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Israeli Minister Orders Preparations for Sovereignty Over Israeli Settlements in West Bank; Trump Names Border Czar to His Administration; Russia and Ukraine Exchange Record Number of Drone Strikes. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired November 11, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

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JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, you are live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

We begin with breaking news. Israeli officials say they are preparing for full Israeli sovereignty over settlements in the West Bank.

I want to go straight to CNN's Jeremy Diamond on this breaking news. He's in Tel Aviv for us. Jeremy, what more are you learning?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, Bezelel Smotrich, who is both Israel's finance minister, as well as a minister inside the Ministry of Defense, he is now ordering two key departments within the Defense Ministry that he oversees to make preparations for to establish full Israeli sovereignty over Israeli settlements inside of the West Bank. And what that basically means is that he is laying the groundwork now for Israel to annex large parts of the West Bank areas that could potentially be the basis for a future Palestinian state.

And he is tying his decision to carry out these next steps directly to the election of President Donald Trump. He is making very clear in his statement here that he believes that the time is now in the wake of Donald Trump's election victory to pursue annexing these large parts of the West Bank where Israel currently has numerous settlements there.

He is also saying that he wants to lead a group to work with the incoming Trump administration to establish U.S. recognition of these settlements and of the Israeli sovereignty that he plans to extend to these settlements.

Now, we've reached out to the Israeli prime minister's office for comments. We've also reached out to the Palestinian authority for comments, and we have yet to actually hear back so far.

But we should know that Donald Trump, when he was last president, his peace plan that he proposed did indeed call for recognizing the sovereignty of settlements in the West Bank. And so it's very clear that Smotrich, as well as other right wingers in Netanyahu's government, are taking note of that fact and are now seeing the incoming Donald Trump presidency as an opportunity to fulfill many of their long held goals and beliefs regarding Israel's right to have settlements in the West Bank.

We should note that these settlements are considered illegal under international law as a result, and Israel has had these settlements following its conquest of that area in the 1967 war. Jim?

ACOSTA: All right, Jeremy Diamond. Thank you very much. I want to bring in CNN's Political and Global Affairs Reporter Barak Ravid.

Barak, what do you make of the timing of this announcement? And it sounds like from what Jeremy was saying a few moments ago that Donald Trump's election victory here in the United States is already making waves where he is in Israel.

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, you know, I think somebody is You know, I think Smotrich and maybe other members of the Israeli settler lobby are way, way ahead of themselves. I don't get the sense that there's any appetite, at least at the moment, in the incoming Trump administration to pursue any such move like Israeli annexation of the West Bank.

The reason that Benjamin Netanyahu, on January 28, 2020, had to walk back his statement about annexing the West Bank was because Donald Trump told them, don't do it. And in the Trump peace plan, the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, when you read it the word, annexation, is not there and the word implementation of Israeli law in the West Bank is also not there.

So, I think, you know, what people say now, I think, you know, some people are, you know, maybe might be excited, but the results of the U.S. election, it still doesn't mean that they're going to get what they want.

ACOSTA: So, is this just some chest thumping here, Barak? What do you think?

RAVID: I think, it seems to me -- you know, a lot of it is domestic Israeli politics, a lot of it is positioning, and a lot of it is, you know, that's what Bezalel Smotrich wants. That's his ideology. That's the ideology of big parts of the Israeli government. And they say that's what they want.

By the way, they said it exactly -- they said exactly the same things and exactly the same people in 2020 when they thought that Donald Trump is going to allow them to annex 30 percent of the West Bank. He did not, and nothing, at least at the moment, tells me that Trump is going to go in and, in the first year in office, he's going to allow Israel to annex the West Bank.

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I don't see that, at least there's no evidence for that at the moment.

ACOSTA: All right, interesting. Barak Ravid, we're going to keep our eyes on it. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. In the meantime, President-elect Donald Trump's new administration is taking shape. He's already picked a so called border czar. Trump says Tom Homan will oversee, quote, all deportation of illegal aliens back to their country of origin. Of course, that is a quote there.

