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Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah Killed In Israeli Strike; Hezbollah Hit Area In Jerusalem After Death Of Nasrallah; Trump Campaigns In Wisconsin, Focuses On Border Security; Harris Visits Arizona, Campaigns On Border Security; At Least 55 Storm-Related Death Reported; Widespread Flooding Impacting Southeast; Indicted NYC Mayor Pleads Not Guilty To Federal Charges. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired September 28, 2024 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:20]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And thanks very much for joining me today. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. I'll be back Monday, 6:00 p.m. Eastern in "THE SITUATION ROOM." Our breaking news coverage continues with Jessica Dean right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in New York.

And we begin with breaking news and growing fears of what may be next in the Middle East. Just moments ago, Hezbollah announcing it launched long-range missiles from Lebanon toward Jerusalem after the confirmed death of its top leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut yesterday. Tonight, there are questions about what remains of Hezbollah's leadership and what a potential response might look like.

For Israel's part moments ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has arrived at a, quote, "historic turning point," saying Nasrallah's killing was necessary for achieving its goals.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): There's no place in Iran or the Middle East that the long arm of Israel will not reach. And today, you already know how true this is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: All of this as the U.S. State department is ordering non- emergency employees and their family members to leave Lebanon immediately.

We have team coverage for you. Our Nic Robertson has the latest from Tel Aviv, Israel. We're going to begin, though, with Ben Wedeman who is in the Lebanese capital of Beirut tonight.

Ben, what is the latest on the ground from where you are? BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we're

seeing really since about half an hour past midnight is that there have been sporadic Israeli airstrikes mostly on the southern suburbs. They were particularly sporadic in the early hours of the morning. Then throughout the afternoon more -- less frequent, but certainly what it represents is the continuation of this Israeli strategy of really targeting the southern suburbs where Hezbollah has a presence. In addition to, of course, hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Now at this point the Israeli spokesman, the Arabic spokesman for the military put out a notice warning the residents of South Lebanon, southern Beirut, and the Beqaa Valley to leave anywhere where they think Hezbollah weapons and other material are being stored. We're talking about, if you look at the population, the pre-war population of those three areas, we're talking about two million people.

Now I spoke to a friend who actually went to the southern suburbs. He told me the areas largely empty except for some young men. And we know that hundreds of thousands of people have left southern Lebanon. The Beqaa Valley also people have left, but there are still many people left behind.

So this warning from the Israeli military to people in this area would indicate there are more strikes on the way, and that there does seem to be a preference among the Israeli military to strike at night.

Now, in addition to this, right now I can hear an Israeli drone over the southern suburbs. As far as this situation goes for civilians many of them are who had left this part of Beirut are camped out in parks, on sidewalks. Some of them have found shelter in churches and mosques, and even a football stadium.

According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, since those pager attacks Tuesday before last, the death toll here in Lebanon has reached 1,030. That's a preliminary death toll because it's believed there are still many bodies under the ruins. Now 1,030 is getting very close to the number of dead from the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. It lasted 34 days.

Now as tensions continue to boil, the United States embassy north of Beirut has announced that some employees and their family members have been ordered to leave the country. The embassy also posted online a form for U.S. citizens in Lebanon who are seeking assistance to leave the country, which would indicate that there is perhaps a plan to start an evacuation of those nationals.

[16:05:11]

In addition, of course, the embassy in north of Beirut is now had extra security provided by the Lebanese army. The worry is that given that the weapons being used against Hezbollah are provided by the United States, that there will and could be a backlash against U.S. nationals, U.S. interests, and the embassy itself -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Ben, thank you so much.

I want to go to Nic in Tel Aviv.

Nic, tell us more about what you're seeing there in Tel Aviv. We know that Hezbollah has launched those rockets at Jerusalem. And I think a question on a lot of people both mind is what is the likelihood of a potential ground incursion into Lebanon.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. We kind of got a sense of the likelihood or a possibility of a ground incursion when the defense minister announced that it had a meeting with the army chief of staff, General Herzi Halevi. Some of the senior intelligence officials as well. There they said they sort of had an operational assessment of the situation along the northern border, plus the possible increase of what the IDF or what the troops could be doing along the border.

