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Source Says, Biden Began Informing Staff of Decision to Pardon Hunter on Saturday Evening; Lake-Effect Snow Hampers Post-Thanksgiving Travel; Israeli Military Confirms the Death of Omer Neutra, an American-Israeli Soldier. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 02, 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: President Biden pardons his son, Hunter, after saying that's exactly what he would not do. The ripple effects could be profound and has even some Democrats accusing the president of putting family above country.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Snowmageddon. Millions of Americans bracing for severe winter storms as parts of the country dig out from record breaking snow.

And gird your loins. Today is Cyber Monday. There is a deal out there for you. More than $13 billion could be spent today.

Sara is out shopping. I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central.

This morning, new fallout from President Biden's decision to do something he had said he would never do, pardon his son, Hunter. President-elect Trump is weighing in, as are Republican lawmakers and Democrats. This has the potential to affect the confirmations of Trump nominees and possible pardons for January 6th criminals.

Hunter was due to be sentenced this month. Now, he will not, nor can he be prosecuted for any other possible federal crimes possibly committed in a ten-year period. His father wrote, in trying to break Hunter, they have tried to break me. No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter's case can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son, and that is wrong.

Now, we are waiting to hear from the president this morning on this. He is traveling to Angola in Africa.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is already there. Arlette, what's the White House saying about this?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, President Biden said that he is issuing a full and unconditional pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, a stunning reversal, given the fact that President Biden and his senior team had said for months that he would not make this move. President Biden said he ultimately made this decision as a father, but he also firmly believes that Hunter Biden was maligned by Republican and that the charges against him were politically motivated.

In a statement released late Sunday night before he departed for Angola, the president wrote, quote, I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice. And once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision.

Now, this statement in no way references the fact that the president had repeatedly said he would not pardon his son, Hunter, who had been charged and found guilty relating to some gun charges and was also facing tax charges as well. But take a listen to President Biden's denials that he would pardon his son, Hunter, both before and after that felony gun conviction in the state of Delaware.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me ask you, will you accept the jury's outcome, their verdict, no matter what it is?

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And have you ruled out a pardon for your son?

BIDEN: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have?

BIDEN: I am satisfied, that I'm not going to do anything. I said, I abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, the president's decision has already faced some criticism from Republicans and some Democrats for President-elect Donald Trump has spoken out against it, but also his team is using this as a moment to try to highlight what they believe is a politicization of the Justice Department against Trump in a various series of cases.

But for President Biden, this was a very personal decision. He had reached this decision over the weekend as he had huddled with his family in Nantucket, Massachusetts. I'm told that the president had started to tell his senior team on Saturday evening that he planned to issue this pardon and directed them to start preparing to release it on Sunday evening.

But for President Biden, this is certainly something that he has wrestled with at a long time on both a political and a personal level, and this will go down as a key piece of his legacy going forward, as he issued this pardon of his son.

BERMAN: Again, he is on his way to Angola, where Arlette Seanz is. We will wait to hear what the president has to say about this this morning. Arlette, thank you very much. Kate?

[07:05:00]

BOLDUAN: And in pardoning Hunter Biden, President Biden sounds a lot like Donald Trump. Both men now seeming to agree the Justice Department has been politicized and that definitely is not lost on the president-elect, Donald Trump, quickly trying to equate the Hunter Biden pardon to those convicted of crimes from the January 6th riots.

CNN's Alayna Treene is in West Palm Beach, Florida, for us this morning tracking all of it. And, Alayna, what are you hearing from Trump's team about all of this today?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well Kate, as you mentioned, Donald Trump moved quickly to kind of capitalize on this moment and use it as, you know, an opportunity to say, well, what about the January 6th people who were convicted for their crimes on January 6th. And it really is going to, I think, raise expectations for what Donald Trump will do with that promise that he had made repeatedly on the campaign trail to pardon those who were convicted for crimes for their role that day.

I'm going to read for you what he said. He wrote, quote, does the parting gift given by Joe to Hunter include the Jan. 6 hostages who have now been imprisoned for years, such an abuse and miscarriage of justice.

Now, again, he mentioned the word hostages. That is a term Donald Trump used repeatedly as well on the campaign trail when describing those who were convicted for committing crimes for the January 6 Capitol attack.

But one thing that's been very interesting, Kate, is that I know many of Donald Trump supporters have really anticipated and expected him to follow through on that pledge and to, in some cases, grant maximum clemency to even those who have committed, you know -- excuse me, who have committed some of the most violent crimes on that day.

But ever since the election, Donald Trump has not spoken about this. And I've asked his team about this, the transition team, and they haven't really given me any indication that they were moving forward and working on this right now. They said that that's something that will be discussed later down the line once Donald Trump were to be sworn in.

