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Trump Picks Susie Wiles as Chief of Staff; Fed Chair Jerome Powell Says He Will Not Resign; Israeli Soccer Fans Attacked; Two Jewish Students in DePaul University Attacked; New Developments in Menendez Brothers Case. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired November 08, 2024 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: The incoming Trump administration is already taking shape with the president elect already announcing a key position. Campaign Manager Susie Wiles will serve as the chief of staff. She'll become the first woman to ever serve in that role at the White House CNN's Alayna Treene is in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Alayna, what do we know about Susie Wiles? What can we expect from her style in terms of running the West Wing? What can you tell us?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, I think it shouldn't come as a total surprise, Jim, that she was the first person that he selected for a major role in his upcoming administration. First of all, remember, Susie Wiles has been incredibly loyal to Donald Trump. As we have discussed, he values loyalty. really above all else. But I remind you that after he left the White House back in 2021, particularly after January 6, a lot of people who were close to the former president in his orbit really tried to distance themselves from him. Susie Wiles did not. She remained by his side and has remained very loyal since. So, that's one thing about one thing to keep in mind.

The other thing about this as well is that she is very well respected within Donald Trump's team, and that's very hard to do for someone who has been in a top leadership role and really in power for several years now. People beneath her really like her. They see she's disciplined. They like the fact that she's not really someone who's always on camera or trying to get media attention for herself. She likes to hang back. That's another thing that they cited.

But one thing that's very interesting, to your question about how we should think about how she'll operate, I mean, so we had great reporting from our colleague Steve Contorno, who said essentially that, you know, one of the key conditions for her taking this job was that she did not want the clown car going to the White House and said that Donald Trump agreed, and that's really kind of been Susie's motto this entire time, which is that she wants to control the chaos and really cut off access to some of the controversial figures trying to reach Donald Trump. So, I think keep that in mind as well as we look ahead to how she'll kind of control things from the inside. Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Alayna Treene, thank you very much. Joining me now. CNN political analysts and PBS News Hour White House correspondent Laura Barron-Lopez and former senior White House adviser for the State Department, Matt Mowers.

[10:35:00]

Matt, let me start with you. What's your reaction to this picked as someone who served in the previous Trump administration? And what do you make of this this notion that she's going to be able to keep the clown car out of the White House? I covered the first Trump administration and I remember seeing the pillow guy and, you know, all kinds of folks, characters and whatnot, Rudy Giuliani, cycling through. Is she really going to be able to control the clown car? Isn't Donald Trump often driving the clown car?

MATT MOWERS, FORMER SENIOR TRUMP WHITE HOUSE ADVISER, STATE DEPARTMENT AND PRESIDENT, VALCOUR GLOBAL PUBLIC STRATEGY: No, no, no. Well, look, the first thing I'll say is eat your heart out, Mark Cuban. You know, here's a smart, intelligent, capable woman that Donald Trump chose to be the first female chief of staff in American history, which by the way, it's really -- I mean, it's incredible. It has taken this long, but it's amazing -- it's great that Donald Trump did make history that way.

Look, I've known Susie for a long time. She's as tough as they get. She's as compassionate as they get. What's amazing about Susie is that she's one of these people that if you are going to go to her with ideas and solutions to try to drive the ball forward, she'll have an open-door policy. If you want to go and just gossip, if you want to just start trying to get into the tit for tat games that have plagued a lot of politics, a little bit of the first administration, she has no time or business doing that. She's no interest in that. She just wants to drive the ball forward.

And that's one of the reasons that Donald Trump trusts her. As he's gotten to know her, she's the longest serving campaign manager that he's ever had. And now, I think she's going to go on to possibly be the longest serving chief of staff he ever had.

ACOSTA: Yes, I mean, the -- past is prologue, I mean, you might be a little overconfident here. I mean, we could show the revolving door at this position if we have that last time around. Let's take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus forced out and replaced now by the current Homeland Security Secretary, retired Marine Corps General John Kelly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump last hour confirming that Chief of Staff John Kelly will leave his post at the White House at the end of the year.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump has just tweeted that Budget Director Mick Mulvaney will be named his acting chief of staff.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Mick Mulvaney's gone. ACOSTA: He's gone. He was an acting chief of staff, never became a permanent chief of staff over here at the White House. The president announcing on Twitter just in the last several minutes that he's naming the Republican congressman from North Carolina, Mark Meadows, as his new chief of staff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Wait. Who's that handsome guy at the White House there? Jim Sciutto not bad either. Laura, I mean, you know, what do you think? I mean, you know, I kind of wonder, are they going to keep Marjorie Taylor Greene out of the White House? No, they're not. They're not going to --

MOWERS: They're going --

ACOSTA: Yes, yes. I mean, you know, I mean, Stephen Miller's probably going to work in the White House. Kash Patel, you know, and so on. I mean --

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST AND WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, PBS NEWSHOUR: Look, and yes, and will Steve Bannon continue to have --

ACOSTA: Steve Bannon.

