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Trump, Harris Stump In Pennsylvania As Polls Show 2024 Race Deadlocked; Harris Unveils Opportunity Agenda With Focus On Black Men; U.S. Sending Powerful Anti-Missile System To Israel; Man Arrested For Allegedly Threatening NC FEMA Workers; DC Zoo About To Welcome Back Giant Pandas From China After Nearly A Yearlong Absence. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired October 14, 2024 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are holding dueling campaign events in the battleground state of Pennsylvania tonight. New polling shows the 2024 presidential race remains very, very close and maybe getting even closer with just 22 days to go.

Also this hour, Vice President Harris is out with a new plan to create more economic opportunity for black men as their support among that key voting group appears to be lagging compared to past Democratic presidential candidates.

Plus, a man is arrested for allegedly threatening FEMA workers in North Carolina's hurricane disaster zone. We're tracking the potential danger and the disruptions to relief operations amid Trump-fueled misinformation about the federal storm response.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in The Situation Room.

We begin in the make-or-break battleground of Pennsylvania, where Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are both fighting for votes tonight. Our correspondents are on the scene of competing Trump and Harris campaign events. First, Priscilla Alvarez reports on the state of the race heading into the final three weeks before Election Day.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Tonight, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on a sprint to Election Day with both candidates beginning a week-long stretch crisscrossing swing states. First, in Pennsylvania, where the race remains deadlocked. Harris, trying to lock in her coalition, unveiled new economic proposals appealing to black voters. That plan includes forgivable loans to black entrepreneurs of up to $20,000, promoting apprenticeships, and legalizing recreational marijuana.

Taken together, it's a sweeping proposal aimed at trying to persuade black voters, in particular black men, amid signs of lagging enthusiasm. Harris, recognizing the ground her campaign still needs to cover in an interview with The Shade Room.

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Black men are no different from anybody else. They expect that you have to earn their vote. And that's why I'm out here, doing the work that I'm doing, about talking with folks, listening with folks, because I'm running for president of the United States. And it is incumbent on me to earn the support.

ALVAREZ: Monday's stop is the first in a travel blitz for Harris that will include the blue wall states of Michigan and Wisconsin, in addition to Pennsylvania, as the Harris campaign tries to secure a path to 270 electoral votes.

Harris and Trump are also taking to the airwaves to reach voters, including in new ads in the key battlegrounds.

HARRIS: When the middle class is strong, America is strong, and we can build a stronger middle class. And today, the vice president confirming she will sit down for her first ever interview with Fox News. The same day, the former president participates in a Fox town hall with an all female audience, this after he refused to do another debate with Harris.

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: So, because we've done two debates and because they were successful, there will be no third debate. Trump also focusing on his base, going after men with a potential sit-down with podcaster Joe Rogan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think Joe Rogan has to have you on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

TRUMP: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you do that?

TRUMP: Oh, sure I would.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think Joe -- like, besides us, Joe's --

TRUMP: I mean, I think I'm doing it, actually.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes?

ALVAREZ: In Pennsylvania, both sides also set to pour millions of dollars into ad spending, underscoring how critical the state is for both campaigns.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALVAREZ (on camera): Now, the Vice President has landed here in Erie, Pennsylvania, where a senior campaign official tells me that in addition to unveiling those proposals, she's going to slam former President Donald Trump over his suggestion that he would use the military to handle what he called, quote, the enemy from within. The vice president also expected to show those here at this event what Trump rallies look like. So, we'll be monitoring for that.

But this clearly an effort by the vice president to warn about Donald Trump and a potential second Trump administration here in the crucial state of Pennsylvania and in the days to come as she engages in that travel with across the blue wall states. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Priscilla, I want you to stand by as we bring in CNN's Kristen Holmes. She's over at the Trump campaign event in Oaks, Pennsylvania. That's just outside of Philadelphia. Kristen, how is Trump ramping up that divisive rhetoric that he's been engaged in over these past few days?

