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Today: Biden To Speak On Final Day Of G20 Summit In Brazil; Man Charged With Killing Three In Random Stabbings Across Manhattan; Russian State Media: Ukraine Fires U.S.-Made Missiles Into Russia. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired November 19, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:31:12]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning President Biden set to deliver final remarks in Brazil as the G20 summit comes to a close. The president has spent his final G20 urging fellow members to continue making progress on a range of issues, including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza even after he takes his exit from the world stage in January.

CNN's Kayla Tausche is traveling with the president in Rio -- a windy Rio. Good morning to you, Kayla.

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

We expect President Biden to make his way to his final day of his final world summit in just a few minutes from now where he's expected to take the wraps off a $325 million contribution to a World Bank fund that will help other countries fund their own clean energy transition. It's meant to help countries mimic the president's own Inflation Reduction Act, which we expect him to tout.

But it just highlights, John, the fact that this week for President Biden on the world stage has become more of an exercise in highlighting his own accomplishments that could simply be reversed by the incoming administration or forgotten by other leaders than it has been perhaps the boisterous, laudatory send off that perhaps he envisioned just a few weeks ago.

For President Biden, it has been a relatively quiet trip here. He had pull-aside meetings with the leaders of Canada and Mexico yesterday thanking them for their partnership, of course, to close allies both in proximity and in -- and in ideals that the two countries share.

But President Biden is set to make his departure here from Brazil in just a few hours marking his first major summit without a press conference since he took office as he heads back to Washington, D.C. --guys.

BERMAN: All right, trying to get a lot done and not much time left.

Kayla Tausche, thank you very much -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. President-elect Donald Trump is personally pressuring Republican senators to push them to confirm one of his most controversial cabinet picks, Matt Gaetz, as attorney general.

With us now to discuss, Republican strategist and former RNC communications director Doug Heye, and Kendra Barkoff, former press secretary to then-Vice President Biden. Thank you both for being here.

Doug, our sources telling our reporters that Trump is making these calls -- personal calls to senators to try to push Matt Gaetz through.

Why is he willing to spend so much political capital on this?

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, FORMER RNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Partially, I think it's a move by Trump to essentially do some "Star Wars" and say these are not the droids you're looking for. So by distracting senators and us, by the way, with Matt Gaetz, it makes it easier for him to get through some of the other nominees that have -- that have been more questionable. Most of his nominees are good, normal, rational people. Some of them have real issues. So if we're focused on Gaetz we're not talking about those other ones.

But also, I can tell you Sara there are a lot of conversations that are happening -- not just Donald Trump calling senators but senators talking to other senators. And what I mean by that is senators who have only been in the United States Senate and haven't been in the House are talking to their colleagues who did serve in the House and say tell me about this guy. And what they're hearing from their colleagues who've served in the House with Gaetz may be pretty illuminating for them as they go through this decision.

It's not just the headlines that they're going to respond to; it's what their colleagues are telling them as well, and a lot of that is not positive.

SIDNER: You know, it's interesting because one of the questions I had for you is this is sort of a look at the shiny thing over here and the other folks who are controversial sort of get pushed through because of the fight over Gaetz.

Kendra, I do want to ask you about this. A lawyer representing a client who testified to the House Ethics Committee in this accusation concerning Gaetz having sex with minors is spelled out to our Erin Burnett. Here is what he says happened -- what his client told the Ethics Committee happened in the case of Matt Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old.

[07:35:10]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOEL LEPPARD, LAWYER FOR WOMAN WHO TESTIFIED AGAINST GAETZ ABOUT SEX ALLEGATIONS: The testimony before the House was yes, that Rep. Gaetz paid my client -- both of my clients for sexual favors throughout the summer of 2017 all the way to the beginning of 2019. She testified to the House that as she was walking out to the pool area she turned to her right and she witnessed her client -- I'm sorry, her friend having sex with Rep. Gaetz -- and her friend at that time was 17.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Now he goes on to say that Gaetz at the time didn't know she was 17. When he found out he stopped and later on started paying them for sex.

