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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Feds Charge Three In Iranian Assassination Plots; More White House Positions Could Be Announced Today; Gov. Doug Burgum Under Consideration For Energy Czar; Trump Could Pick Government's Next Top Ethics Official; Trump: "I Have No Intention Of Selling" Truth Social Stock; Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) Is Interviewed About Winning Senate Election, Mass Deportation; Republicans Improve Vote Margins In New York State; Israel Organizes Emergency Flights To Get Fans Out Of Amsterdam; World Leaders Brace For Trump To Shake Up Old World Order; Rep.-Elect Sarah McBride (D-DE) Is Interviewed About Becoming The First Openly Transgender Member Of Congress. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired November 08, 2024 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Surveil and then assassinate Mr. Trump before the presidential election. Shocking news. Let's bring in CNN's Evan Perez and John Miller.

Evan, give us the details.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, part of the plot here on October 7, according to the FBI, Farhad Shakeri, he's 51 years old. He lives in Tehran. He says that he was tasked by the IRGC to find ways to kill Donald Trump. Again, that's back in -- that's in October 7, just weeks before the U.S. presidential election. And he said he didn't have -- essentially he didn't have enough time to come up with a plot according to his own conversations that he had voluntarily with the FBI over the last few weeks.

Now, according to the FBI, this is a plot that spans -- it's much bigger than just Donald Trump. The top victim that they had in mind and who he recruited people to try to assassinate was Masih Alinejad, who is a journalist that you've spoken to on this program a number of times.

TAPPER: Yes.

PEREZ: She's been the target of the Iranians for a number of years. They've tried to kill her before. And according to prosecutors and according to the FBI, Shakeri basically reached out to a couple people he had served time with in U.S. prison before he was deported back to Iran. And he worked with them to come up with this idea of surveilling her, going to speeches where she was speaking at Fairfield University in Connecticut. There's pictures of her front door that they took.

We also see in these -- in the court documents, you'll see pictures of some of the firearms that they had. These are images recovered from their Google accounts, according to the FBI. Now, again, part of this is a broader issue for the Iranians. Right? They're targeting people like Alinejad, who is a dissident, someone who is a critic, a vocal critic of the Iranian regime. But they also were targeting, obviously, Donald Trump, people associated with the Trump administration in other plots. And according to the FBI, Shakeri was also trying to come up with a way to assassinate two U.S. Jewish businessmen in New York.

They were going to be paid $500,000 to carry out one of those assassinations. And also on the list, Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka. That prompted the U.S. and the Israeli government to warn tourists going to Sri Lanka as a result of this.

Now, two of these people are U.S. citizens, they were arrested. They're in U.S. custody. They were presented to court, and they're going to be held pending trials. Shakeri is still in Tehran and is at large. He's not been arrested obviously.

TAPPER: Shocking stuff.

And John, this isn't Iran's first attempt to kill Donald Trump. We know we've covered that before. And is Iran just getting more brazen by the hour?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, they are. And I mean, as Evan pointed out, one of the things they wanted to do was to attempt this assassination before the election on the idea that he would be an easier target and there might be less retaliation if he wasn't the president-elect or sitting president and there would be less security.

But no, remember the assassination attempt unrelated in Butler, Pennsylvania, the intelligence community had already provided information about the Iranian threat to Donald Trump. It's why the Secret Service had more counter sniper teams than usual at that site. Then on September 11, an individual named Merchant from Pakistan with Iranian ties was arrested and charged with trying to organize a plot to kill politicians, powerful Americans, whether that was John Bolton, Mike Pompeo or Donald Trump, trying to recruit people.

And then we see this one. So, this is the third or fourth, depending, not counting other Iranian assassination plots on the ground in the U.S., so quite determined.

TAPPER: Evan Perez and John Miller, thanks to both of you. Really shocking stuff.

Turning to our politics lead now and new CNN reporting on the Trump transition team's work to staff up a second Trump administration. Let's bring in CNN's Kaitlan Collins.

Kaitlan, what are you hearing from your sources?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: Jake, it's basically been nonstop down in South Florida. I just got back from there this morning, and it's this flurry of activity that is happening at Mar-a-Lago. And the sense that you're -- that I'm getting from people when I talk to them is that basically everyone wants to be there and to get FaceTime with Donald Trump because how quickly this transition process is moving. Obviously, we saw him make one of his biggest decisions last night and picking Susie Wiles as his first chief of staff in a second Trump term. She ran his campaign.

You saw her on stage the other night in his victory speech. And I was told that was always going to be the first decision because he was urged to move quickly on that. So there is some kind of center of gravity as all this transition process is underway.

Obviously, it's a lot of lobbying. It's a lot of people forming alliances with one another while trying to get other people killed out of consideration for certain job. I mean, this is kind of the standard practice for the Trump orbit for how this goes. We saw this even once people are in the administration. It's something that is kind of on a rolling basis.

