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Erin Burnett Outfront

Exclusive: "Trump Employee 5" In Classified Docs Case Speaks Out; Expert Trump Campaign Hired To Find Fraud Has Dire 2024 Warning; U.S. Intel Assessment: Netanyahu's "Viability... May Be In Jeopardy"; Princess Kate's Doctored Photo And Apology Fuel Rumors. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired March 11, 2024 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:35]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:

The breaking news, Trump employee number five breaking his silence and we'll hear from the man who was a key witness in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents investigation tonight. Hear what he has to say about moving Trump's boxes of classified documents.

Plus, he is a software engineer hired by Trump's campaign to find voter fraud. And he found none. We'll give you all the details tonight as he's warning this evening, Trump will try to overturn the election again if he doesn't win. He'll be my guest this hour.

And a passenger on that terrifying flight that plummeted midair speaking out, says bodies were flying everywhere, hitting the ceiling, leaving blood like a scene from "The Exorcist".

Let's go OUTFRONT.

And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.

OUTFRONT tonight: we begin with the breaking news. Trump's employee number five speaking out. The man who was only been known as Trump employee number five in the classified documents indictment from Jack Smith revealing his identity, explaining for the first time how we help move classified documents for Trump.

His name is Brian butler, a long time chauffeur to Trump's family. Now, Butler spent about 20 years working for Trump and he claims it was on June 3rd, 2022, when Trump's personal aide, Walt Nauta, the name may be familiar, asked him if he could borrow Butler's SUV be to move luggage from Mar-a-Lago to the former president's personal plane.

Now, that date is the same date that Trump's attorneys met with the FBI, touring a basement storage room to look for documents. It's the same day they signed a document saying they hunted for additional papers and found few. And Butler telling Kaitlan Collins that the luggage he moved included the white banker's boxes in Jack Smith's indictment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BRIAN BUTLER, "TRUMP EMPLOYEE 5"/FORMER TRUMP MAR-A-LAGO EMPLOYEE: They were the boxes that were in the indictment, the white bankers boxes. That's what I remember loading.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And did you have any time, any idea at the time that there was potentially U.S. national security secrets in those boxes.

BUTLER: No clue. No -- I had no clue. I mean, we were just taking them out of the escalator, piling them up. I remember they were all stacked on top of each other and then we're lifting them up to the pilots.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Now, Butler says he debated going public for months and only recently decided to speak out because he believes that voters should hear the truth about his former boss and the case before the November election. And Butler's role in all of this didn't end there.

He was also involved in conversations about allegedly trying to destroy evidence of a crime at Mar-a-Lago. According to Jack Smith's indictment, Mar-a-Lago property manager, Carlos De Oliveira also told Trump employee number five, which, of course, we now know is Brian Butler, that Nauta, wanted de Oliveira to talk to Trump employee number four, to see how long camera footage was stored.

And we have a lot to get to tonight. I want to get to Katelyn Polantz, who has been working on this story with her sources to help break it. She's OUTFRONT live near Mar-a-Lago.

And, Katelyn, what more are you learning from Butler?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Erin, it is quite clear from what Brian Butler has to say publicly now and also what he spoke to prosecutors about many times is that he is a window, a witness to the alleged obstruction. The allegations against Donald Trump, Walt Nauta, and Carlos de Oliveira, that there was a cover-up for Trump because Trump did not want to give those classified documents back to the federal government.

That is no more apparent, that it's so obviously a in the indictment in that he's listed as Trump employee five, and then he is also in speaking to Kaitlan Collins, able to say about how he had this longtime friendship with Carlos de Oliveira, the third person who is a defendant with Trump. And that friendship broke down.

The very last line in the indictment against all three of these men, including Donald Trump, when prosecutors are describing what happened there is they describe a moment where Brian Butler was with Carlos de Oliveira and gets outreach from the other co-defendant, Walt Nauta, asking Brian Butler, is Carlos loyal? Is he going to remain loyal to Trump?

Butler assures him, yes, he will. This is my friend. He doesn't want to do anything to hurt his relationship with Donald Trump. And then Trump calls Carlos de Oliveira directly butler in his conversation with Kaitlan Collins earlier today, describe that taking place on a trip, a birthday celebration that he was having with his dear friend Carlos de Oliveira when that call came in from Donald Trump.

[19:05:01]

Here's a little more of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUTLER: He takes the call where we're standing in the food court. I think we went to sit down and he -- I cant remember how long the conversation was, but I know at the end of the conversation when they hung up, Carlos said he's going to get me an attorney.

