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Inside Politics

Funeral Held For Murdered Israeli-American Hostage; Father Of Murdered Hostage: "Hersh, We Failed You"; Biden Wraps Up Meeting In Situation Room About Hostage Talks; 101 Hostages, Including 7 Americans, Still Help By Hamas; Trump Blames Biden, Harris For "Senseless" Deaths Of Hostages; Wash Post: Trump Team Sees Campaign As "Race To Drag Harris Down"; Labor Day Kicks Off 2024 Campaign's Final Sprint. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired September 02, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Today on INSIDE POLITICS, sadness and strife. The grieving family of a hostage murdered by Hamas makes one final memory, while Israelis from all corners of the country strike in a message of defiance and distrust, aim at Benjamin Netanyahu.

Plus, the long and winding road toward the election hits the home stretch. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris hightail it to swing states, as we are again days away from a potentially defining debate. And Donald Trump repeats what Republicans wish he wouldn't say that he had every right to interfere in an election. There's plenty of insiders confused about his strategy.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at INSIDE POLITICS.

Up first, an odyssey of nearly a year of torture ended. And with it a different kind of pain for a nation in near perpetual grief. Protests today are overwhelming Israel as a strike stops much of life there, but for the Goldberg-Polin family, life will never again feel the same.

This morning, the parents of a 23-year-old, Hersh Goldberg-Polin buried their only son. They did so with sadness, but also with hope that one of the best of us taken far too soon would push the rest of us to find a way to bring the remaining hostages in captivity for 11 months halt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON POLIN, HERSH GOLDBERG-POLIN'S FATHER: First, we failed you. We all failed you. You would not have failed you. You would have pushed harder for justice. You would have worked to understand the other to bridge differences. You would have challenged more people to challenge their own thinking. And what you would be pushing for now is to ensure that your death, the deaths of all the soldiers and so many innocent civilians are not vain. Maybe -- just maybe, your death is the stone, the fuel that will bring home the remaining 101 hostages. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Of those 101 hostages still believed to be in Gaza. Seven are Americans, four now believed to be alive. Let's get straight to Tel Aviv and CNN's Jeremy Diamond. Jeremy, what is the mood there now? And what are you hearing from your sources about the potential impact or maybe even turning point of this horrible, horrible tragedy?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, listen, these last 36 hours in Israel have been an incredible mixture of grief, of anger, of frustration. We have seen so much of that outrage pouring into the streets of central Tel Aviv, where we are now.

Last night, hundreds of thousands of people gathered right here in front of the Israeli military headquarters to demand that the Israeli prime minister and his government prioritize a hostage release deal, so that the remaining hostages in Gaza could return alive, rather than in body bags, as those six hostages this weekend did.

But today, even as we are seeing these protests now renewing again in strength, I'm already seeing hundreds of people around us gathering, thousands more expected to join today. We also saw the grief of those parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin's parents, that 23-year-old who was simply attending the nova music festival when Hamas terrorist began throwing grenades in a bomb shelter in which he was sheltering, blowing his arm off as he tried to protect those who were alongside him, enduring nearly 11 months of captivity before ultimately being executed by Hamas.

According to the Israeli military, just hours before Israeli troops found his body. We heard his parents today saying that they hope that his death will at least be a catalyst for a deal. But privately, the Israeli prime minister, Dana, I'm told, is only doubling down on this notion of requiring that Israeli troops remain in control of the Philadelphia corridor, that critical stretch of land between Gaza and Egypt as a condition for any ceasefire deal. And we know that that has been one of the sticking points.

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And in addition to that, an Israeli official saying that the Israeli prime minister has found that there will be a quote, strong reaction to the deaths of the six hostages. And that Israel intends to hurt Hamas in a way that Israel has not done before. We do not know exactly what that means, but certainly it seems to portend more Israeli military action, rather than a diplomatic solution that could bring about a ceasefire and the release of these hostages. Dana?

BASH: I mean, you can feel the passion, the anger, the despair, really coming through the screen behind you. Thank you so much for that report. Jeremy, appreciate it. President Biden's meeting in the Situation Room about the hostages just wrapped up. The White House says, Biden and Vice President Harris met with his national security team to discuss efforts to reach a deal. Biden spoke briefly to reporters just before the meeting began.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think it's time for Prime Minister Netanyahu to do more on this issue? Do you think he's doing enough?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: CNN's Kevin Liptak is at the White House. Kevin, what are you hearing from your sources about how that meeting went?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. That one-word no is doing a lot there for President Biden, of course, he has been so reluctant in the past to criticize Benjamin Netanyahu for how he is handling this conflict. But you see him there very much aligning himself with the thousands of people who are out protesting on the streets in Israel.

