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Gazans Return To A Khan Younis Devastated Beyond Recognition; Trump Says Abortion Legislation Should Be Left To States; Total Solar Eclipse Sweeps Across North America; Why Some College Students Reject Both Biden and Trump; Khan Younis Residents Return after Israel Withdraws; Six Months ON, Humanitarian Crisis Deepens in Gaza; Hottest March on Record; Organization of American States to Discuss Mexico- Ecuador Tensions; NASA Launches Rockets to Study Total Solar Eclipse. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired April 09, 2024 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[01:00:22]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up here on CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DEPLOMATIC EDITOR: It is clear this is still a very active battlefront.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: A battle it seems over a wasteland. Israeli troops withdraw from Southern Gaza after a four month long scorched earth policy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You must follow your heart of this issue. But remember, you must also win elections.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Donald Trump announces his official position on abortion. Whatever does the least harm to his chances of winning in November?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did you think of it all? Well, You too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We thought it was incredible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And briefly Monday, the moon passed between the Earth and the Sun, of course for much excitement for many.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: Thanks for staying with us. For weeks now the Biden administration has been pressing the Israeli prime minister to strike a deal with Hamas for a ceasefire and release of hostages held in Gaza. Many Israelis have been making similar demands for months.
But at the same time, pressure is growing on Benjamin Netanyahu from within his own far right coalition to reject any deal and instead ramp up the military intensity and launch a major ground offensive on Rafah, the southern Gaza City home for almost one and a half million displaced Palestinians.
But both publicly and privately the White House has voiced its opposition to a wide scale military incursion into refer.
And on Monday, Netanyahu appeared to get into demands from within his coalition, announcing a date has been said, but not the actual date for a ground operation and to Rafah. But according to the State Department, Israel has provided U.S. with no details about the actual date, or any credible plan for evacuating hundreds of thousands of civilians away from the line of fire and to some kind of relative safety as a ceasefire and hostage negotiations as sources.
During weekend talks in Cairo, CIA director Bill Burns presented a new proposal to try and bridge the gaps between Israel and Hamas. Here's how Netanyahu reacted to that news.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Today I received a detailed report on the talks in Cairo. We are constantly working to achieve our goals, primarily the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas. This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there, it will happen there is a date.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: While meeting with U.S. officials in Washington, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, says while a deal may not be one Israel likes, he says it's doable. Therefore it needs to be made to bring the hostages home.
Hamas though says its leaders will review this latest proposal even though it does not meet their demands.
And six months of war, almost all Israeli forces have withdrawn from Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Palestinians are slowly returning to a city in ruins to find little more than other devastation.
The height of the ground offensive as many as 40,000 Israeli troops about 20 brigades were in Gaza. Now just one brigade remains a few 100 troops and the National Security Minister the far right extremists and anti-Arab bigot Itamar Ben-Gvir is now threatening to topple Netanyahu over the withdrawal of Israeli forces. Gvir has warned Netanyahu cannot remain Prime Minister if he ends the war without launching that ground offensive in Rafah. CNN's Jerry Diamond has more now on the pressure facing the Israeli prime minister.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Israeli tanks and troops just returned from Southern Gaza signs of a major withdrawal and another political headache for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His right wing governing partners outraged with national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir warning Netanyahu will not have a mandate to continue serving as Prime Minister if he ends the war without invading Rafah.
It's the latest layer of political pressure confronting Netanyahu was already facing a growing swell of protests calling for early elections and the hostage deal.
DIAMOND: In the early days of the war, you really didn't see these kinds of mass demonstrations against the current government. There was a sense of wartime unity that it wasn't appropriate to protest. But now we're seeing more and more Israelis coming out to protest raising their voices against the current government and against Benjamin Netanyahu.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: None of us wanted to protest we just wanted to survive basically. How can protest when you're afraid for your life? I think we're not afraid for life at this moment. And this is the time to replace the government.
[01:05:00]
DIAMOND (voice-over): Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says Netanyahu should resign accusing him of putting the survival of his government above the interests of the country.
EHUD OLMERT, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: You can drive the national interest on the basis of personal interests of the Prime Minister. That's what he was doing and therefore he is not fit. More than 50 percent of the Israelis think the same. They don't trust him. They think that he is running the war on the basis of his personal interests.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Aviv Bushinsky, a former Netanyahu adviser says his former boss learn decades ago to always prioritize those who will keep him in power.
AVIV BUSHINSKY, FORMER ADVISER TO ISRAELI PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Never betray your natural allies. They are his allies, his bodies, he has to adhere to the will pay a heavy price, political price, but this how his coalition is so crystal strong and solid.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Despite the rhetoric from Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu is right wing partners don't seem inclined to pull the rug out from under him just yet. Calls for new elections from his chief rival or cabinet member Benny Gantz.
BENNY GANTZ, ISRAEL WAR CABINET MEMBER: Israeli society needs to renew its contract with its leadership.
