Transcripts For CNNW CNN 20240703

Hamas Firing A Barrage of rockets. This is video of people scrambling in the wreckage as sirens blared in the israeli city of ash ka lon. Come to us. Come to us. Tell me where i go. You can see streaks in the sky. We have seen the iron dome here three miles from the gaza border. A lot of there is one over there coming in. You are going to hear it right up there. Got it. See if we can watch that one. And you can see those Iron Dome Interceptions right above us. This is video of the destruction in gaza this morning. The government warning that all electricity will completely stop and fuel runs out for Hospital Generators today. Right now we dont know the fate of all the hostages who are kidnapped from israel taken to gaza. President biden confirmed americans are among the captives and at least 20 u. S. Citizens are currently unaccounted for. The death toll in israel from hamas assault continues to rise. 1,200 people now confirmed dead as the scale and savagery of hamas massacre of civilians comes to light more and more each day. 14 americans confirmed dead. That number is expected to rise today. Lets begin with erin burnett in ashkelon. What are you seeing right now . We have been following you throughout the morning. What are you seeing at the moment . Reporter all right. So, phil, we are actually moving here to a stairwell because we are hearing again incoming. So our Security Team is having us move to the stairwell. So we are just taking shelter here. The north side of a building because, obviously, the rocket fire from gaza is coming from the south. Obviously, you saw what happened earlier when we were where the Israeli Military is amassing in ashkelon. We understand earlier, they said we said dozens and dozens of rockets were fired. Now we know 60 were fired and 60 broke through dome or partially inter intercepted by the israeli iron dome. There were remnants in ashkelon. 12 people were injured and we are going to be heading over there in a few moment. We are here now in ashkelon and, as you can see, obviously, there are other people here. This is a city. City of more than 100,000 people. The roads are very empty but not completely empty and there are cars going by even as we heard the thudding that caused our security to ask us to move back into the stairwell on the northern side of this building in ashkelon. You were speaking with us last hour about the proximity and how its so different covering this war than ukraine, for example, and the fact that you went to ashkelon in less than an hour. It just shows us exactly that. How close everything is. Reporter from where we were, which was in the ashkelon area, but really essentially in vast open sort of hilly fields where the Israeli Forces are massing near that border, from there to where we are right now, five or sixminute drive, maybe eightminute drive. And as i said on one side of the road youre within the line of where the actual sirens are going off. On the other side of the road we found a grocery store. We went inside. Store was not completely empty. I mean, there was actually someone with a full grocery cart. It was quite empty. The shelves were full. There is a semblance of life continuing to go on as normal when people are so used to the general situation, although, of course, not the unprecedented specifics of the situation that we are in right now. Erin, right now you cant see it, we are showing a splitscreen of extremely dense and intense smoke rising in gaza. I know you have seen fighters fly over the top of you throughout the course of the morning, heard about some of the strikes there. Can you talk about just i think this gets to the proxy. You could smell the smoke when the wind was shifting back and forth. What that means for, i think, the future of what is expected to be a very intense conflict . Reporter yes, you can smell i should say i dont know if you can see from albert the woman behind me i dont think wants to be seen on camera s. She was offering us orange juice with cups. I dont know if tu can see that. That has what we have been experiencing here. You see the smoke and it smells. That horrible, thick smell, which, you know, you are close enough to smell. When the wind shifts you can absolutely smell it there as well. Nic robertson is also watching all that. He was 60 rockets over ashkelon where we are probably not far away from each other here in this city . Reporter yeah, we spent most of our time until sderot. It gives you that slightly different perspective because what you are witnessing, what were witnessing in ashkelon is that sort of little uptick, slight uptick compared to a few days ago in people trying to go about their daily business, going shopping, a few more cars on the road. In sderot it is not entirely deserted but most people have left. The stores are all closed. There is nowhere to go to buy anything. On the streets there really serious and significant foot patrols of military doing their patrols through the town there because there is still a concern about hamas infiltration, although there is nothing for sure. They are taking a lot of precautions. What were witnessing close to gaza is this continued heavy artillery barrages, this heavy artillery firing into Gaza Last Night. We could see the flash from where we were, and about four seconds later the boom was so loud, the doors and the windows of the building we were in were rattling. The roof was shaking. Then there will be the airstrikes as well on gaza. But