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Syrian Rebels Take Control Of Most Of Aleppo In Surprise Attack; Putin Threatens To Use New Ballistic Missile In Ukraine Again; "Paralyzing" Lake-Effect Snow Hits Great Lakes Region; Trump Meets Canadian PM Trudeau Amid Tariff Tensions; Trump Vows To Slap 25% Tariff On Goods From Mexico, Canada; Trump's Proposed Tariffs Could Increase Prices On Some Goods; Colorado State Opts To Play Conference Final Vs. San Jose State Amid Transgender Claims; Some Dem Lawmakers Targeted With Bomb Threats Days After Similar Threats Against Trump Cabinet Picks; Fights Erupts After OSU-Michigan Game, Pepper Spray Possibly Used. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired November 30, 2024 - 16:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:00:34]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the "CNN Newsroom" and I'm Jessica Dean in New York.

We begin this hour with major developments in the Middle East as rebel forces in Syria taking control of much of the city of Aleppo in a surprise advance. Fighters entering the city overnight for the first time since 2016, waving opposition flags and yelling God is great in Arabic.

Those rebel forces seen today patrolling the streets of Aleppo where a 24-hour curfew is now in effect.

CNN's Ben Wedeman reports for us, the surprise attack is putting pressure on President Bashar al-Assad to respond.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The facade of government power in Aleppo was poster thin.

Friday evening, rebels stomp on pictures of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Just a few days ago, they were far away from Syria's second city. Now they control some of Aleppo's most iconic landmarks, like the vast central Saadallah al-Jabiri Square and the city's ancient Citadel.

Eight years ago, opponents of the Damascus regime left Aleppo in defeat, bust out to nearby rebel-held Idlib province. Now they're back after a lightning offensive.

Ali Jumaa fled his native Aleppo eight years ago. It's an indescribable feeling, he says, to return to your land, your city, the place where you were raised. Syrian government ground forces haven't put up much of a fight. Residents report seeing them leave several areas.

The Defense Ministry in Damascus issued a statement saying troops had conducted a, quote, strategic redeployment aimed at reinforcing defensive lines. In other words, they retreated.

Russian forces are hitting back, conducting airstrikes on both Aleppo and nearby Idlib province, a stronghold for the anti-regime coalition. A major component of that coalition, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, is an offshoot of al-Qaeda but has distanced itself in recent years.

Russia came to the rescue of the Syrian government in 2015, but diverted some of its resources to the war in Ukraine. Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon fought alongside the regime during the civil war's darkest days. Most returned home to join the war against Israel, opening the way for the rebel offensive.

We participated in the operation to liberate Aleppo, to kick out the militias of Iran and Hezbollah, to lift the oppression from our brothers in Aleppo, says rebel fighter Muhammad Hammadi, and we're going to clear all of Syria, God willing.

A brutal war, stalemated in recent years, rages again.

WEDEMAN: The rebels are now in control of Aleppo's international airport and claim to be gaining ground north of the city of Hama, which is the next major urban center south of Aleppo on the road to Damascus. The pressure on the regime of Bashar al-Assad is mounting dramatically.

Jessica?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: All right. Ben Wedeman reporting for us there. Thank you so much.

And joining us now to talk more about this former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, William Taylor, and CNN military analyst, retired U.S. Air Force Col. Cedric Leighton.

Good to have both of you here. Thanks for being here.

WILLIAM TAYLOR, FMR U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: Thank you, Jessica.

CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST (on-camera): You bet Jessica.

DEAN: Yes. Col. Leighton, let's start first with you. This advance by the rebel forces seems to have been met with little resistance by the Syrian army. We heard there in Ben's report both Russian and Hezbollah forces have aided al-Assad in the past.

So I'm curious, militarily, do you think his regime is now in a weakened state to respond because those two groups have a lot going on with their own in their own situation? LEIGHTON (on-camera): Yes, they certainly do, Jessica. And yes, I think the Assad regime is incredibly weakened right now. And what you see is one of these classic moves in the Middle East and especially in the Arab world, where all of a sudden, out of seemingly nowhere, you have a group like this Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham that is actually going in and moving very quickly. They're advancing at an incredible rate.

And if they do actually reach Hama, as Ben Wedeman has mentioned (ph) -- they may have already reached the outskirts, according to some reports. That could spell a real challenge for the Assad regime, could potentially result in its toppling, but we'll see what happens in the next juncture here.

