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tv   Face the Nation  CBS  March 4, 2024 3:00am-3:31am PST

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- lift the clouds off of... - virtual weather, only on kpix and pix+. . welcome back to "face the nation." we turn now to the latest on the war in the middle east where urgency grows to get aid into gaza. our imtiaz tyab reports from tel aviv and we want to warn you some images are disturbing. >> reporter: high above gaza, three c-130 aircrafts air drop 38,000 meals in coordination
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with u.s. ally jordan. on the ground the food parcels landed on the southern earned of the besieged territory where 1.5 million people are sheltering. a minna skull amount of food given the amount of need. president biden made the rare american humanitarian intervention after at least 115 palestinian were killed and hundreds more wounded when israeli forces opened fire as thousands had gathered for one of the first food aid deliveries in gaza city in months. in what palestinian leaders are calling israel's flour massacre people swarmed the trucks in the desperate hopes of getting a sack of flour only to be killed. the israeli military continues to insist the deaths were caused by a stampede. a united nations observer sent to gaza city found the majority of the dead and wounded from the convoy suffered from bullet and shrapnel wounds.
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the chaos and carnage only underscores how desperate the situation across gaza is, since the start of the war the israeli military has blocked most food, water, and medicine into the besieged palestinian territory triggering a near famine in the north of gaza affecting hundreds of thousands according to the u.n. including 10-year-old yesin. his mother says he has special needs but getting just the basics like ba fnanas and togetr keep him alive has been impossible. i want the world to understand what we're going through, i want them to help my son. until israel agrees to allow for an increase in aid in the happened crossings it controls and distribution challenges are solved starvation will only spread. and pressure is only growing to get a cease-fire and hostage release agreement between israel and hamas before the start of ramadan next week. both sides have signaled they
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may be close, margaret, but in the words of a top national security official, until a deal is done, it's not done. >> imtiaz tyab reporting from tel aviv. and we're joined now here by democratic congressman ro khanna of california. good morning. >> good morning. >> good to have you here. >> thank you, margaret. >> i imagine you support the decision to air drop aid in to gaza, but this is only happening because the -- an ally of the united states, the largest recipient of u.s. military aid in the world, was not allowing in the aid and now that it is coming across the border, the distribution is a massive logistically complicated and unsafe operation. should there be consequences for standing in the way of u.s. humanitarian aid? >> yes, margaret, there should. i mean, we should make it clear we're to the going to continue to transfer weapons. as i asked secretary austin at the hearing.
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>> he didn't answer you? >> he did not. even you could tell from his testimony he was concerned that we were continuing to transfer aid. we can't transfer weapons, we can't continue to transfer weapons while transferring aid. the killing of over 100 palestinians who were simply going to a food truck to get food, whether be a stampede or by shooting, we don't know all the facts, there should be an investigation, but that has shocked the conscience of the world. my plea to this president who i support deeply is, mr. president, call for a permanent cease-fire. there's too much suffering and the release of all hostages. the policies of bear hugging netanyahu has not worked. reach out to some of the former obama officials like ben rhodes who have been saying we need a new directional policy a permanent cease-fire, release of hostages, call for a palestinian state, a summit with our gulf allies. the current policy is not working. >> do you believe, truthfully n
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an election year, that president of the united states could be that head-on direct in criticizing the prime minister of israel? >> yes. you know who was? president obama. >> yes. >> he won two terms. >> mr. biden didn't agree with when he was vice president. >> ben rhodes texted me this picture of wisconsin in 2012 with the -- two days before the election and there were a sea of young people out there, hundres of thousands of young people. i don't think in the head-to-head polling this is the issue showing up but this is an issue for activists, for organizers, an issue for young folks and this is going to be a turnout direction and they want a new direction for our nation and what's going on. everyone agrees hamas is a terrorist organization. what they did on october 7th was brutal and should be condemned. the point is now, it's time to get a permanent cease-fire and release of the hostages and the president can do it with one call he can do it.
