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CNN International: TikTok Ban Could Take Effect One Day Before Trump Takes Office; Ukraine Behind Killing of Russian General in Moscow; Two Killed, Six Injured in Latest U.S. School Shooting; Trump Hosts Procession of Top Executives at Mar-a-Lago; RFK Jr. On Capitol Hill in Bid to Become HHS Secretary; U.S. House Intelligence Committee to Receive Classified Briefing on Drone Activity; Attorney Alex Spiro Says Rape Claims Against Jay-z is False; Top Canadian Minister Resigns in Stinging Rebuke to Trudeau; Mayotte Reeling From Catastrophic Damage From Cyclone Chido; Stowaway Apprehended Again, Tried to Leave U.S. on a Bus to Canada. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired December 17, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI, (D-IL) INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: -- the Chinese Communist Party. They have hacked repeatedly numerous data sets, collected the data of hundreds of millions of Americans, and as the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeal said, there's no reason not to believe that that would happen with TikTok as well.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": It's going to be an interesting couple of weeks here to see what the supreme court does, what then happens by the 19th and what happens --

AMARA WALKER, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWSROOM": Hi, everyone. And welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Amara Walker. This is "CNN Newsroom". Just ahead, a top Russian General killed in a Moscow bomb attack. A source tells CNN, Ukraine is behind the assassination. We will have the latest just ahead. And a community in mourning after a 15-year-old girl opens fire at a Christian school in Wisconsin, killing a student and a teacher. And President-elect Donald Trump meeting with tech billionaires just weeks out from Inauguration Day.

A source tells CNN, Ukraine's security services are behind the assassination of a top Russian General. Earlier today in Moscow, Russia is calling it a "terrorist act". Russian authorities say Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov seen here, was killed by a remotely detonated bomb in the Russian capital. His assistant was also killed. This footage shows the site of the explosion just minutes from the Kremlin. CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Moscow with the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are actually at the scene of where this explosion took place. And the Russians are saying this happened in the early morning hours of today, as the general and an aide to the general were leaving that building. I'm going to get out of your way and you can see the actual scene of where all of this took place. And you already mentioned, that the entrance to that building where all this happens, the second entrance down from here, was badly damaged in that explosion.

And the Russians are indeed saying that they believe that the explosive device was hidden in an electric scooter parked right outside that building, and that there were about 300 grams of TNT inside that explosive device. They have already said that they found remnants of that explosive device. And one of the other things that they've said as well is that they believe that it was detonated remotely.

Now, we do know at this point in time that the Ukrainian Security Services have claimed responsibility for this. A source saying that to CNN, that Ukrainian Security Services were behind this. The explosion, despite the fact that 300 grams of TNT might not sound like very much, seems to have been substantial. We can see that there's a lot of workers here, on the ground, investigative committee of the Russian Federation on the ground. Some others have cordoned off the area.

But one of the other things that we're seeing as well, if we pan over to the other side, is that the explosion was so strong that it damaged the building on the other side of the road. You can see there that windows have been smashed by this explosion that took place. There was an eyewitness report that we have seen, some of them on Russian media saying that they thought that maybe some sort of cement truck had unloaded a lot of cement or what something very heavy had fallen down on the ground.

So clearly, the people who live in this area very much heard this explosion at it -- as it took place, of course, at the beginning, not exactly clear of what it might have been. The Russians have launched a criminal investigation into all this. You can see the investigators, and we've seen the investigators on the ground here, not just civilian investigators or from the police authorities, but also military investigators of as well. Of course, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, very important for the Russian military, very high up in the Russian military.

He was the head of Russia's nuclear, biological, and chemical defense forces. And the Ukrainians had actually indicted him in absentia just yesterday, the Ukrainian Security Services accusing the Russians of using weaponized chemicals in the war in Ukraine. Igor Kirillov for his part, in the past, had accused the Ukrainians of doing the exact same thing. So certainly, someone who was on the forefront as far as that conflict between Ukraine and Russia is concerned and someone who the Russians, of course, for their military was extremely important.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALKER: Fred, thank you. Let's get to CNN's Clare Sebastian now. Now, I mean, it goes without saying that this was a brazen assassination on Russian soil. Are we hearing anything from Ukraine thus far, Clare?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, yeah, Amara, as Fred said, what we have is not a direct claim of responsibility from Ukraine, but it comes via a source familiar with the operation who says that this was an operation of Ukraine's Security Services. The source calling General -- Lieutenant General Kirillov a war criminal, saying that he was an absolutely legitimate target, and that retribution for war crimes is inevitable.

I think look, as Fred was pointing out, it is very clear why General Kirillov was targeted. He was not only wanted in Ukraine as of yesterday, the timing of course significant there, he'd also been sanctioned -- well, Russia in fact had been sanctioned by the U.K. and the U.S. for its use of banned chemical substances, riot agents, and the like on Ukraine. And the U.K. had also specifically sanctioned Kirillov himself, saying that he was helping deploy these chemical substances, chemical weapons.