COLLINS: Did he tell you anything else that Trump said to him?

BUTLER: I didn't ask and I don't remember him saying anything else, but you know, I was just told not that long, not too long before were getting him an attorney by Walt and then he gets the call that he's going to give them the Internet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: Erin, so that's the last line in the narrative of the indictment, but the beginning of the end of the friendship of Carlos de Oliveira and Brian Butler. Now, they do not speak anymore. Carlos de Oliveira is charged with making a false statement to the FBI, is headed to trial alongside Donald Trump. Brian Butler is here speaking publicly and not using notably, an attorney within the Trump legal universe -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Kaitlan, Thank you very much.

And I want to go now to Ryan Goodman, our legal analyst, Stephanie Grisham, the former Trump White House press secretary, and David Axelrod, of course, the former senior adviser to President Obama.

So Ryan, Butler, a 20 year employee of the Trumps, right, who knows the habits, knows the proclivities knows what moves when coming out and talking about all these boxes, how important is the information that he is providing in this case?

RYAN GOODMAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It seems to be incredibly important. He is a direct witness and participant in a large part of the activities that are indicted. And so he's there when they're talking about information that would be about deleting the video footage, that to hide it from the FBI, and the grand jury as alleged in the indictment

He's there when they are loading Trump's plane with the boxes before the FBI arrives at Mar-a-Lago, same day, you find and to collect the documents. That's huge. And he has no ax to grind. He seems have had a good relationship with the Trump Organization, with Trump himself for 20 years, and his best friends with now the other co-defendants.

So it seems to be there's just telling that the truths that he has and that could be very powerful.

BURNETT: And, David, you know, Butler told CNN that he's speaking publicly now because he believes voters should hear the truth before the November election. Obviously, the way that this case is moving right now from a legal perspective, it would appear very unlikely that we get that decision before the election that we know. So it may only be and just more snippets of individuals choose to speak out.

Do you think this makes a difference to voters?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I think at the margins, maybe I think that people who are paying attention to it will. But, you know, a couple of things about this.

One is there's a reason why the president is lawyers are working so hard to delay these trials. They're trying to push them off past November because they understand that this case. The facts are very, very clear convictions would be damaging and erase that is marginal and could cost them the election. So they're pushing this off.

The second thing is tomorrow we have the Hur hearings and those are I think one of the reasons that the Republicans are leaning so hard into all of this isn't just to talk about the question of age that her raised, but they want to muddy the waters. And you can see on social media, its like in reaction to this story, people saying, you know, Biden did it, Trump, did it, Trump gets indicted. That's his narrative.

So I'm not sure that this alone will influence events. If this thing goes to trial, his testimony sure could.

BURNETT: Right, it is important as you note though, that Hur, which is the Biden classified documents handling special counsel, but that is going to be tomorrow.

Stephanie, let me play another exchange though, that Butler had with Kaitlan.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Did you ever think to yourself, why were there so many boxes at Mar-a-Lago

BUTLER: For me, I'm just thinking out, the former president, he has a lot of stuff he likes the lug around with him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And, you know, Stephanie, I see you sort of smiling. I mean, you know, the lay of the run -- lay of the land around Trump.

Does that sort of rang true to you? I mean, was this a constant sort of shifting and moving of boxes like this? STEPHANIE GRISHAM, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY:

Absolutely. I felt that that a lot of what he said ring true in the boxes was certainly one of them. I mean, all throughout our time at the White House, he would have his boxes there. There was brown boxes, but if we didn't get these specific boxes on every plane, on every Air Force One, on Marine One, there would be held to pay. So he did like his boxes.

Now, there were only two or three of them and there were newspaper clippings. It was not, you know, 10 to 15 boxes as Brian has said. You know, another thing I want to say is that, you know, the mob mentality really rang true to me.

[19:10:03]

He called him the boss, which is what we all called him. There were the loyalty tests again, I mean, that happened to all of us, these loyalty tests.

And then lastly, I'll just say, this guy's got nothing to gain right now. I can say, as somebody who's with them all the time for six years and who has spoken out as well, he's going to get attacked by the right. He's going to become, you know, a disgruntled lower level employee and he's lost really good lifelong friends, which is something I can completely sympathize with.

So I think that's something for people to think through is that he's not gaining anything from doing this.

BURNETT: Brian, you're nodding.

GOODMAN: Oh.

