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IDF Calls Deadly Strike On Aid Convoy A "Grave Mistake"; Earthquake Felt In New York And Surrounding Areas; Biden Warns Netanyahu To Better Protect Civilians Or Face Potential Change In U.S. Policy Towards Israel. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired April 05, 2024 - 12:30   ET

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

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You know, being on an airplane, probably one of the best places to be during an earthquake, but for the delays and all the ground stops have been canceled right now. In fact, the last holdout was Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. That is now transitioned to a ground delay, meaning that flights are delayed at their departure airport bound for Newark, 77 minutes, so an hour and 17 minutes.

Seems like that'll be in place according to the FAA until 9:59 p.m. tonight. So the air travel impact is not over just yet. The ground stops were canceled at LaGuardia at JFK, at BWI, and at Philadelphia. The cancellations and delays remain relatively low.

But remember, New York, the city that never sleeps, always on the move a million to a million and a half people commute in a lot of them by rail. And they're still delays right now on the New Jersey transit system.

Also on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and Amtrak says that tracks must be inspected and that trains are being speed restricted up and down the Northeast Corridor, and that will be in place until those inspections can be complete. So we're just at the genesis of that story. A lot of people could be impacted by that. The good news here is that MTA, which operates the subway system and some of the commuter rail systems in the New York area, they say that there are no impacts to MTA services and that services are operating normally.

Holland Tunnel and the Lincoln Tunnel, both been inspected by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. All the delays are clear there as well. Although remember here, Dana, the thing is that a lot of these pieces of infrastructure need to be looked at visually.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Yeah.

MUNTEAN: And New York not really built for a lot of seismic activity. And so we'll have to see some of these tunnels under New York, 120 years old.

BASH: Yeah, I mean, it's so important not to mention what we've now heard from the governor and the mayor and others that we do need to be prepared for some aftershocks that could change things.

I'm also getting text from Amtrak saying you should expect delays. So as you said, this is probably the genesis of that part of the story.

Pete, thank you so much. We're going to stay on this earthquake here on the East Coast, but we're also going to get to some other really important news coming up. The after-action report on a terrible tragedy is questions about how Benjamin Netanyahu is conducting Israel's war against Hamas get louder.

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[12:37:11]

BASH: We will keep watching for the impact of today's northeast earthquake, but we want to turn now to the geopolitical story on the White House's Front Burner. The IDF says it thought it was a bag, but it turns out -- excuse me, thought a bag was a weapon, that is according to an Israeli released after action report about how a tragic IDF screw up killed seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen by mistake. The detailed account of what went wrong follows a Biden ultimatum. The President of the United States says aid to Israel will no longer be a sure thing if Israel doesn't protect civilians and do it now.

I want to get straight to CNN's Nic Robertson. I mean, this was considering how quickly it was done. It was a pretty detailed report. Tell us more about it.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, the IDF are saying that they saw a gunman get on one of the aid trucks late Monday night. Then they saw another gunman. The aid trucks went into a warehouse. Then the SUVs with those aid workers from the World Central Kitchen came out of that warehouse and the IDF, and this is where they say they -- this is a case of mistaken identification of the vehicles and mistaken clarification or misclarification of the events that were happening on the ground.

They therefore thought that these SUVs carrying the aid workers, they thought the gunman was in there, and that's why they opened fire on the vehicles because they say it was nighttime because they say that they couldn't see the identification on the vehicles saying that they worked for this aid organization.

In a separate briefing to journalists, the IDF has also described that they saw something over the shoulder of one of the people in those vehicles. They initially thought it was a weapon. They now believe that it was actually a bag.

Another harrowing details that the IDF has now released. They say that when they fired at that first vehicle, some of the World Central Kitchen staff members actually survived and then ran to get back into the second vehicle. And that's when the IDF targeted the second vehicle, and then also targeted the third vehicle.

So the IDF is saying that this was a grave mistake that they're holding people to account that they have disciplined and fired to senior officers. And the World -- the World Central Kitchen say that this is a -- this is or acknowledge that this is a good step that they IDF has accepted responsibility that the IDF is holding people accountable. But they still say these outrageous killings that the report is essentially cold comfort, and they point to the fact that they and their staff on the ground were following protocols.

[12:40:03]

BASH: Yeah, I mean, what a horrific description of what happened there in every way. Nic, now we know that from our great reporting from the White House and from you and your colleagues in the region that this conversation that President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu had yesterday were very tense.

