Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
French Lawmakers Supported a No-Confidence Vote Forcing PM Barnier to Resign and Collapse the Parliament; Yoon's People Power Party Blocks Impeachment Against Him, SoKor Defense Chief Resigns; Russian Woman who Stowaway in a Delta Flight Faces Charges; Iran Passes Controversial Hijab Law Amid Resistance from Women. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired December 05, 2024 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: (TECHNICAL DIFFICULTY)
French lawmakers demand the Prime Minister's resignation in a no- confidence vote in the Parliament.
The fate of South Korea's President hangs in the balance, but his ruling party now says they will oppose his impeachment following a short-lived martial law.
And a massive manhunt is underway in New York after a CEO is brazenly shot dead.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Thanks for joining us. We begin this hour with the political chaos in France.
President Emmanuel Macron is expected to address the nation today as he works to name a new Prime Minister. This comes as French media is reporting that Prime Minister Michel Barnier is expected to formally submit his resignation in the coming hours.
Now, this will leave France without a stable government or a 2025 budget at the end of this year. Barnier's ouster came after left- and right-wing lawmakers united to support a no-confidence vote against him, mostly over his proposed annual budget for next year.
Members of Parliament blame Macron for the political chaos, and calls are increasing for him to resign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATHILDE PANOT, MEMBER OF FRENCH PARLIAMENT (through translator): With the no-confidence motion in this government, it is Emmanuel Macron's entire politics that has been defeated. One which was defeated three times in the results of elections, one which persists in wanting to make the people and the public pay for policy made for the richest, one which must now stop.
And to get out of the impasse in which the President has placed the country, there is only one solution. We must now ask Emmanuel Macron to leave.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Thierry Arnaud, the managing editor at BFM Business, joins us now live from Paris. I appreciate you being with us.
THIERRY ARNAUD, MANAGING EDITOR, BFM BUSINESS: Good morning.
So, the French Prime Minister will resign in the coming hours in the wake of this no-confidence vote that toppled the government. What happens next, and where does this leave the country, both politically and economically?
ARNAUD: Well, Michel Barnier is expected at the Elysee Palace within the next hour to submit his resignation, and then the ball would be in President Macron's camp, with the responsibility for him to appoint the next Prime Minister, and for this Prime Minister to find a way, to figure out a way to put forward a new budget, and hopefully a more stable government.
But the issue is that there is no current majority within the Parliament. For French democracy and for French government to work properly, you need a stable, upright majority, which is not the case since the President has called a snap election this past summer.
And the issue is that the French Constitution doesn't allow for a new election until next summer. So, whatever the situation arises from the President's choice, whoever is appointed as the next Prime Minister, the likelihood is that this person is going to have to limp up until next summer, potentially with a new election and potentially with a new outright majority.
CHURCH: And the far-right's Marine Le Pen exercised this unprecedented power to pull this off and join with the left. She says she did it to protect the French people, but this leaves the country vulnerable, stoking economic anxiety. So just how worried are the people of France right now?
ARNAUD: They are very worried right now because there is no short-term fix to this political chaos. There is uncertainty as to what it means not to have a budget for next year.
And the implications are that, you know, for pensions, for example, for taxes, for money that was to be devoted to hospital education, defense, and all of that, all of that is still yet to be solved.
And up until we have a new budget, which is not going to come, obviously, within the next few days, these questions will remain on the table, with the additional difficulty of how nervous the financial markets are going to be, because the debt has reached record levels, as well as the budget deficit.
[03:04:55]
And there's this huge concern that if the financial markets are starting to punish France, then the situation from a financial point of view is going to be a lot more difficult, as it stands, when French treasury goes to the market, which is going to go to the tune of 50 to 60 billion euros over the next year, we're already borrowing at a rate that is comparable to that of Greece, for example, and it might get worse over the next few days.
CHURCH: So what impact might this have on the popularity of the far right and the left joining forces like this to pull off this no- confidence vote and perhaps do something similar in the near future?
ARNAUD: Yes, this is very much an open question, and it is a very good question as well, because it is obviously not a natural alliance that is a political alliance of convenience.
What you have right now is basically three blocs of equal size within the French Parliament. You have the far-left, which is dominating about one-third of the seats, you have the central bloc, and you have the far-right. And each of those is about one-third of Parliament.
So as soon as you have two of the three blocs getting together to topple a potential government, there's no way for the government to be able to work and to be able to continue working.
