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Thanksgiving Travel Reaches Record Levels in U.S.; Some Poor Weather May Impede Travel over Thanksgiving Holidays; President-Elect Trump Filling out Administration Positions Quickly for His One Remaining Term as President; Dentist Charged With Poisoning Wife In New Charges; Israel-Hezbollah Ceasefire Deal Now in Effect. Aired 8- 8:30a ET

Aired November 27, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

CLAIRE BABINEAUX-FONTENOT, CEO, FEEDING AMERICA: There are some big challenges that we're going to need to confront as a society.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Claire Babineaux-Fontenot from Feeding America, I really do mean it, you have a wonderful organization, and it's the type of group that we should all be looking to help however we can. So thank you for the work that you do.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

A record number of people packing their bags. The Thanksgiving rush is on. That is a live look right now. Boston's Logan Airport, Boston, of course, the home of the NBA champion Boston Celtics. Just one piece of trivia there. If you want to get there, though, go now, because the weather is about to become a major, major issue.

The surprising new picks by Donald Trump to fill his administration rocking the health care world.

And an eagle-eyed satellite hunting for methane leaks. The critical new tool orbiting the earth that could help fight climate change.

Sara is out, Kate is not. Kate Bolduan is here. I'm John Berman, and this is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Remember the old phrase, it's about the journey, not the destination? If that's the case, when it comes to the next few days, we are in for quite a journey. The airports this week, busy is an understatement. The busiest on record is actually more appropriate -- 18 million Americans are expected to fly this week, and today the airports will be packed. There is some good news for last- minute travelers, though the weather should not be your biggest headache. The forecast today, good. The forecast tomorrow, not so much. A storm could bring a side of snow for Thanksgiving Day in more than one place.

CNN's Whitney Wild is at Chicago O-Hare. Derek Van Dam is tracking the forecast for us. Whitney, how is it looking there now? What are people telling you? WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: It is really picking

up, but for the most part, everybody is saying that this is very, very smooth. This is going to be an extremely busy weekend for Chicago area airports. They're thinking, Kate, that there could be more than a million-and-a-half people that come through O'Hare and Midway over the holiday weekend. They're thinking Sunday is going to be the busiest day. They're thinking Sunday is going to be 254,000 people through O'Hare alone, so that gives you a sense of the volume here. Kate, as you mentioned, these are record numbers. Theres going to be an 11 percent increase this year over last year, many more people taking to the skies. But the number that matters, Kate, is this very small number, just 19 cancellations throughout the U.S. That is an absolutely perfect Thanksgiving travel situation, the holy grail of holiday travel.

The other numbers that you want to see on a day like this, Kate, look at these security numbers. Look at this. Ten minutes through TSA security, five minutes through premier access, 15 minutes through economy security. Kate, when you have this many people pouring through O'Hare, you can't get any better than those very brief security numbers.

I asked a couple of folks out here, what are your tips for traveling this busy holiday season? Here's what they said..

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSICA MENSAH, THANKSGIVING TRAVELER: So far, so good. Since we flew early, we didn't get on our original flight, and so they canceled our whole flight. But United booked us really fast and quickly, and so, so far, so good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel like you should bring, like, a lot of books, because, like, if you're first traveling, and you feel like, oh, it's going to be great. I'm not staying that long. I don't need, like, things to entertain me. Well, most likely you're going to need something to entertain yourself.

WILD: What are your travel tips to get through security smoothly, you've got kids. What are the tips for other families?

ERIC AGNEW, THANKSGIVING TRAVELER: Follow my wife.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: That guy's thinking. That is a good message for everybody this holiday weekend. Listen to the spouse who is very obviously in control of the situation.

The other piece of advice, even the most seasoned travelers make mistakes. Just make sure you're taking a minute to look through the TSA rules and checklists, because it happens to the best of us. We travel a lot in our business. Even sometimes, I have to remind myself what the rules are. So just go through that TSA checklist. Don't be that guy who's going through your bag holding everybody up because you brought a 16 ounce bottle of Gatorade when you're not supposed to. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Don't be that guy. But wait, cannot be lost. Can we please go back to those children? They were potentially the most eloquent, coolest travelers that we've ever come across in an airport.

