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Trump Names Wiles Chief of Staff; Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) is Interviewed about the Democrats' Loss; California Homes Destroyed by Wildfires; Jury Deliberating in Delphi Double Murder Trial; Racist Texts Reference Slavery in Multiple States. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired November 08, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Nervous and ran away.

Police were called to this elementary school. They were able to get pictures that they circulated on social media. That led to an abundance of community tips. And they were able to identify the suspect, go find him and convince him to surrender before he was arrested.

As police went through this investigation, what they discovered was that this child had circulated videos, had made comments about - about school shootings to other students. And when police look at the totality of this case, they say that a lot of things went right here. But, again, when they look at all of the information that - that had emerged leading up to this incident, they say that there was a lot that was missed.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF PATRICK PATTON, KENOSHA POLICE: This is something that had been told to people of his - his growing intentions. We know that there was internet searches. And all the red flags that we would look for and expect someone to report were there. And were coming up forward saying we - we narrowly missed a tragedy today and we're just going to reencourage everybody, when they see something, say something. Help us out. Have those talks with your children.

This video shouldn't have been seen by us today. This should have been reported to us earlier.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: Kate, it is a good example of just how thin that line is between tragedy and success here. As we move forward, Kate, we're still trying to find out more details about how this case is going to work its way through the court system. At this point, Kate, police say this child was a student of the district, but we have not heard his name yet.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: OK. Whitney, thank you very much.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: New names being floated this morning for some of the top jobs in the incoming Trump administration.

Fire crews racing to contain a raging wildfire in southern California. Thousands told to get to safety now.

And then shocking, racist text messages popping up on cell phones after the election. New reporting on where they are coming from.

I'm John Berman, with Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, who will be named next? With a chief of staff now selected, the spotlight is now building on several other top jobs in president-elect Donald Trump's White House. And this morning, the current jockeying, our reporters have learned, has now morphed into an all-out battle inside Mar-a-Lago. His first pick, an historic one. Susie Wiles will become the first ever female chief of staff.

Alayna Treene is in Florida for us.

What should people know about Susie Wiles and what it might mean for Donald Trump's White House this time around?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, I think the first thing to note, Sara, is how loyal she has been to Donald Trump. That definitely played a role in his selecting of her. I'd remind you that, you know, back after - when he was leaving the White House back in 2021, and particularly after what happened on January 6th, a lot of people who were close to the former president, now president-elect, had really tried to distance themselves from him.

Susie Wiles did not do that. She stayed by his side. And she has been very loyal to him ever since. So, that's one key thing. Of course I note that because Donald Trump values loyalty above all else.

Another key thing, though, is that she is very disciplined. She does not like the limelight. She does a lot of things from the shadows. She likes to operate behind the scenes. You saw that earlier this week when he tried to call her up when he was giving his victory speech after winning and tried to call her up to give remarks and she hung back. So, that's a key thing as well. She lets Donald Trump, you know, take the spotlight, doesn't speak for him publicly.

But another big thing that I would note is what she has been able to do while serving for him over these past several years now, and that is what she calls controlling the chaos. And this is actually something our colleague, Steve Contorno, reported that I think was very lightning for how she will likely operate come January 20th, which is there is this one person who said that she had told them that, "the clown car can't come into the White House at will," and that Donald Trump agrees with her. And that's really a huge part of this because if you look back on what

Donald Trump - really how he operated with his prior chiefs of staff when he was in office before was, he likely - he always had a lot of controversial figures calling him up, waltzing into the White House to meet with him. And what Susie Wiles has done while campaign manager over the last couple years now is to try and control the access. She knows Donald Trump. She knows how he operates. She knows that she cannot control him, but she can control the people around her. And oftentimes that means cutting off access to the people who may come to him with crazy ideas and preventing them from kind of getting into Donald Trump's head.

SIDNER: Alayna Treene, thank you for all your reporting.

[09:05:01]

And you will be one busy lady as - as the months ahead.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much.

So, joining us right now is the Democratic governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear.

The transition is now well underway and Democrats also still now trying to figure out what went wrong, Governor. You and I spoke just on Monday, the day before the election. And at that point you had said that the things that Donald Trump is putting out there and saying, who he offends and what he's promising, from Puerto Rico to Hitler's generals, would be disqualifying for any other candidate and should be disqualifying for Trump this time. It wasn't. His win was decisive and broad. What did Democrats miss?

GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): Well, thanks for having me on, Kate.

