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Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) Discusses Trump Demanding Panama Canal Returned To U.S. & U.S. Ownership Of Greenland "An Absolute Necessity"; Luigi Mangione Housed In Notorious NYC Federal Jail; One Million Syrian Refugees Expected To Return Home; Rain And Snow Combined With High Travel Could Cause Delays. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired December 23, 2024 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

REP. AYANNA PRESSLEY (D-MA): The legal process will play out as it should. Again, these are damning allegations. I'm glad the report was released. And he's -- he's unfit to serve. And we'll let the legal process play out in terms of accountability.

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN HOST: I want you to take a listen to -- or let's -- let's talk about this. President-Elect Donald Trump, he was at an event over the weekend. He had some interesting things to say about a number of topics, including, notably, the Panama Canal.

Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America.

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: In full, quickly and without question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: All right. For the former president, now, President-Elect Trump also floated the idea of owning and controlling Greenland, calling it an absolute necessity.

The leader of Greenland, meanwhile, says his nation is not for sale, while Panama's leader reaffirmed that the canal belongs to his country.

Listen, the Greenland stuff we heard during his last administration. The Panama Canal comments are of note. What do you think President- Elect Trump is trying to do with these demands?

PRESSLEY: I don't know. And I don't have -- I don't have any insight into the minds of Donald Trump, nor do I want it. What I'm focused on is Project 2025, which is now Trump's agenda.

Every -- it's been my experience having governed under a Trump presidency, that they don't make threats. They do make promises.

I have every reason to believe that they will dismantle the Department of Education, defund Head Start, seek to privatize Social Security and Medicare and much more.

So I'm bracing for the impact of wholesale harm of a hostile administration, representing one of the most unequal districts in our country that felt the disparate impact of the policy harm of a Trump administration.

Including the fact -- I just want to lift up since, again, on the President Biden's decision today to commute those 37 sentences for those on death row to life without parole.

In the final days of Trump's first presidency, he executed more people than had been executed for the last six decades. So again, I commend President Biden. He saved lives.

FREEMAN: Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, thank you so much for playing ball with us on a number of different issues. I appreciate your time today and hope you have a good holiday coming up.

PRESSLEY: Thank you.

FREEMAN: All right. Coming up next from an Ivy League school to one of New York's most notorious jails. We'll talk to a prison consultant. About what life behind bars could be like for accused murderer, Luigi Mangione. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:36:57]

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Luigi Mangione, back in jail after appearing in a New York courtroom today where he pleaded not guilty to state charges. The 26-year-old is accused of fatally shooting health care exec, Brian Thompson, earlier this month.

He is being held in one of the nation's most dangerous federal jails, the Metropolitan Detention Center, in Brooklyn, or MDC. It's the only federal facility which operates in New York City.

One judge has described it as having, quote, "dangerous, barbaric conditions and an environment of lawlessness."

For more about what things are like there at MDC, Justin Paperny joins me now. He's a prison consultant who served more than a year in federal prison for investor fraud and conspiracy, and also the founder of the firm, White Collar Advice.

Good to have you with us.

I mean, this is -- my colleague, Kara Scannell, has also done some reporting on this. To say it doesn't have a great reputation, may be putting it mildly at this point. There have been a number of issues and concerns about this jail. What is it like inside?

JUSTIN PAPERNY, PRISON CONSULTANT & FOUNDER, WHITE COLLAR ADVICE & SERVED TIME IN FEDERAL PRISON: Well, it's so bad there's an interagency operation taking place right now to investigate all of the problems in New York.

And it's understaffed. It can be difficult to get people to work there, together with the violence and suicides.

And with the Bureau of Prisons not wanting any risk, they're going to confine him 23, 24 hours a day.

I can tell you, my partner served 26 years in prison, including eight years in the penitentiary and one full year in the hole. And he said after he got out of the hole, life was measurably easier.

So it's difficult and the hardest part of the experience, going through detention and just serving so much time in segregation.

HILL: There was an ask for him to be separated over concerns about just how high profile this is. There's -- there's typically a 21 day evaluation, as I understand it, while they determine where he needs to be in the facility.

