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Trump Picks Matt Gaetz as Attorney General; Battle Brewing Over Trump's Defense Secretary Pick; Trump to Loom Large at APEC Summit in Peru; Trump's Effect on Crypto. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired November 14, 2024 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. Here are some of the top stories we're following today.

President-elect Donald Trump announced Florida Republican Matt Gaetz as his choice for Attorney General. Gaetz is an outspoken critic of the Justice Department. He resigned from the House yesterday ahead of the confirmation process.

Paris is ramping up security ahead of a soccer match between France and Israel later today. Thousands of officers will be deployed across the city. It comes after violent clashes last week in Amsterdam between Israeli fans and pro-Palestinian supporters.

And finally, Florence is the latest Italian city to be trying to curb so-called over-tourism. Officials have approved a plan to restrict lockboxes, often used by short-term rental landlords, and golf carts used by tour guides. The city will also ban the use of loudspeakers and amplifiers.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Trump's selection of Matt Gaetz to be Attorney General brings with it some interesting circumstances. If he's confirmed, Gaetz would oversee the agency that once investigated him for sex trafficking and obstruction. He would also have access to all the evidence the FBI had uncovered.

House Democrat Jim Himes waned in on Gaetz's pick.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): There's a lot of attributes that the Attorney General needs. Equanimity, care, prudence, a deep respect for the rule of law. Matt Gaetz is the opposite of all of those things.

And I know Matt Gaetz. And by the way, his Republicans feel -- his Republican colleagues feel the same way that I do. He is a gonzo agent of chaos.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, Democrats are also criticizing Trump's pick for National Intelligence Director, former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. She has blamed the Biden administration for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Another battle brewing over Peter Hegseth. Donald Trump's pick to be Defense Secretary, critics are blasting his lack of government experience and controversial positions on diversity and women in the military.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER HEGSETH, FOX NEWS HOST: The dumbest phrase on planet Earth in the military is our diversity is our strength.

HEGSETH: It's one thing to have DEI inside your corporation or inside your university. It's a whole another thing to have it inside the 101st Airborne.

HEGSETH: We only have one military. And if the military goes woke, then it is less equipped to fight the wars it needs to fight.

HEGSETH: I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn't made us more effective, hasn't made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: More now from CNN's chief national security correspondent, Alex Marquardt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): It's among the most surprising of Donald Trump's picks so far. Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host set to now run the U.S. military at the Pentagon. The 44-year-old veteran, a stunning choice for Defense Secretary after Trump named several more classic, experienced national security hands to other posts.

HEGSETH: I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles.

[04:35:00]

MARQUARDT (voice-over): He's someone who has flaunted his controversial views.

HEGSETH: Men in those positions are more capable.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): And railed against what he sees as a woke military, as he did in this interview that was posted just last week.

HEGSETH: Any general that was involved, general, admiral, whatever that was involved in any of the DEI woke shit, it's got to go.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): Hegseth's crusade on the culture war in the military appears to be what he has most in common with Trump.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL-ELECT: The woke generals should be fired immediately.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): Trump's decision was met with shock by current and former military officials, the choice seeming to come out of left field.

Hegseth has been a weekend host of Fox & Friends after serving the military for nearly two decades, with tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. While in the National Guard, he claims he was barred from serving at President Joe Biden's inauguration because of a cross tattoo that the Guard unit found extremist.

HEGSETH: It's back to even the crusaders. It's long been a Christian symbol. And so they used it as an excuse to frame me as, you know, an enemy of the state effectively.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): Hegseth served at Guantanamo Bay and has defended waterboarding. He also advocated for three U.S. troops accused of murder, including former Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, who posed for a trophy photo with the corpse of an ISIS detainee.

HEGSETH: The murder of an ISIS dirtbag.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): Trump would go on to re-promote Gallagher and pardon the two others. Hegseth has cast doubt on the 2020 election and praised January 6th insurrectionists.

HEGSETH: These are people that understand first principles. They love freedom and they love free markets.

MARQUARDT: Hegseth recently moved to Tennessee with his third wife and seven children, where he says he now lives on a farm.

Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: The APEC Summit is getting underway in Peru, with Donald Trump expected to take center stage.

FOSTER: Trump will not even be there. But diplomats say many leaders are concerned about tariffs he threatened to slap on both friends and foes.

The White House says President Joe Biden, who heads to Peru today, will have a message for those leaders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE SULLIVAN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: In Peru, he'll go with our alliances in the Indo-Pacific at a literal all-time high. Japan, Korea, Australia, the Philippines, a really remarkable record over four years. And that's what he's going to hand off to President Trump.

