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The Situation Room

Job Market Cooling?; Israel Targets Hamas Leaders in Qatar. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired September 09, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Happening now, breaking news: massive explosions rocking Qatar, Israel calling it an attack against Hamas leadership.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: And we begin this hour with the breaking news, Israel carrying out an attack against Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar. Video shows people on the ground running as smoke billows above these buildings in Doha, a city that Hamas leaders have long used as a headquarters just outside of Gaza.

BROWN: This attack marks the first time Israel has launched an operation in Qatar. And Qatari officials are calling this attack a -- quote -- "criminal assault."

Let's go live now to CNN correspondent Jeremy Diamond in Jerusalem and senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak at the White House forest.

Jeremy, to you first. What is Israel saying about this attack?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pam, this is an extraordinary moment in this region and one that is going to have extraordinary and immense repercussions, the Israeli military acknowledging that it carried out a strike in coordination with the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, to target and kill Hamas' senior leadership in the Qatari capital of Doha.

This is the first Israeli military action that we know of to happen inside of the state of Qatar. And it comes at a critical juncture, at a moment when the United States is leading this new push to try and reach a cease-fire and hostage release deal, putting on the table a proposal that Hamas' leadership was reportedly reviewing at the very moment when they were struck. That's according to a senior Hamas leader, who says that Hamas' senior

leadership in Doha was indeed reviewing that American proposal when they were struck by the Israeli military. One of the targets of this strike appears to have been Khalil al-Hayya. He is Hamas' leader and Hamas' chief negotiator, has been for the better part of the last two years.

And this raises major questions, the timing of this strike amid this renewed push for negotiations, for Israel to be taking out or attempting to take out at least Hamas' leader and the main interlocutor on the other side.

And indeed the Hostages and Families Forum just releasing a statement now moments ago, saying that they are taking -- receiving this development with anxiety and uncertainty about where this leaves their loved ones, the 48 hostages still being held by Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups inside of the Gaza Strip.

But this is not the first time that Israel has carried out strikes outside of its borders targeting Hamas' leadership, also targeting Hamas' leadership at key moments in these cease-fire and hostage release negotiations. Israeli leaders made very clear in the first days after the October 7 massacre that they would go after every single Hamas leader whom they deemed responsible for that attack.

And, indeed, today, that is exactly what the Israeli military is saying they have done. But this will have repercussions not only for the future of the war in Gaza, for the fate of the hostages, but also for Israel's relations with Qatar, which, of course, has been the key mediator in all of those negotiations over the course of the last two years -- Wolf, Pam.

BLITZER: Yes, important point.

All right, I want to go to Kevin Liptak, our man at the White House, right now.

What are White House officials saying, Kevin?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, we have learned now from two U.S. officials that Israel did give the U.S. a heads-up before this strike in Doha. We haven't heard anything officially from the White House. We expect to hear from Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, when she comes to the White House podium at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time.

But that notification, I think, is important and it does give you a sense of whether this was coordinated with the U.S. We don't have a great idea of how long the U.S. knew that this was in the offing before it actually happened.

But, certainly, this timing here is quite critical. President Trump as recently as Sunday said that he thought a cease-fire plan would be possible in Gaza very soon. But he also offered quite a stark warning to Hamas, saying that "I have warned Hamas" about the consequences of not accepting this new plan that he put in place that would allow for the release of all of the hostages in Gaza in exchange for Israel ending its campaign to occupy Gaza City.

The president on Sunday went on to write: "This is my last warning. There will not be another one."

And so I think, in the president's mind, certainly, his patience had been running out with Hamas that it had resisted some of the proposals that had been on the table previously, and obviously very frustrated that his attempts to bring the war there to an end had so far sort of sputtered out.

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The big question I think now going forward is what this will do to the U.S. relationship with Qatar. The Qataris had spent the last several months really trying to cultivate the Trump administration. President Trump became the first U.S. president to visit Qatar back in May, and obviously Qatar hosts a major military presence.