you really understand as weve been traveling around this morning, coming from sderot to where we are in ashkelon at the moment, just that increase in military presence. We have been talking about it the past few days. The convoys get bigger. Not only do you see the convoys, but see the troops deployed on the ground with their backpacks, carrying stretchers, carrying radios, theyre carrying bed rolls. These are soldiers who are not going back to a Barracks Anywhere tonight. They are out in the field. They are deployed. Close to the border with that fence to Gaza Last Night we could hear a lot of Heavy Equipment on the move. It sounded like possibly tanks, hef mechanical diggers, all the sorts of things we have seen in the past that have been brought in by the military in advance of an incursion. Although, there is no order for an incursion, i think for all the troochs that are arriving here, they know that that is such a real possibility. And i think, you know, its giving a sense of security again to the population here that they are coming out. But the closer you get to gaza, its much more of a military zone, not a civilian zone. Reporter watching some of those convoys go by, one thing that struck me is you would have someone on the top with the machine gun, fully ready to go, you know, not sitting and waiting. Fully ready to go. One thing i know you also had a chance to experience, is sort of why we are here to begin with, we are getting more and more understanding of the horrific atrocities that happened in peoples homes when these militants went doortodoor slaughtering people. You went it a kibbutz where that happened. Can you tell us what you actually saw . Reporter absolutely. And i will tell you tabout a conversation i had. Would actually two conversations it this morning. I have been visiting a man who escaped. I mean, he doesnt know how he was so lucky. But he had hidden out in one of the rocket shelters, the hard shelters, the concrete shelters, when hamas was coming. He didnt know that they were coming. He hid there because of the rocket attack. This was saturday morning. And then he said all these other young people that were fleeing that Music Festival, they arrived in their cars and piled into this tiny, tiny space in the shelter. Its a tiny space. And he said there were about 20 people crammed in there. Hamas gunman, he said, came up. The shooting, they could hear getting louder and louder. Then they stopped. They started shooting into this shelter where he was. Opening fire on people that were cowering there. Then after firing, they threw a grenade in. He said it was just chaos. People screaming. People moaning. People in agony. Then he said they threw another grenade in and he saw it and he turned to the wall to try to protect themself, but he said amazingly it didnt go off and the shooting stopped. And then when he ventured out, he said he had to climb over people to get out. When he ventured out, there were two policemen, israeli policemen outside with handguns and he thinks that they had helped save him and a couple of others in the shelter because they drove the hamas fighters away. He is still coming to terms with what happened. Of course, he helped put some of the survivors, some of the victims in his car and drove them out area, got him as close to hospital as possible. Reporter all right. Nic, thank you. Nic near in ashkelon near the gaza border. Phil and poppy, i send it back to you. We are going to head over to try to show everyone a little bit more about the impact of what happens when one of these rockets actually strikes and breaks through that dome. Back to you. We will be checking in with you. You and your team stay safe. Pass our appreciation on to the woman who offered you orange juice. I think it shows humanity and personal side of this as well. Erin burnett, thank you. Back to cnn military analyst colonel cedric leighton. Erin reported that six rockets broke through the iron dome. Its not infallible. Talk through that. So basically, phil, what you see every system is vulnerable. I cant emphasize that enough. When you see the iron dome in full effect here, you are able to see it take out some of the incoming rockets. The problem that you have is they can handle about 80 rockets per battery. Once you get beyond that, once the system is saturated you have a whole different situation here. And so you can tell, you know, when the Rocket Strikes occur, when hamas is doing conducting these Rocket Strikes, they can go all over israel and do this. Most of the time these Rocket Strikes are intercepted. However, every time they saturate the system and the system isnt ready to take care of the trajectory as it comes to assess where its going on any other anomaly you get an impact and the kinds of things you see in ashkelon and several other cities right around here. And the reason for that is the system is really dependent on accurate radar pictures. In some cases, accurate intelligence. And the ability of the operators of the system to actually figure out whats going to happen with the incoming rockets. And that really becomes the key thing. Colonel cedric leighton, thank you for standing by. We will get back to you soon. Fords. And moments from now, congress is set to receive a classified briefing on the state of the war. Democratic Congressman Dean Phillips will be briefed. He joins us live right ahead of that. Crystal clear. We stand with israel. We stand with israel. And we will make sure it has what it needs