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Russia, Ukraine Battle for Control of War-torn Kursk Region; Kash Patel's Dramatic, Controversial Plans as FBI Director Pick; Elton John Says He Has Lost His Eyesight; Israel And Hezbollah Trade Strikes; Key Ally Iran Also Aiding Syrian Government; Opponents And Allies Weigh In On Controversial Pardon. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired December 03, 2024 - 02:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:00:40]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead. Converging crises in the Middle East, as Israel and Hezbollah trade fire threatening the fragile ceasefire deal in Lebanon, while rebel forces are pressing ahead in Syria after a surprise offensive that's reignited the country's long simmering Civil War.

And U.S. President Joe Biden faces bipartisan backlash after his decision to pardon his son Hunter.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN NEWSROOM with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Good to have you with us. And we begin with new assaults on multiple fronts in the Middle East, threatening the stability of the region, first to Lebanon, the shaky ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah is being challenged by cross border strikes and plenty of finger pointing. The Lebanese health ministry says nine people were killed by Israel on Monday in southern Lebanon, making it the deadliest day since the truce kicked in.

Israel says the strikes were retaliation after Hezbollah fired two projectiles on Israeli-occupied territory but the Iran-backed Group says it went after Israeli military positions after days of repeated attacks. But Israel is disputing that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIDEON SAAR, FOREIGN MINISTER OF ISRAEL: Well, he claims that Israel is violating the ceasefire understandings in Lebanon. On the contrary, Israel is enforcing them in response to Hezbollah's violations, which demand immediate action.

Israel is committed to the successful implementation of the ceasefire, but we will not accept a return to the situation as it stood on October 6, 2023. If violations occur, Israel will enforce. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Meanwhile, new fighting is erupting in Syria at a precarious moment for key allies of the Syrian president. Syrian rebels got an opportunity to strike as Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed militias have been weakened by the conflict with Israel. The Rebels now claim to control much of Aleppo and Italy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HADI AL-BAHRA, HEAD OF INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED SYRIAN POSITION: A year ago they started really training and mobilizing and taking it more seriously. But the war on Gaza, which happened, it delayed it. Then the war in Lebanon delayed it. They felt that it couldn't look good having the war going in Lebanon and in the same time they are fighting this war in Syria. So, at the moment they were a cease fire in Lebanon. They found that the opportunity is good for them to start.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: The Syrian regime and its staunch support of Russia have been responding with air strikes. The U.N. says those strikes have killed dozens of civilians, injured many more, and nearly 50,000 people have been displaced in just the past few days. Syria's long running civil war has resulted in several groups with areas of heavy influence inside the country. Everything in pink is still controlled by the regime, and large parts of Aleppo and Italy, provinces in green are in rebel hands.

The Russian air power that's beating back rebel forces has kept them at bay for years and has been key to keeping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in power. And even though the Russian military is now more stretched because of the conflict in Ukraine, the Kremlin says its support for Syria will continue. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Syria quickly descending back into all-out war. President Bashar al-Assad's army seemingly caught completely off guard retreating. As rebel groups make sweeping advances, taking much of the second largest city, Aleppo, and capturing large amounts of arms as they move forward.

These are the tanks of the regime, this fighter says, the pigs. This is one, two, three tanks, four tanks of the defense forces and there are their busses.

[02:05:02]

Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad calling on his biggest backers, Russia and Iran to help bail him out, meeting with Iran's foreign minister as Tehran is already mobilizing regional forces for battle on the Syrian government side. The rebels will be confronted, Iran's foreign minister said, and I'm confident that this phase, like the previous ones, will also be passed with pride by the government, the people of Syria and the Syrian army.

In a show of force, Assad's military releasing this video, claiming to show their counter push in Syria's Northwest. But acknowledging they're relying on Russian air power to help their ground forces. The Russians now effectively fighting two major wars in Syria and Ukraine simultaneously.

Of course, we support Bashar al-Assad, the Kremlin spokesman said. We continue our contacts on the relevant levels. We are analyzing the situation.

This as fighting in Ukraine grinds on at a steep cost in both lives and in money. President Vladimir Putin signing off on Russia's 2025 budget, with almost a third of the money now going to defense and military spending, and while Moscow's troops have been making steady progress in Ukraine.

