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CNN In Syria Following Fall Of Assad Regime; CEO Murder Suspect Arrives For Extradition Hearing; Wildfire Explodes In Malibu Prompting Mandatory Evacuations; Jonestown Massacre Site Could Become Tourist Attraction. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired December 10, 2024 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Gloria, Jeff, thank you both so much.

So minutes from now, an extradition hearing will be held for the man charged in the murder of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. We have a live update for you in just moments

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Syria is now taking steps towards a new government following the stunning fall of the Assad regime.

The rebel groups that overthrew the brutal dictatorship have now appointed a caretaker prime minister to oversee the transition of power. But plenty of uncertainty remains.

Overnight, loud explosions rocked Damascus as the Israeli military says it has been striking Syria's chemical weapons capabilities.

CNN's Clarissa Ward is one of the few Western journalists on the ground there. She's on the streets of Damascus today, talking with Syrians, reveling in Assad's downfall and optimistic about their next chapter.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[13:35:06]

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The first couple of days we were here, the streets were pretty subdued. There was a lot of anxiety. And today, we're really seeing people are out and they are celebrating.

Take a look behind me, all these young people, they are celebrating. They are posing for photographs, holding up their babies to show with rebel fighters.

And I actually wanted to bring in -- I've just been talking here with this young Syrian woman, Judtih.

Tell me how this moment feels.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As you can -- is this working?

WARD: Yes. It's working.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at me. As you can see, this is 50 years of silence. This is the reaction. 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: How does it feel for you?

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

WARD: Did you ever imagine --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

WARD: -- after 14 years?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 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 technical, with their big weapons.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is -- this is victory. This is the -- the -- this is the happiness I have never witnessed before. I've been living 13 years in war, in death and 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, Judith.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much.

WARD: 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, who are seeing people come out and, finally, just this outpouring of jubilation after more than 50 years under the totalitarian regime, totalitarian regime of Bashar Al-Assad and Hafez Al-Assad, the father before him.

After 14 years of the most brutal and ugly civil war, these people want the world to know that Syria has its new beginning, a new chapter.

I mean, the corruption that we saw in the presidential palace compound that we just visited is 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, we're in Umayyad, central Damascus, Umayyad Square on the top of that monument. You can see one individual who has been waving a flag.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Clarissa Ward, thank you for that report.

And we do have some live pictures now out of Malibu, California, where a fire has shut down Pepperdine University for the day. It's being fueled by strong winds and burning through about five football fields of land every minute. We're going to take you there, live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:42:58]

SANCHEZ: We are following breaking news. We have new video of Luigi Mangione's arrival at a courthouse in Pennsylvania. That's where we are anticipating an extradition hearing for the 26-year-old Ivy League graduate and high school valedictorian accused in the murder of health insurance CEO, Brian Thompson.

KEILAR: Yes, let's see this moment. It is actually sort of something to watch. He was trying to send a message, but police rushed him off very quickly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUIGI MANGIONE, ALLEGED MURDER OF CEO BRIAN THOMPSON: (INAUDIBLE) inside and clearly out of touch. An insult to the intelligence of the American people that lived experience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: All right, so we just heard him yell that about sort of something being unjust is an insult to the intelligence of the American people. Let's bring in trial attorney, Mercedes Colwin, with us.

Look, this is someone between what you're hearing him say right there, manifesto messages left on these bullets. I mean, this is someone on -- on a mission, it appears.

He is the alleged killer in this case. We have to be very clear about that. He's facing an extradition hearing here.

But I just wonder what you think of a moment like that, as you see it, knowing the evidence that police say they have on this person?

MERCEDES COLWIN, TRIAL ATTORNEY: Brianna, it's very disturbing. And those types of outbursts will certainly be evaluated by his defense team. Because that's just not normal.

I mean, we've already had reports that he has been very strange since over the summer, that he has become reclusive.

This manifesto is these rantings and ravings of an individual that obviously has some aberrant thoughts in his mind, and that's why he put it down on paper. So all of that is certainly very disturbing.

The defense is going to have to evaluate whether this is an individual that really will even understand the charges. I mean, they may, depending on how aberrant his thoughts are, he has to be able to understand the process and the proceedings, even at this -- at this stage.

[13:45:06]

And if there's some indication that he isn't able to do so, they might have to be some psychological evaluation. And then that will be reported back to the judge, and the judge will make the ultimate ruling as to whether or not to proceed with a proceeding.

But this type of outburst is definitely very disturbing.

SANCHEZ: Yes, no doubt about that. You saw officers shuffling him in as quickly as possible.

I'm wondering, Mercedes, as you're talking about the suspect here having a grasp of what the proceedings are going to be like, what actually happens at an extradition hearing?

COLWIN: It's -- there has to be an establishment by the demanding state. The demanding state is New York. The asylum state is Pennsylvania.

So the demanding state, that New York has to establish law enforcement, that this is the individual that was the alleged shooter of Brian Thompson. So they'll have to go through the evidence.

And we've already described the manifesto, the ghost gun, the images that we saw, even the -- even the eyewitness. And they may even bring in some of the eyewitnesses who was discovered. The officer, the arresting officer in Pennsylvania will come forward and talk about the exchange that he had with Mangione.

It's already been reported that that arresting officer, when asked Mangione, the first words out of his mouth, it's been reported, he asked Mangione, were you in New York?

And his -- and certainly Mangione, at least this officer claims that he was very nervous when asked that question. So there will be testimony. There will be evidence.

But Mangione can waive it. I mean, depending on whether he waves it, it doesn't sound -- to Brianna's point, doesn't sound like he may waive extradition, may waive the hearing.