WILD: They were adorable. They all had tips. They were like, look, it's longer than you think. You know, you've got to bring some books, be entertained. And then they said their favorite part of traveling, Kate, was the snacks. Isn't that everybody's favorite part?

BOLDUAN: One-hundred percent. But also, I am just waiting for the parent on the side, like I will hand you candy if you don't say iPad and you say books instead to this nice TV lady.

(LAUGHTER)

[08:05:07]

BOLDUAN: So impressive. I expect much more from them today. Please bring us more of your interview with those amazing travelers.

Stand by for me. Derek, joining us now.

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN: Talk to us about -- talk to us about the weather and what those adorable kiddos need to be preparing for.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Treats. They're always the perfect convincing item there for a kid to be calm and enjoy a long flight home to see grandma and grandpa, right? It's the tools that the parents have in their toolbox to help things out. Anything works, right?

So check this out. Green means go on this map. We've overlaid the current radar with the airport delays. And this is what we like to see. I mean, this is just absolutely perfection from west coast to east coast. There is a storm system, though, that is moving through the Rockies and its bringing considerable snow to I-70. So if you're hitting the stretch of roadway there just east of Denver, could get a bit dicey. But all in all, today is the day we've hit the jackpot. You've hit the lottery. If you've decided to listen to the weatherman and leave the day that you should, which being today.

But tomorrow is going to be a completely different story. This storm system and all of its energy is going to kind of congeal over the next 12 to 24 hours and explode in size. Watch, here it is now currently located over the southern plains. And then as we head into the morning and afternoon hours of Thanksgiving, this storm becomes a bona fide winter storm.

However, the devil is in the detail here. The rain will be located along the coastline. We know how these things pan out this time of year. It's the interior that will feel the snow. In fact, there are winter storm watches there. And I want to point out this cold front that extends all the way into the southeastern U.S. This system is going to bring the potential of some severe weather. So we need to be aware of this possibility today across Mississippi and Alabama, tomorrow into southeast Georgia. There's the rain and snow accumulation. We could get four to eight inches in the Hudson Valley and into some of the mountains across northern New England. So that would be the trickiest travel conditions, but that's not until tomorrow. So enjoy today while it lasts. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Enjoy today. Guys, thank you so much, because, guess what, John? It's all coming at you tomorrow.

BERMAN: I know, enjoy today while it lasts. He makes it all sound so fleeting.

BOLDUAN: It is.

BERMAN: All right.

BOLDUAN: So is life, J.B.

BERMAN: I know.

President-Elect Donald Trump announcing new picks for his administration overnight. He is moving way more quickly to fill the administration this time around, and he has plans to move way more quickly when he takes office. And CNN has learned one reason why. CNN's Steve Contorno has that reporting. So why, Steve?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Well, John, for starters, he is moving quickly because he is more comfortable with how Washington works versus his first time in office. And he feels more emboldened by the Electoral College victory and the size of it that he had just a few weeks ago. But there's other key factor at play here, and that is that Donald Trump is essentially going to be a lame duck from the moment he takes office. He will be a one term president. And on top of that, they can only guarantee that they're going to have control of the House and the Senate for the first two years that he is in office.

So what I am hearing is that as fast as Donald Trump has maneuvered during this transition, you can expect that speed to continue from the moment he takes office in January. In fact, one longtime Trump adviser and a lobbyist who is close to many of Trumps cabinet picks, Brian Ballard, he told me, quote, "Everyone understands we have a two-year window with a majority in the House and Senate. Who knows what happens after that? And if you are not running at breakneck speed, you shouldn't be part of this administration."

And that speed continued yesterday with another flurry of new names added to his administration, including Jamieson Greer. He is going to be the U.S. trade representative for Donald Trump. He is someone who is familiar with the role, having served as a chief of staff for that position in his last administration. And as we saw already yesterday, that job will be partially put him in charge of negotiating Donald Trump's tit-for-tat trade war that he is already launching with his threats for 25 percent tariffs on goods coming out of Mexico and Canada, so that is a key role that Donald Trump filled last night, and one that will be very important to this effort that he is engaging with as soon as he takes office, John.

