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Hezbollah Confirms Hassan Nasrallah in Israeli Strike; White House Issued Statements on Death of Hassan Nasrallah; At Least 55 Dead Across Five States from Hurricane Helene; Hezbollah Says It Has Launched Long-Range Rockets Toward Jerusalem; VP Kamala Harris on Hezbollah Leader's Death. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired September 28, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:21]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. I'm in for Fredricka Whitfield. I want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. We're continuing to follow major breaking news out of the Middle East.

Right now, Israel Defense Forces are warning people across Lebanon to stay away from what they described as Hezbollah facilities. The IDF continuing to launch what they call targeted strikes against the Iran- backed paramilitary group.

Our CNN teams are witnessing one of those strikes and they did so earlier today following what was a punishing overnight barrage in the Lebanese capital city of Beirut.

This latest strike happening just hours after Hezbollah confirmed its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed by an Israeli attack on Friday. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issuing a statement saying that Israel will continue its policies. And he also says he gave the order to assassinate Nasrallah to ensure he could not rebuild the terror group, was referring to Nasrallah.

Earlier, I spoke with an IDF spokesperson about what Nasrallah's death potentially could mean for a potential conflict with Iran. Listen to his answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. COL. PETER LERNER, IDF SPOKESMAN: I would suggest that Iran look very closely how we've dealt with Hamas, the leadership of Hamas, and how in the last week and a half, we've effectively decapitated Hezbollah from its senior leadership all the way down to the operational and tactical staff.

There is a lot to lose here. I don't think anybody is interested in a further escalation. a broader war.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris putting out their own statements just a short time ago, saying the death of Nasrallah is what they called justice for his many victims.

Meantime, there are growing fears right now that this conflict could spiral into an all-out war in the region. The U.S. State Department is now ordering all non-emergency personnel at the U.S. embassy in Beirut and their families to immediately leave Lebanon.

CNN's Ben Wedeman is joining us from Beirut right now. We also have CNN's Kevin Liptak, who's here in Washington.

Ben, let me start with you. What's happening on the ground where you are in Beirut right now?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, as I speak, I can hear an Israeli drone humming, buzzing over the southern suburbs of Beirut. And what we've seen starting from just the half hour past midnight last night is regular Israeli strikes focusing on the south of Beirut, a part of the city that somebody who actually went through there told me it's largely abandoned except for some young men, that most of the inhabitants have fled and they're now sleeping rough in parks, on sidewalks, wherever they can find somewhere to stay. Churches, mosques, even a football stadium have been open to host these people.

Now, as you mentioned, the Arabic spokesman for the Israeli military put out a tweet, warning the people of South Lebanon, the Beqaa valley, and the southern suburbs of Beirut, to stay away from any building that might have some Hezbollah weapons or other facilities inside. Now when you look at that sort of the pre-war population of those three areas is approximately two million people. As I mentioned, the southern suburbs largely emptied of the population.

And also in South Lebanon, we've seen hundreds of thousands of people live there, but the Beqaa Valley, we have seen some people go to Syria from there and flee elsewhere inside Lebanon. But we're talking about a massive displacement of population. Lebanese official saying as many as 500,000 people may have fled their homes, basically going back to Tuesday before last, and that of course is when those pager explosions went off and what we've seen since then is just day after day of mounting escalation.

As you mentioned, the U.S. embassy has declared that some employees and their eligible family members have been ordered to leave the country. The U.S. embassy also published a form for U.S. citizens in Lebanon to fill out if they want assistance to depart.

[15:05:03]

I think this is clearly the first step of an eventual evacuation from the country.

One last thing is that the Lebanese authorities are saying that the death toll since Tuesday before last is at this point it's a preliminary death toll because there's still many dead under the rubble from that strike on South Beirut last night, the big one. The death toll is 1,030. Keeping in mind that that's very close to the death toll in Lebanon from the 34-day war in 2006 between Hezbollah and Israel -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Very disturbing indeed. All right, Ben, stand by. I want to go to Kevin Liptak. He's in Washington.

