Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Israel Says Retaliatory Strike Against Iran is Complete; Beyonce Headlines Harris Campaign Rally in Texas; Trump Arrives Hours Late to Rally After Long Podcast Interview; Washington Post Will Not Endorse a Presidential Candidate. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired October 26, 2024 - 02:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:00:13]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome. I'm Paula Newton, live in New York. And we are following breaking news this hour. You are looking at live pictures of Tehran, where it is now 9:30 in the morning.

Just a few hours ago, Israel carried out a long-expected series of strikes against Iran. Israel says those strikes are now over. And Iran says the attacks were intercepted, causing only limited damage.

This is what the skies over Tehran look like just a short time ago. You can see what appeared to be anti-aircraft fire.

Now, there's no word yet on possible damage or casualties. But Israel says it struck military targets, including missile manufacturing facilities and surface-to-air missile arrays.

Earlier this month, U.S. President Joe Biden spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A senior U.S. official says Biden asked Israel to design a response that would, in fact, deter further attacks against Israel and reduce the risk of escalation.

The Israeli military -- yeah, the Israeli military, if Iran does not respond, says, though, it will be ready. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REAR ADMIRAL DANIEL HAGARI, ISRAELI MILITARY SPOKESMAN: I can now confirm that we have concluded the Israeli response to Iran's attack against Israel. We conducted targeted and precise strikes on military targets in Iran, thwarting immediate threats to the state of Israel. The Israel Defense Forces has fulfilled its mission. If the regime in Iran were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond.

(END VIDEO CLIP) NEWTON: CNN's Ivan Watson joins us now from Hong Kong, where he's been following developments. I mean, Ivan, look, not only was this a measured response on Israel's part, but the IDF, as we just heard, went out of its way to underscore that the operation is now over. I mean, what do you make of what's transpired in the last few hours?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, judging, Paula, by the signaling and the statements that have come out from all the parties involved, that's the Israeli military, the Iranian government, the U.S., the strong supporter and guarantor of security for Israel. This appears to have been a very carefully calibrated act of war. The Israeli military says it carried out a series of bombing raids on what it has described as military targets in Iran. It has then gone on to say that all of its planes were able to successfully return, safely return back to Israel.

Iran has come out with statements on state media saying that there were attacks on military centers in three provinces of Iran, Tehran, Khuzestan and Elam province, and that Iranian anti-aircraft defenses were activated and they succeeded in restricting some of the damage, though we haven't heard of any Israeli warplanes that were shot down. Residents of Tehran, they would have seen some of them.

The skies light up with what appear to have been Iranian air defenses firing up into the predawn skies. We have not heard reports of any civilian casualties to speak of thus yet, or seen any signs of that yet from the Iranian state media. If anything, we've seen scenes of traffic in Tehran moving as usual, a suggestion that, you know, society hasn't been dramatically impacted. That's so far what we're seeing that hasn't happened yet.

There are really remarkable images. If you look at flight radar of the airspace over Iran and then Iraq and Syria to the west of it en route to Israel, that commercial traffic, aerial traffic was completely diverted over the course of this.

Nobody wants a repeat of January 2020 when Iranian air defenses shot down a Ukrainian airliner and killed more than 170 people on board amid tensions with the U.S. at that time. And thankfully, we haven't heard of anything of that kind at this time.

So for now, Paula, this does look like part of a new pattern that has emerged over the course of the last year of Iran and Israel, arch enemies, targeting each other's militaries, and it has not bled so far into the kind of catastrophic civilian casualties that we have seen as a result of Israeli aerial bombardments of Gaza and Lebanon.

Paula.

[02:05:11]

NEWTON: Yeah, as you point out, Ivan, measured response from both sides, both Iran and Israel. Thanks for following those developments, and we'll continue to check in with you.

Gideon Levy is a columnist for Haaretz Newspaper and was an advisor to former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres. He joins us now from Tel Aviv.

And I thank you for joining us this morning. The Israeli response was weeks in coming. It is narrow, defined. Does this surprise you in any way?