There's a lot of signaling over the past few days, you know, a video of troops, newly arrived, the newly called up reservists arriving, getting their equipment, all of that. The messaging is continuing creating that impression that there's a possibility maybe for a ground incursion or for some sort of additional deployment of the troops along the border.

Now, Wolf Blitzer just in the past couple of hours asked Peter Lerner, IDF spokesman, about that possibility of a ground incursion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. COL. PETER LERNER, IDF SPOKESMAN: 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. And 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: So the sort of big picture message from the IDF at the moment is they're ready for offensive and defensive actions, and defensive that sort of implies dealing with the missiles that are coming into the country.

Now, there's been a bigger expectation that Hezbollah would respond today that perhaps they would put their big missiles into the center of Israel, big cities like Tel Aviv today. What's happened late this evening was an incoming missile into the West Bank towards Jerusalem. Sirens went off in Jerusalem. But this missile was intercepted and landed in part in Mitze Hagit, which is a settlement in the West Bank.

West Bank, a vast majority Arab population settlement -- Israeli population. So the question then becomes, was Hezbollah targeting this tiny settlement inside the West Bank with all the risk of hitting the Arab population that surround that area? It's not clear precisely what the target was, but the medical rescue services who were on the scene said they went to three different locations where there were some impact of shrapnel or missile. Not clear there were fires there, but they said they didn't report any casualties.

DEAN: All right. Ben Wedeman in Beirut, Nic Robertson in Tel Aviv, our thanks to both of you. We'll continue to check in with you both as this continues.

Joining us now is the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and former Trump national security adviser, John Bolton.

Ambassador, thanks so much for being here with us this afternoon. We appreciate it.

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Glad to be with you.

DEAN: I just first want to get your reaction to the confirmation that Hassan Nasrallah has been killed. And I also want to see what you think the current state of play is in this conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

BOLTON: Well, I think it's a great victory for Israel, for the West as a whole, against the kind of terrorism that Hezbollah has been engaged in for 40 years now. I think there's a lot more to do, although a lot of the other top Hezbollah leaders have also been eliminated. But I think when you combine this with what people are calling "Operation Grim Beeper" from 10 days or so ago, these are important steps.

But the real issue here is Hezbollah's unbelievably large missile arsenal. And neither the northern border of Israel and the lands next to that will be safe nor really the country will be safe until that missile capability is essentially eliminated. And I think the real question at this moment is, is that Israel's goal here? Are they going to back away from it under U.S. pressure?

[16:10:04]

DEAN: Right. And so that brings us to what does come next. And I know no one has a crystal ball here, but to your point, there are some 60,000 Israelis and the IDF is saying their objective here is to allow them to go back home to their homes on the northern border there with Lebanon, where they have not been able to live because of the incoming rocket attacks over the last year.

Do you think a ground incursion will be necessary to achieve that goal?

BOLTON: I think almost certainly, if that's what they're really serious about. If you go back to the 2006 war with Hezbollah, which by the way began actually with Hamas coming out of the Gaza Strip and taking some hostages and then Hezbollah doing the same, history interestingly repeats itself, but at that point, the Israelis went in up to the Litani River, basically the entire southern part of Lebanon.

And since the people who have been displaced, the 60,000 Israeli you referred to were facing rocketing by really short-range, unguided rocket systems, in order to protect that part of the country eliminating Hezbollah's capabilities south of the Litani River is critical. And I don't think the Israelis can do that unless they're in there on the ground.

DEAN: And so we have seen over the last two weeks now starting with the beepers and pagers exploding that you referred to, various strikes since then, now the killing of Nasrallah, we've seen all of this unfold and I'm curious what kind of impact you I think that has had obviously on the command and control structure of Hezbollah and their ability to respond now.