And he is going to be making the case to our allies and, frankly, to our adversaries, that America's standing with its alliances, investing in its alliances, and then asking its allies to step up and do their part, which they have done these past four years, is central to American strength and capacity in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Marc Stewart joins us from Beijing. Mark, Biden's obviously a bit of a lame duck at the moment, but he did have this big meeting with Trump yesterday, and it was long. So he will have some insight to what he's planning.

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Max. I think there are really two things to look out for in the days ahead. First of all, this meeting between President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. It's scheduled for Saturday. There is going to be perhaps a burden, you could argue, placed on China to symbolically send this message that it favors communication and stability, because as we anticipate this incoming Trump administration, the previous administration caused many diplomats here to have many sleepless nights, you could argue, wondering what was coming next.

There have been frosty moments between the Biden administration and China, but we are at a point now where we are seeing regular diplomatic conversations, regular diplomatic visits between the two nations. It's something that Beijing very much would like to continue.

And while there may be some differences of opinion, some strong differences of opinion on the issue of trade, tariffs, and the global marketplace, there has been some common ground between the two nations when it comes to things such as climate change and battling fentanyl. So Beijing very much wanting to send a message to this incoming administration through this message with President Biden that it's open for conversation and wants stability.

And then the other thing I think to look for is on China. China has long been trying to establish itself as this alternative to the West, as an alternative world leader. Expect that theme to come across very strongly at APEC, whether it be through speeches or private meetings with Xi Jinping and world leaders, sending this message that under these current circumstances, it may not be a good idea to put so much invested into the United States. It would be worth having conversations with China.

And already, Max and Christina, we are seeing China make overtures to try to win over some U.S. allies. One notable event is the resumption of trilateral talks between China, South Korea and Japan, three nations that also at times have had a very strained relationship.

[04:40:04]

MACFARLANE: All right. Marc, we'll wait and watch this space. Thanks so much. Live from Beijing.

Now, the Philippines government reports what is now Typhoon Usagi as making landfall across the northern tip of the islands. Heavy rains and winds of 175 kilometers per hour have been battering the area and the storm has weakened slightly since making landfall.

FOSTER: This is the third typhoon to hit the north in just one week, but it won't be the last. Further east over the Pacific, expected to strengthen to a typhoon in the coming hours and hit the Philippines sometime this weekend.

MACFARLANE: Nearly a month's worth of rain fell in one hour in southern Spain Wednesday. Severe thunderstorms and torrential rain battered the Malaga area. Nearly 3,000 people and 1,000 homes have been evacuated and more rain is forecast.

Authorities have issued an orange warning for rain and announced that schools will be closed today. The same region was shocked by deadly flooding that killed more than 220 people just two weeks ago.

FOSTER: So to come, it began as a joke, but is it now making serious money? How Donald Trump's victory is raising the price of Dogecoin, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Bitcoin is now trading at a record high. And it's not the only one. The entire cryptocurrency market has been surging since Donald Trump won a second White House term.

MACFARLANE: That's because investors expect his administration will be crypto-friendly. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Bitcoin soaring to new heights, flirting with a new record, $90,000 per coin. It's the latest in a crypto frenzy fueled by President Trump's re-election win. The industry believes Trump's win signals a new crypto-friendly government, a departure from the Biden administration's harsher crackdown.

KARA CALVERT, VICE PRESIDENT FOR U.S. POLICY, COINBASE: We are now on the precipice of changing course. I think what President Trump did was lay out a very robust and a very clear vision. And that, I think, was something we had not seen. So it was a very stark choice from the previous administration.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Bitcoin, a digital cryptocurrency, trades on some unregulated exchanges and has no central regulating authority and is not backed by the government or a bank. It can be very volatile.

JAMIE DIMON, CEO, JPMORGAN CHASE: I've always been deeply opposed to crypto, Bitcoin, etc. If I was the government, I'd close it down.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): President-elect Trump was once a crypto skeptic. During his first term, he said it was, quote, based on thin air. But in recent months, he's changed his tune, accepting crypto campaign donations.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL-ELECT: Hello, Bitcoiners.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): And speaking at Bitcoin 2024 in July. TRUMP: I'm laying out my plan to ensure that the United States will be the crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): In September, Trump helped create a new crypto business, World Liberty Financial.

[04:45:00]

That same month, he stopped by a crypto bar in New York City's Greenwich Village. He also proposed a national crypto stockpile.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first transaction by a president on the Bitcoin protocol. History.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): The president-elect has vowed to oust SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, who has sought more regulation over the cryptocurrency market and helped lead the takedown of FTX's infamous Sam Bankman-Fried, who defrauded thousands of customers.

