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Biden Approves Ukraine's Use Of Long-Range U.S. Weapons In Russia; Zelensky: Missiles Will Speak For Themselves"; Trumps Shadow Looms As Biden Prepares For G20 Summit In Brazil; Trump Selects Brendan Carr to Head the FCC; Israeli Strike Kills Hezbollah Media Chief Amid Ceasefire Efforts; Syracuse Residents Fear Lead Poisoning From Drinking Water. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired November 17, 2024 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're on the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jessica Dean in New York. And we begin this hour with President Biden announcing a major policy shift in Russia's war on Ukraine. Biden giving the green light for Ukraine to use long-range U.S. weapons inside Russia. A U.S. Official telling CNN those weapons are intended to be used primarily to strike targets in Russia's Kursk region. For now, that is where Ukraine made surprise gains on Russian territory over the summer.

We go now to see on Senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak, who's joining us from Rio de Janeiro where the G20 summit is being held. Kevin, what more do we know about President Biden's decision here?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, this did come after a lengthy deliberation period inside the Biden administration. And what officials are telling us is that what tipped the scales was North Korea's recent entry into this conflict by sending thousands of troops to join their Russian compatriots on the battlefield. That essentially was what helped President Biden made the decision now to allow Ukraine to send -- to allow Ukraine to fire these American- provided long-range missiles into Russia. And American officials do believe that this war is now reaching something of an inflection point as tens of thousands of Russian troops mass near the Kursk region, as Russian President Vladimir Putin looks to claw back some territory, and as those North Korean troops supplement the Russian forces in Kursk.

Certainly, President Biden looking to send a message to the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un that he is sending his people to this war at their own peril. Now President Biden had been coming under intense pressure not only from the Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky to allow this new capability, but also from a number of NATO allies who argued that preventing Ukraine from being able to fire these missiles into Russia essentially tied their hands behind their back as they look to gain some momentum on the battlefield.

Now we did hear from Zelensky earlier this evening reacting to this decision. Listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (voiceover): The plan to

strengthen Ukraine is the victory plan I had presented to partners. Long-range possibilities for our army is one of its major points. Today, there is a lot of talk in the media about us receiving a permit for respective actions. Hits are not made with words. Such things don't need announcements. Missiles will speak for themselves for sure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIPTAK: Now the other dynamic that I don't think can be ignored here is Donald Trump's return to the White House in two months time. President Biden and former President Trump have vastly different views of the war in Ukraine. Trump has cast a skeptical eye towards continued American assistance, both military and financial, to Ukraine and says that he could resolve this conflict in one day.

He hasn't necessarily said how he would do that, but the implication, of course, is that it would require territorial concessions on the Ukrainian's part, which is something that Zelensky has said that he is opposed to. And certainly, both the Ukraine war and Trump's return to the White House will be a backdrop for the G20 summit that will begin here in Rio de Janeiro tomorrow morning.

Certainly, President Biden will face a lot of questions from leaders who are looking to ascertain what exactly the next four years will look like under a Donald Trump administration. Of course, Russia itself is a member of the G20, which means that work and progress on the war in Ukraine hasn't necessarily been fruitful in this particular forum. But I think this decision today and President Biden's efforts to surge assistance to Ukraine in his final months in office gives you an indication of how the Biden administration is trying as hard as it can to put Ukraine in a position, in a strong position before he leaves office.

DEAN: All right, Kevin Liptak for us in Rio de Janeiro. Thank you so much for that reporting.

Let's unpack this major change in policy and what it could mean for President-Elect Trump. Joining us now, CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen and CNN Military Analyst, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. Good to have both of you here with us.

Colonel, I want to start first with you and this decision. We have talked about this, about the prospect of this now for a while. What are your thoughts as we've now arrived at this decision?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, Jessica, it's definitely welcome news for the Ukrainians and it may be a little bit too late for them. So this is a good decision as far as it goes. It's going to help the Ukrainians in a tactical sense in the Kursk region and possibly they may extend the permissions into the Belgorod region, which is a neighboring region, and also along the border with Ukraine. If that happens, that could make some effort at least at weakening some of Russia's abilities against Ukraine in those northeastern areas. It won't, however, make much difference in the eastern part of the country, at least not yet. The Donbas region, which of course Russia has occupied ever since really 2014 for parts of it, in 2022 for the rest of it.

