Return to Transcripts main page

The Lead with Jake Tapper

Biden Grants Son "Full And Unconditional Pardon"; Questions Over Trump's Pick To Be Next FBI Director; Syrian & Russian Jets Strike Rebel Forces In Syria; Trudeau Visits Trump At Mar-a-Lago After Tariff Threat; More Snow On The Way After Storm Buried Parts of Great Lakes. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired December 02, 2024 - 16:00   ET

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


[16:00:02]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Brain -- now I get it because I -- one of my kids used it and I thought, what is he talking about?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Brain rot?

KEILAR: I guess the kids are just --

SANCHEZ: Scrolling -- endless scrolling, is that what --

KEILAR: Yeah, I think someone at school used it, but you can see how it makes sense. Don't you think that it rots your brain? We always say like, don't watch the TV, your parents probably said that it will rot your brain.

SANCHEZ: Well --

KEILAR: Full circle here.

SANCHEZ: Well, TV outside of "CNN NEWS CENTRAL", 1:00 through 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and of course --

KEILAR: THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER --

SANCHEZ: Thanks so much for joining us today.

KEILAR: -- starts right now.

(LAUGHTER)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: I can't believe any of y'all ever believed he wasn't going to pardon -- pardon Hunter Biden.

THE LEAD starts right now.

First Lady Biden today defending her husband's decision to pardon his adult son Hunter after insisting for months and months and months he would not do so. Was that a bald-faced lie? We'll have all the new reaction.

Plus, President-elect Donald Trump and his own plans to upend the Justice Department, kicking the FBI Director Christopher Wray to the curb and replacing him with Kash Patel, a longtime loyal aide.

And hard hit. The apology today from the NFL linebacker who took out a Jaguars quarterback, leaving him with a concussion.

(MUSIC)

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

And we start today in our politics lead with the stunning reversal from something President Biden and the White House have for months. And months and months, said he would emphatically not do, pardon his adult son Hunter, who was convicted of 12 federal crimes, six of them felonies, including tax evasion and unlawful gun possession, sources told CNN today that President Biden did not go through the office of the pardon attorney at the Justice Department, as is standard.

In fact, President Biden has been discussing pardoning his son with top aides since Hunters conviction in June, according to NBC News reporting while at the same time the president was telling the rest of us this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

INTERVIEWER: Let me ask you, will you accept the jury's outcome, their verdict, no matter what it is?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: And have you ruled out a pardon for your son yes.

BIDEN: I'm extremely proud of my son, Hunter. He has overcome an addiction. He has -- he's one of the brightest, most decent men I know. And I am satisfied that I'm not going to do anything -- I said I abide by the jury decision, and I will do that. And I will not pardon him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: President Biden lying about this, of course, makes others in his administration and allies either credulous or complicit, including White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who's been saying this for months to the American people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Is there any possibility that the president would end up pardoning his son?

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: No.

REPORTER: Well, is there a --

JEAN-PIERRE: I just said no, I just answered.

I can speak for the president, and he said he would not pardon his son. REPORTER: Does the president have any intention of pardoning him?

JEAN-PIERRE: We've been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: The answer does not stand. There was, of course, a political benefit to President Biden and his allies telling this lie. In June, when Hunter Biden was found guilty on three felony gun charges, his father, the president, was still running for reelection against former President Donald Trump and Democrats and progressives saw this as an opportunity to contrast the current and former president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DAN GOLDMAN (D-NY): I don't think there's any chance that President Biden is going to do that, unlike his predecessor, who pardoned all of his friends and anyone who had any access to him.

ANDREW WEISSMANN, MSNBC LEGAL ANALYST: What is before us is a president who is living the rule of law. He is living it in the most -- in the most personal way. He is not pardoning his son which he could do. He is not doing it because he is living what it means to have a rule of law in this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Living the rule of law.

Beyond the pardon and beyond the lie about the pardon, President Biden is doing what he claimed he would not do. He is undermining his own Justice Department. In his statement, Biden says, quote, a carefully negotiated plea deal agreed to by the Department of Justice unraveled in the courtroom with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process, unquote.