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>> well, we'll see. but on what you just went to from policy to politics, you are a biden campaign surrogate. >> proudly. >> proudly you say. in announcing the air drops, i want to play this sound bite for you because this is what president biden said. >> in the coming days we're going to join with our friends in jordan and others in providing air drops of additional food and supplies into ukraine and seek to continue to open up other avenues in ukraine including the possibility of a marine corridor, large amounts of humanitarian assistance. >> this was a big decision. this was a big announcement. and the president of the united states twice got confused as to the country and place where the aid was being dropped. he said crukraine twice. doesn't that concern you? >> i misspoke when i said we need to stop transferring
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weapons. i meant aid. he misspoke. >> announcement of a major policy change. >> look, here's the thing. have been direct in criticizing the president's policy in the middle east. i have spoken with the president. he is fully coherent, on top of details when i have talked to him a couple weeks ago. my view is let's focus on policy and let's focus on saving lives and he'll have the opportunity to make the case about his age to the american people. i have confidence in that part of it. i believe what he needs to do is stop the killing, the suffering. >> but you are also talking about young voters and progressive voters and they see that. on the issue of the policy, in michigan, we saw these two efforts to essentially protest against joe biden by coming out and voting uncommitted. in minnesota another super tuesday state, there's a simpler campaign under way. are we going to see something like that in california as well? >> there are efforts on
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uncommitted in california and a number of other super tuesday states and in wisconsin -- it's significant. i don't think -- the president is winning overwhelmingly in the primaries and i don't think this is going to affect his vote total but it will affect his turnout and base. this is not just a political issue. this is a humanitarian catastrophe and secretary austin said over 25,000 dead. our weapons are going there. there's starvation that's taking place. there are reports that 58,000 more palestinian dead within six months if we don't have a cease-fire. the president can get this done. the disagreement is hamas wants a 4 1/2 month wait, bibi netanyahu doesn't want that long of a cease-fire. have the president in there and get it done. become a peacemaker and recognize a palestinian state, a two-state solution. i think he can and i think he can win back young people. >> on the policy point there aren't new authorities the president would need to halt those shipments. he has the authorities and he's choose nogts to use them.
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>> he can call for a cease-fire and stop protecting them at the u.n. >> he's choosing not to. >> i hope this morning he will take a new approach. >> back to the cynical politics of this in our polling we see nearly twice as many democrats rate biden's presidency fair or poor compared to republicans who say the same about trump. the president is having a problem with his base. >> that's why i think he needs to do something bold. >> this is a problem. if he can turn it around not just by calling for a cease-fire f he becomes the first american president to convene gulf allies, israel, municipal leaders in palestine and civic society and said i'm going to get this done, recognize a palestinian state v a two-state solution, and i'm going to recognize that security of israel matters but the end of occupation matters he can become a hero. look, the president has had an amazing public service career. my plea to him, forget electoral politics. do this for people in the middle
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east. i hope he will meet with some of the progressive members of congress to make that case. >> ro khanna, good to have you in studio. we'll be right back. unlike voltaren, biofreeze provides fast-acting relief i can apply it to more areas of my body. and it's nsaid-free. cool the pain so i can get back on the court. (♪♪) we come from a long line of cowboys. (♪♪) when i see all of us out here on this ranch, i see how far our legacy can go. (♪♪) for nourished, lightweight hair, the right ingredients make all the difference. new herbal essences sulfate free is now packed with plant-based ingredients your hair will love. like pure aloe and camellia flower oil. and none of the things it won't. hair feels deeply nourished,
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. we turn to republican senator dan sullivan of alaska. good morning. good to have you here in studio. >> >> good morning. good to be here, thanks. >> you said the u.s. is in the mist of one of the most dangerous times since world war ii. we just heard from the house intelligence committee chairman saying it is imperative to get this aid to ukraine. they run out of ammunition soon. >> yeah. >> are you confident republicans can deliver this? >> i voted for the supplemental and for the national security supplemental and i did for a couple reasons. the first one is what you said, margaret, which is, this is a new era of authoritarian aggression. we have dictators around the world, xi jinping, putin, iran, the ayatollahs in iran, working together. we need a strategic response to
