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"Massive" Russian Assault Leaves More Than 1M Homes In Dark; Israel Carries Out Strike On Southern Lebanon Amid Ceasefire; Trump Speaks To Mexico's President Amid Tariff Threat; Trump Transition Team Says Several Cabinet Picks Targeted By Threats. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired November 28, 2024 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:33]
RICHARD QUEST, CNN HOST: I'm Richard Quest in New York. Thank you for joining me on the CNN NEWSROOM. Jim Sciutto is off for the day.
So it's me for the next hour. Whoever it is, we're going to get right to the news.
A massive attack on a Ukrainian energy site by Russian forces. More than a million homes are dark tonight. The 11th time that Russia has targeted Ukraine's energy supply this year and its stressing a system were under great pressure. And winter is arriving.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Ukrainians to stay united against these increased attacks from Russia and in recent weeks the war has escalated. Ukraine's now using U.S.-made weapons to attack targets inside Russia and Russia is responding with new experimental weapons.
To pull the strands together, CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Moscow and has been speaking to Russian ministers about this new phase of the war.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): In the early morning hours, Russia launching yet more massive aerial strikes against Ukraine the sheer size of the attack, more than 90 missiles and about 100 drones laid out clearly by the Russian president himself.
On our part, these strikes took place in response to the continuous strikes on Russian territory by American ATACMS missiles, Putin said. As I have said many times, there will always be a response from our side.
The Russians irate as the Ukrainians continue to use U.S.-supplied ATACMS surface to surface missiles to hit targets deep inside Russia after getting the go ahead from the Biden administration.
Top Russian politicians now accusing the U.S. president of playing with fire.
How big do you see the danger of an escalation right now? KONSTANTIN KOSACHEV, DEPUTY SPEAKER OF RUSSIAN FEDERATION COUNCIL: I believe we are right now in the most dangerous stage for the simple reason we have a lame duck in the United States of America, with all my respect to Mr. Biden.
PLEITGEN: And the Kremlin threatening further use of their massive experimental multiple warhead ballistic missile Oreshnik missile, which they fired on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro last week.
Everything that is in the epicenter of the explosion will be decimated, Putin said, turned into elementary particles, essentially into dust. The missile hits even well protected objects located at great depth.
This, as Moscow is trying to maintain support at home for what it still calls its special military operation in Ukraine. The defense ministry publishing the slickly produced video urging Russians to join the army.
We are with our warriors until victory, this is our land, the narration says.
The Kremlin has said Vladimir Putin is willing to talk to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump both about ending the Ukraine war and improving U.S.-Russia relations but they want Washington to make the first move, the spokeswoman for Russia's foreign ministry tells me.
MARIA ZAKHAROVA, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON: We are open to normal relationship, which are based on mutual respect and international law. If the country, I don't know, United States or other countries would like to on this base -- on this base to improve to promote, to develop, to reconstruct, rebuild relationship with us, we can do this.
PLEITGEN: Scores of Ukrainians spent Thursday morning sheltering from Moscow's latest missile blitz. And despite Kyiv saying they were able to shoot down many drones and rockets, more than a million people had to deal with blackouts after the raids.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: With me is the retired air force colonel and CNN military analyst, Cedric Leighton.
Sir, is this a game changer? Do you get the feeling a new, more lethal phase has begun?
CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I think it might be, Richard. I think this is one of those moments where you see everybody throwing all the weapon systems that they can in order to achieve a kind of goal that they may have. So they this may be a territorial goal. It may be a negotiation type goal.
But it is definitely something, Richard, where we see, in essence, the beginnings of the culmination -- possible culmination of this war effort.
[15:05:07]
And that's both on the Russian side as well as on the Ukrainian side. The Ukrainians are responding with the ATACMS. The Russians are using weapons like the Oreshnik missile system that Fred mentioned in his reporting. That could very well spell the moment in which there's this culmination of activity before they go to the negotiating table.
QUEST: The description that Putin used of the new experimental missiles basically saying it destroys everything just into matter he's doing an oblique reference to the effect, but not the actual use of a nuclear weapon. He's basically saying this is going to have the same effect without actually going nuclear. That is, in itself a massive shift.
