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Mideast Tensions At Critical Level As Israel-Hezbollah War Intensifies; Dozens Unaccounted For In Western North Carolina Following Helene; Trump Again Calls Harris "Mentally Impaired" During Attack On Illegal Immigration; New Poll Shows Harris With A 14-Point Lead With Latino Voters; Vance, Walz Preparing For Their First Debate On Tuesday; Pope Francis Calls For Immediate Ceasefire In Lebanon; GA Chemical Plant Fire Forcing Evacuations, Road Closures. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired September 29, 2024 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:01:26]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone, and thanks so much for joining us. I'm Jessica Dean in Washington, alongside my colleague, Jim Sciutto, who is in Tel Aviv.

And we begin in the Middle East where fears of a wider war are growing. Israel and Hezbollah again trading fire across the Lebanon border today. And there's this, Israel also attacking targets in Houthi controlled parts of Yemen. The IDF saying it attacked a power station and a seaport.

We learned just moments ago, President Biden will be speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Let's send it over now to Jim, who's in Tel Aviv.

And, Jim, I know you've been monitoring all of these developments. What are your takeaways?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Listen, it's a multi-front war, right, and each of those fronts is growing. Israel and Hezbollah, they continue to fire at each other today. Of course, the most extensive attacks are by Israeli forces on targets inside Lebanon. And now you have Israel hitting targets in Yemen as well.

Let's bring in CNN's Jeremy Diamond. He's in Haifa in the north of Israel. Ben Wedeman is in Beirut.

Ben, can you give us a sense of the targets, the range of targets of these Israeli airstrikes inside Lebanon, both in the south and in and around Beirut in the last 24 hours?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Certainly in and around Beirut in the last 24 hours is they've been sporadic to say the least. Not the lightened sort of the tempo that we've seen in previous days. It appears that the focus of their strikes today was partly the Beqaa Valley where in one individual strike they killed 21 people and 47 others. As far as the targets go, Hezbollah, Northern National News agency really go into the details of that. We also saw strikes in the south, one strike outside of Sidon in the

south killing more than 30 people. But it's sort of the significant news from here today is that Hezbollah conceding that two more of their senior leaders were killed. One is Ali Karaki, who was responsible for what Hezbollah calls its southern front, the border with Israel. And also Nabil Kaouk, who was head of Hezbollah's preventative security. He's also a member of the leadership council, somebody who's similar in age to Hassan Nasrallah, who sort of goes back to the very beginnings of Hezbollah.

We also heard from a Lebanese security source that the body of Nasrallah who was killed at 6:00 p.m. on Friday evening in a massive strike on Beirut has been found. Now, there's a lot of question about whether or when or if they're aware there will be a funeral held for Nasrallah. I've gone to a variety of Hezbollah funerals for senior leadership over the past two weeks, but I suspect the group is rather hesitant to bring any of those of its leaders who are actually still alive out in public to attend such a funeral.

And the funeral would probably be held in the southern suburbs in area of Beirut. It's largely abandoned for the most part, and it's a questionable whether anybody in their right mind would want to venture in there in the event a funeral is held. So that's very much up in question. But what we're also seeing is that there continued to be tens of thousands of people in Beirut to have basically left their homes in the southern suburbs, or in the south of Lebanon, or the Beqaa Valley.

[16:05:01]

Lebanese officials have, as we've been reporting, saying as much as one million people have fled their homes. Keep in mind, that's just less than 20 percent of the population.

Now as far as Hezbollah's launching attacks on Israel, they've claimed 11 so far today. But most of them seem to be the usual targets mostly along the border with Israel. Nothing that would approximate something that you could describe as or Hezbollah would describe as a response, a revenge strike for the killing of Nasrallah or any other of the senior leadership who have been killed in the last two weeks.

So we don't know if Hezbollah is waiting for some sort of surprise massive attack, or simply because of the blows they sustained over the last two weeks they're even capable of launching such a revenge attack -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes, it's not capable, they could deliver the orders, too, given how Israel seems to have dismantled the leadership, but also the communication networks.

