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Israel Strikes Inside Iran As Region Braces For Escalation; Johnson Pushes Foreign Aid Bill Despite Threats Of Ouster; Soon: Blinken To Speak After Israel's Strike On Iran. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired April 19, 2024 - 05:30   ET

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

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[05:31:42]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, a dangerous escalation in the Middle East. Israel carrying out a retaliatory military strike inside Iran. Three explosions were heard near a major military air base near the Iranian city of Isfahan. Right now, the Israeli military is not commenting on the strikes.

Sources tell CNN the U.S. was given advance notice of the strike and did not endorse it. Earlier, Iran's foreign minister told CNN that any retaliation by Israel would be by a response that is "immediate at a maximum level."

Joining me now is CNN military analyst Col. Cedric Leighton.

Colonel Leighton -- I mean, this was starting to flare up as probably you and I were trying to go to bed last night, and we woke up to things not spiraling out of control. So, I mean, where do things stand at this point?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST, FORMER MEMBER OF JOINT STAFF AT PENGATON, FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR TRAINING, NSA: So, that's a really great question, Jim --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

LEIGHTON: -- because I think what we're looking at here is each side is posturing. They're doing certain things. And, yes, there is -- there's a possibility of death and destruction --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

LEIGHTON: -- with these kinds of actions. But the problem that each side has is they have to placate internal constituencies and they've got militaries that are actually wanting to go after the other side. And so, they are doing these things in a way that is somewhat escalatory, but it's escalatory with a certain limit to it.

Iran -- when it struck, it did hit an Israeli airbase. It happens to be the airbase where the F-35s are based.

ACOSTA: Right. LEIGHTON: Three squadrons of them.

And then you also have on the Iranian side, the Israeli strike seems to have gone after either an airbase or some other military installations around Isfahan. And that base is where the old F-14s are at, which is also shared, by the way, by the civil airbase -- civil -- excuse me, the civil airport in Isfahan. And so, those runways could have an impact if they are cratered. They could have an impact not just on military aviation but also on civil aviation.

ACOSTA: Well -- and one thing that we saw this past weekend is that obviously, the Iranians have the capability to respond and they could try to do something in the same vein that we saw last weekend with those missiles, and drones, and so on going towards Israel.

But what do we know about Iran's military capabilities? I mean, there is a lot of speculation that what we saw last weekend was calculated in a way that they knew that much of this was going to get intercepted and it wasn't going to inflict major damage, and that was maybe part of their calculus. That might be reading into things too much.

But could -- is it possible that they could unleash something that's far more fierce than what we saw last weekend?

LEIGHTON: It's definitely possible. And we have to remember that they did telegraph what they were going to do, at least through Turkish and other intermediaries to the U.S. So there was a degree of preparation that not only Israel had but the U.S. and Britain and France, as well as Arab countries.

The next phase might be a situation where there's no such pre-warning -- and if that's the case, that's completely different. But regardless, Israel still has a far more advanced air defense system than Iran and these attacks have proved that. Basically, the Iranian attack on Israel showed that the Israeli air defense system, with a little help from its friends, was able to really keep things in check in a remarkable fashion. When you hit 99 percent of the incoming missiles and drones out of the sky, that's a major impact.

[05:35:00]

On the other hand, when you look at how the Israeli strike seems to have worked in Iran -- and it's a bit early to assess this fully --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

LEIGHTON: But when you look at that, it seems as if Israel was very easily able to penetrate Iranian air defenses. When they talked about the Iranians being able to turn on their air defense system that seems to almost have been after the fact. After Israeli missiles penetrated Iranian airspace.

ACOSTA: And -- I mean, and I guess one -- I guess signal we're getting this morning is that the Iranians are not hyperventilating over this. It doesn't seem like they're doing that. But also -- I mean, what do you make of the fact that our source is

telling us that the U.S. was given advanced notice but did not endorse it?

LEIGHTON: So this is in line -- it seems to be in line with what President Biden is reportedly telling the Israelis, which is we will not support any offensive operations against Iran. So there's a dance going on between Iran and the United States in all of this as well.

ACOSTA: Yeah.

