What Now After Killing of Hamas Leader?
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It's Friday, October 18th, right now on CNN This Morning. This is the beginning of the day after Hamas.

The suspected mastermind of October 7th killed. How a routine operation led to the Hamas leader's death. Plus this. These days, it's really a pleasure anywhere in New York without a subpoena for my appearance. Crude, cringe, and a touch of comedy. Donald Trump's punchlines at a high-profile charity dinner. And later. Democrats and Republicans and independents are supporting our campaign. In fact, yes...

Republicans for Harris. Former GOP Congresswoman Barbara Comstock joins us to talk about what she calls the silent majority that she thinks will help the vice president to victory. And battle of the billionaires. Elon Musk and Mark Cuban hit the campaign trail, stumping for their chosen candidates.

All right, 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. It's noon in Germany where we find President Biden, who's on a trip to Berlin. We do expect to hear from him this hour. We will bring that to you live as we cover all this breaking news out of the Middle East. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us on this Friday morning.

This just in, senior Hamas leaders have confirmed the death of their leader and the mastermind of the October 7th terror attacks, Yahya Sinwar, is dead. Israel's military announcing yesterday that Sinwar was killed in Gaza on Wednesday. According to Israeli sources, the hunt for Sinwar came to an end when Israeli forces came under fire during a routine military operation in southern Gaza.

The IDF returned fire and one of the militants fled into a nearby building. What you see now is drone video edited and released by the IDF. They say,

it shows Sinwar hiding after that firefight, hiding, sitting in that chair. Israeli troops later fired on this building again and they killed the man in the chair. At this point, Israeli forces didn't know the identity of the man that they had killed. But upon closer inspection, they noticed that he looked very familiar.

So we're now going to show you a photo allegedly showing Sinwar's body after he was killed. We want to warn you, this image is graphic and maybe disturbing for some viewers, so we're giving you a second if you don't want to see it on your screen.

But we are going to put it up now. In this image taken from social media, you see here the body of a man resembling Sinwar, buried in rubble and surrounded by Israeli troops. CNN can't independently confirm the photo's authenticity, but our analysis found no signs that the image had been manipulated. Israeli police say that Sinwar's body was positively identified using DNA testing.

With Hamas now at a major disadvantage, President Biden calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza.

Now's the time to move on. Move on to move forward to cease fire in Gaza. Make sure that we're moving in the direction that we're going to be in a position to make things better for the whole world. It's time for this war to end and bring these hostages home. We're going to work out what is the day after that. How do we secure Gaza and move on?

All right, our panel is here. CNN political and national security analyst, White House national security correspondent for The New York Times, David Sanger. CNN chief national affairs correspondent, Jeff Zeleny. Republican strategist, partner at OnMessage, Brad Todd. And CNN political commentator, Karen Finney. Welcome to all of you. David Sanger, I want to start with you on this operation because the details of it are quite frankly just stunning. And I'm interested to know what your insights are, your reporting is,

I mean, this was a routine operation. That drone footage just kind of showing him sitting in the chair. At one point he throws an object, perhaps a stick,

at this Israeli drone as he sits there in this chair. I mean, this is a man who, you know, the world wondered, was he alive? Was he dead? They were hunting him in tunnels underneath Gaza. It just feels stunning that they stumbled upon him above ground and that these are the scenes of his final moments. What do you see when you look at this? What have you heard? What do you understand about how this came to be?

Casey, good morning. It's a remarkable turn of events because, as you suggest, hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars were spent in the broader intelligence of finding the Hamas leadership and specifically looking for him. And in the end, they came upon him by accident.

in a firefight above ground, it sort of defied everything that the Israelis and the Americans who were helping Israel with special forces units and tracking technology and so forth believed would be the case for the end of Sinwar.

And to some degree, the fact that this took everybody by surprise, especially took the Israelis by surprise, may tell you why you are hearing such a dissonance right now between what the president and the vice president are saying and what you're hearing from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Those were very coordinated statements by President Biden and Vice President Harris, who were saying, you know, using the key words of day after, time to move on, end the war. And then, of course, when you heard Prime Minister Netanyahu, he was saying this war is not over.

And that's why the surprise here has brought us to such a hinge point, because no one knows which way Netanyahu is going to turn now. Will he heed the advice from the U.S. for the first time? Or will he say, we've been successful, we've gotten ahead of Hezbollah, we've gotten ahead of Hamas, let's move on to Tehran?