[08:05:00]

So, he was clearly viewed by Ukraine and its allies as a very destructive, dangerous force in this war. He was also, by the way, an expert at deploying disinformation. He was a key mouthpiece for some of the -- more out there conspiracy theories that we've heard from Russia regarding Ukraine, including this well-worn accusation that Ukraine was building a dirty bomb. This first surfaced in the autumn of 2022, and that it was going to try and pin the blame for it on Russia.

He was someone who talked fairly regularly and in fact, fairly recently about that. He also recently said that Ukraine's main priority when invading the Kursk region of Russia was to seize the nuclear power plant there, something, of course, Ukraine has denied. So that's I think why he was targeted. But this in terms of ambition, given his rank, given the proximity to the center of Moscow, given the ingenuity, this was of course, we believe according to Russian state media reports, a bomb hidden inside a scooter.

This, I think, reveals a level of ambition that we haven't yet seen from Ukraine and certainly is not a good look for Russia's internal security operators.

WALKER: Sure is not. Clare Sebastian, good to have you as always. Thank you very much.

Across the U.S. today, a painful question is being asked once again. Why are so many of our schools being terrorized by gun violence? The latest incident happened Monday at a small Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin. A 15-year-old female student pulled out a gun and began firing on her classmates and teachers. That is according to police there.

A student and a teacher are dead now, and two other students remain in critical condition this morning. The shooter apparently turned the gun on herself and is also dead. One of the young students at the school described the terrifying ordeal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was getting ready for lunch, so it was basically lunchtime, and then I just heard sobbing (ph) and there was a teacher and she was screaming like, oh, my leg, help, help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know that teacher well? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What was it like to hear that? Were you scared?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was -- I was really scared and I was really sad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: Well, just a short time ago, CNN's John Berman spoke to the Madison Police Chief who was on the scene after the shooting happened, and he gave this update on the investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHIEF SHON BARNES, MADISON, WISCONSIN POLICE DEPARTMENT: Crime scene investigators have really been working late until the night. We gave them a break this -- early this morning, and so we'll come back early today. We'll start to process things and try to put together a timeline of Samantha's last hours before she went to school.

BERMAN: There were cameras inside the school. Have you had a chance to look at the footage yet?

BARNES: I have not had an opportunity to look at the footage. I spent most of my day working with the media, making sure that our community understood what happened, trying to be transparent with our community, talking to the media. My briefings were basically virtual with some of our command staff, but a lot of questions still need to be answered and we are committed to getting the answers to those questions for our community, so we can move forward and heal.

BERMAN: The handgun that was used in the shooting, what have you learned about who owned it and how it was obtained by the shooter?

BARNES: We have asked our partners with the ATF to expedite what's called an ATF Trace Form to try to determine the origin of that weapon, who purchased it, and how it got from a manufacturer all the way into the hands of a 15-year-old girl.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALKER: Yeah, so many questions. We now go live to Madison, Wisconsin and CNN's Law Enforcement Correspondent, Whitney Wild. You know, a lot of people wondering after any school shooting, why this happened, what the motive could possibly be. I know it's early days. What's the latest you're hearing, Whitney?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Police have not yet been able to detail a specific motive here. They are, as you had heard Chief Barnes saying there, that they continue to talk with the parents here. They are combing through her effects, her digital footprint to try to figure out why she would have done this. Again, just to bring our viewers up to speed, this is 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow. She went by the name Samantha. And Amara, this all started at 10:57. Police say that the shooting was confined to a study hall where students from a mix of grades were inside. Law enforcement saying that, that call came in tragically from a second grader, again, at 10:57. Police were inside the building by 11:00. By 11:05, they had alerted that the shooter was down and they began to try to save the lives of the people who were injured throughout the building.

[08:10:00]

The heroism here among the teachers is something that Chief Shon Barnes took a moment to speak about yesterday, saying that this could have been so much worse had the school not acted quickly. We learned more, Amara, yesterday about the security protocols at that school. And while they do not have a metal detector, what they did say is that they have lockdown drills. They had just had another one early in the year.

Their doors are automatically locked. The main entrance door is automatically locked. There are video cameras everywhere. And again, they do extensive training for situations like this. And Amara, this is a lesson for schools nationwide. They took advantage of a DOJ grant to shore up their security. And as part of that Amara, they uploaded blueprints of their school to law enforcement.

So when law enforcement got there, they were able to move through that school efficiently and precisely, which is absolutely critical in a situation like that where seconds matter. Finally, Amara, what we've learned is that this shooting -- that this student was at school at the time. And we continue to ask police, did she have any disciplinary issues? Had she been known to law enforcement? Was this attack planned? And while Chief Barnes was reluctant to say specifically that the attack was planned, CNN's Shimon Prokupecz is reporting that law enforcement believes there had been some planning prior to this attack. So many more questions to answer, Amara. We should get an update here in the next few hours. Amara?