The forward headquarters of Central Command is based at the Al Udeid Air Base there in Qatar, and, in fact, the U.S. had asked Qatar over the last several decades to host the Hamas political leadership to allow for the sorts of negotiations that had been carried out over the last several months as the U.S. tries to reach a cease-fire deal.

How all of that moves forward I think now a very big question, as the U.S. and as the White House digest what exactly happened on the ground there.

BLITZER: All right, we will stay in close touch with you, Kevin. Thanks very much, and Jeremy Diamond in Jerusalem as well -- Pam.

BROWN: All right, let's go to CNN anchor Becky Anderson from Abu Dhabi.

Becky, just how significant is this?

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: It's very significant.

I mean, it would be very difficult to overstate the enormity of what has happened. We have had a statement, of course, from the Qataris themselves describing this as "a cowardly and criminal assault. It constitutes a blatant violation of international norms and laws." And you would expect at least that, if not more.

And we will await to see what the leadership intends to do at this point. But you -- when you look at the images that we have into CNN of the moment of that strike, people in the area of Doha fleeing the scene, screaming, I mean, there was clear fear and panic.

I have spoken to a source in Qatar who say they were given no warning of this attack. As we understand it, the U.S, of course, was given some warning of this. They were informed, although Israel takes responsibility for this themselves. They say they were going after senior leadership. As I understand it, this was an attack, an aerial attack on a residential building, as Israel has described it, one that houses the senior leadership of Hamas. What we do not know at this stage is whether anybody was killed in this attack. But it was -- and I underscore -- this was in a residential area. So to call this audacious really is to sort of belittle the enormity of this. I'm reminded of the attack by Iran on the U.S. base back in June.

At the time, I was told by key sources in Qatar it would take a very long time for Qatar and Qataris, the citizens and residents of Qatar, to get over that and to trust once again the people of -- or the leadership in Iran, who Qatar, of course, have relatively decent relations with.

But this is a real shock, and coming as it does at just less than 24 hours after the Qatar prime minister, who is also the foreign minister, held meetings with Khalil al-Hayya, the senior Hamas representative, putting significant pressure on Hamas to respond positively to the latest U.S. initiative on a cease-fire and hostage deal.

That initiative, as we understand it, would allow for the release of all hostages at the outset and then for negotiations to try and end this bloody conflict in Gaza. And we were told last night that the next 24, 48 hours after that meeting between the Qatari prime minister, who is effectively the sort of lead negotiator as one of the key mediators in all of this, we were told that the next 24, 48 hours would be crucial.

But I don't think anybody who was speaking to us about that meeting last night meant that this would be crucial, in that we would see the sort of scenes that we have seen today.

BROWN: Yes, very significant, as you laid out.

Becky Anderson, thank you -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, I want to continue this conversation joining us now retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Mark Schwartz. He last served as the U.S. security coordinator of the Israeli-Palestinian Authority. Also with us, Brett McGurk, the former Middle East and North Africa coordinator for the U.S. National Security Council during the Biden administration.

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Brett, the Qatari government is calling the Israeli attack, as we heard, criminal, a violation of international law, they say. Has Israel destroyed its negotiating partnership, for all practical purposes, with Doha, Qatar?

BRETT MCGURK, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think the -- I helped lead those negotiations in Qatar. I'm going to kind of tell you how this goes.

Everybody knows where the Hamas leadership is. They're in their compound. You're negotiating through Sheik Mohammed, who's the prime minister, who Becky just mentioned. He will run messages back and forth together with the Qatar team. That's how it works. Qatar often doesn't want that role, but they have taken it on.

We asked them to take it on. So did Israel. Attacking the Hamas leadership in Doha, I think this process is over. I think Qatar is going to say, we're out of this. Good luck with the deal. And I think, if I'm Hamas, you have very few ways to respond against Israel. You're in a significant weakened position.

What can you do? You can take revenge against the hostages. I'm really concerned about that, Wolf, about where this goes. On the other hand, I said in the last hour, in some ways, this is one of the least surprising things, because all the leaders of Hamas have been dead men walking since October 7, 2023. That has been clear.