to take care of its citizens. Defend itself and respond to this attack. President biden declaring the United States unequivocal support for israels war on hamas and saying he intends to ask congress to approve new funding for israel. You are looking at live pictures now. Look at those smoke plumes out of gaza city. Moments ago, lawmakers are set to receive a classified briefing within the hour. Joining us now one of the representatives who will be at that briefing is democratic Congressman Dean Phillips of minnesota. He is on the Foreign Affairs committee, the Ranking Member of The Middle East subcommittee. He traveled to israel in august and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both times. Good morning, congressman. Good morning. Good to be with you. Seeing those live images, you heard the boom there. You heard the strikes as they are ongoing. You met with netanyahu twice. Given your recent trips there, those critical meetings, what is your assessment of how you believe israel will respond in the coming days . Sadly, poppy, its clear. There will likely be a Ground Invasion of gaza. Its the last thing that israel wants to do. Its the last thing the world wants to see. But it is the responsibility of any democratically elected government to protect its people. The failures of security and intelligence in the last week are graphic and israel has a responsibility. I ask americans to recognize. Imagine if missiles were raining on us from canada. Imagine if thour own babies had their heads decapitated. This is horrifying. I am a human being. These images and the depravity of hamas has got to be addressed. They have got to be neutralized. And then and only then can we really plant the seeds of peace, which is going to be the next prerogative. That has why i have been traveling to The Middle East to inspire that. You said to end this as quickly as we can pursue peace. That is your mission. The question remains how complicated it is when you have so many civilians stuck in gaza and americans held hostage and israelis held hostages while we learned from phils interview with matt miller at they are working with israel, egypt, allies to try to find safe passage. The Rafa Crossing is not available now. This is one Palestinian American speaking to jake tapper yesterday. Is is there anywhere to go to escape this barrage of missiles . No. We tried everywhere. They say go to the shore and then they bomb the shore next day. They say go to the north, then they bomb the north areas next day. Like, everywhere. They are bombing everywhere. So no place is safe in gaza strip. Do you believe it is crucial to find a way for the people like her to exit before this Ground Invasion that you believe is coming . Poppy, again, as a human being, absolutely. My heart is bleeding for israeli parents who lost their children and for palestinian parents who are suffering and losing their own. Of course. Thats why i traveled to riyadh recently, to jerusalem, to inspire what we expect will be peace between saudi arabia and israel. We think that may be the beginning of the very peace that we have been seeking for a half century between israel and palestinians. But i want to remind people, hamas has sworn to israels destruction, sworn to annihilate the jewish people. Until they change that disposition, there is going to be more death, there is going to be more destruction. And i ask, i plead, i invite palestinians to recognize that principled leadership in this time has never been more important. And if and when they achieve that there might be a chance because then the rest of the world can push both sides together and ensure we never see the images we have seen. We must redouble efforts because the irans, hezbollah, they did this to disrupt that Peace Process because it frightens them. They want people to be well aware what this is about. There is some Division Within the Democratic Party, within the democrats in the house, including cori bush, and also ilhan omar of minnesota. In fact, your website notes they are the only neighboring districts in america represented by members of jewish and muslim faits. She wrote, i want your reaction. Instead of continuing unconditional Weapons Sales and military aid to israel, i urge the United States at long last to use diplomatic might to push for peace. What is your response to that in this moment . Look, i dont want to get into these complicated issues on television. But i will say that there is right and wrong and its Black And White to me right now. We have to support israel. I mean, anybody who has seen what hamas has done, anybody who knows what the charter reads has to make a choice. I know reasonable people can disagree. I dont think thats a reasonable proposition. With that said, yes, we should have empathy for human beings, period. Israelis and palestinians. I dont know why two thins cant be true at once. I sake exception to some of my colleagues support of some of the protests, swastikas and antisemitism. I ask people to empathize with both people right now. There is wrong and right and the United States will be on the side of right no matter what a handful of our colleagues think. The overwhelming majority of democrats and republicans feel the same way. Let me remind you, we cant do anything until we have a speaker of the house. I call on my gop colleagues, meeting after our classified briefing to, hopefully, choose a new leader who will become a speaker of the house. Absent that we cant provide a dollar, cant