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At Least 90 Dead After Hurricane Helene Rips Across Southeast; Israel Strikes Hezbollah In Lebanon, Hits Houthis In Yemen; Interview With Governor Roy Cooper (D-NC); Trump And Harris Out In The Battleground States Amid Tight Race; Today Hezbollah Confirms Another Senior Figure Killed In Friday Attack. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired September 29, 2024 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:00]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: We've got more "SNL" coming our way. Just 38 days now before election day. How about that?

That's going to do it for this edition of CNN NEWSROOM. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Jessica Dean. Stay with CNN. Our coverage continues with Jim Sciutto and Kaitlan Collins. Have a great night.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And you're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kaitlan Collins in New York.

We are following breaking news on two fronts tonight. First, in the Middle East, as fears are growing there of an all-out war in the region. Israel is intensifying its attacks tonight. Now, going after both Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels in Yemen. So far striking dozens of targets, including weapons and infrastructure in southern and eastern Lebanon. And along with two seaports in Yemen.

We're going live to CNN's Jim Sciutto, who is in Tel Aviv, in just a few moments for the latest on the ground there. But we're starting tonight with the breaking news here at home. Officials now say at least 90 people have died across the southeast following Hurricane Helene. But the true toll remains unclear as many people still don't have cell phone or internet service days after that powerful storms swept through.

CNN's Rafael Romo is joining me live now from Asheville, North Carolina. That's in Buncombe County where we have tonight just learned at least 30 people so far have been killed as a result of storm- related deaths.

Rafael, can you just give us a sense? You know, we were tracking this obviously when it was hitting Florida last Thursday, seeing the aftermath on Friday, but now it seems like we are getting a clearer picture of just the true devastation in the other states that were hit by Hurricane Helene.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's absolutely right, Kaitlan, and let me tell you, right now we're getting light rain here where we are, which is the last thing that this part of western North Carolina needs right now.

And yes, you were mentioning at the beginning that officials here in Buncombe County have said that 30 people have died. They had warned us already yesterday that they had as many as 60 people unaccounted for and today they confirmed the news that an additional 30 people now are dead here in Buncombe County. That brings the total end in the state of North Carolina to 36. And at least 90 in southeastern states that were hit by the massive storm Helene, that hit this area in the last few days.

And let me tell you something else, Kaitlan. It's very difficult for many people here because officials here in the county were saying that they got more than 1,000 reports of missing people. Now the reality is that it's hard to know who's missing, who is in trouble, because of the problem with communications here. No cell phone service, no internet. So it is impossible for many people who live here to call loved ones, to call their families, and let them know that they're doing OK.

Now relief is coming to North Carolina. That's the good news. We heard from Governor Roy Cooper earlier who said that 19 out-of-state search and rescue teams are helping in the local effort already. There's also an additional three search and rescue teams from the federal government. The National Guard here in North Carolina rescued 100 people and altogether hundreds of people have been rescued in the last few days.

And also we have to remember, and this is something very important that to today Governor Cooper said that the White House has approved a federal major disaster declaration that he had requested yesterday. So that's going to expedite a lot of the help the people need right now. The food, the water that is being brought to this area to Asheville, and they have to air-lift it because there are hundreds of roads that are simply impassable at this point, Kaitlan, so that gives you an idea of the dire situation that many people are facing right now here in western North Carolina -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Yes, it's just hard to even get a full picture of it given that lack of communication.

Rafael Romo, thank you for being there on the ground. We'll continue to check in with you over the next two hours in Asheville, North Carolina.

I do want to speak to who Rafael was just talking about there, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper who is joining me now live.

Governor, I mean, just to see this devastation is remarkable, and it almost feels like we are not getting the full picture of it.

[18:05:04]

Can you just tell us what you're seeing right now and what your biggest concern is as of this moment?

GOV. ROY COOPER (D-NC): This is a devastating catastrophe of historic proportions. People that I talked to in western North Carolina say they have never seen anything like this. Our number one priority right now is getting people out and getting supplies in.

