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Israel & Hamas Announce Last-Minute Extension of Pause; U.S. Officials Urge Israel to Be More Precise with Airstrikes; Henry Kissinger, Dead at 100, Remembered; Johnson: 'Real Reservations' About Expelling Santos. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired November 30, 2023 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:20]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Phil Mattingly with Erica Hill. Poppy is off today.

And we have major news breaking overnight on this Thursday, November 30. Israel and Hamas clinching a last-minute deal to extend that pause in fighting for one more day: same terms, living hostages in exchange for a day without military action.

But new this morning: At least three people are dead, six others are wounded in Jerusalem after police say Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a bus stop.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: And Henry Kissinger is dead at the age of 100. The polarizing former secretary of state reshaped American diplomacy and the world during the Cold War and beyond.

MATTINGLY: And in two hours, scandal-plagued Congressman George Santos is set to speak from the steps of the Capitol ahead of tomorrow's planned expulsion vote. But he isn't packing his bags just yet. The House Speaker says he has, quote, "real reservations" about showing Santos the door.

CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

You can see it there in that video, the big smile, the wave from 73- year-old Irina Tati, one of the 16 hostages just released by Hamas.

One hundred and two hostages have been released or recovered so far. Israel believes there were 145 people taken on October 7th still in Gaza. And today, we're expecting ten more women and children to be freed. The fragile pause stands for now.

The big question, how long will this last? What happens at midnight? This one-day deal came down to the wire, extended just minutes before the pause was set to expire.

HILL: Israel, for its part, is insisting that the terms for this and any future deal must remain the same: ten living hostages in exchange for another day of the pause.

Here's a senior adviser to the Israeli prime minister, just moments after that extension was announced.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK REGEV, SENIOR NETANYAHU ADVISOR: If Hamas releases ten Israelis, that means the pause can continue. We won't play games here. We're not going to play games with the lives of our people. Hamas knows what the parameters of the deal are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So earlier Hamas says it had offered a different deal: seven women and children -- hostages -- and the bodies of three more hostages. Israel, though, did reject that deal. It also raises some serious questions this morning about how much longer this pause can actually be extended.

MATTINGLY: We start this morning with CNN chief global affairs correspondent Matthew Chance. He is live in Tel Aviv. Matthew, 18 more hours for the pause as it stands now. What happens next here?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, hopefully, there will be a further negotiation -- I'm sure they're underway right now -- to agree, another pause and another release of Israeli hostages.

You just saw there Mark Regev, the spokesperson for the Israeli government, is saying there needs to be ten living Israeli hostages released in exchange for a single day's pause and the release of Palestinian prisoners and the influx of aid relief into the Gaza Strip, as well.

That's continuing now for a seventh consecutive day. Israel says it's received a list of hostages from Hamas by the mediators in Qatar and -- and elsewhere. And so the preparations are underway for an exchange along the lines that we've seen for the past six -- six days.

But the fact that Hamas says Israel rejected that offer of seven hostages plus three bodies, you know, gives us pause for thought, and it sort of implies, doesn't it, that Hamas may be finding it difficult to gather women and children who are alive to -- to exchange for prisoners and to pass over back to Israel.

It doesn't mean, of course, all of them are dead. We know for a fact, according to Israeli officials, that some of the hostages that are -- that are kept in Gaza are not with Hamas. They're with other Palestinian groups, criminal gangs, as well, or with families.

And so it's a logistical obstacle for Hamas to try and gather these people across the Gaza Strip and bring them to a point where they can be handed over. So that's an issue.

But nevertheless, you know, we're looking at how fragile, as well, this -- this ceasefire or this temporary truce continues to be. They've agreed this one extension.

But every day now, the Israeli cabinet will be looking at whether they want to extend, whether there's enough reason to extend the pause for another day.

[06:00:07]

But at any moment, according to Israeli officials, hostilities or the combat, the warfare in the Gaza Strip may start up once again.

HILL: Yes, it is all so tenuous. So delicate.

Matthew, I also wanted to ask you, breaking overnight, we've learned at least three people were killed, six injured after police say Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a bus stop in the Eastern part of Jerusalem near the West Bank. I know we have some video, I think, too. You can see someone here being taken away on a stretcher.

This happened just hours after the IDF killed four people, including two children, in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin. We do have more of that video we're going to show. Can you tell us more about what happened in these incidents, Matthew?

CHANCE: Yes, well, this is all part of the real upsurge in violence that's been taking place elsewhere in the region -- in the West Bank, in East Jerusalem, as well -- where we've seen clashes between Israeli forces, Palestinians, in various locations.

This latest iteration taking place in Jerusalem, where two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at what seems to be a bus stop, killing at least three Israelis, injuring six others.