What more is the White House, Kevin, saying about all of this?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly President Biden, who is at his home in Delaware today, is receiving continual updates on this. And I think the updates are all with an eye towards whether or not this portends a wider regional conflict, whether or not things will escalate and American officials are watching very closely to see how Hezbollah response, of course, but also how Iran could potentially respond to this action.

And we did hear from President Biden in a statement who said that Hassan Nasrallah's death certainly was a measure of justice for his victims, including he noted a number of Americans and he said that Nasrallah and the terror group that he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror. And then the president goes on to say that ultimately our aim is to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic means.

The president says that it's time for these deals to close, for these threats to Israel to be removed, and for the broader Middle East region to gain greater stability. And so you do see the president striking something of a balance in that statement. Certainly no one in the White House is shedding any tears for Nasrallah. And you heard the Vice President Kamala Harris saying that he had American blood on his hands.

But at the same time, this action came as President Biden was working to lower the temperatures across the Israel-Lebanon border. And you'll remember, Wolf, just earlier this week, President Biden trying to negotiate a 21-day ceasefire. The U.S. had called it a breakthrough statement when the United States and France came up with this plan that it thought that Israel was on board with. The next morning the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to brush that off, really infuriating American officials.

And then by Friday, this operation in Beirut was underway. President Biden was very quick to say that he was not involved, that he had no forewarning. And I think that shows you just how fraught and precarious the U.S. views the situation right now in the Middle East and certainly President Biden, although he says he's working to deescalate, I think there are a lot of people certainly in the region, in Arab capitals, but also some Democrats in the United States who say that he simply hasn't done enough to apply enough pressure on Israel to bring the temperatures down.

So President Biden certainly caught in something of a bind here, but I think the ultimate goal, right now is to bring these tensions down. But the U.S. at this point really can't say what's going to happen next.

BLITZER: Yes, it's not an easy challenge.

All right, Kevin Liptak and Ben Wedeman, Kevin in Washington, Ben in Beirut, thanks to both of you.

Want to get some analysis on what's happening right now at who better than Aaron David Miller to join us. He's a former U.S. State Department Middle East negotiator. He's a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Aaron, what do you think? What do you think was Israel's strategy in carrying out this killing of Nasrallah?

AARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR: I mean, there are two possibilities, Wolf. And I think the Israelis are no longer involved in a major to two-front war. I think they've degraded Hamas, the prime minister admitted this in his U.N. speech, 23 out of 24 battalions. I think the focus is now on Lebanon. And I think the Israelis drew three conclusions.

Number one, they could shift the focus of the military effort to Lebanon. Number two, I think they realized that without changing Hezbollah's calculations with respect to diplomacy, there was no way their interest or America's interests in serious de-escalation and the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which brought to an end supposedly the summer of '06 for. And number three, I think the clear conclusion is that they are not reacting anymore. Their preemptive.

And what you've seen over the last week is a systemic -- a systematic and comprehensive effort to destroy Hezbollah's comms, eliminated senior leadership, and now of course to kill Hassan Nasrallah.

[15:10:03]

They killed his predecessors, as you recall, Wolf, in 1992, Abbas al- Musawi. So the question right now is, will they succeed in changing Hezbollah or Iran's calculation, or will they have to go the next step and I think it's already been reporting the Israelis are very serious about a limited ground up in the southern Lebanon.

BLITZER: Yes, let's see if that happens. What does the attack mean, this attack and the killing of Hassan Nasrallah do for Prime Minister Netanyahu's domestic political situation in Israel? Does it change his relationship with the rest of his cabinet, for example?

MILLER: You know, I think when the head of the newly formed Democratic Party in Israel, Yair Golan, after Labor and Merits merged, that's the left center of Israel, is basically rejecting a ceasefire. And it was only three days they didn't want Hezbollah rearming and re-upping. When you have Benny Gantz talking positively about a ground op, I think you begin to see that there is no opposition in Israel.