GIDEON LEVY, COLUMNIST, HAARETZ NEWSPAPER: In a way, it surprised me, but it is good news for a change. I mean, finally, for a moment, this logic prevails.

And also the American influence finally had some effect, because Israel really went to the most measured operation that one can expect.

There are no information about casualties. It's only military targets. I mean, Israel paid its share in retaliation, and I hope by this it will be over. Now, it depends on the Iranian, but the Iranian also seem to open a new page.

NEWTON: Yeah, and you're right about that. So far, they have gone out of their way, in fact, on state media in saying that so far they're not really trying to point out any damage or anything that's actually gone on there. Of course, they will be very opaque if there was any damage done to those military installations. So we'll wait in the next few hours.

You know, you mentioned something there about the U.S. pressure working. Do you believe they were persuasive here so that they could avoid a larger conflict? Because, you know, I've been reading in the Israeli media, as I'm sure you have as well, that the government of Benjamin Netanyahu was tempted to go further in Iran.

LEVY: Absolutely, and maybe even some political domestic American calculation were there, because we all know that Netanyahu's preference is the election of Donald Trump. And still, in a surprising way, in a clever way, I must say, Netanyahu went for a limited operation. He was asked to wait until after the elections.

This was too much for him. But at least he went to a very limited operation. And this time he listened to the American administration, which is a very rare phenomenon in the last year, I must say. I don't remember one case in which he listened to American advisers or warnings. That's maybe the first time he does so.

NEWTON: And you could tell by the American response that they were ready for this, that they weren't expecting any surprises and that they didn't get any. It seemed that even the press releases from this were basically drafted before this strike. And the U.S. said they expected this to end now in terms of this cycle of escalation.

I want to ask you, though, Gideon, and when we think of the families of the hostages watching all of this unfold, does this now clear the decks for even a possible ceasefire? We had Blinken in the area in the Middle East again for the last few days. There are negotiations on this weekend. If you're the families of the hostages, do you dare to hope?

LEVY: Yesterday I would have answered, you know. Today, when I see signs of logic behavior and rational behavior and some kind of responsibility from the Israeli government, I have some hope because that's really the moment, maybe the last moment, to go for a ceasefire, to go for a deal for releasing the hostages or those who are still alive, obviously.

But knowing the Israeli government, I'm very afraid that the right- wingers within the coalition, it's now Shabbat in Israel, Saturday, they are disconnected. When the Shabbat will be over, you will hear from them, condemnation for the limited operation in Iran and calling for continuous war in Gaza and in Lebanon.

And I just hope that Netanyahu will be devoted enough to continue now, because that's exactly the best timing to go for a ceasefire. Anything which will come now after those achievements, both in Gaza and in Lebanon, will make things much worse.

NEWTON: And we will certainly watch for that response in the next 24 hours. And, of course, everyone thinking, as well as the civilians in Gaza, who have really been waiting for some measure of hope in all of this.

Gideon Levy, thanks. We appreciate it.

Now, for more on this, I want to bring in Mick Ryan. He is retired major general with the Australian Army, and he joins me now from Brisbane, Australia.

[02:10:07]

So, as we've been saying, right, telegraphed, choreographed, perhaps limited in scope given the assessment so far. Here's the question, though. Do you believe Israel diminished Iran's capabilities in any material way, or was this just a response that could not be avoided?

MICK RYAN, MAJOR GENERAL, AUSTRALIAN ARMY (Ret.): Well, I think what they've done is taken a very pragmatic view. I think Israel has balanced it's -- what it feels is a need to retaliate against Iran directly, but also do it in a way that's proportionate. And it's done this by attacking missiles production capabilities, which they would hope that degrades the Iranians' ability to replenish the missiles they've already fired at Israel, as well as supply missiles to the Houthis and Hezbollah.

NEWTON: And that would be a win as far as Israel was concerned. So much of the military brinkmanship, though, as you know better than I, is about deterrence. Do you believe a measure of deterrence with Iran has been restored here?