DIAMOND (voice-over): And increasingly vocal criticism from the White House are drawing little more than signature defiance from the Israeli prime minister.
NETANYAHU (voice-over): Hamas hopes that the pressure from outside and inside will make Israel surrender to these extremely demands, the pressure of the international community should be directed against Hamas.
DIAMOND (voice-over): For now, Netanyahu is staving off early elections, which polls show he would likely lose to Benny Gantz, who was still mulling a potential exit from the wartime unity government.
DIAMOND: What kind of impact do you think it would have for him to leave this unity government?
OLMERT: I think it will probably trigger the public reaction, the volcano of the public bitterness and disappointment and rage with Bibi's government and that will force early election.
DIAMOND: Because right now we've seen more and more people taking to the streets, but it's still not enough is what you're saying.
OLMERT: It's moving in the right direction. But we need more.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Live now to to Tel Aviv and Alon Pinkas, a senior adviser to two Israeli leaders, Ehud Barak and Shimon Peres, also served as the Israeli consul general in New York. Mr. Ambassador, thank you for being with us.
ALON PINKAS, FORMER ISRAEL CONSUL GENERAL IN NEW YORK: Good morning, John, good to be with you.
VAUSE: When you listen to an Israeli government spokesman talking about one option for how the war in Gaza could end. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AVI HYMAN, ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON: I will remind the world that this war could end right now without negotiations without talks in Cairo or anywhere else. This war could end right now, with Hamas putting their hands in the air, waving a white flag and committing and releasing the 133 hostages.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: That is true. It's also true at the same time, the Israeli government could end the war at any moment as well. But the moment that happens comes a day of reckoning, right for Benjamin Netanyahu, and many within his coalition government. So how big of a role are these sort of domestic political issues having on how long this war continues?
PINKAS: A tremendous role. I think it is the motivation and the calculations that are driving Mr. Netanyahu's politics right now. Look, ever since 6:29 a.m., October 7, 2023, he's been doing nothing else but trying to preserve themselves in power, never took responsibility, never have been held accountable.
And his entire prosecution of the war is targeted toward staying in power, meaning that when the war ends, and the fact though it is ending right now. I mean, it could you know, it could restart at any moment. But right now, the fact though it is over, he knows he's facing a huge political problem.
VAUSE: Yes, he's very famous. He's also made it clear that the war in his view won't end until there is this major ground offensive on Rafah to destroy this last stronghold for Hamas.
PINKAS: Right.
VAUSE: Rafah offensive is strongly opposed by Biden administration. Just very quickly, a spokesperson for the State Department. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEW MILLER, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: It's not just a question of Israel presenting a plan to us we have made clear them that we think that there is a better way to achieve what is a legitimate goal, which is to degrade and dismantle and defeat the Hamas battalions that still remain in Rafah.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So in your opinion, what's going on here? Why is Netanyahu so determined for this Rafah offensive?
PINKAS: Well, going back to our previous exchange, because he needs to prolong the war. Look, this is a war that began without political objectives. It started with let's degrade annihilate obliterate eradicate Hamas.
[01:10:03]
And that hasn't been achieved. But the more important thing is to prevent Hamas from retaining any political power or even any residual political power.
Now, as far as for the invasion, so called Rafah, there's a simple question, John, that hasn't been answered yet. And the Americans asked him that very, very late in October, if the center of gravity of Hamas activities in the southern tip of the Gaza Strip were the city of Rafah, then why did you not start in Rafah? Why did you invade via the northern tip of the Gaza Strip and the center rather than the South? Number two, if you -- once you invaded the north, and you ask and
impelled a million and a half Palestinians to flee the north and to move to the south? If you invade Rafah now, where are they going to go? There's no way in the world this could be done without huge civilian casualties. The Americans know that and that is why they're pushing him to stave off this.
Now, one important thing. Israel does not maintain any significant military force in the south of Gaza. So even if he does have in mind some kind of a large scale operation, that's not going to happen anytime soon.
VAUSE: When on the day of October 7, and the days after, there was unbelievable goodwill and support for Israel, in its operation and its war against him us. In the months since the high civilian death toll the way this war has dragged on. There is not just condemnation and criticism around the world for the way this war has been conducted.
How much damage has been done to Israel, its reputation, because of this one way it's been conducted?
PINKAS: Well, because of one man, to be honest, because of Mr. Netanyahu, he's what you'd call King Midas in reverse. Everything he touches turns to waste and dust. That was goodwill. This was a just war. This was a retaliation for a savage terror attack of indescribable proportions.
And within a month, world public opinion shifted to the geometric opposite. And right now Israel as isolated disdain protested against, as by the way is the United States with supporting Israel will be practically the last one to support as you.
Now, the damage that's been caused is a damage to Israel brand name to its reputation, and to the image it had in the world until then. But there's also something much deeper and we probably don't have time to discuss that.
