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Musk and Ramaswamy Interviewing Candidates for DOGE; Rep. Greene to Head New DOGE House Subcommittee; Israeli Cabinet to Vote Hezbollah Ceasefire Deal; Charlotte Airport Workers on Strike. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired November 25, 2024 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are apparently interviewing candidates to join the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE as they call it, as they plan for drastic government cuts. The Washington Post reports the two men are looking to experts in both D.C. and Silicon Valley. For advice on this advisory panel. Musk tweeted this morning that he still can't believe DOGE is real, but he believes it's going to work.

Meanwhile, Georgia Republican and devout Trump loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene has been tapped to chair a new oversight subcommittee that is apparently going to work with DOGE to investigate federal waste. Here's what she told Fox over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): We'll be looking at everything from government funded media programs like NPR that spread nothing but Democrat propaganda. We'll be going into grant programs that fund things like sex apps in Malaysia, toilets in Africa, all kinds of programs that don't help the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Joining us now are Democratic Strategist Julie Roginsky and CNN senior political commentator and former trump campaign adviser, David Urban.

Julie, let me start with you first. What did you make of what Marjorie Taylor Greene there had to say about federal cuts and going after things like national public radio?

JULIE ROGINSKY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST AND CO-FOUNDER, LIFT OUR VOICES: Look, I mean, if we were really serious about looking into waste, fraud, and abuse, which Republicans have been running on for many years, there are plenty of people. I mean, I agree with them, but there are plenty of people in the Republican Party who actually know a thing or two about where that waste, fraud, and abuse is buried. Marjorie Taylor Greene is not one of them. She's completely disinterested in policy. I don't think that she's ever looked at a budget. She's very good at being on TV and very good at sending out kind of an invective to piss off the other side and her own side as well. But this is not exactly somebody who I think is serious about reforming government.

And I think it remains to be seen, the devil is always in the details as to what they come up with. Toilets in Africa, I hate to break it to the congresswoman, are not going to do anything about our federal budget and balancing it. So, I'd be very curious to see what programs they actually do want to take the axe to and how many people that will harm, if any, once they do that.

ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, and David, I mean, this is supposed to be about government efficiency, and you have this so-called DOGE, Department of Government Efficiency, and now, you have a congressional subcommittee that Marjorie Taylor Greene is going to oversee -- that will oversee DOGE, which will oversee what the federal government, that doesn't sound very efficient.

DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Yes, Jim, listen. So, I think that there are 435 Members of Congress and 100 -- you know, 100 senators that should be focused on government efficiency every day. So, I welcome Marjorie Taylor Greene. You know, Julie, I hope that Democrats or Republicans can unite because I do think we need to try to figure out how to trim waste, fraud, abuse, and I think there's probably plenty of it.

You know, the trick comes, Jim, is that you know that the discretionary part of the federal budget is pretty small. It's about 26 percent of the overall federal budget. It's about -- in '23, I think it's $1.7 trillion is what the discretionary budget is. So, if you're going to trim $2 trillion from a $1.7 trillion discretionary budget, that's a magic trick I'd like to see.

ACOSTA: Yes.

URBAN: But nonetheless, I think it's -- look, it's a great effort. I think we need to try to figure out where there -- we could save money for the taxpayers. We need to be good stewards of everyone's dollars, but as Julie said, the devil's in the details. Let's see. But I applaud everyone's effort, Democrats and Republicans, to try to make the government more efficient and save taxpayer dollars.

ACOSTA: Yes, I mean, but David, when I was talking with Congressman Ro Khanna earlier on in this program, he says, you know, if you -- government efficiency is fine, but if you go after programs like Social Security and Medicare, Democrats are going to fight you on that.

URBAN: Yes, but those are non-discretionary, Jim. You can't touch those, right? So, I don't know where they're going to -- listen, unless you change the law --

ACOSTA: I mean, you certainly can touch them. You're not -- I mean, it might not be politically advisable, but you certainly can touch them. I mean, Congress has tried before.

URBAN: Well, you know -- well, yes. But I mean, I don't think that's within the scope of this mandate with the DOGE folks are talking about. I think they're looking at trying to find if there are $10,000 hammers at DOD or we're funding, you know, naked mole rat museums in, you know, South Dakota. I think they're trying to figure out where the silliness is in the federal government and try to shut that out.

