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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Two Staff Members Of Israeli Embassy Killed In Shooting Near Jewish Museum In D.C.; House To Vote Soon On Trump Tax And Spending Bill; First Supply Of Aid In Months Reaches Gaza As Israel Orders Evacuations; Israel Fires "Warning Shots" Near Diplomats In West Bank. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired May 22, 2025 - 04:00   ET

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

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning and welcome to all of our viewers joining us from the United States and all around the world. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. It is Thursday, May 22, 4:00 a.m. here in New York and also in Washington where we are following two major breaking stories at this hour.

I show you some live pictures of Capitol Hill right now where House members are debating a budget bill that would push forward Donald Trump's agenda with cuts to federal programs. We're going to get to that in just a few moments as well as that ongoing debate on the House floor at this hour.

But first, a suspect is in custody in the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington. The Israeli ambassador to the U.S. says that the victims were a young couple about to be engaged.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Free, free, Palestine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: There's some video shot from witnesses on the scene as that suspect was taken into custody. An eyewitness telling CNN that the man pretended to be a witness to the shooting and that he waited there for police to arrive before claiming that he did it for Gaza. As you just heard.

Police have identified him as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago. Again, the suspect in this case. We're waiting to learn more about him. Here's what the U.S. attorney general has told reporters at an overnight news conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PAM BONDI, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Will be doing everything in our power to keep all citizens safe, especially tonight, our Jewish community. We will follow the facts. We will follow the law. And this defendant, if charged, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: The president reacting to the shooting from last night, President Trump posting his condolences to the victims' families on social media, writing the killings are, quote, unquote, obviously based on antisemitism, which must end. Now can the word from the commander-in-chief.

A witness to the shooting described those scary moments to CNN. Earlier, Paige Siegel had been attending an event at that Capitol Jewish museum and actually wound up asking the suspect before she knew who he was, if he was OK.

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PAIGE SIEGEL, WITNESSED SHOOTING: What's really interesting is that the event was a panel about Israeli organizations, multifaith organization and Palestinian organizations working together to get people in Gaza the aid they need and not fall into the hands of Hamas.

The event was ending, and I hear a batch of gunshots, and then a pause, and then another batch of gunshots. And I walk to the front door to notify that the security should lock all the doors because the gunshots were so close. And as I'm doing that, a man runs into the front door, acting as if, you know, he's, like, escaping the gunshots from the street himself. And he runs in, and he seems so flustered and so out of whack.

So I go up to him and I say, are you OK? And he's muttering, call the police. Call the police. And he goes, yes, I'm OK. I said, were you shot? And he goes, no, I was not shot. Call the police. Call the police. And you know where the museum is. The FBI is right next door. The police are close by, so the police sirens have already started.

And he's sitting on a bench amongst us for 15 minutes until he comes up to me again with two of my other friends. And one of them is helped organize the event. And she offers him a glass of water just because he seems so off. And he takes it, he drinks it. And I say to him, like, I'm surprised they let you in, because, I mean, you just ran through the door. And this is an event, you know, they had our names. We had to register. They do a security check. We get wanded at the front, like you just ran right in. I say, do you know where you are?

He doesn't say anything. And I say, you're at, like, a Jewish museum. And immediately he takes a few steps back, and he starts yelling, I did it. I did it. Talking about shooting and killing the innocent people outside who had just attended the event, who had just left. And he's screaming, I did it. I did it. I did it for Gaza. I did it for Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine. And I'm like, yelling in the background, get him out. Get him out.

Because he's opening up a backpack. And in that moment, a second feels like an hour.

[04:05:09]

I feel like we're all about to die. And he takes out a red and white Jordanian keffiyeh and just continues chanting. And I think people don't realize that senselessly killing people who have just attended an event, the Jewish Museum, is what Hamas supporters mean when they yell globalize the intifada.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And this just in, Israeli officials confirming the names of that young couple killed in the shooting. Israel's foreign affairs minister saying that they have been identified as Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky. That's according to the Israeli ambassador. They had planned to go to Jerusalem next week for their engagement.

