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Congress Reaches Deal On Spending Levels For 2024; Trump Calls Jailed Rioters As Hostages; Jack Smith Reveals New Evidence On Trump's Action During Jan. 6; NTSB Says Alaska Airline Accident Could Have Been Much More Tragic; Northeast U.S. To Experience Powerful Winter Storms; Defense Secretary Faces Intense Scrutiny Over Hospital Stay That Was Not Disclosed To Key Officials; WAPO: Boebert's Ex-Husband Called Cops After Fight With Lawmaker; Trump Steps Up Attacks On Haley As Iowa Caucuses Looms; Israel-Hamas War Continues. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired January 07, 2024 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[17:00:00]
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hey, I'm excited too and I'm not even there. Elizabeth Wagmeister, thank you so much there in Beverly Hills. And thank you everyone for joining me this weekend. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The "CNN Newsroom" continues with Jim Acosta right now.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You're live in the "CNN Newsroom." I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. Good evening. We begin with the breaking news that congressional leaders may be stepping back from the brink of a government shutdown this month. A short time ago, House and Senate leaders announced an agreement on overall spending levels for this fiscal year. It's an important first step in averting a shutdown, but we aren't out of the woods just yet.
CNN's Arlette Saenz is with the president at Wilmington of Delaware. Arlette, what kind of reaction are you hearing from the White House? And does it look like perhaps they're on their way to a deal?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, President Biden signed off on this law saying in a statement that he believes it moves the country one step closer to avoiding a government shutdown. But big questions still remain about whether they can actually get this funding bills written by that next deadline on January 19th.
Now, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Mitt -- Chuck Schumer negotiated this agreement, landing on a $1.59 trillion spending level for fiscal year 2024. The breakdown comes to about $806 billion for defense spending and $704 billion for non-defense spending that will also include an additional about $70 billion that was part of a side deal for non-defense spending that was struck between President Biden and then House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last spring.
These figures that they've agreed to are pretty in line with what Biden and McCarthy had outlined. But there are still a number of hurdles ahead as they try to meet these upcoming deadlines. There's questions about whether lawmakers will be able to write this type of legislation fast enough before that first January 19th deadline and then the second, February 2nd one. But then there's also some conservatives who want to use this moment
as leverage to try to force the administration to make some more stringent immigration and border policy changes. Now, President Biden in his statement praising this agreement said, quote, "Congressional Republicans must do their job, stop threatening to shut down the government and fulfill their basic responsibility and fund critical domestic and national security priorities, including my supplemental request. It's time for them to act."
That supplemental request that Biden is referring to is those ongoing negotiations at this time for additional border security, Israel and the Ukraine aid. Really, that has been caught up in those talks relating to border security. White House officials have said they're willing to make some concessions with border security, but so far, Senate negotiators, both Democrats and Republicans, have yet to turn up a deal.
So, there's still a number of issues at hand to determine whether they will be able to avert a government shutdown, but they're seriously facing a very real time crunch with that first deadline coming up on January 19th.
ACOSTA: Yeah, they're not quite there yet. A lot of details to work out. Arlette Saenz, thank you so much. Tonight, Iowa voters are just one week away from making their voices heard and what is shaping up as the most consequential election in American history. Looming over the Republican caucus in Iowa is the frontrunner's attempt to overturn the will of millions of voters in the last election.
Donald Trump has made his attempt to rewrite the history of January 6th, a hallmark of his campaign for reelection, casting the rioters and seditionists who attacked the Capitol that day who were later convicted in court as, quote, "hostages." This weekend, Trump called on President Biden to release them from prison.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: They ought to release the J6 hostages. They've suffered enough. They ought to release them. I call them hostages. Some people call them prisoners. I call them hostages. Release the J6 hostages, Joe. Release them, Joe. You can do it really easy, Joe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Today, that dangerous message was parodied by a member of the House GOP leadership, New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ELISE STEFANIK (R-NY): I have concerns about the treatment of January 6 hostages. I have concerns. We have a role in Congress of oversight over our treatments of prisoners. And I believe that we're seeing the weaponization of the federal government against not just President Trump, but we're seeing it against conservatives, we're seeing it against Catholics.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn defended democracy on January 6. He certainly doesn't see those who assaulted him and his colleagues that day as hostages. Here's what he told us this weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRY DUNN, FOMER U.S. CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER: Hostages of him right now. They are in jail because they believe that the lies that he was spewing.
[17:05:00]
Now, obviously they're grown individuals who made decisions to go down there and commit crimes, but its kind of was a good nudge being emboldened by the arguably most powerful person on the planet. So, they're hostages of his lies, I guess if anything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Trump supporters may buy his attempt to whitewash the events of January 6, but the Justice Department is not buying it. Tonight, reports that a key member of Trump's inner circle is cooperating with federal investigators. ABC News reporting that his former deputy chief of staff, Dan Scavino, is speaking to Special Counsel Jack Smith and has revealed new details about Trump's inaction on January 6.