[17:05:05]

But I think what people know about Donald Trump this time around is how quickly and how important it is to be the last person in his ear and to have that influence. And so you're seeing this process play out from the patio of Mar-a-Lago, where everyone's -- you know, every table has been filled, I've been told, as people are trying to get in front of him, knowing that these next few days as he's making these decisions are going to be critical if you're seeking to get a job in the second Trump administration.

TAPPER: And you're also getting new details, Kaitlan, about who is under consideration for a role as energies are.

COLLINS: Yes, one person that has been at Mar-a-Lago in recent days is North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum. Obviously, he ran against Donald Trump for the Republican nomination, but ever since he dropped out, he's been a major surrogate of Donald Trump's. He was even briefly under consideration for the running mate position. Of course, ultimately, Donald Trump went with J.D. Vance. But Burgum has very much stayed within the fold.

Trump, you know, his jokes, called him Mr. Secretary. He wanted him to be the Energy secretary. I am told that is not a position that Doug Burgum is interested in. He has politely said, you know, that's really not the route I'd like to go down. And so what we're hearing right now is that they're considering making him this Energy czar position.

And obviously, Energy is something that Donald Trump is caring a lot about. He has said that on day one, Drill, Baby, Drill is going to be one of his top priorities. So something that he's really been putting a lot of focus on is what this energy portfolio is going to look like in a second Trump term. And he's considering this role for Doug Burgum.

He's also considering bringing back other people who were there before. Dave Bernhardt from the Interior Department, Andrew Wheeler, who was in charge of the EPA when Donald Trump was last in office. Those are all names that are on the list, I'm told. And so, that's an important portfolio of how it's shaping up. Because, Jake, those are some of the first actions we could see Donald Trump taking when he's in office.

I'm told they already have executive orders and regulation reversals ready to go. Obviously, when Biden took office, you saw him reversing a lot of what Trump did on the climate and energy front, expect that to go basically back where it was when Donald Trump takes office in January.

TAPPER: So one of the things that we've heard from Stephen Miller, who was a White House official in the first Trump administration, and no doubt will play a role in this -- in the second administration --

COLLINS: Yes.

TAPPER: -- is that the deportations are going to begin on Inauguration Day. Are they really going to move that quickly?

COLLINS: I think that's a big question right now. I think it still remains to be seen who's going to be running the Department of Homeland Security. And also what that actually looks like, Jake, because I talked to Chad Wolf last night, who, as you know, was the acting Secretary of Homeland Security the last time Trump was in office. And he was saying essentially, you know, this is already what they're doing in terms of ICE deporting violent criminals. He was arguing that they're not doing it aggressively enough under the Biden- Harris administration and that that's what would change.

But I think it's a real question of one, logistically, what this would look like. Would it involve local police, the National Guard, this kind of roundup that they have described as this mass deportation. But remember, Trump has faced criticism even from some Republicans over not carrying out his immigration pledges his first time in office. Governor Ron DeSantis said, you know, he deported fewer people than President Obama did. And so I do think that's a big question.

But obviously, immigration was a huge thing on voters' minds, and it was a huge pledge from Donald Trump. So, that's a question of whether or not it is fulfilled and if it happens as quickly as we hear. Often candidates on the campaign trail say, I'm going to do this on day one. Whether or not it actually happens on day one, Jake, remains to be seen.

TAPPER: What are your sources telling you about the prospect of Senator Marco Rubio serving as Secretary of State?

COLLINS: You know, Jake, it's so difficult in the transition process to keep up because it feels like almost every hour it changes who's in, you know, the first running for a position, who's falling out of favor with Donald Trump. It often depends on the last person he spoke to. There are some people in Trump's orbit who do not want Marco Rubio to be picked as his Secretary of State option. Obviously, Marco Rubio has been a big surrogate of Donald Trump's. He was also briefly in the running to BVP, and he certainly wants the Secretary of State position. But there are others who are in that role vying for it. And so, when I talk about these alliances that are being formed behind the scenes, while some people are advocating for one position and trying to get others to help them advocate, that's kind of exactly what you're seeing play out. So, whether or not he ultimately gets it remains to be seen. But we should expect, Jake, a lot of these decisions are going to be made in the coming days and coming weeks. This is going to move very quickly, I believe.

TAPPER: All right, Kaitlan Collins, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

And look out for Kaitlan in just a few hours on her show, "The Source with Kaitlan Collins." That's weeknights at 9:00 p.m. Eastern only here on CNN.

Another position that President-elect Donald Trump may have to fill when he takes power next January is the government's top ethics czar. The federal agency's chief role is to make sure those entering government comply with ethics laws to avoid conflicts of interest, at the very least, in corruption, at the most. President Biden officially nominated someone to the post in September of last year, but just two months ago, Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah objected to the confirmation, arguing that it was too close to the election.

