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Storms To Sweep Across West Coast, Parts Of East Coast Next Week; Trump Picks Billionaire Scott Bessent To Lead Treasury Dept.; Lebanese Officials: At Least 15 Killed In Israeli Airstrike On Central Beirut; One Infant Dead, Several Sickened Amid Listeria Outbreak In 4 States; Bird Flu To Blame For Egg Supply Issues Before Thanksgiving; T.J. Maxx Says Trump's Tariff "Chaos" Will Help The Chain; Father Killed By Las Vegas Police After Calling For Help. Father Killed By Las Vegas Police After Call For Help; 6 Tourists Dead From Suspected Menthol Poisoning In Laos; L.A. School District Adopts Sanctuary Status Before Trump Takes Office; Trump Expected To Name Brooke Rollins To Lead Agriculture Dept.; Kayaker Once Reported Missing Now Accused Of Faking His Death; #19 Army And #6 Notre Dame At Yankee Stadium. Aired 1-2p ET

Aired November 23, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:00:58]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, welcome back. Hello again, I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

With just days until the Thanksgiving holiday, millions of Americans are preparing to hit the roads and the airports. The TSA, in fact, is expecting over 18 million people to fly over the holiday week. But stormy weather and potential air traffic control shortages in the Northeast could cause airport delays.

And parts of New York and Pennsylvania, well, they've already gotten more than 1 foot of snow paralyzing traffic in some areas and leaving more than 100,000 people without power.

CNN's Allison Chinchar has more on what to expect.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Travel plans in the Northeast earlier today may have been dicey in a few spots, thanks to this overachieving storm. This video coming from aptly named Mount Storm in West Virginia dumping several inches of rain there.

We had several spots in the Northeast just coming up with incredibly high snow totals. High Point, New Jersey topping out at just under 2 feet. But other areas, including Pennsylvania and New York, at least getting 1 foot of snow in about the last 36 hours.

Now, most of that snow is likely going to melt in the next few days as those temperatures begin to increase. You'll start to see them warm up in the Midwest first before gradually seeing that warm air spread into the Mid-Atlantic as well as the Northeast, where much of that snow was dropped.

Take Memphis, for example, going from 58 from that high today back into the low 70s by Monday. Takes a little bit longer to see that warm up, so New York and Richmond will finally get there once we get towards Monday and Tuesday of the upcoming week.

If you had travel plans today or even perhaps tomorrow, the Southeast and much of the central portion of the country had absolutely no problems whatsoever. The only other rough spot really is going to be much of the West.

Now, that main bomb cyclone that we had earlier in the week has finally exited the area, but we still have moisture coming into a lot of these areas, albeit not as much. It's on top of what we've already had. So because that ground is saturated, it's not going to take much to trigger some flooding in a few spots.

Just over the next several days, still looking at at least 1 to 3 inches more of rainfall along the coastal regions and snow likely to be measured in feet, looking at an extra 1 to 3 feet, specifically in the Sierras over the next couple of days.

Then fast forward to Thanksgiving Day itself. If you've got some maybe local last minute travel you're going to do, the only really concerned areas are going to stretch from Pennsylvania back down into portions of Louisiana.

That's where you're going to encounter some of the heaviest rain. But then it begs the question, OK, what about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade? Many folks not only go to see it, but also watch it on TV. The rain is expected to really spread into New York City once we get into the back half of the day and especially Thursday night.

So the question becomes the front end likely is going to be OK, but you may start to see some of those isolated showers beginning to pick up towards the back half of the morning. Regardless, it's definitely going to be a chilly one with temperatures at the time of the parade only in the upper 30s.

WHITFIELD: Oh, bundle up for sure if you're outside.

Allison Chinchar, thank you.

All right, join CNN for the ultimate Thanksgiving morning watch party featuring celebrity appearances and a live view of parades across the country. Thanksgiving in America hosted by John Berman and Erica Hill starts Thanksgiving Day, 8:00 a.m. right here on CNN or streaming on Max.

All right, President-elect Donald Trump is filling several key health and economic roles in his administration. His new picks include hedge fund manager Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary. He's selecting Oregon Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer to lead the Department of Labor and Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a family practice doctor, as U.S. surgeon general. Sources tell CNN that Trump wanted to announce his key roles before the Thanksgiving holiday. And here we are. CNN's Alayna Treene is joining us from near Trump's Florida home. Alayna, what can you tell us about let's begin with Trump's Treasury Secretary pick, Bessent?

