Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Syria's Assad Overthrown, Rebels Take Control Of Capital; Behind The Collapse Of The Assad Regime; What's Next For Syria; Trump Says U.S. Should Stay Out Of Syria; Interview With Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL); President Biden Speaks About The Fall Of Assad Regime; New Evidence In Manhunt For CEO's Killer. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired December 08, 2024 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:41]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

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

And we begin with historic breaking news out of Syria, where after more than 50 years, the rule of the Assad family is over. And for many Syrians, it is the end of a brutal dictatorship they have known their entire lives. A source telling CNN ousted President Bashar al-Assad and his family have fled to Moscow where they have been granted asylum.

The fall of the House of Assad came quickly. Just weeks after a coalition of Syrian rebels began a rapid sweep across the country taking control of several major cities, and finally the Syrian capital.

Our Fred Pleitgen is joining us now from Moscow.

And, Fred, what more do we know about Assad's departure from Syria?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, the Russians have said that he is on the ground here, Jessica, as you've already stated. It was quite interesting because they say they are giving Bashar al-Assad and members of his family asylum here in Russia on humanitarian grounds, as they put it, and it really comes after a day where it was really unclear where the ousted leader of the Syrian Arab Republic was for much of the day.

Early this morning, the rebels stormed into the Syrian capital or fully stormed into the Syrian capital, went into government buildings, of course also went into the presidential palace there. And the first that we'd heard this morning is they said that he had fled the capital, Bashar al-Assad, but it was unclear where he was. And it was actually the Russians who first came out and confirmed that Bashar al- Assad had left Syria.

The Russian Foreign Ministry coming out with a statement saying that Assad had instructed the members of his government to make sure that there is a transfer of power before leaving the country. They did not say where Bashar al-Assad was going. And so for much of the day that remained unclear. And it was only in the evening hours that the Russians then said that they did confirm that he was here on the ground in Moscow with members of his family, and that the Russians are giving him asylum, which means that Russia, which has been one of the main backers, of course, of the Assad regime for an extended period of time, as Assad has now been ousted, is allowing him to come here and obviously giving him a safe haven -- Jessica.

DEAN: And what does the fall of the Assad regime mean for Moscow, Fred? Russia's military support was key to Assad staying in power for as long as he did.

PLEITGEN: It certainly was. Yes, first of all, it certainly was. And I think it was even more important than I think many people will realize. It was obviously important at the time of the height of the Syrian civil war, especially in 2015, things were not going well at all for the Assad government at that point in time. In fact, I was in Damascus as that was happening. And there was one setback after the next for the Assad forces on the battlefield.

And there was a real fear in Damascus at that point in time that they could fall then and that Assad would be ousted. And it was the Russians then that came in with their air force at that airbase in Khmeimim, near Latakia, which they still have, that then really turned the tides on the battlefield. There was, of course, pro-Iranian and Iranian forces who were on the ground as well. But Russia's air force really coming in with a punch and helping Bashar al-Assad's forces.

And so they were key to him staying in power also up until now. But it seems as though at this point in time even the Russians have realized that on the ground, so few people now willing to fight for Bashar al- Assad, that the Russians themselves are saying, look, it is what it is. They say that they're in contact with all the armed factions that are on the ground.

Of course, the big issue that they now have is whether or not they're going to be able to keep those military assets that they have here, their air base in latakia and then also that port, which is really important to them, near the town of Tartus, where they just recently conducted a big naval exercise from there -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Fred Pleitgen, for us in Moscow, thank you very much for that reporting. And the focus of the world remains trained on Damascus with growing concern that chemical weapons within Syria might fall into the wrong hands. And while the Assad regime has fallen, the impact of his brutal reign remains.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh looks back at the violent dictatorship that left Syria in ruins and sent Assad into exile.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: (voice-over): Bashar al-Assad inherited his father's totalitarian regime, and left it and his country in ruins. A thuggish police state in a brutal repression turned war, where hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed and more than half the population fled their homes.

[18:05:09]

RAMI KHOURI, MIDDLE EAST ANALYST: He'll be remembered as one of the most violent rulers in response to the uprisings that started in late 2010 in the Arab world. He'll also be remembered as the failing endpoint of the Assad dynasty that his father had started, that lasted for over 42 years but it collapsed under him.

