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Trump Picks RFK Jr. for Health and Human Services Secretary; Leaders Ask to See House Report on Matt Gaetz; Russians React to Trump's Vow to End Ukraine Conflict; HRW: Israel's Mass Displacement in Gaza Amounts to War Crime; An Exclusive Look Inside El Salvador's Fortress Prison. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired November 15, 2024 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECT: He wants to make people healthy. It's driven him pretty wild over the last number of years.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The people that I'm talking to are thrilled that RFK is going to potentially have a role in this cabinet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The timing of Mr. Gaetz's resignation from the House raises serious questions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lawmakers left and right are saying Gaetz is not Trump. And they want to see the House investigation report into his behavior.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's tense and uncomfortable. But here, officials say comfort isn't meant to exist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did bad things. We pay it the rough way. Doing time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Max Foster. It is Friday, November the 15th, 9 a.m. here in London, 4 a.m. in Palm Beach, Florida, where Donald Trump attended a gala at Mar-a-Lago and spoke about some of his controversial picks for top posts, many with pretty questionable credentials.
The latest is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a conspiracy theorist who has loudly spread misinformation about vaccines. Trump has chosen him to lead up America's Department of Health and Human Services.
The scion of one of America's most famous families is vowing to make America healthy again. Trump applauded him on Thursday, saying he'll do unbelievable things.
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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECT: Today, I nominated him for, I guess, if you like health, and if you like people that live a long time, it's the most important position, RFK Jr.
And I just looked at the news reports. People like you, Bobby. Don't get too popular, Bobby. You know, you've reached about the level now. We want you to come up with things and ideas and what you've been talking about for a long time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well, the Department of Health and Human Services regulates drugs and oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as health insurance through Medicare and Medicaid. Former Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said RFK Jr. is unfit for the job and that his appointment will be terrifying for the American people.
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KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: He has no organizational management experience, and HHS is one of the largest domestic organizations, over 83,000 employees, a $1.7 trillion budget. He's never worked directly with Congress or a legislative body, and many of the previous secretaries, Republicans and Democrats, have been governors and worked very closely with HHS.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well, for reaction to the possible appointment of RFK Jr., we go to CNN's Christian Holmes reporting from West Palm Beach, Florida.
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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The people that I'm talking to are thrilled that RFK is going to potentially have a role in this cabinet. Now, of course, just a reminder that he has to get confirmed, and there is a lot of skepticism that RFK can get confirmed. But when I talk to the people close to Donald Trump, they believe that this is Donald Trump following through on his promises.
Now, I do want to just flag one thing that we saw just a few weeks ago, which was on Kaitlan Collins' show, when Howard Lutnick, the head of the transition, was asked if RFK would have a role in the cabinet or the administration, and he kind of laughed it off and said no, for that same reason that we seemed unlikely that RFK could get confirmed.
We'd also heard from a number of sources they were considering some kind of outside role for RFK, where he wouldn't have to be confirmed and probably wouldn't have the same level of power, would be more like a health czar. However, of course, as we've seen, all of that went out the window, and Donald Trump ended up now asking RFK to be the head of HHS. And I will remind you, too, there were a lot of people who were very upset about even the idea that RFK would serve in the administration, even as a czar role. Now, as a secretary role, we're obviously hearing a lot of pushback to that. But of course, the question being, could he get confirmed?
And I will say one thing about RFK and Trump's relationship. RFK worked very hard to get Trump elected. There is a significant group of people out there, maybe not significant in the traditional sense, but when it comes to an election that has small margins, there's a significant group of people who backed Donald Trump because they liked RFK's platform, this Make America Healthy Again.
[04:05:03]
And I know that specifically from anecdotal experience, where I sat in the audience and saw Donald Trump introduce a slew of various people, and RFK got the most standing ovation and the largest applause of anyone he paraded across the stage. So clearly, Donald Trump is now on some kind of loyalty tour and trying to pay back the people who helped him win this election.
Obviously, as we know, he was always going to choose people that he believed were loyal to him during this last couple of years.
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FOSTER: Donald Trump has announced several other picks for his new administration. He named former Congressman Doug Collins to run the Department of Veterans Affairs. Collins is a lawyer and veteran who served in Iraq. He's currently an Air Force Reserve Chaplain. Trump announced North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum as his choice to be Secretary of the Interior. And he looked to his personal defense team to fill a key slot of the Justice Department, tapping Todd Blanche as Deputy Attorney General. Blanche played a central role in the Manhattan hush money and classified documents cases against Trump.