There are search and rescue teams from 19 states, from the federal government, from our National Guard, from our state and local teams who are out there rescuing people as we speak. The biggest problem is getting to them because more than 280 roads are closed. Many counties and areas where people are, are landlocked. Cell phones and internet service is down so we know there are a lot of families and friends that are worried about people and there have been about 1,000 requests for that, dial 211 to report if you are looking for someone.

But we've been pushing the cell phone companies and they've been very hard. We've been finding ways to help them get in, to get cell phone service back up. That is beginning to make progress and coming back. The more of the cell phones come back, the more we will know where people are and what the situation is. The same with power. In the meantime, food and water is critical because people are cut off and it's very difficult, if not impossible, to get trucks into some of these places. So we're having to do it by air.

There is a massive effort underway to coordinate and make sure that we're getting supplies and water to people because it's a life and death situation here.

COLLINS: Governor, did you say that you have reports that 1,000 people are missing?

COOPER: Well, we've gotten reports that people are concerned about finding 1,000 people. There have not been getting -- had not been able to get in touch with them. There have been about 1,000 calls. We don't know the results of all of those calls. We know that a lot of people just simply don't have cell phone service. They don't have internet service, and are likely safe. But we also know that there are going to be a lot of natality from this tragedy.

We don't know how many because search and rescue operations are still going on. There's a process for confirming deaths before they are officially announced by the state of being able to contact families and things that you have to go through with the medical examiner's office. But the key here is making sure we're rescuing people and getting them the help that they need.

COLLINS: Has that been an issue, Governor, where because there is a lack of cell service and internet service, that you are having trouble notifying people, the next of kin, next of kin about the deaths of their loved ones?

COOPER: No, that is not the issue. The issue is being able to find where people are and to be able to contact people to check on them if they're OK. That's the issue with the cell phones being down and just communication with each other. Cell phone companies have come in with their deployable assets and have gotten up some service today. We expect that that will continue. The cell phone companies have entered into an agreement if one of them gets a tower up or connection up, than all of the services can use that tower. We are helping them to get in because landslides have cut the fiber

for the phone companies. This is just truly unprecedented in the devastation that we have seen here. The good thing is that we are prepared for disasters. We have 24 shelters that are up now providing assistance to people. The biggest issue we're finding now is getting the food and the water to people because were having to do so much of that by air.

COLLINS: How many people would you estimate don't have access to cell service right now? Do you have a guess of just, you know, how many people that could potentially include in your state?

COOPER: We don't know, Kaitlan. There was some counties that still don't have any service. There are some counties that have gotten some substantial recovery of service and AT&T and Verizon, they all have those numbers and they're reporting those numbers to us. I just don't have it in front of me. We are pushing them, though, to get that service up as much as possible. We know that's critical.

COLLINS: You just mentioned the death toll, Governor, and, you know, it's 90 people total from this storm so far. But we're tracking it in your home state and we just got a staggering update a few moments ago that officials in Buncombe County, which is of course where Asheville is, that the death toll there is already 30 people.

[18:10:10]

Can you first just tell us, do you expect this death toll to get even higher than what it is right now?

COOPER: We know that there will be a number of fatalities. So this is a tragic, devastating event so that we know there will be a lot of fatalities. There's a process that the state goes through before confirming deaths. So the Buncombe County number and the state number, that will be worked out soon in the next few days.

We're working to try to rescue people and to save people, but we know that there will be quite a few fatalities because of the devastation that we are seeing and what rescuers are seeing on the ground.

COLLINS: Can I ask you, Governor, just before we let you go, and thank you for your time because I know you're very busy, but our colleague Ana Navarro was tweeting saying that they had no contact with some of her family members, her relatives for over 72 hours since that storm. Her concern was a family member had a medical condition that requires oxygen and respiratory medication.