(LAUGHTER)

Sorry. I completely agree. I think that it makes complete sense as to why he would come out now, publicly because it does look like its never going to go to trial. And he does want to explain to people why in his view, this is not a witch hunt, it's real.

And just to go back to something David said, I do think tomorrow we're going to hear from the special counsel Hur and the hearings at the House side about his report and Biden's handling of classified documents, but it is important to remember that in Hur's report, he actually says that the Trump case is much worse than Biden, and he actually says things that now we have Mr. Butler talking about the ways in which Trump tried to hide the documents from the government, putting him on a plane instead, and trying to delete footage. There's nothing like that in the Hur report.

BURNETT: Right. No. I mean, the deleting footage aspect of this and that separate that all of that. It's still sort of defies the imagination, although I know not your imagination, Stephanie. I mean, all of this even, even the phone call with that you heard Butler just talking about on vacation together and Trump calls and offers to get them a lawyer. That that also rings true to you. GRISHAM: Absolutely. Again, its kind of this mob bunker mentality that we will pay for your lawyer. We will take care of you. You stick with us and no one can touch you.

So, again, this guy I assume is paying for his own attorney or maybe his attorneys doing it in kind, but its scary and it cost you a lot money to speak out.

BURNETT: Speaking of a lot of money, David, there's less of it, not so much at the RNC because it comes all of these developments as Trump's having trouble fundraising. We've just found out that the RNC is doing mass layoffs, cutting vendor contracts, and that this is in a much greater sense than would happen with a normal change in leadership at the RNC, which they are going through, of course, with Trump's daughter-in-law now running it.

As someone who's been on the front line of a campaign, how serious could this funds issue be?

AXELROD: I think very, I mean, money is very, very important in campaigns. It's how, you know, you need that money to pay for organization. You need that money to get your message out. I would expect that some of these organizations supporting the president, as well as the president's campaign are going to start a sustained attack on Trump in the next several weeks, certainly within months.

And he doesn't have the air defenses now to respond to that. So it is -- it is a big deal that they don't have money and I'm sure one of the reasons they're making all these cuts is to try and divert as much money as they can to the operations in the states which are starving and to media.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you all very much. I appreciate it

And next to stark warning from the man, the Trump campaign hired to find election fraud. That was his job, to show them all of the fraud, to show the country and he did he looked and looked and looked and he found nothing. But he does say he knows what Trump will do if he loses. Again, he's my guest next.

Plus, a rare sighting of Kate Middleton after admitting that are first post-surgery family photo was doctored. And now, the royals are resisting calls to release the original unedited photo. How come?

And we have some new images just into OUTFRONT. We've gotten these pictures from inside the Boeing jet after it took that sudden nosedive over the ocean, dozens injured and a passenger who was on that plane says bodies were flying everywhere. And he spoke to the pilot. He's my guest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:18:25]

BURNETT: Tonight, Trump will do it again. A stark warning tonight that the former president will dispute the election results if he loses in November, and this is from somebody who would know it. Same as Ken Block, the software engineer paid by the Trump campaign in 2020, and he was paid to investigate multiple claims of election fraud.

For example, like if dead people voting impacted the election -- Ken looked, he did not find proof of that. Same thing for non-citizens voting in the -- voting in the election. Also, voters who voted in two states, or voters who voted twice in the same state, mail ballots being requested fraudulently.

Every single thing that you may have heard of over these years, every single one of them Ken Block looked into, ran down and found no proof that any impact of the election.

And Ken is now OUTFRONT. He is the author of the brand new book "Disproven: My Unbiased Search For Voter Fraud For The Trump Campaign, The Data That Shows Why He Lost and How We Can Improve Our Elections".

And, Ken, you and I have been speaking over the past year, privately and also you've been on the show before.

But the bottom line of all of this, I was just listing through, dead people, to states, ballot -- you looked into all of it.

KEN BLOCK, HIRED BY TRUMP CAMPAIGN TO LOOK FOR VOTER FRAUD: We looked in the swing states. In particular, we looked at every registered voter to determine who was deceased and who wasn't.

We looked as best as we could for every mail ballot cast in the 2020 election that included the swing states to see if we could find evidence that those voters also voted at another state. We found small amounts of that fraud. We found nothing that rose to the level of being able to change an election result.

[19:20:01]

And it's really important that people understand that although there was some fraud, it wasn't enough, and the claims of voter fraud that were hearing, just don't have a foundation in truth.