RYAN: I think so. I mean, Israel ever since 7 October has talked about restoring deterrence against those who are attacking it so desperately. I think that Iran is the kind of country that may not respond when you attack its proxies, but when you attack it directly, it does seem to have a deterrent effect on the regime in Tehran.

NEWTON: Weeks ago, it seemed Israel was headed for a more robust response. I mean, we were just speaking with Gideon Levy, and he was surprised, in fact, that it did seem as if the U.S. had more influence here. I want to talk to you about the -- not just perhaps influence diplomatically, but militarily. The secretary of defense, U.S. secretary of defense, has been quite busy in the region. But also, not just in words, right, in deeds. They have done a lot on the ground to assure Israel that they would be there to defend them.

RYAN: Oh, absolutely. You saw the recent deployment of the Theta (ph) High Altitude Area Defense system, which is a very, very sophisticated system. That was a big decision by the U.S. administration. And hopefully those kind of actions, as well as the words from the U.S. administration, have cautioned the Israeli government to de-escalate the situation and minimize the impact of this attack on Iran.

NEWTON: You know, I'm just reading here, in fact, that now Saudi Arabia has condemned the military targeting of Iran and calls it a violation of its sovereignty. I mean, of course, this is to be expected, regardless of what the relationship has been before between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

I'm wondering now, when we look at the map of the Middle East, because you bring up a good point, Iran had been very active with Arab countries in the region to tell them not to get involved, and more than that, to try and back Iran. Do you believe, though, we are seeing strategic shifts now, especially given, as I said, this choreographed tit-for-tat between Iran and Israel?

RYAN: Well, I don't think we're going to see any major realignments here. Saudi Arabia certainly is no friend of Iran. But, you know, it also will feel domestic pressure to issue some kind of media release condemning an Israeli attack on another country in the region. I don't expect we'll see much more than that from Saudi Arabia or other countries in the region.

NEWTON: OK, Mick Ryan, we will leave it there. Appreciate your analysis.

Now, not everyone gets an introduction like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEYONCE, SINGER: So let's do this! Ladies and gentlemen, please, give a big loud Texas welcome to the next president of the United States, Vice President Kamala Harris.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Straight ahead, why, Beyonce said she wasn't at the Kamala Harris rally as a celebrity, but as a mother.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:18:0]

NEWTON: An update now on this hour's breaking news. Israel has carried out a long-awaited series of strikes against Iran. This is what the skies over Tehran looked and sounded like just a few

hours ago. Now, you can see and hear, of course, what happened to the anti-aircraft fire. The Israeli strikes are retaliation for Iran's missile barrage against Israel on October 1st.

After three waves of strikes over a number of hours, the Israeli military now says the operation is over. There's no definitive word yet on possible damage or casualties, but Iran called that damage limited. Israel says it struck military targets, including missile manufacturing facilities and surface-to-air missile arrays.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump each have 10 days left to convince the voters of America they're the right person to lead the country for the next four years.

Both candidates took their cases to the state of Texas Friday. Superstar and Houston native Beyonce headlined a rally for the Vice President. She was joined by former Destiny's Child bandmate Kelly Rowland.

Now, Queen Bey did not perform at the rally, disappointing many, which focused, though, in part on getting voters galvanized to turn out in support of reproductive rights. The singer told the crowd the time has come for the country to change.

[02:20:07]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEYONCE, SINGER: For all the men and women in this room, and watching around the country, we need you. Your voice has power and magnitude. Your vote is one of the most valuable tools, and we need you. Our generations of loved ones before us are whispering a prophecy, a quest, a calling, an anthem. Our moment right now, it's time for America to sing a new song. Our voices sing a chorus of unity. They sing a song of dignity and opportunity. Are you all ready to add your voice to the new American? Because I am.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Trump, meantime, campaigned in Austin, Texas, before moving on to the battleground state of Michigan, where he criticized Harris for her appearance with one of the world's biggest performers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: She's out partying. So Israel is attacking. We've got a war going on and she's out partying. At least we're working to make America great again. That's what we're doing.