So we're going to remain in this unstable position, again, as long as we're not in a position to have a new election, which will not come before next summer. But the point you're making is a very important one. It's the first time in French political history that Marine Le Pen's party and the far-right is in a position to pull the shots.
And by toppling this government, it is in effect become a party that is associated with governing, associated with whatever is going to come up in the next budget. So it's a new era in French politics.
CHURCH: Indeed. And President Emmanuel Macron will address the nation in the coming hours in the evening. What impact does this have on the president, who has already been facing these increasing calls for his resignation?
ARNAUD: He's today a considerably weakened president. He's an unpopular president. What he's going to try to do tonight is substantially to try and reassure the French people that everything's going to be okay, that we're going to have a new government, a new prime minister, and there's not going to be any political chaos or any potential panic on the financial markets.
But as you pointed out earlier, there are more and more calls for him to resign because people are thinking that the only way to get out of this crisis is for him to resign, to have a new presidential election and then a parliamentary majority, which would be supporting the new president. And obviously, the more the scale goes on, the higher the pressure is
going to be on him to resign. Even if every time he's asked a question, he says that he intends to serve in his full term up until the end, which takes us to the spring of 2027.
CHURCH: Thierry Arnaud, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it.
ARNAUD: You're welcome. My pleasure.
CHURCH: South Korea's president may hold on to power after all, despite his widely criticized martial law order, members of his People Power Party say they are against a motion to impeach Yoon Suk-yeol. But opposition leaders are hoping to change some minds before the weekend vote.
Lawmakers and protesters descended on parliament late Tuesday after Yoon's declaration only to be met by hundreds of soldiers. The president rescinded his martial law decree a few hours later amid fierce backlash.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIM SEUNG-WON, SOUTH KOREAN MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT (through translator): The Yoon administration attempted to seize control of the National Assembly by deploying approximately 250 elite martial law troops to the parliamentary building. This is an unforgivable crime, one that cannot, should not and will not be pardoned.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Meanwhile, South Korea's defense minister is the latest political casualty from the debacle. President Yoon accepted his resignation early Thursday.
And I spoke a short time ago with CNN senior international correspondent Ivan Watson at the National Assembly in Seoul about what comes next.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Rosemary, it's less than 48 hours ago that President Yoon declared martial law on Korea. And it's just been a remarkable series of events since then. I'm coming to you live from inside the National Assembly.
And this is where you had confrontations here between police and soldiers who were sent to try to disrupt a gathering of lawmakers who ultimately succeeded in voting to overrule the president's emergency rule decree.
[03:10:02]
I spoke with the leader of the largest opposition block in the National Assembly, the head of the Democratic Party, and I asked him what he thought when he first heard on Tuesday night that the president had declared martial law. Take a listen.
LEE JAE-MYUNG, DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF KOREA LEADER (through translator): My wife suddenly showed me a YouTube video and said, the president is declaring martial law. I replied, that's a deep fake. It has to be a deep fake. There's no way that's real.
But when I watched the video, the president was indeed declaring martial law. Yet I thought to myself, this is fabricated. It's fake.
WATSON: So then what that lawmaker succeeded in doing was he rushed to this location. He was actually streaming on YouTube. His wife was driving the car. And he was blocked from entering the National Assembly headquarters. And he was streaming on his YouTube channel how he jumped over a wall and came in here.
And he actually told me that he hit mute by accident on his live broadcast. So there's no audio on it as he kind of comes into the building.
The lawmakers had assembled in there, and 190 of them voted unanimously to overturn martial law there. And now the focus appears to be on what comes next with the main opposition party, the Democratic Party, calling for impeachment.
And we've also just learned that they're filing charges, not only against President Yoon, but also against his defense minister, who has since resigned, the army chief of staff, the head of the police, as well as several other military commanders and a minister of safety, accusing them of carrying out insurrection to disrupt the constitutional order with what they did there.
I'll add another fact, and by the way, the police commissioner has since said that he doesn't believe that what took place that night amounted to a crime, as he's being accused of that.
This is the entry to the hall of the National Assembly there. And the opposition lawmakers are refusing to leave that chamber. They're staying there in shifts, even throughout the night, because they say that they are worried that President Yoon could try to declare martial law yet again.
So they are literally performing a vigil in there to protect what they say are their constitutional rights, which is if you get enough lawmakers, a majority in there, they can vote to overturn a martial law decree. Back to you, Rosemary.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Also joining me from Seoul, John Nilsson-Wright, is a Northeast Asia specialist at Cambridge University and Chatham House. Appreciate you talking with us.