[16:05:13]

DEAN: Yes, and we know that Russia's foreign minister has already made calls to several counterparts in the region.

Ambassador Taylor, I'm hoping you can help us kind of understand all the dynamics at play here.

TAYLOR: Well, the dynamics are that the Russians are now overstretched. As Ben reported, the Russians back in 2015 sent a lot of airstrikes. They're doing a little bit more today, but since then they've invaded Ukraine.

And that -- and they've got their hands full. They got their hands full with the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians have been fighting now for 1,011 days, and the Russians are stretched for those 1,011 days. And now they've got a new challenge. Now they've got to go back to Syria with reduced effort. They got reduced aircraft, reduced focus, reduced energy. Now they are on their back foot because of the Ukrainians.

So, yes, Lavrov is looking for support.

DEAN: And just it's interesting, too, because we know Iran's foreign minister has even tried to pin the blame on America, calling the attack a U.S.-Israeli plan to destabilize the region. Clearly Iran is trying to control this narrative in some way.

TAYLOR: Exactly right. Exactly right. And the Iranians are in a bind. The Russians are in a bind, as I said.

And as Col. Leighton just said, the Syrians now are looking at the possibility of bad news for them as well.

DEAN: And Col. Leighton, Ukraine endured its highest ever number of drone attacks this month. That's according to figures from the country's Air Force Command. We've reported on this. And now Putin is threatening again to use this new ballistic missile.

I'm curious what more you know about this and if it is a cause for concern.

LEIGHTON (on-camera): Well, the Oreshnik missile, the new ballistic missile that you're referring to, Jessica, is definitely a cause for concern. It's so far been designated as an intermediate range missile. So, what does that mean in concrete terms? That means that it has a range of about, at the maxim about 3,500 or so miles. And that does put at risk a large portion of Western Europe if the missile is launched from the Western parts of Russia.

So, if the Russians have enough of these Oreshnik missiles in their inventory, it can put a large part not only of Ukraine at risk, but also a large part of NATO. And that is definitely something that we have to pay attention to. It's both nuclear capable as well as conventional capable in terms of its warheads. It has multiple warheads and it is an extremely dangerous weapon.

DEAN: And Ambassador Taylor, Putin said he can use this weapon in response to Ukraine's use of long-range weapons into Russia, specifically, of course, the Britain and the U.S. The French now have also relaxed these restrictions they'd previously had on these long- range weapons.

And we heard Col. Leighton kind of laying it out there. It does sound like this is an -- it is an escalation that could potentially be a major threat to NATO countries were it to continue down this road.

TAYLOR: Jessica, I'm not sure it's a threat to NATO countries. Of course, we know that the Russians can reach NATO countries. The question is not whether they can reach them. The question is, will they attack NATO nations? And the answer so far is no, because NATO is much stronger than Russia. The Russians are deterred from attacking NATO.

They've got the weapons. They know that we have the capability, nuclear and otherwise, to stop them and to and to make them pay for any attack.

So, this is a new weapon or a modified old weapon that they're now hyping. But it doesn't give them any more likelihood. There's no greater likelihood that they'll shoot against NATO than before. It's just a new -- a new -- a new weapon that they've got to be able to threaten.

DEAN: And I'm curious, Ambassador Taylor, just in terms of the fact that we're about to have a new president in the United States, we're going to -- it's going to be a big change in terms of foreign policy. How does that play into all of this or how might it play in to all of this?

TAYLOR: The Ukrainians, Jessica, are very interested in that question. Everybody is looking to see what is going to be the policy of the new administration. And we don't know yet. We now know some of the players. We know some of the players that will be in the new administration, and they have been pretty strong in support of Ukraine in the past. We'll see if that continues. But that is something that the Ukrainians are watching very carefully.

They know that they need the support of the United States. There's no doubt about it. And so, they are hoping that they can count on that in the future. DEAN: Yes. And Col. Leighton, just want to give you kind of your final thought on that topic as well.

LEIGHTON (on-camera): Yes, I think that when it comes to the possibilities, Ambassador Taylor is exactly right. First of all, when it comes to the missile, I don't think the Russians will employ it against NATO, but the capability exists in terms of the technical capabilities of that missile. So, we have to make that distinction.