Our Jeremy Diamond, in northern Israel, and Jeremy, to Ben's point there, the pace of rocket missile attacks from Hezbollah into northern Israel has not picked up really measurably at all since Nasrallah's killing here. When you speak to Israeli officials, are they expecting such a retaliation or is it their assessment as well that Hezbollah may not be capable of a significant retaliation at this point. JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Israeli

officials that I've spoken with, Jim, tell me that they don't anticipate that kind of large-scale retaliation in the immediate future because they believe that Hezbollah's operational capabilities have been significantly damaged by the Israeli military strikes over the course of the last couple of weeks. And they also believe that the organization is in disarray following the killing of multiple senior commanders, including of course Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Hezbollah today fired just over 100 rockets into northern Israel, according to the Israeli military. And that's less, you know, about half of the amount that they were firing over the course of the last few days, last week. And so it just gives you a sense of the fact that their capabilities clearly have been damaged, that they clearly are in organizational disarray, and not able to deal the kind of blow that they might want to in this moment.

At the same time, the Israeli military is certainly taking advantage of that organizational chaos within Hezbollah and they are continuing to strike targets as Ben was just saying in southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as some strikes around the southern suburbs of Beirut. This is an opportunity for the Israeli military to deal as significant of a blow to Hezbollah as they possibly can at this moment.

And at the same time Israeli political and military leaders are making very clear that this is not the end, that they're going to continue to carry out airstrikes against Hezbollah. And also of course that there is this possibility of a ground incursion. We have seen the Israeli military begin to move significant troops and military resources up to that northern border. And Israeli generals have said that they are preparing for the possibility of a ground incursion.

That order, though, has not yet come from the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who we expect to be speaking with President Biden very soon. Biden has made very clear that he does not want to see that kind of a ground incursion, that he is pushing instead for a ceasefire at this time. That doesn't appear to be where the Israeli military and the Israeli government currently stands, so that will be very interesting to see in the days ahead.

Whether or not the United States and the Biden administration is at all capable of reining Israel in at this very critical moment, at a moment when Israel is feeling emboldened, and where they see an opportunity to dismantle Hezbollah as much as possible in the coming days.

SCIUTTO: Well, the recent record has shown that the Israeli leader is quite willing to move forward despite U.S. pressure, even if that pressure, well, isn't sufficient or it's not sufficient in his view, certainly based on most recent moves.

Ben Wedeman in Beirut, Jeremy Diamond in northern Israel, thanks so much to both of you.

And still to come this hour, just utter devastation in North Carolina. Whole towns under water, scores of people still unaccounted for. There are still rescue efforts underway this hour. We will have a live report. Plus port workers are planning to go on strike this week. How could that affect your wallet and potentially, if there are economic costs, the presidential race.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:14:32]

DEAN: We are continuing to follow breaking news out of the southeastern U.S., which is still recovering from Hurricane Helene's destructive winds and rain. The storm causing widespread flooding, killing at least 64 people across five states. Search and rescue operations happening at this hour across western North Carolina as dozens of people remain unaccounted for there and many roads remain impassable right now. That's hindering rescue and recovery efforts.

Joining us now is a spokesperson for the North Carolina Department of Transportation, Jamie Kritzer.

[16:15:03]

Jamie, thanks so much for being here with us.

JAMIE KRITZER, SPOKESPERSON, NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: Thank you for the time, Jessica.

DEAN: I know it is a really tough time for your state, for your community. Walk us through what you're seeing and the magnitude of what's happening there.

KRITZER: Well, I think this is an unprecedented storm that we are seeing across much of the southeast and right here in western North Carolina. What people are seeing and what many of the longtime residents are saying is that they are seeing a storm the likes of which they have never seen in their lifetime. These are catastrophic impacts. You've got hundreds of roads that have been closed. There are many people without power.

There are people that -- you know, who have lost all connectivity, that they're cut off from basically from the world right now because they don't have access to internet, they don't have power. Some people are running low on water. It is a really dire situation for many people here in western North Carolina.

DEAN: And I hear, as you're describing all of that, the sense of isolation and the real pragmatic effects of that. You're talking about people running low on water. That if these roads are closed, it's really hard for anyone to get to them much less for them to get out.

