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Police Report Details Graphic Sex Assault Allegation Against Hegseth; ICC Issues Arrest Warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu; Historic Bomb Cyclone Kills Two, Cuts Power to Tens of Thousands. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired November 21, 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]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, new and graphic details released about the sexual assault allegation facing Donald Trump's pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth. He's on the Hill today with the vice president-elect, J.D. Vance, to try and win over Senators he's going to need to get confirmed.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, the next 48 hours will be critical as two extreme weather events are set to converge, unleashing life- threatening conditions across the United States.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: In the 70s, we have the $6 million man. In 2024, we've devolved to the 6 million banana. What the buyer says he's going to do with the art called the Comedian jokes on us.

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

BOLDUAN: For the first time, we are seeing the police report at the center of a sexual assault allegation against Pete Hegseth. He is the Fox News host that Donald Trump has selected to be the next defense secretary of the United States. The 22-page report was released by the city attorney's office of Monterey, California in response to a public records request.

In it, there are new details and conflicting accounts of what happened in a hotel room seven years ago, a California woman telling police then she was sexually assaulted. Pete Hegseth was never charged with a crime and he denies the allegations. What is said in this report, though, is graphic and troubling.

And they are also now, those details, in the hands of all of the senators who are going to have to decide on whether or not Hegseth should get this huge job that he's picked for. He's headed to the Hill today for meetings with V.P.-elect J.D. Vance at his side.

Sara Murray has much more from this police report, as you're able to obtain this police report. Sara, what does it say?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, it really lays out these competing narratives of what went on this night in October of 2017 in California surrounding a Republican women's conference. So I want to get to the woman's account first. She's not named in this report. She's referred to as Jane Doe. You know, she says in the report that Hegseth was giving off a creeper vibe around the conference. You know, she says that she ended up in a hotel room that was unfamiliar to her and says, Hegseth allegedly took her phone from her hands. He went on to block the door with his body, she alleges. And went on to say, she remember saying no a lot.

Now, there are conflicting accounts about what led up to this moment. She says that there were a lot of parts she couldn't remember, and someone may have slipped something into her drink. But there are other witnesses that investigators talked to who said the woman did not seem to be inebriated. She seemed to be in control.

There are also conflicting accounts of how she encountered Hegseth out in public at a bar at the hotel where other conference attendees were. One person said she showed up to be a crotch blocker because Hegseth was hitting on another woman. Another conference attendee said she and another woman appeared to be flirting with Hegseth. At any rate, a couple of days after this incident in the hotel room, Jane Doe does go to the hospital. She has a rape kit exam and the nurse then reports this to authorities.

Now, this is a very different version of events than what Hegseth provides when investigators contact him. He describes this as a completely consensual incident of sexual intercourse. He says there was always conversation and always consensual conduct. He said that she showed up in his hotel room. He thought it was a little odd that she stayed there, but this sort of began this intimate interaction with them.

Now, they had a conversation because Jane Doe is married and she apparently tells Hegseth, again, according to his account that she's just going to tell her husband that she had fallen asleep on a couch in someone else's room, and they went on to tell investigators that she showed early signs of regret, although he didn't say what that was.

Now, as you pointed out, Hegseth has not been charged with a crime in any of this. I talked to his attorney last night, Timothy Parlatore, who said that this police report confirms what I've said all along, that the incident was fully investigated and police found the allegations to be false, which is why no charges were filed.

Now, Kate, we have to note that the police report does not say that they found all charges to be false.

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There were no charges filed in this case, and we don't have an answer for why the district attorney decided not to proceed with charges. There was additional evidence surrounding this case, including surveillance footage that has not been made publicly available and authorities have cited state law saying they're not going to release it. And the same is true for a memo that the D.A. office wrote that may give us a better indication of why charges were not brought. We should also note that CNN did encounter this woman. We contacted the woman known here is Jane Doe last week. She declined to comment to CNN. But when our team, you know, showed up, she broke down in tears. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Sara Murray, thank you for your reporting. As always, Sara, I appreciate it. John?

BERMAN: All right. So, our friend, Haberman, has been reporting over the last several days that the allegations about Hegseth as a surprise to the Trump team. The settlement was confidential and did not appear as part of the vetting. Still, Hegseth will be on Capitol Hill today, shepherded by Vice President-elect J.D. Vance. They'll be meeting with Republican senators.