This is a world that for many years has been telling Israel take care and cater to the Palestinian issue. This is not going to go away and the status quo was unsustainable and people like Netanyahu dismissed it offhandedly and said, it'll be OK. Well, it's not OK. And world opinion right now is the price that we're paying again for a war that's been just unjustifiable.
VAUSE: Come back soon. We could talk about that topic at another time. Mr. Ambassador as always, good to see you. Thank you for your time, sir.
PINKAS: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: Russian airstrikes from the northeast of Ukraine to Kherson in the South have killed at least six civilians, so as injuring dozens according to Ukrainian officials, three people were killed in the city of Zaporizhzhia. Russia's Defense Ministry says they quote completely destroyed a Ukrainian drone factory and drone warehouse. Russia says it was retaliation for key targeting energy production
facilities inside Russian territory. Meanwhile, the Kremlin accusing Ukrainian forces of attacking the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that self-exploiting drones.
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that plants main reactor took three direct hits Sunday. Ukraine adamantly denying the allegation saying they take nuclear safety very seriously. And accusing Russian installed officials at the plant of creating incidents as a form of nuclear blackmail. Here's more now from Russian officials.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YURI CHERNICHUK, RUSSIAN-INSTALLED DIRECTOR OF ZAPORIZHZHIA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT (through translator): The danger of what happens now around Zaporizhzhia plant does not need any commentary. It is dangerous, dangerous for the station, dangerous for the surrounding territory, and potentially dangerous for the whole world. All of humanity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Russian forces took control of the facility and 2022 the early days of the war with Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of using the plant and the threat of a nuclear disaster as a weapon of war.
Well, across North America is a spectacle of the sky Monday, a rare total solar eclipse. Large crowds gathered to share the moment the moon obscured the face of the Sun. Mazatlan on Mexico's pacific coast was the first city to experience totality.
The eclipse had moved across more than a dozen states from Texas to Maine ending and Canada. NASA says those lucky enough to be in the middle of the path of totality solar eclipse which lasted between three and a half and four minutes. Here's CNN's Bill Weir.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPNDENT (voice-over): Every day, the shadow of the moon bounces willy-nilly across the lifeless Milky Way. And when it hits Earth, it mostly darkens ocean or ice. With no human witnesses.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That darkness has settled into Carville, Texas.
WEIR (voice-over): But on this day, random fate sent that shadow on a North American tour like no other and from Mexico to the Maritimes. That shadow moved people to weep and share. Marry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love you. Will you marry me?
WEIR (voice-over): And propose. It moved animals, triggering both flamingos and penguins at the Dallas Zoo to bunch their flocks tighter for nighttime safety.
WEIR: The penguins are all clustered together, the flamingos are all clustered together.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, other birds are joining together in --
WEIR (voice-over): The swath of darkness over 100 miles wide moved clouds.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's amazing.
WEIR (voice-over): And dropped temperatures by 10 degrees.
UNIDENIFIED FEMALE: That chill in the air is getting cooler and cooler.
WEIR (voice-over): But for science lovers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did you think of the vent?
WEIR (voice-over): We'll choose for other reasons.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Incredible, you know, I've seen several solar eclipses. This though, was the best I've ever seen. Because we saw the diamond ring effect. And then Bailey's beads, you know, the sun coming through the mountains.
WEIR (voice-over): And with the sun less blinding the normal, this was also a rare chance for NASA to use high flying planes and rockets to study the sun's corona and the massive eruptions of plasma happening as its sun cycles through its most active phase.
Solar storms have the potential to destroy satellites and fry entire electrical grids. So scientists are hungry for clues that could help predict space weather.
WEIR: If it is the sun's air and energy that hits Earth, much like that shadow, the results can be destructive. Elon Musk lost a couple dozen satellites to a solar storm recently, it can affect power grid, so understanding what triggers that, what kind of notice we will get vital these days as well. But there was a lot more wonder than worry on this one. And just for perspective, newborns today will be old enough to drink the next time a full solar eclipse hit the United States 22 years from now. Bill Weir, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: I'll drink to that. It's still ahead. Leave it up to the states, Trump punts on abortion angers both the left and the right. Also had the college students not voting for Trump or Biden. They may not even vote at all.
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[01:20:05]
VAUSE: New appeals court has rejected Donald Trump's petition to delay his hush money trial. The former president had a change of venue claiming he cannot get a fair trial in Manhattan. Jury selection is set to begin next week, potential jurors will be questioned about where they get their news, whether they've ever been to a Trump rally, but not what political party they may belong to.
The trial sent his own claims that Trump failed to properly disclose a payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about their affair.
And Donald Trump has managed to unite both liberals and conservatives in anger over his new official position on abortion rights. The Republican presidential hopefuls rejected a national ban on abortion, saying the issue should be left up to the states.