David, what would Netanyahu's rationale be for continuing? I mean, this does seem like an opportunity for him to declare victory, essentially, over Hamas. What are the factors that are going to affect how he proceeds? How much influence, for example, might it be depending on who ends up leading Hamas? I mean, what are the variables here in your view?

Couple of variables. The first is the internal politics of this. He's under great pressure from his right wing. He wants to stay in power. He's on a roll.

The second is I think he believes that he ignored President Biden's advice and following his own instincts worked. I mean, he was able to kill Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, three weeks ago. They got lucky and tripped across and killed the head of Hamas, Senwar, yesterday. And so he may well be thinking,

You know, follow your own instincts. Use the moment to defeat Israel's adversaries. What the president is saying to him is essentially take the win, convert the military victory into a longer lasting political victory. Otherwise, the military victory is just a passing tactical thing.

And that's going to be the fight of the next couple of weeks. It's why Secretary of State Blinken is being sent to Israel and why he's been talking to the Middle East leaders to all put pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu to use this as a turning point, if an unexpected one.

So, of course, in terms of the politics here in the U.S., David mentioned the coordinated statements of the president, of the vice president, who is, of course, also the Democratic nominee to be the next president. Brad Todd, I actually have a question for you because we have yet to hear from Donald Trump

on this particular question why is that he was posting things on truth social overnight it's not as though there hasn't been an opportunity at for him to do so but clearly at this man was the mastermind an attack that killed so many Israelis on October 7th to be mystifying we haven't heard yet from the republican nominee

Well, he's been pretty clear that Hamas had to be eliminated. And I think also you're probably going to hear from him today remind people that Kamala Harris suggested last month that Israel should stay out of Rafah. Sinwar was killed in Rafah. If Israel doesn't go to Rafah, Sinwar is still alive, still directing terrorist attacks all over the Middle East. So I think today you'll hear him make that contrast with the fact that she was wrong once again on a major national security issue. Jeff Zeleny, the sort of looming crisis

prospect of an expanded conflict in the Middle East has been hanging over this presidential campaign here. I mean, there have been a lot of jokes about October surprises and could we be surprised by anything anymore? But that is one when Israel is considering their Israeli, former Israeli officials out saying this is the moment for Israel to hit Iran's nuclear sites. We're still waiting for their retaliation against the most recent attacks from Iran.

What have you been hearing from the campaigns in the course of your reporting about how each is thinking about this conflict and how it may? I mean, we are 18 days out from a presidential election. And voting is underway. So this is a part of the campaign. It has been a part of the campaign. Both Harris and the former president are going to Michigan today, front and center. Donald Trump.

is going to be having some meeting with some Arab American leaders. So look, this has been the White House back when President Biden was the candidate. Advisors were long hoping that by fall this issue would have been resolved, at least for the moment domestically. That has not happened.

So it's hard for me to imagine, despite the gravity of yesterday's news, which was remarkably significant, it's hard for me to imagine it having much effect on this election. Obviously, the vice president is very eager for this to be over. It's not going to be over. So we'll see what Donald Trump says today in Michigan. But I think it's still very fraught for the Harris campaign and for Democrats.

A couple things. I mean, to what Todd said, we don't actually know where Senor... Brad, I'm so sorry. Brad Todd. We don't actually know where Senor... I don't think you can blame her for having... being incorrect because we don't know where he's been all this time. And they stumbled on him. They didn't know where he was. They happened to find him. They may have still been able to find...

They may have been able to find him somewhere else. You never know. But more importantly, here's what I do think matters. When people are thinking about these global conflicts and the more we are seeing, like we saw last night, unhinged Donald Trump going off on random tangents, profanity-laced rants, he seems less stable. And even in 2016, one of the things we found in the polling consistently is

even though people said they were going to vote for him and they liked him, they were nervous about him having his hand on the nuclear codes. And so I do think what these conflicts remind people is, do you want a stable leader or do you want somebody who's coming on a little on a hinge, who's not going to have the same kind of guardrails around him, frankly, to keep him in check? We know how he said he wants to use our military.