GARY GENSLER, CHAIRPERSON, U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION: It's an innovation. But innovations don't long thrive if they don't also build trust. I mean, the automobile wouldn't have survived if you didn't have traffic lights.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): But as Trump assembles his administration, he's surrounding himself with crypto-friendly advisers, most notably Elon Musk, who argues it promotes freedom.

ELON MUSK, CEO, TESLA INC.: I do think crypto, by its very nature, helps with individual freedom.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Well, a cryptocurrency Elon Musk has favored in the past is also seeing a surge in price. Dogecoin shares its beginnings with a popular internet meme, a funny online item that grew in popularity as it was shared. But it soon exploded in popularity after being mentioned by Musk on social media.

FOSTER: The picture of the Shiba Inu dog has taken on a new life since the announcement of a proposed U.S. Department of Government efficiency, or simply Doge, headed by former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk. The price of the cryptocurrency has soared 120 percent since November 5th, Election Day, of course, in the U.S.

Well, Geoffrey Kendrick is the global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered. He joins us now here in London.

I'm going to start with basics, if I could, Jeffrey, because people talk about cryptocurrency and Dogecoin. Can you just explain in very basic terms what exactly it is? GEOFFREY KENDRICK, GLOBAL HEALD OF DIGITAL ASSETS RESEARCH, STANDARD CHARTERED: The Dogecoin was the original meme coin. Now, meme coins were originally supposed to be jokes. Dogecoin has its own blockchain, same as Bitcoin, but it served a purpose within the broader crypto community where you've had followers, you've had, quite frankly, people that see prices going up and want to push it higher.

So it fulfills, let's say, a version of gambling within the crypto space. The global gambling industry is about $500 billion. So it fills that space.

You've had Elon Musk talk about it a lot in the last few years, and obviously with the acronym for that new administration having Doge as well, that's pushed it higher in the last week or so. So all boats have been rising, but Doge has been outperforming due to that factor.

MACFARLANE: Yes, and as we said, it soared to 120 percent since November 5th, no doubt in part because the crypto world is excited by the prospect of deregulation in this area. What are the current regulatory constraints on cryptocurrency and where do you think this new department might look to target regulations?

KENDRICK: Absolutely. So the market is now looking forward to a few key changes. You have the so-called SAV-121 regulation, which basically restricts U.S. banks from getting involved in the crypto industry. That's very likely to be repealed or you'll have a lot more one-off allowances for banks to kind of bypass that, if you like. As we've already seen for Boney Mellon in the last month or so. So in 2025, that probably goes. You'll get more institutional adoption on the back of more TradFi organizations in the U.S. taking part. That's sort of key point one.

You'll also get a lot of regulatory changes and probably the passage of bills around stablecoins. So stablecoins do what they say on the tin, so they're the most successful tokenized version of anything in crypto blockchain so far. They're pegged coins to the dollar. There's about $160 billion worth of those so far and they're already helping those that have been excluded from the financial system globally, particularly in emerging markets, to use those stablecoins to transact in dollars, to save in dollars, et cetera. So you'll probably see some changes on that.

So firstly, SAV-121. Secondarily, stablecoins. And thirdly, and perhaps even more importantly, there'll be changes at SEC.

The SEC has been quite negative in this industry during the Biden administration. I'd expect that to change early in 2025. So that's lifting all boats and I'd expect that to continue through the year next year.

FOSTER: Pretty clear Donald Trump wants to make the U.S. the capital of crypto. What does that actually mean for people though?

[04:50:02]

Will they increasingly be able to buy things with it or is it literally just sort of, as you say, a gamble, an investment bubble?

KENDRICK: So the gambling part I've just put down to meme coins, so that's sort of specific to the Doge example. Crypto becoming centrally held in the U.S. though, you already have a lot of the Bitcoin miners are based out of Texas. So I suspect you'll see even more of that. They're Nasdaq listed. So they're very legitimate businesses and you can look in their asset and liability statements, et cetera, if you like. So a lot of that has already happened. You'll probably see more of that next year.

And in terms of institutional adoption, I think the regulatory changes, the SEC changes, are more likely to see the U.S., as it typically does in most financial industries, kind of dominate, right? So U.S. banks will get involved.

We've already had the large U.S. ETFs for Bitcoin this year. They've been the most successful launches of ETFs globally in history in our more than $25 billion of net inflows. So that part of the segment is very legitimate.

