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What Is Trump's Legal Agenda Ahead Of Inauguration Day?; GOP Inches Closer To Retaining House Majority; Dems Brace For New Era Of Trump Policies And Appointees; Pelosi: Biden's Late Dropout Hampered Dems' 2024 Chances; Pelosi: Biden Should Have "Gotten Out" Of Race Sooner; Biden To Meet With Trump In Oval Office On Wednesday; U.S. Lifts Ban On American Military Contractors In Ukraine; How Trump's Presidency Could Impact Russia's War On Ukraine; Elon Musk Joined Post-Election Trump-Zelenskyy Call. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired November 09, 2024 - 17:00   ET

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

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[17:00:08]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in New York.

As the Trump White House begins to take shape, a litany of legal questions top his agenda. What will the president-elect's legal standing be? Will special counsel, Jack Smith resign or be fired? And what will happen to the cases against Trump in New York and Fulton County, Georgia. Plus will Trump try to pardon January 6 convicts who attempted to carry out a coup against the U.S. government?

And who will Trump pick as his top cop? Whoever is nominated, do they have a responsibility to respect the traditional boundaries of the Justice Department?

For all of this, we go now to CNN legal commentator and former Trump White House lawyer Jim Schultz. Jim, good to see you. Thanks for being here.

JIM SCHULTZ, CNN LEGAL COMMENTATOR: Hi. Glad to be on.

DEAN: A lot of questions specifically around DOJ, a lot of legal questions. We are, of course, waiting to see who he's going to appoint to his cabinet as attorney general.

What do you think though Trump is looking for when he is looking for a pick in an attorney general which he has really indicated is his most important, he thinks, choice?

SCHULTZ: Look you've already seen a couple of names floating out there, two names floating out there. Eric Schmitt, senator from Missouri, former attorney general, a real lawyer.

You have heard Mike Lee, senator from Utah, clerked for Supreme Court Justice Alito when he was in the circuit court, was general counsel to the governor, was a former assistant United States attorney. These both -- and Ken Paxton, attorney general from Texas who

certainly, you know, advanced cases against Democratic policies and against the Biden administration and Democratic administrations.

These are all people that are serious lawyers, and folks that are under consideration and have real legal chops. They're not going to take the job lightly and they're not going to engage in the lawfare.

You keep hearing all this -- you know, this talk about the lawfare that is going to take place in the Trump administration.

In the last Trump administration not a single political enemy was investigated and prosecuted. That's -- the Biden demonstration can't say the same thing.

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: But you're saying you think despite his promises on the campaign trail, you don't think that is actually going to happen?

SCHULTZ: No, you're going to be put -- the Justice Department's going to be put in the hands of a real lawyer who's going to be in charge there and going to make -- going to make decisions on -- and I believe they will clean out the Justice Department, right? I think there will be a wholesale cleanout of the Justice Department at this point.

But I don't believe you're going to see prosecutions -- political prosecutions from the folks that you see that are being considered for those positions, not a chance.

DEAN: And he has indicated that he does want a loyalist in that position. There has been a real effort by the DOJ to operate independently from the administration, to kind of do, you know, independent in terms of its regard for the law and what it chooses to do.

Do you see that changing? And this attorney general working more hand in hand with the president and the White House?

SCHULTZ: I mean is anybody going to say that Eric Holder wasn't a loyalist to Obama? That Merrick Garland wasn't a loyalist to Joe Biden. That John Kennedy's brother --

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: And he did prosecute his son.

SCHULTZ: -- who is the attorney general, that was the attorney general, that Robert Kennedy, the brother of John F. Kennedy was John F. Kennedy's attorney general.

There is a history of having loyalists in that position. To say that -- the fact that he wants a loyalist in that position, there is nothing wrong with that.

And the fact that Merrick Garland continued on with the Hunter Biden case that started long before that is a testament to Merric Garland's Department of Justice. But that does not mean he is not a loyalist to Joe Biden. That means that he followed the rule of law in that instance.