BOLTON: Well, I think it's been very damaging, but ultimately no one is irreplaceable even Nasrallah, although he's the leader of the A team of terrorism and it was entirely justifiable target. I think you've got to remove Hezbollah's capability if Israel and the region as a whole are going to be safe. And the first step to do that is to destroy this extraordinarily large missile arsenal.

I mean, the CIA factbook says that it could be up to 150,000 and there are any number of public estimates out there, some even larger than that, of which may be 10,000 have been used since the Hamas attack on October 7th. This is extraordinary capability that Hezbollah has and as I say, as long as it's there, as long as there is somebody who can push the buttons, Israel remains unsafe. And that doesn't even get to the question of Iran, which is the paymaster, the armor equipper, trainer, financer for the Houthis, Hamas, Hezbollah, Shia militia groups in Iraq and Syria. The real source of this conflict is in Tehran.

DEAN: Which leads me to my next question because I did want to ask you about what you think Iran will do next. Will they get involved? Will -- what might their steps be?

BOLTON: It's very difficult to predict, but I do think what we're seeing since the Israelis killed Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, in a supposedly secure compound in Tehran is that the Iranian leadership is very uncertain what to do. Their credibility is systematically being destroyed by these Israeli successes. And to get that credibility back with their terrorist proxies, they need to take a strong stand against Israel, really impose a heavy cost for what the Israelis have done.

But they are I think petrified in Tehran that this time the Israelis will not succumb to the White House pressure. They will not take the win, whatever that means. This time if Iran itself gets involved Israel will strike hard in Iran as they would be entirely justified in doing. And so I think the Iranians, they don't fear the United States these days. But I think they fear Israel.

DEAN: And you obviously -- look, Iran has tried to kill you. They certainly -- I know you've had your own personal, you know, situation and relationship with that country and its government. But to your point, I hear what you're saying that you believe that Israel may -- that now Israel, it sounds like, is that Israel has essentially made them fearful that if they do try to escalate that Israel will just not listen to the U.S. and move forward doing what they think needs to be done.

BOLTON: This is how you deal with terrorists. These people are barbarians. They've demonstrated that time and time again and you can talk sweetly to them, and they've got a smiley face new president, who talks about negotiation, but what they really fear is the security, the regime itself and the nuclear weapons program, both of which I think should be at risk.

[16:15:09]

DEAN: All right. Ambassador John Bolton, thanks so much for your time today. We appreciate it.

BOLTON: Thanks for having me.

DEAN: Our breaking news coverage continues. Still, ahead how the U.S. is responding to Israel's attack on Hezbollah and what the wider implications may be. Plus Helene's impact, more than 200 people have been rescued from floodwaters in North Carolina as hundreds of thousands remain without power tonight. Towns devastated, including the city of Asheville, North Carolina. We are there with a live report, ahead.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:20:17]

DEAN: And back to our breaking news now, in the Middle East, Hezbollah saying it launched long range missiles from Lebanon toward Jerusalem Saturday. This all comes after the leader of the Iran-backed group, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut Friday.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is live now in Washington.

And Oren, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Nasrallah's killing, quote, "a necessary condition" for achieving the goals they have set. Walk us back to get here where we are today. And help us understand how we got to this point in time.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Of course, Jessica, for months now the U.S. through its envoy, Amos Hochstein, has tried to get a ceasefire agreement in place between Israel and Hezbollah, but as long as Hezbollah and Hassan Nasrallah tie to ceasefire in Lebanon to a ceasefire in Gaza that will become increasingly difficult than at least as we have seen over the course of the past 10 months virtually impossible.

And that meant from Israel's perspective that rockets kept coming in, up until just a couple of weeks ago, Israel effectively tried to manage that problem. Those rockets were intercepted, drones were intercepted. There was a measure of retaliation. There was what we would have called tit-for-tat. But after 10 months of that and with much of the war in Gaza already prosecuted, Israel essentially had had enough. And you saw that very clearly with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statements.

