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Hugo Soto-Martinez is Interviewed about Los Angeles as a Sanctuary City; Trump Fumes over Absent Senators; Assault Allegations Against Hegseth; Bird Flu in Canadian Teen Show Adaptation; Father of Georgia School Shooting Suspect in Court. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired November 21, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Why would you want to protect them?

HUGO SOTO-MARTINEZ, LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL MEMBER: No. Look, I think that the Republican Party is always going to try to fear monger, speak to our lowest selves, you know, our emotional brain, you know, our reptilian brain, to try to sway people away from the real issues. And the reality is, is that this president is driven by hate and divisiveness and for his own personal interests. But we know that these are the hard-working folks that pick our crops, that cook our food, that are our nannies. They're essential to our economy. And that's what we're really talking about, protecting those folks.

BERMAN: Again, and I'm just going to read you The Los Angeles County Republican Party, their statement, because it seems to address exactly what you just said there. They said, "so-called sanctuary cities and states sound warm and fuzzy, but the protections they offer aren't for abuelas getting ice cream, they're for people who have entered the country illegally and committed additional crimes."

SOTO-MARTINEZ: Yes, you know, the Republican Party in L.A. County is irrelevant as the dodo bird. They just lost their last congressional seat in the county. So, I mean, as far as their messaging goes, I think it's - it's not working very well. But, you know, I'm disappointed to hear that someone in California, you know, one of our largest economies in the world, will continue to spew these - this hatred. And they know very well it's probably they have someone cleaning their homes or taking care of their children. So, it's - I think it's complete hypocrisy from the L.A. County Republican Party. I didn't even know they still existed.

BERMAN: There are immigration lawyers who say that this ordinance that you passed probably won't be able to stop federal officials from deporting people. What do you say to that?

SOTO-MARTINEZ: You know, I think we're going to have - have to lead a much larger movement against this future president. Obviously, he's going to have a lot of power and a lot of resources at his disposal. But what we are sending, as L.A. City officials, is that the city of Los Angeles will not participate in any collaboration with ICE. And that we, as city officials, will do our best to keep families together and protect people.

I think when we look about what happened in the first Trump presidency, we had women that were too afraid to report domestic violence, people not reporting wage theft. And so that's also public safety, to make sure that when people interact with the - with the city government or city entity, that they don't think Donald Trump's deportation machine is right around the corner.

BERMAN: So, Donald Trump did win this election. The Electoral College and the popular vote. What message do you think that victory sent? And are you, do you think, out of step with that message?

SOTO-MARTINEZ: You know, I think, you know, as many people have made comments on is, when you speak to the issues of working people, when you address their suffering, the increase of cost of living, you know, people will follow. And I'm very proud that here in Los Angeles we're leading on raising the minimum wage for tourism workers. We're fighting to build affordable housing. We're giving folks options to get around the city, whether that's through bus or bike. And so we're really trying to - to speak to the issues that the people have. And so - and I think that's why here in in Los Angeles, our message is resonating. And the message is that, you described earlier from the Republican Party, is not.

BERMAN: But, again, is this move by you out of step with what voters decided? Donald Trump ran on mass deportations. Is what you're doing, again, opposed to that?

SOTO-MARTINEZ: Look, I think that when we have a president that's trying to rip families apart and has just nominated a border czar that put kids in cages, I think most people would agree that going against those kind of policies are the correct ones. And especially here in the city of angels, where we have some of the large - we are a city of immigrants. We have the largest undocumented population. They make our economy run. And so I think here in Los Angeles I think our message is just fine.

BERMAN: Los Angeles City Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez, thank you for getting up early and coming on with us. Great conversation. Appreciate it.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Senators skipping votes. Why it has Donald Trump now chastising Republicans on Capitol Hill.

And we are also tracking severe weather out west. What to expect as two extreme weather events are coming together right now.

And this weekend, a new episode on "How it Really Happened" airs Sunday at 9:00 p.m. The story of the Iran Hostage Crisis told by those who were held - who were held captive.

Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I could hear the demonstrating getting closer and closer and louder and louder. And here are these people are chanting "death to America."

And all of a sudden, they've gotten in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're coming over the walls. They're coming over the walls.

STEVE KIRTLEY, USMC SECURITY GUARD, U.S. EMBASSY IN IRAN: The place was just overrun with people. We were over in the - the Marine house, and they came in and started kicking doors down.

