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Donald Trump Weighs In On Senate Leadership Battle; Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) Is Interviewed About His Trans Athlete Comments; Biden Preparing For Transition Of Power; FEMA Worker Fired; Control Of House Unclear With Several Races Outstanding; Netanyahu Confirms Israel Launched Pager Attacks On Hezbollah; Russia And Ukraine Exchange Record Numbers Of Drone Attacks. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired November 10, 2024 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the "CNN Newsroom." I'm Jessica Dean in New York. And tonight, five days removed from the election that delivered a political earthquake around the world, we're getting new clues about what's on the horizon with president-elect Trump's new administration and how it is taking shape behind closed doors. Notable clues coming in tonight from two key Trump allies about the upcoming leadership battle in the Senate as the Mitch McConnell era comes to an end.

And for Democrats tonight, the blame game is expanding as the path forward remains uncertain. In a few minutes, we'll talk to one outspoken Democratic lawmaker, Seth Moulton, who is facing backlash for his critique of his own party and his comments about transgender rights. But first, let's go to Mar-a-Lago in Florida where it has been a busy Sunday. CNN's Alayna Treene is joining us from West Palm Beach, Florida. Alayna, what have you heard today?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, I think it's really notable, Jessica, what you were referencing about that senate leadership battle and that Donald Trump is weighing in. And I think it's very clear what he's pushing for with that post. I'm going to read just a little bit of it for you to give you a sense of what he said.

He said, quote, "Republican senators seeking the coveted leadership position in the United States Senate must agree to recessed appointments in the Senate without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner." He said sometimes the votes can take two years or more calling for his, cabinet officials and other nominees to be confirmed, immediately went on to say some other things.

But look, this is actually a very big deal and I know you know this, the two of us have covered Capitol Hill in the past. I mean, this would be breaking if this actually were to come to pass. If what Donald Trump is asking for, which is to have these recess appointments, that would be breaking with norms that have been in place now for several, several years. And part of really, I think, to boil it down for you, Jessica, is that

essentially what Donald Trump is asking for is to avoid and bypass the confirmation process for his key nominees. Now, we know that when a when a president particularly or president-elect, I should say, goes through this process, we know Donald Trump is back on that island behind me. He's hunkered down with his transition team going through the number of candidates that he is reviewing to fill out his cabinet and other top White House roles.

Key roles need to be confirmed by the Senate. Sometimes, they cannot put up certain people for these roles because they know that they will never pass in the Senate, and you need the majority of votes to get them through. So this would be, again, really breaking with tradition here.

Now, I will say as well, that all of this comes as a lot of people on the right, a lot of people who are very close to Donald Trump have been arguing and saying that Rick Scott should be replaced really, should replace the majority leader right now, the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell. Well, he's not majority leader right now, I should say. He would be if he were to remain when they have control of the Senate come this spring.

But, look, we heard from, Musk, Elon Musk. He said, quote, "Rick Scott for senate majority leader." We also heard from Marco Rubio, "I will be voting for my Florida colleague, Scott, for Florida, to be our next GOP leader." I mean, obviously, these are two people who are expected to have some sort of role in Donald Trump's second administration. So very noteworthy there.

Scott, for his part, had said that he agrees with Donald Trump and that he would do ever it takes to get those nominees through as quickly as possible. Jessica?

DEAN: Yeah. It is kind of fascinating how all of this about Senate leadership has really unfolded over the last several hours and for them to really put their thumb on the scale there for Rick Scott who was considered to be a dark horse candidate in all of this, but we will certainly see this week how it all shakes out. Alayna Treene in West Palm Beach, thank you so much for that reporting.

And joining us now is Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton. Congressman, thanks so much for being here with us. We appreciate it.

REP. SETH MOULTON (D-MA): Good to see you, Jessica.

DEAN: You are getting some pretty heavy criticism from people in your own party for something you said to the "New York Times." I just want to read it for our viewers. You said, "Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face. I have two little girls. I don't want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete. But as a Democrat, I'm supposed to be afraid to say that."