LEIGHTON: Yes, it is. And normally, Putin has not used that kind of language to describe the weapons that he's using. I -- this is getting into some very dangerous territory, frankly, because as you correctly point out, these are the exact types of occurrences that happen when a nuclear weapon is used the matter does turn into dust. And in this particular case, he is, you know, citing the Oreshnik missile as an example, I you know, has multiple warheads.
It has an extremely powerful weapon, or at least the warheads are extremely powerful and that could very well change the landscape that it that it impacts. So, both obliterating parts of cities as well as of course military units.
QUEST: Did we know or did I mean military people? Not me obviously, but did the U.S., the UK, the Ukrainians, did they know that Russia had these weapons? Was testing them? And do they know what more is still out there waiting to be launched?
LEIGHTON: Well, I think there's always we may know some things but we may not have complete knowledge of what the Russians are actually doing. There is knowledge of Russian weapons developments, they my supposition in this particular case is that we did know about the Oreshnik missile before it made its debut on the battlefield.
But the fact that they were going to use the Oreshnik and use it in this way may have been a surprise until the Russians warned the United States that they would be using it about 30 minutes before they launched it over Dnipro and the idea there was, of course, to make sure that we didn't respond as if it was a nuclear event.
So that's why they did that. But knowledge is a very difficult thing sometimes for the intelligence agencies, even if they have covered a target like Russia for a long time.
QUEST: So we've now in this unusual situation where essentially the Russians are building diplomatic and military bridges almost to the U.S. You heard it's not by accident. We heard from the Russian spokeswoman saying were ready to rebuild, reconstruct, redevelop new relations. At the same time the flattery from President Putin about the
president-elect in his -- Donald Trump's an intelligent man, basically a version of who I can do business with. So if you're Ukraine and you've got until now, until January the 20th and you've got this onslaught, what do you do?
LEIGHTON: Yeah. You try to use your power as best as you can. So this is a very difficult situation for the Ukrainians because they have limited manpower. They have limited weapons systems, munitions, stockpiles, they have to use them in such a way that they get the maximum effect possible. They have to try as best as they can to maintain the territory that they that they are currently holding, not only in Ukraine, but also in that part of the Kursk region and Russia that they've occupied.
They've lost some ground there. About half of the territory that they initially occupied is now back in Russian hands. They have to try to stop that from happening, and they have to do some surprise actions, conduct some surprise actions like they did at the early parts of this war.
In the middle part where they destroyed large portions of the Russian black sea fleet and the Russian naval headquarters for the black sea fleet, those kinds of actions would be the kinds of things that they need to do, whether or not they can pull that off, of course, it needs to be seen.
QUEST: Good to see you, Cedric, as always grateful.
The Israeli military says it carried out an airstrike in southern Lebanon. It did so after what it says was terrorist activity by Hezbollah. It was day two of the fragile Israel Hezbollah ceasefire. And so far with these exceptions, it appears to be holding. Meanwhile, the Lebanese army is bolstering its presence in the south as required by the deal. Patrolling the area between Israel's northern border and the Litani River, thousands of people displaced on both sides are now returning to their homes.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv, where you've been to northern Israel.
Now you've started to see -- you've seen how both sides are particularly in your case, where you are the Israeli sides are returning and obviously, they must now feel that there is a sense of safety in the promises that have been made.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, actually, Richard, many of the residents of northern Israel are simply not returning to their homes at this point. And it is precisely because they do not yet feel safe to do so. And those who are there are extremely distrustful of this process. And therein lies the difference in what we've been seeing in southern Lebanon over the course of the last day, where we saw people packing into their cars bringing, you know, putting their belongings on top of their cars and heading straight for their homes in southern Lebanon, which by the way, has actually now posed quite a bit of a problem with the Israeli military still being in many of those villages in southern Lebanon.
But on the Israeli side, what we have seen has been very different, with residents distrustful of this process including in Shtula, where we visited yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DIAMOND: So you're back in Shtula with all the dogs?
ORI ELIYAHU, SHTULA RESIDENT: Yeah.
DIAMOND: Huh?
ELIYAHU: I am at home. It's not really home at the moment, but --
DIAMOND (voice-over): Ori Eliyahu is one of just a handful of residents living in this Israeli community along the Lebanese border, but he's not back because he thinks it's safe.