PLEITGEN (on camera) Hello, sir. We're from CNN television.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): A senior aide to Vladimir Putin telling me the Kremlin hopes the incoming Trump administration will end the War on terms favorable for Russia.

PLEITGEN (text): Do you think the Trump administration will be able to settle the Ukraine conflict?

VLADIMIR MEDINSKY, AIDE TO RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (text): Naturally, we hope that the new administration will approach this issue with a desire to maintain peace on the planet, and not to incite war, pushing Ukraine a self-destruction.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: David Sanger is a CNN political and national security analyst and the author of New Cold Wars, China's rise, Russia's invasion, and America's struggle to Defend the west. And he joins me now from Washington. Good to have you with us.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Great to be back with you. Rosemary.

CHURCH: So, David, how did these armed rebel groups band together so quickly making significant territorial gains in northern Syria and essentially take Bashar al-Assad by surprise?

SANGER: Well, Rosemary, they took everyone by surprise. Bashar al- Assad discovered that a civil war that he thought was frozen after 13 years wasn't. The CIA British intelligence and others did not see this coming, although they now say that they should have given the fact that the allies that Assad has relied on Iran, Hezbollah, to a lesser degree, Hamas, were all distracted by other events.

Certainly, Hezbollah and Hamas have suffered such devastating losses that they can't focus much attention at this moment on the Syrian conflict. And even the Russians, you know, are pretty busy fighting a war in Ukraine. So they weren't as focused as they were, say, a dozen years ago when Assad was solidifying his place after the color revolutions and after other revolutions in the Arab world made him wonder whether or not he was long for power.

CHURCH: As you mentioned, Syria's allies, Russia and Iran already distracted by their own wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. So how much military support can Assad expect to receive from these distracted allies do you think?

SANGER: Well, I don't think he's going to get very much from Iran, certainly very little from Hezbollah and Hamas. He is getting air support for the Russians, but the Russians don't have a lot of artillery to spread around. They need just about everything they've got for Ukraine and if you need evidence of that, look no further than their deal with North Korea where they've been buying hundreds of thousands of rounds.

CHURCH: So, David, how big a threat could these united armed rebels pose to Bashar al-Assad's leadership in Syria right now and perhaps in the days and weeks ahead?

SANGER: I haven't found anybody yet, Rosemary, who thinks that Assad is necessarily on the edge of losing power. And many who have called that we thought that predicted it and many points in the past 13, 14, years and we've been wrong every time. He's come back with brutal attacks on his own people. And that may happen here as well, but this group of rebels, you know, they're pretty hardened.

[02:10:0]

They're not exactly the classic freedom and that may happen here as well, but this group of rebels, you know, they're pretty hardened. They're not exactly the classic freedom fighters that the United States likes to back. Many of them were closely affiliated with al Qaeda until they split with them a few years ago. So, these are sort of not an ideal group to be representing a fight between democracy and autocracy.

CHURCH: So David, big picture, what does all this mean in terms of the New Cold Wars that the U.S. is engaged in right now?

SANGER: Well, it's just another front and a really interesting one along the way. You know, the essence of the new Cold War versus the old one is that it is a two-front war for the United States in that we have got a Russian adversary, a Chinese adversary, and of course, they're getting help from North Korea from Iran, but there's an effort by the Russians and others to draw other countries into their orbit.

Syria has been in that position for years now. It's the site that hosts one of the few outside of Russia bases that Russia actually has a naval base and a critically important one. And so, Russia really can't afford to lose Assad. And, you know, for years now, we've had American presidents, three, by my count, say that Assad must go. So far, none of them has been able to make him go. And I suspect he's going to get a fair bit of Russian support. CHURCH: David Sanger, many thanks for joining us. Appreciate your analysis always.

SANGER: Great to be with you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: More reaction is pouring in after Joe Biden's decision to pardon his son, Hunter, much of it critical, even among the President's own allies, despite long saying he would not use his authority to grant his son clemency, President Biden reversed course on Sunday, announcing a full and unconditional pardon covering any offense Hunter Biden committed or may have committed from January 2014 until now.

