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Liam Payne, Former One Direction Member, Dead at 31; U.S. Puts Pressure on Israel to Ensure Israel Does Not Enact a Policy of Starvation in Gaza; Harris Goes on the Attack as Polls Show No Clear Winner; Zelenskyy Presents Victory Plan to EU Lawmakers. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired October 17, 2024 - 04:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Music fans all around the world are mourning the tragic death of British singer Liam Payne, who died on Wednesday afternoon in Buenos Aires after falling from the window of his hotel.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm nervous, really nervous because it's my idol, and I'm shocked. I don't believe this is happening.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Israel does have a right to go after those legitimate targets, but they need to do so in a way that protects civilian infrastructure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A quote-unquote policy of starvation in northern Gaza would be horrific and unacceptable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With just 20 days until Election Day, the latest CNN Poll of Polls, average of national surveys, shows no clear leader in the race for the White House.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He considers any American who doesn't support him to be an enemy to our country.

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ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, warm welcome to our viewers joining us from the U.S. and around the world. I'm Max Foster.

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christina Macfarlane. It's Thursday, October 17th, 9 a.m. here in London, 5 a.m. in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where One Direction fans have been gathering to mourn the death of Liam Payne.

FOSTER: Here's what we know so far. Police say the singer fell on Wednesday from the third floor of the hotel room where he was staying in Buenos Aires. Hotel staff had requested urgent police assistance in the moments before Payne fell.

MACFARLANE: The hotel manager said they were concerned about the well- being of the guest who was tearing apart their room and staff could not enter.

FOSTER: Payne had shared pictures from Argentina to his social media accounts in recent days and appeared to be in good spirits in those videos. He was 31. Fans are heartbroken and shocked at his death.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They won't get back together. And he didn't release anything else. We won't see him again. That was all we had. He won't be here anymore. What will we do now? My God, this can't be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Payne rose to fame as a teenager in One Direction. The group became a global pop sensation and its members teen idols.

MACFARLANE: They were the first group to have their first four albums debut at number one on the Billboard 200 chart and Payne went on to have a successful solo career. Stefano Pozzebon has more now on the circumstances around the singer's death.

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STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST (voice-over): Music fans around the world are mourning the tragic death of British singer Liam Payne. Payne spent half of his short life as a pop music superstar. Just 16 when he became a founding member of the boy band One Direction, a product of reality TV show The X Factor, Payne quickly became one of entertainment's most recognisable faces, finding near unrivalled global stardom with One Direction bandmates Neil Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson.

LIAM PAYNE, SINGER: When you go outside and there's people screaming and running down the street after your car and stuff, I don't want to touch you. No, when people are running after your car and stuff, it's a bit like, that's a bit mental for us to adjust to, as it were.

POZZEBON (voice-over): Together One Direction sold millions of records, toured the world and built a legion of devoted fans. The band's biggest hit, That's What Makes You Beautiful, became an anthem of early Gen Z culture. One Direction went different ways in 2015 and went on to solo careers.

In 2017 Payne became a father to Bear Grey Payne, with then-girlfriend Cheryl Tweedy, a former judge on The X Factor U.K. Less than three years later, Payne released his first solo album, LP1. He also opened up about struggling with his mental health and substance abuse.

PAYNE: It was only until I saw myself after that I was like, right, I need to fix myself. POZZEBON (voice-over): In March Payne released what would be his last

single, an emotional work titled Teardrops. He described the song as about the vulnerability of a heartbreak. Millions of his fans will be feeling just that. Liam Payne was 31.

PAYNE: The feelings that these chords and different things give me and every one of these songs is a story from my life.

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MACFARLANE: Turning now to the Middle East, where the U.S. says B-2 bombers have struck Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says weapons storage sites, including underground facilities, were targeted.

FOSTER: Meanwhile, the Lebanese Health Ministry reports 16 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in the southern part of the country. Israel says it was targeting underground infrastructure used by Hezbollah.

MACFARLANE: UNICEF says approximately 400,000 children are among 1.2 million people displaced by fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

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MATTHEW MILLER, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: We understand that Hezbollah does operate at times from underneath civilian homes, inside civilian homes. We've seen footage that has emerged over the course of the past two weeks of rockets and other military weapons held in civilian homes. So Israel does have a right to go after those legitimate targets, but they need to do so in a way that protects civilian infrastructure, protects civilians.