[16:10:20]

As far as the Trump administration, the incoming Trump administration is concerned, yes, they now have an opportunity to bring people to the negotiating table, and if they do this in the right way and protect Ukraine's sovereignty, that will be a major milestone in this conflict. It won't probably end that conflict, but it will at least put it on a footing where we kind of know what to expect, and if that's the case, then we can perhaps stabilize the security situation in Europe a bit, but that's definitely a long way off at this point.

DEAN: And just so many moving pieces.

All right, Ambassador William Taylor and Col. Cedric Leighton, my thanks to both of you. I appreciate it.

TAYLOR: Thank you, Jessica.

LEIGHTON (on-camera): You bet, Jessica.

DEAN: In New York and Pennsylvania, they're trading in Turkey and stuffing for shovels and salt. We're going to see more than three feet of snow where it's already fallen in some places.

Plus, after President-elect Trump threatens Canada with tariffs, that country's prime minister headed to Mar-a-Lago for a face-to-face dinner. We'll tell you what President Trump is saying about that meeting.

That's coming up.

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[16:16:04]

DEAN: Brutal winter weather is impacting a huge portion of the U. S. this Thanksgiving weekend. Lake-Effect snow is leaving travelers stranded in parts of the Great Lakes region with the worst still to come.

Pennsylvania's Governor Josh Shapiro issuing a disaster declaration to mobilize the Pennsylvania National Guard after heavy snowfall shut down several highways. Nearly 2 million people are under snow warnings through early Monday.

Plus, we have a bone chilling blast of arctic air that's bringing below freezing temperatures from North Dakota all the way to the Gulf Coast.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar has the latest for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Heavy bands of lake effect snow have been going off and on throughout the day today and are expected to continue as we go through the day Sunday. Not just across portions of Michigan, but also Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York.

And it's specifically portions of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario where we're likely to see some of the heaviest snow bands come through in the next 24 to 36 hours. But we also have a separate system that's bringing some snowfall. This is going to stretch right there along Interstate 70 that runs through St. Louis and continues eastward into Southern Indiana, portions of Kentucky as well as West Virginia.

Now, snowfall totals there are not expected to be quite as much. Most of these areas looking at about two to five inches total, whereas farther to the north now we're going to be measuring it in feet. In total, we're looking at possibly four to six feet of snow across portions of the northeast right there along the Great Lakes.

Now that's the total that does not -- will count everything that started on Friday all the way through today and continuing into the day on Sunday. Again, some pretty substantial amounts here. It's been causing traffic problems up and down Interstate I-90 stretching from Buffalo back through Cleveland in portions of Interstate 81, near Watertown as well, and that could continue through the evening hours tonight and as well into Sunday especially as those bands get thicker and heavier as they continue through the day.

Another concern is going to be the Buffalo Bills game that takes place on Sunday night. Not only do they have all the snow that's already fallen and will continue to fall, but then the snow that's going to fall during the game itself, it could be coming down quite heavy at times. Those temperatures kind of hovering right at or below the freezing mark for much of the game, but place that's going to be cold, in fact 70 percent of the U. S. population is looking at temperatures at or below freezing at s next several days.

And it goes pretty far south too. This isn't just a problem for northern cities, Atlanta, Dallas, all looking at those temperatures well below where they normally would be this time of year and they're going to stay there for quite some time.

Look at New York City, every single one of the next seven days is expected to be below 49 degrees which is where they normally would be this time of year.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: All right. Allison Chinchar, thanks for that update.

The leaders of both Mexico and Canada are fighting back at threats of tariffs by President-elect Trump. We'll talk more about that. You're in the "CNN Newsroom."

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[16:23:21]

DEAN: It has been a busy holiday week at Mar-a-Lago. The President- elect hosting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at his Florida resort last night as Trump threatens to charge 25 percent tariffs on goods from America's next-door neighbor and largest trading partner.

CNN's Alayna Treene is live outside Mar-a-Lago. She's in West Palm Beach, Florida with more details on this crucial meeting between the two leaders.

Alayna, I think most people just want to know what the key takeaways were from this meeting.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER (on-camera): Yes, well, we heard from both the prime minister of Canada as well as Donald Trump -- Trump just earlier today posted about the meeting. I'm going to read some of it for you, Jessica. He said, quote, I just had a very productive meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada where we discussed many important topics that will require both countries to work together to address. Like the fentanyl and drug crisis that has decimated so many lives as a result of illegal immigration. Fair trade deals that do not jeopardize American workers and the massive trade deficit that the U.S. has with Canada. He also said that they talked about energy and the Arctic and some other topics.