And one of the results, it seems, is that the -- one of the border crossings was reopened. What can you tell us about that? And what kind of impact most importantly, will that have on the humanitarian aid that can get into Gaza?

OK, forgive me. It looks like Nic can't hear us. If we can get back to Nic as soon as we can, we will. Joining me -- Nic -- Nic, are you there? OK.

ROBERTSON: I can hear you now.

BASH: OK. I'm not sure if you heard my question, but talk about the border crossing that was reopened.

ROBERTSON: Yeah, the Israeli government say that they're going to open the Erez border crossing. This is hugely significant, something Secretary Blinken was asking for back in February when he was here. The Erez Crossing is in the north of Gaza and is close to the port of Ashdod that the -- the -- the cabinet, the war cabinet here says that they've agreed to open to import humanitarian aid. And what's important here is that Ashdod, the port is very, very close to the Erez Crossing. So the potential here to really open up a quick and efficient humanitarian aid corridor into northern Gaza. But this has stumbled despite promises made like this in the past before.

BASH: Yeah, glad we got you back there, Nic. Thank you so much for that report. Appreciate it.

Now I want to bring in Congressman Richie Torres of New York, who just returned from Israel. We are going to talk about that in a moment. But as I said, you are from New York. You are in New York. I understand that you felt the earthquake this morning. Describe that and what you're seeing and hearing from your constituents now.

REP. RITCHIE TORRES, (D) NEW YORK: Well, I'm here in the Bronx and I was fielding phone calls when all of a sudden my home was shaking substantially. It was a momentarily terrifying experience. But like every congressional office, we're in close contact with FEMA, the governor's office, the mayor's office on we -- you know, so far there's no reason to be alarmed. There have been no reports of damage to infrastructure. There have been ground delays at airports out of an abundance of caution. But there's no interruption to the MTA to New York City Public Transit Service. But I've been given every assurance that federal, state and local government authorities are going to closely monitor the possible aftershocks of the earthquake.

BASH: Did you immediately know that it was an earthquake?

TORRES: I mean, I felt -- it certainly felt like an earthquake, but I was not sure. And so that was part of what made it so terrifying is that we all felt blindsided by it. It came out of nowhere.

BASH: Yeah, as I guess as earthquakes are known to do. I do want to turn to -- as I mentioned, you just got back from Israel. You are very outspoken in your support of Israel and its right to defend itself. President Biden is now warning Israel that there will be consequences if it does not address civilian crises in Gaza.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson says the President's ultimatums should be going to Hamas, not Israel. Who do you agree with?

TORRES: Well, I think we should be crystal clear. The Republicans have been in charge of the House since October 7th and have fundamentally failed to pass a bipartisan bill that provides aid to Israel. The Republicans refused to bring to the floor a national security supplemental that would provide aid to all of our allies, Taiwan, Israel and Ukraine.

And so if you're allowing aid to Israel to languish indefinitely, then you're in no position to lecture anyone, including President Biden on his support for Israel. You know, I share the view that every conceivable effort must be made to minimize Palestinian casualties, to maximize humanitarian aid, to Palestinians in distress. But at the same time, any attempt to fundamentally undermine the U.S. Israel relationship will ultimately benefit Hamas, which had perpetrated the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, a fact that the world seems to have forgotten.

BASH: Congressman, you heard, I'm sure that President Biden, according to the White House, told Prime Minister Netanyahu an immediate ceasefire is essential to stabilize and improve humanitarian assistance in the situation there. Do you think that, in your words, is something that is helpful to Hamas? Do you disagree with the president on that?

[12:45:05]

TORRES: Well, there was a temporary humanitarian ceasefire on the table, and Israel accepted it and Hamas rejected it. So Hamas has been the greatest stumbling block to a humanitarian ceasefire. And so Israel has been cooperative.

BASH: It sounds like President Biden might want to go further than that if he's calling on the Prime Minister to have an immediate ceasefire. That sounds like stronger language and a stronger or a different policy stance than we've seen in the past, when, of course, it has been very much tied to hostages. Do you not see it that way? TORRES: Look for me, the end goal of removing Hamas from power must be non-negotiable, right? The means by which it is done can be negotiable. It can be the subject of debate between the United States and Israel.

But if Hamas remains in power, there will never be security for Israel, and there will never be peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The removal of Hamas from power is a precondition for both security and peace in the region.

