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Slew Of Nations Halt Flights From South Africa Over New Variant Fears; DOW Plunges Amid New COVID Variant Fears; GOP Representative Lauren Boebert Apologizes For Anti-Muslim Remarks Against Rep. Ilhan Omar; Rep. Taylor Greene Lays Out Demands For Republican House Speaker If GOP Retakes Majority In 2022; Trump & Right-Wing Media Celebrate Rittenhouse Acquittal; Deathbed Tip Leads To New Search For Jimmy Hoffa's Remains. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired November 27, 2021 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone just came together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAULA REID, CNN HOST: Home Depot and several other local businesses donated all of the building project materials.

Thanks for joining me today. I'm Paula Reid in Washington. CNN NEWSROOM continues with Jim Acosta.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. We start with breaking news.

Dr. Anthony Fauci says a heavily mutated COVID variant that's potentially more contagious and more vaccine resistant may already be here in the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: Would not be surprised if it is. We have not detected it yet. When you have a virus like this, it almost invariably is ultimately going to go essentially all over.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: The Omicron variant has already been detected in multiple countries including Belgium, Israel, and Hong Kong, and now within the last few hours, Italy, Germany, and the U.K. all announced they had detected cases within their borders. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says scientists are learning more about the variant by the hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: It does appear that Omicron spreads very rapidly and can be spread between people who are double vaccinated. (END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: That right there is the worst-case scenario, what scientists have long warned about unmitigated spread and what it could lead to, a super variant that evades our current vaccines. Moderna is sounding the alarm saying Omicron represents a significant potential risk to its vaccine. Pfizer says it will take 100 days to tweak its vaccine if needed so governments are trying to buy time by moving to block flights from South Africa and several neighboring countries. The U.S. will start restricting travel on Monday.

Let's go to CNN's David McKenzie in Johannesburg, South Africa.

David, we're hearing of intense anger and frustration from the South African government and scientists. What are they saying?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, despite the travel bans coming in place because of what officials in the U.K., U.S., and other places say is because of public health reasons, there is anger here in South Africa from the very scientists that alerted this to the world so quickly. The South African government just earlier today saying that it's really a case of punishing excellent science.

And it's worth remembering the WHO and other health bodies saying that these kind of travel bans which may seem helpful in fact only help on the margins. Don't necessarily stop or even slow that much a variant like this. If you compare where the pandemic is in South Africa to the U.S. and the U.K., you kind of get some sympathy for these scientists. But it's all about trajectory, and where I'm sitting here in this province of South Africa, certainly cases are rising fast -- Jim.

ACOSTA: And how bad is it there right now? Do you get to live your life normally down there, David, or is it like it is in a lot of other countries where people are wearing masks and there are disruptions everywhere you go?

MCKENZIE: There is a mask mandate, and that is still being enforced from the very early days of the pandemic, Jim. But in terms of restrictions they are pretty light right now. And in terms of the state of the pandemic, nowhere near as bad as it is in parts of Western Europe and Eastern Europe at the moment. But you see these early signs that the numbers are rising in this part of the country, as I said.

You also start hearing about people testing positive. We've all gone through this around the world for many, many months. Speaking to doctors today, though, there isn't much pressure on the hospitals right now in this part of South Africa. Both the public and the private system. It's relatively empty. They hope possibly that while this variant appears to be more transmissible, they're hoping it isn't necessarily more severe.

But there is going to be this agonizing wait for several weeks as scientists here in South Africa and the U.S. and elsewhere try to really understand in the lab whether this does evade immunity from previous infection or, worst case scenario, evades the existing vaccines. We just don't know at this point. But there is a sense that South Africa has been punished for its good work -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, Dave McKenzie, we do appreciate their good work. Keep it coming. Thanks so much, David, for that report.

The U.S. travel ban starts Monday, but is it too little too late? Consider this, on Friday, 600 travelers flying in from South Africa were tested for COVID after they landed at the airport in Amsterdam on Friday. 61 of them, 10 percent, tested positive. No word if it was the Omicron variant.

