Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Trump Moving Quickly to Kill Key Positions With Staunch Loyalists; New York Times Reports, Special Counsel Jack Smith to Resign Before Trump Takes Office; Explosion at Louisville, Kentucky Factory Kills Two, Injures Others. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired November 13, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Sure, cable news hosts can do anything, but run a complex organization with millions of employees and a budget in the hundreds of billions? New fallout this morning, including questions from Republicans, after Donald Trump taps a Fox News regular to be secretary of defense.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And breaking overnight, the New York Times is reporting Special Counsel Jack Smith is going to resign before Donald Trump takes office, planning to leave the job before he can be fired.

And a massive explosion at a food coloring plant in Kentucky. 2 people are dead, 11 people are wounded, and now an investigation into what happened here.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. Sara is out today. This is CNN News Central.

Today, Donald Trump returns to Washington very soon this morning. He'll be meeting face-to-face with President Biden at the White House. This is tradition, the outgoing president inviting the incoming president for a private meeting. For both men, it's the first time that they're going to be in the same room since they faced off for the CNN debate that changed everything.

It's not only tradition, it's a noteworthy one, as it's a tradition Donald Trump rejected after his loss in 2020. So, stand by for that.

We're also standing by for Donald Trump's other big stops of the day, meeting with House Republicans and later Senate Republicans that are on the brink of picking a new leader.

And if you blinked or decided to get any sleep, you likely missed a slew of Trump job announcements. Call it shock and awe. Call it fast and furious. Whatever you want, Trump is on a roll announcing administration picks. Among them, okay, let's start with maybe the least surprising, that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are joining the team. They will run a brand new government commission that they're trying to brand as a new department, a government-wide cost cutting project that could reshape the entire federal government and slash the workforce. Then there is the most surprising pick so far, what John Berman was getting at, Donald Trump announcing his choice for secretary of defense, Fox News Host Pete Hegseth, an army veteran, but his lack of experience running anything close to an organization of nearly 3 million people has even Republicans scratching their heads. Republicans like Senator Lisa Murkowski, saying simply, wow, in responding to it. Senator Thom Tillis, interesting. Senator Bill Cassidy, who? The more colorful take coming from a defense industry lobbyist to Politico, who the F is this guy?

CNN's Alayna Treene is in Washington for us with all of the latest. So, Alayna, there were some substantial new announcements in cabinet announcements overnight. What are you learning about Trump as he's in route to D.C. right now?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: That's right. Donald Trump will be here in D.C. We saw his motorcade actually just take off to head to the airport on his way here. He's going to be meeting first with House Republicans behind me. For what I'm told, it's going to be him taking a bit of a victory lap. I'm told that he's expected to tell Republicans that, you know, he was given a mandate. He wants to move aggressively, just like he is moving aggressively with his cabinet picks, fill them in on some of his decisions, but really try to talk to them about his agenda.

Now, I do want to get to those cabinet picks, because you're absolutely right, Kate, we saw a flurry of new appointments from Donald Trump in just the last 24 hours. I'm going to walk you through some of them. First of all, he announced that Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, is going to be his U.S. ambassador to Israel, a big job right now, given, of course, the war happening in the Middle East. He also announced John Ratcliffe, his former director of National Intelligence is going to be the CIA director. Will McGinley will be his White House counsel. And his longtime friend and real estate developer, Steve Wyckoff, is going to be the Middle East envoy.

But I do want to give you some reporting into what you were just talking about, which is kind of the surprising pick of Pete Hegseth to run the Pentagon. When I talked to Donald Trump's team last night, those who were working on the transition, they said that many people inside Donald Trump's orbit were surprised by this pick. He didn't emerge really as a leading for the role until Monday. He then interviewed for the job over the last 24 hours, I'm told.

[07:05:03]

And unlike some of the other appointments that Donald Trump has made for these top decisions, he actually did not meet with him at Mar-a- Lago. Instead, this was all conducted in person remotely.

But, look, I think when I talked to him about like why Pete Hegseth, why a former -- or a Fox News host now to be former Fox News host? They said that, honestly, Donald Trump over, you know, the past several years, he has a good relationship with him. He thought he was smart. He was likable. One source told me that Donald Trump thinks he has the, quote/unquote, the look, but he also appreciates that he's a military veteran. But I think we're going to be learning a lot more about him and his pick soon. Kate?

BOLDUAN: And talk more about what you've learned about the Elon Musk role in it all.

TREENE: Yes. Well, we learned that -- and this isn't that surprising. To be honest, we knew that Elon Musk wasn't going to have some big secretary, cabinet secretary position. He did not want to divest from all of his businesses and companies, but he is going to have a role in a second Trump term. And that is he, as well as Vivek Ramaswamy, Donald Trump's former Republican primary challenger, they are going to be focused on government efficiency. They are saying that they're going to be running a new department called the Department of Government Efficiency.

I think if you look at the acronym there, it's D-O-G-E, play on doge, which is something Elon Musk, you know, in crypto business has been talking about, but all to say they're going to have a role that's not essentially inside government. It's a bit outside. It allows them to still have influence without actually being within, you know, Donald Trump's control.