ROBERTSON: Bashar al-Assad never expected to take over from his father. His older brother Bassel was the heir apparent. Instead Bashar trained as an ophthalmologist in London. Former Assad family insiders say he didn't have the right stuff to run Syria.

ABDEL HALIM KHADDAM, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF SYRIA (through translator): His brother Bassel bullied him as a child. His father never gave him as much attention as Bassel.

ROBERTSON: But a high speed car crash killed Bassel and Bashar was brought back home to learn the family business.

When President Hafez al-Assad died in 2000, Syria's elite pushed Bashar into the presidency, keeping 30 years of their own wealth, power, position and influence intact.

RIFAAT ASSAD, BASHAR AL-ASSAD'S UNCLE (through translator): Hafez was a leader. The head of the entire regime, while Bashar never came close to that.

ROBERTSON: At first, the new president agreed to modest reforms and released hundreds of political prisoners. But that brief moment of optimism, dubbed the Damascus Spring, ended abruptly.

A decade later, the regional upheaval known as the Arab Spring wouldn't be addressed as easily. Protests demanding change spread across Syria in early 2011. The regime cracked down turning peaceful protest into slaughter. The U.N. found what it called massive evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity. Responsibility at the highest level of government including the head of state.

Assad, the deceptively gentle face of an increasingly desperate regime, denied responsibility in one of his rare encounters with a Western journalist.

BASHAR AL-ASSAD, FORMER SYRIAN PRESIDENT: They are not my forces. They are military forces belong to the government.

BARBARA WALTERS, JOURNALIST: OK. But you --

AL-ASSAD: I don't own them. I'm president.

ROBERTSON: The chaos spawned countless local militias and opposition forces. In the mayhem, the ultraviolent Islamist group ISIS gained a temporary foothold spewing its nihilistic terror over the border into Iraq. U.S. and Iraqi forces confronted and ultimately crushed them but

didn't challenge Assad's brutal authority. Fearing the developing threat, the United States led a coalition to fight Assad's terrorist enemies for him, ISIS and al Qaeda. Russia, too, joined the fight.

Assad and his allies Hezbollah from Lebanon, an Iranian militia, were losing ground, committing more forces than any other country with barbaric internationally condemned ground and air assaults. Russia turned the tide in Assad's favor. But when Russia's forces went to war in Ukraine in 2022, the clock on Assad's rule began ticking down. By late 2024, his other main allies, Iran and Hezbollah, were bloodied by over a year long war with Israel.

Assad's fortunes plummeted. Former al Qaeda turned nationalist Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham surged out of their northern enclave, exploiting Assad's allies' weakness, overrunning the country. Within two weeks Assad had fled to Russia, ending his family's half century, ruthless repression of the Syrian people. His life in exile begins living in the shadow of fear. His heinous crimes will eventually catch up with him.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: And I want to bring in Nic Robertson now.

And, Nic, my apologies. That was my mistake. That was your reporting that we just saw and listened to, and it really does just give us such a vast picture of the Bashar al-Assad and the Assad family regime and the control that they exerted over Syria for so long.

ROBERTSON: Yes. And the bloody aftermath of that control. I mean, they were the ones in 2012 I remember during the civil war there being in this small town where the tanks and the heavy machine guns were rained against a civilian population. We managed to get out before they started shooting those heavy weapons. But that came and it lasted what we've seen over 12 years.

[18:10:07]

You know, the toll that Assad has left behind has been documented. I mean, his forces documented it. There was the famous case of a police, military photographer from one of the jails. He went by the pseudonym of Caesar. He left the country, got asylum outside of Syria, and he took with him a catalog of photographs, about 10,000 photographs, that literally cataloged more than 6,000 deaths in Assad's jails.

So the accounts, if you will, the documents that could be used to put Assad in court one day to be held accountable for his crimes are there and the use of chemical weapons, the use of chlorine gas back in 2018 and numerous other times that time killing 43 people, or the use of the deadly nerve agent sarin 2017. Just a few years ago, Assad, the leader of a country dropping a deadly nerve agent on his citizens killing more than 90 of them.

These are all documented. The evidence is there and that he could literally one day face that in court. And that's something he'll be thinking about all through his remaining years in exile.

DEAN: Yes, no doubt about that.

Nic Robertson, in London, thank you very much for that reporting.

I'd like to bring in former NATO Supreme Allied commander, General Wesley Clark.