Now, new this hour, Trump's choice for U.S. Defense Secretary was once involved in a police investigation into an alleged sexual assault. According to California officials, National Guard veteran and Fox News host Pete Hegseth was actually charged and he was not directly named as the alleged perpetrator.
But the magazine Vanity Fair reports that Hegseth claimed the sexual encounter was consensual, citing two sources. The assault allegedly happened in 2017 at a hotel in Monterey, California. The city said in a statement it would not release the full police report, citing state law and did not indicate what became of the investigation either.
Meanwhile, outrage is growing over Trump's audacious choice for Attorney General Matt Gaetz. After getting the nod from Trump, the Florida House Republican resigned from Congress and a House Ethics Committee that was supposed to release a report into his behavior as early as Friday has cancelled plans to do so. Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are insisting the findings be released.
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SEN. DICK DURBAN (D-IL): The timing of Mr. Gaetz's resignation from the House raises serious questions about the contents of the House Ethics Committee report. We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people.
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): I am going to demand release of the Ethics Committee report, all of its findings and recommendations.
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FOSTER: While Gaetz is facing a series of allegations about some salacious behavior, and at least one Senate Republican says he faces a difficult path to confirmation, CNN's Tom Foreman has the details.
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MATT GAETZ, FORMER REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN: It is a horrible allegation and it is a lie.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Having sex with a teenager, paying for sex, using illicit drugs, accepting improper gifts and dispensing special favors. Those are just some of the accusations that have swirled around the former Florida Congressman.
Matt Gaetz has always denied them, saying political enemies and even extortionists have pushed the claims.
GAETZ: I am the most investigated man in the United States Congress.
FOREMAN (voice-over): To be sure, a Justice Department probe into whether Gaetz was involved in sex trafficking produced no charges last year, even as another Florida politician in Gaetz's circle pled guilty. But there is more. Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy says Gaetz helped push him out precisely because McCarthy would not derail the House probe into Gaetz's behavior.
KEVIN MCCARTHY FORMER U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: A member of Congress wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old. Did he do it or not? I don't know. But ethics is looking at it. There's other people in jail because of it.
GAETZ: Chaos is Speaker McCarthy.
FOREMAN (voice-over): A conservative firebrand, Gaetz was also a firm ally as Donald Trump faced his own legal troubles.
GAETZ: In our friend President Trump.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Standing with the embattled former president when he was convicted of dozens of felonies, which Trump also disputed.
TRUMP: The people of our country know it's a hoax.
FOREMAN (voice-over): But lawmakers left and right are saying Gaetz is not Trump, and they want to see the House investigation report into his behavior.
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): I think there should not be any limitation on the Senate Judiciary Committee's investigation, including whatever the House Ethics Committee has generated.
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): Matt Gaetz has chosen to resign from the House, but he can't choose to conceal that information.
FOREMAN (voice-over): But he can choose, as he has in the past, to fight.
GAETZ: I faced down tougher than these folks, and I'll do it again.
FOREMAN: All of this has some members of the Republican Party clearly squirming. And if the revelations continue, we'll see if they start squirming even more.
Tom Forman, CNN, Washington.
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FOSTER: Well, with 65 days to go before his inauguration, Donald Trump wants all options on the table when it comes to getting his nominees to Congress.
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That includes recess appointments, which would allow him to install some officials without the traditional congressional hearing or floor votes. It would dramatically increase the odds of controversial picks like Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., making it through without a significant challenge. But the idea is getting a mixed response from Senate Republicans.
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SEN. TODD YOUNG (R-IN): It's our obligation to try and confirm these nominees quicker than we've seen in recent history.
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): I don't think we should be circumventing the Senate's responsibilities. But I think it's premature to be talking about recess appointments right now.
SEN. JAMES LANKFORD (R-OK): Quite frankly, the Senate should be here, do its work. A recess has to be more than two weeks already. And that would say that Congress is not here already doing its task.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: While many of Donald Trump's picks for his new administration are drawing criticism in the U.S., some are getting a more favorable reaction in Russian state media. Our Fred Pleitgen has more on that from Moscow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Kremlin-controlled TV praising some of President-elect Trump's Cabinet picks, calling designated Attorney General Matt Gaetz, quote, a Trump loyalist, and also speaking favorably about Trump's pick for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard for repeatedly parroting Kremlin talking points on the war in Ukraine.