[17:10:11]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MIKE LEE (R-UT): In the midst of unprecedented lawfare and political weaponization of the U.S. government against Donald Trump by the Biden-Harris administration, I've got grave concerns that have led me to oppose their partisan nominees and policies considered in this chamber, particularly between now and the election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: An ethics czar for any administration is vital, but especially for this one, considering Donald Trump's wealth and myriad investments. Just today, Donald Trump on Truth Social posted that he would not sell his stake in his social media company. CNN is reporting that post alone boosted the value of the stock, adding half billion dollars to Donald Trump's net worth. So what are the landmines that President Trump and the -- President-elect Trump and the American people should be looking out for?

Here now is "New York Times" investigated reporter Russ Buettner. He has written extensively about President-elect Trump's finances.

So, Russ, thanks for joining us. There's a lot to cover because he has so many investments and so much wealth. But what are the biggest potential conflicts you see as Mr. Trump prepares to return to Washington?

RUSS BUETTNER, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Well, I think the biggest ones are the ones that will put the most money in his pockets and because of the nature of his businesses and that he's chosen not to divest in those businesses in the past and seems unlikely to do that in the future, the biggest ones are the categories that just look like regular business transactions. And there's really nothing that the public would even necessarily know, sometimes for a year or two, maybe not forever. I think one of the biggest ones would be new licensing deals. Those require very little work by the Trump family. They were once like their greatest source of wealth.

In 2010 alone, Trump Organization reported on their tax returns, which we obtained $30 million in pure profits just from licensing and endorsement deals. That money mostly evaporated as the popularity of "The Apprentice" dwindled and especially after he announced his candidacy in ways that turned off a lot of people that he had deals with it basically like ended. And so he needs to kind of fill that. And those can bring a rush of millions of dollars right away, some of it structured four years later.

Another one would be to just host big events at some of his properties. LIV Golf, the Saudi Arabia backed golf tournament is already doing that.

TAPPER: Yes.

BUETTNER: That puts money into the coffers of the company, the golf course that's getting the business. But the public will never really see that. It's just buried on their balance sheet.

TAPPER: Yes. And LIV Golf owned by the Saudis, so it's just a way for the Saudis to transfer money to the president of the United States in a way. I mentioned a business that Trump did not have when he started his first term, which is the Trump Media and Technology Group that runs Truth Social, his social media organization. And today on that platform, the president-elect wrote this, quote, "There are fake, untrue, and probably illegal rumors and or statements made by perhaps market manipulators or short sellers that I'm interested in selling shares of Truth. Those rumors or statements are false. I have no intention of selling," unquote.

And then after he did that, the market value of Truth Social went up. Is that a potential conflict of interest for him to not invest from that company?

BUETTNER: That's a massive potential conflict of interest. Look, that's a business that doesn't really have a clear reason for existing. What Devin Nunes, the former congressman who's the CEO of Truth Social, says is that they exist as a place where social media site where people who want to express conservative views don't have to worry about having their accounts canceled. Well, that very much is like Twitter. The former Twitter under Elon Musk's ownership, now called X.

Truth Social has basically become a baby X. So what is its reason for existing? It's not very clear. It has revenue of about $4 million a year. That's roughly the same as a standalone Chick-Fil-A restaurant. Not a remarkable thing, but yet it has a valuation in the billions of dollars. It will be very easy for someone to make an offering for all their outstanding stock at something larger than what it's trading at and put literally billions of dollars in Donald Trump's pockets. And very difficult to untangle whether that was just a straight business decision or whether they were trying to curry favor with him. You could also just buy ads on Truth Social. They don't sell many ads, obviously, from their revenue. And you could greatly enhance the stock if you just bought $10 million in ads, that would almost triple their revenue for the year.

TAPPER: "The New York Times" reports, quote, "This year alone, the Trump Organization struck real estate deals in Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates or UAE," countries that are central to American foreign policy interests. How could those real estate deals impact U.S. foreign policy going forward?

[17:15:06]

BUETTNER: Well, look, we know from Donald Trump's history that he has, he remembers who's done well by him and who has insulted him, right? It's hard to imagine he's going to forget that Saudi Arabia backed interests, many of which are tied directly to Saudi Arabia's crown prince, would have put millions of dollars in his pocket in this year and are going to have agreed to put millions of dollars more in the years to come.

There's nothing that's more complex in our foreign relations than the Middle East. And how can people rightly not think that influence, that's going to somehow influence the decisions that he makes going forward? And all of these, again, are just licensing deals where they're not actually -- he doesn't have to put up any money. He doesn't have any money at risk. And he's not actually required to do any real work. It's just rent money for using his name.

TAPPER: All right, Ross Buettner, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

He just won reelection in a competitive swing district. So what does Republican Congressman Mike Lawler think about the Trump agenda? Will he support some of the very first moves the president-elect is previewing?