Let's bring in professor and dean of tropical medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Peter Hotez.

Dr. Hotez, all of this sounds very worrisome.

[15:05:03]

Dr. Fauci says he wouldn't be surprised if this new variant is already in the U.S. What do you think? Do you think it's here? I mean, I think it's probably safe to assume it's somewhere here.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR AND DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Yes, it's likely here, Jim. And part of it, the problem is, our Centers for Disease Control has underperformed in terms of genomic testing. We've never really gotten it up to the level that we really needed.

I think, though, you know, there's a few things we have to keep in mind and keep things in perspective. You know, and pretty much any time we've seen a new variant, it's already spread around the world. So the fact that Omicron is in multiple countries in Europe, in the U.S., is not necessarily an ominous sign. I think that's a key point to keep in mind.

And also remember we've not seen any evidence that Omicron produces more severe disease than any of the other variants. Another point to keep in mind. And now in terms of whether or not this variant is going to resist the immune response to our current vaccines, it's possible, but it's unlikely to be totally resistant. It may be partially resistant, just like other variants that we've seen like the B1351 from South Africa, remember that one, the Beta variant and the Lambda variant.

And those never really took off even though they had a lot of concerning mutations in the spike protein. So we'll know about how effective vaccines are because we can do a test. What you can do is measure antibody responses to the vaccines either in laboratory animals or from patients who have been -- or volunteers who have been immunized against the vaccines, and see if those antibodies will cross neutralized the Omicron variant.

And we'll know that probably by next week at this time or within the next two weeks. So that's going to be a vital piece of information. So for instance, our scientists at Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor are now looking exactly at that, immune response or vaccine, seeing it if cross neutralizes Omicron. ACOSTA: Yes.

HOTEZ: So that's going to be a key point. And then we'll -- the most important thing we really need to know right now is how transmissible is this variant. Yes, it's taken off in the province that contains Pretoria and Johannesburg, but is it sufficient to outcompete the Delta variant? And I don't really think we have strong evidence for that either. So, you know, a week from now if we have this discussion we'll have a lot more information.

But right now I think it's important to focus on what we do know is the biggest threat in the United States, and that is the Delta variant.

ACOSTA: Yes.

HOTEZ: It is accelerating now. And the U.S. population isn't completely vaccinated.

ACOSTA: Yes. And what about these travel restrictions? I mean, is this the best way to slow the spread, or is it time to start requiring vaccinations to fly worldwide? Or to conduct, you know, mandatory testing when people fly in from another country? What do you think?

HOTEZ: Well, I thought, you know, we had mandatory testing from South Africa, so they are presumably negative when they boarded the plane. And all of a sudden they became positive. So either the testing was fraudulent or inadequate or I think we have to work that out, as well.

What we do know is travel bans have not been very effective this entire pandemic. I mean, remember in the very beginning, Jim, back in early 2020, we talked about travel bans from China. In the meantime, this virus entered into the United States from southern Europe to ignite that horrible epidemic in New York City that started in March and April.

So travel bans -- we don't really have a good sense on the global travel of this virus. I think much more productive than travel bans would be refocusing our energies on trying to vaccinate Southern Africa because that's how these new variants emerge. They emerge out of large unvaccinated populations. Alpha came out of the unvaccinated population in the U.K. in 2020.

Delta the unvaccinated population in India, 2021. And now Omicron, among unvaccinated population in Africa. So if the G7 leaders are serious about stopping new variants, forget about the travel bans, let's go vaccinate the African people.

ACOSTA: And even without this new variant, hospitalizations in the U.S. are rising again. We're averaging more than 1,000 deaths per day. How bad could things get if Omicron is a nasty variant that does cause, you know, more hospitalizations, more problems with being more transmissible and so on?