If there's someone watching who also cannot get in touch with a loved one, what should they do? What is the step that they can take in this moment to try to be able to establish communication with them?

COOPER: We're asking people to call 211 because we're doing welfare checks. When they get on that list, then officials, local officials are going in, and trying to get to the people to do welfare checks on them to determine if they are OK.

COLLINS: Governor Roy Cooper, thank you for your time tonight.

COOPER: Thank you.

COLLINS: And I want to bring in Keith Turi. He is a FEMA acting associate administrator for response and recovery.

And, Keith, thank you for being here. You just heard the governor laying out what is happening in North Carolina. Obviously they need all the help that they can get in first establishing communications so they can find out if that number of people who right now people cannot get in touch with. He said it's about 1,000 reports so far, missing people, that they just can't get in touch with.

What is the biggest need right now that you're dealing with?

KEITH TURI, FEMA ACTING ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR FOR RESPONSE AND RECOVERY: Well, I'd say a couple of things. I think first and foremost, making sure that we're supporting all of our state and local partners across the entire impacted area. As you know, the storm has impacted a huge portion of the southeast from Florida all the way up to North Carolina.

They're all dealing with slightly different circumstances, different time and phases of their -- those response but we're working to make sure our teams are embedded with all of them, and in every state that has been impacted and making sure that we're helping with just the kinds of things you just heard the governor talk about, making sure that communications gets up, making sure that roadways get cleared, and doing anything that we can do from the federal government's perspective to help facilitate that process.

COLLINS: And as you anticipate what you're tracking next and trying to help fill their needs, I mean, in the aftermath of this, what is that going to look like? Because I think the concern that a lot of people have is there's attention in the days right after. Obviously we're just now even getting a fuller understanding of how bad it is in places like North Carolina, in surrounding areas. You know, what's the concern when you're on, you know, day seven of this or day eight of this, and people want to make sure that the federal government is still there to help them?

TURI: Yes, I can assure you that the federal government will be with them to help them. We had folks embedded and staff embedded in North Carolina and in every other state before the storm. And we're going to be there throughout the entire response process.

As you mentioned, and as you can imagine, the priority today is still safety. It's making sure that everyone stays safe. We have active search and rescue ongoing in a number of areas and then making sure those critical lifelines of power, of communication, of transportation get up and running. But from there, we'll continue to move into recovery, which will include providing assistance directly to survivors.

As you mentioned, the president has declared a major disaster declaration in North Carolina and in Florida. That opens up assistance to individuals, survivors, and we're encouraging anyone in those states that's impacted to register for assistance from FEMA. You can do that at disasterassistance.gov by calling 1800-6213362 or going to the FEMA app. What that will do is give you an opportunity for direct financial assistance potentially to individual survivors. But for things like immediate needs that they have for food, water, et cetera, or also for temporary housing or repairs to their homes.

So it's going to be a long process. The infrastructure impacts here across all the states are significant. But FEMA is going to be with them the whole way through.

COLLINS: Yes. Keith Turi, thank you for that. Our thoughts are with everybody in North Carolina dealing with this and the other surrounding states as well, who were dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Thank you so much for joining us from FEMA.

We're going to have more on our breaking news as we are closely following the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina.

[18:15:05]

Also tracking major developments in the Middle East. We'll be back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news here in the CNN Middle East. Israel launching attacks against two Iran-backed groups, Hezbollah in Lebanon, those pictures you're seeing there, the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

[18:20:05]

Tonight, Hezbollah reeling from yet another blow to its leadership, confirming the death of a senior member of its group following the Israeli strikes in Beirut on Friday that killed its leader for more than three decades, Hassan Nasrallah.

CNN's Nic Robertson, he's been tracking all these developments and had the opportunity today to travel with the Israeli Air Force all the way to Yemen where these strikes occurred.

What did you find along that mission?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, this was a IDF embed on board one of their refuel tanker aircraft that was supporting the F-35s. So we're taking part in that mission in Hudaydah in Yemen. We didn't have our own cameraman aboard, but of course saw the operations, saw the multiple times that the F-35s came up to refuel and that was part of the message of this mission.

