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Russian President Signals Willingness to Talk to Trump; Growing Fears Trump Will Cut Off Military Aid to Ukraine; Three People Face Charges Over Death of Liam Payne; Judge Livid After Rudy Giuliani Fails to Hand Over Valuables; Much of Southern California Under Red Flag Warnings. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired November 08, 2024 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. If you're just joining us, here are some of today's top stories.

Donald Trump bringing key members of his planned administration into the fold. There's one of them. The president-elect announced that Susie Wiles, former campaign manager, will be his chief of staff. Hers is the first of several key positions the president has announced in this transition period.

President Joe Biden reaffirmed his intention to facilitate the peaceful transfer of power to Donald Trump. During a speech to the nation, the president called for unity and acceptance of the 2024 election results.

The balance of power is still up in the air in the U.S. Congress. Votes are still being counted in key swing states such as Nevada and Arizona. Several races are up for grabs. As of now, Republicans hold a slim majority in the Senate and they're leading in the House as well.

Now, Russia's president says a new world order is taking shape. Vladimir Putin claims the Western-led post-Cold War era is giving way to a complex world of multilateral cooperation.

During a forum in Sochi, President Putin also said he'd be willing to talk to Donald Trump because his comments on Russia's war in Ukraine deserve attention. However, the Kremlin downplayed earlier claims by Trump that under his leadership, the war could be quickly resolved.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DMITRY PESKOV, KREMLIN SPOKESPERSON: We proposed something in order to solve the Ukrainian crisis, even before his inauguration. Of course, there was a little bit of an over-exaggeration that he would be able to do it overnight. Certainly, there's nothing that can heal this problem overnight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: CNN's Fred Pleitgen is following all of this live from Berlin. I guess what we've got here is if President Trump is going to find some sort of negotiated solution, then the both sides need to get their positions clear before they go into that.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they certainly do. And I think one of the things that President-elect Trump touted before he was elected, and certainly in that meeting that he had in September with Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, is that he believes that he can find a quick end to the war in Ukraine.

You just heard Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for the Kremlin there, saying that he doesn't believe that there is going to be a quick end, that all that is exaggerated and certainly not realistic, definitely by the way that things are going on the battlefield.

But that's the thing that Donald Trump has said. He says he has good relations with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and he has good relations with Vladimir Putin as well.

And yesterday certainly was a pretty interesting evening, Max, when we saw Vladimir Putin for hours speaking there at the 20th anniversary of the Valdai Club in Sochi, where he did then say that he found Donald Trump interesting as the president-elect, that he would be willing to listen to him.

And it was specifically the fact that Donald Trump had said that he wants to end the war in Ukraine as fast as possible, that Vladimir Putin said that it would make him worth listening to. It was one of those interesting sort of exchanges towards the end of that evening where he was asked whether or not he'd be willing to speak to Donald Trump. He said, yes, he would.

But Vladimir Putin also saying that he would not initiate that conversation. And in general, he said that if Western states want to normalize their relations with Russia, that Russia is willing to listen. But it certainly didn't appear as though Russia would be willing to make the first step. So that sort of sets somewhat or appears to somewhat set the framework under which something like that could happen.

It was also the first time, by the way, Max, that Vladimir Putin congratulated Donald Trump on his election victory. You'll recall that right after it became clear that Donald Trump had enough electoral votes to become president of the United States, that we heard from the Russian Federation that there was -- that Vladimir Putin was not planning to congratulate Donald Trump, at least officially.

Now that happened at that Valdai Forum, although, of course, there was, as we know, no official call between the two.

All of this, Max, was going on as at almost the same time Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine was at a summit in Hungary, in Budapest, where he was warning European leaders of what he calls hugs with Vladimir Putin, which he said had brought absolutely nothing to the European continent over the past 20 years, and that the war, of course, very much is still ongoing. And one of the things that we have to point out is that despite the

rhetoric from Donald Trump, the war in Ukraine, of course, still very much in full swing. The Ukrainians right now, especially on the Eastern Front, under a lot of pressure.

[04:35:00]

And if we look at just overnight tonight, once again, a massive drone and missile attack that happened by the Russians on Ukrainian infrastructure, on Ukrainian towns.

And so right now, definitely a very difficult situation to try and negotiate something. But again, Donald Trump, of course, saying he believed that he could do that.

The Ukrainians very skeptical of that. And the Ukrainians also quite concerned about some of the comments that they heard from Donald Trump insinuating that military aid to Ukraine could be cut, especially those by J.D. Vance, who essentially was reflecting exactly the points that the Kremlin has been making over the past almost three years -- Max.