And certainly, we know that American officials are now viewing this moment as an urgent one as they work to bring this ceasefire deal across the finish line. President Biden just wrapping up that meeting in the Situation Room. What the White House says is that he reaffirmed the importance of holding Hamas' leaders accountable. But he also discussed the status of the American bridging proposal to try and bring those hostages home and talked about the next steps.

Now, on the South Lawn, I did ask President Biden if he was preparing to present a final hostage agreement proposal to all of the sides, and he said that they are getting close. And that does speak, I think, to the critical moment that American officials now view themselves in. And when you talk to us officials, they do say that, of course, the deaths of these six hostages beneath Rafah does raise new questions about Hamas' seriousness towards reaching a deal.

But they also acknowledge that it does apply new pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu. You saw President Biden speaking to that on the South Lawn as well. It has appeared to open and deepen the rift between President Biden and his Israeli counterpart, as senior Israeli source speaking after President Biden said that calling it remarkable and dangerous.

So certainly, the relationship there a little bit frosty still, but I think, you know, when I asked President Biden why a new deal would have any more success than the past proposals. He said that hope springs eternal, certainly American officials very much wanting to use this window to try and get a hostage deal across the finish line.

BASH: Great work, as always. Kevin, thank you so much. Appreciate that. And I'm joined now by three stellar reporters on this Labor Day. CNN's Isaac Dovere and Arlette Saenz, and the Washington Post's Marianne LeVine. Thank you so much for being here on a holiday.

Arlette, you cover the White House for us. What are you hearing? Just to sort of add to Kevin's reporting about what's going on inside the Biden administration, inside the national security team on what more they can and should do. There is a lot of frustration among -- particularly, the Americans. We'll hear some of it later. I spoke to the Neutra family, whose son Omer is one of the remaining hostages, believed to be alive, who is an American citizen. And they're kind of, you know, done with the prayers and they have been patient. They're obviously upset with the prime minister in Israel, but they're also upset that the American administration has not done more.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: There's no question that the discovery of these six bodies of the hostages who were killed by Hamas in Gaza is really adding a fresh urgency to the desire to get a hostage and ceasefire deal struck. But there are still very real questions about what that path forward might look like.

The administration really has been working fervently for weeks now, President Biden himself speaking with the leaders of Israel, Qatar and Egypt, just in the last two weeks, trying to get this proposal across the finish line. Now the president is expressing some cautious optimism, but it's unclear whether they actually will be able to push this and get both sides to agree in this moment.

Now, there is also concern about those hostage families. Last night, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan held a virtual call, something that he's been doing quite often over the course of this conflict, where he told them himself that these coming days will be critical. It's unclear if that will be enough to satisfy the families who just want to get their loved one's home at this moment.

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But certainly, for President Biden, this does continue to remain a key priority. Officials say that he's been working around the clock, trying to get to this deal, but it's unclear whether they actually might be able to secure that. And I also think the comments that he made about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are quite significant for someone who really tries not to criticize him out in public.

We have seen their spats kind of play out over the course of the past few months. But will there be other pressure that Biden tries to apply himself to Netanyahu in the coming days? They're trying to get some type of deal across the finish line.

BASH: And just on the sort of the politics of this, domestic politics of this for now, Kamala Harris versus Donald Trump. Isaac, I was talking to a veteran Democratic strategist over the weekend who was saying that he hopes that the Harris campaign, which is relying, of course, on the administration because this is a policy issue, not a political and campaign issue.

Understands that this is not just a issue for Jews or for Palestinians at this point, or for the sort of sides who have been erupting in the streets, so this is a competence question. And that this is one of those issues that will likely reverberate among those swing voters, suburban voters in the collar counties of Pennsylvania or elsewhere that will decide this election, and that is the way that they have to view it politically. Do you agree with that? EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: There's the buildup here over the next couple of weeks to the anniversary of October 7, right, which is just under a month before Election Day and that is going to be a critical moment in itself. We'll see what happens in between here and there, whether there is a deal for a ceasefire and the hostages being returned.

But if it's been a year of the Biden administration saying that we're close to a deal. We're getting close. We're getting -- they keep on saying, we're getting close. I've heard from people in the administration who say that they have said to other administration officials, we can't keep going, other saying we're about to get a deal. And they've been doing that for six months at this point already.

