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Israel: Ceasefire Will Begin Immediately After Cabinet Approval; Trump Holding Cabinet Meeting After Announcing Gaza Deal; Trump: Gaza Will Be "Redone" Arab Countries Will Step Up; Trump Holding Cabinet Meeting On Day 9 Of Shutdown; Trump: Hostages May Be Released Monday Or Tuesday. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired October 09, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Now, it was an awesome atmosphere here in Vegas as the Golden Knights. They opened up their season taking on the L.A. Kings. And the pregame show is always a must see for Golden Knights games. They had 64 drones flying around the ice as a part of that pregame show.

It was really cool. As for the game, it was a slugfest. Vegas was down two goals early, but they got a hat trick from Pavel Dorofeyev. They were up two in the third, but the Kings tied it late. They would go on to win in a shootout, six to five.

I tell you what. Wolf, Pam, everyone here in Vegas, wearing Golden Knights jerseys. Even the dealers at the casinos had golden night gear on. You never think you'd find a hockey town in the middle of the desert. That's what Vegas really has become.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: Never know what you're going to find in Vegas, right?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CO-ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: Yeah. That's good point. Andy Scholes, thank you very, very much. And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning.

BROWN: We'll see you back here tomorrow at 10 am eastern. Inside Politics with our friend and colleague, Dana Bash, starts right now.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Welcome to Inside Politics. I'm Dana Bash. And we are following breaking news from the Middle East to right here in Washington, D.C. Any moment now, President Trump will meet with his cabinet on what could be a watershed day for his administration and for global politics.

Israel and Hamas are on the cusp of finalizing a deal that could end the two-year war in Gaza. At this hour, Israel's security cabinet is meeting behind closed doors to approve the U.S. backed ceasefire deal with Hamas. In Tel Aviv, celebrations erupted on the news of the deal. Similar scenes inside Gaza, cheers and cries of joy filled the streets of Khan Yunis.

CNN is covering this story from all angles. Kristen Holmes is at the White House. Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv. Jeremy, I want to start with you. Tell us what is going on in that Israeli security cabinet meeting right now. We're waiting to see if they approve the deal, and a key step -- this approval is a key step to getting to that ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right, Dana. That is Israeli security cabinet meeting now underway, and that will be followed by what is the most critical step here, a vote by the full cabinet of the Israeli government. That vote is expected to go forward. No major hitches expected there, even though some of the far- right allies of the Israeli prime minister will likely oppose this deal.

But once that full cabinet vote goes through, an immediate ceasefire is indeed set to take effect inside of the Gaza Strip. The next 24 hours, we'll see Israeli troops withdrawing from certain parts of Gaza to pre-agreed lines within the Gaza Strip, and that will set off then a 72-hour clock, before which we will see those Israeli hostages finally emerging from Gaza after more than two years of captivity.

And this is obviously an enormous moment for so many in this region, for the families of hostages who have waited this agonizing two-year wait to finally be able to see their loved ones. For those who have been waiting two years to be able to bury their loved ones.

As we know that there are the bodies of some 28 hostages included in that total number of 48, and of course, for the people of Gaza who have endured unspeakable horrors over the course of the last two years. More than 67,000 people who have been killed, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Gaza decimated in many ways, and the entry of much needed humanitarian aid also set to surge into Gaza as a result of this agreement.

But I can tell you that for now, we have been witnessing scenes of celebration, both in Gaza and here at Hostage Square. You can see that there are thousands of people who have come out here tonight to share in this rare moment of joy that has been so difficult to grasp for the last two years.

Keep in mind, Hostage Square is where Israelis have come Saturday night after Saturday night after Saturday night in order to raise their voices to demand that the Israeli government reach a deal to free the hostages, and tonight, so many are able to share in the fact, in the joy that those hopes and dreams are finally coming true.

We have seen some of the families of the hostages walking through this square to cheers from Israelis who have come to know their faces through their activism, through their relentless pursuit of seeing their loved ones come home.

