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THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER

Julian Castro To Be Next Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; Israeli Military Air Strikes In Gaza; Forty Countries Still Lack U.S. Ambassador

Aired July 9, 2014 - 16:30   ET

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


JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome back to the LEAD.

The politics lead now and in a rare moment the U.S. Senate doing its job Wednesday. The legislative camber confirmed Julian Castro to be the next secretary of housing and urban development. But when it comes to diplomats, you know, the folks who represent U.S. interests abroad and deal with foreign governments, well, the Senate remains in a perpetual holding pattern.

Dozens of career foreign service officers are caught in a tug-of-war between senate Democrats and senate Republicans leaving 40 countries without a U.S. ambassador.

CNN foreign affairs reporter Elise Labott is at the state department with the details.

Elise, why are some of these very qualified, completely non- controversial nominees getting caught in this political fight?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER: Well Jake, Democrats call it a GOP temper tantrum while Republicans they just say they want to carefully debate presidential nominees. Either way, America's top diplomat is saying it's making the U.S. less safe.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LABOTT (voice-over): Secretary of state John Kerry blasted the Senate for playing politics with presidential appointments, warning in a political op-ed, their hold-up of ambassadors around the world, quote, "compromises U.S. national security."

Forty countries are currently without a permitted U.S. ambassador, victims of a Senate confirmation process stonewalling nominees from a vote by the full Senate.

Currently the U.S. doesn't have ambassadors in Qatar and Kuwait. U.S. gulf allies use cooperation as is critical to the fight against ISIS in Iraq and in Honduras where thousands of unaccompanied minors are making the dangerous trek north across the U.S. border,

Kerry warned so many vacancies quote "send a dangerous message to allies and adversaries alike about America's engagement."

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: We urge Republicans in the Senate to stop playing political games and let them get to work on behalf of the people.

LABOTT: When a terrorist group, Boko Haram, abducted more than 200 Nigerians school girls, the U.S. promised help, working with neighboring Niger (ph) and Tamaroon (ph) where the group's fighters are dispersed and some of the girls are believed to have been taken. But in both countries, the top U.S. diplomat is MIA. For eight months they've been without U.S. ambassadors.

LINDA THOMAS GREENFIELD, ASSISTANT SECRETARY, BUREAU OF AFRICAN AFFAIRS: Ambassadors are there for a reason. They speak for the president. They speak for the administration. Not having those voices on the ground has made a difference in our ability to convey to these governments the messages we need to convey to these governments.

LABOTT: Two-thirds of the nominees waiting for confirmation are uncontroversial career diplomats. Democrats charge Republican payback from new Senate rules that were supposed to keep them from holding up presidential nominations.

But as a result, nominees now must be debated and confirmed one at a time instead of at groups or by unanimous consent, eating up hours of time on the senate floor. Republican senator Rob Portman agreed that career diplomats should be given a quick confirmation, but he also defended the delay of political and more controversial nominees to CNN's Jake Tapper.

SEN. ROB PORTMAN (R), OHIO: The leadership on the democratic side of the aisle has chosen for the first time ever, at least in modern history to say Republicans are not going have a voice in the nominees. The only voice the Republicans have is to, you know, slow walk the process.

LABOTT: There are waiting ambassadors whose qualifications are questionable, several of them campaign bundlers who were criticized in their confirmation hearing for knowing little about the countries they were going to serve.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LABOTT: And Jake, secretary of state Kerry has proposed taking out those controversial political nominations and giving career diplomats a quick blocked Senate vote just like they do for top military positions and that's a compromise even many Senate Republicans, including Senate appointment on which they seem to agree -- Jake.

TAPPER: Elise Labott, thank you so much.

Coming up, dozens killed and hundreds wounded as violence escalates. Now, Israel's president saying a ground offensive is imminent if Hamas doesn't stop the barrage of rockets. Is that area of the world steps away from all out war?

Plus, the horror, the shame, the tears and even the president of Brazil getting in on the country's mourning, what she's telling us about the horrific loss she personally seemed to feel coming up ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to the LEAD.

In other world news today 19 people are were killed today in Gaza by Israeli military air strikes, Israel defense force or IDF claim that they have hit over 500 Hamas targets in Monday, 500, but the Palestinians say it comes at a huge human cost, more than 50 killed including women and children and some believed to be the families of Hamas members and more than 500 injured. But the militants in Gaza continue to fire rockets.