[19:05:24]

So it's, you know, it's welcome news for the Ukrainians, but it's not going to be a major game changer at the strategic level. But it could have strategic implications because of limited tactical effects.

DEAN: And Peter, I'm curious what your kind of thoughts are on how this could potentially impact this war.

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think Colonel Leighton said it right, which is it's late and we've seen this pattern many times before where the Ukrainians have asked for particular weapon systems and the U.S. has spent a long time debating whether or not they should get them worrying about escalation. And the worries tend to be, have tended to be overblown. I mean, Putin, we have, we're not in a, you know, some sort of war with Putin here. But whether it was the F16 or the Abrams tanks or the HIMARS missiles, exactly the same debates played out.

Now the difference here is we're only two months away from the inauguration of a new president. And you know, typically this is not really a criticism of what's going on. I'm just saying that often presidents avoid making major policy changes just in the sort of period when they're in a lame duck period. And you know, this does sort of potentially lock President Trump a bit into a policy decision that he may not agree with, he may well reverse.

We don't -- it's, you know, most predictable thing about President Trump is how unpredictable he will be. So, you know, it remains to be seen. But I -- one other quick point. The Ukrainians are losing in eastern Ukraine. You know, they obviously had this surprise incursion into Kursk and it went pretty well, although that may be reversed because Putin's putting 50,000 troops, including 10,000 North Koreans. But they're not, they're losing the war. I think that's pretty well understood.

And they look at a Republican-controlled Congress which is not going to be just dying to send billions of dollars more aid. So, you know, it's not looking particularly good for Zelensky. Yes, today's a decision is good for him, but in the big picture, I think this is looking pretty bleak.

DEAN: And Peter, just kind of getting a little bit deeper into what something you brought up. How might this all change when President- elect Trump takes office in two months?

BERGEN: Well, you know, he has said there's been some Trump proofing. So for instance, in Congress, you now have to have a supermajority in the Senate or a vote of the full Congress to pull out NATO. That is a pretty high bar. There's a lot of Republicans who actually want to stay in NATO.

So, you know Trump -- but Trump can do something different. He can say instead of I'm going to pull out of NATO, knowing that would be very hard from a sort of legislative point of view, he can just sort of undercut it by his public statements, which he's done in the past. So if he says, look, he said publicly, if countries don't pay up to 2% of their GDP, I'm perfectly happy for Russia to attack them.

So those kinds of public statements by the commander-in-chief are the most important person in the alliance. Tend to undercut the alliance because if there's real concern that the Americans will not, you know, in act when Article 5 might be invoked and the collective right to self-defense, that is as good as pulling out of the alliance.

DEAN. Right. Right. And Colonel Layton, what are your thoughts on that? Just from the military side of things?

LEIGHTON: Yeah, I think Peter has made some excellent points here. One of the things that I look at is, you know, what happens next? You know, is there another domino that could fall in this particular case? And the eastern flank of NATO, Poland, the Baltic states, Roman, those countries are very concerned about what's happening in Ukraine. It would be best from a military-strategic standpoint if President-elect Trump were to reverse his stance on Ukraine and at the very least, make sure that brain sovereignty is guaranteed because Ukraine does serve as a buffer to NATO. It does offer that degree of protection if it is allowed to stay as an independent country.

So the real goal from a strategic standpoint should be to ensure Ukraine's independence and make sure that it can function as a viable democratic state. That will be probably something that would happen with the loss of territory. That, unfortunately, is something that appears to be the most realistic outcome in this particular case. How we get to that point and how we end this war is certainly something that would require not only diplomatic efforts but also the willingness to put military force in certain places to make sure the Russians don't advance or feel at least a great reluctance to do so.

[19:10:16]

DEAN: And, Colonel, do you think that there could be additional weapons or additional support that the U.S. might give Ukraine over these next two months as we see President Biden preparing to leave office?

