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Syrian Rebels and Supporters Celebrate Fall of Assad Regime in Syria; Man Arrested as Suspect in Murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired December 10, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Tell me how this is working for you. Is this working?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. As you can see, this is 50 years of silence. This is action. Fifty years he kept us in the dark. He kept us in the death. This is the reaction of the Syrian people after 50 years of this regime, of this death, of this darkness. This is the new generation that will come out to the light now. This is the reaction.

WARD: Does it feel for you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For me, as a 25 years old daughter, this is my father and this is my mother. This is this is unspeakable reaction. This is me coming to the light again. It's the rebirth of the Syrian people again.

WARD: Did you ever imagine after 14 years?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no, no, no, no. For me, it's been 13 years. For my dad it's been 50 years.

WARD: What do you see? Look behind you, you see rebel fighters with their technicals, with their big weapons.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is this is victory. This is the -- this is the happiness I have never witnessed before. I've been living 13 years in war, in death, in darkness. And this is amazing. This is unspeakable, actually, this is -- here you can see the breath of freedom. This is absolutely amazing. This is -- I hope we can do more. This is only the beginning. This, it has to be a mess in the beginning. But I'm sure we can do something more and more in the future.

WARD: Thank you so much, Judit (ph). And it really is sort of wonderful, honestly, to hear that kind of optimism, because as I mentioned, those first couple of days, those first few days, a lot of tension, a lot of anxiety, some chaos and looting in the beginning.

Now that there is a degree of calm and control in the city, you are seeing people come out and finally, just this outpouring of jubilation after more than 50 years under the regime, totalitarian regime of Bashar al-Assad and Hafez al-Assad, his father before him. After 14 years of the most brutal and ugly civil war, these people want the world to know that Syria is free and is beginning a new chapter. Kate?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And for that woman, 25 years old, to be able to say that to you publicly in front of a camera, in front of a microphone, without fear of what would happen to her and her family from the Assad regime, is just such a statement of how it all changed overnight.

I mean, it's just been days, Clarissa. Talk about what you've seen in the days you've been there. I mean, just last hour you were in a warehouse in front of the luxury vehicles of Bashar al-Assad, just showing kind of this, you called it the root of the rot that has happened in that country.

WARD: That's right, Kate. I mean, the corruption that we saw in the presidential palace compound that we just visited was astonishing. While people in Syria were starving, were being bombed, were being killed, were being tortured, he was living in lavish opulence with huge garages full of luxury cars. I'm just pointing over here, and I don't know if we can get it at all. It's probably a bit tough without a tripod, but cameraman Scott McWhinnie, if you can see were in Umayyad, central Damascus, Umayyad Square. On the top of that monument, you can see one individual who has been waving a flag.

And I think you can also see, what's interesting Kate, is the mixture of people we're seeing here. We are definitely seeing some rebel fighters who are clearly Islamist. We are also seeing young women who are not wearing headscarves. And the question will be how long can this moment last? How long can this honeymoon period last? There are so many challenges ahead. So many concerns about things that could go wrong. But for this one -- the Syrian people we are talking to are saying just let us have this moment, just let us enjoy this moment, because we have never been able to come out and celebrate and speak our minds on the streets without fear of being shot or imprisoned or tortured.

And there is something kind of magical about that, despite all the anxiety about what will come next.

BOLDUAN: And so many challenges ahead, that's without -- you know, that's an understatement, right? But to be able to have even a modicum of hope is what you're seeing, a sliver of jubilation is something that was not possible just days ago. It's so important that you are on the ground, you and Scott McWhinnie, one of the best in the business. Thank you so much, Clarissa. Sincerely appreciate it and your continued reporting. Thank you so much.

[08:05:01]

Got big news. We're at the top of the hour. Let's begin with this as well. Other big story that we're watching today, a suspected killer now in custody. A manhunt now over. And this morning we are waiting to learn when police will extradite the man that they believe murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson just under a week ago in New York.

So right now, here's what we know -- 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, he is in custody in Pennsylvania. Police say he was arrested at a McDonald's about 300 miles from the site, the scene of the crime, the site of the killing after a McDonald's patron and employee recognized him. And this morning, the investigation continues into a possible motive. What is known, though, right now, a 3-D printed ghost gun, several fake IDs, $8,000 in cash, and a three-page handwritten manifesto were found on him.