And finally, tonight, it seems that this is all starting to come together, Dana. But no question that they will still be holding their breaths at least somewhat, until they actually see those hostages come across the border and be able to embrace their loved ones for the first time. Dana? BASH: Yeah. I mean, really, it's palpable all the way from here. Jeremy, thank you so much for setting the scene and giving us that reporting. Now to the White House. Kristen, we are told that this meeting could start at any moment. If I have to interrupt you, my apologies ahead of time. Yes, it is true that this is a multi-pronged deal and that this is just the beginning. But it is also true that even getting to the beginning is a very big accomplishment for this president.

[12:05:00]

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT.: Yeah, Dana, that's true. And just so, you know, we expect this meeting to start at any second. As you said, the press just moved in. They're setting up the cameras now. So, we should see President Trump. And I would expect him to talk about this deal for the exact reason you just said. This has been something that President Trump has been working towards, and his team has been working towards since they first got into office, since he was reelected.

And one of the things that we've heard over and over again from Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is that the most important thing to him, the most important thing to the president, was this exchange of hostages, was getting the hostages home, and now they have achieved that if all goes as planned.

So yes, it is just phase one. There are still a number of points they have to get through. This was a 20-point peace plan. We see about three of the points here that have been actually worked out between Israel and Hamas. But there is a celebration within the White House, within the administration.

And likely again, to hear about President Trump. He's going to talk to his cabinet and talk to reporters about why they feel like this is such a historic feat. And you heard Jeremy there, talking about the different families feeling like this was the beginning of a new era, hearing from hostage families who feel a sense of relief for the first time, and that is how the White House is feeling now too.

We know President Trump has talked to the hostages. He has talked to leaders across the world about this. And they really feel like this is just the beginning, despite the fact that it's just the working out of phase one.

A couple of things that we heard from President Trump, and we heard from some of the administration and the people around these deals, is that there are still a number of sticking points. There are still a number of sticking points when it comes to Palestinian statehood, which President Trump's 20-point peace plan left the door open for.

Also, the disarmament of Hamas, something that they have said that they don't plan on doing. But this, again, this was something that both privately and publicly, this idea of returning the hostages home, that the president and the Middle East envoy, who has been working on this, really since January, said was the most important thing that they wanted to do in order to get a ceasefire, in order to move forward.

So, you can tell that they're celebrating here. And I think Jeremy might have gone over this, but one of the things to note, they believe those hostages are going to be return--

BASH: Kristen, forgive me. I'm going to interrupt you now. Thanks to you both. We're going to go to the Cabinet Room and the president.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A much bigger bases created peace, and I think it's going to be a lasting peace, hopefully an everlasting peace, peace in the Middle East. We secured the release of all of the remaining hostages, and they should be released on Monday or Tuesday. Getting them is a complicated process. I'd rather not tell you what they have to do to get them.

There are places you don't want to be, but we are getting the hostages back on Tuesday -- Monday or Tuesday. And that will be a day of joy. I'm going to try and make a trip over. We're going to try and get over there. And we're working on the timing, the exact timing. We're going to go to Egypt, where we'll have a signing, an additional sign, and we've already had a signing representing me, but we're going to have an official signing.

And the amazing thing is, all of the countries over there, from Qatar to Saudi Arabia to U.A.E. to all of them, the rich ones, the less than rich ones, they've all come together something which is amazing, actually. They've all come together for this, and they're really -- probably the best relationships they've ever had.

So, it's been really something incredible that nobody thought it was possible to get it done. And very importantly, the hostages are coming back, as you know, they consider them hostages. They talk about them as hostages, but there are approximately 28 dead people, mostly young, mostly men, but -- and boys, I mean boys.

The one woman talked about her baby, her baby's 25 years old, but you know, to her, it's her baby and we're bringing them home. We're getting them too. We're getting everything. And to those parents, the dead young man is just as important as though it were, as though this person were alive. It's amazing. I've never seen anything quite like it. I've been very much involved. I've never seen anything quite like it.

