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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Trump Picks Bondi For Attorney General After Gaetz Withdraws; Sean "Diddy" Combs Tries To Get Released On Bail; Russian Leaning On North Korea For Weapons, Troops. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired November 22, 2024 - 16:00   ET

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


[16:00:08]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The cafe shared the moves in this now viral TikTok. Customers busting out to the rhythm of the Macarena. This has more than 7 million views so far, an untold number of free cups of coffee.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: People would give me coffee to not dance. I'll tell you that much.

SANCHEZ: No, we've been waiting for you to show your moves here.

KEILAR: I did it once. That was it.

SANCHEZ: Right now? Right now?

KEILAR: No more.

Oh, it's THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER starting right now.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Chaos in the construction of the cabinet.

THE LEAD starts right now.

Former senator/WNBA team owner Kelly Loeffler is expected to be the next name in the new Trump administration.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins has all the brand new reporting. Will Mr. Trump close out the week with any other big names thrown out there?

Plus, Matt Gaetz is officially out of two jobs. First, he withdrew his name for U.S. attorney general, and today he announced he will not return to Congress despite having won reelection just a few days ago. So what happens with that house ethics committee report about him?

And Sean "Diddy" Combs in court, the CNN reporting that his attorneys want to use as they try to get the former music mogul out of jail.

(MUSIC)

TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

Today, we're being reintroduced to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. She's President-elect Donald Trump's new selection to be the U.S. attorney general. You could say the gates of opportunity opened up for her when, of course, thank you for the pity laugh over there, when former Congressman Matt Gaetz reading the room, took his name out of contention for the AG spot yesterday.

Now, Gaetz today announced that he will not rejoin Congress, even though he did win reelection earlier this month and that unreleased House Ethics Committee report into Gaetz over alleged sexual misconduct, allegations he denies, would have surely been waiting to drop had he decided to return to the House.

Now, Bondi does not appear to have that sort of baggage to contend with, so Trump's allies think she will have a much easier confirmation process in the U.S. Senate. She does have a reputation for being media savvy and an effective litigator. She was part of Trump's defense team during the first impeachment trial, for which he was acquitted. She also toed the line on Trump's election lies after he lost in 2020. We'll have much more on Trump's bond with Bondi just ahead.

And we're also still waiting for Trump to decide who will fill that last major administration role, treasury secretary.

Sources tell CNN that Trump is also expected to offer former Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler the role of the secretary of agriculture.

As he contemplates those roles today, Mr. Trump got another win in the legal sphere. The judge overseeing his criminal hush money trial postponed his sentencing. Remember, he was convicted. That sentencing has been postponed indefinitely.

Let's go to CNN's Kristen Holmes in West Palm Beach, Florida, for the latest on the Trump transition.

Kristen, now that Mr. Trump has picked an attorney general nominee, one who is not Matt Gaetz, what is next for Gaetz and what's next for Trump in terms of administration picks?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, well, when it comes to Matt Gaetz, as you noted, he has said that he will not be rejoining Congress. There had been a question about that because he was just reelected. He had resigned from this congressional session. Would he go back?

But, of course, as we know, it is still looming over him. This investigation, this congressional ethics report and what exactly it means for him if he was to go back into Congress. Now, right now, it is unclear what he is going to do. In an interview today, his first since he withdrew his name, he essentially said that he would be doing things to fight for Donald Trump, but did not give any specifics.

There are certainly rumors swirling that Donald Trump will try to get him into the administration, into a post that he wouldn't have to be confirmed, but none of that is confirmed or clear whether or not Donald Trump is going to go that route, when it comes to Matt Gaetz particularly as now, Donald Trump has shifted his focus to Pam Bondi.

Now in terms of actual cabinet picks, that is a good question. It has been a slow drip, drip yesterday everything got completely derailed by the attorney general. He spent the day. Donald Trump spent the day getting -- having a meeting with Pam Bondi, getting that name out. As we know attorney general is the most important job for him.

But one of the big question still remains, who is going to be the secretary of treasury? We are still told that it is down to four people. And of those four people, it still remains unclear which one of them could actually get the job.

The reason why this is so critical right now is that there are so many things that Donald Trump promised that hinge on the economy and therefore hinge on whoever the secretary of treasury is, so they can actually fill those economic jobs. I have been told for a full week that it was coming every single day, except for yesterday. They had some other things they had to deal with.

