Transcripts For CNNW CNN 20240703

Ive often said i remember the first time that i was in israel with [ inaudible ] just before the sixday war and she was telling me how terrible everything was. All of a sudden she looked at me and she said, would you like a photograph . And i thought thats unusual. We have no place else to go. Well, the truth of the matter is the war in israel the truth of the embrace israel and a lot more to say and i can talk to you in private if i can. [ Inaudible Question ] all right. All right. You are looking at live pictures of President Biden in israel, in tel aviv standing next to and speaking with the world and the families who have had some of their Family Members kidnapped by hamas and some of their Family Members killed in that horrific attack on last saturday, october 7th. He is here to speak with the israeli leadership, he is here to also try and have conversations to try and figure out a humanitarian corridor for those who are in gaza suffering from the air strikes and the dire consequences of the israeli blockade there where they dont have enough water, food or fuel. I want to go now to our Kaitlan Collins who is also in country here watching all this have unfold. Give us some sense of just how important and significant this visit from President Biden is after he was invited here by Prime Minister netanyahu in the midst of an official war. Reporter yeah, and he took a few days to consider that invitation from the israeli Prime Minister and then obviously accepted. I want to tell you, sara, where this meeting is happening right now that you just heard President Biden speaking from, its happening truly across the hall from where im standing right now. That applause that you could hear in the microphone, we could hear it, its loud enough, were that close to where this room is. This stop that President Biden just made is easily the most somber of the few stops that he is making while hes here on the ground in israel for a very short, just really a daytime visit today. He started off meeting with the israeli Prime Minister, he expanded that and opened it up to that newly formed Wartime Cabinet that Prime Minister netanyahu has formed. Thats who he was meeting with for an extended period of time. There in the room with him, those people surrounding him, those were First Responders who responded on that deadly day on october 7th as that hamas attack unfolded here in israel. It was the families of victims who were killed that a dai and also the relatives of hostages who still dont know the fate of their loved ones which was something the white house said was on President Biden priority list because we know those hostages include several americans as well. Right there at the end you saw the president being asked a question by a reporter, you couldnt exactly make out what his answer was. Our colleague kevin liptak is in the room, we will wait to see what it was exactly that President Biden said, but one of the things that he is being asked about while hes here, sara, is what he said when he first got here, which is about that Hospital Explosion that happened in gaza city that caused so much uproar, something that you heard Prime Minister netanyahu saying the world should be outraged about but it shouldnt be directed at the israelis because they are denying the possibility. That is a denial i should note President Biden has emphasised since hes been on the ground saying based on what he has seen he believed it was, quote, the other team. He didnt say it was palestinian militants, palestinian terrorists, the idf blamed earlier. That is something of course that has been a central undertone of this entire visit since that happened. Who is responsible for that of course given that is what scrapped the other part of this trip that was supposed to happen that is now no longer happening. I should note President Biden is going to come in this room behind me soon after he meets these First Responders and these victims, the families victims the victims of the families and come out and make remarks. We will see what he says. If theres update on humanitarian progress, a corridor, somewhere for civilians in gaza who are fleeing to go, getting water in, all are key issues hes been discussing while hes been here on the ground today, sara. Thank you so much for that reporting and we will be waiting to hear from you again once President Biden makes his way to where you are. I want to get now to clarissa ward, our chief international correspondent, who has been watching all of the developments and particularly what has been happening in gaza. From her Vantage Point where she has also been seeing rockets come in over the last eight to nine days. Clarissa, give us some sense about what youre hearing is happening in gaza after that horrible, disturbing i dont know any other way to tell it terrible attack on the hospital. Reporter well, sara, we have been talking to doctors who describe horrendous scenes of basically sifting through dismembered body parts, charred cor corps, make it difficult to identify. Still not a clear picture on how many people were killed, certainly it seems to be in the hundreds. We have spoken also to