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Families Of U.S. Hostages Met With Biden At White House; Biden Warns Israel Is Losing International Support; Chesbro Tells Prosecutors About Briefing Trump On Fake Electors; Supreme Court To Decide Fate Of Abortion Pill Mifepristone; World Reaches Landmark Deal To Transition Away From Fossil Fuels. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired December 13, 2023 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:31:02]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We are following breaking news out of California. These are images taken moments ago from 110 freeway in Los Angeles.
That's where officers are beginning to take protesters into custody after about two dozen people walked onto the lanes and halted traffic in an effort to amplify their message calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza during the Israel's war with Hamas.
We're going to continue to follow these images and bring you the very latest as we get it.
PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: And just a short time ago, President Biden met at the White House with the families of the Americans kidnapped by Hamas on October 7th and still being held in Gaza. The White House says at least eight U.S. citizens are captive and all but one of them are men.
The meeting comes just a day after the U.S. and Israel were among only 10 nations to oppose a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the ongoing war.
SANCHEZ: We are seeing cracks emerge between the two countries. In public marks, President Biden said Israel is starting to lose global support for its war against Hamas over its, quote, "indiscriminate bombing campaign" in Gaza.
We want to go to the White House now with CNN senior White House correspondent, M.J. Lee.
M.J., walk us through what we have learned happened at that meeting.
M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris and Pam, you can easily imagine probably how incredibly emotional this meeting was. This was the first time that President Joe Biden was meeting in person with these families.
We were told by the White House about a dozen of them came here physically to the White House for this meeting. A couple others joined virtually.
These are families whose loved ones have been missing since the October 7th attack. And they said they are simply looking for a miracle for their loved ones to get out of Gaza.
Most of them have very, very little information about their loved ones, including whether they are even alive.
When they came out and spoke with reporters a few moments ago, they said they are incredibly grateful for the White House's close engagement on this and all of their work so far.
They also said they feel like the White House understands that each of these hostages is more than just a name or face but they are somebody's son, somebody's mother, somebody's grandmother.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JONATHAN DEKEL-CHEN, FATHER OF MISSING SON IN ISRAEL: It was a terrific, terrific meeting and conversation.
I think we all came away feeling that, as families of hostages, of American Israeli hostages, which are eight out of a total of 138 hostages.
We felt that -- and we have felt before and we were only reinforced in seeing and believing that we could have no better friend in Washington or in the White House than President Joe Biden himself and his administration.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: When I have spoken with some of these families in the past, understandably, they are growing increasingly desperate.
You will recall during the Sunday truce, each day, we saw a small group of hostages coming out.
But when those formal negotiations fell apart and the truce ended and the hostages stopped coming out, they really have been looking to the Israeli government and the White House for any signs that more hostages can eventually come out.
They have said that they want to see the Biden administration be more creative, maybe even strike some kind of side deal that is aimed at just the dual American citizens.
The tough reality for these families is there does not seem to be any kind of real movement, at least in terms of formal negotiations, to get more hostages out.
CNN reported earlier today, in fact, the overtures that have been made to Hamas to bring them back essentially to the negotiating table have not been successful. Hamas has basically been unresponsive when Qatari, the U.S. government
and others that have been involved in these talks, they tried to put to them a new kind of deal that would involve women and others coming out.
We will see if that changes in the coming days and weeks.
But you can see from the families speaking now of how grateful they are for the White House's engagement.
[13:35:00]
This, I am told, by some of the families is in stark contrast from the minimal engagement they've gotten from the Israeli government. There is a good amount of anger directed toward Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government on the other side of the world.
BROWN: All right, M.J. Lee, live from the White House, thanks so much.
After weeks of negotiations at the U.N. climate summit, nations made a deal to make the unprecedented call for a move away from fossil fuels. But there are loopholes. We will have more on that coming up.
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BROWN: And now to a CNN exclusive. We have new audio describing a pivotal Oval Office meeting with President Trump after the 2020 election. And in that meeting, Trump was told he lost a key state.
[13:40:06]
But one attorney planted the seeds for what would be the faked electoral scheme. That attorney was Kenneth Chesbro. And it is his words we are now hearing after he pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy in Georgia and agreed to cooperate in other states.
CNN's Marshall Cohen broke this news.
So, Marshall, walk us through this new audio.
MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Pam, Ken Chesbro described this as a photo-op gone wrong.
