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Syrian Rebels Take Control Of Most Of Aleppo City; Trump Says He Will Nominate Kash Patel to Run FBI; Trump Announces Kash Pates as His Choice for FBI Director; Paralyzing Lake Effect Snow Hits Great Lakes Region. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired November 30, 2024 - 19:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:00:10]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You are in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jessica Dean in New York. And rebel forces tonight have control of most of Syria's second largest city, Aleppo. Opposition forces mounting a lightning advance, killing dozens of government soldiers in their path toward the city. The attack, ending an eight-year stalemate in a civ, has killed more than 300,000 people and sent millions fleeing across that country's borders. As CNN's Ben Wedeman reports, the surprise attack is seen as a major challenge to President Bashar al Assad.

(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, bussed 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 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 Mohammed Hammedi. 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)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

DEAN: And we have breaking news to bring you as President Donald -- President-elect Donald Trump has announced his intention to nominate Kash Patel as the next director of the FBI. Just to remind everyone, currently Chris Wray serves as the FBI director. That is typically a 10-year term. He is not at the end of that term.

So if confirmed, Kash Patel would be taking over. I'll read you what President-Elect Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social. He said, I am proud to announce that Kash Patel will serve as the next director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator and America first fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending justice and protecting the American people. He played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability and the Constitution.

Kash did a great job, an incredible job during my first term where he served as chief of staff at the Department of Defense, Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and senior director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council. It goes on to talk a little bit more about Kash Patel.

But again, the news here is that President-Elect Trump has said that he intends to nominate Kash Patel as the leader of the FBI. Of course, Patel is known for being incredibly right wing, threatening to go after journalists and others who have been deemed as going after President-Elect Trump. He's been quite incendiary in his language and this, of course, will have to be confirmed by the Senate.

[19:05:04]

I believe we have Alayna Treene with us who has been covering both the transition for the Trump campaign and also the Trump campaign itself. Alayna, are you here with us?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Yes, I am. Hi, Jessica.

DEAN: OK. So Alayna, this is our breaking news that Trump is announcing that he intends to nominate Kash Patel to head up the FBI. This had been talked about now for several weeks. And what are you learning about how this decision came to be made and what is the thinking around this decision?

TREENE: Well, a few things. First of all, I would note that Donald Trump has long wanted to replace the current FBI director, Christopher Wray. Even when he was in Donald Trump in the final weeks of his White House, his first term, he had been making plans to fire Chris Wray and replace him with someone else.

And now that he has been elected once again and is set to take the set to be sworn in on January 12th 20th, from my conversations with those around Trump and close to Trump, that was always a goal of his. The question was who would he replace him with?

Now, Kash Patel is a fierce loyalist to Donald Trump, someone who served in his first White House as well. But there's also a lot of controversy around him. There's a lot of people who are close to Donald Trump, allies of the former president, now president elect, who have said there are no concerns of having someone like Kash Patel take the helm.

And part of that is I would argue that, you know, he has a big disdain or shared disdain, I would say, for the so called deep state. And others have also argued that perhaps he could be someone who could inoculate Donald Trump from futures investigations, but also try to carry out any plans that Donald Trump would have about going after so called political enemies, declassify sensitive information and purge curil (ph) civil servants.

Now, with this decision, I will also argue that, you know, from my reporting over the last several weeks about Donald Trump, thinking about who we would want to be at the helm of the FBI. There have been questions within Donald Trump's inner circle about whether they would want someone who they believed would be more easily confirmable, maybe someone who was less of a firebrand conservative then Patel.

There had been talk previously about Mike Rogers and others maybe taking over the helm. But clearly Donald Trump is going with someone who is a fierce defender of him and a chief loyalist to him that in many ways will do what Donald Trump has been wanting, which is to have someone surround himself with people who will continue to say yes to him, who will not hold him back and will help him carry out his agenda.