And your fellow Democrat from Massachusetts, Congressman John Moran, who is gay, said on social media, quote, "The only thing we here in Massachusetts shouldn't be afraid to say is that you should find another job if you want to use an election loss as an opportunity to pick on our most vulnerable."

A councilman in your district called those remarks hate speech. You're getting quite a bit of pushback. I just want to hear what you think it all means and how you're responding to this.

[17:05:03]

MOULTON: Yeah. Sure. No, thanks, Jessica. Look, I was just speaking authentically as a parent about one of many issues where Democrats are just out of touch with the majority of Americans. And I stand by my position, even though I may not have used exactly the right words. And I'm willing to have this debate as I've been having with LGBTQ advocates and others. Some of whom agree with me and others who don't, but we're engaging in a thoughtful debate.

On the other hand, some of the people like you mentioned are just more interested in shaming fellow Democrats, shaming the majority of voters when they simply don't meet their ideological purity test. And these are the same people who told us to defund the police, who told us that there wasn't a problem at the southern border, who told us that inflation was transient, whatever that means. And the same people who attacked me when I said that Biden should step aside because he was going to lose this election.

So we have to be willing to have these debates to the party. I mean, the Republicans are banning both books. Democrats are banning debate. And if we don't have this debate now and come up with a winning strategy going forward, then the Republicans are going to wipe the floor with us in January just like they did last Tuesday.

DEAN: But there is so much to your point. There is a lot of pushbacks from within your own party and there are reports that your own campaign manager resigned. Can you shed any light on that and was this kind of where you two parted?

MOULTON: No. I mean, the reality is that there's some very public pushback while the vast majority of messages and e-mails and texts and conversations I've been having on the street are actually incredibly supportive. And this is all from fellow Democrats, from colleagues in Congress, from some pretty senior members of the party and whatnot who just say, you're exactly right Seth, this is our problem.

You know, we try to cancel people rather than actually having debates about issues that that Americans care about. And this is much bigger than just trans issues. I mean, this is about the economy. How is it that that the Republicans are doing better on the economy, are more trusted on the economy when Trump just wants to cut taxes for his billionaire friends and put massive tariffs in place that will raise prices, will increase inflation for everyday Americans.

I mean, how is it that when Trump just wants to break up millions of families and communities across America by having these mass deportations, the Republicans are more trusted on the border. We've got to be willing to get back in touch with the majority of Americans, and we can't do that if we do this all this preaching and not listening. We got to listen to American voters, engage them in this discussion. And what does it say to American voters if people in our own party can't even have this debate?

DEAN: Well, and so but to that end, did you lose staff over this over this debate?

MOULTON: No. I mean, there's this, you know, there's this -- some people have been critical and that's fine. I am someone who always encourages people to be critical. In fact, one of the interview questions I always ask is what are you going to do if you disagree with me? And I want people to say, I'm going to disagree with you. I want to have a debate. I think we get stronger by that debate. It's a value that I live upon. I value and it's a mission. It's one of the critical values that we have on our team.

I literally hire people who are going to have different opinions than me. So that's fine. Like, we have this these debates all the time on my team, but the concern is that we're not willing to have them as a party. And we're just going to keep losing elections if we can't do that.

DEAN: Do you think this specific issue is a big part of why Trump won?

MOULTON: I mean, look, the sad reality is that there's polling out that shows that at least among -- in one poll among swing voters, it was literally the number one issue. And you can say that was because the Republican ads were effective or whatever else. But I think there's another important point here, which is that Trump is going to try to attack trans people. He is going to attack minorities across the board.

The Republican agenda is legitimately dangerous for a lot of people in America. And we're not going to be effective at defending these people and their civil rights, their access to health care, things that are really important to them as I've heard from many advocates in their community over the past several days, if we don't actually put ourselves in a position of power.

Because God knows the Republicans aren't going to stand up to Trump. They're not going to protect their fellow Americans when he goes after their rights. I mean, just what about women in reproductive freedom? I mean, that should really scare people because Republicans and Trump are absolutely going to try to ban abortion nationwide and we're not going to be able to stop that if we don't start winning elections and get back in power.