DEAN: Right. And I think that is what people are kind of trying to make -- that I think people want to focus on, and it sounds like you have confidence in these names, these people who are being floated as potentially being attorney general, that they will follow the law and that you don't expect to see kind of widespread prosecution of political enemies.

SCHULTZ: That is absolutely right. No doubt about it. Any of the folks that are on that list are real lawyers and serious people.

DEAN: And I also want to ask you with regard to Trump's own legal standing. Where do you see the current cases in New York, Fulton County? How do you see all that kind of playing out as we move forward and his inauguration.

SCHULTZ: Let's first talk about the federal cases right, and Jack Smith. So Jack Smith hit a big bump when Judge Cannon rightfully dismissed the case.

[10:04:42]

Because she made -- the argument was made, rightfully so, that Jack Smith wasn't appropriately appointed to that position and he didn't have the powers to conduct that investigation and that prosecution because Jack Smith was never confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

He had all the powers of a presidentially-confirmed U.S. attorney yet was appointed to a position having never been confirmed by the Senate and having all of those powers.

So she saw it that way, dismissed the case out of hand. The Florida case has been dismissed. That's up on appeal, but you know, then you move on to the January 6 case, that one took a big hit by the Supreme Court in terms of the immunity decision there.

And now you're at the point where now you have Donald J Trump, the president elect, you know, going into the office in January, and those cases will be halted regardless.

And I think Jack Smith is smart and I think he's going to be putting a memo together to Merrick Garland, that's going to explain why it would be inappropriate to continue on with these cases.

I think they go away without a doubt. The question is, how much information will become public as it relates to that memo? How will they make some of that information public? Remember a lot of it is subject to grand jury secrecy.

Secondly, we're going to move on with -- go ahead. We can move on to New York.

(CROSSTALK) DEAN: I was just going to say -- yes. And I do want to do that. I just wanted to like ask you too, with Fulton County because of the state case. How might that be different than the federal cases? But go ahead.

SCHULTZ: So those cases, obviously -- I believe those cases will be stayed to the extent that those cases also have their problems. Those cases are up on appeal. The immunity doctrine that was set forth by the Supreme Court in that case puts a huge -- blows a huge hole in both the New York case and the Fulton County case.

And look -- you know, we don't have to go through all the problems of the Fulton County case and the conflict-of-interest issues with Fani Willis and the person she appointed to help her prosecute the case.

I think that was on thin ice to begin with. I don't think that is going anywhere. But I think it will be stayed as a result of him being president and actually might be dismissed before he even gets in there by way of the appellate courts in Georgia.

Let's go on to the New York cases. So same thing, a lot of the evidence that went into that New York case certainly is caught up in this immunity case that was decided by the Supreme Court.

I don't see any appellate court judge turning around and saying -- I think they will say, you have to have a new trial on this. A lot of that evidence gets thrown out. And when evidence gets thrown out on a case like that the case goes away and has to be remanded for new trial and in this case, there is no way they're going to proceed forward. That case will be stayed as well because he is a sitting president.

In short, all these cases are going nowhere.

DEAN: Yes. And then what you think about -- again, this is something that former president Trump himself has said. He has said he is interested in pardoning January 6 convicts. You think that's going to happen?

SCHULTZ: I don't know whether it's going to happen or not, right. That's something that -- there is a DOJ processing. The attorney general is going to be involved in that.

I don't think Donald Trump is going to come in and wave a magic wand. I think that will be a decision that's made through the process where he goes through DOJ. I'm sure the Oval Office will be involved in it and they will make some judgments as to who they're going to -- what categories they might consider pardoning early on.

It might be the folks who were just charged and convicted with trespass. I don't think there is any chance that they are going to pardon anyone who committed violent crimes that they pled guilty to it or were convicted of it and are now in jail as a result of committing violent crimes.

DEAN: And so I guess what I'm hearing -- I'm hearing from you as we are having this conversation, is that you really expect a more measured way of going about all of these campaign promises. You do not expect extreme versions of that.

SCHULTZ: Look, the biggest campaign promises dealt with the economy and immigration, right? And also the foreign policy as it relates to everything that's going on with Israel and overseas.

