Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

What New Abortion Measures Mean For Access In The U.S.; Trump To Meet With Biden In Oval Office On Wednesday; Trump Allies Jockeying For High-Powered White House Roles; Biden Prepares To Attend Final Summit And Make International Visits; Pelosi Suggests Biden Should Have Dropped Out Of Race Sooner; Trump's Second Term Likely To Look Far Different From First; Black Americans Receive Racist Texts After Election; Foreign Policy Set To Take Major Shift Under Trump. U.S. Foreign Policy Set To Take Major Shift Under Trump; Trump Inherits Israeli Wars with Iranian Proxies; Weather Conditions Improve As Crews Battle CA Wildfire; Tropical Moisture Dumps Heavy Rain In Louisiana; Special Counsel Assessing Future Of Trump Criminal Case; Judge to Giuliani: Turn Over Valuables Or You Could Be Held In Contempt. Aired 1-2p ET

Aired November 09, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: -- and Arizona and Missouri improve access in those states. About 40 percent of women of reproductive age will still be living in states where abortion is either banned or restricted.

Now, it's not clear what the new Trump administration's strategy will be around abortion. We know Trump's campaign has said he would veto a federal abortion ban if elected, but we also have seen his position on the issue shift many times over the years.

Back to you.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Jacqueline Howard, thank you so much.

Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Top of the hour where we're following major new developments. A just announced meeting between outgoing President Joe Biden and President- elect Donald Trump. According to the White House, the two men have now agreed to meet in the Oval Office on Wednesday morning.

That meeting comes as Trump and his transition team are working quickly to fill key White House positions. And sources tell CNN we could learn some of those names at any moment. Trump just made history this week by announcing Susie Wiles as the country's first ever female chief of staff.

And now, there's a scramble underway at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Resort in Florida, as members of his inner circle and the GOP sphere are battling behind the scenes for a spot on his team.

We have a team of correspondents covering all of these developments for us. CNN's Alayna Treene is covering the Trump transition at Trump's Florida home or near his Florida home. But let's begin with Arlette Saenz. And this just announced meeting at the White House, Arlette, what more do we know about this Wednesday meeting in the Oval Office?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, President Biden extended this invitation to President-elect Donald Trump in a phone call on Wednesday, and the White House announced today that the meeting will in fact take place this upcoming Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. in the Oval Office.

It comes as President Biden is trying to show that he is committed to having a peaceful transfer of power. That is something that the President has said he made clear to Trump in their phone call on Wednesday, saying that there will be a peaceful and orderly transition.

And it comes just four years after that was not afforded to President Biden by then President Donald Trump, who had thrown up many roadblocks in the transition process and had never conceded in this race.

Now, this will be a return to the tradition. Former President Barack Obama actually hosted Donald Trump, then the president-elect in the Oval Office for a meeting in 2016. And that is the tradition of many presidents before that.

Now, we are also told that an invitation was also extended to the incoming first lady, Melania Trump. An East Wing official telling us today that the Bidens both had congratulated the Trumps and extended a joint invitation. It is unclear when exactly that meeting could take place.

But it is tradition that when the president-elect comes to the White House, the first lady, incoming first lady has also come for a visit in the East Wing and potentially in the private residence.

But for Biden, he has really tried to stress and his advisers have tried to stress that one of the key missions in the coming weeks is ensuring that there is this orderly transition. And this step in the Oval Office will be a key piece of that.

WHITFIELD: All right. And Alayna, there near Mar-a-Lago, what has been happening behind the scenes there as Trump prepares to return the White House? Some people have been, I guess, volunteering themselves for their services.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: That's right. You know, that island behind me, Fred, there is a ton of activity happening there today, but also over the past several days. Now, Donald Trump has been hold up in his Mar-a-Lago.

I think it's actually fascinating because we really haven't seen or heard much from the former president ever since his win early Wednesday morning. He has been locked down, I'm told, really working on some of, you know, the positions and looking through the positions and different people and candidates for who he would select to be in certain cabinet positions and top White House roles, but also some of his early policy priorities.

