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Trump Vows New Tariffs On Canada And Mexicio; Israeli Security Cabinet Approves Ceasefire Deal With Hezbollah; Potential Shakeup To White House Briefings; Just Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired November 26, 2024 - 14:00   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Minutes from now, President Biden will address the new ceasefire deal reach between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The agreement made after Israel launched a final round of attacks in Beirut some 20 strikes in two minutes.

Plus, President Elect Trump ups the ante now vowing tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico unless the countries help secure the northern and southern borders. Canadian and Mexican officials are responding and their message is clear. It is Americans who will suffer.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And revisiting the 27-year-old cold case of JonBenet Ramsey, a new documentary backed by the Ramsey family says the case is solvable with the Director claiming he knows who may have murdered the six-year-old. We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

We begin with major breaking news out of the Middle East right now. A short time ago, the Israeli security cabinet approved a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah forces in Lebanon. We just heard from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the last hour.

KEILAR: President Biden is expected to address the deal from the White House Rose Garden here in the next few minutes. And we're going to bring those remarks to you live once they get underway.

Let's go to CNN's Jeremy Diamond who is live in Northern Israel right now. Jeremy, what did the Prime Minister say about the deal?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Israeli Prime Minister made very clear that he believes the Israeli military has accomplished enough in Lebanon against Hezbollah over the course of the last several months, and that it was now time to translate those military achievements into a political solution by agreeing to this ceasefire proposal that has been negotiated primarily by the United States over many, many months now.

The Israeli prime minister was speaking in the wake of quite a bit of criticism from both the right wing of Israeli politics for moving forward with this deal, but also from several leaders from those northernmost communities in Israel where residents have been evacuated for the better part of the last year and a couple of months now. And that's because those leaders are concerned that this agreement won't actually bring true security to northern Israel, that ultimately Hezbollah will regroup, will rearm and will pose a threat once again to those communities.

But the Israeli Prime Minister explained that he believes that this agreement will allow Israel to enforce this agreement when it deems necessary, meaning to act against Hezbollah if indeed they violate the terms of this cease fire agreement. And he also laid out three other key reasons why he believes now was the right time. He wants to refocus the Israeli military and the government on the Iranian threat, though he didn't expand on that further.

He also said that Israel needs to refresh its forces and its military equipment. And he also believes that this is an opportunity to de link the two fronts that -- the two primary fronts, I should say, that Israel is fighting right now, meaning the war with Hamas and the war with Hezbollah. Because previously, of course, Hezbollah had been unwilling to even discuss a ceasefire agreement as long as Israel was still carrying out its war in Gaza.

And now, after months of drubbing, including the loss of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli strike, the loss, according to Israeli officials, of at least 50 to 70% of Hezbollah weapons, Hezbollah has now agreed to these ceasefire terms. But make no mistake, there is still considerable skepticism in Israel in particular, where I am right now in Northern Israel.

And we should also make clear that until this agreement goes into place, this still remains a very volatile situation. We have seen the Israeli military carrying out very rare strikes in central Beirut, not just in the Lebanese capital, but in highly populated central areas of that city that have not traditionally been struck by the Israeli military.

Several, about a dozen people at least have been killed in Beirut or in Lebanon, I should say, as a result of those strikes. And here in Nahariya in Northern Israel, we have heard air raid siren after air raid siren after air raid siren sending people scrambling into shelters.

And you can expect that this will continue until this deal is actually implemented. As we saw at the end of the 2006 war, those final days were some of the most dangerous ones before the ceasefire went into effect. That's because both sides are trying to show strength in these final hours before a deal goes into place and to carry out strikes on targets before they have to stop. Brianna, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Jeremy Diamond, live for us in northern Israel. Thank you so much.

Today, the United States, three largest trading partners, along with some American industry leaders are sounding the alarm following Donald Trump's newest pledge to slap heavy tariffs on imported goods.

KEILAR: The President Elect last night made this announcement that on day one in office, he's going to put a new 25% tariff on all products coming from Mexico and Canada and an additional 10% tariff on Chinese made goods until the countries crack down on migrants and illegal drugs coming across the U.S. border.

CNN's Steve Contorno is in West Palm Beach near Mar-a-Lago. Steve, what are Canada and Mexico saying?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Well, Brianna and Boris, this development is clearly not welcomed by America's North American neighbors. And they have both put out statements saying that this only will hurt consumers in the United States.