Today, at least 70 flew into Israel toward major cities like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and possibly beyond. So the Israeli government is showing no signs of backing down. Their cabinet has authorized the military to call up as many as 40,000 troops. And the officials have hinted at using forces on the ground perhaps as soon as later today.

Let's bring in CNN's Becky Anderson who is in Jerusalem.

Becky, rockets being fired in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, one imagines it is only going to escalate from here.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's about 11:40 at night and you know this city of Jerusalem well, Jake. It is quiet, slightly eerily quiet, I would say. And behind closed doors quite sense this evening. And that is because this time last night the sirens went off and that's a two-minute warning for incoming rocket fire.

Now the iron dome, the military, and the defense system outside of the city of Jerusalem here picked up three of those rockets in coming two, though. They land in open growth fund.

About 20 kilometers away from this, the CNN bureau which is on the entrance to Jerusalem. So understandably, people tense here tonight. And they have also seen the images coming in the past couple of hours in Gaza. Deadly air strikes by Israel once again this evening. So that will be disturbing people tonight as they hit their beds.

They do have shelters here as you will know and oftentimes they share shelters or they will go into stair wells as they would have done last night. And Hamas reiterating today that it has a five-point cease- fire plan, not least the release of those prisoners who were freed during the 2011 Gilad Shalit (ph) exchange and then rearrested. They also do not want it see Israel trying to destroy the unity government for the Palestinians.

So harsh word again from the Hamas organization today and they have also said that if the cease-fire isn't acceptable to the Israelis, they will extend their art. This rocket launch will be on a longer range and that really does begin to concern the Israelis inordinately.

Just today the IDF confirming a rocket launch about 120 kilometers out of Gaza toward Tel Aviv and that is shocking to the Israelis -- Jake.

TAPPER: Beck Anderson in Jerusalem, thank you and stay safe.

Let's bring in the Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer.

Ambassador Dermer, in an interview with President Perez, he told Becky Anderson, the ground forces could happen quite out soon. Prime Minister Netanyahu today tweeted quote "the operation will be expanded and will continue until the firing in our stop and quiet is restored."

Should we expect ground troops, Israeli ground troops in Gaza? And more largely, is there even a military solution to this problem?

RON DERMER, ISRAEL AMBASSADOR TO UNITED STATES: Well, you should expect Israel's government to do what any government would do. We have six million Israelis over the last two days that have had to run into bomb shelters in Israel. We've had air sirens go off in Tel Aviv which is our New York, in Jerusalem which is our Washington and you can imagine what the American people would demand their government to do if two-thirds to three-quarters of the population of the country had to run into bomb shelters.

So the prime minister of Israel will do what he has to do to end the rocket attacks. We don't have a five-point cease-fire. Stop rocket attacks against Israel. It's very simple.

TAPPER: You say you and your governments say you're targeting Hamas, but you've heard children have been killed.

DERMER: Yes. We are not just saying, that's what we are doing. We are targeting Hamas.

TAPPER: But innocent people have been killed, children by definition.

DERMER: That's right. But they're not targeted and it makes a big moral difference between Hamas and Israel. Hamas deliberately targets our civilians. They fired our civilians. They hope to kill as many Israeli civilians as possible and that's what they will deem a success of their operation.

What are we doing, Jake? We are actually targeting the terrorists. The problem with Hamas is they use the population of human shields. They put missile batteries next to school, next to hospitals and next to mosques and Israel is surgically striking at the terrorists. The vast majority of the people who were killed are not innocent civilians, they're actually terrorists. Unfortunately, in taking action to defend ourselves, there are innocents that have been killed and that's a tragedy, but we're not the same as Hamas, we're not targeting the innocent.

TAPPER: I want to play the sound bite from the PLO delegation chief to the U.S. Maen Areikat. This is what Mean told Wolf Blitzer yesterday about these attacks and about what you just said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAEN AREIKAT, PALESTINIAN REPRESENTATIVE TO UNITED STATES: Claims by their spokesperson that they are precise and careful is meaningless because innocent people, seven children were killed today. Israel must also assess and evaluate the consequences of its continued attack because it will have some negative impact on the relationship with the Palestinians as a whole including with the PLO.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: If you're unloading 500 tons of explosives which the IDF says it dropped in Gaza today, in the last two days, even if you're being precise, there are going to be innocent civilians killed. I get what you're saying about who Hamas targets versus who the IDF targets, point taken. But if you're putting that much ordinance in Gaza, you're going to kill innocent Palestinians.