She, from day one, clarified the reason for Russia's special operation in Ukraine, the anchor says, criticizing the actions of the Biden administration. Gabbard's words in 2022, right after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, caused even panelists on Russian state TV to cynically ask if she's a Kremlin agent. Yes, the host said, without providing any evidence.
But the Russians ripping into designated Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. Waltz at the Republican convention proposed deploying more American drones in the Black Sea and bragged about how Trump threatened to bomb, as he put it, Putin's Kremlin, the anchor says. That is what's called a Russophobic Dream Team or the American Dream Team.
PLEITGEN: Of course, there's a lot of discussion here in Russia about the new Trump administration that's taking shape and what some of the picks could mean for relations with Russia, especially when it comes to possibly ending the war in Ukraine.
PLEITGEN (through translated text): Donald Trump said that he definitely wants to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Do you think this is possible, through talks, through military action, what do you think?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translated text): I don't know how Donald Trump can resolve this. But I would really like this to be resolved as soon as possible and resolved in the most peaceful way possible that is, through negotiations, and not through actions that are happening now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): You know, there's still a bit of ambition here, with those in power. And I don't know if Trump will stick to his line. But I hope that there will be a good agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he's willing to talk to Donald Trump even before Trump takes office.
The Russians praising some of the president elect appointments as officials who could help normalize relations with Moscow.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: The New York Times is reporting Elon Musk met with Iran's ambassador to the U.N. this week. The talks between the world's richest person and Iranian envoy Amir Iravani were apparently held at a secret location. According to the newspaper, Iranian officials said the discussion was focused on how to defuse tensions between the two countries.
A U.S. official says the Biden administration was not given any heads up about the meeting, and it's not clear why Musk, who's been chosen to head up a newly conceived Department of Government efficiency, would be taking on a major foreign policy challenge.
Lebanon's capital taking fire from Israel for a fourth straight day. The moment southern Beirut was hit by one of at least four airstrikes in recent hours -- according to Lebanon's state media. There are no immediate reports of casualties.
Israel also conducted strikes on Syria on Thursday, leaving at least 15 people dead. The state news agency says 16 others were wounded in what Israel claims were strikes on Islamic jihad in the Damascus area.
Meanwhile, Israel is facing new accusations of war crimes over its military campaign in Gaza. Human Rights Watch says the mass displacement of Palestinians forced by Israel also amounts to a crime against humanity. Israel strongly denies the accusations.
Nada, we talked about this came out yesterday. But which way is the debate going?
NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, we've been hearing these stark warnings for some time now. And in response, oftentimes, of course, we've heard that rejection from the Israeli government.
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We've certainly heard that rejection this time around Israeli authorities saying that their forces in Gaza abide by international law, that there is no overarching campaign or agenda to cause maximal damage to civilian infrastructure in Gaza.
But this is a very comprehensive, very detailed report, 154 pages, which cites a huge amount of evidence, which has often been cited by other human humanitarian organizations and U.N. investigators, focusing on the mass displacement of civilians on the dangerous and oftentimes confusing evacuation orders that have been issued to civilians. And of course, the ongoing blockade on aid getting in or the free flow of aid getting into the Gaza Strip.
And of course, a huge focus really has been on the mass displacement of civilians. As we mentioned yesterday, more than 90 percent of Gaza's population are now internally displaced. The Human Rights Watch report cites the deliberate destruction of residential buildings, of residential infrastructure from schools to hospitals.
And of course, importantly, the targeting of civilians as they attempt to follow the Israeli forces evacuation orders on these so-called safe routes and in these so-called designated safe zones. Just this week, we've already seen the Al-Mawasi coastal area, another so-called humanitarian zone, being targeted once again by an Israeli airstrike, an area that is densely populated with civilian tents sheltering displaced. Whether or not we see any response to this in terms of the
international community, that remains to be seen. We know that Human Rights Watch is calling on members of the international community to put in place targeted sanctions, even to limit or to stop arms sales to Israel. But again, not the first time we've heard calls like this, and we haven't seen any substantial action and response over the last year.