[13:05:00]

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Right. Well, Fred, it's a good place to start because that was one of the biggest roles that we were waiting to hear from. I'd remind you that even two weeks ago we had started hearing Scott Bessent's name as the likely pick to head the Treasury Department.

I know that many people who've been working with Donald Trump on the transition, his allies, many of them had been pushing for Besant. He's kind of a Wall Street darling. He's very well known in big business. He's obviously a billionaire hedge fund manager.

But also people thought that he would be a stable choice for the role. However, that then led to really what we've seen be a two-week fight play out behind the scenes at Mar-a-Lago over who would have that role.

We know Donald Trump's co-transition chair, Howard Lutnick, had really been gunning for that role as well. He later was then announced that he would be running the Commerce Department. But this was really a decision, I'm told, that weighed heavily on Donald Trump's mind.

Partly because we know that throughout his time on the campaign trail, Trump made a series of promises, particularly as it related to the economy, that he was going to lower inflation, that he would make housing and mortgage rates more affordable.

He vowed to impose widespread tariffs, something that has actually alarmed many people, many economists. And so he's going to have a very big job to fill when he's actually in this role, if he is able to get confirmed.

Now, we've also heard Bessent be a really loyal defender of Donald Trump over the past several years. He's also been advising Trump throughout his time on the trail when it came to economic policy.

I want to take a listen to what he said on November 14th about how he thinks Donald Trump will operate as it relates to economic spending.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

SCOTT BESSENT, TRUMP TREASURY SECRETARY PICK: Everyone asks me, what do you tell President Trump he should do? I don't have to tell Donald Trump he should do anything. He's done it. We had a great economy under Trump 1.0, 2016 to just until we hit the wall in COVID was one of the greatest periods in American history. I think under Donald Trump, we could have a golden age for the next four years.

(END VIDEOCLIP) TREENE: Well, Fred, that type of appearance on television is music to Donald Trump's ear. We know that one of his qualifications for many of these roles has been people who can go out and talk about exactly what they are doing and frame Donald Trump's agenda in the light that he wants it to be framed.

And so that's partly why they believe Bessent is a good choice for this. But again, I have to stress a lot of people close to Donald Trump. And we have been hearing from the Hill as well. People like Senator Lindsey Graham, who, like Bessent, is from South Carolina, applauding Donald Trump's pick, happy and believing that they think that he'll be able to get through his confirmation process pretty easily.

WHITFIELD: All right. Lots of new names, lots of new pronunciations to get used to. So, Alayna, what are some of the other names that kind of caught your eye?

TREENE: Yes, well, I mean, you're exactly right. There's lots of new names. I mean, just last evening alone, pretty late on a Friday, Donald Trump released nine new names, including Bessent. But one of the ones that stuck out to me as well is that he named Russell Vought to lead his White House Budget Office.

Now, Vought also ran the Office of Management and Budget during Donald Trump's first term. But really, it wasn't until the end of that first -- Trump's first administration that we started to see Vought gather a lot more power. And since then, we've really seen him kind of crack down on the bureaucracy.

He's one of the leading people who has called for Schedule F, which is what we know Donald Trump wants to do, by firing a lot of career employees and placing -- replacing them with loyalists. He also, very notably, was a key architect of Project 2025, the kind of policy blueprint that was created in the years after he had left office.

And also something that, of course, Democrats really criticized Donald Trump over throughout the campaign trail. Trump has tried to distance himself, but now we're seeing someone like Vought, who was heavily involved in that, have a very key role in his second term. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right. Alayna Treene, thank you so much.

All right, now to the Middle East, where Lebanese officials say at least 15 people are dead after an Israeli airstrike flattened a building in the heart of Beirut. Video obtained by CNN shows a huge crater where the residential building used to stand.

At least 63 others were reportedly injured in the attack. A Lebanese security source is telling CNN that no senior Hezbollah member was in the building at the time.

CNN's Nic Robertson is in Jerusalem for us. Nic, what more can you tell us?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, this was an Israeli Air Force strike that was a no-warning strike, and it used a number of bunker-busting bombs. And those images of that really deep crater reinforce the understanding and suspicion and the tactic as well.