KRITZER: Yes. You know, Jessica, that's a really good point. It's -- the central message that we're trying to tell people right now is to please stay off the roads. We're seeing far too many people that want to go out and, you know, see what's going on. And we need people to stay off the roads because they're hindering our ability to conduct emergency response. And that goes for, you know, transportation crews. We're working very hard. We're working night and day. Our crews are

out and they're trying to clear roads and they're trying to get emergency vehicles through and highway patrol through who and other law enforcement and other utility crews through so that we can restore power and get life back to normal. But we need everyone to stay off the roads in western North Carolina. It's imperative right now.

DEAN: Yes. And to that end, what would you say is your biggest challenge right now? I hear you on people staying off the roads. Is it also debris? Is it water? What are your crews encountering?

KRITZER: Yes. So we have roughly about 1500 cruise from the North Carolina Department of Transportation who are responding to this and they're coming from all over the state. We've got people not just in the west, but are -- their colleagues have chipped in, as we always do, and they're coming from the east to help out as well. And what they're seeing is a combination of downed trees across roads. They're seeing mudslides that have covered up roads.

They're seeing roads that have been destroyed or significantly damaged by water. And so we have a number of crews that are out right now as we speak and they are doing what we call them cut and shove operations. It's basically where our chainsaw crews go in and they cut the trees and they move them off to the side so that we can reopen the roads. It is -- it's unprecedented really what we're seeing out there right now.

DEAN: And North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said they're airlifting supplies to some people. I know you all are focused on getting those roads open, but is your department facilitating any part of that? Are they helping with supply drop-offs? Or are they just zeroed in on roads right now?

KRITZER: So obviously, our main focus is on transportation. So we're focused on that but we're working hand in glove with all of our partners across the entire spectrum. Our utility crews, we worked very closely with them after all storms. You know, when they have to reopen roads, a lot of times there are power lines down that are entangled in trees and so we're working with them on that.

We're also, you know, working to get a lot of our emergency crews to where they need to be because you've got people that we may not have heard from or family may not have heard from, and they need somebody to get to them, to check on them, to make sure they're OK.

DEAN: Yes. It is so dire. Our hearts go out to you. We're watching this unfold on TV. I know those North Carolinians are living it and it is a terrible time for so many of you.

Jamie Kritzer, thank you so much for updating us. We appreciate it.

KRITZER: Thank you, Jessica.

[16:20:04]

DEAN: We're also following more breaking news. Fire crews outside of Atlanta battling a huge fire at a chemical plant. We'll have more on that ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: We're continuing to monitor breaking news out of the southeastern United States, which is still reeling after devastating storm Helene. Communities across several states are still dealing with catastrophic flooding. Hundreds of roads remain impassable, adding to the already difficult recovery efforts, and making matters worse places with some of the worst flooding are expecting even more rain over the next few days.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar has more on that -- Allison.

[16:25:04]

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We still have some lingering rain showers from what's left of Helene. Now the good news is here that the rain is much lighter in intensity than it has been the last few days. But we do still have some areas of shower chances possible for Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and even into Ohio.

Now the heaviest rain as we go through the next couple of days is really going to be focused over Virginia and West Virginia. Those areas could end up picking up upwards of two inches of rain total. Everywhere else you're looking at about a half an inch up to one inch. And while that may not sound like much, again, a lot of these communities don't need any, even if it is on the low end.

The best chance for flooding also exists in the same area where we saw those upwards of two inches of rain. So that's going to be focused across the Virginias. But we do also have the potential at least a marginal risk for flooding across portions of Florida. This is not what folks down there want to hear, especially as they continue with the cleanup and the recovery process there.

The good news is that, too, will also be very light rain, likely going to pick up maybe about an inch at most in the next 48 hours. We're also keeping an eye on the tropics because it is very active. Five separate systems that we are keeping a close eye on. But the one of particular interest is this one, kind of near that same development region of where Helene formed last week.

Now right now, not a high chance, but we're going to keep a close eye on this over the coming days, especially because it's going to be moving into very warm waters. You're looking at mid to even some spots upper 80s, which would be fuel for a system like this as it tries to develop in the coming days.

DEAN: Allison Chinchar, thank you so much for that update.