[18:05:03]

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Wolf, we've seen a real escalation in his language particularly when it comes to immigration. For example, we were at an event with him in Colorado on Friday where they played slides of hooded figures holding machine guns that said, your apartments under a Kamala Harris presidency. He has continued to use this dark and divisive rhetoric, not only around immigration, but also talking about what Priscilla just mentioned, what he called the enemy within. That was his political rivals as well as his critics. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you expecting chaos on Election Day?

TRUMP: No, I don't think so, not from the side that votes for Trump.

I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they're the -- and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So, you hear him. They're essentially saying that he would use the military or the National Guard to handle what he called sick, liberal leftist, essentially political opponents. The other thing that he did, he went to true social and called for Kamala Harris to get a cognitive test, saying this, her actions have led many to believe there could be something very wrong with her. That is not something we have heard anywhere.

Obviously, this was a line of concern when President Biden was at the top of the ticket in terms of cognitive ability. We have not heard any questioning of Kamala Harris. But this is a demeaning line of attack and one we don't expect Donald Trump to stop. We expect him to only continue escalating his rhetoric. He believed it worked for him in 2016 and it could work for him again in 2024. Wolf?

BLITZER: We shall see. All right, Kristen Holmes and Priscilla Alvarez, to both of you, thank you very much for your reports. I want to get some more analysis right now. Our political experts are with us. And, David Chalian, you're a political expert. Talk a little bit about why Kamala Harris decided to spend so much time trying to focus in on the votes of black men. She seems to be lagging in that area right now.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, she's lagging as it compares to Joe Biden's performance. She's not lagging against Donald Trump. She still has a big advantage here. But, as you know, margins are everything, especially in a race this close.

So, if you look at The New York Times/Siena poll looking at black voters in this season, well, you see here overall support, Harris at 78 percent among African-American likely voters, Donald Trump at 15 percent. I said only a 15 percent, except that like what you see here is a narrower margin between the Democrat and the Republican than we have seen in recent cycles. And you look at it broken out by gender there as well, black men specifically, Wolf, from The New York Times poll, 70 percent support of Harris, Trump gets 20 percent of them.

Now, if you compare those numbers to the 2020 exit polls, you'll see the difference I'm talking about here. So, there, you see that Biden had a 75 percentage point advantage over Trump among African-American voters overall, 87 percent to 12 percent. Even among black male voters, you see Biden's numbers at 79 percent. You just saw in The New York Times poll, Kamala Harris is at 70 percent. So, if that's where the voters end up on Election Day, if she's at 70 percent with black male voters and she's at 83 percent, as The New York Times have, with black female voters, she'll be well below where Joe Biden was performing with these voters just four years ago.

And that becomes a problem, a math problem for her, because she has to look elsewhere in the electorate to make up for that.

BLITZER: Yes, it's an important point. So, Kate Bedingfield, is this outreach we're seeing from Harris over these past several days now going to be successful? What do you think?

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think it's smart for her to do. Obviously, this a key piece of the coalition that she needs to put together in order to win this election. So, elections are about making sure that people feel heard, that they feel seen and included in your message. And so for her to put together a really concerted effort here to make sure that she is speaking to black men, both through the policies that she's introducing, but also through the media she's doing. And she's looking to really make sure that she's going to outlets that are, you know, where the audience is, is a smart thing to do.

But I think, you know, the, the problem that Trump has here is that he's leaning on low propensity voters, voters who, by definition, don't turn out to vote all that often. So, this is where the Harris field operation comes into play. This is where this could be the margin because what Trump needs is for black men and other voters who don't frequently turn out to vote to turn out to vote for him, that's a harder thing to do.

BLITZER: Very hard to do, but it's so critically important right now. Shermichael Singleton is with us as well. Shermichael, what do you make of Kamala Harris' outreach to black men right now? Will her message and her agenda resonate?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, Wolf, I think it's important based upon the data we've seen thus far, I've had the opportunity to look at some of the policy proposals in the document that they released today. For the most part, I actually agree with a lot of it. I mean, I think African-American men certainly need more attention as it pertains to academic attainment.