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FOSTER: And a horrific humanitarian crisis is worsening in northern Gaza. The Emergency Services Chief in Jabalia says Israeli forces are destroying everything. People are starving. Stray dogs are eating dead bodies in the streets. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. disputes claims that Israel is trying to starve the Palestinians.

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LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: A quote-unquote policy of starvation in northern Gaza would be horrific and unacceptable and would have implications under international law and U.S. law. The government of Israel has said that this is not their policy, that food and other essential supplies will not be cut off. And we will be watching to see that Israel's actions on the ground match this statement.

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FOSTER: And Nada's here. We'll talk about that in a moment. But first to Yemen, where this other front against an Iran-backed group is developing.

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And this comes at an interesting time, of course, as tensions in the region continue to mount. We know, of course, according to officials, that Israeli government is now planning to retaliate against Iran's attack on October 1st before the U.S. election.

So tensions are certainly mounting. The U.S. are directly engaging in striking targets inside Yemen in the early hours of Thursday morning local time in Yemen. We heard Houthi-run media in the early hours of the morning reporting that strikes had been carried out in the capital, in Sana'a and in the city of Sa'ada.

The U.S. officials say that they were targeting weapons storage facilities, including underground facilities. We know, of course, that the Houthis in Yemen have been targeting the Red Sea shipping route, have been targeting commercial vessels as well. And many of these attacks have been characterized by the Houthis as being in direct response to what we're seeing in Gaza.

Much like we've heard from Hezbollah, both saying that they will continue to target both Israeli assets but also international assets so long as the war in Gaza continues.

And, of course, we've heard from the United States saying that they will continue to back their allies in the region, wherever that may be, so including targeting Iran's regional proxies, such as the Houthis in Yemen. But as you mentioned, the Houthis have vowed to retaliate to this, so it remains to be seen how that is done. We have seen them, of course, in the past targeting Israeli territory directly.

MACFARLANE: And, Nada, we just heard there the U.S. ambassador to the UN disputing claims that Israel is trying to starve Palestinians. But we are hearing reports that this is actually part of a broader strategy by Israel, something being referred to as the General's Plan. What evidence is there that this is actually taking place? What do we know?

BASHIR: That's right. I mean, the Israeli government has long held that they are not carrying out this starvation campaign, but clearly the evidence on the ground stands against that. We've heard from the U.N. just earlier this week saying that they believe that Israel is essentially sealing off northern Gaza, preventing aid from getting in, starving people in northern Gaza. They have suggested that some of Israel's actions in the north could amount to war crimes even. So a pretty serious statement there from the United Nations Human Rights Office.

And, of course, we've been hearing from people on the ground as well. We've been hearing from officials who have said, as you mentioned, that this strategy that we're seeing implemented in northern Gaza does reflect a strategy that was put forward by a retired Israeli general, essentially calling for -- essentially a starvation mechanism. So getting out all the civilian population from northern Gaza through these evacuation orders and leaving Hamas militants inside to essentially starve.

But what we do know is that there are still hundreds if not thousands of civilians in northern Gaza essentially trapped. We've been hearing from civilians on the ground, telling our teams on the ground that they are running out of food, that they are being targeted by gunfire if they attempt to evacuate.

And, of course, while the United States has said now that they have seen evidence of some aid trucks getting into northern Gaza following, of course, pressure from the U.S., this really isn't enough in comparison to the sheer scale of the need across the Gaza Strip.

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MACFARLANE: It truly is a horrific situation for the people in the north, and we'll wait to see if the U.S. make good on that 30-day deadline they put in that letter just yesterday. Nada Bashir, thank you.

FOSTER: Our sources tell CNN Israel's plan to respond to Iran's recent missile barrage is now ready. CNN's MJ Lee has the details.

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MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Sources tell CNN that U.S. officials currently expect that Israel's retaliation against Iran is expected to take place sometime before November 5th. Even though sources say this is not believed to be directly related to the timing of the U.S. presidential election, what it does mean is that this issue, the volatility in the Middle East, could really end up being in the spotlight just within days of the U.S. presidential election.