DEAN: And I want to ask you because you did co-sponsor two separate bills called the transgender bill of rights. It would have guaranteed transgender people the right to participate in sports teams that match their gender identity and other rights.

[17:10:01]

So are you saying you no longer believe in that legislation or that the Democrats should go a different way?

MOULTON: No. Absolutely not. Because this is the prime example of exactly what I'm talking about, which is those were Republican bills that went too far, that were too radical. And yet if Republicans control the White House, the Senate, and the House, that is exactly the kind of radical agenda that they are going to shove through.

And so we have to come up with reasonable alternatives that not only the majority of voters can agree with, but that we might even get some Republican votes for, which are going to be necessary if we don't have majorities in the House or the Senate in order to stop this kind of policy from going through and hurting a lot of Americans.

DEAN: And so help me draw the line here between what you said, which is that as the father of daughters you are fearful, they're going to be -- that they might be run over by formerly male athletes to guaranteeing transgender people the right to participate in sports teams that match their gender identity. How do you hold all of that at the same time?

MOULTON: Oh, sure. I mean, look, this is exactly the bait we have to have. And candidly, I'm not an expert on these issues. I mean, there are people in the community who have much more specific views. You know, but one of the consensus views that I've been hearing is that kids play co-ed sports all the time. Right? I mean, I've got little kids who are just on coed soccer teams and everything and that's totally normal. It's been fine for generations.

But it's very different when you get to competitive sports at the college level, for example. And I've heard, anecdotes from parents who've reached out to me over the past several days who share these concerns, who think it's just unfair that, you know, transgender women or men are able to compete against their daughters. And so that's the debate that we really have to have. And I think that there are some reasonable questions about what's fair from a competitiveness perspective and also what's safe at those levels.

DEAN: And so just broadening out before we let you go, just more broadly. I hear what you're saying about you want more debate. You want to be able to talk about these things. How -- what do you say to the people in your party though who say this isn't up for debate? I don't want to debate these things. These are things I believe and I don't think we should be even considering another position on this or a number of issues.

MOULTON: If you just keep preaching and talking down to people, if you just ignore the majority of voters, then that's fine. You can have that position, but we're going to keep losing elections. And in the business of politics, you actually have to win if you want to make change. And I really want to make change for the American people, and I want to protect people who are going to be attacked by Trump and the Republicans. We got to win elections to do that.

DEAN: All right. Congressman Seth Moulton, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it.

MOULTON: Good to see you, Jessica.

DEAN: And also, I just want to say today is -- tomorrow rather is Veterans Day, and we did want to thank you very much for your service to our country. We appreciate it.

MOULTON: Thank you. I appreciate that.

DEAN: Still ahead, President Biden's final 71 days in the White House, how he's trying to protect his legacy, and what's left to do on his to do list. We're going to discuss that with our panel.

Plus, the head of FEMA is being called to testify in Congress after the agency fired a worker who told a hurricane relief team to skip homes with Trump signs.

And fighting intensifies between Russia and Ukraine as tens of thousands of Russian and North Korean soldiers are preparing for a major offensive. You're in the "CNN Newsroom."

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DEAN: President Biden taking in a quiet moment at the beach today before he flew back to Washington as he prepares to meet with president-elect Donald Trump this week with just 71 days left in office. President Biden is looking to cement his legacy and trying to Trump-proof some of his final priorities. CNN Sunlen Serfaty is at the White House for us tonight. Sunlen, what more do we know about what will unfold at the White House meeting this week?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, President Biden and incoming President Trump will be sitting down in the Oval Office on Wednesday. And, certainly, this is a huge moment for both men, but, certainly, the country still clearly reeling from the results of the election and going forward to that handover of power that will take place in January.

And notably, this is a tradition that was not afforded to President Biden when he came into office in 2020. He was not invited by, then president Trump, because he was still contesting and questioning the election results that year. So the White House aides now going into this meeting on Wednesday are really certainly being very explicit in President Biden's message, and that is one of a peaceful transition of power.

