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Stephen Miller Expected to Land Key White House Role; Trump Names His Former Acting Director as "Border Czar"; Elon Musk Seen at Mar-a-Lago Almost Every Day Since Election. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired November 11, 2024 - 14:00   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Filling out the roster, the President Elect building his team. And we just learned an aggressive immigration hardliner is expected to take on a critical White House role. The same hardliner who just weeks ago said America is for Americans and American only.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Plus an Israeli official saying Trump's victory brings an important opportunity for Israel. That official now pushing for the annexation of settlements in the Israeli occupied West Bank.

And after a record breaking hot year, the Biden administration is racing to Trump proof climate policy.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

KEILAR: President Elect Donald Trump wasting no time picking more key players to drastically overhaul the U.S. Government. We're told that in the coming days, Trump is expected to announce Stephen Miller as his Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy. Miller is currently Trump's top immigration advisor and the lead architect of the plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

SANCHEZ: This follows the President Elect picking his former acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Tom Homan, as his new borders are, as well as naming close ally New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik as his pick for UN Ambassador.

Let's take you now live to West Palm Beach, Florida with CNN's Alayna Treene who is near Mar-a-Lago for us. And the jockeying for positions in Trump's new administration is continuing over the weekend.

Elena, what more are you learning about this pick for deputy chief of staff?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, Stephen Miller is going to have a major role in this second term. He's going to be the deputy chief of staff for policy. I'm actually told that his title kind of underplays the amount of influence he is going to have in a second Trump term. And you're exactly right, he has been the lead architect of Donald Trump's plans for mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. But also, he has always been a hardline immigration enforcer. And I think he's going to really be leading a lot of the immigration policies from the White House.

I think there's a lot of questions over who is going to serve as Donald Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security. But I think with now, Tom Homan, the former Acting Head of ICE, and Stephen Miller being given these roles, it shows how centralized a lot of that policy is going to be from within the White House.

Now, one key thing that I actually found very interesting is one, both of these men, of course, have been very loyal to Donald Trump. And they have remained loyal to him ever since he had departed the White House, even as other people were distancing themselves from the former President, these two have remained by him.

They've also both contributed to Project 2025, something that Donald Trump has consistently distanced himself from. But I will say in my conversations with Trump advisers, that they will likely be using some of the Heritage Foundation's, you know, big roster of names to fill some of the lower level roles in an upcoming White House without really getting into Project 2025.

KEILAR: And what can you tell us about Elon Musk's influence on the Trump transition right now, Elena, given that he's been seen at Mar-a- Lago almost every day since the election?

TREENE: Boris, Brianna, I mean, Elon Musk has a great amount of influence with Donald Trump. Yes, you're exactly right, he has been at Mar-a-Lago almost every day. His kids as well as Donald Trump's grandkids have been seen together. Donald Trump actually gave Elon Musk's kids a tour of Mar-a-Lago, the day after the election.

And he's also been in the room for a number of very important calls. Some of the foreign leaders who have been calling Donald Trump, Elon Musk was already in the room for that includes the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

[14:05:03]

I'm also told that a number of lawmakers have been calling up Elon Musk. And he as well, has been making calls to Donald Trump's allies and people in Congress. All of this coming, of course, as we're seeing in the Senate this really intensifying leadership fight among who is going to replace Mitch McConnell once he departs.

We saw Elon Musk weigh in over the weekend and back Senator Rick Scott, someone that many other people on the, on the right are doing as well, supporters of Donald Trump. So he's starting to really wade in to politics, not just that are going on with Donald Trump's transition in at Mar-a-Lago, but also what's happening back in Washington.

So I think his role is -- you know, whatever role Elon Musk has in a second Trump turn will be interesting. I will also note that while he's expected to wield influence in a second Trump term, he's not currently slated for a pacific -- a specific position, as well as definitely not going to be a cabinet secretary, we're told. Boris, Brianna?

SANCHEZ: Fascinating to see that play out. Alayna Treene from West Palm, thank you so much.

As you just heard there, Musk is also weighing in on the Senate leadership race. Excuse me, Senate leadership race. The wealthiest man in the world endorsing the wealthiest sitting senator for that powerful post. And that would be Republican Rick Scott of Florida.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. And joining us now is CNN's Manu Raju, our Chief Congressional Correspondent and Anchor of CNN's Inside Politics Sunday.