There's a lot of loss of confidence in the prime minister, clearly according to the public opinion polls, but his numbers and his political viability his security here seems to be intact. He cares less about the number 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and much more about the number 64, which is the number of seats in his coalition, and frankly, Wolf, Knesset is out a recess until the end of October, that means that Mr. Netanyahu will be in a prime position to see for himself who wins in November 5th and he'll adjust or won't adjust his tactics accordingly.

Elections may be in 2025, Wolf, but not scheduled until 2026. His government, hard as it may seem, the most extreme right-wing in Israel's history. Could even go to term.

BLITZER: We'll see if that happens. President Biden, as you know, in his public statement released today came out and said the killing of Hassan Nasrallah was, in his words, a measure of justice. But he also called once again for de-escalation. Is there a risk that Israel could isolate itself from the U.S. with this attack?

MILLER: I think the annoyance and frustration, the anger in the White House is palpable. According to "Politico," the president informed a couple of sources in New York, that he no longer thinks Netanyahu was ever interested in a ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza, or certainly after flip-flopping committed himself to accept the U.S.-French proposal. Not interested in a ceasefire in Lebanon either.

Look, I think, yes, there's a danger, Wolf, that the U.S.-Israeli relationship, the value affinity, the coincidence of interest, a strong basis of domestic support that has made it such an extraordinary and resilient, I think these three elements frankly are fraught, but frankly, Wolf, and you know this far better than I, what, I may not get the math right here. Are there 45 to 50 days before one of the most consequential elections in modern American history? I don't think by the looks in that statement that the president issued, no remorse certainly and no remorse required or needed for Hassan Nasrallah.

But it didn't seem -- there was no criticism of Israel. There was no real call -- I've written these talking points before -- for both parties to restrain themselves. Yes. The president reaffirmed the importance of a diplomatic off-ramp. But I'm not sure until Hezbollah makes its next move backed by Iran or not that the administration is in a position to do much.

BLITZER: Yes, it was a very strong statement of support for Israel by the president. And similarly, a very strong statement of support for Israel by the vice president as well. We're waiting to hear what Trump has to say. Presumably, he's going to be speaking soon. Maybe he'll make a statement. We'll monitor that, of course, as well.

Aaron David Miller, as usual, thank you very, very much.

And still ahead this hour, Helene's impact at this hour, more than 200 people have been rescued from floodwaters in North Carolina. Hundreds of thousands remain without power throughout the southeast Florida, and elsewhere towns devastated, including the city of Asheville in North Carolina.

We'll go there live when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:19:09]

BLITZER: Officials face a massive recovery effort right now after Hurricane Helene cut a destructive path across the southeast this week. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper called Helene, and I'm quoting him now, "one of the worst storms in modern history" for parts of his state. And we're also learning right now that the owners of the Carolina Panthers just announced a $3 million pledge for storm relief in the Carolinas.

At least 55 people across five states have died after Helene made landfall in Florida Thursday night as a category four hurricane with winds up 130 miles an hour.

CNN's Rafael Romo is joining us now from Asheville, North Carolina, which was hit very, very hard.

Rafael, what are you seeing there now?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, you put it very well. This is going to be a massive recovery effort. Just a few minutes ago, we saw personnel from FEMA arriving at this building behind me.

[15:20:05]

And this building, Wolf, is a milk distribution center that is going to suffer millions and millions of dollars in losses because take a look at where I am. This is the middle of the street. It's covered in mud as thick as two inches here. This is Meadow Drive corner with Huntsman Place.

We are just to give you an idea of where we are, Wolf, we're not too far from the historic 19th Century Biltmore Estate. Of course, a place that attracts not only tourists from around the country, from around the world as well. And it's been a very difficult few days for the people of Asheville. Not only were they pummeled by the remnants of Hurricane Helene on Friday, which brought about 12 inches of rain.

