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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Israel, Hamas Extend Truce Moments Before It Expired; Henry Kissinger, Polarizing Icon of U.S. Foreign Policy, Dies at 100; Senator Schumer on Antisemitism: American Jews Feel "Targeted"; Trump to Attend Super PAC Fundraiser Instead of 4th GOP Debate; 20+ Million Under Severe Storm Threats in Southern Plains. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired November 30, 2023 - 05:00   ET

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

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KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Right now on EARLY START:

A last-minute deal extends the truce in Gaza. But that's a big if.

And the legacy of Henry Kissinger. The revered and reviled diplomat dead this morning at 100 years old.

And --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): For many Jewish people, it's like a matter of survival informed once again by history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Stirring words from the highest ranking Jewish leader in the history of Congress, even Republicans praising Chuck Schumer this morning.

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HUNT: Good morning to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's Thursday, November 30th. It's 5:00 a.m. here in Washington. It's noon in Gaza where the truce with Israel has been extended for a seventh day.

Both Israel and Hamas confirming the news just minutes before the deal was set to expire at midnight. A senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a daily pause would only continue if Hamas freed 10 Israeli hostages each day.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Netanyahu and his cabinet earlier in Tel Aviv. Blinken will meet face to face with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas today. The Israeli government has a new list of hostages being released and has notified their families.

On Wednesday, Hamas freed 16 hostages. President Biden says an Israeli American woman was among that group.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've got some very good news to report. Liat Beinin is safe in Egypt. She has crossed the border. I talked with her mother and father, they are very appreciative. And things are moving well. She will soon be home with her three children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Israel also released 30 Palestinian women and children held in jails, many of whom were not charged with any crimes. In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian ministry of health says Israeli military incursions have caused more lives including two children yesterday.

Meanwhile, another 200 aid trucks with food, water and basic supplies crossed into Gaza. The U.N. says over 1 million people now being housed in shelters.

CNN's Matthew Chance joins us live from Tel Aviv.

Matthew, good morning. It's good to see you.

Israel says they are assessing this Hamas claim that the youngest hostage, a ten-month-old baby, and two family members of his are no longer alive.

Bring us up to speed on that as Secretary Blinken travels to the region today.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right. Secretary Blinken will be giving a news conference later this evening here, local time.

But, yes, in the meantime, the Israeli government say that they are looking into this claim that has been made that two of the youngest hostages held by Hamas, a ten-month-old baby, a four-year-old child and their mother were killed in what Hamas says were Israeli bombardments over the course of the past several weeks, as they were inside Gaza. They were meant to be released, of course. Now, that's not -- that's not possible.

And it's something Israel said they're looking into. But, look, there's been a new list of ten hostages who are alive that has been given by Hamas to the Israeli government by at the mediators in Qatar. And that process of release in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and aid relief into Gaza is expected to go ahead for seven consecutive nights tonight. So, it's very positive news.

Earlier, Hamas had said that Israel had rejected a proposal to release a seven hostages who were alive and the bodies of three more hostages, not clear whether that was that Bibas family or not. But Israel has rejected that say that under the terms of the current deal they have with Hamas. The hostages, the ten hostages a day, that need to be exchanged for a pause in the fighting and the release of the Palestinian prisoners they have to be alive. Obviously, it does sort of raise questions about how sustainable this

process can be because Israel says that there are approximately 140 hostages still with Hamas and other militant troops inside Gaza.

[05:05:08]

It's not clear at the moment how -- what their condition is, how many of them to put it frankly are alive, and how many are dead. So that's a consideration moving forward -- Kasie.

HUNT: Yeah, a very difficult reality indeed.

Matthew Chance, thanks very much for being with us this morning. I really appreciate it.

Now to this, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger died last night at the age of 100. Almost as polarizing figure in death as he was in life, Kissinger was born in Germany, he and his Jewish family fled Nazi persecution and came to the U.S. in 1938. He served in World War II, earned a doctorate and taught at Harvard, eventually joining the Nixon administration.

Kissinger dominated American foreign policy in the 1970s, building U.S. relations with Russia and China, negotiating importing nuclear arms agreement. But no issue complicates his legacy like Vietnam. Critics accuse Kissinger and Nixon of needlessly expanding the war which ended for the U.S. with the fall of Saigon at the cost of nearly 60,000 American lives, along with the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese civilians.

Here's Kissinger view of those events 35 years later.

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HENRY KISSINGER, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: To me, the tragedy of the Vietnam War was not that there were disagreements, that was inevitable, given the complexity of the subject but that the fate of Americans in each other became destroyed in the process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Let's bring in CNN political analyst Julian Zelizer, historian and professor at Princeton University and author of "Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past".

