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Israel Targets Hamas "Senior Leadership" In Qatar Strike; Sources: U.S. Was Informed Ahead Of Israel's Qatar Strike; Trump's Alleged "Birthday Book" Letter To Epstein Released; Biden-To-Trump Voters React To Epstein Saga In Focus Group. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired September 09, 2025 - 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, INSIDE POLITICS: Today on Inside Politics, a seismic strike. Israel carried out an attack aimed at Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar, raising serious concerns about the future of negotiations to end the war in Gaza, and return to 48 hostages still being held captive by Hamas terrorists.

Plus, don't believe your own eyes. That's the White House messaging after the House Oversight Committee Democrats released the now infamous crude birthday message to Jeffrey Epstein, seemingly signed by Donald Trump.

And from bad to brutal. A new update to the annual jobs report shows the U.S. economy added 911,000 fewer jobs through March than initially estimated. We're going to break down what that very big provision, the largest on record, means for you.

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

We do start with the breaking news in the Middle East.

(PLAYING VIDEO)

BASH: That's people in Doha, Qatar, running for safety after an Israeli strike hit the capital in Qatar. Israeli officials say, they were going after senior Hamas leadership, including the top ceasefire negotiator, but there's still no confirmation if the strikes took out the intended targets.

Qatari officials have been mediating the ongoing ceasefire and hostage talks between Israel and Hamas. And just last week, the White House envoy to the Middle East sent a new ceasefire proposal to Hamas. Two Israeli sources tell CNN, the attack, though, was quote, months in the making.

We have a team of reporters covering the story around the world. CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes is at the White House, but I want to start with CNN's Jeremy Diamond in Jerusalem. Jeremy, what do we know so far about this strike? JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is indeed a seismic moment in the Middle East. As the Israeli military acknowledges, having carried out a strike on Hamas' leadership in the Qatari capital of Doha. And this is the repercussions of this strike are going to reverberate far beyond Doha.

As we are watching the potential implications that this could mean for those ceasefire and hostage release negotiations, as well as for Israel's relationship with Qatar, which has not only hosted Hamas' leadership for years now, but has also served as the key mediator in those negotiations since the beginning of this war in Gaza, following Hamas' October 7 attack.

Now, the Israeli military and the Israeli government say that this strike was carried out as part of a long line of strikes that we have seen Israel carry out against Hamas' leaders, wherever they may be, holding them responsible for Hamas' October 7 massacre. We do not yet know whether Israel was successful in taking out its targets in this attack.

I'm told that a battle damage assessment is still being conducted by the Israeli military and has yet to yield any definitive results. But there is no question that this is going to have enormous implications and a lot of anxiety here in Israel about what it means for the future of the war and the future of the hostages.

BASH: All right, Jeremy, stand by. Kristen, this does come, as I mentioned, just days after the White House proposed a new ceasefire deal. So, what is the reaction at the White House right now?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, right now, we're waiting to hear from Karoline Leavitt, the Press Secretary. She is going to be doing a press briefing at 1 pm, we assume we're going to get more details. All we know right now is that U.S. officials were briefed ahead of time before they actually made these strikes in Qatar.

The last time we heard from President Trump is, of course, as you are mentioning, talking about a hostage deal with Hamas and Israel. This is what he posted on Truth Social over the weekend. He said, everyone wants the hostages home. Everyone wants this war to end. The Israelis have accepted my terms. It is about time for Hamas to accept as well. I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning. There will not be another one. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

[12:05:00]

Now, of course, obviously this sounds like it is a threat here, but one of the things to keep in mind is something that Jeremy said, which is that Qatar really has been, despite housing Hamas. They have been one of the key negotiators in all of this.

Steve Witkoff, who has been over there in touch with the Qataris, that has been almost on a daily basis. There's been the main point of contact. He's very close to the Qataris. So, how exactly this plays out? That's going to be a big question, certainly one that's going to come up in the next hour.

BASH: And Kristen, I want you to listen to something that the brother of Evyatar David said to Wolf Blitzer. His brother, his name is Ilay, was on with Wolf this morning. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ILAY DAVID, BROTHER OF HAMAS HOSTAGE EVYATAR DAVID: We understand that this administration is very determined to bring back the hostages, and we trust the president to do it as well and to keep his promise. He promised us. As he rescued, as he managed to save the lives of dozens of hostages in January, February, we believe he can do it again. He promised to do it again.