But look the reason I wanted to highlight what Donald Trump said is because this is exactly what has been fueling some of his threats to impose tariffs, not just on Canada, but also on Mexico. He has been saying behind closed doors and publicly that he believes that these leaders in Mexico and Canada, the U.S. -- United States neighbors need to crack down on drugs flowing over the border on crime and over migrants coming into the United States.

Now, what's really interesting is that we actually heard Justin Trudeau yesterday, hours before he had flown to Florida to meet with Donald Trump for that dinner. He addressed this and he essentially said that, you know, he's worked with Donald Trump before, and when he says things like this, including this massive threat to raise a -- a massive hike in tariffs on goods coming in from the country, that you have to take them seriously.

[16:25:11]

I want you to listen to how he put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: One of the things that is really important to understand is that, you know, Donald Trump when he makes statements like that he plans on carrying them out. There's no question about it. Our responsibility is to point out that in this way, he would be actually not just harming Canadians who -- who -- who work so well with the United States, he'd actually be raising prices for American citizens as well and hurting American industry and businesses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE (on-camera): Now, Jessica, we also heard from Trudeau following the meeting this morning our own CNN's Kit Maher caught up with Trudeau, asked him how the dinner went. He said they had an excellent conversation. And then he also posted on X saying that he looks forward to working together with Donald Trump moving forward.

All to say, to put this into context, this was a very important moment. Not only was Trudeau the first person -- the first leader, I should say, of the G7 to meet with Donald Trump since the November 5th election, but also their relationship is going to be so crucial moving forward, given what Donald Trump has said and the emphasis he has really put on trade and his willingness to really have a heavy hand when it comes to tariffs.

I think that's why you saw him personally come down to Mar-a-Lago to meet with him. We know that he also spoke with Donald Trump over the phone earlier in this week, just shortly after Donald Trump had issued that terror threat.

And what's also interesting as well is that it's not just Trudeau who's doing this. We also saw earlier this week, Donald Trump and the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum speak with Donald Trump over the phone. However, that conversation, they actually took away two different things from that. We know that Donald Trump had said they had a great conversation and that essentially Mexico's leader had promised to effectively close down the southern border. She responded by saying that wasn't true.

And has also said that if Donald Trump were to move forward with his threat to put a 25 percent tariff on goods coming from Mexico, that the country would respond with their own tariffs themselves.

All to say again, that both of these countries and their leaders, I think, are trying to reach out to Donald Trump and work with him and see what they can do to potentially stop what he has said would be a massive change to their economies as well as the U.S. economy.

DEAN: Yes, no doubt about.

All right, Alayna Treene for us in West Palm Beach, thank you so much for your reporting there.

And take a listen to now President-elect Trump on the campaign trail earlier this year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT-ELECT OF UNITED STATES: So, when I win, I will immediately bring prices down starting on day one, we will end Kamala's war on American energy and we will drill baby drill. (END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Trump there promising to lower prices for everything from energy to insurance to groceries if he got a second term in the White House, which of course now he has.

Joining us now is CNN economics and political commentator, Catherine Rampell.

Catherine, good to see you. Thanks for being here.

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR (on-camera): Great to join you.

DEAN: Yes, you've argued that Trump's promise to slap these tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada, China, may break that promise that he made to lower prices and instead lead to higher prices for Americans. That's something that that Trudeau alluded to there in that clip that Alayna played as well.

RAMPELL (on-camera): Yes, it's not just myself who's been warning about this. Virtually every economist you consult will say, you know, that these tariffs will raise the cost of these goods. In fact, we saw it last time Trump wage trade wars against these and many other countries. A bunch of studies have looked at who bore the cost of those price increases. You know, was it the foreign countries as Trump alleged? Was it the domestic importers or their downstream purchasers, wholesalers, retailers, U.S. consumers, and either most or the entirety of the cost of those tariffs in those cases was born by Americans?

I think we should expect very much the same thing here, whether we're talking about a lot of the produce that we get from Mexico in particular, you know, the groceries that -- that Trump said that he would bring down the price of those are going to get more expensive. Gas prices, automobiles, lots of consumer goods, housing for that matter, since a lot of inputs to housing like lumber and cement that comes from Canada, all of these things are likely to get more expensive.

DEAN: Yes, and I'm curious. I know this is a little bit of a political question, but there's -- there's just kind of this theory and, and plenty of people have said it, a lot of Republicans that Trump's just negotiating here. He doesn't really want to do this, but he's just using this to get what he can from Mexico and Canada, China.

