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Iran's Missile Attack On Israel Fuels Fears Of Winder War; Iran Warns Of More Strikes After Israel Vows Retaliation; IDF: 8 Israeli Soldiers Killed Fighting In Lebanon; Vance: GOP Needs To Earn American's Trust Back On Abortion; Vance Dodges 2020 Election Question: "I'm Focused On The Future"; VP Hopefuls Spar Over Jan. 6, Abortion, Immigration, Inflation. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired October 02, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Today on Inside Politics, more fear of a widening war. Tension across the globe is palpable as the world waits for a response to Iran's largest missile attack ever against Israel. The Biden administration says America's support for Israel remains ironclad. I'll talk to the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about that and this neck and neck election. She played a key role in reshaping.

Plus, Midwest nights. Tim Walz and J.D. Vance keep it civil on the debate stage as Donald Trump rages on Truth Social. How much will their exchanges on January 6, abortion and the economy matter to voters in this deadlocked race, and communities quote, wiped off the map. President Biden is heading to the Carolinas today to survey areas gutted by Hurricane Helene.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

We start in the Middle East, Israel is promising payback after yesterday, at this hour, we all watched Iran fire nearly 200 ballistic missiles into Israel. The crucial question today is, how will Israel respond? But nearly one year since Hamas is barbaric, October 7 massacre of civilians inside Israel, hostages still captive. And a war that's killed thousands of Palestinians living under Hamas rule, it seems that the wider regional war that so many feared could be upon us.

CNN's Nic Robertson is live in Tel Aviv. So, Nic, if we needed any more evidence of that, we are seeing still fighting on Israel's western front and Gaza southwest. We see it in the northern up front in Lebanon, Hamas and Hezbollah. And of course, the big question is whether the country that has these two groups as its proxies is going to be even more aggressive and what Israel is going to do in retaliation?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It really does seem to hang on how Israel responds the scale, scope and what it chooses to hit. What we know from officials from the overnight strikes, Iran strikes last night is that all the military air bases that were targeted are fully functional. And that does include the base that would be at the heart of operations for any long-range fighter aircraft strike into or on the borders of Iran.

We don't know what the government is planning. We do know that it could include oil facilities that are vital for Iran's economy. It could include nuclear targets. Iran's nuclear weapons program that it denies having is relatively close to a breakout or break out to a viable weapon in the space of a year, and it may be that Israel determines this is the right time to do that.

But perhaps more pressing issues for the prime minister today, he was doing what all prime ministers do during conflict, which is offer consoling and words and condolences for troops fallen in battle. And this day, we've learned from the IDF that eight of their soldiers, and that's a very significant number were killed in the second day of military ground operation into Lebanon. Of course, there been so much talk about the comparisons with the IDF crossing into Lebanon in 2006, the same with 1982 where Israel didn't pull out until 2000 the cost to troops back then.

[12:05:00]

This not what anyone in the country and the prime minister who's making is at the core of making the decisions about what to do next, will not have wanted to see -- no one is calling it a setback, but it is clearly does expose the dangers of troops crossing into Hezbollah's home territory and facing there. And Hezbollah did say they went into

combat with Israeli forces along that border in three different locations last night.

We don't have details of the attack, but we do know that it involved some of the sort of more senior officers and more experienced fighting forces. But as you say, the big question right now, Israel's response to Iran and what happens after that.

BASH: Nic, thank you so much for that important report. Appreciate it. At the White House, a senior U.S. official says that they don't believe Israel has decided what a retaliatory strike will look like. President Biden said yesterday that quote, it is an active discussion.

I'm joined now by the former speaker of the House, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi of California. Thank you so much for being here. You just heard Nic Robertson lay out the options being discussed inside Israel about how to retaliate. Yesterday, you said that the U.S. is unwavering in our commitment to the protection and defense of the Israeli people.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was on with Wolf Blitzer here on CNN. He said, now is the moment to destroy Iran's nuclear program. If Israel does that, should the U.S. support the move?

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D) FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: Well as you know -- good morning. Good morning in California. As you said before Nic was on, we want to avoid a bigger war. As you know full well that masterfully, President Obama had a plan to reduce the capacity of the Iranians to produce a nuclear weapon.