LEIGHTON: I think it's certainly possible, Jessica. I think there are certain things. Well, there are certain things in the supply line that could get there faster. There are perhaps some weapons systems and some aircraft that could be delivered, F16, additional F16s that could be delivered during this period. But most of those would come from countries other than the United States. And that would, of course, make a bit of a difference for the Ukrainians. They suffered a great attack last night from the Russians. The F16s were used to help fend off some of the drones and missiles that were lobbed against Ukraine. So they're being used to some effect.

The air defense systems, of course, are critical, whether it's the Patriot, the HIMARS systems, or others. And those are the kinds of things that need to be there. We basically need to make sure that our defense industrial base is ready to not only resupply Ukraine, but also to make sure that our reserves, and that means U.S. and NATO countries, reserves of weapons are kept up to the standard that we need in order to ensure readiness.

So those are the things that I'm looking at. I think some of that will be done in the next two months, whether or not that quote, unquote, Trump proves anything. That, of course, remains to be seen.

DEAN: Yes. And Peter, just quickly, before we let you go, just a last thought, too, on just asking you to get your crystal ball out here. But how -- where my -- is there any overlap do you see on this issue of Ukraine between Trump and Biden, the Trump and Biden administrations? Obviously we have to wait and see exactly what Trump will do. But are they just diametrically opposed here?

BERGEN: You know, I think there's more than likely more overlap. I'll give you a concrete example. You know, if President Trump had come out and said to Republican lawmakers when that $61 billion package of aid was going to Ukraine, if he said, you cannot vote for this, it would not have passed. And $61 billion is not a small sum of money. It was part of a package that also gave money to Israel, a lesser amount. So, I mean, that actually I think sort of speaks for itself and it bears reminding that who is the first person to supply the Ukrainians with real weapons, it was President Trump. He gave them Javelin anti-tank missiles, which is something the Obama administration had not wanted to do.

So I'm not saying they're exactly on the same page, but if you look at the actual history of this, there's more commonality than you might expect.

DEAN: All right, more to come on this. Peter Bergen and Colonel Cedric Leighton, our thanks to both of you.

BERGEN: Thank you.

LEIGHTON: Thanks, Jessica.

DEAN: As President-Elect Trump picks some controversial allies to take critical positions in his new administration, some Republican senators are going to have to make a choice whether they stay loyal blindly to Trump or not. You're in the CNN Newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:12:57]

DEAN: Tonight, the anticipation is thick for who President-Elect Trump might pick next for his Cabinet. There are still some big jobs that have not been filled. Treasury Secretary sticks out. Some of the names Trump has picked have raised a firestorm of controversy.

In the meantime, CNN Steve Contorno is near Mar-a-Lago and is joining us now. And Steve, how are Trump's allies coming to the defense of his most polarizing Cabinet selection, specifically, Matt Gaetz?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Well, Jessica, his allies are essentially saying, look, Donald Trump won an election and he deserves the right to pick the people who are in his cabinet. And for Republicans who have the majority in the Senate, it should be their job to support the president on this matter. Now, the Constitution does say that the Senate has a role to advise and consent, and they will have to make that decision whether or not they want to weigh in on some of these candidates, especially Matt Gaetz. And the question remains whether they will have all the information available to them to make that decision.

What the fate of this ethics investigation and the reports that looked into allegations of sexual misconduct by Matt Gaetz. There is a question of whether that will ever see the light of day or whether senators can see it, but it not go public. And the speaker himself, Mike Johnson, has weighed in on this and said that he does not believe it should be public. And he spoke today with Jake Tapper on State of the Union where he explain that he is not doing that with any pressure from the president-elect.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE JOHNSON, SPEAKER OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE: The president and I have literally not discussed one word about the ethics report, not once. And I've been with him quite a bit this week between Washington and Mar-a-Lago and last night in Madison Square Garden.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CONTORNO: Now, we have heard from quite a few members of the House, especially on the Republican side, who are Matt Gaetz's former colleagues who are absolutely disgusted with this pick. Some of them have been sharing stories of what they had experienced with Matt Gaetz over their time together in the House. But we are also already seeing some examples of Senate Republicans who have had bad things to say about Gaetz in the past now sounding more open to his confirmation.

For example, Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, he is a senator from Oklahoma. He is someone who has had clashes with Gaetz in the past. In fact, he once said that Gaetz showed videos on the House floor of, quote, "the girls he had slept with". Well, today he said that Gaetz should get a fair shot and he is open to considering him for the nomination. Jessica.