LEIGHTON: And there seems to be somewhat of a rapprochement going on on the diplomatic side between the Iranians and the Americans. And that is something where the Israelis have to kind of watch what they do because they -- if they're thinking rationally, they should not want to destroy that effort, even if it's a very small and really early stages effort.

ACOSTA: Yeah. Because prior to last week -- and, I mean, things were really coming to a head between --

LEIGHTON: Yeah.

ACOSTA: -- the president and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

And I guess, Col. Leighton, what do you make of the fact that -- I mean, in the history of the tensions between the Israelis and the Iranians, they haven't -- up until this past week, they had not struck each other inside each other's territory. That has now changed.

LEIGHTON: That's right, and so --

ACOSTA: And that really -- I mean, things might be simmering down this morning but you can't put that to the side. I mean, that is -- we've now gone over that edge.

LEIGHTON: Yes.

ACOSTA: Yeah.

LEIGHTON: That edge is a key edge, actually.

ACOSTA: Yeah.

LEIGHTON: And while certain tensions seem to be dissipating to some extent, the real problem is that there are tensions that have never gone away and they will not go away unless there's some major breakthrough between all of the parties involved -- all of the countries involved. And that's -- I don't think we're going to see that soon but there are certain possibilities that could dampen some of the order and efforts to retaliate from one side to the other. So maybe, the ladder of escalation is not going to reach the top rung but it's still going to be there.

And the other thing to think about is a lot of what we're dealing with would be things like attacks that could happen that are not kinetics. Things like cyberattacks.

ACOSTA: Yeah.

LEIGHTON: All of that kind of stuff is definitely possible and will happen in a way that won't make headlines -- at least not initially.

ACOSTA: Yeah. I mean, you just have to wonder can both sides let things cool down so it doesn't spiral out of control further.

One last question on Ukraine. Obviously, we might see these aid bills get through the House at least. We're not sure what's going to happen over in the Senate.

But what is your sense of it? I mean, if this aid -- I mean, we've talked about this many times, you and I. When aid gets delayed to Ukraine there's a -- there's a consequence out on the battlefield in Ukraine. I suppose that might be the case this time around as well. And if things really go downhill and they -- you can't get this aid out of the House and out of the Senate, there is going to -- there are going to be real consequences for the Ukrainians.

LEIGHTON: Yeah.

ACOSTA: Yeah.

LEIGHTON: If the aid doesn't pass either the House or the Senate, then it's going to be a disaster. Because the Ukrainians have reached their basic limit in terms of the weapons that they have -- the armaments that they have. And what they're doing is remarkable with almost nothing.

ACOSTA: Yeah.

LEIGHTON: But you can't hold the line if you don't have the means to do so, and that's what we're dealing with. We're dealing with a situation where the Ukrainians were able to do many things that were quite good. Then they stalled in their last effort to do a counteroffensive and that -- the fact that they stalled out, there are a lot of reasons for that, none of them pretty.

But that has created this dynamic where, in essence, we're dealing with a war of attrition, at least on the ground level in the eastern and southern fronts, and that is a problem for Ukraine.

ACOSTA: All right, Col. Leighton. As always, thank you very much. Let's talk further about this.

Joining me now, Jackie Kucinich, CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief for The Boston Globe. And, Nicholas Johnston, publisher of Axios. Guys, good morning.

NICHOLAS JOHNSTON, PUBLISHER, AXIOS: Good morning.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE BOSTON GLOBE: Good morning.

ACOSTA: Thanks for coming up at this hour.

Just to jump off of what Col. Leighton was saying a few moments ago, Jackie -- I mean, the speaker is going to have to rely on Democrats --

KUCINICH: Right.

ACOSTA: -- it seems, to get this done. A bit of an unholy alliance. But what do you think? Do we think we're going to see this get done this weekend?

KUCINICH: I mean, it's certainly --

ACOSTA: I don't want to make you make a prediction --

KUCINICH: I mean, no.

ACOSTA: -- at this hour -- but, yeah.

KUCINICH: And you know what I've learned, particularly this particular House of Representatives, you don't make predictions --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

KUCINICH: -- because something can always go sideways.

But, Nick and I were talking in the green room just about how unusual that Rules Committee vote -- I know it's nitty gritty.

ACOSTA: Yeah.

