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Suspect Luigi Mangione Fighting Extradition to New York; Intense Wildfire Forces California Residents to Flee Homes; Israel Strikes Syria 480 Times, Accused of Land Grab; Trump Cabinet Nominees Picking Up Support on Capitol Hill. Aired 4:00-4:30a ET
Aired December 11, 2024 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: CNN is told that investigators are looking at pages of notes in a spiral notebook that the suspect Luigi Mangione wrote in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're going to really piece that together to start to tell the story of everything that happened prior to the attack, the attack itself and the moments afterwards.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Malibu's scenic hills ablaze after a fast-moving wildfire exploded overnight from.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From a 1 to 10, it was like a 15. Like scary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Students around the world take action for quarter Earth Day to help save the planet they're inheriting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Part of the probing hand Congolese market is there's a lot of plastics and a lot of litter. So we want to bring back the initiative that would go as a student body to help clean up our surroundings.
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ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane. Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Max Foster. It's Wednesday, December the 11th 9 a.m. Here in London 4 a.m. in central, Pennsylvania. Where the attorney for accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione is fighting his extradition to New York, The 26 year old suspect yelled this at reporters as he was led into court on Tuesday.
It's completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people.
Mangione is facing a second-degree murder charge. Police say they have a notebook with a to-do list for the shooting as well as a three-page handwritten claim of responsibility. Mangione's attorney questioned the evidence.
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THOMAS DISKEY, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I Haven't seen any evidence that says that he's a shooter. So that's, you know, like I said earlier and I wasn't kidding around, a couple things if you're going to report something, report accurately. And remember, and this is not just a small thing, the fundamental concept of American justice is a presumption of innocent and until you're proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt and I've seen zero evidence at this point.
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FOSTER: More now on the suspect is well-to-do family and what former classmates are saying from CNN's Brian Todd.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In a suburban Baltimore community, people who know the family of alleged shooter Luigi Mangione are struggling to come to grips with what the 26-year-old is accused of. They believe his family is traumatized as well.
THOMAS MARONICK JR., FORMER RADIO HOST FOR MANGIONE FAMILY-OWNED STATION: They're shocked. That's what they said in their statement. They're horrified.
TODD (voice-over): Mangione, an Ivy League graduate, comes from a background of wealth and influence. He grew up in an affluent Baltimore family, whose local real estate empire included nursing homes and two country clubs, attending the exclusive Gilman School near Baltimore, becoming valedictorian of his class in 2016.
LUIGI MANGIONE, 2016 VALEDICTORIAN: Thank you for all the time and love you have put into our lives.
TODD (voice-over): On Tuesday, about 150 miles away, a much different picture, in handcuffs, under arrest, and charged in a brazen murder, seen yelling and struggling with police as he was taken into court.
MANGIONE: And an insult the intelligence of the American people.
TODD (voice-over): Tom Maronick Jr. worked for the Mangione's for over 20 years as a radio host at their family owned station, WCBM. He says the suspect's family has enormous influence in the Baltimore area.
MARONICK: They carry a lot of weight. Mangione family is one of the prominent families of Baltimore County. They own a lot of real estate. They own golf courses. They're just a very well-respected name.
TODD (voice-over): A family that includes Nino Mangione, a Republican state delegate in Maryland, who is the suspect's cousin.
Luigi Mangione attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 2020 with master's and bachelor's degrees in computer science. He was a member of the Phi Beta Psi fraternity, social media photos show. He later worked as a software engineer for the online car sales company, TrueCar, according to his LinkedIn page. His most recent address was in Hawaii.
FREDDIE LEATHERBURY, FORMER CLASSMATE: There was -- nothing came off weird about him. He had great friends. He had a lot of female friends as well. He was a relatively unassuming kid, he was down to earth. He was smart, well-adjusted socially.
TODD (voice-over): He maintained an active social media presence for years, posting smiling photos from his travels and gatherings with friends. Then suddenly his social media went cold. Posts from X this past October show concern from friends.
One says, quote, hey, are you OK? No one has heard from you in months. And apparently your family is looking for you.
In recent years, Mangione suffered from back pain and underwent surgery for treatment. His injury grew worse after an accident at a surfing lesson in Hawaii. Details emerged from his former roommate, R.J. Martin.
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R.J. MARTIN, FRIEND AND FORMER ROOMMATE OF LUIGI MANGIONE: He was in bed for about a week. We had to get a different bed for him that was more firm, and I know it was really traumatic and difficult, you know, when you're in the early 20s and you can't, you know, do some basic things.
