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Growing Concern in GOP that Some Trump Nominees Unqualified; Israeli Officials Reports Progress Toward Hezbollah Ceasefire; Rain and Snow Threaten Holiday Travel Plans in the U.S.; Damaging Floods, Landslides Tear through U.K. and Ireland. Aired 4:00-4:30a ET

Aired November 25, 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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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tulsi Gabbard is still Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army. She commands the reserve unit here in Oklahoma and Missouri. She is a true patriot of the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He never commanded a unit. He never planned a company, let alone battalions, brigades or whole armies. He was a platoon leader. He does not have the experience to run an organization of that size.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The question here is not whether the brothers killed their parents. They have admitted to doing so but have said that they did it in self-defense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not something you ever think that happened to you. You see on news, you know, happens in Spain, globally. I had to move everything upstairs and everything that we have sentimental value to. It's really sad.

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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 Monday, November the 25th, 9 a.m. here in London, 4 a.m. in Washington, D.C., where the Thanksgiving holiday week is starting with a pretty clear picture of Donald Trump's cabinet picks.

Now, Republicans are bracing for long confirmation battles ahead, especially for the president-elect's more controversial choices, like the nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, who faces allegations of sexual assault. Democratic Senator and combat veteran Tammy Duckworth has questioned Hegseth's qualifications to lead the U.S. Department of Defense.

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SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-IL): He never commanded a unit. He never commanded a company, let alone battalions, brigades or whole armies. He was a platoon leader.

He served at a very low level in the military. And we're talking about an organization that is 3 million servicemen and women and civilians and a budget of over $900 billion. He does not have the experience to run an organization of that size.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Meanwhile, Duckworth called Trump's pick to lead the intelligence community unqualified, saying former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard has no intelligence background. Duckworth also says Gabbard is compromised because of what she says are troubling relationships with Russia and Syria. But Oklahoma's Republican senator is dismissing criticism of Gabbard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-OK): There's no document. There's no background there for her to see, for anyone to see. She is she is a true patriot of the United States. And there's no reason why the Democrats are going after her, other than the fact they're upset that she left their woke party.

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FOSTER: Well, CNN's Alayna Treene has more on this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, President-elect Donald Trump has moved very quickly to fill out his cabinet. He only has a few more names left to announce. But now, really, the attention is turning to how he is going to get these different candidates through their confirmation processes, particularly the ones that we know are more controversial and that are causing some consternation up on Capitol Hill.

And that includes Tulsi Gabbard, who many senators questioned her position on surveillance and also her deep distrust of some of the agencies that she'll be overseeing. There's also RFK Jr., who his past comments supporting abortion access may not sit well with a lot of the staunchly anti-abortion senators that will be dealing with his confirmation process.

There's also Pete Hegseth, who's Donald Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon. He has been dogged by a recent sexual assault allegation, but also a lot of people raising questions of whether or not he has the credentials for that role.

So all of this together is what I know the Trump transition team is going to be focusing on very heavily between now and Inauguration Day as they prepare all of these different people to go through the Senate process. Now, we did hear some members address this today.

I do want you to take a listen to what Republican Senator Markwayne Mullen of the deep red state of Oklahoma said in trying to address some of this.

SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-OK): This isn't a new administration coming in. And so when people are criticizing his picks, the president has done this job before. He knows exactly what he needs.

He knows who he wants to put in those positions. That's why he's been able to move fast, because he knows he has four years to reach the mandate that the American people said they want the government going in a different direction. And these nominations he's putting forth are actually going to deliver that for him.

TREENE: Now, what Mullen said there, I think, is pretty significant. And it does align with what I'm hearing in my conversations with those working with the Trump transition team, which is Donald Trump chose these people, even though he knew they were controversial, for a reason.

[04:05:00]

He wants disruptors, people who will go into these different agencies and buck the establishment and really try and go in a different way, break from traditional norms. That was his goal in these selections. And that is why we've seen him publicly put pressure, Donald Trump himself, on many of these senators in encouraging them to support him.

Now, one key thing to keep in mind as well, though, is that we do know that Senate Republicans have a backbone, that even though Republicans have control of the House and the Senate, we did see them weigh in very publicly about Matt Gaetz. I mean, Donald Trump was all in on Matt Gaetz, we had been told, and really wanted him for his attorney general pick. But it was clear from his meetings with senators and the conversations they were having that he was not going to get the number of votes he needed to get through the Senate. And ultimately, Gaetz withdrew.

And so that is definitely weighing on the back of a lot of people's minds at Mar-a-Lago and something they're going to continue to be working toward as they ready all of these different selections for those hearings.