[08:35:02]

And we could see them taking other State Department and defense attache people out and lead them across the compound. You don't know what's going on. You don't know if you're ever going to get out of there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My adrenaline was going. People were pounding on the door. And I'm putting rounds into my - my pistol. And then all of a sudden they start bringing people to the door and saying, hey, they've got a gun to my head. If you don't open the door, they're going to kill me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[08:40:05]

BOLDUAN: This morning, three House races are still undecided now two weeks after Election Day. Republicans have already won back the White House and control of the U.S. Senate and House. Yes, but these races, two in California, as you see there, two in California and one in Iowa, they're still quite important. The results will determine how easy or not it will be for Donald Trump to push through his second term agenda. That is, if people show up to vote. I say that only because an interesting wrinkle has been happening. Absences of several Republican senators this week has helped Democrats in confirming two judges put up by President Joe Biden.

CNN's Lauren Fox is tracking all of this for us from Capitol Hill. She's joining us now.

Talk us through how these absences are affecting the nomination - are impacting the nomination process.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, Democrats have control of the Senate right now, which means that they do have the power to confirm more nominees for the judicial circuits across the country.

But what has been happening is that Republicans have been making it even easier for them. And that is because they've had a number of absences. There are a lot of people who are in the United States Senate who are very close to Donald Trump and have been working very hard on ensuring that he moves forward with his transition, including Senator J.D. Vance, who is his incoming vice president. He missed votes because he was at Mar-a-Lago. There were also others who missed votes, including Ted Cruz and Bill Hagerty, who were seen at the SpaceX launch, alongside incoming President Donald Trump.

And all of this has meant that it has been easier for Democrats to confirm some of these controversial judicial nominations that they really want to get through before Republicans take control of the House, the White House, and the Senate.

Now, there's been some flak from conservatives on social media who have been going after senators because they haven't been showing up for votes. And I just want to read one response from J.D. Vance. He deleted this response, but he wrote, quote, "Grace Chong is a mouth breathing imbecile who attacks those of us in the fight rather than making herself useful. When the 11th Circuit vote happened, " referring to a judicial nomination, "I was meeting with President Trump to interview multiple positions for our government, including FBI director. I tend to think it's more important to get an FBI director who will dismantle the deep state than it is for Republicans to lose a vote, 49-46, rather than 49-45."

Now, the reason that this matters once again is that Republicans can really gum up the works here. They can make this a lot more difficult. They can make Democrats have more procedural votes. But when there aren't enough Republicans showing up, the Democrats are able to move much more quickly with these nominations.

We should note that last night there were a series of votes on more judicial nominees. Republicans were present for those, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Shocking. So, proof here that your vote, when you're one of only 100 senators, your vote really does matter is what we are - what we see here.

Let me ask you also about these three House races. I think there are a lot of people saying, what, we're still - we're still counting votes in House races. Tell us what's happening.

FOX: Yes. And these - these races, like you said, two in California, one in Iowa, they're not going to make a difference in terms of who controls the chamber, but they do make a difference in the House of Representatives when it comes to tight votes. You've seen over the last couple of months how difficult it is for Speaker Mike Johnson to get things done in the House of Representatives if you have just a handful of members on the right flank or in the middle who are pushing against him. So, it really does matter if you can drive up those margins and make sure that you have a secure majority that is able to pass legislation so you don't have just a handful of members who can block one thing after another, Kate.

BOLDUAN: It's good to see you, Lauren. Thank you for tracking all of it.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, a newly released police report reveals details of the sexual assault allegations against the man that President-elect Trump wants to lead the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth. The report made public following a public records request, lays out conflicting accounts of the alleged incident.

In 2017, a woman says Hegseth refused to let her leave a hotel room and sexually assaulted her. Hegseth says the encounter was consensual. Right now it's unclear how questions over this might impact his nomination.

Joining me now, former Trump White House communications director Mike Dubke, and Bakari Sellers, CNN political commentator.

Thank you, gentlemen, both for being here.

Look, Vice President-elect Vance is expected to conduct meetings with key Republican senators on Capitol Hill along with Pete Hegseth. There is reporting now that the - the allegations were a surprise to Trump's transition team. If that is the case, what would it mean if Hegseth didn't disclose this to the president, Mike?