DEAN: And Alayna, again, there are more steps between nominating someone and them, of course, getting confirmed and getting put into that position. But going ahead and looking ahead to the potential of Patel sitting as FBI director, as you noted, he has been quite vocal in essentially saying he believes that he should go after Trump's perceived political enemies and as you noted, has this deep skepticism of the so called deep state, this kind of idea that law enforcement and intelligence agencies, again, no evidence of this, have had this coordinated campaign against Trump.

What do you know about Trump's allies in terms, I know you mentioned they had maybe pushed someone that might be more easily confirmable, but kind of the thinking among Trump's allies about this nomination, I know it's very fresh, but just the idea of this nomination.

TREENE: Right. So when I've talked to some of Donald Trump's allies in the past, those working on the team, again, they said that Donald Trump was going to do what he wanted to do. A very clear thing that we've seen so far with one Donald Trump selecting many loyalists and some controversial figures for his Cabinet, but also with the swiftness that he moved to fill out his Cabinet, it was clear that he is making his own decisions. Unlike his first time in office when he was new to Washington, D.C., new to politics, he relied on a lot of the people he surrounded himself with to help him make these decisions.

Donald Trump now, and partly because of the way that he performed in the election, has felt emboldened. This is the way it has been described to me by those around him, those working on the transition, emboldened to really put his own imprint on who would be in office and serving beside him.

And I think that's where this comes down to. Kash Patel is someone you've seen, I've seen him a lot of the rallies and on the campaign trail in the lead up to the election in November. But then also someone who has remained very loyal to Donald Trump even after many people had distanced themselves from him in the aftermath of him leaving the White House in January of 2021 and after the January 6th Capitol attack. He's someone who stayed by his side.

That has been a clear thing that we've seen with many other of the people Donald Trump has selected to serve in his Cabinet and in top roles in a new term.

[19:10:05]

That is where I think a lot of this comes down to. Now, again, just to go back to some of the controversy around Kash Patel, I think what's unclear is how he would lead the Federal Bureau of Investigations, how he would lead the FBI. There has been skepticism in a lot of the conversations I've had with other top Republicans about potentially what he would do.

To your question of whether he would carry out any signs of retribution that Donald Trump wants still very early. I haven't seen reaction yet from some of his top allies after he had just announced this post, but I'm sure were going to see some statements coming out, some probably, you know, applauding Donald Trump on this, but some saving that and probably having some of that deep skepticism behind closed doors. Jessica?

DEAN: All right, Alayna, stay with us. I want to go to Juliette Kayyem, who is here with us as well, of course, a national security analyst for us, someone who understands the role of law enforcement and how all of this works. Juliette, first, I just want to get your reaction to this breaking news that President-Elect Trump intends to nominate Kash Patel to serve as the FBI director.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I mean, first of all, just we should note how everything has changed because of Donald Trump firing Comey, that we're now at a stage in which the FBI director, who's not supposed to serve at the whims of whatever president comes in, we sort of just Trump sort of views that as a given. It is viewed as his appointment.

So whatever is happening in terms of who he chooses, the fact that this is even a seat that we're talking about shows how much Trump is planning on putting his people in. And now this gets to Patel there is no one less, I mean, there's a lot of people less qualified to run the FBI. There is no one that -- the only reason why Trump would have done this pick is for his retribution campaign.

There is almost no other reason to explain this. And I know that we have to say, you know, in terms of reporting, well, we'll see what others say or we'll see what the Republicans do. But everyone who has follow this president-elect and who he wants to put in knows that this particular position and this particular person is being chosen for what is essentially the retribution campaign.

And that means a couple of things. It will mean the lack it's not just who they go after. Let's start with who they don't go after. The lack of enforcement against people who might use violence, who might do things, illegal, hate crimes otherwise, in the name of Donald Trump is likely to occur.

In other words, the decision not to prosecute under federal crimes is one that the FBI will be part of in terms of where they put their investigatory resources.