Let me take you back to December 2020. Trump and his team were contesting the results in tons of states. They had just lost in the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the attorneys who worked on the case, they were in D.C. and they wanted a meet and greet with their client.
Before they went in with Trump, they were told, don't give him any false hope, don't indulge this notion that he might still win. Some of the people in the room followed directions. Chesbro did not.
Take a listen to what he said about Arizona.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KENNETH CHESBRO, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: I am sorry I ended up explaining that Arizona was still hypothetically possible because the electors voted. And I explained the whole logic that because the electors had voted, we had more time in litigation.
So it was, I think, clear in a way it hadn't been before that we had --(INAUDIBLE) -- to win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: Now some people told him it is over. Chesbro told him you can still fight, you can go all the way to January 6th, but we all know how that turned out obviously with an insurrection at the capital.
So --
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: Oh, go ahead.
COHEN: Go ahead.
BROWN: No, it is just interesting from a legal perspective.
COHEN: Yes.
BROWN: Because Trump and his attorneys have argued that he was advised that he could still win the election and that is why he was fighting it. This audio provides both -- one attorney saying he could still win but all these other attorneys saying no.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: Right.
COHEN: A part -- another part of this tape from Chesbro does describe how another man in that room, Jim Troupis, who was the lead attorney in Wisconsin, who had just lost the case in Wisconsin, told Trump to his face, it is over.
That could possibly factor into the special counsel case that's supposed to go to trial in March against Trump.
That indictment, federal election subversion, is loaded with examples of Trump advisors, Trump lawyers telling him he lost and demonstrating how the former president tried to overturn the election anyway.
This is another example that can be added to that list.
SANCHEZ: Yes. Marshall Cohen, thanks so much for the reporting.
The U.S. Supreme Court is reentering the abortion battle. This time, the justices are set to decide if the drug most commonly used for medical abortions, Mifepristone, will remain easily available to women in the United States. BROWN: Yes. That abortion pill, Mifepristone, and what is now the most
important abortion-related case to come before the justices since the landmark decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
SANCHEZ: CNN chief legal affairs correspondent, Paula Reid, joins us with more details.
Paula, when will the Supreme Court take up the case? What could we watch unfold?
PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: This is fascinating, because, here, the conservative-leaning Supreme Court is jumping right back into the abortion issue less than a year after overturning Roe v. Wade.
A decision could come by July, which is right in the middle of the presidential campaign season.
And we know that the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the larger questions about abortion, those have been hot issues on the campaign trail.
Here, of course, we are talking about access to Mifepristone, which is a commonly used abortion drug. It is currently still available, even though some lower courts have issued decisions trying to restrict access to the drug.
The FDA approved the drug 23 years ago. And in recent years, they have tried to make it easier to access. So you can get it, for example, through telemedicine. You can even get it through the mail.
But the challengers in this case, including some doctors and other groups that oppose abortion, insist that the FDA did not properly evaluate safety concerns back when it initially approved the drug or, as it made it easier to access.
But this is shaping up to be quite a term of the Supreme Court. And this is going to be one of the biggest cases to watch. We are not just talking about access to this drug in states that have restricted abortion but also potentially in states where it is legal.
BROWN: Yes. I mean, this is huge. When Roe v. Wade was overturned, there was a lot of discussion about whether women in the states that were banning abortion, whether they could still get this pill in the mail and so forth. And this is so significant.
REID: It's incredible significant and it could have a huge impact on the presidential election because of the timing here and, of course, how strongly people on all sides of the issue feel. It will be one to watch.
BROWN: We will be watching.
Paula Reid, thank you so much.
And now to some of the other headlines we are watching this hour. After leaving Washington empty-handed, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy
visited the Norwegian capitol of Oslo today.
The Ukrainian president sat down with the leaders of the five Nordic countries who are among the top donors to Ukraine in its war against Russia. All of them vowing to continue their support. This comes ahead of a crucial European Council meeting in Brussels tomorrow.
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Also, the FDA has been asked to review MDMA as a prescription for the treatment of PTSD. Researchers say, when combined with therapy, the drug significantly reduces PTSD symptoms. The FDA has two months to decide if it will be accepted for review.
And months after shooting cases of Bud Light with a machine gun, Kid Rock now says his beef with the beer brand is over. He just couldn't stay away from it very long, I guess.
The singers was one of many conservatives to call for boycotts after Bud Light ran an ad featuring transgender influencer, Dylan Mulvaney. But Rock now says he thinks, quote, "They got the message."