He refuse to say how many weeks into a pregnancy abortion should be banned, but he supports exceptions in the cases of rape, incest and danger to the life of the mother. It also says he's proudly responsible for getting Roe vs. Wade overturned.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land in this case, the law of the state.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Trump has been always every side of abortion rights over the years from supporting a woman's right to choose to punishing women who actually get an abortion CNN's Randi Kaye has a closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump staked out his first public position on abortion in April of 1989 when he co-sponsored a dinner at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan for the president of a national group that advocates for abortion rights. Then more than a decade later, in 1999 on NBC Meet the Press, Trump defended his position doubling down on it.
TRUMP: I'm very pro-choice. I hate the concept of abortion. I hate it. I hate everything it stands for. I cringe when I listen to people debating the subject. Would you still I just believe in choice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you would not ban it?
TRUMP: No.
KAYE (voice-over): As the years passed, and Trump grew more serious about running for president, his position on abortion flipped. This was him at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2011.
TRUMP: I'm pro-life. I'm against gun control.
KAYE (voice-over): By then Trump was opposed to abortion rights. In a CNN interview in June 2015, even Trump himself seemed momentarily confused about where he stood on the issue. JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: I know you're opposed to abortion.
TRUMP: I'm pro-choice.
TAPPER: You're pro-choice or pro-life?
TRUMP: I'm pro-life. I'm sorry.
TAPPER: Pro-life.
KAYE (voice-over): Later in 2015 at a GOP presidential primary debate, Trump was asked why his position on the issue changed since 1999. He explained he'd quote evolved.
TRUMP: What happened is friends of mine years ago, were going to have a child and it was going to be aborted. And it wasn't aborted. And that child today is a total superstar, a great, great child. And I saw that and I saw other instances.
KAYE (voice-over): The following year in 2016.
TRUMP: I'm willing to put on pro-life, the judges will be pro-life.
KAYE (voice-over): As recently as May last year, Trump was still non- committal about what exactly a national abortion ban might look like if he were elected again.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: -- abortion ban. You did not say yes or no to that. You did not say how many weeks.
TRUMP: It depends what -- it depends what the deal is. And I'll make the right decision.
COLLINS: We curious what your idea is on that.
KAYE (voice-over): In February Trump's signaling, he was open to a 15- week federal ban with exceptions for cases of rape, incest, and when the life of the mother is in danger.
TRUMP: Now people are agreeing on 15 and I'm thinking in terms of that. I'll make that announcement at the appropriate time.
KAYE (voice-over): That announcement when it came today, mark Trump's latest attempt to thread this political needle. Randi Kaye, CNN, Palm Beach, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: And with us, Alice Stewart, CNN political commentator and Republican strategist. It's good to see you.
ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Always great to talk with you, John.
VAUSE: OK. So here's a little more from the former president on why he punted abortion rights back to the states. Here's Donald Trump. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You must follow your heart of this issue. But remember, you must also win elections to restore our culture and in fact, to save our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: It's all about winning elections, and Donald Trump doesn't usually play it safe politically, but on this issue of abortion, was playing it safe sort of the least bad option he had?
STEWART: It really was John. Look, he has gotten to the point now where he realizes he is the Republican nominee and he has played it safe on the abortion issue with Republican voters in the primary process.
[01:25:00]
And look, they give him credit for the fact that he nominated three conservative justices to the Supreme Court that ultimately overturn Roe v. Wade. And now he is basically saying, look, I'm pro-life. But I am also at a point where I realized when we have abortion as the sole issue on the ballot is not a winning issue. We've had more than half a dozen states that have put abortion rights on the ballot.
And every time, John, the pro-abortion, the pro-choice movement has won and Donald Trump is looking at this from a standpoint of moving to the general election. He's trying to appeal to the independent voters of the more moderate Republican voters and quite frankly, suburban women voters, and those that say women should have the choice on this issue.
VAUSE: Many of those anti-abortion groups are among the most loyal Trump supporters. They were not just critical suddenly left outrage, Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence among them, even Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, gathered all the courage of a wet piece of lettuce releasing a statement criticizing the former president which read in part, I respectfully disagree with President Trump's statement that abortion is a states' rights issue. Dobbs does not require that conclusion legally, and the pro-life movement has always been about the well-being of the unborn child, not geography.
And to that, here's how Trump has responded just in general to the criticism. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Many people have asked me what my position is on abortion and abortion rights, especially since I was proudly the person responsible for the ending of something that all legal scholars both sides wanted and in fact demanded, be ended, Roe v. Wade.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: That last part about legal scholars is just not true. But he does have a point he sacked the Supreme Court, he overturned Roe, but he so going back and forth or whether or not he wants to claim credit for the for the, you know, for the ban or the overturning of Roe. It seems he's now going down that that road here in a very determined way.
STEWART: But John, I think you will always pat himself on the back and claim credit for putting three conservative justices on the Supreme Court that ultimately led to overturning Roe v. Wade. But right now he is in a position to where he can take a more nuanced approach to this issue and look at it legally. We have turned this issue back to the states.
And politically, we have decided, as we have advocated for almost a decade, five decades, let's take this important emotional decision out of the hands of unelected justices and put it in the hands of elected officials at the state level. And he's pushing for the idea that this is at the state level and the states will rule on this issue. And that's exactly where it should be.
