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Trump's Cabinet Taking Shape as He Taps Loyalists for Key Positions; Biden to Meet With Israeli President as U.S. Military Aid Could Be in Jeopardy; Stocks Notch Best Week All Year After Trump's Win. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired November 12, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Breaking overnight, President- elect Trump moves to fill some of the most prominent cabinet positions. We've got new reporting this morning on what appointments might come next.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Markets surging on a post-election high, the Dow closing with another record yesterday, Bitcoin hitting its own all-time high. But how long will this momentum last?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And two jets from U.S. Airlines hit by bullets while flying over Haiti's capital. The flights are now suspended in and out of Port-au-Prince. And the U.S. is warning Americans not to travel to Haiti amid rising gang violence there.

I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight, filling some of the biggest cabinet positions with very prominent figures. Multiple sources now say that President-elect Trump is expected to announce he will nominate Florida Senator Marco Rubio as his secretary of state. Now, Rubio is a staunch China hardliner who was once dubbed Little Marco by Trump in 2016. He is now a fierce Trump supporter, and if confirmed, would lead Trump's diplomacy in Israel, Ukraine, and beyond.

Also breaking overnight, CNN learned that Trump will nominate North Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary. Noem made headlines this last year for bragging about shooting her dog, Cricket, but this appointment is a huge deal when it comes to Trump's mass deportation agenda.

Let's get right to CNN's Alayna Treene, who is near Mar-a-Lago this morning for the pace of these announcements. Good morning, Alayna.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Good morning, John. Yes, we are really seeing a lot of Donald Trump's top officials come together now, particularly with the national security, as you look at this potential pick of Marco Rubio. Now, it's unclear if Donald Trump has actually offered Senator Rubio this role, but it does make sense. I mean, keep in mind that Rubio, one, was on the short list for Donald Trump's vice presidential pick. He's also someone who sits on the Foreign Services Committee. He's also on the intelligence committee has deep ties to a lot of foreign leaders. It was very clear that he was at the top of Donald Trump's list for this role, as well as though with Rick Grenell, Donald Trump's former ambassador to Germany.

And actually we were told that as of yesterday morning, Donald Trump was actually leaning toward Grenell for the secretary of state role. However, throughout the course of the day, a lot of allies of Rubio's and those who believe Rubio should be the pick for secretary of state began calling Trump and throughout the course of the day, that is what changed his mind. But, again, until Donald Trump offers him the role and Rubio accepts, it's not set in stone just yet.

Now, I also think that with Rubio's pick, it shows just how aggressive Donald Trump and his broader national security team is going to be toward China. We know that as well with Florida Republican Mike Waltz taking the role of national security adviser.

Now, I also want to talk about the Noem hire. Because what he is going to be doing with immigration is going to be one of the biggest, I think, policy goals of his second term. Noem, of course, was also on the vice presidential shortlist as well. However, her relationship with Donald Trump soured, and his idea of her as a potential V.P. pick had soured after she had detailed in that book that she had released how she had shot her 14-month old dog, Cricket. That, I think, prevented her from that role. However, now she is slated to be the Department of Homeland Security secretary.

Now, one thing to keep in mind with Noem's role is that a lot of what is going to be happening in the immigration space. It's expected to actually kind of be controlled from the White House. We've reported yesterday that Stephen Miller is going to be the new deputy chief of staff for policy. A lot of the immigration policy is going to be coming from him. He is the one who's really the architect of the mass deportation plan for undocumented immigrants. So, a lot of that will be centralized, I believe, from the White House. And, of course, he'll also be working with Tom Homan, who has been labeled the border czar.

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But I also think, keep in mind, if you remember back to when we were in the first Trump administration, the DH secretary role was actually a very volatile one. We saw five different people become his DHS secretary. So, Noem has a big job ahead of her, but I think she'll be working very closely with Homan and Miller to carry out Donald Trump's immigration agenda.

BERMAN: And, Alayna, we're poised for what could be an interesting day, euphemistically, in Washington tomorrow, Donald Trump planning to head there.

TREENE: That's right. Donald Trump and Joe Biden are going to be meeting really for the first time in several years now. And particularly I think, you know, notable obviously given the animosity between these two men over the course of the 2024 campaign. But one person we know is not going is Melania Trump, at least as of now. We're told that decision is not set in stone. But as of now, when we talked to our sources on the Trump side, Melania is not planning to go. We are told that she had a previously scheduled event for her memoir that was recently released last month, and that they were unable to move it.