Wanting to ensure smooth transition of power will be his message and also beautifying the country after the election season. Here's, Biden's White House National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, on this this morning.

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JAKE SULLIVAN, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: The first and most important message will be that President Biden is committed to the peaceful transfer of power and to a responsible hand off from one president to the next, which is in the best tradition of our country and has been for the last 240 years. And then they will go through the top issues, both domestic and foreign policy issues, including what is happening in Europe and Asia and the Middle East.

And the president will have the chance to explain to President Trump how he sees things, where they stand, and talk to President Trump about how President Trump is thinking about taking on these issues when he takes office.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[17:20:00]

SERFATY: And that is notable there that Biden will bring up his domestic and foreign policy priorities here in this meeting with Trump on Wednesday. The president has been very clear with his team according to White House aides that he wants to, quote, "run through the tape in these last 71 days that he has power," and he is here at the White House, looking -- this administration looking at areas that the president can really key -- protect those key accomplishments from a future Trump administration as well as keep pushing forward on the world stage.

He travels, Jessica, next week to the APEC summit in Peru, the G20 Summit in Brazil. He also will head to Angola in early December. So President Biden here really working towards cementing his legacy, but certainly all eyes at the White House meeting on Wednesday where the key message from the White House will be a smooth transition of power. Jessica?

DEAN: All right. Sunlen Serfaty at the White House. Thank you so much. And let's bring in our panel now. We have Republican strategist, Shermichael Singleton and Democratic strategist, Julie Roginsky. Good to see both of you. Thanks for being here.

Good to see you, Jessica.

Good to see you.

DEAN: Julie, I want to start with you. I -- the clip of you from earlier this week on CNN talking about Democrats and how they speak to people and what they should be doing, I got -- people sent it to me, people talked to me about it. It really made the rounds. And I'm curious, here we are several days later now.

What are you thinking now? Or is it I would imagine it's still along the same lines. And, you know, we just had congressman Seth Moulton on last, you know, in the last 10 minutes, talking about all the blowback he's been getting for what he says is trying to have a conversation about transgender rights. What do you make of all of that?

JULIE ROGINSKY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, first of all, Shermichael was in that clip too so, I don't want to leave him out. I don't want to leave him out of that viral clip.

DEAN: That's right. No, the both of you. You're great. ROGINSKY: It was both of us. Look. Yes, and I will also say this.

Look, over the last week or close to the last week since the election, I've heard so many people say I'm not speaking to my crazy cousin or my uncle at Thanksgiving because he voted for Trump or I'm not speaking to anybody who voted for the quote, unquote "patriarchy," which is not a word that people use in the real world and I keep saying language means something. We need to start communicating with people in language they understand.

You have to. You have to. Because if you take your marbles and go home and just say that I refuse to engage with anybody who voted against my values, even if those values are intrinsic as to who you are, even as a woman, I'm horrified that Donald Trump was elected, a sexual predator, adjudicated sexual predator.

Even if as an African American, you are offended that somebody who would go back to the '70s did not want to allow people who are black to live in his buildings, you are offended. Even if it's a LGBTQ member, you're offended. I mean, you can be offended for a number of reasons, but you're not going to get people to come over to your side if you preach to them and if you scold to them. You cannot be a scold. You have to explain your point of view.

And I think too much over the last few days, all I've heard from some quarters of my party, people saying, that's it. I'm packing up my marbles. You live on your red side of the river, and I'm going to live on my blue side of the river, and the twain will never meet. Well, guess what? Donald Trump picked up votes among African-Americans. He picked up votes among Latinos. He picked up votes among everybody for the most part.

I mean, there's a very small cohort of college educated white women who he didn't get votes from and black women who are always the backbone of this party. He picked up votes from everybody else. If we want to get those people back and we can, we've got to talk to them. We can't talk at them. We have to speak with them in their own language, on their own terms. I will -- this is a hill I will die on for the rest of my life.

