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Lebanese Health Ministry: 274 Killed, 1,000 Plus Wounded In Strikes; Defiant Robinson Campaigns As Top Aides Resign Over CNN Report; Melania Trump Was Paid $237,000 For Appearing At Political Event. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired September 23, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:11]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: That is so wonderful to see.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: That is so cool.

BROWN: the joy in their faces, after all, the sorrow and heartbreak they've gone through, is just beautiful. And like The Rock said, you know, this is their healing journey, and he's supposed to go to their first football first football game as well.

ACOSTA: That's amazing. Yes. I mean, Pam, I just look at the -- the looks of these kids faces, just remarkable. And I know your parent, I'm a parent --

BROWN: Yes.

ACOSTA: Our hearts go out to that community there and all those kids and what they've been through. So for The Rock to do something like this to me, I mean, just what an injection of kindness and empathy on his part, got to love him.

BROWN: beautiful showing of just humanity.

ACOSTA: Yes, absolutely.

BROWN: All right, thanks, Jim. I'll take it from here.

Acosta: Thanks good.

BROWN: I'm Pamela Brown in Washington, and you are in the CNN Newsroom.

And new this morning, Republican Mark Robinson, fiery and defiant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GOV. MARK ROBINSON (R-NC): We are not here to talk about 15 or 20- year-old, salacious, false lives. We are here to talk about how this state to move forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BROWN: The candidate for North Carolina governor is back on the campaign trail today after several of his top campaign officials have stepped down from the wake of CNN's investigation into his past incendiary comments.

And any minute now, the suspect in the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump, Ryan Routh will be back in court as we're learning these new details about a letter detailing his alleged assassination plans.

And brand new exclusive reporting from me and my colleague, Shoshana Dubnow and Jeremy Herb, former First Lady Melania Trump was paid for a rare appearance at a political event. It's not clear who cut the unusual six figure check. Newsroom starts now.

And we begin this hour with breaking news on Israel's deadly new air strikes in Lebanon. Lebanese Health officials say at least 274 people have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded. Israel's military says it is conducting extensive strikes against the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. Today's offensive is intensifying these long standing fears of a wider regional war.

And just minutes ago, Israel's military warned that it will launch a new wave of air strikes in eastern Lebanon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REAR ADMIRAL DANIEL HAGARI, ISRAELI MILITARY CHIEF SPOKESPERSON: We are preparing to strike terrorist targets in the Beqaa Valley region soon. This warning is focused on the villages in the Beqaa Valley. I urge the Lebanese residents of the villages in the Beqaa Valley who are inside or near houses where rockets and weapons are stored to move away immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: CNN's Ben Wedeman joins us now from Beirut. Ben, these last 48 hours have been the most intense exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah in almost a year. What does that tell you about where headed?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, to put it in perspective, Pamela, they're the most intensive Israeli air strikes since the 2006 war, according to the Israeli military. So far today, they've launched at least 800 strikes on targets in various parts of Lebanon. Now you had that Israeli spokesman just a moment ago saying they're about to launch strikes on the Beqaa Valley in eastern Lebanon. They've already begun that. And we are hearing the various places that are being hit.

Now regarding the death toll, this was at a press conference with Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad, who said the death toll is 274. He said that includes 21 children, 39 children. Now that number 274 is well over the number of people who were killed in that massive explosion on the 4th of August, 2020 in Beirut port. More than 1,000 people have been wounded so far today. And if you look at events going back to last Tuesday, when those pager blasts happened around Lebanon, more than 350 people have been killed, almost 5,000 people wounded. Now as a result of these ongoing strikes and Israeli warnings sent on cell phones and also breaking into the broadcast of one of Lebanon -- Lebanon's radio stations, hundreds of thousands of people who live in the south appeared to be trying to move out of that area.

What we're seeing is the highway from South Lebanon to the north is jam packed on both sides of the highway as people try to reach safer ground. Now schools have been opened in Beirut to host those who are leaving. It's important to mention, of course, that the Lebanese Ministry of Education has canceled all classes of all educational institutions, so those schools are probably going to be used to house all of these people who are fleeing from the south.

[11:05:17]

The -- the atmosphere, obviously, is one of intense concern as this operation continues and intensifies. The Lebanese prime minister has called upon the U.N. in what he called influential countries to intervene, to try to get Israel to change its course of action, but it appears those that appeal is falling on deaf ears. He says he's worried that towns and villages in South Lebanon are going to be destroyed.

And certainly the video we're seeing out of there would indicate the level of bombing is something for instance, I was here in 2006, I haven't seen anything like that, like what we're seeing today since that war. And really at this point, the feeling is that really another war has begun, going back to those pager blasts. But today really is a clear indication that the two countries, Lebanon and Israel, on it, are on a course to a full scale war yet again. Pamela?