Nobody's in charge. Joe Biden is asleep. Kamala, is it a dance party with Beyonce?

(END VIDEO CLIP) NEWTON: CNN's Alayna Treene is traveling with the former president. But first, our Rosa Flores was there in Houston with the Vice President and, of course, Queen Bey, and has this report for us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the energy here in Houston is electrifying because the star power is Texas size. I'm talking about Beyonce, Queen Bey, in her hometown of H Town.

Now as I look around this stadium, the venue is also Texas sized, I can see that pretty much every seat here has been taken, and this stadium seats about 21,000 people. Now in addition to that, the organizers deployed a floor that meets up to the stage what you would expect during a concert, and I can tell you that there are multiple pens of spectators, and they're standing shoulder to shoulder, standing room only.

Now, if you're wondering why Paris is in Texas when Texas is not a battleground state, you're probably thinking what most people in the United States are thinking. Why? Well, as Kamala Harris continues to create a contrast between what an America under a Harris administration would look like and an America under a Trump administration would look like when it comes to abortion rights, Texas is center stage. Texas is the biggest stage because Texas is one of the states with the strictest abortion bans.

There is -- there are no exceptions for rape or incest in this state, and there's a very narrow exception for life of the mother.

Now it's not just the star power that Harris has brought to Texas, it's also the stories of real women who have been impacted by the lack of abortion care in several states in the United States. Take a listen.

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The reality is, for every story we hear about, about the suffering because of a Trump abortion ban, there are so many stories we've never heard an untold number of women and the people who love them, who are silently suffering, women who are being made to feel as though they did something wrong, as though they are criminals, as though they are alone. And to those women, I say, and I think I speak on behalf of all of us. We see you, and we are here with you.

FLORES: And after Texas, you guessed it, Harris is returning to the battleground state of Michigan.

Rosa Flores, CNN, Houston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On a very chilly evening in Traverse City, Michigan, on Friday, Donald Trump arrived to his event nearly three hours late. Now Trump is normally a bit late to some of his events but that was uncharacteristically late for the former president.

Now, Donald Trump, when he did arrive, he walked out onto the stage to a pretty dark theme song. It was actually known as "The Undertaker," a song for a WWE wrestler. And he stood on stage for roughly seven minutes before Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" played and then he began addressing the crowd.

[02:25:00]

Now, before he took the stage, I will say, hundreds of people had already left because of such a delay. Donald Trump apologized for that once he got to the podium. Take a listen.

TRUMP: We had some other things really important. And I said, you know, we're going to get this stuff done. And my people came to be sure we could cancel our evening event. I'm sure that people wouldn't mind. I said, are you crazy? I'm not canceling. There's no way. I'm not canceling. There's no way. We never even -- so I apologize. But you know, it's all about winning. We got to win and we did some things today that will help us win.

TREENE: Now, the reason Donald Trump was so late, his senior advisers say, is because his interview, he had a scheduled interview with podcaster Joe Rogan on Friday. That went over, way longer than they expected. It lasted roughly three hours and that was taped in Austin, Texas, of course, a roughly three-hour flight to Traverse City, Michigan.

But look, taping with Joe Rogan was very important to Donald Trump's campaign. Not only is he one of the most popular podcasters in the United States, he has roughly 14 million followers on Spotify. But also this is something that they had been working to secure for several months.

Particularly, they really view this as a crowning achievement on their overall strategy this cycle to really try and target not only men but young men and specifically low propensity voters, meaning people who aren't necessarily political. Trying to get them to turn out for Donald Trump.

So that was a huge part of why they were late on Friday. But Donald Trump, of course, apologized to the crowd and then spoke for roughly an hour beyond that.

Alayna Treene, CNN, Traverse City, Michigan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Now, in a major break from recent tradition, "The Washington Post" says it will not endorse a candidate in this year's U.S. presidential election or in the future, for that matter. Its publisher says the decision is, in fact, consistent with its values and a return to the newspaper's roots. It has made an endorsement in every election since the 1980s.