Alayna Treene is with us for the latest on this. So, what's the plan?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, what we've really seen happen behind the scenes, John, is they have tasked J.D. Vance, the V.P.- elect, with being, as you mentioned, this unofficial Sherpa for some of Donald Trump's most controversial candidates. We saw him do that yesterday while he kind of paraded Matt Gaetz through the Senate to meet with key people who are going to be involved in his confirmation process. And today, he'll do the same with Pete Hegseth.

Now, I do want to address as well that what Maggie Habram reported, we have reported as well, I mean, they were definitely caught off guard by some of these allegations. It did not come up in some of the vetting. And remember, he decided on Hegseth, Donald Trump, very quickly. He called him up to Mar-a-Lago, met with him, and then very soon after, quickly announced that he was going to be his pick for the Department of Defense.

And so we're kind of seeing all of that fallout play out now, and we're going to see it, I think, in fresh detail and with new eyes today when he's confronted by different Republican senators who have deep concerns and uneasiness about Hegseth like they did about Matt Gaetz.

Now, I do also though want to expand on what we're learning about J.D. Vance, because one thing that's been very clear, and I've heard this from several people, several of my sources and other reporters, is, where has J.D. Vance been? Over the last two weeks, we've seen a lot of Elon Musk. We've seen a lot of RFK Jr. We've seen a lot of these kind of unlikely allies become this ensemble around Donald Trump in the public eye.

J.D. Vance, really, we saw emerge as the first time on Capitol Hill in public. And, really, we're starting to learn, and we just have fresh reporting on this, on what he has been tasked directly by Donald Trump to do. And that is to be his point person on Capitol Hill.

Donald Trump has asked J.D. Vance directly to really ensure that his policy priorities on Capitol Hill, his agenda, is passed and that the Senate as well as the House do not get in his way, particularly given that Republicans now have the majority in both in both chambers. Now, of course, that also relates to these cabinet picks.

And then behind the scenes as well, though, I think it's interesting to note that he hasn't been totally absent either. He has been in essentially every single transition meeting, I'm told, along with Donald Trump Jr., Donald Trump's eldest son, as well as Elon Musk. He has been weighing in on key decisions. He was a key voice in Tom Homan being the border czar, as well as Tulsi Gabbard being named the intelligence director. So, there's a lot going on behind the scenes. But it is notable that he hasn't really been out there on television like others.

Now, as for what he did yesterday with Matt Gaetz, we heard Matt Gaetz himself address some of the concerns around him. I want you to take a listen to what he told reporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT GAETZ, ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEE: It's been going great. The senators have been giving a lot of great advice. I'm looking forward to a hearing. They've been very supportive. They've been saying they're going to get a fair process.

REPORTER: The ethics committee said they're not going to release the report after their meeting today, at least at this point. Any response?

GAETZ: I'll be honest with you. I've been focused on what we've got to do to reform the Department of Justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, John, there's two key things I think to keep in mind here. One is how Republican senators who are going to be confirming him really feel about this and whether they will get on board and Donald Trump is successful in lobbying him. But the other thing to keep in mind is that Donald Trump is digging in on Matt Gaetz. He has not moved away from this despite all of the controversy around him. He believes Matt Gaetz is the person he wants at the DOJ. John?

BERMAN: All right. Alayna Treene for us in Washington, a lot going on today, thanks so much, Alayna. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Breaking news, the International Criminal Court has just issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Gallant, and a top Hamas commander as well. We will have a live report for you from Jerusalem.

And Target sounding the alarm on holiday shopping, why it could be a bad omen ahead of the critical shopping season.

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And a man is arrested at an airport with 300 tarantulas strapped to his body. Yikes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SIDNER: We have breaking news to share with you. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, and Hamas Official Mohammed Deif.

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Let's get straight to CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson, who is live for us from Jerusalem. This is obviously a stunning development. A little bit of confusion about Deif, who the IDF has said they killed, but give us the headline here.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, this is a really significant legal escalation of the situation. This is something that Israel has been (INAUDIBLE) since the ICC chief prosecutor, Imran Khan, back in May in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, told her, broke the news, that he was going to be searching for arrest warrants for Yoav Gallant, for Benjamin Netanyahu, and also for the three principal Palestinian Hamas figures, Yahya Sinwar, Mohamed Deif, the military commander as well, and Ismail Haniyeh. All those three Palestinian figures we understand now to be dead. So, it is interesting why the ICC is issuing an arrest warrant from Mohammed Deif. That is remarkably unclear at this time. But what is very clear is the language and the pushback that's been given by Israeli officials.