BROWN: Ben Wedeman, thank you so much on the ground for us there, and Lebanon bringing us the very latest. And this increased fighting that Ben just laid out in the Middle East will be a key focus of this week's general assembly at the United Nations. President Biden will address this gathering tomorrow, as these fears build of the conflict becoming a wider regional conflict.

CNN's Alex Marquardt joins us now. Alex, give us a perspective of what this means for the U.S. Of course, this may be the President's last major appearance on the world stage, as he meets with world leaders this week. How much does this escalation between Israel and Hezbollah complicate Biden's efforts to prevent a wider war?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, this is arguably the biggest world stage. And this possibility of escalation that Ben was just talking about is certainly going to dominate the conversation here in New York at the U.N. General Assembly this week. There will, of course, be discussions about the war in Ukraine as well, but this is going to be a very tough week for President Biden. He is set to speak tomorrow at the U.N.

And, you know, while he will trumpet his accomplishments throughout his term, of course, this will be overshadowed by what is going on in the Middle East, the failure, frankly, of the United States to get to the -- the war in Gaza, to end, to get to a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The U.S. has been leading the mediation there, alongside other countries.

And now, of course, this escalation by Israel against Hezbollah inside of Lebanon, setting the scene for potentially a -- a wider war. The -- the U.S. and -- and top Biden administration officials have been working for the past 11 months to avoid this exact scenario. So alongside the inability to end the war in Gaza, you now have this escalation against Hezbollah.

Now we could expect President Biden at the U.N. to talk about, for example, how his administration reengaged with the world following President Trump's term, to talk about how this is the first time in a long time that there are no U.S. troops involved in an active war, to talk about how U.S. support in Ukraine has helped keep Russia at bay.

But no doubt, Pam, we have these two simultaneous wars in Gaza and in Ukraine. Now the possibility of that war expanding in the Middle East that are going to really weigh heavily on this U.N. General Assembly, and the -- the fears about what may happen in the -- in the Middle East overshadow perhaps the speech that -- that we are going to hear from President Biden.

BROWN: And we also know by this time, of course, President Biden had hoped that this deal would be secured, right, that would free the Israeli hostages held by Hamas. That has not happened. And it raises the question of this new escalation, pushing a Gaza, you know, pushes this Gaza ceasefire deal out of reach at this point.

MARQUARDT: Well, the way that U.S. officials talk about this cease fire deals, it's not just about getting those Israeli hostages home and aid getting into Gaza, for example, it unlocks all kinds of things. And the hope was that if they could get to quiet in Gaza, then Hezbollah in the north would also stop firing their rockets. It would allow Israelis in -- in the northern part of Israel to return home, and the war would essentially end on those two fronts. That is not happening. The exact opposite is happening even before this latest escalation in the past few days, the ceasefire talks were essentially on ice.

And what we've heard from top U.S. officials is that this is a question of political willingness. They're not seeing the willingness from Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government or from Hamas to reach a deal. And so this will push it back, the potential, you know, push it back even farther. You could argue that Hamas, for -- for example, would feel emboldened because now there's Israel fighting alongside one of their allies in Hezbollah. But the bottom line here, Pam, is the U.S. right now does not feel like those -- those talks are moving forward. They do not feel like there is the willingness by the sides to agree to a ceasefire deal. We are entering very dangerous territory here, Pamela.

[11:10:17]

BROWN: We certainly are. Alex Marquardt, thank you so much.

Today, a defiant Mark Robinson is on the campaign trail following an exodus of staffers. The controversial Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina is holding campaign events just one day after key campaign officials resigned following a bombshell CNN report. And that report unearthed racist and inflammatory comments Robinson made on a porn forum. Now he has denied those comments and took aim at CNN over the reporting during this morning's event.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBINSON: We -- we -- we have full confidence that we can go on. We're getting resumes from all over. We're getting offers from all over, people jumping in to help us. We've made a ton of friends in this thing since we've been in. Lot of talented people right now are reaching out to us. And we're in -- right in the process right now of forming a team that we know can still lead us to victory. So we have full confidence in our ability to keep going.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But the timing of that, them walking away from you right now.

ROBINSON: The time -- the timing doesn't matter. It's not -- it's not the timing. It's how you react. And we are ready to react, and we're doing it right now. We're getting it done.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lt. Gov. Robinson, you've talked about the -- the reporting being salacious lies, not true. Have you taken steps then to prove it's not you?