All right, Manu, what do we know about what Trump himself wants for the person fulfilling this incredibly influential role?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, this is a consequential role in Washington, someone who sets the agenda for the Senate, someone who actually could drive the party's strategy, will be in charge of trying to do, retain the Senate Republican majority, which right now, stands with 52 seats. They could potentially add 53 at the moment.

Right now, Trump has not endorsed any of these three candidates, Senator John Thune, the number two Republican Senator John Quinn Cornyn of the former number two, as well as Senator Rick Scott, someone who does have support, as you mentioned, from Elon Musk and some folks in the MAGA world, but is still seen as an underdog. So a bit of a long shot candidate at the moment.

What Trump has made one demand on is to have the next Senate majority leader essentially allow him to short circuit the Senate confirmation process, allow him to install his cabinet nominees without Senate confirmation votes and still use what's known as recess appointments. That's something that has really not been done, really since before 2007, even before that. And it was very controversial. Senate majority leaders have since then taken procedural steps to block presidents from short circuiting the Senate confirmation process.

But after Trump made that public call, all three of those candidates essentially said they were supportive of Donald Trump doing this. Now, that doesn't mean that these candidates have always been in line with Trump, especially in the aftermath of his 2020 election law. Senator John Thune in particular was pretty critical of Donald Trump in the aftermath of that. John Cornyn also has raised some concerns about Donald Trump. And I had to ask them about all these issues in the years since Donald Trump left office. Here's some of what they have said just last year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN CORNYN, UNITED STATES SENATOR: You have to appeal to a broader segment of the population in a general election. And President Trump seems to have loyal support in the primary, but not so much in a general election. JOHN THUNE, UNITED STATES SENATOR: I think people in this country are

ready for generational change and I think a change in tone in our politics. There's an exhaustion factor, there's a fatigue factor with the American people and always a lot of drama around the former President.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, things have changed in recent months. In fact, after the New Hampshire primary, Cornyn endorsed Donald Trump for president. Thune actually had endorsed Senator Tim Scott in the Republican presidential nominating contest. But as you can see on your screen there, there was a tweet that Cornyn put out in the heat of this fall campaign. Cornyn actually was in Austin, Texas, waiting for Trump to come tape his podcast with Joe Rogan.

And there's Cornyn on board Trump's plane saying, glad to welcome you, President -- Mr. President Trump to Texas. Because Cornyn himself and Thune both have tried to align themselves more with Donald Trump in recent months. And perhaps, that will pay off if Donald Trump decides to hold off and not endorse anybody in this contest or maybe endorse them before this key vote on Wednesday.

SANCHEZ: Manu Raju, thank you so much for the update. Let's discuss with CNN senior political analysts Mark Preston and Gloria Borger. Glad to have you both.

Mark Preston: Mark, first with you, I want to ask you about Elon Musk and his influence over a second Trump administration. He's essentially posted up at Mar-a-Lago since the election, but he's not going to take on an official role. What do you make of that?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: If I was him, I wouldn't take on an official role because all you need is to have Donald Trump's ear. As we have seen in covering him in his first term, all you needed to be was the last person that could get to him in his ear. And that's just, by the way, not just a Donald Trump problem. A lot of politicians are that way. They listen to different people.

[14:10:00]

And whoever can get to them last usually is the one that can persuade them. Musk is interesting, though, because given of his wealth and because of his global power.

But it's not even just Musk that has his ear. I mean, you're talking about the likes of Charlie Kirk, you know, who has his ear. You have the likes of Tucker Carlson. Bobby Kennedy Jr. when it comes to, you know, to the health system in the U.S. So clearly, Donald Trump is hearing from a lot of people that traditionally wouldn't normally be involved in these transitions.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think Musk is becoming like first buddy, you know? He's hanging around, foreign leaders call, Trump puts him on the phone with him, he brings his family to Mar-a-Lago, he doesn't want a job, right? And I think in a funny way, Donald Trump is sort of in awe of Elon Musk because he's so rich, he's so wealthy. But don't forget, there are some conflicts here that he does billions of dollars worth of business with the United States government. And that could eventually become an issue. You know, at this point, they're just kibitzing at Mar-a-Lago.