[18:10:03]

We're falling behind black women. We're falling behind women writ large. You have also seen a lot of younger black men have a very difficult and challenging time finding proper work that yields some type of economic freedom in the long run.

And so for the most part, I think the policies are good. I don't see those things through a partisan lens. However, I think the vice president has to figure out a way to increase her margins writ large with African-American voters if she's expected to win this thing in November. She's suffering by, I think, a 14, 15-point deficit with men voters writ large. Hillary Clinton had about an 11-point deficit with men in 2016. She ultimately did not win that election.

Now, if you're a Democrat, perhaps you're calculating or hoping that women will somehow provide a buffer for the men that you lose. But as David Chalian pointed out, this is going to be one on the margins. That's a risk that if I were a Democrat, I wouldn't be comfortable with making.

So, I think this is a step in the right direction for Democrats. I'm just not convinced, Wolf, that it will actually yield the results they need with 22 days remaining.

BLITZER: You know, it's interesting, David, we just heard today. Harris is going to be doing her first ever interview with Fox News later this week on Wednesday with their anchor, Bret Baier. Why is she doing this now? What are her calculations?

CHALIAN: If you talk to anyone in the Harris campaign, I think there are two main universes of voters left that they are trying to get out to the polls and to vote for them. One is a group of voters who may be naturally aligned, think younger voters or voters of color to support Harris, but actually they're disengaged, they're low information voters, and they're actually going to end up deciding between not voting or maybe going to vote for Harris. That's one big pot.

The other pot is these Republicans and independents, who may be Republican-leaning, Wolf, who are not in favor of Donald Trump. Think of it as a Nikki Haley voter that we saw in the primaries. Think of it, some of these white college educated Republican voters in the suburbs. This voter is why I think she's going on Fox News.

I mean, A, it's an attention dominance scheme, right, try to just, hey, she's never done this before, sit down with Fox News, the Democratic nominee and make a big splash in a game when you have 21 days left of trying to dominate the attention.

But I think as a targeting perspective, they are still trying to reach what they did with the Liz Cheney endorsement, you know, that country over party. I think that's the kind of voter she's trying to target when she sits down with Fox News.

BLITZER: Do you think this is a risky move, Kate?

BEDINGFIELD: I think there's a little risk in it, of course. You know, but I also think that in a very close race, you have to leave everything on the field. And I think, you know, David's right, it is an attention gathering. It's a narrative dominating move. So, you know, it buys her a day or two kind of, you know, in the sort of prominence of the national narrative.

But more importantly, if you think about the Republican primary, there were a not insignificant number of Republican voters who voted for other Republicans, did not vote for Donald Trump. A lot of those people watch Fox News. She needs some of those voters as part of her coalition, especially if she is going to underperform a little bit with some of these other who are the key members of the coalition. And so speaking directly to those voters through Fox News is a bold and smart thing to do.

BLITZER: Yes. All right, guys, everybody stand by. Just ahead, we'll have more on this historically closed presidential contest and the top takeaways from the newest polling. The Democratic National Committee chair will join us live.

Plus, the threats against FEMA workers with a suspect now under arrest in North Carolina and all this amid misinformation about federal storm relief running rampant right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:15:00]

BLITZER: We're back with our political experts breaking down the new polling and the new attack lines in this razor close presidential race. David, Senator J.D. Vance just defended Trump's authoritarian rhetoric that he would handle what he called the enemy from within. Listen and watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Is it a justifiable use of those assets if they're rioting and looting and burning cities down to the ground? Of course it is, right? I think the question is, is it a justifiable use of assets depends on what's actually happening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: It fits, sort of fits into this pattern, David, of Vance standing by Trump's every word, authoritarian rhetoric or not.