More importantly, of course, is the people presently in the DOJ who are looking to see whether Trump is going to go after them can assume that the FBI will start investigations, including his President Biden's own family members. But the president-elect has also talked about looking at the 2020 campaign. He seems still believe that he won, that will be something that will be looked at.

So there's almost no other explanation that is rational. It's not political. It's just the way you look at this is we need to believe the president-elect in terms of what he's doing. We don't have to look for another reason. He wants his person, who is on a sort of burn it up tour, to lead the FBI. And no rational person would look at this nomination and view it otherwise.

DEAN: And Juliette, I just want to read. This is a transcript from what Kash Patel said earlier. Just a little bit ago, a few weeks ago, he was saying he was on Steve Bannon's podcast and he said, we will -- I think we can play it, actually, we have it. Let's listen to it. That's better than me reading it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KASH PATEL, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO THE UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government, but in the media. Yes, we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens since, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We're going to come after you whether it's criminal or civilly. We'll figure that out. But, yes, we're putting you all on notice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYYEM: Yes.

DEAN: Now, Juliette, in terms of, again, as I said with Alayna, you have to be Senate confirmed. There are steps between now and him becoming the director. However, if he were to be the director, what kind of levers can he pull? And how much power do you have as the director of the FBI to execute a plan like that?

[19:15:00]

KAYYEM: Well, I mean, just look at Herbert Hoover. I mean, it was a tremendous amount of investigatory powers. There are laws to check this. But you can go after your political enemies, as Hoover did, against the civil rights movement. You can try to get wiretaps or whatever else based on investigations against your alleged political enemies or even the media.

Look, we have a lot of checks in place now, right, in terms of what the FBI can lawfully do. Those checks will not work against an FBI director who is essentially hell bent on what we just heard him say on the podcast to go after the political enemies of the president. So basically, what's happening now, just to remind people what the FBI generally does, right? It's federal crimes. It is everything as, you know, boring cases, like, I don't mean that, but, you know, antitrust, civil cases that are, you know, about regulations and finances all the way to hate crimes, and then, of course, to national security issues.

All of those require resources and focus by the director of the FBI. The FBI chooses where to put those resources and also can choose where and how to begin investigations. People who are the target of that, who might look around and be nervous, people are the target of that certainly can either bring lawsuit against the FBI or defend themselves in court. Should the wiretap, should the investigation be viewed as illegal? But what you're talking about now is a lot of resources that are being used for two purposes.

One is the political purposes of sort of protecting the president from the Democratic criticism, and I mean, not capital D, I mean, the criticism that any president ought to expect to face if they are president of a democracy, as well as going backwards to 2020 and to January 6th and whatever else that he wants to do to go after political enemies. There's just no other way. There's no spin. There's no, oh, he's qualified or whatever.

This one is solely for the purposes of the, you know, the sort of redemption tour of the president elect.

DEAN: All right, Juliette, stay with us. I want to go to Evan Perez, CNN senior justice correspondent, who is here with us. Evan, look, this news just breaking tonight that Trump is intending to nominate him. However, this had been a talk. This had been the talk for a little bit. And I'm curious, what you had heard was kind of percolating from people you were talking to within the justice community. And what you think, how you think this could, you know, go forward and what might happen.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well -- this has been, as you pointed out, a ruminating behind the scenes in Mar-a-Lago, where people have been, of course, making their presence known to the president-elect, trying to get jobs, trying to get their positions in the incoming administration.

And in the background as he's been filling some of his cabinet posts has been this question of what he will do with the FBI director. One of the things that's interesting things is that he hasn't really spoken much about Chris Wray. He hasn't complained about him really since July. So people at the FBI, you know, I think we're hoping perhaps that Donald Trump might back away from his promise or his vow previously that he would fire Chris Wray.