BURNETT: All right. So let's go through just a few of them so that you're going overall and you looked into all of those. But let's delve into a couple in Wisconsin, for example. Eric Trump emails a lawyer from the Trump campaign who had hired you. His name happens to be Alex Cannon.

So, Eric Trump emails him in early December of 2020. Can you look into a claim that more than 700,000 people voted twice in Wisconsin?

BLOCK: Yeah.

BURNETT: That is -- can we just stop for a second? Seven hundred thousand people voting twice in one state. That was the claim.

Next morning, Cannon forwards it to you. Hey, Ken, your problem. Can you look into this?

It only took you a few hours to shoot this one down.

BLOCK: Correct.

BURNETT: But you call this by far the wildest of all the claims that they look at.

BLOCK: Yeah.

BURNETT: How they react when you told them within hours that this was a bunch of this was near the end of a month of doing this sort of thing. And when Cannon called me to tell me about the specifics of this when he asked me to look at it, he told me, he said, Ken, tell me why this is wrong.

And so, he knew that this wasn't going to be true. And what had happened was some people got really excited. They misinterpreted the data they looked at, came up with a wild finding, wanted the Department of Justice to come in and I guess start arresting people in Wisconsin?

And the reality was they misinterpreted the information. It went from the people who did the analysis to a golfer to the manager of a Trump golf course, to Eric Trump, to Alex Cannon to me. And that's just the insanity that was happening at the time.

BURNETT: Okay. So, the birthday problem, this is another one, another fraud claim. So John Eastman, who obviously was at the center of the fake elector scheme, he claimed more than 16,000 people in Nevada voted in Nevada and in another state, and is evidenced was that they had the same name and same birthday. So that's why they voted in two different states.

You look into that and you find?

BLOCK: Yeah. So there's a well-known the problem that hospitals struggle with, big hospitals have the same problem you do when looking at voter data. It's not impossible for two people to share the same name, and the exact same date of birth.

You get large enough group of people together that happens because how many John Smiths do you know, right? I mean, there we have some really common names in this country and what people frequently in the mistake they made when looking at voter data and trying to match up the information and voter data, they will look at the name and the date of birth and go -- well, we have a match, but that match is wrong 90 percent of the time.

BURNETT: That is incredible, just for people to realize, right?

BLOCK: Yeah.

BURNETT: That that's statistically, that can happen because you can hear it and say that does sound wrong. But then the statistics, of course, are what are what our reality.

BLOCK: Yeah. BURNETT: You mentioned at the outset of this conversation though, that there was fraud, just it was de minimis, it wasn't enough to turn the election. Okay. We all know that that's a fact.

However, nobody wants any fraud. And I know you do believe that there are ways to improve elections absolute, that you would think that Democrats and Republicans could agree on like what.

BLOCK: Yeah. So I'm going to give you some information that will blow your mind. In the state of New York, hundreds of people voted in 2020, whose date of birth was either 1818, 1850, or 1900, all of which are impossible, impossibly old.

In New Jersey, there were thousands like that in New York state. There are thousands with those birthdays that just registered. In New Jersey, there are tens of thousands.

New York has a bigger problem. There are millions of voters who voted in 2020 that the state can't identify because they don't have Social Security numbers or driver's licenses for those voters. These are problems that other states don't have. States like Nevada and Georgia have excellent quality voter data. New Jersey and New York don't, they can, but they have to make the effort to clean things up.

So these are the things that I think we really need to get to the bottom of. And it's an important conversation for us to have in this country.

BURNETT: Well, it certainly has because I think we can all agree that HGH hasn't gotten us to the point where someone born in 1800 would still be alive.

BLOCK: Correct.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much. Ken, I appreciate it. Hope everyone will read this and focus. I know you go through so many of the detailed examples. Thank you.

BLOCK: Yeah. Thank you.

BURNETT: And next, breaking news, a new U.S. intelligence assessment tonight, finding the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's viability as a leader may be in jeopardy. The former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will be with me to respond.

Plus, a rare apology from the royal family after Princess Kate, who has not been seen in months, takes responsibility for releasing a doctored family photo. So what is going on?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:28:29]

BURNETT: Breaking news, a new U.S. intelligence assessment finds that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's viability, that's the word used, as a leader, quote, may be in jeopardy. The report says, and I quote: Distrust of Netanyahu's ability to rule has deepened and broadened across the public from its already high levels before the war. And we expect large protests demanding his resignation and new elections.