DEAN: And Shermichael, just look, I think you can say, like, there are the MAGA forever voters and we can put them here. And then I think there are a number of voters that Julie just talked about that swung toward Trump maybe for the first time, maybe had the opportunity to vote for him in '16 and '20 and didn't do it and did vote this time. Do you think, those voters are willing to be swayed yet again? Like, can they be, can they -- you know, does Trump have to keep them and can Democrats find a way to get them back?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I mean, it's certainly possible. I was supposed to keep them back, if Republicans don't necessarily meet the demands of them. And the demands, I would argue, centrally speaking for most of these new voters who are newcomers to the Republican Party centers around economic dislocation. And so can the former president, from a legislative perspective working with Republicans in Congress, increase or return skills or training for skills in high schools for example so when young men graduate, they can work in plumbing or become electricians.

I was just speaking with a friend of mine earlier today who lives in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia and he helps build ships. And he was telling me how there is a huge shortage of men with the skills to continue building ships and other machinery for our military.

[17:25:00]

We could have training there. So there are a lot of different roads and directions I would argue Republicans could take to sort of address that economic dislocation that a lot of working class people are striving for and are saying, hey, we feel that, this ship is moving on without us. We're begging for help. We're going to look to Trump to see if he can address our plight. There's an incredible opportunity there.

To Julie's point, there's a reason why the former president received more percent of the popular vote than any Republican in history running for the presidency. He received more votes for individuals younger than 30, more votes for individuals who make $50,000 or less. He received more votes for Hispanics, for blacks, for Latinos.

These things should not be overlooked. And if you're a Democrat, you have to ask yourself, is it their neoliberalist ideals on the world that sort of put them in a bubble and have allowed them to view things very differently than the people that they say their party actually represents? And if they can't figure that out, then again, I think this picking is up for grabs for the Republican Party. And if they can move the needle, a bit here, Julie, I would argue that they have an opportunity in two years and in four years to grow the numbers that we just recently saw a couple of days ago.

DEAN: Yeah. And, Julie, I'm curious what you think about what Shermichael just said about kind of this idea, that that so many Democrats were in this bubble and thought they knew a lot about the world and it turned -- or about this country and it turned out that it they just missed it.

ROGINSKY: Look, as I said before, and I'll keep repeating it, we have to do a lot more listening and a lot less talking at people. I don't mean talking with people. I mean talking at people, and there's a big difference there. You can't tell somebody that they are racist or a sexist for voting for Donald Trump, who by the way, let me stress again, is both, I believe.

But nevertheless, the person who's voting for him may be voting for him for reasons that have nothing to do with race or gender, but may have to do with the fact that their own economic circumstances aren't where they want them to be. And you saw that, right? As college educated voters, Kamala Harris got the majority of those voters because they have more money and the luxury to think about things.

There are people who are working one or two or three shifts trying to take care of their parents at the same time that they're trying to take care of their kids. The sandwich generation, which is my Generation X, which gave Trump the biggest plurality of all, is squeezed. And they don't have time to sit around thinking about, you know, what comes next in five minutes. Never mind what comes next in five years. They don't have time to sit around thinking about democracy with a small D.

Although I think all of those things are incredibly important and crucial, but I have the luxury to sit around and think about those things. A lot of people don't. And so for that reason, we need to meet voters where they are. We need to meet voters on their level, and we need to meet voters in a way that's respectful and not scoldy. Nobody wants to be scolded. Nobody wants to be told they're a moron for voting for who they voted for, right, even if you don't agree with them.

And I keep hearing from all sorts of quarters in the Democratic Party, as I said earlier, that we've got to just cancel these people. Well, canceling everybody is not going to work. Politics is about addition, not subtraction, right? If you cancel everybody who voted for Trump, guess what's going to happen? You're going to lose again because he won. So you need to bring these people back into the fold.

I believe the Democrats have the superior plan when it comes to the economy. I believe Democrats have the superior plan when it comes to bringing people together. I don't believe Donald Trump was and will be a good president on the merits and on the policy, but we have to do a much better job of explaining to people why we think that is and not just telling them they're morons for not seeing it from the way that we see it from the start.