Obviously, that is now not it -- is obviously that he is he decided to follow through on what he said he was going to do. So there's a couple of things that are now playing out. The question is, does Chris Ray wait to be fired or does he resign before Donald Trump takes office on January 20th? Donald Trump doesn't have power to fire him right now. And so that's the way this is going to go in the next, you know, few weeks.

And behind the scenes of the FBI, you know, certainly I think there's been a lot of push by people inside the bureau, inside the Justice Department to urge Wray to stay because, you know, it just can't be normal that Donald Trump is the only president really, who just fires FBI directors for not liking what they -- how they do their job. Right. That's how Chris Ray is in this position because Trump fired James Comey in 2017.

And so one of the big questions has been, you know, does Wray stay in the job and sort of just make the point that he's not going anywhere until he's forced to do so. And so that's what we'll see what happened in the next few weeks because that's been one of the, certainly one of the big topics of conversation inside the FBI, inside the Justice Department. Jessica.

[19:20:00]

DEAN: Right, in the immediate what happens. All right, Evan Perez, thank you so much for that reporting. We really appreciate it. We are going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to have congressional reaction to this breaking news that we're getting this evening that President-Elect Donald Trump intends to nominate Kash Patel as the head of the FBI. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

DEAN: Our breaking news tonight, President-Elect Donald Trump announcing he intends to nominate Kash Patel to head up the FBI. Currently, the director of the FBI is Chris Wray, who is in the middle of serving a 10-year term. He came to be the director in 2017 after then President Trump fired James Comey. That is when Chris Wray was nominated and confirmed by the Senate. He has been in that role now for several years.

Typically, FBI directors serve out those 10-year terms and are not at the whim of whichever president may be in power. Joining us now, Democratic Congressman John Garamendi of California. Congressman, thanks so much for being here with us. I first just want to get your reaction to this breaking news we're getting tonight.

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D-CA): It's very troublesome. Throughout the entire campaign, people said, oh, he's just talking. That's just political rhetoric. As Trump said, I am your retribution and the revenge agenda. And now we're seeing it play out not only with this nominee for the FBI, but also for the military.

You take a look at all the appointments. They are part of a strategy that the President has laid out to put in place his campaign promises, which is retribution to seek revenge on his political enemies. And in his own words, Mr. Patel has made it very, very clear what he thinks he will do to the press and he'll do to political opponents. It is a very dangerous, a very dangerous road on which Trump is putting us.

DEAN: And you mentioned that he is carrying out on his campaign promises. It wasn't that he was holding this back or not being open. He talked a lot about political retribution and yet Americans made him president again. What do you make of that?

GARAMENDI: But what I make of it is that, oh, that's just talk. That's just how -- that's just talk at the campaign trail, all politicians talk about things they're going to do, but they're never going to do it. Well, heads up, folks, he intends to do it. You look at all of the appointments that he's made, not necessarily in law enforcement. You look at the environmental issues. He said we're going to drill, baby, drill. And he's put in place that in people that intend to make sure that the United States drills and goes for oil everywhere that they possibly can. That's on the environmental side. He said it, roll back the environmental protections and he will do that or at least attempt to do it.

And so, believe him, believe what Trump said and what -- and now you're seeing it play out here with this nominee for the FBI, which is an extraordinarily important place. You think about J. Edgar Hoover. Politicians lived in fear for 20, almost 30 years because Hoover was using the FBI to spy on their personal lives, their political lives and their economic lives. And Hoover used that as a tool to gain control.

Now, Patel has made very, very clear who he's going after. He's going after you. He's going after other media personnel who disagree with him, who are outspoken in opposition to Trump's policies. Patel has promised to do that. Believe him.

It is a very serious path that Trump is putting us on, and it will lead to a significant diminution in our political, our social as well as our democratic processes here in the United States. So beware, be very aware of what Trump is doing.