We know that there have been serious and ongoing consultations between Israeli and American officials in recent weeks about exactly how Israel should respond to the 200 or so ballistic missiles that rained down on Israel on October 1st.

We know that President Biden has urged Israel to take a proportional response, and Prime Minister Netanyahu did recently say to the president that he did not intend to strike any of Iran's nuclear or oil facilities. Welcome news for the Biden administration as it is looking to avoid a further escalation in the region.

But obviously goes without saying that this is an issue that has been very politically fraught for President Biden and, of course, now Vice President Kamala Harris. For one example, she is campaigning on three different days in the state of Michigan just this week. This state, of course, is home to a sizable Arab American population for whom these kinds of issues could end up being decisive.

MJ Lee, CNN, at the White House.

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FOSTER: Many people assumed it, didn't they? But Kamala Harris says her presidency would not be a continuation of Joe Biden's. MACFARLANE: During the Democratic presidential nominee's first ever sit-down interview with Fox News, Harris stressed that she would bring new ideas and experiences to the White House. The discussion got heated at times, like when host Bret Baier brought up the contentious issue of immigration. Listen.

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BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS HOST: You said repeatedly that the border was secure. When, in your mind, did it start becoming a crisis?

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think we've had a broken immigration system transcending, by the way, Donald Trump's administration even before. Let's all be honest about that. I have no pride in saying that this is a perfect immigration system. I've been clear, I think we all are, that it needs to be fixed.

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FOSTER: The vice president has repeatedly called Trump a threat to democracy and she accused Fox News of whitewashing Trump's most inflammatory remarks, citing the time he called his political rivals the enemy within. And she got pretty fired up.

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HARRIS: He's the one who talks about an enemy within. An enemy within. Talking about the American people. Suggesting he would turn the American military on the American people.

He has repeated it many times. And you and I both know that. And you and I both know that he has talked about turning the American military on the American people. He has talked about going after people who are engaged in peaceful protest. He has talked about locking people up because they disagree with him.

This is a democracy. And in a democracy, the president of the United States, in the United States of America, should be willing to be able to handle criticism without saying he'd lock people up for doing it. And this is what is at stake.

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MACFARLANE: Meanwhile, Donald Trump is still trying to downplay his role in the January 6th insurrection and the deadly impact of those riots during a town hall with the Spanish-language network Univision. Trump said nothing was done wrong that day when his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.

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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: There were no guns down there. We didn't have guns. The others had guns, but we didn't have guns. And when I say we, these are people that walked down. This was a tiny percentage of the overall, which nobody sees and nobody shows. But that was a day of love from the standpoint of the millions -- it's like hundreds of thousands. It could have been the largest group I've ever spoken before. They asked me to speak. I went and I spoke. And I used the term peacefully and patriotically.

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MACFARLANE: Well, does this look peaceful, like a day of love? A reminder that five people died during or as a result of the violent clashes, including a Capitol Police officer who passed away the next day. Many others were arrested and more than 1,200 convicted.

And Trump faces federal criminal election subversion charges to which he has pleaded not guilty.

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Harris, meantime, told voters in the swing state of Pennsylvania that Trump is unfit to be the next president.

FOSTER: CNN's Danny Freeman has the latest messages from both campaigns.

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DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on the trail in battleground Pennsylvania, rallying moderate Republicans, making the case that former President Donald Trump is a threat to democracy.

HARRIS: He who violated the oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, and make no mistake, he who, if given the chance, will violate it again.

FREEMAN (voice-over): All while railing against Trump, who during a Fox News town hall declared he is the father of IVF.

TRUMP: I'm the father of IVF. We really are the party for IVF. We want fertilization, and it's all the way. And the Democrats tried to attack us on it.

HARRIS: I found it to be quite bizarre. Actually, he called himself the father of IVF. And if what he meant is taking responsibility, well, then, yes, he should take responsibility for the fact that one in three women in America lives in a Trump abortion ban state.

FREEMAN (voice-over): During the town hall, meant to win over women voters, Trump also standing by his controversial comments about his opponents.