DERMER: Jake I was born and raised in this country. Let me ask you a question. What do you think Americans would do if over 200 Americans were in bomb shelters? What do you think the American people would demand that their government would do when you have a terror organization, you know who they are, you know where they are and they're firing rockets? Do you think that America would use less force than Israel is using now?

TAPPER: I mean, the hypothetical is essentially meaningless because is -- I mean, is America building housing in Mexico at the time? I mean, it's an extrapolation.

DERMER: I know, it's actually very meaningful because what happened in Gaza, is Israeli withdrew from Gaza. We withdrew from every square inch of Gaza. We removed all the settlements Petro (ph) talking about from Gaza. There's not a single settlement in Gaza. Israel does not control a single square inch. We removed all people, 10,000 people in 2005. Since then we've had 8,000 rockets land on Israel.

TAPPER: And I wonder if that's Hamas' plan, though, if that's Hamas' plan to alienate the moderate Palestinian leadership because Israelis are.

DERMER: Hamas' plan is to kill Jews and to destroy the state of Israel. That's their plan.

TAPPER: I want to ask one question you about Tariq Khdeir. When is he coming back to the United States? This is the Palestinian-American boy from Florida who was beaten by Israeli police and what's the latest on that case? Have any Israeli police been arrested or detained?

DERMER: Well, actually there is development on that case. The justice ministry that opened an investigation, they just announced a couple of hours ago that they suspended, first of all, the police officer who was involved. And there is also going to be -- I'm not sure if it is one or two, and there is also right now they are going to be a hearing for this police officer and they may open up criminal proceedings against him. Then we will have to wait and see.

Look, we are serious country with laws. There is an investigation as I said originally. There is no excuse for excessive use of force and we'll take whatever action we have to take to make sure that justice is done.

TAPPER: Is Tariq on his way back to the U.S.? DERMER: I don't know the specifics of the case and I think if he wants to go back that he'll be able to go back, but I also know there is an ongoing investigation both on what happened before and after the arrest and subsequent to the arrest.

TAPPER: All right, Ambassador Ron Dermer, thank you so much. We appreciate you coming in.

When we come back, they live in a town that gets more than 100 earthquakes a year, 100, some big enough to destroy homes, so why are residents defending the local industry that seems to be contributing to the quakes.

Plus he was hired to fix the Washington Redskins image problem except now he has an image problem of his own. How racist tweets are coming back to haunt him ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. This is just in, after metaphorically slapping away the president's hand by earlier in the week, refusing to meet the president at the airport, Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry has apparently changed his mind when the president lands in the Dallas area in less than an hour, Governor Perry, we are told, will indeed meet and greet him at the airport according to the White House. That will give them a bit of time to talk before they travel together on Marine One to bigger meeting to discuss the tens of thousands of undocumented children detained at the border.

Time to turn to the Money Lead. What if the big one comes in not in California but in Oklahoma. Oklahoma experiencing an explosion in earthquake activity. It's had more earthquakes than California this year. Why?

Well, a new study in "Science" magazine links this update to a controversial drilling practice used by oil and gas companies, an industry that forms one of the pillars of Oklahoma's economy, but as Martin Savidge reports, after all of the shaking someone might want to inspect that pillar for cracks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Oklahoma, earthquakes are in the news.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Having an earthquake right now, our lights are shaking quite a bit here.

SAVIDGE: The day we arrived there were three earthquakes magnitude 3.0 or greater before lunch.

(on camera): These three were all before noon today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): It turns out that's nothing.

AUSTIN HOLLAND, OKLAHOMA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY: We've had, probably a hundred quakes in total today already.

SAVIDGE: Most are those of hardly felt, but they're getting stronger.

HOLLAND: We've never seen anything like this. This is completely unprecedented.

SAVIDGE: Five years ago, Oklahoma averaged just two magnitude 3.0 or higher earthquakes a year. Last year, there were 109, a 5,000 percent increase and just so far this year, more than 200.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm excited. I'm really excited about getting into this house. This is, like, wow! Cool!