Passers-by, some of them sort of off-duty military personnel, opened fire on the Palestinian gunmen, killed -- killed two of them as they were trying to get back into their car and run away.

Very compelling closed-circuit television footage of that incident taking place.

But it just underlines the tensions that are now -- you know, have been sort of simmering for a long time and are now boiling over as a result of the -- the ongoing Israeli campaign in -- in the Gaza Strip and, of course, the military operations that are continuing elsewhere, as well.

HILL: Matthew Chance, appreciate it. Thank you -- Phil.

MATTINGLY: Well, right now Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Israel, meeting behind closed doors with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others about getting hostages out and about what comes next.

The meetings come as the White House and Israel are working to figure out how to protect civilians in Gaza, particularly in Southern Gaza once the pause ends.

We're going to show you what Khan Younis looks like right now from the back of a donkey cart. The landscape is shattered.

And remember: Khan Younis is in the South. That's where the IDF told people to flee earlier in the war. But now the U.S. is pressing Israel to move those civilians out of the way if they're going to restart military operations in the South and to make those strikes more targeted and more precise.

CNN's M.J. Lee joins us from the White House.

M.J., you have great behind-the-scenes reporting here, but just to show people what we're talking about before I get to you, this is a satellite analysis of damage in Gaza from October 5 through November 22.

And you will see up here in the North, where operations from the IDF have been centered, the scale of the damage of the strikes over the course of both the air campaign, the artillery campaign but also the ground campaign have been significant.

That was why the IDF told Gazan -- people living in Gaza to head towards the South, past this dividing line into the area near Khan Younis. If you look down there, there's significantly fewer strikes, less damage despite the fact that there have been strikes.

So M.J., I guess the question right now is, given these behind-the- scenes conversations that have been ongoing, do administration officials believe they have the leverage with Israeli officials that they will listen?

M.J. LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I mean, we'll ultimately end up seeing whether that ends up being the case.

But what we do know is that these active conversations are ongoing between U.S. and Israel about what Israel's military operations will look like once this current truce is over.

The president and his top aides are telling his counterparts that they don't want to see the IDF replicate the massive air campaign that we saw up in the North once they are ready to turn to the South.

And one of the ideas, we are told, that is being discussed is the idea of moving some of the civilians that fled South earlier in the war back up to the North.

Now, this would be once the military operations up in Northern Gaza have concluded.

But I think, Phil, you just showed, in such a vivid way, why this would be such a significant challenge, given that so much of Northern Gaza, so many parts of that region, has been completely decimated.

And this is actually one of the major reasons why U.S. officials are so keen on seeing humanitarian aid, not just flow into Gaza but Northern Gaza in particular.

Now, Israel has, of course, made clear that it isn't done in Northern Gaza but that it does intend to eventually turn to Southern Gaza. And one reason, we are told, is that there is intelligence that shows that Hamas leadership had fled South, as well. MATTINGLY: Yes. It's a great point. And it really underscores a couple

elements here. That this is military operations that would be designed to go after that leadership.

[06:10:02]

But also from the U.S. perspective, part of the concern is not just the fact that there's more than a million people that have fled to the South, overcrowded facilities, aid a huge problem; but also that the aid comes in from down here in the South through Egypt, through the Rafah crossing.

I also, though, want to know. This isn't all happening in a vacuum. There are very real domestic political considerations in these behind- the-scenes talks.

Israel remains a divisive issue inside the Democratic Party, inside the Senate Democratic Caucus at a time when Biden needs all the support he can get. How's he navigating this right now?

LEE: Yes, I mean, there are so many reasons, Phil, this is so complicated for the president here, domestically, back at home. Of course, there are divisions in his own party about just how to support Israel, how much to support Israel.

And we're seeing that play out in Congress right now as lawmakers debate the issue of aid for Israel, some members saying it needs to be conditional based on humanitarian provisions.

This is something that we're seeing play out as a tension, as there is a desire to end this war as quickly as possible, but also continue supporting Israel and its sort of stated mission of eradicating Hamas, making sure that it can never do again what happened on October 7th.

So I think this is why we're starting to see a little bit more emphasis coming from the White House on talking about what post-war Gaza looks like.

But one thing that is clear is that the White House clearly sees that the next -- next phase of this war, once the truce is over, has to be different -- Phil.

MATTINGLY: All right. M.J. Lee, rolling out great reporting almost hourly over the course of the last several days from the White House North lawn, thank you.

HILL: George Santos' time in Congress could be running out. He's set to respond to the looming expulsion vote, as House Speaker Mike Johnson explains why he's so hesitant to kick Santos out.