take care of americans, cant take care of ukraine and israelis if we want democracy to win at the end of the day. Look for your chamber to be paralyzed at a moment like this on The World Stage is stunning. Its embarrassing. Congressman, you made a lot of headlines within the Democratic Party for being very vocal about your support of President Biden for all he has done and his record but not for him as the next nominee. You recently even stepped down from House Leadership and said that it is clear that my convictions about 2024 are incongruent with the positions of my colleagues and that was causing discomfort. Many asked if you are going to run. I wont ask that question because i think you have been clear. I will ask if events of the last week and war breaking out in israel, fieears of escalation, fears whether support for ukraine will continue, the divide in the republican party, no speaker. Do you take that position . Do you think it is something that makes america looks more vulnerable to our enemies to have division on that front within the Democratic Party . Absolutely. In fact, i think as we look back on the recent days in israel, we will discover that internal divisions in israel for reasons we are aware of probably created the window of opportunity for hamas to do what they did. I think the United States should be well aware of the same potential and consequences here. The world is watching. Our dysfunction is dangerous. I want to celebrate President Biden. I thought his speech yesterday was oyster. I think the way he handled this is equally outstanding. And i think we should be focusing first on the United States, our support or ukraine and support for israel right now. But, yes, until we get our act together, it will be hard for us. Russia, china, iran, north korea, they are aligned and wanting to see us fail. I would ask that thoughtful americans on both sides of the aisle stop the nonsense and come together because it is extension and we have a choice to make for our children and grandchildren and those choices will be made the coming days. Your position on President Biden remains the same . I think President Biden is an extraordinary man. I think he saved our country. I also speak for an overwhelming majority of americans whose perspectives i think have been well shared. Its in the polls. Its in the numbers. Its how we kneel. He is a remarkable man. My purpose on 2024 is clear. I fear we will have a repeat of 2016 which this country can ill afford. Its not about the president. Its about the numbers and realities. Congressman dean phillips, i will let you go. I know you have that briefing. Please come back if you learn more. Thank you, poppy. Thank you. Back to colonel cedric leighton. Something that happened in the last couple of moments, a lot of explosions in the water near gaza. Right there something that happened moments ago. What are we looking at here . So, phil, this is one of those times when you have to kind of step back a bit and see what the possible goals are. I think whats happening here now that i have seen this video is that notice this break wall right here. This is an effort to basically keep all of these little boats inside. Remember that one of the Attack Mechanisms that the hamas was using against israel was to use some boats that came and along the israeli coastline. So with that said, i think what they are trying to do is box these guys in. There is a Fishing Fleet there, so it will probably impact them as well. So i think the israelis, they fear that they are going to be using small boats to go Attack Vessels are in the mediterranean potentially or even the israeli coast. There is also smoke over here in this building. I suspect that may be a target related to hamas. Not 100 sure about that. But that is certainly something that looks like a very clear Precision Strike right there. So this is the kind of activity that is part of an effort to interdict what the israelis believe the hamas forces are going to be planning next. Thank you, colonel leighton. We will get back to you shortly. Israeli leaders sending a strong message to hamas to release more than 100 hostages unharmed. We will speak to an Israeli Special operations veteran about what can actually be done for their safe return. The full responsibility rests on the barbaric murders of hamas and islamic jihad. Therefore, as to the well being of those Object Ducted and kidnapped, it should be made clear, not a hair on their heads should be harmed. They should be unconditionally released and returned home. The president of israel there. And these are live images of the damage in israel. Erin burnett is with us next from ashkelon. The power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. And thats a good thing . Great in my book who are you . No power . No problem. Introducing stormready wifi. Now you can stay reliably connected through Power Outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery backup to keep you online. Only from xfinity. Home of the xfinity 10g network. Youre probably not easily persuaded to switch mobile providers for your business. But what if we told you its possible that comcast Business Mobile can save you up to 75 a year on your wireless bill versus the big three carriers . Its true. Plus, when you buy your first line of mobile, you get a second line free. There are no Term Contracts or line activation fees. And you can bring your own device. Oh, and all on the most reliable 5g Mobile Network nationwide. Wireless that