KUCINICH: But usually, that is the speaker's committee. That -- what they do -- what the speaker says, they do. And the fact that --

[05:40:02]

ACOSTA: Right.

KUCINICH: -- you had to have Democrats bail him out on this is just truly remarkable, and that's exactly what conservatives don't want.

And listen, this motion to vacate -- this procedural measure --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

KUCINICH: -- that can jettison him -- the minute that Kevin McCarthy agreed to that one vote -- to the one vote trigger for that --

ACOSTA: Right.

KUCINICH: -- it completely disempowered the speaker and you can see how we got here.

ACOSTA: Yeah. I mean, and that's going to play out yet again in this process.

JOHNSTON: Do you mean, like, when will that come back -- ACOSTA: Yeah.

JOHNSTON: -- to the floor? I think Jackie's --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

JOHNSTON: -- point is really great. Like, we're former Hill reporters. We racked our brains and we could not remember a single time where the majority had to rely on the minority. Did not get a rule passed against a rule out of committee passed.

Now, I know this sounds very inside baseball and arcane, but the reason the House is not the Senate is because the speaker controls the Rules Committee. Kevin McCarthy gave that away. Kevin McCarthy paid the price for it --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

JOHNSTON: -- and it looks like Speaker Johnson is going to pay the price as well.

ACOSTA: Yeah. And what is happening inside these forces that we saw throw Kevin McCarthy overboard the last time around? It seems as though there's some hesitancy to do this yet again.

But at the same time, you have Marjorie Taylor Greene going out to the cameras and saying I've got more people coming on board.

What do we know?

KUCINICH: This is a power struggle.

ACOSTA: Yeah.

KUCINICH: This is an internal power struggle.

And I think one of the other more remarkable, sort of unmentioned pieces of this is you did have Speaker Johnson meet with the former president -- former President Donald Trump --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

KUCINICH: -- to try -- I mean, to really try to get him in his corner. And even Kevin McCarthy had the former president in his corner. Remember, he was making calls --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

KUCINICH: -- trying to keep -- trying to keep him in power. That train seems to have left the station. It seems like that even he doesn't have the power to make sure that a speaker -- a very friendly speaker to the former president -- stays in power because these conservatives want what they want and they have a speaker with absolutely no power and they think they can get it.

ACOSTA: Well, yeah. I mean -- I mean, Trump was asked about this, what, yesterday or the day before --

KUCINICH: And we'll see what happens.

ACOSTA: -- and we'll see what happens. And this was just a few days after he -- Mike Johnson went down to Mar-a-Lago --

JOHNSTON: Yeah.

ACOSTA: -- and had an election integrity event with Trump at Mar-a- Lago. I mean, wow.

JOHNSTON: I mean, it speaks to just the --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

JOHNSTON: -- unruly nature of that entire conference.

ACOSTA: Yeah.

JOHNSTON: Like, people don't fear anything. There's no retribution. You can vote against your leader in the Rules Committee. You can say you're going to depose your speaker on the floor of the House. And what can you do about it? Like, usually, those people would be drummed out of Congress. They'd be thrown off committees. There would actually be punishments for this.

But I think it's just shown that the speaker is so diminished now recently and there is nothing he can do about that. And so, a lot of these hardliners are free to say, like, you know what -- we're not going to go along with you --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

JOHNSTON: -- anymore. And that makes the House completely unruly and it says a lot of old-line Republicans are just throwing up their hands.

When we talk to them on the Hill they're just exasperated recently. I don't even know how to do this.

KUCINICH: Or they're retiring.

JOHNSTON: Yeah, they're just quitting.

ACOSTA: They're leaving and their staffs are leaving, too.

KUCINICH: Yeah.

ACOSTA: I mean, that's the other thing that's been happening in recent weeks.

And Jackie, I mean, what about what's happening on the Democratic side? Because you talk to -- it depends on who you talk to.

KUCINICH: Yeah. ACOSTA: There are some lawmakers that are saying oh, no, no, no -- we're keeping our powder dry. We're not going to tip our hand as to what we're going to do. And then there are some Democrats who are saying you know what, if Mike Johnson is going to give Ukraine aid we'll help him stay Speaker of the House. That's also hard to put your thumb on at this point -- yeah.