the organizers of that alleg ahli baptist hospital. People were using it as a shelter because there had been an order to evacuate gaza and move further south because there had been relentless bombardment in gaza and Northern Gaza particularly a lot of people in these situations as you know, share ration they take refuge in hotels, they take refuge in hospitals, places that they think are relatively safe, and it appears that most of the victims were ordinary people who were just taking refuge, as well as patients at the hospital. More broadly speaking, the Hos Hospitals In Gaza now say they are not able to function. They are no longer able to carry out their proper duty of medical care. We have heard from doctors who say theyre being forced to perform operations without anesthesia. There is no electricity. There is no drinking water. Our own journalists on the ground has talked about having to boil water from the toilet so that people have something to drink. The u. N. Has called this an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe unfolding before our eyes. The u. N. Secretary general has called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, but of course what happened at the hospital has really complicated efforts. President biden and Secretary Of State Antony Blinken had really hoped that they were going to be able to announce some sort of a tangible deliverable here in terms of opening up humanitarian aid to allow it to at least if not to allow people to flee gaza, at least to allow aid in to the people of gaza. That now becomes incredibly complex prospect, sara, because arab leaders have canceled their meeting with President Biden because they are now dealing with outrage and protests on the streets of their cities. It becomes all that more difficult for diplomats to do their job, for humanitarian organizations to have their voices heard and for some modicum of respite to be delivered to the people of gaza, sa sara. Yeah, it is really important to remember that no matter all of the noise out there from many different sides of this conflict, that there are hundreds of families dealing with loss, dealing with injured and just terror inside of gaza because it is so densely populated. I know you and i have both been on the ground there multiple times. It is a very difficult place before theres any kind of incursion and now it has been rendered just a complete disaster when it comes to humanitarian effort there. Clarissa ward, thank you so much for your reporting. Kaitlan collins, i appreciate you and we will check back in with you both when we get some new information as biden makes his way to where you are, kaitlan. John, kate . We will get back to you soon, sara. Thank you. So this morning the Israeli Military is steadfast and adamant that Islamic Jihad in gaza is behind the deadly blast at the hospital, presenting evidence at a Press Conference overnight. Watch this. By land, sea or air that hit the hospital. Second, our radar system tracked rockets fired by terrorists from within gaza at the time of the explosion. Third, we have intelligence, some that will be shared here, of communication between terrorists talking about rockets misfiring. He just talked about some audio which hopefully we will play for people in a little bit of a conversation israel says was between hamas just after the strike. With us now cnn military analyst retired general Mark Hertling. This is the location of the hospital in gaza right now just so people get a sense of what it looked like before. This is the overall campus. As i said, the idf released what they call evidence that this was caused by Islamic Jihad, what the u. S. Calls a terror Group Operating inside gaza. One of the pieces of evidence that they provided was this Radar Trajectory of rockets they say launched from gaza. Explain what were seeing here. What were seeing is the lines of several rockets coming from a launcher. This is called a Point Of Origin in military speak. They normally go to a point of impact. This is what the iron dome uses to intercept rockets. They see where theyre going and then they intercept them if theyre going into a populated area. But what happens, john, a lot of time with some of these rockets, because they are not real technologically advanced, they will just fall out of the sky. What i mean by that is the engine will stop. As soon as they do that a rocket has the trajectory of a brick so it immediately goes a little further and then just drops down. But an important factor to consider, when that happens it still has rocket fuel inside the rocket. So it not only has the explosive warhead, it has fuel behind t what happened, the indicators are or what the israelis are saying is one of those rockets came out, lost its engine, lost its forward propulsion and just dropped out of the sky and it dropped near this Al Ahli Hospital which is on the Southwest Side of the city of gaza. Stand by one second. Stand by for us. We want to get back to Kaitlan Collins, she has new reporting and new information about President Biden and what he is learning about exactly what we are talking about, this blast at the hospital. Kaitlan, what are you picking up . Reporter