General, thanks so much for joining us. When we left you last night, this was all really unfolding. And now here we are 24 hours later and the Assad regime has officially fallen. What do you make of where we stand right now?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET), U.S. ARMY: Well, I think right now the question is really what's going to happen there in Damascus and in the rest of Syria because there are contending factions. The Syrian Democratic Forces that we're supporting and U.S. forces on the south as President Biden has made a lot of strikes against ISIS. Those Syrian Democratic Forces are going to try to expand their reach.

The Kurds are going to be very, very concerned about what happens because this HTS group has had backing from Turkey and President Erdogan was the first of the national leaders who said, when this was all unfolding a couple of days ago, he said, well, I hope that everyone will get out of the way and support them. So he's behind this group and that's not good news for the Kurds. But President Erdogan and Turkey have always had larger ambitions to stabilize this region and to do more.

On the one hand, that could be helpful and on the other hand, it will bring its own challenges and rivalries from other regional powers and all that's going to play out because it would be very surprising if HTS has a constitutional game plan to call the U.N. and supervise some elections or elected parliament and so forth. I hope it happens but it would be really remarkable if it does. Instead, what's likely to happen is one party rule behind the scenes, cutting deals, some people will be cut out.

The real question is, what about these terrorists that are being held in northeast Syria. For goodness' sake, if they get released, that's a whole another level of challenge for the United States and for the region. So there are many, many uncertainties in this.

One thing, though, Jessica, is President Biden did take credit for this. And his support of Israel and the way that the United States has handled it and there's no doubt that the weakening of Iran, the weakening of Hezbollah and so forth, Israel's actions have enabled this to occur. As far as Russia is concerned, I suspect that President Erdogan and President Putin have got this worked out. The naval base will stay there. The terrorists won't bother the Russians.

This gives actually, for President Erdogan, it's good. He's got a little whole card to play with Mr. Putin if he has to because -- through his influence in this regime if he has that influence. And again, we don't know that for sure but he can, you know, turn the screws on Mr. Putin on those naval bases and the airfield when he wants to. And so, in this region, everybody is talking to everybody all of the time at various levels. So there's a lot more to see as this unravels.

DEAN: Yes, there certainly is. And then today we saw the U.S. with those airstrikes on various ISIS targets within Syria. We know that there are roughly 900 troops currently deployed in Syria. Where do you see the U.S. position here? And do you think we'll continue to see these sort of bombs and strikes like we saw today?

CLARK: Well, it depends on our assessment of what the strikes that we executed did. 75 strikes. That's a lot of strikes. You're bringing in B-52 bombers. They can do precision strikes. They can also do what is known as carpet bombing so they can take a large area and saturate it with high explosives.

[18:15:09]

So that's a lot of firepower deployed. If ISIS is really there and was there and our intelligence was accurate and we took them out, that's a good thing. But I think the United States would be well served to stay right in that area for a while. That gives us a card to play in the region. It gives us real time intelligence. It gives us influence and we're also talking to all the parties that we can reach of course.

I don't know about the chemical weapons in Damascus. That's a real uncertainty. Who's got the best intel on that? Is it the Israelis? Is it the Russians? Is it -- if the Russians have it, are they sharing it? Is it Turkey? And who's going to go in and secure those chemical weapons? How many are there? What's there -- that's a major uncertainty that the United States and Israel have to worry about.

DEAN: How concerned are you about those chemical weapons?

CLARK: I am concerned. But chemical weapons are, even though we categorize them as weapons of mass destruction, you know, they're not like nuclear weapons. So, yes, they're bad and they're banned, and they shouldn't be used, but were they to be used against Israel the impact the retaliation would be devastating. So obviously Assad never considered that, never tried it.

And I think the real thing is to get them out of there before some terrorists can use them in a subway bombing or something else in a Western city. And that would be my concern about those systems.

DEAN: Yes. All right. General Wesley Clark, thanks again. Nice to see you. We really appreciate it.

CLARK: Thank you. Thank you, Jessica.

DEAN: Now that Assad is out of power the big question, of course, as we've been talking about, is what comes next for Syria.

Coming up, we're going to talk with the head of a Syrian pro-democracy group about his country's political future.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [18:21:47]

DEAN: For more than five decades, Bashar al-Assad and his family have ruled Syria with an iron fist. But for the first time since 1971, Syrians are now looking ahead to a new future without an Assad in power after Syrian rebels took the capital Damascus, sending Assad and his family fleeing. A source telling CNN he and his family are now in Moscow.