We already saw that, you know, Qatar kicked Hamas out of its country already and he has only been elected for about, you know, not even a week yet.

So I think, you know, the issues that are going to be front and center are going to be the real issues that he ran on, not just the campaign rhetoric, but the real issues, which are going to be the economy and immigration on day one.

DEAN: Jim Schultz, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.

SCHULTZ: Thank you.

DEAN: Still to come, Republicans won control of the Senate. We still do not have final results for the House races yet. We're going to bring you the latest from all that.

Plus, Democrats playing a bitter blame game. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says Biden's late dropout was a drag on Harris. Senator Bernie Sanders is blaming the whole party.

And later, the Biden White House says it will allow American military contractors into Ukraine. How that changes -- how that could change its fight to push back against Russia's invasion.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

[17:09:54]

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DEAN: Tonight, the race for the White House is over but the battle to control Congress still very much underway. Republicans have secured the Senate, but the House though is still up for grabs as the votes are counted.

[17:09:45]

DEAN: Democrats right now with 204 seats, Republicans with 213. The magic number there, 218. You see under the R, six pickups, D with five pickups. There are 18 seats remaining.

Republicans now just five seats away from a unified government. But Democrats still have a chance with a majority of the remaining races in California.

Now taking a look at the Senate, Republicans will have at least a 52- seat majority with the vote counting still underway in two swing state races.

In Arizona Democrat Ruben Gallego and Republican Kari Lake are neck and neck with more than 80 percent of the votes counted. And in Pennsylvania Republican Dave McCormick holds a slim lead but Democratic incumbent, Bob Casey has not yet conceded with roughly 100,000 votes still being counted.

So that kind of sets the stage for us to now bring in our CNN senior political commentators Scott Jennings and Van Jones. It is good to see both of you.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR5 POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's well, you say. Good evening.

DEAN: We'll see.

VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Scott is happy. It's good to see you Scott. It's not good to see me.

DEAN: Scott, I want to start first with you. We just laid out kind of what is at stake with the balance of power. We know they have a Republican Senate. We're waiting to hear about the House.

Obviously if Republicans take both chambers, it is going to be much easier for the Trump administration to enact its agenda. As Van shakes his head yes.

What do you make of all of this and how prepared -- the thing I keep hearing from people that are close to Trump is that he is ready for this more than he was 2016, they are more organized. Would you agree with that?

JENNINGS: Yes, I do agree with that. And I think that just start with the way the transition is unfolding, the pick of Susie Wiles to be chief of staff, it was a quick pick, a highly-organized, confident administrator. that tells me they are anxious to not waste any time at all.

And if she brings the same kind of discipline from the campaign over to the White House, you know, what does that mean? That means you're going to hire good people faster. It means we're going to get the government organized faster. It means you're going to have a working relationship with Capitol Hill that allows you to get your agenda moving faster.

So if it turns out that Trump and the Republicans do control both the House and the Senate, you have like a couple of years to get going, and you really want to do it as fast as you can.

So whether that is extending the 2017 tax cuts, working on the border, any of the things that you ran on, you want to hit the ground running on that.

Also federal judges, whatever vacancies come up when Trump takes office, I mean there is a lot of stuff to do. And when you have everything in alignment, you want to be as organized as you can to use that alignment to your advantage.

And by the way, that is ok, because that is what the American people asked for. It was an overwhelming victory for Trump, and he and the Republicans deserve every chance to execute on the program they laid out for the people in this election.

JONES: Can somebody cut this dude's microphone? I am miserable enough as it is.

DEAN: It's your turn now Van.

JONES: Why? What do you want me to say?

JENNINGS: Don't worry Van. We'll cut your -- hey Van, we'll cut your taxes too, it will be fine, buddy.

JONES: What do you want me to say? This is terrible. Nobody thought -- nobody thought we would have undivided government. We thought if Trump snuck in there, we would at least have Hakeem Jeffries standing in the way to try to save is. And Hakeem may not even get there.

This is just a horrible weekend and I'm here with Scott Jennings and he is happy, I am miserable. What question do you have for me?