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that. it's a dangerous time. second, the biden administration, with regard to national security, has not been serious. they cut the defense budget every year, inflation adjusted. by the way, the secretary didn't mention it, they cut homeland security every year too. those are the two areas this administration consistently cuts, weakens our homeland security and our defense, but this aid should be much more in terms of how we talk about it, in terms of the supplemental, it's less of foreign aid package and more package about rebuilding our own stindustrial capacity to build weapons for ourselves. >> mitch mcconnell talks about that. but the former republicans seem skeptical. >> part of the reason i'm on your show is to talk about it because 60% of this supplemental -- it's not a perfect bill. the house can make it better -- 60% goes into our ability to
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build weapons for america. everything from nuclear subs, almost 40% of our attack subs are in maintenance right now. we don't have the industrial capacity to protect ourselves. xi jinping is scared to death of american subs. this supplemental unlocks $6 billion for our sub capacity to build subs, $5 billion to produce 155 millimeter howitzer rounds, javelins, stingers, tomahawks, so this is about our industrial capacity to protect america first and then, of course, we need to get some of these weapons to our allies who are facing existential threats whether taiwan, israel, and ukraine and i think when you talk about it from that perspective, it should unite republicans, not divide them. >> i imagine it would help if donald trump endorsed this package. he hasn't done it. here's what he said last night at a rally in richmond about
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vladimir putin. >> putin has so little respect for obama he's starting to throw around the nuclear word. nuclear. he's starting to talk nuclear weapons today. i was waiting for that to happen. but we have a fool, a fool as a president. he said we will never leave until there is complete and total victory. we might there be a long time. >> i know you have endorsed mr. trump. he seemed to confuse biden for obama and suggested that there were u.s. troops servin in ukraine. are you comfortable about his mental capacity? >> yes. yes. compared to the current president, 110%. as your polling shows, i think the american people have real concerns where president biden is with regard to his fitness for office, particularly his mental acuity and relative to
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former president trump, i don't even think it's a close call when you see the two in action. >> to be clear, there are no u.s. troops serving on the battle needle ukraine. there are military advisors. there aren't troops, correct? >> no. >> some within your party believe that and that's what he suggested there. >> again, i would go back to who is demonstrating more mental fitness to be the presidet and i don't think it's a close call between president trump and president biden right now. >> you recently retired after 30 years in the marine corps. >> i did. >> jim mattis, you know him well. >> i do. >> retired and revered general, wrote in his resignation letter from the trump administration he had to leave because of a difference of views on treating allies with respect and being clear-eyed about competitors. john kelly retired marine corps general who served with mr. trump described him as a person that has no idea what america stands for, has no idea what
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america is all about, a person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. that's a staunch assessment from two people who served alongside him as to the values of donald trump. why do you think this represents your vision for america? >> i think one of the things -- look, i respect general kelly and secretary mattis tremendously, i think the key, though, margaret, is to look at the record and the record of what a trump administration working with republicans did in terms of foreign policy was dramatically stronger and focused on our allies and the obama administration, the obama-biden administration, and let me give you a couple examples -- >> you remember why mattis resigned. >> i remember why mattis resigned. i will give you an example in terms of russia particularly, you remember, president -- the biden -- obama-biden
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administration was providing them mres after the invasion of crimea. what did the trump administration with republican support do? we got them javelins, we significantly bolstered, significantly, american troop presence in the baltics and in poland, which the obama administration refused to do. we dramatically increased american defense spending, the second term of the obama administration, obama-biden, cut defense spending by 25%. they wrecked readiness. i'm the ranking member on the readiness subcommittee on armed services. trump and the republican senate, we brought military readiness bck and unleashed another element of american power american energy. these are all strong elements of the trump administration record working with republicans that made us stronger and right now if you look around the world, you see chaos and a lot of that
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in my view has been driven by the biden administration's weakness. >> i have to leave it here because we are out of time. senator, good to have y here. >> margaret, good to be here. >> we'll be back in a moment.