But before that, Wolf, they had already received rain of historic proportions between Wednesday and Thursday. They got as much as 10 inches of rain. So you combine all of that and that explains what we're seeing here. Also imagine this, 400 roads in western North Carolina completely impassable. In the last few hours, we also learned that 578 people have been sent to shelters because it is no longer safe for them to be in their homes.

We see emergency vehicles like this one driving behind us. All over the place every so often we also hear rescue helicopters flying above us and sometimes it is the only way to reach people, especially in the neighboring towns in the mountains. Officials are having a tough time really trying to get to those people. So, yes, like you said at the beginning, it's going to be a massive, massive recovery effort. And this is only the beginning -- Wolf. BLITZER: Rafael Romo in Asheville, North Carolina, for us. Thank you

very, very much.

Coming up, there are growing fears right now a wider war will result from the death of the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. But is it inevitable? I just spoke with the IDF spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner. You're going to hear what he had to say. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:26:50]

BLITZER: I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. We've just learned that President Biden has convened a call with Vice President Kamala Harris and his National Security team. And it comes hours after Hezbollah confirmed the death of Hassan Nasrallah. The White House says the president received an update on the situation in the Middle East, as well as a review of the U.S. forces, the posture in the region right now.

Earlier I spoke with Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner. He's the spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces. I started by asking him about Friday's strike in Beirut. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: That strike in southern Beirut, in that area, also killed a senior Hezbollah intelligence leader. First of all, what more can you tell us about that?

LERNER: Operation New Order, as it's been called, is designed to change the reality on the ground that we've been facing for -- under the control of Hassan Nasrallah for over three decades now. So what we realized this afternoon was we conducted a strike in line with what we've been fulfilling before the strike against Nasrallah and after, which means taking out, decapitating the major leadership.

So this intelligence official, a senior intelligence official, which is part of Hezbollah's intelligence directorate, was taken out. But also we've conducted -- continue to conduct strikes against strategic assets of Hezbollah such as precision guided missiles or rocket launchers. And finally, the third component of our activities throughout the day is an interception of those who are actually planning, conducting or conducting rocket launches. And so we will be conducting an interception of them, taking them out of the equation.

BLITZER: I know that Israeli military and intelligence officials were saying that they thought they had excellent intelligence where Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, was but how did you actually confirm?

I'm just curious, Colonel. How did you actually confirm that the Hezbollah leader was killed in that strike in Beirut?

LERNER: Wolf, we've been conducting and planning for a confrontation with Nasrallah precisely because he was building such a huge arsenal of weapons. They had over 200,000 rockets, missiles, drones, all of these capabilities are being -- they accumulated for one purpose. To go to war with Israel. So in order to be prepared for that action, Israel since 2006 has been conducting extensive intelligence surveillance in order to understand the ins and outs of Hezbollah.

And indeed, we had revealed the nerve center, the Hezbollah headquarters, where they were convening yesterday together with, effectively with his jihad council, planning to conduct more attacks, more war efforts to try and infiltrate into Israel perhaps. And this is when we conducted the strike in the course of this operation and in the aftermath of that, based on the understanding of what we knew where he was on the real time basis, the result of our strikes, we knew what we had conducted and how it would have been conducted.

[15:30:07]

And indeed, of course, based on intelligence in the aftermath that was coming in, we concluded in the early hours of this morning that indeed he had been killed in the strike. A conclusion that later received the approval also of Hezbollah themselves that confirmed our understanding of the reality.

BLITZER: Colonel, the IDF has said these Israeli military operations against Hezbollah are meant to degrade and dismantle Hezbollah. Now that Hassan Nasrallah, the leader, is dead, have you achieved your intended goals?

LERNER: They've built over the last 20 years this huge arsenal, Wolf. So it's not going to be a quick hit and run. It's not going to be an over anytime soon. From our perspective, we will pursue the terrorists, kill them in their steps, and take them out.