ELIYAHU: So basically not -- not -- it's not just that this is Lebanon, that you see here, there the mountain.
DIAMOND: Yeah.
ELIYAHU: Those houses are Hezbollah houses. They are shooting missiles from there.
DIAMOND: The new ceasefire agreement means Hezbollah must withdraw from this area, about 25 miles north of the Israeli border.
But like many others in northern Israel, Ori doesn't trust Hezbollah nor the Israeli governments assurances that it will prevent Hezbollah from regrouping.
On the first day of this new ceasefire, Shtula is just as much of a ghost town as when we visited over the summer.
Let's go quick.
Back then, the Israeli military gave us just three minutes to see homes struck by anti-tank missiles, fearing Hezbollah could strike again.
I remember when I came here --
Today, overlooking that same view, standing along that same devastated home that threat seems further away. But for how long?
Your fear is that this agreement won't prevent this from happening again.
ELIYAHU: You are saying it's a fear. It's not fear. It's not fear. It's a fact.
Here in the Middle East, this is how you go this is how this thing works. If a terrorist can shoot you, he'll shoot you. DIAMOND: He says his neighbors among the roughly 60,000 Israelis
displaced from the north don't feel safe enough to return.
ELIYAHU: They won't do it. We are speaking about it all the time, in the WhatsApp group and in the phone and everywhere they want. They are not stupid.
DIAMOND: Just down the road, Ora Hatan is enjoying her first peaceful day in more than a year.
ORA HATAN, SHTULA RESIDENT: We wake up to the quiet morning. It's after one year. It's unusual.
DIAMOND: She too is skeptical that the ceasefire will lead to a lasting peace, but she doesn't see an alternative.
HATAN: I spoke with the soldier. They're tired. They exhaust. Also what -- what another option we that we have to do to arrive to Beirut.
DIAMOND: On the Lebanese side of the border, many civilians were quick to return to southern Lebanon.
Yes. Thank God, I'm happy, of course. We're going back to our hometown, to our land.
The Lebanese military also headed south, expected to monitor Hezbollah activity as a fragile truce takes hold.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DIAMOND (on camera): And, Richard, that fragile truce is indeed still holding at this point on the second day of the ceasefire. But as you noted, there have been violations now claimed from both sides with the Israelis acknowledging that they have actually carried out strikes in southern Lebanon because they believe that Hezbollah was violating the terms.
The Israeli prime minister, in an interview this evening, actually made a point of pointing out those actions by the Israeli military. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We enforced it already on the first day. You saw yesterday, we killed five Hezbollah operatives, we captured four.
Today, we strike more. There is no trickery with us. We enforce it forcefully but if necessary, I have given directive to the IDF. If this framework this ceasefire is violated, it will lead to an intense war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[15:15:02] DIAMOND: And so that is obviously an implicit threat there, a warning by the Israeli prime minister, effectively that serious breaches of this agreement by Hezbollah could ultimately lead Israel to let go of the ceasefire altogether and go back to war with Hezbollah.
QUEST: Netanyahu has also said that the ceasefire improves the possibility for a hostage deal, obviously referring to those still being held both alive and dead in Gaza. Why would he think that?
DIAMOND: Well, listen, this is the perspective of Israeli and American officials as well. I mean, we heard President Biden last week saying that he believes that now is an opportunity with the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah to now try and advance a deal between Hamas and Israel.
And that's because in large part, they believe that Hamas is now increasingly isolated with Hezbollah now out of the picture after more than a year of firing rockets on Israel as they said, in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, Hezbollah agreed to delink these two fronts and now Israel's hope is that perhaps Hamas increasingly isolated, will agree to a deal on terms more favorable to the Israeli government. But, of course, that remains to be seen -- Richard.
QUEST: Jeremy, grateful. Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv, thank you, sir.
As we continue in THE NEWSROOM, tariff talk. And President-elect Trump and Mexico's President Sheinbaum speak about Trump's threat to slap tariffs on Mexican goods on day one of his presidency. There is some nuanced disagreement over exactly what the two sides, what sort of agreement if they did indeed come to an agreement. We'll talk about it in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: President-elect Trump said he had a productive conversation with the Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum yesterday.