They've said that, you know, his own military, his own advisors have said he is a national security danger. So I think that also comes into play here. Joe, this weekend's NBC poll showed only three issues where Kamala Harris doesn't lead. She leads on more issues than Trump does on how people trust her on. But she doesn't lead on inflation, the border and handling the war with Israel. This is not a good moment for her when Israel is succeeding in defeating its enemies and

And she was wrong. She said, I'd studied the maps. Israel shouldn't go to Rafah. Going to Rafah was the right thing. We're going to play later in the show what appears to be the closing message from the Harris campaign, which I think speaks to some of what Karen was talking about there. And we're going to dig further also into all the points Brad was making as well. And David Sanger, I just want to thank you very much for being with us this morning. No person better to start us off on a day like today than you. So thank you very much. All right, coming up next here.

The gender gap that has come to define this stubbornly tight presidential race ahead. Which way could women tip the scales in this election? Plus, fans around the world mourning the death of former One Direction member Liam Payne. We're going to dig into the new details surrounding his death. And presidential candidates going after each other not on policy, but for laughs. Don't say anything negative about Catholics. I would never do that no matter where I was. That would be like criticizing Detroit in Detroit.

Tradition halls that I'm supposed to tell a few self-deprecating jokes this evening. So here it goes. Nope, I've got nothing. Donald Trump poking fun at himself at the traditional Al Smith dinner last night in New York. The fundraising event for Catholic Charities is usually attended by both presidential candidates. Kamala Harris skipped out to campaign in Wisconsin. She sent this video message with some help from a friend.

Is there anything that you think that maybe I shouldn't bring up tonight? Um, well don't lie. Thou shall not bear false witness to thy neighbor. Indeed, especially thy neighbor's election results. Just so you know, there will be a fact checker there tonight. Oh, that's great. Who? Jesus. And maybe don't say anything negative about Catholics. I would never do that, no matter where I was. That would be like criticizing Detroit in Detroit.

Actress Molly Shannon reprising her role as Mary Catherine Gallagher from SNL. Trump used his time to take swipes at Harris, her running mate, Governor Tim Walz, and other Democrats, and also his own legal trouble. These days, it's really a pleasure anywhere in New York without a subpoena for my appearance. Unfortunately, Governor Walz isn't here himself, but don't worry, he'll...

Say that he was, he's gonna say he was. The only piece of advice I would have for her in the event that she wins would be not to let her husband dug anywhere near the nannies. Just keep them away. That's a nasty one. Although I hear that Kamala and her husband carve out some really beautiful alone time at the end of the day for an intimate dinner, just dug her and the teleprompter that she uses quite well.

Okay, there you have it. Jeff Zeleny, you saw Chuck Schumer down there in the corner. His face is a set of memes all by itself. This is, normally, I mean, I know you've covered these in the past. You know, I've been in the room for them in the past before. It used to be, in some ways it kind of crystallizes the way our politics have completely changed in the last decade.

Sure. I mean, there's a lot of hand-wringing in this time zone. Oh, Vice President Harris was not there. It's the end of comedy. I think comedy has ended a long time ago. Comedy, C-O-M-I-T-Y. Exactly. Comedy, ha-ha, comedy. No one cares about the Al Smith dinner.

except people in the East Coast in the New York media circles. I'm Catholic. The Catholic charities obviously do very good work. It makes zero political difference if Vice President Harris is there or not. Probably wiser for her to be in Green Bay where she was. That said, who didn't love seeing Mary Catherine Gallagher back on SNL? I thought that was very good. Certainly for people of a certain age, we all remember her on SNL. I'm not sure this is a young voter thing necessarily, but it was very funny. But now they'll go check it out. Now they'll go learn about it. Jesus is the fact checker, but

I thought seeing Donald Trump in that moment, he was also showing a bit of humor, maybe went on a bit too long, but this is something that is so him. He talked about how he went there with his father. He loves that room. He loves the New York sort of atmosphere.

the adulation around him. So this was more important to Donald Trump than it was to the presidential campaign or Vice President Harris. You know, I don't enjoy all of Donald Trump's speeches, but this one was really funny. And I would encourage anybody who's burnt out on this presidential race to watch it because he did make fun of himself. He made fun of CNN. You know? Yeah. I'm not the most funny. He did. He made fun of his own jokes that fell flat.

This is a place where it's a very hard speech. I've helped prep people to speak at this dinner. And it's a really hard thing for politicians to do because they're not used to making fun of themselves or being funny for more than one or two lines. And you have to tell joke after joke after joke. I thought it actually was going to be probably his best moment of the campaign. I actually agree with Jeff because here's part of the way our politics have changed and the dynamics. That is a stuffy room full of jokes.

of insiders, this is the quintessential backroom kind of old New York, old stodgy, mostly white men, as you saw in the image. - Who had to wear a white tie. - Who had to wear a white tie. And she's not of that. That's not who she is. That's not where she comes from. She would be the first president who has served at the local, state, and federal level.