It underscores the tactic that the Israeli Air Force often uses when it's trying to target a senior Hezbollah commander. It doesn't give a warning. It gives lots of other warnings on lots of other buildings that it says it's going to target, where there are Hezbollah command structures, weapons storage sites to get the civilians out of the way.

But when it's going after a leadership figure, it doesn't give a warning to let them know that they're coming. That appears to have been what happened last night.

[13:10:03]

Although, as you say, Lebanese officials have come out and said no senior Hezbollah commanders in the building, 15 people killed, 63 injured. It's part of a number of strikes we've seen in the center of Beirut this past week from the IDF, which is a significant change in tactic going into the center of the city.

There were, again, at least three rounds of bomb strikes by the Israeli Air Force in the south of Beirut, again, going after those command structures, also, in the Beqaa Valley. And we've learned about another strike late this afternoon in Tyre, further south in Lebanon, on the coast, at least five people killed and a number of others injured in that strike.

But also heavy fighting going on in the southeast of Lebanon, close to the border with Israel. Israeli forces in at least a day-long battle with Hezbollah to try to get control of a village there that is an important, has tactical importance for Hezbollah. So the war, I think the image here is that the war is continuing with pressure and a pace.

WHITFIELD: And then all this is coming as we're hearing small details about another ceasefire agreement kind of in the works or that perhaps they might be getting close to some resolution?

ROBERTSON: Yes, there's a sense that there's a pressure on both sides. Hezbollah indicated because all along while the war's been going on in Gaza, Hezbollah has said the reason that we're striking into Israel is because of the war in Gaza.

Well, they sort of appear to have delinked those two -- the two conflicts. So that gives the impression they're ready to maybe cut a deal regardless of what's happening in Gaza. And I think what we're getting a sense of from the fact that Amos Hochstein was here, the U.S. negotiator was here last week, he's gone back to the United States now, but he was in Israel as well, that the gap is closing.

That there is some hope that the gaps can be closed at the moment. The contours, of course, 60-day ceasefire, both sides pull apart. Hezbollah goes north, Israel goes south, back in to -- the IDF goes back south into Israel. And then Lebanese forces, Lebanese Army and the U.N. go into that sort of vacuum that's created along the border. WHITFIELD: All right. Nic Robertson, thank you.

All right, still to come, tens of thousands of pounds of ready-to-eat meat, recalled after a deadly listeria outbreak. Cases have been reported in four states. We've got details.

Plus, in Las Vegas, a rally today for Brandon Durham, the 43-year-old father who was shot and killed by police after calling 911 to his home for help.

And later, are you a chronic snacker? It's not your fault, it's the food. What a groundbreaking new study is revealing about ultra- processed foods.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:17:36]

WHITFIELD: An infant is dead and at least 11 others are sick in a multi-state outbreak of listeria tied to ready-to-eat meat. Now, a South Carolina company is recalling 72,000 pounds of meat and poultry.

CNN's Rafael Romo is here with me now to discuss. What are you learning?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's very concerning --

WHITFIELD: Yes.

ROMO: -- especially because of what you just mentioned, a baby who died as a result of this possibly, and the possibly contaminated products were made before October 28th and were shipped to retailers nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service.

The food products under recall were produced by Yu Shang Food, Inc., a food company based in Spartanburg, South Carolina. We're talking about more than 72,000 pounds of meat and poultry, ready-to-eat products.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the contaminated products have caused at least 11 illnesses in four states, nine hospitalizations, and death of one baby, as we mentioned before. Seven of those illnesses were reported in California, two in Illinois, and one each in New York and New Jersey, also according to the CDC.

The Department of Agriculture says some of the products included in the recall were Yu Shang brand cooked chicken, Chinese brand spicy duck necks, and braised pork belly and brown sauce, among others.

In a statement, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service reported that the problem was discovered after performing routine testing and follow-up activities of finished product by Yu Shang Food in late October.

The USDA says the recalled products tested positive for listeria monocytogenes. Additional testing confirmed the presence of listeria in those products as well as environmental samples collected by FSIS. The USDA says that consumption of food contaminated with L. monocytogenes can cause listeriosis, a serious infection that primarily affects older adults, persons with weakened immune systems, and pregnant women and their newborns.