What do you make of that kind of thought around all of this?

RAMPELL (on-camera): I mean, that may well be the case, but the question is what concessions is he's trying to extract from them because remember the current -- the current trade deal that we have with Mexico and with Canada was one that Trump himself negotiated just a few years ago.

[16:30:09]

And at the time, he hailed it as the best trade deal that -- that the United States had ever struck. And now, of course, it's trash.

It's not even clear again what additional demands he has from these countries. He's talked, obviously, about fentanyl. Canada has very little to do with fentanyl.

He's talked about immigration. The Mexican government has actually dramatically stepped up its investment of resources in stopping immigrants from coming across its own southern border or trekking from the south of Mexico to our border.

That's why you've seen unlawful border crossings, illegal border crossings into the United States dropped by like 75 percent in the past year.

So the question is, if this is just you know, a negotiating tactic, a shakedown, what is he really hoping to get as a result of it? And I don't think we have a great answer.

Right now, it looks like it's mostly going to hurt Americans. It will obviously hurt these other countries as well. But for what purpose, I don't know.

DEAN: That's interesting.

And so what kind of -- what kind of pushback or bargaining power might Mexico and Canada have in this situation?

Obviously, he's spoken with those two leaders. It speaks volumes that Trudeau flew to Mar-a-Lago and sat down to dinner with him, trying to kind of head off any of this.

What kind of bargaining chips do they have here?

RAMPELL: Canada and Mexico are our number-one and number-two biggest customers for American exporters. They buy -- you know, Mexico buys lots of, you know, electrical equipment. They buy some -- some agricultural products. They buy pork, for example.

Canada buys a lot of things from us as well. The oil industry, oil and petroleum industry crosses borders in both directions, whether we're talking about crude products or refined products.

So in in all of those cases, these countries actually have a fair amount of leverage to hit back. Again, it'll hurt them, too, just as it will hurt us.

But we saw this last time, again, when Trump waged trade wars before, particularly tariffs on steel and aluminum from -- from these two countries, Mexico and Canada. They hit back with their own form of retaliation.

Which, in my view, was much more surgically targeted than the kinds of tariffs that Trump has -- has proposed in this case. So, like, for example, both Mexico and Canada last time around targeted American whiskeys, a politically important sector, as it turns out here in the United States. Also, things like orange juice, potatoes from Idaho, lots of other

products that are concentrated in Republican areas.

So I think you would expect the same kind of retaliation again. And again, if that happens, then the U.S. companies that make those products would hurt as well.

DEAN: That's interesting.

And then just quickly, before I let you go, how soon if these go into effect, how soon will Americans start feeling those price hikes?

RAMPELL: I think you wouldn't see it immediately. Companies already have a lot of inventory piled up. And, in fact, many of them have been pulling forward orders from abroad, whether it's Mexico, Canada, China, anywhere else, because of the concern of those tariffs.

So they have -- they still have stuff to sell. But, you know, within, let's say, a few months, a year of the tariffs going into effect, you're going to see these companies, you know, facing real strain and having to raise prices because they themselves are paying higher prices for the goods that they buy.

DEAN: All right Catherine Rampell, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

RAMPELL: Thank you.

[16:33:44]

DEAN: After a season filled with forfeitures and lawsuits, the San Jose State women's volleyball team looks to take home it's conference championship. But it's not going to be easy. We're going to explain it here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[16:38:35]

DEAN: The San Jose State University volleyball team, at the center of a controversy over transgender athletes, will play for the Mountain West Conference title next hour.

San Jose State cruising to the final after several teams forfeited games over unconfirmed claims that a San Jose State player is transgender. But Colorado State is not forfeiting and will meet for the championship today.

Their coach, Emily Cohen, called the ongoing controversy a really complex and emotional situation.

CNN's Camila Bernal has been following this story.

Camilla, fill us in on what's going on here.

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So the game starts in about 20 minutes, Jess, and Colorado State will play San Jose State. The problem here is that San Jose State did not even play their

semifinal game. And that's because they were set to play against Boise State. And Boise State decided to boycott the game.

It was actually not the first time that they refused to play against San Jose. They had done so in two other games during the regular season. And so this, of course, a huge controversy.

There's a total of six victories that San Jose State has because of teams that refused to play against them.

And this all started really in April when a conservative news outlet published online the identity of the player in question and referred to her as a transgender student.