DEAN: All right. Shermichael and Julie, stay with us. Thank you so much to both of you. We'll be right back.

SINGLETON: Thanks, Jessica.

DEAN: And yeah, and still ahead, a FEMA employee fired after telling relief workers to skip houses with Trump signs after Hurricane Milton slammed Florida. Congress now calling on the FEMA administrator to testify about politicizing disaster relief. You're in the "CNN Newsroom."

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[17:29:59]

DEAN: House Oversight Committee is demanding answers from FEMA Chief Deanne Criswell. They are asking her to come to Capitol Hill later this month. This is after a FEMA worker was fired after telling a disaster relief team that was on the ground in Florida after a hurricane to avoid houses that had signs supporting Donald Trump.

Joining us now, CNN's Rafael Romo. Rafael, what more are you learning about this investigation?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, in many respects, this is adding insult to injury. We reported last month that losses from Hurricane Milton could reach as high as $34 billion. The Category 3 storm claimed at least 25 lives in Florida and destroyed homes, roads, and power lines.

That's why so many people are angry about this incident that has also prompted House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, to ask FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell to appear at a hearing on November 19 to discuss the response to the last two hurricanes to hit the southeast.

What we know so far, Jessica, is that the employee has been fired. According to Criswell, the employee advised their disaster relief team to avoid homes with signs supporting former President Donald Trump while canvassing in Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton. FEMA is now investigating how many houses were passed over, although the agency says it believes it was an isolated incident.

[17:34:53]

Criswell, the FEMA administrator, called what happened reprehensible in a statement published Saturday. Criswell said the following: "More than 22,000 FEMA employees every day adhere to FEMA's core values and are dedicated to helping people before, during and after disasters often sacrificing time with their own families to help disaster survivors." Criswell also added that this is a clear violation of FEMA's core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation. We have also heard from Republicans who are demanding swift action and condemning the incident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BYRON DONALDS (R-FL): Anybody involved with that should be fired immediately, not asked to resign, not brought in front of a congressional hearing. They should be fired immediately. We are not going to have a country where we're going to decide who gets help and who gets -- who doesn't, based upon who you support politically or what you look like or anything else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: The allegations first surfaced in a report published by "The Daily Wire" citing internal correspondence between the employee and workers canvassing homes in Lake Placid, Florida. A FEMA spokesperson told CNN the incident happened on October 27, and the agency has deployed a new team to knock on doors in the affected area to contact those who may not have been previously breached.

In a new development, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced he has directed state officials to also investigate the incident, and Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, also a Republican, is calling the incident -- quote -- "unconscionable discrimination." Jessica?

DEAN: All right, Rafael Romo, thank you so much. Still ahead, votes are still being counted in key house races. How control of Congress will play a critical role in shaping or stifling Trump's big plans here in the "CNN Newsroom."

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[17:40:00]

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DEAN: Tonight, votes are still being counted in two key Senate races that will determine just how big Republican Senate majority will be in the next Congress. In Arizona, Democrat Ruben Gallego leads Republican Kari Lake by 1.6% with 13% of the vote outstanding. But in Pennsylvania, Republicans inching closer to picking up another seat. GOP challenger Dave McCormack holding a 0.6% lead over incumbent Democratic Senator Bob Casey, though there is a possibility of a recount in that race.

Of course, the House remains up for grabs at this hour as well with just a handful of seats needed to push Republicans over the line. CNN's Manu Raju has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, Republicans have a clear edge in holding into power in the United States House. Remember, in order to get a majority, you need to get 218 votes. That means they need to win five more seats in order to get into the majority. Democrats have to flip five republican seats, but the problem is that Republicans are leading right now in two democratic districts. Democrats are leading in two republican districts.

So, the math is complicated for them to get to that magic number of 218 votes to Democrats, which is why Republicans believe that once again, they can hang on to power. And if they do hang on to power, it will be yet another very, very tight majority, a razor thin majority. Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, assuming he's elected again, the speaker of the House will have very little margin for error.