Don't ask me any questions. It might make me burst into tears. This is horrible.

DEAN: We don't want anyone crying on this show, but I do wonder, Van, from your perspective, like what are the Democrats -- you are right, they kind of thought maybe that Hakeem Jeffries would be in there. And it is not trending in that direction. It's not done yet.

But if you are the Democrats, what are you going to do for the next two years? How do you recoup?

JONES: Therapy. Therapy.

We are all going to therapy.

Why are we here? If you are a Democrat, all we can say is, we hope that Susie decides to take a vacation and they hire some terrible people to make some mistakes to give us a chance.

Right now, they have everything. They've got the Supreme Court. They've got the electoral college. They've got the House, they got -- probably they've got the Senate. They've got popular vote.

And we're just sitting here with a dunce cap on. At this time last week we thought we were the smartest people in the world. We thought Donald Trump was an idiot. We thought his campaign made no sense. And it turned out they were smarter than us and we don't have anything to say.

I just sit here, pretend I know something. Here's what I know, everybody I know is miserable. Everybody is on these zoom calls. Nobody's got any good ideas and it's really going to take us a while to figure this out.

DEAN: It is fair to say then that Democrats are just in the wilderness? And want therapy right now?

JONES: Yes. Hey, listen, I'm not good at coming here and faking and pretending. No, we got whooped. We got whooped and we did not understand that -- we ran a campaign that would have been great in 1996. We had TV ads and door-knocking and these guys built an online infrastructure with the Joe Rogan's and everything else.

[17:19:51]

JONES: We thought Rush Limbaugh gave us trouble in the 90s or Fox News gave us trouble in early 2000. They built 2,000 Fox Newses and 2,000 Rush Limbaughs all throughout the Internet. And we did not even know they were doing it. And we've got egg on our face and we have a big, big job to look at ourselves in the mirror and figure out how we got beat this bad.

DEAN: Scott, what -- if you were to put another hat on for a second. If you are going to talk to Democrats from your perspective, and go easy, but what would you pick out and advise them. Where did it go wrong?

JENNINGS: Well, I think the Democratic Party in the eyes of working- class voters and in the eyes of a lot of men who overwhelmingly turned out for Trump in this election kind of view the Democratic Party as a professional fainting (ph) society, you know.

You know what I mean? We're offended by everything. And we don't, you know, have our eye on the real ball here which is people being crushed in the economy. Or we don't have our eye on the border. We don't have our eye on the world's chaos.

What we have our eye on is running around, scolding everyone and being offended by everyone. I mean that is no way to run a political party and then be surprised when average everyday working people turn out against you.

If I were the Democrats, it is the time for soul-searching. I feel for Brother Van, a little because you know, the Republicans have been there too.

But the reality is, you just have to ask yourself a couple of questions, who are we? And who do we stand for? What do we represent? What are our actual values?

And I think if they ask themselves those questions and answer them honestly, they would find out that the only people they really stand for are very wealthy people who are not as crushed by inflation, people who have college degrees who live in and around college campuses and in urban areas, that's it.

That is pretty much what the Democratic Party has been reduced to.

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: What do you say, Van. JONES: It's not true. Hey listen, I think that Republicans have done a brilliant job of framing us that way and I think we have helped them a lot because a lot of stuff that we say does fall into the pity party crybaby society stuff. I think that that's right.

But the tragedy to me is that what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris actually did, and what they're promising to do really was responding to working-class needs. A lot of the stuff in the Inflation Reduction Act was really trying to help ordinary people.

They ran on a campaign to try to get $6,000 to everyone having a new baby, and $25,000 for people who want to have a house, and to help small businesses.

There was an agenda there. But we did not do a good job of talking about it. The crybabies took up all the airspace and then they built a machine. Don't forget, the Republicans built a machine online to magnify our mistakes and to mask their failures. And what we did was we ran a bunch of crappy ads that everybody hated and spent $1 billion doing it.

So there is a core there that is good, but we dropped the ball in the parking lot. We thought we were on the football field,. We were not even on the football field, we were in the parking lot. And we got to look in the mirror.