Can you talk to us more about that process?

PAPERNY: Well, they're going to evaluate him. And even after 21 days, I suspect they're going to keep him in segregation.

There's an irony that he allegedly took out this health care executive due to predatory behaviors. He is now in a predatory environment.

So for that reason, the prison system cannot have any additional issues following the Epstein debacle and all of these investigations.

So we have clients right now in this detention center who will say, even though you're allowed to shower a few days a week, it may be one shower a week, brush your teeth once a week. Many don't know if it's morning or night.

So this will be a very difficult experience for him, and he has to learn to focus on what he can and cannot control.

But he should expect to spend a great deal of time in segregation and learn to enjoy his own company and somehow, some way, to find meaning through this very difficult environment he allegedly created.

HILL: This is the same facility that houses Sean "Diddy" Combs, right, who -- who is being held on sex trafficking charges.

Do any of these, especially these high-profile folks, when they would be -- when they would be the defendants in MDC Brooklyn, who would they cross paths with, or would all -- all of these well-known defendants, as we look at them on the screen there, would they all have been separated simply for security reasons?

PAPERNY: For security reasons, these high-profile defendants are going to remain separated. So food should be brought to their cell. And as much isolation as possible.

[14:40:02]

You can expect people in prison get bored. They want to create some excitement in their day. You saw he was in a prison in Pennsylvania. Prisoners were yelling outside the window. So having a high-profile prisoner brings some excitement to their day.

So it's a predatory environment and someone could be looking to make an example out of him to get on the media or potentially go on TV once they're released or just bring attention to themselves.

The BOP cannot have problems. For that reason, he will not be spending time, in my opinion, in general population, fraternizing with other prisoners like "Diddy" and Bankman-Fried and others.

He should be alone for a long time in isolation. And it's the hardest part of the experience.

I will say, even if he gets sentenced to life in prison, once he gets that ultimate prison, he'll feel like -- it will feel free compared to what he's enduring right now. This is the hardest part.

HILL: Yes, there is also, you know, a separate conversation to be had about just the way that he has garnered so much public support for allegedly killing a man in cold blood on the streets of New York. And what that says, perhaps on a larger level, about society.

When we look at where things are, how much would the general prison population -- how much would other folks who are at MDC actually know about him, and whether they would know that he's there?

PAPERNY: They know that he's there. It gets around. I've been in prison and there's a lot of gossip, so the news will get around pretty quickly.

And you can expect some people to be enamored by him. And we tend to be enamored by celebrity in this country anyway. And we have to own that's what he is, a celebrity.

So some prisoners are going to be enamored. They're going to like it. Some are not going to care. Others are not going to like that he's getting this attention. So there will be all -- I say, when I went to prison, it was easy. Nobody knew me.

All eyes are on him, so he should adjust accordingly, not try to manipulate this environment to his liking. A lot of prisoners do because they're used to getting what they want whenever they want it. Especially if you've been raised with some privilege and background, which is something I can relate to.

So if he ever makes it to population, they could offer him an iPhone, drugs, things that can make his state easier.

And I would tell him, understand what follows every decision you make on the inside because, certainly, people could be looking to exploit and take advantage of you. That's prison.

HILL: Justin Paperny, appreciate the insight. Thank you.

PAPERNY: Thank you.

HILL: Just ahead, a moment they thought would never happen. A mother and son reunited after 13 years following the fall of the Assad regime. Some Syrians tell CNN they're wary of returning home. They fear the danger in Syria isn't over yet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:46:32]

FREEMAN: Former Army and security force members under the regime of deposed Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad are handing over their weapons to the new transitional government in Syria.

The country's new de facto leader declared all weapons will now be controlled by the state. People lined up by the hundreds to be interviewed and have their mug shots taken by rebel-linked officials. Hundreds of handguns have been collected, along with ammunition.

Meantime, the U.N.'s Refugee Agency says up to a million Syrians are expected to return home in the first six months of 2025. But that could create a humanitarian crisis of massive proportions.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before Ahmad Morjan hugs his mother for the first time in 13 years, they both kneel in prayer. Gratitude for a reunion they never believed would come.