A person with knowledge of the matter told CNN the "Post" editorial page staffers had already drafted an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. But the "Post" said owner Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, made the decision not to endorse.

Robert Kagan, an opinion editor at large at the newspaper, says he resigned over the move.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT KAGAN, FORMER WASHINGTON POST EDITOR-AT-LARGE: It was a pretty easy decision. This is obviously an effort by Jeff Bezos to curry favor with Donald Trump in anticipation of his possible victory. Trump has threatened to go after Bezos' business. Bezos runs one of the largest companies in America. They have tremendously intricate relations with the federal government. They depend on the federal government.

And Trump has made it clear that he will attack media organizations that are critical of him. The "Post" has had no trouble endorsing presidential candidates up until now. And by the way, this argument that they're making that somehow they want to become above it all on this thing, they've endorsed all kinds of candidates in this election season. They endorsed a Democratic nominee in Maryland. They've endorsed other Democratic nominees. So is it just only in the race that Donald Trump happens to be running in that they've decided not to endorse? It's absurd.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Ron Brownstein is a CNN Senior Political Analyst and a Senior Editor at The Atlantic, and he joins us now from Los Angeles.

Ron, we are about 10 days out here. You know, we keep saying it as if it's a cliche, but statistically, poll after poll shows an absolute toss-up. But what do you make of it now?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, you know, what's really striking about the polling showing the race converging at the national level, and, of course, Democrats have won the popular vote in seven of the past eight presidential elections, is that the erosion for Harris relative to Biden's numbers in 2020 is predominantly, overwhelmingly among voters of color, nonwhite voters.

If you look at the two big polls that came out today, CNN and The New York Times-Siena, they had her respectively at 41 to 43% among white voters, which is exactly where the major data sources that we have on the 2020 elections put Biden. The decline is a fairly substantial decline in both polls, not only among Hispanic voters, which is what we've been, you know, dealing with for months, but also among black voters.

And, you know, there are Democrats who are very hopeful that those numbers in these media polls about black voters, which aren't as -- that the samples aren't as big, are wrong and that they're overstating the loss. But one Democrat said to me, you know, what if it's the opposite? What if it's the real problem here is that where the polls are unrealistically showing are holding up with white voters, which is a possibility.

One last point, this demographic pattern, which is so unusual, really sets up the geography. If she is losing support among voters of color to the anywhere near the extent these polls are suggesting, all of the Sun Belt states are very hard. But if she's holding support among white voters to the extent these polls are suggesting the rust belt path of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that would get her exactly to 270 is still open to her.

[02:30:29]

NEWTON: I mean, look, it has been quite a week of rhetoric the f-word as someone called it the f-bomb fascism, you know, fascinating and you can see it online for CNN, we put together a mash-up of the fact that for the last several months it's actually been Donald Trump --

BROWNSTEIN: Oh, yeah.

NEWTON: -- who has uttered that word much more often than Kamala Harris. And yet some of the Trump surrogates have been saying to CNN, look, a lot of people who will vote for Donald Trump are concerned about what he says but they're more concerned about how Kamala Harris will act. Do you think there's any truth in that?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, yeah, I think that's -- I think that's right but the mistake is to assume that this is just about rhetoric or expressing positive feelings about Adolf Hitler or his generals. I think the most important thing that John Kelly, the former four-star marine general who was the chief of staff said in these interviews was that Trump repeatedly during his first term wanted to use the U.S. military on domestic soil against American citizens and was resisted and ultimately blocked in doing that.

And that is so important because Trump has put forward an array of very specific proposals to use the military or the National Guard domestically in a second term. He's talked about sending the National Guard into blue cities to just patrol for crime to round up the homeless, to participate in his mass deportation plan and of course most recently to target in some vague way the enemy from within.

It's really important to understand this is not just offensive rhetoric or kind of rhetorical excesses, this is Trump talking about, you know, using the military in a way that we have not seen through American history. And of course, maybe the most famous example I left out was in the meeting when they were -- when they were meeting in the White House before January 6th and one of the White House counsels said, won't there be massive protests in the cities if Mike Pence overturns the election result. And one of the Trump, the other Trump advisors said, that's what the insurrection act is for, which of course allows the president to use the military domestically. That I think is the real stakes here not who is calling who names.

