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Sister Says, New Info Makes Family Hopeful Missing Woman is Alive; Notre Dame to Reopen Next Week, Five-Plus Years After Devastating Fire; Trump Spends Thanksgiving Holiday With Family, Musk at Mar-a-Lago. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired November 29, 2024 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: More intrigue in the case of Hannah Kobayashi, the woman from Hawaii who went missing nearly three weeks ago during what was supposed to be a layover in Los Angeles. In a new interview, Kobayashi's sister says the family has new hope the 30- year-old is still alive. Listen to her explain why.

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SYDNI KOBAYASHI, SISTER OF MISSING WOMAN: We have received information, which makes us still be hopeful that she's still alive.

[14:35:05]

We just can't divulge into it yet, and I don't think a lot of people understand that we have to be very careful of what we do release because we're getting thousands and thousands of tips.

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SANCHEZ: The last time Kobayashi's friends and loved ones were in contact with her was on November 11th when she sent a series of cryptic texts saying hackers had stolen her identity.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. CNN's Natasha Chen is in Los Angeles with the latest. Natasha, what are you learning?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, what we're learning is mainly from Hannah Kobayashi's family because Los Angeles police have said very little about this case. In fact, the only time recently that this case has been publicly mentioned was at a city council meeting this week where the police chief said this. Take a listen.

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CHIEF JIM MCDONNELL, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT: On Friday, November 8th, 23-year-old Hannah Kobayashi missed her connecting flight from LAX to New York, which the investigation determined was intentional. Over the next few days, she maintained contact with her family and was active on Instagram.

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CHEN: And note there that he says that she intentionally missed her flight. She was supposed to make a connecting flight from L.A. onto New York.

The family, police said, then arrived in Los Angeles a couple of days after that filed of missing persons report, and that's when LAPD really went into the full gear with this investigation, putting out that missing persons report.

What we've heard from the family is that Hannah Kobayashi was last heard from on November 11th. Now, that's really more than two weeks ago now with a strange set of text messages, which we can show again on the screen here, where she texts a friend saying deep hackers wiped my identity, stole all of my funds and have had me on a mind F since Friday. I got tricked pretty much giving into giving away all my funds for someone I thought I loved.

Now, in the recent interview given by her sister to News Nation right before Thanksgiving, her sister, Sydni Kobayahi, says, in my mind, it feels like someone is controlling her. Her sister said that may not have even been her.

The family also mentions surveillance video that they have seen showing Hannah Kobayashi at a downtown metro station. It's unclear exactly when that footage was taken. But, again, all of this is coming from the family. The police have not released any of this footage. Everyone is being very careful and tight-lipped despite all the massive amounts of tips that we are aware that police and the family are getting.

ACOSTA: All right. Natasha Chen, very disturbing case, thank you very much.

In the meantime, the San Jose State Women's Volleyball Team will play for the Mountain West Conference Championship Title tomorrow after Boise State forfeited its match today against the Spartans over reports of a transgender player on San Jose State's team. This move comes despite the commissioner of their conference already ruling that the player in question meets the eligibility standards to compete.

The controversy has not only divided the volleyball world, but the Spartan team, including one player who filed a lawsuit to prevent their own teammate from competing in that conference tournament.

CNN's Camila Bernal joins us now live and we're learning new details about how the team learned that this player was allegedly transgender.

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jim and Boris. Yes. So, this player has been on the San Jose State team since 2022. But it was in April when there was a news article that spoke about her gender. And that's when this story really became a political story instead of a sports story. So, I want to first explain what's happening. This weekend, so San Jose State was supposed to play a semi-final against Boise State. Boise State withdraws from the championship, which means that San Jose will advance to the final on Saturday. They will be playing either against San Diego or Colorado State in that final match.

Now, Boise did not explain exactly why they're withdrawing, but this is not the first time that they boycott these games against San Jose. They did so during the regular season in two different games. And, actually, San Jose has had six victories because of teams that withdrew and did not want to play against San Jose State.