MATTINGLY: And more tributes overnight for Henry Kissinger: how presidents from here to China are remembering the famed diplomat.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:15:42] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I think Kissinger really set the standard for everyone who followed in -- in this job. Few people were better students of history. Even fewer people did more to shape history than Henry Kissinger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Secretary of State Antony Blinken this morning honoring one of the most influential diplomats in American history: former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, who died at the age of 100.

His influence can be felt in policy from Vietnam to the Middle East to China. He helped orchestrate President Richard Nixon's historic visit in 1972. Kissinger last visited July -- last visited China, rather, in July.

CNN's Richard Roth has a look back at his controversial legacy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD M. NIXON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know all of you will want to hear from the new secretary of state.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Henry Kissinger never really needed an introduction on the world stage again. Kissinger, the most famous statesman of the last half of the 20th Century. Celebrated and controversial.

As Richard Nixon's national security adviser and secretary of state, the diplomat wielded enormous power and influence. So trusted that it was Kissinger who went to China on a secret mission to explore a historic opening of U.S. relations with communist China.

HENRY KISSINGER, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Whoever went would be alone in Beijing with no communication, and therefore, if he didn't know Nixon's mind, he might do foolish things.

ROTH (voice-over): Initially, there were fears a U.S./China ping-pong exchange match would affect the high-stakes political gambit.

KISSINGER: Every once in a while something happens in diplomacy, which transcends the drafting of cables.

ROTH (voice-over): Vietnam. Casualties mounted as the Vietnamese gained territory. Nixon and an undiplomatic Kissinger thought more bombing of the North would help.

KISSINGER: I would then recommend that we start bombing the bejeezus out of them within 48 hours.

ROTH (voice-over): Kissinger approved secret bombings of North Vietnamese units in Cambodia without congressional approval. He would say sometimes statesman have to choose among evils, moral compromises, in messy conflicts. Kissinger and his Vietnamese counterpart, Le Duc Tho, were awarded the

Nobel Peace Prize for their role in negotiating a ceasefire.

KISSINGER: I have to say, I have never dealt with a group of people as treacherous as the North Vietnamese leadership.

ROTH (voice-over): Kissinger insisted trouble on the home front hurt chances to succeed in Vietnam.

KISSINGER: We lost the war because we were divided, and also because we were too uncertain about what we wanted.

ROTH (voice-over): Kissinger's support for a coup in Chile, and pro- U.S. military strongmen in other parts of the world, drew criticism.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Arrest Henry Kissinger for war crimes!

ROTH (voice-over): Kissinger's legacy would be contested decades later when he testified in Congress at the age of 91.

Kissinger grew up in Germany with war clouds are swirling. His family fled when he was 15.

KISSINGER: Half of the people I went to school with and about 13 members of my own family died in concentration camps.

ROTH (voice-over): A Jewish secretary of state who would later listen to his president criticize American-Jewish leaders.

NIXON: It's about goddamn time that the Jew in America realizes he's an American first and a Jew second.

KISSINGER: Well, I couldn't agree more.

I only heard antisemitic comments when some Jewish group would attack him for something he had done.

ROTH (voice-over): In the Middle East, Kissinger performed what came to be known as shuttle diplomacy to separate Israeli and Arab forces, setting the stage for future peace accords.

When Nixon resigned as president, Kissinger stayed on as Gerald Ford's secretary of state, his opinion still widely sought after by governments and businesses after leaving public office.

KISSINGER: You want to leave your country better off than you found it, and there's nothing in private life you can do that's as interesting and as fulfilling.

ROTH (voice-over): There was one job Kissinger said he never got to do in his life, a sports announcer.

KISSINGER: Derek who?

ROTH (voice-over): However, the globe-trotting diplomat did star in some of history's biggest games. (END VIDEOTAPE)

[06:20:03]

HILL: Former President George W. Bush, who of course, is an avid painter, honored Kissinger by releasing this portrait, calling him one of the most distinctive voices in foreign affairs and thanking Kissinger for his friendship.

MATTINGLY: Let's bring in CNN presidential historian and the former director of the Nixon Presidential Library, Tim Naftali.

Tim, we always appreciate your perspective. It is so striking. Erica mentioned that he was over meeting with President Xi Jinping just a couple of months ago.

Mike turner, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said he was up in New York, meeting with Henry Kissinger in September. He shaped history; that is unequivocally the case. But he continued to after he was out of government. What's his legacy?

TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, with Richard Nixon, he created a structure, a complicated structure, and achieved a detente with the Soviet Union and an opening with China as a way of -- of buffering the fact the United States was going to withdraw from Southeast Asia.

Kissinger's great concern was that the United States would -- its influence would collapse as a super power as a result of the fact that the United States had to get out of Vietnam.