[08:45:00]

MIKE DUBKE, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Oh, I think - I think it would question what else is out there if he didn't disclose - if he didn't disclose this.

But let's - let's take a step back again and remember that these are allegations. And this is part of the whole process of why we go with advise and consent with the Senate to take a look at these nominees and go through each - each of these incidents or allegations and discusses whether or not, you know, they are true.

And, we're also looking at a situation in which this - you know, charges were not brought. So, again, he should have brought them up. That - that would be a warning sign to me. But if, in terms of the overall process, I think we're just at the beginning.

SIDNER: Bakari, the controversy over Hegseth is not limited to the sexual assault allegation that, as you mentioned, Mike, was never charged. It's - some of his comments that we've heard recently, one of which saying women don't belong in combat roles, "Politico" reporting that General Mark Milley took a jab at Hegseth's idea at a national security event, sharing a story about an Army nurse who braved minefields to save fellow service members and was killed in action, saying this, "don't lecture me about women in combat. Women have been in combat and it doesn't matter if that 7.62 caliber round hits you in the chest. No one gives a shit if it's a woman or a guy who pulled that trigger, you're still dead."

Bakari, the U.S. military has a serious recruitment problem. Do you expect this to weigh on the minds of senators? BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think it should. I mean and the fact is, you actually have one United States senator that lost her legs in combat. I mean I think her quote was she did - she lost them in war, she didn't lose them in a nightclub dancing or anything else. She lost them actually protecting our country and serving our country.

I think that there's going to be a lot of issue with Hegseth as the nominee in terms of recruitment, in terms of morale. I mean, the fact is, he's not going over there to lead the largest, most nimble, fighting force in the world. He's going over there to eliminate and end wokeism. I mean that should tell you all you need to know.

But I want everyone to just have some context here. We've had nominees for different cabinet positions withdrawal because of how they paid their nanny or failure to pay a back tax or, United States senators who couldn't take over HHS or become health czars for various issues when they had more than enough votes. And now you have individuals like Gaetz, or, excuse me, Gaetz, you have individuals like Hegseth, you have individuals like Gabbard who have just these character flaws which seem to be damning but are still good enough to put in a Trump cabinet. I just think that we have to understand, Trump destroying all these norms may not be good for the country.

SIDNER: I want to talk about Gaetz. "The Times" reporting it was found - prepared by federal investigators, which showed a web of thousands of dollars in Venmo payments between Matt Gaetz and a group of his friends, associates and women who he allegedly had drug-fueled sex parties with over a span of about three years.

While this is coming out, the House Republicans decided to block the release of the ethics report. And the ethics chair, Michael Guest, said one of his reservations about making the report public is that it's not done and needed to go through a review process.

Is that a fair argument, Bakari?

SELLERS: It is a fair argument. And I believe in due process. Look, I'm not one of these Democrats who wants to jump down people's throat when you don't get due process. I mean I think that Dubke said it best when talking about Hegseth, those are just allegations. I'm a criminal defense lawyer, so everybody needs the ability to actually go through this process. Matt Gaetz deserves this opportunity to go through this process.

And it's not, you know, what he does in his private time that bothers me. I do think that there is a level of hypocrisy, though, that comes with this. You have Elon Musk, for example, talking about he wants transparency. He wants the Epstein files.

SIDNER: Right.

SELLERS: He wants what happened to JFK. You know, they want to release everything about Covid-19. And then you ask them for this file, and there is Matt Gaetz's ethics report, and there's this this weird, cowardice silence. So, we have to be feeding people out of the same spoon. I want Matt

Gaetz to get due process. Whether or not he deserves to be attorney general, that answer is flatly no. But he definitely deserves to be - to have due process.

SIDNER: Mike, I'm curious your response to Bakari, and also there are always these signals that Republicans, you know, won't do Trump's bidding in this case. But then we've seen so many times that they capitulate. What are you seeing? Is that already starting to happen?

DUBKE: Well, listen, first - to answer your first question about Bakari's point, I - I - I fully agree. Look, I think hypocrisy is maybe the ultimate poison when it comes to believability of candidates.

[08:50:04]

So, we need to work through that part of the process.