She's, you know, women and usually women of color, we aren't in those back rooms and we aren't in those spaces. So for her to be out with the people, that was a smarter campaign choice for multiple reasons. There was not anything for her to gain by going to that dinner. There was a lot more for her to gain in a 100-day campaign in particular to be on the road. I'm not sure she'd be funny either. And you have to be funny to do it. And it's hard. It's hard for most people. I don't know. I thought her video with Mary Catherine Gallagher was pretty funny. I don't know whose idea that was. It probably wasn't hers. I laughed.

I thought the video was funny. I'm not sure how it went in the room, but they played that video before the former president spoke. That was the context of it. Yeah. All right. Both the U.S. and Israeli officials are praising the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by Israel. We're ahead what this means for the war in Gaza. We're live in Tel Aviv, and we also expect to hear from President Biden live this morning. We're watching for that. Plus...

With just 18 days left, polling showing a wide gender divide between the two presidential candidates. We'll dig into it. We're seeing folks in heavily red areas that are getting together with other women at coffee shops without their husbands knowing, for example, and starting to have those conversations.

All right, I knew this morning a senior Hamas official acknowledging the group's leader, Yahya Sinwar, was killed in Gaza. That official calling his death, quote, "painful and distressing," end quote. Many Israelis, however, are celebrating with hope that his death could be the beginning of the end of the war in Gaza. I hope it's going to bring peace as soon as possible and quiet and not a war. Of course, for Israel, it's a big step, maybe the first step to end this war.

All right, joining us now with the latest from Tel Aviv, CNN chief global affairs correspondent Matthew Chance. Matthew, it's great to see you this morning. What are you hearing there about how the death of Sinwar may change the game going forward?

Well, that's a good question. I mean, first of all, there is some jubilation and some celebration amongst Israelis that this figure who led Hamas, who was seen as one of the main architects of the October 7th killings inside Israel, has been killed. Many Israelis have been voicing the opinion that justice has been served.

But while it's a tactical victory for the Israelis, and no one is questioning that, and there's political benefit for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, it doesn't necessarily mean that the hostages are going to be released and that the war in Gaza and in the wider Middle East is going to suddenly come to an end. There's a possibility that it could move towards that.

But it is not a certainty, it's more like a hope at this point. So we'll see how things develop over the coming hours and in the coming days, whether the death of Yahya Simwa, which has now been acknowledged by senior Hamas leadership figures for the first time since Wednesday when he was killed, we'll see how that affects the outcomes inside Gaza.

In the meantime, there is a high level meeting that is, we think, underway right now between the Israeli prime minister and other senior security officials inside Israel to discuss Gaza, to discuss Iran and to discuss Lebanon, where there's also Israeli military activity taking place.

and to particularly focus on what impact the killing of Sinhwa may have on the timing, for instance on the strike against Iran, whether now may be the time to look at a hiatus, look at a pause in military activity to perhaps give space for some kind of hostage deal to be done. That's certainly something the hostage families want in this country. There are still about 100 people, Israelis,

held inside Gaza, dead or alive. It's not quite clear what their condition is. And the families of those individuals are pushing, are doubling their efforts to push the Netanyahu government to try and get a deal now at this stage to get those people out. Casey. All right. Matthew Chance for us this morning in Tel Aviv. Matthew, thank you so much for that report.

Coming up here on CNN This Morning, the election just over two weeks away. Vice President Harris trying to attract Republican voters. I'm going to talk with former GOP Congresswoman Barbara Comstock about who she thinks is going to help Harris win. And new evidence in Donald Trump's 2020 election interference case could be released today after the judge denied his request to delay the release of the findings. There is a hope.

In New Orleans. We're not in Detroit anymore. This is New Orleans. In the Big Easy, it's anything but easy for Keith and Evan. It's a whole new world down here. Big stakes. Trying to rebuild the entire house. Big bucks. We're about to spend a lot of money. Big headaches. What is that? Oh, man. Bargain Block New Orleans. All new Wednesday night at 9 on HGTV.

All right, welcome back to CNN This Morning. Let's turn now to the gender gap that has come to define this stubbornly close presidential race. Donald Trump making a last-minute push for female voters in the final weeks of the race by attending an all-women Fox News town hall on Wednesday, as polls show that 54% of female voters are backing Kamala Harris. In those numbers, though, there are still warning signs. Harris' margin of support with women are less than those of Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton.