So yes, I think it is a question that can reverberate into competence. It's a question that reverberates into all the political ways of this issue. I mean, it's a war in Israel that has become the major source of domestic political tension for a lot of people in the Democratic Party.

And where this all builds to we don't know, because it was not two weeks ago that we had the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin at the convention, having the entire Democratic convention hall chanting, bring them home. He was alive at that point. And he is obviously not now, that in itself is going to change the way that people feel about this.

BASH: Yeah. That's a really good point. On the politics, Marianne, the former president released something, of course, trying to hang this on the vice president. The hostage crisis in Israel is only taking place because comrade Kamala Harris is weak and ineffective and has no idea what she's doing. I look forward to seeing her at the debate.

By the way, I'm just -- as I'm reading this again, the hostage crisis that he put that -- he put it in those terms, a la Jimmy Carter.

MARIANNE LEVINE, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yeah. I mean, I think he is using this moment to try to paint a broader picture of Harris, that she is weak on foreign policy, that she is a weak leader. And he's using rhetoric that he's used a lot when he talks about foreign policy issues.

He often says October 7 would have never happened if he had been president and he's not offering a lot of evidence as to why he thinks that. But that is something that he says a lot. He says the same thing about the war in Ukraine.

And so, I think this is another example of him trying to portray himself as a stronger leader than Biden and now Harris. And -- but I think it's worth noting that Trump has offered very little specifics about how he himself would end the war in Gaza. And he has also offered conflicting statements about the war itself. He has a complicated relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And so, I think this is a complicated issue for him as well. BASH: Yeah. That's a good point. Real quick. I just want to remind our viewers what the vice president told me about this very issue in our interview last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Would you do anything differently? For example, would you withhold some U.S. weapons shipments to Israel? That's what a lot of people on the progressive left want you to do.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let me be very clear. I'm unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel's defense and its ability to defend itself. This war must end. And we must get a deal that is about getting the hostages out. I've met with the families of the American hostages. Let's get the hostages out. Let's get the ceasefire done.

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BASH: But no change in policy, in terms of arms and so forth?

HARRIS: No, we have to get a deal done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Yeah. That's one of the remarkable moments from that interview. The fact that there really is no daylight between President Biden and Vice President Harris when it relates to Israel and Gaza. Even as you had progressives particularly push for an arms embargo on Israel.

She hasn't shown any moves that would deviate from the president's strategy, even as there are major concerns within a state like Michigan, from Arab American, Muslim American and young voters about her stance towards Gaza. So, we'll see how she navigates this all plays out in the coming weeks.

BASH: OK, everybody standby. Up next. It is the final sprint to Election Day. New polls show Kamala Harris is leading Donald Trump in some areas, but her campaign's message to supporters is that she is the underdog in this race. We'll talk about that after a quick break.

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BASH: It is Labor Day, the unofficial start of the final sprint to Election Day. But while there are 64 days until November 5, voting in some key states will start in the next couple of weeks. North Carolina will send out ballots on Friday by mail. It is the first state to do so.

My panel is back now. It's so exciting. I can't believe it's going to happen this Friday. Really, really amazing. I want to ask you about some of your reporting this morning. This is with Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dossey and you, Marianne LeVine.

As another adviser told reporters last month, if you think this race is going to be decided on likability, you're making a grave error because neither one of them is going to be liked at the end of this race. So, get ready. We think it's ugly now, get ready for it to be even uglier. Is your point?

LEVINE: Yeah. I mean, the task for the Trump campaign over the next 60-plus days is to really define Harris. And we haven't seen him quite land on a message over the last few weeks with the changing candidate. He often still talks about Biden. And I think that in the next couple weeks, we can expect sort of a barrage of attacks on Harris.

In looking at the ad impact data, just even in the last -- in the next few weeks, many of the ads are solely focused on negative attacks on Harris. And so, I think we can expect the race to get a lot uglier. I think the September 10 debate will be really telling in terms of how the Trump campaign tries to refine their message against Harris.

But I think part of the issue is the candidate. The campaign really wants to make this race about the economy. They want to make this race about policy issues. Trump has often veered into personal attacks. Has pulled the crowds about wanting, about whether or not they prefer personal attacks to Harris. So, I think the question with Trump, as it often is, is how -- can he stay on message in the next few weeks and really make this race about Harris and not about him.