Homan has been a controversial figure. He was acting ICE director in the first Trump administration and supports Trump's mass deportation plan. Here's what he told 60 Minutes.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is there a way to carry out mass deportation without separating families?

TOM HOMAN, FORMER ACTING ICE DIRECTOR: Of course there is. Families can be deported together.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why should a child who is an American citizen have to pack up and move to a country that they don't know?

HOMAN: So, their parent actually entered the country illegally had a child knowing he was in the country illegally, so he created that crisis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: CNN's Steve Contorno is following all of this for us. Steve, what can you tell us about Homan's role?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Yes. Homan is an interesting background as someone who was actually a Border Patrol agent himself and rose through the agency, ultimately becoming the executive associate director at the ICE headquarters under President Barack Obama. In fact, President Obama gave him the presidential rank award, which is the highest honor that someone who works in senior executive level of the bureaucracy can receive. And he stayed on through Trump's first term ultimately becoming associate or the acting ICE director, as you said, and he was the enforcer of Trump's immigration policies and ultimately was the architect of his family separation policies as well.

And he has been influential in Trump's orbit, especially on immigration. Throughout his campaign, he was a contributor to Project 2025, that controversial plan for Trump's administration. And he has been one of the people who has been influencing Trump's policies that he has been rolling out not only as a campaign candidate but also in his early days of his administration. And now he will be a border czar, as you said.

Now, that role obviously does not have a cabinet title to it. In fact, it wouldn't need any sort of Senate confirmation. And it's not exactly clear what that would entail. However, Trump on the campaign trail talked a lot about mobilizing all branches of government, and as well as the military and state and local law enforcement in order to carry out his mass deportation plan. So, you can certainly see where someone like Homan would be in charge of overseeing all the various stakeholders under that plan.

ACOSTA: And, Steve, Trump is nominating apparently Congresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York to be United States -- excuse me, United Nations ambassador. What more you learning about that?

CONTORNO: That's right. He announced this morning on X that that is his plan. This is something that Kaitlan Collins first reported was potentially in the works last night. And she is obviously someone who has become very close to the former president, one of his top allies in Congress or in recent years, even though she has more of a moderate background, she became a very vocal MAGA voice in the last few years.

She was one of his top picks potentially to be a running mate, making the short list of individuals who were considered. Obviously, she ultimately was not chosen, but has been in the mix and discussed for a potential role in his administration. And now she will find herself as the nominee for U.N. ambassador, an interesting twist in that role, given that one of the previous U.N. ambassadors for Donald Trump was Nikki Haley, who obviously became one of his rivals in the Republican primary. But, ultimately, Trump announced last week that she would not have a role in his administration. And now she has chosen Stefanik for her old job.

ACOSTA: All right. Steve Contorno, thank you very much. Let's bring in Republican Strategist Pete Seat. He worked in the George W. Bush White House and is vice president of the Bose Public Affairs Group, and Sarah Longwell is publisher of the Bulwark and host of the Focus Group podcast.

Let's talk about these two picks, what they mean. Pete, let me start with you. Tom Homan, as the border czar, as Steve Contorno was saying a few moments ago, it doesn't sound like it's going to need any kind of Senate confirmation there so he can just sort of move right in. What do you think?

PETE SEAT, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, let's start with the fact that this was the second personnel announcement made by the president- elect. Of course, the first was Susie Wiles as White House Chief of Staff, and now you have Tom Homan in this role.

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And as was mentioned, he's worked his way up through the ranks from border agent to acting ICE director and has been commended for his work on both side of aisle, including that Civil Service Award from Barack Obama, which was given to Tom Homan because he's so good at deporting illegal immigrants from this country. So, this is all about keeping that campaign promise and moving forward on it from the start.

ACOSTA: Yes. Sarah, I mean, we've had you on the show lots of times. You've been outspoken in your criticism of Donald Trump, but elections come with consequences. Trump is going to be in the White House again, and he could put people like Thomas Homan in charge of deporting undocumented immigrants in this country. What do you think we're going to see when Trump comes into office and Homan goes into that borders are role when he says things like, you know, families can be deported together, when he says something like that to 60 Minutes?