Kendra, are any of these revelations going to make a difference to Trump or the senators looking at whether to confirm him?

KENDRA BARKOFF, FORMER PRESS SECRETARY TO THEN-VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I really hope so. Look, at the end of the day, Donald Trump is asking these senators to put a blindfold on, walk a plank, and trust him that this guy is going to be a disruptor.

The only thing that he has done is shown his loyalty to Donald Trump. He has not managed anything except for an online account for looking at women.

And this is not somebody we want and nor the senators, frankly, should want to lead a department with the highest law enforcement agency in the land with 115,000 employees that work there. They do a lot of very serious things - cybersecurity, sex trafficking, child predators. These are things that they should be taking very seriously.

And the report should be released so that these senators know exactly what he -- the type of man that he is based on all of these allegations.

SIDNER: Doug, I want to ask you about this. The Wall Street Journal editorial board says that while everyone -- and as you just sort of mentioned -- is talking about Gaetz, it's Tulsi Gabbard that needs to be scrutinized as much as him.

Here's what they said. "The world today is far more dangerous than it was in Mr. Trump's first term. He will need honest assessments of the threats, and not an intelligence chief animated above all by fear that any U.S. action other than appeasement will result in World War III. Ms. Gabbard has given no indication across her long political career that she is the right person for that vital duty."

Doug, when you see that from The Wall Street Journal, which isn't exactly anti-Trump, what do you --

HEYE: Yeah.

SIDNER: -- what do you make of that?

HEYE: Well, it tells me that there are very real concerns not necessarily with her experience in the House. I worked with her office a little bit in the House in planning some congressional delegation trips and so forth. Always good and easy to work with. But what we've seen in the past few years, especially when it comes to

Russia and Syria, have raised a lot of questions as to how she would potentially serve in this role.

And that's why -- and Donald Trump is very good at this. Donald Trump is a matador, and he waves a red cape -- in this case it's Matt Gaetz -- and we all follow it. And we've done this for eight years now. Donald Trump can depend on us to do that.

And it's why when things like The Wall Street Journal editorial page put out information like this, Republican members need to see it.

But the reality is in the United States Senate -- so let me take you on the House floor real quick, Sara. A lot of conversations that House members and staff are having about what legislation is on the floor, about what you did that weekend, about what the football game is this weekend, and so forth.

But as Republican senators are talking to each other and they're saying to say Markwayne Mullin, who served in the House as well, tell me about what Matt Gaetz would be like on the floor, Markwayne Mullin is going to tell them about lurid pictures that Matt Gaetz would show and stories that he would tell on the House floor. Completely out of bounds, completely unacceptable. And that's why his nomination is most likely doomed.

But again, these are the things that draw headlines and conversations. Actual -- you know, what is smart in policy or what may be a mistake and so forth with other nominees just doesn't get that kind of attention.

SIDNER: Doug Heye, Kendra Barkoff, thank you both so much. Appreciate you guys --

BARKOFF: Thank you.

SIDNER: -- running through that with me -- Kate.

HEYE: Thank you.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, three people are dead after a terrifying series of random stabbings that took place across New York City in just a matter of hours yesterday.

It started just after 8:00 a.m. when a 36-year-old man was randomly stabbed in the stomach while standing in front of a construction site. He was then pronounced dead at the hospital. More than two hours later a second person was stabbed and also pronounced dead later at the hospital. Less than an hour after that a 36-year-old woman was stabbed multiple times. She is also dead.

The NYPD says a cab driver who witnessed that final attack alerted police after he thought he had just seen a robbery.

Another bystander described the moment the police took the suspect into custody. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

I saw this homeless guy walking with a purse. And then I saw this guy in the car telling him "Stop! Drop the bag. Stop!" I told him to stop. It's not worth it. There's going to be cops up ahead. And, of course, he didn't listen. And then all of a sudden, I saw the guys in suits and earphones rushing.