And still ahead, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are rallying on opposite sides of the country today. We're going to bring you the latest from the campaign trail.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:30:23]

DEAN: Back to breaking news now, these are live images from Conyers, Georgia, just east of Atlanta, where a massive fire is now raging at a chemical plant. And right now, many people living nearby are being told to evacuate as emergency crews shut down a section of Interstate 20.

I want to bring in Oz Nesbitt. He's the chairman and CEO of the Rockdale County Board of Commissioners.

Oz, thanks so much for being here with us. Give us an update on what's happening here and what the threat is to the people who live around that area.

Oz, can you hear me? We may have to go back to that guest, unfortunately.

But again, just to recap, that was images of a fire there, a chemical fire outside of Atlanta. We're going to keep our eye on that. We're going to go back to it when he becomes available again.

In the meantime, former President Donald Trump is campaigning in the battleground state of Pennsylvania today, where he once again launched a series of personal attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris.

At a rally in Wisconsin on Saturday, Trump claimed Harris was born, quote, mentally impaired. And just moments ago, he repeated that false attack.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is joining us now from Erie, Pennsylvania, where that rally. Looks like it's over now, Jeff. But tell us exactly what you saw unfold there at this rally.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, you can see the rally is over. The former president spoke for just a little under two hours here, really delivering a sharp attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris. No surprise, of course. We are 37 days until election day here in battleground, Pennsylvania, the largest of all battlegrounds with 19 electoral votes on the line.

But there was no discussion of Trump policy or plans for the second term if he would happen to win, but just a relentless attack on his rival on immigration and other matters. But again today questioning her mental acuity. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Joe Biden became mentally impaired, said. But Lying Kamala Harris, honestly, I believe she was born that way.

There's something wrong with Kamala. And I just don't know what it is, but there is definitely something missing.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ZELENY: So certainly a familiar mocking and belittling. We will see if that amounts to a strategy that wins an election. It certainly could among his base. The bigger question is among voters in the middle or others, is that a way to persuade voters.

But, Jessica, also interesting, the former president talked about how next week he will return here to Pennsylvania, Butler, specifically, of course, on July 13th. That was the site of the assassination attempt made against him.

Of course, you'll remember he said at the Republican Convention right after that in Milwaukee that he had plans to never discuss this again.

Well, he talked about that assassination attempt a lot here, even making light of it. At one point saying he plans to begin his speech by saying, as I was saying that day.

So certainly talking a lot about Butler. But again, Jessica, you can just feel this election getting ever so tight and close. Early voting is happening here and the attacks are as vicious as I've heard them all cycle.

DEAN: That's right. It makes sense there. I also want to ask you Jeff. J.D. Vance, of course, going to debate Tim Walz in the vice presidential debate on Tuesday.

ZELENY: Right.

DEAN: What more are you learning about his preparation and how the Trump campaign feels going into this week?

[16:35:07]

ZELENY: Look that is going to be one of the marquee events of this campaign, perhaps the last biggest television moment of this campaign because Donald Trump, of course, has so far refused to do a second debate with Kamala Harris. So that vice presidential debate, just in a couple days that is going to be a critical.

J.D. Vance, I'm told, has been preparing in a bit of a different way than his running mate. He has been specifically studying the record of Tim Walz, the Minnesota record, and he's been using a Minnesota member of Congress, Tom Emmer, to help him do that, to talk about the voting record, to talk about and to sort of help him understand that Midwestern shtick, if you will.

But for all the realities of the separate records of Vance and Walz, this debate is still about Harris and Trump. That's what both of the running mates obviously are going to be doing, defending and promoting both of those records.

But the debate, of course, is going to be front and center. Tim Walz, for his part, is in Michigan, also at debate camp and the person playing J.D. Vals (PH) -- J.D. Vance, excuse me, is Pete Buttigieg. Jess?

DEAN: That's right. All right. Jeff Zeleny setting the stage for us as we look to Tuesday. All right. Thanks so much for that reporting.

Vice President Harris is campaigning out west today. She's holding a fundraiser in California before heading to Las Vegas for a rally in the Nevada ground state of Nevada later tonight. She arrives in that critical swing state with a new poll showing her leading Trump with Latino voters.