But this is a direct attack. Israel's taken responsibility for it. When they killed Haniyeh, the former leader of Hamas, political leader, last summer in Iran, they did not take credit for it. Everybody kind of knew it was them, but they didn't even talk about it for almost six months. Here, Israel came right out, said, it was us. We're targeting their leaders. We did it in Doha.

And it is a shocking development. I think we're going to learn the results of the strike. Was this coordinated with the U.S.? I suspect it was more coordinated than we might believe at the moment. We will learn more from the White House, I think, over the coming hours and days.

But the ramifications right now, again, we just don't know.

BLITZER: Yes.

BROWN: And I want to bring General Schwartz in, because we know that the Trump administration, according to sources, both in the U.S. and in Israel, was notified before Israel launched the strike on Doha.

There is still a question about coordination, as Brett just raised. But I want to hear your perspective on how notable that is. Is this something that you think the U.S. would support? Of course, it's one thing to be notified. It's another to actually support this.

LT. GEN. MARK SCHWARTZ (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Well, I think the fact that serious negotiations were going on -- we saw reporting just as recently as two days ago that potentially over the weekend that potentially there was a deal in the making.

So I think it's not -- it's good that the U.S. was notified, but I can't imagine there was strong support for the strike. And I agree with Brett's assessment and certainly others that the likelihood that we're going to see any surviving hostages released and are not going to perish as a result of this strike today and the imminent attacks that are going to take place inside of Gaza City are significantly reduced.

BLITZER: Let me follow up on that, General. How is Qatar likely to respond to this Israeli strike beyond simply pulling out of its role in the cease-fire negotiations, a critically important role indeed? And what do you think the response will be from various Arab neighbors

in the region who have improved their relationships with Israel in recent years, according to the Abraham Accords?

SCHWARTZ: What I think is consistent across the Gulf states, particularly those that are entered in the Abraham Accords, is, they certainly don't support Hamas. They certainly don't condone what occurred on October 7 and the actions thereafter.

So I think you're not going to hear -- there may be some outward condemnation that an attack took place inside of Qatar against Hamas leadership. But, beyond that, I don't think we're going to see much. I think more concerning is the humanitarian impact that is going to continue to grow over the course of the coming weeks, if in fact the siege on Gaza City takes place.

And, as important, there's no pathway right now -- I was in Israel and I was in Southern Gaza for just a few hours last week. And there is no pathway right now for the day after in terms of security and governance of Gaza once the military occupation that will take place, if they go into Gaza City, after Israel decides that it's time to pull back.

BROWN: Brett, I just want to hear more of your thoughts on the timing of this. As you noted earlier, it was no secret where Hamas leadership was in Qatar, these negotiators, right? So what do you make of the timing of this strike on this residential building at a time when you have President Trump just on Sunday saying, we're going to get a deal soon, Israel has agreed to this deal, and now this?

What are we to make of it all?

MCGURK: I'm trying to connect the dots as best I can.

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BROWN: Yes.

MCGURK: The offer the U.S. put on the table a few days ago, as it's been reported, I mean, frankly, it was a nonstarter.

There's no way Hamas -- we could hope Hamas could give all the hostages up on day one, all the remains, give away all their leverage, and then negotiate the permanent end of the war in Gaza. Hamas is not going to do that.

So part of me is looking at this, was this coordinated, here's the offer, take it or leave it, Trump said last chance, as this operation was under way. I don't know. I think we have to learn more. But Wolf's point, where does this leave us? These negotiations are now dead.

And Khalil al-Hayya is a terrorist. He's in Doha. They're not harboring him. He's there to do the negotiations. If he was killed today, the decision-maker now is the leader of Hamas inside Gaza, who is the militant leader, Izz al-Din al-Haddad. He is the guy who has been saying for months, no deal under any circumstances. So I just -- I think the prospect for a deal here is highly unlikely.

And what the general just said, where does -- the day after in Gaza is something that Israel still has not figured out. You can completely dismantle Hamas, but then who is controlling the population afterwards? And there's no answer for that, even two years into this conflict.