According to ABC, Scavino told Smith's investigators that Trump, quote, "was just not interested in doing more to stop the violence." Joining me now is Stephanie Grisham, former Trump White House press secretary. She was one of the first officials in the Trump administration to resign in the wake of Trump's actions on January 6th. At that time, she was chief of staff for First Lady Melania Trump.
Stephanie, great to see you as always. I mean, you were there that day. You know, I do want to ask you, what is your response to this new reporting about Dan Scavino, somebody you worked with closely for a lot of years there in the Trump administration? Apparently, according to ABC, he told Jack Smith's team that Trump was just not interested in stopping the violence that day. Does that line up with what you were hearing that day?
STEPHANIE GRISHAM, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, absolutely. I have been telling you guys all for, you know, since it happened that he was in the dining room watching TV and he had no plans to ask for the violence. But you know, Dan Scavino, it makes me really happy to hear that if this reporting is true that he is talking to them and cooperating with them.
When I testified to the January 6 committee, I said that Dan Scavino would certainly be somebody. As you know well, Jim, he was with the president 24 hours a day practically, so he would be somebody who would know a lot. So, I hope Dan is doing the right thing and I'm glad to hear it. I obviously will see what happens.
ACOSTA: And what other information do you suspect Scavino could be sharing with the special counsel?
GRISHAM: Oh, I mean, think about it. He could be saying that the president used his phone or whose phones he was using or that the president was purposely not answering the phone in the dining room when tons of Republicans, let's remember, were calling and asking him to do something to stop the violence because they were all locked in their offices and terrified that they were going to get hurt.
He could tell them about the fact that he didn't want to do the video at the very end that took him, you know, four or five hours to finally ask for the violence to stop. He can also talk a lot about what happened prior to the speech, the things he planned to say, the things he was seeing out there with the crowd, the fact that he was probably going to say that he was going to walk down to the Capitol with all of his supporters, which he definitely would never have done that. But Dan would be able to speak to all of that because I guarantee you, he was right there the entire time.
ACOSTA: Yeah. I mean, Stephanie, you and I both know we saw Dan Scavino. He was just about joined at the hip with Donald Trump throughout that administration during the 2016 campaign, during the 2020 campaign, longtime aide. And he did not cooperate with the January 6 committee. I mean, do you suspect that Dan basically has no choice here and so he's cooperating because he has to, or something may be changing?
GRISHAM: Look, I mean, if I'm being honest, I am skeptical. I don't see him flipping or turning on the former president, because as you said, they were so very close. And that was including prior to the -- our time in the White House, that was during the campaign, and prior to that, just the Trump administer -- or the Trump company.
So, I'm skeptical. I would think it would be because he has to. And who knows what he has said beyond the fact that he just wasn't interested in quelling the violence. So, like I said, we'll have to see. This is early reporting clearly, but I hope Dan is doing the right thing. I do.
ACOSTA: And Stephanie, what do you think of Trump calling on Biden to release the January 6th criminals that he calls, quote, "hostages?" And what about Elise Stefanik? I mean, parroting that language today. She's a part of the Republican leadership in the House.
GRISHAM: Well, I mean, it's almost like talking points have gone around, right? I have a feeling we're going to hear the word hostages a lot more, which is a very perplexing word to choose for me. These are people who went to the Capitol, broke windows, broke in, had Democrats and, again, Republicans scared for their lives. Police officers were injured, people died that day.
And I would just think, you know, what if Biden encouraged people, which I am not saying he should do, I want to be very clear. I'm just trying to flip this script. What if Biden encouraged people to go to Mar-a-Lago or to Republican congressional offices and these Biden supporters all broke windows and broke into Mar-a-Lago and took things and stole things and had people scared for their lives? I wonder if the former president would be calling those people. you know, hostages after they were convicted in a court of law as they should be if that were something to happen.
[17:10:00]
ACOSTA: And Stephanie, I'm sure you also noticed over the weekend, you know, Trump was again, you know, peddling the false conspiracy theory that the FBI somehow encouraged and organized the attack on the Capitol on January 6th. But you know, there's a poll out that shows that nearly a quarter of Americans, two-thirds of Republicans believe that the FBI probably or definitely organized January 6th. Maybe not two-thirds, but a third of Republicans. I mean, what do you think about all that?
GRISHAM: I think that when you believe in somebody so much, when you believe in somebody like Donald Trump, and I can speak to this because I actually did believe in him for a very long time. I think that when you put it all on the line and believe in somebody, I think it's easier than to just want to believe that the FBI, that law enforcement, that the people who go to help us when we're in trouble would be behind something rather than admitting that the person you've been backing for years and years is a fraud and actually doesn't care about the American people or our country.