DEAN: All right. I want you guys to stay with me. I want to talk about what former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is saying about Biden should have gotten out of the race earlier.

Think on that. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back.

JONES: I might not be here.

[17:22:58]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: One of the most powerful members of the Democratic Party is now blaming President Biden for Vice President Kamala Harris' election loss. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi telling the "New York Times" Democrats may have had a better shot if the president had stepped aside sooner.

And we're back now with our panel, Van Jones and Scott Jennings. Thanks for sticking around both of you; Van, especially you.

I do want to know, I'm not sure how good it does anybody looking backward at this point. However, I am curious what you make of the former house speaker's comments.

JONES: Well, you know, I listened to the whole interview and she was doing everything she could to try to get out of answering the question. She was asked the question multiple times in multiple ways. Eventually you have to give an opinion. And I don't think her opinion is wrong in hindsight. Don't forget now, Joe Biden was doing better than he is now in after the midterm elections when he had to make the decision to get in or get out. He was just coming off of an incredibly successful legislative session.

We have done really well in the midterms and I think he started feeling like everybody keeps telling me I can't do this or can't do that and I'm winning, I'm winning, I'm winning. And he just, you know, went a bridge too far.

I don't think anybody now can honestly say they are glad that Joe Biden he stayed in. So I think Pelosi is just being honest about that.

But I think people think that she went on the air to go after Joe Biden. She did not. She got asked that question. She couldn't get out of the box and she had to give an answer.

DEAN: Right. And yes, yes exactly.

Scott, do you think Biden was a key factor in Trump's victory?

JENNINGS: Of course.

DEAN: The Biden of it all.

JENNINGS: Of course, I mean you know, he has had an under 40-percent approval rating since August of 2021. The American people have been very unhappy with him.

Yes, Democrats did a bit better in the 2022 midterm, but I think it was in spite of Biden, honestly. And the House Republicans did actually win the national popular vote in the '22 midterms. People keep forgetting that. We did have some bobbles in some Senate races. I think they totally over read what happened in that midterm.

But on top of that, what I find particularly troubling is that all these Democrats who are now looking back on Biden and oh, he should not have run, he shouldn't have done this. These are the same people who are all too happy to go on television every day and tell us that Joe Biden was sharp as a tack, everything was fine, he was up to everything.

And we now know there is a huge amount of evidence that he wasn't, that he really was diminished. That really wasn't up to the job. and yet they were pushing that campaign forward anyway. They finally dumped him after the debate when they couldn't hide it anymore.

To me, the reckoning here is, when did everybody know Joe Biden was diminished? Why did they lie for so long? Are we going to get a full accounting of that?

[17:29:52]

JENNINGS: So I don't think Democrats have anyone to blame here but themselves. Joe Biden is going to go down in history as a pretty terrible president, I believe. And on top of that, if you are a Democrat, and you think about how he ran his campaign the first time, I am running to restore the soul of the nation, to rid us of Trump and Trumpism.

Today, Trump is stronger than he's ever been, more popular, and his agenda is ascendant in our politics. It is a complete and total political failure.

DEAN: I mean, Van, that last part of what Scott just said is true. I mean, Trump did win and is more ascendant than he's ever been, even despite January 6t h -

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: -- even despite all the stuff.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Did you think I did not hear what Scott was saying?

(LAUGHTER)

JONES: Yes. What do you want me to do? Can I leave? Listen --

(LAUGHTER)

DEAN: Help us understand, Van.

JONES: What do you want me to do? Look --

JENNINGS: We are going to have to charge Van 500 bucks an hour for these Saturday night -

(CROSSTALK)

JENNINGS: We're going to have to get a couch in here for him.

(LAUGHTER)

JONES: It is reverse therapy. It is not making me feel any better.

DEAN: Reverse therapy.

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: Look, there were some people -- and I have to say our colleague, David Axelrod, in the very beginning, got beat up and beat up and beat up because he kept saying, this is not going to work and I'm concerned about his age.