Not just the strike on the ground, but to signal that, as the prime minister has said, and as the army chief of staff said later today after the strike that Israel can reach out to its enemies. And onboard that aircraft, this is an aging airframe. It's 50, 60 years old, almost. It's an old commercial airliner. It's fitted out with these huge fuel tanks. But it's necessary for the F-35s to arrive on their target fully fueled and that's what it means to be able to project your force in the modern military environment.

SCIUTTO: And that's key because that message I imagine is being sent equally to the Houthis in Yemen and into Iran as well.

ROBERTSON: Absolutely. And the reason that it's been done now is because the Houthis have been targeting central Israel over the last two weeks have been three ballistic missile strikes very close to this area, Tel Aviv. And according to the Houthis yesterday, they were targeting Ben-Gurion Airport where the prime minister had just landed. So as you've rightly say, this isn't just a message to the Houthis, but it's one for Iran to read as well.

Incidentally, one of the Houthi missiles was fired towards Tel Aviv the day after one of the Hezbollah commanders, who had been a Hezbollah envoy to the Houthis in Yemen, helping train them with missiles, the day after he was killed. That was another time they fired a missile here. So it's a message.

SCIUTTO: And to get -- if they were to get the airport, which is just behind us a few miles in that direction, that would be an enormous blow to Israel and to Tel Aviv.

Nic Robertson, thanks so much.

Well, we're joined now as President Biden says he'll be speaking with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin and Netanyahu. Biden telling reporters today an all-out war must be avoided. The U.S. sees the possibility of a limited ground incursion of Israel into Lebanon in the coming days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can an all-out war in the Middle East be avoided?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It has to be. We really have to avoid it. We've already taken precautions relative to our embassies and personnel who wanted to leave. And -- but we're not there yet, but we're working like hell with the French and many others to (INAUDIBLE). Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: For a look at Iran's role in all this and how they're watching, joining me now is Karim Sadjadpour. He's a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Karim, thanks so much for joining us this Sunday evening. I want to ask you about what Nic and I were just discussing there. Israel signaling to Iran in the midst of all this as many in this region are measuring how Iran might respond to the killing of Nasrallah given its close relationship with Hezbollah.

Is Iran reading these messages about Israel's ability to strike far and wide as a deterring factor to any retaliation it might carry out?

KARIM SADJADPOUR, SENIOR FELLOW, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: They have to be, Jim. Over the last several months, Israel has struck several devastating blows against Iran and its proxies in particular Hezbollah. So Iran has to be taking Israel's resolve very seriously right now.

You know, if we take a step back, the goal of Iran and its axis of resistance is basically twofold. They want to replace Israel with Palestine, and they want to try to defeat the U.S.-led world order, evict America from the Middle East. And Hassan Nasrallah, in my view, after Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader in Iran, was the most important member of this axis of resistance and his absence is going to be hugely felt for the Iranians.

SCIUTTO: Yes. You know, that axis, as you describe it, is often described as a ring of fire right now. And of course, you have Hamas in Gaza depleted, though not destroyed, but certainly depleted.

[18:25:00]

Hezbollah, certainly depleted given the strikes on its leadership as well as many of its weapons storage facilities and now, as you look at the images of fire that we're showing there from the strike on the Houthis in Yemen.

Has Israel effectively muted that threat from the ring of fire?

SADJADPOUR: Jim, I think it's too early to say. You and I have been watching the Middle East for a long time, and it's always wrong to prematurely celebrate the defeat of an adversary. I remember very vividly when George W. Bush shortly after the Iraq War announced mission accomplished. But I think what is very clear here is that in terms of its military and its intelligence, Israel is far more sophisticated than its adversaries in the axis of resistance.