And look, Democrats are going to continue to put the idea out there that Donald Trump supports a federal ban. And that's not the case. And look, the reality is, you're not going to get 60 votes in the United States Senate to approve of a abortion ban. So that argument is really off the table. And with Donald Trump's statement today talking about I'm not for a federal ban. I think he did a lot politically to take that off the table. But Democrats I would imagine will still use abortion as a motivating issue to get voters out in November.
VAUSE: Oh, yes they are. Here's part of a statement from President Biden. Trump is scrambling. He's worried that since he is the one responsible for overturning Roe, the voters will hold him accountable in 2024. Well, I have news for Donald, they will.
You know, Trump has been sort of walking both sides of a barbed wire fence at times when it comes to abortion. If he was hoping to put the issue to rest to take it out of play, he may have done it on the Republican side. To some extent, he certainly hasn't done it on the Democrat side.
STEWART: No, and look from a -- look, I've campaigned and worked on communications and for presidential campaigns. And from a strategy standpoint, it's a winning issue for Democrats. So to try and use this to motivate voters and again, if it's on the ballot in a particular state, it does turn out voters but what Republicans need to do in the pro-life community needs to recognize look, I've been strong on the front lines of this issue.
Overturning Roe v. Wade isn't the end of the battle. It's really just the beginning. And it's important to try and educate and enlighten voters on local people might not agree on the specific issue of abortion. But let's have an agreement on some type of limits. Let's agree that we don't want to encourage late term abortions, which is what some Democrats want to do, and find out where we can find some kind of agreement on this.
VAUSE: Alice, thanks for being with us. Always appreciate your time and your insights. Good to see you.
STEWART: Thank you, John.
[01:29:48]
VAUSE: President Joe Biden has announced a second attempt to forgive billions of dollars in student loan debt. His first proposal was struck down by the Supreme Court.
This move could be crucial for Biden, who's struggling to win over some college students who say they may not vote for Biden and they may not vote for Trump. In fact, they may not vote at all.
Here's CNN's Rene Marsh.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RENE MARSH, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This November will be the first time Lonnie White(ph) and Rokiya Garbo (ph) will be old enough to vote in the presidential election. And just the second time Malik Poole and Mozn Shora will cast a presidential ballot. None are planning to vote for Joe Biden or Donald Trump.
ROKIA GARBO, STUDENT: If I were to vote tomorrow, I wouldn't vote, period.
MOZN SHORA, SPELMAN COLLEGE SENIOR: Ideally, I would like to vote third party.
LANI WHITE, STUDENT VOTER: I'll vote for an Independent candidate.
MALIK POOLE, VOTING THIRD PARTY: I'm considering either voting for Claudia dela Cruz or Cornell West at this point. If there is no substantive policy change when it comes to the genocide in Gaza then there's not really a discussion for me.
MARSH: When we met at this barbecue restaurant in Atlanta, all four told me they were raised and originally registered as Democrats. But this year, the president's handling of the Israel-Gaza war has turned them away.
SHORA: I think what Biden has done in aiding and abetting in A genocide is just something I cannot stand for.
MARSH: You're willing to withhold your vote in the presidential election unless there is a ceasefire?
GARBO: Yes.
MARSH: And its implemented?
GARBO: Yes.
MARSH: Not voting could mean Donald Trump gets into office. Do you think he'll be better on Gaza?
SHORA: Trump would probably say flatten Gaza and make it into a golf course.
I have absolutely no faith in him.
MARSH: Would you not say that also the people who are not voting for one of the two people who are the likely people to really be in this race have a role to play in kind of giving the race to Donald Trump in a state like Georgia where it's going to be like razor thin.
POOLE: You know, I'll do you one better actually, I think that just means that's why the Democrats should listen.
WHITE: Exactly.
MARSH: Radical and more tapped in than their peers is how the group describes themselves. Rokiya even helping to organize this demonstration in Atlanta last October calling for peace and aid for the Palestinian people.
While they don't speak for the majority of black voters, they're dissent poses a real concern for Democrats in battleground states like Georgia, where Biden won by fewer than 12,000 votes.
Black voters under age 30 made up only about 6 percent of voters in Georgia in 2020. That group voted for Joe Biden by more than 50 points.
POOLE: We are holding the election in the palm of our hands and they're not listening.
GARBO: We're tired of just hearing him say these things, these empty promise. We have no trust in Joe Biden.
MARSH: The Republican Party isn't earning their vote either.
GARBO: Both sides are just evil (ph).
SHORA: Nothing is being done for us. If enough people vote third party, we can win. That's my thought.
MARSH: President Biden's campaign has touted his success on key issues affecting young voters including student loan forgiveness, lowering unemployment, and tackling inflation.
Still though --
SHORA: I don't feel it, people may be employed, but can they survive off of it?
WHITE: The federal minimum wage has stayed the same since 2009. I was five in 2009. I'm 20 years old now.