TRUMP: We have China, we have Russia, we have all these countries. If you have a smart president, they can all be handled. The more difficult are, you know, the Pelosi's, these people, they're so sick, and they're so evil. HARRIS: He considers any American who doesn't support him or bend to his will to be an enemy to our country.

FREEMAN (voice-over): With just 20 days until Election Day, the latest CNN Poll of Polls' average of national surveys shows no clear leader in the race for the White House.

During a Univision town hall airing Wednesday night, Trump refused to back away from his false claims about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio. When asked if he believed that people are eating other people's pets, he responded --

TRUMP: I was just saying what was reported, that's been reported, and eating other things, too, that they're not supposed to be.

FREEMAN: Meanwhile, another sign that the final sprint to Election Day is here. CNN has learned that former first lady Michelle Obama will be hitting the campaign trail on October 29th. She'll be doing a rally in Battleground, Georgia.

Danny Freeman, CNN, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

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FOSTER: Concerns are growing about what a potential Donald Trump victory would mean for the future to Ukraine, and soon President Biden will hold -- well, he'll be heading to Germany to discuss the issue. That story's just ahead.

MACFARLANE: First, the U.S. offers a substantial new military aid package to Ukraine, but it's missing something the country has been pleading for.

FOSTER: And Volodymyr Zelenskyy is hoping to convince Ukraine's allies to back his victory plan. We'll look at why it might be a hard sell.

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MACFARLANE: The U.S. has announced a new $425 million military aid package for Ukraine. On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude to the American people during a phone call with President Joe Biden.

FOSTER: The aid includes armored vehicles, air defense systems and long-range weapons, but does not include permission to strike deep into Russia. President Biden says he'll host a virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group next month to discuss additional assistance for Ukraine.

Meanwhile, President Zelenskyy is trying to convince the EU and NATO to back his victory plan for the war against Russia. He is speaking to lawmakers at the European Council Summit in Brussels before meeting with NATO defense ministers. The cornerstone of the plan, according to Mr. Zelenskyy, is Ukrainian membership in both NATO and the EU, which allies have signaled they're not quite ready to accept in the midst of the war.

On Wednesday, Mr. Zelenskyy presented his plan to Ukrainian lawmakers in Parliament. He says it will provide Ukraine with stronger bargaining tools to use to end the war.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I want to be frank with you on certain behind-closed-door communication with Ukraine. We hear the word talks from our allies much more often than the word justice. Ukraine is open to diplomacy, but to the fair one.

That is why we have the peace formula. It's a guarantee of negotiations without forcing Ukraine to injustice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Clare Sebastian is joining us now to discuss. And Clare, as we were saying just there, at the heart of this victory plan is a, quote, unconditional invite to join NATO, something that, you know, European and NATO members in the past have skirted around the edges on. What has been the response to that and the plan in general?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So I think, look, the victory plan is really a sort of rebranded wish list for Ukraine. It contains some other things. It contains some sweeteners for allies, like the proposal to replace some U.S. troops stationed in Europe with Ukrainian troops after the war, sort of leverage their battlefield experience.

But ultimately, it is a list of basically everything Ukraine wants. And their view is that if all of that was implemented at once, it would force Russia to the negotiation table and strengthen Ukraine's hand once it gets there.

I think that Zelenskyy faces a real uphill battle on this sort of diplomatically. We've seen so far that, you know, when he went to the U.S., he got entangled in partisan politics. The victory plan was sort of described by some who read it as fuzzy and lacking in detail. His four-nation tour of Europe last week didn't yield any concrete results.

And even the NATO Secretary General has not come out with full- throated support for it. Take a listen to what he had to say yesterday.

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MARK RUTTE, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: I will not comment on every element in the plan, but it is, of course, a strong signal from Zelenskyy and his team that they designed this plan, that they are now taking it forward. That doesn't mean that I here can say I support the whole plan. That would be a bit difficult, because there are many issues, of course, you have to understand better, and you will have maybe some different views on particular aspects of the plan.

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SEBASTIAN: I mean, the rhetoric is positive. You know, the Secretary General just arrived for the meeting today and spoke to reporters and said, look, you know, we'll do whatever is needed to make sure Ukraine can prevail, make sure Putin does not get his way. Similar noises from the other leaders arriving also at the summit happening in Brussels today.