[15:20:01]
There are disagreements, though, over what they talked about and what they agreed to do following that call. The conversation follows a public threat from Mr. Trump, who said he would level 25 percent tariffs on Mexican imports if the country didn't stop the flow of migrants and fentanyl from across the border.
Our senior reporter Steve Contorno who's covering Donald Trump. He's now with me from West Palm Beach near Mar-a-Lago.
So what always has to be careful with these things, aren't they? Because there's nuance and then there's disagreement. So with your -- with your reading of this -- is there -- is there a gray area that they're both calling their own?
STEVE CONTORNO, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: I think it's a possibility that is correct, Richard, because if you look at the statement that Donald Trump put out on truth social shortly after the call, he said that the Mexican president has, quote, agreed to stop migration through Mexico and into the United States effectively closing our southern border.
Now, that word effectively could be doing a whole lot of heavy lifting for the president-elect in that sentence because in her telling of the conversation, she made no such promises. And in fact, she said she would be incapable of closing the southern border.
So there does seem to be some disconnect between what the two sides got out of this conversation which they both described as generally positive. Now, I will also say that neither Trump nor the Mexican president outlined any sort of policy change that would that came out of this call. Nor did Trump suggest that this would mean that he will not put in place a 25 percent tariff on the day he took office, which he previously threatened.
So what we have here essentially is a president-elect three weeks after the election engaging in trade with a foreign country and a foreign leader before he has even taken office. And it's not yet clear what the fallout from that will be. But clearly he is injecting himself into the conversation in a really unprecedented and unparalleled way.
QUEST: That's a -- is anybody actually saying, hang on a second, you are negotiating trade policy before you are president and related to that, Steve, what would be the barometer of success for Donald Trump such that he wouldn't introduce these tariffs because he was specific about it being on day one?
CONTORNO: That's been the question all along, because what he said was he would put these tariffs in place until the flow of migration and drugs into the United States stops. How do you possibly put some sort of measurement on what constitutes the ending of the flow of drugs into the United States and what Mexico can possibly be blamed for? I mean, there are drugs coming mostly through ports, is what most federal officials say, and not necessarily across the border.
So he is already claiming victory and yet we also are seeing the Biden administration and actually President Biden himself trying to get Trump to put the brakes on this.
Take a listen to what he had to say earlier today when he was asked about Trump's threat
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I hope he rethinks it. I think its a counterproductive thing to do you know, look, one of the things you've heard me say before that we have an unusual situation in America were surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and two allies, Mexico and Canada. And the last thing we need to do is begin to screw up those relationships.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: And Steve?
CONTORNO: Now, the Mexican president said that her conversations with Donald Trump -- with Joe Biden have been very, very productive and that they that the collaboration between the two accounts for a 75 percent drop in border crossings and she intends to keep those policies in place. It's not clear what could be done differently if, when President-elect Trump takes over.
QUEST: What on Earth do these leaders do? Whether it's Trudeau in Canada or Sheinbaum in Mexico -- I mean, the old line used to be, America only has one president at a time. That has just gone right into the Florida Bay and the Atlantic Ocean down in Florida.
CONTORNO: It certainly seems that way, and it's -- we've seen a surplus of foreign leaders getting in line to call Donald Trump and congratulate him for his victory and get a sense of what the relationship is going to be like after this.
[15:25:03]
And clearly, they see him as already someone who is incredibly influential and already changing world policy or U.S. policy. I think we are seeing that play out, certainly in the Middle East right now, in these peace negotiations and conversations that are taking place with Israel, Hamas and in Lebanon and certainly, the influence of Trump and the shadow of his incoming presidency can't be overstated in those conversations.
QUEST: Grateful, Steve. Thank you. Thank you very much. Happy Thanksgiving.
Now, FBI and law enforcement are investigating a wave of swatting and bomb threats targeting at least seven of the president-elect's senior cabinet appointees. Swatting its when somebody files a false crime report with the intention of having police show up at a location like the home of a political official in this case.
CNN's national security reporter Zach Cohen.
Who was targeted, who was doing the swatting and who benefits?