SARAH LONGWELL, PUBLISHER, THE BULWARK: Well, it'll be interesting to see what the American people really think they're getting with Donald Trump, right? I mean, look, I listen to people in focus groups all the time. Immigration was an enormous vulnerability for Democrats. Americans do want a secure border. I do think there's a question on top of that about whether or not Americans can stomach the idea of American military going and rounding people up and deporting them en masse.

I think the images of them sort of deporting children, many of whom are American citizens, that can get dicey really fast and can create the kind of sort of chaos and buyer's remorse that Donald Trump experienced in his first term when people actually saw him implement many of his policies. And so -- but, look, the American people voted for it, and they were -- they're going to see whether or not they like it when they get it.

I will say on the, Elise Stefanik is an interesting choice especially considering how Donald Trump has sort of gone after Liz Cheney and others who he says are sort of neocons or war hawks. You know, Elise Stefanik is somebody who has been quite hawkish in her career because she used to be a completely different person than the one she is now as a MAGA loyalist. And so she used to be somebody who would support Ukraine, support democratic allies abroad. So, it will be interesting to see which version of her of Elise Stefanik shows up because she's been such a shapeshifter.

But, you know, Donald Trump has shown real contempt for people who do want to stand with democratic allies, and it'll be interesting to see how she does that job.

ACOSTA: Yes. And, Pete, Trump said over the weekend that the new Senate majority leader must agree to recess appointments. All three senators running for leader quickly signaled support for that. How do you see this playing out and, I mean, what do you make of the fact that you see a lot of people on social media, people like Elon Musk and other MAGA figures suggesting that Rick Scott should be the Senate majority leader?

SEAT: Well, U.S. senators don't like being told what to do, neither do voters, frankly, for that matter, and we'll see how this all shakes out in the coming days. But senators are going to have to decide. Is it fealty to the executive, which is a co-equal branch of government, or is it guilty to their role for advice and consent as United States senators?

But I do want to say on Elise Stefanik, she os a former colleague and a friend. I think she's an exceptional choice for this role. She would be credible and competent in any number of positions of the administration, but I think she's particularly well-suited for U.N. Ambassador. Recall her fight against anti-Semitism on college campuses. That went viral. I think she is going to be a forceful voice for America's interests there in New York with both allies and adversaries. ACOSTA: But, Sarah, on the recess appointment issue, I mean, this is a way for Donald Trump -- we saw this in the first Trump administration, to sort of skirt Senate confirmation to get the kind of people he wants in the administration to be in those very important positions.

LONGWELL: Yes. You know, when -- because I was a Republican for most of my career, I remember when Donald Trump got elected in 2016. One of the things I told people was, hey, look, there's only so much damage he can do. Republicans are responsible people. There are three co- equal branches of government that he can be reined in. That's not true anymore.

And this idea of whether or not senators take their role of advising consent seriously, I think we're seeing them roll over immediately and abdicate whatever power they have in order to be subservient to Donald Trump. We're already seeing this in the people who are trying to run for Republican leadership in the Senate.

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They're basically rubber stamping whatever Donald Trump wants to do, even if it means giving up their own power.

And I think that's indicative of what we're about see sort of across the board from Republicans is just a decision to let Donald Trump do whatever he wants. And I think that's the part that scares me the most. There's going to be an element of people trying to tell you, hey, these are responsible people but we're watching quickly and have seen now for a while them demonstrate the fact that they are not responsible people and they will do exactly what Donald Trump wants them to do.

ACOSTA: All right. Sarah Longwell, Pete Seat, thanks a lot. I really appreciate it.

Coming up, what Donald Trump's return to the White House could mean for the war in Ukraine, will it give Vladimir Putin the upper hand? That's ahead.

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ACOSTA: Russia's war in Ukraine has a stark new milestone. Over the weekend, the two countries exchanged a record number of drone attacks, the most in a single night since the war began. And it comes as Ukraine faces uncertainty over future support from President-elect Donald Trump.

Joining me now is former NATO Supreme Allied Commander General Wesley Clark. General, what do you make of this, I mean, pretty big surge and these drone strikes going back and forth? And what do you expect moving forward now that Trump has won?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I think that you're going to see an intensification of the combat by both parties simply because if you're going into negotiations, you want the most favorable battlefield situation, and that includes the drone strikes.