So, we'll see if we get it today or over the weekend. But clearly, they believe that they need to get this name out there. It's something we've obviously been hearing for quite some time.

[16:05:02]

TAPPER: All right. Kristen Holmes, thanks so much.

Let's go now to CNN chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid.

Paula, tell us more about Trump's attorney general pick Pam Bondi whom we as a nation first got to know a little bit when she was attorney general of Florida. What are her qualifications? Why did Trump pick her?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, she comes to this job with decades of law enforcement experience, there's no question she is qualified. The concern is whether she can be impartial in this role that Trump has made clear he wants to leverage to pursue his political rivals.

She was a prosecutor in Florida for 18 years before she became the state's first female attorney general. One of her biggest accomplishments while in that role was targeting pill mills, at a time when Florida was considered the pill mill capital of the U.S.

But one particular event in her -- her record really has drawn a lot of scrutiny, and that is in 2013. Her office received complaints about individuals being scammed by Trump University seminars. Her political committee received a $25,000 donation from the Donald Trump Foundation in September of that year, and soon after, she dropped her investigation into the alleged fraud citing insufficient grounds.

Now, Bondi has denied wrongdoing and she was cleared by an ethics panel, but that is likely something that's going to come up during a confirmation hearing. But since that time, she has been a top Trump surrogate. She defended him in his first impeachment. She also defended him in the court of public opinion over the past several years while he has faced multiple criminal cases. But after Trump lost in 2020, Bondi did push false claims about the

outcome of the election and amplified those lies and that's one of the things that people are concerned about. That is an example of why people are concerned about whether she may try to use the enormous power and resources of the Justice Department to pursue priorities that Trump has made clear, including going after his political rivals. So that is probably going to be one of the main questions that she will face during her confirmation hearings.

TAPPER: All right. Paula Reid, thanks so much.

And our panel is here to discuss.

Margaret, let's -- let's revisit what Pam Bondi was saying on television after the 2020 election as Trump was falsely saying that the election was rigged?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BONDI: We are still on the ground in Pennsylvania. I'm here right now, and we are not going anywhere until they declare that we won Pennsylvania.

We know that ballots have been dumped. There were ballots that were found early on. We've heard that people were receiving ballots that that were dead. You know, the thing that's happening all over the country --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were they legal ballots?

BONDI: It is about the integrity of this election. And every vote as Mayor Giuliani said in every state must be counted fairly.

We need to fix this. We need to remedy this now because we've won Pennsylvania and we want every vote to be counted in a fair way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So without doing a deep dive on all the falsehoods in her claims, Trump lost Pennsylvania in 2020, fair and square.

He won it fair and square in 2024. If he had lost it, we would have been hearing the same nonsense.

But do you think that's disqualifying?

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No. First of all, I think it's important she was saying this right after the election, and if you recall, the problems in Pennsylvania were that there wasn't a lot of transparency in that they were in this COVID area where people couldn't get in and view the convention center in Philadelphia.

They improved that in 2020. I mean, they created a facility only designated to count these votes. They really they really addressed all of the concerns that created the groundwork for those kind of conspiracy theories to foster that, she was propagating and promulgating.

They have since been disproved. I mean, we know very clearly after many audits who won Pennsylvania in 2020. So I think what she has to do is answer to the Senate, who won Pennsylvania in 2020 and be clear about the things that she said in because there's a plausible deniability for her.

Look, it was a few days after the election. Nobody knew it was before the election had been called. And there was very slow counting and new rules that had been passed in Pennsylvania because of the pandemic.

So it's, I think, fair for her to clarify if the statement she made two days after the election at the time when they were still counting the ballots about dead people counting, she still believes to be true, because what we know in the in the fullness of time is that they were not true and that she was spreading conspiracy -- conspiracy theories.

TAPPER: You -- Rebecca, you worked for a senator from the great commonwealth of Pennsylvania, John Fetterman. What do you think?

REBECCA KATZ, STRATEGIST, GALLEGO AND FETTERMAN SENATE CAMPAIGNS: Listen, I think that that the reason she did that is because election denial is the price of entry into Trump world, right? There is nobody that he is nominating to anything who actually has gone on record to say he lost, right?