JOHN NILSSON WRIGHT, NORTHEAST ASIA SPECIALIST, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY AND CHATHAM HOUSE: Pleasure.
CHURCH: So as South Korea continues to deal with the turmoil created by President Yoon Suk-yeol declaring martial law, lawmakers are moving to impeach him, but his ruling party plans to oppose that move. How likely is it that the opposition parties will get enough votes to impeach Yoon?
NILSSON-WRIGHT: I think it's very hard to say at this point. This is quite a tightly run thing. Essentially, they need eight additional votes. They need to peel away eight votes from the conservative governing party.
But the statement from Han Dong-hun, the leader of the governing party, has been pretty unambiguous, saying that he will work to ensure unity on the part of his own party members to ensure that that impeachment measure does not go through.
And then we are in a very difficult predicament because this stalemate looks set to continue. And of course, you have to recognize that all of this is happening against the backdrop of acute public anxiety.
The fact that ordinary South Koreans came out onto the streets of Seoul when the martial law announcement was made in protest against the president's actions.
There is a public appetite, I think, to do everything possible, including street demonstrations. We may well see on Saturday, if that critical impeachment vote fails, that there will be large numbers of Koreans, perhaps in the tens, if not hundreds of thousands, showing up in the center of Seoul, echoing the so-called candlelight demonstrations that we saw in 2016, which led to the impeachment of then-President Park Geun-hye.
I don't think you can underestimate the extent to which the martial law declaration reminded ordinary Koreans of the experience of the 1980s.
[03:15:02]
And the 1980s were, of course, a critical decade in which, essentially, the democratic movement got its impetus and led ultimately to the overturning of authoritarian leadership.
Yoon is intensely unpopular. He was intensely unpopular before he made this announcement. This has contributed to his further, what I would describe as a crisis of legitimacy. And therefore, the conservative politicians, if they decide not to sign up behind the impeachment measure, may run the risk of being seen as effectively legitimizing this martial law declaration.
CHURCH: Right.
NILSSON-WRIGHT: And therefore, we have a situation that is ripe to exacerbate partisan differences and to create a very volatile situation. Not to mention all the concerns that you alluded to, that President Yoon might be minded to introduce another martial law order.
There are questions about what the opposition can do in the face of failure if that impeachment measure does not go through. And I think that's why foreign governments, not least the United States, are looking at this situation with a great deal of concern and continuing anxiety.
CHURCH: So what damage do you think has already been done to the country, even though a martial law that was declared by Yoon lasted only six hours?
NILSSON-WRIGHT: I think a huge amount of potential damage, not least because President Yoon has shown that he has no real understanding of the process of political negotiation and political compromise.
One reason this situation has intensified is because he has effectively delegitimized the leader of the opposition party, Lee Jae- myung. Lee Jae-myung himself is a polarizing political figure, disliked by conservative opinion. You see him as, if you like, a progressive populist, anti-elitist.
Not, if you like, one of them. And therefore there are great concerns about what might happen if President Yoon were impeached. This would then lead to, ultimately, a new presidential election.
And there are serious questions about who might win a future presidential contest. What would that mean for the direction of South Korea's foreign policy? Lee Jae-myung, if he were a candidate, would potentially take the country in a very different direction, perhaps in ways that threaten the U.S.-ROK alliance.
So for more sober-minded Koreans looking at this situation, they worry about the implications of yet another impeachment crisis, raising concerns about the stability of the political system altogether and what it might lead to in terms of future leadership of the country.
CHURCH: John Nilsson-Wright, in Seoul, many thanks for talking with us. I appreciate it.
NILSSON-WRIGHT: Pleasure.
CHURCH: A manhunt is underway in New York after UnitedHealthcare's CEO was gunned down in the heart of Manhattan. Police say Brian Thompson was shot and killed on a sidewalk near the Hilton Hotel, and the shooter fled first on foot and then on an e-bike.
ABC News is reporting that police say gun casings found at the scene had the words deny, defend and depose written on them.
CNN's Brynn Gingras has the story. A warning though, some of the images you're about to see are graphic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Stunning new video obtained by CNN showing the moments a gunman carries out a brazen attack in the heart of New York City.
At about 6:40 a.m., the suspect waiting for Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, and then firing several shots, killing him.
COMMISSIONER JESSICA TISCH, NEW YORK CITY POLICE: I want to be clear. At this time, every indication is that this was a premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack.