This comes as a Palestinian aid worker tells OUTFRONT about the dire situation on the ground in Gaza. We received this latest audio message from Mahmoud Shalabi, who we have been speaking to regularly since the start of the war.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

MAHMOUD SHALABI, SENIOR PROGRAM MANAGER, MEDICAL AID FOR PALESTINIANS: There is no food to sell. I have seen a man in the market buying, you know, a very crappy type of crisp and giving it to his two children and I remember him saying this is for your breakfast and lunch. So make sure you calculate your portions properly because I have nothing left, and this is your food for the day.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BURNETT: Clarissa Ward is OUTFRONT live from Jerusalem.

And, Clarissa, what more can you tell us about what's happening inside Gaza tonight.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we heard today, Erin, from Cindy McCain, the director of the World Food Programme, and she warned that famine is, quote, imminent in northern Gaza if the amount out of aid getting in does not increase exponentially.

[19:30:02]

She went on to say that there would need to be 300 trucks a day going into Gaza in order to begin to meet the needs of the people. And just to give you a sense of what the figures are yesterday, 225 trucks successfully entered Gaza. Today though, just 149 trucks entered Gaza and a big part of the problem here, Erin, is that even the ones that do go into Gaza are having real trouble getting into northern Gaza.

She had also mentioned said she said that airdrops are not practical. That road food is the best way to get things in. She also mentioned ships. We had been waiting for a ship to leave Cyprus, was supposed to leave yesterday with UAE aid on board. The Cyprus coast guard coming out and saying that has been delayed for practical reasons, it should happen soon. But really can't underscore enough, Erin, that time is really running out for the people of Gaza.

Just today, we heard from Gaza's health authorities that another two children died as a result of acute malnutrition and dehydration at the Kamal Adwan Hospital that services northern Gaza, Erin.

BURNETT: Clarissa, there have been hopes of a ceasefire that there would be a ceasefire reached with the beginning of Ramadan. Where does that stand? WARD: Those hopes seem to have largely faded. Talks are continuing, but we saw last night, which was the first night of Ramadan, more than 60 people were killed inside Gaza and strikes according to Gaza's health ministry. That continues throughout the day.

The real concern of course, Erin, is what happens with Rafah. If you remember this had been what Biden -- President Biden called a red line. Prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, doubling down in an interview today saying that he would go ahead with the operation, but U.S. intelligence seems to be that it does not appear the data that would be imminent, they haven't seen the sort of movements on the ground that they would expect to see to indicate that such a thing would be eminent -- Erin.

BURNETT: Clarissa, thank you very much, live from Israel tonight.

And OUTFRONT now, the former Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett.

And, Prime minister, I appreciate your time tonight. It's good to see you again. I know you're here just for another day or so before you're back in Israel? The U.S. intelligence committee assessment, which just shared a moment ago, says that Netanyahu's viability as a leader may be in jeopardy.

That massive protests -- even more massive than prior demanding his resignation are expected. Do you agree with the U.S. intelligence assessment?

NAFTALI BENNETT, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think, you know, Israel's vibrant democracy and its no secret that there's massive unrest in Israel, vis-a-vis the political situation. But I also have to send the same token that overwhelming majority of Israelis support the goal and the goal is to strike Hamas because we really don't have any chance -- any choice and in terms of Rafah, also an overwhelming majority, almost every Israeli understands that we have to take Rafah, if we want Hamas to go away.

And as I said, knowing that Hamas is telling us that they're going to attack us again and again and again, we really have no choice.

BURNETT: Of course their ability to attack you has been dramatically, dramatically changed. Hamas has now is not Hamas before October -- October 7.

BENNETT: Yes. But if we don't destroy them fully, they'll reconstitute themselves.

BURNETT: Okay. Nonetheless -- you can't leave a bit of Hamas. So then we'll see Hamas rebuild itself, rearm itself, and will meet them another two years down the road. That's something that Israel tried for 17 years. It failed.

BENNETT: This does come down to Rafah, as you said though, right now in terms of the U.S. relationship and Biden has said that its a red line. If Israel does go in with an assault in Rafah, something that at least at this point, the Israelis appear to be going ahead with, are saying they're going to do it in their own terms.

In fact, when you listen to Biden and you listened to Netanyahu, they both have a red line and the opposite way on the exact same thing. Here they are.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

INTERVIEWER: Would invasion of Rafah, would you have urged him not to do, would that be a red line?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is a red line, but I'm never going to leave Israel.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I have a red line. You know what the red line is? That October 7 doesn't happen again, never happens again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: That's public. They're both very frustrated with each other and it's very open. I mean, you heard President Biden after the State of the Union, right? He wasn't even upset to be overheard, criticizing Prime Minister Netanyahu.