So, all of this, again, just became this controversy back in April, and one of the team members, the co-captain, actually, her name is Brooke Slusser, she filed a lawsuit to prevent the player in question from competing.

Now, San Jose State has not confirmed the identity or the gender of the player, which is also why we are not naming this player, but as part of this lawsuit and the co-captain of this team also speaking to The New York Times, and she said this, I'm going to read it to you.

[14:40:04]

She said, we just don't think it's fair that a man is allowed to play. So, she was referring to this transgender teammate and said in that interview that she called it a hard decision to file the lawsuit because she didn't want to put her team through more than they were already going through.

The father of the player in question here also spoke to The New York Times saying this. The rules are allowing it and I've told my daughter, can this team get over this and just come together and try to win? She's a human and we're not going to people be part of a mob mentality and march down to city hall and burn her at the stake. I feel like that's what this is turning into.

Now, I do want to say that a federal judge in Denver ruled that it is okay for her to play. She is allowed to compete. And then an appeals court upheld that decision. So, she will be able to play and they will be playing this weekend. Guys?

ACOSTA: All right. Camila Bernal, thank you very much.

When we come back, Notre Dame's billion dollar makeover, it is simply miraculous.

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SANCHEZ: It is, of course, one of the most famous cathedrals in the world. And now, more than five years after a catastrophic fire gutted Notre Dame, it's been brought back to its former glory. The Parisian landmark is set to reopen to the public next week for the first time since 2019. ACOSTA: Today, the world got its first glimpse inside of the newly restored gothic masterpiece. It is, in fact, a masterpiece.

CNN's Melissa Bell is live in Paris. Melissa, we needed some good news. We got it. This is just amazing stuff. What more can you tell us?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Here it is, and it happens to be in Paris this Friday. This was a glimpse we got, Jim and Boris, thanks to the French president making his seventh and final visit to what has been a construction site now for more than five years. In fact, he described it to the many thousands of workers who were involved and who gathered inside to hear him today and to hear his thanks as the construction site of the century. And so the cameras followed the French president inside.

It was extraordinary. He went to visit, for instance the forest, as it's known, which is the part in the roof of the cathedral where this fire began. We still don't know how, by the way, several years of investigation, still haven't told us whether it was a cigarette of a workman or an electrical fault, and the investigation's now been closed. Whatever started it, it was up there in the timbers, the beams of the roof that it quickly picked up speed and took on such life.

He visited those timbers, lovingly restored 2,000 oaks felled and used in the reconstruction of the cathedral, which is exactly as it was, and yet so much better. I got the chance of going in earlier and it is a completely different experience than what it was going in before the fire.

Although it's been restored precisely as it was, the Crown of Thorns, one of the greatest relics in the catholic religion repositioned, but this time in a golden sculpture that you can see it better and that it should be better displayed.

Although all the details of its construction have been respected and they've sought to rebuild it as it was, the fact that it is now clean and the stones are gleaming and the artwork has been restored, the colors are what they were not just five years ago but before they got journeyed by several centuries of wear and tear, the gold the statues, the works of art entirely restored. The impression is quite different to what it was when you would go in five years ago, where if you'll remember, it was quite somber.

There was a darkness about Notre Dame. You could guess a lot of the artwork you could see it, but you had to get up quite close. It is entirely transformed. And you get a much greater sense of the extraordinary construction that it is. It is even more awe inspiring than it was before it caught fire, Jim and Boris.

ACOSTA: Yes. Melissa, I mean, I can't believe they were able to do this in five years and at the same time while they were preparing for the Summer Olympics. I mean, what a year for Paris, just great, great stuff.

Thanks so much, Melissa Bell. I really appreciate it. All right, and we'll be right back.

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SANCHEZ: President-elect Donald Trump spent Thanksgiving at Mar-a- Lago with his family and supporters, including Elon Musk. And on their dinner playlist, one of Trump's campaign rally classics.