ZACH COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yeah, Richard, as of yesterday, at least eight members of Donald Trump's cabinet, people that he's picked to serve in these top roles in his administration, as well as several appointees who wouldn't be cabinet level, all reported receiving either a fake bomb threat or a swatting incident at their homes while they're celebrating Thanksgiving holiday with their families and look, these have become increasingly common over the last several years.
Law enforcement sources telling us that they're not surprised, frankly, that these kind of incidents occurred and were targeting high profile people that were in the news recently. That seems to be the trend as to how these targets are picked.
But look, these are done for a variety of reasons. Law enforcement say that it could be for the callers own entertainment, for they're trying to seek attention. It can involve people overseas that are using scripts. But, you know, who thinks it's not funny are the individuals who are ultimately targeted in this case, Donald Trump's pick for CIA director John Ratcliffe? People like Lee Zeldin, his EPA administrator pick Elise Stefanik his ambassador to the United Nations nominee.
So these are very high profile individuals who are getting set to take high profile jobs in the upcoming administration and they most of the ones that we know about now did not have Secret Service protection at this moment. So a bomb threat like this to their home and when their families are there is certainly concerning to them.
QUEST: That grateful. Thank you indeed. Continue to report on this. Thank you.
As the president-elect forms his cabinet and outlines the agenda, what do voters want to see coming in January?
Our own John King went all over the map talking to voters in the run up to the election, and he went back in with his soft supporters and his diehards to hear their views post-election.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
SHANEN EBERSOLE, IOWA VOTER: There's some right at the gate right now.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shanen Ebersole loves her land and her cows rain or shine.
EBERSOLE: Sometimes if you want to play cowboy, you got to do cowboy things like standing in the rain.
KING: Her vote for Donald Trump, a vote to protect her way of life.
EBERSOLE: The vast majority of people who voted for Trump are not the far-right crazies. That is not who we are. We're simple Americans who want to live our lives and do our jobs and make our own choices in our own homes, and we want that for our neighbors who feel differently than us, too.
KING: You have to be an optimist to run a family cattle ranch. And Ebersole says she hopes Trump sees his mandate as the economy and the border. Hopes he understands a lot of his voters didn't like all that campaign talk about the enemy within and retribution.
EBERSOLE: We have spoken. We are not letting him be a bully, but we want him to stand firm.
KING: She is more bullish about Trump now than when we first met. Back then, Trump had competition in the Iowa caucuses, and Ebersole wanted a Republican who could be both president and role model.
EBERSOLE: He didn't bring us together because of the divisiveness, because of my liberal friends that were literally scared for their safety. KING: But when Trump rolled to the nomination, Ebersole's choice was easy because of Biden-Harris farm and climate policies. Trump won 75 percent of the vote here in rural Ringgold County.
EBERSOLE: We felt as though Washington and the far edges of our country were governing the rest of Middle America.
BETSY SARCONE, IOWA VOTER: OK, come over here.
KING: Betsy Sarcone is another now proud Trump voter who initially wanted something very different.
So how did you get from I can't take it, I'll vote for Biden to --
SARCONE: Yes.
KING: -- I'm going to vote for Donald Trump and I'm actually relieved and happy about it?
SARCONE: I think I've come to the conclusion that I don't love Donald Trump as a person. But I do think that he is right for the country right now and that he is going to chart a different course than we're currently on.
KING: Sarcone lives in the Des Moines suburbs, says her real estate business is slow, and she hopes Trump somehow helps. Lower grocery prices also high on her wish list.
SARCONE: I'm a mom, single mom, of three kids. So that does make a huge difference in my life.
[15:30:02]
KING: Sarcone finds some of Trump's cabinet picks disappointing, but she frames it this way. She could not support Vice President Harris, so now she thinks she has to be patient with a president-elect whose calling card is unpredictable.
SARCONE: The Kristi Noem, the Matt Gaetz, I'm not necessarily excited about it. I'm worried. I wouldn't say I'm worried. I voted for change as did the majority of the people, and that's what we're going to get. So I don't think worrying about it every day is going to do me any good.
KING: That Trump won the majority of the vote emboldens his most fervent supporters. People like Chris Mudd.