CNN's Brynn Gingras has much more on everything that came out overnight. Brian, what more are you learning about this suspect?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, I mean even friends and family members at this point are wondering what happened here. I mean, this is a person, Luigi Mangione, who grew up extremely privileged, went to some of the best schools in this country, comes from a very prominent Maryland family.

And if you look at his social media footprint, we really found someone who loved to travel, loved to hang out with friends, was most recently living in Hawaii in a co-living space and was head of the book club there, loved to hike.

But then about this summer, it starts to sort of go away. We see messages where Mangione is tagged, where people are worried about him, wondering sort of where he went, that his family was worried. Someone actually commented, are you going to honor your rsvp to my wedding? So it does seem that he sort of trailed off.

The big question is, what happened? Right. That is what investigators are trying to answer at this point as far as a motive is concerned.

We do glean a little bit more from his social media. There is a picture on his X account of a spinal x-ray essentially with some hardware in it, and we learned from someone who was with him in that co-living space in Hawaii that he did undergo some chronic back pain and possibly surgery after surfing lessons. This person said that he was bedridden for about a week. And we wonder possibly, was there some sort of vendetta against the health care industry, though there is nothing there that sort of points exactly to Thompson, the victim in this case, or UnitedHealthcare in general.

I do want you to hear from this person that we talked to with the co- living space to give more about the conversations they once had.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

R.J. MARTIN, SUSPECT'S FORMER ROOMMATE: I know we talked about social issues and we talked about how to improve the world, and we talked about, you know, issues that are, you know, say, with capitalism or with the health care system or with housing or the food systems.

It wasn't anything specific. It wasn't like he had an ax to grind or he was even upset or angry about a particular issue. They were just natural, intellectual conversations that you have when you're inquisitive.

(END VIDEO CLIP) GINGRAS: Yes, and a Reddit account that appears to be Mangione's does talk about also Lyme disease, dealing with brain fog, saying that the health care industry really didn't understand brain fog. So again, these are all sort of things that investigators certainly have scrubbed at this point and are looking into themselves for their own investigation. I do want to share a statement that was released from the Mangione family. It says "Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest. We offer prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved."

Certainly, we will find out more about Mangione and, of course, all the charges we know that he now faces and when he will return to New York. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Brynn, thank you so much, really appreciate it.

John?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now is former FBI special agent and a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, David Shapiro. Professor, thank you so much for being with us. So this suspect was kind of off the grid, missing for months before this shooting took place. What does that tell you?

DAVID SHAPIRO, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: It tells me with hindsight that he was planning this for a while. There were certain preparatory steps here that would have taken a lot of time. getting new identities, perhaps making a gun, these things don't happen overnight.

BERMAN: And so you have that fact coupled with now the writings and these other postings. What does that tell you about his mindset?

SHAPIRO: Well, from his perspective, he might have viewed this as sort of a noble cause, corrupt act. That is, the ends justify the means. Certainly others wouldn't interpret it in the same way, but it's not hard to understand what he was thinking. It's more difficult to accept it.

BERMAN: Yes. Look, I mean, as we all know, it goes without saying. Back pain is not a justification for murder. And people with back pain don't go out and kill. So something else was hanky was going on right here. When he was asked during apprehension if he had been in New York recently, the reports are he started shaking immediately. You're smiling.

[08:10:00]

SHAPIRO: Well, yes, I don't think there are many things more terrifying than getting stopped and questioned by the police. I don't think many of us are prepared for that. He wasn't a hardened criminal, and it would have taken nerves of steel to approach that with tranquility.

BERMAN: Do you think he thought he was going to get away with it?

SHAPIRO: No. I think part of his M.O. would have been to be discovered and to become a sort of quasi adverse celebrity like Ted Kaczynski.

BERMAN: Well, of course, and one of the things that we're learning is he had writings, like literally writings about Ted Kaczynski there. So that's a link that he apparently wanted to make there. What questions do you still have that are unanswered?

SHAPIRO: Well, interestingly, I don't know whether he's a stupid criminal or whether he was planning to commit more terroristic acts, because holding on to the gun, the manuscript, the fake IDs, any, well, astute criminal would have deposited all that in Central Park or wherever, but not held on to them. So it leads me to believe that maybe he had another use for these items.

BERMAN: Yes, he had not discarded the gun, as you said. That is certainly notable.