And that has complicated Republicans' majority and their efforts to pass their agenda in the last two years. How will that be different if Republicans have the House barely, have the Senate barely, and also have the presidency? That will be a big question.

Now in the Senate, Republicans have 52 seats at least. They may have to add one more. Pennsylvania, that seems potentially could come in their column. David McCormick is leading in that race right now. There are still some outstanding provisional ballots that need to be counted. A recount potentially looms. That seat, of course, held by the longtime fixture in Pennsylvania politics, Democrat Bob Casey.

And Arizona has not been called yet, but Democrats feel good about that seat because Ruben Gallego, the Democratic candidate, is leading against Republican Kari Lake in that race.

Now the big question, the next big election actually is this Wednesday, Jessica. That's the Senate majority leader race because Mitch McConnell, the current Republican leader, longest serving leader in the history of the United States Senate, he's stepping aside in this from his leadership position.

There are three candidates who are vying for that spot. The current number two, John Thune, senator from South Dakota, also the Texas Republican senator, John Cornyn, who used to be the number two, is a two-time Senate GOP campaign committee chairman, and Rick Scott, Florida senator who just won a second term on Tuesday, he ran the Senate Republican Campaign Committee in the 2022 election cycle.

Senate insiders believe that it's Thune and Cornyn who have an inside track to the majority. Scott is trying to position himself as the MAGA Republican Senate leader, someone who's aligned more with Donald Trump. Trump himself has yet to weigh in on any of this. So, a big question will be if he decides to do that.

But even if he were to endorse, maybe he may not make that much of a difference because, Jessica, as you know, it is a secret ballot election that will take place on Wednesday, which means Republicans can vote however they want and may not want to listen to Donald Trump and choose someone they have relationship with, experience with, and may not agree with Donald Trump.

So those are all big questions because that is one of the most consequential jobs in Washington. The republic -- the Senate majority leader who will usher through an agenda, decide the GOP strategy, and work with the incoming Republican president. Jessica?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: All right, Manu Raju breaking it all down for us, thanks so much. And joining us now is congressional reporter for "Punchbowl News," Mica Soellner. Thanks so much for being here.

[17:45:00]

MICA SOELLNER, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, PUNCHBOWL NEWS: Thanks for having me.

DEAN: Yeah. So, okay, just in the last several hours, Manu was kind of laying out what this race for the new Senate majority leader will look like. It is a secret ballot. It's taking place later this week. And just in the last couple of hours, we have seen Elon Musk come out for Rick Scott, considered to be kind of the dark horse candidate, the MAGA candidate, as Manu was laying out there. Marco Rubio. These are obviously Trump loyalists. Elon Musk has been at his side on calls with foreign leaders. What does that mean for this race on -- on Wednesday?

SOELLNER: Yeah. I mean, I think that we're already seeing the influence that Elon Musk has had in the Trump campaign and for -- Trump as well as he prepares to take the presidency. You know, he has weighed in. A lot of other allies of the former president and his movement have weighed in. Tucker Carlson weighed in, calling for Rick Scott, and we're seeing some other people here kind of throw their hat in the ring, calling for Rick Scott to be the leader, arguing that he would be the closest to the president.

Now, of course, Trump has not weighed in himself, but this may or may not make a difference, as Manu explained before, given the fact that this is secret ballot. But what is interesting also is that we are seeing some people aligned with Trump that are also not necessarily endorsing Rick Scott. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri actually put his -- put his support behind John Cornyn. So, it's not necessarily unanimous, but it definitely shows the influence.

DEAN: Yeah, it certainly does. And, you know, just thinking about, the -- the -- the republican Senate that they will have when this new Congress takes over, the Republicans certainly have their majority there. But look, they do -- they are -- the filibuster will still exist for some things, which means that they're going to have to get 60 votes to do some things, not all. And that is going to require, you know, them get -- you only have -- you only have 53, 54 seats, that is going to require some help.