But, you know, when he starts weighing in on serious policy issues, that's going to be something different.

KEILAR: Yeah. These are also two very big personalities.

BORGER: Oh, (inaudible).

KEILAR: And I wonder if there's room for both of them.

BORGER: Probably not.

PRESTON: Well, what it mean, when is the honeymoon over?

KEILAR: That might be my question. We'll see is the answer.

BORGER: Yeah.

PRESTON: Yeah, (inaudible).

KEILAR: I also wonder -- I wonder, Gloria, how you're looking at this race for Senate Majority Leader. It's such a consequential position. And what Trump has made clear is that he really wants someone who's going to do his bidding. And you see these guys kind of lining up, at least making overtures like they're going to with this recess appointment thing.

Rick Scott, dark horse candidate, and yet he's got MAGA World behind him. So I wonder if you think that could make the difference.

BORGER: I think MAGA World is trying to convince Donald Trump to be for Rick Scott. I think that's what's going on. And I agree with Manu that he's the underdog. He's not that well-liked. He hasn't raised a lot of money for these Republicans. They don't like the way he commanded the Senate campaign committee in 2022. And, you know, this is a secret ballot, so no one will ever know how any of these folks voted. And it's very intramural, you know? So it's not a public thing. And as much as they want to lobby, a lot of these folks have already committed to other candidates.

So, you know, if Trump weighs in, it'll be, you know, it'll be important. But I'm not so sure it's going to be dispositive. I just -- it's hard to say.

SANCHEZ: It is a test, an early test of Trump's influence on Congress that is now more to his liking than it was the first time he was elected.

PRESTON: Oh, it will certainly the outcome. If he is to weigh in, will certainly give us a lot to think about because it will show us how the next 6, you know, to 12 months are going to be. Let's remember, everyone is talking about Donald Trump having a mandate, mandate, mandate. He certainly has support of the American people of right now. There's no such thing as a mandate in Washington, D.C. And everyone forgets this, he's a lame duck once he gets sworn in.

He's got two years to get everything done. So while we're all talking about him trying to get his Cabinet secretaries through, him doing this, him trying to do that, he does have a short playing field to actually get it all done. I mean, that's just the reality.

KEILAR: What are -- what stands out to you most in his appointments right now, Gloria?

BORGER: Well, I think that these are people that are well known to him. You know, when he came in in 2016, he was getting a lot of advice. He was appointing people that he was casting his Cabinet. They had to look a certain way. I think the difference now is that he knows these people. He knows Stephen Miller, he knows Tom Homan who worked for him before, both of them worked for him before.

He knows Susie Wiles. She ran his campaign. And he came out and said, no Haley and no Pompeo. He knows them and he doesn't think they were particularly loyal to him, so off the books. So, you know, this is very, very different. He's picking his loyalists and he knows who they are.

PRESTON: Here's a couple things, too, I'm told, and as we're seeing these names start to dribble out, big names. But as Gloria says, they're extremely experienced. Day one, they can hit the ground. We're not pulling a CEO out of Silicon Valley necessarily, and dropping into Washington (sp?).

BORGER: Or Exxon.

PRESTON: Oh, yeah, Exxon, whatever it is. And here's something else to source down. In Mar-a-Lago told me that Mike Waltz, he's a congressman from Florida, North Florida, former Green Beret, has been seen down in Mar-a-Lago. His name is being mentioned as defense secretary. So interesting to see if that meeting has happened. And Lee Zeldin, the former Congressman from New York who also ran an incredible gubernatorial campaign is being mentioned for the Department of Education. He has also been seen down there.

KEILAR: it's really interesting.

BORGER: Who hasn't been seen down there?

SANCHEZ: Well, you and I haven't been down there yet. We've been sitting here with them.

KEILAR: You can come to our patios (ph), chartios (ph).

BORGER: For drinks? Yeah, okay.

KEILAR: I'll make you a drink.

SANCHEZ: We have a kiddie pool if that works. Lounge out.

KEILAR: I got nothing, but a good company. Gloria, Mark, thank you so much.