The next president in line, he came in and eliminated that unfortunately, because now Iran is on a path again for enriching uranium more fully, taking it closer to having the capacity for weapon. I don't know how close they are to that, and if I did, I wouldn't say.

So again, we want to avoid a bigger war. We do know that Hezbollah and Hamas are proxies for Iran. They are the troublemakers in the region. The fact that Israel was attacked, 200 ballistic missiles coming into Israel, thank God, without any major effect, shows that they must be stopped.

But I don't think we should get in an open discussion now as to how we deal with their nuclear. We had a plan to do that. I think that there are other countries as we had before, who had worked together to do that again. But the reason that they're in the strong position they are today, nuclear wise, is because of the failed policy of Donald Trump.

BASH: And we are where we are right now with regard to whatever it is that Iran has with regard to nuclear capability. So let me just sort of press you on that. It sounds like you're saying that Israel should be cautious about going after Iran's nuclear program or not. I mean, tell me exactly what you believe? And then even extend that to the question of its oil fields.

PELOSI: Well, it's up to Israel to decide about their security. But the fact -- the fact is, we are -- as you said earlier, and I repeat it again. We are trying to avoid a wider war --

BASH: And would that cause a wider war?

PELOSI: -- to avoid a wider war. It may, you know, again, there has to be a weighing of opportunities, a weighing of possibilities in the region. I'm not going to come on this show and say, Israel should attack the nuclear facilities in Iran. I've never really been for that. I was for a diplomatic solution which President Obama successfully put forth to reduce the nuclear capability and possibilities of Iran. And I think as much as we can do diplomatically, we should just avoid a wider war.

BASH: Madam Speaker, you are not shy about your criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Do you trust his judgment to carry out any retaliatory attack or just about where we are right now?

PELOSI: Well, I never really support what Israel. Israel opposed President Obama's nuclear agreement. That was China, Russia, E.U., countries around the world supporting that diplomatic initiative. Israel opposed it. I think that's one of the reasons Trump probably opposed it too. I don't know. You have to ask him. But whatever his policy is, it has taken Iran to a stronger nuclear position.

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OK. So, the Netanyahu -- I'm a mom, I'm a grandmother. Free the hostages. Let that be the priority. It's almost one year. Why couldn't he use his whatever it is, his leverage, his might, whatever it was, to free the hostages. Israel was attacked on October 7, unmercifully. It was a horrible thing, but those hostages need to be freed.

I'm thinking of Hersh. That young man who we thought -- I saw his parents recently. We thought in any day he would be free, and they killed. He died. So again, every day is more dangerous for them. Free the hostages. So, if you ask me, if I respect his discretion, his judgment address, I think he should have had the hostages free, first and foremost before talking about the Philadelphia corridor and this that and the other thing.

BASH: I want to turn our discussion back to the United States and to the presidential election. And I want to ask you about a moment in last night's vice-presidential debate. And listen to what J.D. Vance said specifically about the issue of reproductive rights when he was asked about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), 2024 VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I grew up in a working-class family in a neighborhood where I knew a lot of young women, who had unplanned pregnancies and decided to terminate those pregnancies because they feel like they didn't have any other options.

And you know, I -- one of them is actually very dear to me. And I know she's watching tonight, and I love you. And she told me something a couple years ago that she felt like if she hadn't had that abortion, that it would have destroyed her life because she was in an abusive relationship. We've got to do so much better of a job at earning the American people's trust back on this issue, where they frankly just don't trust us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: An undecided female voter in CNN's post-debate focus group said last night that answer made her more encouraged about the GOP ticket because she said he sounded more progressive than she expected. What would you say to her?

PELOSI: Let me first just say, since we're turning to domestic that our thoughts and prayers of the people of North Carolina and the South for the assault that they were under from the -- from the weather. It's so sad that people lost their lives, their homes, so much their place of business, and the rest. So, personally condolences who lost family members.

In terms of last night, that -- what can you say. You saw the difference between truth and trust in terms of Walz, and corn and slick in terms of. This administration is for an abortion ban, a national abortion ban. And when they say, leave it up to the states, the states have their own abortion bans. We need to protect them by having Roe v. Wade be the national policy of our country.