Not only that, I'll point out for years here since the end of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah really, Israel has known another war or believed another war with Hezbollah was coming unlike, for example, in Gaza where Israel didn't see that coming and that was very plainly obvious over the course of October 7th and the ensuing weeks. Israel believed the war with Hezbollah was coming, and therefore carried out the work on intel, carried out the preparations and the planning that you see have so quickly played out over the course of the past two weeks.

Israel saw that it had the opportunity to go after Hezbollah's leadership. The U.S. believed it was close to a ceasefire agreement. In fact, U.S. officials were quite optimistic about that just a few days ago. Israel, Netanyahu had very much other plans. It's worth pointing out that when Netanyahu talks about his stated goals, the goal is not the elimination of Hezbollah. It is not the destruction of Hezbollah. That would be an incredibly difficult task and a bridge too far right now for what Israel is claiming.

The goal is to return some 60,000 residents to their homes in northern Israel. And that is where Israel, that's where we're waiting to see how Israel decides to carry that out from this point on having destroyed Hezbollah's leadership. It's also worth pointing out that in terms of what we're seeing from Hezbollah, Israel believed Hezbollah could launched thousands of rockets a day for a sustained period of time in a war and that's not really what we have seen from Hezbollah so far. It's hundreds of rockets a day.

So very different than what the expectation had been for a larger war between Israel and Hezbollah.

DEAN: Yes. And Oren, both Israeli and U.S. officials say that the U.S. was notified just moments ahead of the strike and the U.S. did not play a role in that operation that killed Nasrallah. What does that tell you and what more are you learning about that relationship?

LIEBERMANN: Well, there's clearly a matter of -- some matter of tension here between the U.S. and Israel when it comes to operations in Lebanon. Part of that is probably attributed to the fact that Israel was or rather the U.S. was very much focused on trying to get a ceasefire in place. The U.S. has been focused basically since October 7th in trying to make sure there wasn't an expansion of the war.

And it believed that for Israel to go after a target like Hassan Nasrallah would have essentially fan the flames of war and risk the regional war that the U.S. have been trying to avoid. So that may be the reason Israel didn't telegraph much in advance, really an advance at all what its plans were and that it was going after Nasrallah. In fact, it was just moments before with the aircraft already in the air that Defense Minister Yoav Galant told U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that the strike was going to happen.

So no real time for consultations or pushing back, and it seems that was very much Israel's intent in this case. And it's not the first time we have seen this level of tension. It was just 11 or 12 days ago that Israel told the U.S. something was going to happen in Lebanon, providing absolutely no details. And then we saw the pager explosions. There was no heads up about the walkie-talkie explosions a day later. So Israel is very much playing its cards very closely even as we have seen this escalate quite significantly over the course of the past two weeks.

DEAN: And so what is the U.S. do now? They continue and have continued, the Biden administration, to try to push for a diplomatic solution here. What more are you hearing from the U.S. side of all this?

[16:25:04]

LIEBERMANN: I have to apologize, Jessica. I'm having IFB issues and I wasn't able to hear that.

DEAN: That's OK. All right. Oren Liebermann, thank you so much from Washington, D.C. We appreciate it.

Still ahead, former president Trump back on the campaign trail in Wisconsin. This as Vice President Harris tackles a key issue that Republicans are trying to use against her. We'll break all that down next.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: With only 38 days left until election day, the race for the White House is going to come down to the wire with both candidates busy on the campaign trail this weekend. Vice President Kamala Harris is campaigning out west this weekend. She visited the southern border on Friday in Arizona. Today, she's holding fundraisers in her home state of California.

[16:30:07]

Meantime, former President Donald Trump will make his pitch to Midwestern voters holding an event in Wisconsin.

And joining us now, CNN's Steve Contorno, who is on the trail with the former president.

Steve, the Vice President accused Trump of playing, quote, "political games" when it comes to border security. What are you hearing at his campaign event today?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Well, Trump telling this crowd that he believes immigration is the most important issue of this election. In fact, he said it was, quote, "more important than anything having to do with the economy," which continues to come up in polls as the most important issue on many voters' minds. But Trump believing that immigration should be the most pressing issue of this race.