That includes the two federal cases from this year on gun and tax charges. Democratic Senator Chris Coons, a close ally of the President, says Joe Biden's thinking likely changed after seeing the army of loyalists Donald Trump has picked to fill his cabinet and other leadership roles. And speaking to CNN Coon said this and I'm quoting. "I think what changed was the President-elect Trump put people in place who made it really clear that they intended to go after not just anybody, but in their campaign activity, had talked about going after Hunter Biden directly."

And CNN's Paul Reid has more on the reaction to Hunter Biden's pardon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even as president, Biden publicly declared he wouldn't pardon his son.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I said I abide by the jury decision. I will do that, and I will not pardon him.

REID (voice-over): Sources tell CNN that people in the West Wing and those close to Hunter Biden believed a pardon was always coming.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you testify?

RIED (voice-over): In June, Hunter became the first child of a sitting President to be convicted of a crime.

RIED (on camera): The jury has found Hunter Biden, the president's son, guilty on all three counts in this case after three hours of deliberation.

HUNTER BIDEN, SON OF JOE BIDEN: Good morning.

RIED (voice-over): After that historic conviction on gun charges, he faced another federal case in Los Angeles on tax charges. But just hours before the trial was set to begin, he entered a surprise guilty plea on all of the counts he faced.

ABBE LOWELL, HUNTER BIDEN'S ATTORNEY: This plea prevents that kind of show trial that would have not provided all the facts or served any real point in justice. RIED (voice-over): Sources familiar with Hunter's legal strategy tell CNN he would not have pleaded guilty exposing himself to the possibility of 17 years in prison and possibly more than a million dollars in fines without the expectation of some form of clemency. And even as the White House repeatedly denied a pardon was on the table, one senior White House official told CNN they felt certain Biden would pardon his son before leaving office, saying, I know how much he worries about Hunter.

Then after the President spent the Thanksgiving holiday with Hunter, his wife and their son, Biden, informed his staff about the pardon decision on Saturday night. On Monday, the White House had no clear explanation for the President's flip flop.

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY (via telephone): I can speak to where we are today, and so I can't speak to hypotheticals here. Where we are today, the President made this decision over the weekend. He thought about it, he wrestled with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[02:15:04]

REID: One former White House staffer asks the question, which is, if it was so obvious that the President was going to pardon his son, why did he and the White House pretend otherwise for so long? We do not have an answer to that question, but another source points to the fact that, look, the President did allow David Weiss, who began investigating hunter and the Trump administration allowed him to continue his work, allowed the Justice Department to bring two cases against his son.

They argue that this pardon should not undermine the lengths that Biden went to to allow the DOJ to act independently. But again, that was not the message from the White House over the past year. And their contradictions have now made this pardon a far greater controversy.

Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.

CHURCH: Earlier, I spoke with CNN senior political analyst, Ron Brownstein about the bipartisan criticism of this pardon. He says, while it's significant that the President went back on his word, it's unlikely this will embolden Republicans and Donald Trump any more than they already were.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: You see the criticism. It's problematic for a number of reasons. In particular, I think above all that, he said he was not going to do it. The part that I think is just -- it can't really be supported is the idea being pushed by some journalists and certainly by Republicans, that this will embolden Trump to go further than he would have otherwise in violating norms as president, including pardoning the January 6 rioters or will provide Republicans in the Congress more freedom to defend Trump as he shatters those norms.

That cake has been baked. You know, I -- whatever Biden did or didn't do, Trump has made clear that in all sorts of ways he intends to barrel through historic constraints on the arbitrary exercise of presidential power and that the vast majority of Republicans in Congress, virtually all of them, are going to be willing to go along for the ride. I, you know the idea that Biden pardoning his son in some ways changes the calculus of what Republicans will do is as nonsensical as the idea that Merrick Garland by waiting two years and the January 6 committee to begin investigating Trump's role in the insurrection somehow shamed Republicans into upholding norms.

We are in a downward spiral here in this country. And one that I think reflects an important underlying reality, one party alone can't uphold the norms of democracy. You know, Joe Biden had reason to believe that if he didn't pardon his son, that the Trump Justice Department would find yet more reasons to go, you know, to pursue him. Did that justify the pardon? Maybe not, but it is part of the reality that we are now dealing with that the escalation just kind of feeds on itself.