FOSTER: Fred Pleitgen, thank you.

Earlier CNN's former Moscow bureau chief, Jill Dougherty, spoke about how the Kremlin is likely viewing Trump's big win.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It's quite obvious that Russia wanted Trump to win. But I thought the let's say the theatricality of today was very interesting because, again, he did not immediately jump in and say, congratulations, Mr. Trump. He waited a bit.

And I would interpret that as, you know, Putin, a little coy. He is the leader of a big country, too. And he doesn't have to wait on pins and needles for another president. But that said, this relationship is extremely important. And Ukraine at the top of the list.

From what people understand of it, it essentially would freeze everything in place, which means that the Russians would be holding the territory, the Ukrainian territory that they have, that they've won. And then they would somehow come to territorial concessions.

In other words, the Ukrainians would have to give up probably Donbas, that eastern region, and Crimea. And then there might be peacekeepers. It's a little unclear.

Right now, they're, you know, they're getting as much as they can from the United States. They're getting help from Europe. But if that, if the United States stopped giving aid, it would be really very, very difficult. And that's a nightmare scenario for Zelenskyy.

It's hard to say exactly what would satisfy Putin. But he ultimately will need a win, too. And he's already said Crimea is a no-go. We have to have Crimea. He's very, very serious and insists on keeping Donbas. Maybe that would satisfy him. But you can bet that he would want to essentially freeze any possibility for Ukraine to join NATO. There would be no way that he would accept that and probably just kind of neutralize Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Jill Dougherty there.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz coming under pressure to fast-track a new election. He fired his finance minister on Wednesday over a budget dispute. Christian Lindner opposes a plan to increase financial support for Ukraine. He has withdrawn his party from the governing coalition. Germany, which is Europe's largest economy, is facing a multibillion-euro budget deficit.

The Chancellor says he'll hold a confidence vote in January, which he's likely to lose now. The leader of the opposition Conservatives wants a confidence vote by next week, the very latest.

Investigators in Argentina have laid preliminary charges in connection with the tragic death of singer Liam Payne. That story after the break.

And Rudy Giuliani outrages a federal judge as he defies an order to hand over his New York apartment and other valuables to two Georgia election workers. Why? Donald Trump's former lawyer says he shouldn't have to pay up, just ahead.

[04:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Three people are facing preliminary, but not formal, charges so far in the death of English singer Liam Payne. They're being investigated for abandonment before death and supplying narcotics. CNN's Julia Vargas Jones has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A hotel employee, a suspected drug dealer, and a person authorities describe as having spent time with Liam Payne on a daily basis during his visit to Buenos Aires are all facing these preliminary charges in relation to his death on October 16, after he fell from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires.

That first individual is being charged with abandonment of a person before death in the supply and facilitation of narcotics. That is punishable to up to 15 years in prison. Other charges include supplying cocaine and supplying narcotics.

Now Liam Payne, authorities say, was found with both alcohol, antidepressants, and a significant amount of cocaine in his system after that fall that led to his death. They say that they've reviewed over 800 hours of video and also looked over his cell phone. They went through a forensic extraction. They analyzed calls, text messages, and posts on social media that he had made in the days leading up to his death.

They also said that they rolled out self-inflicted injuries or the intervention of other people, which paints a picture that despite the company of these other people who were now preliminarily charged, that he was alone at the time of his fall.

They say also that the injuries were compatible with those that would come from a fall, so he wasn't injured before he fell. And also that based on his posture and the positioning of his body, that it looks like he was already in a state of semi or total unconsciousness by the time that he fell.

Of course, his death has caused so much grief to fans of One Direction and of his solo career across the world. We saw an outpour of love from fans in Argentina. His father had traveled to Buenos Aires to retrieve his body, which should arrive in the U.K. soon. And more details are to come on a possible funeral.

Julia Vargas Jones, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: A subway passenger and two New York police officers testified Thursday in the chokehold death of an unhoused street artist. Prosecutors say Daniel Penny, a former U.S. Marine, went way too far and violated the law by putting Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold in May of 2023. One witness told the court Penny stopped him from giving Neely water as he was lying limp on the subway floor.

The two officers testified about their interactions with Penny in the moments after the fatal incident. Penny was pleaded -- or has pleaded not guilty to two charges and maintains he was trying to protect people from a threat. The trial touches on issues around mental illness, race relations, and vigilantism.