GINGRAS (voice-over): Police say that gunman camped out for about five minutes before Thompson arrived. You can see from these images he's wearing a mask, hooded sweatshirt and backpack. Sources say a silencer was attached to his handgun.
Police say he watched as people walked by and then at approximately 6:45 a.m. fired at Thompson from behind, hitting him before the gun jams.
JOSEPH KENNY, CHIEF OF DETECTIVES, NEW YORK CITY POLICE: It appears that the gun malfunctions as he clears the jam and begins to fire again.
GINGRAS (voice-over): He fires another shot, then the suspect fled, likely following this route, according to police, down a back alley of a Midtown theater before jumping on an electric bike. Police losing his track after he entered Central Park.
KENNY: We're still tracking video. There are GPS' on those bikes. We'll be working with the company.
GINGRAS (voice-over): Investigators also recovering a cell phone, three shell casings at the scene, and are asking the public for help in identifying the gunman. Police also releasing these images of what appears to be the gunman in a Starbucks shortly before the shooting.
50-year-old Thompson was the CEO of the health insurance unit within the Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group. He arrived in New York City on Monday for an investor's conference.
[03:20:04]
As of now, police don't believe he and the gunman crossed paths until this morning and are still searching for a motive.
Thompson's wife, Paulette, told NBC News, quote, "there had been some threats," but she didn't know why.
Thompson was father of two boys. His wife also released a statement saying, "Brian was an incredibly loving, generous, talented man who truly lived life to the fullest and touched so many lives."
ANDREW WITTY, CEO, UNITEDHEALTHCARE GROUP: There are no words to describe how so many of us are feeling right now. Brian was a truly extraordinary person who touched the lives of countless people throughout our organization and far beyond.
GINGRAS (voice-over): The brazen murder happening at the start of morning rush hour in an area of New York City crawling with tourists for the holiday season. MICHELLE WYCKOFF, HILTON HOTEL GUEST: So we just heard sirens going off. I thought, oh gosh, what's going on? I did not think it was actually right here.
UNKNOWN: You know, we really don't know what it was about, but we're shocked that somebody would be killed in broad daylight in New York. That's really quite shocking.
GINGRAS (voice-over): Brynn Gingras, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUECH: Just ahead, more allegations of genocide in Gaza. We'll have details on a new report as well as Israel's response.
Plus, heavy damage and anger. People in southern Lebanon share their hopes for the future amid the fragile ceasefire.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: A new report from Amnesty International says there's enough evidence to accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza. The rights group details numerous instances of mass killings and other atrocities. The Israeli military called the report entirely baseless, saying it ignores Hamas' violations of international law.
Meanwhile, Israeli attacks killed dozens of people in Gaza on Wednesday. The Israeli military says it carried out a precise strike on senior Hamas militants in a humanitarian zone in Khan Younis.
A local hospital says 11 of the 20 people killed there were children. Gaza authorities say women and children were also among the 10 people killed by strikes in Gaza City.
Well violence is also flaring over in the West Bank. Israeli authorities say eight people were arrested after settlers set fires in two Palestinian villages. The IDF says the settlers had been forced from an unauthorized settlement near Nablus and that during the evacuations, they threw stones at security forces, injuring two officers.
All settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, even though the Israeli government condones most or many of them.
CNN's Paula Hancocks is tracking all of this live from Abu Dhabi. She joins us now. So, Paula, what more are you learning about Amnesty International saying there's sufficient evidence to accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza?
[03:25:01]
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, this is a near 300- page report issued by Amnesty International. They say that they gathered evidence over some nine months and they said they found numerous incidents where the Israeli military or government authorities had acted in a way that was against three out of the five acts that are banned under the U.N. Genocide Convention.
They say that they found mass killing of Palestinian civilians, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and then also deliberately inflicting conditions of life on Palestinian civilians in Gaza that were calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole or in part.
And they say that this evidence was sufficient for them to believe that Israel's conduct in Gaza does amount to genocide.
Now, it has been strongly denied and condemned by Israel itself. The IDF calls the claims entirely baseless, saying that it doesn't take into account the operational realities of the Israeli military in Gaza, pointing out that Hamas uses Israeli, excuse me, Palestinian civilians as human shields, that they are hiding within the civilian population and that the Israeli military does all it can to try and mitigate harm, it says, to civilians in Gaza.
Now, Amnesty does acknowledge that Hamas does hide in densely populated and residential areas, but says that this does not absolve Israel of the responsibility to protect civilians.