This is one of many emotional homecomings across Syria after the sudden fall of the Assad regime.

At just 19 years old, with security forces hunting him down, Morjan fled his family's home in Aleppo.

Here he is in 2016 --

(SHOUTING)

(EXPLOSION)

ABDELAZIZ: -- reporting for an opposition-based media network as barrel bombs rain down from the sky.

Later that year, Morjan filmed the exodus as thousands withdrew from the last remaining rebel enclave in Aleppo. "We are leaving with," Morjan says in this clip, "and we will return

one day."

That promised return is now finally on the horizon. Morjan says he is planning to move back to Aleppo from Gaziantep, Turkey, where he currently lives with his wife and their two young daughters.

(on camera): What is your dream now for Syria's future?

(voice-over): "I'm optimistic about the future," he says, "and I have huge hope that the country will be better than before."

(GUNFIRE)

ABDELAZIZ: But not all are keen to hurry back to an unstable country with an uncertain future, says this human rights defender.

HUSSAM KASSAS, SYRIAN ASYLUM-SEEKER: There's no sustainable peace, which makes me really afraid of getting back there.

ABDELAZIZ: Hussam Kassas, who is seeking asylum in the United Kingdom, is among tens of thousands of Syrians whose applications for asylum were suspended after the U.K. and other European countries paused the process to reassess now that the threat of Assad is gone.

For years, Kassas has documented potential war crimes committed by all major parties to the conflict. If he goes back, he says, his family could be targeted or worse.

(on camera): Why do you not feel safe to return?

KASSAS: We expected a lot of revenge killing will happen. Those soldiers will seek revenge from the people who were trying to hold them accountable, actually.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Many Syrians in the diaspora long to return and rebuild, but this moment of great hope brings with it great uncertainty.

Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREEMAN: Salma, thank you very much for that.

[14:49:55]

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: On this Christmas Eve pro tip for those of you set to travel for the holidays, expect delays, lots of delays. AAA predicting more records this season as more than 119 million people are expected to take to the roads and the skies.

But unfortunately, also joining that party will be a series of uninvited storms. So you've been warned.

Meteorologist Chad Myers joining us now from the CNN Weather Center.

So, Chad, as we look at the map here, where will most of us need to set aside the most extra time to actually get to their destinations?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: For today, at least right now, San Francisco has delays with the marine layer, low clouds. And also we're seeing delays in Toronto, of all places, because of some snow there.

[14:55:02]

Tomorrow, though, things change a little bit for New York City and also D.C., maybe even BWI.

Here's where the snow is right now, most of it on either interior moving up toward Quebec, but we still have that lingering weather that's going to be making its way all the way up and down I-95, Philly to D.C. tomorrow morning.

The first thing you want to do tomorrow morning is take a quick step, but don't move, don't go down that stair. Make sure it's not covered in ice.

A little bit of freezing drizzle possible overnight tonight from D.C. all the way up to Philly.

You talked about how many people are going to be on the roadways. And here's the deal. It's winter solstice, which means the sun is as low in the sky as it's going to get.

If you're driving to the east in the morning, west at night, south during the day, that sun is going to be right in your eyes. Please, please, please, I just did it on Friday, please clean the inside and the outside of your windshield.

It will give you much better visibility, a lot less glare. And you can thank me on Monday next week.

Here's the rainfall for parts of the deep south by the time Christmas rolls around. But really, no major storms to get in the way. Not a lot of snow going to be expected here.

Here's your Tuesdays delays. There's New York and D.C. And the rainfall and the snowfall still coming down across the south. Here's tomorrow morning. Be careful of this little white and pink stuff. That's where the problems could be -- Erica?

HILL: All right. I have been warned, and I thank you for that, my friend.

Chad, good to see you.

Just ahead here, that long-awaited ethics report on former Congressman Matt Gaetz is now officially out. The bombshell findings, including claims involving teenage girls. That's next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)