yeah, john and kate, this is really notable because when President Biden arrived here in israel that was when he first said that he embraced those denials by israel, that they were not behind that Hospital Explosion in gaza, and he said based on what he had seen but he did not say what it was that he had seen, but when he was just in the room meeting with those families and the First Responders, he was asked what made him confident that israel was not, in fact, behind that strike. Im quoting the president now, he says, the data i was shown by my defense department. So he is citing the pentagon, saying that is the reason he is confident that it was not the Israel Defense forces that were behind that explosion that happened at that hospital, something that they have strenuously denied. He says it is the pentagon who is backing that up and that is why he cited that as soon as he arrived here on the ground in tel aviv. Obviously that is incredibly significant because weve seen the protests that have been spreading because of those claims that it was israel behind it. The president says the pentagon has shown him that it was not israel that was behind that explosion that hit that hospital in gaza city. Great. An important context and background on this. Kaitlan, thanks so much. General, you are here with us. Not just information coming from the idf. President biden saying its information he received, data from the pentagon, from the defense department, says what to you . It tells me that theres more information. And you are just not going to take another governments word for something happening, even though the pictures that the israeli Defense Forces gave out are pretty compelling, but were always going to confirm or deny within the defense department. I said this earlier today, that there has to be more to this, and i think the u. S. Government has what we call mazent, intelligence from satellites, from signals that show launches. We have that capability. So as much as youre going to get a tactical approach to this Point Of Origin, point of aim, which is pretty significant, youre going to have an overhead platform that sees a missile burn when it takes off or when something explodes and comes out of the sky. Lets talk more about the evidence the idf did present. Again, people looking for absolute slam dunk proof one way or the other arent going to see it here, but the idf points to craters. This is the site of the explosion. Right. Explain. Okay. This is the hospital here. This is a parking lot with a lot of cars in it, you see pictures of it. The implosion or the Explosion Site which would potentially the fuel that we were talking about earlier burned most but not all of the cars in that parking lot, which is interesting. It talks about fuel spilling all over. But on the side of the hospital i also saw some pockmarks which would be the results of an explosion. We see some of this, general, as this goes through this is some of the aftermath. This is the middle of the parking lot but as it spans over, i think it was on this film yeah, it will come up. There are the pockmarks in the side. Thats from a blast. Someone was here, thats obviously blood, but you can see most cars are burned. This one is not. Theres another one over here thats not. So you can tell this was a constricted explosion somewhere, it maybe didnt even touch the ground. This also shows it here. This is a zoom in of exactly what you were talking about as well. Look at these cars, nothing. So it is very compelling, but when you also look at, you know, that aftermath, where is the crater . When you are talking about a crater from an israeli bomb, theres going to be a hole there. And, again, this is why the israelis did release images. These are of craters that they say are formed when they drop bombs from airplanes and they say there are no craters here inside these parking lots, correct . Well, the problem with all of this is weve seen over the last 12 hours information is important, but emotions took hold early on from both sides. The israelis were very defensive, the palestinians were very upset. There were indicators of some people wounded, it probably wasnt the numbers that they were citing last night. Thats just conjecture on my part, but both sides are blaming the other and thats what happens in war. General, can you it is a flippant way of saying it but can you put the genie back in the bottle with more information . No. You cant . You can partially, kate, but you are talking about those arab street all over the middle east last night, we saw films in every single capital with hundreds of thousands of people. Demonstrations here and here. Every one of those. Iraq, baghdad, tehran, turkey, egypt. When you say, okay, we now have more facts potentially and if you believe the israelis and they have compelling facts, how do you put that genie back in the bottle . Go ahead, john. I was going to put this back up one more time, the video of this. Again, there is also audio released, the idf released audio of what it purports to be hamas officials talking about this blast after it happened. Hopefully we will play that for you in a bit. To sum it up do Islamic Jihad