The embassy says that its entire staff absolutely heartbroken and devastated by their murders and that it will stand by the victims and their families as well during this terrible time. As they continue to learn more, as we continue to try to learn more about Sarah and Yaron, we will bring you those details. Again, the couple that was murdered yesterday.

I want to get now to CNN's Paula Hancocks, who's joining us live from Abu Dhabi. You're closely following reaction from Israel. Paula, what have we heard from Israeli officials?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Polo, across the board, across the political spectrum, we're hearing unity from Israeli officials, shock as they woke up this morning to this news. Anger, condemnation. And also across the board, they are saying that this was an act of antisemitism.

Now we've heard from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. In a statement, he said, quote, my heart aches for the families of the beloved young man and woman whose lives were suddenly cut short by a vile antisemitic murderer. We're witnessing the terrible cost of antisemitism and the wild incitement against the state of Israel.

Now, he went on to say that he had spoken to the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and given his support for all of the embassy staff. He's also spoken to the U.S. attorney who he says had briefed him on exactly what she knew of the attack at that point, saying that the U.S. President Donald Trump was going to be personally involved in managing the response to the attack.

We also know that Prime Minister Netanyahu has called for an increase in security across the board at Israeli missions overseas, saying that the security needs to be reinforced immediately. Now, we're also hearing similar sentiments from Israel's president. This is from Herzog saying, quote, I am devastated by the scenes in Washington, DC. This is a despicable act of hatred of antisemitism, which has claimed the lives of two young employees of the Israeli embassy. Our hearts are with the loved ones of those murdered.

And then he goes on at the end to say, America and Israel will stand united in defense of our people and our shared values. Terror and hate will not break us.

Now, we also had Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, speaking to CNN a little earlier on. And he pointed out that this is not just an attack against Israel. It's not just an attack against the Jewish community, but he said it is attack against the U.S. Itself.

And he said that all Israeli embassies around the world are on high alert at the moment. He also said that he wanted to call on world leaders to do more to fight against antisemitism, not just to call out antisemitism, but to do more to try and prevent and stop antisemitic hate crimes, as he called them.

And there are many more Israeli officials speaking out publicly from the left, from the right, all united in condemning this violence. Polo.

SANDOVAL: Paula Hancocks with the very latest on what we're hearing overseas after the shooting in Washington. Thank you, Paula. We'll check back with you.

We are going to keep a very close eye on what's happening right now as well on Capitol Hill, where House Republican leaders, they are pushing ahead to vote on a bill to fund President Donald Trump's domestic policy agenda.

Now, only one Republican voted to oppose it. That's a drastic shift from earlier when disagreements between Republican leaders and hardliners threaten the future of that bill. I want to show you now where things stood on Wednesday.

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MANU RAJU, CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent: Are you inclined to support this bill now?

ERIC BURLISON, U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICAN: That is assuming that we know everything about what's happened in the bill. I'm going in to get a full read in as far as to what, like made it out of the rules package. What's in it, what's not in it? The meeting today with Trump was very productive.

CHIP ROY, U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICAN: Still looking for a few more provisions. Have a few more conversations.

RAJU: Feeling better?

ROY: Eh?

(END VIDEO CLIP) SANDOVAL: That's Manu Raju speaking to some of those members on the Hill. But it appears that those issues that we just heard about have been resolved for now. And House Speaker Mike Johnson remains confident that Republicans can still get the job done.

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MIKE JOHNSON, U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: You never know until the final vote tally. But I'm convinced we're going to pass this bill tonight. May have one or two nos. You never can be certain. I mean, this is a massive piece of legislation with lots of moving parts. So we'll see what happens. But I think we're going to get this job done and we're going to do it by Memorial Day.

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SANDOVAL: Joining me now, Richard Johnson, a lecturer in US Politics at Queen Mary University of London. Richard, great to have you this morning.

RICHARD JOHNSON, LECTURER IN U.S. POLITICS, QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON: Good morning.