ACOSTA: Mar-a-Lago has become the center of the Trump transition, forcing the usually quieter area of Florida into a transition of its own.

CNN's Randi Kaye has more on that.

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BRUCE HELANDER, ARTIST, LONGTIME PALM BEACH RESIDENT: This is the magnet where everybody who wants to see Trump has got to come to Palm Beach.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Artist Bruce Helander first came to Palm Beach in 1983 to open an art gallery on the exclusive Worth Avenue. A lot has changed since then, and with Donald Trump once again the president elect, Palm Beach, which leans Democratic, is again the center of the MAGA universe.

VINCE MAROTTA, ILLUSTRATED PROPERTIES: We've definitely seen a major Trump bump. I've got my phone ringing nonstop, so there's definitely been an increase in traffic.

KAYE: Vince Marotta is a top selling real estate agent here. He says some people meeting with Trump are now also looking to put down roots in the area.

Did your phone start ringing right after the election?

MAROTTA: They did. In fact, just a few days after, I got a call from a major broker who said to me she's working with somebody in the Trump brain trust and they're looking to find something somewhere close to Mar-a-Lago into $10 to $15 million range.

KAYE: Mar-a-Lago, the 58-bedroom estate that Trump calls home is, where the president-elect has been conducting job interviews to fill his cabinet and holding key meetings during a transition period.

In Palm Beach and neighboring West Palm Beach, just across the water from Mar-a-Lago, there has been a steady stream of limousines ferrying prominent Republicans, world leaders, and others around the area.

BERNARDO NETO, GENERAL MANAGER, THE BEN HOTEL: We've seen the president of Argentina was in the city. We've seen, you know, NATO dignitaries. We've seen Fortune 500 CEOs.

KAYE: Bernardo Neto is the general manager at the Ben Hotel, which sits just about two miles from Mar-a-Lago. These days, it's a popular spot for media, dignitaries and anyone hoping to get access to Trump or a job with the new administration.

NETO: I think having any president-elect two miles away, but absolutely since the election, we've seen a big uptick of reservations. But we've seen an increase at least 15 percent.

[14:55:01]

HELANDER: The airports are filled. The hotels are filled. The restaurant's impossible to get a reservation. It's a very exciting time.

KAYE: Exciting for some but stressful too. Security around Palm Beach is tighter than ever, especially along what's known as Billionaires Row. That's the area of South Ocean Boulevard, where Mar-a-Lago is located. It's now closed to traffic, which has turned into a nightmare.

ELDA TARRAGO, PALM BEACH RESIDENT: Well, nobody likes the traffic, you know, what used to take 15 minutes to get somewhere, now you're taking 40 minutes to an hour, you know? So, traffic is always an issue, but, you know, that's what happens when a city grows.

KAYE: Would you like to see them put the helipad back at Mar-a-Lago?

TARRAGO: I would say, why not? Yes, why not? It'll be fun to watch.

KAYE: Palm Beach may be at the epicenter of it all, but business just over the bridge in West Palm Beach is also booming. Billionaire Jeff Green is building a 1.5 million square foot office, hotel and apartment complex. Vanderbilt University has plans to build a $520 million graduate campus. And companies like Goldman Sachs are moving in, helping to transform West Palm Beach into the Wall Street of the South.

Longtime Palm Beach resident Suebelle Whitworth Robbins came here 50 years ago, and loves all the attention on their tiny enclave and surrounding areas.

SUEBELLE WHITWORTH ROBBINS, THE INSTAQUEEN OF PALM BEACH: Oh, it's magical. I think it's sort of exciting. It's always fun to be around important people.

KAYE: Randi Kay, CNN, Palm Beach, Florida.

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ACOSTA: All right. It may be Black Friday, but Thanksgiving has already turned out to be a record breaker in online retail sales. What's driving it, next.

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