And so, of course, after this comes out, a lot of the players and other teams were questioning whether she should be allowed to play in this championship.

[16:40:05]

Keep in mind, this is a player that had been on the team since 2022. She had three different college volleyball participations, the last two with San Jose State.

But because of this news article, not only were teams not wanting to play against San Jose State, but one of her teammates, the co-captain, actually decided to take action to prevent her from playing in these competitions and so filed a lawsuit in order to stop her from playing.

So of course, this grew into a much, much bigger controversy, Jess?

DEAN: Yes. And, Camila, where does the case stand legally? And then I think, two, like, what might the ramifications be across other college sports? Do we know yet?

BERNAL: I mean, it probably will have a lot of ramifications among other sports. Every sport seems to have different rules. And even different championships have different rules. So we'll see what this tournament does for other sports.

In terms of the lawsuit, though, the co-captain of the team, her name is Brooke Slusser, she filed this lawsuit, along with other athletes, and saying it wasn't fair for them to play together and said that having a transgender player on the team puts others at risk. That's what her lawsuit said.

But a federal judge in Denver did not agree and allowed to play -- allowed this player in question to play in the tournament. Then an appeals court, a federal appeals court also upholding that decision.

The question here is, will they win tonight? Because if they do, they're going to have a place in the 64 team NCAA tournament. And that is going to be an even bigger stage for this controversy -- Jess?

DEAN: All right. Camila Bernal, reporting for us, thank you so much for that.

A series of bomb threats targeting both parties, including Democratic lawmakers and some of the people Trump wants to nominate to put in his cabinet. We're going to talk more about that.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:46:36]

DEAN: While home for Thanksgiving, several Democratic lawmakers were targeted with bomb threats and swatting incidents. Lawmakers in Connecticut and other states were threatened. Fortunately, police found no evidence of explosives at their homes.

And this is just days after reports of several of President-Elect Trump's cabinet picks were threatened.

Joining us now, CNN senior national security analyst, Juliette Kayyem.

Juliette, good to have you here with us.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Thanks for having me.

DEAN: I just, first, want to get your thoughts on what you're reading into what we know about these threats so far. Again, happening to Republicans and Democrats.

KAYYEM: Yes. So, I mean, it's obviously part of a larger phenomenon in this country of violence being sort of an extension of our politics now.

And it's uncontrollable. In other words, it's now targeted against Republicans, who are nominees for cabinet positions, as well as -- as Democrats.

We don't know the motivation of the people doing it. We can assume. But we haven't heard much from the FBI.

And I think they are very different. I mean, the cabinet nominees who we're targeted, in particular secretary of defense nominee, Hegseth, who's -- who's controversial in in his own right, they're in a weird position now because they are quite public, they're quite controversial.

But they don't have the protections of being a cabinet secretary. So they're quite vulnerable. A lot of them do not consider themselves public figures. So their -- their names are listed, their addresses are listed.

Connecticut's a little bit different because a lot of those names you and I had never heard of before -- I mean, these are people who are sort of local politicians, people who are not in the national limelight. So I look at that one as a very targeted anti-Democrat phenomenon.

People who want to silence the Connecticut Democrats, some of them who are very, very vocal against the President-Elect.

DEAN: Yes. And just the idea that this -- this is kind of where we are in politics right now --

KAYYEM: Yes, yes.

DEAN: -- and just kind of in society, in American society where this happens in several different instances over several days of a holiday week.

KAYYEM: Yes. And I want to be careful here because you can't say someone said something and then this happened. But I mean, I've been on air with you long enough to know, you know, over the last eight years, I've been on air, you know, sort of talking and documenting this phenomenon of sort of incitement, sort of with -- with a wink and a nod.

It obviously began with the President-Elect Donald Trump. We saw that phenomenon on January 6th. We see that a little bit with Elon Musk, where he'll -- he'll sort of joke or have his sort of, you know, energized tweets or what or whatever you want to call them.

The problem is, is that there is a very small percentage of supporters who -- of these people who will not get the joke, right, and do something very unfunny.

And I think it has to come from leadership sort of tempering this down, the sort of threats on against people and viewing violence as an extension of politics, even if it's just being done online.

And the only solution now -- because I don't have much hope that this will change from -- from the leadership perspective or even when Donald Trump becomes the president again -- is for law enforcement, local and state and federal law enforcement, to aggressively investigate these.