FOSTER: In terms of the other two nations being attacked here, Syria and Lebanon, or groups within those nations at least, it feels like that's getting more intense, more coordinated.
BASHIR: Yes, certainly, particularly in Lebanon, where we are still seeing airstrikes in Beirut, a fourth straight day now of airstrikes in the country's capital. So this is happening alongside what is now an expanding ground operation in southern Lebanon, according to the Israeli foreign ministry.
But again, four straight days of airstrikes targeting Beirut's southern suburbs. There have been evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military for civilians, but oftentimes it doesn't come with a lot of lead up time for civilians to actually get out of harm's way. These are areas that are filled with residential buildings. They are still densely populated despite the enormous displacement crisis that Lebanon is now facing.
And what is also concerning is we are now seeing, of course, members of Lebanon's civil defense coming under attack. Just yesterday, Lebanese officials saying that several civil defense headquarters near Baalbek was targeted while civil defense workers were inside. Again, not the first time we've seen emergency workers being targeted, so deeply concerning.
FOSTER: OK, Nada, thank you so much.
Tensions high in Paris on Thursday, where Israel played France in a Nations League football match. At least one skirmish broke out during the game. Video shows a brief altercation between a small number of fans, some with Israeli flags on their backs. It's not clear what caused the fight.
French officials deployed thousands of extra security personnel after recent violence in Amsterdam. At least five people were injured and dozens arrested after Israeli fans were attacked last week. President Emmanuel Macron said France stands against anti-Semitism and violence.
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EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): We won't give in to anti-Semitism or to violence anywhere, including in the French Republic. It will never prevail and the same goes for intimidation.
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FOSTER: The match ended 0-0 in case you're wondering. U.S. Attorney General pick, Matt Gaetz, has praised the brutal prison
in El Salvador as a model for the U.S. Now, CNN gets exclusive access to the facility known as the worst of the worst.
Plus, the man Trump wants to put in charge of America's health once suggested he had a parasite in his brain. It's actually one of RFK Jr.'s milder controversies, we'll explain.
And U.S. President Joe Biden is at the APEC Summit in Peru. He'll meet with China's President Xi on Saturday for what could be a difficult conversation. That story when we come back.
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FOSTER: President-elect Donald Trump's pick for U.S. Attorney General Matt Gaetz would oversee U.S. prisons if he's confirmed. Back in July, Gaetz took a tour of one of the world's most brutal prisons and suggested that it should be a model for the U.S. This prison is where El Salvador keeps the, quote, worst of the worst murderers, rapists, gang members, including some who were deported from the U.S.
El Salvador's president released a video of some of Gaetz's comments after visiting the facility.
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GAETZ: There's a lot more discipline in this prison than we see in a lot of the prisons in the United States. This is the solution.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: CNN is the first major news organization to gain access to the prison system that Gaetz has been praising. Our David Culver takes you inside for this exclusive report.
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DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: All right, I'm going to go in here.
CULVER (voice-over): Even as I'm stepping through these doors, I don't fully grasp what we're about to walk into. Suddenly, you're hit with the intense gaze of dozens locking on to you.
These men described as the worst of the worst, tattooed with reminders of El Salvador's dark past. It's tense and uncomfortable. But here, officials say comfort isn't meant to exist.
CULVER: There's no mattresses. There's no sheets. You've got a toilet over here for them to go to the bathroom. You've got this basin here that they use to bathe themselves. And then you can see there there's a barrel of water that they can drink from.
CULVER (voice-over): This is a rare look inside El Salvador's terrorism confinement center known as Cecot.
CULVER: And he says there's always somebody standing here in front of the cells. And then if you look up, there's another corridor with more security personnel. 24-7 light.
CULVER (voice-over): The prison sits like an isolated fortress nestled in mountainous terrain about an hour and a half drive from the capital. Even with government officials on board with us, we're stopped a mile out.
CULVER: OK, he's going to inspect bags now too. OK, we're clear to get back in.
CULVER (voice-over): Only to hit another checkpoint. Approaching the main gate, our cell signals vanish.
CULVER: They want to do a full search on us before we enter.
CULVER (voice-over): Once cleared, we tour the vast campus.
CULVER: It's been equated to seven football stadiums. It's almost multiple prisons within the prison. You can see off to the distance, there's three different rings as they describe. The far end, you have one that's nine meters high of concrete, and then above that, three meters of electrified fencing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 15,000 volts.
