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U.S. Government Draws Bipartisan Criticism Over Drone Response; U.S. Senators Weigh in on Key Trump Cabinet Picks; Cyclone Chido Hits French Territory Mayotte, Kills at Least 11; Rare Tornado Hits California, South of San Francisco; . Aired 4:00-4:30a ET

Aired December 16, 2024 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's so many things in the sky right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When it comes to drones, people have more questions than answers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where are all these drones coming from that people are seeing and why aren't we doing a better job of tracking them and understanding that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Olaf Scholz was forced to call a vote of confidence in himself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Many people are generally very unhappy with the government. So they kind of want to make a point and vote for an extreme party to show how unhappy they are.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought this could be the end of my life. It was that strong.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard someone scream, there's a tornado. There were things flying around, people screaming, cars making a bunch of noise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Max Foster. It is Monday, December the 16th, 9 a.m. here in London.

And we begin this hour with those mysterious drones spotted over six U.S. states and the growing pressure on the Biden administration to release more information about what's going on. Federal agencies have drawn bipartisan criticism for downplaying the concerns from state and local governments, even as they've acknowledged the unusual nature of the reported sightings. Now, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are speaking out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): There's a lot of us who are pretty frustrated right now. You know, the answer we don't know is not a good enough answer. When people are anxious, when they're nervous, and this has been true, you know, since we've been a species on this planet, people will fill a vacuum with, you know, their fears and anxieties and conspiracy theories.

And, oh, my God, there's an Iranian mothership hovering off the coast of Asbury Park, or it's the Russians or it's the Chinese.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): The administration has repeatedly assured people that they are safe. However, one, we need a briefing for the members of the Senate to figure out what's going on here. Two, we need more transparency.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're a New Jersey resident. Have you seen any drones?

CHRIS CHRISTIE, FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: Yes, two mornings ago over my house at 6.15 in the morning. Saw them myself, so did my wife. And so, yes, they're there.

And I've been traveling around New Jersey as I normally do all week. And I can't tell you the number of people who've called to me concerned about it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Well, Massachusetts is one of the states reporting a growing number of drone sightings. And one such incident happened over the weekend near Boston's International Airport. CNN's Gloria Pazmino has more on the sightings which are keeping so many people on edge.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first, let's start with Boston because the police department there tells us they arrested two people who were found to be flying drones dangerously close to the airspace over Logan International Airport. Now, we are still waiting to hear more about what was behind these arrests. But what we do know so far is that an officer spotted the drones and then was able to deploy drone detection technology to identify the drone history, the owners, and the locations from where they were being operated from.

That led the police department to Boston Harbor Island. This is a largely uninhabited part of Boston. And once police arrived there, they were able to arrest two people.

They initially tried to flee on foot, but they were eventually captured. One of them had a drone in their backpack and another is believed to have fled using a small vessel, a third person who the police are still looking for. Now, we don't know how much we are going to learn as a result of these

arrests just yet and whether or not it will explain some of the sightings that have been reported in Boston. But the fact that the police department was able to use technology is certainly something that a lot of law enforcement officials and representatives across many of these different communities are talking about. Many of them are asking the federal government for more resources, for more information, so that they can take a more active role in detecting and intercepting some of these drones that are being reported.

Now, we have also heard from the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speaking this weekend about the drone sightings and acknowledging that what people are reporting are definitely drones.

[04:05:00]

ALJANDRO MAYORKAS, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: The question that people are seeing drones and I want to assure the American public that we in the federal government have deployed additional resources, personnel, technology to assist the New Jersey State Police in addressing the drone sightings.

PAZMINO: So the secretary says that he is sending resources to New Jersey where many of the sightings have been reported. But here in New York, Governor Kathy Hochul also telling us that the state is receiving some additional resources from the federal government after some drone sightings resulted in an airfield having to be shut down over this past weekend because of drone sightings over airspace at a local airport.

Now, Governor Kathy Hochul issued a statement on Sunday saying in part: In response to my calls for additional resources, our federal partners are deploying a state-of-the-art drone detection system to New York State. This system will support state and federal law enforcement in their investigation.

