Transcripts For MSNBC Alex Witt Reports 20240902 : vimarsana

MSNBC Alex Witt Reports September 2, 2024

Thousands are protesting across israel to express outrage over six hamas hostages killed in gaza overnight. Israelis, including hostage families, accusing prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Torpedoing A Ceasefire Deal that might have saved them. We are getting new details by the minute. Hamas says they couple six in a tunnel shortly before israeli forces were able to reach them. Their bodies were recovered and brought back to israeli territory. Among the dead are Israeli American Hersh Goldbergpolin. The other five hostages. President biden has issued a statement vowed to make them pay. First we go to Matt Bradley joining us from Tel Aviv. I know youre at the big protest. What is happening . Reporter i hope you can hear me. It is definitely loud here. It looks like There Hundreds Of Thousands of protesters stretching as far as the eye can see. On the other side of this Pedestrian Bridge is the same deal. Everyone out here, outraged this happens every week right here in front of what is israels answer to the pentagon but this time it is much bigger. It is much angrier because of those six young people who hamas killed before the bodies were discovered by the idf. It has united the country in outrage in away it had not before. Heres the report. Reporter heartbreak for hostage families. The and announced overnight they discovered the bodies of six hostages taken by palestinian militants. Including Hersh Goldbergpolin, whose parents have become outspoken advocates for the hostages freedom. They are devastated to announce the death of their son and brother, asking for privacy. All six were thought to have been alive until moments before the bodies were discovered. According to the initial estimation, they were brutally murdered by hamas terrorists shortly before we reach them. They discover the bodies in one of the tunnels underneath rafah. Thanks to the parents advocacy, Hersh Goldbergpolin has been a symbol. Even speak at last weeks Democratic National Convention really sat down with willie geist. We are all in a marathon of ambiguous trauma and we have no choice. We have no choice. Reporter Hershs Arm had been severed and he was last seen alive in a video that hamas a read released in april when they accused the israeli government of abandoning him and other hostages. Feeling of betrayal. Thats what they say it will take the case for a Hostage Deal once again. Families calling on protesters to bring the country to a halt to make it tremble. Reporter the momentum from this enormous Protest Today will not end tonight. The organizers have negotiated with Trade Unions who are planning a full on Strike Tomorrow that sounds like it is going to be nationwide. There are various governmental municipalities that will be participating, even the airport, the gateway to the country, will be closed starting at 8 00 a. M. Local time tomorrow. The idea is to ring the country to a Screeching Halt to protest why there has not been a Hostage Deal. I to tell you. I have been watching her live feed here at the Network Headquarters and i have seen this going for several hours now. It was daylight when we started watching this. How long has this been going on, this particular demonstration, and is only getting louder . Reporter when we started out, we were with a small group walking around carrying mock coffins of the six young people. They came down the streets and wove through Tel Aviv and joined an enormous additional group. Were shocked to 70 people converged right here. This has been going on for about three hours. Theres no telling when it will be stopping. The noise here is deafening. Everyone here hopes those leaders, they blame for the six young people, are hearing them. Are any officials on the scene there talking about what they know of the whereabouts of the hostages . Any updates on that front . Reporter i do not speak with any officials, but i spoke with an opposition political leader who has been at the forefront in opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu. When people are talking about the hostage negotiation deal, theyre saying that netanyahu has blood on his hands. He jump in a quite that harshly but i think that Benjamin Netanyahu and his government have been standing in the way consistently of a deal that could have saved those kids and that is where youre getting a lot of the visceral anger. Another Rhetorical Question here, is why. Thank you very much. I know we will check back in with you. Lets go to Gabe Gutierrez at the white house. He has new reaction from President Biden. Has President Biden spoke with any of the victims families . Good afternoon. President biden and Vice President harris say they have spoken with hershs parents. We heard them talking about how the parents have been so outspoken in the Cease Fire negotiations. The Vice President saying that the heartbreaks for their pain and anguish. President biden overnight, he also said that he is devastated and outraged. In a separate written statement, says the news is as tragic as it is reprehensible. Make no mistake, hamas leaders will pay for these crimes and we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages. The president says he had gotten to know hershs parents and admires them and the Vice President said, may his memory be a blessing. The ceasefire negotiations, as i mentioned, have been frustrating now for several months but President Biden yesterday in delaware was asked whether he thought a deal was within reach. Lets take a listen. It is time to support. Issued and this war. The ground the verge of having an agreement. It is time to finish it. Reporter the national Security Advisor Jake sullivan is set to hold a virtual meeting with the Family Members of