HOTEZ: Well, I think, you know, this is a key point here. You know, we're wringing our hands about Omicron, while the Delta variant is decimating our country right now. The numbers are going back up. We only have 59 percent of the U.S. population vaccinated. A high percentage of those have not gotten boosters, and so we've got waning immunity.

[15:10:01]

And then the unvaccinated are going to suffer just like they did over the summer here in Texas and the south where we had 100,000 Americans unvaccinated who have lost their lives since the summer, defiant of vaccinations.

And then those who are infected and recovered are not getting vaccinated. They have incomplete protection. So we have -- we have to really try to find a way nationally to convince people to get fully vaccinated and not only will that help them not suffer and lose their lives from Delta variant or get hospitalized, but it will likely -- and we'll know this more in the next few days -- build in strong resilience against the Omicron variant, as well.

That's the single most important thing right now the American people have to do. Make certain that everybody's vaccinated including their kids and those who are infected and recovered. They have to get vaccinated on top of that.

ACOSTA: All right. Dr. Peter Hotez, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

HOTEZ: Thank you.

ACOSTA: All right. The new COVID variant has rattled global markets. The Dow had its worst day in more than a year closing down more than 900 points.

Joining me now is the anchor of "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" Richard Quest.

Richard, put Friday's frenzy on Wall Street into context for us. I mean, is this something we really should be concerned about? I mean, I can't imagine what the market is going to do on Monday after we've been stewing on this all weekend.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN MONEY EDITOR AT LARGE: We shouldn't be concerned, but we should be wary if that's not a contradiction in terms, Jim. What I mean is, of course, it's understandable, the market was not being irrational when it fell on Friday. The level of uncertainty -- you heard Peter talking about it just then, the unknowns that we just simply don't know. And until there's an element of certainty, as long as travel bans increase and it looks as if there will be more restrictions, that will slow down economic activity.

Therefore, companies and corporations will not know how to react. Will we -- I'll give you a blunt example here. Let's just say Omicron does expand and does become a variant of greater concern, what happens to all the return-to-work policies, including in our own at Warner Media an at CNN, January 10th, what happens to all of that if this gets worse? And that level of uncertainty is what is going to spook markets and spook investors, and it's perfectly logical. ACOSTA: Yes. And I don't want to think about that, Richard, at all.

And we have the U.S. and other countries instituting travel bans.

QUEST: Right.

ACOSTA: You know, I asked Peter Hotez about this. You know, a lot of the experts out there, they just don't think these travel bans work very well. And they're just going to hurt the airline industry.

QUEST: Well, first of all, the flight that came from Africa to Amsterdam where 10 percent were shown to be positive, that's an anomaly. I don't understand that one yet.

ACOSTA: Yes.

QUEST: Because I've done an enormous amount of international travel over the last year, and I can tell you, you know, I'm on to my 60th PCR test for travel purposes. So there's testing galore going on. I don't really follow what happened.

I can understand the political necessity to say we're doing something, and the easiest and most obvious answer is pull up the barricades. But a more sophisticated response is what's required if we're going to carry on with our normal lives. For instance, the British government announcing that it was raising the test you take on day two from a lateral flow antigen, it now has to be PCR.

I can see, for example, the United States considering whether or not there needs to be now a return to the PCR or antigen test once you get to the United States. Currently it's just on departure. So there's lots of ways you can skin this, if you like. You don't need a sledgehammer to crack the nut.

ACOSTA: Yes. And we've already reported on issues with the supply chain and how everything from gas to groceries is more expensive these days. It's happening all over the world. Americans are upset about it, but by the way it's happening, you know, in other places. If the world shuts down again, what happens -- all of that gets exacerbated.

QUEST: Oh, absolutely. Which is why I don't think the world is going to shut down again. I do not foresee certainly in Europe and the United States, I do not foresee widespread lockdowns of the sort we saw in 2020. It's highly unlikely. The public wouldn't stand for it. They would just -- it would be broken before it got started. But I do see targeted lockdowns, I see those for the unvaccinated.