Look at what the Mexico President said for example, he said, quote, "Some of the largest exporters from Mexico to the United States are General Motors, Stellantis and Ford Motor Company. Why impose a tax that puts them at risk?" And then the Prime Minister -- Deputy Prime Minister of Canada saying, quote, "Our relationship today is balanced and mutually beneficial, particularly for American workers. Canada buys more from the United States than from China, Japan, France and the UK combined and last year, 60% of U.S. crude oil imports originated in Canada."

So that's the arguments that we are already hearing from these countries that are reacting quickly to Donald Trump's threats. And Trump has said in a True Social post that these tariffs will remain in effect until, quote, "Such a time as drugs, in particular fentanyl and all illegal aliens, stop this invasion of our country."

And now it's not clear how Trump will measure those -- the progress on those key fronts and how he will decide when those goals have been met. But I will point out that he has already had a conversation with Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, in the aftermath of these threats. And Trudeau called it, quote, "A good call." But he also acknowledged that he has firsthand experience dealing with Trump and the challenges of being an ally with the now President Elect Donald Trump.

SANCHEZ: Steve, have any private companies responded to these threats?

CONTORNO: Yeah, we're seeing already reaction from, for example, one of the organizations that represents footwear retailers and the President of that organization, Matt Priest, put out this statement saying, quote, "Tariffs would directly increase costs for retailers and consumers, leading to higher prices on everyday essentials. Families deserve relief, not policies that make it harder to afford gifts, winter essentials and footwear for the New Year."

Now, some industries have plenty of experience dealing with Trump's threat of trade wars and the tariffs that he put in place during his first four years. It can be a sort of scattershot approach. And many of them have experience trying to lobby President Trump, now President Elect Trump, on how to get these tariffs lifted on certain industries and to create carve outs.

But you can clearly see already there is some rattling of nerves about how this is going to affect some of the key industries in our country. Boris and Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Steve Contorno in West Palm Beach, thank you.

And once these tariffs are enacted, companies that import foreign products have a few choices. One, they can eat the cost of the tariff and keep the price of their product the same, or two, they can share the cost of the tariff and only slightly raise the price of their products. Or three, they can just pass along the total cost of the tariffs -- tariff to the American consumer and raise the price of a product from Mexico, for instance, which would have a 25% tariff by 25%.

SANCHEZ: There is a fourth option, though, and this is the one that President Elect Trump hopes will happen. In an effort to avoid tariffs, companies could become less reliant on foreign goods and in turn create more manufacturing jobs here in the United States.

Let's weigh those options with White House Economics Reporter at The Washington Post, Jeff Stein. Jeff, thank you so much for being with us. On that note about companies being less reliant on foreign goods and bringing manufacturing to the United States, wouldn't having a higher cost of labor and procurement for goods here in the United States ultimately make those goods more expensive? Isn't that one of the benefits of the global economy that you benefit from the invisible hand moving things around, making costs more efficient, thereby making everything cheaper?

JEFF STEIN, WHITE HOUSE ECONOMICS REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yeah. I mean, as in many things in economics, it depends on precisely who you ask.

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There are some think tanks, some economists even, who will say that the global trade imbalance that was created over the last 30 years due to globalization, NAFTA other sort of global trade deals with China and other countries has created a situation in which the U.S. is being outcompeted because of these sort of inequal trade restrictions where other countries have higher tariffs on the U.S. than we have on them.

So there are people who say, look, if the U.S. raises tariffs, imposes more trade barriers and trade restrictions on the inflow of goods and services, that that will lead to additional production at home, more, more jobs in manufacturing and other, you know, depending on what the tariffs actually target.

At the same time as you're saying, I would say most economists, the mainstream economic view is that these tariffs create so much economic inefficiency by making supply chains have much more friction that make them harder to transact to buy inputs for your business. When you put it together that ultimately economic output will be lower -- employment will be lower as well.

KEILAR: So, Jeff, the Trump -- the first Trump administration put some tariffs in place. They were, I guess you could argue, more targeted. The Biden Harris administration largely kept them in place. When you look at what he's proposing here, though, how is it different than what he did before?

STEIN: Yeah, it's a great question because as a campaign reporter, you know, someone covering the campaign, I struggle to convey to people just how different this is than what we were talking about under the Trump administration, the first Trump administration.