those americans thats remain hostage, remain taken hostage in gaza. There more than a handful. There will be seven left now. Thank you for that from the white house. Lets bring in the former Chief Of Staff at the cia and he is also the Department Of Defense during the obama administration. I am glad to have you here. You were in regular contact with the family of Hersh Goldbergpolin. I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to process for them. Are you hearing anything . Even as recently as yesterday, the parents of Hersh Goldbergpolin were working multiple angles, multiple initiatives to try to bring Leverage And Pressure on hamas. They were in close touch with very senior u. S. Government officials as recently as yesterday and it was only Yesterday Afternoon when they were informed that the idf had made this terrible awful discovery that six hostages had been murdered and they a way to the results of the identity and the dna analysis. They let me know, and they let all of their friends and family know that they only had one thing to do, hich was to pray. Late last night we got the horrible news, that hersh was among the victims murdered by hamas In Cold Blood after 11 months in captivity, the only thing they could do was offer the traditional jewish prayer , praise, ou, O Lord is that is how you console the victims and the Loved Ones of the victims and it is such a heartbreaking development. I will have to add that there are seven remaining american hostages. There are four whom we believe to be alive. Three who we know have already been murdered but whose remains have not been returned to their families and we need to redouble our efforts as part of the civilized world as part of the most powerful nation in the world to free those hostages, those americans and the other 100 other victims of this terrorism who are being held by hamas. The pressure on them and to bring them home. When you say that you know three of the remaining seven american hostages for. We have been killed but four are still alive, do you know their whereabouts . Not necessarily you, but does the israeli government know approximately where they are . Do they know if they are being moved consciously . Do you know anything more in terms of details of what happened last night in this Idf Raid . I have the latest sensitive information on this, nor should i. But what i was says that throughout the last 11 months, have been various reports and proofs of life and in fact, there was a very important video that was released of hersh to The Americans in late april that definitively showed that they were alive and have been other pieces of evidence of the families have received about the whereabouts of the Loved Ones. These proofs of life and indications through intelligence or other reporting have really sustained them and given them hope. As i said, up until yesterday, the family of this american, Hersh Goldbergpolin, was working furiously around the clock with no sleep to try to free the loved one, their only son, and by the way, they have received amazing support from the u. S. Government. I would say that they have been able to meet with President Biden, meet with Vice President harris. Be with the national Security Adviser and secretariat of state blinken. Secretary of defense lloyd austin. The entire senior leadership of the u. S. Government has been working with these families. Its been done on a bipartisan basis. Republicans, democrats on Capitol Hill have been strongly supporting these families in their efforts to bring their Loved Ones home. Ultimately, hamas decided for whatever reason that it was more important for them to kill these hostages and killed this american than to free them and do this deal. As you also see, Israeli Society is driven by this because theres a strong view that the netanyahu government has not moved quickly enough to close the deal. And to finalize the ceasefire and it depends on who you talk to inside the negotiations on any given week, this party or that party has instituted a new agreement. I agree strongly with President Biden, this time to end the war and bring the Hostages Home and time to get a ceasefire. Israel is facing a wide war. From hezbollah in lebanon and also from iran, which attacked israel on april 13, so our ally is under fire from four different places in four different vectors and the united states and our allies and partners have a lot of work to do to bring security to the Middle East. Absolutely. To your point of bipartisan support, we have heard from President Biden, Vice President harris as well, and Speaker Johnson has issued an equally damning Station Statement Talk about what has happened, say what a tragedy it is. Having said that, let me ask you about the israeli army officials. They said they were murdered shortly before we reach them. These hostages, they have been alive all this time. Why these six hostages and why now . We will not know that for a few days, but there have been various reports that certain of the hostages were being held together. Hersh was abducted from the Music Festival. There was some thought that he was maybe colocated with some of the other hostages who were taken from that Music Festival on October 7. There had also been some reports a certain hostages, highvalue hostages, were being used as human shields. They have a way to prevent israeli forces from taking them out. s was done significant damage to the leadership of hamas. The taken off the battlefield the number two in hamas. There others have been removed from the fight, but he is very savvy, hes probably surrounding himself with lots of civilians occluding these hostages. Over the circumstances on the ground . What are the dynamics of a potential Idf Rescue Operation or why they decided to kill the hostages at this point . We dont know and will