I see many more restrictions being introduced for the unvaccinated, where they can go, how they can go, and the reality is now, Peter Hotez made this point extremely clearly, let's take the United States, just about 50 percent is fully vaccinated.

[15:15:09]

Now that is the danger for Delta and Omicron. Those of us who are fully vaccinated with boosters have a much lower risk for serious injury or harm as a result. And the truth of the matter is focus on that, focus on the -- people are -- you know, Jim, friends and contacts and -- people are saying to me, I'm worried about Omicron, I'm worried about Omicron.

Well, yes, you may well be, but you should be more worried about the low level of vaccination in many of the countries that are responsible, and the failure of the G7 and the G20 to actually vaccinate the developed world so that we're all in this boat together rather than at the moment the inequality that exists.

ACOSTA: Yes. And Richard, excellent segue because in a statement, President Biden noted that the U.S. had already donated more vaccines to other countries than every other country combined. Do you think there was a missed opportunity here? I mean, we'll correct the president if he's wrong there, Richard, but --

QUEST: Jim --

ACOSTA: Yes, go ahead.

QUEST: Don't start me on this. We could be here until the top of the next hour. Look, Jim, firstly, under the previous president, you hoarded -- this country and Europe, my country, the U.K., hoarded vaccines to where you had three or four times the vaccines that you could possibly give.

ACOSTA: Good point.

QUEST: You were even hoarding a vaccination and a vaccine that you didn't give. The Oxford-AstraZeneca one. And it was only later in the day, the G7 originally wanted last year to give a billion doses away. They couldn't even get to 700 million of their first pledge round.

So the reality is, yes, I hear everybody saying how much they're doing, but until they do more, you know the saying, I'm going -- I said it last night, you know, nobody's safe until everybody's safe. It sounds trite, but what you're seeing with Omicron is the absolute reality of that cute saying.

ACOSTA: Yes. And Richard, you and I are old enough to remember when we used to tackle problems globally. Instead of just pulling up our borders, acting like isolationists and just doing things in our own individual country, we have to start thinking about this thing globally or we're just not going to fix these issues.

QUEST: Correct.

ACOSTA: And this pandemic is the first among them.

Richard Quest, great stuff, as always. Thank you so much.

QUEST: Thank you. Thank you, sir.

ACOSTA: Coming up, GOP leaders staying silent once again. This time after Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert makes a disgusting bigoted remark about her Democratic colleague Ilhan Omar. Where will they draw the line? Will they ever draw the line? (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:21:53]

ACOSTA: Republican leaders remaining silent after a video surfaced of Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert making horrific Islamophobic comments about one of her Democratic colleagues, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who is Muslim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-CO): I was getting into an elevator with one of my staffers, and he and I were leaving the Capitol, we're going back to my office. And we get in the elevator and I see a Capitol police officer running hurriedly to the elevator. I see fret all over his face. I look to my left, and there she is. Ilhan Omar. And I said, well, she doesn't have a backpack. We should be fine.

(LAUGHTER)

BOEBERT: So we only had one floor to go. I was like, do I say it? When I looked over, and I said, look, the Jihad Squad decided to show up for work today.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Congresswoman Boebert later wrote on Twitter, "I apologize to anyone in the Muslim community I offended with my comment about Representative Omar. I've reached out to her office to speak with her directly. There are plenty of policy differences to focus on without the -- this unnecessary distraction."

Fellow flame-throwing Republican Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene batted away Boebert's apology and escalated the attack, not surprisingly, tweeting this, "Democrats want us censored, shut down and imprisoned. Never apologize to Islamic terrorist sympathizers, communists or those who fund murder with our tax dollars. Ilhan Omar and the Jihad Squad," she wrote, "are all three and are undeserving of an apology."

Joining me now is former Republican Congresswoman Barbara Comstock and CNN political commentator and Clinton White House adviser Paul Begala.