But this is really, I think, keeping in how Melania Trump has really broken with traditional norms for the first lady. We know that back in 2016, Michelle Obama had hosted her in the White House. In 2020, Donald Trump did not invite Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden to the White House. So, this is kind of keeping in that norm of her breaking with tradition here. John?

BERMAN: Do your own thing. All right, Alayna trained for us in Florida, Alayna, thank you very much.

SIDNER: Thank you, John. In just a few hours, President Biden meets with Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the White House. A critical meeting as U.S. aid to Israel could be in jeopardy over a looming deadline for Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Of course, this meeting comes just one day before President Elect Trump returns to D.C. for his sit down with President Biden.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is live for us from the White House. What are you hearing this morning?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, President Biden's advisers have said that foreign policy could very well be part of the discussions between President Biden and President-elect Donald Trump naming the Oval Office tomorrow. The conflict in the Middle East is among the foreign policy challenges that Trump will inherit when he comes into office.

But for President Biden's part today, he will be sitting down in the Oval Office with Israel's President Isaac Herzog. It comes at a time when the U.S. is still eager to try to reach some type of resolution to the conflicts between Israel and Hamas and Gaza, but also Israel and Hamas and Lebanon.

But so far, it appears that the talks for a ceasefire and hostage deal between Gaza and Israel, which is a top priority for President Biden, remain completely at a standstill. Over the weekend, Qatar, who had been leading the negotiations between Israel and Hamas, said that they would be taking a pause from their role in that. So, there's many questions about whether any type of agreement can be reached before President Biden leaves office.

Now, this meeting between Biden and Herzog today also comes as a group of aid organizations has said that Israel did not meet the standards that were set out by the U.S. to surge aid into Gaza. You'll remember that just last month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent a letter to Israel outlining how they wanted to see additional humanitarian aid sent into the Gaza Strip or potentially say that if they did not, it could risk violating U.S. laws relating to foreign military assistance, raising the question of whether the U.S. could potentially withhold military aid from Israel.

Some of the standards that they had set was allowing about 350 trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza a day, as well as between 50 to 100 commercial trucks into Gaza as well. These aid organizations that released a scorecard overnight said that Israel has failed to meet those standards and many more.

So, now there will be a major question for the U.S. today as that deadline is now today. Last week, the State Department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, said that he would not get into speculation about what would or wouldn't happen if Israel did not meet these steps, but that will be something for the U.S. to determine going forward.

Now, at the same time, even as Biden continues to grapple with this conflict in the Middle East, you are also seeing President-elect Donald Trump engage in some diplomacy with Israel. Just over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he's spoken three times with Trump since the election. The former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Ron Dermer, was just in Mar-a-Lago yesterday, a meeting with Trump. And so what you're seeing here is a bit of crossover between the Biden administration, which is who is currently in office, and Donald Trump, as it relates to this conflict in the Middle East and trying to find some types of resolutions.

SIDNER: Yes, it's hard to see any big resolutions before the new president is put in place to a lot of observers.

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Thank you so much, Arlette Saenz, I appreciate it. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, the jury's still out on who will be the next attorney general, but Justice Department employees who worked on investigating Donald Trump are already preparing for potential retaliation.

And one thing that has been clear since the election is markets seem to be happy that it's over and happy that Donald Trump is heading back to the White House. How long can this momentum last? We've got new numbers coming in this morning.

And forged Picassos, Warhols, forged works by Banksy, Italian police busting up a large scale forgery network, seizing thousands of fake pieces.

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BOLDUAN: What will today's market moves bring? Markets have surged on a post-election high. The Dow closed with another record yesterday and Bitcoin is back apparently hitting an all-time high.

CNN's Matt Egan is tracking all of this and what it really can mean. But how, when it comes to the stock market, how long can this momentum keep? MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Kate, someone that's going to be up to the president-elect himself when exactly he lays out his plans for tariffs and how high they're going to go and mass deportation, some of the more negative parts. But, look, for now, the market's going basically straight up. Look at this, the Dow breaking above 44,000 for the first time ever, a massive move of more than 2,000 points just since the election. And part of this is just relief that investors have clarity, right, that there's no recounts, this is not going to end up in courts, that there's certainty.

Part of this, though, is Trump-specific. There's enthusiasm about his tax cuts and his deregulation. So, we've seen big bank stocks like Wells Fargo go very sharply higher because investors are betting that Trump regulators are going to go easier on big banks. Tesla is up 39 percent since the election. Again, as investors are betting that Elon Musk is going to benefit from his close relationship with the president-elect. Crypto is basically going to the moon. We've seen Bitcoin skyrocket to almost $90,000, and Coinbase, the biggest crypto exchange, is really cashing in. Also, prison stocks, like GeoGroup, are betting that they're going to benefit from Trump's immigration crackdown.