Now you are exactly right. There's been an intense amount of jockeying going on over at Mar-a-Lago. We know that Donald Trump comes out to the patio. He likes to mingles with guests. We've been told that every single table has been filled every single night at Mar-a-Lago as they're trying to be seen by him, maybe get an audience with him. And so there's a lot happening behind the scenes there.

But I do want to talk about some of the key things that Donald Trump is focused on because when I talked to his team and to his advisers, they keep focusing on the same roles. Now we know that there are a few roles that Donald Trump cares about the most.

The first being attorney general. That is a role that Donald Trump sometimes had said after he had left the White House that that was his biggest regret, that he regretted selecting his former attorneys general, Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr.

[13:05:07]

And that this time around, he wants to make sure whoever he puts in that position is loyal to him, that he can trust them and also that they will help him carry out his legal agenda. Donald Trump has said in the past that he wants really a legal pitbull in some senses.

That he wants someone who does not operate -- he doesn't want the Justice Department to operate as independently as it has traditionally. He wants someone who will work with him on potentially, you know, seeking retribution against his political opponents, maybe even prosecuting them.

So that's going to be a big role. Other big roles, of course, are going to be the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, as well as the CIA. I am told those are the top different decisions that he is really spending the most time contemplating at this moment.

WHITFIELD: And then, Alayna, is it the case that the president-elect is already working on executive orders for when he takes office?

TREENE: That's right. He is. And I will say that some people on his team, he's had different policy advisers and people who have been drafting some of these orders for some time now. But that has really ramped up in these past few days and being taken more seriously, of course, now that they know that Donald Trump will be in the White House come January 20th.

There are a few areas of focus that they have been really paying attention to more. So when it comes to these executive orders, one is immigration, but also energy. And I do have some reporting on some of the energy executive orders as well as proclamations that they have been preparing.

That includes withdrawing the United States once again from the Paris climate agreement. That is something Donald Trump had announced he would do in June of 2017, just a couple months after taking office, the first time around and has vowed since then to do once again.

He's also promised to slash government jobs and offices dedicated to cutting pollution, particularly in poor communities. He also wants to downsize national monuments particularly those in the west to allow for more drilling and mining on public lands. That is just some of what I'm told that they are already preparing for him to sign once he gets into office in January. Fred?

WHITFIELD: OK, thanks Alayna.

All right, Arlette, back to you in Washington. Well, you know, you just heard it and I know the White House knows it too. If Trump is already working on executive orders, that means President Biden is probably working really hard to try to protect his legacy and check off some things on his to do list?

SAENZ: Yes, Fred, the Biden administration is really racing to try to safeguard some of the initiatives that have been put in place by President Joe Biden. And then there's also additional work that they want to try to see completed by the end of his term.

One of those issues relates to trying to get the additional or get the approved aid to Ukraine out the door as soon as possible as there are questions about what future U.S. support for Ukraine might look like. The Biden administration is also focused on that implementation part of the key legislative victories, trying to get as much money out the door relating to the semiconductor bill and also that Inflation Reduction Act, which includes a lot of climate policies.

There could also be moves relating to the environment and climate issues. Just this week, they'd already announced a limit on drilling in one of Alaska's Arctic wildlife reserves. And then Biden is also trying to see if he can further put his mark when it comes to judicial nominations.

Just yesterday, he nominated two more federal district judges. That is something that Senate Democrats could try to push across the finish line in the coming weeks. So it's unclear what the Republican cooperation might be like on that front.

And then Biden is also expected to return to the world stage just this coming week. He will attend a pair of summits, one in Peru, the APEC Summit, and another in Brazil, the G20, at a time when many world leaders around the world are also grappling with having to work with President-elect Trump in just a little over two months.

Biden has often talked about when he's met with world leaders that he has tried to assure them that America's is back. But now there is the question of what American foreign policy will be like going forward. We know that various world leaders have been reaching out to Trump, but this will also put Biden face to face with many of the world leaders as they're trying to figure out what the next four years will hold when it comes to foreign policy.

WHITFIELD: All right. Arlette Saenz, Alayna Treene, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it.

Let's talk more about all this with CNN Political Analyst and Princeton History Professor Julian Zelizer. Julian, great to see you.

JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: All right. So these postmortem conversations, particularly among, you know, Democrats have really been all over the place. But now, you know, you have former House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, placing blame directly on Biden out loud for the Democrats loss. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

[13:10:01]

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race. The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary. And as I say, Kamala may have, I think she would have done well in that and been stronger going forward.

But we don't know that. That didn't happen. We live with what happened. And because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

WHITFIELD: Now that recent statement from Pelosi was very different from her tone just last year. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

PELOSI: I was very excited about the president announcing. In terms of the Democrats, I know a little bit about that because I go to their meetings all over, and yes, they'd rather -- he be younger, but they're all for him. Then people are going to say, we're going to -- everybody's going to be on board. I mean, there's little, should we say, sidebar stuff, but by and large, this is people understand. It's -- there's so much at stake in this election.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

WHITFIELD: So in your view, you know, did this last comment from Pelosi and, you know, the contrast from last year's remarks from her, does it cause any new friction within the party or, you know, allow for a new perspective on what happened?

ZELIZER: I think the friction is already there. I think the bigger problem is that they get too focused Democrats on Harris, on Biden, rather the bigger picture of this MAGA Republican coalition growing steadily since 2016 in size and strength, cutting into Democratic constituencies and trying to figure out what's a new coalition moving forward.

What are new ideas moving forward? Focusing on blame is, you know, predictable, but I'm not sure it's going to be very helpful for the party.

WHITFIELD: OK. And then there's a veteran member of Congress, Jim Clyburn. He was a lot more philosophical about what the election outcome means. Perhaps in, you know, using your terminology, he was thinking bigger picture, but listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

REP. JIM CLYBURN (D), SOUTH CAROLINA: You heard the rhetoric in the campaign. I certainly heard it. And then day or two before the campaign, the references to women. One to the former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, with the B word.

Another time I heard references to Kamala Harris with the C word. And these were done openly in wide open spaces with children in the audience. My real problem now is not Democrat versus Republican. It's about this country and what we can expect from this country.

I've studied the history of this country all of my life. I lived through Jim Crow. And I know that Project 2025 is Jim Crow 2.0. I'm wondering whether or not we are coming out of this election, the way the country came out of the 1876 presidential election, which led to the end of reconstruction and led to the beginning of Jim Crow. Is that where we are today?

(END VIDEOCLIP)

WHITFIELD: He's talking about, you know, what now seems to be an enlightenment among many about the racism and sexism that continues to exist, if not flourish. So what does this election in your view, the outcome say to you about where our country is right now?

ZELIZER: Well, I think that argument will be widespread, meaning this election. Unlike 2016, there was tremendous clarity about what the president-elect stood for, what his coalition stood for. And these issues were front and center. You don't have to scratch beneath the surface to hear them, to see them, to read them on issues such as immigrants.

There is a reactionary element to the new MAGA coalition and that coalition affirmed itself and its role in American politics right now. So I think that's part of what is troubling many Democrats, not simply who has power, but what this election means about the character of the United States.

And some will be resigned and despondent. But I think you'll also see slowly others kind of resist, allowing this to be the direction of what is America.

WHITFIELD: It was a decisive victory for Trump. And you wrote this week in Foreign Policy about what lessons, you know, Democrats should take away from this, but perhaps, you know, are there lessons that everyone needs to, I guess, wake up to.

ZELIZER: Yes, I mean, the point of that article is I'm starting to really think that 2020 was the anomaly in terms of the outcome.

[13:15:03]

And this Republican coalition is the bigger story about where American people has moved. That said, it's a polarized country still. It's still a 50-50 country, and a lot of the country is not on board with this. And so, certainly for Democrats, they need to figure out how do they turn their 50 into a majority and come back in the next four years and redirect the conversation of the country. And I think that will be the battle ahead.

WHITFIELD: Julian Zelizer, we'll leave it there for now. Thank you so much.

ZELIZER: Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: All right, still ahead, how leaders around the world are bracing for the return of Donald Trump to the international stage. And a day after Election Day, mostly black people, some kids receiving hateful, threatening, racist text messages on their phones. Where the investigation is heading, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:20:38]

WHITFIELD: A consortium of federal and state agencies are investigating and trying to find the source of a slew of racist, hate filled text messages sent to mostly black Americans across the U.S., some of them kids.