And she is one of them. Yes. She is going to uphold the law, I guess as attorney general, but I -- she -- she had to go for election denial because everyone around Trump went for an election denial.

HOOVER: Yeah. And that -- that was, to your point, it was -- it was the price of entry. It also represents, I think, that she is caught up in this hyper partisan media ecosystem that is also an economy, right?

[16:10:04]

And so part of her job --

TAPPER: Yeah, just to interrupt for one second, she was -- this is -- this America First Policy Institute, which is the MAGA think tank. And she -- she led the legal arm of that.

HOOVER: She led the legal arm for that.

TAPPER: No crime in that. But it's part of this -- this MAGA economy, yeah.

HOOVER: There's this MAGA economy. And also and then she goes on Fox News and uses her sort of credentialed position as the attorney general to then give her more statue in that ecosystem, media ecosystem and also economy.

And so I think I'm not trying to trying to diminish the fact that she was absolutely spreading conspiracy theories and smoke and haze around 2020. But if she's going to be the attorney general, she should be able to say who won in 2020. And we know that Pennsylvania was very clearly a Biden win. We'll see.

TAPPER: Yeah. I mean, look, this is -- she's not running for campaign manager of Donald Trump or even a campaign lawyer for Donald Trump. This -- this is a contest or a confirmation process for U.S. attorney general. This is the chief law enforcement official in the land.

JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Absolutely. And this is in the Trump world we either have bad nominees or we have horrible nominees, right? I think in this category, she's probably a bad nominee, right?

TAPPER: That's a compliment?

SIMMONS: That would be a compliment.

TAPPER: What your view.

SIMMONS: Correct, because you know it's clear that -- it's clear that she is a denier, right?

KATZ: Yeah.

SIMMONS: An election denier. But all these Trump nominees are going to kind of fit that mold. They're all going to have to run around kissing the ring of Donald Trump in order to get the job they're going to have.

The question for me is, you know, will she stand up for the Constitution? I don't know that question. We've got to have a serious Senate hearing, and let's hear how much she's going to say. There are limits to the presidential power. Am I going to be on a hotline with the Oval Office, with the president of the United States telling me to launch investigations against people?

Those are the kind of questions that I think Democrats and Republicans who care about separation of powers are going to have to ask her.

KATZ: Right.

TAPPER: And I will say that, and, Rebecca, I don't know what you think about this, but she as -- she was attorney general of Florida for eight years, I think from 2011 to 2019. So presumably, her experience with the FBI is not just being investigated by the FBI, right?

KATZ: She does step up, if you will.

TAPPER: Well, I mean, like, she knows that even if there are problems that need to be worked out, that that is an organization that does a lot of good.

KATZ: I mean, she has a history of actually being a prosecutor which is, you know, she's actually qualified in some sense to be attorney general, which is a step up from Gaetz.

TAPPER: Another compliment, right. KATZ: But what I will say is Republicans are in the minority of the Senate -- in the majority of the Senate, right? So we talk as if Democrats have to approve this. So, Republicans are the ones who are going to say yes or no on this stuff.

TAPPER: Right.

KATZ: So you have to -- if you get a majority -- if you get over 50 Republicans there in right, and its like, who's going to who is going to come out against her? And that's --

TAPPER: I don't think --

KATZ: The math is not there.

SIMMONS: No, they're going to say that -- at this point, they're going to save their power -- their powder I imagine particularly for people like Tulsi Gabbard, right? Who wants to be the director of national intelligence. That gets to my bad versus horrible.

There's a point where the national security of the United States has to matter here. And some of these people like the defense nominee and the DNI nominee are people who we are entrusting the very livelihood and security of our children and our families. We can't possibly do that.

TAPPER: Yeah. All right. Everyone, stick around. We got a lot more to talk about as Mr. Trump makes his final cabinet picks. Democrats have some decisions of their own about the future of the Democratic Party, whether the Democrats, and who best to lead it, a candidate trying to chart a new direction for Democrats is going to join us next.