[19:20:32]

DEAN: All right, Steve Contorno from West Palm Beach. Thank you for that update.

And joining me now, CNN Senior Political Analyst and Senior Editor at the Atlantic, Ron Brownstein. Good to see you, Ron. I've heard the argument from many Republicans and others calling this election a mandate. They say that Trump's cabinet choices should not really face any opposition, that he not only should be able to select who he wants, but those people should get confirmed as well.

Although we are starting to see some pushback from Senate Republicans on all of those. I'm curious where you think the line is in terms of what the American people thought they were voting for. And if you think this is what they thought they were voting for, a Matt Gaetz as attorney general or Tulsi Gabbard as DNI, because Trump wasn't secretive about a lot of what he plans to do.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. you know, look. Every president claims a mandate when they win. When Donald Trump was elected in 2016 and lost the popular vote, he claimed a mandate. And certainly now when he's going to win the popular vote, although it has fallen below 50 percent, I believe in the latest tally, he will claim a mandate again. I mean, I can point you to lots of examples in the exit polls and the vote cast, which are the two sources we have and what voters were thinking when they went to the polls. That shows resistance on the part of the electorate to key elements of his agenda even as they were electing him.

You know, a majority opposed mass deportation. A majority wants to emphasize alternative energy, not fossil fuel development. A majority wants the government to do more, not less, to provide health care access. A majority supports abortion rights, but it really doesn't work that way.

You know, as a voter, you have the binary choice. You really can't order off some parts of the menu and not other parts of the menu. And whatever hesitations voters had about those positions and about Trump's general posture and whether he would steer the country toward authoritarianism enough voters who held those reservations voted for him anyway, primarily because of their concern about the economy. And now, you know, everyone who voted for him with those kind of hesitations, I think are getting -- is getting a very clear indication that he intends to push to the max on all of those issues. I mean, that is the real message.

You can go through these appointments, the ones that are more conventional and the ones that are not, they all point in the same direction that he is going to move extremely aggressively in the directions that he laid out in the campaign.

DEAN: Yes. And that is going to be interesting to see the American people kind of metabolize that and see what that means in real time and actually see that played out. Because to your point, what you can gather from all of these choices, from most of these choices, is he's got his foot on the pedal in terms of all these parts of his agenda he had talked about. And, you know, we have midterms in two years, and the American people will get their say, I suppose.

CONTORNO: And, you know, it's interesting because, I mean, you can -- I have talked to multiple pollsters who have said, look, that they would be doing focus groups with voters in October, and they would present to them some of the things that Trump had talked about that those voters might not like. And they basically didn't want to hear it. They wanted. They were feeling so economically strained, they believed that Trump would, you know, relieve that strain, make their cost of living more affordable, make their economic situation more stable. And they didn't really want to hear about the other aspects of this, but those are going to be unavoidable.

You know, one-quarter of Latinos who said they opposed mass deportation voted for Trump. One-quarter of women, as we talked about, who said they want abortion to remain legal most of the time voted for Trump. One in six voters who said they feared he would lead the country toward authoritarianism voted for Trump. And so now, once he is in office and there's not the backdrop of the dissatisfaction with Biden, he will face, I think a more kind of a direct assessment of all of these other elements of his agenda. But he was hired to solve the problem above all. I guess two problems secure the border better, above all, make the cost of living more affordable.

If he makes progress on that, he'll probably sustain support. But if voters start to question that, all of these other elements that they were hesitant about even as they were voting for him, I think could become more of a problem for him and the GOP in 2026.

DEAN: Yes. It's interesting. And so then you have, you know, I keep thinking about just the Hill and Congress and these Republican senators who are really going to be pushed to the edge in terms of what they're going to be expected to do by Trump to fall in line and confirm all of his nominees. We're already starting to see some pushback from Republican senators who have questions, let's say, about some of these nominees.

[19:25:25]

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. And look, I mean, I think the very point of many of these nominees is to pressure the Republican senators to do something that they could not have imagined a week ago they would ever consider doing. I mean, how many Republican senators a week ago thought they could put Tulsi Gabbard with all of her relations with Russia in charge of U.S. National Intelligence, or Matt Gaetz with all of the different issues he raises, including being under serious investigation himself as attorney general?