ROGINSKY: But --

URBAN: Look, it's a worthwhile cause.

ACOSTA: Julie.

ROGINSKY: But let me be very clear here. You have Project 2025, which is a piece of paper -- no, no, no.

URBAN: Julie, come on. Stop.

ROGINSKY: David, come on. They talk -- I'll give you an example of what they want to cut. They want to put lifetime benefits on Medicaid, which effectively means that if you have cancer, or you're on dialysis, and you hit your limit, you're out.

[10:35:00]

They want to put lifetime benefits on housing, which means that if you hit them, you're homeless. So, there are things in this budget that are non-discretionary, David, that you talked about that this administration has embraced, which is why they put Russ Vought in charge of this whole enterprise to effectively eradicate things that you think are inviolable but, in fact, are very much in the scope of what Donald Trump ran on and something that the people around him want to do.

So, it's not just a question of DOGE, it's a question of holistically what they're targeting, and they're not just targeting that rat mole museum, which I -- you know, God bless if that's all they want to do. But if you look at what they've talked about targeting it is much broader than that. It actually affects people's health care. It actually affects where people live. And that's a problem. That's actually a seriously huge problem, not just for Democrats, but for some Republicans who I assume don't want to throw grandma off of dialysis because she hit her lifetime limit on her health care benefits.

ACOSTA: Yes, David --

URBAN: Jim, where's Daniel Dale when we need him, buddy? This is a Snopes moment. Donald Trump has disavowed Project 2025.

ROGINSKY: He put Russ Vought in charge.

URBAN: Julie, just listen for a second.

ROGINSKY: He put Russ Vought in charge.

ACOSTA: David, I appreciate you bringing up Daniel Dale. We'll have him on sometime soon, I hope. I don't know, he might be off having turkey somewhere. URBAN: Wrong. Listen, Julie -- just stop. But, Jim, you need to say that Project 2025, the Trump administration, you need to acknowledge -- Jim, you need to acknowledge that Donald Trump has disavowed Project 2025.

ROGINSKY: He put the architect of Project 2025 in charge of OMB.

ACOSTA: Right. David, I was just about to say, Donald Trump out on the campaign trail time and again disavowed Project 2025, and yet he put one of the architects --

URBAN: Thank you.

ACOSTA: But I will say he put one of the architects of Project 2025 in charge of the Office of Management and Budget. David --

URBAN: That's two different things.

ACOSTA: -- you and I have talked about this before. Why not just admit that the president-elect was not telling the truth out on the campaign trail when he said he had nothing to do with Project 2025. He had no knowledge of it.

URBAN: Because he didn't.

ACOSTA: I mean, all of that was just a snow job, right? That was just --

URBAN: Jim, why don't you just admit that he has said that it doesn't --

ACOSTA: That was a bigger --

URBAN: It's not a --

ACOSTA: David, that was a bigger turkey than what I'm going to have on the Thanksgiving table later this week. I'm sorry, but --

URBAN: Oh, come on.

ACOSTA: -- you know --

URBAN: Come one. Look, you guys are going to get four Pinocchios, both you and Julie, both. Come on, Washington Post, Daniel Dale.

ROGINSKY: For what? For what? For putting somebody in charge who wrote Project 2025 in charge of the Office of Management and Budget?

ACOSTA: I think this is what they call a cell phone, David. But I do want to ask -- I do want to get into one other bit of news. The confirmation battle that is to come for Pete Hegseth, Trump's pick for secretary of defense. Listen to what Tammy Duckworth, Illinois Senator and combat veteran told CNN about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 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)

ACOSTA: Julia, your thoughts. I mean, when you have somebody like Tammy Duckworth, I mean, a lot of folks up on Capitol Hill can weigh in and criticize all they want, but somebody like Tammy Duckworth, a combat veteran, gave her legs in combat, it carries weight.

ROGINSKY: It does carry weight. You know, I actually think the more salient thing that I heard this weekend, which I was very, very shocked about, was Markwayne Mullin, a senator from Oklahoma, saying that, of course, he doesn't believe the survivor. Of course, he believes Pete Hegseth, based on what? I guess on the police report.

