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Mark Meadows Cooperating with Investigators; Bitter Spat Breaks Out Between Congresswomen Greene and Mace; First Accuser Takes Stand in Sex Trafficking Case; Biden Visits Minnesota to Tout Infrastructure Benefits; Study: Arctic Will Have More Rain Than Snow Between 2060-70. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired December 01, 2021 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rosemary Church. If you are just joining us, let me bring you up to date on our top stories this hour.
Three people are dead and eight others injured in America's deadliest school shooting of the year. Authorities say the 15-year-old suspect is in custody, under suicide watch and we will continue to bring you the latest as this story unfolds.
Meanwhile, U.S. health officials are considering new requirements for all travelers to help detect Omicron variant cases. The variant is now confirmed in 22 countries.
In the coming hours the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that could have major implications for abortion rights across the U.S. The court will decide whether to uphold the Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks. The case is a direct challenge to the Roe v. Wade decision which established a woman's constitutional right to end a pregnancy 50 years ago. And some fear the majority conservative court may be primed for action.
The Secretary of State here in Georgia says he has spoken within the U.S. house committee investigating the January 6th Capitol riot. Republican Brad Raffensperger tells CNN he spoke with the committee for about four hours on Tuesday about election lies. He says claims of stolen elections damage democracy. During a now infamous phone call in January, former President Donald Trump pressed Raffensperger to find more than 11,000 votes needed to overturn results in Georgia. Raffensperger refused.
Well meanwhile, Trump's former chief of staff is cooperating with the House select committee and providing records. It's been a long time coming for Mark Meadows, as he and other Trump allies have claimed executive privilege. CNN's Paula Reid has details.
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PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is cooperating with the House select committee investigating the deadly January 6th insurrection. Two months after being subpoenaed, CNN has learned he is now providing records and has agreed to appear soon for an initial interview, signaling a critical shift in the relationship between House investigators and one of Trump's top advisers.
In a statement, Chairman Bennie Thompson said the panel expects all witnesses, including Mr. Meadows, to provide all information requested and that the select committee is lawfully entitled to receive.
The agreement staves off a criminal contempt referral against Meadows for now, but the deal could fall through if the two sides cannot agree on what is privileged. Meadow's attorney, George Terwilliger, said in a statement, we continue to work with the select committee and its staff to see if we can reach an accommodation that does not require Mr. Meadows to waive executive privilege or forfeit the longstanding position that senior White House aides cannot be compelled to testify before Congress.
This comes as Trump lawyers argued in front of federal appeals court in Washington that the former president should be able to block the committee from getting some of his White House records. The three- judge panel appeared skeptical about Trump's power to assert privilege over certain documents when the current president says they should be released.
JUDGE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON, D.C. CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS: This all boils down to who decides. Who decides when it is in the best interest of the United States to disclose presidential records? Is it the current occupant of the White House or the former?
REID (voice-over): Trump argues he should be able to protect records, like call logs and handwritten notes from his top advisers, but President Biden has declined to keep any January 6th documents confidential, citing the extraordinary nature of the insurrection.
REID: Today, Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger spoke with members of the House select committee for roughly four hours. Trump's efforts to pressure Raffensperger and other Georgia officials to overturn the results of the election has become significant areas of interest for House investigators.
Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.
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CHURCH: Well, more feuding within the U.S. Republican Party over calling out racism and anti-Islamic bigotry in Congress. But now, it's Marjorie Taylor Greene doing all the talking and the GOP for the most part staying silent.
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Greene attacked a fellow Republican Congresswoman on Tuesday, after she blasted Lauren Boebert for her bigotry against Muslim lawmaker Ilhan Omar. Greene called Nancy Mace trash on Twitter and said -- and I'm quoting -- you can back up off of Lauren Boebert or just go hang with your real gal pals the jihad squad. You're out of your league. Mace responded by calling the Georgia Congresswoman bat crap crazy --
quoting again there. She later explained that comment.
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REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): What it says to me, is if you say something that is (BLEEP) crazy, you say something extreme you're going to raise money. And what is the only reason that she does that. I mean, she's a grifter of the first order and she does it to raise money. She takes advantage of vulnerable Americans and vulnerable conservatives and makes promises she cannot keep.
MACE: She's crazy. She's insane. She's bad for the party. And I'm not going to put up with it and I'm not going to tolerate it. I'm not going to be bullied. I'm not a doormat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: And Mace was one of the few Republicans to speak up after video emerged of Boebert suggesting Ilhan Omar is a terrorist. And it turns out it wasn't a one and done situation. That video was from less than two weeks ago. Now, CNN K-file uncovered this from September.
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REP. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-CO): One of my staffers on his first day with me got into an elevator, in the Capitol. And in that elevator, we were joined by Ilhan Omar.
Well, it was just us three in there and I looked over and I said, well, lookey there, it's the Jihad Squad. I do have to say. She doesn't have a backpack, she wasn't dropping it and running so we're good, so.