SHAPIRO: I wonder what lessons can be learned here, because on the one hand, there is some remarkable police work and use of technology that combined to catch him. On the other hand, he did get out of New York City.

BERMAN: Well, Mr. Berman, that's a great question. But when you look at it from a certain distance, a stranger to stranger killing in New York City, right, no apparent motive. He's caught within a week, right? I think that's pretty good when you consider the high tech involved, the facial recognition technology, the creating fake IDs, the gun perhaps made, and the low technology of the video surveillance and photographs, as well as essentially here human intelligence of somebody actually saying, hey, I know that dude.

BERMAN: I saw his photo. I mean that's the old-fashioned police work right there. Have you seen this man? Someone at McDonald's said yes, yes, I have. All right, professor, great to see you this morning. Thanks so much for your help on this.

SHAPIRO: Mr. Berman, thank you for having me.

BERMAN: Kate?

BOLDUAN: Red flag warnings in effect for over 12 million people across southern California as a wildfire there just exploded in size overnight.

Also, this is ahead. Health experts are tracking an outbreak of bird flu potentially linked to raw milk. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here to answer your questions about all of that.

And actor Jamie Foxx revealing for the first time what actually happened during the medical emergency he faced last year.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:17:07]

BOLDUAN: And we're continuing to follow the breaking news out of California. The Franklin wildfire in Malibu exploding in size this morning and because of that, Pepperdine University students are sheltering in place. We spoke to one student just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK GERDING, STUDENT AT PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY: It started about -- I was in my dorm with a couple of my buddies and it started about 7:30, our power went out and then we got a call from a roommate saying that there was a pretty large fire. And so, I ran down the hall grabbed a couple of the friends that I knew lived closest to me, and we kind of made a game plan to head to the library.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: So, that fire has now burned more than 1,800 acres. It is zero-percent contained at this moment. Let's get back over to CNN's Derek Van Dam, who's tracking this and where it's headed? How it's going? what are you seeing?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, at its height last night, overnight, this thing exploded in growth. It consumed over five-and-a- half football fields per minute with this explosive fire that was so hot that it was actually altering the weather, allowing for these flames to bend in towards the flames, kind of consuming itself. That was just incredible to see some of the descriptions from the National Weather Service coming out of Los Angeles.

There's some aerial video of it. You can see the extent of the evacuation warnings that are in place here across Ventura County and into Los Angeles County. But let's center in towards Malibu.

Here is Pepperdine University. This is the Malibu Canyon Road, and we focused a lot of our attention just to its east, because that's where we saw the rapid growth overnight when winds were gusting over 50 miles per hour, but then we started to see the spot fires approach Pepperdine University.

And at one stage, according to university officials, there were actually helicopters getting water from this alumni park. You can see some of the local lakes here within the Pepperdine University area taking the water, helping extinguish the flames but notice this, this is the Pacific Coast Highway, Highway One. It jumped the highway and approached the coastline.

The good news here is that it is running out of room to burn, because it's going to reach the coastline any time now. And there were also some reports earlier that the Malibu Pier were actually impacted, or the structures near the Malibu Pier. So, something we're going to monitor once we see first daylight, which by the way, we believe climatologically speaking, the Santa Ana winds have a pick-up in wind speed as we get towards daybreak.

So, we're anticipating stronger winds as we head towards around 6:45 Pacific Time, when the sun actually rises. So, look at the university students sheltering in place here at the library on campus here in Pepperdine University and they could see flames from their windows. That is a concerning sight for anyone on the ground, certainly. But this is just some of the statistics coming out of this that burned, consumed, get this five-and-a-half football fields a minute that's roughly one football field per 11 seconds of rapid erratic fire growth. We've got this particularly dangerous fire situation that is very rare to be issued by the National Weather Service. Last time this was issued was in November when the Mountain Fire caused so much problems in Ventura County.

Now, this is all thanks to the relatively low humidity values. Anytime we get winds gusting over 75 miles per hour with the stronger Santa Ana wind events, we lower the humidity levels and we see this just filter through the canyons and head towards the coastline and cause this rapid-fire growth.

It is a terrifying moment for these residents. And guess what? We still have several hours to go. Critical fire conditions through Wednesday -- Kate.

[08:20:37]

BOLDUAN: All right, going to be keeping close to this one. Thank you so much, Derek, appreciate it -- John.