One former Republican lawmaker, Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, is confident, however, that women voters will push Harris over the finish line. She told the Daily Beast this, quote, I think there's a silent majority. I think there's a silent group of women who will crawl over broken glass to vote against Trump and who will quietly vote for Harris. And joining us now is former GOP Congresswoman

Barbara Comstock of Virginia. She's endorsed Harris for president and appeared alongside her in Pennsylvania earlier this week. Congresswoman, it's so great to have you on the show. Thank you so much for being here. Good to be with you.

You were also previously co-chair for Nikki Haley in the Republican primary. She's now potentially appearing with Donald Trump. But you think that there are women out there who are going to, as you say, crawl over glass to avoid Donald Trump. You say that they are silent. Can you explain a little bit more about that? Who you think these women are and what they are aren't telling pollsters? Yeah.

Well, you know, and I certainly don't mean all of them because I think quite a few of them are, you know, have already acknowledged it, probably have already voted. But there are some, you know, if you're in a MAGA family, you don't need to have any aggravation. You can just quietly go into the polling booth and make your views known. I've heard from, you know, a number of my former, you know, Republican Women's Club members and even presidents who've said,

I'm so glad I heard you out there. I'm voting for her too. I knew I wasn't voting for Trump, wasn't sure what I was going to do. But as they've watched, the vice president has really run a flawless campaign and she is being inclusive.

Whereas Donald Trump did tell us, those of us who voted for Nikki Haley, we were permanently barred. Listen, he called Nikki Haley a bird brain. He daily attacks women and calls them names. He has never apologized for any of that, whether it's calling

Elaine Chao, Coco Chao, you know, a racist slur. I mean, the people he attacks the most are women and women of color. And you just go down the list, nothing, you know, that faux news, you know,

hour that he did with hand-picked women you know that were you know not certainly there weren't democratic women or independent even women really that were there it certainly was not an open event clearly from from what you saw from the event so you know

He's not anyone's protector. You need to be protected from his policies and from the type of people he's attracted who are out there attacking women. But I also think it's the husband. I mean, my husband teaches at a Catholic girls school. So.

Way to go, Vice President, for the Mary Kathleen Gallagher video that she sent in last night to the Catholic dinner because he is very much for the Vice President. And not only is my daughter, but he is talking to our sons saying, listen, on behalf of your daughters, you need to be supporting

the vice president and opposing this man who's such a misogynist and a daily attacking women. And he called me in the middle of that dinner last night about what a buffoon and what an ungodly profanity-laced hot mess that dinner was because he knows what that Catholic dinner is supposed to be. And, you know, this was somebody who was just being horrendous at that dinner, swearing in front of priests

Who does that? That is just a hot, horrible mess. We need to turn the page. - Swearing in front of priests. There is that. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Catholic schools, that does not get done. And that was a first. And, you know, that was, I think the vice president made a good move not going there.

Congresswoman, I want to show you there's a new ad out from the Harris team overnight. And it does seem to me to be aimed at the kind of voter that you may represent. Someone who has voted for been an active participant, perhaps in the Republican Party, but finds themselves concerned about Donald Trump. I want to play it for you and we'll talk about on the other side. Watch.

If he wins, he'll ignore all checks that reign in a president's power. It's all in Trump's Project 2025 agenda. What does that mean for you? Higher cost on groceries, cuts to Social Security and Medicare, more tax breaks for billionaires, and a national abortion ban putting women's health at risk.

So Congresswoman Ron Brownstein also writes this in The Atlantic this morning. Kamala Harris's fate in the remaining weeks of the presidential campaign may turn on whether she can shift the attention of enough voters back to what they might fear from a potential second White House term for Donald Trump. And unfortunately, Congresswoman, if I could ask you to stand by for a second, I'd love to have you continue to be part of our conversation. But unfortunately,

Actually, we have to go to Berlin because President Biden is speaking live now. We're going to listen, especially if he makes any remarks on what's been going on in the Middle East. Let's listen. When Putin launched his brutal invasion of Ukraine, you reminded us all why this alliance is so essential. Under your leadership, Chancellor, Germany rose to meet the moment. You showed the wisdom to recognize that this war marked a turning point.