And I mean, he got beat up worse than I have ever seen a Democrat get beat up. And he was right. There were people who had the courage, but not enough of them.

And Scott Jennings is right. There was something going on. And if it was not going on in 2021 and 2022, but by the time you got to that debate, there was clearly something off about Joe Biden.

I love Joe Biden. Nobody else gave him an opportunity when nobody else did. But there is a reality here.

Now look, it is important to look back and learn these lessons. This is not a blame game. It's not finger-pointing. This is the part of the grieving process and also the process, reassessment process that any mature party should go through.

It just hurts because, this time last weekend, we thought we were going to run this dude off of the world stage and now we have to deal with him and all his friends and his family members and everybody else on the stage and happy and we are crying in our beer.

So it is a tough weekend right now, but Scott is not wrong. But I think that where Scott is underestimating Joe Biden, I think history will be kinder to Joe Biden as the years go by.

I think Joe Biden did some things that we're very important. Trump talked about infrastructure week and never did it. Joe Biden actually got it done.

We had a real problem with our technology infrastructure being offshored. And with the Chips Act, he brought some of that stuff back home.

Joe Biden did some stuff we can all be proud of as Americans. And as the years go by, those things will shine through.

But right now, people are looking at Kamala, looking at all of us and saying, what the heck did you guys do? And I have a dunce cap on myself because I underestimated Donald Trump and his machine. And I did every night.

JENNINGS: And I will say to Van, because he -- I mean, Republicans are kind of thankful for Biden and previously Barack Obama. I mean, it was Obama's presidency that gave us Trump the first time. And it's Joe Biden's presidency that made Donald Trump stronger than ever.

So we just want to say thank you to Obama and to Biden.

JONES: Can I leave?

(LAUGHTER)

JENNINGS: Because you guys -- you guys have delivered us. And we are going to have American patriotism and economic opportunity again.

(CROSSTALK)

JENNINGS: And it goes right back to Obama. So thank you, guys.

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: I can't wait. You're going -- the overreach and we are going to get you. But right now, it sure hurts.

DEAN: Van, I do want to ask, President Biden and former President Trump are going to meet in the Oval Office on Wednesday, which is kind of, you know, a norm in these sorts -- when we have a transition of power. What do you expect to see from that?

JONES: Well, I'm sure it will be like the last time they met in the Oval Office when Trump brought him over and sat him down -- wait a minute. This is actually not a norm. It is a norm that was blown out of the water when -- the last time President Trump was in office, he refused to even honor the man.

And so it does show, I think, something important, that Joe Biden is not refusing to let the guy come in, refusing to speak with him.

Kamala Harris is not organizing an insurrection. Nobody is going around saying that the election was stolen.

You know, we have a mature party that respects democracy. And I hope the Republican Party will become a mature party that respects democracy, even when they lose.

They respected it when they win, at least under Donald Trump. I'm glad. I hope that this is the end of that kind of nonsense. And that people will follow Joe Biden's example in defeat and not Donald Trump's.

DEAN: All right, Scott Jennings and Van Jones, thank you, both of you. We really do appreciate it.

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: Even when it was painful.

JENNINGS: Man, you need a massage. You need a message and a cucumber water, buddy.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

DEAN: All right guys, have a good Saturday night.

(LAUGHTER)

DEAN: Thank you to both of you.

[17:34:48]

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: The Biden administration has given the go-ahead for American military contractors to deploy into Ukraine. This allows the Pentagon to allow contracts to U.S. companies to operate in Ukraine for the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.

Oren Liebermann has more on this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, the Biden administration has lifted its de-facto ban on American military contractors working inside of Ukraine. That is a major decision.

[17:39:59]

This had been under consideration for several months. In fact, we reported back in June that the Pentagon was moving towards doing this, along with the Biden administration.

But then that process halted until just before the election when the Biden administration, as a whole, decided to lift that de-facto ban, which would allow U.S. contractors to work specifically inside of Ukraine.

Now why is this so important? Because until now, military weapons and advanced systems like the F-16s that were recently beginning operations there and Patriot systems, if they we're damaged, would have to come out of Ukraine in a difficult, lengthy, complicated and costly process to fix those and repair them.