rockets fall from the sky like this . All the time. Misfires happen. All the time. Misfires happen. I dont want to give a percentage because i dont know, but because of the quality of these rockets, and weve seen the same thing in ukraine in that conflict where theyre using russian rockets, they fall out of the sky completely like this. They dont hit the targets. These are not precision weapons, these are area weapons. Youre not saying im going to hit that particular point on the ground, they go out and hopefully get in the area and cause damage. Sometimes they are not well made and they drop out of the sky. Put it all together what we see here, what the idf has put out and then the new information as kaitlan was just reporting that President Biden says that its data that he was provided from the u. S. Defense department that helped him get to a place of comfort and confidence that this was not israel, this was Islamic Jihad. What does that do to you, your level of confidence when we are in the fog of war . We are somewhat flying blind, obviously, as analysts. Well, first of all, every time in war things happen, bad things happen to either side. So weve seen the distrust at times of the israeli force. In 2014 when israel went into gaza the war stopped basically because of the amount of civilian casualties, but its also hamass approach, its their strategic objectives, number one, kill a lot of jews, number two, embarrass the nation of israel. This is a factor in embarrassing the nation of israel early on. The Hamas Ministry of health last night immediately said that this was an israeli attack. Israel, you know, kind of himmed and hawed but then they said we have information, were going to send it out as soon as we get it translated and compiled. They did that later. Its a back and forth, not just facts but ee moses. Emotions play a big part in warfare. General Mark Hertling thank you for helping us understand the evidence that exists right now and obviously a lot of people annualizing what is out there as well. More reporting on the protests we saw Overnight Erupting across the middle east following this deadly blast yesterday outside the hospital in gaza. The new state Department Warning now for americans. And also, getting back to the United States, on capitol hill the House Of Representatives back at it again, set to convene for a second attempt, second vote to get a new House Speaker after jim jordan fell pretty short, well short of getting the votes that he needed and support he needed in the first go round. We will take you there. All right. We have this just coming into cnn. A u. S. Defense official says that the u. S. Had to shoot down two attack drones that were targeting u. S. Forces in iraq. There were no injuries there and it is not clear who exactly launched the drones, but such attacks, they say, are frequently attributed to iran or iranianbacked militants in the region. The news comes of course as american embassies have been facing protests in a number of middle east countries because of the war in gaza. Right now in beirut the capital of lebanon, hundreds of protesters are gathered in the streets as they were overnight. This is video, i think, of overnight, they tried to break through Security Barriers near the u. S. Embassy and these are live. Okay. Its difficult for me to see from my Vantage Point. Yes, these are live pictures happening right now. You see lots of smoke, you see people in the streets, they are clearly, clearly terribly upset about what is happening next door to lebanon in gaza In Particular, you can hear the chants. Hundreds of people. Lets bring in cnns ben wedeman who is in South Lebanon live for us. Ben, can you just give us a sense of what youve been seeing on the ground, what youve been hearing from from your sources about these protests . Reporter well, were hearing some large explosions just to the south of here near the border with israel, but these protests are very much reflective of many people in lebanon, particularly its been simmering since the 7th of october, but particularly since that strike on the hospital in gaza yesterday. Last night we saw protests outside the u. S. Embassy, its north of beirut, its actually not in beirut, about eight miles north of beirut. Of course, again were seeing it today with protesters throwing rocks and shooting fireworks at the lebanese police. Police responding with Water Cannons and lots and lots of tear gas. Its important to keep in mind that behind those barriers its about half a mile up the hill to the u. S. Embassy itself. Theres another explosion. And this embassy is highly fortified. The staff arent allowed to simply walk out the door and enjoy the pleasures of beirut because of security concerns. Speaking of the embassy, the State Department has said that families of u. S. Embassy Staff Members and nonemergency personnel are now authorized to leave the country should they so desire on a casebycase basis. The United States has also advised americans not to travel to lebanon and were seeing a similar advisory coming out of france as well. Now, regarding the situation in South Lebanon, we have had two strikes by hezbollah on israeli positions. Hezbollah