The judge in the University of Idaho murders trial is now considering several defense motions that would dismiss the death penalty if Brian Kohberger is found guilty. Kohberger is accused of killing four students two years ago. The defense argues the death penalty violates both Kohberger's rights in international law and that it creates a potential conflict with his constitutional entitlement to effective counsel and a speedy trial.

There's no timeline yet for when these decisions will be made. The trial is scheduled for August next year.

A federal judge is threatening to charge Rudy Giuliani with contempt after Donald Trump's former lawyer missed a court order deadline to hand over his car and other valuables to two Georgia election workers that he defamed over the 2020 vote.

Our Katelyn Polantz has details from outside the courthouse in New York. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[04:45:00]

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, has a new deadline to turn over nearly everything he owns of value to two women he defamed while he was working for Donald Trump after the 2020 election. That new deadline, it was set by a federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday.

That judge told Giuliani, you know, you weren't supposed to turn these things over last week but let me hear what you have to say. Giuliani's lawyer got up to argue all different things about why Giuliani might not have been able to get these items to these two women because he owes them $150 million. They're going to sell off things like sports memorabilia from the Yankees, an apartment that he has in Manhattan's Upper East Side, luxury watches, about two dozen of them.

One of the excuses that Giuliani's attorney gave in court was that some of these items he thinks might not actually be something that Giuliani should have to give up in court, that there might be a legal argument there. And he even told the judge, you and I differ on the law. And the judge said, no, this is done. There was a court order weeks ago, and you have to turn these items over.

When Giuliani's attorney said a wristwatch that the mayor himself received from his grandfather, Rudolfo Giuliani, when that wristwatch was being sought by these two women, Giuliani's attorney told the judge it was vindictive of them to go after that. And the judge said, no, that's my order. The law is the law. I don't apply it differently to your client.

Giuliani himself was in the court. The judge had ordered him to come to Manhattan from Palm Beach, where he's living. He was in there just earlier this week, driving around in the very Mercedes-Benz from 1980 that he's supposed to be giving the keys and title to these two women, Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman. He was driving around in that Mercedes on Tuesday to vote after he was supposed to have given them the car, the keys, all of that is going to be picked up by the lawyers for Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss by the end of next week.

As Giuliani was exiting the court, he stopped by cameras. CNN asked him if Donald Trump would help him. And he said he doesn't need the incoming president's help.

Katelyn Polantz, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: People in parts of Spain are struggling to clean up the destruction left from deadly historic floods that swept the region more than a week ago. Thousands of Spanish troops were deployed to the eastern region to help volunteers clear mud from the streets and to help distribute supplies, including food, clothing and other items. At least 219 people have been killed and about 93 people are still missing.

In Southern California, dangerous winds are dying down and fire conditions are expected to improve in the coming hours. Strong, gusty winds have been pushing the so-called mountain fire since it started near Los Angeles on Wednesday, threatening the lives and property of millions of people. More now from CNN's Nick Watt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Millions of Californians facing extreme and life-threatening fire behavior.

[04:50:00]

At the Mountain Fire just northwest of L.A., nearly 20,000 acres burned, more than 14,000 people under evacuation orders. Schools closed, a major highway closed. Still no count on just how many homes have been lost.

Another blaze burning in Malibu, firefighters have somehow kept that contained. Power intentionally cut to nearly 70,000 customers for fear of sparking even more blazes in bone-dry vegetation.

RICHARD GALANTE, LOST HOME IN MOUNTAIN FIRE: You can't even pick it up.

WATT (voice-over): Richard Galante smelled smoke when he woke up Wednesday.

GALANTE: The wind was so fierce, it was unbelievable. I lived here all my life and we were always used to winds, but lately, last five years --

WATT: It got worse.

GALANTE: It got worse.

WATT (voice-over): By lunchtime, his house was gone.

GALANTE: There was no getting anything. My wife got one handbag, she didn't have any shoes.

WATT (voice-over): We were around here yesterday when wind-whipped flames ripped through this neighborhood.

WATT: This is not a backcountry wildfire. We are in a city right now, the city of Camarillo, population around 70,000. These firefighters right now are trying to contain this blaze.

WATT (voice-over): This is a satellite image of the fire within an hour of ignition. And this, a time-lapse showing how fast the blaze spread, scorching a football field's worth of land every three or four seconds for seven hours. Embers on the wind can burn one house to the ground while others around sit untouched.

On his street, Richard Galante just happened to be the unlucky one. WATT: Are you going to try to rebuild here?

GALANTE: I am going to rebuild.

WATT: You are?

