Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Herzog Meets Biden As Deadline On Gaza Humanitarian Aids Looms; Spirit & JetBlue Planes Hit By Gunfire Over Haiti's Capital; Justice Dept. Staffers Brace For Chaos & Retribution Under Trump; Harriet Tubman Posthumously Honored As National Guard General. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired November 12, 2024 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:30:20]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: New today, President Biden meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the White House. The timing of this visit is notable. A U.S. deadline for Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza is set to expire in a matter of hours.

And some aid groups say that not only will Israel miss that deadline, but it's actions on the ground right now are only making the situation worse.

CNN's Kylie Atwood joins us now.

So, Kylie, take us through what happened at this meeting between Biden and Herzog and what happens if Israel doesn't comply with this deadline?

KAYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right. So what we're watching today is what, if anything, the Biden administration does with regard to this 30- day deadline, that they actually put in place by themselves.

What they said to Israel is that if Israel didn't make commitments, didn't make actions on a number of mandates that the U.S. was saying that needed to take, actions in terms of getting more humanitarian assistance into Gaza, that they could effectively jeopardize U.S. military assistance that is coming from the U.S. to Israel.

Now, these aid organizations are out today saying that not only did Israel not live up to those demands that the U.S. made, but they've actually made the situation in Gaza worse.

Now, we haven't gotten the formal U.S. assessment, the U.S. government assessment of what Israel has done in the last 30 days.

But obviously, President Biden and President Herzog, of Israel, one of the things that we expected that they discussed today was that. We don't know the specifics of that discussion.

But what we're told by U.S. officials is that they not actually going to make any policy changes that they're going announce today, any overarching policy changes with regard to this letter that they sent Israel.

That is going to be incredibly frustrating for these humanitarian aid organizations who are saying that Israel isn't only ignoring the United States but making the situation worse.

There's also a group of folks that have resigned from the Biden administration over the course of last year, saying that the Biden administration should have halted arms sales to Israel.

They're coming out today and saying, once again, that they believe that the Biden administration should uphold their commitment to the demands that they made in this letter.

I want you to listen to some of those voices in the new video that they put out today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are calling on President Biden to keep his 30- day promise.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To uphold U.S. law.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Halt U.S. weapons sales to Israel. Stop the spread of the conflict and look out for America.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are still the president.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not too late for you to do the right thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ATWOOD: Now, obviously, President Biden only has a few more months in office. They're saying here, though, it's not too late for him to do the right thing.

They really want him to take action to halt U.S. weapons sales to Israel, because they say that Israel is impeding humanitarian aid still from getting into Gaza.

It doesn't seem like there's a thirst, that there's an appetite from the Biden administration to actually do that. This is a space that we'll watch incredibly closely over the next few weeks.

SANCHEZ: Especially considering, by January 20th, policy for Israel is likely not going to go in the direction of those groups.

Kylie Atwood, thanks so much for that reporting.

Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Some airlines are now suspending travel to Haiti after two U.S.-based jets we're struck by bullets while they we're flying over the capital of Port-au-Prince. One Spirit crew member even suffering what the airline described as minor injuries.

And now the U.S. State Department is issuing new warnings about the increasingly dangerous situation on the ground there in Haiti.

We have CNN's Pete Muntean here with the latest.

This is terrifying stuff, Pete. What happened?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Totally terrifying and really significant. Because other airlines are now shuttering their flights to Haiti after all of this.

Now the U.S. government is on high alert. The U.S. embassy in Haiti actually putting out a warning to travelers, saying it is aware of what it calls "gang-led efforts to block travel to and from Port-au- Prince."

It says, "The security situation in Haiti is unpredictable and dangerous and travel within Haiti is conducted at your own risk."

Remember, Haiti has been in a state of unrest for months. The new prime minister was just sworn in yesterday.

Historically, commercial flights have been hit by gunfire before, but this is very likely unprecedented that flights have been hit by gunfire back-to-back.

This was the scene inside Spirit Airlines flight 951. You can see the bullet hole here on the outside of the airplane.

I want to show you the bullet hole on the inside. This is the carry-on bag tray. These are the doors. You can see the bullet holes here and a little bit on this side as well.

[13:35:01]

The good news here is that the crew noticed that they were under fire and went around, aborted their landing here in Port-au-Prince. They ultimately ended up going -- this flight was on its way from Ft. Lauderdale to Port-au-Prince. They ultimately ended up going to Santiago in the Dominican Republic.

So they essentially had to abort this landing and then go around and find a different airport to get to some safety. Thankfully, no serious injuries. Only a flight attendant, minor injuries. No injuries to any of the passengers onboard.