CHRIS MUDD, IOWA VOTER: And I think it's important that we round up every illegal and ship them out, and we have to come -- we have to figure out a way to get them back to work. I do believe that we do need immigration. A country needs immigration, it just needs to be legal.
KING: What would you say to Democrats who say that they are literally fearful? That they think that mass deportations are mean spirited or they think his ads about, you know, transgender Americans were mean? What would you say to them?
MUDD: I would say get over it. You know, there's -- I don't believe that there's anything to be scared of.
KING: Mudd owns Midwest Solar, a startup that benefited from Biden clean energy incentives. His vote for Trump could hurt his business.
MUDD: It's possible, but like I've said, since I started talking to you, I sell value. I'm selling saving money. I'm not selling the green energy side of the business, I'm selling value.
KING: Some big solar jobs require parts made in China. But again, Mudd says Trump should go full steam ahead with trade tariffs.
MUDD: Most of our stuff is tariff-free. So I want to see more products and services get built in this country. I want to see our pharmaceuticals get produced here instead of in China. I think that we need an American economy that's building things, creating things.
KING: Trump's critics call it sloganeering, but the America First thing echoes in the small cities and rural outposts where Trump ran strongest.
EBERSOLE: Why are we bringing Argentinian beef in? Why are we bringing New Zealand and Australian beef in, and then exporting some of our beef? Why don't we first just feed our beef to our Americans?
KING: Maisie (PH) helps keep the cows on track in the pastures. Tia (ph) is a show cow. So grooming is an everyday chore.
EBERSOLE: Let me live my life in the middle of nowhere, where there's more cows than there are people. DoorDash isn't a thing. Pizza delivery is not a thing. You can't even get pizza delivered.
Hey, mamas.
KING: Ebersole's hope is that Trump changes a lot in Washington and leaves her happy place just as it is.
EBERSOLE: I just stand here and watch my cows and enjoy it.
KING: John King, CNN, Kellerton, Iowa.
EBERSOLE: It's my happy place.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Wonderful stuff.
More in just a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:36:12]
QUEST: The Pentagon is unlikely to be able to spend all of the billions of dollars that have been authorized by Congress sending arms and the like to Ukraine before the end of Biden's term, according to multiple officials. It makes the future of the $7 billion package unclear with the Trump administration far more skeptical of supporting Kyiv's defense against Russian aggression.
Our correspondent there is Oren Liebermann.
All right, let's just talk about $7 billion authorized. But how much do you think they can spend between now and then?
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: At the pace they're working, we're looking at 750 million due to, let's say, $1 billion a month, two months left. You're looking at using $2 billion of it and leaving something like perhaps 5 billion on the table. Maybe they can -- they can send more of it.
But you're still leaving billions on the table. That's up to the Trump administration on how they want to handle that, if at all.
QUEST: So -- so they can't accrue. They can't put it aside. They can't put it under the sofa for the next, you know, so it's already spent and gone. If it's not spent it, it's up to the next guy?
LIEBERMANN: Effectively. Yes. And I'll point out something quickly here. It's authority. It's not like were giving a check to Ukraine. It's the authority to send us supplies that have already been paid for.
But these supplies are limited. The U.S. can't just send everything it has. It has to keep a baseline of weapons, munitions, equipment in the stockpiles. And the excess is what it's able to send. That excess is what they're looking at. And the size just isn't there to use all of it. According to the officials with whom we've spoken.
QUEST: I saw numbers overnight, Putin saying that Russia is now outperforming its missile production and armament production ten, 20 times to NATO and the E.U., U.S.
Whether -- I mean, those numbers sound exaggerated. But, Oren, the overnight attacks in Ukraine do suggest there's quite a lot of hefty military might from Russia still waiting to be used.
LIEBERMANN: Oh, absolutely. And that that production continues. And it's not just Russian military and economic might fueling this war. Iranian drones, North Korean artillery, North Korean ballistic missiles. They have those three countries Russia, North Korea, Iran have grown incredibly close.
And that has given Vladimir Putin the weaponry he needs to keep this fight going, and now it's not just weaponry. He has manpower from North Korea as well, and perhaps some other countries that are feeding this war and allow him to sustain it. And just keep the pressure not only on Ukraine but effectively on the West. And that's exactly what he wanted to see.