NEWTON: Yeah, it is such a good point. And again, Donald Trump backed that up in the last few days with what he posted online and continues to say in interviews.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.

NEWTON: In the middle of all this is the media we've had both the LA Times the Washington Post declining to actually endorse a candidate according to CNN's reporting both were to endorse the Vice President. What do you make of the publishers, the owners at this point in time principally Jeff Bezos in the Washington Post apparently shutting this down and saying, look, we're going back to our roots here, we're not endorsing anyone?

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, I think that's a fig leaf. I think they are -- they are clearly making a decision not to antagonize Trump at a moment when his chances of winning seem, you know, maybe 51, 49 in a -- in a coin flip race.

Look every institution in American life I believe has had trouble dealing with what we are facing now. I mean, we have not had, you know, I've said this to you before, not since John Calhoun before the Civil War as the leader of the South have we had the leader of a major faction in American politics who is not committed to the principles of American democracy as we have known it.

And I think institutions from business leaders to the media to civic organizations have struggled to grapple with that. And the media really hasn't done a great job of kind of conveying how out of the historical tradition many of the things Trump is talking about, you know, are. And so I just look at this as the latest example of institutions trying to treat this as a normal moment when it isn't.

NEWTON: Ron, again, as always fascinating 10 days out, appreciate it.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me. Yeah, 10 days.

NEWTON: Israel says it's just completed a series of airstrikes on Iran. We'll have an update on this breaking news with the latest developments. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:39:09]

NEWTON: Israel has carried out a major, long-awaited series of air strikes against Iran. A senior U.S. official says Israel's retaliatory strikes were, quote, "very carefully prepared." And now a senior U.S. administration official says this should be the end of this direct exchange of fire between Israel and Iran. Israel has made clear to the world that its response is now complete.

CNN's Kayla Tausche has more now from the United States with reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: In the aftermath of these strikes, U.S. officials are describing them as the type of proportional response that President Biden and his top aides had been urging the Israelis to carry out in these recent weeks, specifically to limit civilian casualties and to be targeted and precise. U.S. officials this evening describing that wave of strikes as

carefully prepared, limiting civilian casualties, and designed to be effective, with the effect being the degradation of Iran's capabilities of carrying out a future ballistic missile attack and deterrence against any future action.

[02:40:19]

A senior administration officials with a warning for Iran not to respond, suggesting very forcefully that this should be the end of the direct fire exchanged between Israel and Iran, but also saying this, saying, if Iran chooses to respond once again, we will be ready and there will be consequences for Iran once again. We do not want to see this happen. This should be the end of the direct exchange of fire.

The senior administration officials suggesting that there have been multiple channels of communication through which Iran has been made very aware of the U.S.' position and its belief that Israel has a right to defend itself, especially when Iran launches a barrage of ballistic missiles toward densely populated areas, including areas where tens of thousands of Americans live.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Behnam Ben Taleblu is a Senior Fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and he joins us now from Washington.

I want to thank you for being with us as we, you know, continue to try and absorb exactly what's gone on here in the last few hours. I want to start with the Washington reaction, though. They seem to be prepared for this. Do you believe that the U.S. was persuasive in making sure this was somewhat limited?

BEHNAM BEN TALEBLU, SENIOR FELLOW, FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: Well, it's a pleasure to be with you. It's an excellent question because if you had to really talk about right-sizing or fitting the Israeli response with a whole host of political strategies available to the Prime Minister, to Prime Minister Netanyahu, this certainly seems to be like a medium approach.

There is a political signal sent, given the success of the Israeli operation to penetrate Iranian airspace, admittedly with munitions that could be fired from further range. These kind of operations could be scaled up and undetected or undefeated over time. But more importantly, I think it was designed to send a deterrent message, perhaps to defang or handicap some of the regime's long-range strike capabilities, but not going against everything, be it against everything military or everything political. And certainly not with some of those red lines that the Biden administration had drawn quite earlier on in the aftermath of the October 1 ballistic missile barrage, which, as we know, were publicly reported to be not to go after the energy facilities and not to go after the regime's nuclear facilities.