Barbara Comstock, let me ask you this first. This kind of hateful rhetoric, it just emboldens the far right. You just worry that she's going to be enflaming somebody to the point where they could act out and do something violent. What are your concerns when you heard what Boebert had to say and how this whole thing is playing out?

BARBARA COMSTOCK (R), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Well, we know since January 6th and even before there have been more threats to members of Congress than ever. This year is going to be the highest sort of threat level that there's ever been. So when you have this kind of just unconscionable attack -- and it's not just that she needs to apologize to the congresswoman who she attacked, she needs to apologize to the American people. She needs to apologize to the Republican Party and a lot of other

people. It goes way beyond that. But I'd also like to point out that she has a Republican opponent, a Marina Zimmerman, who in response to Adam Kinzinger pointed out Lauren Boebert is trash, I would agree. And Marina Zimmerman said, help me take out the trash. And that's what I think needs to be done here.

Both Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Greene have Republican women who are running against them in the primary. I'm on two PACs that support Republican women who we specifically do not support Marjorie Greene or Lauren Boebert, and you know, even -- those are very red districts, so you're going to end up with a Republican.

[15:25:04]

You can have a conservative Republican woman without having a crazy, you know, very unpleasant, you know, nasty, you know, unconscionable- type person who, by the way, neither of these women are getting anything done in Congress for their constituents. Zippo, nothing.

ACOSTA: Yes.

COMSTOCK: Yet they attack people like Liz Cheney and John Katko and Jamie Herrera Butler, all of whom have passed dozens, you know, of bills that have improved the lives of their constituents as well as those of Marjorie Greene and Lauren Boebert. So these women aren't doing anything of help to the country, and they're divisive and they are dangerous.

ACOSTA: And Paul, therein lies the problem I think. GOP Congressman Paul Gosar, by the way, he was censured and stripped of committee assignments for tweeting that photoshopped video of him killing a Democratic colleague.

Is Barbara Comstock right? Does the Republican Party have sort of a waste management issue here? They need to call out the garbage collector? Is that what's going on here?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, they do. And every movement is responsible to purge the lunatics from it. A century ago there were scores of congressmen who were in the Ku Klux Klan, and 16 senators were members of the Klan, 11 governors. Every single one of them was a Democrat. I am ashamed to say. But that's my party's history.

COMSTOCK: Democrat. Yes. Thank you.

BEGALA: Every one of them, Barbara is right Everyone was a Democrat. Guess what? The Democrats purged the Klan from their party and went from being the party of George Wallace to the party of Barack Obama. I'm very proud of that. Ronald Reagan went to Maryland when a racist Klansman burned a cross in front of an African-American's home. He went to their home and said, this is wrong, this is hate. And he purged those lunatics from his party.

Where is Kevin McCarthy, the leader of the House Republicans, who hopes to be speaker if the Republicans take the chamber? Where are the leaders today? They have to do that. And I think what it is, it's something that Barbara got to, too many Republicans no longer have an issue agenda to make people's lives better. They simply want to own the libs. I mean, say what you will about the Democrats, but they're mostly fighting about the speed and scale and scope of how to help people -- childcare and cheaper insulin and lower prescription drug prices.

That's what Democrats are fighting for. Republicans now, I'd even say most of them, sadly, seem not to care at all about making anybody's life better, even their own constituents. But instead just owning the libs and now this awful Islamophobic statement that quite rightly Congressman Boebert has apologized for.

ACOSTA: Barbara Comstock, what do you think? I mean, where is Kevin McCarthy in all of this?

COMSTOCK: Well, it's -- you know, this happens every day. And look, these guys, Marjorie Green is attacking Kevin McCarthy. You also had Mark Meadows, who is under subpoena and frankly in contempt of Congress and should be held in contempt and had the same indictments that Steve Bannon is facing for not responding to congressional subpoenas, that same Mark Meadows who's not cooperating is attacking Kevin McCarthy.