BARRON-LOPEZ: -- Donald Trump's ear? I take Matt's point, but I mean, we don't really know how long any of these people are going to last. And if the first administration was any indication. I mean, it did feel -- I was covering Congress at the time, you know, while Trump was the president and it felt a bit like a carousel where at any moment someone could get kicked off by Donald Trump.

And I think that Susie Wiles, to Matt's point, is someone who has appeared to last longer than almost anyone else. And it appears as though despite, you know, a little bit of frustration throughout that Donald Trump may have had throughout his campaign, he seems really happy with her. Point -- and making her this very fast decision by appointing her.

So, you know, this time around, it appears as though at least for the beginning, he is trying to surround himself with people that he may be right now considers much more disciplined than in the past.

ACOSTA: And, Matt, I do want to mention this because the Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, was asked about his job yesterday and I want to play this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some of the President-elect's advisers have suggested that you should resign. If he asked you to leave, would you go?

JEROME POWELL, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you follow up on -- is -- do you think that legally you're not required to leave?

POWELL: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: What do you think about that, Matt? I mean, I don't think Donald Trump's going to like hearing that.

MOWERS: Yes. I mean, look, Donald Trump, even in the first term, was often putting out messages about where he thought the Federal Reserve should go, which Donald Trump gives his thoughts about where he thinks everything and the federal government should go, right? So, that's no surprise.

And look, this -- I don't think this is going to come to a head anytime soon, especially given the fact that the Fed has now already announced that they're going to continue to cut rates. I think as long as they go in that direction, that'll be an issue that probably gets overshadowed by other personnel decisions that have to be made of which there's going to be so many.

I mean, I worked on the transition team eight years ago. I mean, right now, if you're sitting there, you are receiving an influx of ideas, both on policy and personnel recommendations from people you've heard from a lot and some people you haven't heard from ever who want to give their suggestions about where to go. So, there'll be a lot of other big decisions they have to make in the meantime.

ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, Laura, I mean, I think another big question that's looming out there is what happens with the FBI director.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Right.

ACOSTA: Christopher Wray. Donald Trump famously, infamously fired Jim Comey at the beginning of the Trump administration and went on NBC and said it was because of the Russia thing.

[10:40:00]

I mean, you know, Trump is going to want to put people in there in the key positions that he wants to see in there.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Right. He wants his own people in there. He's made that very clear throughout the entire campaign. He wants people who will listen to him. He wants to treat the Justice Department in a very different way than prior administrations, even going beyond Biden treated the Justice Department.

Another question is, you know, which Matt and I were talking about is, instituting the executive order where he's able to have more political appointees across the board and how that changes the way government operates is another big question.

ACOSTA: And, Matt, you were a senior adviser at the State Department, worked under Mike Pompeo, correct?

MOWERS: Yes, yes.

ACOSTA: And we're seeing some names being floated for secretary of state. We can put this up on screen. Barak Ravid over at Axios saying that the Tennessee Republican Senator Bill Hagerty, Former Trump National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien, some of the names being floated, Ric Grenell, who was the ambassador to Germany is another candidate being mentioned. What do you think?

MOWERS: Well, first of all, he can't go wrong with any of those names. They're all good friends. They're all perfectly qualified for the positions. I mean, Senator Hagerty, obviously, had served as ambassador to Japan, had worked on the transition, a tremendous private sector background as well. Ambassador Ric Grenell who was really on the forefront of a lot of foreign policy initiatives of the Trump administration.

ACOSTA: He was the acting DNI.

MOWERS: He was acting Director of National Intelligence, former ambassador of Germany, pushing the Germans, by the way, to move away from Russian energy, was maybe a little clairvoyant in pushing for that when Angela Merkel was ignoring him. Not only that, he was also a leading voice in the peace process in Serbia and Kosovo, which he actually asked for that job from Donald Trump. Donald Trump appointed him to take on that issue and actually forged some great economic ties between the two countries in a way that we hadn't seen that region move forward for a while.

And of course, Ambassador O'Brien did a tremendous job as both national security adviser, but then also when he was director of -- ambassador-at-large for hostage negotiations in the State Department, really negotiate the release of a lot of high-profile cases. So, he's got a lot of good options to choose.

ACOSTA: And Trump and O'Brien have remained close since he left office the first time.

MOWERS: Yes, yes. And he's remained close to all three of those individuals.

ACOSTA: All right. Laura, Matt, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Coming up, anti-Semitic rioters targeting Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam injuring dozens of people. CNN's Melissa Bell is live for us.