We continue to follow the latest on the House floor. The debate is happening right now ahead of a vote to formalize the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
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BROWN: Well, after weeks of agonizing and sometimes combative talks over how to tackle the global climate crisis, for the first time, dozens of nations around the world have agreed on a deal to move away from fossil fuels.
SANCHEZ: Yes, at the historic centerpiece of the COP28 summit. And it represents an unprecedented effort. The COP's president called a paradigm shift that could redefine economies.
Listen.
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SULTAN AL JABER, COP PRESIDENT: We have delivered a comprehensive response to the global -- (INAUDIBLE)-- and all other mandates.
Together, we have confronted realities and we have set the world in the right direction. We have given it a robust action plan to keep 1.5 within reach.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Critics, though, are highlighting some shortfalls and what they see as several loopholes.
CNN chief climate correspondent, Bill Weir, is here to break down today's historic agreement.
So, Bill, walk us through the details of what is in the deal.
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Boris. So the transition away from fossil fuels, that's historic language, the first in 30 years that we have seen. We'll put up the top lines on the screen there.
That's sort of the big newsy event there. It was not a hard phase down or phase out of the way 130 countries, including the United States, had hoped.
It's sort of a, hey, do you best you can to help us get to net zero by 2050 with eight different possible tracks that include less oil and gas production, but also more renewables and carbon capture, help poorer nations to adaptable to global warming.
But there is no real mandate on how best to do that through financing as well.
John Kerry, the U.S. envoy, was really trying to make the most of this. His final thought -- this could be his final COP, you never know -- it seems to be, look, this is really hard. So success is the fact that it did not fall apart.
Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KERRY, U.S. CLIMATE ENVOY: The message coming out of this COP is we are moving away from fossil fuels. We're not turning back. That is the future.
And the United States will continue to take charge on this on the home front through investments and the Inflation Reduction Act, and bipartisan infrastructure law.
Investments that are bolstering our economic and energy security while also bringing down the cost of clean energy technologies on a global basis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WEIR: Meanwhile, Al Gore was much more sort of sour about the final result, the decision at the COP28 to finally recognize that the climate crisis is, at its heart, a fossil fuel crisis is an important milestone.
But it's also the bare minimum we need. It's long overdue. The influence of petrol states is still evident in the measures and loopholes included in the final agreement.
We must ask ourselves, how much longer will the world have to wait before nations summon the political will to overcome the special interests and act on behalf of the future of humanity? It's telling, Boris and Pam, the small island states that have a coalition to try to make their case, they were in tears when the gavel came down. They said it was rushed, that they didn't have a chance to make their objections known before the gavel fell.
And OPEC, on the other side, the oil and gas-producing nations, sent a letter of congratulations to Sultan al Jaber for a successful COP.
Again, depending on where you are in the world, this is sort of successful. But this is a time test. And science says that in order to hold 1.5, the world has to decarbonize by 40 percent, more than 40 percent by 2030. Right now, we're on pace to do it about 10 percent.
BROWN: Yes. And you just took note of Al Gore and what he had to say about this. He noted there are some loopholes. That is what we're hearing from private policy groups who say this is an improvement, but they have some concerns. What is missing from the deal, in their view?
WEIR: Well, there is no sort of concrete language that says nations shall decrease their planet-cooking pollution by X amount by X year. It is voluntary.
And a nation like Saudi Arabia could increase production by many times and still sort of fit in with this agreement as long as they are tripling their renewable energy over on the side.
That's the thing. Solar and wind is so cheap right now. It is the cheapest form of energy in human history, but it is not replacing the old stuff that burns nearly fast enough. We just, as a species, have an unending appetite for cheap energy.
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And so, what needs to happen is big fossil fuel fines, big oil field discoveries, and those companies will say we will leave that in the ground for the betterment of life on earth.
We have not seen anything like that while the economics so far seem to be indicating this transition is happening. Even folks in Dubai, the oil majors, would admit that it's happening. It's just a matter of the speed that -- at which it happens.
BROWN: All right, Bill Weir, thank you so much.
SANCHEZ: We're going to take a quick look at the House floor where the House just wrapped or is about to wrap debate to formalize an impeachment inquiry vote of Joe Biden.
That vote expected in a couple of hours. We will, of course, bring you the latest from the nation's capital in just a few moments when we come back.
BROWN: And meantime, we are just moments away from the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates. How they will impact you going into the holiday season, up next.
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