BERMAN: All right, let's get the very latest from the ground.

With us now is a student at Pepperdine University, Gabrielle Salgado. I can see, I think you're still in the library there. Why don't you tell me what's going on at this moment?

GABRIELLE SALGADO, PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: Yes, that's correct. I'm still here in the library. We're still under shelter in place orders but right now, students are asleep and we're awaiting our breakfast that will be served soon.

BERMAN: And Gabrielle, we' re showing people photos images that you took. I have to say, they're incredible images. The sky is on fire outside of where you are right now at Pepperdine University. I mean, what has it been like for you overnight?

SALGADO: I mean, it has definitely been a stressful and very tiring night. I mean, my power went out around 11:15 PM. And as soon as the power went out, I knew it was because of a fire, just because we were under a red flag warning.

And so, I called my friends, found whatever friends I had in the same residential hall as me, and I just packed a bag. And as soon as things started to get really stressful, I made my way down to my shelter in place order, which is the library and students here were very stressed because of finals, but also because we look out the window and you know, the sky is red.

BERMAN: I mean having gone to college, albeit a long time ago, there's not much more stressful than finals. It's hard to think of anything that could be more stressful except maybe everything being on fire outside your window.

So, when you saw this, when you took that amazing picture of, just again, the sky on fire there, what was going through your head?

SALGADO: I mean, I was just really thinking about what was going to happen if the fire was going to get close to campus, if it was going to touch campus. I was thinking about my friends that live through Malibu Canyon and have apartments over there and I was also thinking about finals. I mean, I had a final -- we are supposed to have a final at 7:30 this morning and I have another final tomorrow.

So, that was obviously on my mind because I knew I had to get study. I had to get certain presentations done. So, it was just a mixture of emotions.

BERMAN: Well, I think finals have been cancelled now, which is one side effect. Are you sure you want to --

SALGADO: Yes, well, they will have to cancel it for today.

BERMAN: They cancelled for today. Well, that's something. At least, you have a full day to study for the next ones.

What do you think will happen over the next 24 hours?

SALGADO: Well, hopefully we'll be out of shelter in place and really just slowly getting back to a normal life here at Pepperdine. Of course, it's not going to be normal, because when we look outside, were just going to see the beautiful green mountainsides now burnt, but just getting back into a rhythm and then we're going on winter break soon.

So going home and spending time with family.

BERMAN: I'm sure it has just been an incredible night there in the library, not the night of studying, you imagined.

Gabrielle Salgado, we're glad you're safe. The conditions, I know look a little hairy over the next 24 hours. So please, you and your friends stay well. We appreciate you being with us all right.

All right, CNN getting an exclusive look inside the presidential palace that was once the home of Bashar al-Assad. A remarkable look inside the home of one of the most brutal dictators on Earth including our reporter standing in front of rows and rows of luxury cars that this man held while his millions of people were suffering.

And new information about the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO. The reaction around the country might not be what you expect.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:28:46]

BERMAN: All right, happening now. We have been getting remarkable updates from the ground in Damascus in Syria, in the days after the fall of the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Our Clarissa Ward and her team, some of the few western journalists that are there, and whenever we can, whenever we can get the signal up, we've been getting updates from Clarissa, and they've just been stunning.

A few moments ago, we spoke to her. She was inside a garage apparently owned by Bashar al-Assad right there and wait until you see the rows and rows of luxury cars owned by the former dictator. And keep in mind what the conditions were like for the people living in the country at the time. This is what Clarissa told us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are actually here in one of several garages belonging to Bashar al-Assad. We are on the compound of the presidential palace, and you can see, this is a man who had expensive taste.

We've seen Aston Martins, we've got Lamborghinis, we've got Ferraris. I want to add, as well that we've been walking through this compound. There are many garages. We were just in a lot where there were dozens and dozens of armored cars, if you can believe that. I don't know how anyone would need so many armored cars.

And I'm bringing you over here because you can see this collection of classic cars over here.

And the reason this is all significant, John, the reason that we're talking about this, that we're showing you this is because really, this is indicative of the deep, deep corruption of the Assad regime, which is a big part of why this whole uprising started in the first place back in 2011, Bashar al-Assad had been ruling for some years, his father for many decades before and the levels of corruption and greed, the opulence and the lavish lifestyle when so many Syrians were struggling to put food on the table.

[08:30:54]