSTA: Yes, Maura, it sounds like it's the Trump campaign that wants the mute button on Donald Trump.

MAURA GILLESPIE, FOUNDER & PRINCIPAL, BLUESTACK STRATEGIES: Absolutely. And I -- why wouldn't they. To Maria's point, I mean, it's really frustrating to watch him time and time again go off message and really derail what could be a really good opportunity for Republicans down ballot. The house is looking to grow the majority. The Senate could possibly flip.

But with Donald Trump out there talking about crowd sizes and how good looking he thinks he is, that's not helpful. And again, using this -- this press conference opportunity to talk about which should have been about Afghanistan and what happened to the 13 service members, he still went back on this message that his campaign clearly is asking him to talk about that he doesn't seem to care about. Because I don't think he really does care about the debate, about being President.

He wants just to be in front of his MAGA world to espouse this, you know, authority over them. And it just show the control he had. He could say the most contradicting things and they will still nod their heads and support him.

ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, Maria, one of the things I -- I've learned about Donald Trump over the years is he -- he does like to play games with these debates. I mean, he -- he has this Truth Social post.

CARDONA: Yes.

ACOSTA: I mean, that appears to be setting the stage for him to withdraw from the debate. Why would I do the debate against Kamala Harris on that network? And so is it about the mics? Is it about "ABC"? You know, obviously the people at "ABC" are -- are terrific journalists --

CARDONA: Yes.

ACOSTA: -- so they were doing excellent debate. So what -- what is this?

CARDONA: Here's the problem.

ACOSTA: Yes. He didn't do the debates with the Republican candidates during the primary process --

CARDONA: Right, right.

ACOSTA: -- let's not forget that.

CARDONA: It's never about anything other than what Donald Trump wants at that moment, at that very moment.

ACOSTA: Yes.

CARDONA: And that is the problem, because Donald Trump and Donald Trump's campaign is about Donald Trump, and you saw this massive contrast during the Democratic Convention, everything that came out of every speaker, especially Vice President Kamala Harris, the last night was about public service, was about here's what I'm going to do for you.

I wake up every morning. This is about you and your families. Donald Trump is all about what Donald Trump wants at that moment. And what he wants, Maura is right, he wants the world to see that he has control over his campaign, over his MAGA supporters.

ACOSTA: Yes.

CARDONA: He doesn't care about anything else.

ACOSTA: Well, he said how -- he was asked, how are you preparing for the debate? He says, I'm not really. So I mean, he thinks my --

CARDONA: He doesn't care.

ACOSTA: -- my experience covering him is that he thinks he can wing it. But I -- I do want to play a little because Trump was just asked whether he would appoint RFK Jr. to a cabinet post after RFK Jr. endorsed -- endorsed Donald Trump last Friday. Let's listen to that. Talk about on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you considering RFK Jr. as your health secretary if you're reelected?

TRUMP: Well, we haven't talked about it. But he knows a lot about the subject. And he's really been well received by the party, I will tell you. He's a great guy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Maura not exactly knocking it down, that RFK Jr. may be a part of a -- a future Trump administration. We -- and obviously we should note RFK Jr. a vaccine skeptic, I mean, a vaccine denier for a -- a large -- a large part of -- of recent memory.

GILLESPIE: Yes. This is one hard to believe that they didn't have this conversation, because I'm fairly confident that's what RFK Jr. was doing by endorsing Trump, was to ensure he would get a cabinet position should Trump be elected. So again, I'm just going to parse that there, but with that caveat.

But I do think that this is again, a sign of what Donald Trump has -- has done. And again, making it by himself to what we're talking about. But it does not reflect what the Republican Party down ballot is looking forward to. Again, they're focused on the economy, on safety and security, and the House and Senate really need to distance themselves and focus on the policy issues, because what's happening at the top of the ticket for Republicans, which, you know, I'm a Republican, and it's largely our own fault, right?

We let Donald Trump be our candidate again. But we -- they need to distance themselves, because if they have any chance in November, it can't be with the erratic behavior of Donald Trump. He -- he is honestly rattled by Kamala Harris. He can talk about Biden because he is worried about the fact that he is also aging. And that what happens if he loses and the party throws him out, you know, because he's trying to get ahead of things by really, again, hitting spaghetti at the wall on so many different levels. But it's -- it's showing his -- his decline honestly, and the party needs to take back their own narrative and the message.

[11:25:11]

ACOSTA: Yes. And -- and Maura, I think you're absolutely right. If -- if things continue to go downhill for Trump over these next couple of months, you are going to see the party to attempt to separate itself on -- on the congressional ballots. You know, by and large, you're going to see a lot of candidates going their own way and -- and maybe even speaking out against Trump just to save their own seats in their -- in their districts and so on.

And Maria, I did want to ask you about this. Trump claimed over the weekend he would be, quote, great for reproductive rights. And then his running mate, J.D. Vance said an interview that Trump would veto a national abortion ban if he was president. What were your thoughts on that when you saw that?

CARDONA: I just -- I -- I had to laugh. But it really is no laughing matter, because of what Trump did that he is not only proud of, but he brags about appointing the three justices that were the ones who overturned Roe v. Wade and as such, has put over a third of women in this country in danger. They're literally, their lives are in danger.

Many women have gotten sick. Many women have almost died. Many women can still certainly die and are in danger in all of the states that have these massive, extreme bans on abortion. So no, I don't believe J.D. Vance when he says that Donald Trump would veto an abortion ban, of course, he wouldn't. That's exactly what he would do. He has said it before. And we all know that Donald Trump lies.

And so when he says that he's great for reproductive rights, to me, that's telling me, Jim, that he knows exactly how dangerous this issue is for him electorally. And one of the things that we always know does not show up, you know, full front and center in the polls is this issue of reproductive rights. It happened in 2022. And I think it's going to be a huge underlying, mobilizing, energizing issue in 2024 --

ACOSTA: Yes. You have to wonder.

CARDONA: -- that it's going to bring out not just women --

ACOSTA: Yes.

CARDONA: -- but the vast majority of Americans who believe that women should have bodily autonomy.

ACOSTA: Yes. You have to wonder if it's -- it's being under polled as an issue heading the --

CARDONA: And I -- I assure you that it is. Absolutely.

ACOSTA: All right. Maria, Maura, thank you so much for your time. Really great to talk to both of you. Appreciate it.

CARDONA: Thank you.

ACOSTA: Coming up, lawmakers investigating the Trump assassination attempt on their way to Butler, Pennsylvania right now, as we're learning more about those security failures at the rally that day, those details next.

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