in history, an assault on the very principles that have protected peace and security in Europe for more than 75 years. And then you summon the resolve to act, remaking Germany's foreign policy to reckon new realities with new realities, to stand strong and steadfast with Ukraine. America and Germany are the two largest supporters of Ukraine in its fight for survival as a free and independent nation. As Ukraine faces a tough winter,

We must, we must sustain our resolve, our effort, and our support. And I know the cost is heavy. Make no mistake, it pales in comparison to the cost of living in a world where aggression prevails, where large states attack and bully smaller ones simply because they can. Today, the Chancellor and I are going to discuss ongoing efforts to surge support to Ukraine's military.

to shore up Ukraine's civilian energy infrastructure, which is under constant assault and bombardment from Russia, and to help Ukraine recover by unlocking the value of frozen Russian assets. I also want to recognize Germany's decision to spend 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense. Please keep it up, because it matters. Our alliance with Germany extends far beyond Ukraine and Europe. It's global.

Today, the Chancellor and I will discuss regional security in the Middle East, including the ongoing domestic efforts regarding Lebanon and Gaza. The death of the leader of Hamas represents a moment of justice. He had the blood of Americans and Israelis, Palestinians and Germans and so many others on his hands. I told the Prime Minister of Israel yesterday, let's also make this moment an opportunity to seek a path to peace

A better future in Gaza without Hamas. And I look forward to discussing Iran. Olaf and I spoke the morning after Iran launched 200 ballistic missiles at Israel earlier this month. With our G7 counterparts, we agreed to coordinate our response through sanctions and other measures. And that is what we have done. I'm grateful for Germany's cooperation in holding Iran accountable.

for destabilizing policies, including providing missiles and drones to Russia to use against Ukraine. And just this week, the European Union followed Germany, the U.K., and France in sanctioning Iran's leading airlines. This followed our own oil sanctions. This coordination is going to have to continue. I also want to thank Germany for standing firm against the vicious surge of anti-Semitism, hatred, and extremism we're witnessing today.

some of it fueled by foreign misinformation. As domestic -- as democratic allies, we have to remain ever vigilant against what I call the old ghost in new garments, ancient hatreds resurfacing. Our charge is to make sure that the forces holding our societies together and binding us in the common cause of human dignity and freedom remain stronger -- stronger than the forces seeking to pull us apart. And finally, Chancellor,

I deeply appreciate your partnership and the many times you've forsaken the easy choice to make the right choice.

All right. We've been listening to President Biden speak in the wake of the death of Yaya Sinwar. He called that killing, he says it represents, quote, an opportunity to seek a path to peace. We're going to continue to monitor what he has to say. If he has any news, we will turn it for you coming up. Coming up here, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell describing Donald Trump as despicable and stupid. That's according to a new biography of the longtime Senate leader set to be released later this month. Plus...

Battle of the billionaires, Mark Cuban and Elon Musk stumping for their candidates of choice. President Trump must win to preserve the Constitution. He must win to preserve democracy in America. The one thing about Kamala, she's open-minded. She's very clear in saying she wants to take feedback from anybody.

All right, welcome back. As you just heard there, U.S. leaders are renewing calls for an end to the war in Gaza in the wake of Israel announcing the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Vice President Kamala Harris saying now is the time to free the hostages. This moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza. And it must end such that Israel is secure.

the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination. President Biden also saying now is the time to move on. Our panel returns. Joel Rubin also joins us. He's former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under President Obama. Joel, I want to talk to you about what Benjamin Netanyahu is going to do now.

and what the dynamics are. Because you've heard from both Harris and President Biden, they see this as an opportunity to change what's going on here on the ground in Gaza. Netanyahu hasn't put his cards on the table yet. He's still dealing with Iran. What are the dynamics?

Yeah, Casey, look, it's definitely a game changer. Right now, what we're watching in Israel is a new day. The Israeli people are thrilled. This is reminiscent of what happened after we got Osama bin Laden and people came down to the White House to celebrate. But that moment will pass soon, as you point out. And the real core question, the front, is the hostages and what to do about the hostages.

And now that the leader, Sinwar, is gone, how will the Israelis find these hostages? How will they deal with the remnants of Hamas that's now going deeper underground? And I think for Netanyahu, he has some real hard decisions to make. Does he want to lean in on the diplomacy to cut a deal, or does he want to point to his right flank and say, look, follow me, follow me strongly. This is where I'm heading. Now, last night, he did offer the idea of an amnesty for Hamas militants to leave

And then that'll be fine. Of course, where to? No one's going to take them easily at all. So I think he's still feeling this out. But the president's pressure, the vice president's pressure, laying out the end goal. The secretary, Tony Blinken, spoke of the Saudis and the Emiratis trying to push this in a diplomatic path. How does the timeline of the U.S. election, 18 days, play into this? It's everything, isn't it?