BASH: OK, so there's that question about ceasefire and ending the conflict that's going on right now. And then the other piece of it is what you all do in the United States Congress, which is theoretically giving money and aid to Israel. Some of your most pro-Israel fellow Democrats, Senator Chris Coons, for example, now say they support putting conditions on U.S. aid to Israel. Do you?

TORRES: I respectfully disagree. I feel like we should remain fundamentally supportive of the U.S.-Israel relationship, which is in the interest of the United States. Israel's our greatest ally in the Middle East, and people should keep in mind Israel did not start the war. The war was imposed upon Israel by the barbarism and terrorism of Hamas, which must be removed from power.

If Hamas remains in power, it will regroup, rearm and launch even deadlier terror attacks than the atrocities of October 7th. Hamas has publicly said that it's intent on repeating October 7th, and we ignore that threat at our own peril. So I disagree.

I'm in favor of preserving the U.S.-Israel relationship on removing Hamas from power, but doing so in a manner that minimizes Palestinian casualties and delivers aid to those in need.

BASH: OK, Congressman, we're going to have to leave it there. Thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate it.

TORRES: Absolutely.

BASH: And more ahead on today's top story, where I started with Congressman from New York, a magnitude 4.8 earthquake shakes New York City and the Northeast. We'll be right back with more.

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[12:52:17]

BASH: Back now to that earthquake that shook the Northeast this morning. A 4.8 tremor rattled New York City and beyond. It was 10:23 a.m. Eastern. New York's mayor says residents should go on as if it is a normal day. New York's governor calls the quake historic. Many people felt it, and many are asking, what's going on? This is not something that usually happens on the East Coast, or is it?

Matthew Herman joins me now from where earthquakes usually happen, California. He's a Professor Of Geological Science at Cal State Bakersfield. Professor, thank you so much for joining me. First question is just

that, about the earthquakes that we are seeing very infrequently on the East Coast, but they do exist.

MATTHEW HERMAN, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES, CAL STATE BAKERSFIELD: Yeah, they do happen. So I remember when I first started in grad school, there was an earthquake in Virginia that I felt all the way up in Pennsylvania. They're not very common, but they do happen, and over the last couple of decades and centuries, there have actually been pretty significant earthquakes doing damage along the East Coast.

BASH: I want to ask you about something that, some kind of background that we just got from the U.S. Geological Survey that I find absolutely fascinating, and that is that this quake was shallow, and it's on the extreme end of what the U.S. Geological Survey considers a shallow earthquake, which is up to 70 kilometers deep, and because of that, you can tell me in layman's terms what this means, but the earthquake is blunted by distance, so a shallower quake of the same magnitude as deeper one will produce much more intense shaking at the surface. Can you explain why that is?

HERMAN: That's exactly right. So the idea is what causes the strong shaking is when the earthquake happens, we have a fault, the two sides slip past each other really quickly, generating seismic waves. So if that fault's really close to you, you feel the shaking more severely than if you're farther away, where the seismic waves have some time to get smaller.

So shallow earthquakes produce really severe shaking right above them. If the earthquake's deeper, then you're naturally farther away from the earthquake, where the seismic waves won't be as big.

BASH: Yeah, I guess that is common sense. The magnitude, 4.8 magnitude. In these situations, we already heard from officials in New York, especially that they are concerned about aftershocks. At what point would you say they're in the clear?

HERMAN: Yeah, there's not necessarily a cut and dry answer to that. I studied some earthquakes in New Zealand that bear some resemblance to this. The earthquake started out much bigger with a magnitude seven, but they had a sequence of magnitudes six earthquakes over the next couple of years, they had three or four magnitude six earthquakes.

[12:55:17]

We should definitely expect some aftershocks in the next few days. Typically, those aftershocks air smaller, but there is a chance that we could trigger a larger earthquake here.

BASH: Oh, wow.

HERMAN: And that's why when you -- when you see things like the earthquake forecast they say there's a small chance of having a bigger earthquake later. BASH: Wow, I didn't -- I didn't realize that -- that even in a 4.8 magnitude that an aftershock could trigger another entire earthquake. Fascinating. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise and your many, many years of study with us. Appreciate it. Professor Matt Herman from Cal State Bakersfield.

And thank you for joining INSIDE POLITICS today. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts after the break.

And don't forget the total solar eclipse passes across the U.S. on Monday and live coverage will start at 1 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN or you can stream it on Max.

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