But that is not entirely what happened. That, quote, political pressure was not the only factor. The plea deal collapsed in part because Hunter Biden wanted more immunity than prosecutors were offering. And now it's President Biden, not his successor, President- elect Trump who is blaming his own Department of Justice for being politicized, saying, quote I also believe raw politics has infected this process, and it led to a miscarriage of justice, unquote.

Today's special counsel David Weiss, who prosecuted Hunter Biden pushed back on the president's justification -- justification for pardoning his son in a court filing, quote, there was none and never has been any evidence of vindictive or selective prosecution in this case, Weiss wrote.

[16:05:16]

There are right now plenty of officials at the U.S. Justice Department furious at President Biden for blaming them for doing their jobs to uphold the law against a lawbreaker, Hunter Biden. There is even anger from members of the president's party openly, such as Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, who posted on Twitter, quote, President Biden's decision put personal interest ahead of duty and further erodes America's faith that the Justice Department is fair and equal for all.

Or Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, who posted, quote, President Biden's decision to pardon his song -- pardon his son was wrong. The president's family and allies shouldn't get special treatment. This was an improper use of power. It erodes trust in our government and it emboldens others to bend justice to suit their interests.

And look, while we all can sympathize with the president, who has already lost two children under tragic circumstances, and surely most of us would help our kids in any way we possibly could. It is also true that today's act further portrays the criminal justice system as one that helps the well-connected. Prisons are full of people who have made bad choices, even broken laws, because of their addictions. It's too bad for them that they have the wrong last name.

I want to bring in the panel and start with our senior White House correspondent, MJ Lee.

MJ, you have some new reporting that Biden allies are not happy.

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, they're not happy and the anger that I'm picking up on is actually less on the decision itself, though there are clearly plenty of Democrats that disagree with the decision to pardon his son, the fuming that I am picking up on and the exasperated confusion is this decision by the president to over the course of many months insists publicly that he was not going to do this.

I know that there have to be allies and former aides and people around him that genuinely believed him when he said that he wasn't going to do this I've actually yet to find such a person, everyone that I have spoken to. So far, and that includes senior most former White House and administration officials, never believed the president when he said he wasn't going to pardon his son but their view was basically, its exactly what you said Hunter is his son, and he was always going to be his father, who would have wanted to do anything to protect his son.

One former senior West Wing aide just to give you a taste of the kinds of things I'm hearing, they said this: Anyone who was even close to the top knew that he was probably going to do this. Why did we pretend otherwise?

I think the widespread view right now is that at least the hypocrisy criticism was avoidable, that there were many things that the president could have said as an alternative to. I am not going to do this. Like, you know, I'm not focused on that right now. I just want to focus on being a supportive father. They could have said, this is not something that we have any updates for you on. That's certainly an answer that as a White House reporter, I'm used to hearing.

TAPPER: Yeah. And we'll see what happens. Well see what, you know --

LEE: Right.

TAPPER: You know, because if there had been a plea deal, they would have respected that theoretically.

Kim, well, you've literally written a book on pardons. You can hold it up now.

KIM WEHLE, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY: Yeah, here it is, thank you.

TAPPER: "Pardon Power: How the Pardon System Works and Why".

So what's interesting here is that President Biden did not only grant clemency for the tax and gun offenses, he basically gives him ten years, anything you did illegal in this decade, forgiven.

WEHLE: Yeah. It's a bit like what Gerald Ford did for Richard Nixon in connection with Watergate. And I suspect the concern is in part, what Donald Trump is promising to do to the Justice Department and the FBI turn it into an arm of retribution and vengeance and have them go back over that time period and find crimes, or at least investigate crimes.

If the idea was to protect his son from I think, a new brand of Justice Department if we believe the president elect that's probably what the idea was behind that broad pardon and that historical precedent of Nixon pardon is what stands as a green light for that kind of thing.

The Supreme Court has never said that you can pardon someone without an indictment. Supreme Court has said you can't pardon someone for a crime that's never even happened yet. But I think what Gerald Ford did for Nixon sends a message moving forward. This is legit for a president. And the pardon power is very broad.

TAPPER: Yeah. January 2014. Through December 2024, which is interesting because I think that's when Hunter Biden got involved with Ukrainian energy interests, Burisma and the like. And also that was when he was dealing with addiction, his brothers death and on and on.

[16:10:02]

Let me just -- can I ask you a raw politics question here?

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Sure.