CNN's Rafael Romo is joining me now with the latest on this. So, what are you learning about these disturbing messages?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and you mentioned kids. There was one case of a 13-year-old. Can you imagine that? And we heard from his mom. And as you can imagine, very worried, very concerned and the messages appear to have been sent using free phone service and mobile data providers.

One of these providers known as Text Now [ph] told CNN Friday, the company released this is a widespread coordinated attack. The hate filled text messages have been reported in more than 20 states from New York to California and the District of Columbia.

Students from at least three historically black colleges and universities, Hampton University in Virginia, Fisk University in Nashville, and Claflin University in South Carolina have reported receiving messages. And according to Nevada's Attorney General's office, the texts appeared to be robotext messages.

One of the biggest questions here is, how is it possible to do something like this anonymously? Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill told CNN Friday that whether this is a single person or a group, they're using anonymizing software to obscure their location, which makes it very difficult to track them.

As you can imagine, this is cause for great concern for those receiving the messages as well as parents and loved ones.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

JENNIFER GREEN, SON RECEIVED TEXT MESSAGE: My friend sent me a text message that said that someone in a different state got a similar text message and I read it and it was very similar in wording. They just changed the foe (ph) letters around. But that is also concerning because I'm wondering how widespread this is.

ALYSE MCCALL, UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA STUDENT: This is truly disgusting and whoever sending it out is vile. No one should ever one think to send that message or receive that message. It just made me sick to my stomach.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

ROMO: The NAACP denounced the messages saying that they represent an alarming increase in vile and abhorrent rhetoric from racist groups across the country who now feel emboldened to spread hate and stoke the flames of fear that many of us are feeling after Tuesday's election results.

We have also heard from President-elect Donald Trump's campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told CNN that Trump's presidential campaign has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages. One of the many reasons why the text messages deeply worried many people is that they addressed recipients by name.

Cori Faklaris, an assistant professor of Software and Information Services at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte told the AP that the senders likely collected personal data by buying it online and then use that information into machine learning algorithms to increase the chances that those getting the messages are members of a minority group.

In other words, they're targeting these people having a general idea of who they are and whether they are members of a minority group.

WHITFIELD: Really disturbing. Is there hope that finding the source, the group individuals responsible could actually happen?

ROMO: It is possible. But one of the things we learned is that some of these messages went across the world to servers in Poland before coming back to the U.S. So imagine for law enforcement how difficult is going to be to actually track all of that and found the original person who sent the message.

WHITFIELD: OK. All right, Rafael Romo, thank you so much. Keep us posted as you learn more.

All right, some world leaders are bracing for a tectonic shift in U.S. foreign policy when Donald Trump returns to the White House. Straight ahead, we'll hear how European leaders are preparing. You're in the CNN Newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:28:45]

WHITFIELD: Donald Trump will face a world on edge when he takes office in January. Even the landscape in Europe has shifted since he was last in the White House. As CNN's Nic Robertson explains, European leaders are bracing for potentially big changes in their relationships with the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): Raging wars in Ukraine and the Mideast. An informal alliance of enemies, Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are the obvious changes in world order President-elect Donald Trump inherits.

Less talked about since he left office in 2021, the political weakening of some of his former putative allies, particularly in Europe. Elections in France undermined President Emmanuel Macron's standing. Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz has a tanking economy and a collapsing governing coalition.

Both of these E.U. powerhouses losing political ground to right-wing populists who are on the rise across Europe. In Italy, a right-wing populist, Giorgia Meloni, won elections, is a fan of Trump. But Trump also lost supporters.

BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: Thank you all very much.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): U.K. PM Boris Johnson gone from power. The Conservative Party trounced in recent elections by trend-bucking Keir Starmer's left-leaning Labour Party.

Where all these changes get tested first, likely over Trump's campaign promise to end Russia's war in Ukraine in a day.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'll have that done in 24 hours.

ROBERTSON: And threats to pull America's Ukraine funding.

As almost 50 European leaders gathered in Budapest just two days after the U.S. elections, Trump's victory and Ukraine are top topic.