And he has chosen to deliver this message in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, which is sort of an interesting backdrop. It's a community of just 6,000 people, a really small part of southwest Wisconsin. But it's a community that was recently rocked, according to local police, by an incident involving a non-citizen who allegedly attacked a woman and her daughter in a domestic dispute of sorts. And it's an issues, it's an incident that has been seized on by Republicans to make the case that the issues at the border are affecting people all over the country, including in little towns.

In fact, there's a signage on the wall here that says, end the invasion of small-town America. Now, this stop, of course, comes just days after Harris visited the border just a day afterward. And Trump addressed what he saw at the border and her appearance there. Take a listen to what he told this crowd.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Border czar Harris went to the border to lie in the most shameless and horrible way possible, at the very site where she released so much suffering, misery and death. There's no greater act of disloyalty than to extinguish the sovereignty of your own nation right through your border. No matter what lies she tells, Kamala Harris can never be forgiven for her erasing our border, and she must never be allowed to become president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Wisconsin, of course, is a key battleground, so much so that Trump will actually be back here on Tuesday for an event in Milwaukee.

Just take a look at these CNN poll of polls in Wisconsin. This race is well within the margin of error with no clear leader. So these events with Donald Trump that we're going to see here over the next coming months, where he's going to try to convince these voters here, are going to be more and more frequent, and you can expect him to spend quite a bit of time here, Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Steve Contorno for us there in Wisconsin. Thanks so much.

And joining us now to discuss the latest on the state of the race is CNN Senior Political Analyst and Senior Editor at The Atlantic, Ron Brownstein.

Ron, good to see you, as always.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good to see you, Jessica.

DEAN: We saw on Friday Vice President Harris going to the border in an attempt to turn the tables on Trump by embracing the border security as a key issue. Do you think this is the right move for the campaign?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, I mean, the Biden administration did make a significant policy shift, and Harris is now extending and even expanding that. It took, I think, the Biden administration a long time to recognize that the problem on the border had fundamentally changed from people trying to sneak across in the dark of night and kind of disappear into the population in Phoenix or L.A. to people who are presenting themselves for asylum and trying to get into the asylum process, which, as you know, is backlogged for multiple years, and people could stay here for years while their cases were being decided.

Biden significantly changed the standards by which people are now being judged for asylum or even have the opportunity to pursue asylum. And as a result, encounters on the border are down enormously. I mean, we're talking to 200,000, 250,000 toward the end of last year, about 50,000 a month now in this year. And as you saw in Harris's speech, she is committing to continue in this direction. It's a little bit like inflation, though.

Even though the conditions now are better, the overhang of what happened earlier in Biden's presidency is still a headwind against her. But she's leaving no doubt that she will continue in the direction that the administration has now pivoted to, belatedly in the eyes of many, but nonetheless rather forcefully.

DEAN: Why do you think Americans continue to give Trump the edge on that issue?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think it's like inflation. I think, you know, what they saw earlier in the Biden administration is, you know, they did not approve of kind of the trends of what was happening at the border. And I think there's probably a general inclination that there's an economy or national security issues where people might trust Republicans more.

They're kind of talking past each other, though, because, you know, you saw in Harris' speech on Friday that she's talking about making the asylum process work better, hiring more judges, hiring more Border Patrol agents to make the initial determinations. Yes, making it tougher to claim asylum, but not shutting it off. Whereas I think with Trump, what we're seeing really, you know, that isn't really his goal.

[16:35:03]

He doesn't want the asylum process to be more streamlined or more effective. He wants fewer immigrants in the country, especially, I think, immigrants who aren't white. I mean, you had J.D. Vance this week say that Haitian immigrants who are here under the Temporary Protective Status program are illegals. The TPS program was signed into law by George H.W. Bush, a Republican president, 89 senators voted to create it, including Mitch McConnell and Chuck Grassley and Orrin Hatch and Strom Thurmond, for people who remember those names.

