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Police Declare Hawaii Woman A Voluntary Missing Person; Musk and Ramaswamy to Speak with Hill Republicans Thursday; Zuckerberg Seeks Active Role in Trump Tech Policy Discussions. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired December 03, 2024 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translated text): ... to end this war in two days. Who will believe the words of the U.S. or England, who are pissing themselves in front of Russia? Pardon my English.

PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Confident they can hold out in Kursk, less confident of how long the West expects them to.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Sumy, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: We have a major update in the case of Hannah Kobayashi. She vanished weeks ago, but authorities now say that her disappearance was, quote, voluntary. Where they spotted her and how her family is now reacting.

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[15:35:15]

KEILAR: The family of a woman from Hawaii is speaking out after Los Angeles investigators say that she actually crossed over into Mexico on her own and is now considered a voluntary missing person. Hannah Kobayashi flew from Maui to Los Angeles nearly four weeks ago but did not get on her connecting flight to New York. Police say that she hung out in LA for a few days before video captured her walking into Mexico with her luggage. No cell phone, but seemingly unharmed.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Kobayashi's family just issued a statement about the investigation saying in part, quote: Our family remains hopeful that Hannah is safe and urges everyone to continue the search. We want answers and a resolution that ensures Hannah's safety and urge law enforcement and the public to stay focused on finding her to avoid speculative conclusions.

Let's discuss with Bobby Chacon, a former FBI special agent. Sir, thank you so much for being with us. What are your thoughts about how the LAPD is handling this case? Do you think they acted appropriately or something they missed and should have done differently?

BOBBY CHACON, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: I think they did a superb job. I mean, from the moment she landed in LAX, LAPD has established her whereabouts each day from the 8th to the 12th when she was seen walking into Mexico now.

I mean, she was seen all around LA. They have video of her unharmed by herself, seemingly doing the things that a tourist does around LA. She was seen at the Grove, which is a popular outdoor shopping center. She was seen outside a Nike event. She was seen in a bookstore.

The LAPD has put her whereabouts all around. I'm seeing terms like vanished or this woman disappeared. She did anything but. I really push back on those assertions. The LAPD has laid out a timeline and you can see her almost each day doing something by herself unharmed around LA.

There's no sign of foul play. There's no sign that a crime has taken place.

KEILAR: They haven't interacted with her. And I wonder if that is key to this. Just being sure that she is safe, that she is mentally healthy, and that she's not in any danger. How important is that?

CHACON: Three days into her trip to LA, she was seen back at the airport at LAX talking to a ticket agent at LAX. They've obviously interviewed that ticket agent to see what her mindset was about. My feeling is she was probably trying to get a cash refund for the portion of the trip from LA to New York that she didn't take because she was going to Mexico the next day.

And that was on the 11th of November. And the 12th of November, she's seen walking into Mexico without a cell phone. So she presumably wanted cash for that trip.

This is a 30-year-old woman who stopped talking to her family. That's what it is. We don't have any sign of any other crime taking place other than a cryptic text message that the family say they have.

But this woman, for whatever reason, there's an old post of hers that said she wanted to disconnect from the modern world or whatever. So she left her cell phone behind. She's on a walkabout maybe.

And I know that this is very difficult for families to deal with. But this is a 30-year-old woman. There's no sign of a crime.

LAPD has a huge caseload of cases that these detectives have to deal with. And until a crime, you know, there's some semblance of a crime, some evidence of a crime taking place. In this case, I hate to say it, but this is a 30-year-old woman who seemingly just stopped communicating with her family.

SANCHEZ: It's all the more striking, Bobby, given that her father died by suicide and became very involved in the search for her. I wonder how you factor that into all of this. Could it be some kind of an indication as to why this all took place?

CHACON: Yes, Boris, I think you're exactly right. And it's exactly what I thought when I heard the father committed suicide, you know, four or five days after he arrived looking for her. That to me is an indication that there may have been issues in the family.