Breaking news into CNN. There is a verdict in the Delphi double murder trial of Richard Allen.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, he's accused of killing two teenage girls and leaving their bodies near a hiking path in the small town of Delphi, Indiana, some seven years ago. CNN's Jean Casarez joins us now.

Jean, what are we learning about this verdict?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that there is one, as you just confirmed yourself. And the fact is it has not been read yet. And so we are waiting now. Everyone is assembled in the courtroom. It's just a matter of when that verdict is going to be read. But in this case, and it's a tough one because the jury deliberated many hours, 14 hours as of Saturday, all day today until about 1:30. So they obviously really went through the evidence. But there is no DNA at all that is linking Richard Allen, the defendant, to the crime. No DNA from him on the victims when they searched his home. There was no DNA they found in the home that linked him to the victims. There is no murder weapon. Now, these girls, their throats were slit. And the forensic pathologist believed it was either a serrated blade and a straight blade, one or the other or both of them. And none of those instruments were found.

There is also the issue of eyewitness testimony. None of the eyewitness witnesses in the courtroom that were at the Monon Trails that day, that afternoon in February 2017, they said they testified they saw Bridgeman, but they were never asked was Bridgeman. And that's the man that was on the bridge, seemingly close to the girls. Liberty German, one of the victims, her phone, she recorded this man. And it's believed minutes later, they were murdered. But no eyewitness in the courtroom said that was Richard Allen. The man I see in the courtroom is the man I saw on the bridge that day.

But here's what they do have. Richard Allen placed himself on the Monon Trails that day. In that afternoon, he went to law enforcement shortly after the bodies were found. He said, I just wanted to let you know that I was out there. I didn't see them, but I was there. And then furthermore, what the prosecutors have are confessions. When he was in solitary confinement, according to prosecutors, he confessed over 60 times. But the defense is saying false confessions. He was in solitary, and at the time he was diagnosed to be psychotic.

And so you've got a difficult case. And we will find out soon, if the jury believed beyond a reasonable doubt that this is the man that killed those beautiful 13 and 14-year olds, Liberty German and Abigail Williams.

SANCHEZ: And Jean, how long has the jury had the case? How long have they been in deliberations?

CASAREZ: Well, 14 hours as of the end of Saturday, they're sequestered. They're from an outlying county, Fort Wayne, Indiana. That county is where the jury comes from because Delphi is less than 3,000 people. And so 14 hours plus today, so a little about 20 hours they've been deliberating. So it's taken a while, but this is a difficult case.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. Jean Casarez, thank you for keeping us updated. We're giving you live pictures outside the courthouse. And we will, of course, keep you up-to-date with the very latest information as we get it. Jean, thank you so much.

Still ahead this hour on CNN News Central, ready to make good on his promise of mass deportations. President elect Donald Trump is bringing back one of the key players behind his controversial family separation policy.

KEILAR: Plus, we're following potentially major developments in the war between Israel and Hamas. We'll head live to Tel Aviv.

And we're following breaking news out of Haiti's capital. That's where a Spirit Airlines flight was hit by gunfire. New details ahead on CNN News Central.

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[14:28:33]

SANCHEZ: Illegal immigration and mass deportation were a cornerstone of Donald Trump's 2024 campaign. And now, he's planning to make good on his promise. The President Elect has quickly picked his border czar, tapping his former acting ICE director Tom Holman for the job. He placed a key role, or rather, played a key role, mounting Trump's zero tolerance policy during his first term. That policy placed a record number of immigrant children in U.S. custody and separated thousands of kids from their parents.

In a recent interview with 60 Minutes, Homan was asked if families would again be separated. Here was his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CECILIA VEGA, CORRESPONDENT FOR 60 MINUTES: Is there a way to carry out mass deportation without separating families?

TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: Of course there is. Families can be deported together.

VEGA: Why should a child who is an American citizen have to pack up and move to a country that they don't know?