You know, whatever else you can say about Donald Trump, he has a great understanding of human weakness, almost a feral instinct for human weakness, the kind of nicknames he gives, for example. And I think here he is testing Republican senators. I mean, it's not only about these appointees. It's not only about future appointees. It's really about everything that is on the table.

You know, when they said the Sunday before the election his chief immigration advisor said he would keep families together during deportation by deporting U.S. Citizen kids, that's the kind of thing we're going to have to see if they go forward with. Are there Republicans in the Senate? Probably not very many in the House that are willing to draw any kind of line. And I think Trump is rather shrewdly, in his kind of traditional, almost feral way, testing right now at the outset, are they willing to say no to things that they never could have imagined even being asked a few weeks ago.

And if the answer is that not enough of them are willing to say no, he is certainly going to internalize that lesson.

DEAN: Yes, yes, yes. And how much power are they willing to give up, really? Ron Brownstein, thank you so much. Good to see you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

DEAN: RFK Jr. in a position he likely didn't expect to find himself in. You're in the CNN newsroom. We'll talk more when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:31:35]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., TRUMP PICK FOR HHS SECRETARY: The stuff that he eats is really like bad. It's not -- campaign food is always bad, but the food that goes onto that airplane is like just poison. It's all they -- you have a choice between -- you don't have the choice. You're either given KFC or Big Macs. That's like when you're lucky and the of the stuff is, I consider kind of inedible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: That was President-elect Trumps pick for Secretary of Health And Human Services about a week ago, talking pretty bluntly about Trump's diet and the food that's often served on his plane. So, you can imagine the reaction today when this picture came out and you see RFK Jr. there on Trump's plane being served the same fast food he was describing as poison.

CNN chief media correspondent, Brian Stelter is joining us now. And, Brian, obviously the internet is the internet and people are having some fun with this, saying that he's being hazed. The look on RFK, Jr., Jr.'s face kind of says a lot, I think.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIAL CORRESPONDENT: He does seem to know this photo is going to be used against him in all sorts of ways. But let me say, as an avowed McDonald's fan, usually I go for the chicken nuggets. I don't know about you, Jessica. This photo and this tension for RFK, this is America in a nutshell.

It's the tension between knowing you shouldn't eat it as often, trying to get healthier wanting to have less processed foods in your diet, versus being on the plane and having a Big Mac. I mean, that that is the tension.

And honestly, as RFK heads into this job if he is confirmed, that is literally the kind of drama that he is up against, right? What Americans know, they should do versus what they want.

So, I think there's something deeper to the picture and also, of course, speaks to what happens when you have a new boss, right. RFK is trying to fit in with his new boss, Donald Trump.

DEAN: Yes, and you look at who else is sitting there and who is at the table, who isn't at the table. It is one of those photos that there's a lot to dissect there.

STELTER: Well, there's something about, you know political power, right. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has a lot of technical political power but he's not actually at that table, right. He's posing from the outside trying to get in on the photo. It is Elon Musk actually at the table sitting there and dining with Donald Trump, along with Donald Trump, Jr. and RFK.

The idea of Musk who a year ago was nowhere near Donald Trump, right. But we see through social media photos how close they've become.

Last weekend we saw Trump's granddaughter calling him Uncle Elon. Now, we see the photo on the plane. And by the way, did you see how Musk eats his French fries? He pours the ketchup right on the French fries. I don't know what to make of that. People can debate that at home.

DEAN: I know, I've seen that before. It's one way to go. I do want to ask you about some breaking news we just got from Mar-a-Lago, the Trump team announcing that his pick to head up the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC, is Brendan Carr, who is currently the senior Republican on this commission. So not someone that's totally unfamiliar with the FCC.

STELTER: That's right, this is not a household name like RFK, but it's an important pick for an important agency. Donald Trump has threatened the licenses of basically all the major television networks in the United States. Will he push his FCC chairman to follow through on those threats? Time will tell.

I know Brendan Carr personally. I saw him earlier this year. He is an affable Republican who has been on the commission for years. He has been trying to show his loyalty to Trump recently for example, the other day he wrote a letter to the heads of all the big technology companies asking about his concerns about social media censorship.