So, you know, Winston Churchill once said something to the effect of a friend of mine was reminding me, you know, you chose shame to avoid war but you got shame and war. So it doesn't do you any good to appease these types of people. That's why I, you know, would encourage people, you know, support the Lisa Murkowskis, the Liz Cheneys, the Jamie Herrera Butlers, that Trump and Mark Meadows and Marjorie Green are opposing.

Support, if you're a Republican, but also if you're an independent or a Democrat in those red districts like Lauren Boebert's, like Marjorie Greene's. Go in there and vote for the sane Republican so you can take out this trash.

ACOSTA: And Paul Begala, let's listen to what Marjorie Taylor Greene said about Kevin McCarthy recently. This is pretty astounding.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): We know that Kevin McCarthy has a problem in our conference. He doesn't have the full support to be speaker. He doesn't have the votes that are there because there's many of us that are very unhappy about the failure to hold Republicans accountable while conservatives like me, Paul Gosar, and many other just constantly take the abuse by the Democrats.

I've demanded it. I want Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney kicked out of the GOP conference.

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): Do you respect the Republican leadership right now?

TAYLOR GREENE: No, no. I don't respect it at all. I can't respect leadership that doesn't hold people accountable.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: What do you think about that, Paul? I mean, we should point out Marjorie Taylor Greene did tweet, "I just got off a good call with GOP leader Kevin McCarthy. We spent the time talking about solving problems, not only in the conference but for our country. I like what he has planned ahead."

It's almost as though, you know, these were two world leaders who hopped on the phone with one another to sort things, you know, sort out the issues around the globe here. This was quite a conversation it sounds like they had.

[15:30:00]

BEGALA: And what an odd world Congresswoman Greene must live in to be actually able to say or to write that she wants leaders to hold people accountable.

This is exactly my problem with Congresswoman Congressman McCarthy, is he's not holding them accountable or Congressman Gosar.

In the way that Barbara -- who, as you know, we've had terrible political disagreements over our life, but Barbara is showing real honor and integrity in holding her own party to account.

And this is the essence of leadership. This is where McCarthy has fallen down. It has not worked to appease Marjorie Taylor Greene, I don't believe, because you will never please them.

If we don't need look any further than poor Mike Pence, who no one was more loyal to Donald Trump.

And we know from reporting from Jonathan Karl and others that Mr. Trump thought it was just common sense to threaten the life of our vice president, even after four years of loyalty to him.

There's no appeasing these fringe elements in the Republican Party. They have to be purged.

My hat's off to Barbara for taking a leadership role in that.

ACOSTA: All right. Paul Begala, former Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, thank you so much.

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: We'll be talking about the idea of appeasement later in the show, by the way. A little tease on that.

Thank you so much both of you. Appreciate it.

Coming up, the information in the Brian Laundrie case that was kept secret until now. What his parents told the police weeks before he was found dead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:35:50]

ACOSTA: Just days after a medical examiner revealed Brian Laundrie died by suicide from a gunshot wound to the head, we have new details about the case.

According to their attorney, Laundrie's parents discovered a handgun was missing from their home in September, the same day they reported their son missing.

They told police officers but their attorney says both he and law enforcement agreed it was best not to make that information public.

Laundrie was the subject of a weeks'-long hunt following the disappearance of his fiancee, Gabby Petito. Her remains were found in Wyoming in September. A coroner later revealed she was strangled.

Brian Laundrie is the only person ever to be named as a person of interest in her case.

There's new fallout from the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse, the teen who shot and killed two people during last year's Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Wisconsin.

Not only is the country's right-wing media putting the 18-year-old on a pedestal, but now former President Trump has jumped on the bandwagon.

CNN's Brian Todd reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The way Donald Trump tells it, Kyle Rittenhouse just happened to be in the neighborhood.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Kyle, I got to know him a little bit. He called. He wanted to know if he could come over and say hello because he was a fan.

TODD: So the former president told Sean Hannity on Fox, he welcomed Rittenhouse and his mother to Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

TRUMP: Came over with his mother. Really a nice young man.