CULVER: 15,000 volts.
CULVER (voice-over): More than a thousand security personnel, guards, police, and military are stationed on site. Inmates are assigned to one of eight sectors.
CULVER: The director tells me the inmates, once they're inside one of these sectors, they never leave. Everything is done within, including doctors, as well as legal visits or court hearings.
CULVER (voice-over): Each sector holds more than two dozen large cells.
CULVER: Roughly 80 inmates per cell, but it can fluctuate.
CULVER (voice-over): Most bear the markings of the gangs that held this nation hostage for decades, committing brutal acts of violence.
MARVIN VASQUEZ, PRISONER: You got to kill people. You got to rob. You got to do what you got to do to survive.
CULVER: You have to do those things.
VASQUEZ: Yes, you got to do that.
CULVER (voice-over): We meet 41-year-old Marvin Vazquez, shackled and heavily guarded.
CULVER: What gang were you part of?
VASQUEZ: MS-13.
[04:25:00]
CULVER: And do you have any gang affiliations?
VASQUEZ: Yes, I'm tattooed up.
CULVER: What is this?
VASQUEZ: Crazy criminal. Say crazy criminal. Yes, I made this click in 2011.
CULVER: You made the click?
VASQUEZ: Yes.
CULVER: You were a gang leader?
VASQUEZ: Yes.
CULVER: What is it like to live here?
VASQUEZ: It's probably not a hotel five-star, but they give you the three times the food. They give you some programs. You go to do exercise. Some church or religion programs too.
CULVER: But that's limited to just 30 minutes a day. The other 23 and a half hours, they're kept inside and locked up.
CULVER (voice-over): For inmates who get violent with other prisoners or guards --
CULVER: They're going to close the door. I just want to get a sense of -- wow!
CULVER (voice-over): Solitary confinement awaits.
CULVER: The only light you get is through this hole, and it can be in here for 15 days, potentially. All right, I'm ready to get out.
The director brought up that a lot of folks will raise concerns from a human rights perspective and an abuse of human rights, that he's calm hearing that because he sees it day to day, the process they go through to maintain, as he sees it, proper punishment.
CULVER (voice-over): While you're cut off from society here, whispers of life on the outside make their way in.
VASQUEZ: I've heard about it, that it's a new El Salvador. It looks different.
CULVER (voice-over): That new El Salvador has emerged under President Nayib Bukele, who took office in 2019 and declared a controversial state of emergency more than two years ago. It sparked an aggressive crackdown on crime. We see that firsthand as some 2,500 police and soldiers deploy into one neighborhood.
CULVER: It's going to go on through the night for however long it takes for them to root out any suspected criminal elements.
CULVER (voice-over): Critics argue Bukele's strategy has given him far-reaching power to suppress dissent and silence any opposition. Late last week, as the U.S. State Department lowered its travel advisory for El Salvador, citing a significant reduction in crime, it also warned that Bukele's emergency measures allow authorities to arrest anyone suspected of gang activity and suspends constitutional rights.
And yet most we meet seem unfazed by the added show of force.
CULVER: I asked him, I said, how do you feel with all these soldiers? I mean, there's a couple of dozens just even right outside his door. And he said, no, I feel safe.
CULVER (voice-over): El Salvador now has one of the world's highest incarceration rates. The most heartening criminals brought the Cecor, where inside a life sentence awaits.
VASQUEZ: We did bad things. We pay it the rough way, doing time.
CULVER (voice-over): And yet for many on the outside, the prison now a symbol of newfound freedom. The new El Salvador as they see it.
CULVER: Now you've got other Latin American countries that are building what some are considering to be Bukele-style prisons, namely Ecuador and Honduras.
No question it's controversial. Some think it is far too extreme. But when you speak to the folks on the ground in El Salvador, and we've made multiple trips there, even those who disagree with Bukele's tactics will tell you they're incredibly happy with the outcome. They feel far safer, safer than they've ever felt before in their own country. Many of them will say that as extreme as those tactics are, they were necessary to eradicate the gangs that really took control of the country for so many years.
David Culver, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Still ahead, vaccine makers see their stock prices tumble as Donald Trump names Robert Kennedy Jr. as his pick for health secretary.
Plus, as Spain struggles with another round of extreme weather, one leader is set to answer for a delayed emergency response. More on that later in the show.