DEAN: And so in this case, you know, obviously, the check on the incoming president's power lies with the Senate. This is a Senate confirmed position. We're just reminding everyone that the Republicans will have a majority, but it's a small majority. And so they don't, you know, they're still going to -- you still have to work to get people through a Republican led Senate, as evidenced by Matt Gaetz dropping out from being nominated for Attorney General after it became clear that was just not going to happen for him.

Obviously, Congressman, you are a Democrat that serves in the House, so not a Senate Republican. But I am curious how you think that will go if you think Senate Republicans will go for this.

GARAMENDI: Well, let's be very much aware, the FBI can investigate Democrats, Independents, Republicans, and most anybody else in the United States. And so the power of the FBI to investigate senators is significant. Even though those senators are Republicans, maybe they're Democrats. But those investigations strike fear into the individual senators as well as members of Congress and want to be members of Congress.

[19:30:05]

And that is a method of controlling the oversight and the balance of power between the Congress, the courts, as well as the presidency. And so, using the FBI as a tool, an investigatory tool striking fear, in other words keeping in this case the Republicans in line is I would suggest it's going to happen.

I think, certainly the Democrats and the press and others who spoke out strongly against Trump during the campaigns and before and during the course of his administration, will be looking over their shoulders always thinking the FBI is there wiretapping. I've got to be careful. I can't speak out. And there is the process, day-by-day, issue-by- issue, in which we lose our freedom.

DEAN: All right, Congressman Garamendi, thank you for coming on and offering your thoughts. We really appreciate it.

GARAMENDI: Thank you.

DEAN: All right, we're going to have much more on this breaking news after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:35:46]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

DEAN: And welcome back, as we continue to cover this breaking news that President-elect Donald Trump has announced his intentions to nominate Kash Patel to lead the FBI. Currently, the FBI is led by director Christopher Wray, who took over in 2017 after Trump fired then Director James Comey, just a reminder that typically or that always the FBI directors are put on ten-year --they serve for ten years. It is very rare that they are fired or removed. They do not serve

typically at the whims of any president. So, I want to bring in Andrew McCabe, former deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Daniel Bruner, a retired FBI special agent.

Good to have both of you here, because you both have such deep knowledge and experience within the FBI and Andrew, I just want to start first with you and just get your reaction to this news tonight.

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, well, it's a terrible development for the men and women of the FBI and also for the nation that depends on a highly functioning professional independent Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The fact that Kash Patel is profoundly unqualified for this job is not even like a matter for debate. So, I think what we should really be thinking about right now is what does this signal in terms of Donald Trump's intent for the FBI.

The installation or the nomination I guess, we should say, at this point of Kash Patel as FBI director, can only possibly be a plan to disrupt, to dismantle, to distract the FBI and to possibly use it as a tool for the president's political agenda. You know, as an organization, we know what that looks like.

This country has been there before, right? The pre-Watergate FBI the J. Edgar Hoover FBI struck fear in the hearts of Americans across the spectrum of politicians, people in entertainment, people in the civil rights community because the director operated at the direction of presidents to collect political intelligence and to utilize the legal authorities, the investigative authorities of the FBI, to terrorize and intimidate Americans.

So the question is, is that where we're going back to with this nomination? I would argue that Kash Patel would be the perfect person for Donald Trump to nominate, if that's in fact his intent for the FBI.

DEAN: And Daniel, I also want to get your just initial reaction to this.

DANIEL BRUNNER, RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT: I agree with Andrew. It is concerning that putting Kash Patel into the position of the director. But of course we have to understand that he is going to go through Senate confirmation. But I've talked to a lot of street agents, a lot of supervisors in the field, and they have said that, listen, a change in leadership at any level from the director on down, to any other position, will bound -- make a lot of changes.

But what has been reassured to me that no matter who it is, whether it be Kash Patel or another candidate, you know for director, the agents are going to continue doing their job just like they've been doing for the last 20, 30, 50 years in upholding the Constitution of the United States and following lawful orders of those that are above them.