put out videos of these strikes and it appears that, among other things, they have struck a tank. Overnight we heard a fair amount of explosions. There is another one in the distance. I dont know if you can pick that up, but certainly reflective of the ongoing tensions here on the border between lebanon and israel. Sara . Ben, you have been in this region for a very long time. Just to get your sense of things, for example, during the Second Intifada what things looked like in places like beirut and places like jordan in comparison to what we are seeing now, because jordan also has a huge number of palestinians that live in jordan and that have reacted in a very big way to what has happened in gaza. All of these protests coming, of course, after a hospital was struck by someone. We do not know who at this point in time. We have not independently confirmed any of it, but israel blaming Islamic Jihad and of course hamas blaming israeli air strikes. Can you give us some sense of just context of what we are seeing now in neighboring countries to israel . Reporter well, what were seeing is its boiling over, the anger. People have been watching very closely, intensely whats going on in gaza. Theres been scattered protests, but certainly yesterday i think that anger boiled over. It boiled over in amman where protesters went to the israeli embassy, set fires around it, tried to get in, but were pushed back by jordanian police. In ramallah, it is a particularly important place, its essentially the capital of the Palestinian Authority, there we saw protesters clark with Palestinian Security forces. The protesters were condemning what is happening in gaza but in addition to that they were calling for the downfall of mahmoud abbas, the 87yearold president of the Palestinian Authority who many palestinians see as ineffectual, hes been passive during this current war, he doesnt seem to have any sway with the israelis who dont respect the system of zones, areas that exist in the west bank where in theory the Palestinian Authority is supposed to be in control, but the Israeli Security forces go in as they please without any coordination with the palestinians. In short, its a very shaky regime in the west bank and much of the anger in addition to being directed at israel is directed at what is seen as a corrupt and ineffectual Palestinian Authority. Sara . Really good reporting. Really good context. Thank you so much, ben wedeman, for being there on the ground. Are you still hearing some munitions it sounds like behind you . Reporter scattered, yes, but at this very moment, no, sara. Okay. All right. Keeping you and your crew as safe as possible in these difficult conditions. Thank you, ben. Kate, im going to go ahead and send it back to you. I want to mention we are watching these live pictures, an extraordinary number of people who have come out to the streets. This is in beirut, we are watching this live. People reacting. So upset to see what has happened, particularly in the Hospital Strike that has, according to hamas, killed hundreds of people, including obviously patients, men, women and children. Kate . Yeah, the anger and outrage that was sparked last night is spreading like wildfire as we can see continuing today, were going to continue to watch these live pictures. We will get back to sara in tel aviv shortly. Coming up, President Biden says that he was shown evidence, data is how he put it, from the u. S. Defense department about the deadly Hospital Blast in gaza giving him the confidence, he says, to say that israel was not behind that deadly blast. Democratic congressman and Iraq War Veteran seth moulton joins us next. 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. This is video from moments ago and what you are looking at is what is unfolding in beirut, lebanon, where protests are picking back up once again. You see fire burning there, sparked by outrage over the deadly explosion outside the hospital in gaza. Now, this morning in israel we are standing by to hear from President Biden once again. Already this morning after he touched down he reiterated he has reiterated u. S. Support for israel and cnn also has new reporting just in that President Biden said Behind Closed Doors he was shown data from the pentagon that gave him the confidence to say tuesdays deadly blast at the Gaza Hospital was not carried out by israeli forces. Hamas quickly blamed israel for the attack after it happened, but israel has said that it is an Islamic Jihad rocket that misfired and hit the hospital. Cnn cannot independently confirm what caused the blast. This is messy and this is the reality of where things stand right now. Joining us right now is democratic congressman seth moulton, he sits on the House Armed Services committee, also a marine corps veteran. Thank you so much for taking the time. We have this new information from President Biden saying Behind Closed Doors that its the u. S. Defense department that provided him data that gave him the confidence to say israel was not behind the deadly blast outside the Gaza Hospital, which is obviously in conflict to what hamas is claiming. What are you hearing about this . Well, look, im