The larger question here, though, for me at least is that, the American people voted for Donald Trump knowing a lot of what we have been talking about. Not about the nominees, but about Donald Trump. And they have voted for him twice. And part of the reason I think that has happened is because we've got a United States government that at least half or more of the population believes is broken. And so, these nominees represent - whether they represent meteors hitting the agencies or just road bumps, what they - what they represent is a change in, not just style, but a change in the way our government is going to operate for better or worse. But that is what we found on November 5th was the will of the people.

SIDNER: Mike Dubke, Bakari Sellers, thank you, gentlemen, so much for talking me through that. Appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, a teenager is in critical condition after contracting a new mutated version of bird flu.

And then, Christmas carol-oki (ph), cookie decorating and hobnobbing with Hallmark's biggest stars. Brand new reporting from inside the first ever Hallmark Christmas Cruise.

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[08:55:38]

BERMAN: New this morning, a Canadian teenager is in critical but stable condition after contracting bird flu. Now scientists say the virus has mutations that could allow it to become more transmissible in humans.

CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell is here with the details on this.

What are you learning, Meg? MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, it's really important to let people know that there has been no spread of this virus detected beyond this particular patient. And so what they are actually looking at here is a sequence of this virus from that patient that Canadian health officials posted, and the scientific community looked at. And what they found is that there were mutations in areas on this virus that could potentially make it more transmissible between humans, make it easier to infect cells.

So, this Canadian teenager's case has been puzzling and worrisome to folks because its different from what we've been seeing in the human cases we've seen so far. This teenager is in critical condition. They've had severe breathing problems. They're in the hospital. And this is a strain of the virus that seems more closely linked to what's been seen in wild birds versus in the dairy herds here in the United States. And so, they're not saying that they've seen this in anybody else. They think perhaps, you know, the teenager contracted this virus. They still don't know how, by the way. And had it for a while. And maybe the virus accumulated these mutations in that patient and became potentially better able to infect other people.

But there has been no spread detected, and so they're not saying that this is going to spark more transmission of this virus. They just say, John, that it shows its potentially possible.

BERMAN: What is the current situation with bird flu in the United States?

TIRRELL: Yes, right now we really have a big problem in dairy herds in the U.S. Fifteen states have detected bird flu in their cattle. More than 500 herds have had bird flu detected. In wild birds this is, of course, widespread.

We are also seeing outbreaks in poultry flocks. That's affecting the price of eggs. The CDC says that there is no person to person spread that's been detected here in the U.S. as of now, and they are still saying the current public health risk is low.

This is something, John, that the scientific community is paying very, very close attention to. And you are hearing calls from folks around the world asking the U.S. really to do more now to post more sequences, for example, of the virus in animals so that the scientific community can study this more.

BERMAN: All right, thanks so much for this report. Meg Tirrell, thank you.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Well, right now the father of an accused school shooter in Georgia is in court, or headed to court today. Colin Gray faces 29 counts, including second degree murder. His 14-year-old son is accused of killing four people and injuring nine others at Apalachee High School in September. I'm sure you remember that horrible tragedy playing out. Investigators say the boy's father bought him the gun used in the shooting. CNN's Nick Valencia is joining us now from Atlanta as he's tracking

all of this.

And, Nick, and now the question becomes, will the father be held criminally responsible?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And what we'll see this morning is a relatively new tact in law enforcement, charging parents with the actions, or alleged actions, of their children.

We first saw that in the case of the Michigan school shooter, Ethan Crumbley. His parents convicted of that mass shooting. But these charges faced by Colin Gray, the most severe of any parent of an alleged school shooter. And let's get through some of those charges.

Twenty-nine counts in all, four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second degree murder, eight counts of cruelty to children. And each of these counts accuses the father of providing a firearm to his son knowing that he was a threat to others.

Central to this case will be an interaction in May of 2023 with the father and the son and law enforcement related to online threats of allegedly shooting up a school. Now, the then teenager denied making those threats, and the father told law enforcement that he did not have unsupervised access to the hunting guns in the house. But, Kate, just seven months later, as a Christmas present, the father is alleged to have purchased the gun used in that mass shooting at Apalachee High School.

Colt Gray, the alleged school shooter, he was supposed to be in court today as well, but he waived his arraignment and he's entered a not guilty plea.

Meanwhile, those charges that the father faces, if convicted he could face at least 180 years in prison. That hearing has yet to get underway.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Oh, wow. Nick, thank you so much for watching this for us. We'll get back to you. Really appreciate it.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

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