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our cbs news poll found that crime and gun policy were among the top issues for voters in 2024. on friday we toured the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms here in washington. although violent crime is down across the country, atf director steven dettelbach says the agency is trying to do more to reduce gun violence. >> i think it's fair to say that for the agency that is the only federal law enforcement agency that solely deals with violent crime, if you're really concerned about violent crime in the united states, this agency is way, way, way, too small. >> 5,000 people. >> 5,000 people total. 2500 agents. let me give you a sort of baseline. in one city, new york city, there are 36,000 police officers. right. 17 times the entire atf agent
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for the entire country. there's no such thing as public safety on the chief. we have to support the police and we have to support the federal agents that are out there risking their lives every day. >> this a way to use what you have now in a sharper way, in a more targeted way? >> we have to do that, right. that's the name of the question i have every day. >> what do you need? >> if we don't get any more resource, what we are doing to try to sharpen, crime gun intelligence, which is a fancy term but basically applies to be able to follow the gun. a crime gun, involved with a crime, squeeze every last bit of intel that comes out the front of the gun the bullet, cartridge casing out the back of the gun, the outside of the gun, serial number and the markings inside the gun. >> the atf is pro little bitted from creating a centralized data database of gun owners. how big of an impediment is that
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to stopping gun traffickers? >> this happened in highland park in the july 4th massacre. firearm, serial numbers put in. we run a trace and get back to the police in just a matter of hours the identity of the person that purchaseded that firearm and they catch the person before they kill again. how does that happen in real life. the way it doesn't happen we punch in a name and they own so many guns. congress has prohibited us from doing that. we pay somebody to take out search function in order to supply with the congressional notion there can't be a gun registry, the law that there can't be a gun registry in the united states. not a notion. it's a law. we comply with it. that means that we have to work within that system. >> last week the supreme court heard arguments over bump stocks, devices that effectively turn semiautomatic rifles into machine guns and the question of whether a trump administration ban was lawfully implemented by the atf. >> this debate that we heard is
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about more than bump stocks. it's about these -- all these products which are being used to turn semiautomatic weapons into machine guns and if you asked most police chiefs or agents who are running towards this gunfire, it's a dangerous situation for them too, whether ten years ago they thought this was even a possibility, 15 years ago, they would have said no. machine guns went the way of al capone. unfortunately technology can be used for good and technology can be used for bad. right. and what i want people to understand is we at atf are doing everything we can within the law to try and protect them under the laws we have from these unlawful machine guns. if somebody wants to pass additional laws, we'll take those. >> for a lot of people at home, they are horrified when it comes to their own children. whatever their view on guns are, they want their kids to be safe.
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how do americans protect their children against gun violence in this environment? >> i'm a parent. we were thought. i've raised two children. and i think about this too. i think the temperature on this issue is way, way too high. i understand why it is because as you say, this is our kids, right, the leading cause of death of children in the united states is firearms violence, right. not cancer or cars. guns. >> on the other hand people have patient feelings about their second amendment rights. i sat in a room in lewiston, maine, last week, with families and survive he was of the mass shooting that happened in lewiston a couple months ago. and there were people in that room, first of all, tremendous grief unspeakable frustration and anger, there were people in that room who had really different views on the sort of
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policy questions, right. everything from how can somebody get a weapon like this in this country, to, you know, i really value my weapons. in the same room. weeks after, they've lost a brother or a father or been shot themselves, right. those people were able to sit in that room with all that grief, and have a discussion. if those people in that grief can disagree with each other but still sit and have a conversation in a civilized way, what is the excuse for the other 350 million of us not to do it. we owe it to those people to get what we can agree on done. >> and you can see more of that interview on youtube. we'll see you next week. (christina) with verizon business unlimited, i get 5g, truly unlimited data, and unlimited hotspot data. so, no matter what, i'm running this kitchen. (vo) make the switch. it's your business. it's your verizon. inez, let me ask you, you're using head and shoulders, right?
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- [narrator] the bay area's only virtual weather studio. york. this is the so"cbs overnigh news." we begin with wild weather affecting tens of millions of you this weekend. tonight cleanup efforts are under way in california's sierra nevada after a blizzard blew in with hurricane-force winds, causing whiteout conditions, as you see there, and dropping a