[19:35:28]

Historically, that's not part of the FCC jurisdiction, but Carr wanted to raise it, perhaps as part of an audition process for Donald Trump. Whether that was an audition or not, it has clearly worked. Carr was in line for this job and the big question as he takes the job next year will be about whether he's going to try to go after any of these stations if and when Donald Trump wants him to punish media outlets. That's going to be a test for Carr and the FCC.

DEAN: Certainly something to watch. All right, Brian Stelter, as always, thank you.

STELTER: Thanks.

DEAN: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:40:40]

DEAN: Two Israeli strikes on Central Beirut today, killing at least five people and wounding a dozen more. That's according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.

Among the dead, Hezbollah's spokesperson, who has been responsible for the group's media relations for the last decade. Israel's escalating attacks coming as sources tell CNN "extensive discussions" are taking place on a ceasefire proposal. Nic Robertson reports from Jerusalem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, Mohammed Afif was a very significant figure in Hezbollah, not a military commander, a kin and close advisor to their leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in that massive Israeli airstrike on the 28th of September. Subsequent to Nasrallah's killing, he had become a much more sort of publicly engaged figure.

He had been running the Al-Manar TV station, which was Hezbollah's mouthpiece in Lebanon, had given several press conferences over recent months. He was a fairly accessible figure to the media, if you will.

Why he has been killed now isn't clear. And of course, this does come at a time when Lebanese government officials just a couple of days ago had told CNN they expected Hezbollah to answer their decision about whether or not they would accept a US proposal ceasefire with Israel.

That decision was expected in the coming days, by Monday even, whether or not this was intended to have some effect on Hezbollah's decision making here of course not uncommon for a sort of high level assassinations, these sort of last minute maneuvers, if you will, ahead of ceasefire deals and whether or not that ceasefire deal isn't clear.

The conditions of the ceasefire, according to sources, I've been talking to, had told me that they were difficult for Hezbollah to accept, but it appeared to them at least, that Hezbollah was moving in that direction.

The assassination attempt or the assassinations rather killing him injuring three others and that was the fourth attack since 2006. The fourth attack in the center of Beirut, but only hours after there was another attack where at least four people were killed, at least 14 injured in that Central Beirut strike, not clear as yet who or what the target may have been there.

But these rounds of strikes in the center of Beirut, a real upping of the ante if you will, in this conflict with Hezbollah.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Jerusalem, Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Nic Robertson, thank you.

People in Syracuse, New York, are worried about lead in their drinking water. Could their pipes be the problem?

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:48:09] DEAN: People in Syracuse, New York are worried about whether their drinking water is safe. The City Water Department sent them letters warning about high levels of lead. And now Syracuse officials are insisting the drinking water is safe.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino joins us now.

Gloria, you can see how that would be confusing for residents to get that information and be told something else. What are you learning?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and that message is not really doing much to comfort them, Jessica.

Residents in Syracuse are asking the city to take more aggressive steps. Now, all of this started back in August, when the city's Water Department sent notices to some residents telling them that they had tested several houses and buildings, and that some of them had come back with elevated lead levels.

Now, city officials tell us they went back and redid the test and that they found that some of the tests had been done in error. Now, that is not really providing much comfort to these residents, including parents of children who are very worried. As you know, lead is extremely dangerous to children, to pregnant women and there's nothing you can do to the water in order to eliminate the lead.

So they want the city to take action and start repairing and replacing some of these lead pipes. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIK OLSON, SENIOR STRATEGIC DIRECTOR, NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: A lot of people still don't even know that there's a lead in drinking water problem in the city. We need a declaration that will let people know that there's a problem that they need to install filters, and that they need to take action to protect their families.

DEKAH DANCIL, PRESIDENT, URBAN JOBS TASK FORCE: You can't boil lead out your water. There's nothing we can do. They have to replace these pipes. They have to give everybody filters. They have to declare a state of emergency, and they have to act on this stuff fast and urgently.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: Now, Jessica, of the 104 homes that were initially tested, 27 of them, so more than a quarter of them came back with elevated levels. And we have learned that nine percent of the children who were tested for lead levels in Syracuse, something that medical providers are required to do, showed elevated lead levels in their blood.