I say that just from personal experience. It was really hard for me to come to terms with who he was because I really believed in him, his policies, and the person I thought he was. So, that's what I think. I think that people just would rather believe these conspiracy theories rather than admit that they were wrong about this person.
ACOSTA: Yeah. And Stephanie, I mean, you were around him so much. I mean, based on your experience, when he peddles this stuff, does he know he's lying? Does he convince himself that the lie is true? Is he just kind of a crackpot who believes in conspiracy theories and so he thinks what he's saying is true? Which is it? Do we know what it is?
GRISHAM: Well, he's not a crackpot. He's actually a very smart man. I mean, he was president of the United States. We have to give him a modicum of credit for that, but no, he knows he's lying. He used to tell me when I was press secretary, go out there and say this. And if it was false, he would say, it doesn't matter, Stephanie, just say it over and over and over again. People will believe it. He knows his base believes in him. He knows he can basically say anything and his base will believe what he's saying.
Now, I think this will help propel him into the general. But I think that independents and, you know, center-leaning Republicans are not gonna be buying this. They're much, much smarter than that. And so, I think that he's gonna get in trouble in the general with this kind of lies.
ACOSTA: So, when he says that, oh, the FBI, Antifa, that kind of stuff, you think he knows he's lying? GRISHAM: I know he knows he's lying. I mean, I, you know, was with him
nonstop for six years. He knows, but all he has to do is continue to say things and people will -- say these things and people will believe him.
ACOSTA: All right. Stephanie Grisham, former White House press secretary. Thank you so much for your time. Nice to talk to you again. Appreciate it.
GRISHAM: Thank you.
ACOSTA: All right. Coming up, new details are emerging tonight about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's hospitalization as criticism grows around who knew what and when. We'll have a live report on that.
Plus, the latest on the terrifying airline emergency in Oregon as we learn more about what passengers went through when part of their plane came right off.
And millions in the northeast facing the threat of potentially dangerous winter weather as a new line of storms makes a beeline for the southeast. You're live in the "CNN Newsroom."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:17:12]
ACOSTA: New details still coming in about that terrifying Alaska Airlines flight that forced the grounding of most of Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes in the U.S. after a walkthrough of the disabled Alaska Airlines plane. Investigators now say it's fortunate nobody died. On Friday night, a part of the plane that was plugging an emergency door blew off shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, leaving a gaping hole. The National Transportation Safety Board says the sudden loss of pressure ripped off headrest and cushions from seats near the hole.
Federal officials are now asking for the public's help finding that part of the plane that fell to the ground. Meantime, many air travelers will find delays after the FAA grounded most Boeing 737 MAX 9. CNN's Mike Valerio is following all of this for us in Portland, Oregon.
Mike, just a crazy situation, very scary, and now it could be a major inconvenience for a lot of air travelers around the country who might have had flights booked on these types of planes. What's the latest?
MIKE VALERIO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jim. Well, the tributaries, all the storylines here are quite astonishing from the airport. We're just across two runways. This is the plane in question as we zoom in. Now, Jim, the missing door plug is facing away from us. Part of the noise is we are by the active taxiway and runway right here.
But throughout the day, investigators will be going up and down the aisle as these masked oxygen masks are still hanging from the ceiling, taking video of the wrangled seats that have been moved around and missing headrests from the aircraft to show us what it is like inside. Delays throughout the United States, they are still rippling across several airlines because of everything that has happened here.
So, we have what's happening in the airports, but then we have what's happening about a 15-minute drive away from us, Jim, in Cedar Hills, Oregon. It's an unincorporated community who have a map of the search area that has been active since around 3:00 p.m. yesterday when the NTSB touched down.
And we checked in with local law enforcement from Washington County to see if they've received any reports from people saying, you know what, I got a weird metal thing in my backyard or I noticed something that was in the middle of Commonwealth Lake in Cedar Hills. No reports as of yet, Jim, that have been received from the Washington County Sheriff's Office or fielded by Alaska Airlines.
We also heard a news conference from the NTSB chair, Jennifer Homendy yesterday night 8:00 p.m. local time where she was very much stressing how the tragedy could have been worse if this happened later on in the flight. Listen what she said along those lines.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENNIFER HOMENDY, CHAIR, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: Think about what happens when you're in cruise. Everybody's up and walking. Folks don't have seat belts on. They're going to restrooms.
[17:20:01]
The flight attendants are providing service to passengers. We could have ended up with something so much more tragic. And we're really fortunate that did not occur here.
(EDN VIDEO CLIP)
VALERIO: Yeah, what she essentially is trying to convey, could you imagine, Jim, if this happened at cruise altitude with people up and about walking around the cabin and then that blowout happened because of the force of the compressed air coming out of the cabin. If somebody was up, they could have been sucked out of that hole.