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim, a major investigation now underway to figure out how these scenes of extraordinary violence could have taken place overnight in a city considered to be one of Europe's most tolerant.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:45:00]

ACOSTA: We are getting new videos showing the shocking and horrific anti-Semitic attack on Israeli soccer fans. I want to warn you, this video is disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is for the children. For the children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I give you my money. I give you. Please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on. I give you my money.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Free Palestine, now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I give you my --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Free Palestine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: This happened overnight in Amsterdam. Tensions had been rising all evening. Some fans of the Israeli team are reportedly praising the military attacks in Gaza and shouting, quote, F the Arabs.

Dutch officials are condemning the attacks. And CNN's Melissa Bell is at the scene in Amsterdam. Very disturbing situation, Melissa. What can you tell us? What's the reaction?

BELL: Really shocking scenes, Jim. And we've been hearing here, over the course of the afternoon, reaction from Dutch officials, the prime minister, the mayor of Amsterdam expressing their shock, announcing this investigation into what happened -- what could have happened in this city so famous for its tolerance and openness.

Now, what we've seen over the course of the last year is a lot of tension rising in Europe. This is a continent in which people feel very strongly about what's happening in the Middle East. You have regular pro-Palestine protests. But here, really, what we're hearing from Dutch officials is their insistence on the anti-Semitic nature of what went on last night.

And you heard that in the voice of the Dutch -- the mayor of Amsterdam, saying, look, there can be protests about events in the Middle East. There can be anger about what's happening in Gaza. What we saw last night was crime. And when you look at those videos, really shocking for those fans who were essentially chased through the streets of Amsterdam. Jim, hunted down in what Dutch authorities describe as hit and run attacks. Five of them ending up in hospital. All have now been released. And all of those Israeli supporters have now been accounted for.

Several planes have been sent from Israel by the government to bring them back to Israel safely. But there are many questions going forward about how these kinds of events and that similar match taking place in Paris next week with the same Tel Aviv football team expected to attend, how Israeli fans can be kept safe and how supporters on either side can be kept from allowing those tensions to overflow and the sort of violence that we saw here in the Dutch capital overnight. Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Melissa Bell, thank you very much. We appreciate the reporting. In Chicago, two Jewish students were attacked at DePaul University. The school says the students were, quote, "visibly showing their support for Israel." The massed attackers hit one victim in the face and body and pushed the other student to the ground before running away. The university's president said in a statement, we are outraged that this occurred on our campus. It is completely unacceptable and a violation of the law of DePaul's values to uphold and care for the dignity of every individual.

Coming up, a major development in the Menendez brothers case out in California. Their possible release after decades in prison could be in jeopardy. The new incoming district attorney is talking to CNN. We'll talk about all this next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:00]

ACOSTA: There's new uncertainty today about the fate of Erik and Lyle Menendez, the Los Angeles County district attorney who pushed for the brothers to be resentenced for murdering their parents and possibly released from prison, lost his re-election bid this week, and the new D.A. says he will have to review the case before taking a position on a potential release.

CNN just spoke to the incoming D.A. in a brand-new lengthy interview. Here's part of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NATHAN HOCHMAN, NEWLY ELECTED LOS ANGELES CO. DISTRICT ATTORNEY: What his -- putting that decision in the middle of a political campaign has done is it's casted a cloud of credibility over the decision. In other words, is the decision just or is this decision just a political ploy? We'll never know for George Gascon because of the timing is of his decision.

But I don't want to have any type of cloud over my decision that it was made thoroughly based on a full review of the facts in the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And joining me now is Loni Coombs. She was a prosecutor for the L.A. County District Attorney's office for 20 years. She was there at the time of the Menendez murders and trials. She's now a legal commentator for Dr. Phil and an anchor for the brand-new Merit Street Media.

Loni, first of all, your reaction to what the D.A. is saying, this new incoming D.A. I mean, this is fascinating, and I suppose it could shake up this case. What do you think?

LONI COOMBS, LOS ANGELES CO. PROSECUTOR AT TIME OF MENENDEZ MURDERS, ANCHOR, MERIT STREET MEDIA: It really could. This is kind of a big twist in this case. And I agree with him 100 percent. Look, people, especially in L.A. who have been involved in this case and live with this case really were concerned about the political motives of the decision made by Gascon.

I think around the country, because they're looking at this case to social media and through the Netflix shows, they were like, this is a wonderful thing. But people in L.A. were, wait a minute, did he take enough time to really review this case? Because he made the decision fairly quickly. Once he started making these press conferences saying, OK, everybody is calling me about these Netflix shows. I'm going to review this case. And now, I'm making my decision like a week later.

[10:55:00]

And Hochman on the other hand said, I am going to review all of the trial transcripts. That's two trials, thousands of pages. I'm going to review all of the trial transcripts. That's two trials, thousands of pages. I'm going to review all of their prison records, 30 years of prison records. I'm going to talk to the D.A.s, the defense attorneys, the detectives, and all the family members before I make my recommendation.