KUCINICH: So if you -- you're right. But there are -- there is a coalition that believes -- particularly, on Ukraine -- that time is running short.

ACOSTA: Yeah.

KUCINICH: This needs to get there. And if that means keeping Mike Johnson in power for another month or two or until the next time conservatives get mad at them, so be it -- when you talk to those particular lawmakers.

JOHNSTON: But there's also a real question of what comes next --

KUCINICH: Right.

JOHNSTON: -- or Democrats. Like, when do we talk about that? It's like, OK, like this is the devil we know, and if we decide to throw him overboard with Marjorie Taylor Greene and some of the other conservatives, who is the next speaker?

ACOSTA: Right.

JOHNSTON: And when we talk to Republicans, like, they have no idea who would step in for this job. Who could win the support for that job.

And so, I think to keep the trains running and with Democrats getting legislative priorities they want -- no. Like, Ukraine was maybe worth keeping Speaker Johnson.

KUCINICH: Who would want that job?

ACOSTA: Right. Nobody wants that job right now with one vote. I mean, anybody --

KUCINICH: Right.

ACOSTA: -- can go at any time.

And just to button things up, let's get back to this relationship I was talking about with Col. Leighton a few moments ago -- this relationship between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu, Jackie. It seemed to be really frayed. And then last weekend, you saw the U.S., U.K., the Saudis, the Jordanians -- I mean, this real coalition come together to help protect Israel against that Iranian air assault.

And this morning we're hearing that the U.S. did not endorse what the Israelis did. I mean, it sounds as though -- I mean, this relationship really is kind of on thin ice.

KUCINICH: And Biden told him to take the win.

ACOSTA: Take the win.

KUCINICH: To take the "W."

ACOSTA: Didn't exactly take the win.

KUCINICH: Didn't exactly take the win there.

ACOSTA: Yeah.

KUCINICH: And you're right. This is -- this is continuing a frayed relationship and how that continues -- I mean, it doesn't seem like there's going to be mending going forward and that's going to have -- that'll have global repercussions.

ACOSTA: Yeah.

JOHNSTON: I don't think the ice is that thin. Remember, like, the House and the Senate -- the majorities in the House and the Senate are one of (INAUDIBLE) aid --

ACOSTA: (INAUDIBLE). Yeah, yeah.

JOHNSTON: -- for Israel. But I think it's 100 percent true that what President Biden said about, like, just take the win, right? A lot of those drones were shot down. The damage to Israel in that attack. You can take a step back and declare you're a winner here. I think where they didn't want that escalation.

[05:45:02]

What's interesting, though, is I thought something that Joel mentioned earlier in the hour --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

JOHNSTON: -- is that this could have been a much bigger attack. And so, maybe the Israelis did hear Biden and the administration saying maybe dial this down a little bit. And so, to be on a --

ACOSTA: Both sides --

JOHNSON: -- trajectory lowering the temperature.

ACOSTA: Yeah. Maybe both sides will take the tie. Maybe that's the way --

JOHNSTON: There you go.

ACOSTA: -- you could look at, at the end of this week.

Guys, thank you very much, Jackie and Nick.

JOHNSTON: Thank you.

ACOSTA: I really appreciate it.

If you're just waking up, explosions in Iran overnight. Israel striking back. Tensions in the Middle East are escalating. Our breaking news coverage is just ahead.

Plus, moments from now, Secretary of State Tony Blinken expected to speak at the G7 summit in Italy. We'll go there live in just a few moments. Stay with us.

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[05:50:03]

ACOSTA: Back now to our breaking news. A U.S. official telling CNN that Israel is responsible for an airstrike inside Iran late last night. Iranian news outlets say there were three explosions near an army base in the central province of Isfahan. The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog confirming that none of Iran's nuclear infrastructure was damaged in the strike. Israeli officials telling CNN, "no comment" when asked about the strikes.

But they come less than a week after Tehran launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel in retaliation for an Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

Joining me now is CNN international correspondent Scott McLean. He is live in Istanbul for us. Scott, what can you tell us? What's the latest?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jim, yeah.

So it seems like the Iranians, at this stage of the game, are sort of downplaying this. There's no big statements. There's no big condemnation of Israel. There is no threat to respond at this stage.