TODD: That was just a few days after the 18-year-old was acquitted of all charges in the fatal shootings of two people and the wounding of a third during last year's protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Trump played the role of legal analyst supporting Rittenhouse's claim of self-defense.

TRUMP: That was prosecutorial misconduct, He should not have had to suffer through a trial for that. He was going to be dead. If he didn't pull that trigger, Kyle would have been dead. TODD: But even Trump didn't gush over Rittenhouse as blatantly as Fox host, Tucker Carlson, did in Rittenhouse's first interview since his acquittal.

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST, "TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT": How Rittenhouse struck us as bright, decent, sincere, dutiful and hardworking, exactly the kind of person you'd want many more of in your country.

TODD: For his part, Rittenhouse said he was simply trying to protect businesses from rioters.

KYLE RITTENHOUSE, ACQUITTED OF MURDER CHARGES IN KENOSHA, WISCONSIN: Kenosha is my community. And I just was upset saying my community up in flames.

TODD: Rittenhouse is being hailed as a hero in other corners of the far right, with Republican Congress members Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert and Madison Cawthorn competing with each other to possibly offer Rittenhouse internships on Capitol Hill.

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): Kyle Rittenhouse will probably make a pretty good congressional intern.

REP. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-CO): Madison Cawthorn, he said that he would arm wrestle me for this Kyle Rittenhouse internship. But Madison Cawthorn has some pretty big guns, and so I would like to challenge him to a sprint instead.

TODD: Congressman Cawthorn uses a wheelchair.

Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is also jumping in, pushing a bill to award Rittenhouse a Congressional Gold Medal, which has been bestowed on people like George Washington, Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill and the Wright Brothers.

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: He stands as an icon on the far right as someone who pushed back against the Black Lives Matter movement.

And he stands as someone who sort of stands for gun rights because he was open carrying during a protest and he used his gun in a violent way.

It was in the minds of many people on the right an attack on their version of America.

TODD: In the Carlson interview, Kyle Rittenhouse said the incidents that led to his prosecution never had anything to do with race and that he supports the Black Lives Matter movement.

He's also hinting at possible legal action against people who've implied that he's a white supremacist, like then-Candidate Joe Biden did in a tweet last year.

Rittenhouse now saying that was actual malice and defamed his character.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Coming up, it's one of America's most unsolved mysteries. Whatever happened to Jimmy Hoffa? There's a new development in the decades'-long search.

[15:39:39]

Plus, during the 1920s, the Osage people of Oklahoma were some of the richest people in the world. But as Lisa Ling uncovers, that wealth made them a target. Discover the plot on an all-new episode of "THIS IS LIFE" with Lisa Ling, tomorrow night at 10:00 on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Whatever happened to Jimmy Hoffa? That is a question being asked nearly half a century after the union boss disappeared. A tip given by a man on his deathbed has the FBI on the hunt again.

CNN's Miguel Marquez reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIMMY HOFFA, FORMER PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS: This is another propaganda scene of Mr. Robert Kennedy.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jimmy Hoffa, the infamous union boss.

HOFFA: We are successful in getting large band members at Monte Neva Hot Springs.

[15:45:00]

MARQUEZ: Are we today closer to knowing what happened to him?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: This is one of the great mysteries of the modern criminal world. This is one of the great mysteries in Mafia history. What happened to Jimmy Hoffa? Where is Jimmy Hoffa buried?

MARQUEZ: The latest tantalizing possibility points to a former landfill under a New Jersey bridge, the Pulaski Skyway just outside of Manhattan.

He's disappearance --

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Hi, Frank. This is Jimmy Hoffa.

MARQUEZ: -- becoming the stuff of legend, depicted in recent films like "The Irishman." The murder portrayed as a setup by mobsters who wanted the tough-as-nails union boss out of the way.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Let's get out of here.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Come on.