not know for some time. That yahoo said he who murders abductees does not want to deal. What are the implications . It was a deal for a ceasefire is it completely off the table . More than that, anyone who takes innocent people from a Music Festival from there bedrooms and Community Centers and parents arms and rips him away and takes them into tunnels and torches them and imprisons them and starves them and beats them for 11 months, its hard to see how you could have a productive diplomatic agreement with those monsters. Israel has been having to fight this on two fronts. One, militarily, but also through some negotiations brokered by the united states and brokered by egypt, i think ultimately whether both sides agree that it is in their interest to have a ceasefire and return the hostages, i certainly pray for that. I know most people watching this today want that Cease Fire. They want the war to end. We hope and pray that israel will feel secure enough to cease Military Operations in exchange for getting those remaining hundred Hostages Home and hamas, i think what is their interest, it is hard to know, because again, they have perpetrated this attack against american citizens. Against citizens of the world. They have used civilians as human shields. I cannot see hamas being a productive counterparty to israel in any Peace Or Security negotiations. Do the, however, as people map out the day after think about what an arab led Security Force Look like, there will be palestinians, there will be technocrats and people who have experienced working with the Palestinian Authority will have to step forward and take responsibility for gaza. The israeli military is not going to be there. We do not have a vacuum to exist and let them reconstitute and create another October 7 attack. Shame on us if we allow that. But there needs to be an arab led force. The Gulf States have to be involved and have to feel they have a capable arab led Military Force that can help in the reconstruction of gaza and a Demilitarized Palestinian Entity that lives peacefully side by side with israel cannot threaten americans or israeli citizens or the neighbors. But the palestinians deserve to live in Peace And Security of their own and that is the only path forward. And ask a quick question. How much of the palestinian people today, not October 6 of last year, but today. Support hamas in their activities anymore . I dont have a good pulse on that. Obviously, there has been a degradation in the leadership of the Palestinian Authority from the president of the Palestinian Authority. He is seen as widely unpopular in part because he has not been able to deliver for his people. I can see that there are is some popular support for those militant groups, but these are people who are spoonfed propaganda and vicious lies about israel and about the west and about the united states. In the education system. It is hard to know what they think and what they believe. They do deserve to live in Peace And Dignity and security and a ceasefire, i think, ultimately will pave the way for that. Lets hope. Thank you so much on this a very somber day. Coming up, we will turn to politics with a focus on michigan. Kamala harris is heading there tomorrow. And any word from the Trump Campaign about the upcoming debate. We are back in 90 seconds. N on. For the ultimate gillette shaving experience. The best a man can get is gillettelabs. Ok limu you set it, and as i spike it, ill tell them how Liberty Mutual Customizes car insurance, so they only pay for what they need. Got it . [squawks] did you get that . Only pay for what you need. Liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. Among among registered voters, a larger lead among likely voters. The poll was taken after the democratic national Convention And Vp harris first a sitdown interview. I think she came off with confidence, coldness, and non defensiveness. Hope she will do more of these interviews. Agree with your Predecessor Chuck Todd that she should on the weekly shows. Shes very competent and running for president , take reviews out there and take the hard questions. Today, circuits for both republicans and democrats analyzing the first Harris Walz Sitdown interview. Honestly, think shes a much easier opponent because she is held by and accountable to the american people for all of the failure of the last few years of the biden administration. She tried to change her position. Campaigning is one thing, governing is another. Will governing has shown with Vice President harris is that shes going to try to bring the team together and make something happen the team includes the med administration, includes congress and includes governors and includes a private sector. Donald trump says he is looking ahead to the September 10 debate. The press is really the biggest problem all over the fake news. Is the biggest problem of all. Because, they medially went from her being a joke, not qualified, she will be terrible and shes the worst Vice President in history to all of a sudden, she is wonderful. But shes not wonderful. We have a debate coming up. I look forward to that. She will be exposed. Tomorrow, Vp Harris will attend a Labor Day Celebration in detroit and President Biden will join her for a Campaign Event in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. Tuesday, the Harris Walz Campaign will launch a reproductive Freedom Bus Tour in battleground states. It will kick off in palm beach, florida. Joining me now is the michigan Attorney General. Vice president harris is holding the debate tomorrow. They show Kamala Harris leading delta by three pointsnin michigan. The same margin by which President Biden won that state in 2020. Kind of messages what you bring tomorrow and how do you see the state of the

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