Residents asking for an emergency declaration, so that they can make funding available and start these repairing and replacement projects -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Gloria Pazmino, thank you for that reporting, we appreciate it.

Up next on CNN, Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us live with the preview of his special report, "Is Ozempic Right For You?"

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:55:23]

DEAN: They have names like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound those medications have become known as so-called miracle drugs for people struggling with obesity. And next on CNN, CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes us through his year-long investigation into these revolutionary medications. And he dives into the question "Is Ozempic Right For You?"

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RASHEEDA: What it did help me was not have a whole lot of thoughts about food. My cravings went away.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Those voices in her head that had made her crave food, experts call it food chatter, they were silenced. And that is part of the magic of these new medications. GLP-1 seems to act in a way that no other known hormone can.

Here's how it seems to work, every time you eat all sorts of hormones are released like GLP-1, they are called post nutrient hormones. They travel here to the hypothalamus in the brain to tell you that you are full or satiated. They also travel over here to the pancreas to kick out more insulin to help absorb the energy you just consumed and also over here to your gut to slow down the emptying, allowing you to better digest your food.

In so many ways, it seems like the perfect hormone to help you stop eating as much. Seemed perfect for Rasheeda. In that first year, she lost 100 pounds. It changed her life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Really amazing story. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is joining us now. It's great to have you. Just listening to that, I know you say obesity, more of a brain disease and that kind of gets at what you're talking about there.

GUPTA: Yes, I think this was one of the most fascinating parts. I mean, you know, our understanding of obesity has changed over the last nine or 10 years. It's now thought of as a disease in and of itself, obesity as a disease. But one of the big components there, as you're alluding to, is the impact on the brain.

You know, these hormones basically activate this area in the brain that is responsible for making you feel full. For some people, as I learned, Jessica, some people, not everybody, but some people, they just don't feel full. There's not enough of those hormones targeting that particular part of the brain so as a result, when they're eating, they're already thinking about their next meal.

So for them, these medications can be can be pretty, pretty helpful.

DEAN: And probably really life changing in so many ways. I do think a lot of people wonder about the long-term effects of these drugs.

GUPTA: So, let me make two points, because I think this is one of the most common questions we get. First of all, while we have heard about these medications a lot over the last few years, versions of these have been out for close to a couple of decades now.

So, it's in Europe, for example, in Denmark, where Novo Nordisk, the makers of Ozempic are, you've seen versions of these medications. So, my point being, there is some long-term data because of that on these medications. And it's been pretty favorable.

I think what we don't know is for people who are taking it off label so to speak, so they're not taking it because of a medical necessity. We don't really have any data on what this will be for them long-term.

There's just no data that hasn't been studied. But we do know that in addition to fat mass, these medications also make you lose muscle mass. And that was one of the big concerns, I think, you know, especially for older people, Jessica, you know, it may predispose you to falls, shorter lifespan.

So, really making sure you maintain resistance training when you're on these medications. That was something we heard over and over again from doctors all over the world.

DEAN: Yes that's interesting and how is the development of these drugs changed our and even your understanding of obesity as a disease, as you took a year to really get all this information?

GUPTA: It's great being a journalist, right. You can just do these deep dives into this.

I think one of the big things was spending time with these geneticists like Giles Yeo in London. There's a thousand or so genes now associated with obesity. The idea that for some people, their thermostat is just set differently. You know, when you spend time with patients, Jessica, they're eating right, they're exercising. You know, you go grocery shopping with them, you see the kinds of foods that they're eating and you're thinking, look, if I did what they did, I would be of normal weight, and yet they are not.

What is different about them? How is their thermostat set differently? That was interesting. And then also, again, the impact of medications like this on people who have those sorts of issues.

For some people, they've tried all these different medications over the years. Nothing has worked. This is the first time they've actually had some success. DEAN: It is so interesting and really fascinating. I know a lot of people are talking about it. Doctor Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much, we appreciate it.

GUPTA: Thanks for having me. Yes, you got it.

DEAN: And tune in, Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports "Is Ozempic Right For You?" It's airing next only on CNN.

And I want to say thanks so much for joining me this evening. I'm Jessica Dean we're going to see you right back here next weekend Have a great night.

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