works for you. Its not just possible. Its happening. All right. Lets get back to erin burnett. You are live at the scene of more damage in ashkelon, israel. Reporter yes, poppy. You know, phil, as weve gone through this morning, earlier when we saw, you know, the barrage of Rocket Strikes above us where the forces were passed on the gaza border, those rockets, obviously, were all aimed here in Greater Ashkelon where we are right now. You talk about the cadence, right, you get the sirens and a few seconds later you hear the noises and see the interceptions. We understand out of 60 rockets, a few managed to break through or were partially intercepted. This is the outcome when they break through. Rocket comes into this apartment building, goes through. There is a live fire going on here. When we came here, there was still Emergency Crews for this apartment build wrg we are. And look, you see these things here, you see these things in ukraine, but it does make you realize, right, this is the Precariousness Of Human Life and the randomness of these Rocket Strikes. So this rocket comes through after what we were seeing, saw, actually, when we were talking to you, right, in that ditch. This happened. And we dont know if there were any injuries here. We believe there were injuries here in ashkelon, although we have not heard of any deaths. But albert is going to show us here what happened. This is what happens around. And its all on the physics of where you are on the side of a building and the randomness of a rocket attack. This is one car. All of the cars have their windows blown out, minivan over there, blown out. Cars here completely blown out. And thats really what were seeing. Some people are going to their cars right now over there, also where they have had severe damage. People just going about their lives, still living here in the city, as i have been saying to you all, over 100,000 people, in ashkelon near the gaza border under this sort of heavy and constant assault. We keep hearing the thuds every few moments. 10, 15 minutes ago when we were with you, we had to seek refuge in that stairway when we heard those booms. This is what its like. From start to finish when you hear the siren until you see what happens at the other end, thats the arc. Thats the arc of what happens here, phil and poppy. Erin, when you talked to residents, the people as you noted ended up having to go about their daily lives, do they have a sense of the severity of what may be coming in the wake of what we saw this past weekend . Reporter they do. They have a resignation, a belief that there is no moral Eequivalent Ensy in terms of what happened to israelis in the terror attack, what happened to israeli babies and children, that there is no moral equivalent between that and a likely invasion of gaza which, of course, would include civilian death. Israel has been clear about that. They know that. That is a reality. Tlz a resignation and acceptance of that and an expectation. A really heavy sense of weightiness. Yes, people are here, living their lives, but it is not normal. The streets are deserted. Many of the stores are closed. The ones that are open are not very full. It is a nation on the edge, on the verge, and a nation waiting. As we saw just a couple of kilometers from here, Nic Robertson was showing you, you have more than 300,000 Israeli Forces massing along the gaza border down here alone right now. A nation at war. Erin, we are so grateful you are on the ground with that. Thank you, we will get back to you soon. Israeli Officials Say up to 150 hostages have been taken, including david. His brother spoke to abby philip last night. Two days ago, two officers came to our house and confirmed what we already knew, that my brother is kidnapped and being kept in the gaza strip. He gave us permission to air the video you are about to see of his brother being taken because he wants the world to know and see exactly what happened. Before we play it, a warning. It is very hard to watch. So this is video that is propaganda video. It is released by hamas. Cnn has blurred the language on the screen and the faces of the other hostages. He says his brother was one of many who attended that Music Festival and was brutally attacked there. He was tied up and put in the back of a truck, taken away. He said he has no choice but to hope that somehow the idf will be able to rescue his brothers. We have to believe that the idf is doing anything to secure our sisters and our brothers and bring them back. Joining us is someone with extensive experience in counter trifrm efforts, Israeli Special operations veteran aaron cohen. How do you do it . If you are the idf, how do you execute this mission . And rescue them and lead this attack . Well, let me start with this. Israel is no Junior Varsity when it comes to Hostage Rescue. We may not have invented it. But we perfected it. I will take you back to june 3, 1976. The israelis rescued uganda from the old terminal. 