ROBINSON: We -- we absolutely are. We absolutely are. We're -- we're -- we have -- we're in talks right now. Everything up to legal counsel to take CNN to task for what they have done to us. We are -- we are going after them, OK. We are going to the bathroom for what they've done. But we have five weeks left in this race, folks. And make no mistake about it. We are not going to let CNN throw us off of our mission. Our mission is to win this race. And quite frankly, I am dismayed about the fact, as I said before, think about how many people out there right now, right in this place where we are right now, who are hooked on fentanyl, who are hooked on -- on opioids, and how many will die tonight because of them.

Think about what's going on on our border. Think about what's going on on the world stage. And this is what you -- this is what you choose to focus on. You've got these news cameras, news reporters, pens, pencils, your microphones, this is what you're focused on? You're not focused on the things that we talked about standing up there about our economy. You're not focused on those things. I am. I'm going to remain focused on those things. And you better -- you better understand, I am coming after full -- CNN full thrive. But we have got to put the people first.

And in order to put the people first -- in order to put the people first, we've got to concentrate on this campaign. And that is exactly what we're going to do. That's exactly what we're going to do. No -- no more questions. No more questions. I'm going to -- (END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: I want to bring in CNN Andrew Kaczynski, who broke this story that has led to this -- this very fiery and defiant reaction from Mark Robinson there in North Carolina. Andrew, what do you think about this?

ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: Well, that's right, the fall is continuing in that North Carolina's Governor race, with Mark Robinson senior staff resigning in mass following CNN's investigation that uncovered a history of racist, inflammatory and sexually explicit comments that he made on a porn forum more than a decade ago, including calling himself a quote, black Nazi, and saying he supported reinstated slavery.

Now, those comments have now been removed since CNN published our story on Thursday, CNN reached out to both Robinson's campaign and the site's administrator to confirm what happened to those comments. Neither has responded. But we've also learned that the staff that have resigned were Robinson's campaign manager, his deputy campaign manager, his top consultant and finance director, along with a handful of other staff. And this leaves him essentially without any staff heading into the final months of the campaign.

And the question is now, where does Mark Robinson go from here? The deadline to drop out has passed. There are down ballot implications in North Carolina. But there's also possible up ballot ramifications here, because so far, Donald Trump has yet to comment on Mark Robinson. He previously endorsed him, and that presidential race is just so, so close that any bit of margin could have an impact there.

BROWN: Yes, it's interesting that Donald Trump didn't mention him in his recent rally, didn't have him on stage. But he's also not disavowing him either. You asked Robinson about the possibility of staffers quitting last week. What did he say?

KACZYNSKI: Well, yes, that's right. And our story, which we published on Thursday, we interviewed Robinson ahead of it. What was interesting is, before our story published, news started to leak that we even were reporting a story now that didn't come from our end at CNN, we didn't tell anybody. So that was coming from Robinson's orbit, and we started to hear rumors. I definitely did from sources as well that campaign staff on his campaign had resigned. I put that question to Robinson in our interview. Take a listen to what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[11:15:17]

KACZYNSKI: There have been rumors that some of your campaign staff have -- have quit. Can you tell us if that's true or not?

ROBINSON: Absolutely not. And we are not getting out of this race. There are people who are counting on us to win this race, because, again, we don't want a governor who's going to be a person that can't be counted on to tell the truth. And I can assure you, my opponent has been taken to court for not telling the truth in campaigns. And he's been completely dishonest in his ads against me. This camp is so desperate to destroy us. It's just like Clarence Thomas said years ago, this is a high tech lynching. And you know, back long years ago, they used to use rope. Now they're using cable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KACZYNSKI: And we'll continue to follow the latest developments in this story. Pam?

BROWN: Andrew Kaczynski, thank you so much.

And we are following some breaking news right now, the man suspected in an assassination attempt at Donald Trump's Florida golf course in court this hour. And prosecutors just revealed new evidence claiming Ryan Routh left behind a letter admitting to his assassination plan. CNN crime and justice, senior reporter Katelyn Polantz joins us now. And Katelyn, I was reading through the court documents before the show, and it -- it's really stunning to see what prosecutors are alleging here that Routh had sent this box months before to a witness who came forward really detailing his alleged assassination plans.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Yes, so this is what's coming out, because the prosecutors want to keep Ryan Routh in jail. And they're going before the judge today, and they're saying, we're going to lay out the facts that we have that we think are enough to keep him in jail. And they specifically say that's not everything we know here. But this major point that has been revealed in the documents in court today, and what they're likely talking about in court in person, is that Ryan Routh gave to a what's called a civilian witness, at his home a box of stuff.