going to believe an american president and our closest ally in the middle east, a democratic ally, over a Terrorist Organization any day of the week. A Terrorist Organization that has slaughtering civilians written into their organizational charter. Were going to have a classified briefing for the Armed Services committee today in the house at 2 00 p. M. To hopefully get more details, but it sounds pretty clear that this was not caused by the israelis. Its a horrific, horrific disaster, but obviously we want to find out the truth about what happened. Can you give me information about who is going to be briefing you . Because the question, i think, you need to know, obviously its going to be classified so what comes out is going to be limited, but do you believe that the department of defense has has data thats going to be able to show this one way or the other, where the origins of this rocket and blast came from . Well, were watching this conflict very closely. The defense department, our intelligence agencies, so i expect they have a fairly good idea, and obviously the president feels confident in his assessment, at least from the reports of what he said. So i hope to have a better answer after 2 00 this afternoon. An important day. I mean, every day in this has been important. This will prove critical, especially after and we can show video once again of what we have just this morning of protests, it looks like violent protests breaking out once again. This morning were seeing it in beirut, lebanon, but very quickly the news last night of the blast, it spread like wildfire through the arab world, sparking protests in multiple places. Protesters at one point were trying to break into the u. S. Embassy in beirut. I mean, how much do images like this worry you . Can this outrage be calmed down . Well, we need to get to the truth here, but the bottom line is that wars like this are incredibly messy and one of the things that israel has to be very careful about Going Forward is they have to recognize that they are in a counterinsurgency fight where their actions that they take cannot only kill terrorists but can also recruit more terrorists to the cause. We call this insurgent math, general Stanley Mcchrystal estimated this as 10 to 1. That for every one innocent civilian you kill you recruit about ten terrorists to the cause. So israel is right to try to kill off the leadership of hamas that perpetrated these heinous, barbaric assaults on israeli civilians, they need to do that to keep israel safe, but they also cant recruit more terrorists in the process. That doesnt keep israel safe, either. So how israel pros could you tell us this war and how they are able to avoid civilian casualties is incredibly important not just to palestinian human rights but to their own success. Something that really does not happen has on many levels, but the president of the United States essentially being canceled on by allies as hes on his way to critical meetings with jordan and egypt pulling out of the summit that was planned. How damaging is this . What do you think biden should do about it in this moment . Well, look, i mean, its not damaging to President Biden, hes doing the right thing, hes going right into the conflict here, into the Conflict Zone to try to better understand whats going on, but it is representative of just the dangerousness of this whole conflict in the middle east and the potential for it to expand into a wider regional war. Part of the reason that President Biden is going to the middle east is to try to tamp down those tensions, to talk to both our allies and send messages to our adversaries that we cant let this expand further. Look, you wrote a really compelling piece about essentially Lessons Learned. You were touching on it just there, Lessons Learned from your time in iraq, decisions by the administration then, what israel can learn from that, and there are many moments that you write about and also that you witnessed that i wonder if you see this moment, this blast, the explosion, the aftermath, the reaction, the outrage, could this be a watershed moment in this conflict . Well, it could be and you dont know for sure, but think back to that horrible tragedy at abu ghraib, the prison in iraq where detainees were abused by american troops. Now, if you look at that measure, that event in isolation, it didnt seem like it was terrible, but it didnt seem like a huge deal, there werent a lot of People Killed or anything like that, and yet the psychological effect that it had on the whole conflict was massive. When you had civilians killed in iraq, it had massive effects on the entire war effort. That is exactly what israel has to be very careful about here. Now, if it turns out that israel didnt kill didnt drop the bomb on this hospital, then they can obviously make that case to the world community. You know, but even if they make that case, its a reality of these counterinsurgency campaigns fighting in an urban environment that innocents are going to get killed and that can actually impact your ability to achieve your mission. What israel needs to be very clear here is to articulate what is their end game . Where is this