Well, if that's true I call on Markwayne Mullin and every Republican who's going to be vetting Pete Hegseth to ask Pete Hegseth to release the survivor from her nondisclosure agreement so she can go ahead and tell people what's going on. Because right now, we're hearing one side of the story, but of course, in typical fashion with NDAs, the survivor is gagged forever and she can't say a word about what happened. I think this is incredibly important information for Senators to know if she's subpoenaed, she will obviously be able to bring that NDA and testify under oath.

But I think it's very important, if Republicans right now are already going out there saying there's nothing to this story, then right now, before there's any kind of federal subpoena, before the Senate calls her in to testify, Pete Hegseth should release her from her NDA so that she could tell us exactly what happened.

ACOSTA: All right. David, Julie, thanks very much. We appreciate it. I'll give Daniel Dale a call after this goes over, David.

URBAN: Thanks for having me.

ACOSTA: All right. Thanks a lot.

URBAN: OK.

ROGINSKY: Thanks.

URBAN: No Project 2025, Jim.

URBAN: OK. All right. We'll bring you back as we bring this up again the future. Thanks a lot. All right. A major step in a potential ceasefire in the Middle East. The Israeli cabinet to vote on a deal tomorrow with Hezbollah. The latest on all this next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:40:00]

ACOSTA: All right. This just into CNN, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel tells CNN that the Israeli cabinet will vote tomorrow on a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah. It comes after Netanyahu approved a deal with the Lebanese militant group in principle.

Let's get straight to CNN is Nic Robertson in Jerusalem. Nic, we've seen these kinds of things develop in the past and they just don't get to a finish line. Does this time seem different?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, this feels a little bit closer, Jim. And I think there's a number of reasons to look at it that way. Also, a source in the region outside of Israel last night was saying as well that he felt the deal was close and is very well informed about the situation as well.

[10:45:00]

And then look at the atmospherics counterintuitively, there's been a real uptick in the number of strikes Hezbollah into Israel yesterday, more than 250 missiles, seven people injured. Israel into -- onto Hezbollah targets in Lebanon yesterday, a significant uptick in strikes. We've seen that again today.

Go back to 2006, right, the last time a ceasefire deal happened between Israel and Hezbollah, it was exactly the same metrics in terms of an uptick in bombardments and strikes. We're getting the same picture right now. Look, we've also been hearing words of caution, I think, from the foreign minister here saying that this deal has to have the Hezbollah go back 30 miles north of the border and also has to stop Hezbollah reforming and being such a power inside of Lebanon. That seems to be a big ask.

But the key thing that's wanted by Israel in all of this is the ability to strike back at Hezbollah immediately if they break the ceasefire. And we're looking at a potential 60-day ceasefire here. But it really feels, for all these reasons, that we're moving in that direction and it could happen and the vote will come tomorrow.

Caveat, we've been here before, could get run off the rails. The right-wing national security minister here, Itamar Ben-Gvir, a very loud voice inside the cabinet, he said today that he's told the prime minister, no way, we're close to crushing Hezbollah. This is not the time to stop. Continue, continue, continue is what he's quoted to have been saying. So, will all the cabinet get on board and vote? Well, the hints we're getting is that actually they will, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. And I know you'll be watching it very closely. Nic Robertson in Jerusalem for us. Thanks, Nic. Really appreciate it.

Coming up, hundreds of airport workers walking off the job in Charlotte. Why they're doing it during one of the busiest travel weeks of the year. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [10:50:00]

ACOSTA: This morning, several 100 workers at Charlotte's very busy international airport walked off the job just as the holiday season is kicking off. The strike comes as airport officials say more than a million people will travel through the airport over the next week.

CNN's Pete Muntean joins us now. Pete, who is on strike. How could this affect Thanksgiving travel? I have to think it's just going to be a mess.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You know, this is important, not just if you're flying to or from Charlotte, but also important if you're connecting through Charlotte. It's a huge connecting airport. It's American Airlines' second biggest hub, ninth busiest airport of the United States.

Just spoke to American Airlines. So, far, the carrier insists that this will not have any impact to its flights, even though this strike is by subcontractors for the airline, ABM Industries and Prospect Airport Services. Their strike started at 5:00 a.m. this morning local time.

These workers are represented by the Service Employees International Union or SEIU and they clean airplane passenger cabins, drive trash trucks, push the wheelchairs through the terminal. You see them all the time. The main push here is for higher wages. And the union says most of these workers make between $12.50 and $19 an hour.