TAPPER: Because you're -- you're a Democrat. You want Democrats to get elected? Doesn't this hurt the Democratic Party?

ROCHA: I think that it hurts a narrative that continues out there. Like to your point, I think we all knew. I didn't work for Joe Biden. I wasn't part of Joe Biden's campaign. I obviously have never been in the White House.

TAPPER: On the other hand, you worked for -- you worked for Bernie Sanders, we should point out. ROCHA: Absolutely. If he have been president, you should have seen

the pardons I would have gotten. But to another topic --

(LAUGHTER)

ROCHA: -- it's the lie. It's the thing that you said at the beginning. We all knew. I knew as an operative, the political question is just say, pivot. Go on.

I knew from day one, there's something about a love of a child that nobody's denying here. It's the fact of what you put in the beginning of this segment about what you say about that in the beginning that hurts now. Folks will pivot and say, well, Donald Trump has put a pardon out for somebody who's now the ambassador to France for god sakes.

Maybe he thought politically this was a good thing, because it's a good thing for Trump, because he won every battleground state. I'm not being funny about that, but I'm being honest when there is a difference between the two. But the lies were the hurting will start.

TAPPER: The ambassador to France reference is President Trump obviously pardoned his --

ROCHA: Kushner --

TAPPER: Jared Kushner's father, Charles Kushner, who was guilty of --

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He did serve time in prison.

TAPPER: He did serve time and yes. But I'm just explaining.

What do you make of the --

ROCHA: He's the ambassador.

TAPPER: What do you make? What do you make of him? Well, he hasn't been confirmed yet. That's all I'm saying.

SINGLETON: Democrats portrayed the president as this great arbiter of morality and truth. They said that he somehow was a better standard bearer for protecting norms and institutions of our country.

And yet that wasn't true. They lied. You can go all the way back to 2022, when they were asked this question and the White House continuously, consecutively lied over and over and over again.

They could have simply said to MJ's point to Chuck's point, the president isn't going to put his thumb on the scales of justice. He's going to wait. He hasn't made a decision yet.

Most people would have expected that. They would have respected that. I think most people, to your point, Chuck believe if it was my child, I probably would have done the same thing. That's not the issue, Jake. The question here, the burden on the White House, I would argue is the continuous lies. You said that you were better than this other guy. You criticized the other guy for all of these things.

And now, your DOJ is committing witch hunts and this is now politicized, where you appointed Merrick Garland. You can't blame Republicans for that. And I can only imagine, as I've talked to a lot of Republicans, if this were Donald Trump and I know people are going to give him a lot of criticism for the pardons he's already given.

But if this were him and Don Jr. or Eric Trump or Ivanka I can only imagine what the headlines would have been. And I will say if you're Democrats and you're trying to walk this straight line, that were somehow better than Republicans because we care more about the future and state of this democracy, I think that's trash. Now, no one believes it. No one believes it. They've lost all credibility for the facade they portrayed for several years.

TAPPER: And, MJ, one of the other things that's interesting here, kind of like a subtext, is President Biden's war with his own attorney general. He appointed Merrick Garland because he wanted to restore accountability and respect in the Justice Department.

And Merrick Garland, I know that there are partisans on the left and right who don't like him but he is, it seems to me, from my vantage point, has tried to negotiate some very difficult terrain, appointing special counsel this and that. And you know, this is just another slap in Merrick Garland's face for doing what he thought was the right thing.

LEE: Yeah, and deference to the judicial system, not touching that, not messing with that. I mean, that is and was the Joe Biden brand. So the fact that he is doing this after he insisted so many times over the course of so many months that he wouldn't I mean, there's no credibility here. That goes for the president.

That also goes for his spokespeople, including the White House press secretary. I'm not suggesting that Karine Jean-Pierre had any role in the actual decision making process that clearly was a family decision. But this is somebody who as recently as last month, had repeated what is now not true, that he wasn't going to do this.

And the fact that she is also saying, you know, this isn't something he would have done if Kamala Harris had won the election, I think a statement like that just can't trust it. There's no reason to believe that. And by the way, regardless of the results of the election, the president was going to remain the father of his son that he wanted to protect.

TAPPER: Indeed. Thanks to all of you. Appreciate it.