BROWN: Let me just follow up with you on what you just said. There's a mother of an Israeli hostage that came out and says that this strike serves as a death sentence for her son. Do you think she's right?

MCGURK: I just -- I feel like I understand Hamas. I know them because I have dealt with them in so many ways, and I used to be dealing -- doing this so intimately. I know how they think.

And what concerns me, what concerns me is, if you're Hamas, how do we react to this? As I just said, we have very few options. One of the options is, they control the lives and fate of the hostages. I'm very concerned about that. And I'm trying to think of how this ends in a way we see the hostages coming home, and I helped negotiate two cease- fire deals with hostages coming out.

It was a main priority. There are 20 living hostages in these tunnels in Gaza in horrific conditions, and I really fear this makes it much harder, much harder, if not impossible, to get them home.

BLITZER: All right, Brett McGurk, thanks very much. And, General Mark Schwartz, thanks to you as well.

And still ahead, we're continuing to follow the breaking news out of Qatar, of course, Israel carrying out an attack against Hamas leadership in Qatar.

BROWN: And more breaking news into THE SITUATION ROOM: U.S. job growth was revised down by nearly one million jobs. This is the largest update on record. What this means for the economy, we're going to discuss.

We will be right back.

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BLITZER: This morning, a stunning new measure of the U.S. economy. A major update shows job growth here in the United States is much weaker than previously reported.

There was actually 911,000 fewer jobs created in the 12-month period through March of this year. That makes it the largest preliminary revision on record.

Here to discuss what's going on is Natasha Sarin. She served as deputy assistant secretary for economic policy over at the U.S. Treasury and later as a counselor for the Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during the Biden administration. Natasha, thanks so much for joining us.

Huge numbers, nearly a million fewer jobs created than earlier suspected. Are you surprised by this historic size of this preliminary revision?

NATASHA SARIN, YALE LAW SCHOOL: So, I think it's important to put these numbers into a little bit of context.

First of all, the revision process, we do this every year. So the way that the BLS gets data about jobs in this country is, it surveys a bunch of businesses. And that information, the accuracy of it depends on who actually responds to that survey. Once a year, we do the process of actually going and looking at unemployment claims to be able to say, OK, this is what actually happened in the labor market over the 12-month prior period.

And what we have learned here is that job growth slowed pretty substantially over the course of the year that ended in March of 2024. But it is a very large number. I will say that the number of the year before in the preliminary revision was a downward revision of about 800,000 fewer jobs that was then revised to more like 600,000.

So this is all in the realm of what is normal with respect to the actual process of reporting the data. What the data is telling you, though, is the labor market is slowing and has been slowing for some time, which is certainly a warning sign that's important for us to look at and policymakers to respond to.

BLITZER: Very important sign.

Now, this revision, as you know, covers the last April through March of this year. That means more than nine months of this revision was under President Biden. And you served as a counselor to the then- Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Did the Biden administration misread the economy, believing it was healthier than it really was?

SARIN: So, again, I think it's incredibly important, and there's going to be a lot of space for economists like me to try and disentangle exactly what happened over the course of the last many years that led the labor market to be at the state that it's in.

But I think what today's numbers tell us and, frankly, what the jobs report told us last week as we looked at real-time data in the economy is that we have a labor market that is cooling, where it is hard to find a job because not a lot of employers are hiring.

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And the thing that strikes me is sort of, forward-looking, if I was looking at this data from the perspective of this administration is in that environment, the idea that you would be undertaking this sort of a trade agenda that we know, based on estimates that I have done and others have done at the Budget Lab at Yale, is going to lead to a smaller economy with 500,000 fewer jobs in it as a result of tariff rates as high as they are, is something that is pretty concerning and that we can in fact address by rolling back this trade agenda right now.

BLITZER: All right, Natasha Sarin, thanks very much for your analysis. Appreciate it very, very much -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Wolf, a trove of Epstein documents, a will, an address book, and a birthday letter that appears to be signed by President Trump -- how the White House is responding to the new documents released in the Epstein case.

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