Trump ally and meeting host, Hungarian P.M. Viktor Orban, in close conversation with Macron and Starmer. Starmer then with Macron, just the tip of the iceberg of debate on this frosty issue.

And Starmer later, with Ukraine's Zelenskyy.

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: As you know, our support for Ukraine is unwavering. ROBERTSON: The unspoken question in Budapest, can Europe go it alone?

ALEXANDER DE CROO, BELGIAN PRIME MINISTER: We should be very clear on this. European security is not something that we outsource to someone else, for example, to the United States.

ROBERTSON: Macron said the same thing. But already clear, the opening pitch to Trump: We need you.

DE CROO: We are open to discuss with the United States on how we can work better together.

ROBERTSON: And at the sharp end of Europe's sell, NATO's new chief, another change for Trump.

MARK RUTTE, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: I look forward to sit down with Donald Trump to discuss how we can face these threats collectively.

ROBERTSON: It's a bold gambit. But read through it, Europe isn't ready to stand up to Putin alone.

Nic Robertson, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Al right, let's talk more about Trump's foreign policy.

With us now is CNN global affairs analyst, Kimberly Dozier.

Kim, great to see you.

Let's go through some of the biggest foreign policy challenges Trump faces and then you can give us your top lines on each.

We just heard Nic Robertson on Europe. Will European leaders and NATO have to go it alone on major issues, particularly on Ukraine and NATO?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, first of all, Europe is worried about a trade war because President-Elect Donald Trump has threatened that on the campaign trail.

He did that the last time he was in office. He raised tariffs on European goods at a time when no one's economy is doing super well. Everyone is still recovering from Covid.

When you move to the issue of Ukraine, I just recently traveled through Europe and northern Europe and central Europe and talked to leaders there who are worried about the potential of a Trump administration.

Because while they have the will to go it alone in terms of aid to Ukraine, they do not necessarily have the manufacturing power to ramp up fast enough to give Ukraine what they need to survive.

Not to compare with what the U.S. has or the stocks that the U.S. still has. What the U.S. has largely done is sent old stocks to Ukraine and then used the funds to ramp up new deliveries, which has been a real boast to the U.S. defense industry.

That is not something that the E.U. can then turn on overnight, so there is - (TECHNICAL ISSUE)

WHITFIELD: All right, so let's talk about Israel and the Middle East now. How do expect President-Elect Donald Trump to deal with the war in Gaza?

DOZIER: Well, the Netanyahu government has rejoiced over Trump returning to office, because you have to remember the last time Trump was in office, the U.S. did things like recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

That was something that was always supposed to wait until there had been final status negotiations over a two-state solution, with the idea being part of Jerusalem, east Jerusalem, would become a Palestinian capital and the rest would be a longing to Israel.

And Trump road over that. He also recognized the 1967 Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights. And time and time again, allowed the expansion of Israeli settlements.

Now, Arab-Americans have bragged in some cases that they helped bring Trump back to office. I am surprised at that because, in terms of what is happening in Gaza and Lebanon, yes, Trump has probably said he wants Netanyahu to wrap those operations up.

But in the past, whenever Netanyahu has made a case to Trump that he has got to go ahead with these actions because of the danger Israel faces, Trump has said yes. And I do not expect that pattern to change.

WHITFIELD: OK, what about Iran?

[13:34:59]

DOZIER: Yes, Iran is another tough one. Because, as you saw in the news this past week, the DOJ unveiled that it had caught U.S. citizens paid by Iran to try to assassinate Donald Trump before he was elected president.

And also to assassinate a couple of high-profile Jewish figures and a high-profile Iranian American, kind of, protester to the regime. That is going to start things on a sour note.

But one of the ways that Trump managed to bring about Abraham Accords in the past, which was Israel and certain gulf nations and Morocco signing a treaty of detente, was because those nations fear Iran.

Now, post-October 7th and Israels crackdown on Gaza, many of those Arab Muslim nations have rallied around Iran. And China even negotiated a peace deal between Tehran and Saudi Arabia.

So all of that could stand in the way of Trump's plans to, again, rally Arab nations against Iran and somehow expand the Abraham Accords. A complicated picture.

WHITFIELD: Very complicated.

All right, Kim Dozier, thank you so much.