Now they will have U.S. contractors or at least to be able to have contractors inside Ukraine handling the fixing of those complex systems, meaning they will get back on the frontline and back into the war as quickly as possible. And that is good great news for Ukraine.

Of course, it may be only very temporary because it depends on how the future administration of Donald Trump decides to handle this. They could stop this altogether, or pursue a different policy completely as they try, as they have said, to end the war in Ukraine.

Still, until then, it will allow U.S. contractors, under contract, of course, to work in Ukraine to fix complex systems and get them back into the fight faster. That is something Ukraine has been looking to do for quite some time -- Jessica?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: All right, Oren Liebermann, at the Pentagon for us, thanks so much.

Donald Trump has made it clear he wants the war in Ukraine to come to an immediate end, claiming he could end the war in 24 hours, even suggesting the U.S. might pressure Kyiv into an uneasy truce with Russia.

Joining us now is Michael Allen, the managing director for Beacon Global Strategies, also former majority staff director for the House Intelligence Committee and a former national Security Council official.

Mike, thanks so much for being here.

MICHAEL ALLEN, MANAGING DIRECTOR, BEACON GLOBAL STRATEGIES & FORMER MAJORITY STAFF DIRECTOR, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Thanks for having me. DEAN: Yes. Let's start first with Ukraine and what Trump has said

about that. We know he has been critical of aid for Ukraine and he wants to see this work come to an end.

Now that he has been elected, what impact do you foresee his presidency having on that war?

ALLEN: Well, I don't know that it is possible to argue that Trump will continue the path of the past, which has essentially been $60 billion in assistance, economic and military assistance.

But I do think President Trump knows that they'll have to -- he will have to try to set the conditions for a ceasefire or some sort of resolution, maybe a temporary resolution to this.

I think he will do it in two different ways. He will tell the Russians that he will, in a sense, give the Ukrainians more weapons if they do not cooperate.

And I think he is more or less doing the same with Zelenskyy already. He is the "Art of the Deal" president. He wants to use leverage and use his rhetoric to back up his leverage to try and get them to stop shooting at each other.

So I don't know that this is a likely outcome in the short to medium- term, but it is something he will go for almost immediately.

DEAN: And to that end, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy called Trump on Wednesday to congratulate him. Sources say that tech billionaire and Trump ally, Elon Musk, was on that call, though they say no policy was discussed.

But you can't ignore the fact that Musk, in his relationship with Putin, his relationship with Starlink, all of these things are all interconnected. What kind of a role do you see him playing in whatever Trump ultimately does when it comes to the Ukraine war?

ALLEN: Here is what I hope happens on the call. I hope that President Zelenskyy was able to put it to Elon Musk directly, that they need to make sure that the Starlink terminals are not accidentally benefiting the Russian military machine.

This is something the Ukrainians have insisted over and over is happening. I don't think SpaceX agrees with that, by the way, from what I have gathered in the newspapers.

But I hope it was an opportunity for them to be able to say, beware of unintended consequences of your technology. We are in a dogfight with the Russians and you need to be careful about either hijacked signals or actual terminals that have, one way or another, gotten into the hands of the Russian military.

DEAN: And Zelenskyy says also there have been deadly clashes with North Korean troops. We know as many as 11,000 have deployed to fight for Russia from North Korea. Trump has, of course, repeatedly praised and highlighted his

friendships with Vladimir Putin, with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un.

How do you think that could impact the war, and the overall relationship between all of these parties?

[17:44:59]

ALLEN: Well, to me, this is the most vivid illustration of what a lot of experts have been discussing over the last few years, which is the axis of evil, the Russians, the Ukrainians, the Iranians and the North Koreans, working together.

I do not necessarily think it is a hardcore alliance yet. But to send troops to another country to fight a European ally of the United States and of NATO is a huge significant event.

And I hope that concludes -- that makes President Trump conclude, wow, these guys are not working in our best interests and I need to begin to figure out what my policy is towards Russia, and even towards China to induce China to weigh in with the North Koreans to say, back off.