Joining me now to talk more about this is Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force.

Thanks so much for being here with us tonight. I know this is deeply personal to you. I first just want to get your reaction to this news that the Assad regime is over and these rebels are now in control of Syria.

MOUAZ MOUSTAFA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SYRIAN EMERGENCY TASK FORCE: It's wonderful news that the revolutionaries and the Syrian people are in control of their country for the first time, maybe in their history. It's wonderful news that the Syrian people with no outside support, not Turkey -- I have to agree with my fellow (INAUDIBLE) General Wesley Clark.

Turkish Syrian National Army and other groups did not take part in this offensive, led by a joint operations group that includes HTS of all these rebel factions, and they defeated Iran and Russia and ISIS and Assad, and are now working to ensure ISIS is completely also out of Syria. They defeated America's enemies, democracy's enemies, and towards the end of the Assad regime I have to also mention the Biden administration called right away for the de-escalation. De-escalation of what? The liberations of towns and cities were concentration camps and dungeons, where little babies, little kids haven't seen the light.

There was a girl went into jail at 4 years old, came out at 14 years old. Didn't even see the light of day, are being liberated, where millions of refugees in Europe are packing up to go back home to Syria. It's truly a wonderful day, not just for the Syrians, for the Middle East, not just for the Middle East, for Europe, and the whole world. And it's sad that so many of the conversations have been about well, are this -- is this al Qaeda taking over?

By the way, what's ironic is HTS is one of the biggest enemies and actually the reason al Qaeda has no more foothold in Syria because they got rid of its affiliate there and Nusra, the old one that got the FTO affiliation, was dissolved and now hopefully even HTS can be dissolved. There is a coalition of Syrian forces on their own with no outside support, not even Turkey, liberated their countries of people that happen to be our enemies here in the United States and they deserve a chance to go towards the democracy that they all fought for and protested peacefully for back -- starting in 2011.

And to reduce their success to one faction or just one person is a really misunderstanding of what's happening there. Also happy to talk about the chemical weapons and these recent ISIS strikes. I just came back from -- with U.S. forces in Iraq, in Syria, on bases, and the reason there were so many strikes against ISIS is because the Russians left, because they were defeated by the Syrians, freeing U.S. Air Force to go after ISIS in regime-held areas who was unwilling or unable to defeat. He wanted the world to say, oh, it's either ISIS or him. His propaganda lives on. But Syria is now free.

[18:25:05]

DEAN: And I hear you on that. And listen, you see -- we see the images coming back and a lot of joy on a lot of Syrians' faces. And you mentioned so many who have had to live in exile, be refugees, haven't been able to go home in many, many years, who will now be able to go home and are clearly and quite understandably so happy about that.

I do want to ask you, though, because the U.S. believes that some of those within HTS do have ties with ISIS, and it is -- I think you can understand a bit sticky in terms of we don't know exactly what they're going to do. We know what they've said they want to do. They have to act on that.

MOUSTAFA: I just want to correct, I'm sorry to correct you. You said there are some people within HTS that the U.S. thinks have ties with ISIS.

DEAN: That's correct.

MOUSTAFA: No. The United States back in 2013-ish, put something called Jabhat al-Nusra on the FTO list because they had started a loose affiliation with ISIS, not for transnational terrorism, but for inter- Islamist whatever. And that ended. The designation was bequeathed to HTS based on that former version of it. But HTS and ISIS are huge enemies. The U.S. is very well aware of that.

As a matter of fact, it was HTS and other opposition groups including those that, you know, are secular and democratic as well, are who cleared ISIS of the northwest while the United States and its partner forces, the SDF and the Syria Free Army, cleared ISIS from the northeast and the south in areas that were U.S. areas when the Russians came out, now our partner forces like the Syria Free Army have liberated Palmyra, broken the siege on Rukban.

And those airstrikes against ISIS are possible because the Syrians, including the coalition of fighters that includes HTS liberated Syria.

DEAN: OK. And so I hear you and I think you're making the point I'm trying to make, which is this is nuanced, OK? They have had ties with ISIS in the past. That is true. Now --

MOUSTAFA: With Al Qaeda. ISIS in the past -- yes.

DEAN: In the past.

MOUSTAFA: In terms of some individuals, maybe, yes, go ahead.