And I think this is in part because you have in Iran an 85-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini. He's not left the country since 1989, and you kind of compare Iran and its proxies, they're all operating out of failing states, you know, not a lot of resources, not a lot of technological sophistication, and they have certainly in the last weeks and months shown themselves to be outmatched by Israel.

And for Israel, this has been a useful diversion from the carnage which we've all witnessed in Gaza.

SCIUTTO: Yes. I want to ask you about Iran in that there have been some signals from Iran in recent days and similar to what we've heard in recent weeks something of a message of an intent to deescalate or at least avoid escalating, and I wonder in your read, is that because Tehran does not want to escalate or that it believes if it would or would attempt to that it would lose, that it would get pushed back, that it would get attacked much like it's seen its proxies in Lebanon and Yemen get attack by Israel?

SADJADPOUR: I think, Jim, it's more of the latter. I'm always reminded of a wonderful quote from Hannah Arendt, the great German American philosopher. She said every revolutionary the day after the revolution becomes a conservative because suddenly you have a lot you can lose because that you want to preserve and likewise, the Iranian regime has a lot to lose.

Ayatollah Khomeini as I mentioned, he's the longest serving autocrat in the world. You don't get to be the longest serving autocrat in the world if you're suicidal. And so his bind right now is that if he doesn't show any reaction, he's going to lose face, both in the eyes of its proxies and in the eyes of its people. And every dictator wants to be pure. But if he reacts too strongly, he could lose his head. So he's in a real bind right now.

And I think they're probably in a shell shock trying to figure out right now how they should react. And the last thing I'll say, Jim, is that Iran and its proxies are very effective when there's an element of surprise like the October 7th Hamas attacks on Israel. When everyone is paying attention on high alert they're much less effective.

SCIUTTO: Yes, and listen, two quite prominent leaders, Nasrallah in Lebanon, of Hezbollah, and Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas in Tehran, no less, both eliminated by Israel just in the last several weeks. So you can imagine the fear perhaps among some in Tehran.

SADJADPOUR: Absolutely.

SCIUTTO: Karim Sadjadpour, thanks so much for joining.

SADJADPOUR: Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, we continue to follow the breaking news as well out of the U.S., out of North Carolina in the aftermath of this devastating storm. We'll have more right after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:33:23]

COLLINS: Breaking news with at least 93 people dead in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, 30 of them are in Buncombe County. That's in the mountains in the western part of North Carolina. And we've just learned President Biden has been briefed on the latest of the havoc that was wreaked by the storm. He is expected to visit storm impacted areas this week. Obviously, that's always tricky given a presidential footprint is quite large, and they also want to be able to bring attention to areas that have been devastated like this.

I want to bring in Jeremy Knighton, who is the fire chief in Asheville, North Carolina, where so many people are still unaccounted for tonight.

Jeremy, thank you for joining me. Just give us a sense of what it's like on the ground because for those of you dealing with it up close, it seems to be much worse that a lot of people realized in the immediate aftermath of this storm. JEREMY KNIGHTON, ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF, ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA: Yes,

thanks for having me. So currently we're still out in the field running a 24-hour operations. We're still in a search and rescue phase where systematically we did -- we got some of our hasty searches done, but now we're doing more targeted searches in those areas that we're hard to get to when the water was high.

Our infrastructure has really taken some serious impacts. Roads that -- some of the roads are still impassible due to mud, due to water. Also some of our main ingress and egress routes are impacted and damaged due to landslides.

COLLINS: And when you're searching for people, how difficult is it to find the people? We heard from the governor just a few moments ago, he said they have over 1,000 reports of people calling in and saying, hey, I can't get in touch with this person.

[18:35:04]

I can't get in touch with my loved one. Are you able to find people in these search and rescue missions?

KNIGHTON: So we are in a systematic approach, but the governor is correct. Our connectivity here as far as our cell providers and things and there's resources coming, we know, but right now that's one of our -- and that's a need. People are not available. Their cell phone doesn't work. They can't call 911. So there's a lot of folks out there that we may not know about yet.