The new NBC poll showing Harris with 54 percent of likely Latino voters to Trump's 40 percent.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is joining us now from Las Vegas. So, Priscilla, tell us more about what we know about the focus for Harris when she campaigns in Nevada later today.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, I spoke to a Harris campaign official earlier this afternoon who told me that the top issues that they're seeing among voters here is the economy, housing, and reproductive rights. So all of those three will be folded into the vice president's remarks at her rally here today.

But as you were mentioning there with that poll, the vice president is also trying to shore up support with Latino voters because when you break down those polling numbers, she does hold an advantage, especially among Hispanic women, but not so much with Hispanic men. This is an area that we have been seeing waning support for Democrats.

And it's also an area that the Harris campaign is trying to target, to try to gain more ground with those voters. And this Harris campaign official also telling me that here in Nevada, they have been working on their ground game, essentially building out their campaign infrastructure to, again, try to have an advantage over Republicans and the vice president's Republican rival, Donald Trump.

Now, it remains to be seen whether that plays out the way they want it to. That'll wait until Election Day. But certainly, this is an opportunity for the vice president to come to talk about those issues that are resonating with voters, but also to capitalize on what they have argued is a better ground game than Republicans.

Now, of course, this is going to conclude her West Coast swing. She started it in Arizona with a speech on immigration and border security. It was her going a step further than President Joe Biden on the issue. We'll be watching to see whether she lays into that more today.

And then two fundraisers in California. One, she'll be attending shortly, another happening yesterday in San Francisco.

Now, this week is going to look like more time on the trail for the vice president, but going to that critical battleground of Pennsylvania, as well as those blue wall states. So, as you heard there from Jeff, there is keenly aware among Harris advisers that they are getting to the finish line, getting close, and certainly trying to keep up that campaign travel in these critical swing states, Jessica.

DEAN: Yes. We are so close. And, Priscilla, as I was asking Jeff as well, we do have this vice presidential debate coming up this week. What do we know about Governor Tim Walz's preparations ahead of that debate?

ALVAREZ: Well, sources tell CNN that he's fighting nerves. He is nervous. He feels the pressure of the debate. Again, this could be one of the last big moments of the presidential election cycle.

So the preparation has looked like watching videos of J.D. Vance doing those mock sessions. Pete Buttigieg is J.D. Vance in those sessions. But also, you have to remember, the vice president was the one who had been preparing to debate J.D. Vance before she became the lead of the party's ticket.

So. This has been a team that had been preparing for a debate, and especially with awareness that J.D. Vance has more experience in debating than Tim Walz.

And so the argument that sources tell CNN he is going to be making is going directly toward former President Donald Trump and tying J.D. Vance directly to him, essentially posing him as much as a risk as the former president.

And so this is all part of the argument that they're building in these practice sessions, knowing that Tuesday may very well be the last debate of this election.

[16:40:00]

DEAN: All right. Priscilla Alvarez in Las Vegas. Thank you so much for that reporting.

And joining me now to talk more about all of this is Domenico Montanaro. He's the senior political editor and correspondent for NPR Radio. Thanks so much for being here with us. We appreciate it.

DOMENICO MONTANARO, SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT FOR NPR RADIO: Thanks for having me.

DEAN: Let's start first with that NBC News poll and the Latino voter specifically with Harris in that 14-point lead over Trump. That is an improvement over where Biden stood when he was the candidate.

But what is important context here is it's substantially lower than what he performed, how he performed in 2020 and how Democrats have historically performed with Latino voters. He won by 36 points in 2020.

How do you think the Harris campaign is reading these numbers and what should they be doing?

MONTANARO: Well, we've seen some big shifts among Latinos and other groups between 2016 and 2020.

In fact, in all seven of the swing states, the Latino margin that Democrats won by was less than in 2016. So we've seen a real shift there. We've also though seen a shift in Democrats favor with white college educated voters. And that's where they're really trying to look to make up some of this ground, as well as in a place like Nevada, where you have almost 10 percent of eligible voters being Asian-American voters and Democrats really trying to turn them out.

And Las Vegas, super important. Clark County is where three quarters of the Democrats' votes come from. The other place where most of the votes are from is Washoe County, where Reno is, which goes pretty close to what the statewide total is and has for several election cycles.