The president elect is stirring debate of his own over his pick to lead the FBI. Who exactly is Kash Patel and who exactly is this person and what exactly are these plans to, quote, annihilate the deep state? My next guest has covered Patel extensively and says Patel would do anything for Trump.

Plus, Trump moments ago, warning that there will be all hell to pay if hostages held by Hamas are not released before he takes office in January. The latest from that region coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:18:36]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: And, of course, Kash Patel. Thank you, Kash. Great job. Get ready, Kash. Get ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: That was then candidate Donald Trump last year signaling he wanted Kash Patel to serve in his administration.

Fast forward to now, and Trump has selected the longtime loyalist to run the FBI, throwing more fuel onto a bitter debate over the independence of the Justice Department.

So just who exactly is Kash Patel?

CNN's Sara Murray explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KASH PATEL, TRUMP LOYALIST: Well, government creep --

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump's bombastic pick to run the FBI --

PATEL: The FBI's footprint has gotten so freaking big.

MURRAY: -- already has some controversial ideas for overhauling the bureau.

PATEL: I'd shut down the FBI Hoover building on day one and reopening the next day as a museum of the deep state. And I take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals. Go be cops. Your cops, go be cops.

MURRAY: In choosing Kash Patel to lead the law enforcement agency, Trump picked a loyal firebrand who has vowed to take on the so-called deep state, which Patel claims is made of journalists, big tech, elected leaders and senior government bureaucrats.

PATEL: And our biggest enemy against that truth is the deep state. And we are on a mission to annihilate the deep state.

MURRAY: He's also shown a taste for retribution including over false claims of 2020 election fraud.

[16:20:02]

PATEL: We will go out and find the conspirators not just in government, but in the media. Yes, we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We're going to come after you, whether it's criminal or civil. Well figure that out.

MURRAY: He's been a public defender and a federal prosecutor in the Justice Department's National Security Division.

During the first Trump term, he worked on the National Security Council and then as chief of staff to the acting defense secretary.

PATEL: We're blessed by God to have Donald Trump be our juggernaut of justice, to be our leader, to be our continued warrior in the arena.

MURRAY: Patel defended Trump against the charges he faced in the now dropped, classified documents case.

PATEL: They can take what they want. You can't be prosecuted for possessing classified documents.

MURRAY: And while he's claimed violent offenders from January 6th deserve punishment, he's defended others charged in relation to the riot at the U.S. Capitol.

PATEL: Their lives have been destroyed by the Justice Department because of a political vendetta they want to enact through the justice system to take out Trump.

MURRAY: As for his other endeavors, Patel has a line of apparel as brash as its creator, with items featuring his signature KA$H. He also penned a children's trilogy apparently dedicated to Trump, the quote, "King" of the series.

The most recent installment describes the tale of the, quote, MAGA king and his journey to quote, take down Comma-la-la-la and reclaim his throne.

Patel's book for adults, government gangsters, now, his rallying cry for reform.

PATEL: I am going to go on a government gangster's manhunt in Washington, D.C. for our great president, who's coming with me now?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY (on camera): Kash Patel is a controversial pick for this job for a lot of reasons. One, I mean, we already have an FBI director, Christopher Wray --

TAPPER: Right.

MURRAY: -- who serves a ten year term, that's designed to take politics out of the equation. So Trump is either going to have to fire Wray, or Wray is going to have to quit. But Patel is also controversial even among Trump's inner circle.

A lot of people kind of see him as this sort of relentless self- promoter. He really pushed himself for a role in this administration. You know, but ultimately, he was successful. Donald Trump has been very clear that he wants people who are fiercely loyal to him, especially in this role, that the FBI, the Justice Department and the intelligence and Kash Patel certainly fits that bill -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Sara Murray, thanks so much.

Let's talk about this with Josh Campbell, who's a CNN security analyst, and Elaina Plott Calabro, a staff writer for "The Atlantic" who has covered Kash Patel extensively.

So, Josh, I want to play some sound from North Carolina Governor-elect Josh Stein talking about Kash Patel.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH STEIN (D), NORTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR-ELECT: Well, I want somebody who respects the rule of law and his nomination for the FBI does not give me confidence that that's a top priority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

So we hear a lot of Democrats and even some Republicans echoing that, that skepticism what do you think the Patel appointment would mean for the FBI? Could he impact how the bureau presses investigations?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, the director has great oversight and power as it relates to investigations. And, you know, first, I've been talking with sources inside the FBI, many different people and a lot of them wanted to dispel this myth that some other networks have apparently been reporting and that's, you know, FBI agents are scared or afraid.