This is a pretty raw and emotional time for a lot of people across America. And when we look at real analysis, you know, three days after an election, we can get reaction, we can get hot takes but it's going to take some time, both looking at the data and having real conversations with voters, to make sure that we know where the voters of this country truly want us to move.

What I'm hearing a lot about in these last three days is messaging. And yes, messaging is important. It's how you talk to people. But it's also can be sometimes not an excuse, but it's suggesting we're doing all the right things that we're not talking about it the right way.

What I think is maybe more important is focus. I think the voters of America want candidates that they believe are focused on them and their everyday concerns. That the recognition when they wake up, they're not thinking about the president, they're not thinking about an election, they're thinking about their job and whether they make enough to support their family. They're thinking about the next doctor's appointment for themselves, their parents or their kids. They're thinking about the roads and bridges they drive. They're thinking about public education. They're thinking about the public school they drop their kids off at. And so I think it's really important that not just we, as Democrats, but Republicans, too, recognize that people want us to find common ground on the areas they care about the most and then apply common sense approaches to them.

BOLDUAN: So, what I'm hearing you say, Governor, is you think that the - where things went wrong was that Democrats, the Harris campaign did not focus enough on kitchen table issues, did not focus enough on affordability and grocery prices and - is that what you're saying, because one of the things she talked about was trying to take on grocery prices.

BESHEAR: Well, the vice president only had three months for this campaign. She worked incredibly hard. And I've sat next to my dad when he's lost a statewide election in 1987 and in 1996, and I know it's hard. So, in no way am I criticizing the vice president, who I think ran really hard, put everything she had into it, did her very best, made the best decisions that she could with the information that she had.

I think what we see from the overall vote is, remember, it's still pretty close. It's about 3 percent that separates the country right now. But I think that Americans, both in the - on the Democratic side and on the Republican side, given how close that was and how close it was in so many states, are looking for that common ground, for Democrats and Republicans to come together and to make sure that we are just laser focused on their life. I'm convinced because in Kentucky I won by five points a year ago, in a state that Donald Trump just won by 30, that we're not necessarily as divided -

BOLDUAN: And, Governor, that's the biggest margin that he's won in your state in - in the three times that he's run.

BESHEAR: That's true. And just a year after that last win. But what it - what it suggests is that people are looking for a better life, and these elections have to be focused on convincing voters that that's what we're focused on too, that we're going to spend 90 percent of our time on the issues that matter most to you that are probably the least political issues that are out there but the ones that impact people every single day.

So, we need voters to know that we're not only going to run, but we're going to govern in the place that they live and that - and that, for instance, as governor of Kentucky, I'm going to spend the vast majority of my time doing things that help Democrats, Republicans, independents in your everyday life. And I think that's what's important. And I think the concept of common ground and common sense is what this country is looking for.

BOLDUAN: Let me ask you then, California's governor, Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, he's called back state lawmakers to convene a special session to essentially prepare to fight the Trump agenda. And I saw that you wrote yesterday, "now more than ever it is critical that we have as many Democratic governors as possible."

[09:10:02] Do you think Democratic governors across the United States are the best - are the line of defense for Democrats against President Trump's agenda? Is that how you see it?

BESHEAR: I think Democratic governors govern well. We focus on creating jobs, we focus on expanding affordable healthcare, we focus on bettering the lives of our people. But we also serve our people, whether they're Democrats, Republicans or independents. And our job is to protect the interests of our citizens and to protect this great democracy that we love.

So, as a Democratic governor, or a Republican governor, the job should be to agree and work with an administration when they're doing something good for your state. But it should be to stand up to any administration that is doing something that harms your state or threatens the democracy of our country.

This is our country. And we all ought to be willing to stand up for it, when needed, and that ought to be not bipartisan but nonpartisan.

BOLDUAN: And see what that relationship looks like in the coming years as Donald Trump takes office once again.

Governor Andy Beshear, thank you so much.

John.

BERMAN: Crews rushing to contain a raging wildfire in southern California that has forced thousands from their homes and scorched more than 20,000 acres.

We're standing by for a verdict for a man charged with killing two teenage girls.

And the FBI investigating racist text messages following the election, telling people, quote, "they've been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:23]

BERMAN: So, this morning, people who escaped a dangerous wildfires in southern California say they barely made it out. This fire has torched dozens of homes. It has left people injured and burned more than 20,000 acres in less than two days. As of right now, it is 5 percent contained.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAWN DELON, LOST HOME IN MOUNTAIN FIRE: First it skipped us and it started burning our neighbors house past us. We thought we were OK. Evacuated anyway. And today, came back in the house was gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, CNN's Camila Bernal is in Camarillo, California, right now.