So, I think this is kind of providing an opening now to reopen those discussions and really shining a light on what Donald Trump will do.

Now, I will also argue that you know, we've seen a lot of Republicans use what happened with Hunter Biden and the pardon that Biden has given him to really argue that it's the current sitting president who is the one who has weaponized the Department of Justice, not the former president. And this could also give them an opening to kind of more so embrace Kash Patel, someone who has really argued that he wants to reform the FBI and the Justice Department because of these types of things. Kate?

BOLDUAN: And what are you hearing about Kash Patel and his path through confirmation now after the -- at this point?

TREENE: Right. Well, there's no question, and I know from my conversations with Trump's team and those working on this, is that he will likely have a very contentious and uphill Senate confirmation battle. I was actually talking to the team about this specifically, and they said, you know, Donald Trump in recent days was actually wavering between two people. He knew that he wanted to remove Christopher Wray from being FBI director and install someone else, but he was wavering between Kash Patel and attorney general -- Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey.

Some people close to the president had argued that, you know, they were skeptical of Patel given the controversy surrounding him and also the expectations that he would have a tough time going through his Senate confirmation process.

But there's also the people that Donald Trump views as closest to him, the people he trusts the most that were really pushing Patel on him, including his sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., as well as Stephen Miller, the incoming deputy chief of staff, and so all to say there were questions before he had selected Patel.

But Donald Trump I was told really wanted someone who would be his legal pit bull, someone who would try to root out the bias that he sees as permeating the bureau for the last several years. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Alayna, it's going to be a busy day, busy week ahead there in West Palm. It's great to see you. Thank you so much. John?

BERMAN: All right. Record breaking travel and record breaking winter storm, that's a pretty bad combination. So, what you can expect today.

Closing arguments will soon begin in the trial of Daniel Penny charged with placing a homeless man in a fatal chokehold in a New York City subway.

And new details on a budding health trend that has people voluntarily piercing monitoring devices under their skin.

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[07:10:00]

BOLDUAN: Snow, snow and more snow, friends. We're talking about feet of snow hitting parts of the Great Lakes, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York getting hammered in places. Parts are already seeing snowfall nearing five feet. And also it's not over yet. Lake-effect snow warnings still happening this morning, which means people hitting the roads, heading to airports, trying to get home after Thanksgiving could be facing some real headaches today.

But it's not all headaches. We'll show you. As much as 20 inches of snow piled up in Buffalo, New York, as the Bills are taking on the 49ers. You can see, obviously, the Bills won. Bill's head coach and quarterback made snow angels after their win last night, because they also couldn't feel their appendages after playing in that for hours. CNN's Derek Van Dam is tracking the forecast for us. CNN's Pete Muntean is at Reagan National Airport.

Oh, Pete, those are not short lines. What's going on?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You know, today is going to be especially tough, Kate, given the fact that so many people are traveling, the travel rush gets longer and longer every year with more people being able to work from home and flex their schedules, but it's also mixing with the normal commuter traffic with so many people going back to work today.

[07:15:03]

This is the rush here at Reagan National Airport, the morning rush, and the TSA numbers say it's taking people about 14 to 17 minutes to get through standard screening here at the Terminal 2 North Checkpoint.

Speaking of lines, things are pretty bad getting into the airport today. The traffic is pretty tough out there on the access road getting into the airport and on 395 coming in. It's a scene playing out across the country.

I just want to show you the TSA numbers, because yesterday will likely go down as an all-time air travel record. The TSA predicting about 3 million people at airports nationwide will pass through security checkpoints today. The number a little bit lower, about 2.8 million. But it really fits into the theme of so many huge travel days we have seen in 2024. In fact, all of the top ten travel days in TSA history have occurred this year alone.

It won't be smooth sailing everywhere, especially in the New York area. Newark has been an especially big pain point for the FAA. They have had air traffic control staffing issues there. The FAA moved the facility responsible for that airspace from New York to Philadelphia to try and get a better pipeline of new controllers coming in. The FAA says there will likely be ground stops and delays there put in place by the FAA as the day goes on. There could be problems in Seattle because of low cloud ceilings, also problems in Florida, in Naples and at Palm Beach. The FAA is saying there could be ground stops there as well.

It's a huge driving day. AAA predicted that about 80 million people would travel 50 miles or more over a seven-day travel rush. It used to be a five-day rush. This is the first year they extended it to seven days. And AAA says about 70 million of those people will be driving.

Today will be hard. Again, it's the mix of normal commuters and those holiday travelers. The worst times are really in the middle of the day, AAA says between 9:00 A.M. and 6:00 P.M. So, if you can get an early start now, that's probably a good idea, or maybe wait until after the evening rush. So many people trying to get home all at once, and it seems like today may be close to an all-time record. Yesterday will likely be the all-time record for air travel. BOLDUAN: Wow, that is a lot of people rolling through airports and security, but still 14 minutes, maybe in security line, I guess we can always say, it could be worse, Pete. It could be worse.