How deep do you think the rift is between them right now?

BENNETT: Well, you know, always, there's personal issues and stuff like that, but I think that we can resolve this by achieving two goals.

[19:35:03]

One is to destroy Hamas and the second is to ensure that the 1 million Gaza citizens that are in Rafah are moved from Rafah before we take Rafah. So if we do those two things, I think both those leaders can do it.

BURNETT: Where do you move them realistically? Where do you move them?

BENNETT: To the area north of Khan Younis. There's a fairly big area where we can allow for them to be for the meantime.

Look, it's not -- it's not a five-star hotel, its not pleasant there. Nothing -- nothing here is something that we wanted to do.

This is a big problem. We didn't choose our neighbors to be Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah. I wish our neighbors were Vermont and Connecticut, but they aren't. And we got that deal with it. And no one's going to do it for us.

And I think every Israeli --

BURNETT: At this point, though, wouldn't you go after Sinwar on the other leaders of Hamas one by one at a time and place of your choosing, much like the United States did with Osama bin Laden, as opposed to continuing to have an assault in which innocent people are dying every single day?

BENNETT: Well, because its not about only Sinwar, even if you take out Sinwar, you still have this organization called Hamas. And we have to dismantle the organization so it doesn't rebuild itself.

BURNETT: And you still think it's a strong enough, deep enough organization after everything you've done to reconstitute itself as it was before?

BENNETT: Yes.

You need to reach a critical mass of surrender and the structure of Hamas in order for it not to be able to rebuild.

BURNETT: "Politico" is reporting that Biden is so upset by the issue in Rafah that he may condition military aid to Israel. So specifically that if Israel moves forward with a large-scale invasion of Rafah, that the United States could withhold military assistance and weaponry to Israel.

Now, obviously, over history, Israel's by far the single largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid in history, counseling formulations has about $300 million adjusted for inflation.

So, if -- do you -- do you believe that? Is that a real threat? Do you think he would actually make good on that?

BENNETT: I hope not, because we're fighting your war, Erin. We're fighting the war against radical Islam. Hamas is not about peace. It's not about the Palestinians. It's about radical Islam, the forefront of radical Islam.

And mark my words, if we are prevented from defeating radical Islam in Gaza, you're going to meet radical Islam again here in New York. You're going to meet in London, on the streets, you're going to meet it across the world.

Every Islamic radical terrorists is looking at what's going on in Gaza and that's their litmus test. Do we have the resolve?

And we know it's going to be tough. We knew that. But you can't stop in the middle just because it's tough.

You know, I want to tell you something. When Japan attacked America and killed 2,400 Americans at Pearl Harbor, America took time, took four years, 3 million Japanese were died in war. But you knew that you had to do that.

BURNETT: And America did some shameful things.

BENNETT: I don't think --

BURNETT: Like camps for Japanese people.

BENNETT: I think that perhaps America was imperfect, but America was darn good in fighting and defeating the total evil that Japan and Nazi Germany presented back then. We're fighting total evil. And we might be imperfect, but we're doing everyone's job and the world should back Israel. Otherwise, everyone's going to face it.

These zombie murderers are going to come right over here.

BURNETT: So what you call a zombie murderers, obviously, other see a different way, maybe not about how Hamas specifically --

BENNETT: I'm talking about Hamas.

BURNETT: -- but they said this is a broader issue.

Jonathan Glazer, the filmmaker, who -- Jewish director who won an Oscar last its night for his Holocaust film, "The Zone of Interest", used his acceptance speech, as I know you maybe aware to condemn Israel's actions at this point in the war. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN GLAZER, DIRECTOR OF "THE ZONE OF INTEREST": Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst it shaped all of our past and present. Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October --

(APPLAUSE)

Whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel, or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all are victims of this humanization, how do we resist?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: We stand here as men who refute their Jewishness on the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation. And then the applause. Your response to that?

BENNETT: It's shameful. He thinks he's distancing himself from Israel and somehow he'll be loved. You know, Jews have tried the approach of being murdered again and again, and hoping for sympathy. That's not something that I believe in.

I think that we need to be strong. We need to be proud. We're on the right.

Nobody in Israel wanted this. No one wanted it. We were on our festival in Israel and on that morning, I remember just like right now, that morning at 6:30 in the morning when Hamas attacked and murdered and raped are women and kidnapped our kids and burned entire families.