So they understand that there is going to be change coming in into the bureau and Kash Patel is going to be looking into certain investigations that were conducted against President Trump and possibly President Trump's allies, and looking into that. And that's the thing that concerns me, that there is going to be a lot of reverberations around the bureau where Kash looks into these investigations and starts making decisions of, you know, removing somebody's security clearance because they were part of an investigation and they were just assisting it.

Whether it be the intelligence analysts, special operations, or special agents, a lot of people were involved in these investigations that were just part of the investigation and had nothing to do with the with the organization of it.

But like I said before, these agents are going to continue following the lawful orders of those above them, no matter who the director is.

[19:40:08]

DEAN: Andrew, I want to play some clips of what Kash Patel has said, and then I want to get your thoughts on it. We have kind of a mash up of some things, he said. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KASH PATEL, FORMER CHIEF-OF-STAFF TO THE UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Why do you need 7,000 people there for? Same thing with DOJ, what are all these people doing here?

We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government, but in the media. Yes. We're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We're going to come after you. Whether its criminal or civil. Well figure that out. But yes, we're putting you all on notice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[19:40:37]

DEAN: Andrew, in that first clip, he was talking about the FBI and the FBI building. He was musing, why do you need all these people there? That that he want to just make it a museum. I think there are people out there that that say -- oh, that's just rhetoric. He does not really mean it. And I think that they also thought that about, you know, President-elect Trump, who was very honest about what he wanted to do with the FBI and about political retribution. What do you think?

MCCABE: I have said, Jessica, for a long time now, that we should take Donald Trump at his word. And he's been very clear about what he said during the campaign and with this, I feel like he's speaking clearly with this nomination as well, what he intends for the FBI, what he intends to do to the FBI.

We should stop giving him the -- oh, well, it's just him. That's how he talks. He maybe doesn't mean it and actually start crediting the guy with saying the things that he's actually going to do. Now, I think that, the clip that you played of Kash is really

fascinating, because I know that in that same conversation, he said he was going to take the 7,000 people at headquarters and send them out around the country to work as police officers. So it's not surprising to me that he doesn't know what people there do. He doesn't really know anything about the FBI.

Clearly, he doesn't know that 6,000 of those headquarters employees are not actually law enforcement officials they are professional staff. They're secretaries. They're analysts. They are scientists. They are computer specialists. All sorts of people that work to help protect America every single day in ways that most Americans will never know about.

Let's hope that when Kash Patel shows up, if he's confirmed, he spends a little time actually learning what those 7,000 people do and how critical they are to the mission.

DEAN: And Daniel, just idea, help people understand, in terms of the FBI because Andrew is getting at it, too. It is a very large organization, it's supposed to operate independently without politics. That's the reason that these terms are ten years. So you're not -- the director isn't serving at the whim of a certain president over another. I hear you when you say you're talking to some of these street agents and they say, were just going to keep doing our job.

But in terms of this sort of, again, if he's confirmed, this sort of change to inject so much politics into it. What kind of impact could that have on the agency?

BRUNER: Well, I think that, you know, following what Andrew was saying that we've spoken over the last couple of weeks, I think that there's going to be a lot of change. I think change is good. A change can be can be a good thing. But I think that Mr. Patel is going to come in and make a lot of changes.

And I think that the -- along the same lines that Andrew was saying and other people are saying, you know, you know, maybe Mr. Trump or President Trump will maybe he will, maybe he won't. I think that you know, Kash Patel is going to come in. I think Kash Patel is going to make some major changes.

And what we hope that he takes his time and echoing Andrew's, take the time, come in, and listen to how the organization is run, find out how each division, how the counterterrorism, how counterintelligence, how the criminal branches, how they operate and those 7,000 employees.

Yes, 90 percent of them are not agents so those statements, yes, they're bravado, but I think that he is going to make some sort of you know, radical changes to exact a new change and a new bureau, which I believe is concerning.