Now, something we're not clear on just yet is exactly what kind of technology New York is going to be receiving. If it's going to be anything like what Boston deployed and help them to find the drones and conduct those arrests.

I have been asking about this technology, but I've been told that because this is now an issue of national security, the state is not going to share more information about what the technology is or where it will be deployed. However, I am told by sources familiar with the conversations that the governor and the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, held a few phone calls over the weekend to discuss the need for more resources.

In the meantime, still a lot of frustration and a lot of questions being asked by local officials across the Northeast who want to do more and to make sure that their local governments have more resources to respond to these sightings.

Gloria Pazmino, CNN, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Last hour, I spoke with drone expert Gregory McNeal and asked if Americans should be anxious about the drones.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GREGORY MCNEAL, DRONE EXPERT: Both elected officials and citizens feel like they are not getting good information from their government. It's not necessarily the fact that it's inaccurate. They're just not believing the details that they are being provided by their government.

Part of that might be like, if you go all the way back to the Chinese spy balloon that was flying over the United States, there was a long period of time there where not much information was being put out. Then the American public didn't see much action. Then after the fact, the information that they got ended up being incorrect from the Department of Defense.

So you have a lot of people who are mistrusting the government using that one example as one of many reasons why they don't trust the information that they're getting.

FOSTER: The spy balloon was a spy balloon. That was all confirmed in the end. It became quite transparent, didn't it?

We're not getting the same transparency on this. I mean, how easy would it be for a foreign player to put these up and why would they do it in such a visible way?

MCNEAL: Yes, I think they wouldn't do it in such a visible way, right? If you're trying to surveil a military installation, you're probably not going to have red and green blinking lights and a strobe light on your drone. Although there is a circumstance here where maybe an individual or a group of individuals will purposely test it in an obvious way to make their drone seen so they could see what the response mechanisms are, to see what the government does and how it responds to a known visible threat, which would then give them some insight into what they could do if they didn't have those lights on or they weren't broadcasting remote identification.

So that is a possibility, I think, that the intelligence community is talking about. But for the most part, if someone wants to do something harmful, they won't do it with lights on their drones. They'll fly them surreptitiously and at a high rate of speed into sensitive areas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER (on camera): Turning to U.S. politics, Donald Trump's key cabinet picks are looking to build support ahead of Senate confirmation battles. A source tells CNN that the president-elect's choice to lead the country's top health agency and his pick for defense secretary are expected back on Capitol Hill this week. CNN's Steve Contorno has more.

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STEVE CONTORNO, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Monday kicks off another critical week on Capitol Hill for Donald Trump's cabinet picks. It's the last expected week these senators will be in D.C. before they head home for the holidays. And on Sunday, we heard from Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina who urged Donald Trump's allies to knock off the pressure campaign trying to get Republican senators on the Hill to support his picks blindly.

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): Pete Hegseth had a good week this week on Capitol Hill. I'm working with Cash Patel. Members are not really swayed by these.

[04:10:02]

If anything, they could create a structural problem for future nominees if they overreach. But I don't believe that it's coming directly out of Mar-a-Lago. I think it's coming out of groups. Sometimes they have good behavior. Other times they're out there to make some change and get their name out there.

CONTORNO: Trump's pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, will continue meeting with senators this week. It comes after a weekend where he had a public display of support from President-elect Trump when the two appeared side-by-side at the Army-Navy football game. And on Sunday, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham revealed that in his conversations with Hegseth, Hegseth told him that he would release from a non-disclosure agreement a woman who accused him of sexual assault.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): He told me he would release her from that agreement. Yes, I mean, just think about what we're talking about. I'd want to know if anybody nominated for a high-level job in Washington legitimately assaulted somebody.

I've known Pete for years. I met him in Afghanistan. I've heard nothing but good things about his service over there.

CONTORNO: Hegseth has denied the accusation, saying it was a consensual encounter.