Well, I work at Goodwill now for $12 dollars an hour and cost of living keeps increasing, especially here.
MARSH: What could President Biden do to change your mind as far as how you vote in November? GARBO: Call for a permanent ceasefire and actually implement it.
SHORA: I would like us to stop giving aid to Israel.
WHITE: If he doesn't get elected, that is his fault. That's not our fault and that's not the black voters here. That's not X, Y and Z. No, it's on him.
MARSH: Well, MAGA Inc, the super PAC supporting Trump has spent more than a half a million dollars for ads on black radio, hoping to woo unhappy Biden voters.
We ask the Biden campaign about the dissent that we're seeing among some young black voters and they framed this as a race between a president that actually cares about making life better, even if all Americans haven't felt the full impact just yet; and another candidate, Donald Trump, who they say cares only about his rich friends and helping himself.
All of that said, the Biden campaign is aware of this dissent among some of these young voters and they are concerned.
Rene Marsh, CNN -- Washington
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Still to come on CNN, after six months of war in Gaza more than 2 million Palestinians remain trapped in a spiraling humanitarian crisis.
[01:34:29]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that a date has been set for a ground operation into Rafah, the southern Gaza city, home to almost 1.5 million displaced Palestinians.
But according to the State Department, Israel has not provided the U.S. with details about that date or any credible plan for evacuating hundreds of thousands of civilians away from the line of fire and to some kind of relative safety.
Netanyahu said Monday that a complete victory over Hamas requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of its battalions of fighters. His comments coming after the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Palestinians are slowly returning to a city in ruins only to find little more than utter devastation.
Joining me now Washington is CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. Colonel, good to see you, sir. COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good to see you too, John.
VAUSE: There are a myriad reasons why Israeli forces have withdrawn from southern Gaza. In fact, almost all of Gaza. Here's a spokesperson for the Israeli government on one reason perhaps.
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AVI HYMAN, ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON: I wouldn't read too much into the fact that we've moved soldiers in or out of anywhere. I'll remind everyone that we are living in a tiny, tiny country. We can move soldiers in and out very easily and very quickly.
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VAUSE: At the height of the fighting, Israel had about 20 brigades on the ground in Gaza, it's somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 troops. Now there's just one brigade -- a few hundred troops.
There are a lot of possible reasons for this pullout, but nothing to see here. Like we just heard it's not one of them. So from a military point of view, what's the most likely explanation?
LEIGHTON: One of the possible explanations, John, is that the mindset, the retooling and regrouping and giving their folks some rest. One of the possible areas that they might go into, of course, is up north in the northern part of Israel facing Hezbollah in the Lebanese border.
But when it comes to Gaza, the other possibility is that they're getting ready to do something in Rafah. And that is probably the most likely thing based on what we hear from Prime Minister Netanyahu and some of the other Israeli officials who are discussing this.
So that is probably the most likely scenario that they're basically waiting in reserve in order to mount an operation like that especially of the negotiations in Cairo fail.
VAUSE: To your point though, you know, this is a tiny country like this spokesperson said. The IDF is made up of mostly reservists. So this is a good chance after six months of war for people to go back to their jobs, their families, to take a rest. At the same time, the Israelis are talking about a second front in the north with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
And over the weekend came word that Israel says its prepared to deal with Iran offensively, as well as defensively, which seems to be the state of play always, regardless.
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VAUSE: But one piece of the puzzle which doesn't really fit in here is the fact that the war in Gaza could continue for at least another year or so on a low level. So can they continue with the Gaza war and have a confrontation with Iran as well as a confrontation with Hezbollah in the north? LEIGHTON: Well, I think it would really stretch Israeli resources quite thinly. And then that would be kind of a maximum effort that Israel could put on and muster. But it is possible for the Israelis to certainly mount some operation.
What they would have to do is reduce their forces in Gaza and continue their operations there but make them much more targeted, make them much more oriented towards special operations-type missions, basically what the U.S. has suggested in the path.
If they were going to do something against Hezbollah or against Iran, that would require some other types of forces and that's where they could potentially put a preponderance of their troops. Now that they think they have destroyed Hamas at least to a large extent. Not completely, but certainly militarily in the conventional sense.
VAUSE: I want you to listen to the Israeli defense minister, who was adamant that rescuing the 133 Israeli hostages held in Gaza remains a priority. Here he is.
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YOAV GALLANT, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): We have a supreme obligation to get the hostages home and the operational conditions that the IDF created through relentless pressure on Hamas and the position of strength from which we come into this campaign allow us flexibility, freedom of action, and also difficult decisions.
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VAUSE: You know, by withdrawing the bulk of Israeli troops, isn't Israel giving up those gains to some extent allowing Hamas sort of to regain control of the territory that it lost, allowing them to sort of roam free in some kind of way?
LEIGHTON: Well, there they're banking that they've succeeded, in essence, breaking the back Hamas. Whether or not the Israelis have done that remains to be seen.