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[07:40:10]

BOLDUAN: The man now under arrest is this man, 51-year-old Ramon Rivera, charged now with three counts of first-degree murder.

CNN's John Miller is here with us now because there was a whole lot of questions of why and -- of what, why. And tell us everything. What are you learning about this man and any reason why this happened?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, Ramon Rivera is not just the suspect in this case, but he's a composite of what Mayor Adams -- Eric Adams described yesterday as two broken systems -- the criminal justice system in New York City and the failing mental health system.

You have an individual who has a string of arrests in Florida starting in 2003. Then a string of arrests in Ohio. Then a handful of arrests in New Jersey.

And then just in the time he's been in New York, which seems to be just a little more than a year, he's got eight arrests -- felonies, one misdemeanor. Two incidents where police encounter him as an emotionally disturbed person. And he serves about eight months for this string of burglaries, larcenies, burglaries, assault on a police officer. And that is an assault on a corrections officer in jail.

So nowhere is the system figuring out this is someone with deep-seeded serious mental health issues who needs more care. They seem to be passing him back and forth between very short stays in hospitals where he's discharged almost immediately and a short stay in prison for a long string of crimes.

BOLDUAN: Well, I mean, you're getting at this is -- it's small and it's big. I mean, three people are dead from random stabbings. There's -- it seems no real motive, just they were -- they were there when he was there.

And the system has failed everywhere on this. I mean, why didn't this man spend more time in jail?

MILLER: Well, this is a combination of two things -- one, on the mental health end. Literally, since the mid-50s we've seen a steady and sharp decline on the number of mental health beds available.

BOLDUAN: Um-hum. MILLER: They are very short and federal funding for that has declined steadily. So hospitals are very reluctant to take these on as cases and keep them for any extended treatment.

But on the criminal justice side we have the 2020 revisions to the criminal justice law in New York and a number of cities, and a district attorney who has pledged to try and find every alternative to incarceration and every alternative to holding people on bail.

So you have a system that has turned into a bit of a revolving door in a city that once had the lowest crime literally since 1948. And it's struggling with these criminal justice reform things where it's very hard to get someone incarcerated for any amount of time for anything short of murder or attempted murder --

BOLDUAN: What we see here.

MILLER: -- and what we see here.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, and which it should not have to get to this. That is for dang sure.

John, thank you so much.

MILLER: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: John.

BERMAN: All right. A leaky defense is one thing, but a crumbling roof -- that is a whole new level of bad. The Dallas Cowboys are having such a bad season even the stadium does not want to stick around for it.

And this morning, 50 hours of surgery, at least 80 health care professionals, and one new face. The groundbreaking surgery that gave one man a life-changing transplant.

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[07:48:35]

SIDNER: Breaking right now for you, Russian state media citing the Russian defense minister as reporting Ukraine has fired American missiles into Russia. It comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a new nuclear doctrine lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. The move is in response to President Biden's decision to allow Ukraine to use those long-range missiles.

CNN senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen is in Moscow with the very latest for us this morning. What can you tell us, Fred?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Sara. Yeah, certainly a lot of moving parts in this.

First of all, we're getting some details -- and this only comes from Russian state media so far, by the way. We have no confirmation whatsoever from the Ukrainians. But they're offering more details as to where exactly their missiles that the Ukrainians apparently fired were fired into it was the Bryansk region, which is sort of the in the southwest of Russia. And the Russians are saying they were fired towards a military object there.

The Russians are claiming that the missiles -- five of them -- were allegedly shot down by a Russian surface-to-air missile system -- however, that some parts from these missiles fell onto the site of that military object.

Again, we're getting this from Russian state media via the Russian Defense Ministry. No confirmation coming from the United States or from the Ukrainians so far.

But, of course, the other big story here in Russia right now is that nuclear doctrine that's been updated -- as the Russians say, by Vladimir Putin -- including now a new scenario where the Russians are saying that if Russia is attacked using long-distance weapons like those missiles by a non-nuclear country like, for instance, Ukraine, aided by a nuclear county like, for instance, the United States, that could now trigger a nuclear response from the Russians.