103 hostages held by the black september terror group. We did it again, conducted the Tubular Or Linear assault, which is an entry on an aircraft, a 7 to 7 in the 70s that had taken hostages and landed in an airport in tel aviv. Israel, their counterterror Hostage Rescue teams are some of the finest in the world. Let me break it down. You have the general Staff Reconnaissance Unit, netanyahus old unit, where his older brother was the only israeli casualty, he is a national trsh youre. We have the imam or the Israel Police national counterterror unit, one of the top three in the world. How we get the hostages back is intelligence. Right now the general Staff Reconnaissance Unit and imam of the Israeli National police have assets on the ground that are working in conjunction with our mossad intelligence agencies. Thousands of agents are listening to thousands of phone calls. The general Staff Reconnaissance Unit has assets on the ground right now planting Listening Devices all over israel. I am not talking about an incursion here. We are preparfor that. To get the hostages we need to know what buildings another located in, what rooms they are so we can develop plans to make entry. However, i want to say this. The Hostage Rescue operations, and there have been several conducted in the southern portion of israel in the last few days, over 20 hostages have been rescued. That is a good sign. However, the Hostage Rescue operations being planned right now in gaza is a different animal. Ill tell you why. That is unsterile territory. There are booby traps, there are Hamas Terrorists in there waiting for Israeli Forces and the problem is, is that when you talk about Hostage Rescue in a foreign territory, enemy territory, its not unlike a cold case with a murder. What i mean by that is for every second you waste, the terrorists can be moved. They be taken to other locations. The more time in between the actual assault or takedown and the intelligence thats being gathered creates a greater amount of distance because the terrorists can be moved around. Remember, guys, we are talking about 89yearold women, we are talking about babies, were talking about teenagers, were talking about the elderly. So it is very complicated. Israels on the clock and they have to move quickly. I want to tell you this. Again, israel invented the playbook and you are about to see israel at its finest. So stand by. Aaron, the secretary of defense, u. S. Officials have been talking about what they have offered in terms of resources and assets. The secretary of defense said there is a on the ground, u. S. Special operators are available and are in the region itself. The u. S. And israel in Special Operations Scenarios work very closely together, train, know each other quite well. Whats the relationship like in this specific case . Well, the relationship between the United States special operations units, delta force, seal team 6, the unit that killed bin laden, the Israeli Special operations unit, they are thick as thieves and they have been sharing intelligence. We are essentially, we are americas Forward Operating base in middle east. We provide extensive amount of intelligence back and forth between the agencies. From what i understand, there are American Assets right now because there is a possibility that there are u. S. Hostages being held. I cannot confirm. I dont know. But it is a possibility. Those units train extensively together. They did a lot of operations against isis in a very clandestine unit operate organization has been operating for the last eight years in syria and other parts of The Middle East. These units train together. These units share information. They are constantly in contact, including a german assets, the gsg 9, british acs, a fantastic relationship and right now they are talking, they are planning, and the u. S. Intelligence technical capabilities with that fleet that has been moved into the region has an incredible Signal Intelligence Capability that is being shared with the israelis right now to help zero in on those hostages. Thats our first concern right now in this operation. We need to get the hostages. If you ask me how it could be done, i believe the smokescreen of the counteroffensive planned in the south, the reservist called up, its israels equivalent to the marines. I think there will be a smokescreen and an opportunity to use the chaos of that incursion or counteroffensive to mount multiple Hostage Rescue takedowns. Its going to be dangerous. Its going to be high intensity. Like your reporter said, its going to be a lot of bloodshed, unfortunately. We pay a heavy price to have an israeli state. It this is what we do. We come together In These Times and we are creative and we execute with audacity and poise and precision and its time for israel to go to work and thats what we are preparing for. Aaron cohen, we appreciate your expertise on this. Thank you so much. Thank you, guys. Here are live pictures from gaza city where airstrikes have been raining down all day. Back in the United States, aid to israel hanging in the balance as House Republicans try to agree on a new House Speaker. Without one, they cannot act and congress is paralyzed. Back in a moment. A live look at the capitol this morning where the race for House Speaker is continuing and appears republicans are not closer to finding a candidate who can get the rec sit 218 votes needed to hold the gavel. Multiple republicans tell cnn the conference is not close to finding a speaker. More than two hours last night the two contenders, jim jordan and Steve Scalise made their pitches. Kevin mccarthy is urging supporters not to nominate him. So believe he may get votes anyway. Why this matters, without a speaker plans for critical aid to israel, funding for ukraine, is held up. By the way, there is a Government Shutdown potentially around the corner. Joining us cnn political commentator David Axlerod and republican strategist doug hyde. Doug, you are the republican strategist. What the heck . At a