DEAN: What I'm saying is, and I think we can all agree, is that there is nuance here and there are concerns that there have either been past affiliations or current affiliations with terrorist groups. And so that being said, I think my question to you is, why are you so optimistic that they can clear themselves of all of that?

MOUSTAFA: The consensus is on past affiliations, not current affiliations. And, you know, I think that's really important. But the reason I'm so optimistic is a coalition of forces called the Joint Military Operations Command Room that includes HTS who also leads this and has governance experience in Idlib Province. All these forces, they include Islamists and secular. They include liberal and conservative.

It's a chorus of voices as in which is like the United States democracy is a chorus of voices, right, of different political stripes. But they agreed on one thing. We're going to liberate Syria from Iran, ISIS, Assad and Russia. That's one major agreement. The second agreement is we're going to give Syria back to its people. And Jolani himself has said multiple times, he's thinking of even dissolving HTS.

This is the right kind of thinking. We have these young kids who the world left to get gassed and they wrote on the wall, you know, your next doctor and they got their nails pulled out. They grew up, they liberated their country without anyone else. And now when we cleared ISIS completely out, as we've done for Russia, Iran and Assad, U.S. troops can go home in the right way, honorably, after doing a massive favor to the world in the Syrian people by helping us get rid of ISIS in the northeast, as the rebels did in the northwest.

DEAN: All right. Mouaz Moustafa, we really appreciate it. As Biden says he's going to wait and see and base his assessment on this, not just on their words, but their actions, and so now we wait to see how this all starts to take shape.

MOUSTAFA: Exactly. And we should bring the bishop of Aleppo, the head of the Catholic Christians in Aleppo in Syria to tell you about the actions of all the rebel factions, including HTS. I am so proud of the Syrian people and I'm so proud of the American servicemen and women that I've worked with out there that can soon hopefully go home after securing their partner forces and securing that ISIS is eliminated from the world.

DEAN: All right. Thank you so much. We appreciate your time. We're going to be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:33:30]

DEAN: President-elect Donald Trump says Syria, quote, "is not our fight," but the regime change and the uncertainty that will likely follow is something his administration is going to have to grapple with.

CNN's Alayna Treene is in West Palm Beach.

And Alayna, talk us through how the incoming administration is approaching what is a seismic shift in the Middle East. ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is a seismic shift, Jessica. And

part of the concerns that I'm picking up from Donald Trump's team is one that this, of course, is going to complicate any efforts that they try to, you know, move forward with as it relates to finding a pathway to end the wars, both in the Middle East but also between Russia and Ukraine. How this conflict ends here could potentially spill over into other regions in the Middle East, into Lebanon, et cetera. All things that they're weighing for.

But another big thing, I think, to keep in mind as well, is whether or not this could lead to a resurgence of ISIS or allow other extremist groups to really gain a foothold in the region and, you know, see them do what they've done in the past, which is kind of use a crisis moment to plot attacks against the United States. We also saw J.D. Vance, the VP-elect, kind of, you know, nod at that today on social media.

But one thing I do want to argue as well is what we saw Donald Trump directly respond to this. We saw an overnight post on Truth Social, it was at 2:00 a.m. he wrote this. He said that Assad is gone. But then he later was trying to talk about the war between Ukraine and Russia. He said that Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president who he met with just yesterday, Jessica, is someone who wants to end the conflict and that war quickly.

[18:35:04]

And that right now Russia is in a weakened state, really leading him to believe that it's time for Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, to come to the table. Donald Trump wrote as well that he knows Putin very well and so, again, we're kind of seeing some of the contours of this. I think it's very early and Donald Trump, of course, is still just president-elect. But of course, this is going to potentially complicate plans that they have once he is in office.

DEAN: Yes. And separately, Alayna, I did want to ask you, too, about some comments that President Trump made earlier today when he was interviewed by NBC News. What kind of stood out to you there?

TREENE: There was a couple of things. A lot of major points, actually. He really dug into policy for the first time since he was elected in November 5th. But one thing that really stood out to me was his comments about immigration and his plans for the mass deportation of migrants who are here illegally. Now he said -- or undocumented migrants, I should say. He said that he is still committed to deporting for this mass deportation, deporting millions of migrants in this country. He wants to start with criminals.

