Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Republicans in House of Representatives Vote for Impeachment Inquiry into President Biden; Journalist Visits Hospital Run by United Arab Emirates in Gaza to Interview Civilians Wounded in Ongoing Israeli Invasion. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired December 14, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: For some time. So be careful with what you're taking and don't overdo the dosage. If it's working, let it work, but don't just start ramping up the dose without thinking about it.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: There's a reason your doctor gave you a certain dose, perhaps?

GUPTA: That's right. It's been studied, so use that.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: That works.

HILL: Yes. Sanjay, thank you.

GUPTA: You got it.

HILL: And CNN THIS MORNING continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMIE RASKIN, (D-MD) OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: After 11 months of this, no one can tell us what President Biden's crime was.

REP. JIM MCGOVERN, (D-MA): Do they know their whole impeachment inquiry is a sham and it will evaporate into thin air when people realize what a pathetic joke it is?

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES, (D-NY) HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: The puppet master in chief, Donald Trump, has directed the sycophants to target Joe Biden as part of an effort to undermine President Biden's reelection.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Good morning, everyone. I'm Phil Mattingly in New York. Erica Hill joins me. Poppy is off today. Republicans in the House, well, they are focusing on impeachment, unanimously voting yesterday to launch a formal impeachment inquiry into President Biden despite many of them acknowledging so far there is no proof of high crimes or misdemeanors. HILL: And a big courtroom win for Donald Trump, that's how his

campaign is painting it. A judge temporarily pausing that 2020 election interference case. So how long could the delay last, and ultimately, what could it mean for the 2024 election?

MATTINGLY: And this morning CNN goes inside Gaza as the first western news outlet to gain access and report independently from the war zone. What our Clarissa Ward saw with her own eyes.

This hour of CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

We begin this hour with a CNN exclusive. U.S. intel says nearly half of the 29,000 bombs dropped on Gaza have been so-called dumb bombs. That means they are not precision guided and can pose a greater risk or threat to civilians. This revelation comes after President Biden said Israel had been engaging in, quote, indiscriminate bombing. Today Biden's national security advisor is heading to Israel. The White House says Jake Sullivan will be having, quote, extremely serious conversations with top Israeli officials about reducing the harm to civilians.

HILL: And this morning CNN is going inside Gaza. We will show you a firsthand look at the humanitarian catastrophe, the dire living conditions for hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in that area. CNN's Clarissa Ward joining us now. So Clarissa, what were you able to see? What did you find?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, Erica, we have been trying for many, many weeks now to try to get into Gaza. It has been impossible for us up until Tuesday. We were able to travel inside with some medical volunteers who are working at a newly established, newly built field hospital that has been set up by the United Arab Emirates in the southern part of Gaza. As you know, the southern part of Gaza is now very much the focus of Israel's military operations. That is exacerbating an already dire humanitarian catastrophe and leading to record numbers of civilian casualties as we saw for ourselves.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

WARD (voice over): You don't have to search for tragedy in Gaza. It finds you on every street, strewn with trash and stagnant water, desolate and foreboding.

WARD (on camera): So we have just crossed the border into southern Gaza. This is the first time we have actually been able to get into Gaza since October 7th, and we are now driving to a field hospital that has been set up by the UAE.

WARD (voice over): Up until now, Israel and Egypt have made access for international journalists next to impossible. And you can see why.

WARD (on camera): Since October 7th the Israeli military says it has hit Gaza with more than 22,000 strikes. That, by far, surpasses anything we've seen in modern warfare in terms of intensity and voracity. And we really, honestly are just getting a glimpse of it here.

WARD (voice over): Despite Israel's heavy bombardment, there are people out on streets. A crowd outside a bakery. Where else can they go? Nowhere is safe in Gaza.

DR. ABDULLAH AL-NAQBI, UAE FIELD HOSPITAL: This used to be a stadium.

WARD: Arriving at the Emirate field hospital, we meet Dr. Abdullah Al-Naqbi. No sooner does our tour begin when --

AL-NAQBI: Ambulance.

WARD: And this is what you hear all the time now?

AL-NAQBI: Yes. At least 20 times a day.

WARD: At least 20 times a day?

AL-NAQBI: Maybe more sometimes. I think we have got used to it.

[08:05:03]

WARD: One thing none of the doctors here have gotten used to is the number of children they are treating. The U.N. estimates that some two-thirds of those killed in this round of the conflict have been women and children. Eight-year-old Jenan (ph) was lucky enough to survive a strike on her family home that crushed her femur but spared her immediate family.

HIBA MOHAMMED MUGHARI, MOTHER (through translator): She says she is not in pain, so that's good.