HOMAN: Could their parent obviously enter the country illegally, Had a child knowing he was in the country illegally, so he created that crisis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: We're joined now by Mike Madrid. He's a co-founder of the Lincoln Project and the co-chair of the League of Minority Voters, also the author of the new book, the Latino Centrury: How America's Largest Minority Is Transforming Democracy. Mike, thank you so much for being with us. I wonder what goes through

your mind when you hear that Tim Homan and Stephen Miller are now joining the administration because it seems to confirm Trump's intent to enact his mass deportation promises.

[14:25:06]

MIKE MADRID, CO-FOUNDER, THE LINCOLN PROJECT: Well, look, there's no question about that. I think anybody who wasn't taking those comments seriously hasn't been paying attention to what Trump's language and his actions have been over the past eight years. This is going to be an extraordinarily difficult and challenging time for all Americans. And I would say, a lot is going to fall on the backs of those Latino families that do have mixed status and certainly those that are here in an undocumented fashion. And I think we are going to see something that we have not seen since probably the 1940s.

SANCHEZ: Contrast that with the raw numbers that we have, because we know that during the first Obama administration, there was something like 1 million plus people that were deported. And subsequently, there have been larger numbers even when Trump himself was in office, as you're seeing there. But you have concerns about how this might be implemented, because obviously, Trump has made the case that he would go after criminals first. But implementing this kind of policy often has unintended consequences.

MADRID: Yeah, including significant economic stressors and potentially civil strife, as all Americans kind of recognize what we are becoming and what we are actually doing. So look, the size and scope of what they're talking about is unprecedented. And J.D. Vance himself spoke about this during the campaign, suggesting that maybe 1 million a year should be a more realistic, a more achievable goal than trying to get rid of 20 million people all at once.

I can't -- I don't think most Americans comprehend just how seismic an economic impact this would have to the very underpinnings of our economy, everything from agriculture and food production, to internal supply chains trying to deliver food to -- you name it. Let alone the inflationary pressures of losing this kind of a labor pool. But do I believe they're going to try it? Of course, I believe they're going to try it. Do I believe they're going to be separating families? Of course I do. Will they be, you know, detaining people? Absolutely. Will people who should not be detained U.S. Citizens get swept up in this if history is a guide? That will absolutely happen.

So it's a time for vigilance deserves. This is a -- I think, a dark moment in the country's history. We'll just see at the -- we'll just have to wait and see how this policy actually unfolds and whether it's Trump's more ambitious, and Stephen Miller's more ambitious goals or aims, or whether it is something more realistic that is actually achievable, as J.D. Vance suggested.

SANCHEZ: Mike, it struck me as you were talking about folks not necessarily believing that Trump would carry something like this out, that a large number of Latinos seem to have that doubt. There was this poll in the New York Times that found that a majority of Latinos that were even born outside the United States who did not believe that Trump was talking about them when he talks about the problems related to immigration and when he says things like immigrants poison the blood of the country. In your mind, why does that not apply to them as they see it?

MADRID: Well, again, a lot of this has to do with the aura of who Donald Trump is. They see him more as an entertainer. They don't take him seriously as a politician, on the substance. This tends to be a group that kind of views the experience of what they were going through economically during the Trump years and from up until COVID, things were probably perhaps as good or maybe even better than the economic conditions perhaps ever experienced by Latinos emigres and seconds (ph), maybe even third generation Latino voters. And the discrepancy between who was to blame, I think, is one of the truly remarkable moments in American political history.

But their lives, Latino lives, the Latino economy itself, was foundationally better under the Trump administration until COVID. And the economic collapse under COVID. And I think that that's what voters were responding to is not this policy. But no one can tell you what the CHIPS Act is or build back better, but they can tell you what the price of eggs was. They can tell you what gasoline cost, what costs were like. And the affordability of American life has gotten so out of control under the Biden administration that this kind of visceral economic pushback is, I think, inevitable.

S2L Before we let you go, Mike, I've been seeing a lot of stuff on my social media feed, accusations of hypocrisy toward Latino Trump supporters, accusations of misogyny, of sexism and racism as for why larger numbers of Latino men specifically went out to vote for Donald Trump. I'm wondering what you make of that. How big a factor were those ideas in their support for Trump versus Harris?

MADRID: Look, I think there's always an element of it that is driven by this. But I want to ask those same voices, where were you 12 years ago when these same voters were setting historic highs for Barack Obama? Where were --