But what's interesting is that we're also hearing from JetBlue that one of its flights yesterday was also hit by gunfire. They ultimately found this out after this plane left Port-au-Prince and landed at JFK.

A member of the crew did an inspection of the airplane post-flight at JFK and found a bullet hole in the airplane. We're hearing it may have been in the wing of the airplane.

JetBlue says it's actively conducting an investigation. Also working with the relevant authorities to try to get to the bottom of this.

Both Spirit and JetBlue, kind of goes without saying, have suspended their flights to Haiti. American Airlines also suspending flights there. So U.S. airlines really taking this into their own hands, not waiting for the U.S. government to act here.

Delta, Southwest and United all do not fly into the airport there in Haiti. So really, this is very significant.

And there's been a notice to pilots put in place by the Haitian government, essentially suspending all commercial flights in and out of Port-au-Prince. It's really developing all the time here.

KEILAR: Thankfully, it did end up OK. But this could have been incredibly bad.

MUNTEAN: Well, yes. If a person got hit by something, it sounds like maybe the flight attendant was hit by flying debris, like a piece of fiberglass from the overhead bin there. But this could have been really serious.

You know, this would have caused a rupture in the pressure vessel of the airplane. That's something that keeps the inside of the plane pressurized, high pressure inside the airplane, so you can breathe. The air is much thinner outside. This could have caused a rupture in that way.

Thankfully, it didn't seem like that ultimately happened here. This flight was able to fly at a normally high altitude when it diverted over to Santiago there in the Dominion Republic.

But this could have been really, really serious. And so there could have been major ramifications for people onboard. People could have been wearing oxygen masks. This could have been really, really a big problem.

KEILAR: Good thing they could go right to the D.R. there.

MUNTEAN: Yes.

KEILAR: Pete, thank you so much for taking us through that.

The Department of Justice is bracing for potential chaos and retribution after President-Elect Trump spent years railing about their investigations. How some are preparing, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:41:58]

KEILAR: Staffers at the Justice Department are bracing for an epic shake up under the second Trump administration. The president-elect has already said he plans to fire FBI Director Christopher Wray and go after Jack Smith, the special counsel who led the investigation into Trump over January 6th and the classified documents case. Listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)

HUGH HEWITT, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: The day after you take the oath of office or maybe the day you take the oath of office, you're either going to have to pardon yourself or you're going to have to fire Jack Smith. Which one would you do?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would fire him within two seconds.

(END AUDIO FEED)

SANCHEZ: Looming over all of this is the question of who President- Elect Trump will select to serve as his attorney general. You'll recall, he fired two A.G.s with a third resigning during his last administration after they all went against his will.

CNN's senior justice correspondent, Evan Perez, is here.

Evan, you report that staffers are worried about the independence as an institution of the Department of Justice from Trump during a second administration. What are you hearing?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is the biggest concern, right? There is the disappearance of some of their work, the work that they've been doing, that that would be undone.

But the bigger concern, I think, is what you hear from the former president and the president-elect, which is, you know, that there is going to be some kind of retribution against people who worked on cases that affected him, including the Jack Smith cases, of course, the January 6th cases.

He has said that he's going to pardon some of these people. So there is a lot of concern about whether these people need to go get lawyers to protect themselves in case they're being investigated.

And, you know, you could see why the Justice Department would be worried, right? This is a department that will be key to a lot of his initiatives.

Everything from the immigration executive orders, you know, some of the things that they're talking about in DEI and so on. All of those things will go through the department.

There's a reason why a lot of people consider this to be the worst job in Washington, because you're always under the gun. You can see that list of people that he got rid of, right?. Jeff Sessions, a truly loyalist. Bill Barr, a loyalist. And both of them ended up on bad terms with Donald Trump.

Now, in the last couple of days, we've heard from people who have been in consideration for the job. Mark Paoletta is one of those. He's a conservative lawyer, a very smart guy. He has went publicly -- he was on FOX News this morning, and he also posted on "X."

He said the following. He said, "If these career DOJ employees won't implement President Trump's program in good faith, they should leave. These employees who engage in so- called resistance against a duly elected president's lawful agenda would be subverting American democracy."

The bottom line here, though, for the Justice Department is that, you know, a lot of the resistance doesn't necessarily come from the career employees. The former president ran into trouble with his own appointees, right?

Jeff sessions, there was a line that he wouldn't cross. Bill Barr would not endorse his claims of voter fraud after the 2020 election. And that's what angered the former president.