I am curious, too, if you can kind of walk through the dynamics of what somebody like Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski, both Republicans, but can -- but sometimes side with Democrats on issues. What that could mean for whomever is going be running the republican Senate?

SOELLNER: Yeah, absolutely. I think some of these moderate Republicans are really going to be squeezed by the former president who has clearly, you know, weighed in a lot and is not afraid to show his opinions and kind of take control of what he wants in Congress, especially if Republicans, you know, have the Senate, are poised. It looks like they may have the House, too, hold on to their majority there.

And it's not -- Trump is going to pretty much weigh in on everything. I think we can say that. We've already seen him weigh in already. And even before he was elected, last week, he was weighing in on things like the bipartisan border bill in the Senate. He essentially tanked that bill, for example. So, they're definitely going to be in a tough position if they want to stay, you know, kind of independent or join with Democrats at times.

DEAN: Yeah, it is going to be fascinating. And just the end of the McConnell era, I mean, that is really -- that is something up on Capitol Hill for sure.

SOELLNER: Definitely. You know, McConnell will still -- still stay kind of behind the scenes. We'll see how, you know, how much play he will have in terms of, you know, leading or influencing the Senate kind of, you know, in the shadows, kind of like former Speaker Pelosi, who has also stayed in Congress and has kind of assisted leadership in that way. So, we'll have to see what McConnell decides to do.

DEAN: Yeah, it will be fascinating to watch. All right, Mica Soellner, thank you so much. We appreciate it. And still ahead, a major admission. Israeli prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirming his country is responsible for the exploding pager attacks on Hezbollah. You're in the "CNN newsroom."

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK) DEAN: Israel's prime minister says he has spoken three times in the past few days with President-Elect Donald Trump. Benjamin Netanyahu say they were -- quote -- "very good and very important conversations aimed at strengthening the solid alliance between Israel and the U.S."

Those calls coming as Israel is confirming for the first time that it was behind the September operation that detonated thousands of pagers and walkie talkies used by Hezbollah in Lebanon. Our Matthew Chance is in Jerusalem with more on this.

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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, the Israeli prime minister has, for the first time, confirmed that Israel was behind the operation in September to detonate 100 of pagers lose by the Hezbollah group in Lebanon.

An Israeli official confirmed to CNN that Benjamin Netanyahu told a closed government meeting that an operation to detonate the pagers as well as a separate -- separate operation that resulted in the assassination of the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, the same leader, were launched -- quote -- "despite the opposition of senior officials in the security establishment and the political echelon in charge of them."

Israeli media has interpreted that phrasing as implicit criticism of Israel's military leadership and intelligence establishment as well as the former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who Netanyahu fired on Tuesday.

Well, thousands of explosions, you remember, took Hezbollah members, targeting their pagers and then their walkie talkies a day later. The blasts killed at least 37 people, including some children, and injured nearly 3,000, including civilian bystanders, according to the Lebanese health authorities. Back to you, Jessica.

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DEAN: All right, Matthew Chance, our thanks to you.

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In an unprecedented exchange, Russia and Ukraine trading record number of drone strikes overnight. This was the highest number of attacks in a single night since the war began. Ukraine launching a massive attack on the Russian capital briefly, shutting down operations at two Moscow airports. Russian military saying it shut down all 34 drones fired over the city.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy says Russia launched 145 strike drones over Ukraine overnight, part of more than a thousand aerial bombs and drone strikes over the last week.

And Russia is said to be utilizing thousands of North Korean soldiers as it prepares to launch a massive attack on Ukrainian positions in the Kursk region. A U.S. official telling CNN the assault is expected in the coming days. Ukraine invaded the Kursk region over the summer, shocking Russia with that offensive.

Ukraine says the North Korean forces have been training with Russian soldiers for weeks now, and the military estimates at least 10,000 of Kim Jong-un's forces are currently deployed in Russia, and they're reportedly outfitted in Russian military uniforms and kitted with machine guns, missiles, and rocket-propelled grenades.

We do have a new race projection that's coming in that could impact the balance of power in the House. Harry Enten is standing by with that. We'll have more in just a moment.

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