Plus, we just got an update from officials in California where firefighters are scrambling to contain a wildfire that has exploded in size over the last few days. We're seeing crews are on the ground with the new details. Stay with us.

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[17:20:05]

TAPPER: Continuing our politics lead, earlier today, Republican Congressman Jim Banks from Indiana, who was just elected to the U.S. Senate, endorsed one of President-elect Donald Trump's top proposal to deport millions, if not tens of millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM BANKS (R-IN), SENATOR-ELECT: Some conservative estimates say that there are at least 15 million illegals who have come into the country on Joe Biden's watch. It's my hope that we deport every single one of them that we can. And it starts with deporting violent criminals who are in the United States who came here illegally, who have committed violent crimes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Joining us now to discuss this, Congressman Mike Lawler, a Republican who just won a second term in a closely watched swing district in New York.

Congressman, congratulations. Your race was one of the most expensive House contests. One of the top 10 Democrats thought they had a good chance of flipping your seat. They did not. Why do you think you won?

REP. MIKE LAWLER (R-NY): Well, thanks for having me, Jake. I'm just glad that my face is no longer on every single commercial in New York. But look, it was a big win. We won by over 25,000 votes or seven points in a district Joe Biden previously won by 10 points. When all of the votes are tabulated, Donald Trump is either going to win the district or come very close to winning it.

And I think a big part of it is the issues, from the affordability crisis to the migrant crisis, which we've felt very acutely here in New York to obviously, the conflict in the Middle East. I have one of the largest Jewish communities in America in my district. And, you know, I think the work that we did over the last two years really paid off. And voters appreciated my bipartisan approach. I was rated the fourth most bipartisan member of Congress.

The fact that I was able to get legislation passed in a divided government, 10 bills, five of which were signed into law by President Biden. So I think we did the job. And obviously, you know, frankly, my opponent, Mondaire Jones, was one of the more extreme progressive members of Congress during his two years. And I think voters saw the clear contrast.

TAPPER: So let's talk about the migrant crisis, as you referred to it. During the campaign, former President Trump vowed to begin the, quote, "largest deportation" operation in the history of our country. Take a listen to what former and current, I think, senior adviser to President-elect Trump Stephen Miller said on Fox when he was asked, when will this deportation begin?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: When will the deportations begin?

STEPHEN MILLER, FORMER TRUMP ADVISER: As President Trump said, they begin on Inauguration Day as soon as he takes the oath office.

(END VIDEO CLIP) TAPPER: So how exactly would that work? Because there wouldn't be a Department of Homeland security secretary, et cetera. Everybody would just be acting. Map it up, game it out for us.

LAWLER: Well, look, you have ten and a half million people who crossed into the United States over the last three and a half plus years under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, most of them illegally. They, under catch and release, were released into the United States pending their asylum and parole cases being heard. When these asylum and parole cases are finally heard, 70 plus percent of them are rejected, Jake.

And so, you have a major problem here on several fronts. Number one, the parole and asylum process is fundamentally broken. Number two, you have the fact that criminals were allowed to enter into the country, people who were previously convicted of murder or rape or assault in their country of origin. You have people who are committing crimes here in the United States. You have precincts in midtown Manhattan where three quarters of the people being arrested are migrants.

So there is a serious challenge that we have seen, especially in major cities across America. I think you will obviously start there in terms of the cooperation between immigration and customs officials and local authorities where we have people who have been arrested for committing crimes while here pending their asylum and parole claims being heard. This is going to take a lot of work and effort. It's not going to be done overnight. But obviously, I think the point that was being made is President Trump and his administration are going to move expeditiously to actually start enforcing immigration law here in the United States of America.

And I will tell you, just last week in my district, Jake --

TAPPER: Yes.

LAWLER: -- we had a situation where an illegal immigrant killed a young boy and injured his mother and his brother. And it's unconscionable. The guy was previously deported, came back into the United States, was arrested on a DWI and local official -- authorities in Westchester could not cooperate with ICE because it's a sanctuary county. So, there's a lot of policy that needs to change here to actually have a functioning immigration system.

[17:25:07]

TAPPER: Congressman Mike Lawler, thank you and congratulations again on your reelection.

Democrat Karen Finney is back with me, this time with Republican Marc Lotter. Thanks to both of you for being here.

Marc, congratulations on your preferred candidate winning. You just heard Congressman Lawler talking about Trump's promise to deport people who are illegally. Let's take the violent criminals off the board there because obviously, I don't think anybody cares. They should not be in this country to begin with. But we're talking about potentially tens of millions of people who are

in this country illegally, some of whom are married to American citizens, some of whom have children who are citizens, many of whom have jobs and, you know, entire industries, especially agriculture and tourism, depend upon them. Do you really think that there's going to be a roundup of all 20 million of them over the next four years to expel them all?

MARC LOTTER, CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER, AMERICA FIRST POLICY INSTITUTE: Well, obviously, and I don't speak for the president-elect, I'm going to get used to saying, that the president-elect or his administration or his transition, but I think what you do is you prioritize. You talked about the felons and the criminals.