SANDOVAL: So if you could just walk us through sort of the approach that has been deployed by the House speaker, by House Speaker Johnson, and he says that he hopes to get this done before the weekend. Is that realistic to you?

JOHNSON: I think it is possible. We have to now understand the way that Congress does business is different from, say, a generation ago where a president would work on different elements of their legislative agenda over a, you know, over a full session.

Now it's been understood that the way that you get things done in Congress is you pack it all into one bill and then you try to create some kind of sense of urgency about the passage of that bill and you force a compromise. And this is particularly important because we won't see any bipartisanship on this bill. We won't see any Democratic buy in. And the Republican margins are so tight, they only have a majority of three.

And you have on the one side of the challenge for Mike Johnson, the Republicans who want to get the deficit down, who are worried about the debt implications of some of these tax cuts. And then on the other side, you have those who are worried about social programs that working class Americans rely on, like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, which is one of the ways in which some of these tax cuts are being paid for is by basically making it harder for people to stay on those programs.

And basically, Mike Johnson has to find this sweet spot between the conservatives and the moderates in his caucus and only lose three out of the total. And it sounds like he's done it because I don't think he would push ahead the way that he is doing.

And speaking with the confidence that he's speaking if he didn't have those numbers, he might lose a couple, but he can lose a couple. And I think that's what we'll probably see in the next few hours.

SANDOVAL: Right. At least enough to make it there across the finish line into a vote. Now, in terms of the politics of this all, Richard, where does Donald Trump stand? How much does he stand to gain from this deal if, as you point out, Speaker Johnson is successfully able to secure what he needs?

JOHNSON: Well, as I said, this is probably the only major piece of domestic legislation that Donald Trump will see potentially in his entire second term. That's not to say that he won't sign other bills into law, but in terms of the gravity and the implications for the American economy and welfare state and so on, this is the bill.

And this has the parallels with his 2017 tax cut and spending bill, which is actually kind of being brought back for this bill. It's sort of the seeds of this bill is to try and continue Trump's previous tax cuts. But this bill is even more substantial, I think, in some ways, because Trump made a variety of additional commitments on the campaign's trail in terms of further tax cuts that he would make. So these are the no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on your car insurance repayments, et cetera.

And on top of that, you actually have also some really important policy adjustments that are going on in this bill that actually haven't had a lot of attention.

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So we're expecting to see in this bill federal tax credits for private school vouchers. Right. That's a whole other debate that really we're not have, you know, is kind of being completely overshadowed by the tax issue and by cuts to Joe Biden's green energy tax credits which are going to be taken away as a result of this bill.

So for Trump, there's a lot that he likes to do through the executive branch and he loves his executive orders and there's a lot that he's already done in the first 100 days on issues like immigration and trade, where he has legal authority through the constitutional prior statute. But in terms of getting new legislation through Congress, I think this is it.

And that's why Trump has personally put pressure on members of Congress to vote this bill through because this is his second term legislative legacy.

SANDOVAL: So important to really punctuate those different aspects of this legislation, Richard, as you point out, those that have been overshadowed by these lingering fears also that this bill could add billions of dollars to the U.S. debt. But also, as you remind us, there are other aspects of that legislation we should certainly keep in mind as we continue to watch for a potential vote out of the House. Thank you so much for your expertise, Richard. Really appreciate you.

JOHNSON: My pleasure. Thank you.

SANDOVAL: Still ahead, dozens of aid trucks finally cross into Gaza, but the U.N. warns it is not nearly enough to stop a worsening humanitarian crisis. The details on that ahead.

Plus, Israeli soldiers fire in the direction of a diplomatic delegation visiting the West Bank. How the international community is reacting to this.

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SANDOVAL: 4:20 on the East Coast. I want to show you some live images from Washington where House lawmakers, they are expected to vote soon on President Donald Trump's sweeping domestic policy bill. A vote on final passage that's expected within the next hour. As we very well know, things can change at any moment. Things are very fluid.