Alayna Treene, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: A developing story out of Lithuania, a cargo plane flying from Germany crashed just outside the Vilnius airport about 5.30 a.m. local time. You can see the plane in this video. Here's the tiny dot at the top of the screen before it disappears behind the building.

This is the moment when it skidded into a house and burst into flames. You can see thick, dark smoke arising there. In this video, you can see the plane's engine next to the house it crashed into.

Local authorities say one crew member was killed, but remarkably, three others on board, including the pilot, survived the crash. So did the 12 people who live in the house it slammed into. The plane was a Swift Air aircraft operating under contract for DHL. According to the logistics company, emergency workers and firefighters are still on the scene.

Now an Israeli official says there's been significant progress made in talks aimed reaching a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah. Though the official did say there are still disagreements that have to be settled.

Despite the talks, there's been no end to the strikes across the border. On Sunday night, the Israel Defense Forces said they struck 12 Hezbollah command centers in Beirut's southern suburbs. Lebanese officials say dozens were killed in attacks across the country over the weekend.

And since mid-September, Lebanon's health ministry says Israeli strikes have killed more than 3,000 people. In Israel, at least seven people were injured after the military says Hezbollah fired around 250 projectiles from Lebanon on Sunday. Some of them, as you can see here, intercepted by Israel's air defenses.

Meanwhile in Iran, a senior advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Tehran is preparing to respond to recent strikes by Israel. CNN's Paula Hancocks joins me now. Paula, let's start with the ceasefire talks in Lebanon.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Max, everyone we're speaking to at this point says that it does appear to be close. We heard from the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Herzog. He was speaking to Israel Army Radio and said that it could happen within days.

He also, though, pointed out that Israel does reserve the freedom to act if they feel that they need to. Meaning if they believe that the ceasefire proposal is being violated, then they want to be able to act against Hezbollah. Now, up until this point, that appears to be a sticking point in Hezbollah's mind.

So it appears as though they are in the final throws of trying to put this ceasefire proposal together. But that could well be one of the quite significant sticking points. Now, we did have one regional source as well telling us that they believe that they were very close, closer than they have ever been, but not yet fully formed with this deal.

Now, what we are also seeing on the ground is what we often see just before a ceasefire is announced, and that is both sides pushing and escalating the amount of military activity that they are carrying out. We heard from the Israeli Defense Force that some 250 projectiles were fired by Hezbollah. That's among the highest that we have seen since October 8th of last year.

And we have also seen significant airstrikes from Israel into the southern suburbs of Beirut and southern Lebanon as well, a grim milestone being crossed in Lebanon, with more than 3,000 now having been killed since mid-September when this uptick in violence between the two sides started. [04:10:06]

Now, we are also, as you mentioned there, Max, hearing from a senior advisor to the Supreme Leader in Iran, Ali Larijani, and he has said that there will be a response, as we have heard, to Israel's attack on Tehran just last month. And he has said that it will be aimed at restoring deterrence, that the military authorities in Tehran are currently trying to hammer out a deal and a plan that will try and restore that deterrence.

Now, we had heard from the Supreme Leader shortly after the late October strike by Israel that the response would be teeth-breaking. Now, in that response from Israel, which was a retaliation to an October 1st strike by Tehran, we did see Israel targeting the aerial defense systems in Iran. We also saw missile manufacturing sites being struck.

And the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, later admitted that a component of the nuclear program was also taken out, but not giving any more details than that.

So this is what we are expecting at this point. There was no details, understandably, on timing or exactly what that retaliation would look like. But that is something that we are hearing once again, Tehran saying there will be a response to Israel -- Max.

FOSTER: Paula, thank you so much for that.

Now, the White House is condemning the killing of an Israeli rabbi in the United Arab Emirates, calling it an horrific crime against those who stand for peace, tolerance and coexistence. Authorities in the UAE have arrested three people in connection with the death of Rabbi Zvi Kogan, who had been filmed by a friend days before his murder.

Kogan had been missing since Thursday. And on Sunday, the UAE Interior Ministry confirmed his body had been discovered. Israel says he was killed in an anti-Semitic act of terror.

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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): The state of Israel will use every means to bring the murderers and their dispatchers to justice. None of them will escape accountability. I greatly appreciate the cooperation with the UAE in investigating this murder. Together, we will strengthen our ties in the face of attempts by the axis of evil to harm our peace relations.

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FOSTER: While the wars raging in the Middle East and in Ukraine will feature prominently in the G7 foreign ministers meeting today, which is in central Italy. The delegations will discuss those wars along with Indo-Pacific security and the ongoing security crises in Haiti and in Sudan. Ukraine's foreign minister will attend meetings on Tuesday. U.S. Secretary of State Antti Blinken arrived in Italy on Sunday.