So with Nixon, he designed this structure, and it continues to influence us to this day, as our relationship with China is extremely controversial. That relationship is built on the foundations set in place by Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger.

HILL: There is, and rightfully so, such a focus on what he did shape because of his role in a professional capacity. But there are also a number of fascinating anecdotes about him in a personal capacity. Even this -- this quote that stood out to me overnight, saying at one point, "The nice thing about being a celebrity is, if you bore people, they think it's your fault," he once quipped.

He spent time at Studio 54.

NAFTALI: Henry Kissinger loved the limelight. He -- he loved being the center of -- on the stage, the world stage, and other stages, too. He was perfectly adept at charming those who interacted with him. He got very good press, unlike Richard Nixon, who really didn't like to interact with people, which actually created a tension between Nixon and Kissinger, which you can hear on the tapes.

Yes, Kissinger liked the fact and knew that he was the center of attention. He was not some retiring professor. He was a professor who loved theater. MATTINGLY: Tim Naftali, we always appreciate your expertise. There's a

million things you can get into here, a very complicated and at some level divisive career, but one that undeniably has shaped history for decades.

We appreciate it, Tim. Thank you.

NAFTALI: Thank you.

HILL: The head of America's biggest bank seems to be all in on Nikki Haley, and he wants a surprising group to join him in supporting her.

MATTINGLY: And Elon Musk lashes out at advertisers who fled his platform, X. He has three words for them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELON MUSK, ENTREPRENEUR: Go (EXPLETIVE DELETED) yourself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:26:42]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. GEORGE SANTOS (R-NY): This is the third time we're going through this. I don't care.

I was sent here by the people of the 3rd District of New York. I represent them, not the political class in Washington, D.C. They want to send me home, if they think this was a fair process; if they think this is how it should be done; and if they're confident that this is the constitutional way of doing it, God bless their hearts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it inevitable it happens?

SANTOS: Excuse me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: That was Congressman George Santos. He's vowing to fight for his political life. In just two hours the New York Republican is expected to speak on the steps of the Capitol before tomorrow's expected expulsion vote.

HILL: And this comes, of course, after a scathing Ethics Committee report detailed his alleged use -- misuse, rather -- of campaign funds on Airbnb; personal credit card debt; purchases at Hermes, Sephora and OnlyFans.

He also faces federal criminal charges.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, though, is concerned that expelling Santos could set a troubling standard in Congress. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): We're going to allow people to vote their conscience. I think it's the only appropriate thing we can do.

We've not whipped the vote, and we wouldn't. I trust that people will make that decision thoughtfully and in good faith.

I personally have real reservations about doing this. I'm -- I'm concerned about a precedent that may be set for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Joining us now, CNN senior political analyst John Avlon; CNN political analyst and historian, Leah Rigueur; and CNN congressional correspondent Jessica Dean.

First, I want to start with the durability of just the mention of George Santos and OnlyFans making everybody in our studio crack up every single time it happens.

HILL: It's the gift that keeps on giving.

MATTINGLY: I appreciate that.

HILL: Yes.

MATTINGLY: Jess, let me start with you. I'm not sure what I expected from the speaker yesterday. He has a very slim majority.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

MATTINGLY: There are a number of reasons why you wouldn't want to lose one of your members. However, were you surprised, given the ethics report?

DEAN: Well, the ethics report was so damning, right? And it came out, and in the end -- I am paraphrasing here -- but it essentially said that George Santos used every single angle of all of this to further his personal financial situation, and it was very clear.

So in a way, it gives some Republican members cover now who previously didn't feel comfortable, who said they were waiting on the ethics investigation, et cetera, et cetera, to vote to expel him.

However, to your point, Mike Johnson says he's not whipping the vote. He has reservations about what kind of precedent this might set. So it is -- it will be interesting to see who goes where when this vote actually happens.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST/ANCHOR: Yes.

HILL: Reservations. There's also the reality of what would be an even smaller margin.

AVLON: Yes, that -- HILL: There's also a big fundraiser happening in New York --

AVLON: Yes.

HILL: -- in a matter of days. All of these things could be at play here.

AVLON: All of these things are interplayed. Look, I think the issue is not so much concern about precedent. That was a reasonable argument, particularly before we had et ethics report. But it's really about partisan margins.

And part of the Republican Party's, you know, continuing debate within itself is how much crazier are we going to tolerate to have narrow partisan margins in place?

You know, the New York Republicans don't want George Santos to be the face of the New York Republican Party. He is. The combination of Trump and Santos is the larger problem.

And I just want to emphasize one thing as you hear him sort of whinge and complain. George Santos is not a victim, right? He perpetrated fraud upon his constituents by lying about every single aspect of his life and biography, and then treating his campaign like a grift.

[06:30:00]