Some of the symptoms include fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, and convulsion, sometimes preceded by diarrhea or other gastrointestinal symptoms. Yu Shang said in a statement to CNN that although the woman reported eating the company's products before she became ill, there was no proof, they say, that they were the cause.

Officials say if you bought any of these products, you should throw them away or return them to the place of purchase.

[13:20:04]

Earlier this year, as you may remember, officials reported other listeria outbreaks, including last month and contaminated salmon being sold at Costco and over the summer involving Boar's Head deli meat. But again, very, very terrifying to think that this might have actually caused the death of an infant.

WHITFIELD: Oh, it's heartbreaking.

All right. Thank you so much, Rafael Romo.

ROMO: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, turning now to bird flu, which is being blamed for the shortage of eggs in some stores across the U.S. ahead of this Thanksgiving holiday. And that shortage is causing a price hike. You can expect to pay $3.37 on average for a dozen Grade A large eggs. That's according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich has more.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: It's the perfect storm with eggs right now. Prices have been on the rise for two years. Demand has remained steady, and the avian flu is spiking right now. And there's an increased demand for eggs around the holiday season.

One grocer said egg prices have been out of control. The average price for a dozen eggs in October was $3.37. And, of course, it depends on where you live. In Connecticut, one grocer told me he was selling a dozen eggs for $5. In New York City, one grocer said north of $6.

But prices across the board are up 30 percent from last year, and egg production is down 2.6 percent. The avian flu has been plaguing farmers and has killed 75 egg-laying birds over the past two years. And last month, there was a spike, which killed 2.8 million egg-laying birds in three states, Oregon, Utah, and Washington, most of where our eggs are produced and come from.

So that's created an even lower supply ahead of the holidays. And, of course, we use a lot of eggs around this time, so demand is putting even more pressure on low supply, raising prices. But what's interesting is commodity eggs, basic white eggs, are now just as expensive as organic eggs in some markets.

So many people are now choosing to buy organic, which in turn could put an unexpected strain on that market. And just to show how important eggs are, think about all the items we make, we eat, that have egg in them. Mayo, pasta, those prices are higher now because of the last spike in avian flu cases.

WHITFIELD: Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much.

All right, concern is growing among consumers over President-elect Trump's plan to hike taxes on U.S. imports. However, T.J. Maxx is confident that their business model is well-positioned to thrive amid the chaos that tariffs could bring.

TJX, the parents' company of retailers, including T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods, and Marshalls, believes that they can maintain discount pricing. This is partly because they import a limit -- limited, rather, amount of merchandise from overseas, relying mostly on buying designer brands, excess merchandise straight from the brands.

By contrast, Walmart and Lowe's both recently warned that prices for their goods are likely to rise. So be ready.

All right, coming up, six foreign tourists have died in a suspected mass methanol poisoning in Laos. A growing list of countries are now warning their citizens about drinking tainted alcohol in the Southeast Asian country.

And we've got details about a deadly police encounter in Las Vegas. A man was fatally shot by an officer after he called 911 asking for help.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:28:07]

WHITFIELD: We're learning chilling new details about a deadly police encounter that has ignited outrage in Las Vegas and beyond. In a newly released 911 call, 43-year-old father Brandon Durham can be heard pleading for help during a reported home invasion.

A warning, some viewers might find the audio disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

BRANDON DURHAM, MAN WHO CALLED 911 FOR HELP KILLED BY POLICE: She's trying to kill people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who's trying to kill people?

DURHAM: There's two people out here killing, shooting guns at my house.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did they shoot it at your house?

DURHAM: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How long ago? How many minutes?

DURHAM: Right now, right now. Right this second.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So were you shot or how were you injured?

DURHAM: I'm hurt, I don't know, I don't know. I've got my hands tied with everything. There's a lot of people (ph) up right now. Send someone ASAP.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

WHITFIELD: And when officers arrived, Durham was struggling to get a knife from a woman, but the officer fired six shots at him, killing him. That officer is now on paid administrative leave pending an investigation. Activists in Las Vegas are planning to hold a rally calling for justice in the case.

CNN's Camila Bernal is tracking the latest from Los Angeles. Camila, what more are you learning?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred. So Brandon Durham's family today is still speaking out, still describing what they're going through after, you know, this father was killed, and they're describing those horrible moments and really what they're having to deal with. But also calling for this police officer to be arrested, and that's part of the reason why they're having this rally.