Plus, Sean "Diddy" Combs in court trying to get released on bail, a CNN reporter was also there. We're going to go to the courthouse to learn what went down. And Russia's war in Ukraine, getting more backup from North Korea. CNN on the ground there to show the proof.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:17:29]

TAPPER: We continue with our politics lead and two big questions Democrats are asking themselves now that they've lost control of the White House and the House and the Senate. What went wrong? And how do they fix it?

Part of that answer will come early next year, when Democrats choose a new party chairman or chairwoman. Among the candidates is Minnesota's Democratic-farmer-labor party chairman Ken Martin, who joins us now.

Ken, good to see you.

"The New York Times" quotes you as saying that the next leader of the DNC has a chance to, quote, re-imagine the Democratic national committee and focus on some things that they haven't been doing for some time, while also really trying to get at what happened in this election, unquote.

So let's take those points separately. First of all, what happened? What went wrong?

KEN MARTIN, DNC VICE CHAIR: Well, look, I mean, we know a lot of things to be true at this point right? We lost with Latino voters. We lost with women, white women. We lost, of course, with many demographic groups.

But we don't know as to how and why. And so, look, we've got to get back to winning again. I'm not here to win the argument. I do think an important piece from last year, though was that there was some research that showed for the first time in modern history, that the perceptions of the two major political parties have actually flipped.

For the first time, the majority of Americans believe that the Republican Party best represents the interests of the working class and the poor, and the Democratic Party represents the interests of the of the wealthy and the elite. That is a damning indictment on our party brand. And that's something we have to figure out as we move forward, is how we actually reconnect our very popular policy ideas, which are passing in ballot initiatives throughout this country back to our party and our candidates because that's not happening and we have to do a better job there.

TAPPER: Well, beyond all that, let me ask you, do you think President Biden should have dropped out of the race sooner than July? I mean, should he have even not run for reelection?

MARTIN: Look, it's an academic exercise. We can't change the past. All we can focus on right now is the future. And what I'm focused on is getting us back to winning. And that means taking our party, getting the DNC out of D.C. focused on a 57-state strategy, making sure that were contesting every race in every zip code, not just focused on federal races, but focused on deep down ballot races here so that we can actually start the rebuilding process.

It does us no good to focus on the past. Right now, we actually have to focus on the future and how we get back to winning.

TAPPER: I mean, it does me no good to focus on the past except I think it's fair to say that the voters were communicating in polls and focus groups throughout 2022 and 2023 that they thought Joe Biden was too old to be president.

[16:20:05]

There were a number of people behind the scenes sounding the alarm and the Democratic Party wasn't listening.

So, I mean, I guess one question is looking forward, not backward. Do you think its important for people running the Democratic Party to listen to voters and to and to other people when they say he's -- he's too old to do this job? MARTIN: Well, it's certainly important for the Democratic Party to

listen to voters and as we move forward its important for us to listen to all voters here. And I think that's part of the indictment on the brand here. Clearly, we're not connecting again getting back to the issues here for a second, really popular issues back to our candidates and parties.

Think about what happened in Missouri for a second, Jake, the voters came out. They voted for a minimum wage increase, a Paid Family Leave Act, and also abortion protections. And those same voters went down the ballot and voted for Trump and for Republican candidates.

So clearly, the issues that we are championing, the issues that our party stands for, are not resonating with voters in a way that they are actually supporting the candidates who support them.

And so I do think its important for us to listen. And as we move forward, I plan on having not only listening sessions throughout this country to make sure that we are, in fact, talking, not just to ourselves, but talking to the voters who are feeling left out of this conversation. It's important to bring them in.

TAPPER: So the two biggest issues, according to voters, were immigration and the economy, and the Democratic Party does not represent the popular view on that. They think prices are too high. There was a warning from Larry Summers in 2021 that putting more money into the economy through Build Back Better or whatever was going to create inflation complications even more so, and that was dismissed.

Then, Democrats, especially the White House, spent a lot of time talking about how great the economy was and holding up charts, even while meat and egg and milk prices went up.

And then on the -- and on immigration, Democrats were saying everything's fine and -- initially at least. And if you bring up these issues, then you know, you're racist.

So I don't know that I completely agree with your characterization that voters agree with Democrats on the issues. It's certainly not when it comes to inflation and border security.

MARTIN: Well, clearly, I mean, look again, if we -- the path forward here for the Democratic Party is to focus on, again, getting back to a centers the struggles of everyday Americans, who to your point about inflation, were clearly worried about not getting ahead, that they were just getting by and no one was their champion, no one seemed to care about them.