CHALIAN: Yes. Listen, first of all, I think we have to look at how voters receive this rhetoric. There are a whole lot of voters out there who don't see that as authoritarian-leaning or the like, this enemy from within that we've been focusing on. There are a whole bunch of voters out there who also say, I don't believe he'll really do what he says he's going to do, right? And the Harris campaign is making the argument, believe him in what he is saying and use experience as guideline.

But J.D. Vance, in what universe would he separate himself? From his running mate on that, that would create a story that would be very problematic for the campaign. So, what we often see is Donald Trump say something and J.D. Vance kind of give it more explanation and try to bring some more reasoning to it.

The notion, as you heard Donald Trump tell Maria Bartiromo, that there is going to be an enemy from within that he needs to battle, there's just no evidence that that exists in this deep state way that he tries to --

BLITZER: When he talks about the enemy within, he's talking about U.S. citizens, Americans.

CHALIAN: U.S. citizens, Americans. He's talking about civil servants who work in the federal government, which is what I think the basis of her question was on that. And, obviously, as I just said, there's no evidence that there is any enemy from within that is trying to somehow derail Donald Trump.

BLITZER: All right. Shermichael, let me get your reaction to this Harris is planning to seize on Trump's comments later tonight.

[18:20:00]

How damaging could this be for him with moderates and disaffected voters?

SINGLETON: I mean, Wolf, I'm just not certain how damaging it will be at all, to be quite honest with you, at least not based off of several months worth of quantitative polling and qualitative polling from focus groups that we all have readily available.

If that were the case, then the former president, I presume, would be behind by 10, 15 points, yet he's not. I mean, it appears that he's moving forward to potentially win the Electoral College. If I were advising the vice president, I would probably focus a bit more on the economy, more on immigration, more on foreign policy, the issues where she actually has a deficit, the top three, four, five issues that most voters actually care a lot about. President Biden, when he was running in this race, attempted to focus on these things, and it really didn't move the needle much, Wolf, because I think most voters are concerned about other issues.

Now, that isn't to minimize rhetoric that may not be healthy for democracy or healthy for the way we engage in electoral politics, but you do have to win this thing. And I have just seen no data that would suggest to me as a strategist that this is a message that will yield long-term effective results for Democrats.

BLITZER: How do you see it, Kate?

BEDINGFIELD: I really disagree with that because if you look at the 2022 midterms, we saw, in fact, that voters were motivated by what they perceived to be Donald Trump's and the Republican Party backing Donald Trump's threats to democracy. And we saw, you know, coming out of the vice presidential debate, we saw the moment where, you know, Vance refused to say that Trump lost the election in 2020. We saw certainly in the CNN focus groups right after the debate, we saw people say that that really bothered them, these moderate independent voters.

So, I don't think you can say, I don't think you can look at the last two years in this country and say that there is not electoral impact. I think moderate swing voters are deeply disturbed by this kind of language. And the more they hear it from Trump, the more they remember January 6th, they remember that's not what we do as Americans, the notion that there would be a free and fair election and would not -- there would not be a peaceful transfer of power runs against everything that we believe in as Americans. So, I think there's absolutely electoral impact from these kind of comments.

BLITZER: And, David, this all comes as the polls are continuing to show a very, very tight race as we've been noting now despite this kind of rhetoric.

CHALIAN: This race doesn't get much tighter. I mean, we got a bunch of polls out this weekend and our latest poll of polls, when we average the five most recent reputable polls together, shows Kamala Harris with 50 percent nationally, Donald Trump at 47 percent. If you look at the average margin of error across all these national polls, that fits well within it. So, we would say there's no clear leader in that kind of spread.

And if you look at where both candidates are tonight in Pennsylvania, we did a poll of polls there, the five most recent polls in the state. That is the battleground state with the largest slice of electoral votes, 19 electoral votes, where all the money is being spent, 48 percent Harris, 47 percent Trump. It doesn't get much closer than that.