You know, as President Biden said in his announcement about the direct strike on Nasrallah, it is justice for all of his victims. This person, this arched terrorists, left a trail of death, destruction, and devastation in Israel, in the Middle East, and well beyond in the U.S. and Europe as well. So we're not concerned over here him and indeed we will continue to make sure that whoever tries to pick up the control over that, whoever tries to lift an arm against Israel, to try and strike against Israel in these actions, we won't allow that to happen.

So we will continue to push forward. We continue to take out Hezbollah operatives, to take out and destroy their terrorist capabilities, the rockets, the drones, the guided missiles. And indeed we intent in creating a new order.

BLITZER: I know there are certain restrictions on what you can say publicly, but is it possible, Colonel, that we could see Israeli ground troops move inside Lebanon in the coming days and weeks?

LERNER: Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, the IDF chief of staff, spoke with forces, with reserve forces earlier this week, and he spoke to them about that option. Wolf, we need to understand there's a huge amount of different tools

that we have in our toolbox. Ground operations is one of them. We are preparing for that if it is required, if we received the instructions. But of course, the primary goal with regard to the front with Hezbollah is to restore safety and security so that 60,000 Israelis that have been evacuated from the front precisely because of the aggression and actions of Hezbollah can go home safely and securely. So we will achieve that goal. We're determined to achieve that goal, and we will use all of the tools necessary in order to gain that realization.

BLITZER: Are you concerned at all that Iran could directly get involved?

LERNER: Well, of course, we've seen in the past that Iran has on one occasion directly engaged Israel. It didn't work out too good for them from our perspective. We intercepted together with international allies, of course the U.S., the U.K. and others, against Iran because Iran is a bad player.

I would suggest that Iran look very closely how we've dealt with Hamas, the leadership of Hamas, and how in the last week and a half, we've effectively decapitated Hezbollah from its senior leadership all the way down to the operational and tactical staff.

There is a lot to lose here. I don't think anybody is interested in a further escalation, a broader war. But Israel needs to be prepared for that. We have to take the necessary steps. As I said, you know, you wouldn't be happy being evacuated from your house because a terrorist organization had fired rockets at your town and forced you to evacuate. You would demand to go back home. 60,000 Israelis are demanding that from the Israeli government.

The IDF is instructed to restore that safety and security. For a year now we've been trying through the roots of negotiations and diplomacy. That hasn't realized the outcome that is necessary for the people that have been evacuated. And so now we are pushing forward with military force.

BLITZER: IDF Colonel Peter Lerner, thanks so much for joining us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, we're getting some breaking news into CNN right now. Hezbollah says it has just launched long-range missiles from Lebanon toward Jerusalem. Sirens are being heard in the city. We have details and we'll update you right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:39:23]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BLITZER: I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. We have some major breaking news coming into CNN right now. Hezbollah now says it has launched long-range missiles from Lebanon

headed towards Jerusalem. Sirens sounded in Jerusalem shortly after the launch and came just minutes after the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his first public remarks on the killing of the Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

Let's go to CNN's Nic Robertson who's monitoring all of this. He's joining us from Tel Aviv right now.

Nic, first of all, what can you tell us about the sirens going off in Jerusalem, which is unusual because usually these Arab groups don't attack Jerusalem because it has such a large Arab population.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Wolf, it is very confusing because everyone was expecting Hezbollah to target central Israel where there's a massive civilian population in cities like Tel Aviv, where it's a densely populated area. But this seems to be an odd target or an odd place to fire their missile into.

It's actually landed in a place called Mitzpe Hagit. That's actually a settlement inside the West Bank. And of course, for viewers to understand the West Bank is absolute majority Arab population. Mitzpe Hagit is what's known as a settlement. So it's Israelis who live there, but it's hard to imagine Hezbollah deciding to target a tiny little village of Israel in the midst of a wide swath of Arab population because of the risk of hitting the Arab population.