The Iranian -- the Iranian military saying that those three explosions were the air defense systems shooting at unidentified objects in the sky. They're promising more information to come at a later date.

It wasn't just strikes on Iran. There were also things targeted in southern Syria, according to Syrian state media. These were air defense systems and there was some damage done.

The Israelis have not officially commented. The Iranians have not said much beyond what I explained already. And, of course, each of these two sides have their own internal domestic pressures to deal with -- non exemplified perhaps better than the reaction from the far-right Israeli national security minister who tweeted his apparent thoughts about what Israel has done here with one word, "lame."

There have been calls to de-escalate from plenty in the international community from the U.K., the EU, Italy, the Chinese -- the list goes on. But from within the Middle East, Jim, there has been very little. Perhaps countries in this part of the world -- they're waiting for the dust to settle a little bit more before saying much of anything.

We have, though, heard from the Omanis, who have condemned the Israeli strikes -- condemned Israeli attacks in the region more broadly and called on the international community to do more to get to the root cause of the tension.

We have also heard from the Egyptians, who have -- the Foreign Ministry putting out a statement calling for restraint and warning about the consequences of conflict and instability. And the Israeli -- or the Egyptians, excuse me, have made clear in the past that this is entirely predictable given the shadow war that we have seen between the Iranians and the Israelis play out in this region for some time -- years, really.

Egypt has been among the countries that has been in contact with both the Israelis and the Iranians, urging them to turn down the temperature. And that has been a common theme amongst countries in the Middle East where, over the last few weeks, there has been this flurry of diplomatic activity from in and outside of the region. Some of it private. Some of them -- some of it done out in public.

First, it was to try to get the Iranians not to respond against the Israelis. Then it was to try to get the Israelis not to respond back to the Iranians. Because nobody really has any interest in this expanding further.

Turkey has been among the countries that has sort of shuttled messages between the Americans and the Iranians more than a week ago now. It's not clear of their role here.

But there has also been some criticism not only from Turkey but from others in the region against the West. That the West has been very quick to condemn Iran but not so quick to condemn what started this whole thing in the first place, Jim -- which was, of course, that strike on April 1 against that diplomatic compound in Syria.

ACOSTA: All right, Scott McLean, our CNN international correspondent in Istanbul for us. The region certainly on edge this morning. Scott, thank you very much.

Secretary of State Tony Blinken expected to speak from the G7 summit in Capri. It will be the first statement from the Biden administration since Israel's attack on Iran just hours ago.

CNN's Barbie Nadeau is in Rome for us. Barbie, what are you hearing about the conversations that are taking place at this G7 meeting? I have to think things have gotten a little tense inside those boardrooms. What can you tell us?

BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN REPORTER: Yeah. You know, this has been a very, very important G7 foreign ministry meeting. And, of course, the geopolitics at play mean that all these seven members don't necessarily always agree on everything, including sanctions and things like that.

That meeting -- the last roundtable is wrapping up right now and we're expecting Antonio Tajani, Italy's foreign minister, to make a few statements and have a brief conference. And that will be followed by a press conference by Sec. Blinken.

Now, we can expect some self-congratulations. Usually, these summits focus on the positive and not the negative, and that will be seen as a success that they were able to put pressure on Israel to show restraint in their retaliation if, in fact, that's what the finish in that restraint was shown. And so, we're expecting that.

[05:55:07]

But there's still so much -- so many things that these foreign ministers have to deal with yet, including Ukraine -- including getting some funding to them.

And so, I suspect we're going to hear more about the successes than the failures. And we'll hear a lot more about the G7 as they work their way towards that major summit in June here in Italy -- in the southern region of Apulia where we'll see President Biden and the other G7 leaders meet under -- who knows what the circumstances will be in these -- in these conflict zones by then -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, Barbie Nadeau. Thank you very much. And, of course, we are going to be watching for the Secretary of State potentially speaking to the cameras in about half an hour from now. We'll be watching for that, Barbie Nadeau, and you will as well. Thanks so much.

Coming up, prosecutors calling on the judge to hold Donald Trump in contempt, claiming he violated his gag order. Plus, more on our breaking news. Israel striking back inside Iran. We are tracking the latest developments coming up.

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