And, Jim, here's the interesting thing. He takes office December 2nd. The hearing is not until December 11th. He can walk in and take that resentencing recommendation off the table and it's gone, because that's a motion that has to be initiated by the D.A. The court has not ruled on it yet. So, it's still a pending motion. People assume it's already a done deal. It is not done. If he decides it shouldn't happen, he can stop it.

ACOSTA: Wow. And I suppose -- I mean, he wouldn't be doing his job if he came in and said, yes, I'm just going to let this continue on. I mean, if this goes through and let's say they're released and there's some sort of recidivism or what, I mean, that's going to be on him. So, he -- I mean, he has to -- I mean, he has to do this basically is the deal.

COOMBS: Yes, absolutely.

ACOSTA: Yes.

COOMBS: Yes. I mean, that's his job, right? And he may end up agreeing with what Gaston said and come in and affirm that. But here's the other interesting twist, Jim. The defense attorney has said that in this re-sentencing hearing, of course, if it happens, he's actually going to go in and ask the court to undercut what the prosecutor is asking for. He's going to ask the judge to give them voluntary manslaughter, which means they would get out of jail immediately because they've already served three times the maximum sentence on voluntary manslaughter. So, it's still up in the air. If the hearing does happen, what the court will actually rule on.

ACOSTA: And based on the merits of the case, I mean, the new evidence that might support the brothers' defense was about these allegations that their father sexually abused them. There was this new letter that came out, I guess the public really hadn't seen before that made it seem as though there was something to this.

I mean, just because there's a new D.A. doesn't make all of that go away. I mean, the new D.A. is going to have to look at this too.

COOMBS: Yes. And this is one part that I really appreciate the new D.A. about because Gascon was asked about, did you actually review the credibility of this new evidence? And he said, it really doesn't matter. And to me, as a prosecutor, I was wondering why did you not review the credibility? You can't just assume that this is credible information, this new evidence that everybody's talking about.

But also, Jim, there's another twist to this, and there's this late application for clemency by the defense attorney that's happening. Now, this clemency request might actually overshadow the resentencing hearing as well. It might stand and take priority, and it came about in a really crazy way. The defense attorney heard Governor Newsom on a podcast over the weekend saying, I've been looking at this Menendez case. In fact, Ryan Murphy, who created the monsters movie came to me nine months ago and told me, hey, I just made this show about, you know, monsters, about the Menendez brothers. You need to a heads up because people are going to talk about it. There's just going to be a lot of attention.

And so, Newsome has had this on his radar for nine months. He said, my kids have been asking me about it because they're seeing it on social media. And he said, it's going to eventually come to me. I've been watching what the D.A. has been doing, I know that the D.A. has made a recommendation, now the court has to make -- you know, decide if it was going to be resentenced, if it goes to the parole board, then it comes to me.

Well, Garagos, the defense attorney, said, why should I wait for all of that? I'm just going to make a direct request for clemency right to Newsom because clearly, it's on his mind. And so, he did and he got Gascon to make the same request. So, there's two requests for clemency for the Menendez brothers on the desk of the governor right now. And that could end up overtaking the resentencing hearing.

ACOSTA: Well, you're in Fort Worth, Texas right now, Loni. But this feels like a very L.A. story. And I guess we're going to have to follow the twists and turns here. But thank you so much for breaking it down for us. We'll talk to you again soon. Loni Coombs, thank you very much.

And I want to thank everybody for joining me this morning. It's been a long week. I want to bring in my friend and colleague, Pamela Brown, who's monitoring all of this as well. I mean, Pamela, it has been a long week for a lot of people. A lot of people feeling depressed about the election results and so on. But, you know, life goes on. You know, you got to get out there and, you know, touch some grass, as the kids say.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

ACOSTA: But there's so much looming on the horizon in terms of this big shakeup that's coming to Washington. When the Trump people get here, when Susie Wiles gets into the White House as the new chief of staff, I mean, they have some very big plans ahead when it comes to taking over the White House here in the next couple of months.

BROWN: Yes, they do. And it already feels like a different -- it's going to be very different, Jim, in terms of the sources I'm talking to. You'll recall the first time around when Trump won, it was pure chaos. Now, you know, as a source I spoke to that was with the Trump campaign told me, look, we are very buttoned up this time.

And you saw he made the decision quickly and announced it about Susie Wiles. It is already feeling different how it's going to take shape, how the campaign promises and whether they will turn into actual policy, whether that will happen, that's still a looming question.

And we actually have Ken Cuccinelli on who worked for the Trump administration on immigration to talk about that and what's -- how does he envision some of the Trump promises on the trail, like deporting millions --

[11:00:00]