Trump imposed tariffs on some $300 billion worth of Chinese imports. And he particularly looked at specific industries, right? So he said, we have a competitive interest in having steel made here. And so he imposed tariff restrictions on the imports of Chinese steel. What Trump is talking about now is just a different category of thing, he's talking about or he called for yesterday and said he would impose tariffs of 25% on all Chinese -- on all Mexican and Canadian imports, and of 10% tariffs on all Chinese imports, regardless of what they are.

And many economists are saying this makes little sense, right? Because maybe it makes sense for us to make sure that we can make our own steel here, but do we really need to make the cheapest electronics that are produced in China here? Do we need to make sure that all the avocados that we import from Mexico are made here? Does that even make sense? Do we have avocados that are even grown here to onshore and sort of bring back avocado production to the U.S.?

And so some of the things that did not happen under Trump's first administration that have been upheld is saying, look, the tariffs didn't destroy our economy, we had a boom in 2018 -- 2019, are being or could be tested if Trump actually executes what he's talking about here in a very different way.

SANCHEZ: It also gets complicated when you add on the idea that Trump wants to institute these mass deportations because so much, you were just giving the example of avocados, so much of the U.S. labor force, specifically in agriculture, is made up of undocumented workers. So I wonder how could this be compounded if that mass deportation process actually is pursued, by now a trade war, with these other nations?

STEIN: Yeah, I mean, the trade war itself, according to many projections, would have added between two or $3,000 in annual cost for the median American household. And that's excluding what you just mentioned, which is a great point on the potential deportations.

I've spoken to some meat packers and some sort of experts in labor who say that the percentage of workers in, say, meatpacking plants in the Midwest are overwhelmingly undocumented immigrants. We're talking 85, 90, 95% of the staff of these facilities that are necessary for relatively low cost of meat, for instance, to become available to American consumers.

So the impact of these two together, I mean, it's a remarkable thing to think about that when Trump ran, the number one thing he had going for him was inflation, right? People were so mad about inflation that they were willing to vote for him despite what they saw as his other flaws. And the sort of the two central economic policies that he's pursuing, tariffs and mass deportations could reignite the inflation that propelled him to the White House, which is a hard thing to get your mind around.

KEILAR: Yes. And yet if time is -- time is a flat circle and we can get our mind around that, this could be a circle, too. Jeff Stein, thank you so much.

Ahead this hour on CNN News Central, if you're planning to travel for Thanksgiving, you are not alone. So pack your patience because a record number of Americans, they're right alongside you. Good news, though. We do have some data on the best time of day to hit the road, and we'll have that next.

And President Elect Trump is said to be considering a big shake up at White House press briefings, one that would see some journalists replace with podcasters.

SANCHEZ: Plus, a new documentary reveals chilling new details about the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, including why the family believes this cold case could finally be solved.

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These important stories and many more are coming up this hour. Don't go anywhere.

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KEILAR: Americans will travel for turkey. I really -- I think they're traveling for the stuffing.

SANCHEZ: Cranberry sauce.

KEILAR: The cranberry sauce?

SANCHEZ: Yeah. The sweet potato with the marshmallows on top.

KEILAR: Yeah, maybe that. I don't think they're traveling for the turkey. I think they're traveling for that other stuff.

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Nonetheless, this is expected to be the busiest Thanksgiving travel period ever. Right now, there are millions of Americans. They're already hitting the roads, they are at airports. They are ready for the holiday.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. And all the TSA expects more than 18 million people to travel by air for the holiday. Another 71 million folks expected to be driving both of these record breaking numbers. But a mix of wintry weather and ongoing air traffic controller shortages is now threatening to throw a wrench into some of those plans.

Let's go to CNN's Ryan Young who's on the ground for us in Atlanta. We also have Elisa Raffa tracking the storm systems. Ryan, what's the situation now where you are and what can travelers expect at one of the busiest airports in the world?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, absolutely two things. First, you guys didn't do your normal pack your patients. You always do that every holiday so --

KEILAR: We've been doing it, Ryan.

YOUNG: OK. I had missed it. And when you're talking about all the food, you forgot a collard greens. Got to add that to the --

SANCHEZ: Collard greens, yeah.