BERMAN: All right, Steve Contorno for us in West Palm Beach. Steve, thank you for your reporting. Kate?

BOLDUAN: There are new charges for a Colorado dentist accused of poisoning and killing his wife, poisoning her through her protein shakes. Did he just try to have the detective investigating him killed is now a question.

And Israel's ceasefire with Iran backed Hezbollah is holding in Lebanon. The other terrorist organization there, Iran backed Hamas in Gaza, now says it will cooperate with any efforts for a truce in Gaza. What does this all now mean for the region?

[08:10:05]

And striking gold, the incredible recovery of $1 million treasure stolen from a shipwreck.

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BOLDUAN: New this morning, there are -- new charges have been filed against the Colorado dentist. He's accused of murdering his wife, poisoning her through her protein shakes. CNN has learned that James Craig allegedly tried to hire a fellow jail inmate, then, to kill a detective investigating the case. There is so much going on here.

CNN's Jean Casarez is tracking all of it for us. She's joining us now.

[08:15:00]

This trial was just about to start, it's now been delayed?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely.

The defense team quit. They resigned as his counsel under the rules of professional responsibility, because you can if you believe that your client is engaging in fraudulent or illegal activity and after that happened, it was just a matter of hours that brand new charges were filed, solicitation to commit murder, another charge of murder, and our great producer in the Denver area found out that it was because he was trying to solicit the murder of a detective investigating his own case.

So now he's got to get new counsel, he's got another couple of serious charges. But you know, this just started last year because James Craig, very successful dentist in the Denver area. I mean, great practice, lots of patients. He and his wife, Angela had been married 23 years. They had six children. All of a sudden, she doesn't feel well and she's in and out of hospitals in March of last year. She just doesn't feel well.

And she's finally to the point of being comatose and one of the managers of his dental practice realized they had just gotten a package of potassium cyanide at the office. And they don't use that in the dental practice. So, even before Angela passed, a homicide investigation was begun and what they found out was that he was buying those poisons. He was researching them on his computer, undetectable poisons, five top undetectable poisons. How to murder someone, make it look like a heart attack.

But once he's arrested and put in jail he starts to become friends with the inmates. And according to the legal documents, he asked an inmate hey, can you go? I'm going to write some notes. Make it look like Angela's handwriting can you go up, put them in my house, put them in my truck when you get out to make it look like Angela committed suicide.

He then asked another inmate, hey, when you get out, can you go find a couple of women and tell them you know, say that I was having an affair with them. Angela found out she was so upset she wanted to frame me because she wanted to commit suicide and he starts talking -- even his daughter. He tried to get some things on all these people went to law enforcement. The inmates, they did not do what he asked them to do.

BOLDUAN: I mean, what did he say he was going to give them? Like what? That's so confusing he's talking to all of these inmates and what did he say he would do for them?

CASAREZ: So, he's asking them for favors, he promised them all free dental work for life.

BOLDUAN: Oh my God.

CASAREZ: Thirty to $80,000.00 and he said, that's a really good deal. So he pushed hard and apparently his petition is continuing to push hard. But this trial indefinitely, it was going to happen, and we just have to see it, because it's going to be a blockbuster of a case and we can't forget the victim, Angela Craig a beautiful, beautiful mother of six, is gone.

BOLDUAN: This is unbelievably wild. Let's see what happens next.

Wow, Jean, thank you so much for tracking this for us. As always, really appreciate it.

We're also following this morning new warnings about what Donald Trump's tariffs could do if he implements them, how they could drive up prices on everyday essentials, furniture, even shoes and what they're saying, what the companies are saying about it now.

And one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives captured after 20 years on the run, where authorities finally tracked him down.

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[08:22:46]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, a ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah is holding after going into effect late last night. Donald Trump's incoming national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said it was Trump's election victory that helped bring the two countries to the table. This is how the current National Security adviser Jake Sullivan, responded to those comments. Just a short time ago, right here on CNN's flagship morning show, CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: This peace deal was reached because Israel achieved its military objectives, because the stakeholders in Lebanon decided they didn't want war anymore. And because of relentless American diplomacy led by President Biden.