I mean, these are dogged people that put their heads down. They do their work. But what I am hearing is there is grave concern in two respects. The first, you just mentioned their potential impact on investigations in this case, someone like Patel, who as Sara reported, an extreme Trump political loyalist. Would he try to get FBI employees to investigate Trump's opponents? Would he try to stop any investigations that begin within Trump's orbit? That is a major question.

And then second, it comes down to independence. You know, historically, there has been this at distance that a White House would keep the FBI because this is a powerful law enforcement agency.

People may not realize that the FBI doesn't brief the White House on every investigation that it conducts. And that's because a lot of times, they could be investigating political opponents or political loyalists of a president.

The big question here is what will that independence look like? How would that be impacted? And then finally, I just want to read one line from this great, insightful piece that Elaina wrote recently on Patel what she said in talking to, you know, sources around Trump world is that people called Patel dangerous not because he would come in on day one as FBI director or CIA director with a plan but because he appeared to have no plan at all, his priorities today always subject to a mercurial president's wishes tomorrow. That's the big question.

How far would he go for Trump?

TAPPER: And, Elaina, as Sara wrote, Sara noted in her piece a Kash Patel wrote a book called government gangsters and it's bouncing around the Internet today. Tim Miller from "Bulwark", among the people who noticed that in that book, it lists some individuals that Patel considers the, quote/unquote, deep state people on the deep state list include president Biden, former attorney general for Donald Trump, Bill Barr, Attorney General Garland, Robert Mueller. What Patel calls the quote, entire fake news press corps, unquote.

[16:25:01]

What is he going to do with this list? Or is this just bombast?

ELAINA PLOTT CALABRO, STAFF WRITER, THE ATLANTIC: I don't think that we are in a position to call anything to do with Kash Patel at this point just bombast, especially if he does end up getting this directorship and if he doesn't, Jake, I very much suspect that Trump will find a way to install him, whether in an acting capacity or in a role that does not require Senate confirmation at the top of the American intelligence apparatus.

And the reason I say that is because what the public, while the public, doesn't quite know who Kash Patel is, the fact was that in Trump's first term, he came dangerously close to almost this very role. He -- Trump really wanted to promote him at one point to deputy FBI director. Then there was deputy CIA director.

I mean, various senior positions that were it not for people like CIA Director Gina Haspel or Attorney General Bill Barr, who the latter, of course, said, over my dead body to the idea of Kash being promoted to deputy FBI director.

Without people like that in this administration and Trump has made clear he has no desire to install the, quote/unquote, guardrails that populated his first administration, I don't think there's any doubt that whether its as FBI director or some other highly powerful position -- Kash Patel, we will see him try to use whatever means he has to launch or at least try to launch investigations into many of the people that are listed in that appendix of his book.

TAPPER: And you wrote over the summer, quote, should he return to the White House there will be no Milleys, Haspels or even Barrs to restrain him as he seeks revenge against his political enemies. You're talking about Donald Trump there. Instead, there will be Patels, those whose true faith and allegiance belong not to a nation, but to one man.

So let's just assume, for the sake of argument, that he does a recess appointment of Kash Patel, or somehow he gets through the Senate. I mean, Republicans control 53 seats in the Senate right now. So who knows?

Would there be any check on Patel? Would Attorney General Pam Bondi do anything?

CALABRO: I actually I can't predict that, Jake.

I think especially with a role like the FBI, which, as Josh knows better than anyone, has just historically been entirely detached from partisan politics in this country. I think we really are entering uncharted territory with respect to not only what Kash Patel would do atop the FBI, but also what would it look like in terms of, you know, if there are people who, you know, whether its in the GSA, if he is insistent on closing down the Herbert Hoover building and creating it as a museum to the deep state, as he has said he's going to do, J. Edgar Hoover excuse me.

I don't know what that looks like. And you know, from GSA or other senior officials, you know, what -- what can they actually exercise in a Trump administration to curb perhaps some of the more extreme impulses of officials or would be officials like Kash Patel.

TAPPER: Elaina, Josh, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it.