moment like this, in all seriousness. Clean it up, man. Well, thats what the whole purpose is about. You both spend a lot of time in the capitol and you know when the republican conference meets after 5 00 p. M. , its not good news. In they meet more than once in a week, its not good news. Thats the very real situation where we are now. We heard this talked about as a family meeting. The reality is, this is mom and dad having the fight in front of the kids and the kids all have phones in their hands where they are telling people outside of The Living Room exactly whats happening in that fight and those can be interesting and fun parlor games. Heres why its not fun and interesting it may be interesting, but not fun parlor games. After that motion to vacate was gavelled we heard a member on the floor yell, whats the plan . Thats the reality where republicans are right now. There is no plan. There is no end in sight. And this could continue not just through today, but for several days, if not into next week, and given everything thats going on in the world right now, republicans should be able to show that they have got their act together and the American Government has its act together. If you ared administration, you have been in the white house, trying to plan for as the president made clear they need emergency supplemental aid for ukraine, they have already asked for some, they need more, Need Emergency Supplemental Funds for israel. How do you map out a legislative strategy when you have no idea who is going to be leading the House Majority . Its hard. As doug said, this underscores the seriousness of the situation. We tend to cover these things like sports, but there are real consequences to it here. The one thing i wonder about, and doug knows this world far better than i, but they are going to take a Secret Ballot vote this morning. Secret ballots are kind of interesting exercises. And i am not sure anybody knows a lot of people havent declared their intentions. I remember morris udall, a congressman in the 1970s, ran for a leadership post. He was from arizona. And he thought he was going to win, and he lost when they took a Secret Ballot and he came out and said, you know what the difference is between a caucus and a cactus with a cactus, the pricks are on the outside. Can you say that on morning tv . You just did. Were good. But the point is, you never know whats gonna happen inside those meetings. And if someone has, you know, a lead of some margin, i do think there has to be some recognition in that room that you look really, really bad drawing this thing out. You look incompetent when the world on fire. And so, you know, well see if they can form consensus and maybe some people take a walk and on the vote and lower the threshold. But, man, if i were advising them, id say get to it. Guys and girls. Doug . Yeah, i saw steve womack on earlier. I think phil said a great ser interview. He does the work is what phil said. And part of the problem that republicans have that we have in our politics more broadly is that we dont reward the people who do the work. We reward the people with attention and fundraising who wear the shirts. Thats what we saw last night when nancy mace walked nancy mae walked in and its why republicans have had this problem, why weve gotten to this point and we dont know how long this process will last. I remember one of phils favorite people roddy piper used to say when you think you know the answers i change the questions. Thats going to happen for republicans today and tomorrow and could extend well into next week. There are very real implications for that. Remember when jeff flake left congress, a republican, and he said theres absolutely zero reward for working together . Yeah. And that was then. I think its a fundamental problem in our politics and mirrors social media. The intensive structure is out of whack. So anger, alienation, outrage, these things are rewarded. Cooperation, compromise, these things are disdained. Its very, very bad for democracy. Whats necessary is continuation of the two favorite name drops, mo udall and roddy piper in the same sitdown. I didnt say that. I didnt say that. Thank you, gentlemen. We appreciate it. Thank you very much. Israeli Prime Minister netanyahu calling President Biden yesterday thanking him for his support and telling him just how brutal saturdays Terrorist Attack was. We were struck saturday by an attack who savagery i can say we have not seen since the holocaust. And since we last spoke the extent of this evil, its only gotten worse. Cnns wolf blitzer joins us next to put what is going on in The Middle East into historical perspective. Stay with us. I had during my childhood and then the holocaust of course, all my family came from europe and survivors, et cetera, et cetera. I never think that i would see my eyes picture and scenes like this. It was a remarkable moment, it happened yesterday morning live on our show. A Major General for the idf telling cnns Nic Robertson despite the tragic history of violence against the jewish people he is still unable to comprehend the carnage hes witness this had week. Yesterday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used similar language in a phone call with President Biden. We were struck saturday by an attack whose savagery i can say we have not seen since the holocaust. We have never seen such savagery in the history of the state. Theyre even worse than isis. We are starting to learn details as the death toll and