QUEST: Oren Liebermann at the Pentagon, grateful, sir. Thank you. As you and I continue on this Thanksgiving in the U.S., food banks
across the country are struggling to meet demand as Americans cope with the high cost of living.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:42:01]
QUEST: This Thanksgiving in the United States, the number of Americans facing food insecurity is quite extraordinary.
Struggling, of course, with grocery costs and as a result, food banks and pantries across the country offering assistance are actually seeing a greater demand than in previous years. In some cases higher than at the peak of the pandemic, which is unusual because also donations are significantly down.
Natasha Chen is with me from Los Angeles.
What these people as I see it, they are caught in the middle because the economy is getting better with lower inflation, lower unemployment but it takes time for that to pardon the pun, feed through, so you get lines up like you're seeing?
NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Richard. This is a free thanksgiving meal that's been put on by this organization in West L.A. for more than 40 years. They're expecting 2,400 people here today. And they did see more people start to line up today than they saw last year.
We're seeing more people like you said, who are telling us when we go to these food banks, when we go to these charity events, that, yes inflation may be cooling down on paper, but we remember two years ago when prices spiked extraordinarily here in the U.S. and overall, since the pandemic, food prices are at least 20 percent higher than they were in 2019. And it's really hard to catch up with that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have a Happy Thanksgiving.
NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is not video from the pandemic. This is a line this week of people waiting to receive food at a church in time for Thanksgiving.
CHRIS MERREL, FOOD PANTRY CLIENT: I have to do it. And that's the way it goes.
CHEN: Chris Merrel has been coming to this Pasadena, California, church every week for several years.
MERREL: Well, my wife won't even come because she'd be embarrassed.
CHEN: He's a retired mechanic living on less than $700 Social Security per month. He never thought he'd need help from a food bank. And he's not alone. MERREL: Never seen the line that long before. This time it was all the way up and down the street.
ANA DURAN, FOOD INSECURE: Lines are getting crazier.
CHEN: We first met Ana Duran two years ago when her home in Riverside, California, saw inflation at almost 10 percent. Even though inflation has cooled now to about 2 percent -
DURAN: Where I have to get up at least, you know, like I said before, six - to be there by six.
CHEN: Duran still goes to weekly food distributions. Two years ago, she told us she was turning in recycling and selling jewelry for extra cash while working as a part-time caregiver. She's continued to do that, selling what little jewelry she has left.
DURAN: I only have like two or three more pieces that I have for - as a backup resource.
CHEN: The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank says they're tracking about 10 percent ahead in the amount of food distributed compared to last year. They're serving 900,000 people a month right now, near pandemic levels.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We can't turn nobody away.
CHEN: In New York City.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some days you don't know where your next meal is coming from.
[15:45:02]
CHEN: City Harvest says visits to city food pantries and soup kitchens are at the highest level on record. Even higher than the pandemic's peak.
In Chicago, Common Pantry says they're serving 26 percent more households per month than last year.
Across the country, 85 percent of food banks in a Feeding America survey reported similar or higher demand for food assistance comparing this August with last August.
CHEN: Why do you think that is when inflation has actually cooled quite a bit?
MICHAEL FLOOD, CEO OF LOS ANGELES REGIONAL FOOD BANK: I think what we're seeing here in Los Angeles is the cumulative impact of inflation. Food prices are about 25 percent higher than they were pre- pandemic.
Now the unemployment rate has come down. We would expect the demand for food assistance to decrease. But that's not what has happened. CHEN: This comes as donations to food banks are also dropping. Ana Duran says something has got to change, which is why she cast a ballot for Trump, the first Republican she's ever voted for in her life.
DURAN: When it came down to, you know, voting, I changed who I was and I changed - I'm hoping for the better.
CHEN: But Trump is exactly what Merrel is worried about.
MERREL: I am definitely worried it's going to get worse with the tariffs that Trump is putting on everybody.
CHEN: He thinks prices will jump and more people will find themselves going to food banks. But the fact that the food banks even exist makes him feel grateful.
MERREL: This is a beautiful country that we live in. It's a Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Natasha, it's fascinating because when I watch your report, you know, I cover business on a daily basis but your report is the real life effect of inflation and employment economics, tariffs and it is startling that these food banks still have so much demand and lower donations yes.