Trump at one point talked about a constitutional amendment to limit the share of the population that is foreign-born. That, I think, is really the goal here, not to kind of streamline or make the immigration system work better, but to simply have less immigrants come in the country and implicitly to have less demographic change that is changing the complexion of American life.

DEAN: I also want to get your thoughts. We got some new polling this week on the Sun Belt states, new CNN polling, and specifically on North Carolina, which I think you said last weekend has historically been heartbreak hill for Democrats in the last several go-rounds. But it is interesting, isn't it, that we keep seeing the polling coming out. It is very close, and you do have that X factor now of that governor's race. What do you think of the state of play there in North Carolina right now?

BROWNSTEIN: So the number people should think about from the CNN poll is 39. The poll had Harris at 39% of white voters. There were two other polls that came out last week, one by Marist, one by Meredith College, also had right around 40, 41% of white voters.

The general rule of thumb among Democrats is that if you hit 40% of white voters in North Carolina, you will win because of the large minority population. But the CNN poll had them only tied because she was not winning the usual share of black voters, only around 79% of black voters.

By the way, this is the exact same pattern we saw in the "New York Times" polls released today about Michigan and Wisconsin, the "Fox" poll released about Pennsylvania. All of these polls show Democrats slightly below -- slightly below where -- Harris slightly below where Democrats usually are among nonwhite voters at/or above Biden's share among white voters.

So the question is, is that support Trump is drawing among nonwhite voters real in polls, or is this capturing something significant that's changing? And even if it is, can he hold it all the way to the finish line?

And conversely, can Harris continue to run at least as well as Biden did in 2020 among whites? It's the offsetting movement, Jessica, of white voters and people of color that is producing these polls, showing all of these states absolutely on the knife's edge.

DEAN: They are so, so close. And to that end, you have a recent piece in "The Atlantic," the undecided voters are not who you think they are. And you talk about the differences between certain undecided and persuadable voters.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.

DEAN: Tell us about that.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, look, I think when most people think about undecided voters, certainly when the media talks about undecided voters, we think in our head about people who are pretty certain to vote, but uncertain who they are going to vote for. When in fact, the much bigger pool of undecided voters are people who are pretty certain who they would vote for, but uncertain if they are going to vote, even in 2020, which had the highest turnout in any election since 1900, before women had the right to vote, 80 million eligible people did not vote.

So the pool of nonvoters that both parties are competing for, really not so much competing against each other, but competing with staying home, that is the real prize. And if you look the site -- if you look across the battleground states, I had access to some data that's rarely discussed in public from a -- targeting firm called "Catalyst."

It shows that the voters who are highly likely to support Trump, but uncertain whether they're going to vote at all are predominantly, preponderantly, whites without a college degree, while Harris' pool of voters who fit that same description in the Rust Belt states are -- in the Sun Belt states are predominantly people of color, young voters, Latino and black. And in the Rust Belt states, it's a combination of those voters and non-college white women.

In many ways, you know, the irony of modern politics is that even at a point where we are so irrevocably and passionately divided between the parties, it is the people who are uncertain whether they care enough to participate at all who probably will tip the balance in the end in these few states that will decide our next president.

DEAN: It's an incredible fact. Ron Brownstein, thank you so much. Good to see you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

DEAN: Still ahead, the latest on the aftermath of Helene, the deadly storm that caused chaos and destruction across parts of the Southeast. We are live in North Carolina, where rescues are still ongoing as hundreds of thousands of people remain without power.

[16:40:00]

You're in the CNN Newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: The death toll from Helene is rising with at least 55 storm- related deaths now reported across five different states. The massive storm leveling many communities and stranding hundreds in floodwaters. Right now there are more than 3 million people without power. Those outages stretching from Florida all the way up to Ohio.

We go now to CNN's Rafael Romo in the hard-hit area of Asheville, North Carolina. Rafael, tell us about the scene where you are.