Now, it's just one of the latest accusations against Israel when it comes to its conduct in Gaza. We know that there is a case and accusations in the International Court of Justice in The Hague brought by South Africa of genocide.
This has been strongly denied by Israel, saying that the accusations are grossly distorted. There's also a U.N. special committee just last month that said that they had a report and it said that Israel's conduct is consistent with the characteristics of genocide. Rosemary.
CHURCH: All right, our thanks to Paula Hancocks with that live report from Abu Dhabi.
Turning now to the situation in Lebanon, the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Israel's ceasefire with Hezbollah is holding and despite some back-and-forth strikes, both sides want the truce to work.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We get reports of violations. We look at them, we engage the parties and that's exactly what we've done. The mechanism that we established with France to make sure that the ceasefire is effectively monitored and implemented is working.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Antony Blinken also said that what's most wanted is, quote, "people being able to return to their homes." CNN's Clarissa Ward has our report from southern Lebanon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the balcony of his apartment, a man gazes out at his city, Tyre, once renowned for its glittering waters and ancient ruins, now in ruins itself. Moussa Saad has lived through many wars in Lebanon, but none like this.
25 years we have been here in Tyre, he tells us.
An Israeli strike pulverized the next-door building where his neighbors once lived. Their clothes still hang ghost-like in the closet.
Imagine, a person was sleeping here. The building collapsed on them. Everyone died, a woman and her children, all of them dead. Why? For what, he says.
America did this to us, not Israel. It's America that goes like this, like she didn't see anything and she didn't want to know anything.
Lebanon is a country where loyalties are divided. But bitterness towards the West for its support of Israel is everywhere.
In villages around Tyre, Hezbollah flags fly proudly. No community has been spared.
The Melkite Greek Catholic Church had been a refuge for displaced people when it was hit by an Israeli missile on October 9th. Eight people were killed.
81-year-old church caretaker Milad Iliya has prayed here as long as he can remember. This is my house, he says.
Next to the church, a mosque, connected by a shared hall for events.
[03:30:00]
If our homes were hit and the church stayed, it would be better, he tells us. If the church is gone, there is no coexistence between people here.
Tyre is one of the world's oldest inhabited cities, mentioned several times in the Bible.
As the light falls, Kamal Istanbuli does what fishermen have been doing here for thousands of years. For 60 days during the war, Israel's military barred boats from going out on the water.
Of course it was tough, he says. We fishermen must work every day to feed our families.
WARD: What's your dream for the future?
WARD (voice-over): We don't have a future here, he tells me. With Israel as your neighbor, occupying your land, there's no future for you. There's just war after war, destruction after destruction, and the country collapses and collapses.
A bleak outlook shared by many in this historic city, even as a shaky ceasefire continues to hold.
WARD: The IDF says it has repeatedly targeted Tyre because it says that it is a Hezbollah stronghold and that there have been many attacks against Israeli forces launched from the Tyre area.
Now on Wednesday, there was another Israeli strike in the south of Lebanon. Israel's air force saying that it targeted a launch pad. But so far, diplomatic officials saying that ceasefire does continue to hold.
Clarissa Ward, CNN, Beirut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump's pick for Secretary of Defense was doing damage control on Capitol Hill Wednesday amid growing controversy over a series of misconduct allegations. The story just ahead on CNN.
Plus, the woman who stowed away on a flight from New York to Paris is back in the U.S. Coming up, details of the federal charges she's expected to face.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom." I'm Rosemary Church. I want to check today's top stories for you.
Lawmakers in South Korea are expected to vote this weekend on a motion to impeach President Yoon Suk-yeol. Members of his ruling party say they will oppose the move. Protesters are demanding his resignation after he ordered martial law late Tuesday, then reversed his decree a few hours later.
A political crisis is deepening in France. President Emmanuel Macron is expected to address the nation today. He will have to name a new Prime Minister soon after his hand-picked Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, was ousted in a vote of no confidence in Parliament.
[03:35:08]
French media is reporting that Barnier is scheduled to formally resign in the coming hours.
Here in the U.S., police may have a potential clue in the killing of a major healthcare CEO in New York. ABC News is reporting that police say they found gun casings at the scene with words, deny, defend and depose written on them. Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was gunned down on a sidewalk yesterday morning. A manhunt is underway to find the suspected gunman.
Donald Trump's embattled pick for U.S. Defense Secretary is vowing to fight on despite growing controversy. Pete Hegseth met with key Republicans on Wednesday. But concern over a series of misconduct allegations is not dying down.