You know, look, President Biden and Vice President have given a lot of support to the prime minister to do what we now saw yesterday bore fruit, which is frankly to find Sinwar and find Hamas militants. But, you know, there are limits to this, and I think we're now hitting those limits.

We're now seeing where the president and his team are going to lean in and say, we need to move on a deal. Now, the election is clearly in their mind. It's worth noting as well, Donald Trump did not say anything about this at all. He's been stone cold silent. But I do think that this is where the president, his team, the vice president, they're going to say, you got your win. We've had your back. This is now the moment to really lean in and try to work with all of our allies in the region, the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Qataris, the Egyptians,

to force a final deal that will get the hostages out and really move to what we call phase four reconstruction period. - All right, Joel Rubin for us this morning. Joel, thanks for joining us. I appreciate it. All right, 50 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. Tributes pouring in for Liam Payne, former member of the popular boy band One Direction. - I feel heartbroken because I was a big fan since I was a child. - He was struggling with the hard times, but he always

make us happy. And I think that's a very important thing. The exact circumstances of his death remain unclear and are under investigation, but his injuries suggest he might not have been fully conscious at the time of the fall.

New evidence set to be unsealed today in Donald Trump's 2020 election subversion case. Trump tried to block the release, claiming it was election interference. Judge Tanya Chutkin arguing the opposite is true, saying, quote, "If the court withheld information that the public otherwise had a right to access solely because of the potential political consequences of releasing it, withholding it could itself constitute or appear to be election interference."

A new book set to publish this month about Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell reporting that he had some choice words about former President Trump following the 2020 election. The Associated Press obtaining excerpts from the book which claim that McConnell called then President Trump quote, "stupid as well as being ill-tempered." A quote, "despicable human being" end quote, and a narcissist. McConnell saying in a statement quote, "Whatever I may have said about President Trump,

pales in comparison to what JD Vance, Lindsey Graham and others have said about him. But we are all on the same team now.

Brad Todd, what do you make of all this? I mean, this was like an open secret on Capitol Hill. There's no love lost between Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump, and they're never going to make up. However, if Donald Trump becomes president, Mitch McConnell will be right there trying to help keep taxes from going up. They'll find a way to agree on a few things in the Republican agenda.

It's an extraordinary book that is coming out next week, I believe, or the week after. A longtime Washington reporter, Mike Tackett, a friend of a lot of ours, has this book. Fascinating look at McConnell. I'm really looking forward to reading it, I have to say, as someone who was in the halls for the entirety of the Trump administration. Oh, my goodness. Okay. Now we have this. It's been an election cycle of firsts, including on Wednesday when Vice President Harris sat down for her first ever interview on Fox News.

All right, we don't apparently have that soundbite, but one of Harris's goals for going on Fox was to appeal to that 50% looking to draw in Republicans and undecided voters. Is the strategy working? Joining us now, CNN political commentator Michael Smirconish. He's also the host of CNN's Smirconish. Michael, always wonderful to have you on the program. Love Smirconish Fridays. Talk to me a little bit about what you thought of this interview, how she performed, and whether it matters.

I thought it was arguably her best performance. I thought it was arguably her best interview. And what it reinforced to me was that that day when she was still sort of under bubble wrap going on The View, going on Howard, then doing Colbert at night, I don't think was to her advantage. And...

It sort of persisted with this impression that maybe she can't handle the give and take. Well, there was a lot of give and take, and she did just fine. Brett Baer got what he wanted out of the interview, and I thought she came out of it looking relatively strong.

Michael, I also know you wanted to talk about what happened at the Al Smith dinner last night. We can show you a couple of the, a little bit of what we heard from Donald Trump, although I don't think that it includes what Barbara Comstock alluded to earlier, which were the times that he swore in front of all the priests. But let's watch a little bit of the dinner, and then I want to get your reaction. Watch. Tradition halls that I'm supposed to tell a few self-deprecating jokes this evening. So here it goes. Nope.