I think next after that, there are approximately, maybe just under 2 million people who have already gone through the entire process. They've had their asylum claims, they've had their appeals, they've been ordered to be removed by an immigration judge, and yet ICE hasn't done it. So there's another 2 million or so that don't belong here who've been ordered to be removed, you start getting rid of them.

And then obviously, as you encounter more and more people, then I think that's something you do. But if you're married to a United States citizen, I mean, they could easily take care of this right now, go back to your home country and apply. You are married to a United States citizen. There are pathways that you can take to come back here legally and have this not be a problem anymore. Might be an inconvenience for a couple of months, but this takes that off the table.

KAREN FINNEY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Actually, I think it's more like 10 years. So, again, we're talking about separating families. And we did just see, you know, this is one of the things President Biden was trying to address because I believe it's about 25 percent of people are in mixed status families. And what it would mean --

TAPPER: Twenty-five percent of what the people -- undocumented.

FINNEY: Of undocumented.

TAPPER: OK.

FINNEY: And so, and I might be wrong on that statistic, I'll put that out there.

TAPPER: OK.

FINNEY: But we would be talking about mothers and fathers either having to take their children with them or leave their children here. But look, this was an issue that I think the Republicans brilliantly demagogue, demonized and spread disinformation. And one of the things we never really heard during the election was how is it going to work? Agreed, people who are committing crime shouldn't be here. I think we can all agree on that.

But then the how does the rest of it work? And how we see that unfold, I think is going to be -- is already terrifying to a lot of people who are, you know, imagine if you are a person of color in this country, perhaps maybe you look like you could be an illegal immigrant. So am I going to have to show you my papers? Am I going to have to show you my ID? What is the systematic way they're going to go through and take people away?

And we may be talking about separating children from their parents, but the other piece of this is that we've not had an honest conversation about is the loss of revenue. These are people, as you pointed out, some of them, who have jobs where they're already paying Social Security taxes, for example, where they are working for wages that most Americans wouldn't accept. We saw this in Springfield, was part of the reason the Haitian migrants went there is because --

TAPPER: Well, those are legal. They have temporary protected status.

FINNEY: They are legal. People didn't want the jobs, is my point.

TAPPER: Right.

FINNEY: And so it's going -- there's going to be a huge economic impact in addition to the humanitarian crisis that we could be facing.

TAPPER: It could cause -- I mean, if Donald Trump had the power to snap his fingers, right? And just have every undocumented immigrant in the United States disappear. And J.D. Vance, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, it's the first time I've said that, has suggested that temporary -- people with TPS status, temporary protective status, like the Haitians in Springfield and others, should not -- that should go away. They should not have that status.

And when asked about Dreamers, DACA recipients, people who were brought here when they were children through no fault of their own, there have been attempts to give them protected status. He was -- he didn't directly answer the question, but he suggested that they should leave, too.

If Trump could just snap his finger like that would actually cause economic calamity. I get why. I'm not saying one way or the other what should be. I mean, people should theoretically not be hiring -- you know, have an entire agricultural system depending on undocumented immigrants. But that's the reality.

I know Donald Trump doesn't want to hurt the economy. I mean, so is the Republican establishment, the new one, going to have to accept that there are levels here and maybe some people do get temporary status?

LOTTER: Well, I'm not sure if it would be actual temporary status. I mean, you're going to target your high priority, whether it's the criminals, those who have already been --

TAPPER: Sure.

LOTTER: -- ordered to be removed, and then you start -- and then obviously sealing the problem. So we stopped the problem coming across the border. And then I think we saw during the Trump administration part one that the president was open to reforming the immigration system, including allowing more pathways for, like, agricultural workers and things like that as part of a broader package. And so, if you can work with Congress and we can come to some sort of an agreement, again, I don't speak for him or his --

TAPPER: Right, right.

[17:30:10]

LOTTER: -- his administration. But I think he's shown a willingness to say let's get the problem of the criminals, get those ordered, gone, let's seal the border, secure the border. And then let's talk about what we need to do to protect the economy and those people who are actually contributing.

FINNEY: I just think it's potentially an economic and humanitarian calamity, that we never really got the details. That we really asked for the details about it and so how this unfolds.

TAPPER: Oh, we -- we asked for the details. All right. That was one of my questions at the debate --

FINNEY: OK. Fair.

TAPPER: -- in June 27th. He just didn't give them. I don't even know that they exist.

FINNEY: People -- let me just say it this way. Voters didn't seem to really care about the details. They seem fine. So you know what you're going to get the government that you just voted for.