And, you know, I would think, I would look as an investigator, I would look heavily into those family relationships and what happened. Because it's unusual to spend such a short time looking for your daughter. She hadn't turned up, you know, harmed yet.

And for you to take your own life in that situation, you know, I would really look into the family dynamics in this case and why this woman has stopped communicating with her family.

KEILAR: So many questions still. It's great to get your input here, Bobby. Thank you so much for being with us, Bobby Chacon.

CHACON: Thanks. Thanks for having me.

KEILAR: When we do come back, two of President-elect Trump's closest allies tasked with cutting down government spending will head to the building that holds the wallet, Capitol Hill.

[15:40:00]

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SANCHEZ: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, tasked by President-elect Donald Trump to head the Department of Government Efficiency, will meet with House and Senate Republicans this Thursday to discuss their plans for Trump's new DOJ agency. The meeting announcement came via an ex-post from House Speaker Mike Johnson's office. CNN's Hadas Gold joins us now.

Hadas, what should we expect from this meeting?

HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: This will be a big week here in Washington. Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk will be on Capitol Hill this week.

[15:45:00]

On Thursday, they will actually have two meetings, as far as we know. They'll meet with Senator Joni Erst, who is heading up what they're calling the Senate DOJ Caucus. And then they will also meet with all of the House and Senate Republicans.

Now, of course, this meeting will be to talk about their effort to cut down the size and the spending of the federal government. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy say they want to cut more than $500 billion of annual spending by the federal government. And they want to do this by eliminating certain agencies, if they can, but also getting rid of what they call unauthorized spending.

Some of the agencies that they've talked about getting rid of is the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. That funds places like NPR, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, international organizations, funding for progressive organizations, including Planned Parenthood. And just today, we saw a suggestion that they want to get rid of Daylight Savings. Now, that's not exactly an agency, but it goes to show you how far-reaching they want to go when it comes to shrinking the size and the power of the federal government.

Now, keep in mind that, first of all, this is not a real agency. It is an advisory board. And for all of their railing against unelected bureaucrats, they themselves are unelected advisors in this process. They don't exactly have the full power of the purse strings. That's with Congress. And Congress will need to pass legislation if they want to significantly shrink or get rid of any of these agencies.

SANCHEZ: I do want to ask you about a fellow billionaire and tech CEO who seems to want to have some sway as well in Donald Trump's second administration. That's Mark Zuckerberg. How does he fit into all of this?

GOLD: Well, yes, Mark Zuckerberg is the head of META. And it's really fascinating to see how the relationship between Mark Zuckerberg and President-elect Donald Trump has changed and evolved over the years. Mark Zuckerberg was just actually in Mar-a-Lago to meet with President-elect Trump to have a meal together.

And yesterday on a call with reporters, a Facebook executive talked that Mark said that Mark Zuckerberg wants to take an active role in tech policy conversations, especially about maintaining the American advantage in the technological sphere. And they say it's especially important given artificial intelligence in global politics.

Keep in mind that just over the summer, President-elect Trump wrote in a book that he will throw Mark Zuckerberg in prison if he, you know, does certain things that he sees as wrong.

But now they're warming up. We know that the two had been in touch in leading up to the election and after the attempted assassination attempt on President Trump's life. Mark Zuckerberg called his fist pumping in the air one of the most badass things he had ever seen.

Now, all of the tech executives are doing this. They would be doing this with any administration. They'd be trying to, you know, warm up the relationships, get to know the people.

And we know that with President Trump, it becomes very personal. So having that personal relationship with the president-elect, especially with somebody like Elon Musk in his ear, and keep in mind Elon Musk has wanted to fight, literally fight Mark Zuckerberg before, will be very important for Mark Zuckerberg, especially because META faces a Federal Trade Commission antitrust trial this next year. It's a historic one.

It was actually brought by the Trump administration as they're trying to potentially break up META because of their acquisitions of things like WhatsApp and Instagram.

SANCHEZ: That MMA cage match that never happened. Perhaps, perhaps Trump will make it happen.

GOLD: Maybe that will happen at the White House.