We're just so confused, so confused. I don't know if it's good or bad, to be honest. I have no idea. I hope it will bring something good. But again, those were the people that, as I understand, were the people that Qatar used in the negotiations. So right now, I don't know who Israel is going to negotiate with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: President Trump did successfully bring home the living American hostages, but there are an estimated 20 hostages who are still alive and being held by Hamas in Gaza. Does that -- and of course, you saw Ilay was here in Washington because they're still lobbying the White House and Capitol Hill.

What kind of message does -- that kind of message still resonate with President Trump when he hears that? According to your sources, what happens in the White House?

HOLMES: Yeah. I wouldn't say just President Trump, I would also say Middle Eastern envoy Steve Witkoff, who has said time and time again that his main goal in being part of this administration is to bring home all of the hostages. So, it's certainly something that still resonates with them.

I think there are still a lot of questions here, Dana, as to what this means big picture. And one of the things that we've been asking is, when exactly were U.S. officials notified? Was this a conversation? Were they briefed hours, days ahead of time? You heard Jeremy there saying that Israel said that this had been in the plan -- in the works for weeks or months.

When was the U.S. notified? Did they put up any objections to this strike? What does this do to the relationship between Netanyahu and Trump? And all of that we can't answer until we have the details of the timeline here and how Israel came to this decision to do this, and when the U.S. was brought into this decision making and this process.

BASH: All right, Kristen, Jeremy, thank you so much to both of you for being here. Appreciate it. I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters here at the table, CNN's Jeff Zeleny, Tia Mitchell of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Leigh Ann Caldwell of Puck, and CNN's Stephen Collinson. Stephen, I want to start with you, to just give us what you see as the big picture here. Understanding, as both Kristen and Jeremy reported, there's still a lot we do not know about this strike, not the least of which is whether or not they actually did eliminate any of these Hamas leaders.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Right. I think, a lot depends on whether the U.S. acquiesced in the strike or it condoned the strike, because that is going to dictate a lot of what goes forward. If the U.S. was just given a heads up by the Israelis, it looks like the Netanyahu government has trampled all over President Donald Trump's latest peace effort. He predicted a deal would soon be in the offing, and that hostages would be coming home.

If the U.S. had much more of a heads up about this and condones it. It therefore takes you back to that statement the president made at the weekend in saying this is his last warning. It reminds me a lot of when he struck Iran after saying that he was going to give a two-week window for them to make a decision.

So, if that is the case, I think that Qatar is going to see this as a huge betrayal of all of their ties of the United States. They're hugely important to the Trump administration's hopes of expanding the Abraham Accords. The Qataris have been vital in U.S. diplomacy and getting hostages out of, not just the Middle East, but Afghanistan and even Venezuela.

And this really, I think, shows that Israel is acting as a unrestrained superpower in the Middle East. And it raises really questions about not just the fate of the hostages, which now look very dark, unfortunately, but how this actually ever ends in Gaza because the Qataris were going to be a big part of that.

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BASH: Yeah. I mean to be clear, the Qataris play all sides of the street on this, especially in this complicated situation in the Middle East. On the whole question of the president and his knowledge or involvement, which one is it? Or acquiescence? Is a better word that you use.

Let's listen to what the president -- I mentioned, what he said over the weekend. Let's listen to what he said on Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We're in very deep negotiation with Hamas. We said, let them all out. Right now, let them all out, and much better things will happen for them. But if you don't let them all out, it's going to be a tough situation. It's going to be nasty. That's my opinion. Israel's choice, but that's my opinion.

Think we're going to have a deal on Gaza very soon. It's a hell of a problem. Again, it's a problem we want to solve for the Middle East, for Israel, for everybody, but it's a problem we're going to get done. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I just want you to jump in. I don't think that if you give any world leader a truth serum, maybe you don't even need to do it. If, in fact, there was success in the strike, that people will be upset that known terrorists, whether or not they were in Qatar, or whether or not they were helping negotiate the release of hostages and the end of the war were eliminated. So, with that kind of as the table setting of the discussion, what's your sense of this?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: There's no question about that. But what there is a question about to Steven's exact point, we do not know what the president knew at that moment. But I was also thinking back to the Iran strike, when we were all essentially the White House was obfuscating on purpose. I mean, to make the point that he was giving them more time and that did not happen.