Now, Durham called police on November 12th. You heard part of that call, and he is describing how he is fearing for his life, how he is scared, how he hears these gunshots. Of course, in the middle of this phone call, he also says that he believes that he knows who is outside of his home.

You saw that when police arrived, the two of them were in this confrontation, and you mentioned, Fred, six shots being fired by this officer. Of course, when the officers are there, they now have their body cam video, and all of that is recorded for us and really for the family to see as well.

Take a listen to what his sister said about this loss.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIANE WRIGHT, SISTER OF BRANDON DURHAM: It just keeps going back to witnessing my brother and the tragic way that that he was taken down and murdered by the police. I am unable to fathom and comprehend how this even went so horribly.

It is completely -- I keep repeating it, it is heartbreaking. His family loved him. He loved his family. There is nothing he would not have done for his family. He was ripped away from us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: And Alejandra Boudreaux, who was the woman who was in that confrontation with Durham, she was arrested, is facing multiple charges.

And police also releasing and saying that, the day before, Durham had also called police when it came to Alejandra Boudreaux, and saying that, that day, the day before, she left without anything happening.

So the family still has a lot of questions as to why the police essentially came to the house the day before, and then, the day after, ended up killing him.

So that officer, Alexander Bookman, he is on administrative leave right now. But the general counsel for the police association there in Las Vegas released a statement essentially saying that "The officer was not - was doing his job and did not intend to commit a crime."

So that is sort of his defense here, saying that, in a civil case, it may be different, but in a criminal case, he did not intend to kill.

So again, a lot of questions still about this case. And it's part of the reason why, at city hall today in Las Vegas, there are going to be people there supporting the family -- Fred?

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: So, Camila, the woman that Durham was having the struggle with, she had been at the house previously. What's the -- who is this person who is now facing her own charges?

But what's the explanation as to why she was allegedly posing a threat to this family at that home?

BERNAL: Yes. So she did tell police that she had a casual relationship with Durham.

And what police said was that, in that, essentially, interview, when they talked to her, she said that she was wanting to essentially leave him with this message at his house and she wanted to be killed by police, expressed being suicidal.

So again, she did not mean for him to be killed. She was saying that she essentially wanted to be the one to be killed. But instead, officers shot Durham.

WHITFIELD: So sad.

All right, Camila Bernal, thank you so much.

BERNAL: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, international concern is growing following the death of an Australian teen who has become the sixth tourist to die from suspected methanol poisoning.

And now numerous countries, including the United States, are warning against consuming potentially tainted alcohol in the southeast Asian country.

CNN's Melissa Bell joins us now from Paris with the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Six people are now believed to have died as a result of tainted alcohol poisoning in Laos.

The latest victim, a 19-year-old woman from Melbourne, Australia, who had been backpacking through Asia with her best friend.

The two women are believed, according to The Associated Press, to have been given free shots in a hostel they were staying at before heading out for a night of drinking in Vang Vieng, a popular hotspot for backpackers in Laos.

The other victims include a British woman, an American citizen, two Danish citizens as well with several western consulates saying they are working with some of their citizens who are believed also to have been impacted by the tainted alcohol.

Those countries believe that methanol poisoning is to blame although no cause of death has been announced.

We spoke to one doctor who told us about exactly just how poisonous methanol was.

BRUNO MEGARBANE, LANBOLSIERE HOSPITAL, PARIS: Even a drop of methanol is toxic. It has been estimated that an amount of 10 milliliters of methanol could result in the deaths of an adult of 70 kg. So it is really very toxic and the fatal amount is very low.

BELL: According to The Associated Press, several people have been taken in for questioning, including the manager of the hostel where the two young Australian backpackers were staying, although no charges have yet been brought.

What the deaths have triggered are warnings about the dangers of tainted alcohol and the need to take care.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Thank you, Melissa.

[13:34:38]

All right. Up next, the city of Los Angeles and it's school district passed resolutions to establish city -- the city as a sanctuary for immigrants and LGBTQ youth. I'll discuss the move with the school board president of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: In Los Angeles this week, a renewed effort to better protect

undocumented immigrants from arrest and deportation. The Los Angeles city council approved an ordinance that officially makes L.A. a sanctuary city.