We're making lists, we're collaborating with all of our partners. Obviously here in the county with the state of North Carolina, and a lot of other resources. We just want to take a systematic approach but we want to make sure we're hitting the ground running and we are doing the absolute best we can for our community getting out there and trying to reconnect some of that critical service and support.

COLLINS: And I know power, power and water has been such a difficult thing as well. When do you expect that to be fully available or do you expect that it's going to take days, maybe even weeks?

KNIGHTON: We don't really know at this point. Again, due to the impassable roads and our infrastructure and the mud, just covering up a lot of that stuff that we need to make all that work again. We've got to get the roads clear. We've got to get the mud off the streets. We have to get the power back on. We have great partners with our power company and they're in there working.

Alongside of our public works and our police, our firefighters are all in there together. And I think as a community, as a response community, as a region, we're stronger together. And if we can, you know, channel all that we're going to come out on the other side of this.

COLLINS: Yes. Just it's a tough, tough scene to see and obviously we're thinking of everybody there. Please let us know what you need.

Assistant Fire Chief Jeremy Knighton, thank you for joining to tell us what it's like on the ground.

KNIGHTON: You're welcome. Thanks for having me.

COLLINS: Yes. Much more on the breaking news that we are following very closely here on CNN. Special live coverage right ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:42:00]

COLLINS: With just 37 days to go until election day, a new CNN Poll of Polls, which looks at all of the numbers that we're getting in shows an extremely tight race tonight. It has both Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump stumping in crucial battleground states over the last few days, including today. Harris today is at a California fundraiser before speaking at a rally in Nevada tonight and Las Vegas.

Trump, meanwhile, was speaking in Erie, Pennsylvania, a must-win state, this afternoon repeating his attacks against Harris for the second day. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Joe Biden became mentally impaired, sad, but lying Kamala Harris, honestly, I believe she was born that way.

(LAUGHTER)

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

Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: OK? She was born that way. And if you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country. Anybody would know this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Yes, you heard that right. That is Donald Trump referring to his 2024 opponent as mentally disabled. A comment that I should note has warranted a rebuke from the American Association of People with Disabilities.

Here with me tonight, Ameshia Cross, who is a Democratic strategist, a former campaign adviser to Barack Obama. Also Scott Jennings, CNN senior political commentator and former special assistant to President George W. Bush.

And Scott, obviously, that's what Trump said yesterday. He just repeated the part about her being mentally impaired earlier today. We're seeing reaction from this coming from candidates like Larry Hogan who was in a tough race in Maryland for the Senate. Also, Trump's ally, Lindsey Graham, being asked about this today.

I mean, putting the offensive nature of it even just aside for a moment and it is offensive obviously to people with disabilities, 37 days out from the election, is that what you want the Republican nominees saying on stage at a rally?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, its tough rhetoric, no doubt. I would just point out that every time Kamala Harris opens her mouth, every time Walz does, every time a Democrat surrogate for their campaign does, they tell a bunch of lies about Donald Trump and about J.D. Vance, and about what their record is. They lie about IVF. They lie about Project 2025. They lie about the dictator thing, the bloodbath thing, the ripping up the Constitution thing.

Its lie after lie after lie. And I don't hear a lot of Democrats rushing to television screens to commit, you know, rhetorical ritualistic suicide over every time their campaign does that. So yes, is it rough language? Yes. He should not use the term mentally disabled. I think it's perfectly fine to call into question whether your opponent has made smart decisions in officer or not. But you can't deny that the Democrats have been sharp, sharp, sharp to the point of lying about Trump this entire campaign.

So I'm going to give him a little grace on tough rhetoric in October here, which you always get in the fall of a presidential campaign.

[18:45:07]

COLLINS: But is calling someone mentally disabled, which is offensive to people who do have mental disabilities, that's tough rhetoric in your view, Scott?