CHURCH: And Ron some critics, including Joe Manchin, suggest President Biden should also pardon Donald Trump to shut down the criticism and stop this from backfiring on Democrats, but also for the sake of balance. What do you say to that?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. I don't know. I mean, you know, I can't see Joe Biden pardoning Donald Trump. To me, the more pointed question is, does he pardon Jack Smith and his staff, and maybe, if possible, some of the state level prosecutors who have been involved attorney generals who have been involved in investigating Trump. I mean, the incoming Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox last year, the prosecutors will be prosecuted, the investigators will be investigated.

I mean, Trump has been very clear about his determination to use the Justice Department to settle scores. And if anything, now that Biden has kind of thrown this rock through the window, now that the window is broken, should he go further and protect the public servants who, I think by all evidence, have tried to follow the facts in investigating Trump's behavior and now face the risk of selective prosecution once he takes office?

I would think that would be the question more that Democrats should be debating in the weeks ahead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And you can see my full conversation with Ron Brownstein next hour right here on CNN.

International watchdogs are speaking out about the crackdown on political protesters in Georgia's capital Tbilisi. Ahead, why the former Soviet state's outgoing pro-European president says the protest will continue.

Plus, after months of bombardment, Ukraine is still fighting to defend the front lines in Kursk, how troops there are combating an onslaught of Russian drone attacks. Back with that and more in just a moment.

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[02:21:58]

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. The French government may be on the verge of collapse after lawmakers put forward a no confidence motion against Michel Barnier. The centrist Prime Minister's 2025 budget is deeply unpopular. It includes more than $60 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts in hopes of bringing down the deficit. The far-right national rally led in Parliament by Marine Le Pen has vowed to join lawmakers on the left to take down Barnier unless he concedes to several of their demands.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARINE LE PEN, NATIONAL RALLY PARTY GROUP LEADER (through translator): We are tabling a motion of censure, and we are going to vote it because the French people have had enough. They've had enough of being thrashed. They've had enough of being mistreated. Some maybe thought that with Michel Barnier, things would get better, but they were even worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: France has not seen a successful no confidence vote since 1962 when Charles de Gaulle was president.

Protests in Georgia's capital Tbilisi stretched into the early morning after a fifth consecutive night of demonstrations. The protests kicked off after the government suspended talks on joining the European Union until 2028. Opponents of the ruling Georgian dream party, which claimed victory in a contested October election, have accused it of pursuing pro-Russian policies. The former Soviet states prime minister vowed no negotiations with the opposition on Monday.

He said protests were funded from abroad, and lambasted Western nations for not condemning the "organized violence."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IRAKLI GARIBASHVILI, PRIME MINISTER OF GEORGIA (through translator): These attempts are funded from abroad and this funding is non transparent. This is why certain actors were against the law on transparency. They wanted a revolution to be organized in a non- transparent way. I remind everyone that there will be no revolution in Georgia, whether transparent or non-transparent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Georgia's outgoing pro-Western president has accused security forces of violating basic human rights. Protesters have faced a violent crackdown by police using tear gas and water cannon that has alarmed international watchdogs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SALOME ZOURABICHVILI, PRESIDENT OF GEORGIA: There is clearly a strategy. It's not the armed forces. It has nothing to do with the armed forces. It's these special forces that do not belong, either to the police or even to the anti-demonstration police. It's a very special black units that are not identified that are wearing masks, so you cannot distinguish them and then they have no numbers of identification, which is contrary to any international rules.

And those are -- those that are carrying out this violent repression on the protesters that are very pacific protesters. And tonight, is a step further that the demonstrations are hardly started very peacefully. It was not as it was in the previous days after a number of hours.

[02:25:05]

They were just preventing the demonstrators to carry out their demonstration. It's really fighting against the freedom of expression, freedom of protest. It's basic rights that are violated not to say anything about the way the people that are arrested are treated once arrested, because it's what the lawyers who can then get to that have -- seen that there -- 80 percent of them have injuries to the face and to the head which demonstrates really systematic type of of union treatment.

So, all of that policy, it's not reaction to some forceful demonstration. It's a policy to try to limit the expression of the Georgian people that is expressed in many cities around the country. Will of the Georgian people not to go towards Russia to keep its European pass, to keep its right to be an independent and free country among its European community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The president who has called for fresh elections says pro- European protests will continue across the country.