I don't know what hope she saw in that. A right woman's right to choose is to choose to have the child or not have the child, or to engage in contraception, which the Republicans -- 194 of them voted, women do not have the right to contraception. So, understand this, women of America -- I'm a mother of five, five children, six years and seven days. I have two birthdays this week of my children and it is wonderful for me, but not up to me to decide what other people should do, nor is it up to Vance or Trump.

So, understand this. In their 2025 project, they not only want to have a federal ban on abortion. They want to close the Department of Education to educate those children. The list goes on and on. I think that that was clever to use that personal connection, but it isn't real in terms of women having the right to make their own decisions and not politicians making their decisions for them.

This is a very serious matter. I mean, first -- let me just put it in perspective. First of all, they weren't telling the truth about it. A, they weren't telling the truth about January 6. How about him saying president was encouraging peaceful demonstrations at the Capitol? How about him saying the president was for a peaceful transfer of power on January 20? How about him saying that President Obama saved the Affordable Care Act? Give me a break.

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This is over 60 times the Republicans tried to take it down. They failed because of just the American people, but also John McCain. So, what we saw there was misrepresentation after misrepresented, but corn and slick, as opposed to Walz, who was trustworthy and truthful about what he had to say, his sincerity, his authenticity, I think, won the night.

But in terms of a woman's right to choose, you cannot -- you cannot -- I mean eight Republicans voted for a woman to have the right to contraception. Eight in the Congress, eight.194 no. So again, unfortunately, that corn may have worked on that young woman. But I hope that she never has to be subjected to the policies that they will subject her too. This is about truth versus corn. I congratulate Tim Walz.

BASH: Madam Speaker, thank you so much for being here. I want to congratulate you on being recognized during the 30th anniversary of the Presidio National Park site. I know you've been one of the biggest advocates for the Presidio National Park status. It now has Pelosi Plaza. So, congrats there. We're showing the picture. Thank you.

PELOSI: Oh, thank you. It was done in a bipartisan way -- in a bipartisan way. That's what I'm so proud of. Thank you.

BASH: Thank you for being here. And coming up, a civil debate in 2024 in politics. Will viewers in instant polls say that they like that? We're going to break down some of the most compelling, some of the most cringy moments and the elephant not in the room.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), 2024 VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Mike Pence made that decision to certify that election. That's why Mike Pence isn't on this stage. (END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Can a vice-presidential debate move the needle? Usually we would say, no, but in an election this tight, maybe. Last night's faceoff remained civil, and policy focused, unlike the debate between their bosses last month. One of the more noteworthy moments came at the very end, when J.D. Vance was asked about January 6 threats to democracy and whether Donald Trump did, in fact, lose the election.

Now there is an ad from the Harris, Walz campaign, put out this morning highlighting that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: It's really rich for Democratic leaders to say that Donald Trump is a unique threat to democracy, when he peacefully gave over- power.

WALZ: He is still saying, he didn't lose the election. I would just ask that. Did he lose the 2020 election?

VANCE: Tim, I'm focused on the future.

WALZ: That is a damning non-answer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Let's discuss all of this in more with my terrific reporters here, from the New York Times' Maureen Dowd, Carl Hulse, also from the New York Times, and Bloomberg and CNN's Nia-Malika Henderson. Thank you so much for being here. We're all a little bleary eyed.

Maureen, what's your takeaway from last night?

MAUREEN DOWD, COLUMNIST, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Well, I thought that J.D. Vance, I thought it was very chilling because he was able to present himself as a very reasonable person. And you know, Axelrod had said -- David Axelrod had suggested that it was going to be the golden retriever versus the wolf, but J.D. Vance had on his golden retriever disguise. And he -- you know, he -- he just was able to present himself as something he is not. And he was able to act like he wasn't, you know, the liar and mean-spirited attack dog that he has been.

BASH: But Walz was -- it was interesting because Walz didn't call him on a lot --

DOWD: Right.

BASH: -- or like anything. He made a decision to just do his own thing. DOWD: Only in the last question.