So, what we are waiting for in the next couple hours, we're going to see if we can get a visual on any of the FBI agents and NTSB personnel who are going through this pretty dense suburban area. This is not a forest area, Jim, that personnel are going to be looking through, but hundreds of homes. We're going to see if we can get a visual on that.
And also, we're expecting a news conference by the end of the day, so stay tuned for more details from here, Jim.
ACOSTA: All right, Mike Valerio, we will. Thank you so much. The NTSB confirms to CNN that they are aware of some pressurization issues with the plane before the incident. The "Seattle Times" reports that according to Alaska Airlines and the days before the incident, pilots filed several reports of warning lights indicating a loss of some cabin pressure. As a result, the Boeing planes were then restricted from long distance flying over water.
Let's bring in CNN safety analyst, David Soucie, who is a former FAA safety inspector. David, what do you make of all this?
DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Jim, there's still a lot of questions, but the one that's glaring in my mind right now is the fact that Chairwoman Holmendy said that there was no one sitting in that particular row at that time. Now you also just said that there was some pressurization problems.
My question is, are those two things related? Did they know they had an issue with that door and intentionally didn't seat someone there, or was it just coincidence that someone happened to be not there next to that door when this all occurred?
ACOSTA: Yeah, that's a key question. And David, inspectors are now asking for the public to help find the chunk of that plane that fell off. What would that tell investigators in all this? I suppose there might be some indication as to how it was attached, and maybe there might've been some negligence there. I suppose that might be one possibility. What are you thinking?
SOUCIE: Exactly, Jim. Now I've looked at some of the -- so I got some high-definition pictures of that frame and what's going on with it. So, the mounting point, the top mounting point that you can see in some of these photos includes a pin, a shear pin. It's not supposed to be a shear pin, but it's a pin that apparently has broken off. It's much shorter than it should be. So, what that indicates to me is that there was something that broke off there, whether it was mis-attached on the other side or not.
But finding this door is critical at this point because there's parts of that door that will tell us how it was attached at the time it broke. Now, Chairwoman Homendy also said that they have metallurgists on staff there at the location that'll be looking at the metal. So, if they get that door and they can start looking at the metal, they can see where the sudden fractures were versus a wear and tear type thing where it was slowly done over time. So those critical pieces would save a lot of time in the investigation should they be able to find that door.
ACOSTA: And is this a larger issue with the Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes? We've heard about these issues before, not this particular issue. But is there something going on with this particular aircraft?
SOUCIE: You know, it's too early to do that. In the investigation right now, Jim, what everybody's focused on is this aircraft, what happened to that particular aircraft. And then in the interest of safety, they've grounded the entire fleet. But that's twofold. One is to make sure that they're safe to go fly. Two is to figure out if there's some systemic issue with this aircraft with regard to that door.
Now, in the bigger picture, the what I call the 50,000-foot view, you have to think about, you know, is this particular incident, is it systemic? Has Boeing continued to have issues with these aircraft? And ever since the Max 8 tragedies, the two aircraft that crashed in the Max 8, Boeing's been under a close eye of scrutiny both from the FAA and from the European authorities as well. So, if this truly is a failure that they tie back to Boeing, Boeing's going to have some real issues and some big answers, big questions to answer for sure.
ACOSTA: And I guess at the end of the day, and we were hearing this from one of the passengers on board yesterday, I mean, this obviously could have been just so much worse. This was a close call, was it not?
SOUCIE: Absolutely it was. You think about the pressure differential. So, at 36,000 feet, the difference in pressure between the inside and the outside is about 9 psi, about the same as a basketball if you think about that.
[17:25:01]
If you took a chunk out of a basketball, it would be reactive, it would be quite a lot of pressure. Whereas if you're at 16,000 feet, it's almost half of that. It's only about four and a half psi. So, you can imagine the difference between that thing coming out at 16,000 feet and the effect it might have on the interior versus at 32 or 30,000 feet where it would have been much more catastrophic and could have actually caused structural damage at that point outside of just the door going off itself.
ACOSTA: All right, David Soucie, thanks so much for your time. We appreciate it.
SOUCIE: Thank you, Jim.
ACOSTA: All right, in the meantime, millions of Americans in the Northeast are digging out after the first big winter storm of the year. Some spots like upstate New York seeing more than a foot of snow. The system even sparking this tornado in Fort Lauderdale. We can show you that. There it is right there. Even as all of this, we should let you know, a bigger storm is right on the heels of that weather pattern we saw over the weekend.
Elisa Raffa is tracking it all from the CNN Weather Center. Elisa, this is kind of a one-two punch. Here comes the second one, I guess.
ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, not so much in the way of time to breathe in between these systems. That tornado that you showed, was an EF0 and we could have more of those as we go into the day tomorrow. We've got an enhanced risk from New Orleans to Mobile to Panama City. That's a level three out of five where we could have a couple of tornadoes, some of which are strong and damaging wind gusts over 60 miles per hour. That's the warm part of the storm.
There's also a cold part of the storm where we have blizzard warnings in effect there in the orange from parts of western Kansas and the Oklahoma panhandle where you're going to have heavy snow coupled with gusty winds and dropping visibility. And then the winter alerts continue up into Omaha and even up into Chicago.
So, here's how it plays out. We start out tomorrow with some of that heavy snow already pumping for parts of the central plains. You've got the heavy rain and severe storms along the Gulf Coast. All of this moves east going into Tuesday. Heavy rain along the southeast. That heavy snow and the gusty winds continues to pump in the upper Midwest into Chicago. And then we bring that flood threat off into New England where they have 6 to 12 inches of snow on the ground right now.
Again, all this pumps with some pretty intense winds that (inaudible) to 50 miles per hour. You could see here where you have those blizzard warnings. That's going to blow around that snow. You take the winds to the east. We'll have gusts along the coast here, possible up to 60 miles per hour, maybe even 70 miles per hour in the peaks of the Appalachian Mountains. And then we'll keep -- the winds continuing to kick in New England and that could cost some power problems.
The severe risk continues going to Tuesday -- you can see that on bullseye -- then moves to the Florida panhandle where the threat continues for a couple of tornadoes as we go through the day there. And then the heavy rain threat. You can see a lot of the heavy rain from the southeast working its way up into New England.
We're looking at widespread through two to four inches and that could cause some flooding problems, again, especially for people in New England. You have snow on the ground, so rapid snow melts an issue too, Jim.
ACOSTA: Yeah, that is a whole lot of precipitation over. I mean, that's blanketing what half -- two-thirds of the country right there. What a mess. All right, Elisa Raffa, thank you very much.
Coming up, a developing story involving Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, and reports tonight that Colorado police are looking into an alleged fight. Stand by for more on that. It's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:32:47]
ACOSTA: Today, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is facing growing criticism. As we now are learning, even the deputy defense secretary did not know he was hospitalized when she assumed some of his duties. Both President Biden and Secretary of State Tony Blinken also were not told. Criticism of the secretary has been swift.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The handling of this by the secretary of defense is totally unacceptable. I think it was a dereliction of duty, and the secretary and the administration, frankly, need to step forward and give the American the facts.
SEN. JAMES LANKFORD (R-OK): It's pretty shocking on this because when you're the secretary of defense, you need to make everyone aware that you're actually going out of pocket. Apparently, the National Security Council didn't know it. The White House didn't know it. Congress didn't know it. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: CNN's Natasha Bertrand is here with more. Natasha, Lloyd Austin is still in the hospital. Is that right? How long has this been and what more do we know?
NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, he entered the hospital on New Year's Day. So, it has been about six days now going on a week, and we don't know exactly what the complications were from this elective surgery that he had or just how serious it was. But what we do know is that he was in the ICU for some time.
Now according to the Pentagon, he did delegate some of his responsibilities to his deputy secretary of defense who was actually on vacation in Puerto Rico when all of this was going down. And so, she had some of the responsibilities given to her, including, you know, communication responsibilities, and she had the full authority to make certain decisions when he was unable to do so.
But she also was not immediately aware of why she was being given these authorities. We were told that it wasn't until two days later that she was actually told that the secretary was hospitalized, and then it was not, of course, until that same day that the Pentagon notified the White House and the National Security Council that he was in the hospital.
And so, there are a lot of questions now about just why this was kept so secret because, of course, it raises national security concerns if the president didn't know where his secretary of defense was especially given all of the tensions we're seeing, of course, in the Middle East right now.
Just last week, the U.S. conducted a military strike in Iraq that killed a pro-Iranian militia commander, major U.S. operation, and we were told that the secretary, he did pre-authorize that before he went to the hospital and he was kind of awake and tracking it when it happened.
[17:35:00]
But still, you know, the questions remain about why his closest aides, his deputy, the service secretaries who are in the chain of command, were not informed about this until days later.
ACOSTA: And what's the usual procedure in something like this?
BERTRANS: Well, you know, it's hard to say. There is no written textbook definition for when the secretary is supposed to notify the White House, for example, if he's in the hospital. But there are certain reporting requirements that are in the statutes and that the Pentagon now tells me that they are looking at to determine whether or not any were actually violated.
ACOSTA: Okay. Very good. Natasha Bertrand, thanks very much. Keep us posted on that. There are reports tonight that police in Colorado were called to a restaurant on Saturday after Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert and her ex-husband allegedly got into a physical altercation. Jayson Boebert told "The Daily Beast" that his ex-wife -- quote -- "punched" him in the face several times.