Hegseth insists he has the President-elect's support.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGHSETH, TRUMP'S PICK FOR U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: I spoke to the President-elect this morning. He said keep going, keep fighting. I'm going to find you all the way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju has more on the allegations against Hegseth and his damage patrol efforts on Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There are a number of Republican senators who simply will not say if they will support Pete Hegseth's nomination for Secretary of Defense because of all the misconduct allegations that have come out in the past as well as questions about whether he can actually do the job.
One of the people who is most skeptical about him right now is Republican Senator Joni Ernst. She is someone who is pointedly undecided about whether she will get on board, could actually vote for his nomination. She's actually someone who has endured sexual assault herself, a victim of sexual assault, and has started a push to change the practices of how the Pentagon deals with these sexual assault claims.
Now, Hegseth, of course, has been accused of sexual assault. He's denied those allegations. But leaving a meeting with him for about 45 minutes on Wednesday afternoon, she refused to say if she would support him for the position. She only said she had a thorough conversation and a frank conversation with him, really would not say anything else when I asked her if she would vote for him.
Now, there have also been questions about some of these allegations of misconduct, including excessive drinking on the job. He has denied that, but he did tell senators, including Senator Roger Wicker, who chaired the critical Senate Armed Services Committee that would take up his nomination, that if he's confirmed, he would no longer drink.
RAJU: You told me earlier that he said that he would not drink on the job. How did it come out and --
SEN. ROGER WICKER (R-MS): Well -- really, I normally don't discuss what we have talked about specifically, but you know, the allegation was made about him being intoxicated several times. And so the questions that every member will be asking him led to this thing.
RAJU: And he kind of wants to stop drinking altogether if he becomes Secretary of Defense. Will you see the whistleblower report?
WICKER: Absolutely. Well, I will see whatever the FBI investigation provides us. I assume it will be comprehensive. RAJU: And the last part that Wicker was referring to was what was revealed in "The New Yorker" investigation that came out over the last couple of days, saying that there was a whistleblower investigation into his conduct when leading a veteran's services organization several years ago.
And that whistleblower report, as you heard there from Senator Wicker, he believes that the committee will see some form of that, whether it's the report itself or, he says, through an FBI investigation that a lot of Republicans and Democrats are demanding before they consider voting for him.
Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: The president-elect is now considering other options to lead the Pentagon, according to some reports. Sources tell CNN that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is among the top contenders, along with Iowa Senator Joni Ernst and Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty.
CNN's Manu Raju again got comments from several senators about the possibility that DeSantis could be the next defense secretary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): I'm considering voting yes on DeSantis if he finally admits that he has lifts in his boots. I'm sure he does. Maybe three inches, four inches at least.
SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): He's a, you know, a governor of one of our biggest states. He's served in Congress. He's, you know, served in the military. So I think he has what you would look at on paper as the requisite kind of experience you would want in a secretary of defense.
UNKNOWN: It's not 100 percent clear to me who he wants as secretary of defense right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Ron Brownstein is a CNN senior political analyst and senior editor at "The Atlantic." He joins me now from Los Angeles. A pleasure to have you with us.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST AND SR. EDITOR, "THE ATLANTIC": Hi, Rosemary.
[03:40:02]
CHURCH: So Donald Trump's pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, is vowing to fight like hell, his words, with his nomination now in jeopardy due to serious accusations against him. But at the same time, Donald Trump is now looking at potential replacements, including Ron DeSantis. So what's going on here? Is Trump backing Hegseth or not?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, with Donald Trump, loyalty extends to the point where it no longer does. Right. I mean, you know, for Trump, loyalty historically is a one-way street, expects loyalty from those around him, doesn't really extend a lot to those around him.
And if Hegseth becomes too big a burden, I mean, there's no reason to believe that Trump would not cut him loose. You see what a self- inflicted wound this is, though. I mean, first and foremost, the list of alternatives for this job, who would be more appropriate for it and easier for a Republican Senate, which, after all, wants to confirm his nominees, is very long.
And the fact that he's able to come up with names like Ron DeSantis and Senator Joni Ernst immediately as you know, float them as possibilities shows how unnecessary this was and how reflective it was of the risks that Trump's impulsive management style still presents to him in a second term that will begin in a few weeks.
CHURCH: And in Hegseth's meeting Wednesday with Republican Senator Roger Wicker, he vowed not to drink if he's confirmed after accusations of being intoxicated when he ran a veteran services organization and he also denied sexual allegations against him.