NEWTON: Mm-hmm. You know, and so what now for Iran? It has not really, you know, certainly presented any evidence of any kind of damage that was done. So for now, we can say it's absorbed more strikes from Israel. Its regional proxies, though, are severely diminished. It will now face more Western sanctions. What will the regime be pushing for here in the months to come in terms of an endgame?

TALEBLU: Well, that's also an excellent question because it's likely not a unitary or sole response here. The regime is, again, absorbing this based on semi-official and official media trying to downplay and downsize the Israeli attack, saying that the regime's limited but nonetheless layered air and missile defenses were, quote-unquote, "exceptionally effective" against, you know, defeating and pushing back and against the Israeli strike, saying that the damage is exceptionally minimal.

This could be designed to allow the regime to play a face internally, particularly in the face of a population which has been protesting against it for well over a decade now. But perhaps more importantly, to try to be able to weaponize that non-response as part of a larger kind of Iranian tango, if you will, against Washington to make sure that ultimately Washington is putting the restraining handcuffs on Israel rather than on its adversary, the Islamic Republic of Iran.

And I would be remiss to note that if this wouldn't factor into the regime's nuclear calculations as well, throughout this entire month, we've had multiple hardline pro-Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps media outlets in Iran as well as lawmakers call for revising the country's nuclear doctrine, and this is an area we should keep our eyes on regardless of the Iranian response, but particularly as we move into the lame-duck period with the current U.S. administration.

NEWTON: Yeah, and you bring me very clearly to my next question. As we, you know, think about that, there's certainly been a lot of talk of the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu would like to take Iran and its nuclear program on. Do you believe that he's just in a holding pattern right now, that is, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, until the world learns who the next U.S. president will be?

TALEBLU: Well, I actually think if the Israelis were going to be shaping something politically, it would happen before the U.S. election, and the actor likely to shape something after the U.S. election, before the swearing-in of the next president, would be the Iranians. The Iranians would try to lay the groundwork to control the tone and/or even narrative behind the escalation between November and January, whereas the Israelis could do it, really, as they've had the offensive now since the mid-to-late fall up until November.

[02:45:04]

But I think looking at things through the U.S. electoral lens is necessary but not sufficient. Both the actors here, the Iranians and the Israelis, certainly have their own ideas of how to square the circle and are successful, and as increasingly successful as the Israelis have been militarily. The Iranians are trying to square the circle by winning the game politically, and that might mean tapping into Washington's desire for de-escalation over deterrence.

NEWTON: Mm-hmm, which is something, as I said, that Benjamin Netanyahu has said before, he doesn't want here. He doesn't think it's the right way to deal with Iran.

I do want to talk about the Arab states in the region. They are no doubt weary at this point. Can they bring any more influence to bear now on Iran, on Israel, on Hamas even?

TALEBLU: Well, actually, in the run-up to the Israeli strike, you saw quite a bit of a lightning round, you could say, of direct Iranian bilateral diplomacy by a whole series of visits by the Foreign Minister, Mr. Araghchi, to a whole host of countries, not just in the GCC, not just in the Gulf Cooperation Council, but regionally as well.

You also have the aftermath of the BRICS summit with the Iranian president meeting the Russian president at that summit in Tehran. The goal is to make the Islamic Republic look like it's on the diplomatic offensive here. But if I think we really had to distill each and every one of those bilateral meetings, the goal was to have Tehran threaten one of these partners of the U.S., to be able to spook those partners into amplifying that same desire for de-escalation over deterrence.

So I think there's limited room for many of the Arab states and even limited room for the pro-American order in the region to do anything right now other than be something of a mediator or something of really an intermediary for messages sent between two countries that don't have diplomatic relations, and that, of course, is the U.S. and Iran.