[16:45:13]

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Jessica. Yes, we're in Asheville, North Carolina. This is Meadow Drive. And take a look at what's around me. This is a street that is fully covered, still in mud, more than 24 hours after the tropical storm came here.

And as you can see, there are all kinds of different things. This is, again, the middle of the street. This is a table that came from somewhere. There's also a door and other kinds of debris all over the place here.

I'm walking in probably about two inches of mud. And what people tell me is that part of the problem is not only what you can see, but also what you cannot see, the communications problem, mobile phone services are down, and also people trying to get the basic necessities.

I was talking to a gentleman earlier who told me that he tried to go to the store. He went to a supermarket. He found 400 people, by his own estimate, waiting in line outside for the chance to buy some things. This is how he told me. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were letting them in, I think, probably 15, 20 people at a time. So, yeah.

ROMO: Have you seen anything remotely close to this before?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. No, absolutely not. I mean, this is devastating for the community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Jessica, you were mentioning 3 million people without power in multiple states. Here in this region, 105,000 customers in Buncombe County, in this part of western North Carolina, remain without power. 400 roads remain impassable as well.

And authorities told us that since Thursday, they had to make 130 swift water rescues, people who were just trapped by the floodwaters, and also they received about 500 and -- 5,500, I should say, 911 calls. So that gives you an idea of the kind of emergency that people are still facing here and the long recovery process that has only just begun.

Jessica.

DEAN: Yeah, so much destruction. All right, Rafael Romo for us there in Asheville. Thank you so much.

Still ahead, New York City Mayor Eric Adams pleading not guilty to federal corruption charges in court. What we're learning about if the state's governor could possibly remove him from office. Here in the CNN Newsroom.

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[16:52:19]

DEAN: Here in New York City, embattled Mayor Eric Adams will head back to court next week. On Friday, the mayor pleaded not guilty to five federal corruption charges during a court appearance. Those charges include bribery, wire fraud, as well as accepting gifts, free luxury travel, and campaign donations from foreign powers. Adams, who was first elected to office in 2021, has said he has no plans to resign.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino is following this story. There are so many layers to this, Gloria, and there has been strong push back from Adams' attorney. Tell us more about that?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Jessica, the layers of this story are going to be extremely important. And the reason I say that is because we're starting to see just the contours of what Eric Adams' defense is going to look like. Because we heard from his lawyer on Friday after the mayor was arraigned and released.

We are starting to hear much of what the mayor has already said over the past two days, that these gifts that he received were just gifts, that the airline upgrades that he received were just airline upgrades, and that some of what is alleged in the complaint, in the indictment, happened long before he became mayor, and that, therefore, he was not using his authority or his power to pressure anybody into doing what the government alleges.

I want you to take a listen to Alex Spiro. He is representing the mayor in this federal -- in this federal case, and he spoke to reporters shortly after that arraignment. Take a listen.

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ALEX SPIRO, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: This case isn't even a real case. This is the airline upgrade corruption case. There are no e-mails, text messages, or any corroboration whatsoever that the Mayor knew about anything having to do with these campaign donations. The entire body of evidence is one staffer, one staffer that says there was a conversation. What you have not learned is that that staffer has lied, and the government is in possession of that lie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: The donations are also going to be a critical part of the defense, Jessica, because they are going to say that, yes, the Mayor received these donations from foreign nationals, but that he did not direct those staffers to allow that to happen, and they're citing the testimony of a staffer that we know is cooperating with the government. So that's what Alex Spiro was referring to there.

Jess?

DEAN: All right, Gloria Pazmino with the latest for us. Thank you very much.

Back to our breaking news of growing fears a wider war will result from the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. It's as Hezbollah says it has launched long-range missiles from Lebanon toward Jerusalem.

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Our breaking news coverage continues next. You're in the CNN Newsroom.

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

DEAN: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in New York, and we begin this hour with breaking news and growing fears of an all-out war in the Middle East. Tonight, Hezbollah saying it has launched long- range missiles toward Jerusalem after vowing to fight back following the death of its top leader in an Israeli strike on Beirut yesterday.