YOUNG: mix as well. But let's talk about the travel as we get out there on the road. If you look behind me, look, traffic's finally picking up out here on the connector. This is a very busy area, of course, in Atlanta. Is this any different than normal traffic? Well, according to AAA, 71 million Americans are expected to hit the road.

That's a million more than last year. Some of that could be because of gas prices. Gas prices are actually down this year. 3.07 for average. Last year around 3.25. I don't think people are really making the decisions based upon that 25 cents.

We did talk to some folks who said they could not wait to get out on the road because they didn't want to deal with the TSA. We know millions of more people are expected to go through the airport. In fact, just today alone, 2.8 million people are expected to go through TSA check lines. But again, as you always say, pack your patience and listen to AAA talk about all the increased volume of traffic. Take a listen.

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MONTRAE WAITERS, AAA SPOKEPERSON: No cell phones, folks. You know, again, it's about having the focus on the road so everyone can get to their destination safely. We don't have to be looking at the screen and trying to drive because that navigation now also speaks to us as well, right? So it's about using all your senses but making sure your focus is the focus of driving.

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YOUNG: Yeah, you love it. Look, in the end day, all of us are going to be looking at some sort of screen while we're in the car. Especially you got kids, you want to hand the iPad back to them, get it all loaded up with the movies.

But so far so good in terms of travel, in terms of weather, we know that could change at some point, but there are some peak travel times and apparently we're in one right now. They want you to leave before about 2 o'clock -- till about 7 today, it's 1 to 7 and then of course tomorrow 10 am or 1 to 5. That is what they consider the peak times on the roadways.

Something to keep in mind if you don't have to work like some of us have to on a turkey day. But outside of that, outside of the snow, that should be going other places we should be pretty smooth sailing so far. Boris and Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. (Inaudible) just warm your heart that he knows our travel tagline --

SANCHEZ: This guy gets it, yeah.

KEILAR: He gets it, right? And we'll add the collard greens to the list. I do think that's what people are traveling for.

YOUNG: Please.

KEILAR: Ryan Young, thank you so much.

Let's go now to Elisa Raffa, who is in the CNN Weather Center. What areas are you watching closely this holiday week?

ELISA RAFFA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: So we have two storms that we've been watching and we're getting rid of one of those headaches today, but we have another one that's going to be a little bit more potent that's brewing as we go into the holiday week. Here, so you can see where we've had some minor delays from D.C. New York up towards Boston today as we get rid of one storm.

But we have this storm that's continuing to come together in the Rockies, the West Coast where we've had problems at the airport as far as weather is concern, San Francisco and Los Angeles through a lot of the day. So here's a look at one storm that's exiting. We had some icy and maybe snowy roads up in New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine this morning. I95 Corridor is clearing up from Boston to New York, Philly down towards Baltimore that's drying out after some morning rain.

Now, we have this next storm that continues to come together with rain and snow in the Rockies. That storm is going to continue to progress east as we go into tomorrow. Tomorrow actually fairly clear for the most part. Maybe some problems in the Central Plains. Then this thing blows up by Thursday.

And look at the shield of rain and snow from interior New England, upstate New York all the way down to the southeast where we'll have some of that rain that could be heavy at times. Then this front exits as we go into Friday.

So again, problem spots on Wednesday mainly focus in the Rockies, maybe parts of the plains. And then by Thursday, we're looking at it up and down the East Coast from Maine down to Atlanta, where we'll have some wet, maybe even some snowy roads. We'll have to watch out for delays on Wednesday from St. Louis to Nashville, maybe down to New Orleans.

But then a lot of these delays start to get to some of those bigger cities by Thursday. If you're doing last minute travel on Thanksgiving morning, we'll have some problems. Possibly New York, D.C. Atlanta, and then those problems make it up to Boston later in the afternoon with possibly some snow.

[14:25:04] So pretty soggy Thanksgiving up and down the East Coast. Some cold and wet turkeys there. That means you'll be wet at the Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City. Guys.

SANCHEZ: Soggy turkey.

KEILAR: Nope.

SANCHEZ: Elisa Raffa, thank you so much for the update.

Still ahead, at any moment, President Biden will speak from the Rose Garden after Israel announces it's approved a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah in Lebanon. We're going to bring you the President's remarks live.

KEILAR: And new details in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case. As her father sits down with CNN, he says there's at least one thing police could do to help solve the case.

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