So, I think it's going to intensify certainly in the near term. President Trump is going to have to work with Mr. Putin. And the thing is that it's one thing to get elected and say what you have to say to get elected, but how President Trump decides on the Ukraine policy will have a lot to do with how he's perceived by people all over the world, his contemporaries and so forth, like Xi Jinping and President Erdogan and President Sisi and MBS and Saudi Arabia. They're looking to see strength. If he comes in and concedes everything that Russia wants, he's going to look weak in front of everybody in the world.

And in addition to that, of course, if he gives up on Europe, he loses the key bargaining chip in terms of managing China. China wants Europe. They want their technology. They want their investment. Russia wants Europe. And so unlike the 19th century, when people were scrambling for colonies in Africa, today, it's really about who has the influence with Europe, who has their investment, who has their technologies.

And so I think with President Trump, we might see a different outcome than what people are anticipating.

ACOSTA: And Ukraine says Russia has deployed some 50,000 troops for a large scale assault to retake Russia's Kursk region. North Korean troops are expected to be a part of that. What do you make of that?

CLARK: I think it's going to be a tough fight. I hope the United States, at this point, as the Biden administration going out of office, will relax its restrictions and allow Ukraine to use the ATACMS that it has available to go after these troop concentrations before they make a close contact with the Ukrainians.

ACOSTA: And the Kremlin is apparently denying reports that Trump spoke with Putin about Ukraine last week. I mean, what do you think of that? I mean, would it surprise you if such a conversation took place? And why the -- I suppose the Kremlin is saying just didn't happen?

CLARK: It wouldn't surprise me that a conversation like that took place, but this is part of the jousting going back and forth. And Putin considers himself superior to Trump. And in many ways, he is. He's a senior statesman in the world, and he's the man that Trump comes to and says he's a good friend and seeking advice and so forth. Putin's not going to roll over for Trump. Putin wants what he wants, and part of that is the way he gets it is the leverage, the bargaining, and the pressure that he puts on.

So, denying a phone call took place, sure, that's his way of saying to, Mr. Trump, watch out. I've got power over you.

ACOSTA: Yes .And, General Clark, you and I have spoken so many times about Trump's presence on the world stage. I mean, you were the NATO supreme allied commander. There are lots of worries about what will happen to NATO with Trump back in the White House. I mean, just your thoughts on what the impact is going to be of Donald Trump getting back into the West Wing, back in the Oval Office.

CLARK: Well, if he does what he says he's going to do, he's going to basically tell the Europeans to mind their own business and we'll sort of partially disengage. If he looks at it pragmatically, he may realize that now he has complete control in the United States government. There's never been a president so powerful. Why would you want to give up the power you have over Europe with your leadership of NATO? So, we may see some change in policy.

ACOSTA: So, you think that it's possible he may be pragmatic about this? The campaign bluster is one thing, but when you get back in the Oval Office governing it and being a leader on the world stage is something different? I mean, one of the things that we saw from Donald Trump during the first Trump administration, General, he really did kowtow to Putin on a number of occasions. I mean, there was that Helsinki summit and so on.

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He has essentially campaigned as somebody who sounds like somebody who's going to give Putin what he wants in Ukraine, but you think that might not be the case?

CLARK: I think he will look at this very carefully. We don't know what's really behind all this. Bob Woodward said that these calls and Dan Coates said maybe there's some kind of relationship, et cetera, et cetera.

If that's the case, then Trump is limited in what he can do to stand up to Putin because he won't want that to come out publicly. But if it's not real, and he says it's not real, then it's logical that he would seize control internationally, be the biggest man on the world stage, not kowtowing to Putin, and say to Putin, let's get a reasonable agreement here on Ukraine, something that stands up and keeps America strong with its NATO leadership.

ACOSTA: All right. General Wesley Clark, I have a feeling we're going to be having this conversation a few more times before it's all said and done. Thanks very much for your time. I appreciate it.

Coming up, Donald Trump is promising major economic growth for black Americans. Was that all talk? Will he deliver? That's next.

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