[19:40:16]

So whose he's kissing up to? You think you're going to be more popular because you get some clapping there? Stand up for your nation, stand up for the right.

And you know what? This is not only about Jews. It's about right and wrong.

And I have moral clarity. They are in the wrong word. We're in the right. Stand behind us.

BURNETT: All right. Prime Minister Bennett, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

BENNETT: Thank you.

BURNETT: And next, conspiracy theories like this one surrounding this picture are running rampant after Princess Kate admits she doctored a family photo. So, why won't the royal family just release the original picture?

Plus, a Boeing 787 suddenly plunging in a nosedive, people flying to the cabinet -- cabin, blood on the ceiling. I'm going to speak to a passenger who was on board that jet says it looked like a scene from the exorcist.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:45:12]

BURNETT: Tonight, a rare sighting of Princess Kate tonight a rare sighting of Princess Kate pictured in a car alongside her husband, Prince William. Kensington Palace says she was headed to a private appointment. It came just hours after news agencies took what is an extraordinary step, they recalled this photo after determining that it had been manipulated -- well, then eventually, Princess Kate came out and said she did the manipulation herself.

All of which was raised more questions about why she is still staying out of the public eye after her abdominal surgery two months ago?

Richard Quest is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST (voice-over): It was the picture that was meant to put to rest worries about Kate?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This photo of the princess of Wales and her children has now been pulled from circulation.

QUEST: Only hours after the photo was released on Mother's Day in the U.K., the associated press news agency was the first withdraw it, using what they call a kill notification.

The "AP" said, at closer inspection, it appears that the source has manipulated the image. By source, they mean the princess.

The problem is Princess Charlotte's sleeve isn't where it should be. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have experts, Photoshop experts, like the guys

sitting behind me, that it doesn't take a second for them to see that the image was altered and manipulated.

QUEST: And her hair ends abruptly.

The zipper on Kate's sweater is misaligned. The other big agency is "Reuters" and AFP were quick to issue their own kill notices, telling news outlets not to use the image. Then more than 24 hours after she posted it, the princess of Wales apologized, saying, like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing.

At one level, this is nothing more than an amateur photographer getting it wrong.

But the underlying issue is the fact that the princess of Wales has not been seen since having unspecified abdominal surgery back in January.

This grainy photograph taken on Monday as Kate traveled to a private appointment with William is one of the few images that surfaced since then.

We don't know what editing she did. And the palace haven't released the unedited version.

So is this just an amateur photographer's learning experience or is there something more to the picture that's fueled 1,000 words of speculation?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: So, Richard, you know, such a thing should not spark so much conversation, but in light of the fact that nobody seen her and nobody knows what happened to her and nobody knows what she went through, there's such intense interest.

So if -- if there is no -- nothing wrong other than just a bad edit job, why not just put out the original unedited photo?

QUEST: Oh, absolutely.

BURNETT: Or one of them. I'm sure there were many takes in it.

QUEST: And you would have a benefit because she could then say, I'm just like you. I'm an amateur photographer. I did this and this is what it looked like originally, and this is what I tried to do and it all went horribly wrong.

You see, the real problem with this picture is it was cack-handed. I mean, this was so badly done that -- so let's say she does it. And then it has to go to Kensington Palace media department press, who they released it as an official news photo.

I mean, nobody checked it, and nobody looked at it, to see, is it conspiracy? Or is it cock-up? That's what this comes two. BURNETT: And so then the conspiracy theories fill that question mark,

right? Fill that space like the "Vogue" cover, right where, the "Vogue" cover. She did a few years ago and they just take a six second time lapse. They didn't go look at themselves and they say, oh, now it's her two years ago because they're worried. Well, we haven't seen her.

QUEST: You see the point here is the onus is now on the palace. They put out a crappy photo, which they then had to withdraw and then had to explain. And it is their onus to explain why. That's the point.

I actually probably think she did do it yourself. I mean, she's an amateur photographer. She probably did have a go at it.

What I want to know is why nobody senior up the chain in the palace didn't say, hang on.

BURNETT: Right, either, either -- didn't notice -- why they didn't notice it, or why they didn't say something about it.

All right. Richard, thank you.

And next the jetpack, a packed Boeing jet -- I'm sorry, nosedives without notice. If people were flying throughout the cabin, tonight, a passenger who was on that jet tells us the pilot's chilling description of what went wrong.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:54:34]

URNETT: Tonight, nosedive. Growing questions about what caused a plane carrying 263 passengers to suddenly plummet midair, sending bodies flying through the cabin, hitting the plane ceiling. The airline calling it a, quote, technical error, but no further explanation has been given.