This is how bigger wars get started when other allies of our enemies start to get involved. So I think this has got to go and rocket to the top of the national security agenda for Biden, as he prepares to leave office, but certainly for Trump as he begins to prepare for January 20th.

DEAN: And we will see how that all unfolds.

Mike Allen, thank you for your time. We appreciate it.

ALLEN: Thank you so much, Jessica.

DEAN: We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, authorities are working to find who sent racist text messages to black Americans nationwide after the election.

Stay with us. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:51:00]

DEAN: We now know the FCC is joining the FBI to investigate racist text messages sent about slavery and picking cotton that were sent to black people across the country, including children.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

"I am one of Donald Trump's associates and your cotton picking starts from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. You will drop out of school and become a full-time cotton picker, making 75 cents an hour. Sounds good."

(END VIDEO CLIP) DEAN: One text service says its artificial intelligence blocked the texts before being sent. And says, quote, "This raises significant red flags regarding potential human trafficking or forced labor, which is not only unethical but also illegal."

CNN's Rafael Romo is following the story.

Rafael, people receiving these messages say that they don't believe the timing is a coincidence.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, that's right. Many people are wondering why it is happening now, precisely the week after the election.

And, Jessica, the messages appear to have been sent using free phone service and mobile service providers.

One of these providers, known as TextNow, told CNN Friday the company believes 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 in Virginia, Tennessee and South Carolina have reported receiving messages. And according to Nevada's attorney general's office, the texts appear to be robo text messages.

One of the biggest questions is, how is it possible to do something like this anonymously? The Louisiana attorney general, Liz Murrill, told CNN Friday that, "Whether this is a single person or a group, they are 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 VIDEO CLIP)

ALYSE MCCALL, UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA STUDENT: It is truly disgusting. And whoever is 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.

JENNIFER GREEN, SON RECEIVED TEXT MESSAGE: We do talk about politics. It is not something I hide from him because he is going to be a black man in America.

So I make sure that he understands what the landscape of his adulthood could look like.

The fact it happened after Election Day, it really speaks to what I think is going on here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Now, Jessica, the NAACP denounced the messages, saying 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 Tuesdays election results."

We have also heard from President-Elect Donald Trump's campaign. A spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, told CNN that Trump's presidential campaign "has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages."

CNN has also learned that another text messaging service, Called TextBot, was apparently able to stop a new user from sending racist text messages. TextBot said that it was thanks to artificial intelligence that they immediately flagged the message and prevented it from being sent until they were able to conduct an internal review.

The company says that they then blocked the message and banned the user from the platform and shared the information with not only local law enforcement but also with the FBI -- Jessica?

DEAN: Rafael Romo, thanks so much for that reporting.

And when we come back, President-Elect Doanld Trump is filling key cabinet positions. He's already making history by tapping Susie Wiles as the first-ever woman to act as White House chief of staff.

But first, tonight, over the next three weeks, more voting. This time, though, it is for your favorite "CNN Hero of the Year."

One of them is the Venezuelan violinist and conductor, Ron Davis Alvarez.

When he went to Sweden in 2015, he saw large crowds of refugees arriving and he wanted to help. But now he gives them a chance to learn an instrument and connect with others.

[17:54:56]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON DAVIS ALVAREZ, CNN HERO: One, two and three and four.

(MUSIC)

ALVAREZ: The class is open for anyone who wants to learn an instrument, especially those arriving to Sweden.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

CLASS: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

ALVAREZ: And it is an orchestra where the main language is music.

I need one more chair.

We have more than 300 people, kids, parents, youth, more than 20 languages and 25 nationalities and we all need to learn from each other. (MUSIC)

ALVAREZ: This orchestra offers more than just notes. This orchestra offers something for your soul.

(MUSIC)

ALVAREZ: Music connects us. It's a dream. But it is a dream come true.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And you can vote for Ron Davis or any of your top-five CNN Heroes of the Year at CNNHeroes.com. You get 10 votes every day to choose the heroes who inspire you the most.

We will be right back.

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