I hear you just got an update on the situation there. What have you learned?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I did, John. Officials saying they're making progress, but that there's still a lot of work to be done. They had a team of 10 groups assessing homes yesterday. And what they said was that of the 300 homes that they visited, about 132 look like what you see here behind me. It is devastation. It is impossible to even decipher what's left of this home. You see the entrance of the home here. But other than that, there's not a lot left. There's even smoke still rising from this property. And what fire officials just told me was that these assessments are not done, so those numbers could continue to go up over the next couple of days as they continue to go through these neighborhoods to see exactly what this fire left behind.

So, the progress comes with good news because the weather is improving. There were red flag warnings all over. Now we only have the red flag warnings in the mountains. And so what they're hoping to do is get a hold of this fire over the next couple of days where the weather is expected to be better. But the problem is that there's still a lot of unknowns as they're battling this fire.

Take a listen to what CalFire just told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS SHOOTS, CALFIRE CAPTAIN: The challenges with this red flag going away, which is a great thing, we now have that onshore push. And so, there's areas of the fire that haven't been wind tested in the same way because the wind has been pushing those embers into the fire.

So, for example, the northeast portions of the fire are now going to see that wind pushing it into potentially unburned fuel. So, a huge priority to get those buttoned up, make sure those are good. But we are going to be able to make a lot of good progress out on the ground and the air, cooling down those hotspots and trying to keep it from spreading.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: So, the red flag warning in the mountains will be in effect until about 11:00 a.m. local time. And what I was told by CalFire is that they have to get as much as they can done over the weekend because next week you have those Santa Ana winds expected to come again. So, they're trying to do as much as they can as these conditions improve so that they're in much better shape come next week.

Officials also saying that these firefighters are doing everything they can, that they have the resources, that overnight they were able to get helicopters and airplanes up in the air to be able to essentially use that retardant and the water drops to gain that containment. Again, it's at 5 percent, but they are hoping to get that number a lot higher over the weekend, John. BERMAN: It is so amazing to see them at work there.

All right, Camila Bernal, thank you very much. Keep us posted.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, jurors in the Delphi double murder trial are back deliberating today in Indiana. Richard Allen is accused of killing 14- year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams on a hiking path seven years ago. Now, he has denied this, and his attorneys have argued that there is a lack of DNA evidence.

CNN's Jean Casarez is joining me now.

Jean, walk us through this case. It is fascinating how he even became the suspect in this case.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is - this case is really something. I mean, I wish I could talk to you for an hour. But here's the pivotal question for this jury. I think we have the pictures of bridge guy, OK, and we've got Richard Allen. So, let's look at those two pictures right there.

SIDNER: Right.

CASAREZ: Here's the question for the jury, the bridge guy, beyond a reasonable doubt, I think prosecutors prove it, he did it, bridge guy. But is bridge guy Richard Allen? That's the question right there.

Now, once the girls were on the bridge, that photo of bridge guy was taken by Liberty German's phone, 2:15 in the afternoon. A forensic expert took the stand saying, in the next 15 minutes there was an elevation change on Liberty's phone, and then it wasn't touched again.

Bridge guy, there's audio, he says, down the hill, guys. It matches, right?

Now, lots of people were out there that day. Richard Allen was out there that day. He went to law enforcement back in 2017 saying, I was there and I saw some girls - I actually saw three girls, and there were three girls in the area, but I didn't see those girls.

[09:20:11]

Two eyewitnesses took the stand saying, I saw bridge guy. One originally described him with a beige jacket. It's a blue jacket.

SIDNER: Right.

CASAREZ: The other said he's muddy. Two police statements, he's muddy. Final police statement, oh, you know what, he was bloody too. She didn't say that initially.

But the girls were found with their throats cut. No sexual assault. There was an unspent bullet between the two girls' bodies. And that bullet, once they arrested Richard Allen, they found a gun and they said even though it wasn't shot out of the gun, there were enough markings on it, a ballistic experts testified that it came from his gun. Defense put on their expert saying, no, no, no, there's not enough markings because it didn't - it wasn't shot out of that gun at all.

But let's talk about the confessions.

SIDNER: Yes.