So this just doesn't sort of seem to make sense. But of course there's probably a lot more to learn about this. But that's the strike that has happened this evening. Now there is social media video from that village. We have heard from Magen David Adom, the medical rescue service. They say that they've been to three locations in this tiny village, in this tiny settlement, and they say that they have not seen any casualties there yet.

But there does appear, does appear at this stage to be some fires burning. So debris from an intercept or the missile itself has appeared to have landed there, Wolf.

BLITZER: Interesting. All right. We'll monitor that as well. In the last hours, as you know, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to his country about Nasrallah's death. What more can you tell us about that?

ROBERSTON: Well, he took absolute ownership of making the decision himself. He said that this was something that had been planned, that they've been looking at, and the decision that he'd come to was that if Hassan Nasrallah was left on the scene, as the IDF was taking out Hezbollah's assets, if Nasrallah was still around, then he would just rebuild Hezbollah. The threats were current and real, and that's why the prime minister took the decision to send a strike to kill Nasrallah.

And he said that this is an example to show Israel's enemies in the region that anyone that tries to harm Israel from this region or beyond, Israel can reach them. So this is a very clear message from the prime minister, and he said that all of this has been done to allow Israeli citizens, those 60,000 or more than evacuated their homes on the 8th of October last year from the border area in the north of Israel to allow them to go back to their homes. Of course, we're also looking at the situation in the north there, having heard from the defense minister in the past couple of hours saying that he's had a review with his chief of staff of the IDF and with intelligence chiefs about the situation on the ground and the expansion, the possible expansion of the IDF's operations along the border.

Does he mean an incursion, a limited incursion? Certainly putting some language out there that would hint towards that -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, they're hinting. We'll see what happens in the next few hours and days.

All right, Nic Robertson. thank you very much. And we'll have more news right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:48:24]

BLITZER: Vice President Kamala Harris is campaigning out west this weekend. She visited the southern border on Friday in Arizona. Today, she is holding fundraisers in her home state of California, where she just released a statement on the death of Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

For more on that, I want to bring in CNN's Priscilla Alvarez.

Priscilla, what is the vice president saying about Nasrallah's death?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, she is reiterating what President Joe Biden said in his earlier statement, and also calling for de-escalation. But let me read you part of this statement from the vice president which says, quote, "Hassan Nasrallah was a terrorist with American blood on his hands. Across decades his leadership of Hezbollah destabilized the Middle East and led to the killing of countless innocent people in Lebanon, Israel, Syria, and around the world." She concludes this by saying, "Today, Hezbollah's victims have a measure of justice. "

Now, we are also learning from the White House, Wolf, that the vice president joined a call with President Joe Biden and his National Security team earlier this afternoon where they also received an update on the situation in the Middle East. They reviewed U.S. military force posture and they also directed continued diplomatic efforts.

Now sources telling me that the vice president is closely monitoring this situation here in California and staying close with her team. Of course, as you mentioned, all of this is unfolding as she has been in on a West Coast swing. The vice president yesterday fine-tuning her message on immigration on the U.S. southern border today going to a fundraiser in San Francisco before coming here to Los Angeles tomorrow to also participate in a fundraiser before then going to Nevada for a rally.

[15:50:05]

Now, she is heading to that fundraiser now in San Francisco. We'll be monitoring to see if she says anything about the situation in the Middle East, but certainly, Wolf, her and her team are following all of these developments closely as she continues to be on the campaign trail of course with weeks only until November -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And she also included, as you know, Priscilla, very strong statement of support for Israel and what Israel is doing. She said, I have an unwavering commitment to the security of Israel. I will always support Israel's right to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis.

Very strong statement of support for Israel.

All right, Priscilla Alvarez, thank you very much.

I'm joined now by Ian Sams. He's a senior adviser -- he's a senior spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign.