The U.S. has announced a new $725 million military aid package for Ukraine. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says it will include Stinger missiles, HIMARS rockets and anti-personnel mines. It's part of the Biden administration's efforts to bolster Ukraine's defenses before Joe Biden's time in office ends next month.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also reaffirmed his country's support for Ukraine on a visit to Kyiv, promising to deliver more air defense systems next year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLAF SCHOLZ, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): My visit to Kyiv today made one thing very clear to me, Ukraine will prevail. I have talked not only to the current American administration with which we had a very good cooperation in this regard, but we've also talked to the future president Donald Trump too. I believe that we can set on developing joint policies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The military aid can't come soon enough for Ukrainian forces, as troops on the front lines try to hold off swarms of Russian drones. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reports from Kursk on Ukraine's defensive efforts there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voice-over): They have a three-second window, rushing out with a U.S. supplied Stinger and an aging anti-aircraft gun to shoot down Russian attack drones in the fleeting moment they fly overhead in range.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Three kilometers from us.

WALSH: Three kilometers from them.

WALSH (voice-over): They could hit that and prepare to. But the radar is wrong and they pause to hear it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Turn there.

WALSH (voice-over): So, reposition the entire truck, but suddenly, the drone has vanished. It sounded like a decoy. But that usually means others are coming. And the sky is filling up with drones in the next region.

A month ago, the targets here seemed endless. November was a record month for drones across Ukraine, that usually crash into towns, not this empty field. Their sound slices through the dark.

WALSH (on camera): It was pretty low and close, and while they think this is Ukrainian drones headed for Russia, the Russians also used this moment to take the same routes to try and sneak their drones in.

WALSH (voice-over): Right now, a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia is underway, so they've been forbidden, even if they could, to fire. Each night, they watch Russian drones weave their complex way out of their tiny range.

When the defenses fail, the icy silence breaks. Moscow pummeling the border town Sumy, here with a cluster munition missile that killed 12 in an apartment block because Ukraine is still inside Russia, holding positions in Kursk.

This thermal drone image shows, just hours earlier, the dawn's fight in Kursk for Oleksandr.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The assault teams came in the dawn grey. There was almost not contact. We worked with bird (drones). Then the infantry simply swept them up.

WALSH (voice-over): In the positions they've hit, no sign of the North Korean troops meant to be in Kursk. Instead, Chechens, even African mercenaries, but above all endless waves of Russians. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I have the impression they have unlimited people. It's like the next Russians don't know what happened to the previous Russians. So, they go there, into the unknown.

[02:30:09]

WALSH (voice-over): His Humvee is a mess. He hasn't slept for three days and shelling has damaged his hearing, but he knows what he'd say to President-elect Donald Trump. When Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in the '90s, we were promised protection.

OLKESANDR (through translator): You took away our nuclear weapons? You promised us protection? Yes, in simple terms, so keep your word. We're being slaughtered, and you're still trying to play games to defend your interests. You have to give everything you could to end this war in two days. Who will believe the words of the U.S. or England, who are pissing themselves in front of Russia? Pardon my English.

WALSH (voice-over): Confident they can hold out in Kursk; less confident of how long the West expects them to.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Sumy, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Still to come, Donald Trump's pick for the next FBI Director has his own share of controversies. But will he work well with the President-elect after Trump's history of issues with the role? We'll take a look.

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CHURCH: As the president-elect's final cabinet and leadership choices take shape, we are learning more about his pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel. The controversial nominee has sweeping plans for the federal agency and beyond, if approved by the Senate. CNN's Brian Todd has that report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KASH PATEL, DONALD TRUMP'S PICK FOR FBI DIRECTOR: Thank you.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In planning to nominate 44-year-old Kash Patel as FBI Director, President-elect Donald Trump is elevating a loyalist and conspiracy theorist who has vowed to dismantle the very agency he's now tapped to lead.

PATEL: I'd shut down the FBI Hoover Building on day one and reopening the next day as a Museum of the Deep State.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Most people come into the government at least respecting the fundamental enterprise that they're going to be managing, and what you're seeing here is a nominee who seems to have some measure of contempt for the very body that he would be charged with leading.

TODD (voice-over): Considered even among Trump's allies to be an unrelenting self-promoter, Patel, according to "The New York Times", exaggerated his role as a prosecutor in the investigation into the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans. He has promoted Trump's lies about the 2020 election being stolen and vowed that Trump's Justice Department would go after Trump's enemies, among them, according to Patel, members of the media.