The reason this is different, the reason the location in this matter is so critically here is Qatar is an absolutely essential ally to the U.S. So, the president was visiting America's largest air base there, about three and a half months ago. I was with him on the air base there at the Al Udeid base.

And this is something that, if this upsets the Qataris, yes, it sounds like the U.S. gave them a heads up at the last minute. But if this unravels the relationship the U.S. has with the Qataris. This is a very big deal indeed. So, we do not know what the president knew exactly when he knew it.

But -- and we -- I do not hold out much hope that the answers will come from the press briefing here in the next hour. I mean, this is something that is going to be unraveling in the coming days and weeks, and the president's next conversation with a Bibi Netanyahu, if he hasn't already had it, certainly will be a very interesting one.

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION: Yeah. To me, it seems like one of two things happened, based on what Steven said, either the U.S. was somewhat burned by Netanyahu as not really being brought into this discussion and carrying out a strike that could have really large implications, or the U.S. did have involvement, and has been involved, and therefore may be an ally in the Qatari government field burned by the U.S. and Israel.

And either way, there are deep implications. The video you guys showed at the top of the show showed Qatari people running for their lives as their home country was being bombed by a foreign country. And so, it's not just about Hamas being targeted. Hamas was targeted in another country. And also, the question of the succession, if the strike was successful, what comes next in the negotiations? So, it just seems like huge impact with very, very little details.

BASH: Yeah. All right, everybody stand by. When we come back, back to some really serious politics here in the United States, and it's a signature that has become a Rorschach test. Is it Donald Trump's sharpie scrawl and Jeffrey Epstein's birthday book. The White House says, it's fake. You can see it and judge for yourself.

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BASH: Welcome back. You can now see Jeffrey Epstein's birthday book. A collection of wishes, allegedly from prominent CEOs, businessmen and presidents, compiled for the child sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday back in 2003, was compiled by convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, I should add that.

Well, what you're looking at now is what appears to be President Trump's name. The White House says what you're looking at is fake. It says the signatures don't match. Pointing to the official documents that you see there on the left.

You can also see how Trump signed letters back then, back in the 90s, one to Rudy Giuliani, one to Larry King, when he signed with just his first name. This is a pretty major development, and it came from the House Oversight Committee's Epstein probe. The result of a subpoena of Epstein's estate. It was publicly released by the committee's Democrats.

My panel is back. Leigh Ann, what's your sense of, I mean, again, the Rorschach test is probably the best way to continue to describe it.

[12:20:00]

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: Yeah.

BASH: But behind the scenes, when you walk the halls of Congress, are Republicans like, hmm.

CALDWELL: Yeah. So, I think it's a little too early to tell, because Donald Trump and his team have been quite effective at shutting down most of the dissent from Republicans. You see it in the Thomas Massie, Ro Khanna discharge petition, which is stuck at just four Republican signatories. They need six. There are a lot more Republicans who are expressing a lot more concern before they left for August break.

You even see the right-wing MAGA sphere online have really tamped down on their criticism and focus on this as well. And so as much as Republicans, you know, might be concerned about this publicly, they are mostly standing with the president, and Speaker Mike Johnson has a valiant effort before him to continue to keep Republicans in line and he is trying so mightily.

BASH: Yeah. And various sort of eyebrow raising ways. So, I mentioned behind the scenes because we know what Republicans are saying to the cameras. Let's just listen to some examples.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clearly, the birthday note from President Trump is a fallacy. That's just -- that's -- it's just not true. And that's a leftist talking point. It's horrible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wanted to get your reaction to the release of the Epstein state document?

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): I haven't looked at him. Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you concerned about President Donald?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): The president says he did not sign it. So, I take the president his word. I don't think the oversight committee is going to invest in looking up something 22 years ago. We're going to look --

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, you're just going to take the president his word that he -- this is not if --

COMER: What is it? What does it have to do with anything?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MITCHELL: Yeah. I mean, there's so much to unpack here. Number one, the question is, why is President Trump wanting to distance himself from a relationship that everyone knows he had. And at the time, this was before Epstein's alleged crimes became kind of fully known, fully exposed. And so, he could easily say, yeah, I helped him celebrate his 50th birthday. But that's not what's coming from the president.

And therefore, so many Republicans who want to remain in his good graces, want to remain aligned with him are kind of playing dodge ball a little bit, because at one point it was a fake. Now that the actual document has been released there. They're trying to contort themselves from saying, still saying it's a fake, or now saying, it doesn't matter. When you know, again, if it doesn't matter, then why can't you verify whether it's accurate, whether it's real or not.