I mean, the bureau has been over for over a hundred years, there have been lots of changes, lots of different directors but, you know, we're moving into a new age here. And this is a new Kash Patel, a new director. So I think that were going to be seeing a lot of changes over the next year, even, you know with the confirmation, which I think will be an uphill battle, but it's not going to be Matt Gaetz, it's going to be a little different. I think that he might be able to get it.

DEAN: All right, Daniel Bruner and Andrew McCabe, our thanks to both of you for helping us kind of contextualize this breaking news tonight. We really appreciate it.

And we're going to take a quick break and we will continue to follow this breaking news when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:49:23]

DEAN: Welcome back, we're continuing to follow breaking news tonight that President-elect Donald Trump has announced he intends to nominate Kash Patel to lead the FBI.

I want to bring in Alayna Treene, who is joining us from West Palm Beach, and Alayna, there are a lot of a lot of questions around this, including is Kash Patel Senate confirmable? If he's not, can Donald Trump or would Donald Trump fire Christopher Wray and make him acting FBI Director for a certain amount of time? And then also to the question of what his allies are saying about this. What more are you hearing?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: That's absolutely right. I think Donald Trump's selection of Kash Patel to lead the FBI is really setting up what will likely be one of the hardest fought battles in Trump's camp to get one of his picks confirmed.

[19:50:08]

Now, a couple things I want to point out though about Kash Patel: One, is just his view and really deep distrust of the agency that Donald Trump has now appointed him to lead. He has long argued and said in the past that Donald Trump, and this is a shared belief I should say, with the president-elect, that they should purge the FBI of all agents who they believe have a bias against him. And also purge the so-called deep state, kind of playing in to that idea.

Now, he also has shared in Donald Trump's belief that really the FBI have been bad actors ever since, particularly the Russia hoax, as Donald Trump has called it. And he called it tonight when announcing his pick of Kash Patel. But also, we know that Donald Trump's distrust of the FBI really gained kind of new significance after his home at Mar-a-Lago, was raided in A ugust of 2022, and the classified documents case. And then, of course, he was later indicted in that.

And so, part of this is really seeing Donald Trump appointing a very like-minded person to carry out some of his agenda. Now, as for your question, Jessica, about the steep battle that Kash Patel could face. Again, I think he's probably one of the more controversial picks. We saw that with Matt Gaetz and how Matt Gaetz ended up withdrawing because his conversations with senators and the senators' conversations with Trump team overall had signaled that he wasn't going to have the numbers. That could very well be what happens with Patel.

In some of our conversations, this has been a decision that has been ruminating in Donald Trump's mind and within his transition team for days now, and we've heard a lot of skepticism coming from some of his allies and people on Capitol Hill about what it would mean if Patel was selected.

So this could be very much, one of the hardest battles that they are going to face with confirmation, and one that would likely put a lot of these Republican senators in a tough spot when they have to go through with whether or not to kind of show their loyalty to Trump and allow Kash Patel to get into this role, or to do what they did with Matt Gaetz and make it clear that perhaps he won't have the numbers to get confirmed -- Jessica.

DEAN: Yes, that would be something to watch for sure.

Alayna Treene for us from West Palm Beach. Thank you so much.

We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

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[19:56:41]

DEAN: Brutal snowfall and frigid temperatures in many parts of America tonight blanketing some areas in feet of snow and disrupting Thanksgiving travel home for millions. Here is a live look at Gaylord, Michigan, where nearly 25 inches of snow fell Friday. That is an all- time daily snowfall record with more still to come.

Also, experiencing the paralyzing lake effect snow is Buffalo, New York. This is a live look at the new Bills Stadium under construction.

The National Weather Service warn drivers to avoid or delay travel there due to the heavy snow. Nearly two million people are under a snow warning through early Monday. Be careful out there.

Thank you so much for joining me this evening. I'm Jessica Dean. I'm going to see you tomorrow night starting at 5:00 Eastern. "The 90's" is up next.

Have a great night.

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