WARD: Her mother, Hiba, was out when it happened. "I went to the hospital to look for her," she says. "And I came here, and I found her here. The doctors told me what happened with her, and I made sure that she's OK. Thank God."

"They bombed the house in front of us and then our home," Jenan (ph) she tells us. "I was sitting next to my grandfather. And my grandfather held me. And my uncle was fine, so he is the one who took us out."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't cry.

WARD: But Dr. Ahmed Almazrouei says it is hard not to.

DR. AHMED ALMAZROUEI, UAE FIELD HOSPITAL: I work with all the people, like adults and children. Something touching you.

WARD: Touches your heart and tests your faith in humanity. As we leave Jenan (ph), Dr. Al-Naqbi comes back with the news of casualties arriving from the strike just 10 minutes earlier.

AL-NAQBI: So just four are stable. Two amputated young male from just the bomb.

WARD (on camera): From the concussive we just heard from the bomb we just heard?

AL-NAQBI: Yes. This is my understanding.

WARD: OK.

AL-NAQBI: They will arrive.

WARD (voice over): A man and a 13-year-old boy are wheeled in, both missing limbs, both in a perilous state. "What's your name? What's your name?" The doctor asks. The notes provided by the paramedics are smeared with blood, the tourniquet improvised with a bandage. Since the field hospital opened less than two weeks ago, it has been inundated with patients, 130 of their 150 beds are already full.

WARD (on camera): So let me understand this. You are now basically the only hospital around that still has some beds?

AL-NAQBI: I guess so, yes. Or maybe I am very sure of that because they are telling me one of the hospitals in a city of 200, they are accommodating 1,000 right now. And the next door hospital, I am not very sure, they say 5,200, maybe 400 to 500 patients. So he called me, he said they have three patients in each bed. Please take in any. Send as many as you can.

WARD: We have been here 15 minutes, and this is already what we're seeing.

AL-NAQBI: And you hear it, you see it.

WARD (voice over): In every bed, another gut punch. Less than two years old, Amir (ph) still doesn't know that his parents and siblings were killed from the strike that disfigured him. "Yesterday he saw a nurse that looked like his father," his aunt Nehaia tells us, "He kept screaming, dad, dad, dad!"

Amir (ph) is still too young to comprehend the horror all around him. But 20-year-old Lama understands it all too well. Ten weeks ago she was studying engineering at university, helping to plan her sister's wedding. Today she is recovering from the amputation of her right leg. Her family followed Israeli military orders and fled from the north to the south, but the house where they were seeking shelter was hit in a strike.

"The world isn't listening to us," she says. "Nobody cares about us. We have been dying for over 60 days, dying from the bombing, and nobody did anything." Words of condemnation delivered in a thin rasp.

But does anyone hear them? Like Grozny, Aleppo, and Mariupol, Gaza will go down as one of the great horrors of modern warfare.

It's getting dark. Time for us to leave, a privilege a vast majority of Gazans do not have.

[08:10:00]

Our brief glimpse from a window on to hell is ending as a new chapter in this ugly conflict unfolds.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WARD (on camera): Now, the death toll in Gaza as a result of Israel's frenzied bombardment currently hovers at roughly 18,000. If you do the maps, extrapolating, as the U.N. says that two-thirds of the casualties, roughly, are civilians, that is about 11,800 civilians who have been killed in just over two months. And to give you a comparison, in the first year of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to an independent research organization, some 7,700 civilians were killed by U.S. forces. In 20 years, in Afghanistan, according to independent research groups, some 12,000 civilians were killed. So in just two months, you're now approaching 12,000 civilians. And that's the same amount who were killed in 20 years during the U.S.'s war in Afghanistan. So this is truly staggering and unprecedented. Phil, Erica?

MATTINGLY: Clarissa, it's an extraordinarily piece because you are taking us, one, in, and two, to the personal stories. They have been difficult, to some degree, to come by because of the conflict and the type of conflict this has been. Your reference in the piece to Grozny, Aleppo, Mariupol. You have covered so many conflict zones, you've covered some of the worst conflicts that have happened in the last several decades, if not longer. How would you compare this to this?

WARD: It's always difficult to compare conflicts. But I would just say it is so striking that the people of Gaza have nowhere they can go, have nowhere that is safe. They are literally being told to move from the north as the north gets bombed. They move to the south, then the south gets bombed. Now they are expected to move to a different area in central Gaza.