The headwinds were very strong in this election from the very beginning to the end. The right track, wrong track numbers never really changed, right? This was a change electorate and they were feeling an economic squeeze and they were going to take it out on the party in power, which was the Democrats. That happened all over the world. As you know, Jake, as we saw major governing parties suffer vote share loss and election losses throughout the world based on inflation. In fact, the only time in the history of this country that a president

was reelected after hyperinflation was 1972, with Richard Nixon.

And so, we had very strong headwinds blowing against us, there's no doubt. And what I would say is we have to -- in moments like that, really center again who we are as a party. We are a party that's always stood up for the working class. We've always stood up for the poor.

We've always stood up for the marginalized and oppressed, and we have to get back to our roots. We have to fight for the little feller, not the Rockefeller.

TAPPER: All right. Ken Martin, thanks so much. Good luck with your race.

A bail hearing just wrapped for Sean "Diddy" Combs and CNN reporting came into dispute. A CNN reporter who was in the courtroom will join us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:28:13]

TAPPER: In our pop culture lead today, music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, whose work is partly credited with growing the hip hop genre, is back in a New York courtroom trying to get out of jail. This is his third bail hearing since Combs was arrested in September on three federal charges, racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution.

Combs is also facing dozens of civil lawsuits. He denies all the allegations against him.

Let's bring in our reporters following this case closely, CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister and CNN's Kara Scannell.

Kara, you were just in court watching everything unfold in Comb's third bail hearing. Tell us what happened.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Jake, this hearing went on for about two hours. The judge reserved decision. He said he'll issue that next week, but he spent the entire time peppering attorneys for Combs and also the government about why Combs should or shouldn't be released on bail. The prosecutor said that even while Combs is detained, he has violated the rules numerous times from behind bars, saying that if they can't trust him to follow the rules there, how could they trust him to follow the rules outside, under bail conditions?

Now, one example that they raised, they said that Combs wasn't even following the advice of his own attorneys. They cite an effort by Combs to have a social media campaign around his birthday. Now, this is based on court from jail records. They said that someone who Combs was in contact with had said the lawyers say we shouldn't do it. Combs, according to prosecutors, said, I don't care, it's my birthday. Now, Combs's lawyers are saying that they want to have him released at

some -- an apartment in Manhattan with 24-hour security that would really lock down and be even more restrictive than the conditions he's facing at jail, saying that he is not an out of control defendant. Another area of dispute that came up today was the hotel surveillance video from the Intercontinental, in which Combs is depicted beating and kicking his former girlfriend.

[16:30:03]

CNN first aired that video. Now Combs attorney saying that prosecutors have somehow altered the video. Now prosecutors saying today that they had obtained from a grand jury witness a cell phone video that depicted the same thing.

They said there is no difference between what is on the CNN video that was aired and the video from the cell phone. They say, however, that they do not have an original copy of the hotel surveillance because they say Combs paid $100,000 in bribes to get rid of that video.

Now, the judge again, not issuing his decision today. It is combs third attempt to try to be released like every other court appearance, his family members his mother, his mother, a number of his children are all in court attending the hearing today. You see him walk out in the khaki jailhouse attire, blowing kisses to them, tapping his chest in a sign of love gesture toward them.

But he did leave again today in custody, where he will remain until we await this judges decision -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. And, Elizabeth, talk about the bigger picture here. You've been tracking more than 30 civil claims against Combs. Will those civil suits have any role play at all in the criminal process?

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. You know, Jake, that really is the bigger picture, right? As Kara said, this is "Diddy's" third attempt to be released from jail as he awaits his trial. But the fact of the matter is, whatever the judge determines next week, he still is facing a criminal trial in the spring of 2025.

Now as you said, there have been over 30 civil suits that he is facing. Just in the past year. His ex-girlfriend Cassie, who was depicted in that CNN video that we first obtained and put out, she was the first lawsuit back in November of 2023, and since then, there have been more than 30. And I hear from sources that there are many more to come.

He is accused of sexually assaulting both men and women, numerous minors. Now, Combs has denied all of this repeatedly. His attorneys telling me over and over again that he has never sexually assaulted anyone, that he has never trafficked anyone.