TODD: Luigi Mangione was the subject of a missing persons report filed in San Francisco by his mother on November 18th, according to The New York Times. CNN has reached out to the San Francisco Police Department. The NYPD says that Mangione did have ties to San Francisco, but the exact time that he was there is unclear.
Brian Todd, CNN, Cockeysville, Maryland.
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FOSTER: It could take weeks before Mangione is sent to New York as the legal process plays out. For now, he's being held at a Pennsylvania prison.
Former U.S. Secret Service agent and CNN law enforcement analyst Jonathan Wackrow explains what comes next.
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JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: The investigation is going to start slowing down, right? There's a big difference between apprehension, right? A crime was committed. We need to find that suspect. We need to gather items of evidentiary value to make attribution to get this individual in custody. Now he's in custody and the investigation is going to slow down, all in the furtherance of the prosecution. So investigators are going to work backwards. They're going to start, you know, making sure that every item that they have lines up to support the ongoing prosecution of this individual. They have to go back and they're going to start over with all of the video surveillance evidence, this massive mosaic of thousands of hours of video.
They're going to really piece that together to start to tell the story of everything that happened prior to the attack, the attack itself, and the moments afterwards, really showing that premeditated action that he took.
They're also going to look at other witnesses that they may have. He was here for a long time. As they were trying to apprehend him, they didn't have the ability to go out and cast a wide net on who else interacted with him. Now they can. They have the luxury of time to slow down and find all of those additional individuals.
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FOSTER: The man accused in the second assassination attempt against Donald Trump is due in court today. Ryan Routh was arrested in September after a Secret Service agent spotted a man with a rifle near Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. He pleaded not guilty to all five charges against him.
His appearance today before Judge Aileen Cannon is for a status conference. Routh's attorney has asked Cannon, who dismissed Trump's classified documents case, to recuse herself.
People in Southern California are being forced to flee from a fast- moving wildfire that's burning homes and vehicles. The so-called Franklin Fire in Malibu is so intense, it's altering the weather and making already extreme conditions even worse. About 18,000 people are under evacuation orders or warnings, including 98-year-old award- winning actor Dick Van Dyke, who says he and his wife and pets are able to get out safely. CNN's Veronica Miracle has more.
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VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Malibu scenic hills ablaze after a fast moving wildfire exploded overnight.
LYNDA MICHEL, FLED HOUSE SURROUNDED BY FIRE: From a 1 to 10, it was like a 15. Like scary.
MIRACLE (voice-over): The Franklin Fire tripling in size in just one hour, at one point scorching the equivalent of five football fields every minute since it ignited late Monday evening, prompting evacuation orders.
MICHEL: Everything. All these mountains were covered in flames, just covered like you took a crayon and just colored everything.
MIRACLE (voice-over): Linda Michel is a caretaker who lives on a property with horses in the evacuation zone. She says she awoke to a wall of flames surrounding the area and had to scramble to save the animals.
MICHEL: It woke everybody up. Got everybody in the car. It was all nobody had time to get dressed. Everybody jumped in the cars like, get out of here. And then after that, I must have had like 30 minutes to run around and try to get the horses.
And we didn't know what we were going to do. Like, we could not leave them in the barn. Thank God we didn't leave them in the barn because the barn burned down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see the wind down there.
MIRACLE (voice-over): The inferno fueled by dry conditions and southern California's infamous Santa Ana winds, creating what fire officials call a, quote, particularly dangerous situation. Some wind gusts reaching 40 to 60 miles per hour. The flames destroying some homes and threatening businesses, even the iconic Malibu pier.
GABRIELLE SALGADO, PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: It has definitely been a stressful and very tiring night.
MIRACLE (voice-over): Hundreds at nearby Pepperdine University had to shelter in place for hours in the campus library. Classes were canceled on Tuesday.
SALGADO: I called my friends, found whatever friends I had in the same residential hall as me, and I just packed a bag. We look out the window and, you know, the sky is red.
MIRACLE (voice-over): Veronica Miracle, CNN, Malibu, California.
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FOSTER: Along the U.S. East Coast, high wind alerts are in effect from Maryland to Maine, where damaging winds could gust up to 50 to 60 kilometers per hour, which is strong enough to knock down trees and power lines.
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The winds are part of a slow-moving storm system which is also expected to cause flooding and major travel delays in the Northeast, including New York and Boston today. Almost all of the East Coast will see rainfall, with two to four inches possible in some areas. Parts of New England should expect rapid snow melt, which could add to the flash flooding concerns.