NEWTON: Yeah, and as you said, that's limited ambitions, given the scale of the challenges right now facing the region.

And I'm going to leave it there for now. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

TALEBLU: Thank you.

NEWTON: And we now do turn to the conflict in Gaza, where emergency response officials say at least 26 Palestinians were killed in strikes early Friday in the southern part of that enclave. And in northern Gaza, health authorities claim Israeli forces opened fire in a hospital compound after days of laying siege to the facility. The hospital's director describes the situation as, quote, "truly terrifying." The sources say the facility is in desperate need of aid.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA, DIRECTOR, KAMAL ADWAN HOSPITAL (through translator): We will be facing a humanitarian catastrophe if there is no solution to the situation in the next few coming hours. The hospital will turn into a mass grave. There is a huge number of wounded people, and approximately every hour we lose one of them as a martyr.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: The Secretary of State Antony Blinken held talks with Arab leaders in London Friday, and it comes after his tour of the Middle East this week. Jordan's Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi, told Blinken that ethnic cleansing is taking place in northern Gaza. He also called for a permanent ceasefire in Lebanon as cross-border attacks between Israel and Hezbollah continue to ramp up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AYMAN SAFADI, JORDAN'S FOREIGN MINISTER: As you mentioned, humanitarian situation is really difficult. We look at northern Gaza now where we do see ethnic cleansing taking place, and that has got to stop. In Lebanon, I think the Lebanese government is clear now it wants to implement Resolution 1701, so that should be implemented and save, again, hundreds, thousands of lives that are being killed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Blinken says there's a, quote, "sense of real urgency" in getting to a diplomatic solution in Lebanon.

OK, there's much more to come here on CNN, including a look at undecided voters and the impact they could have on the upcoming vote. Our Senior Data Reporter crunches the numbers. You don't want to miss this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:53:17]

NEWTON: Ten days to go until Election Day in the United States in the race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Yes, it remains tight, very tight.

CNN Senior Data Reporter Harry Enten breaks down the latest voter registration data and examines a surprisingly low number of undecided voters.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: I went back through history. You know I like to go back through history. And I decided all right, 3% of voters undecided at this point. That is the lowest that I could find on record this entire century. I think there's some folks who wonder how could there still be folks who are undecided? But that's actually an extremely low number.

It's half the level that we had at this point in the 2020 campaign. It's a third of the level that we had at this point in the 2016 campaign. But the truth is, Erin, this race is so tight at this particular point that if those 3% go to one candidate or the other, it could change the entire electoral map.

So let's just say they go to Kamala Harris, right? She wins in Pennsylvania. She wins in Michigan. She wins in Wisconsin. She wins in Nevada. She wins in Arizona. She wins in North Carolina. And she wins in Georgia. As we go cruising the USA, she would get, get this, 319 electoral votes.

But of course, Erin, there's no guarantee that they will all go to her. Let's just say that in fact, they go in the other direction. They go in Trump's direction. I'm going to do a neat little trick here. Boom! I changed all these states to red.

And what does that get? If Donald Trump wins up in the Great Lakes, the Southwest and the Southeast, that gets Donald Trump up to 312 electoral votes. So there's still the possibility of a blowout if all the undecideds move in one direction.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Dramatic drone footage captures rare flooding in the Sahara Desert. This is in southeastern Morocco. The country faced intense rain in September, more than four times the normal rainfall, including flash -- included flash flooding that carved lakes, look at that, into the rolling sand dunes and nearly covered palm trees.

[02:55:17]

Now, the Sahara is the world's largest hot desert. It covers an area of northern Africa about the size of the United States.

To baseball now, the Los Angeles Dodgers took game one of the World Series, defeating New York Yankees six to three. The dramatic game went into extra innings and Dodgers fans went wild when Freddie Freeman hit the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history. He even pulled it off while still nursing a sprained right ankle.

The Dodgers are now three wins away from claiming their eighth World Series crown, with game two kicking off in L.A. later today. We'll be watching that.

I'm Paula Newton. Our breaking news coverage continues right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:00:00]