But it's really peace in the Middle East. And you remember October 7 was terrible, but also, from the Hamas standpoint, they probably lost 70,000 people. That's big retribution. That's big retribution. But at some point that whole -- that whole thing has to stop, and we're going to see to it. Gaza is going to be slowly redone. You know, we have tremendous wealth in that part of the world, by certain countries, and just a small part of that.

[12:10:00]

What they -- what they make, will do wonders for Gaza. And I think you'll see some tremendous countries stepping up and putting up a lot of money and taking care of things, but this tremendous spirit like I haven't seen. And even the news. I won't call it fake news for this purpose, because they really were very fair today, I must tell you, in all cases, but they covered it very well. They covered it very fairly. Everybody loves it, everybody.

People that were never giving us a fair shake. Frankly, they can't even believe it, so they're amazed by it, a lot of people are. But it was -- just everything came together. I think the attack was very important on Iran because -- let's say that didn't happen, they'd probably, by now have a nuclear weapon, numerous nuclear weapons.

And therefore, even if we signed a deal, there'd be a big dark cloud over it, and it wouldn't be the same thing. So, Iran is different. But Iran wants to work on peace now. They've informed us, and they've acknowledged that they are totally in favor of this deal. They think it's a great thing. So, we appreciate that, and we'll work with Iran.

As you know, we have major sanctions on Iran and lots of other things. We'd like to see them be able to rebuild their country too, but they can't have a nuclear weapon. So, I want to express my tremendous gratitude to the leaders of Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, for helping us reach this incredible day. And for being there. They were there with us all the way.

And of course, as you know, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and so many. I will tell you President Erdogan was personally involved in dealing with Hamas and some of the others. He's been great. They've all been -- they've all been really amazing. Indonesia has been amazing. Indonesia has been fantastic. The whole world has come together for this. People that didn't get along, people that didn't like each other, neighboring countries that frankly, didn't like each other, but now they -- since this moment in time.

So, we look forward to welcoming the hostages like you can't believe, home to their families, and that will take place early next week. We hope Monday or Tuesday. And all Americans should be proud of the role that our country has played in bringing this terrible conflict to the end -- to an end.

And I want to thank, I mean, some of the people. J.D., you were fantastic. And Pete, you were great. Marco was fantastic. I mean, some of you were very much involved, I'm looking around. So, indirectly, I think almost everybody in this room was involved. Susie, I want to thank you very much. You were incredible. You've done an incredible job.

So, and yes, John, what you've done was invaluable. CIA John Ratcliffe, he's done an incredible job. So, I want to thank you all, and if I'm missing anybody, I apologize, but you've been amazing. And then you have Steve Witkoff, who worked so hard.

And you remember, we settled seven -- this is number eight. We settled seven wars, or major conflicts, but wars, and this is number eight. And the one that I thought would be, maybe the quickest of all would be Russia, Ukraine. And I think that's going to happen too.

But in the meantime, they're losing about 7000 people a week, and that seems pretty bad. They're losing mostly soldiers, young soldiers, they go out to war and they're getting killed. And while it doesn't affect us in a lot of ways, we've got a big ocean in between. You don't want to see that happen. It was a big mistake that war should have never happened. It would have never happened if I were president.

So, we're here this morning for a cabinet meeting, as my administration continues to deliver for the American people, despite the radical left lunatics that shutdown our government. You have Democrats that they've lost their way. They have no leadership. We don't even know who to deal with over there. At least they know who to deal with, we have no idea who we're dealing with over there.

It's like they have no idea what they're doing. Republicans have voted repeatedly to pass a clean, nonpartisan bill to reopen government at the same funding levels. We're not going to do anything only good for healthcare. We're really -- I think, become the party of good healthcare. And they keep using healthcare as a cudgel.