BASH: And what did you think of that?

DOWD: Well, I think that -- I think that Walz was able to rip off the mask at the very end. But in the meantime, J.D. Vance was able to come across as, you know, a very nice, reasonable guy.

BASH: And nice and reasonable were probably some of the watch words from just kind of the overall vibe since 2024. We just have to talk about vibes of the night. I want to play some of the exchanges and just show our viewers how civil it was in tone and tenor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: I actually think -- I agree with you. I think you want to solve this problem, but I don't think that Kamala Harris does.

WALZ: I agree with a lot of what Senator Vance said about what's happening, his running mate, though, does not.

VANCE: Maybe you're free to disagree with me on this and explain this to me.

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WALZ: I 100 percent believe that Senator Vance hates it when these kids -- it's abhorrent and it breaks your heart. I agree with that. But it's -- that's not far enough.

VANCE: First of all, I didn't know that your 17-year-old witnesses shooting. I'm sorry about that and --

WALZ: I appreciate.

VANCE: -- Christ have mercy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Nia.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah. I mean that was unexpected. And you sort of saw certainly J.D. Vance's objective going in, which was to humanize himself, right? It was sort of the kindler gentler version of J.D. Vance. You know, all this time, we've been talking about J.D. Vance as a weird guy, castigating childless, cat lady, saying women without children should have no real place in the public square.

And so there he was, name dropping his mother, name dropping a friend of his who supposedly got an abortion, constantly calling Margaret by her first name. So that you can see what he was up to there. There was sort of a rehabilitation effort that Vance was advancing for himself.

What he didn't do as much and what I expected him to do was go after Kamala Harris in kind of pithy ways, pithy and memorable ways. There wasn't a lot of that really at all. And so, I mean, part of me was wondering, like, this seemed to be more about Vance, more about his future, more about maybe a 2028 run than necessarily what was going on here.

You could -- I don't know what Walz's a strategy was going in. It felt like he was going through the whole time, feeling like there were landmines all around him that he needed to avoid, whether it was -- you know, he can -- he can be a short tempered at times, he seemed to be avoiding that. He didn't want to come across as too progressive, the guy from Minnesota.

So, he, I thought, was authentic. That was -- I think, the Tim Walz that a lot of people who've covered him for years recognized. It wasn't the Tim Walz that people, I think, recognize from cable news, the sort of pithy guy.

BASH: And it could be the last debate we're going to see on the presidential, vice presidential level this cycle. Except maybe if Donald Trump sees the headline in the Wall Street Journal from the editorial board. Vance makes a better case for Trump than Trump.

CARL HULSE, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Yeah. I was thinking about that, watching that last night. You know that Donald Trump's not going to like seeing all this reviews on the right today that boy J.D. Vance is the great debater, blah, blah, blah. As a Midwesterner, I think I could say that was a Midwestern debate, right, the way they were going at each other.

But I do think that that last snippet that you played is going to be the year no JFK moment from this vice-presidential debate. And you know, I would say Walz was really nervous, and it just showed. And it reminded me a little bit of the Tim Kaine debate in 2016. You remember that he kind of didn't meet the moment either.

And, you know, so Walz got better as it went on. And there were some things that he talked about that he really knew a lot about, including healthcare and abortion, and then, of course, at the end.

BASH: And Maureen, I posed the question at the beginning about, like, whether this could matter, given how close it is. What do you think? Or have we like, already moved on?

DOWD: Yeah. I'm not sure vice-presidential debates matter that much. But I do think that Walz unfortunately allowed Vance to humanize himself, and he did not want to bring up the cat -- cat and dog issue.

BASH: He kind of did, but it didn't really go --

DOWD: But he really didn't want to do that. And I don't see how you could really go through the whole debate without bringing up that J.D. Vance's view of women is so antediluvian and scary.

(CROSSTALK)

DOWD: Yeah. And scary, and that just never came up. BASH: I want you to know that the last time you used that word, I did look it up. You're so much smarter now. So, thank you. Don't go anywhere, because coming up a world in chaos. That is what Donald Trump is saying, as he suggests, only he can prevent a World War III. We're going to go inside the politics of war next.