Boebert denied the claim in a statement to "The Washington Post," saying this is a sad situation for all that keeps escalating and another reason why she says she's moving away from her district. We should note that no one was arrested and CNN has reached out to both parties for comment. We have not yet heard back.
Let's discuss more now with CNN senior political analyst John Avlon and CNN political commentator and host of PBS "Firing Line," Margaret Hoover. Guys, great to have you on, really appreciate it.
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Happy to be here (ph).
ACOSTA: Yeah. John, I mean, we don't want to spend too much time talking about this Boebert situation, but this is, I guess, yet again another situation that she's going to have to deal with. And as we saw during the midterms, it's not a lot that she returns to Congress next time around. She's going to be in a tough fight.
AVLON: Look, it was a razor thin margin the first time around. Margaret here is from Colorado. But I just say, you know, stay classy. The sheer number of self-inflicted sorts of faceplants that Lauren Boebert imposes on her constituents through her personal behavior should be enough to be disqualifying. She's shifting districts to get to a safer district --
MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: A safer district.
AVLON: -- and being vacated by Ken Buck, but you'd hope that Republicans would have some common sense to say that this doesn't represent conservative values, among other things.
ACOSTA: Yeah. And Margaret, let's turn to the Iowa caucuses. We're only about a week away now. Trump, of course, raving up his rhetoric in all sorts of ways. But he has been going after Nikki Haley more. Let's listen to what he has been saying on the campaign trail this weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: She didn't use the word "slavery," which was interesting. I don't know that it's going have an impact but, you know, I'd say slavery is sort of the obvious answer. It is supposed to be about three paragraphs of (bleep).
Nikki would sell you out just like she sold me out. I mean, I'll never run against a music-grade president. Why would I run? Ladies and gentlemen, I've decided to run.
Nikki Haley and the rest have never will, they're never going to be inter-securing the border because they're globalists.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Yeah, Margaret, he does sound a little worried about Nikki Haley.
AVLON: Mm-hmm.
HOOVER: I don't know that he's worried about Nikki Haley, honestly. None of the -- look, the polling has never historically had any candidate so far ahead that has lost, and that's in Iowa specifically. What I think he is doing is taking a swipe at Nikki because he is not worried about DeSantis anymore in Iowa and Nikki is the next --
AVLON: On the rise.
HOOVER: I mean, Nikki has spent more money in Iowa lately in terms of ad buys, digital buys, her media buys. She also had a major shift of donor support come her way, which she has been able to invest in Iowa to try to get closer.
I mean, what Nikki and DeSantis are doing is they're vying for second place and they're trying to ensure that the margin between Trump's lead and their second-place finish is defensible enough to create momentum going into New Hampshire.
AVLON: Yeah.
HOOVER: So, Trump taking a hit at her, uh, I don't think -- I mean, I think it demonstrates an awareness that she is --
AVLON: On the rise.
HOOVER: -- the person who's on the rise. But what it also does is rally his folks against her. And that's serious. I mean, the fact that he took a hit at her slavery answer --
AVLON: (INAUDIBLE).
HOOVER: -- and then said that she would sell out is a fascinating twist.
AVLON: I mean, I got to jump in there just because --
ACOSTA: Go ahead.
AVLON: -- Trump lecturing anyone about American history is the start of a really good time, if you like irony. I mean, this is a guy who said just a few days ago that, you know, he could have negotiated an end to the Civil War before it began. It didn't have to come to that. I mean, he's got a series of --
ACOSTA: It would have been just another business deal. You know, the Civil War.
AVLON: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Somebody expressing fascination that Lincoln and Frederick Douglass were Republicans. Nobody knew that. And just over and over and over again. So, when Donald Trump is lecturing you about, you know, the Civil War history, you know, take it with a pound of salt.
ACOSTA: Yeah. And guys, I mean, speaking of Trump's rhetoric, I'm sure you saw this. He went after John McCain yet again. He mocked the late senator for injuries he sustained while serving his country. Let's listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're going to fight for much better health care than Obamacare. Obamacare is a catastrophe. Nobody talks about it. You know, without John McCain, we would have had it done.
[17:40:00]
But John McCain, for some reason, couldn't get his arm up that day. Remember, he goes that like that. That was the end of that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Now, McCain's daughter, Meghan, is responding. Maybe you guys saw this on "X." She writes, Trump is a piece of excrement. And, you know, she obviously is not going to get it.
AVLON: Is that actually right, excrement, Jim?
ACOSTA: No, she did not. I'm trying to keep it classy here --
AVLON: Exactly.
HOOVER: We saw that recently.
ACOSTA: -- on a Sunday evening in America. But she said Trump is a piece of blank, election-denying huckster whose own wife won't campaign with him. Guys, you know, let's -- let's break this down a little bit. I mean, obviously, he has done this before, but it also, I think, speaks to -- there are some ghosts that just haunt him forever, it seems.