But what they are saying in essence is we have killed a vast number of Hamas fighters. We have destroyed most of their infrastructure, their command-and-control nodes, their communication centers, their tunnels. Those types of things.
So if that's correct, the Israelis could take that gamble and possibly succeed. But if it's not correct, then they might be making a fatal mistake. And that would be something where they would have to be very careful and potentially have to move resources back to a fight in Gaza if that fight were to continue, and Hamas were to regroup in a way that we think that it could if they have the number of people that could mount attacks against Israel, or conduct continued operations of various types against Israel and its territory.
VAUSE: It was notable. I think five rockets were fired from Khan Younis once the Israeli troops withdrew, they were all intercepted by the iron dome but yes, Hamas can quickly regroup. It remains a threat, I guess.
Cedric Leighton -- Colonel, good to see you, sir. Thank you.
LEIGHTON: Good to see you too, John. Thank you.
VAUSE: More than 400 trucks filled with humanitarian supplies crossed into Gaza Monday. The highest number since the war began six months ago but still a fraction of what is urgently needed. At the same time an unprecedented Israeli military offensive in both duration and intensity has transformed the seaside territory into a pre-industrial wasteland.
CNN's Nada Bashir has more on the devastating impact six months of war has had on Gaza and a warning: her report contains some disturbing images.
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NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Celebrating a graduation, full of hope for the future. This was life in Gaza for Um Ihab's family before the war. Now Um Ihab is one of almost two million Palestinians that have been displaced.
"We never needed anything from anyone before the war," Um Ihab says. "But now we are in a situation where I'm forced to beg for a loaf of bread just to feed the children.
In this makeshift shelter without access to adequate food supplies or medical care, Um Ihab's husband became severely malnourished and later died.
"The hardest thing was losing my husband. The way in which he died," she says. We're all going to die one day, but every death has a reason. He died from hunger, from oppression. He had no food and no water for 55 days. It's very difficult for me to accept this."
Satellite images show the scale of the destruction in central Gaza. Buildings, roads completely destroyed by Israel's relentless bombing campaign.
Israel says it is targeting Hamas but six months on and the death toll has now surpassed 33,000. The vast majority, civilians.
Each week has brought with it yet more horror, more bodies pulled from beneath the rubble of destroyed homes, more funerals.
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BASHIR: Survivors forced to flee from one battleground to another. And now more children left emaciated by a hunger crisis which is threatening to push Gaza deeper towards famine.
U.N. experts have accused Israel of intentionally starving the Palestinian people by restricting access to aid. With dire shortages leading to deadly desperation. What few hospitals remain in Gaza are overrun and desperately lacking in essential supplies. Gaza's largest medical facility Al-Shifa now turned into a graveyard by Israel's bloody 14-day siege on the complex.
In just six months, this war has become the deadliest conflict for children, aid workers, and journalists.
Foud al-Maani has worked through multiple wars in Gaza. But he says he has never seen anything like this before. His son, a fellow paramedic was killed by an Israeli airstrike while responding to an emergency call.
"Others have lost tens of family members," Foud says, "but losing my son feels like I've lost the entire world."
Desperate to escape Israel's near constant air assault on Gaza, more than a million people have sought refuge in the southern border city of Rafah, where Israel says it is preparing for a ground incursion, a move the U.N. warns would lead to unimaginable disaster.
Israel's actions in Gaza have triggered a genocide hearing at the International Court of Justice, allegations Israel denies. And a U.N. Secretary Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.
But hopes for peace remain elusive.
"The beach makes me forget our pain, our sadness, our martyrs," Um Ihab said. "Every time I come, I complain to the sea hoping that God will respond and finally, take us away from this pain."
Nada Bashir, CNN -- London.
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VAUSE: We'll take a break. When we come back, March was another month of record-breaking heat, but is it set to get worse this year? Spoiler alert -- it is. A look at the latest weather data after the break.
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VAUSE: No surprise but last month was the hottest March on record, according to new data from the E.U.'s climate monitoring service, Copernicus which notes the past ten consecutive months have also seen record heat, part of the hottest 12-month period in recorded history.
For those still in denial about global warming well, nothing will convince them anyway, but here's a scientist.
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SAMANTHA BURGESS, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, COPERNICUS CLIMATE CHANGE SERVICE: Seeing records like this month in, month out really shows us that our climate is changing. It's changing rapidly, and climate change isn't a future problem. It's a problem that we have to face here and now.
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[01:49:54]
VAUSE: Ocean temperatures also hit record levels in March as well. Copernicus reports the average global sea temperature, more than 21 degrees Celsius.
A new declaration from the Vatican and Pope Francis announced Monday has strongly condemned transgender sex change, surrogate motherhood, and abortion as grave threats to human dignity. His 20-page document called "Infinite Dignity" lays out where the church stands on inherent and (INAUDIBLE) worth and rights afforded to every person.
It reads in part, "Any sex change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception."