Minutes later, the Los Angeles Unified School District board approved a resolution also declaring itself a sanctuary district.

The resolution prohibits employees from voluntarily complying with immigration authorities, including sharing information about a student's immigration status.

[13:40:09]

Joining us right now is the school board president for the Los Angeles Unified School District, Jackie Goldberg.

So great to see you, Ms. Goldberg.

JACKIE GOLDBERG, SCHOOL BOARD PRESIDENT, LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: Nice to see you, too.

WHITFIELD: So why was this resolution so important to the school district, it's teachers and employees?

GOLDBERG: Well, you know, Los Angeles is the home of a very, very large immigrant population. And the school district has a very large immigrant population.

The school district does not ask anybody what their status is when they join us, but we know that by the number of students that are in English as a second language, we have a very large number of immigrants in our district.

We do not wish to have them be afraid as they were in 2016 and 17 when ICE began to come to schools and try to take people, employees out of the classroom -- or out or not out of the classroom. There were no immigrants in the classroom -- out of the classified employees of people who do all the food services and cleaning of the schools.

They also began following parents and literally arresting parents as they we're dropping their children off.

Children right now in Los Angeles Unified, right now, are telling their teachers they are afraid. They are afraid that when they come home, mom or dad will not be there.

We have a large number of mixed immigrant families, some legal, one legal, one illegal. And so they're afraid that when they come home from school, a parent will be missing.

You know, in a one-parent family, which I talked to before this resolution, he is not here with documents. And he says, if they take him, his 3-year-old, 7-year-old and 9-year-old will have no parent at all.

So this is a very serious situation for our children, for our employees and their families.

WHITFIELD: It's very serious.

All right. So one in five students in your district are still learning English. I mean, you painted a picture, you know, for us in by the examples that you gave. Many of them are immigrants.

So what do you -- what are you, you know, perhaps hearing from parents, teachers, kids? Because, I mean, one of the most instructive tools a teacher can have is that they get to know their students, they ask questions.

And I wonder, given the landscape right now, are you hearing from teachers that they're asking questions differently or their interaction with students or parents are different now, so as to sort of insulate people?

GOLDBERG: We are trying to reassure everybody that we will do everything in our legal power to protect them.

We do not believe that a person here without papers, who has children in our school, should fear dropping their child off at school. But they do. They're writing us already. They're calling us already.

I cannot tell you how many hundreds of letters and phone calls I got after this resolution passed, thanking us, saying, please do whatever you can.

School police are now ordered, directed not to participate with ICE or any other immigration enforcement officials. That's our school police.

We are also working with LAPD, who made the same exact direction to the LAPD department, which is they are not to cooperate in any way with people who are trying to do immigration enforcement.

We're going to also try to protect a very group, large group of LGBTQ students, including our trans students. And we have teachers who are trans and other employees who are transgender.

And we are going to protect them as well. We do not see them as evil. They are human beings, just not -- not programed the way I am. That's all right.

And we are very strongly urging all of our families and parents to let us know what their fears are so that we can reassure them.

We believe that it's very possible, after our winter break, that some children will not return to school at all, because they will be afraid to lose a family member while they're gone.

WHITFIELD: Wow. That's a colossal undertaking.

Jackie Goldberg, glad you could be with us to explain all that is at hand, impacting so many as the president for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Thank you so much.

GOLDBERG: Thank you for inviting us.

WHITFIELD: All right, and now to this breaking news. President-Elect Donald Trump is expected to name the head of the America First Policy Institute as the next agriculture secretary.

CNN's Alayna Treene is joining us now near Trump's Florida home.

So tell us what you know.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Right. Well, you're exactly right, Fred. We've learned and just reported that Brooke Rollins, someone who was very close to Donald Trump, is likely to get the role of secretary of agriculture. I was told that both Rollins and Donald Trump spoke this week.

[13:45:10]

And I would remind you as well that Rollins was someone that Trump had initially considered for the list of who could be his incoming White House chief of staff.

She ultimately pulled her name from consideration once it was clear that Susie Wiles, his campaign manager throughout the 2024 campaign, was going to have that.

But she has remained very close to Donald Trump, has always been a loyal ally of his.

Now, you mentioned that she is the president of America First Policy Institute. That is an institute that has really done a lot of work on helping shape some of the policy for Donald Trump, the policy agenda, if he were to be reelected and have a second term.