But one thing that was interesting was that he said that he actually would be open to working with Democrats to find a pathway for Dreamers, something we have not heard Donald Trump say really the entire time that he has been on the 2024 campaign trail. I want you to take a listen to how he put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: The Dreamers are going to come later, and we have to do something about the Dreamers, because these are people that have been brought here at a very young age. And many of these are middle aged people now.

I will work with the Democrats on a plan. And if we can come up with a plan. But the Democrats have made it very, very difficult to do anything. Republicans are very open to the Dreamers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, Jessica, again, this is very different from the rhetoric we have heard him use on the campaign trail where he said he wants to deport everybody. He wants everybody to get out of here. This is far more sympathetic I would argue. And part of that, I think, is, you know, there's probably some considerations that he's making now that he has won the election and that he is going to be in office, where he's starting to take into account the political ramifications of some of those decisions.

So I think this is something to definitely look forward to where specifically, as he mentions, wanting to work with Democrats on some sort of plan there -- Jessica.

DEAN: Alayna Treene, in West Palm Beach, thank you so much for that reporting.

And joining us now, Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez of Florida.

Congressman, thank you so much for being here.

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R-FL): My pleasure.

DEAN: I want to take us back to our top story first, which is Syria and what's unfolding there in Syria. President-elect Trump has made it very clear he does not want the U.S. to get involved there. We do have the 900 troops, but they are not engaging in what is going on in this essential -- essentially civil war within Syria.

Do you believe that's the right tact at this moment?

GIMENEZ: Yes. At this time I do. I think we need a wait-and-see attitude of what really is going to shake out in Syria. And I think that just keeping our forces there makes sense at this point not to get involved, but to keep them there because we don't know what -- how this is all going to shake out in the end.

DEAN: How concerned are you about, as Alayna was talking about, but also as we've heard other experts talking about the potential for ISIS to gain a larger foothold there in Syria in this, in a potential power vacuum?

GIMENEZ: Yes, I'm concerned about it. Again, nobody really knows how this is all going to shake out. We know that there are some folks that were involved with the rebels, that had prior ties to al Qaeda and to ISIS. And so, again, while were really happy that Assad is gone and that brutal dictatorship is over, now there's a vacuum. Who fills that vacuum and how it's going to be filled again, it's going to be a wait and see attitude to see how it all shakes out.

And so I think it's a wait and see attitude, I think. And I think the president is right. Let's see what happens but you know, not get involved directly in any -- in this civil war. But I think it's prudent to keep our troops right where they are.

DEAN: I also want to ask you about those comments that we just played from President-elect Trump, talking about Dreamers, migrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. He suggested he wants to work with Democrats on that, that he wants to allow them to stay. Do you agree with him?

GIMENEZ: Yes, absolutely. Look, I've been pro-Dreamers for a long time. The problem has been, and it's really ironic, is because we've had this this open border now for the last four years of the Biden administration, couldn't even talk about it because we had this invasion. And so now that that Donald Trump will be closing the border or making immigration harder and only the immigrants that should be here are going to be allowed in, once he deports all the criminals that are, you know, perpetrating crimes here in the United States and shouldn't be here, and I think the second batch is going to be the millions of illegals that were allowed into the United States illegally by the Biden administration. That's the second batch.

[18:40:07]

But there's a whole bunch of people who've been here for a long time that we want to do something different with. And you can't treat them the same way that you're treating the criminal element of the immigrants, and also the ones that just recently came. That's going to be totally different.

Dreamers are in that last batch. We've been trying to get to that and find a solution to that for a long time. But again, because we had open borders, we couldn't even have the discussion.

DEAN: Well, there was that bipartisan legislation that that Republicans killed last year.

GIMENEZ: The Republicans killed last year? No, I never -- I don't -- look, first of all, I don't think it ever got to the House. So no --

DEAN: It was in the Senate. You're right. Yes.

GIMENEZ: OK. And so here. You're not going to be able to have this discussion, all right, until you close the border and the border is secure. Then once we do that and then we start deporting the criminal elements out, then the American people will be ready to discuss what are we going to do about those that have been here undocumented for a long time? And how are we going to take care of them? What is the resolution to that?

And in that group is DACA. They're the Dreamers. And so, you know, I've always been in favor of them. But it's been these policies that have really stopped us from having those discussions because the border has been wide open. And that's just the facts. And so once we do that then a lot of Republicans and then we can work with some Democrats to get some legislation to take care of that problem once and for all.

And I think that President Trump, ironically, is going to be the president who's going to be able to do that.