We're going to go to the Middle East next, where Russia is in retaliation mode, this time in Syria. Why the escalation? Now, we're going to go live to the region just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:32:50]

TAPPER: In our world lead, bombs rocked Syria's second largest city, Aleppo, over the weekend after well-armed rebel groups ranging from one formally affiliated with al Qaeda to Turkish backed fighters all over the ideological spectrum took control of the city in a surprise attack, united in their goal of toppling Syrian President Bashar al- Assad.

The attack marks the biggest threat to Assad's power in eight years. In response, Assad's main international backer, Russia sent warplanes to attack rebel positions in Idlib, south of Aleppo today, as Russia battles its own war against Ukraine and Assad's other ally Iran sustains attacks by Israel elsewhere in the Middle East.

CNN's Clarissa Ward is in Lebanon's capital of Beirut. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv.

Clarissa, why now? Why is this happening now?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, everybody was pretty shocked even those of us who have been covering Syria since 2011. But to see the rebels make more gains in five days than they have in eight years, and to take control of the city of Aleppo, which is Syria's second largest city, was pretty staggering.

But when you look at the broader geopolitical dynamic, it actually doesn't seem like such a shock, because the reason Bashar al-Assad is still in power has been able to maintain control over Syria is because he has had very strong backers in the form of Hezbollah, in the form of Iran, and in the form most importantly, of Russia. It was Russia's intervention in 2015, with that blistering airstrike campaign that really helped quash the rebellion now, as you mentioned, Jake, Russia is distracted with Ukraine Israel has been fighting Hezbollah, has been fighting Iran.

And so, there is a sense potentially that there was a moment of opportunity for the rebels, which they have seized. It initially seemed like the regime was very much on the back foot, although in the last couple of days, we are seeing an intensification of those airstrikes, particularly Russian airstrikes.

The White Helmets, which is the civil defense group that operates in Idlib and Aleppo, says that dozens have been killed, at least 25, including women and children.

[16:35:02]

A hospital was hit in Idlib province, and now, we're looking at the specter of an offensive, potentially from the rebels on the city of Hama. This is in central Syria. It's the fourth largest city in the country. The rebels tonight putting out messages to residents of that city saying basically, stay away from regime figures and regime forces. So, a big question mark as to where this goes from here. And more broadly, a lot of uneasiness about whether this region can handle even more instability, Jake.

TAPPER: And, Jeremy, this afternoon, President-elect Trump posted a warning to Hamas of sorts, saying that all hostages need to be released by his inauguration in January. Or there will be, quote all hell to pay in the Middle East. This comes after some news about two of the American hostages held in Gaza.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right Jake.

Today, the Israeli military confirming that Omar Neutra, a 21-year-old Israeli-American who was serving as a tank commander along the Israel- Gaza border on the morning of October 7th, was actually killed on that day. For nearly 14 months, his parents held out hope that he would perhaps return alive. Less than a month ago, they were at the White House meeting with President Biden, urging him to advocate for their sons safe return home.

And today, of course, all of that came crashing down as they learned this news. Four of the seven Americans who are being held hostage in Gaza by Hamas are now confirmed dead by the Israeli government. Their bodies still being held as bargaining chips by Hamas. That leaves the families of three Americans still holding out hope that perhaps their loved ones will indeed come back alive.

One of those families is the family of Edan Alexander, who is also an Israeli-American. He emerged this weekend in a hostage video posted by Hamas, speaking obviously under duress. He urged Prime Minister Netanyahu, but also President-elect Trump to work to secure his release and the release of other hostages being held in Gaza. And sure enough, today we did indeed hear from President-elect Trump,

who is bringing more pressure to bear as some of these hostage and ceasefire negotiations appear to be quietly restarting behind the scenes. But in his message, President-elect Trump said that there will be all hell to pay for those holding the hostages if they are not released by the time he is inaugurated.

There appeared to be an implicit threat there of American force against Hamas, perhaps in Gaza -- Jake.

TAPPER: Clarissa, you're in Beirut, Lebanon. Tell us more about what you're hearing there.

WARD: Well, what we're hearing at the moment and the focus very much is on Israeli strikes that have taken place in the last few hours.