TAPPER: All right, well, that's what this country is founded on. Karen and Marc, appreciate it. Why is Elon Musk joining a phone call between President-elect Trump and a world leader? What are they talking about? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay, stay, stay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not Jewish. I'm not Jewish. I'm not Jewish.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: I'm not Jewish that man yells. I'm not Jewish. Those pleas for a man being beaten in Amsterdam hoping by saying that he wasn't Jewish, the thugs would not attack him in the anti-Semitic ambush that swept Amsterdam last night. Dutch police arrested dozens of people who violently attacked supporters of Israel's soccer team.

[17:35:17]

And now some of those soccer fans are back in Israel after the government of Israel organized emergency evacuation flights out of the Netherlands. Let's get right to CNN's Matthew Chance at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. Matthew, what are you hearing from these evacuees?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes well, there's lots of them been -- been coming through the gates right behind me here at the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. In fact, there have been five evacuation flights, according to airport officials here that have come from Amsterdam bringing, you know, Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer supporters back home after their ordeal.

And of the people we've spoken to, some of them have been injured. They spoke about how terrified their experience -- terrifying their experiences have been. They talked about how after the match had ended, there were gangs of people waiting for them, attacking them, shouting at them, asking them to show them their passports to check whether they were Israeli and then attacking to them.

We spoke to, you know, one of those people earlier. His name is Matan Haddad. We couldn't keep him with us. He has -- he's had a long day. He wanted to get home. But take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHANCE: What happened?

MATAN HADDAD, ATTACKED IN AMSTERDAM: They waited for us when they come back from the -- the train. And they just jump on us. And all the -- all the knives. And the -- all of them just attacked our -- me and my friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHANCE: Well, Jake, well, obviously all those people that have been coming back, relieved to be back in Israel where it's relatively safe, they think. But one of the complaints we've been hearing is that enough was not done by the Dutch police. This is coming from the fans that are coming back to provide security. They've talked about how they didn't see any police at all after the match had finished.

And that's something that tallies with what Israeli officials are telling me you know, privately, that they don't think enough was done by the Dutch authorities to ensure the security of these fans. And Israeli officials are now saying that they are reviewing the security situation for all future Israeli sporting fixtures to make sure this kind of, you know, this kind of a -- attack, this kind of targeting doesn't happen in the future, Jake.

TAPPER: Certainly puts in under a new light when people who don't think Israel should exist tell Israelis to go back to Europe. Certainly puts -- put that -- puts that slur in a new light. Matthew Chance in Tel Aviv, thanks so much.

Some breaking news now in our World Lead, the United States has asked Qatar to kick the terrorist group Hamas out of its country and Qatar has agreed. Let's go to CNN's M.J. Lee. M.J., tell us more. Why did the Biden administration request this? What happens now?

M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is a pretty significant development in the Middle East. The U.S. in recent weeks asking the country of Qatar to kick the terror group Hamas out of its country, and Qatar has accepted and agreed to do so and given Hamas notice in recent days. This is according to U.S. and Qatari sources. All of this again has taken place in the last few weeks.

But we are told by our sour -- sources that the final impetus for the U.S. making this request of Qatar included the death of American- Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin. As well as Hamas recently rejecting yet another ceasefire and hostage release deal in the Israel-Hamas war. Jake, this is what one senior adminis -- administration official told CNN.

They said Hamas is a terrorist group that has killed Americans and continues to hold Americans hostage after rejecting repeated proposals to release hostages, its leaders should no longer be welcome in the capitals of any American partner. Just some important context here, obviously, we know that there are senior leaders of the Hamas group residing in Doha. This is the Qatari capital. And this is one of the reasons why Qatar has been such an important player in the ongoing negotiations and attempts to bring a ceasefire to the war.

Some of the most important negotiations have in fact taken place in Doha. And clearly this is just one more sign that the U.S. believe that the talks and the efforts to try to get a pause to the war had completely stalled in recent weeks. We are told that when and exactly how quickly Hamas members would be ejected for from Qatar. That's not entirely clear.

And then of course, the question of where would they actually go. One expected country might be Turkey, according to sources. But that's not an outcome that the U.S. is likely to approve of for all of the same reasons that we just talked about. Now, all of this I should just emphasize did take place before this week's U.S. presidential election.

[17:40:03]

And of course, a huge question now for the incoming Trump White House is whether this Israel-Hamas war is still going to be ongoing by the time Donald Trump is swarmed back in on January 20th.

TAPPER: All right, M.J. Lee at the White House for us, thank you so much.

Calls between world leaders and incoming presidents are standard fare, but perhaps not so standard. A billionaire tech mogul hopping on the line too. A source tell CNN that Elon Musk joined President-elect Trump calls with -- President-elect Trump's call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week. A story first broken by CNN contributor and Axios reporter Barak Ravid. CNN's Nic Robertson is in CNN's London bureau right now. And Nic, these three men haven't exactly seen eye to eye during Russia's more than two-year onslaught on Ukraine. Tell us more. NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. and what -- we don't know exactly what was said in that conversation, but we can easily imagine what President Zelenskyy would have felt having Elon Musk join call. Look, Elon Musk, his SpaceX company owns and runs the satellite communications system Starlink. That is the -- one of the most fundamental and important pieces of -- of hardware that the Ukrainian military has on the ground in Ukraine to fight that war.