DEAN: All right. Congressman Carlos Gimenez, we really thank you for your time. Appreciate it.

GIMENEZ: Thank you.

DEAN: Ahead, the White House already carrying out urgent new actions in Syria including dozens of airstrikes in just the last few hours aimed at keeping ISIS from rising to fill Syria's new power vacuum. We're going to talk more about that.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:46:31]

DEAN: President Biden says the fall of the Assad regime after nearly a half century of brutal rule is, quote, "a fundamental act of justice." But he warns the coming change in leadership presents a moment of both risk and opportunity for the Syrian people.

Our Priscilla Alvarez joins us now from the White House.

And Priscilla, the U.S. considers the Syrian rebel leader a terrorist. However, that leader has talked about a lot of the things that they want to do. The question now is, what will they actually act on?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is the question. It's one that U.S. officials are grappling with this evening. Remember that this fall happened quite suddenly and abruptly while the U.S. was monitoring and tracking these developments in Syria. Senior administration officials acknowledged to reporters earlier today that this is certainly a surprise. And now comes the task of trying to sort out the next steps.

And as you just mentioned President Biden in his remarks earlier said that it was, quote, "a moment of historic opportunity as well as risk and uncertainty." And so he did also take a bit of a victory lap by saying that U.S. policy had in some respects helped this happen. Of course, Iran and Russia were tied up and he said that that basically didn't allow them to defend Syria and left them in this situation.

Now, the president also saying and outlining a plan ahead in the ways that the U.S. would help the region. He said, for example, that the U.S. will support Syria's neighbors, for example Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Israel. He also said that he would speak to his counterparts in the coming days and send senior administration officials to the region. He did not say who or when, but certainly that is part of the plan going forward. He also said that the U.S. would work to prevent the resurgence of

ISIS and engage with Syrian groups. And this part was notable because he was inviting discussion and encouraging those Syrian groups to speak up in this period of transition, and that goes to the bottom line here, which is that the U.S., while they plan to essentially have a hand in this, it is ultimately up to Syria what their future will or how their future will unfold. And that is what the president had to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to say it again, sovereign Syria with a new constitution, a new government that serves all Syrians. And this process will be determined by the Syrian people themselves and the United States will do whatever we can to support them, including through humanitarian relief, to help restore Syria after more than a decade of war and generations of brutality by the Assad family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: So the president making clear there that the United States will be a helping hand as they chart the next steps. But, Syria, in all of this is ultimately up to Syria, and certainly here at the White House, U.S. officials will be engaging with their counterparts in the region as they too try to sort out what will happen here in this moment of uncertainty.

DEAN: All right. Priscilla Alvarez at the White House for us tonight. Thank you very much for that.

And when we come back, the new evidence authorities are sharing in the search for the person who killed a health insurance CEO in New York as NYPD and FBI continue their urgent search for any clues about who he is and where he is.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:54:10]

DEAN: As the hunt for the man who fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson continues, some new clues this evening. The NYPD releasing new photos of the suspect taken inside a car. Authorities do believe the suspect has already fled New York City. Police saying they found a backpack they believe belongs to that suspect and inside Monopoly money.

Joining us now CNN's Gloria Pazmino.

Gloria, what more do you know?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jessica, you know the Monopoly money has been a bit of a puzzling clue that this suspect has left behind. But this is a suspect who also left messages behind on the bullets which we learned a few days ago. So that is certainly something that investigators here are looking into. But most importantly last night we got two new images of the suspect

from the inside of the cab that he took after leaving Central Park. And he took that cab to Washington Heights, to the bus terminal, where he is believed to have left the city.

[18:55:06]

This is a very clear photo. This is the first time that we're really getting a clear, focused image of what the suspect's eyes look like. You can see that he's still wearing that mask, but you can see his eyes and his eyebrows very clearly. There's also another photo that shows him directly outside of the cab.

Now, so far from what we know, NYPD officials are not releasing the identity of the suspect. But our sources tell us that they believe they are getting close to identifying him. We are now stretching into the fifth day of this investigation and still no public information just yet about who this person is.

A reward of $50,000 is being offered for any information that may lead to the capture and the conviction of the suspect -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Gloria Pazmino for us in New York. Thank you very much.

Still ahead, a potentially new era for the people of Syria. We're going to take a look at the toppling of the Assad regime and how it could reshape the entire region. That's ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)