DEAN: And we also have the vice presidential debate that's coming up on Tuesday, of course. And as our colleagues were just noting, this is likely the last big T.V. moment before we get to election day between these two campaigns and for it to potentially be the two vice presidential candidates. That's a very different vibe than we normally get. Normally, we see the two presidential candidates pretty close to election day on a debate stage.

MONTANARO: Well, usually this vice presidential debate is sandwiched between the two presidential debates. So this could matter more than it usually does, although I'm skeptical it'll matter, much at all, because it's the vice presidential candidates.

The only way it really matters that much is if they make some major mistake or put their foot in their mouth somehow and become embroiled in some big piece of controversy.

You know, some of the focus, as your reporters were talking about, is Tim Walz because he doesn't have a lot of national debate experience. We've seen him be pretty good in T.V. interviews, but how he's able to sort of parry attacks from somebody like J.D. Vance, who's certainly geared up for doing that, is going to be a big test for someone like Walz.

We want to also see if both candidates are able to really kind of take the message from both of their candidates. They're the chief surrogate for each of their candidates, and really be able to be on message. If they're not, you could see this become a little bit of a problem.

And I wonder if Donald Trump watching this debate is going to think, you know, maybe I should do another debate because it doesn't want the last thing said being something that J.D. Vance said, because really, this election's playing out on television and on social media largely.

DEAN: Absolutely. And look, with Donald Trump, you have to caveat a lot because he does change his mind. Who knows what might unfold after this debate?

And, you know, we talk a lot about the remaining voters that could be persuaded perhaps by this debate, perhaps by one of these rallies at a swing state. But now we're 37 days out from this election, early voting is starting in places like Pennsylvania.

At what point does this shift from persuading a voter to vote for a candidate? Trump or candidate Harris to these two campaigns turning out their voters and making sure that they're getting them to the polls.

MONTANARO: I think the turnout starts now. You know, this isn't about election day. This is about election season. And I think that what you're seeing is people are so locked in for both candidates for the most part, certainly views of Donald Trump have not changed very much over the last almost 10 years.

So the name of the game here is going to be mobilization over these next several weeks. That's the real key. And what campaigns usually do is they start now in trying to say that those people who are fives on their list of voters, five being the most likely to vote for them, go vote early. That's what you're going to be hearing over and over again. If you voted a lot, if you vote often and the campaigns know you're going to vote for them, you're going to be hearing a lot from them in the next couple of weeks to say, go vote now so that they can bank your vote and that they can then start working on those threes and ones, those persuadable voters, and those low propensity voters, who they need to turn out, would rather get them out closer to election day, and then be able to bank all of that early vote now.

So boy, 37 days you say that number. And it's hard to believe that it's coming up that quickly.

DEAN: It hits you in the face, doesn't it? I know, it is. It is truly remarkable, especially after the summer we have had in this presidential race.

Domenico Montanaro, thank you so much for being here.

MONTANARO: Yes, you're so welcome. Thanks for having me.

[16:45:01]

DEAN: And be sure to watch Tim Walz and J.D. Vance in their first and only face-to-face debate, a CNN special event, the vice presidential debate, simulcast is airing live Tuesday at 9:00 P.M. Eastern on CNN.

Pope Francis today calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East. Coming up, what the Pontiff called immoral.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:50:02]

SCIUTTO: Pope Francis is adding his voice to those calling for immediate ceasefire in Lebanon while speaking to some 40,000 people at a stadium in Brussels.

The day 87-year-old Pontiff told reporters later that any country that uses excessive force in response to a threat is immoral.

Joining me now live from Rome is CNN Vatican correspondent Christopher Lamb.

Christopher, it sounds like those words, that criticism was directed at Israel. CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, these -- yes, these were strong remarks from the Pope about the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.

The Pope was asked about whether Israel had gone too far in its actions in Lebanon and in Gaza. He was asked on board the papal plane during a press conference and specific reference was made to the assassination of the Hezbollah leader, Nasrallah, and the use of 900- kilogram bombs.