For now, investors are all very much focused on the positives. The negatives have not been factored in much at all right now.

BOLDUAN: You talked to me about the bond market after the election. What's happening there?

EGAN: Yes. The bond market certainly has a different take on things. So, the bond market started to sniff out this Trump win days, weeks before the election. What we saw was bond prices went down and yields went sharply higher. The ten-year treasury yield about 4.3 percent today. That's up significantly from almost two months ago at 3.6 percent.

There's a few factors at play. Not all of them are Trump related. First off, this is because investors are getting more confident there's going to be a soft landing and no recession. They're also betting that growth will be even faster under Trump. And there is some growing concern about Trump's plans to potentially borrow trillions of dollars more. National debt is obviously already very high. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has projected that the Trump economic agenda would add another $8 trillion to the national debt, almost twice as much as what they're projecting under Harris. That's --

BOLDUAN: And we knew this before the election. These analyses were out before the election, and we know that voters looked. looked away from that and voting for what they voted for.

EGAN: Yes. I think that's fair.

BOLDUAN: That doesn't negate the fact that we could still be blowing off the budget.

EGAN: Right. And investors are sort of demanding a little bit for higher compensation for U.S. debt because of all of this borrowing coming down. Also, inflation, there's concerns that immigration crackdown and tariffs be inflationary. So, you put all this together, and that's why we've seen rates go up.

Now, rates are not yet at a problem area, but they're getting closer to an area that it could cause some trouble for the stock market. Also, it's costing all of us more to borrow, especially mortgages. We see mortgage rates go higher. So, we need to pay close attention with the bond market saying and whether or not this trend continues.

BOLDUAN: Fascinating. Let's see what happens today. Good to see you and thank you so much. John?

BERMAN: All right. This morning, an investigation is underway after two commercial flights were hit by gunfire in midair.

And this morning, an 18-year-old is dead and more than 25 million people under red flag warnings as wildfires rage here in the northeast.

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BERMAN: New this morning, an investigation is underway after two U.S. commercial flights were hit by gunfire over Haiti's capital. A Spirit Airlines plane took bullets while trying to land, injuring one crew member, forcing an emergency landing in the Dominican Republic. And a JetBlue flight was also hit but managed to land safely.

CNN's Pete Muntean is with us now. Pete, what's the latest on all this?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Pretty terrifying and pretty significant here, John. You know, other airlines are now shuttering their flights to Haiti. And now the U.S. government is on high alert here. The U.S. embassy in Haiti just published a warning to travelers saying it is aware of what it calls gang-led efforts to block travel to and from Port-au-Prince. The security situation, it says, in Haiti is unpredictable and dangerous. And the embassy says travel within Haiti is conducted at your own risk.

Remember, Haiti has been in a state of unrest for months and a new prime minister was just sworn in yesterday. Historically, commercial flights have been hit by gunfire before, but it is very likely unprecedented that flights have been hit back-to-back.

This was the scene on Spirit Airlines Flight 951. You can see the bullet holes there, created as this flight was apparently about to land in Port-au-Prince. The crew aborted the landing, pulled up and diverted the safety, ultimately landing at the Santiago Airport in the Dominican Republic. Spirit says one flight attendant received minor injuries, but thankfully no passengers were hurt.

We are also now hearing from JetBlue that it discovered a bullet hole in one of its planes leaving Haiti. JetBlue says Flight 935 from Haiti landed at New York's JFK without any problems. But after landing yesterday, a crew inspected the plane and found that it had been apparently struck by a bullet.

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JetBlue says, we're actively investigating this incident in collaboration with the relevant authorities.

Now, it kind of goes without saying that both JetBlue and Spirit has suspended their flights to Haiti. American Airlines also suspending flights there. So, U.S. airlines right now taking this into their own hands, not taking any chances. Delta, Southwest, United do not fly to Haiti.

Toussaint Louverture International Airport is the official name for the airport in Port-au-Prince ,and notice the pilots there says operations there are suspended until further notice. John, this situation developing all the time.

BERMAN: Yes, it is alarming in the video. Remarkable, Pete, to see the bullet holes in those planes.

Thank you for this reporting, Pete. Keep us posted on new developments there. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, John. Donald Trump's cabinet is starting to shape up quickly. The faithful backers he's picked to be part of his second administration.

And South Korea's president picks up a new hobby inspired by Trump's election. Are we about to see something called green diplomacy? We'll explain, coming up.

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