Steve Contorno, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Republican Senator Mitt Romney says he's standing by his criticism of Donald Trump's character, but he's acknowledging the President-elect's grip on the party. Romney says Mr. Trump and the MAGA movement now define the GOP.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): MAGA is the Republican Party, and Donald Trump is the Republican Party today. And if you were to ask me who the nominee will be in 2028, I think it'll be J.D. Vance. The Republican Party has become the party of the working-class, middle-class voter. (END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, another Republican Senator, Lindsey Graham, is pushing back against Trump's isolationist stance towards Syria. He fears Mr. Trump's approach could allow terror groups, ISIS, to resurface, and that's amid the Assad regime's fall, of course.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAHAM: There are 50,000 ISIS fighters under the control of Kurdish allies of the United States in northeastern Syria. It is in our national security interest they do not break out of jail and re- establish the caliphate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Meanwhile, Trump's incoming national security advisor suggests that Trump intends to keep some military presence in Syria to crush a potential resurgence.

The British government has announced a $63 million humanitarian aid package to support the Syrian people. The foreign secretary announced the aid will be used to help most vulnerable Syrians, including refugees across the region, amid efforts to work towards a stable transition inside Syria.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID LAMMY, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: We want to see a representative government, an inclusive government. We want to see chemical weapons stockpiled, secured, and not used.

This was an organization that came out of al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda is responsible for a tremendous loss of life on British soil. We will judge them by their actions. I won't comment on future prescription, but of course we recognize that this is an important moment for Syria.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: The U.S. embassy adds that it's a volatile and unpredictable moment. It's advising Americans to leave Syria because of that uncertainty. In Damascus, university students toppled a statue of the late President Hafez al-Assad, the father of the ousted leader, before dragging it through the street.

And Christians in the capital attended mass on Sunday, expressing hope that a new government will respect the rights of minorities. But many say they're still uneasy about what lies ahead.

And schools reopened their doors in Damascus as students and teachers expressed optimism for the future. One student even raised a flag adopted by the rebels.

The EU is sending an envoy today to talk to the new leadership, and the U.N. special envoy says he supports the lifting of sanctions on leading rebel group HTS. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEIR PERDERSEN, U.N. ENVOY TO SYRIA: We need to see that this is fixed quickly. We will hopefully see a quick end to sanctions so that we can see really a rallying around building up Syria again. And then my last point, we need to see, of course, justice and accountability for crimes. And we need to make sure that that goes through a credible justice system, and that we don't see any remit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: The Israeli government has approved a plan to expand settlements in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau in southwestern Syria that Israel has occupied for nearly 60 years now. The plan, put forward by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is drawing condemnation from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. They consider the move a violation of international law and say it could derail Syria's chances of restoring stability.

The Israeli leader had this message about Syria.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We have no interest in Atyria (ph). We will determine Israel's policy towards Syria according to the emerging reality on the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:15:02]

FOSTER: It's the worst storm in almost a century to hit the French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean. Ahead, the latest on Cyclone Chido.

Plus, from a coalition collapse to a parliament on the brink of dissolution. We'll look at why German Chancellor Olaf Scholz faces a confidence vote today, and what could follow.

And later, big moves to Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency, hitting another milestone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Cyclone Chido has killed at least 11 people in the French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, but government officials say the death toll could rise to hundreds and possibly thousands. The storm was equivalent of a category four Atlantic hurricane when it hit on Saturday. Chido's winds topped 220 miles per hour, flattened entire neighborhoods, damaged the airport and knocked out power to many areas and commons are out. One resident described it as though an atomic bomb had fallen on Mayotte.

CNN senior international correspondent Jim Bittermann joins us, joins us live from Gilles in France.

[04:20:00]

I mean, it happened on Saturday, but we still know so little.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Max. I mean, this is one of the problems when you have these major disasters like an earthquake or a hurricane come through. Communications is the first thing to go out.

And as a consequence, there's a great deal of difficulty on the part of officials to find out exactly how extensive the damage is. Apparently only about one third of the island is accessible by road. The other two thirds are cut off because of downed trees and high winds and whatnot that are still blowing through the area.

So the officials are trying to grapple to get a picture of how it looks, but they know it's a disaster so far. In fact, President Macron spoke to the Pope about it yesterday and said there's going to be a crisis meeting he'll preside over tonight at the Elysee Palace. They're trying to get as much aid as they can.