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CHURCH: These are members of Congress, people. Well, top Republican leaders like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy have still not condemned Boebert's anti-Muslim comment. Meanwhile, Green has a history of violent rhetoric and was stripped of her House committee assignments earlier this year.
Well, surgeon and TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz says that he's entering the race for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania as a Republican. In an op-ed, he criticized the federal government's response to COVID and said he wanted to run for office to help fix the problems, and to help us heal. He will be joining a crowded Republican field in a race that may be crucial to determining the Senate majority next year.
Well, now to emotional and disturbing testimony in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial. A woman identified by the pseudonym Jane testified that Jeffrey Epstein started sexually abusing her when she was just 14 years old and tied Maxwell to several of those incidents. CNN's Randi Kaye has more on the sex trafficking trial.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A British socialite now having to answer for her alleged twisted behavior. Ghislaine Maxwell was born in 1961 and grew up in the English countryside. In the 1990s, she dated Jeffrey Epstein and they remained close after the relationship ended.
Epstein would later face federal charges of sexually abusing young girls and running a sex trafficking ring. Prosecutors believed that Maxwell essentially served as Epstein's madam, recruiting girls and grooming them for Epstein to sexually abuse even allegedly takin part herself.
AUBREY STRAUSS, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY FOR SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NY: Maxwell was among Epstein's closest and helped him exploit girls who were as young as 14-years-old.
KAYE (voice-over): One of those allegedly abused at age 14 took the witness stand today, identified only as Jane. Prosecutors say Jane met Maxwell and Epstein at a Michigan summer camp in 1994. After they realized they all lived in Palm Beach, Florida prosecutors say Maxwell and Epstein asked for Jane's number, describing them as, quote, predators.
Jane testified that back in Florida, Maxwell began talking to her about sex and taking her to Epstein's house. Jane testified that Epstein said he could introduce her to talent agents, then took her to pole pool house, pulled down his pants and pulled her on top of him while he masturbated.
Jane told the jury, she was frozen in fear, that she'd never seen a penis before, adding she was terrified and ashamed. Jane recalled Epstein touched her breasts and vagina. She says the abuse also included oral sex and intercourse, testifying that sometimes Maxwell took part in the sex acts along with others, turning it into an orgy. Maxwell's defense attorney rejected the allegations and questioned Jane's credibility.
Epstein's former pilot also testified. Larry Visoski flew Epstein for nearly 30 years along with some very high-profile passengers.
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On the stand, the pilot recalled flying Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Maine Senator George Mitchell, Ohio Senator John Glenn, and actor Kevin Spacey. None of those high-profile passengers are alleged to have committed any wrongdoing related to the ongoing trial. Regarding Ghislaine Maxwell, the pilot called her Epstein's number two, his quote, go to person.
STRAUSS: Maxwell enticed minor girls, got them to trust her then delivered them into the trap that she and Epstein had set for them.
KAYE (voice-over): In 2019, Epstein took his life while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking young girls. Then last year, Maxwell was arrested. The 59-year-old has pleaded not guilty to six counts which including conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts and sex trafficking of children by force, fraud or coercion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ghislaine is looking forward to that trial. She's looking forward to fighting and she will fight.
KAYE (voice-over): Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.
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CHURCH: Now to the Jussie Smollett trial, where a Chicago police detective testified Tuesday that the actor rehearsed a dry run with the two brothers he allegedly paid to attack him. The detectives said the men also bought supplies including a rope. The actor is charged with making false reports to the police after claiming he was the victim of a violent hate crime in 2019. Prosecutors say Smollett staged the hoax in the hope of boosting his career. The actor has pleaded not guilty.
Well, rapper Travis Scott said he would pay the funeral costs of the people killed in a crowd crush at his Astroworld festival last month. But the family of the youngest victim, 9-year-old Ezra Blount, has rejected that offer. Their attorney wrote that Scott must, quote, face and hopefully see that he bears some of the responsibility for this tragedy. Blount was injured at the concert and placed in a medically induced coma due to massive injuries to multiple organs.
Well, investigators in new Mexico were granted a search warrant for a prop store believed to be the source of some of the rounds used in the shooting on the "Rust" film set. One person was killed and another injured when actor Alec Baldwin fired a gun, he believed contained blanks. According to the warrant, the film's armorer said either she or the prop master picked the ammunition up at the store. Authorities are trying to determine how live rounds ended up on set.
And still to come, U.S. President Joe Biden is touting his infrastructure bill, but with more to do, will the new coronavirus variant overshadow the rest of his agenda? The details ahead.
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CHURCH: Wall Street is looking for a major comeback from sharp losses on Tuesday. The Dow and S&P 500 were both down almost 2 percent. The Nasdaq lost 1.5 percent. Concerns over the Omicron variant and U.S. inflation dragged down the markets. But things are looking up for U.S. futures, look there, the Dow up almost 1 percent there. And in Europe, markets are trending higher as well.
Well, Omicron variant fears have also become a road block for U.S. President Joe Biden's infrastructure bill, with officials shifting focus to deal with the pandemic. CNN's jeff Zeleny has more on how the president aims to tackle the rest of his agenda.