It was a Boeing 787, at least 50 people were hurt in the incident and the flight was from Sydney to Auckland in New Zealand.

My next guest is Brian Jokat. He was on that plane and he shared these photos with us.

[19:55:03]

So in the pictures here that you're seeing for the first time, you can see the force of the jolt was so strong, the paneling above the stowage compartment right above your seat, where you would put bags is broken. And it was broken by bodies, by people who were hurled out of their seats.

And then, Brian had a conversation with the pilot after the incident, he came back in the plane and he's going to tell you about it because Brian is OUTFRONT with me now.

And, Brian, I appreciate your time. Thank god, you're okay, physically. I can only imagine the trauma. I mean, it's a terrifying incident.

Can you describe to me exactly what happened? You know, you're flying along. I think in your case, you dozed off. And then what?

BRIAN JOKAT, PASSENGER ON FLIGHT THAT EXPERIENCED "MID-AIR DROP": Yeah. Thank you.

It was -- it was -- it was like a scene out of a movie, when actually you're actually in the movie. I had dozed off and luckily had my seat belt engaged in. And the next thing, you know, the plane as I've kind of learned to understand, drops something to the effect of 500 feet instantly, and then have the effect of it coming like a rollercoaster and then started to point down.

And that's when it -- and I opened my eyes and there was various individuals at the top of the plane, just stuck to the roof and then they fell to the floor. And then I just realized I'm not the movie. This is actually for real, and not dreaming. It's this for real. And --

BURNETT: So, at first, when you're dreaming and it feels like a nosedive. There's a moment where you think maybe it is a dream, but you wake up to see someone hitting the ceiling.

JOKAT: Yeah. It might -- I look next to me and the guy was out of his seat in on the ceiling of the plane. And then he felt and heard himself pretty bad. And then people were screaming and crying and -- yeah, it was -- it was -- it was mass chaos for a few, few, few short seconds.

BURNETT: And did -- there -- there was a moment in your head where you thought, oh, my god. Now, this is, I'm going to die?

JOKAT: Yeah. There was clearly a moment in my head and then I just kind of resigned to the fact that this could be it. You know, this might be it and then the announcement came on. Take your seats, please. Anyone, there'll be -- we'll be sending help as quickly as possible.

There's some any doctors its on board and a few doctors stepped up into the plate and started to give assistance and mend some people up that were bleeding and had various kind of injuries, putting some neck braces on people. It was touch and go.

So the pilot after this happens comes back to check on everybody after the incident, comes over to where you are. Brian, how did he look?

JOKAT: He was -- I think he was in shock. I think he felt that he wanted to see what -- what people were going through. He walked to the back and I immediately engage with them and said, you know, what was that? And he openly admitted, he said, I lost control of the plane. My gauges just kind of went blank on me, and that's when the plane just took a dive.

BURNETT: So, literally, he says the gauges went blank.

JOKAT: Yeah, he said they malfunctioned, uh-huh.

BURNETT: And did he -- did he say that -- maybe -- so, he didn't have the ability then to even control it, to fly it.

JOKAT: He said for that brief moment, he couldn't control anything and that's when the plane just did what it did. And then you said the gauges came back and then re-engaged in the plane, just re-engaged to its normal flight pattern. And we had no issues before, no issues after, but just that moment. I'm quite certain.

BURNETT: That is terrifying. Can I ask you what it was like after this happened and the plane flies again, and obviously, the pilots are in the front and you're all back there? Was it silent? What were those last 45 minutes like?

JOKAT: There was -- there was 25 minutes of eerily silence from the ones that were okay and then a lot of -- you could hear people sobbing and a lot of people kind of in pain with, you know, kind of, yeah, just kind of hunched over and people shaking like there were their hands were shaking and it was -- it was bizarre. It was -- I have to say it was -- and seeing those people flying around, it was like to see "The Exorcist".

I always like, what is this? You know, it was -- it was hard to believe that -- to see that happen firsthand.

BURNETT: Well, Brian, thank you very much for sharing it with us. Of course. Sorry. So sorry for you and everyone on board that plane.

It is terrifying what happened. Terrifying what the pilot told you and we all want some answers and obviously, you and your fellow passengers deserve them as quickly as as possible. Thank you.

JOKAT: Thank you for -- thank you for having me on.

BURNETT: And thanks so much to all of you for being with us.

"AC360" starts now.