But I have spoken to sources who explain that these civil suits could serve as a roadmap of sorts for prosecutors, right? You have the case as it stands right now. It was a three count indictment. But as Kara has reported from inside the courtroom, the prosecutors have said they are continuing this investigation and that they could add more defendants and they could add more charges.

I have heard from sources that the grand jury has repeatedly been convening, and they have been hearing testimony from more witnesses. So could this case grow whether it is in, again, more charges but also more defendants?

Remember, there are celebrities. We don't know who they are, but there are celebrities who have been accused of participating or being aware in the accusations against Combs and prosecutors themselves in this indictment. They said they believe that he was running a criminal enterprise, which means they do not believe that he was operating in this way alone. They believe that he had enablers who were helping him with this alleged misconduct.

TAPPER: All right. Elizabeth Wagmeister and Kara Scannell, thanks to both of you.

I want to bring in criminal defense attorney Stacy Schneider.

So, Stacy, first of all, do you think the judge is going to let him out on bail?

STACY SCHNEIDER, CRIMINAL DEFENSE TRIAL ATTORNEY: It's not looking good because of some of the allegations of his conduct while he was in jail, which is very harmful and can harm a defendant in their criminal case but there's allegations that he was using other inmates phone opportunities to call on the outside to speak to witnesses. And what generally happens or can be developed from that is potential alleged witness tampering.

So they have all those phone calls recorded inmates are allowed to call outside, but they have a specific list at the metropolitan detention center in Brooklyn. And it's alleged that he called outside the list. Those factors can come into a trial to show additional misconduct or alleged manipulation of the case.

TAPPER: How does this work in terms of -- okay, so the prosecutors have brought a case. They have these three federal charges. There are 30 lawsuits.

Do the prosecutors know who all those people are? If not, do they then go and talk to all the people that filed those lawsuits, even if they're filed under John Does? I mean, how does it work?

SCHNEIDER: Yeah. So this case is quite unusual because of the number of civil cases outstanding. And federal prosecutors can go to all the attorneys who filed those cases. They can ask to look at the evidence. They can ask who the witnesses are. They're free to speak to those witnesses.

They can use the evidence that's been developed in the civil cases to contribute to the evidence that they developed in their criminal case against Sean Combs. But the government, in addition to all of those things, has a huge mountain of evidence now. We never know if its winning evidence until we get into trial and see the whole big picture. But remember, they did those two raids on Sean Combs' homes in Los Angeles and Miami.

TAPPER: Right.

[16:35:00]

SCHNEIDER: And they allegedly seized -- and this is in the indictment -- the thousand tubes of lubrication from the freak off parties allegedly, rifles with etched out serial numbers, drugs and other paraphernalia. All of those things will come into a trial to build this case.

TAPPER: These are serious charges. If the trial starts in the spring, how long do you think it will take?

SCHNEIDER: Forever. This trial will take forever.

The reason is, is because of, again, the mountain of items that they seized from the home invasions. But also there are videos, allegedly there are cell phone texts, there are credit card payments. One of the charges against him is illegally trafficking prostitutes over state lines to participate in these so-called freak-off parties.

Well, the government's going to track every -- every ounce of his business transactions from all of his companies to show where the money was going. And how this alleged conduct was being financed. And it's actually going to look like a mob case.

This particular case, the way it's tried. It's a racketeering conspiracy allegation, and its going to play out the same way with building upon layers of layers of actors who are allegedly involved in sean combs business, as his employees or assistants, and as well as the expenditures from all these businesses.

TAPPER: You use the word actors just to mean somebody who acted not necessarily like in a movie or a TV show, but on that note, there are famous people who are either victims or allegedly perpetrators in this. We still don't know who was on Jeffrey Epstein's list, right? We still don't know.

SCHNEIDER: Right, right.

TAPPER: Are we going to find out who was on Diddy's list?

SCHNEIDER: We might find out who's on Diddy's list at trial or just before trial if it gets leaked out because federal prosecutors will undoubtedly subpoena any person who was a witness to this conduct. So if there's a video and supposedly and if a celebrity shows up on that video that they have in their possession, that person will be called into court as a witness and subpoenaed to testify.