HOOVER: I think -- I think you're exactly right. I think he can't forgive anybody who ever went sideways with him. I think that's part of it. I mean, he's literally -- there's story upon story, memoir upon memoir of anybody who somehow wasn't fully in line with him, that crossed him in some way he can never let go.
Then there's a little bit of this replaying the greatest hits, the things that worked the first time around in 2015, 2016. It's like, ah, it's time for the oldies again.
ACOSTA: Yeah.
HOOVER: And I think --
AVLON: But -- HOOVER: I think we -- it's too easy to become numb to it.
AVLON: Yeah.
HOOVER: And the thing that's so important is that Donald Trump is -- the country has to know this and be reminded of this because we haven't always covered him in the last few years the way we did previously. But he is poised to be the Republican nominee for president again.
AVLON: Yeah.
HOOVER: And so we have to cover all of this all over again.
AVLON: Yeah. And, you know, Cadet Bone Spur is criticizing someone who spent, you know, multiple years as a prisoner of war in the Hanoi Hilton, which is why he couldn't raise his arm.
HOOVER: Yes.
AVLON: And that combined with the combination of comments he made to, you know, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Milley, about -- I mean, questioning the fundamental reasons why people serve and sacrifice themselves for something larger, that just shows contempt -- shows John Kelly -- I apologize -- John Kelly shows contempt for the sacrifices that people make in uniform, which he has no idea about.
HOOVER: Yeah.
ACOSTA: Yeah. I mean, part of it, he feels inferior. There's an inferiority complex there when it comes to dealing with people who are war heroes, people who have served their country admirably, bravely.
AVLON: Yeah, and I think, to your point, he's used to people taking a knee inside the Republican Party. When people don't, like John McCain, he can't get it out of his head.
ACOSTA: Yeah. All right, John and Margaret, great to talk to you guys as always. Glad you're back. Happy New Year.
HOOVER: Thanks a lot.
ACOSTA: Thanks a lot.
AVLON: Happy New Year.
ACOSTA: Be well. Appreciate it. And today marks three months of fighting and violence in Gaza. And now, tensions are threatening to spill over the territory's borders. We'll bring you the latest on Secretary of State Tony Blinken's trip to the region and his goals. That's next. You're live in "CNN Newsroom."
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[17:47:26]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering. So, from day one, among other priorities, we have been intensely focused on working to prevent the conflict from spreading.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Secretary of State Antony Blinken is again back in the Middle East in an effort to sustain U.S. pressure to prevent the conflict there from widening. The high-stakes visit comes three months after the October 7th Hamas attacks that sparked Israel's war in Gaza. In turn, the mounting death toll and humanitarian crisis.
Our Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv with the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to arrive in Israel this week following a multi-country tour of the region. Just today, he was in Qatar holding key meetings there focused on a couple of important critical regional issues, and that is, first of all, trying to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from escalating into a broader regional conflict.
We have watched as the fears of that regional war have been heightened in the last week following an apparent Israeli airstrike in the suburbs of Beirut, taking out a senior Hamas political leader, concerns that these daily skirmishes that we have seen between Israel and Hezbollah could escalate into a much more devastating war between those two parties.
The secretary of state also focusing on trying to get those hostages out of Gaza. Qatar, of course, has been a key mediator in those talks. There are believed to be 132 hostages still remaining in Gaza. As many as eight of them are believed to be American citizens.
And so, as the Secretary of State arrives here in Israel, that will also be a critical subject of discussion, trying to revive those negotiations between Israel and Hamas, mediated by the Qataris and the Egyptians with the assistance of the Americans.
But it also comes as we now hit this three-month mark of this war between Israel and Hamas. The United States, of course, has been pressuring Israel to do more to protect civilian life in Gaza and also to begin to transition this war to a lower intensity phase.
We have seen Israel withdraw several thousand troops from the Gaza Strip in what appears to be a repositioning, but they are still very much continuing a ground offensive in southern Gaza, in central Gaza, and we have seen continued airstrikes there as well.
And so, the question is, will Israel transition to a lower intensity phase as the secretary of state arrives to press for that?
[17:50:00]
We know that Israeli officials have been holding a number of discussions about what the next phases of this war looks like and also what life in Gaza looks like after this war is over, and that will also be the subject of discussion for the secretary of state.
As we hit this three-month mark, we are also watching the humanitarian situation in Gaza continue to devolve. We are also seeing more civilians being killed in apparent Israeli airstrikes.
Just today, the son of Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief, a journalist himself, Hamza al-Dahdouh, 27 years old, as well as Mustafa Thuraya, were killed when what Al Jazeera says is a -- an Israeli missile hit the vehicle in which they were traveling in. Al-Dahdouh has been known to many Americans by this point because he has already suffered immense tragedy up until this point.