This is a coin flip of a race 22 days out. That's a -- we haven't seen something this close in terms of pre-election polling in a presidential race like this in my lifetime.

BLITZER: I totally agree. All right, guys, thank you very, very much. There's a lot more news we're watching.

Coming up, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, Jaime Harrison, standing by to join us live on the Harris campaign's new push for support from black men and the state of the presidential race right now. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:25:00]

BLITZER: Kamala Harris will soon speak at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. She's focusing in on top battleground states and trying to shore up the Democrats' traditional coalition in this, the final three week sprint to Election Day.

Joining us now, the Chair of the Democratic National Committee, Jaime Harrison. Jaime, thanks so much for joining us.

As you know, Harris has unveiled what she's calling her opportunity agenda, targeting black voters today. But look at this. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden both won black voters with margins of 85 and 81 percent respectively but Kamala Harris' current margin is far behind that at 61 percent. Why is she polling worse with black voters? And are you confident these new policy proposals that she's unveiling can turn this around for her?

JAIME HARRISON, CHAIR, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Well, Wolf, I believe in the end of the day, once this election is done, Kamala Harris's numbers with black voters, black men and black women, are going to equal or not surpass what previous Democratic nominees have. You know, sometimes it's hard to compare apples to oranges, right, to the exit polls from the final elections and to look at where polls are today. Many times black folks aren't polled as much as other groups.

And so in the end of the day, I believe there's only one candidate in this race that actually has an agenda for Black America, and that's Kamala Harris. And what this agenda that she rolled out today is a really great opportunity to begin building and focusing on the issues that black men really care about. It's about wealth, it's about health, and it's about freedom. And those are the core components of this agenda.

It was great to see that today. Again, she's the only candidate in this race that actually has an agenda for black men, and that's because she has been talking to black men for months now, going around the country, having forums with them about the issues and the barriers that they have in terms of living the American dream.

BLITZER: You're in Pennsylvania, where President Obama delivered a rather impassioned plea message to black men, calling it not acceptable to sit out this election.

[18:30:03]

Republican Vice Presidential Candidate J.D. Vance writes this, and I'm quoting now, 20 percent of Latinos and 26 percent of black voters rate the economy good or excellent, but the Democrats go around hectoring them that anyone who doesn't vote for Kamala is a sexist, period. President Trump is winning because he's listening to voters instead of lecturing them. How do you respond to that?

HARRISON: Well, my response is, well, what does Donald Trump do and J.D. Vance do? They go around and basically say, Haitian-Americans who are of African descent are eating cats and dogs. You know, my response is, you know, Donald Trump has gone out to say, you know, castigating Native Americans in this country, Latinos in this country, basically saying that they are poisoning the blood of this nation.

And so these are folks who have borderline racist conversations about the minority groups in this nation. Those folks are not going to be with them in the end of the day. There's only one party that is fighting for the freedom of all Americans. There's only one party that is fighting to make sure that all Americans have a seat at the table, and that's the Democratic Party led by Kamala Harris, who is our nominee.

And so that's my response to J.D. Vance. Go and actually work with your constituents and stop lying on them, right? Work on their behalf instead of castigating them, making sure that the kids that are going to schools can't go because there are bomb threats because you continuously lie and then you admit to the media that you're lying about them. So, clean around your front door before you come clean around ours.

BLITZER: Vance is also backing Trump's suggestion that he would use the U.S. National Guard or the U.S. Military to fight what he calls the enemy from within if riots were to break out in the aftermath of the 2024 election. What's your reaction to those words?

HARRISON: Well, it's sad and it's just J.D. Vance and Donald Trump are really the worst that we see in American politics. You know, you remember Wolf that when Donald Trump -- the Central Park five in New York, where Donald Trump accused five young men of color and basically said that they deserve the death penalty. And then when they were exonerated, he doubled down on that. He knows better.