I want to try and get everyone thinking about healthcare. We're the ones that are saving healthcare. In fact, one of the things we're doing is we're going to be reducing the cost of medicines by 100 percent, 200, 300, 500 percent, and even more than that, because as you know, we're in the process of favored nations right now. We've exercised applause because we were subsidizing the entire world. The entire world pays a fraction of what the United States has been paying.

[12:15:00]

And we've already numerous Pfizer, and other country companies have already signed, and other countries are a bigger problem because they've been getting a subsidized rate. We've been paying for years. This has gone on for 30 years. We've been reducing the rate of drugs for other countries because we've been paying much more than we're supposed to. And they used all sorts of ideas like research and development.

I said, what about Germany? What about these other countries? Aren't they paying? No, no, we have to pay to research and development. It was all nonsense that I didn't -- I just -- I couldn't listen to it anymore. So, it's a very radical, big, tough shift, very tough. We had a lot of things going on that, but, you know, and you probably heard me say this in my first term.

I think it was my third year, we reduced drugs from one -- from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. And I was so proud of it. Actually, I had a news conference to announce it, and it was one- eight of one percent, think of that, which barely a reduction. But it's the first time in 28 years that there was a reduction in drug prices for the year.

So, from the beginning to the end, it was one-eight of one percent, and I was so proud of myself. I did something that nobody else could do. But when I started to think about it, I said, it doesn't make sense. And then I'm starting to look at numbers where a pill or treatment or some pharmaceutical product is selling in Europe for 10 percent of what we pay for in New York City or in any one of our places and cities, states.

And then I see people leaving for other countries to go buy their pharmaceuticals, where they'd make journeys to various other countries, including Europe, where they got the best bargains of all. And I put it into it, it's over. And now we're, you know, major, I guess, disputes, but we're winning the disputes by a lot -- with the countries.

A couple of countries said we won't do this. I said, well, it's unfair that we're paying 10 percent and, you know, you're paying just a fraction of what we're paying for the same product made in the same plant. And they said, well, we just -- we're not going to do it. I said, that's OK, you don't have to do it, but I'm going to put a tariff of 9 percent or 7 percent or whatever the amount of money is.

And I'm going to put a tariff on your country for the amount of money that you're taking advantage of us for. No, no, no, you guys said, yeah, I can do that. I'm going to do that. And they would immediately agree and make the tariff substantially more than the number we're talking about. And they would immediately agree.

So, we have the consent, I think Bobby of every country, essentially, they know that if they don't do it, we're going to put a tariff on for double the price, and then they're going to do it. So, we never had that before. You never had anybody in here that knew what the hell they were doing. I'll be honest.

Really it makes me angry, because for years and years, and this started many years ago, and basically, we subsidize the world. So, this is going to have a huge positive impact on Medicare, Medicaid, even social security. But anything with this pharmaceuticals, drugs involved, it's going to have a tremendous impact.

So, we're going to get drug reductions of 100 percent. I told you, one-eight of one percent that I was proud of myself. Now you're going to get 100 percent, 150 percent, 200, 300, 400, 500 percent. You're going to get the biggest drug reductions that you've ever seen. And they're already, I guess they're starting to kick in.

But we made deals with numerous companies where -- and what we're going for the full blow. We want whatever the price is. So that would mean that the world price, because the world is bigger than the United States, a lot more people. But the world price will go up a little bit, and our price will come down a lot.

So, if a pill sells for $10 in London and $100 here, the pill will go to $20 in London, and $20 for us. It's pretty simple, and that is a number that nobody can even fathom. It's a little like tariffs. Nobody knew how big they were. Nobody knew until they started seeing the trillions of dollars that have come in.

I don't know why they didn't understand it. It's something they should have understood. We were taken advantage of for years with tariffs. And now, I don't want to say we're taking advantage, but we've become a very strong country because of the money that's coming in.