Will all this, along with his media blitz Wednesday, save him and get the support from senators that he needs to overcome his many challenges to get confirmed?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, first of all, as we've discussed before, I think Republican senators would prefer that he withdraw rather than having to publicly vote against him. So the question is whether enough of them kind of put the writing on the wall in a way that convinces Trump that he doesn't want to go forward with this.
I mean, not to be cruel, but, you know, a defense secretary is not a place really that you would want to take a chance on someone promising never to drink again. I mean, there is a long history, you know, basically throughout human experience of people who have trouble with alcohol saying that they will never drink again. And it doesn't always, I don't want to shock the listeners, but it doesn't always pan out that way.
John Tower was George H.W. Bush's nominee for defense secretary. And he was -- and even as a former senator, with all the courtesy, you know, in the chamber extended to a former senator. He was rejected largely on the grounds of concern about having a defense secretary who has a history of problems with alcohol.
Certainly, you know, it's a little different than having an interior secretary or a V.A. secretary. Someone in the nuclear line of command with a history of alcohol issues is something that I think people are rightly concerned about.
CHURCH: CNN has learned that Donald Trump has already had a conversation with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as Hegseth's potential replacement if he fails to get confirmed or if he withdraws. Republican Senator Joni Ernst, you mentioned, is another potential replacement and has to be said, one who could tank Hegseth's chances here.
So what's your response to DeSantis or Ernst as possible nominees to head up the Pentagon and also Trump apparently moving ahead to Plan B?
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, well, look, above all, like, what are we seeing here? The idea that at 78 there is some new Donald Trump is, you know, pretty ridiculous. It's like Paul Simon would have said, hello, chaos, my old friend.
This is the way Donald Trump manages impulsively, makes decisions without full information. There's no way they knew all of this about Pete Hegseth, all that's come out from Jane Mayer. And certainly we know they didn't know about the rape allegation and the investigation.
And this is kind of a preview of what a second term is going to be. I mean, the idea that it's going to be vastly more professional and calm and kind of considered and moving in a consistent direction.
Look at the turnover in the even in the transition here with this DEA nominee pulling, you know, withdrawing. And Matt Gaetz having to withdraw. And now the odds, I think, better than not that Hegseth has to. And the possibility that Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr. will be voted down.
All of this is telling you that we have sort of bought a ticket for the same ride we saw from 2017 to 2020 with a lot of daily chaos in the administration of the executive branch.
CHURCH: Ron Brownstein, good to talk with you. Thanks for joining us.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.
CHURCH: The Russian woman who stowed away on a flight from New York to Paris will appear in court today. The FBI says 57-year-old Svetlana Dali was arrested after being flown back to the U.S. on Wednesday.
[03:45:09]
She's expected to face a federal charge of being a stowaway on a vessel or aircraft without consent and could face up to five years in prison. CNN's Polo Sandoval picks up the story from New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Delta stowaway is back in the U.S. where it started, touching down Wednesday night at New York's JFK Airport.
PATRICIA KOLEMAN, PASSENGER: We saw police and all kinds of officials waiting at the gate, which is something that you just never see.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): Svetlana Dali, a U.S. permanent resident and Russian national, escorted by French security officials on the flight back from Paris. Seated in the middle of the last row, she listened to country music and walked around the cabin during the eight-hour flight. CNN on the plane as it flew to New York without incident. It's a drastic change from the first attempt to return the 57-year-old to the U.S. on Saturday.
When she caused this disturbance and was removed from the flight before takeoff. A second attempt to send her back on Tuesday ended when Delta refused to fly her.
TSA now confirms Dali bypassed I.D. checks without a boarding pass during the busy pre-Thanksgiving travel rush and using a lane reserved for flight crews, then slipping into the regular screening lanes.
The agency says while they did not check her documents, Dali and her bags were screened. A senior law enforcement official tells CNN Dali blended in with a large family boarding the Paris flight to get past the gate agents and onto the plane. She then hid in the lavatories in flight until she was discovered.
Why Dali is trying to get to France remains a mystery. According to record, she lives in Philadelphia and petitioned for asylum in France years ago, but was denied.
A long list of questions and possible criminal charges meeting her today at JFK as investigators want to know more about how she bypassed layers of security exposing vulnerabilities in one of the world's busiest international airports.
SANDOVAL: In their first statement since the original stowaway incident last week, Delta Airlines said that what it describes as deviation from standard procedures is what allowed that stowaway to board that plane last week to Paris. They did not elaborate on what kind of deviation, only that they are addressing the matter.