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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Biden in Minnesota touting the benefits of the new infrastructure law, suddenly overshadowed by the stubborn fight against coronavirus.
The White House waiting to learn more about the new Omicron variant but bracing for a potential threat to the nation's economic recovery, which Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned Congress of.
JEROME POWELL, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: Greater concerns about the virus could reduce people's willingness to work in-person which would slow progress in the labor market and intensify supply chain disruptions.
ZELENY (voice-over): The president is urging caution, but not panic, as he travels to cities across the country. Explaining how the $1 trillion infrastructure investment can improve the lives of Americans through new roads, bridges, broadband Internet service and more.
The administration is also intensifying its push for the second piece of the president's economic agenda still stuck in the Senate. At the same time, the White House is balancing a two-tiered crisis, rising COVID cases and inflation. Both global challenges hitting close to home here in the U.S.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, U.S. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: This mutational profile is very different from other variants of interest and concern. And although some mutations are also found in Delta, this is not Delta. It's something different.
ZELENY (voice-over): The president set to deliver a comprehensive COVID strategy on Thursday.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'll be putting forward a detailed strategy outlining how we're going to fight COVID this winter, not with shutdowns or lockdowns, but with more widespread vaccinations, boosters, testing and more.
ZELENY (voice-over): From New Hampshire to Michigan to Minnesota, the White House is working to boost the president's standing, and that of other Democrats as he leads a sales pitch of a major bipartisan accomplishment that has eluded so many presidents before him.
Today's visit is designed to show that job opportunities coming to communities across the country as the law begins to be implemented. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told lawmakers there is bright economic news ahead.
JANET YELLEN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: Our unemployment rate is at its lowest level since the start of the pandemic, and our economy is on pace to reach full employment two years faster than the Congressional Budget Office had estimated.
ZELENY: Even as President Biden travels across the country to sell this bipartisan infrastructure law, the White House is also focusing on the second part of his economic agenda. As they head into the final month of the first year in office, the question is, will that be passed before the first-year ends? Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Rosemont, Minnesota.
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CHURCH: Up next, a dire warning about the future of Greenland's ice sheet. What a new report is saying about global warming in the Arctic and what it might mean for rising sea levels.
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CHURCH: You are looking at one of the first supervised drug use sites in the United States. New York City became the first city in the country Tuesday to allow facilities where people can use illegal drugs without threat of arrest, and under the watchful eye of trained staff. The initiative comes amid historic highs in overdose deaths both nationally and in New York.
Rain fell at Greenland's summer for the first time this year and according to a new report, it could be a sign of things to come. The study predicts the Arctic will experience more rain than snow sometime between 2060 and 2070 due to global warming. Researchers say the rise in rainfall has the potential to destabilize Greenland's ice sheet and trigger a global rise in sea levels. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri has more.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, good morning, Rosemary. This particular study from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg and some of the data revealed here just going back since the 1990s. The earth has lost upwards 28 trillion tons of ice and a lot of this is happening across the Arctic and the Greenland region.
And of course, as we noted when you take a look at what just occurred in August, that alone was pretty impressive. On the 14th of that month, above the elevation of 3200 meter, the Greenland Summit, which is about 10,500 feet high, they saw rainfall for the first time in recorded history.
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Of course, this region typically stays below freezing the entire year, and what happened here, the third time, in the past decade, we've seen temperatures exceed the freezing mark, and first time again recording a significant amount of rainfall across that region.
But the study essentially suggesting this is going to happen far more frequently than initially, the lead scientist in the study was Michelle McCrystal. She spoke to CNN saying initially they thought around 2090 to 2100 is when they expected to see this event begin to take place more frequently, have seen rain across the Arctic region. But now recent modeling suggesting the warming continues, that number, the years coming certainly much closer, about 2060 to 2070, about 30 years closer than initially estimated. So, it really speaks to what is happening across the Arctic, as far as warming is concerned. And we know a lot of this has to do with the loss of sea ice. We have
seen significant loss of sea ice take place. He put the feedback loop essentially in place of losing sea ice with warmer air, of course, more exposed ocean. That allows a lot more evaporation to take place, so a wetter arctic is essentially what plays out here over the long term and that's what is most concerning.
And you take a look, when it comes to the Arctic, people often forget it is warming at a much more disproportionate rate than the rest of world and three times faster. Just since the 1970s, the Arctic has warmed about 3.1 degrees Celsius and the rest of the world warming about a degree Celsius.
So again, another sobering study here showing us how things are playing out in a very important part of the world as it relates to climate and that being the Arctic -- Rosemary.
CHURCH: Many thanks to you Pedram, appreciate it.
And finally, Adele is headed to Sin City. The pop star has announced that her Las Vegas residency will begin in January. Her concerts will be called "Weekends with Adele" and will be held at the coliseum of Caesar's Palace Hotel. And that's great for her.
That was much shorter than I expected it to be. But thank you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Enjoy the rest of your day. "EARLY START" with Christine Romans and Laura Jarrett is up next.
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