And at that point, in the question, I was on the plane, the Pope raised his hand to his face in distress and this is what he had to say in response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE FRANCIS, HEAD OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND SOVEREIGN OF THE VATICAN CITY STATE (through translator): I don't know the details of what has happened, but the defense must always be proportional to that attack. If it's disproportionate, you see a tendency to dominate that goes beyond morality. A country that does these things with force, I am talking about whatever country that does these things in such an exaggerated way, these are immoral actions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAMB: Well, Jim, the Pope also saying that whilst all war is immoral, there are moral rules to follow. Clearly, the Pope is very worried about what is going on. The Pope has been a consistent advocate for peace in the Middle East calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict. He said on the plane he speaks to the parish, Catholic parish in Gaza virtually every day. And he said he hears firsthand about what's going on.

Now people might ask what difference can the Pope make? Of course, the Pope is a moral leader on the world stage. He has relationships with political leaders across the globe. And I imagine that in the coming days, he will be doing what he can to try and push for peace. And I imagine he will also be addressing what is happening in Lebanon in the coming days in public too. Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Yes. And it adds to voices that have been critical of the Israeli use of force, even among some of Israel's allies in Europe and right up to the U.S. president at times.

Christopher Lamb, thanks so much. Jessica back to you in Washington.

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

We're going to get back to some breaking news we're tracking here. Live images from Conyers, Georgia, about 30 miles east of Atlanta, where a massive fire is now raging at a chemical plant and there are huge plumes of smoke. You see them there.

People nearby are being told to evacuate as emergency crews have now shut down a section of Interstate 20 there. Let's bring back in Oz Nesbitt, the chairman and CEO of the Rockdale County Board of Commissioners.

Oz, I want to make sure you're with us and you can hear us.

OZ NESBITT, CHAIRMAN AND CEO OF THE ROCKDALE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS: I hear you loud and clear. Yes, ma'am, I'm here.

DEAN: Fantastic. Can you just tell us what you're seeing there? And what is the risk to the people who are living in this area right now?

NESBITT: Well, the first thing I want to tell you that we have all hands on deck. What I'm looking at is a very thick cloud of smoke that's out here coming from the BioLab chemical plant.

All of our resources have been dispatch and deployed. What we're advising all of our local residents and local business people to stay in place. Those who are in the immediate evacuation area. We've already put out some maps on all of our local social media and our local news outlets.

If you are in those areas, we're asking that you evacuate. We are currently evacuating the hospital, the Piedmont Rockdale Hospital here.

We have tons of law enforcement, the Georgia State Patrol, all of our utilities, every available resource, GEMA, FEMA, everyone is on deck here in Rockdale County. We're managing this situation as we try to get it under control.

DEAN: Yes. And I hear you with the evacuation of the hospital there, telling people to evacuate who are nearby.

Are there health risks involved in addition to being by a possible additional explosions?

NESBITT: What I can tell you now is that the EPA and the EPD are both on site and they are conducting air quality testing to determine exactly what type if at any toxins are inside of the smoke.

We are being proactive and preventive. We're not taking any chances because at this point, we don't know exactly what those chemicals are. This has been a complete collapse of this facility over there.

[16:55:10]

The roof has caved in and there's a lot of chemicals located inside of this plant. So at this time, we can't determine all of the type of chemicals that could possibly be in this air. So we've got air quality test is happening right now. And that's why we're evacuating the immediate and surrounding areas, particularly north of I-20 in the heart of Rockdale County, Old Town Conyers, towards the hospital, the Rockdale County High School area, the Milstead area in particular, Sigman Road area. We're asking all of those folks to please evacuate.

And we have plenty of evacuation locations listed on our Rockdale County website. And our Rockdale County media outlets. Folks can get all the information they need if they go to those outlets and --

DEAN: OK.

NESBITT: -- pick up that information.

DEAN: All right. Oz, thank you so much. We now know that they are -- the EPA is there, and that you all are trying to get that under control. Thanks so much for being with us.

Some more breaking news here. We now know at least 30 people have died in Buncombe County in Western North Carolina in connection with Helene. County officials said that during a briefing just a short time ago. So that brings the storm related deaths there in North Carolina to at least 36, and the storms total to at least 89. That's CNN's tally.

We're going to continue to watch that breaking news and we'll have more for you in just a moment.

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