Meanwhile, on the federal front, we do understand that Dali is expected to be charged with being a stowaway on a vessel or aircraft without consent to crime punishable by up to five years in prison if she's convicted.
Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Iran's parliament adopts a strict new modesty law. Coming up, how they need the president to sign off and what he has to say even though he opposes it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Millions in Cuba have been plunged into darkness once again after the power grid collapsed on Wednesday, the latest in a series of infrastructure failures on the island.
[03:50:06]
The state-run utility company said it was working to get the grid back online, but officials warned it could take days. This comes weeks after most of Cuba suffered near total blackouts in October, its worst outage in decades.
Iran is one step closer to toughening its already harsh modesty laws. The hardline Iranian parliament adopted the new chastity in hijab bill earlier this week. It would significantly tighten existing clothing restrictions with new penalties for violations that include fines and potentially prison sentences.
For women, this includes banning tight outfits and wearing the hijab incorrectly. For men, it bans any exposure below the chest and above the knees as well as the shoulders. It now goes to Iran's president for his signature. While he has voiced opposition to the bill and calls it vague, he acknowledged he has to implement it to ensure harmony in society.
A woman well-known for her fierce defense of human rights in Iran has been allowed to temporarily leave prison as she fights a possible bout with cancer, but her family argues her release did not come soon enough.
CNN's Salma Abdelaziz reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A brief reprieve from Tehran's notorious Evin prison. Iran's most prominent human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nargis Mohammadi released for 21 days to recover from a serious surgery.
The 52-year-old is in excruciating pain after a piece of her bone from her right leg was removed due to cancer fears.
It is too little too late, her family says. But even as she departed jail by ambulance, she remained defiant, her son told reporters.
When she left Evin prison, she left without the obligatory hijab and with only one phrase on her lips: women, life, freedom, he says.
Mohammadi has been punished time and time again for her activism. She is serving multiple sentences, totaling more than 30 years.
She stands accused of violating national security and spreading lies against the Islamic Republic. Her punishment, she says, for defending political prisoners and standing up for women and girls.
Her temporary release comes as one of her long-standing battles opposing the mandatory hijab is yet again in the headlines.
Iran's parliament recently passed a bill that significantly tightens existing dress restrictions and imposes harsher punishments on any seen to violate the new so-called chastity and hijab law.
Iran's president, elected last year on a reformist platform, warned it could foster discontent.
MASOUD PEZESHKIAN, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): From an enforcement perspective, the hijab law, which I am required to implement, is vague. We should not do anything to disturb the harmony and empathy of society.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): His fears of unrest stem from an anti- government movement, sparked by the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the morality police for allegedly wearing her headscarf improperly. Anger quickly spread and fueled nationwide demonstrations, while authorities scrambled to crush dissent with brute force.
From behind bars, Mohammadi joined the chorus of voices on her nation's streets by organizing protests inside Evin prison. She sent CNN this recording last year of female prisoners chanting anti- government slogans.
Her decades-long struggle for freedom earned her the Nobel Peace Prize last year, but it has come at the cost of her own freedom and health.
And as her family scrambles to get her the medical attention she needs in the limited window given the tireless work to campaign for her full and unconditional freedom, continues.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And we'll be back with more "CNN Newsroom" in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: What would New York be without this glowing holiday tradition? A large crowd enjoyed the wondrous scene as the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center blazed to life. The annual event has been around since 1933.
This year's tree is more than 22 meters tall, weighs about 11 tons, and has more than 50,000 LED lights on it. The tree will remain up and lit for visitors at the New York landmark until the middle of next month.
Nicole Kidman and Selena Gomez, two of Hollywood's biggest stars, have been honored at the Hollywood Reporter Women in Entertainment Gala. Gomez was recognized for her role in amplifying underrepresented voices in the industry and had this to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SELENA GOMEZ, ACTRESS AND SINGER: I believe that young girls need to see themselves reflected in diverse roles, heroes, leaders, and complex characters. When girls see women in empowered roles like I have, it inspires them to dream big and pursue their aspirations.
Today we are now seeing more authentic, powerful stories about who we are, where we come from, and what we're capable of accomplishing. I'm sure we can all agree that we're getting there, but we're not all the way done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Kidman, meanwhile, received the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award given to trailblazers in the entertainment industry.
Congratulations to both of them and thanks so much for watching. I'm Rosemary Church. Enjoy the rest of your day. "CNN Newsroom" continues next with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane in London.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