All right, Pete Muntean, thank you so much.

Derek, talk to me about the forecast now, if you will, my friend. Where are things -- what have things looked like and where are things headed?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It could be worse. You could be in Watertown, New York. This is Western New York and I want to show you how quickly road conditions deteriorate. This is a drive sped up, right, time lapse from Adams to Watertown. Keep in mind those two locations are only separated by roughly ten miles. So, this is the nature of lake-effect snowfall.

So, we time lapsed and kind of sped up the radar over the past weekend, and you can see these bands that set up with the wind that came right over the warm lake waters and how localized that snow banding is. But where those bands set up, that's where we get the heaviest of snowfall just south of Buffalo. This is incredible, Buffalo Airport, one inch, Orchard Park about ten miles to the south, over two feet. So, yes, that is incredible.

And you don't want to be traveling along Interstate 90. That's where they had stalled out vehicles, Interstate 81 over eastern sections just downwind of Lake Ontario. There is still more snow to come as we continue with this northwesterly wind across portions of the Great Lakes with another storm system approaching by the second half of this week.

I'll leave you with this, Kate. I mean, can you imagine waking up having to hunt and pack around for your car? This reminds me of the sequel of the Ashton Kutcher film. Wow, Dude, Where's My Car? I found it

BOLDUAN: Something like that. That's when you like pray for that remote start and put the defrost on for like, I guess --

VAN DAM: All those windshield wipers work.

BOLDUAN: No. The key is, look, I grew up right around lake-effects. No, you don't turn the windshield wipers on until it is defrosted or that's the last time you're using a windshield wiper.

VAN DAM: Not your first rodeo.

BOLDUAN: Exactly. Derek, thank you. We're going to be tracking this all throughout the day. Pete Muntean at the airport for us, thanks, guys, I really appreciate it coming up for us.

Mega church pastor T. D. Jakes speaks out for the first time since suffering that health scare that happened right as he was giving a sermon. We're going to have an update for you on that. And it is the season of peace and light, First Lady Jill Biden just this morning, unveiling this year's holiday theme and decor at the White House, marking their final season in the executive mansion.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

BERMAN: New this morning, the Israeli military has confirmed the death of one of the October 7th hostages held by Hamas. American Israeli soldier Omer Neutra, the Hostages and Missing Families' Forum, said Neutra was killed on October 7th during the Hamas-led attack. CNN spoke with Omer's parents just last week on Thanksgiving.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ORNA NEUTRA, MOTHER OF AMERICAN-ISRAELI SOLDIER: It's been a really, really tough year for us. You know, it's not a real holiday. All the holidays are just milestones that remind us that Omer's not here. We are still stuck on October 7th. We're in a waiting pattern for over a year right now, and we're praying for his life and for his safety.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. CNN's Nada Bashir joins us now. So, what do we know about how this information came to light?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, we had that confirmation from the Israeli military earlier this morning, John, confirming the death of Omer Neutra. The 21-year-old American-Israeli soldier was reportedly killed on October 7th, and his body has since been held captive in Gaza ever since.

Now, we have heard a statement from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who said that he shares in the family's grief. He went on to say that we will not rest until we bring him home to a grave in Israel. We will continue to act with determination and tirelessly until we bring all of our captives back home.

Now, this comes, of course, after Hamas released a propaganda video on the weekend of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander.

[07:25:06]

Now, we're not showing that video, but in the video, he does plead to an appeal to the Israeli prime minister and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to do all that they can to secure the release of all remaining hostages.

And, of course, we heard from Alexander's mother as well over the weekend, she said she was shaken by the video, but also said that she had been assured by Netanyahu that the conditions are ripe for a hostage release deal.

Now, of course, we have continued to see those large scale rallies in Tel Aviv and across Israel calling on the government of Israel to do more to secure hostage release and ceasefire deal. And we've also seen significant protests across the globe as well, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to Israel's military onslaught on the Gaza Strip. In fact, there was a big demonstration over here in London over the weekend.

And this comes as we continue to see the situation deteriorate in Gaza and continued airstrikes. At least 200 people killed in airstrikes in Northern Gaza over the weekend. And, of course, we've been hearing from the World Health Organization saying now some 90 percent of those displaced in Gaza are now living in tent shelters as opposed to U.N. schools and other builders, so, of course, exposed to the harsh winter elements as well as the lack of aid and food supplies getting in. John?

BERMAN: All right. Nada Bashir, thank you very much for that.

All right, quote, he put his family ahead of the country. New reaction this morning from both political parties after President Biden pardoned his son, Hunter.

And this morning, huge fines in college football over the post-game brawl between two of the biggest rivals in the sport.

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