This strike today comes months after his wife, his two children and a grandchild, were killed in another strike. He himself was injured just last month in an airstrike. He said today at the funeral of his son that he hopes that his son's blood will be the last of journalists killed in Gaza. Jim?
ACOSTA: All right. Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv for us, thank you so much. Let's discuss with CNN military analyst, retired Colonel Cedric Leighton. Colonel Leighton, today marks three months since the horrific attacks by Hamas. What does this next phase look like? I mean, you're hearing from Prime Minister Netanyahu. He does not want to really alter where things are headed right now. He sounds like he's pretty well dug in. But the secretary of state is heading to the region presumably to try to change his mind. What do you think?
CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, so I think there's going to be a lot of pressure on Netanyahu, Jim, to actually change tactics, change procedures, change the way the Israelis are actually fighting this war. It's really in Netanyahu's best interest to change the tactics. He should have done that months ago, probably about the second month into this.
But what has happened is that the Israelis have used a lot of direct force against not only Hamas but also against the civilian population in Gaza, and that has resulted, obviously, as we've seen, in a lot of destruction in Gaza and, of course, a lot of civilian deaths at a much higher level than I think the U.S. expected and also a much higher level than has been the case in, you know, many of the conflicts in this century so far.
ACOSTA: I mean, but here in lies the rub. Can the Israelis achieve this objective of taking out Hamas while minimizing civilian casualties? I mean, it just seems that those two things are in conflict with one another in a way that -- it is difficult to imagine how you -- how you could do one without the other. LEIGHTON: Yeah, I think it's really important for them to modify their goals, their war aims in this particular case. So what Netanyahu's war aims have been so far have been the destruction of Hamas from a political and from a military perspective.
Destruction is a very hard thing to achieve. The closest thing you can get to as a historical example would be the destruction of Nazi Germany, for example, or the destruction of Japan after World War II. But this is a very different environment because Hamas has been so interwoven into Gazan society that it's really impossible to eliminate all of it.
But what you can do is you can take out some of the leadership and you can also make it very difficult for them to execute military operations. That really should be the goal. Make it very hard for them to execute military operations and make it very difficult for them to do the kinds of things they did on October 7th, if not impossible to do those things.
ACOSTA: And another big goal for Blinken is, obviously, going to be the hostages.
LEIGHTON: Absolutely.
ACOSTA: And 132 Israeli hostages held in Gaza, including eight American citizens. What are -- I mean, what are the realistic expectations that Americans should have at this point? Are we looking at a situation where these hostages are just not going to be coming home for a while or is there some daylight for some kind of opening in negotiations here?
LEIGHTON: Well, I think if there weren't some degree of hope, I don't think Secretary Blinken would be engaged in the efforts that he is engaged in right now. Now, I don't want to give false hope to anybody --
ACOSTA: Yeah.
LEIGHTON: -- but I do think that there is at least a possibility that some of the hostages could be released even at this late juncture. I think the U.S. had wanted to release the hostages a lot earlier, have the hostages released a lot earlier, but that, obviously, has not happened.
I think part of the reason for that is the way in which Israel has prosecuted this war up until this point. And it's always a tough choice, you know, from a military perspective as well as from a humanitarian or diplomatic perspective.
ACOSTA: And what about the toll on journalists? Can the Israelis do something? Can they -- can they prosecute this war in a way that it does not have? Such a devastating effect on journalists working there. We're hearing this time and again.
LEIGHTON: Yeah.
ACOSTA: Journalists getting killed, injured, their families getting killed.
LEIGHTON: That's very, very difficult.
[17:55:00]
And like we saw with -- in Jeremy's report with the Al Jazeera journalist, there are -- because of the very closed quarters that, you know, people are operating in Gaza, it's difficult to avoid hitting certain things for the Israelis. There's no doubt about it.
But the problem is that they absolutely have to make every effort under international law as well as under normal military obligations to avoid killing journalists. That is something I don't think that they have done as thoroughly as they should because the way in which they've executed this, the strikes that they've executed have been relatively indiscriminate.
Even though they tell us they're precise, the effect of the munitions that they've been using has really been indiscriminate. That's what we're really talking about here, the effect of the munitions, and the way the Israelis have used them has made it really hard for journalists and others, cross workers, for example, to be protected in the way that they should be protected.
But the Israelis definitely need to make a much greater effort at protecting journalists and others who have a humanitarian mission in that area.
ACOSTA: All right. Very important point. Colonel Leighton, thank you very much. As always, we appreciate it. We have just over a week before the nation's first caucus in Iowa. Former President Donald Trump is ramping up his attacks on (INAUDIBLE) as President Biden takes aim at Trump as a threat to democracy. We'll discuss it all with Adam Kinzinger and David Axelrod. Both are coming up next.
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