Now to Syria, where Israel is being accused of a land grab after the sudden fall of the Assad regime. Syrian rebels claim they've taken the city of Deir ez-Zor from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, but an SDF source tells CNN that the U.S.-backed forces have withdrawn from only part of the city.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military says it's carried out nearly 500 strikes across the country in a matter of days, hitting strategic weapons stockpiles and destroying the Syrian Navy fleet. A Syrian activist group says after seizing the demilitarized buffer zone near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israeli forces have now advanced to a village just 16 miles from Damascus. CNN unable to verify that claim, but for now, the Arab League is accusing Israel of executing a land grab in Syria.
CNN's Paula Hancocks has more.
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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We heard confirmation from the Israeli military just how many strikes they had carried out, 480 strikes across the country in just a period of 48 hours. Now, they say that they are targeting airfields, they are targeting anti-aircraft defenses, including tanks and fighter jets, and also we heard from the foreign minister, Gideon Saar, saying that they are targeting facilities which are housing chemical weapons elements so that they make sure that they don't fall into, as he put it, the hands of extremists.
Now, we've also seen and heard from the Israeli military that their navy targeted two Syrian naval facilities where about 15 vessels were docked. We have seen images of the destruction at those particular naval areas. And so the impact has been significant.
We have heard from Israel's prime minister as well, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that they're intending to change the face of the Middle East, pointing out that the collapse of Syria, as far as he is concerned, is due to Israel's activities, weakening Iran, weakening Hezbollah, and this is the repercussion of that.
It has been criticized, though, significantly. You mentioned there, Rosemary, the Arab League criticizing these moves. You have a number of the Middle East nations here, some of them accusing Israel of carrying out a land grab and taking advantage of the instability in Syria and taking advantage of developments.
We also heard from the U.N. special envoy for Syria saying this needs to stop, it is important.
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FOSTER: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will take the stand again today to pushed back against what he calls baseless accusations in a sweeping corruption trial. This will be the second day of testimony for Netanyahu. He's the first sitting Israeli prime minister to face criminal charges. He was indicted in 2019 on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, all of which he denies.
Protesters gathered outside the courthouse on Monday, demanding accountability, but the prime minister also had supporters in the crowd. The judges have ruled that Netanyahu must testify three times a week.
Donald Trump is just weeks away from his return to the White House and some of his controversial picks for the new administration are moving closer to getting approval from the Senate. Details on that just ahead.
Also, we hear from the first person to publicly speak out about the alleged sexual abuse by Sean Diddy Combs. In an exclusive interview, John Doe tells us what happened to him.
And later, WNBA star Caitlin Clark picks up another award, this one courtesy of Time magazine.
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FOSTER: Police have raided the presidential office in Seoul, South Korea. A security official tells CNN this is part of their investigation into President Yoon Suk Yeol's short-lived attempt to impose martial law last week. Yoon is now barred from leaving the country as prosecutors consider possible insurrection charges.
Meanwhile, the head of the country's correctional service says former defense minister Kim Yong-hyun has attempted to end his own life whilst in custody. Kim was detained on Sunday just days after he resigned. He allegedly recommended that martial law be imposed and was the first figure detained over the case.
Donald Trump's pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has spent the past few days on Capitol Hill looking to sway any Senate Republicans still skeptical of his nomination. And now the odds of him getting confirmed seem to be improving. Manu Raju has the latest.
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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Pete Hegseth had a critical meeting with one swing Republican vote. That's Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, someone who often breaks ranks with her party leadership, someone who breaks ranks with Donald Trump, including voted to convict him in his second impeachment trial, someone who opposed the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to sit on the Supreme Court over his own sexual assault allegations, which, of course, Kavanaugh also denied.
Here, Murkowski met with Pete Hegseth. They had what she called a good exchange of ideas, but she refused to say if she would back him and went to lengths to try to avoid reporters' questions. She did respond to some, including mine, but would not say if she would vote for him on the Senate floor.
SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): I had a good exchange with Mr. Hegseth.
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RAJU: Are you ready to support him?
MURKOWSKI: I had a good exchange, and we'll see what the process bears.
RAJU: But ultimately, Pete Hegseth can only afford to lose three Republican votes. The question is, are there more than three who could scuttle a nomination? At the moment, no Republicans are opposing him, which is why Republicans are confident he can ultimately get there.
Now, there are other controversial picks who Republicans believe are falling in line behind what Donald Trump wants, including replacing the FBI Director Christopher Wray, who's got three more years serving his 10-year term, replacing him with Kash Patel, someone who is a MAGA firebrand in line with Donald Trump's politics.
I caught up with Senator Lindsey Graham, who's a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and I asked him about Donald Trump's apparent threat to get rid of Christopher Wray, fire him from the job, and replace him with his pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel.