There are some other new scenarios in there as well like, for instance, an attack on Belarus also using conventional weapons.

In general, Sara, what we're seeing now with this updated nuclear doctrine is the Russians drastically lower the threshold for first use of nuclear weapons. Again, right now, very difficult to see whether or not this is bluster on the part of the Russians.

But what we have seen in the past couple of weeks is the Kremlin trying -- or starting a campaign, if you will, to try and dissuade the Biden administration from making exactly the decision that it has now made to allow the Ukrainians to use these weapons to strike deep into Russian territory. The Russians are saying that this is very dangerous and could pit the United States and Russia directly against one another, Sara.

SIDNER: We will see if it is bluster. A lot of people looking to see what will happen next.

Fred Pleitgen in Moscow. Thank you so much for your reporting this morning -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: There were some scary moments at Dallas Cowboy's stadium last night. While opening the stadium's kind of massive retractable roof before a Monday night football game, a piece of metal fell from the ceiling onto the field. The Cowboys say thankfully no one was injured. That's no small piece of metal. But reports are that piece of metal did come close to hitting production staff on site.

After the incident they closed the roof once again for the game and the team is now investigating what happened here.

Family members are searching for 30-year-old Hannah Kobayashi who missed a connecting flight in Los Angeles now more than a week ago. Kobayashi was traveling from her home in Hawaii to New York when she missed her connection. She was last seen at LAX on November 8. On November 11, her family -- her mother texted her to ask if she had made it to New York and received the response, "No." That's the last time anyone heard from her.

Her family is now desperate to find her after receiving a series of other suspicious text messages from her phone. She sent messages to a friend saying that she didn't feel safe. That someone was trying to steal her identity. Her sister also tells CNN that the messages she received just did not sound like her.

The FBI says it's working now with the LAPD on this ongoing investigation. And we're going to be speaking with Hannah Kobayashi's aunt next hour.

The first transgender woman elected to Congress is firing back this morning against a Republican lawmaker who is trying to bar her from using the women's bathroom. Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduced a resolution yesterday to ban transgender women from using the women's restrooms at the U.S. Capitol.

In a post on X, Congresswoman-elect Sarah McBride responded with this, in part, saying, "This is a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing." She goes on to say, "We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars."

You can be sure this is not the end of that -- John.

BERMAN: All right, Kate. Thank you very much.

With us now is Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat from New Jersey who just announced she is running for governor of New Jersey. Congresswoman, thanks so much for being with us.

Let me just quickly ask you what Kate was just talking about there -- this measure being introduced by Congresswoman Nancy Mace to ban transgender women from using women's bathrooms on Capitol Hill.

How will you vote on that if it gets to the House floor?

REP. MIKIE SHERRILL (D-NJ), CANDIDATE FOR NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah. You know, I wouldn't want to ban people from using the restroom.

Here's the thing. We should be focused on actually passing our appropriations bills. We still haven't funded the government, and this is in the waning days of this Congress. The Republican majority has been incredibly ineffective, and I think with these kind of culture wars that they keep trying to bring up I think we see why.

We need to get to work for the American people. It's why I'm running for governor so we can actually address the real problems people are facing, such as housing costs and child care costs, and not continue to get into culture war issues that really distract us from I think delivering for people.

BERMAN: Republicans did run ads on that subject with some success around the country.

I want to put up on the screen a tweet from our friend Dave Wasserman over at Red State who tracked the rightward shifts in states around the country.

New Jersey, where you are running for governor, had the second-largest rightward shift in the election -- 10 percent, basically, toward Republicans.

Why do you think that is?

SHERRILL: Well, I think we need to make sure that we are addressing the needs of people. So while the state trended red, my district -- I think we did quite well. And that's because while I am wholeheartedly in favor of protecting people's rights and freedoms and will continue to do that, at the same time we need to make sure we are focused on the things that make people's lives a little bit easier.