[12:20:00]

Republicans have voted repeatedly to pass a clean, nonpartisan bill, to reopen our government, and remember at the same funding levels, both parties have supported in the past. So, the radical Democrats have chosen to put the economy to our country. We have the best economy we've ever had. We had the best economy in my first term, but we have an economy that's blowing it away, and we have the Democrats are trying to obstruct.

They don't want to have a good economy. I don't think they want to have a good country. That's why they try and stop our law enforcement from doing what we did in Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., we have a great, safe, beautiful capital right now. Beautiful. It's so safe, you can walk down the street, numerous people standing before me were mugged, and you're not going to get mugged anymore.

We have a safe capital. One of the safest that we took it from one of the most unsafe places to one of the most safe places in the country. And we also beautified it, and we're in the process of doing even more safe. So, we are very proud of that.

BASH: So, OK, we're going to continue to monitor the president, who is speaking at a cabinet meeting. And we're going to talk about, obviously, the very big news for the past 12 hours or so that the president began his remarks with, which is this deal that he and his top aides brokered between Israel and Hamas.

So far, my panel is here now. Phil Mattingly, I want to start our conversation with a little snippet from our friend Kevin Liptak, who wrote a really terrific piece on cnn.com, kind of putting this all in perspective. It's a very, very long perspective, and here's just a snippet of it.

After months of false hopes, stalled progress and entrenched positions, the agreement was a clear victory for the president who has, in recent weeks, seemed intent on willing his plan into a reality.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Force of nature, I think, in some way, is kind of what comes to mind when you think about how he's operated over the course of these last couple of weeks. Combined with a level of agility on a diplomatic stage that I don't know many administrations, past administrations, what we would probably all consider normal administrations, in terms of how these things work, would have been able to pull off.

And the reason I say that is, if you just think back, the countries that are involved, the president name checked, particularly the Arab states, particularly Qatar's role. At the center of this, they've always been there. But, you know, there were pictures last night of Qatari senior officials shaking hands with Israeli senior officials.

I mean, it was, what, a couple of weeks ago -- less than a month ago, that Israel launched a strike inside of Qatar that threatened to rupture all of this. And somehow the president was able to -- my understanding is, with a no shortage of fury directed at Prime Minister Netanyahu.

BASH: He got him to apologize.

MATTINGLY: Got him to apologize, worked to reach an agreement that kind of assuage Qatar's concerns, the Turkish element of this. President Erdogan, who was at the White House just a couple of weeks ago, utilizing relationships with leaders who were sometimes on the outs with past administrations, had interests that diverged from U.S. interests, and past administrations, utilizing those relationships to push this forward. When I think the skepticism and doubts were both real, legitimate and warranted over the course of the last couple of weeks. To reach this point is extraordinarily significant.

BASH: I want to go to the White House, to Kristen Holmes. Kristen, just a little bit more about what we heard from the president, just some nuts and bolts about what he plans to do. He did say, confirm what -- I know you and our colleagues, Kristen, have been reporting that he plans to try to go to the Middle East.

He said, perhaps Monday or Tuesday, and that is when he said he expects these hostages to be released. To say that that the world is on pins and needles, particularly their families here in the United States and Israel and elsewhere, about the timing of that is, you know, a huge understatement.

And I'm just wondering what you're hearing from your sources about that timing, because we've heard this weekend, and now the president is saying he's going, and perhaps the release will be timed to whether intentional or not his visit to the region.

HOLMES: Yeah, Dana. I do want to say this was actually more him hedging ongoing than we'd heard yesterday. He said he'd be going to the region. He'd be making a trip. And this time, he said he was going to try and go, which made it seem as though there are potentially plans in the works that are not quite ironed out yet, which is what I'd heard from White House officials earlier today that they were still sorting through.

[12:25:00]

What exactly this would look like? Where he would go? Would he go to Egypt? Would he go to Israel? All of these were some of those questions. So, it did seem hedging there. And the other part of this was that you mentioned that timeline. Tuesday was not a day that we had heard yet. We had heard that this was going to be wrapped up by Monday.