And actually, we were just hearing a drone up until about an hour ago that was flying low over Beirut. That's the first time we've heard that since the ceasefire took effect. And this is in response to two projectiles that Hezbollah took responsibility for firing into Israeli territory early on in the evening. They said that that was a response to consistent violations from the Israelis regarding this ceasefire agreement.

We also spoke to a source with UNIFIL, the U.N.-backed peacekeeping force here, who told CNN that there have been roughly 100 violations on the Israeli side of this ceasefire.

The fear here in Lebanon by almost everybody, honestly, Jake, is that this ceasefire could collapse altogether. As of now, it does seem to still be holding but it is tenuous. It is fragile. And people here are desperate for peace and quiet, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Clarissa Ward, Jeremy Diamond, thanks both of you. Please stay safe.

Just days after the president-elect threatened tariffs on Canada, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went to Mar-a-Lago. All smiles at the dinner table with Trump.

Could Trudeau get any negotiating done? I'm going to ask somebody who might know. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:43:14]

TAPPER: Also in our world lead, you're looking at a photograph posted by Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, breaking bread with soon to be President Trump at his Florida resort on Friday night.

This just a few days after Trump said he would impose a 25 percent tariff on all goods coming from Canada, as well as Mexico in order to, quote, pay a very big price, unquote, for the influx of crime and drugs into the United States, according to Trump.

Canada's ambassador to the United States, Kirsten Hillman, was at the Mar-a-Lago dinner. She joins us now.

Thanks so much for being here, Madam Ambassador. It's good to see you.

KRISTEN HILLMAN, CANADIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: Thanks, Jake.

TAPPER: You say the bulk of the dinner was centered around Trump's concerns about the border. What was the conversation like? What did Trudeau promise Trump? Do you think he convinced Trump to rethink that tariff threat?

HILLMAN: Well, there are -- a lot of the conversation was around the fentanyl crisis. I mean, the president-elect is very focused on the fentanyl crisis and the good thing for us was that we were able to talk about the facts around the Canada-U.S. border a 0.2 percent of the fentanyl that comes into the United States is from Canada, the rest is not, and we are also suffering a terrible crisis in Canada from fentanyl. Our two countries are really the two in the world that are under this horrible, horrible epidemic. So they were able to talk about that. What we can do together and that was very positive.

And we also talked about the flow of people between our two borders. Again, you know, one bad day at the U.S. southern border is equivalent to an entire year of migration between Canada and United States. So we put that into context.

And then we -- and then we talked about what more can be done together. The prime minister talked about making sure the border is as safe as it can be. Some additional investments that we're making, but also additional cooperation we want to do with the U.S. border security and law enforcement.

[16:45:04]

TAPPER: What's the biggest deliverable, as they say? What's the biggest thing that Prime Minister Trudeau promised President-elect Trump that he will try to achieve in the next few months or year?

HILLMAN: I think that it's more infrastructure so more surveillance, more helicopters, potentially more infrastructure at the border. Again, these are things that we were thinking of doing on our own anyway, just because secure borders are essential, but I think now were going to be able to talk a bit with the incoming administration about how we coordinate on that. Its a very long border, 5000 miles, right? So we need to sort of be working together to get maximum effect.

TAPPER: Did Prime Minister Trudeau feel as though he needed to explain the impact that tariffs on Canada would have, not only on the Canadian people, but on the American people in terms of potential inflation?

HILLMAN: I think that they talked about that a bit. I think that President Trump has imposed tariffs on Canada in the past during his tenure on steel and aluminum. So he is familiar. And it was with Prime Minister Trudeau was at the helm in Canada at that time, too. So they have had this conversation before. They had it again.

The interesting thing is, since that time we renegotiated the NAFTA to the USMCA and U.S. sales into Canada have gone up year on year, so that now were by far your biggest customer, 36 states count us as their number one customer. So that's important context, too, is that if we start getting into some challenges around tariffs being put on each other back and forth, there can -- the harm to American businesses and American jobs is getting greater with every year.

TAPPER: It's funny you mentioned the Trump's tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum because Prime Minister Trudeau felt a little bit of the wrath of President Trump in 2018. Trump called Prime Minister Trudeau dishonest and weak after Trudeau objected after a G7 conference to those tariffs.

How is their relationship now?