Now, it's interesting because this is always, when I talk to Donald Trump's team about Elon Musk's influence, we've talked a lot, Kate, about his growing influence with Donald Trump, seeing him at Mar-a- Lago essentially every single day over the last week, they said this is his way of still having some influence in a second term without fully having to leave his company and businesses behind. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So, stand by to stand by for another flurry is what we're learning out in these coming days. It's great to see you, Alayna, a lot happening where Alayna is right there and we're going to be tracking the president's trip back to Washington -- the president- elect, Trump, back to Washington all throughout the morning. John?

BERMAN: Yes, I think actually we have some live pictures of Palm Beach, Florida, where Donald Trump's plane, the president will explain is getting ready to take off. Unclear whether he is boarded or not, unclear whether he will speak before he gets on and heads to Washington, but we will watch that closely.

In the meantime, with us now, CNN Military Analyst Cedric Leighton. Colonel, thank you so much for being with us. Look, I'm of the firm belief that cable news hosts are qualified for anything, honestly. There's nothing we can't do. That aside, running the Pentagon, how complicated of a job is it?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, that would probably be one of the most complex jobs you could ever imagine, even for cable news hosts, John. And that's one of the key concerns, I think, in this particular case with Pete Hegseth. He is, you know, somebody obviously who has served and received two bronze stars for his service, one for his service in Iraq, one for his service in Afghanistan. But he's been working at the tactical level and not necessarily always in combat. So, his appreciation of what it means to be in the military is a bit different than it would be if he had more experience, if he had served longer, and if he'd been in the active force instead of in the guards. So, it's definitely a different kind of pick, and it's one where he's going to have his work cut out for him if he does actually get confirmed as secretary of defense.

BERMAN: It is an enormous bureaucracy, and I'm sure there are some who will say, well, because it's so big, it's good to have someone from the outside, but it's complicated. It's a lot to run. And then there are the views that Pete Hegseth has espoused during his time at Fox News. He's been very critical of what he calls the woke military, he's promised to get rid of any person involved with DEI inside the military. And he's spoken about his view of women in combat. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, FOX NEWS HOST: I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn't made us more effective, hasn't made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.

We've all served with women and they're great. It just our institutions don't have to incentivize that in places where, traditionally -- not traditionally, over human history, men in those positions are more capable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: If he is confirmed, how much power would he have to remove women from combat?

LEIGHTON: Well, he'd actually have to get that approved through Congress, and that's something that Congress has decided, that women will serve in combat. It's been one of the key elements that has changed over the years. It used to be that women were, of course, relegated to support roles. That has definitely changed.

During my career in the Air Force, the issue was dealt with many different ways but the key aspect of it was that women were allowed to eventually get into combat positions.

[07:10:02]

Martha McSally, the former senator from Arizona, is a prime example of an Air Force combat veteran. And those are people who have been highly effective, highly skilled, and highly capable in their military roles, and that's something that he's going to have to contend with if he actually not only continues to espouse that view, but actually acts on it.

BERMAN: Yes -- I think Hegseth has said he actually -- he's okay with women as pilots is in other roles where he might have issues, but we'll see how he discusses that.

Finally, The Wall Street Journal, Colonel, has an article out, which says that Donald Trump may sign an executive order creating a kind of review board for all generals and admirals, flag officers, in the military to basically decide if they can stay in. Talk to me about the consequences and the implications of that on people serving.

LEIGHTON: Well, those could be huge, John. And here's the key problem with all of this. The Department of Defense has a promotion process, obviously, and it is a process that takes somebody through their entire career, from their time of commissioning all the way to their retirement, and really beyond. And if you start messing with that process, if you start changing people in the middle of their tours, it has a cascading effect. For every four star general that moves, you have about 50 to 60 people that move as a result of that move.

So, that's just because we have a system that is basically an up or out system. And if you change the rules the rules of the game, then it becomes really hard to have an effective game. The people that are serving in these positions, many of them are now combat veterans. In fact, most of them probably are, at least in the Army and the Marine Corps. And that is something that is -- you can't get rid of that. You can't take that out of the military services regardless of what their political positions are, because it is an apolitical military and it needs to remain that way.

Yes, that's the concern that many have that would politicize the role and force many of these generals and admirals to be political, to keep their jobs.

Cedric Leighton, great to see you, thank you very much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Some of the breaking news overnight, The New York Times reporting that Special Counsel Jack Smith planning to resign from the Justice Department, but he isn't leaving quietly. How he plans to report out on the ongoing investigations he's been running into Donald Trump before he leaves.

And Republicans are about to choose their leaders in the Senate and the House and the president-elect is about to pay them a visit. Will he be weighing in on those leadership fights?

And People Magazine names this year's Sexiest Man Alive. No, it's not that you haven't put your contacts in. We did blur it on purpose. Cue the controversy. One clue, his name is John. His last name may or may not be Berman.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

BOLDUAN: The New York Times is reporting that special counsel Jack Smith is going to resign before Donald Trump takes office in January.