Julian, I'm very grateful to have you here as this news was breaking overnight to talk about it.

Speaking of myths and legends, let's start with Kissinger's accomplishments. What were they and what made him -- I mean, what made him such a towering figure?

JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think what he will be remembered for most in a positive sense is his role in 1972 in working out the SALT agreement, which was an arms agreement with the Soviet Union, at a really tense moment in the Cold War and opening relations with China and being a key figure in the Nixon administration, and allowing that to happen. Both of which created a bit of a thaw in the Cold War. The supporters will be focusing on that element of his legacy.

HUNT: So, Julian, then let's turn to the controversy because all of those years later, you know, I think "Rolling Stone" this morning is obviously saying good riddance, you know, the day after, there it is, "War criminal beloved by America's ruling class finally dies".

I mean, that is a reflection of history that, you know, in the Vietnam era. Why this animosity and why the controversy?

ZELIZER: Well, there was a long record. Kissinger was part of a strategy that prolonged the Vietnam War. It involved ruthless bombing campaign against countries such as Cambodia. Kissinger is also an architect of policies that resulted in a coup, U.S.-backed coup in Chile, for example, in 1973 where a democratically elected official was replaced with one who was not because it served American interests.

And, again and again, Kissinger prioritized strategy, real politic over issues such as human rights. And I think that's why so many people are talking about this very damaging part of what he accomplished during the 1970s.

HUNT: Kissinger also, though, remains kind of on the public stage and that's part of our public life and the experience and conducting a foreign policy well after these decades. I mean, what has his life, what are his contributions in the year since he left the White House?

ZELIZER: Well, he's one of the only figures from the Nixon administration to really survive politically Watergate and he made himself and continued to be seen as a statesman. Presidents from both parties consulted with him. He published many books, remained and ongoing presence in discussions of diplomacy.

And so, by doing that, by courting the media, which is something he always did incredibly well, he maintained his public role in life. But at the time of his passing, this record that he left behind in the 1970s won't be forgotten.

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So, I think it's the dual sides of Kissinger that we are discussing for that reason.

HUNT: Yeah, for sure.

All right. Julian Zelizer, CNN political analyst and historian at Princeton, thank you very much for being with us this morning. I really appreciate it.

ZELIZER: Thanks for having me.

HUNT: All right, still ahead here. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): It was extraordinary.

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HUNT: Rare praise from Republican Mitch McConnell for Democrat Chuck Schumer. We'll show you why, up next.

Plus, what's triggering lawmakers to quit Congress at a record pace. We're going to talk to one of them live.

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SCHUMER: After October 7th, Jewish Americans are feeling singled out, targeted, and isolated. In many ways, we feel alone.

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HUNT: That was Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer highlighting the alarm felt by Jewish Americans as antisemitism spikes in the wake of the October 7th attack on Israelis and the war that's followed. Schumer made those remarks in an emotional speech on the Senate floor yesterday. The highest ranking Jewish Democrat in U.S. history, Schumer was confronting members of his own party and progressive generally, warning that some of what's happening today is reinforcing currents of antisemitism that go back centuries.

CNN's Max Foster joins us live from London.

Max, good morning to you.

I want to show a little bit more of what Schumer had to say yesterday to try to underscore the point that he was making about how Jewish people are feeling, trying to remind many younger generations who perhaps are not as familiar with the history of what happened really not that long ago.

Take a look a little bit more of what Schumer had to say.

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SCHUMER: Can you blame us for feeling vulnerable on the 80 years after Hitler wiped out half the Jewish population across the world? While so many countries turned their back? Can you appreciate the deep fear we have about what Hamas might do if left to their own devices? Because the long arc of Jewish history teaches us a lesson that's hard to forget. Ultimately, we are alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Ultimately, we are alone. Can you help us understand a little bit of how that history played out? I mean, honestly, a lot of its European history and American Jews have often felt, you know, they were able to come here as that was -- as that persecution was played out, but they're feeling unsafe here as well considering what is happening.

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's the loneliness you hear that from a lot of Jewish people around the world from the back of these attacks and then that's a feeling that stretches back in history, I'm not going to pretend to be an expert, I'm not Jewish. But this is what I've been hearing in terms of the conversation around this.

And Schumer says a Jewish Americans are alarmed to see some of our fellow citizens characterize a brutal terrorist attack as justified because of the actions of the Israeli government. They feel lonely. They show support for other groups, but those other groups aren't necessarily showing support for them, that has echoes of the past for them.