This is a guy who just recently said, well, let's give the police hours upon hours where they can do whatever the hell they want to do to beat down whomever. That's not who we are as a nation. We are freedom loving people. We are people who understand that there's a rule of law. And that rule of law should be applied to everybody, but Donald Trump doesn't believe it should be applied to him or whatever he wants to do.

That's not who we are as Americans. That's not what we want in our American president. And that is why, in the end of the day, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are going to be spending more time in Mar-a-Lago than they will be at the White House.

BLITZER: As we all learned today, Kamala Harris will sit down with Fox for an interview this coming Wednesday. This is the first time she has ever done an interview with Fox. Is this a response to the tightening poll numbers? What do you think?

HARRISON: Well, I think it's Kamala Harris isn't afraid. She understands that when she's going to be president of the United States, she's going to be the president of all people, not just the folks who agree with her, with all of the people. And we see that time and time again. She understands when a disaster happens. You don't just help the people in Democratic areas. You are the president of all people and you help all Americans.

Donald Trump has not understand that. Wolf, when's the last time he's done an interview with CNN or MSNBC? He's always on Fox and Sean Hannity so, that, you know, Hannity can give him, spoon feed him questions. But Kamala Harris has shown that she is going where all of Americans are, if that means going on Fox or on CNN, she's going to do a town hall with you all soon, on MSNBC. She's done interviews there. She's done interviews on black media. She has been all over the place. On late night, she goes everywhere. Donald Trump doesn't do that. He's scared. That's why he's scared to get on the debate stage with her again.

We are focused on talking with the American people and Vice President Harris has shown that she has the conviction, the strength, the leadership in order to lead this great nation.

BLITZER: DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, thanks so much for joining us.

HARRISON: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: And just ahead, why the Pentagon is now deploying 100 U.S. military troops to Israel. Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:35:00]

BLITZER: Tonight, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a U.S.-Israeli hostage murdered by Hamas, they are speaking with CNN about the pain they've endured since their son was held captive for nearly a year and then executed shortly before his body was recovered from a tunnel in Gaza. It's their first interview with CNN since his death. Here's a piece of their conversation with our Anderson Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Rachel, for you, what has this been like?

RACHEL GOLBERG-POLIN, HERSH GOLDBERG-POLIN'S MOTHER: Well, I think that in order to get through the 11 months before day 330, I was using so much psychological suppression in order to function. You know, there was so much trauma and terror that we were experiencing as parents of someone there that I was shoving all of this emotion and fear and terror in, I like to think of it as, you know, suitcases and shoving those suitcases into a room and not dealing with that because we were in battle.

[18:40:21]

We were on a mission. And in order to function, I had to suppress so much.

So, I don't want to look back at those 11 months. I don't want to unpack those suitcases. I also don't want to look ahead at what does life look like without Hersh in it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: You can watch Anderson's full interview with Rachel Goldberg and John Polin later tonight on AC 360 8:00 P.M. Eastern right here on CNN.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Defense Department says the United States is sending a powerful anti missile system to Israel.

I want to bring in our Pentagon Correspondent Oren Liebermann. Oren, how significant is this deployment?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: It is a very significant moment here. This is one of the U.S.'s most advanced anti-ballistic missile systems, the THAAD system, as it's known, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, and it comes with, or requires, about a hundred troops to operate it. So, those troops will soon make their way to Israel. Although the Pentagon isn't being specific on timing, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin did tell his Israeli counterpart they would be there, quote, in the coming days.

This is capable of intercepting short, medium, and long range ballistic missiles in their final dive towards their target, so about a hundred miles or slightly more out. And, crucially, it can detect it even farther out than that, more than ten times farther out. And it can work with the Navy destroyers that are in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. And Israel's already complicated and advanced aerial defense system, though not perfect, it has shown its capabilities to intercept Iranian barrages. And that, of course, is the concern here.

Israel has vowed that it would retaliate for that barrage of Iranian ballistic missiles earlier this month and that has caused Iran to say it will respond to any attack. So, that Wolf is what the U.S. is bracing for and preparing for with this deployment.