TAPPER: I'm skeptical just because of the Epstein stuff.

SCHNEIDER: Yeah.

TAPPER: You know, like, we still don't know and -- and that was pedophilia and it was sex trafficking, and we still don't know who was on the list.

SCHNEIDER: I know, Jake, and you know what? There seems to be so much alternative evidence in those civil suits, like we were talking about that they might not even need to get to the celebrity angle here. We'll see.

TAPPER: Yeah. All right. Stacy Schneider, thanks so much. Good to see you.

SCHNEIDER: You, too.

TAPPER: Have a great Thanksgiving.

SCHNEIDER: You too.

TAPPER: Coming up next, Russia's back up in Ukraine. North Korean troops also on the front lines there. CNN's getting a close up look at what they've been doing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:42:07]

TAPPER: Topping our world lead, Ukraine says it shot down more than half of the 114 drones launched by Russia today. Still, Russia finds itself needing reinforcements, supplementing their ranks with thousands of troops from North Korea and relying on their makeshift weapons.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh spoke with weapons experts in Ukraine who sifted through the pieces of North Korean missiles and a warning to our viewers, you may find some of this report hard to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The scramble for the dead or the living horrifically commonplace in Ukraine. Yet this series of homes in Kyiv turned to rubble by something other, not Russian, but a North Korean supplied ballistic missile and made able to fly here to cause this barbarism, killing a man and his 4-year-old son by circuitry from the United States.

Ukrainian officials told CNN ballistic missile attacks by Russia were rising fast. 194 so far this year and about a third of them, at least 60, were using North Korean KN-23s. But these crude missiles part of growing aid as North Korean troops also come to Russia rely on a sophistication smuggled into their hermit kingdom. One on display by Ukrainian investigators at this Kyiv warehouse of missile fragments.

It is a house of horrors, drones that haunt the night skies, rockets that tear down lives. They pick through the dust to learn how the killing machines work here rebuilding a Shahed Iranian drone circuits.

Parts from a Kinzhal missile, a Shahed Iranian drone and a Russian Orlan reconnaissance drone. All things Ukraine has been subjected to for many months. But key these North Korean KN-23 missiles rely, they say, on components from the United States and the Netherlands.

This box containing dozens of small bits of circuitry made by household names in the USA or Europe subject to sanctions globally but smuggled often via China to North Korea.

When you open all this up and find American components, how do you feel?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text translation): Like sanctions are failing.

ANDRIY KULCHYTSKYL, KYIV SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF FOREIGN EXPERTISE (through text translation): All the electronics are foreign. There is nothing Korean in it. The only thing Korean is the metal, which quickly rusts and corrodes.

PATON WALSH: The journey the chips and circuits take to Russia may lead through North Korea, even China as a middleman, though ultimately they are U.S. design and make.

OLEKSANDR VYSIKAN, KYIV SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF FOREIGN EXPERTISE (through text translation): The chips most often from the United States.

But the country of manufacture can be China, Malaysia, Taiwan. However, it means that the headquarters is in the United States.

[16:45:08]

PATON WALSH: As the toll from these missiles deepens, Ukrainian officials say the Western firms need to be held accountable. From Thursday's Russian launch of a new weapon to their growing use of prolonging North Korean missile, the global reach of this war grows.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PATON WALSH (on camera): Now Jake, over today, we've heard increased analysis of the strike yesterday over the Dnipro of a ballistic missile that Russia claimed was a new technology capable of breaching all Western air defenses.

Now, Ukrainian officials have said that they believe this is something that Russia has a prototype only two in number. They believe as of October. And they also agree that it is potentially something of an extra capability. But the North Korean troops you saw in that video there, were hearing from Ukrainian security sources that potentially they've been spotted in the southern port city of Mariupol and in the northern region of Kharkiv, too, a suggestion that North Koreas role here is indeed increasing near the front lines, Jake.

TAPPER (on camera): Nick Paton Walsh, thanks so much. Stay safe.

My next guest says that New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, may be in denial about the likelihood of success in her bid for reelection. I'm going to ask him why he calls Kathy Hochul the new Joe Biden. That's next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:50:52]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RITCHIE TORRES (D-NY): I worry that our party has been hijacked by far left elites whose sensibilities and priorities are out of touch with those of working class people on the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Shortly after Donald Trump won the presidential election this year, Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres of New York called out what he sees is problematic with his own party and not just on a national scale, but in the state he represents New York.