That stuff included ammunition, metal pipes, building materials, four phones. Officers also found six phones in his car, including one that had searches about how to get to Mexico from Palm Beach. But after this happened at Mar-a-Lago and Ryan Routh was picked up, the civilian witness called the police gave over this information, opened the box. And the letter had a -- a handwritten letter addressed to the world, saying this was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. And that he would wanted to award, Ryan Routh wanted to award $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.

Obviously, he is behind bars now and quite possibly staying behind bars. He's still facing just a criminal complaint. So we are waiting to see what the ultimate charges may be here, what a grand jury would prove in an indictment that hasn't come down yet. And it sounds like investigators have a lot more information than they're even letting on just now.

BROWN: Yes. Based on what they say in the court documents. Katelyn Polantz, thank you so much for the latest there.

[11:18:14]

And still ahead for you this hour, my new exclusive reporting about the former First Lady. Melania Trump was paid for a rare appearance of a political event this year, a staggering six figures for one speech. But it's unclear who cut this unusual check. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Profiting off of political campaigning, that's what my new reporting reveals Melania Trump has done. The former First Lady has been rarely seen on the campaign trail for her husband this cycle. But one of the times she has appeared at a political event, she received a six figure paycheck. It was back in April when she was paid more than $237,000 to speak at a Log Cabin Republicans event in Palm Beach. But what remains unclear is who exactly cut that highly unusual check. Kate Andersen Brower, author of the book, "First Women," joins us now for perspective and contest. Great to see you.

So you've written extensively about America's modern first ladies. How outside the norm is it for the presidential candidate, spouse and former First Lady to receive a substantial speaking fee like this during a campaign?

KATE ANDERSEN BROWER, AUTHOR, "EXPLORING THE WHITE HOUSE": Well, I think the reporting, your reporting, is really interesting because of the timing. It's not unusual for a former First Lady to earn six figures, speaking. But it is unusual during a campaign season, and then for us not to understand where the money is coming from, is also very unusual. So is the timing of this that's interesting. But ever since you know Gerald Ford was became a former president, we've been having former presidents and first ladies cashing in on their level of fame.

BROWN: Yes. And she has many different business ventures at the moment, including this book that she has written, this memoir, and we're seeing these videos that she's just putting out piecemeal leading up to the release of her book. I think we have a clip to play of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIA TRUMP, FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: The loud knocking on my door sent a jolt through my body. The Secret Service agent told me I need to move. Safety was paramount, not just for me, but for the President and all of the other residents in the White House. The violent protest across the country had finally reached Pennsylvania Avenue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: What is your take on all of this?

[11:25:00]

ANDERSEN: You know, I think it's really interesting to see her, sort of de facto campaigning at this point, right? We're seeing her -- she hasn't been on the campaign really much at all. I mean, she was only at the RNC that one night, and she didn't even speak. And for Melania, a lot of it is about making money, right? And this book is already doing very well, it's not out for several weeks. And then releasing these little tidbits very dramatically on X, I think is interesting. And I think her questioning, like the Secret Service her husband, the assassination attempts of her husband. It's kind of peddling a little bit in the conspiracy theories that -- that he endorses. And I think that it's -- it's -- it's interesting to see this side of her. She's so mysterious. Nobody knows what she's really thinking.

BROWN: That -- that is absolutely true. And you call it de facto campaigning. But what stands out to me is that it's -- it's for her benefit, right? As you said, you know, this book, she stands a benefit from in terms of the proceeds and -- and including the other business ventures and that appearance fee. And we just learned that Fox News will air an interview with Melania Trump on Thursday about her book. This will be her first television interview this campaign cycle. If you were interviewing her, what would you want to ask? What do you want to know?

ANDERSEN: Oh my gosh, I have so many questions for Melania. I mean, I think that there has been this feeling that she's not 100 percent behind her husband and his policies. And I want to know, you know, where does she stand on things like transgender and military bans and the Supreme Court nominations. I mean, you see her doing things with Log Cabin Republicans, you know, lesbian and gay groups, and where does she personally think about that community? Is she socially liberal? Where does she stand on abortion and issues like that? And first ladies will not tell you this, but I think there's a lot of interest, and if there's any daylight between her and her husband, and we just don't know.

BROWN: And it's interesting. In sources I talk to, they all say that Melania has huge sway and influence over Donald Trump, and as one source said, she's a sort of a timeless asset for him. So I think understanding her thinking on those points of view, those issues are really important. Kate, thank you so much.

ANDERSEN: Thanks, Pam.

BROWN: And still ahead this hour, early voting is underway for some states. But in the battlegrounds, one election official put the chances of naming a winner on election night at quote, almost zero. What the two campaigns are doing to clinch those crucial swing states. You are live in the CNN Newsroom.

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