All right, happening right now, firefighters are racing to get the upper hand on a wildfire that has already destroyed more than 100 homes in southern California. The big question now, will the weather cooperate as some residents try to salvage what they can?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

This is a real pick I know we lived in a fire danger area, but this came out so fast. But this came out so fast.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:41:20]

WHITFIELD: Residents and firefighters in Ventura County, California, are hopeful today that better weather conditions will slow the ferocious Mountain Fire. Flames scorched more than 20,000 acres and destroyed more than 130 homes in record speed this week.

CNN's Meteorologist Elisa Raffa joining us now with more on this.

This is pretty bad. Might there be some good news, too, on the horizon?

ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, there are no alerts in California right now for fires. So they have much better improving fire weather conditions there.

Now, we have the fire weather conditions on the east coast. We have fires that have started to pop across parts of New Jersey. Even Prospect Park in Brooklyn had a brush fire night. So you can see some of that smoke on satellite.

We have red flag warnings in effect for the New York City area, Long Island and going towards Hartford and Boston where you have winds up to 35 miles per hour and that relative community very full of dry air.

And with these conditions that have taken over much of the northeast, more than half of the northeast right now with some drought conditions, that is what is fueling this fire threat in the northeast this weekend.

I mean, the rain deficits since September is pretty large. We are seven inches, almost eight inches, below average in New York City. So they really have not really gotten rain. Temperatures have been very warm, up in the 80s. And that is what is sparking these fire concerns.

Now in the northeast, we're getting some of this rain from this front as we head towards tomorrow. The bottom end of this front is really causing some flooding problems across Louisiana. You have some lightning in here. And notice that this front is not moving too much. You have heavy rain in the same spots, riding the same areas. That is why we have some flash flood watches in effect as we go through the day today. And a new flash flood warning includes Alexandria.

We have a high risk of flooding. It's, a very rare level 4 out of 4. That includes Lake Charles. It has only been issued 4 percent of the time. It's responsible for 40 percent of fatalities and 80 percent of that damage.

A lot of this moisture is being fueled by Rafaela. The pattern is kind of just stuck. There are a lot of things in its way. It is so close to the U.S., but it can't turn into the U.S. because you have got that storm and a high-pressure system in its way.

So that is why it is kind of lingering and meandering in the gulf. But some of that moisture still making its way to Louisiana.

WHITFIELD: It's still nerve-racking for a lot of folks.

RAFFA: Right.

WHITFIELD: All right, Elisa Raffa, thank you so much.

[13:43:37]

All right, former Trump attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has yet to turn over his valuables as punishment for defaming two election workers in Georgia in 2020. What happens if he does not? We will discuss his case and whether the election of President-Elect Donald Trump could have an impact at all, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:48:34]

WHITFIELD: Special Counsel Jack Smith is now publicly indicating he is getting ready to wind down the January 6th criminal case against President-Elect Donald Trump. In court filing, Smith says he is assessing how to move forward as the president-elect prepares to return to the White House.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME & JUSTICE REPORTER: It's the beginning of the end of the federal criminal case against Donald Trump related to the 2020 election.

That's because the special counsel's office that has been prosecuting that case in court in Washington, D.C., they went to the trial judge, Tanya Chutkan, on Friday at noon, and they said we want to wipe away all of the deadlines and stop the work that is being done on this case. It had been heading toward a trial and there were lots of questions

about whether Donald Trump could have some level of immunity for what he is accused of doing after the 2020 vote and his allegedly obstructing Congress, trying to overturn the result of that election, which he had lost.

But the Justice Department now saying they have to figure out what their policy is going to be now that Trump is the president-elect and is going to be inaugurated in January of 2025.

They say it is unprecedented circumstances. They want to move forward consistent with the Justice Department policy.

[13:49:59]

And the special counsel's office, Jack Smith, that prosecutor who has been pursuing Trump in court in these cases and has indicted him twice.

He is going to provide an update on exactly how this case will be put on hold or wound down with Trump coming back into the presidency over the executive branch, over the Justice Department, how exactly that is going to work.

We will get the update in the beginning of December.

Katelyn Polantz, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Let's discuss more about the future of Trump's legal cases with CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, Jennifer Rodgers.