SANCHEZ: Who knows. Hadas Gold, thank you so much. Next, how an iconic pizza chain is fighting sluggish sales and

increasing competition by redesigning its restaurants using high tech.

Stay with us.

[15:50:00]

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SANCHEZ: The news you have stuck around all afternoon for. McDonald's is bringing back a fan favorite. Today, the McRib is back on the menu at the fast food chain.

KEILAR: And after a year that has seen several fast food chains struggling with weak sales, McDonald's is betting that it's beloved pork sandwich smothered in barbecue sauce topped with pickles and onions that that's going to translate into dollars. We'll see. CNN's Nathaniel Meyersohn is here.

Is this a safe bet? This oldie, but is it still a goodie?

NATHANIEL MEYERSOHN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: It certainly is a safe bet. I mean, guys, the McRib is always a safe bet. Especially the way that you describe it, Brianna.

And McDonald's really needs this boost right now. The company has been struggling. Its sales were down 1.5 percent last quarter, which is kind of unheard of for McDonald's. The sales are always going up. And let's think about the last year that McDonald's has had. They had the E. coli outbreak. That was a huge hit to traffic. All of the customer complaints about the prices, the videos on TikTok. People are really kind of frustrated with this company right now.

And then there's all the competition. There's kind of these fast food value wars right now. All of their competitors are dropping prices. Applebee's, Chili's, you know, they're offering discounts. So, McDonald's is in some trouble right now, and it's turning to the McRib to try to bring some energy back.

SANCHEZ: You said something that surprised me. Honestly, honestly, I didn't realize the McRib was made out of pork. It was a bit of a mystery to me. Nathaniel --

KEILAR: It's shaped pork.

SANCHEZ: It's shaped pork, yes.

KEILAR: There's no bones in there.

SANCHEZ: It looks like bone.

KEILAR: It looks like it.

SANCHEZ: I would eat around it just in case.

Nathaniel, Pizza Hut is also making some changes to its restaurants to try to win us over. What can we expect from these new snappy Pizza Hut designs?

MEYERSOHN: Yes, quite a day in fast food, guys. So, yes, take a look at those images on your screen of this new Pizza Hut in Texas. It's the first of its kind.

It's got kiosks. It's got a kitchen in the middle, kind of like Chipotle when you go into Chipotle, you see them making the burritos. It's got the drive-through line.

[15:55:00]

It's very much kind of in line with where the fast food industry is right now. And, honestly, it's a bit cookie-cutter, isn't it, guys? I mean, that could look like any other restaurant chain, McDonald's.

Where is the red roof? Where is that red roof of Pizza Hut that there used to be?

SANCHEZ: Hot takes.

KEILAR: They're raising the roof. I like your hot takes, Nathaniel.

SANCHEZ: I like Pizza Hut.

KEILAR: What's your hot take on the McRib?

SANCHEZ: I've always loved Pizza Hut, ever since I was a kid. I don't know. I would go to the restaurant anyway. That buffet.

KEILAR: Well, this is for the other folks. Nathaniel, thank you so much. A big day in fast food.

SANCHEZ: Huge day.

KEILAR: Huge.

Still ahead, do you know what you looked up on Wikipedia this year? If not, no worries. Or maybe you should, because Wikipedia has the receipts next.

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KEILAR: Top celebrities, politicians, and crime stories. People around the world want to know more, and millions of them are turning to Wikipedia to find out. And now the site has compiled a list of the 25 most popular searches.

SANCHEZ: The 2020 U.S. presidential election landed at number 13 on the list with more than 16 million views.

[16:00:00]

Swifties may love Taylor, but she didn't crack the top 10 in page views. She came in just short at number 11.

KEILAR: Searches for Donald Trump totaled more than 25 million earnings, earning him the number 5 spot. The Menendez brothers came in at number 4 with more than 26 million page views. Coming in at number 1 with more than 44 million page views, deaths in 2024 topping the list.

That's not what I would have expected. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.

SANCHEZ: Solid note to end the show.

END