I want you to listen now to ABM worker Priscilla Hoyle. She cleans the inside of planes and she says she's living paycheck to paycheck.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRISCILLA HOYLE, CABIN CLEANER: Right now, I'm actually facing eviction because I don't make enough to be able to pay my rent on time. It's hard having kids and have to look them in their eyes and sit there and say, mommy works a full-time job, but I don't know if we're going to be able to keep a roof over our heads.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Now, union reps say a total of a few 100 workers are participating in this strike. ABM says it's taken steps to minimize the disruption for passengers and union reps say the strike will end tomorrow. Tomorrow is expected to be one of the busiest days at airports nationwide before the holiday, Jim. TSA anticipates 2.8 million people passing through airports tomorrow.

ACOSTA: Yes, and people can get angry and frustrated about airline workers going on strike during the holidays and say, you know, how can they do something like this? But when you listen to that lady just describe her personal situation, obviously, your hearts go out to them. And there's so many hardworking people at the airports. But there are also new rules for airline refunds these days that passengers need to know about if they're going through the airport and having trouble.

MUNTEAN: Especially important to know about, because these are consumer protections just passed by the Department of Transportation, just officially put in place. These new rules demand that if an airline cancels or significantly delays your flight, you get an automatic refund. This is not a credit. This is money straight back on your credit card.

You may ask, what qualifies as a significant delay? Well, that's a domestic flight that arrives more than three hours late, an international flight that's more than six hours late arriving. This requires that the airline gives you the money back within seven days, if you paid by card, 20 days if you used another form of payment. It also strengthens a refund rules for things like lost check baggage or undeliverable services, is what it's called. Things like if the airline Wi-Fi doesn't work on board the flight. So, this is a pretty significant change and you should be able to get this money back relatively quickly.

ACOSTA: I'm going to get a lot of refunds for that.

MUNTEAN: Yes, I know.

ACOSTA: My wife and I --

MUNTEAN: I feel like it doesn't work for me all the time.

ACOSTA: All the time. But wait a minute. You know, three hours for domestic, six hours for international, that doesn't sound like something that happens all the time.

MUNTEAN: Not all the time.

ACOSTA: So, it may sound great --

MUNTEAN: It's a pretty wide runway here, pardon the pun. And so, if the airline is really, really late. The other important caveat is you can't double dip. If they book you on a different flight, you can't take the refund and then take the flight that they rebooked you on. You have to say no, I don't want it. You have to walk. Then you can take the refund.

ACOSTA: Better check the fine print.

MUNTEAN: That's right.

ACOSTA: Pete Muntean, thanks a lot. We're just moments away from the White House turkey pardon. These lucky turkeys right here named Peach and Blossom will be President Biden's last Thanksgiving pardons in the (INAUDIBLE) tradition. CNN's Betsy Klein joins us now from the south lawn of the White House. Betsy, we just -- we're just looking at some photographs of those two turkeys. I couldn't believe -- it looked like an oil painting. These are beautiful turkeys. I mean, just specimens. Just to behold here. I can't believe it. Why would anybody eat those turkeys?

[10:55:00]

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Indeed, Jim. And President Biden said to use that presidential pardon power just moments from now for these two lucky birds here on the South Lawn for foul reasons, you might say, as he is set to talk turkey and dish out some presidential puns moments from now at this Thanksgiving roast and later today, heads to the New York area where he will have a Friendsgiving dinner with American troops.

But let me just dish out a little bit of presidential history here. The rumors of the first turkey pardon actually date back to the Lincoln administration, when the president's young son asked him to spare his pet turkey from the Thanksgiving table. Then in the 1920s, during the Wilson administration, a pair of turkeys duked it out on the south lawn here from Kentucky and Texas. But the first documented pardon happened during the Kennedy administration back in 1963. And for modern presidents, a moment of levity and a cornucopia of dad jokes, Jim.

ACOSTA: Oh, boy. And that's not small potatoes. All right. Betsy Klein, we're going to put you in the pun-itentiary over there. Hopefully, you'll get a pardon too. Betsy, thank you very much.

All right. Plan to start your Thanksgiving morning with CNN. We'll have parades across the country, music and celebrity appearances. Thanksgiving in America kicks off at 8:00 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN. And we'll be right back. Gobble-gobble.

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