[13:45:00]

One key thing that Paoletta said in his social media post, he said, "No one will push them to implement flagrantly illegal actions," right? And that's one of the things that I think people are very concerned about inside of the department.

As far as the FBI director, that's a big, big job. And one of the things that's I think being considered there is whether the former president still sticks by that idea or whether he really will fire Chris Wray.

The expectation is, inside the transition and in the FBI, is that he won't be fired, because he'll quit. He'll quit rather than be fired.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Trump has made pretty clear, even when he was in office, his dissatisfaction with Christopher Wray. Hard to imagine he would stay in that role and serve out the 10-year term.

Evan Perez, thank you so much for the reporting.

Still plenty more news to come on CNN NEWS CENTRAL. Including this, the Maryland Army National Guard honoring Harriet Tubman nearly 160 years after the Civil War. We're actually going to speak to her great- great-great- grandniece when we come back.

And before we go to break, some news on CNN. Donald Trump making it official, announcing Congressman Mike Waltz as his pick to serve as national security adviser.

In a statement on Truth Social, Trump praised Waltz as a, quote, "nationally recognized leader in national security, a best-selling author, and an expert on the threats posed by China, Russia, Iran and global terrorism," unquote.

We'll have much more on Trump's cabinet picks in just a few minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:51:06]

KEILAR: Freedom fighter and Underground Railroad hero, Harriet Tubman, is now a one-star general in the Maryland Army National Guard. The honor bestowed yesterday for Veterans Day more than a century after the abolitionist's death.

Tubman's great-great-great-grandniece accepted the symbolic ranking on her behalf. Born into slavery as one of 11 children, Harriet Tubman spent 10 years guiding slaves out of the south beginning in 1850.

But Monday's commemoration is the first official recommendation for what Tubman did after that, her military service. She helped liberate more than 700 enslaved people during the Civil War. And she was also a spy and a recruiter.

Joining me now is Tubman's descendant, Ernestine "Tina" Wyatt, who accepted that honor yesterday.

Thank you so much for being with us.

What was it like to stand there in place of your Aunt Harriet, as you call her, and receive this incredible honor?

ERNESTINE "TINA" WYATT, DESCENDENT OF HARRIET TUBMAN: Well, thank you for having me.

It was overwhelming and it was just wonderful and so emotional of being able to accept something that is long overdue for her.

Having made application for her pension for being a spy and a scout during the Civil War, she was actually denied for that, but did receive some later as a nurse and then as a widow's pension.

But to have her recognized for the role she did play in the Civil War, something where she was commissioned or asked to go down to do that and to be that, to be a spy and a scout, it was just tremendous.

And I just felt so happy for her and for us as a family.

KEILAR: You're so right. That is, I think, as people recall what they learned about Harriet Tubman, or it's not something that they did learn, say, when they were in elementary school.

And I know you once told CNN that you wish more people now about Harriet Tubman's contributions to the Civil War. Why do you think it's so important that people understand this part of her life and what she gave that has been glossed over?

WYATT: Because it shows that she's -- you know, the kind of person that she was, a person of integrity, a person of honor, a person of faith. She was a selfless human being.

And she put herself in peril by going down into Beaufort, South Carolina, to be able to do this, to be able to fight for the union, to be able to fight to have the enslaved free and then to be able to equally stand side by side with the white soldiers and fight for this country to preserve the union.

She felt that the union was something worth preserving, even though it was -- what was happening in the United States at the time. She felt that it could be the country that it wanted to be, which was great. So she fought for that.

KEILAR: Tina, you said in your remarks yesterday, quote, "We find ourselves in a different climate and there is no coincidence that she," Harriet Tubman, "is blowing up like she is."

What did you mean by that?

WYATT: Well, I mean, everything that's going on now, I feel like is the antithesis, the feeling, the climate of what is being said and done. She was a person of faith and a person of love and kindness.

She was a person that brought forth justice, equality, and also inclusiveness for everyone. That's what she wanted, what she felt would make this country great.

[13:55:09]

And that's not something I'm seeing today, which is, I think, is so opposed to the God that I know and the God that she knew.

So I think what's happening right now in the world is something that God is allowing for his purposes. So we'll see what that is soon, at some other time. But we just have to -- continue to have faith and trust.

KEILAR: Well, she is an incredible example. And it is wonderful to see her honored so that Americans can learn more about her contributions.

Tina, thank you so much for being with us.

WYATT: Well, you're welcome. Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: Earnestine "Tina" Wyatt, we appreciate it.

President-elect Trump down at Mar-a-Lago building out his next cabinet. We're going to have details on his picks and what they mean for another Trump term.

Another hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)