CASAREZ: Richard Allen was put in solitary confinement for 13 months. He started - initially he said, I didn't do it, in solitary. But as the months went on in solitary, he started confessing over 60 times to his wife, to his mother, to jail guards. At one point he said, I did this, I was going to sexually assault them but I was scared because of a van, so I didn't do it.

Well, at the same time he said all of that, he was, and I'm sorry to say this but its evidence, he was drinking the toilet bowl water out of the toilet, he was eating his own feces, he was smearing the feces all over his body, his eyes were bulging and he would be in a fetal position a lot of the time.

He had his legal documents. Those legal documents had what the prosecution's case was. So, what he confessed to, which was - had specificity -

SIDNER: Right.

CASAREZ: Did he read that in the documents from the prosecution or is it the truth?

SIDNER: And that is what the defense is seizing on at this point in this case. And I know the jury is sequestered. We will wait to see what they decide in this case. But there is so much, you could go on for an hour with some of the details.

CASAREZ: And the defense was not able to bring in the Odinist. That's how law enforcement as going originally. Odinist, according to the Southern Poverty Law Institute, says that this is a Nordic Pagan religion of white supremacist, and there was branches in particular positions over their bodies, blood smeared on a tree, and a defense expert said pretrial, that was a pagan ritualistic killing from Odinist.

SIDNER: Wow. These poor families.

Jean Casarez, thank you so much for bringing us this - this case that was - that was basically cold for seven years -

CASAREZ: Yes.

SIDNER: And now there is a full trial and the jury has the case.

Appreciate it.

Kate. BOLDUAN: So, will the market continue its post-election rally after the Federal Reserve has cut rates again? We're minutes away from the opening bell.

And authorities are investigating a wave of racist text messages about slaves and picking cotton that were sent to black Americans after the election. What the FBI is doing about it now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:26:56]

BOLDUAN: The FBI is investigating reports of a wave of racist text messages hitting people - black people's phones in multiple states. These messages are being reported in at least eight states, and many of the targets appear to be middle school, high school and college age students. All of the messages following a pattern, sharing similar language, including racist rhetoric that they had been, quote, selected to pick cotton.

CNN's Gabe Cohen has the details. He's joining us right now.

Tell us more of what you're learning about what they're doing about this, Gabe.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, first off, it looks like this is more widespread than we expected, with people in at least two dozen states now having reported receiving these messages. And these texts are not just upsetting, but they are alarming. They are personalized. And many of them specifically target black and brown individuals. Some of them students. Some of them children.

I want to show you one of the texts. It was sent to us by a woman in New Jersey. The text has her name written at the top of it, as you can see right there, and it references picking cotton, it references slave catchers and plantations. And some of the messages specifically referenced President-elect Trump.

Now, to be clear, the Trump campaign has told several media outlets that they had absolutely nothing to do with this. But, as you can imagine, many people are really on edge in the days since the election.

I want to play for you what a Colorado mother said after her 16-year- old son got one of these texts. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER GREEN, MOTHER WHOSE SON RECEIVED RACIST TEXT MESSAGE: It's very tense. It's very scary for a lot of individuals.

The fact that it happened the day after, you know, Election Day, it really speaks to what I think is going on here.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COHEN: And the president of the NAACP put out a statement saying, "these messages represent an alarming increase in vile and abhorrent rhetoric from racist groups across the country who now feel emboldened to spread hate and stoke the flames of fear that many of us are feeling after Tuesday's election results."

And, Sara, there are investigations underway all over the country at this point to figure out who was behind this. It does appear at least some of them, these messages, were sent out using a service called "text now." It allows people to create phone numbers for free. That company, text now, tells us in a statement, "we believe this is a widespread, coordinated attack and we are now working alongside our industry partners to uncover more details and continue to monitor patterns to actively block any new accounts attempting to send these messages."

And the FBI is also on this. They put out a statement saying that they're aware of the messages. And, Sara, they say they are in contact with the Justice Department and other federal authorities. So, a lot of folks are on this right now, a lot of agencies. It's not clear, though, if they have it completely shut down at this point.

SIDNER: Gabe Cohen, thank you so much for your reporting there. Appreciate it.

All right, President-elect Donald Trump has already filled a key role in his cabinet, Susie Wiles as chief of staff, and jockeying for other positions and Trump's attention, underway, full steam ahead.

[09:30:03]

Joining me now to discuss are CNN's senior political commentator, and former senior adviser to President Obama, David Axelrod, otherwise known