Devlin Barrett and Glenn Thrush for the Times reporting that Smith wants to finish the bulk of his investigations against Trump before he leaves, so he leaves nothing behind and nothing unfinished. Even before Donald Trump won the election, he had vowed again and again from the campaign trail he would be firing Smith, quote/unquote, within two seconds of becoming president. CNN's Evan Perez joins us now. The question is, where does this leave us in this moment? Because we knew Jack Smith was in talks to wind down his cases. What do we know this morning, Evan?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate. Look, the mechanics of how that is happening, that is still being worked out. The Justice Department and Jack Smith have to come up with a plan. And they've said this in court filings.

Now, the mechanics are important because, as you pointed out, Donald Trump has said that he wants to fire Jack Smith, and so if Smith produces a report and we expect that he will finish a report, you know, certainly before the January 20th, where that report ends up is going to be an important fact, right? Because one of the things that has to happen, you know, is for the attorney general to decide whether all of it can be released to the public and, if Merrick Garland is no longer the attorney general, then it's not clear what the Trump attorney general might do.

Now, part of this discussion is whether the report has to be submitted to the intelligence community for approval, for them to approve all of the parts of it. That's a lot easier because they've already had those discussions because these cases were going to go to trial. So, the mechanics of this are very important, but they're also being worked out.

Now, because Jack Smith might be done and his team might be done, doesn't mean that Donald Trump and his allies are done with Jack Smith. Because, as you pointed out you know, if he gets fired, we expect that this is going to be part of an investigation by Congress. And we could very well see Jack Smith having to testify before Congress in the new year, certainly as part of the Republicans look at what happened in this investigation.

Again, a lot of these mechanics are still in the works and we don't know whether the attorney general, Merrick Garland, will sign off on everything that Jack Smith has in store or has plans for. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Yes, you're presenting exactly what it is, which is there are a lot of questions now around what happens next.

It's great to see you, Evan. Thanks for the reporting.

PEREZ: You too.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, it blew out windows, shook nearby homes. What happened when a massive plant in Kentucky exploded? Look at the aftermath of it. And it killed two people. So, what they're doing now to find out what caused all of this.

And when Donald Trump takes office, what does that mean for all of the people charged and convicted for their actions on January 6th with regard to the insurrection?

[07:20:06]

Many are expecting Donald Trump to make good on his campaign pledge to pardon them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: New this morning, two people have been killed in an explosion in Louisville, Kentucky. An investigation is underway. The blast happened at a factory that makes food and beverage colorings.

Let's get right to CNN's Isabel Rosales with the details this morning. Isabel, what are you learning?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, good morning. Yes, there's a 10:00 A.M. press conference that we're anticipating. So hopefully we should get more details in that processor, including the cause of this explosion, which is under investigation.

But just a heartbreaking overnight update from that Swiss-based company that deals with flavoring and fragrances and has a facility there in the Clifton neighborhood of Louisville, that heartbreaking update that two people, employees were killed. Their identities have not been released, but the company says it is cooperating with the investigation, also saying in part this, we're grieving with the families, friends and loved ones of those that were lost and injured during this very difficult time.

[07:25:11]

Now, let me bring you back. This explosion happened just past 3:00 P.M. yesterday. Neighbors hearing are large boom. Businesses, homes in the nearby area of that facility, that commercial facility, their windows shattering, damaging homes. We have impressive video from some of our affiliates, including Wave and WLKY showing just the aftermath of that explosion, vivid, a big hole left in that commercial facility, and also a plume of smoke coming up into the air captured by weather cameras.

Now, 12 people were also injured and taken to hospitals. According to the mayor of Louisville, all of the injured were employees who described at the moment of the explosion normal activity happening in the plant just before this event happened.

Now, the cause, I mentioned, is still under investigation, but here's what neighbors described it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARVIN CROOME, PAYNE STREET RESIDENT: I had just came home from work by 20 minutes before it happened. And I was sitting there talking to my mother, and out of nowhere, a loud boom and it shook the house.

JACOB HAYDEN, LIVES IN CLIFTON NEIGHBORHOOD: You've got too many people in this neighborhood. If it was something bigger, you know, who knows what would have happened?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: John, the Clifton neighborhood, this is a gorgeous neighborhood known for Victorian antique homes. It's full of murals, a peaceful neighborhood, obviously, shaken by this incident. City officials say that they're using drones to monitor the air quality. And what has neighbors even more shaken is the fact that this is not new to them. A similar incident happened just 20 years ago, in 2003, that same facility under a different ownership, the equipment over pressurized, leading to an explosion, also killing one worker. John?

BERMAN: Incredible pictures. Isabel Rosales, thank you very much for that.

All right, who the F is this guy? The reaction from a defense insider to the announcement that a Fox News anchor will be nominated as defense secretary.

And the major airline taxing toward bankruptcy, what it could mean for your travel plans.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]