At one point, people were saying latest Monday that the hostages could start being returned as early as tomorrow. Now it seems as though, they're pushing that as to possibly Tuesday, the latest Tuesday. So that is a change in the timeline.

I do just want to bring up one thing that Phil was just talking about because I think it's really striking. That photo from the White House of President Trump and Netanyahu behind closed doors in which Netanyahu is talking to Qatar and reading from a script that we know essentially was a script that was an apology and guaranteeing that Israel would not strike inside of Qatar again.

That had been one of the points on the 21-point peace plan. It was taken off there. It was put out separately by the White House that Netanyahu had agreed to this and that he had apologized. And I also want to bring attention to the fact that President Trump, in the days after that, met with Qatari leaders at Trump Tower in New York. When they have been doing everything, they possibly can to smooth this over, to try and make this work. And this is a huge achievement for this administration.

BASH: Yeah. No question about it. Thanks. Let us know if we hear anything new on this from the president. Kristen, back here at the table. Jasmine, I want to play just a moment that I think I've watched probably 12 times, or multiply that by 10, because it's just -- it's so striking. The moment when Howard Lutnick, who has no official role in any of this, he's -- well, technically, he's the commerce secretary. But he's somebody who's very close to the president and has an interest in the release of hostages.

There's a meeting of -- or was a meeting of hostage families and former hostages here in D.C. Lutnick and his wife Allison, went to meet with them and got President Trump on the phone last night after this was announced. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWARD LUTNICK, SECRETARY OF COMMERCE, UNITED STATES: What do you guys have to say to President Trump?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP (voiceover): Thank you very much everybody.

LUTNICK: You did it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

LUTNICK: This is amazing. Mr. President, we believe in you. We know you've done so much for us over the past, since you became a president, even before that, and we trust you fulfilled the mission until every hostage, every 48 of the hostages are home. Thank you so much. Blessed be the peacemakers. God bless you, Mr. President. God bless America.

TRUMP (voiceover): Thank you very much. You just take care of yourselves. The hostages will come back. They're coming -- all coming back on Monday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Many reasons to play that, but one of them is, we have now seen over the past 10 months. World leaders, businesspeople, go in and understand the way to talk to President Trump is to compliment him, berry, with a lot of sugar on it. These are people who have been so desperate for their family members to come home and for this war to end that, you know, there's no sugar coating here. This is not an act. They are so, so grateful.

JASMINE WRIGHT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NOTUS: Absolutely. And I mean, what the president could be achieving right now is historic, and it is momentous. It actually impacts all of these people's lives, whether or not their family members who are still in Gaza are dead, unfortunately or alive. It's really important to them.

And I think you can see that by the amount of times that Donald Trump has had hostages who have been released, or families of -- families of members who are still in captivity right there in the White House. And so, I think that that call shows not just about how involved all of the administration was in working to this point, either indirectly or directly, but also how proud they are of this moment.

I was talking to some White House officials who continuously said that nobody could do this, except for Donald Trump, by the fact that he is what they call do maker in chief, though, by the fact that he has kind of pushed past maybe some of the concerns that either Arab members or Muslim members, or even Israeli members had in the last few weeks over some of these detailed points to try to, will a deal in place.

I also think that the conditions were right for this moment, right? We talk about how president -- former President Biden didn't hold President Netanyahu to account in the way that some people wanted him to a year ago, but also the consensus wasn't there in the way that it is right now.

And so, I think that you're seeing the White House really try to make sure that this gets signed. They're excited about this deal, and like Kristen said, they're incredibly excited about a potential hostage release because this is what, this 10 months in office has really been building up to.

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: It is absolutely a good day. What's also really amazing is watching the videos of people celebrating, not only in Tel Aviv and Israel, but in Gaza too. The pure joy of the people who have been impacted by this war on both sides of this war.

[12:30:00]