BLITZER: This comes -- this deployment of this missile system and about 100 U.S. military personnel to Israel, this comes after a deadly Hezbollah attack on Israeli troops.

LIEBERMANN: It does. And like I mentioned, Israel's air defenses, though, advanced, they're not perfect. And this is very much one of those instances where you see that, a Hezbollah drone made its way undetected into Israel and hit a military base in Binyamina, scores of miles into Israel, hitting it at dinnertime at essentially a crowded mess hall. That drone killed four Israeli soldiers and wounded 60 more. There's now an investigation into how it penetrated so far into Israel without setting off any alarms or sirens. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Israel would respond without mercy, including in the capital of Beirut in Lebanon.

BLITZER: Oren Liebermann at the Pentagon for us, Oren, thank you very much.

Meanwhile in Gaza, we're following the horrific aftermath of an Israeli attack on a hospital compound, which killed at least five people. CNN's Nada Bashir has the story for us, and we do want to warn our viewers, her report contains very disturbing footage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): What once was a shelter for the displaced, now a blaze after a deadly airstrike by the Israeli military targeting a hospital complex in Central Gaza. Desperate attempts to quell the fire seemingly hopeless. Some of the footage from this devastating night is simply too harrowing to show. Displaced civilians, still alive, engulfed in flames.

These smoldering structures are all that remain of the tents which have occupied the grounds of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital throughout this past year of relentless war. Several people were killed and dozens more badly injured. As dawn breaks, the severity of this latest nightmare becomes clear. Little has been left untouched by the blaze. Many of those who survived the night were spared only by a matter of meters.

It was extremely difficult. The fire consumed people before it consumed anything else, Abu Yousef says. There were people in the midst of the fire that we couldn't pull out.

Nearby, Um Mohammad gathers whatever belongings were not destroyed in the fire. The shoes of her daughter and granddaughter, both injured overnight, she says.

I quickly woke my daughters up. I kept shouting, wake up, wake up. The fire is above us, she says. We ran to the hospital. I saw people injured with shrapnel wounds, people who were completely burnt. My neighbors were killed, all burnt alive while they were sleeping.

[18:45:01]

The Israeli military has acknowledged responsibility for the strike, saying its forces were targeting a Hamas command and control center, they say, was embedded within the hospital complex, adding that steps were taken to limit civilian harm.

But no evidence has been provided by the Israeli military to support these claims.

It was, however, known to the military that civilians had been sheltering on the grounds of the hospital complex for months, at least 5,000 people according to hospital officials.

Inside the hospital, another gut-wrenching scene. These other victims of a different strike which targeted the Al-Mufti school in Nuseirat on Sunday.

Among the bodies, little Yeman (ph). His grandmother, overcome with grief as she cradles her grandchild. Yeman is one of at least 22 people who were killed after Israeli forces struck the U.N.-run school, which had become a shelter for many.

Another sanctuary targeted in a war which has shown no mercy for so- called safe zones. Another name added to the growing list of more than 42,000 killed in

just over a year, another reminder that it is civilians who continue to pay the highest price in Gaza.

Nada Bashir, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And our thank you to Nada Bashir for that report.

Coming up, after -- threats against FEMA workers forced the agency to suspend aid temporarily in parts of North Carolina. Officials now say a suspect has been arrested. We have details. That's next.

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[18:50:56]

BLITZER: Authorities in North Carolina now say a suspect has been arrested and charged tonight after aid in parts of the hurricane stricken state was temporarily suspended due to threats against female workers.

CNN's Gabe Cohen is joining me right now.

Gabe, this comes amid a flood of misinformation about storm relief efforts in North Carolina, including lies being told by Trump.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right. Look, FEMA officials, Wolf, tell me they have literally never dealt with this level of misinformation. And these rumors, these lies, many of them have been pushed by former President Trump, claims that FEMA is spending all of its relief money on undocumented immigrants or that they're not helping people in Republican areas.