MARQUEZ: And older films like 1992's "Hoffa" that assumes his murder was in the parking lot at the suburban Detroit Restaurant where Hoffa was last seen alive on July 30th, 1975.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Mr. Hoffa?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Yes, that's right.

MARQUEZ: Both scenarios contested.

And just where is his body? For decades, a near national obsession.

UNIDENTIFIED NEWS CORRESPONDENT: A body, officials believe, was disposed of in an industrial waste incinerator.

UNIDENTIFIED NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Could this be Jimmy Hoffa's grave? The FBI, once again, digging for answers.

MARQUEZ: That wasn't either were several locations around Detroit, a backyard, a horse farm, a suburban home. Underneath the old New York Giants Stadium was discounted by investigators. The search found another dead end in the Florida Everglades.

Where is Jimmy Hoffa? Now part of American lore.

SETH MEYERS, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS": The FBI reportedly searched the site of a former landfill in New Jersey last month, looking for the body of union leader, Jimmy Hoffa.

So far, no Hoffa. Three Jimmy's.

(LAUGHTER)

MEYERS: But no Hoffa.

MARQUEZ: We do know he was last seen outside Machus Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Township, Michigan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are confirmations that he was seen outside of the restaurant.

MARQUEZ: Hoffa helped build the Teamsters union into a powerhouse.

HOFFA: I appeal to the chair that, that be taken out of the record, and that nobody cast any aspersions on my loyalty to this country.

MARQUEZ: And spent nearly five years in prison for conspiracy, fraud and jury tampering. His 13 years sentence commuted in 1971 by President Richard Nixon.

ANNOUNCER: Dick's guest tonight, our Jimmy Hoffa, former head of the Teamsters Union.

MARQUEZ: When he got out, he still had celebrity status, and was still trying to control the Union.

HOFFA: The media made me look as though I was probably one of the biggest goons that ever took place in this country, and that I was some kind of an illiterate bum that had muscled his way to the top of this union.

MARQUEZ: The FBI used ground-penetrating radar and conducted a site survey underneath the Pulaski Skyway for two days in October. Results are now being analyzed to see if yet another dig, another search, and 46-year mystery is called for.

HONIG: Knowing the FBI, if they believe they have a reasonable chance to find Jimmy Hoffa, they will dig. The FBI cares about solving this mystery.

MARQUEZ: A decades-old mystery, his family and the country would like solved.

Miguel Marquez, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And coming up, Christina Applegate marks a milestone birthday after revealing she has multiple sclerosis. Her message to fans is coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:52:54]

ACOSTA: Christina Applegate marking her birthday on Twitter months after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. On Thanksgiving Day, she offered this encouraging message for others.

She tweeted, "Yes, I turned 50 and I have Ms. It's been a hard one. Many are hurting today and I'm thinking of you. May we find the strength to lift our heads up. Mine is currently on my pillow, but I try."

Applegate, who is known for her role in "Married with Children," publicly revealed her diagnosis back in August.

To learn more or to get involved in the fight against M.S., you can visit the National M.S. Society's Web site at nationalmssociety.org.

And we wish the best to Christina.

The top-10 heroes of 2021 have been announced, one of whom will be named the CNN Hero of the Year by you, our viewers. As you vote for two more weeks, we'll reintroduce each of our top-10.

Zannah Mustapha is helping to educate thousands of children living in a war-torn region of north Nigeria.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

ZANNAH MUSTAPHA, CNN HERO: Children do not know what -- they do not know about this war. They were confused. You need to give them courage. You have to give them hope.

Good morning. Good morning.

MUSTAPHA: We are in a community where every segment is being ravaged.

Good morning.

CHILDREN: Good morning.

MUSTAPHA: What keeps me going is the resilience of the children. Whenever I see their faces, it gives me hope. It keeps my dream alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:54:42]

ACOSTA: Go to CNNheros.com right now to vote for him or any of your favorite top-10 heroes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:59:59]

ACOSTA: You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

We start with breaking news.