JENNINGS: I just said he should not use the term mentally disabled. It is perfectly fine to call into question whether your opponent has made smart decisions in the current office in which they hold, which she is the vice president, and she has made decisions. That's perfectly fine. I would not use that term if I were him.

COLLINS: Yes. Of course no one is saying you can't criticize a political opponent, but calling them mentally disabled, I mean, Ameshia, as I was listening to those comments and going back and listening to the full context of them, I mean, even Trump himself as he was speaking in Erie, Pennsylvania, yesterday called it a dark speech in his own words.

AMESHIA CROSS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: It wasn't just dark. It was ignorant. It was defaming and it's quite hurtful to individuals not only who suffer from disabilities themselves but the families of those. My older brother was born with the umbilical cord around his neck. He has the capacity of a 10 year old. He lives with that every single day. For my family, that is considered a very offensive commentary that Donald Trump did.

But in addition to that, this is something that is not beyond the pale for him. He's known for offensive rhetoric, but he did it on purpose. There was something else that's dark here. Throughout history, specifically eugenics history, specifically African-American history, we've seen time and again where powerful white man tried to basically create this idea that black people were less smart, that their brains were smaller, was even a pseudoscience, for a very long time.

I think that what we see in Donald Trump is somebody that sometimes media gives a little bit too much credit to. There is a dark history that he likes to invoke. He does it because it's a dog whistle. He's also someone who knows that his words have meaning. He is using this to basically continue to try to diminish Kamala Harris because he cannot attack her on her policies.

I agree with Scott partially on this. If he was to do that, if he was to come up with and, you know, stick to policy, have a conversation about the things he disagrees with in Democratic policy, that is fair game. This is a guy who does not want to have a policy discussion at all. There's a lot there. He chose to go dark. He chose to go aggressive. He chose to go offensive. And that has nothing to do with the election coming up very shortly as much as it is the man who happens to be.

This is the rhetoric he uses on purpose. Republicans call for a toned down of rhetoric after the assassination attempts against Donald Trump. Donald Trump is the one who continues to amplify that rhetoric.

COLLINS: Scott, what do you make of that?

JENNINGS: Well, I'm surprised to hear somebody say that Donald Trump is responsible for the rhetoric that led to -- possibly lead to the fact that he was nearly assassinated twice. But we'll leave that hanging there. But the reality is, I think Donald Trump just attack are one thing, doesn't want to have a policy conversation. He loved to talk about the policies that led to inflation. He loved to talk about the policies at the border.

I think he'd love to talk about the policies that gave Joe Biden and Kamala Harris under a 40 percent approval rating for most of their term in office, and make this election a referendum on those policies and whether we need change or not. Those are the correct vectors for him in this campaign. And I think there's some evidence in the polling that its working and our own CNN poll that was released last week, 51 percent of people said that Trump had a successful term, only 37 percent said the same of Biden. So if you want to have a policy debate, which I think Trump does, he's on pretty solid ground to do it.

COLLINS: Ameshia, though, when it comes to this, Harris has taken this tactic of when Trump questioned her race and when he said other things at her in the past, saying, you know, she's not harping on it. She doesn't spend a lot of time on it. She'll often maybe have a short response and move on. How do you think she should respond if at all to something like this?

CROSS: I think she should not. This is a guy who was trying to bait her. He's trying to draw her in. She should ignore completely. Now her surrogates, I'm sure will be out having multiple conversations about it, and what it means and how deep he is digging in the ridiculousness of this.

This is a woman who does not have to defend her pedigree. She is highly credentialed. She is the most credentialed person to ever run for president of the United States. And that's not just for a woman. That's for anyone who has ever run for president of the United States.

This is a guy who before jumping into, jumping into the presidential foyer, was known for reality TV, was known for his businesses, was known for ailing and going bankrupt multiple times over. She doesn't have to defend her intellectual capacity to him.

COLLINS: Ameshia Cross, Scott Jennings, thank you both for joining.