I've got nothing. I've got nothing. These days, it's really a pleasure anywhere in New York without a subpoena for my appearance. Unfortunately, Governor Walz isn't here himself, but don't worry, he'll say that he was. He's going to say he was. The only piece of advice I would have for her in the event that she wins would be not to let her husband, Doug, anywhere near the nannies. Just keep them away. That's a nasty one.

Michael, what'd you make of the dinner last night? So I've given the props to the vice president already because of that Brett Baier interview. Now let me tell you that I think that she blew it by not being there. She should have been there. Humor can be such an effective political tool. I thought that Donald Trump

misread the room. I thought that he was undisciplined and mostly unfunny. That editing of what you just showed was very sympathetic to Trump because those were his absolute best lines and in most other instances he just missed the market. It was cringe-worthy and it was unnecessarily nasty.

he blew an opportunity as well to come in, pay respect to the Cardinal, be funny, keep it above board. He should have taken a page from Jim Gaffigan. Gaffigan was hysterical and set the right tone for a night like that.

He was much, Gaffigan, I will say, the level of crudeness to Gaffigan's, I thought, also took some, well, I probably shouldn't say a crude word, but it took some of that to get up there in front of all the Catholics and do that. But fair enough. I mean, the sort of meanness to what Trump had to say stood out to me as well as a little bit.

off for the forum that he appeared in. Finally, Michael, I want to ask you something that I started to talk to Barbara Comstock about, but there is this closing message ad from the Harris team that basically raises the question in voters' minds, designed to raise the question in voters' minds about whether or not they are ready for another Trump term, to kind of stoke the fear, to make them remember what it was like when he was president for four years. And Ron Brownstein writes in

this, that Kamala Harris's fate in the remaining weeks of the campaign may turn on whether she can shift the attention of enough voters back to what they might fear from a potential second White House term for Donald Trump. He writes that, you know, they had been focused on reassuring voters that she had the experience and values to serve in the Oval Office.

But the consensus is Harris is failing to deliver a sufficient warning about the risk Trump could pose to American society and democracy in another presidential term. Are the Democrats that Ron talked to right?

So, so much for joy. And isn't it interesting that both candidates now, it has been so significant to me how dark Trump has gone in the last couple of weeks, and I've not really understood it. Jonah Goldberg had a really great piece in the LA Times, and Ron as well, saying 80 million people who were eligible didn't vote in the 2020 election. For everybody else who's absolutely going to vote, it's baked in. Each of these candidates is now trying to get individuals off the couch,

based on fear, not joy, but based on fear, hoping that their margin of victory lies in individuals who are not too inclined to come out and vote even in this election. All right, Michael Smirconish for us this morning. Michael, thank you very much. And for all of you, don't forget to turn into Smirconish tomorrow morning, 9 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

All right, guys, we've got about 90 seconds or so left in the show. And I just want to pick up where we were talking about with Smirconish about this closing argument strategy. We played the ad from the Harris team and what they're doing here in the final days. So I disagree with part of what he was saying. The Harris campaign is also reaching out to low information voters, infrequent voters, African-American and Latino voters who basically are getting their news and information from online. And for them, it is about getting off the couch.

But these are not necessarily people who are picked up in all the polling of likely voters. So she still has room to grow with that part of the electorate where Trump does not. What do you think, Brad? The people who are left on the table are people right of center. That's why I see Kamala Harris featuring Republicans like Barbara Comstock.

celebrities won't get her there. She has to tell people that she totally disagrees with her positions of 2020. She renounces them and the left is wrong. She's got to appeal to right of center voters with a right of center message. She's not done that yet. - What do you think Jeff? - I mean the persuasion versus mobilization is fascinating in this. Usually by this point of a campaign persuasion is over, but the Harris campaign has extended the period using in real time what the former president is saying on the campaign trail every day. They believe his current comments, even though everyone knows everything about what he has said,

the father of IVF and other things, they are trying to persuade in the final weeks they're getting some of those Republicans that Brad's talking about. They don't need a lot, but a few could certainly help. Yeah, I read with some interest the new Peggy Noonan column as well, making, she's making the argument that you're making, which is, hey, make more space for these Republicans to give them a little bit more permission. Right, she's got to say she was wrong before. That's the only way to get there. I just think,

Y'all are, like the establishment does, discounting infrequent voters, low information voters. And we do that at our peril. The best thing is it's the voters who are going to get to decide. We can sit here and tell you what we think all day long, but we're not actually going to figure it out until November 5th. Thanks to all of you for joining us this morning. I really appreciate it. Have a great weekend. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

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