So if you're a president or President-elect Donald Trump and you're looking at a way to signal to the Ukrainian president that maybe that war is going to have to come to an end on terms that are not favorable to you and this is pretty much what President-elect Donald Trump has indicated already.

A way of signaling that is to have Elon Musk be on that phone call because in a switch he can take down that -- that -- that system. No amount of weapons flowing into Ukraine can be useful if you don't have the communications at the battlefront. This isn't, of course, the only challenge that Donald Trump is going to face as he tries to figure out how to end that war in Ukraine with Russia's illegal occupation of parts of it in a day, as he stated.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Raging Wars in Ukraine and the Mideast, an informal alliance of enemies, Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are the obvious changes in world order, President-elect Donald Trump inherits. Less talked about since he left office in 2021, the political weakening of some of his former putative allies, particularly in Europe.

Elections in France undermined President Emmanuel Macron's standing. Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz has a tanking economy and a collapsing governing coalition. Both of these E.U. powerhouses losing political ground to right wing populists who are on the rise across Europe.

In Italy, a right wing populist, Giorgia Meloni won elections, is a fan of Trump. But Trump also lost supporters.

BORIS JOHNSON, FORMER UNITED KINGDOM PRIME MINISTER: Thank you all very much.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): U.K. PM Boris Johnson gone from power. The Conservative Party trounced in recent elections by trend bucking Keir Starmer's left leaning Labor Party, where all these changes get tested first, likely over Trump's campaign promise to end Russia's war in Ukraine in a day.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: I'll have that done in 24 hours.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): And threats to pull America's Ukraine funding. As almost 50 European leaders gathered in Budapest. Just two days after the U.S. elections, Trump's victory and Ukraine a top topic. Trump ally and meeting host Hungarian PM Viktor Orban in close conversation with Macron and Starmer. Starmer then with Macron, just the tip of the iceberg of debate on this frosty issue. And Starmer later with Ukraine Zelenskyy.

KEIR STARMER, PRIME MINISTER OF THE UNITED KINGDOM: As you know, our support for Ukraine is unwavering.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): The unspoken question in Budapest, can Europe go it alone?

ALEXANDER DE CROO, BELGIAN PRIME MINISTER: We should be very clear on this. European security is not something that we outsource to someone else, for example, to the United States.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Macron said the same thing. But already clear, the opening pitch to Trump, we need you.

DE CROO: We are open to discuss with the United States on how we can work better together.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): And at the sharp end of Europe's cell, NATO's new chief, another change for Trump.

MARK RUTTE, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: I look forward to sit down with Donald Trump to discuss how we can face the threats collectively.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): It's a bold gambit. But read through it, Europe isn't ready to stand up to Putin alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: So how is it actually going to sound when Mark Rutte gets in a room with President-elect Donald Trump? And one of the things that they're very likely to -- to be telling him is that -- is that, you know, NATO upped its spend at prep -- NATO upped -- NATO was able to up its spend at Donald Trump's persuasion, heavy persuasion during his last presidency. So that's, I think how they're going to try to sell it this time, Jake.

[17:45:26]

TAPPER: All right, Nic Robertson, thank you so much. Nic Robertson from our London bureau.

After an election where candidates made history in a number of races, I'm going to be joined live by the woman who was just elected the first transgender member of Congress. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Back with our Politics Lead, a lot of history was made this election cycle. In addition to what President Trump achieved. Angela Alsobrooks and Lisa Blunt Rochester are going to be the first two Black women to serve in the U.S. Senate at the same time, ever. Former congressman Andy Kim, I guess he's still a congressman. Andy Kim of New Jersey, he's going to be the first Korean-American ever elected to the U.S. Senate. Hopefully we'll talk to him next week.

Bernie Moreno of Ohio, he's going to be the first South-American born U.S. Senator ever. And Sarah McBride of Delaware, will be the first openly transgender individual to ever serve in the U.S. Congress.

And joining me now, is Sarah McBride, Congresswoman-Elect, Sarah McBride herself, former state senator. Are you former state senator? Have you resigned that already? I want to be technical here. Congratulations on your win nonetheless.

[17:50:20]

REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT SARAH MCBRIDE (D-DE): Thank you very much. Still technically a state Senator until probably January 3rd.

TAPPER: All right, well, I'm going to call you Congresswoman-elect because you've earned it. So you won your race with almost 60 percent of the vote. And I have to ask, you're running your campaign at a time and as a Philadelphian, I know the media market you're in. You were swamped with Repub -- your T.V. stations, were swamped with tele -- television ads, more than $60 million of ads going after Kamala Harris on the issue of transgender Americans. Including in sports, tax funded -- taxpayer funded prisoner surgeries and all that. And -- and that must have been a really weird position to be while you're making history at this time.