HILLMAN: Well, a lots happened since then, right? We managed to get through a COVID crisis together, manage this long border of ours, did a lot of work back and forth on PPE and supplying each other with PPE.

And again, as I say, we renegotiated the USMCA, the NAFTA. So all of those things have -- have really contributed to I think, a very positive relationship between the two. They know they can get stuff done together and, you know, when it comes to the relationship between our two countries, leaders can't ignore it because it's just so massive.

TAPPER: If Trump goes through with the tariff threat, 25 percent tariffs on all Canadian goods, Oxford economists predict that it would push Canada into a recession. What discussions are there going on right now in the Trudeau government or in your parliament about possible retaliation?

HILLMAN: Well, I think were hoping that we don't get to that spot, first of all, right? And we're going to do everything we can to not get to that place because, as I say, the relationship is good. The motivation for the tariff is the border. We have a lot of good stuff to do on the border, and we have a very good security profile on the border.

We're also the best partner that the U.S. has, and the incoming administration has with respect to China and concerns about China getting into our economies. So there's lots of things to work with, I think, to try to avoid the imposition of those tariffs if we can. And I and I'm -- you know, we've started that conversation and hopefully we'll have success.

TAPPER: But you're planning just in case.

HILLMAN: We are. Yes.

TAPPER: Any -- any idea where those retaliatory tariffs might go?

HILLMAN: I mean, it kind of depends on what the administration ultimately does, right? I mean, this is a very dynamic situation. We would -- with the steel and aluminum tariffs, we tried to ensure that we tailor them in a way that would cause minimum impact on Canadians, but would be motivating down here in the United States. As I say, we really hope that we don't have to get to that because its not good for Canada, it's not good for the U.S., and it's not good for this huge relationship that has just growing and.

And one other thing that I might say that has changed since the last time is that we are now more and more dependent on each other for strategic goods. Canada is selling critical minerals uranium, you know, products that the U.S. can't get anywhere else or certainly can't get from reliable allies and the worlds changed a lot since last time, so hopefully that kind of context will make a big difference.

TAPPER: Ambassador Hillman, thank you so much for being here. Appreciate it. Send my love to my Canadian cousins up there.

HILLMAN: I sure will.

TAPPER: Good to see you.

HILLMAN: Thanks for having me.

TAPPER: Coming up next, winter weather at the extreme, the heavy snow and blistering cold taking over much of the U.S. this week. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:53:29]

TAPPER: In our money lead, if Americans feel skittish on the economy, they're not holding back on travel. Yesterday was the busiest day ever for air travel. TSA screened more than 3 million people at American airports on Sunday.

But getting from point A to point B can be another story. A major lake effect snowstorm has buried parts of the Great Lakes. Many of you watched some of that snow fall during Sunday football. The Buffalo Bills paid fans to help shovel before its game last night.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers joins us now.

Chad, this same system is still causing problems.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, it sure is. And I have been in that stadium when I used to live in Buffalo, but on much nicer weather occasions, the snow is still coming down, Jake in places and just -- this is out near Watertown. So, a little bit farther away.

This is east of Ontario. But there's a truck here, a two track doing okay, but then, all of a sudden, and this is how it happens, the snow came down so hard you really can't even see the truck in front at some point. There he goes. Just the snow was still coming down, even this afternoon and into this evening.

And there are places that have picked up five feet of snow, even downwind of Lake Erie, there are four feet of snow in places. And here's what I used to live up in Cheektowaga. But Orchard Park, where you talked about the football game, they had 27 inches and then Cassadaga down to the south Canandaigua, Chautauqua Counties, Chautauqua County. Cattaraugus always really get hammered.

But there are the bills after the win. Yesterday, they were playing in the snow and rightfully so because they did play a very good game considering how much snow is coming down.

[16:55:00]

It's still coming down right now. It will again intensify tomorrow and Wednesday. So slight lull at this point, but more cold air is coming down from the north.

And that is going to increase the chances of more snow in places that have just picked it up. So that's truly, truly the problem. More on top of the places that already have four or five feet, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Meteorologist Chad Myers, thanks so much.

This hour. U.S. senators are making their way back to Capitol Hill after the Thanksgiving break.

CNN's Manu Raju just caught up with the Democrat-turned-independent, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. Hear his reaction to President Biden's pardon for his son, Hunter. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD.

I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, the National Football League --