And let's be very clear. It is not easy to move around right now in Gaza. We saw almost no cars on the streets. People do not have fuel. People are afraid to try to make road runs because of the risk that that incurs. And so, of course you are seeing a horrific impact not just in terms of the civilian casualties that we talked about, but in terms of the humanitarian crisis. You're talking about malnutrition. You are talking about the spread of preventable diseases. We talked to the doctors who said that they are treating cases of sepsis and patients are nearly dying where these should be straightforward operations that can't be performed. They describe one incident where a man had worms in a wound on his head because there is such a lack of sanitary -- any sanitary environment in which to perform surgeries or operations. So this is a crisis of epic proportions, and the fact that humanitarian aid workers do not have the access that they need just makes it all the more staggering.

One extra point that I really need to make here, Phil, because I think it's important. This was our first time being able to gain access into Gaza. But the journalists in Gaza have been doing heroic, extraordinary work day in, day out, at enormous risk. They have paid such a high price for that. This is the deadliest conflict for journalists that we have seen in decades. More than 60 journalists in Gaza alone have been killed in the last two-and-a-half months. That is according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. So you have a perfect storm here with massive bombardment, an

inability to create safe zones, an inability to get humanitarian access where it's needed, and incredibly brave journalists who are doing everything they can to tell the stories and bring the reality to the world. But the frustration of international journalists who can't get in to try to compliment and supplement their efforts.

HILL: It is remarkable, and such an important picture that you paint of all of those challenges in this moment. I was struck by in that field hospital, so much of what we've talked about has been what is needed in terms of medical supplies, as you just pointed out, and what that can mean. But also the electricity. And there was so much talk about fuel in the beginning, and fuel being needed to run generators at hospitals. That field hospital that you were at, how was it able to operate and to run some of those machines? And is it at risk?

WARD: So, Erica, because that field hospital is operated by the Emirates and because the Emirates have a normalized relationship with Israel, they are able to get supplies in, get fuel in in a way that the vast majority of hospitals in Gaza are not.

[08:15:00]

And even they, face very real challenges, endless bureaucracy, onerous waits at the border trying to get those supplies in.

But what the doctors said is, Gazan hospitals are referring their patients to the Emirati field hospital. They are coming in in a very state of shape. They don't have proper torniquets even, which are a crucial thing in terms of stopping the bleeding. They don't have proper painkillers.

The doctor told us they are needing to give vast doses of painkillers to people who are in extraordinary amounts of excruciating pain, because these hospitals have just had to ration whatever minimal supplies they have.

Also, this field hospital is very close to that border, with Egypt, and so, really they are not a microcosm and they should not give you any reflection or idea what most Gaza hospitals look like.

They are a sort of island and that is why they are getting so many referrals from these other hospitals that are teetering on the brink of collapse, in fact, many of them just had simply collapsed, and are therefore trying to refer as many patients to this field hospital as perfect as possible to try to get them some modicum of decent care.

MATTINGLY: All right, I will continue to be struck by the line no one is listening. It seems like every patient either wanted to say or was saying to you, Clarissa Ward, it is remarkable work and to your point, there are dozens of journalists on the ground there that have lost their lives covering this, there are dozens still there covering it every day who have lost family members and your work coming in and supplementing that, and adding to it is incredibly important. We appreciate your time as always. Thank you. HILL: Biden administration staffers staffers calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, holding a vigil outside the White House. The impact of this growing rift between Israel and the United States.

MATTINGLY: And Russian President Vladimir Putin holding his first end of the year news conference since the Ukraine invasion, what he just said about detained Wall Street Journal reporter, Evan Gershkovich.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:20:41]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN PAUL, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT DIRECTOR: We stand before the White House tonight on the seventh night of Hanukkah, and as we get ready to celebrate Christmas and the winter holidays with our loved ones, to make clear that we cannot stay silent about the atrocities that are continuing in Gaza.

Over 800 of us have signed a letter to the president, vice president and Cabinet members demanding a ceasefire and de-escalation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Current and former Biden administration staffers, they are holding a vigil in front of the White House last night, as you just heard there, urging the president to support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Josh Paul, who resigned from the State Department in October, because he disagreed with the administration's approach to the war was one of the few protesters who actually showed his face.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: I think there's just a blindness to the suffering that the Palestinian people are experiencing on a daily basis. Thanks for the bombardment that we are facilitating, the bonds that we are providing, arms being provided by the people who stand in the building behind us.

I think that's something that we should all be deeply concerned about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: That are coming as the growing dispute between -- the private dispute between President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started to spill more into the public view.

On Tuesday, Biden warning that Israel was losing international support for its campaign against Hamas. He also told donors in Washington that Netanyahu needs to rethink his hardline and his government's hardline approach.

Joining us now to discuss, Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group and G ZERO media. The leverage of the United States has, if they wanted to use it with Israel and the relationship is significant, it would seem.

IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT, EURASIA GROUP: Well, the US is Israel's one stalwart friend on the global stage. You have seen that play out, not just in terms of the military support, but also in the vetoes at the Security Council, when everybody else that matters on the global stage is saying, no, we want an extended humanitarian pause, we want a ceasefire.

And by the way, at the same time, we also want all of the hostages to be released. So, it's not like they're only calling on the Israelis to take action, but the Americans have not done that, they have given the Israeli government room to run in going after and destroying Hamas for months now.

They've been told in return, we've learned lessons, we went too hard. We were too indiscriminate in our bombings in the north. Netanyahu saying that directly to the Biden administration, but that has not led to a significant shift in strategy on the ground, nor significant reduction of Palestinian civilian casualties.

And so increasingly, you are seeing members of the Biden administration and now Biden himself coming out more publicly and saying, you guys really have to start changing tack.

HILL; So we have Jake Sullivan in Israel and you know, and Phil, we are all talking in the break, the real question, then is with Jake Sullivan there today, what does he actually say?

BREMMER: I think he says that this is going to become more uncomfortable for you, sir, publicly, if you just -- it's not just going to be our friends on you privately.

HILL: I mean, how so that when we -- how does it become more uncomfortable? And at what point is that discomfort so much that there is some sort of a change?

BREMMER: Well, the potential for permanent damage to the US-Israel relationship, given opposition on the ground, given the feelings of the American people, especially young people, that is real, and Israel is -- Netanyahu may not care because he is facing an ouster and potential jail time, and that's part of the problem.

But it's not just not Netanyahu, there is a unity war cabinet and Biden needs to be clear that while he is the best friend of the Israeli people, he is not the best friend of Netanyahu, and you'll remember back in 2015, when the JCPOA, the Iranian nuclear deal was being pushed by Obama and Biden, Netanyahu came to Congress and tried to torpedo it undermining the US president.

The US president is treating Netanyahu with so much more respect than Netanyahu ever would have treated an American president, and yet the US is the one that writes the cheques. The US is the far more powerful country.

So I think for example, Biden giving an interview directly to "The Jerusalem Post" and to "Haaretz" splashed all over the front covers that Netanyahu wakes up to and saying here is what we find unacceptable about what your Prime Minister has done and is doing.

The Israeli people have no support for this guy. Why are the Americans providing cover for him? That is -- so far, they've only been criticizing him privately, that can change, and I am certain that Jake is delivering that message.

[08:25:13]

MATTINGLY: But do the Israeli people have, whether they support Netanyahu or not, I think how they feel about him and his government leading up to this moment has become very clear in what you've seen in terms of the interactions that have happened in public.

But the effort itself, in the wake of October 7th made horrors of October 7th, basically saying, what do you want us to do here? We have to get rid of Hamas. They agree with him on that.

BREMMER: Yes, they do.

And if you think about, you know, the people that were killed on October 7th, it wasn't like Israeli settlers hard right wing. I mean, these are some of the most, you know, progressive Israelis out there.

There is a very strong view among the Israeli people that number one, no one on the global stage really cares for them, even after the most unspeakable violence against the Jews, so they have to go and keep going.

But that's very different from the way that they engage in the war fighting, that's also very different to, you know, the fact that there isn't an urgency of timing here.

Israel is vastly more powerful than Hamas, vastly more powerful than Hezbollah, than militarily, right, then their enemies in the region.

And so their ability to -- I mean, they could come out and say, let all of the hostages go, and we can talk about a ceasefire. They've been unwilling to do that, even though the hostages are not about to be all freed. Why not take that position? Why not have more international support?

In the early days after the terrorist attacks, Macron came to Israel and said, We are with you. We see this as a fight just as it was against ISIS, against al-Qaeda, we'll join you in this fight. Why couldn't there have been an effort, multilateralism, like the Americans did with NATO friends, after the invasion of Ukraine, because Netanyahu has been driving this by himself and feels like he can get away with it. That is a problem, right?

And ultimately, that's where the Biden administration is getting itself in trouble because the US is now more isolated globally on this issue, and increasingly divisive challenges on the ground at home than the Russians were when they invaded Ukraine a couple of years ago. That's an extraordinary thing to say, for our top ally in the Middle East.

MATTINGLY: Right.

HILL: Ian Bremmer appreciate it as always, thank you.

BREMMER: See you guys again.

MATTINGLY: Well, a judge pauses Donald Trump's federal election subversion case. What that could mean for the March trial date?

HILL: House Republicans meantime launching an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. One key thing though, not clear, the evidence that he committed high crimes and misdemeanors.

Our next guest though is someone who testified at the impeachment hearings of three different presidents, his take ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)