PATEL: 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.

TODD (voice-over): To install Patel, Trump would have to fire current FBI Director Christopher Wray, who has about three years left on his 10-year term and who was appointed by Trump.

[02:35:00]

Why has Trump turned on Wray? Analysts say it is Trump who believes Wray turned on him.

GARRETT GRAFF, FBI HISTORIAN: Donald Trump sees the FBI over the last decade as the agency sort of most to blame for his own legal troubles and the troubles of those around him.

TODD (voice-over): Wray headed the FBI when the Bureau launched a search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in August 2022.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: They broke into my house.

TODD (voice-over): The search uncovered classified documents that Trump had allegedly stored inappropriately at Mar-a-Lago. It led to federal criminal charges against Trump, which were just dropped by the special counsel. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

GRAFF: To him, a major sign of how the Biden Administration was trying to politicize the FBI and use it for political payback.

TODD (voice-over): And Wray would be the second FBI Director Trump will have fired.

TRUMP: Oh, and there's James. He has become more famous than me.

(LAUGH)

TODD (voice-over): In 2017, Trump dismissed James Comey, the then president later saying he was frustrated over the ongoing Russia probe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on camera): Historian Garrett Graff says Donald Trump is not alone among presidents who believed the FBI should be beholden to them. He points out that John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton had all expressed frustration with FBI directors who served in their administrations.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

CHURCH: And we'll be right back.

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Elton John says a severe eye infection has left him unable to see. The 77-year-old entertainer shared his surprising health update at the "Devil Wears Prada Musical" in London Sunday. CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sir Elton John making a surprise announcement on stage at a gala performance of the "Devil Wears Prada" in London.

SIR ELTON JOHN, BRITISH SINGER/SONGWRITER: I've lost my eyesight, so it's hard for me to see it, but I'd love to hear it.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): The 77-year-old pop superstar wrote the score to the show and thanked his husband, David Furnish, for his support during his months-long battle with a severe eye infection.

JOHN: And my husband, who's been my rock, because I haven't been able to come to many of the previews.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): He first spoke publicly about his sight in an Instagram post three months ago, saying he was dealing with a severe eye infection that has unfortunately left me with only limited vision in one eye. And in an interview last week, the icon said his eye issues have interfered with his ability to work.

JOHN: I'm kind of stuck in the moment because I can do something like this, but going into the studio and recording, I don't know because I can't see the lyric for a start.

[02:40:00]

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): The music legend retired last year after decades of live concerts, performing in more than 300 shows alone during his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. Then, the pop star joined President Biden in New York during the summer.

JOHN: Thank you, Mr. President.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): To mark the 55th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots that helped launch the modern gay rights movement.

JOHN: Let's have some music. It does bring us together.

(CROWD CHEERING) WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Two years after, the president presented him with the National Humanities Medal during a concert at the White House to celebrate his talent and his advocacy in the global fight against HIV and AIDS. The pop legend's presence on stage at the "Devil Wears Prada" gala was cheered on Sunday night after talking about his health challenges and then praising the musical's performers.

JOHN: Boy, I had a good time (ph), OK?

(CROWD CHEERING)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WAGMEISTER (on camera): Certainly, a challenging turn of events for Sir Elton John, a true legend in the music industry. But I have to tell you, I was lucky enough to have been invited as a guest to a taping of one of his final shows two years ago at Dodger Stadium here in Los Angeles for his Farewell Tour, and it was just incredible to see how he commanded a stage as a performer even well into his '70s. I attended that show with my mom, and there's really no better example of a performer who truly entertained generations of audiences over decades, and whether or not he ever performs again or creates new music, Elton John will continue to live on, and not just in his music, but also through his advocacy work.

Elton's Life Mission has been through his foundation, which helps end the AIDS epidemic. He has held an Oscars After Party for over 30 years, and I have covered that many times throughout award season. Last year, that event raised over $10 million to fight the AIDS epidemic. So, Elton's work will continue to live on and of course, we are wishing him the best as he continues to navigate these health struggles.

Back to you.

CHURCH: Such an incredible performer. And thank you so much for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. "World Sport" is coming up next. And then I'll be back in 15 minutes with more "CNN Newsroom." Do stick around.

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