And if he does waive the hearing, then he will be extradited without any further process. It doesn't sound like that's going to happen.

It will have to be -- it certainly sounds like there will be this process with witnesses and evidence being set forth before the judge.

And the judge will make the ultimate ruling that there is probable cause to establish that Mangione is, in fact, the alleged killer of Brian Thompson.

SANCHEZ: And we are anticipating news out of that hearing soon.

Mercedes Colwin, thank you so much for giving us your analysis on what we're watching. Thanks so much.

COLWIN: Thanks.

SANCHEZ: We're tracking more breaking news, this on the west coast. An exploding wildfire is spreading at alarming speed in Malibu, California, prompting mandatory mass evacuations that are underway right now.

KEILAR: Fire officials say this inferno nearly tripled in size in the course of an hour, burning through more than five football fields worth of land every minute, and even altering the weather as crews struggle to battle these raging flames.

CNN's Veronica Miracle is on the scene in Malibu.

Just stunning photos, stunning pictures that we've been seeing here, Veronica. What are you seeing?

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, Boris and Brianna, 2,200 acres of burned here. And although firefighters said that there was minimal damage, they haven't given us an exact amount of structures that have been burned. But we actually did see one that has burned to the ground.

If you actually look behind me, there's some smoke coming out from the canyon, down below the canyon there. That's where we went back to. And we did see at least one home that was completely destroyed. We also saw another home that was burning that firefighters were trying to douse with water.

We spoke with a woman who lives back there. She said she barely escaped with her life last night. She was able to get a horse out, and she was able to get some of her animals to safety. But the barn burned down, luckily, right after the animals were set free.

And she said that it was incredibly traumatizing because they had no power. She -- so her phone had died. She had no service. And therefore, she didn't get any kind of alert. She just woke up and looked outside and the entire hillside was covered in flames, and they just had minutes to spare.

So that is a bit of a concern that -- that may be discussed in the coming days, that because the power was shut off, some people did not have access to cell phone service.

And we've had a lot of issues today with having any kind of reception here.

So as you can see, the winds have died down right now, but there is concern that they're going to pick back up again this evening.

I do want to mention that my cell phone actually just now cut out. So I can't hear you guys. So I'm just going to toss it back to you -- Boris, Brianna?

SANCHEZ: Clearly, another sign of the myriad issues that these wildfires are causing.

Veronica Miracle -- Veronica Miracle, thank you so much for your reporting from Malibu.

[13:49:35]

Stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: The site of the Jonestown Massacre, one of the most infamous murder-suicides in recent history, could soon become a tourist attraction.

That's right. Jonestown, Guyana, in South America, is where cult leader, Jim Jones, and more than 900 of his followers, including hundreds of children, died back in 1978.

SANCHEZ: It's also where U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan and many of his staffers were gunned down while investigating alleged abuses at Jones' commune.

Among them, former Congresswoman Jackie Speier, who was one of Ryan's aides at the time. She was shot five times but survived by playing dead.

Former Congresswoman Jackie Speier joins us now live.

Congresswoman, thank you so much for being with us.

Just right off the bat. What's your reaction to hearing that Jonestown may now become a tourist attraction?

[13:55:06]

JACKIE SPEIER, (D), FORMER U.S. CONGRESSWOMAN & JONESTOWN MASSACRE SURVIVOR: Well, it's macabre to say the very least, and not worthy of people visiting the site, frankly.

I mean, I think this is all about making money by an adventure travel agency and maybe the government of Guyana. But it does not deserve public review.

And frankly, you know, it's in a jungle setting. It's at a remote airstrip. And from what I understand, all of the buildings have been overtaken by the jungle. So I find it just appalling, to say the least.

KEILAR: Yes. And that -- as you said, it's not worthy, which may answer the next question I have, which is, that the tourism minister in Guyana and there I mean, that's the support. There's a lot of government support for this, evoked Rwanda when explaining why they would go forward with this. The tour operator referenced Auschwitz.

Safe to say you do not believe these are in the same category. Can you talk a little bit more about that?

SPEIER: Yes, Brianna. I mean, there were six million people that were killed during the Holocaust. Rwanda, again, millions of people who were taken. They were -- there were cleansing of people that were found to be, you know, disliked in their environment.

This was a cult. Now, if you want to do a -- a museum on cults and why they are bad and how these megalomaniacs can attract people to their congregations, maybe there's some value to that.

I find it really -- it's a -- it's a lesson in the United States about how the State Department failed in protecting American citizens abroad because there we're so many defectors that had alerted the embassy in Georgetown, Guyana, of what was going on there.

And they turned their eye and chose not to look into it. But this is not a -- a place that should be heralded in any manner whatsoever.

SANCHEZ: I'm curious, Congresswoman, what do you still carry with you from that day? Now, some 46 years ago?

SPEIER: Well, it's a life lesson for me. We can, you know, never take any days for granted. We're not guaranteed a certain time here on earth. And we've got to make the most of it. So I certainly have tried to do that in my life.

But we lost a congressman who was trying to protect his constituents who were living overseas. We had a State Department that failed the American people and the congressman. And there's many lessons to be learned. And I hope that as we reach the 50th anniversary, that we will be able to see all the documents that have been restricted over all these years.

KEILAR: Yes, certainly. We'll be looking for that to see what we can learn.

Former Congresswoman Jackie Speier, thank you so much for speaking with us about this. We really appreciate it .

(BARKING)

SPEIER: Good to be with you.

KEILAR: Your little friend wanted to get in on the interview, I see there.

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: Thanks, Congresswoman.

The next hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts after the quick break.

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