By the way, there are lots of local Republican leaders in these hard- hit areas that are going out and telling their constituents that is not true, do not believe it, and they are begging the people who are spreading those rumors to stop.

And now as you mentioned, Wolf, we have the arrest of this 44-year-old William Parsons to be clear, we do not know his motive. We do not know if he was influenced by misinformation, but the sheriff's office down there in Rutherford County, North Carolina, one of the hardest hit by Hurricane Helene, has laid out how on Saturday they got a phone call warning them that Parsons was armed and he had made comments about potentially harming FEMA workers.

And when they finally located him just a short while later, he was in a vehicle not far away from a relief site where people have been getting donations and he had a rifle and a couple of handguns and has since been arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for going armed to the terror of the public. That is the name of the charge.

Wolf, at that point, FEMA quickly when they got wind of this threat, they quickly pulled out their field crews. They wanted them only to be operating in secure facilities. But you can imagine they're on high alert. I asked a captain with the sheriff's office there in North Carolina what his message is to those FEMA workers who are worried.

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CAPT. JAMIE KEEVER, RUTHERFORD COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: We make sure that we will keep him safe in -- to come back and do their job and helped us in the citizens of Rutherford County, especially the citizens of Lake Lure and Chimney Rock.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: And at this point, Wolf, we have learned that FEMA has started its field operation again going door-to-door, which is critical because they need their inspectors to be able to see these impacted homes, these devastated homes. That's how the victims can start getting money and relief in their pockets.

BLITZER: Gabe Cohen, thanks for that report. Appreciate it very much.

And we'll be right back.

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[18:57:47]

BLITZER: Right now, two giant pandas are on route from China to their new home here in Washington, D.C.'s National Zoo.

CNN's David Culver traveled to China for a closer look at the preparations.

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DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We've traveled here to Sichuan, China, for a rare look at preparing these pandas for their very long journey.

We're in and around the city of Chengdu. It's known for spicy hot pot, its mountainous landscape, and giant pandas.

We're actually going to go meet now with some of the folks from the Smithsonian National Zoo from D.C. who are flown here, and are part of that transition team to bring Bao Li and Qing Bao back to the U.S.

We can't go back there. But that's where Bao Li and Qing Bao are. They're in quarantine. And those you saw there were the zookeepers from the National Zoo, as well as some caretakers from China.

MARIEL LALLY, SMITHSONIAN'S NATIONAL ZOO PANDA KEEPER: So they both have pretty different personalities. Bao Li has a huge personality, so he's very vocal. He's very energetic when he's always kind of like up doing something.

Qing Bao is the polar opposite. She can be almost always found in a tree or sleeping on her climbing structure. CULVER: The panda pair will fill a void at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

For the past 11 months, the panda exhibit has sat empty. Now as part of the terms of this Smithsonian's exchange program with China, late last year, the zoo's three pandas were sent back here to Chengdu.

ELLEN STOFAN, UNDER SECRETARY FOR SCIENCE AND RESEARCH: I don't think people realize how (INAUDIBLE).

CULVER: When you're here, I mean, in this setting, what stood out to you?

STOFAN: Here, the sheer number of pandas.

CULVER: It's crazy, right?

STOFAN: It's crazy.

CULVER: You turn here and you're like, oh, wait, you can go there. You can go there, and nowhere else do we have something like this.

STOFAN: Nowhere else in the scenery is obviously beautiful and the commitment.

CULVER: Pandas were on the brink of extinction. But in recent years, they've moved from endangered to vulnerable. But there's still more work to go.

The panda exchange, also called panda diplomacy, dates back more than 50 years now, when China gifted two pandas to the U.S. following President Nixon's historic visit.

Today, they're given on loan and they are a strategic diplomatic tool, serving as ambassadors of hope and spreading global goodwill.

Somehow pandas are able to unite nations, something we could use about right now.

David Culver, CNN, Chengdu, China.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And our thanks to CNN's David Culver.

I'm wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.