So she's been a part of a big group of Donald Trump's allies who have been working with the transition ever since he won the election.

Now, agriculture, just to get a little bit into why this is going to be so important, we know that Donald Trump has promised and vowed to impose sweeping tariffs on U.S. imports.

And a lot of economists and others have noted that is likely to hit the agricultural industry, and farmers specifically, pretty hard. So this would be a big role if she ends up getting through the confirmation process.

Now again, we are told that they spoke about the role this week and recently that she has also been offered this role. So we could hear him announce this as soon as today -- Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right. Alayna Treene, thank you so much for bringing that to us.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:51:10]

WHITFIELD: All right, now to the bizarre twist in the case of a missing kayaker. Investigators in Wisconsin say a kayaker who vanished in August, sparking a weeks-long search, is alive and well after faking his own death.

Authorities say Ryan Borgwardt is somewhere in Europe right now. They have made contact with him last week, but still they're not quite sure why he abandoned his family.

And as CNN's Whitney Wild reports, they're now pursuing charges after a costly and emotionally taxing ordeal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN BORGWARDT, MISSING KAYAKER: Good evening, it's Ryan Borgwardt. I'm in my apartment. I am safe, secure, no problem.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ryan Borgwardt speaking barely above a whisper in this video he says was recorded November 11th. These are his first comments since disappearing in August.

Police now believe the husband and father of three is alive and living in Eastern Europe with no plans to come back to the U.S.

Though Green Lake, Wisconsin Sheriff Mark Podoll says Borgwardt talks to investigators regularly.

SHARIFF MARK PODOLL, GREEN LAKE COUNTY: Our biggest concern that we had was that he was safe and well. We asked him a number of questions that pertained to him and his family that he would only know. And then we asked him for a video of himself.

WILD: The search for Borgwardt began this summer after he failed to return home from a day of kayaking and fishing. Law enforcement found his capsized kayak, car and other belongings, but no trace of him.

PODOLL: While we might have stopped the search on Green Lake, that didn't stop our search continuing to look for Ryan.

WILD: The Green Lake County Sheriff now says he planned an elaborate escape. Borgwardt told investigators he paddled his kayak and a child- sized boat out into the lake, overturned the kayak and dumped his phone in the water.

Paddled the inflatable boat to shore, got on an e-bike and rode through the night to Madison. There, he boarded a bus, went on to Detroit and eventually crossed into Canada and hopped on a plane to Europe.

PODOLL: In our communications, we are expressing the importance of his decision to return home, clean up the mess that he has created.

WILD: A digital forensic search of Borgwardt's laptop revealed that he replaced the hard drive and cleared his browser history on the day of the disappearance.

Podoll says investigators found that the 44-year-old moved funds to a foreign bank, changed his email, communicated with a woman in Uzbekistan, purchased airline cards and took out a $375,000 life insurance policy in January.

Now that Borgwardt has been found alive, law enforcement is laying out potential charges.

PODOLL: The information that the Green Lake County has at this point leads us to an obstructing charge.

[13:54:05]

Whitney Wild, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, the undefeated Army football team keep their dream season alive today. They will face number six-ranked Notre Dame today in a college football showdown that dates back more than a century.

CNN's Andy Scholes has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, Fredricka, today is the second to last Saturday of the regular season for college football.

Then it's conference championship time. So many of these games are super important and none more so than 19th-ranked Army taking on sixth-ranked Notre Dame tonight at Yankee Stadium.

And just what a season it's been thus far for Army. The last time they were 9-0 was 1949, when they went undefeated.

Now to make the playoffs, Army will need to beat the Fighting Irish tonight. That's something they have not done since 1958. They've lost 15 in a row to Notre Dame.

But Army head coach, Jeff Monken, well, he says this team is special and they'll need their best game to come out on top in New York.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF MONKEN, ARMY HEAD COACH: I know who we are. Our players are -- they're -- they're humble enough and understand what we've got to do to win here. And that's all we focus on.

[13:59:54]

So we know it's going to take just an incredible effort for us to be able to be competitive with Notre Dame tomorrow. And that's -- that's what we're focused on, trying to play our best.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Army a two-touchdown underdog to Notre Dame tonight. We'll see if they can pull off the upset.