It'll be his last G7 summit before the Trump administration takes over at the White House in January.

Donald Trump's choice to be the next U.S. national security adviser says the president-elect is concerned about recent developments between Russia and Ukraine. Congressman Mike Waltz told Fox News that Mr. Trump is focused on setting up negotiations to end the conflict.

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REP. MIKE WALTZ (R-FL), INCOMING U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: The president-elect has been very concerned about the escalation and where it's all going. President Trump has been very clear about the need to end this conflict. And so what we need to be discussing is who's at that table, whether it's an agreement, an armistice, how to get both sides to the table. And then what's the framework of a deal?

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FOSTER: Clare Sebastian joins me here in London. Well, he just outlined all the problems here, deciding who's round the table, getting them to the table. I mean, this is not something that's going to be done in 24 hours, as Trump has suggested.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, and especially not given what we saw last week, which was clearly a new chapter opening up in this war. Russia firing that medium-range ballistic missile at Dnipro on Thursday, signaling they're willing to bring in this new class of weapons into the conflict, whose range massively, you know, dwarfs the range of the Western long-range missiles that are now being allowed to be used on Russian soil by Ukraine's allies. So I think that is part of the concern for Ukraine.

When you hear those comments from Mike Waltz, on the one hand, he's saying that he wants to end the war, that Trump wants to get a deal. Ukraine is still not at all clear how that would happen, how he would bring the two parties to the table. And obviously, the concern is it would lead to some kind of freezing of the conflict in place, some kind of capitulation. And Ukraine does not like to be seen on an equal footing with Russia when it comes to negotiations.

But on the other hand, he did say, look, for those adversaries who are out there who think this is a time of opportunity, they're wrong. He says he's met with Jake Sullivan, who's the current NSA, and they are speaking with one voice.

And of course, Zelenskyy's tack since the election has been to say, look, we're ready to work with Trump. We want to hear his proposals. And we do want to end the war in 2025. So I think they're looking at this in a sort of nuanced way at this point. Trump, we want to hear his proposals.

[04:15:02]

And we do want to end the war in 2025. So I think they're looking at this in a sort of nuanced way at this point.

FOSTER: You know, a lot of commentary in some of the media does suggest that Trump isn't necessarily on Ukraine's side. But if we look at the evidence, he's been pretty supportive over the years.

SEBASTIAN: Yes, it's just not clear at this point, right? Zelenskyy said that he had a call with him over the summer, and he was very supportive. Obviously, the rhetoric toughened, and in particular, it toughened when Zelenskyy was in the United States in September.

And he started using that phrase about Zelenskyy being the greatest salesman. Then he comes to the U.S. and goes back with 100 billion every time and paraphrasing. But I think it was sort of said in a derogatory sense.

And of course, we know that J.D. Vance, his running mate, has openly opposed aid for Ukraine. So this was very unnerving to Ukraine. But obviously, now that he's won, they have to work with him. And I think it really puts extra pressure on meetings like we're seeing today at the G7 meeting, the Prime Minister going there to try to make his case.

FOSTER: Blinken has obviously been a towering force in all of these different conflicts. But, you know, his power has gone away now. What do you think he's going to try and get from the meeting?

SEBASTIAN: So I think that clearly, the Biden administration is trying to front load as much aid as it can to buy Ukraine as much time as it can to tide it over in case the next administration pulls back. And we don't know right now who the next Secretary of State is going to be. It has to go through Congress and all of that.

But, you know, there are concerns that they might reduce aid. So I think that's one thing. The second thing that we're looking out for from this meeting is any progress on dispersing that $50 billion loan to Ukraine that's backed by those Russian sovereign assets.

The G7 has agreed, the various different parties have agreed their contributions to it. And we had expected that that would come by the end of the year. That financially would put Ukraine on a much surer footing going into the next U.S. administration.

FOSTER: Clare Sebastian, thank you.

The turkey might be the least of concerns when it comes to this week's Thanksgiving holiday. Still ahead, the weather could put some travel plans in jeopardy.

And the dire warning from a U.S. senator over a Chinese cyber attack that targeted top political figures, including Donald Trump.

Plus, the Menendez brothers are preparing for a court hearing today where a judge could kickstart their path to release from prison.

[04:20:00]

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FOSTER: Two people have been found dead in Northern California over the weekend. Local authorities say an atmospheric river unleashed record rainfall and caused dangerous road conditions. The storm now heads to the central U.S. where it could bring snow. It's one of two systems that could thwart travel plans and dampen celebrations during this Thanksgiving holiday week. CNN's Allison Chinchar has the latest.