Jennifer, great to see you.

OK, so what could happen now after the January 6th case? Is it doomed?

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It is doomed, Fred. It is gone.

For two reasons. One, of course, we know Trump has said openly that he would fire Jack Smith, pardon himself, have his A.G. dismiss the case, have some combination thereof immediately upon taking office.

But it is also the Department of Justice's own policy that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted.

So even if Trump were inclined to leave the case in place, it would be dismissed per DOJ's own policies. So either way, it is definitely going away.

WHITFIELD: OK. Now what about protections for, say, a Jack Smith? OK, well, he maybe will no longer have the job since the case has gone away, since he was special counsel.

But you know, since the president while on the campaign trail was saying he would fire him, he would go after his enemies or nemesis.

What kind of protections does the DOJ want to put in place for Smith, any member of the team, any of the colleagues?

RODGERS: Well, there is not really much that DOJ can do. I mean, when Trump says go after them, to the extent that he means go after them using legal measures, like trying to file some sort of case against them or something like that, we will have to rely on the legal system. Right?

Any prosecution would be completely baseless to the extent that he could even get his Justice Department to file such a case. You know, we have to hope, of course, that they would not. We would have to hope the judge would dismiss it and the grand jury wouldn't indict it.

You're kind of really relying on the built-in protections and structures in the justice system to the extent that happens. Of course, we hope that was just bluster and that will not happen and Trump will move along from that threat.

WHITFIELD: All right. So it is not just Trump, but people formally in his orbit that also have cases pending.

Former Trump attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is under legal pressure to turn over his car and other valuables to election workers in Georgia that he defamed in 2020. He was found liable, guilty of that sentence.

So here is what Giuliani said about how Trump's reelection might impact his case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you think Mr. Trump could help get you out of this?

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR DONALD TRUMP: Trump doesn't have to help me get out of this. Trump just has to straighten out the legal system. And we will find out.

The bringers of this case is (INAUDIBLE). The $145 million judgment to anyone, it is ridiculous. Obviously, it is punitive. Obviously, it is done because I am a Republican. And I was in a Democratic dictatorship.

Which, by the way, New York is. This city, for about 150 years, has been a corrupt city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: He did say he is hoping that Trump will straighten out the legal system. So what will this mean for him potentially, Giuliani?

RODGERS: Well, really nothing, Fred. Because this is a civil case. This is not a criminal case. It is not brought by the Department of Justice. It was brought by two private citizens who sued him in court, in federal court but in civil court. So there is really nothing that Trump can do about this at all. This

is a judgment that Giuliani will have to fight using the system, which, of course, he's doing. He is appealing. He's trying to fight their efforts to get at the judgment, to get his assets. And he is doing that.

There is really nothing Trump can do. And I think Giuliani knows that, which is why he does not say anything about pardoning him and so on. So he says, oh, he needs to fix the whole system.

Which, ironically, when he talks about corruption in New York City for 150 years, eight of those years, he was mayor of New York City, of course. So you know, the irony is there.

WHITFIELD: Yes. And in that judgment, he has to give over that vehicle we just saw, the Mercedes, a number of possessions, furnishings, a New York apartment.

There has been a deadline imposed. Why haven't those things just been seized? Why is it, you know, I guess incumbent upon just Giuliani handing them over as opposed to, since there in a judgment, these items were not seized?

RODGERS: What seems to be happening is Giuliani is not disclosing where they are. It is different from a piece of real property. You have to find the thing before you can take the thing. And so the court has to find out where these things are before they can be seized.

[13:55:00]

And there has been some back and forth about Giuliani allegedly not knowing where some things are or not being able to get to them, and so that has been the holdup.

As soon as these folks can figure out where the items are -- I am sure they have investigators actually working on that now -- then they can get the seizures done. It will happen, it has been a bit of a runaround.

WHITFIELD: OK. Jennifer Rodgers, good to see you. Thank you so much.

RODGERS: Thanks.

WHITFIELD: All right, this quick programming note. CNN is taking a look at how new weight-loss medications are transforming lives. Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports "IS OZEMPIC RIGHT FOR YOU?" It premieres Sunday, November 17th at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)