We're seeing similar conversations in other countries, I'll point out Germany for obvious reasons, but also, yesterday, we were hearing from the head of domestic intelligence in Germany really warning about the rise in antisemitic language there. It's happened there a again, he's stretching back to the same period in history. And he saying there is a specific problem that he's worried about in that is the fact that there are extremist groups and desperate groups in Germany that are coming together off the back of what happened in Israel because they are seeing antisemitism the Jewish population in Israel perhaps as a common enemy.

He's now worried that these extremist groups that don't have much in common otherwise are coming together and may cooperate in the future in the face of antisemitism, off the back of antisemitism. These things are very complex. They go back decades as you suggested. We don't all understand them, but there is a stream there, very senior people like Schumer and the head of intelligence in Germany are seeing.

HUNT: Yeah. I mean, Max, one of the things. I mean, I should note, Republicans have praised Schumer for the speech. Mitch McConnell had extensive praise for him. I've seen it from other conservatives that I follow. I think one of the things here is just -- I know you have kids that are on TikTok, you know, I think about it, my own grandfather fought in World War II. He fought in the Pacific.

But, you know, he is 97 and is of a generation that many of these younger people are not as exposed to -- to me, it does feel a little bit like there -- this serves as a reminder for people who maybe are forgetting of some of what happened.

FOSTER: Yes, you see this with the protests here in Europe, for example, where lots of people are coming out in support of Palestinian. Lots of Jewish people are feeling, do you really understand that long arc history that led us to this point? A big debate on social media amongst young people, for example, from what I've seen, you know, what Israel is doing is disproportionate to what, you know, Hamas did to Israel. I mean, these are very simplistic arguments. And that's what's frustrating so many Jewish people around the world.

And so, I think people like Schumer stepping up and really explaining how Jewish people are feeling, or at least inform that debate to some extent, when there's sympathy on all sides here for the civilians who've really suffered on a horrific way on all sides.

HUNT: Of course.

All right. Max Foster, thank you very much for being with us this morning. We appreciate you as always. See you soon.

FOSTER: Thanks, Kasie.

HUNT: All right. Former President Trump doubling down on his calls to replace Obamacare. What? What he's promising instead if he's elected. That's ahead.

And millions of Americans facing a severe storm threat across the South. The areas facing the greatest risk, coming up.

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HUNT: Welcome back.

Quick hits across America now.

An Arizona grand jury is indicting two local officials for delaying the certification of the 2022 midterm election results.

[05:25:00]

Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby could both face two and a half years in prison.

Former President Trump planning to attend a super PAC fund-raiser instead of the fourth GOP primary debate. His campaign set up a contest offering a chance to meet Trump to anyone who donates.

And Vice President Harris set to discuss the Israel-Hamas war with global leaders on the sidelines, the critical climate change conference COP28 in Dubai this weekend. She will also deliver a speech at the summit Saturday.

All right. Now, let's get to weather. About 20 million people under severe storm threats in the South, with possible tornadoes in Texas today. Heavy rain could bring flooding from Missouri to Louisiana.

And, of course, here to break it all down is our weatherman Derek Van Dam.

Derek, it's wonderful to see you. It sounds like some people are in for a tough spell today.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS CERTIFIED WEATHER: Yeah, Kasie, we called this a severe weather second season. Now, we typically think of severe weather taking place maybe February, March, and April across the Great Plains, with that collision of air masses as the seasons start to change.

Well, think about what time of year it is. It is late fall, heading into winter, we're getting kind of the opposite but this collision of colder and warmer air mass is creating this potential for severe weather. And this time, it is right over a population density that is over 4 million. So, just incredible and it encompasses about 20 million.

But look at Houston incorporated within the highest probability with that risk for tornadoes from the Storm Prediction Center, very clever meteorologists, they're recognizing some of the ingredients there for severe thunderstorm development in and around the Houston area.

At the lowest level of the atmosphere, winds coming out of the due south off of the Gulf of Mexico, lots of moisture there. Few thousand feet above that, the winds are moving in the south to south -- or north to northeasterly direction. So, that's going to provide the spin necessary for potential thunderstorms that could start to rotate, that means tornadoes.

You can see the sporadic nature to the thunderstorm development later today, and then another round of showers and thunderstorms tomorrow. All in all, a very wet weekend across the Deep South and into the Southeast. So, be prepared, plan accordingly -- Kasie.

HUNT: Plan accordingly. That's why we have you weatherman Derek Van Dam. Thank you very much, my friend.

VAN DAM: I appreciate you.

HUNT: I'll see you tomorrow.

VAN DAM: OK.

HUNT: All right. Coming up next, the truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza extended for our seventh day. Details on the hostage release and where those negotiations stand up next.

And we're remembering former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who died Wednesday at the age of 100. A look back at his live dominating diplomacy, ahead.

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