MCBRIDE: Well, it -- it definitely was on the airwaves here in Delaware. But despite that, it's not what I was hearing from voters as I was traveling up and down the state talking to Democrats, Independents and Republicans alike. I mean, you have to remember, Delaware is an at large district. We've got urban, suburban and rural parts of this district. And I was talking to people all across.

And what I was hearing about was not the manufactured culture war that Donald Trump was trying to utilize to distract from the fact that he had absolutely no policy solutions for the real issues that face this country. What I was hearing about -- was the -- was the real issues, the need for affordable healthcare, affordable housing and affordable childcare for all of our neighbors, the need to protect reproductive freedom.

And those are the issues that I ran my campaign on, including our ads in the Philadelphia media market. And I'm really grateful that once again, Delaware has shown that here in our state of neighbors, we are fair minded and we judge candidates based on their ideas and not their identities. And Tuesday night's victory, I think reflects that fact and reflects the fact that those attacks really didn't resonate with voters. They were looking for a strong economic message and a vision for this country that builds a federal government that respects all of us. And an economy that works for all of us. I think that's what Delaware voters were saying on Tuesday.

TAPPER: So you come from a -- a blue state. You have Democratic governor, two Democratic senators, you're the Democratic at large elect -- elected congresswoman. You're about to be in the minority in -- in the U.S. House coming from your State Senator. And you're in the majority there. How do you plan on working with Republicans, many of whom, you know, might be part of these culture wars on the other side?

MCBRIDE: Sure. Well, I think in a democracy you not only have to have conversations across disagreement, but you've got to be willing to work with people across disagreement. Throughout my campaign, I said I will work with anyone who is willing to work with me to help Delaware. I'm proud that during my time in the Delaware State Senate, nearly every bill that I passed, passed with bipartisan support.

And that includes policies like paid family leave and the largest investment in our state's Medicaid program since the Affordable Care Act. And so as I head down to -- to -- to Washington, there's still some races to be called. But if it is in a Republican controlled Congress, when I need to stand up to the Trump-Vance administration and their Project 2025 agenda, I will. But I will also continue to seek common ground with Republicans of conscience who are willing to work with Democrats to find common solutions for our shared challenges as a nation.

TAPPER: You're one of the few wins for Democrats on Tuesday night. I mean, there were 190 something, but you know what I mean. It was not a great night for your party. What conversation do you think Democrats need to be having right now about the future of the Democratic Party?

MCBRIDE: Look, I -- I think Vice President Harris ran a great campaign. And it -- it is clear right now that because of the cost of living crisis, it's not a good time to be a party in power in any Western democracy, not just here in the United States.

But I -- I think as we look forward, I -- I want to build a Democratic Party that truly sees and respects all of us whether that's folks in urban communities, suburban communities, rural communities, whether that's Democrats or Republicans. We need to make sure that we do a better job, all of us Democratic elected officials, but also Democratic advocates and activists of truly seeing the very real pain that exists across this country.

And to live the truth that people, we don't have to believe that people are right for what they're facing to be wrong. And we don't have to believe that they're right for us to try to right that wrong. And I think we can do more to really demonstrate that not just through policy, but with our words and our presence. The power of our proximity in demonstrating that genuine compassion and care for everyone, regardless of whether they voted for us or not.

[17:55:10]

TAPPER: All right. Congresswoman-elect Sarah McBride from the small wonder state of Delaware, thank you so much. Good to see you. Congratulations again. I'll see you here in D.C.

MCBRIDE: Thank you.

TAPPER: First classical art, then modern art and now artificial art. There's at least one buyer out there, and that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Our last leads now. They start in the National Lead. California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency as firefighters scramble to put out the mountain fire burning north of Los Angeles. Dozens of homes have been reduced to ashes. Authorities have issued more than 14,000 evacuation orders in the last two days.

Those are the bells of the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris ringing today for the first time in more than five years. The bells, as you might recall, were partially destroyed in that horrific fire back in 2019. The cathedral is expected to fully reopen in about a month.

In our Tech Lead, the only thing more interesting than these paintings is the artist behind them. These pic -- portraits of British computer scientist Alan Turing were made by an AI powered robot, an AI powered robot named Ada. Those paintings sold for more than a million dollars. Ada said the portrait invites viewers to reflect on the godlike nature of AI. If nothing else, it certainly has a human like ego. And there's Ada right there. Look at that. That's some weird stuff.

[18:00:10]

Coming up Sunday on State of the Union, Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, House Judiciary Chairman Republican Jim Jordan of Ohio, that Sunday morning at 9:00 eastern and again at noon here on CNN. The news continues on CNN with Wolf Blitzer in The Situation Room. I'll see you Monday. I'm going to get some rest. I hope you will, too.