CHEN: And lower donations for a few reasons. Right because during the pandemic, I think a lot of people felt that we all needed to be generous. It was a tough time. And now, because we've experienced this inflation over time, people who might have given before might be tightening their belts at home too. So, not as -- and not as many donations and then think about the operating costs for these charities, these food banks are spending more just to do the same thing.
And so that's why they told me to use this opportunity to remind people that a financial contribution to their organizations is the most helpful thing, right now, if you're able to and if you're not, then they could always use volunteer help.
QUEST: Natasha, I'm grateful. Thank you for bringing us that story from Los Angeles.
And of course, wherever you are in the world, there will be an equivalent of to where Natasha is, where you'll be able to donate and to assist. Thank you.
As you and I continue, devastated by fire five years ago. Please join me, I'm going to take you around Notre Dame in Paris the restoration of this phenomenally beautiful, historic cathedral.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:50:38] QUEST: Devastated in a fire that took place five years ago now in devastated in a fire that took place five years ago now in Paris, Notre Dame is making an historic and awe inspiring comeback.
Tomorrow, President Macron will tour the cathedral ahead of its public reopening next weekend. He said it would be done in five years, and five years, it's been done.
I got a chance to take an insiders tour of this breathtaking, beautiful restoration.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Oh my God, look at the scaffolding.
We actually will come through.
"Zut alors" as they say. Did you have to put the roof part?
(PHILIPPE JOST speaking in foreign language.)
TRANSLATION: The oak structure known as "La Forest" burned to the ground. It is now rebuilt.
WE searched for thousands of oak trees in the forests of France.
QUEST: How much technical skill had to go into it?
(PHILIPPE JOST speaking in foreign language.)
TRANSLATION: We had to find extraordinary skills and expertise, but we found them.
Because in France, we have a very extensive heritage, which we maintain. So you have carpenters, stonemasons, sculptors and these people work on all the monuments.
PHILIPPE JOST, PRESIDENT, REBUILDING NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS: In France, we didn't build such spire since 160 years.
QUEST: More people come to Notre Dame than the Eiffel Tower.
JOST: Notre Dame has a spirit that we don't find in -- it doesn't find in the monument as Eiffel Tower.
QUEST: All aboard.
JOST: Logistic is very important here.
QUEST: So two logistics.
JOST: We have 2,250 companies and artists and 140 contracts.
QUEST: I've always been fascinated by logistics. People think it's boring, but it's logistics that make the whole thing work. I think what really gets you when you see it is the size and scale, and the fact that it's been done in what -- four years. It is an achievement to have done this and it will be the best part of a billion dollars.
As I understand it, none of the glass was actually broken. Is that correct?
JOST: None of the lights, correct. It is correct. We have a lot of luck because all big artistic works here were not damaged by the fire.
QUEST: Yes.
JOST: Here we are just under the spire. You see? And to rebuild the spire, we had to build the scaffold which goes through the vault.
QUEST: What percentage of completion do you think you are at now?
JOST: I think we are 85 or 90.
QUEST: Wow.
JOST: We finished with the roof, the spire. We are all "nettoyage."
QUEST: Cleaning.
JOST: Cleaning. We have we have cleaned all the inside of these wood. We have cleaned the paintings in the chapels.
You see that vault there? That vault. It was crushed.
QUEST: That vault.
JOST: That vault there.
QUEST: Yes, yes, yes.
JOST: It was crushed.
QUEST: So, it comes down.
JOST: It's important that we cannot identify what has been rebuilt because it's with the same stones and the same type of work. We see the respect we owe to the monument.
QUEST: You and I in our lifetime have seen projects like this taking 20 years.
JOST: After the fire, a lot of people said, you will need 20 years to rebuild this Cathedral.
QUEST: Me.
(PHILIPPE JOST speaking in foreign language.)
JOST: And I said, we will do it in five years for 2024, and we are doing it.
[15:55:03]
And we do it perfectly. Perfectly.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: My goodness. Beautiful.
And it's all open next week. They are on time and on budget. Thank you for joining me. I'm very grateful for your time and attention. I'm Richard Quest.
Just a few moments more, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS". I'll be with you then.