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ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Mother Nature not making it very easy for some folks for this big holiday travel week. We start off the day Monday with this new system here impacting portions of the Midwest down through the Mississippi and Tennessee Valley area region. That's going to have rain on the south side and some snow showers farther to the north.

Out to the west, we are going to have a series of systems moving their way through. This is expected to bring some heavy rainfall along the coast and some very heavy snow, especially in the Sierras. Could see two to three feet over the next few days.

By late into the day Monday again, you'll start to see that first system begin to spread into the areas of the mid-Atlantic as well as the northeast overnight into early Tuesday. Also looking at some showers along the southeast coast too. The other system we're watching, that's the one that moved into the West Coast, now starting to overspread into the Rockies and eventually into the central portion of the country once we get towards Wednesday.

This is going to have mostly rain here as the temperatures won't quite be cold enough for snow. You're really going to have to go pretty far north to get the snow into the mix. But by overnight Wednesday and into Thursday, those temperatures starting to creep down in some areas, allowing a few more spots to get some snow or even a rain-snow mix.

Heavy rain at times possible across the Tennessee Valley. Even cities like Nashville, Atlanta, and Knoxville could have rain in the forecast. Then by midday Thursday, you're looking at more of that moisture overspreading into the northeast and into the mid-Atlantic.

So any last-minute travel or local travel on Thanksgiving Day itself, the biggest concerns are going to be the northeast stretching all the way down into the Gulf Coast, where you're going to have the bulk of that really heavy moisture.

So then the question becomes, OK, what about the famous Macy's Day Parade? Here's the thing. We've got that rain coming in. The heaviest will hold off till the afternoon and evening hours of Thursday. So the first few hours of the parade should, in theory, be OK.

But those rain chances go up very quickly for the back half of the parade. Temperature-wise also, not exactly going to be very warm. You're looking at those temperatures likely only in the low 40s.

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FOSTER: Emergency workers and local residents are working to clear the water in this small Welsh town near Cardiff. It's one of the many areas impacted by the heavy rain and flooding brought by the storm Bert. The high water levels prompted many people to leave until the situation improves there.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I had to move everything upstairs and everything that we have sentimental value to. We're just going to move to Hereford until it's over, really. We kind of expect it to happen. So it's really sad.

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FOSTER: Well, the Welsh First Minister says the flooding has been absolutely devastating. One Welsh county received nearly a month's worth of rain in just 48 hours. The strong low-pressure system brought high winds, snow and rain.

Britain's chief meteorologist called it a multi-hazard event. There were dozens of heavy rainfall reports across the U.K. Rainfall totals in the last day have exceeded five inches, according to the U.K.'s Met Office.

The heavy rainfall brought on by storm Bert triggered flood warnings across the U.K. and indeed Ireland.

The storm's ramifications have been devastating and wide in scope. At least five people are dead. Tens of thousands of homes and businesses lost power. And more than 300 flights have been cancelled at London Heathrow. Storm Bert is expected to clear from the region by Tuesday.

[04:25:00]

But for now, many people in the U.K. and Ireland are working to recover from the storm's damage, as Michael Holmes now reports.

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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Snow, wind and rain. The so-called multi-hazard event named Storm Bert whipped across Britain and Ireland over the weekend, disrupting airport, ferry and train services across the British Isles. In Wales, emergency services waded through flooded streets and residents tried to bail water from their homes after some parts of the country were drenched with more than 10 centimeters of rain.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see on news, you know, it happens in Spain, globally, and then it happens to you and it's like, oh, right, well, how do we handle it? It's just, you know, some of them are having a cupper, some of them, like me, panicking and going away.

HOLMES (voice-over): In North West Ireland, tens of thousands of people were without power after high winds and floods swept through the area. Sandbags were still out on the streets as people braced for more rain and tried to mop up during a break in the storm.

THOMAS PRINGLE, IRISH MP: The river works its bank up behind us here, and the river just basically flowed down the street and flooded the whole street here, right up to halfway up the hill towards the main street there, and that was just devastating for everyone.

HOLMES (voice-over): Heavy snow covered parts of Scotland and central England where snow, ice and flood warnings were in place. The U.K. Met Office said some rural communities could be cut off with up to 40 centimeters of snow expected in higher elevations. Forecasters say wind and rain could continue to be a threat before Storm Bert finally clears the region on Tuesday.

Michael Holmes, CNN.

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FOSTER: An idea once dismissed as conspiracy theory has gone mainstream. We'll look at how the fight against fluoride in drinking water could soon have a powerful supporter in Donald Trump's cabinet.

Plus, Russia is promising to respond to what it calls Western escalation in Ukraine. A live report from Moscow, just ahead.