GALANTE: Where the f*** am I going to go? Well, where am I going to -- the view is incredible. I knew it would happen someday. You pay for certain things. Unbelievable.

WATT: These fires are exceptionally hard to fight because of the wind. So embers can travel three miles on that wind, land and set another blaze. There are other neighborhoods like this where, look, I mean, the wall of flames just barreled through here, destroying everything on this side of the street.

There are 10 teams out right now trying to figure out just how many homes have been lost. The wind has dropped. The wind will drop over the weekend. The problem, the Santa Ana winds are forecast to pick up again at the beginning of next week. So people are anxious here and elsewhere in Southern California that there may be more of this to come.

Nick Watt, CNN, Camarillo, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Meanwhile, blizzard conditions continue to dump heavy snow in the states of New Mexico and Colorado. Drivers were left stranded on the road in central New Mexico after Interstate 40 iced over. One man said he and his partner were trapped for hours overnight before deciding to turn around.

Some places have already received a meter of snow. More is expected today, along with strong wind gusts, which could also hinder visibility.

Meanwhile, the storm system is forecast to bring heavy rain, hail and possible tornadoes to Oklahoma and Texas. Flood watches are in place for nearly two million people in Oklahoma.

Climate scientists say new data confirms 2024 will be the hottest year, though, on record, and it will be the first calendar year to surpass the warmest threshold -- or the warming threshold that scientists said will prevent the worsening impacts of severe heat waves, droughts and rising sea levels. The news comes as the U.S. re- elects Donald Trump, a noted climate denier. More now from CNN's Bill Weir.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: This new data just in from the Copernicus European Space Agency, says that 2024 is virtually certain to be the first year to smash past the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal that was set in the Paris Climate Accords. Anything beyond 1.5, the worry was back then, that humanity would not be able to adapt in time.

Well, here we are. We're at 1.5. We certainly covered all the breaking months, but now it would add up to this. We'll expect confirmation from the U.S. NOAA and NASA space agencies in a few weeks. But the irony of this happening right after the United States elects the most notorious climate denier in modern history and Donald Trump is a double blow to those climate diplomats who are meeting in Azerbaijan for COP29 next week.

It's a blow for climate scientists, earth scientists, activists, entrepreneurs in the United States who were riding this new clean energy wave since the Inflation Reduction passed a couple of years ago under Joe Biden. Hundreds of millions of dollars, even private dollars, have followed this funding, many of it into Republican states. About 80 percent of the IRA money has broken ground in Republican districts.

[04:55:02]

The hope was that the public would then come to appreciate that and congressmen would fight to defend them. We'll see if Donald Trump intends to claw any of that back. He has promised to roll back as much of the Biden new rules on power plants and tailpipe emissions, on those clean energy incentives for families to buy electric vehicles or heat pumps for their homes. With a total control of the House and Senate, that would be much easier for him to do.

But the energy transformation, the trajectory is already very much in play around the world. And it's just way more expensive to run a fossil fuel power plant these days.

Sun and wind with storage is a cheaper option. So that will create some interesting politics as Trump tries to dismantle as much as he can of the Joe Biden environmental legacy.

Bill Weir, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Hurricane Rafael is picking up steam again after landing a devastating blow in Cuba. It hit the island as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday, temporarily knocking out power to the entire country. Power is now back up in parts of eastern and central Cuba as hundreds of workers scramble to restore service.

Since then, Rafael moved west and weakened to a Category 2 storm. But winds have now increased to 120 mph or 195 kmph, making it a Category 3 major hurricane once again. But the storm is expected to start weakening again by tonight. Forecasters say it will likely meander over the Gulf and weaken further over the next few days.

More than 40 monkeys are on the loose in South Carolina after escaping an animal testing facility. And can you blame them?

The rhesus macaque primates, who broke free from the Alpha Genesis Primate Research Center, were all young females weighing up to 7 pounds, or about 3 kilograms. Police say the monkeys have not yet been used for testing and are too young to carry disease. But they are skittish. They could be hungry.

Residents are being warned to keep their doors and windows -- probably fridges as well -- securely closed.

A burly trick or treater came looking for something tasty in a Connecticut town on Halloween night. We're talking about a large black bear, which apparently had a hankering for some Halloween sweets. The animal was caught on camera grabbing treats left on a porch in the town of Avon. The big fella spent time sifting through the candy, spilled on the ground, but in the end it only took a pumpkin and a hightailed away with it. All caught on camera, thankfully.

Thanks for joining me here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London. CNN THIS MORNING is up after a quick break.