all going . Because if they just go into gaza and leave it a smoldering mess theyre going to end up recruiting more terrorists than they killed and they will be right back to square one. None of us want to see that. Hard Lessons Learned, definitely, from past u. S. Conflicts. Congressman, thank you for your time. We made a lot of mistakes in iraq and afghanistan and we want to we want to help the israelis not repeat them. Congressman, thank you. John . All right. Counting down to a new vote for House Speaker, that is if it doesnt get canceled. In the first vote republican jim jordan fell way shorter than expected. We have new reporting on where he stands at this minute and the new backup plan being formulated by House Republicans that, by the way, concern that man you are looking at in the bow tie. Very soon this morning the house is set to be back at it and give it a second go. Still trying to elect a new speaker. Jim jordan scrambling overnight to try to secure more votes and also lose less votes after he failed to win the gavel yesterday. 20 members of his own party not backing him. A reminder, with such a slim margin in the house already, jordan can only afford to now lose four votes if he wants to win the speakership. How far is he getting further away from it or closer . Lets get back to lauren fox who is on capitol hill. What are you hearing today, lauren . Reporter yeah, weve spoken this morning with judiciary chairman jim jordan and he is vowing to stay in this race, kate, despite the fact that, like you said, he lost 20 republican votes, he could lose even more on a second ballot this morning at 11 00 a. M. When he goes to the floor to continue this fight to become the speaker, but he says he thinks that the answer is to get a republican speaker. He says ive gotten 90 of the conference, i think i can get there. Here is what he told me moments a ago. Weve got to get a speaker so we can open the house so im going to get there. Look, ive already proven i can get from the most conservative members of the conference to the more moderate members of the conference. The whole Cross Section of the conference its important that we get the last last few. Reporter and here is what is worth watching today on the house floor, does he actually pick up support . He told me that he hopes so, that he thinks he can get more support, but there are a number of members who are working to try and make sure that the number of members voting against jordan actually grows today. If that happens, i pressed him on if he would go to a third ballot or if he would drop out. He did not answer that question specifically. Got on the elevator and left his office. But one thing to keep in mind today is that republicans are discussing a potential alternative, which is to bring a resolution to the floor of the house which would empower Patrick Mchenry temporarily to bring legislation to the floor, to have the full power of a speaker pro tem. Right now because he was right now because he was appointed by mccarthy there is little he can do on the floor and members are losing patience and theyre looking around because this is two weeks into the fight for speaker and we still do not have someone who has 217 vote. Its time to do something for israel and its time not to have a Government Shutdown on November 17th and thats why this momentum is gaining around this idea of basically empowering Patrick Mchenry. Talk about a bandaid and also just exposing how far apart they really may be. Good to see you, lauren. Keep us updated. John . With us now former congressman from michigan, fred upton. Congressman, great to see you in the beautiful Great Outdoors there. Listen, im not sure youre going to like this analysis, but some people are looking at the fact that jordan lost 20 votes yesterday and may lose more today is coming from the fact that moderates, they say are finally showing some spine, refusing to crumble. Why do you think that is . Youre exactly right. If you look at jordans track record, he opposed, i think, every single Appropriation Bill throughout his entire career. He voted against health research. He led the opposition to even an Amber Alert System for active shooters that even the nra did not oppose. So its that kind of a divided government, you have to Work Together and get things done. The world is afire, not only israel, but ukraine. You have the looming shutdown again that no one wants to go through. You have a Budget Agreement that was bipartisan last june and people walked away from that, and i think he opposed that, as well, but at the end of the day you have to get things done. You have to get 60 votes in the senate and you have to have a president that can sign the bill and not veto it, and you know, its time to get moving and you will have a republican speaker no matter what. Patrick mchenry is a really able guy. His word is his bond. Hes thoughtful and hes intelligent. He could actually, i think, swing a deal with many, if not most of the republicans, but from the democratic side, and i talked to some in the last couple of days and im sure lauren have on your team, were tired of this. We need a speaker and we need to send the ship forward and