SAVIDGE: Marla Wright has just moved into her new home in the small town of Prague, two and a half years after she lost her old one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you heard this huge boom before the shaking started.

SAVIDGE: It was November 5th, 2011.

MARLA WRIGHT, EARTHQUAKE VICTIM: You were being tossed to and fro and back and forth.

SAVIDGE (on camera): It was that violent.

WRIGHT: It was horribly violent.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): The quake measured 5.7, the largest in modern Oklahoma history.

(on camera): Like a lot of people, Marla worries the source of the earthquake that devastated her home is actually located not that far outside of town. Right about here.

(voice-over): An underground injection well where waste water from the state's booming oil and natural gas production is pumped back into the earth. Oklahoma has roughly 10,000 of them. Some scientists suggest the wells are destabilizing the state's underlying network of fault, but any suggestion drilling and earthquakes are related makes for some difficult conversation here.

(on camera): Does it ever worry you at night that maybe in some way that industry is causing that kind of harm? Has it ever crossed your mind?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It concerns me that it's possible.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): One out of every six Oklahomans gets a paycheck thanks to the oil and gas business. It also produces 27 percent of the state's annual tax revenue.

KEN HATFIELD, OKLAHOMA INDUSTRIAL PETROLEUM ASSOCIATION: We're not ignoring it. We're working hard on it, and we need to understand the science better.

SAVIDGE: Scientists have linked the Prague earthquake to nearby injection wells, but they stopped short of saying injection wells are responsible for all of the state's earthquakes. The problem may be part man made and part nature.

HOLLAND: We're probably looking at a contribution of different factors working together to create what can only be described as kind of the perfect storm.

SAVIDGE: So seismologists and the energy industry have teamed up to try and find a solution that stops the quakes, but not the drilling.

(on camera): Do you worry about another one?

WRIGHT: Yes, every day.

SAVIDGE: Which explains Oklahoma's newest business boom. Earthquake insurance. Martin Savidge, CNN, Prague, Oklahoma.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: Coming up next, it's not every day that a tabloid apologizes to a celebrity over a false story. Today George Clooney got one. What the newspaper said about his wedding that got him so mad coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. The Pop Culture Lead now. The biggest movie star in the United States going after Britain's most powerful newspaper. George Clooney got into a war of words with "The Daily Mail" after it claimed the actor's future mother-in-law was against him marrying. The notoriously cool Clooney wasn't too pleased.

In an essay for "USA Today," the actor wrote, "The Daily Mall has printed a completely fabricated story about my fiancee's mother opposing our marriage for religious differences." He went on to say that the irresponsibility in this day and age to exploit religious differences where none exist is at the very least negligent and more appropriately dangerous. The mail's web site promptly took down the post. The paper says it has launched a full investigation.

Turning to the Sports Lead now. He was the man hired to help defend the Washington football team's racist mono akel so we doubt ben Tribet had any idea he would be caught in a racist controversy, but that's what happened over racist tweets he made of Native Americans. He tweeted, an older native American guy who tried to put some kind of spell on me before likening his winnings to a scalping. The international code for I screwed up saying he no longer wanted to be a distraction to the team.

If you were to look at the faces in the stands you might have thought Brazil just suffered through some unthinkable attack. A shocking scandal, maybe, something that might alter a social studies textbook, humiliation, shame, grief, what extreme injustice. Did Brazil just endure what forced people to torch busses. What could possibly compel the president of a country to go on international television and react like this to our own Christiane Amanpour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DILMA HOUSSEFF, BRAZIL (through translator): No. In honesty, in all honesty, no. Truly never. My nightmares never got so bad, Christiane. They never went that far.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What was it? It is it outrage that the country just spent billions on stadiums or that the poor from Brazil's urban centers were literally chased away by front loaders to make room for these arenas? Now the shame was over the fact that Germany kicked a ball around the grass way better than Brazil did, 7-1 annihilation on the home team in front of fans that wanted World Cup redemption instead got Rodney Dangerfield's ladybugs.

I'm not going to pretend that they helped build arenas and we know sports provide a great escape from real life, but when the extra time expires it might be time for everyone especially you guys in Brazil right now to get a grip.

That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. I turn you over to Wolf Blitzer. He is in "THE SITUATION ROOM."