[07:55:12]

So again, I have legislation to really address housing costs to make sure that we can repurpose commercial spaces and brownfields to -- into housing developments. Here in New Jersey, we're the most densely populated state so we want to preserve open spaces and create more homes. I have legislation to drive down grocery costs and adding competition into the market. And, of course, I'm constantly working to get rid of the state and local tax deduction cap.

When we're talking to people here in New Jersey, too many of them are just saying look, I look at the ladder of success and I feel like I'm slipping down it. We need to address what it is that's making people feel like they just can't get ahead.

BERMAN: How do you draw the line or walk the line between that? And in your announcement video you really talked about being part of the resistance against what Donald Trump will do in the White House.

SHERRILL: You know, what I said was that I am going to focus on making sure that we are addressing the problems, and everyone knows what those problems are. That the state's not affordable for people. That not everyone has access to all of the opportunity in New Jersey.

And that yes, we will protect rights and freedoms. But that would sort of I think miss the first two really key pillars of addressing what it is that we are focused on. If we have attacks from Washington here in New Jersey on reproductive rights or how parents are able to raise their children, we're going to fight back.

BERMAN: Yeah.

SHERRILL: But at the same time, what we are focused on is making sure we can deliver for people.

BERMAN: You are a veteran. I believe your daughter is serving right now, which is something I only know because I think you told me.

How do you feel about the man who will be nominated to be defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who has said he does not believe -- he is a veteran -- he does not believe women should serve in combat?

SHERRILL: You know, 30 years ago when I was graduating from the Naval Academy, the restrictions on women serving on ships and aircraft were lifted and that opened up, really, a whole new breadth of opportunity for women serving in our forces. And I think the gains we've seen in our forces have been amazing because of it. And to think that women shouldn't be serving really misunderstands how our military operates and why we're the best fighting force in the world.

We have -- after 30 years, now we've had two women members of Congress, myself and Elaine Luria, who have been Naval Academy graduates. We have a woman who has been the COO of an aircraft carrier. The superintendent of the Naval Academy. The chief of naval operations.

And importantly, we have women who fight in war that do jobs that actually only women can do. So when we're clearing house to house to house in the Middle East and we're trying very desperately to win wars but to win hearts and minds -- when we're clearing those homes, we have to use women if there are women and children inside if we are going to gain the intelligence we need. Women who serve in the Lioness Squads, for example.

This isn't 1940. This isn't trench warfare where the men fight on the front and the women are nurses in the background. This is modern warfare. And I would suggest that anyone who thinks women shouldn't be serving in our military doesn't understand how we fight and is really unqualified to be the secretary of defense.

BERMAN: Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill from New Jersey, appreciate your time this morning. Thank you -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right.

A Michigan man who survived a suicide attempt not only has a second chance at life but also a new face. He is one of just several dozen people in the world to receive a successful face transplant.

CNN health reporter Jacqueline Howard spoke with him and joins me now with his story. I understand that he had, what, 85 percent of his face gone that they reconstructed. Tell us how this all happened.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: That's right, Sara. The man is Derek Pfaff. He is 30 years old now.

But 10 years ago when he was a college student, he says he was under a lot of stress. He went home during spring break to his parents' house and that's when sadly, he attempted suicide. He shot himself in the face suffering a severe, severe facial injury.

Now, he did have 58 reconstructive surgeries, but he says they were helpful. However, his doctors said he really was a good candidate for a face transplant, and that's what happened.

This face transplant was performed at Mayo Clinic. It took more than 50 hours and involved more than 80 medical professionals. And you're right, Sara. What the medical surgeons did was they took the donor tissue, they replaced and reconstructed 85 percent of Derek's face.

And here he is with his parents talking about that moment in the hospital when he saw his new face for the first time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEREK PFAFF, FACE TRANSPLANT RECIPIENT: I looked in the mirror and I had a face -- nose, lips, and teeth after all that working.