BASH: I think the answer to your question about like, kind of the so what is, if you look at that letter, it's not just a letter. I mean, it's very suggestive and, you know, somewhat --

ZELENY: The contents of the letter are what the White House is actually worried about here. They actually like, what's written, that never mind the lewd drawing.

BASH: Yeah.

ZELENY: I mean, the suggestion of a secrecy. We have a secret, et cetera. But what the president and his team was doing yesterday, obviously, is just sending a message to his supporters, his base, the right-wing newscasters and others, saying there's nothing to see here.

But my question is, the president decided to file suit against News Corp, the owner of The Wall Street Journal here. What becomes of that? If the president suddenly retracts his lawsuit, that will be interesting. If not, and it moves forward, what does discovery look like in a case like this? So, I cannot -- the journal just published the words of the letter, the drawing was made public yesterday. I assume that Rupert Murdoch and his lawyers had quite a smile on their face when they saw it in the flesh yesterday.

BASH: So, this was, as I mentioned, released not by the Republicans who are in-charge of the committee and vow to get all the information out publicly, but by the Democrats who don't hold the gavel.

Listen to James Comer. You saw a little clip of him there, who is the chair of the oversight committee, talking about the fact that he's not happy with the new ranking Democrat congressman, Garcia. And then Garcia's response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COMER: Garcia, he's been on the job for about two weeks. He's proven, to me, to just be a real big drama queen because this is all about providing transparency to the American people and justice for the victims. It's not about scoring political points. So, hopefully he'll mature up.

REP. ROBERT GARCIA (D-CA): The truth is that James Comer and the oversight Republicans have no idea how to deal with an aggressive next generation forceful oversight committee that is going to work every single day to get the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Steven?

[12:25:00]

COLLINSON: Well, you know, there are big questions all along about whether this oversight committee was anything really that is intended to get out of the truth. So put that aside. The issue here is that every time there's going to be a disclosure, the Democrats see it as in their interest to embarrass the president. We're going to have a huge media fury, but the political exposure for this -- for the president is on the right.

If you looked at conservative media today, the big stories were the terrible murder in North Carolina, the crime crackdown. Trump going into potentially democratic cities. That does seem to indicate to your point, that the real anger and energy on this in some of the MAGA base is perhaps diminishing a little bit.

BASH: Yeah. I mean, the most prominent conservative cable network has not been doing much of this at all recently. At the beginning, they did, but not recently. Let's look at some of the voters that could matter if they go and vote in the midterms. These are Biden, Trump voters. So, Biden in 2020, Trump in 2024. And this is, according to -- this is from, I should say, The Focus Group podcast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voiceover): You can't say things about the Epstein files to get people to vote for you and then not do anything with them, which at the end of the day, who cares? The Epstein files don't affect my paycheck or my groceries, but there's too much wishy- washy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voiceover): The other thing that was a big thing for me that this made me regret me voting for him was the disappearance of the Epstein client list. That was like one of the things that he ran on, and I was -- that was like the thing that sold me on voting for him in a lot of ways.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voiceover): It just made me so disappointed. Hugely disappointed. It's the biggest disappointment that I've had with him so far.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CALDWELL: Yeah. So, there's a couple things here. Most Republican operatives that I talked to insist that this is not going to be a driving issue in the 2026 midterm election. This is not going to make people win or lose their elections, but it could have an impact on base turnout around the margins.

And Democrats aren't also going to focus on this in the midterms. They are going to do cost of living issues and focus on pocketbook sort of issues. But what it does do is it continues to be in the atmosphere about the perception that people have about Donald Trump and the Republican Party generally.

MITCHELL: Yeah. I've been talking with Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has split with Donald Trump on this Epstein issue, even though they remain very aligned, and she says they remain close. And she told me that she believes it's affecting Republican enthusiasm.

Again, we don't expect Donald Trump to have to be on the ballot again to deal with it, but there are other Republicans who may have to deal with the long-term repercussions of what many Republicans like The Focus Group participants said, the wishy-washiness of this whole Epstein saga.

BASH: All right, everybody stand by. Up next. We're going to go back to our top story, Israel, targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar. It's an unprecedented move, an attack inside a nominal U.S. ally. I'll talk with the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

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