This declaration was five years in the making. It seems at odds to another declaration the pope made last year, allowing blessings for same-sex couples. Francis has openly tried to make the Catholic Church more acceptable of LGBTQ plus individuals. But he remains in the vocal minority even if he does run the place.
Mexico broke diplomatic ties with Ecuador over the weekend after Ecuadorian police stormed its embassy to arrest a former vice president. Now neighboring countries are holding talks, trying to head off wider regional tensions.
But as journalist Stefano Pozzebon reports, Ecuador's president is defending his country's decision.
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STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN JOURNALIST: Ecuador's president Daniel Noboa said that he ordered an operation last week to detain Jorge Glas, the former vice president from the Mexican embassy in Quito because his country and, I quote, "could not allow sentenced criminals to be granted asylum".
Ecuador's police forced their entrance into the embassy to arrest Glas, who has been convicted of corruption twice, and he's now facing new charges of embezzlement.
Many countries in the region have criticized the action, accusing Ecuador of crossing a diplomatic red line. Mexico has severed diplomatic ties with Ecuador and its government is preparing a case against Ecuador at the International Court of Justice.
But in an open letter published on social media on Monday, Noboa said he offered to resolve any difference with Mexico after the incident and that bringing Glas that to justice, was non-negotiable.
Glas himself was taken to hospital on Monday after (INAUDIBLE) refusing to eat, according to the prison agency of Ecuador.
He denies the charges and says that they are politically motivated. For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon -- Bogota.
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VAUSE: Well, Monday's total solar eclipse was a dazzling sight to see. It was all black. But it was also an important moment for science. How NASA is using rockets to study the eclipse. Just ahead.
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VAUSE: Congratulations to the UConn Huskies claiming the biggest prize in men's college basketball, winning their second consecutive championship. Tristen Newton scores 20 points for Connecticut in the 75-60 victory.
Player of the year, Zach Edey led all scorers with 37 points in a losing effort for the Purdue Boilermakers. UConn, the first Division 1 men's team to win back-to-back championships since a Florida Gators did it way back in 2006 and 2007.
NASA launched rockets Monday to learn a little more about Monday's total solar eclipse in parts of the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. An estimated 32 million people in the United States were able to see the eclipse in the path of totality across more than a dozen states.
Details now from Brian Todd.
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CROWD: 3, 2, 1 -- blast off.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you blinked, you really could have missed it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And our first APEP rocket has left the radar.
TODD: In a matter of seconds, a so-called sounding rocket blasts off, then disappears from view at NASA's Wallops Island facility on the Virginia coast. Traveling at about 6,000 miles an hour, three of these rockets carried special payloads tailored to the solar eclipse.
Launched just before, during and just after the peak of the eclipse, each rocket traveled about 260 miles above the earth to the ionosphere, the uppermost layer of earth's atmosphere that borders space.
TRAVIS PAUL, SOUNDING ROCKET ENGINEER: Once the motors are done burning, we will deploy booms that take measurements. And then we'll also deploy these swarm modules that shoot out away from the body of the payload.
TODD: The swarm canisters each about the size of a two-liter soda bottle and the booms are equipped with instruments to measure the disturbances in the ionosphere during the solar eclipse. NASA official say they need to figure out how those disturbances impact things like satellite communications.
DANA WRIGHT, LEAD EDUCATOR, NASA WALLOPS ISLAND VISITORS CENTER: The layers of the atmosphere that scientists are studying for this mission is also where our satellites are at. And you know, you use our satellites for communications. We rely on them daily.
TODD: The swarm canisters floated around the ionosphere during the eclipse, took data, transmitted it back to NASA, then were programmed to drop back to earth.
Hundreds of people flocked to a special viewing area on Monday to watch the rockets lift off. People like David Quam (ph), who came from the D.C. areas.
DAVID QUAM, ROCKET LAUNCH SPECTATOR: This is the combination of all the wonders that we ever talked about right, from science. So the wonder of an eclipse, that magic of what human caring can do to go observe it and bringing all those together. This is just a really exciting day.
TODD: Between the rocket launches, the total eclipse, and the science of it all it made for an exciting day in the marshes of southern Virginia.
REBECCA YAMAKAWA, ROCKET LAUNCH SPECTATOR: I've always wanted to see a rocket launch up-close. I've always wanted to go into space because I just think it's really cool.
JONATHAN YAMAKAWA, ROCKET LAUNCH SPECTATOR: This is my Ideal job. I want to be in that building working on rockets like these.
WRIGHT: Seeing them get excited and amped about anything related to science we're all about, of course.
TODD: One NASA official told us that while they receive the data from these instruments within minutes, it will actually take months to analyze the data and really determine how the disturbance in the ionosphere from this eclipse might have affected our satellites.
Brian Todd, CNN -- Wallops Island, Virginia.
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VAUSE: Something to look forward to.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us. My friend and colleague, Rosemary Church, after a short break.
See you tomorrow.
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