I would just point out that, you know you've done a really good thing when other people take credit for it. We are very proud of what we have done, and we look forward to passing off a better situation to the incoming team.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, with us now CNN military analyst, retired Major General James "Spider" Marks. Spider, great to see you. Easy question: What happens now?

MAJOR GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, what happens now -- this ceasefire is most likely temporary. There's a lot of green on that pool table between the signing of the deal and what the end state ultimately is going to look like.

The good news is, as Netanyahu indicated is that leadership infrastructure and ammunition stockpiles have been eliminated, reduced, and the proximity of all of that to the border of Israel has now reached a state what I would label as an irreducible minimum. Look, there's always going to be some element of that that's there. And that's what we have right now.

Will it grow from there? We would anticipate that it would. But this gives Israel and it gives the region an opportunity to see what the next steps are going to look like. It's what we call your trading space for time. You've achieved some objectives. Probably not everything you want, but you've given yourself time now to see what the next steps will look like.

BERMAN: So, you call it temporary.

Barak Ravid was reporting just a short time ago that US officials think that actually sustaining and maintaining the peace will be even harder than reaching it. My question is, what are the obstacles to maintaining that peace?

[08:25:03]

MARKS: Well, clearly, Hezbollah still has a capacity. The fundamental differences between Hezbollah and what Israel has been able to achieve will exist forever. The remnants are there and so you also have with a reduced leadership, this is the kind of the key thing, with a reduced leadership of Hezbollah what they have now if individual pockets that are going to continue to pursue their objectives.

So, I would anticipate that we're going to see missiles and rockets fired again by Hezbollah, not necessarily directed from above, but because of some individual element, indicates that they're going to maintain the fight. That's what routinely happens. The sustainment of a ceasefire is incredibly difficult.

BERMAN: So Spider, in 2006, which was really the last go round between Hezbollah and Israel, I was in Southern Lebanon. And one of the amazing things was even in the midst of the fighting and bombing, you would look down the road and you would see UN peacekeepers, UN peacekeepers who had been, have been in Lebanon since 1978.

They were there then. They were there during this round of fighting. What role will these people play during this ceasefire and this peace, however long it lasts?

MARKS: Well, without beating too editorial, let's not get into discussions about UN peacekeepers, what they do, what they should do and how they execute their tasks. Having been a part of those formations before. Not working directly within the UN, but parallel and tangent to them. You see a lot of malfeasance that's ongoing.

Yes, paint me skeptical about the UN being present, trying to avoid the missteps going forward.

Look, the UN was on literally stepping and operating on top of the Hezbollah infrastructure that was underground. And what happened, as a matter of routine is little things would pop-up and they would routinely report that to Hezbollah and say something's happening here in Lebanon that you need to know about it.

In other words, they're talking about Hezbollah activities or maybe Israeli penetrations that were taking place. And so, there was an open exchange of information. Look, let's cease the conversation about the accuracy and the effectiveness of the UN, just saying.

BERMAN: And finally, Spider, do you think from a military's perspective, this cease fire with Hezbollah frees Israel up in any way maybe to find a way to make peace in Gaza?

MARKS: Yes, I would hope so. That with without the volume of rockets and missiles that are being fired from Lebanon into Israel. With the reduction of Hamas in Gaza, Israel certainly has an opportunity. But bear in mind that all solutions, all solutions in this current these current fights go through Tehran.

So, the center of gravity for Israel has shifted to the leadership in Tehran in terms of what that maximum pressure looks like, both diplomatic economic, military. That's where Israel is going to focus their efforts.

BERMAN: Spider -- Major General James "Spider" Marks, always great to see you. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family. Appreciate you being with us this morning.

MARKS: Thank you John. You as well. Happy Thanksgiving.

BERMAN: All right. This morning CNN takes an exclusive look at how Ukrainian soldiers on the frontlines are adapting to Russia's new advances.

And incredible new images show climate warming gases captured from 360 miles in the sky. You have not seen climate warming gases until you've seen them from 360 miles away.

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