[16:50:03]

And just -- you just have to put these -- you have to let these people know that there's consequences for this kind of behavior, even if they view it as a joke.

DEAN: Yes. And that was my other question to you, is that President Biden says the FBI is working to address the threats.

KAYYEM: Yes.

DEAN: But -- but how do you actually, you know, do exactly what you're saying, which is deter this from happening again, even if they -- even if those who perpetrated this think it's a joke?

KAYYEM: Right. So, I mean, so -- so I don't think much is going to happen in the social media space. I think that it will, as we've seen with a number of social media platforms, they'll continue to exist and incite.

So it's either communities -- and -- and this is what you're going to see over the next four years, probably, you know communities and others try to temper it on their own and try to get the temperature of this violence and this sort of permissiveness that is coming from the top to -- to try to temper it.

And then the third piece, of course, is going to be law enforcement and arresting these people.

But back to the second, look, there's a big role in this country for -- for local ingenuity, for -- for civic engagement, for -- for social norms to come back into place. And I think that's what we, all of us who don't like this, that's what we have to do.

I know, on the left, there are people who, you know, sort of, you know, want the fight. But that -- that cannot compete with a president-elect and a president. It's just different in kind. And I think we have -- we have to admit that to ourselves.

And so if everyone can temper the violence as sort of a part of our politics, we will see this go away. I mean, mostly people follow what their leaders tell them to do.

DEAN: All right. Juliette Kayyem, as always, thank you so much. We appreciate that perspective.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

DEAN: We are following some breaking news out of Columbus, Ohio, where a major scuffle between the Ohio State and Michigan football teams erupted at the end of what's known as simply "the game."

Players on both sides scraping with each other after the major upset win by Michigan and pepper spray -- pepper spray may have been used.

College football reporter for Bleacher, Morgan Moriarty, joining us now.

Morgan, what happened here?

MORGAN MORIARTY, COLLEGE FOOTBALL REPORTER, BLEACHER REPORTER: This is such a wild finish to this rivalry game that I don't think people understand just how heated Michigan and Ohio State is.

It is not one day a year. This is a 365-day rivalry. These two fanbases and teams hate each other that much.

And basically what happened, at the end of this game, Michigan upsetting Ohio State, 13 to 10. This is their fourth straight win over Ohio State.

And Michigan was a massive underdog. Instead, they go into Columbus, upset the Wolverines, drastically alter the college football playoff picture for the Buckeyes. After the game, Michigan players tried to plant their flag on Ohio

State's midfield. I mean, talk about a rivalry, that's how this game ended.

After the Michigan players attempted that, Ohio State players wanted nothing to do with that. There was a scuffle ensuing, multiple coaches and police officers on the field were trying to get these two teams separated.

A wild finish, but it just goes to show you how heated this rivalry is and how much this game really matters.

DEAN: Yes. And these reports of pepper spray, we cannot confirm that it was used as of yet. But we're looking at video while you're talking of -- of players kind of coughing. And it looked very -- it does not look like they -- they look like they're in pain.

What more do you know about that?

MORIARTY: Yes. As of right now, it does appear that police officers on the field did use pepper spray on the players. That's -- that's what we know right now. Obviously, that could change.

There probably will be some sort of statement from the police that were on the field. So I'm not really sure what -- what the latest is on that.

But that certainly is -- I mean, the videos are circulating of that throughout from this game. So that's -- that's another, you know, kind of bigger story line to this.

DEAN: No question about it.

If that turns out to be the case, using pepper spray on college athletes on a football field would -- would be quite a story. So we'll continue to monitor that.

Morgan Moriarty, of Bleacher Report, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

MORIARTY: Thank you.

DEAN: Frigid temperatures and snow measured in feet. It is making travel a mess as a lot of people try to get home after Thanksgiving.

[16:54:34]

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM and I'm Jessica Dean in New York.

Paralyzing snowfall and freezing temperatures hitting most of the U.S. this Thanksgiving weekend. Lake-effect snow is more than three feet in parts of the Great Lakes region, with the worst still to come. Pennsylvania's Governor Josh Shapiro, issuing a disaster declaration

for Erie County and mobilizing the Pennsylvania National Guard after heavy snowfall shut down several highways in that area.

[16:59:58]

Nearly two million people, now under lake-effect snow warnings through Monday.

Let's go now to CNN Meteorologist Allison Chinchar with the latest on this treacherous snowfall and bone-chilling temperatures we are seeing all across the U.S., Allison.