And Congressman Torres joins us now.

Congressman, thanks for being here.

So today on X or Twitter, you said this about your own Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, quote, Kathy Hochul is the new Joe Biden. She may be in denial about the depth of her vulnerabilities as a Democratic nominee, unquote.

I don't think you'd make a comment like that if you weren't going to challenge her in the gubernatorial primary.

TORRES: Well, I've made no final decision, but I'm certainly open to running for governor. But there's a value in speaking the truth. There was no state that saw a greater swing toward Donald Trump than New York, which is an indictment of failed governance under the leadership of Kathy Hochul. Donald Trump won 40 percent of the vote in New York 4 in 10 New Yorkers voted for Donald Trump out of frustration with failed governance in New York City.

And I hear it, people feel that their quality of life, their public safety and their affordability is declining. You know, New York is hemorrhaging population over the course of the next 25 years. We're projected to lose 22 (ph) million people.

And with population loss could come the loss of political power the loss of representatives in Congress, electors in the Electoral College. And so, I think if you do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result --

TAPPER: Yeah.

TORRES: -- that's the definition of insanity. So a powerful case could be made that we need a new generation of leadership.

TAPPER: So, one -- one example, you just talked about public safety. Obviously, an issue of real concern. New York Mayor Eric Adams said the three random, unprovoked deadly stabbings that happened across Manhattan on Monday show how the criminal justice and mental health systems fail New Yorkers, which is true but also like, dude, you're in charge of New York.

Earlier this week, New York City Councilman Erik Bottcher told me that his constituents are fed up. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIK BOTTCHER, NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL: And they're tired of hearing about how broken the system is. They're tired of hearing about how complicated this is. They know it's broken. They know it's complicated. They want it fixed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So, for instance, not that you have announced that you're running for governor but what should Kathy Hochul be doing to fix this problem?

TORRES: Look, we have to recognize that there are people whose mental illness is so severe that it requires inpatient care. Like, we've swung the pendulum too far in the direction of deinstitutionalization.

You know, the largest provider of mental health care to those with severe mental illness is Rikers Island which is a profound indictment of our society. And so we need to create facilities that provide in- patient care to people who do pose not only a risk to themselves, but to the broader public.

TAPPER: What other complaints are you hearing from your constituents that you speak -- that you think speak to the broader problems that congressional Democrats are facing?

TORRES: Look, the decline of the public transit system, the MTA, the public transit system, is the lifeblood of both of our city and our state. Under Governor Hochul's leadership, we've seen the loss of billions of dollars from fare evasion. And in 2022, the MTA lost $700 million from fare evasion, $700 million in 2023, and it's going to be another $700 million in 2024.

And I ask, why do we accept this?

TAPPER: But what do we do? You can't have cops at every subway station?

TORRES: We certainly could have enhanced enforcement. But we're not -- you know, the scandal is not that we're failing to enforce the law. The scandal is that we're not even trying or think about the mishandling of congestion pricing, right?

The governor arbitrarily and abruptly decided to delay congestion pricing and then reverses herself after the election. And this reflects the kind of erratic and chaotic governance that one would expect from Donald Trump. And it reflects -- it undermines public confidence in New York state government.

TAPPER: All right. Congressman Ritchie Torres of New York, the South Bronx, good to have you here. TORRES: Absolutely.

TAPPER: Come back soon. I think this is your first time here.

TORRES: First time in person, yes.

TAPPER: First time in person, yeah, that's what I meant.

Thank you so much. Good to see you, sir.

[16:55:01]

Have a great Thanksgiving.

We're going to turn next to the incoming President Donald Trump, who Congressman Torres just mentioned.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins just got back from West Palm Beach, Florida. What is she hearing about whom Trump could tap next to join his administration? Kaitlan is going to join me on set, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

This hour, one of the most direct campaign promises from Donald Trump during the 2024 race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: And we will keep men out of women's sports.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: In just a few minutes, we're going to get the perspective from a transgender athlete who still wants to compete.

Plus, critics say the line separating church and state is even more blurred today with news from Texas. The states board of education voted to allow Bible-based lessons in public schools.