Now, going back to May what the ICC said they were going to request arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes. And specifically there, they were talking about knowingly and intentionally withholding water, food and medicines from the people of Gaza. That was sort of part of what they were laying out. The prime minister's office here, the prime minister himself, have called these allegations absurd and false and a distortion of reality.

We've yet to get a reaction from the prime minister today. He's been meeting with the U.S. envoy, Amos Hochstein, talking about a ceasefire with Hezbollah and Lebanon. But, clearly, this is now going to become front and center for him. This is a massive escalation of where things stood. Israel had been to the ICC and had requested them to put aside these potential arrest warrants. The ICC overruled Israel's rejection and has gone ahead and issued them.

SIDNER: This is a really big news this morning. Nic Robertson from Jerusalem, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So, a monster storm is sweeping across the Pacific Northwest and has already killed at least two people. California now its path, the record rainfall warnings coming this morning.

And the Alec Baldwin film, Rust, makes its world premiere with the dedication to the cinematographer who was shot and killed during filming.

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BOLDUAN: This morning, parts of the West Coast are bracing for a new threat after a historically strong bomb cyclone has already killed at least two people. The system is really slamming the region with powerful winds, bringing down trees and power lines, of course. One mayor in Washington State said it's one of the worst wind storms that they've seen in recent memory. As of this morning, more than 300,000 homes are without power there.

And now the concern really shifts to California, which is next in the storm's path. Forecasters are warning of life-threatening rainfall in parts of the state.

CNN's Derek Van Dam is joining us. He's tracking all of this for us. Derek, what are you seeing?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's right, Kate. So, when these bomb cyclones form off the Pacific Northwest, they have the ability to draw in the moisture from the Pacific Ocean and transport it thousands of miles to the coastline. And this is what we're experiencing across North Central California. Check this out. Sta. Rosa, California, dealing with flooded roadways. There have already been reports of over a dozen small landslides in the mountainous terrain across this region. And guess what? It's going to continue before things improve into early parts of next week.

You can track this tropical moisture all the way back towards the state of Hawaii. We call that the Pineapple Express. And there it is, the moisture train that's going to send that torrent of rain continuing into Northern and Central California.

In fact, we've got this rare high risk from the Weather Prediction Center of excessive rain, could lead to flash flooding. I bring this up because if we go back a couple of months ago when Hurricane Helene was on its approach towards Western North Carolina, a rare high risk was in place. Remember, 40 percent of all flood related deaths, 80 percent of flood related damage comes out of these rare high risk situations.

So, here it is, very active radar, just rain continuing to slam the same locations. And then there's been concerns about the wind. Remember how much damage we had in and around the Puget Sound yesterday from this bomb cyclone? Well, there's still wind advisory, so not as powerful as what we experienced over the past 48 hours.

But, nonetheless, it will be gusty as another storm system approaches and starts to deepen and strengthen. This won't be a bomb cyclone per se, but it will still bring more misery to the West Coast that's already been hit hard with feet of snow in the higher elevations and over a foot of rain in the forecast for those areas that I just mentioned, Eureka into North Central California. So, a tough go for these locations. Check out these snowfall totals, Kate. Winter is back.

BOLDUAN: Wow. And it's been so unseasonably strangely warm and dry here in New York, like seeing snow, it's as if I've never seen it before. I've seen snow before. I'm like, oh, my God, it's snow. Oh, wait, it's already November.

VAN DAM: And I want some.

BOLDUAN: Yes, exactly. It's great to see you, Derek. Thank you so much. John?

BERMAN: It's raining here for the first time in 76 days. It's actually raining --

BOLDUAN: You've been keeping count?

BERMAN: I've been counting every day.

All right, this morning, American Airlines implements an official no cutsees policy.

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The new technology they're rolling out to make sure you board with your assigned group finally.

And a man is now in custody and charged with plotting to bomb the New York Stock Exchange. New details on what was found in his storage unit.

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SIDNER: New this morning, former Presidential Candidate Nikki Haley becoming the latest voice slamming former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, president-elect Donald Trump's pick, for director of National Intelligence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, FORMER REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: DNI, Department of National Intelligence, this is not a place for a Russian-Iranian-Syrian-Chinese sympathizer. After Russia invaded Ukraine, Tulsi Gabbard literally blamed NATO. Our western alliance is responsible for countering Russia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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SIDNER: CNN's Katie Bo Lillis. Joining me now, Katie Bo, you've got some new reporting for us on Gabbard's history of really being at odds.