We're going to take you back to the breaking news that is unfolding in the Middle East next with some major updates over the weekend.

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[18:53:36]

SCIUTTO: We continue to follow the breaking news in the Middle East. Israel carrying out strikes not just in Lebanon, but against Iran- backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

I want to bring in journalist and foreign policy analyst, Rula Jebreal.

Good to have you on this Sunday evening. The discussion now here in Israel is about a next phase of these operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon that would include a ground offensive.

Can you remind our viewers what Israel's experience has been in recent years going back decades when it carries out ground operations inside Lebanon? It's been a dangerous, often bloody prospect.

RULA JEBREAL, JOURNALIST AND FOREIGN POLICY ANALYST: Absolutely, Jim. Well, the first invasion that Israel carried out of Lebanon was in '78. Actually when we look at Hezbollah's own history, it was born, it was birthed out of that scar of the second invasion in 1982 when Israel invaded and occupied and slaughtered on starvation and besieged Beirut. And this is what Hezbollah was birthed.

So if you visit Lebanon nowadays they will remember every invasion. And when Israel decided in 2006 that it was time to eliminate Hezbollah, the objective was, we will go and eliminate Hezbollah. That war lasted 34 days.

[18:55:03]

And by the international community or by the West, it was considered in the end a draw. Nobody won. Hezbollah survived. Yes, many people were killed. I believe 1,200 Lebanese were killed, 100 Israelis, but Hezbollah survived and became the most powerful force in Lebanon, militarily and politically. So it goes back to the same idea. Israel cannot solve every issues by waging more wars and more invasions and more occupations. It has to solve the underlying crisis that exists. And so far they've

chosen to opt for more wars, more expansions, and more bumping. And, you know, there's something that when I visited Beirut multiple times, I always read on the walls of every refugee camps. The refugee camps I always visited was Sabra and Shatila, that basically endured a massacre in '82. The people in Sabra and Shatila were civilians.

They were guaranteed, they were told that the United States guaranteed that security with Phillip Habib, who was envoy, American envoy, and yet they were slaughtered.

SCIUTTO: Right.

JEBREAL: So from that moment the people in Beirut wrote everywhere, the sentence, and it's a sentence that belonged to a Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani, who said, you can decapitate people. Body fall, but ideas endure, and the main ideas is that nobody wants to live under a military occupation.

SCIUTTO: Well, the question is, what is the path towards a negotiated solution here? Because the fact is Hezbollah has been raining missiles down on northern Israel since the day after the October 7th attacks to the point that northern Israel has now evacuated more than 60,000 people. The Biden administration put an enormous amount of diplomatic capital into just such a path. And then the strike happened.

Is there still a viable path to a negotiated solution between Israel and Hezbollah?

JEBREAL: Well, there -- just to be more accurate, according to an investigation by the BBC and others, in the crossfire exchange between Lebanon and Israel 80 percent of that fire was actually started from Israel towards Hezbollah. Yes, Hezbollah answered and Hezbollah basically launched missiles on October 8th, 2023, but it was not to Israel, not only to northern Israel, but the (INAUDIBLE) farm, an area that where there's a military installation of Israel and it's considering an occupied territories.

So Hezbollah and my understanding from the last round of negotiation, Hezbollah issued basically a set of demands. There was a global request and call for a ceasefire. They are willing to do it and they asked what the Arab League asked, whether the Saudi asked, which is to end the mass slaughter of Gaza. Israel decided that they chose basically to expand the war instead of ending the war in Gaza and limit -- and somehow entering into a ceasefire deal with Hamas or with the protection of the Arab League.

Remember, two days ago, both the Saudis, the Egyptians, and others offered Israel to guarantee their security. And this is the third time they offered to guarantee their security in exchange of one thing, ending the occupation. '

SCIUTTO: Well, part of a longer discussion. We're going to have to leave it there tonight.

Rula Jebreal, thanks so much for joining us. And we will have much more news. Straight ahead.

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