Ian, thanks so much for joining us. What do you think should we expect to hear more from the vice president on this dramatic breaking news situation in the Middle East during her various events this weekend?

IAN SAMS, SENIOR SPOKESPERSON, HARRIS AND WALZ 2024 CAMPAIGN: Well, I think you just heard from Priscilla and yourself on the statement that she just released. She's monitoring this situation very closely. Obviously, working with President Biden and the National Security team and the administration to ensure that this does not escalate into a wider war but obviously reiterating her belief that Israel has a right to defend itself against attacks from terrorist groups like Hezbollah.

And, you know, I think that some moments like this really remind us of the serious issues that are happening around the world right now and the need for a serious leader in the White House, who's taking these things seriously and I think when you think about the fact that we don't have another debate agreement from former president Trump.

These are the kind of issues that you should see these two candidates talking about side by side on the stage. For example, former president Trump in just the days after the horrendous awful Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th, almost one year ago, he said Hezbollah was, quote, "very smart." You know, these two leaders are very, very different when it comes to the seriousness with which they take challenges like what we're seeing in the Middle East today around the world.

And I think it raises the stakes for the country to want to see these two folks on stage together talking about the important crises, challenges, and issues facing the world.

BLITZER: I understand, Ian, that the Harris campaign is planning to troll Trump with a plane flying overhead while he attends the Alabama- Georgia football game, mocking his refusal to bait her again. The campaign is also releasing ads taunting Trump for not holding another debate. Listen to this now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trump now refusing to debate a second time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He did terribly in the last debate. He's so easily triggered by Kamala Harris.

KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, Donald, I do hope you'll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage. If you got something to say, say it to my face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Our CNN instant poll, as you know, Ian, showed that viewers thought Harris won that first debate with Trump. So why is she so determined right now to face off again with him?

SAMS: Well, because like we were just talking about a moment ago, there are so many serious issues that the public needs to hear from these two candidates on. The American people deserve a second debate. She was proud to accept CNN's invitation for a debate next month. We hope that former president Trump will do the same. I'm not sure why he won't. You would think that he would want to go out and tell the country what his plans are for the future.

You want it -- you would think that he would want to tell people exactly what he would do when Middle East challenges like this arise, when economic challenges arise. What are his real plans? I think that when we're going on the airwaves, whether it's in Georgia, Alabama, I'm Alabama alum, obviously rooting for them tonight, but when we're going on the air to take this message to the American people, it's a reminder that he's too scared to debate her.

And right now you have Republicans, not just us, not just Democrats, Republicans, 60 percent in a poll this week said that they want to see another debate. Trump's own allies like Kellyanne Conway, Lindsey Graham, Rick Scott are saying he should do another debate. I think the question is why won't he do another debate? And I think that for the vice president, these debates are a moment where she can share her vision with the country for what she wants to do as president.

And so when you have the two candidates on stage side by side, there's no better moment to get a sense for the American people of who these candidates are and what they're prioritizing. And she's going to keep pushing for him to join her. Hopefully he changes his mind. There's been reporting in recent days that he himself is thinking about changing his mind and I think that when we try to put this issue on the table, it's because there's so many serious challenges around the world right now.

I mean, you're covering this breaking news today. You know, this is a time for serious leadership and we have Vice President Harris, who's working hard to take on these challenges, who's rallying global allies to America's defense and to advance our national security interests around the world. [15:55:07]

And you have Donald Trump, who's pushing more of the same chaos, dysfunction, discord, wouldn't even say yesterday, meeting with President Zelenskyy, that what Russia did by invading that country was outrageous and abhorrent and they need to leave. He said that there needed to be a, quote, "fair deal." You have to wonder, whose fairness is he looking for? Is he looking out for Putin to get a fair deal?

These are serious challenges that the public deserves to see the two candidates on stage discussing.

BLITZER: I'm sure if there was a second debate, it will be lively.

Ian Sams, thank you very, very much.

And we'll take another quick break. We'll be right back.

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