BASH: Arlette, I want you to look at some of the data inside a new Washington Post, ABC poll, which really is fascinating. This is a look at the way that Donald Trump did with key voting groups before the Democratic convention and after.

So, white women plus 13 before the convention, plus two after the convention. So not doing as well, obviously dramatically. And that means Kamala Harris is doing better. White men, the opposite, plus 13 before the convention, plus 21 after the convention. What is team Harris saying about that?

SAENZ: Yeah. Well, the gender gap there is just incredibly clear. And I think for Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign, they believe that they have more room to grow, especially with women voters. You often hear them talking about issues like abortion and gun violence or issues that they believe are something that they really can bring positive ideas on and bring to the table to try to court more of those female voters.

But you've also seen Donald Trump trying to make his own plays in these weird ways with kind of waffling when it comes to reproductive rights and abortion. He's put out a lot of different positions, whether its presenting different options, relating to different ideas about how he'll vote on that Florida six-week ban, floating the idea of IVF.

Ultimately, these are things that the Harris campaign believes that they can really hold significant sway with female voters, specifically on those types of issues. And that will only give them more room to grow with women and also trying to peel off some of those the men as well.

BASH: And Isaac, I want you to weigh in on that. But I also want to bring up another part of this poll. The question about attributes -- attributes rather the preferred candidate based on these attributes. Physical health for the job, Harris plus 32, honesty and trustworthiness, Harris plus 18 -- excuse me, mental acuity, Harris plus 10.

DOVERE: Well, what a different race we're looking at when Joe Biden was the candidate, right? That's number one here. But look, when it comes to the gender gap that we see from every ballot measure that's been about abortion rights as it has moved more toward the Democratic position, the protection of abortion rights than any poll has been predicting.

The Harris campaign is counting on that continuing, both among women and among men. And that seems like there's reason to believe it will continue to be a big issue, and that she is a powerful messenger on that for the Democratic Party, is part of what you saw at the Democratic convention so much there -- so much focus on that issue.

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But over the course of the next couple weeks, it's not that long. And we keep on hearing the Trump campaign is trying to figure out how to define Kamala Harris. All right, well, now it's two weeks since the last time they said that that's enough time maybe for them to do it. But I do think we're at this point looking at a race that will be shaped by the debate on next Tuesday.

And what the race looks like on the other side of that debate is likely to be different from what the race looks like now. If we need any proof of that, let's remember what happened in that June debate when there was a race between Donald Trump. And you remember --

BASH: I don't remember that. OK.

(CROSSTALK)

DOVERE: Something happened on stage, it wasn't great for one of the candidates that did have an impact on the race. So, let's see what this looks like and how they actually engage with each other. Over the next week, we're going to have a lot of expectations between the two camps about what that will look like.

BASH: And one more look inside this poll on the issues. The economy, Trump plus eight. Inflation, Trump plus eight. Immigration, Trump plus nine. Abortion to your point -- both of your points, Harris plus 16. And now we should note that on all of those Trump is doing much better than Harris. But Harris is doing better than Joe Biden did when he was on the top of the ticket.

LEVINE: Yeah. I mean, I think it's telling. And again, it speaks to how Republicans again want to make this really about the issues. And I think they -- a lot of the Republicans we talked to will say that if the issues about Donald Trump and his personality, that they will likely -- that they do not have as good of a chance of winning this election.

And so, I think it is telling just how close it is. And I think it does speak to the fact that this is just like a very polarized environment that we're in right now. And that it's going to depend on, you know, is this an election that's defined by policy, or is an election that's defined by vibes, as some people have said. So, I think that speaks to the divide in the polling there.

BASH: Maybe it's policy vibes.

DOVERE: Maybe, I don't know -- really, you go back to 2020, and at this point, before the election, Joe Biden was leading in a lot of polls, and he ended up winning by 7 million votes in the popular vote. But it was 44,000 votes between four states that gave the Electoral College to Biden --

BASH: Such an important thing to remember.

DOVERE: And so that -- what you keep hearing from the Harris campaign is there the underdog, you're talking about all that stuff. But what they're really worried about is that people will say like, oh, she's winning, everything is great. And then their voters won't turn up, and then the Trump voters will -- and then Trump will win. And it doesn't. He won the Electoral College in 2016 by not a lot of votes, by 190,000 votes. Joe Biden 44,000 votes. This really could come down to that small margin.

BASH: Everybody standby, up next. Donald Trump insists he had every right to interfere in the election, but after promising to be the most respected law and order president in U.S. history. Are you confused? Standby for more.

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