the scope of the brutality are coming into focus. More than 1,200 are dead in israel and at least 1,050 are dead in dbaez. Israeli Officials Say up to 150 people have been taken hostage by hamas militants and still many remain unaccounted for. Like oria rad who has been missing since the attack at the Music Festival. Wolf blitzer spoke to his brothers. They compared the attack to the holocaust. In an act of pure evil, i dont have any other way to describe t they shoot him again in a scene thats taken from the holocaust period or Something Like that. We dont have any official information about ori, is he alive or injured . Is he in hospital or still in the field . Maybe hes dead. Maybe hes kidnapped. We dont know nothing. We are in complete darkness. To put this all into perspective, so happy to be joined by our friend and cnn anchor of the Situation Room wolf blitzer. Thanks for getting up early to be with us. Youve covered so many conflicts, particularly in The Middle East. In the moments after this attack over the weekend there were so many comparisons to the yom kippur war, to 1973, but now we also see how different it is fighting a terrorist organization, not conventional warfare at all. Put this in perspective as we wait to see what israel will do next. I think its fair to say, poppy, that all of the israeli experts on this, and theyve watched all of the wars that israel has been involved in since 1948 when israel was established, this is unprecedented whats going on right now. Its a new battle that israel is now facing from these Hamas Terrorists who crossed into israel and went door to door in various kibbutz and various locations including that Music Festival and deciding to kill as many israelis as they possibly could. Its been a shocking development, especially for everyone in israel. Ive been speaking with israelis almost on a daily basis getting their sense of whats going on. This is truly something that hasnt happened before. Israel has faced terrorism over the years, Suicide Bombers and things like that. They faced fullscale wars, the 1967 sixday war, the 1973 yom kippur war, but those were with countries, egypt, jordan, syria in those days. This is a very different situation that has now developed. Wolf, to that point, you have not just friends, family, but also longtime sources at very high levels inside israel. At what point did they move from shocked to steeling themselves for whats to come . I think they are moving to that point right now. Theyre almost certainly going to move into gaza and deal with hamas as best as they can, knowing that its complicated, knowing its very dangerous and knowing that there is a huge Civilian Population there, but and also knowing now that there are a lot of hostages that hamas took from israel into gaza. So its very, very complicated. Im sure their military planners, intelligence planners, are going through various scenarios, rehearsals how to deal with this, but i suspect thats going to happen in the coming days and ive been convinced for days now since saturday morning that this new war that has developed is only just beginning and i still believe that. Wolf, i want to show our viewers, this is you prior in some of these tunnels that hamas dug. You have experience with the tactics that they have used to attack israel before. Speak to us about that as we think about this conflict now and how far hamas will go and what they will do next. This was a tunnel and i was the first journalist allowed to go through this tunnel several years ago when i went to cover an earlier war that was going on between israel and hamas in gaza. It was built by the hamas and it went right out of gaza and up to a kibbutz along the border and that they would go in and their plan at that time which was thwarted by the israelis was to use this tunnel instead of going across a fence from gaza into israel, to go through these tunnels that they were building and they were pretty sophisticated tunnels indeed. I walked through it from gaza into israel and it was really a powerful experience for me as a journalist. Wolf, as the son of holocaust survivors, how is this how are you reflecting on this moment . Well, its extremely sad. 1,000 jews were killed in one day, the first day that this incursion by hamas developed. 1,000 jews in one day, thats more than have occurred since the holocaust and i know its affecting the American Jewish community very, very strongly. Jews not only in the u. S. But around the world. And i couldnt help but notice that President Biden two days in a row, yesterday and the day before, he made a strong statement warning of threats to the American Jewish community as well. I will read to you what he said yesterday because it jumped out at me two days in a row. He said something along these lines. We are also taking steps at home in cities across the United States of america, Police Departments have stepped up security andersen terse of jewish life. The department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau Of Investigation are working closely with state and local Law Enforcement and Jewish Community partners to identify and disrupt any domestic threat that could emerge in connection with these horrific attacks. If you drive around, im sure here in washington or suburban maryland or virginia or new york or chicago or other cities, you drive around, you see a synagogue, you almost always nowadays see a police car or two right outside. There is a lot of concern about the potential spillove