It's backed by blockchain technology. It's backed by things that do stuff. So we'll start to see real world examples come through.

So I already mentioned the sablecoin one, the tokenization. You get the gaming industry go on chain, et cetera. So that part of the industry that is very legitimate is likely to continue growing next year.

I see Bitcoin to 200,000 by the end of 2025, Ethereum perhaps 10,000 as well. So don't think of this only as the gambling dogecoin story, although that's obviously grabbed a few headlines, but the bulk of the industry is very likely to keep growing. What was about $2.5 trillion before the U.S. election for the whole industry, so that's less than Apple in terms of its market cap. I think we could get to about $10 trillion by the end of 2026, i.e., the midterms in the U.S.

So this industry is becoming legitimized. It's becoming mainstream, and I think you'll see a lot of those real world adoption use cases come through after you get changes on the regulatory side of the U.S.

FOSTER: OK, brilliant. Thank you so much for that insight. I mean, the thing is it is going to go up, but, you know, it's very hard to understand. You should understand your investments.

MACFARLANE: I mean, I'm not an investor in crypto, but I guess now is as good a time as any, you know, to be looking at this market in a new light. However, the Trump presidency is going to bring volatility and uncertainty, and what impact that's going to have on investors in crypto, we don't really know.

FOSTER: And like all investments, it can come down as quickly as it went up, you should remember.

King Charles, meanwhile, celebrating his birthday today after a big night out in London, all dressed up, ready to go. We'll have the details. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: The homes of Kansas City Chief Superstar Travis Kelsey and Patrick Mahomes were burglarized last month. A police report from October 8th indicates thieves made off with $20,000 cash from Kelsey's house, and there was $1,000 worth of damage to a rear door.

FOSTER: Kelsey wasn't -- or hasn't, commented on the break-in. According to the criminal report, though, there was no forced entry at the home of Mahomes. He briefly addressed the situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[04:55:00]

PATRICK MAHOMES, KANAS CITY CHIEFS QUARTERBACK: Obviously, it's frustrating. It's disappointing. But, I mean, I can't get into too many of the details because the investigation is still ongoing, but obviously something that you don't want to happen to really anybody, but obviously yourself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, U.S. women's basketball star Caitlin Clark swapped the hardwood of the basketball court for the soft green of the golf course in Florida on Wednesday.

FOSTER: She took part in a golf event hosted by legendary Swedish golfer Annika Sorenstam. Before hitting the greens, Clark said her number one priority was not to hit anyone with a golf ball, but she's going to be brilliant, isn't she?

MACFARLANE: Yes.

FOSTER: Unfortunately, a wayward shot almost hit a spectator, though, standing to the left of the tee box. She made up for it by signing a ball for her fan. By the way, Clark's golf balls have her WNBA jersey number 22 printed on them.

MACFARLANE: Very nice. And you know what? You can see they're absolutely mobbed on the golf course.

FOSTER: Yes, she's a superstar.

MACFARLANE: It's kind of Tiger Woods-like, seems weirdly.

Now, a very happy birthday to King Charles, who is 76 years young today.

FOSTER: He'll celebrate his birthday by working on one of his pet projects, opening two distribution hubs in London designed to cut food waste and support charities that help people in need. The occasion will also be marked with a gun salute. Other more traditional events as well.

MACFARLANE: Oh, Wednesday, King Charles attended the film premiere of "Gladiator II" in London and met (INAUDIBLE) that's a bit more birthday-like behavior.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(GLADIATOR II FILM PREVIEW)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't fight for power. I fight for a free world for men like them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Now, a zoo in Nebraska has announced a very special delivery. The birth of red panda triplets. These cute cubs, two male, one female, were born back in August and have not yet been named.

FOSTER: And they'll likely be on exhibit at the Lincoln Children's Zoo next month, along with their mum, who is called Tien, I believe. The zoo's CEO says red pandas are an endangered species whose population has declined by 50 percent over the last 20 years. He says the birth of these triplets is important for animal conservation efforts and to raise awareness of the threat that they face with their survival little things.

MACFARLANE: I have a terrible story about this. I did hear during fireworks day here last week in London that a similar species in the London Zoo, a red panda there, actually died as a result of --

FOSTER: Well, the shock.

MACFARLANE: Yes, the shock of fireworks. So, I mean, definite need to preserve endangered species like this, obviously. Not meaning to end on a side note there.

That is it for us. Thank you for joining us here at CNN NEWSROOM. Stay with us, CNN "THIS MORNING" will be up next.

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