RAJU: Do you think that Wray should be fired?
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I think he should -- I think it's pretty obvious he wants a new FBI director, so.
RAJU: But would you be OK if Wray's --
GRAHAM: Yes, I like Director Wray, but I think it's time for a fresh start at the FBI.
RAJU: So there is a belief that a lot of Republicans are falling in line behind ultimately what Donald Trump wants, but these confirmation hearings will take place early next year. It can be complicated. The process can be thorough. The vetting could be rigorous, and if allegations of past controversies come up, it can always lead to a problem for any given nominee.
So a lot of questions still about if any of that will come up, particularly with Pete Hegseth, but at the moment, Trump and his team are pretty confident that Trump will get his cabinet in place and his senior officials in place early next year.
Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
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FOSTER: So Manu said Pete Hegseth can only lose three Republican votes and still secure his confirmation of the defense secretary, but will he be able to get the needed support? Political experts from both sides offer their thoughts.
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SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This time last week, a lot of folks were wondering whether he was going to survive the week, and now he's more than survived it. He's got a little bit of momentum. You know, there's still a group of Republican senators who are basically outside the matrix, right? They're unthreatenable. They're not running again. They benefit from public feuds with Trump, or so on and so forth.
Or foreign policy, national defense, national security is their key issue, and they're just not prone to being influenced by the normal public relations cycle. There's probably more than four of them. I don't know that he's over the line yet, but this is the purpose of a hearing, and obviously he did himself some good over the last week in some of his meetings on the Hill to generate these kinds of more positive comments.
So good for him. Not out of the woods, but better shape, absolutely.
JOHN AVLON, FORMER CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: There's the issue of experience. There's the issue of whether someone can be compromised. Obviously there's a number of questions around certain national security picks, Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel on the law and order side.
You know, Senator Pat Moynihan used to talk about defining deviancy down, right? And I think that's what we're watching in slow motion here. John Tower was rejected as first president of Bush, as secretary of defense of nominee, despite being in the Senate for 24 years because of a pattern of impersonal, you know, intemperance with alcohol and women.
And it does go to question about whether someone can be compromised. It's also whether their experience leads them to be able to manage the world's largest bureaucracy in a dangerous time.
And there's a world of difference between a Jim Mattis, who was Trump's first pick to be sacked out, and Pete Hegseth, and it is reasonable for United States senators who care about national security, I would hope, to try to keep a broader perspective in mind than simply partisan field.
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FOSTER: Freedom of the press took a hit on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic effort to pass a bipartisan bill giving journalists more protections under federal law. Donald Trump called on Republicans last month to kill the bill known as the PRESS Act, which stands for Protect Reporters for Exploitative State Spying.
It would prevent the government from forcing journalists to reveal their sources and limit the seizure of their data without their knowledge. It passed the Republican-led House earlier this year.
A judge has blocked the sale of Alex Jones's Infowars platform to satirical news site The Onion, citing concerns it's worth more money than it was bought for. The sale was part of a defamation settlement after Jones falsely called the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre a hoax. He was ordered to pay $1.5 billion to the families of the shooting victims and his assets were auctioned off, including Infowars. But the judge said the offer and the process were flawed. The one other competing bid came from First United American Companies, a group affiliated with Jones.
Startling police body cam video shows the moment a garbage truck exploded in the Chicago suburbs. The first few seconds show smoke billowing out of the garbage truck. Take a look.
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Well, a portion of the truck that blew up sent smoke and debris into the air. Some homes and parts of their roof and sliding -- and sidings were blown off and windows shattered too. Two police officers and a firefighter dispatched to the truck fire were injured. The cause of the fire and the explosion remains under investigation, though.
Authorities are criticizing online support for the man suspected of murdering a healthcare CEO. We'll have the details on that for you.
Plus, why the future of Russia-Syria relations remain uncertain after the collapse of the Assad regime.
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FOSTER: Welcome back to CNN News. I'm Max Foster. If you're just joining us here, here are some of today's top stories.
Former U.S. Marine Daniel Penny is defending his actions in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely. Penny told Fox News that Neely was threatening to kill people on the New York subway, and he had to intervene. These were Penny's first comments since he was acquitted of criminal charges on Monday.
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell tripped and fell in the Capitol on Tuesday, spraining his wrist and suffering a minor cut to his face, too. Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune said McConnell is fine. 82-year-old McConnell has had a string of health issues recently, including treatment for a concussion after a fall at a Washington hotel last year.
And the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO is fighting extradition to New York. Luigi Mangione appeared at a hearing ...
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