But I think from Ukraine's perspective, with Russia obviously inching forward on the eastern front, attacking on multiple fronts, counterattacking in Kursk, continuing with its daily, almost daily drone barrages, these concrete, these sort of rhetorical flourishes that we're hearing from these leaders are simply not enough at this point.

FOSTER: He is getting the long-range weapons, isn't he? But he's not getting permission to use them effectively.

SEBASTIAN: Well, they can use them on occupied territory, right? They've been able to do that since they first started taking delivery of the Storm Shadows and Scout missiles from the U.K. and France and the ATACMS from the U.S. last year.

The problem is that now they're facing all of these aerial attacks. They won't be able to hit the launch sites within Russia. And so far, the Allies have not given permission for that because of the fear, they say, of escalation.

I think that's why the Quad meeting when Biden heads to Europe or arrives in Germany later today will be so crucial because it involves the three countries, the U.K., France and the U.S., who have supplied those long-range missiles.

So it will bring all of them into the room to discuss this, whether or not it will yield results. I think it's still very much up in the air.

MACFARLANE: And a last chance, probably, to engage Biden in person ahead of the U.S. elections in just three weeks' time. So time really is of the essence here. Clare, thank you.

FOSTER: While President Zelenskyy is promoting the so-called victory plan, family members of missing Ukrainian soldiers were rallying in Kyiv. They gathered in Independence Square to demand the release of prisoners of war still held in Russia and the return of the bodies of soldiers who died in Russian occupied territory. Many at the rally believe that Ukraine's government and the country's Allies aren't doing enough and they're skeptical about talk of a victory plan or negotiations.

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SVITLANA CHERNIAK, MOTHER AND SISTER OF KILLED SOLDIERS (through translator): To sit at the peace talks table? Then tell me, what did all those boys die for? They died for our freedom, for us to be independent and not hold hands with the enemy.

To announce peace talks is to give Russia a chance to strengthen and gather forces to attack us again.

PAVLO PLAYAS, PROTESTER (through translator): To be honest, I do not believe that this victory plan will get us closer to the victory any time soon. Everything depends on our soldiers that are crafting this victory and making titanic efforts to make the victory closer.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: And as we were just discussing, President Biden heads to Germany today where he's expected to discuss the future of military aid to Ukraine. Officials tell CNN he's set to hold talks with the leaders of Germany, France and Britain. The talks were originally scheduled for last week but had to be postponed when Hurricane Milton hit the southern U.S.

All four members of the so-called European Quad are the top arms suppliers to Ukraine and their meeting comes less than three weeks, as we were saying before the U.S. presidential election, where the outcome could leave future U.S. and Ukraine aid in limbo.

FOSTER: Now, a legal setback for Trump allies on the election board in the battleground state of Georgia. We'll have details on the judges' ruling just ahead.

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MACFARLANE: Hello and welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. Here are some of the top stories we're following today.

The United States says two of its B-2 bombers targeted five reported weapons storage locations in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says President Joe Biden authorized the strikes to further degrade the Houthis' capability to attack vessels in the Red Sea.

Fans of former One Direction band member Liam Payne gathered outside a Buenos Aires hotel to pay tribute to the singer. Police there say Payne fell from the third floor of a hotel on Wednesday. Payne rose to fame as a teenager in the band, which was formed in 2010 and became a global sensation. He was 31 years old.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Latino voters at a town hall on Wednesday. During the forum hosted by Univision, voters were able to ask the Republican candidate about his policies on such topics as the economy and immigration. The former president has spent months promoting a mass deportation plan if elected.

FOSTER: Kamala Harris is putting some distance between herself and U.S. President Joe Biden during her first sit-down interview with the right-wing network Fox News. The Democratic presidential nominee pushed back against suggestions that she's just more of the same.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BAIER: So, you're not Joe Biden, you're not Donald Trump, but nothing comes to mind that you would do differently?

HARRIS: Let me be very clear. My presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden's presidency and like every new president that comes into office I will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences and fresh and new ideas. I represent a new generation of leadership.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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