But one of the problems is this is a very remote island. It's off the coast of Africa. It's on the closest French territory is Reunion, which is about 900 miles away. And they're going to set up an air bridge between Reunion and Mayotte to ferry in supplies and help. There's already about 1,600 gendarmes that have been mobilized, 800 rescue workers, that sort of thing.

But it's going to take time. And it's going to take time to find out exactly how extensive the damage is -- Max.

FOSTER: We're just seeing images there of these corrugated iron buildings. I mean, they're essentially shantytowns because this is a largely poor island, isn't it? So people just weren't as protected as they would have been in other parts of France.

BITTERMANN: Absolutely. I mean, it is because it's part of France, it's probably the poorest part of France. And also because of France as part of the European Union, probably the poorest part of the European Union. It is really an area that is basically about 300,000 people in the area the size of -- twice the size of the District of Columbia in the United States. And as a consequence, they're very sparse population centers.

So they're sparse population and they're isolated in various communities. It's mainly agricultural. So as a consequence, it's going to be difficult to find out exactly where the damage is, where the deaths may have taken place -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, Jim, thank you so much.

We can finish with back to back days of severe weather in California, where a rare tornado hit the state just south of San Francisco.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's go home. Let's go home. Holy s**t. Oh my god. OK. Oh my god.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: There's powerful winds sending debris flying as a rare tornado hit southern -- rather northern California over the weekend. The storm only lasted about five minutes, would you believe? But that's all the time it took to uproot trees down power lines, damaged vehicles like that.

CNA meteorologist Elisa Raffa has more on that storm and a new one that's expected to hit the western U.S. this week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We had an incredibly active weekend of weather in California. We had an EF1 tornado confirmed in Scotts Valley that sits about an hour south of San Francisco. We had 90 mile per hour winds in that twister and it was able to snap trees down power lines in overturned cars, injuring some people.

Now this is incredibly rare for the Bay Area. I mean, we're talking only nine tornadoes on average happening here in California.

The storm was so powerful. We had winds up at 78 miles per hour at Monterey, 83 mile per hour gusts at the San Francisco airport. That was clocked during a tornado warning that was triggered in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their first ever tornado warning in history. No tornado was confirmed out of this, but those 80 mile per hour gusts did do some damage to trees and power lines there as well.

That storm working its way east, but we have another one that's already on its way in. An atmospheric river will develop as we go into the week, so more rain and snow is likely.

We're looking at a level four out of five when it comes to impact for the atmospheric river, meaning it could be potentially hazardous. Some of that rain will be beneficial, but with the amount of rain coming in a short amount of time, we could be looking at some hazardous conditions.

I mean, look at how healthy these rain chances stay as we go into the work week, especially Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for a place like Eugene, Oregon. Two to four inches of rain is likely some isolated totals up to six inches possible. You could see all that moisture starts to move in as we go into the work week starting on Monday. Rain and snow from Washington down towards Oregon and northern California.

Even as that clears, another round comes in going into Tuesday as the atmospheric river continues to pump in some of that moisture. Overall, rain totals will be about two to four is some of those totals up to six inches are possible, and we're going to add to the snow depth in the mountains as well.

[04:25:03] Another one to two feet of snow possible on top of what they already got. Winds will also be gusty as well. That could cause some problems with power outages.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Still to come, frustration growing across the northeastern U.S. as the conflicting federal response to the ongoing drone mystery leaves more questions than answers.

Plus, the Pope's busy trip to Corsica ends with an early celebration. How he spent his time in France over the weekend after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Welcome back to the NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. If you are just joining us here are some of today's top stories.

France says it's deploying more than 1,000 emergency workers to the French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean. That's after cyclone Chido left a path of destruction after it made landfall on Saturday. Government officials say the death toll could rise to hundreds and possibly 1,000s.

Brazil's president out of hospital recent Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva underwent two emergency procedures last week to treat a brain bleed. Doctors say the 79-year-old will need to refrain from much physical activity but can take part in government meetings.

Seven tourists have been hospitalized for suspected poisoning in Fiji after drinking cocktails in an upscale resort. Officials say the ...