Democrats have attempted to delay the Republican bill in protest over the legislation. The bill, including measures that would deeply cut into two of the nation's key safety net, Medicaid and food stamps. Now would also make it permanent, essentially all of the trillions of dollars of tax breaks that were contained in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was passed during President Trump's first.

We will continue to monitor this and bring you much more in the hours ahead, especially as we near a potential vote there on the House floor in Washington.

Another major story that we're very closely following out of the nation's capital, a deadly shooting outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C. that claimed the lives of two Israeli embassy staff members on Wednesday night. The suspected gunman in custody and he is thought to be the sole attacker. We heard from officials yesterday saying that they don't believe there's any imminent threat to that community.

He's been identified. That suspect identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago. We're told after that shooting that he was detained. He showed security where he had discarded his weapon and then reportedly chanted free Palestine.

The Israeli ambassador to the U.S. says that the two people killed were a young couple. You see them here, that they were about to be engaged. The Israeli Foreign Ministry releasing their names, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim.

Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United nations, claims that falsehoods about Israel have been spread by the U.N. can lead to incidents that could potentially like the one that we saw last night.

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DANNY DANON, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: It's legitimate to criticize Israel, but what I have seen in the last week and a half that, you know, leaders spreading life. A senior U.N. official blamed us for committing a genocide, which is a lie. And then he went and said that we are killing Palestinian babies. That was another lie. So when people hear those lies, it can bring to actions like we saw Ttonight in Washington, D.C.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Now, in the Middle East, trucks loaded with humanitarian aid have finally started delivering some food and supplies to Gaza after more than 11 weeks. And still, though the United Nations is warning that this is nowhere near enough what's necessary.

On the ground, more than 90 trucks carrying various supplies, including food and baby supplements. They've begun distributing aid to southern Gaza. This marking the first time that any supplies have entered the enclave since Israel imposed a complete blockade back in March. The trucks headed to distribution points after entering Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Late Wednesday, a U.N. World Food Program spokesperson said that its food supplies will be taken to Gaza bakeries. Meantime, there has been swift international condemnation after Israeli troops fired warning shots at foreign diplomats on an official visit to the West Bank. CNN's Jeremy Diamond with those details from Jerusalem.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, quite a remarkable situation unfolding in the occupied west bank today. Israeli soldiers opening fire in the direction of a diplomatic delegation. A group of diplomats from more than countries were in Jenin going around the Jenin refugee camp to get a sense of the humanitarian situation on the ground, when suddenly Israeli troops began firing what the Israeli military is describing as warning shots.

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In one of the videos from the scene, you can hear at least seven shots are fired by these soldiers who aimed their weapons above the diplomats who were all gathered in one area. Now, the Israeli military says that yes, the diplomats did coordinate their plans for this visit today, but they claim -- the military claims that these diplomats went to authorized area and that's why those troops fired those warning shots.

What they don't explain is why using live ammunition was necessary to convey a point that could have been conveyed with words. What is clear though is that this has sparked quite a diplomatic uproar already. We have seen France and Italy both summon the Israeli ambassadors to their countries for a formal explanation. The European Union for its part, calling for an investigation by the Israeli military into this incident.

Now also today we have heard from the Israeli prime minister directly as these cease fire and hostage deal negotiations are still underway. The prime minister making clear that he is willing to go for a temporary ceasefire that secures the release of some hostages under the right conditions. He's also making clear though, that he will not end the war, at least not unless Hamas agrees to his litany of demands, some of which have become clear red lines for Hamas. The Israeli prime minister saying that he would only end the war if

Hamas releases all the hostages, but also if it disarms if Gaza is demilitarized. And a new condition that he added to the list today is if Trump's voluntary migration plan for Gazans is carried out effectively. The mass displacements of a large share of Gaza's 2 million plus population.

The Israeli prime minister also talking about the recent Israeli strike targeting Mohammed Sinwar, Gaza's Hamas's de facto leader in the Gaza Strip. The prime minister saying that it seems that Sinwar was probably killed in that strike. Still no official word from the Israeli military. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.

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SANDOVAL: Stick around we'll take you back to the nation's capital for more on two major developing stories after the break.

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