not keep it at port in this world that is so troubled today. So its time to get moving. If jordan loses votes, and i suspect that he will today. It was a little bit of a surprise that there were 20 that were against him. Remember the first time that kevin ran when they had the 15 ballot, kevin mccarthy, there were only 19 republicans that opposed him. There were 20 yesterday, if it goes to 25 or so, i think jordan will have to throw in the cards. A big loss for trump because you know he supported jordan not only last week, but this week, as well. Theyre making calls and hannity is making calls and i dont think its going to happen and its time to turn the page and get a captain of the ship. There is this email thats being circulated, Text Messages, Congressman Dom Bacon from nebraska one of the people that voted against jim jordan released these Text Messages that his wife got. One of them said your husband will not hold any Political Office ever again. What a disappointment and failure he is. What does it tell you that theres that kind of Lobbying Effort . Well, its really nasty, and i would guess that there were even more brutal calls and texts that probable the fcc wouldnt allow to be on the air. I was the victim of that when i was one of those that supported impeachment. Theres a nasty public out there and thats something that jordans people have done or supporters, i should say, hopefully not him, but theyve organized this attack group from all different cycles and its, you know, i guess its part of public life these day, but its a really bad turn and they t released just to show the pressure he was under, but all those 20, there were enormous pressure and they were breaking arms and legs trying to get the votes that they did, and i think a number of my former colleagues are saying enough of this junk. I have a different word for it. Enough of this junk, lets move on and stop these awful threats that are imposed, particularly on Family Members, but as well as staff. Theyre the victims of this, too. The calls that come into the office. Well, the vote will happen in about an hour from now if they limp in on their broken legs and cast their votes with their twisted arms. Fred upton, we appreciate you joining us this morning. Thank you very much. Kate . Coming up for us, the new warning from the world health the head of the World Health Organization that the situation in gaza is spiralling out control. Hospitals running out of supplies. Supplies are still stuck at the border in egypt and confusion and anger over the deadly blast outside of the Gaza Hospital last night. Thats next. Get exclusive offers on select new volvo models. Contact your volvo retailer to learn more. Hows the chicken . The prawns are delicious. Oh, i have a shellfish allergy. One prawn. Very good. Did i say Chicken Wrong . Tired of people not listening to what you want . Its truffle season ah thats okay. Never enough truffles. How much are they . Its a lot. Oh okay im good, that its like a priceless piece of art. Enjoy. Or when they sell you what they want . Yeah. The more we understand you, the better we can help you. Thats what u. S. Bank is for. Huge relief. Yeah. All right. Any moment now President Biden is expected to speak in israel again after a series of meetings that he had with the israeli Prime Minister, his war cabinet and the families of people impacted by the hamas attack. We want to tell you right now we are seeing Secretary Of State Antony Blinken who has come into that room. You see the room set up there with all of the reporters waiting for President Biden to show up. You know, look, hes already faced questions at this point in time about that deadly explosion at the Al Ahli Baptist hospital in gaza that according to the Palestinian Ministry of health run by hamas that hundred of people were killeded in a place that is supposed to be set aside for healing. It has disturbed everyone in the world, but In Particular it has caused major protests in the neighboring countries. There are huge protests ongoing right now in beirut, In Particular. There have been protests in jordan and amman. Jordan, right across the way. So this is really causina lot, a lot of disturbance, as you might imagine. People are very upset. As to who is responsible for it, there is still we cannot confirm or deny any of the information at this point, but israel says it has proof that it was not responsible, that it wasnt from an air strike. They have some recordings that have been put out of what they say is Islamic Jihadists who accidentally misfired and their rocket hit the hospital. Let us now go to Katelyn Collins who is following all of this and the president s visit. Katelyn, you look at what is happening right now and the situation that were in. This is probably, except for october 7th, the most tense it has been here in this country because of that attack or that misfire, whichever one it is, on the hospital. Has heightened tensions and now the president of the United States is here. How is he responding to all of this, and how is he treating israel as he is going to be standing side by side with the Prime Minister . Yeah. And that looms over this entire visit, and i