WALKER: Yeah, perhaps this could have been worse and at least good to know that the school had some training with the police department earlier in the year, when it comes to active shooter situations. Whitney Wild, appreciate your reporting. Thank you.

And as we mentioned, the Madison School shooting represents a grim milestone, the 83rd school shooting of the year in the U.S. It's a record setting number. CNN spoke to a member of Congress just a short time ago, and he lamented how little lawmakers can do to fix the problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR of "CNN THIS MORNING": Do you think that this has become normal in America? And is there anything that can be done about it?

REP. MARC VEASEY, (D-TX): I think that people are frustrated with it, but what I really think has happened here is that, it's another case of the groups. And when you talk about the groups and the groups being out of control in D.C., the king of the groups is the NRA. They have way too much power, way too much control over Republicans, and even legislation that 80 percent, 90 percent of the public supports, we can't get through because the Republicans would rather listen to this group than listen to the American people and get some things done.

I don't think that it's going to cure everything if we pass some of these more common sense gun safety legislation packages. But at least, we're showing the American public that we're trying to do something about this, and we need to do that. Look, there are a lot of guns that are just floating around out there, that are on the black market that have been stolen, guns that the police aren't even -- that the police don't even know have been stolen. But it doesn't mean that we shouldn't do anything. We have to pass just some basic common sense gun legislation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: And with more on the epidemic of school shootings this year, here is CNN's Brian Todd.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Got a call coming in at Abundant Life Christian Church.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The shooting at Abundant Life Christian School adds to the bleakest of statistics. It marks at least the 83rd school shooting of this year in the United States. It surpasses 2023 for the most shootings in a single year since CNN began tracking these numbers in 2008.

STEPHEN GUTOWSKI, CNN CONTRIBUTOR AND ANALYST ON GUN ISSUES: It is a bit surprising to see an increase in school shootings, at the same time we're seeing a decrease in the overall murder rate.

TODD (voice-over): Of the school shootings this year, 56 have been reported on K-12 campuses, 27 on university and college campuses. The incidents have left at least 38 people dead and more than a hundred others wounded according to CNN's analysis of events reported by the Gun Violence Archive, Education Week, and Every Town for Gun Safety. The deadliest school shooting of the year in the U.S., September 4th at Appalachia High School near Winder, Georgia, when a 14-year-old suspect allegedly shot 11 people, killing four of them.

Like Monday's shooting, the alleged perpetrator at Appalachia was a student at the same school according to law enforcement. Since the COVID pandemic when there was a major decline in gun violence at schools, every year since 2021 has set new records. On Monday, the Madison Police chief praised the response of officers at the Abundant Life School.

BARNES: The protocols are simple, stop the killing, stop the dying, find out who's doing this. And the officers did that, and they did that adamantly. TODD (voice-over): The police chief says The Abundant Life Christian School did not have a School Resource Officer, but having one is not a guarantee of safety. The School Resource Officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida was charged but acquitted of failing to confront a gunman who massacred 17 people there in 2018.

The new emphasis on police response comes from a horrific shooting two-and-a-half years ago, May 24, 2022 at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

[08:15:00]

For more than 70 minutes, police failed to breach a classroom while a suspect was opening fire. 19 students and two teachers were killed. A school police officer was charged with 29 counts of abandoning and endangering a child, and the school district police chief was charged with child endangerment with known criminal negligence. They pleaded not guilty.

GUTOWSKI: Uvalde was really an outlier in that regard and really emphasized why it's important to immediately confront the shooter.

TODD: And the shooting in Wisconsin comes as we've just marked another stark milestone regarding school shootings in the U.S. and the country's inability to stop them. This past Saturday, December 14th was the 12th anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, which left 20 children and six adults dead.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALKER: All right. Still to come, flocking to Florida, top tech CEOs make the pilgrimage to Palm Beach to cozy up with President-elect Trump. We're going to have a live report on who else is coming.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALKER: Donald Trump will host a procession of billionaires and top executives in Florida this week as they vie for his attention. The U.S. President-elect meets Netflix CEO, Ted Sarandos today, while Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos is expected to visit Trump at his Mar-a-Lago Club on Wednesday. Past guests already include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and TikTok CEO Shou Chew.

Let's bring in CNN's Alayna Treene who is in West Palm Beach, Florida with more. Alayna, tell us more about this parade of billionaires turning up at Mar-a-Lago as Trump prepares to return to the White House soon.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Yeah, Amara, we have seen a slew of these different CEOs of these tech giants really flying down to Mar-a- Lago to meet with Donald Trump following his election win. In recent weeks as well, He also met with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, as well as Alphabet Co-Founder Sergey Brin. We know he also met with Apple CEO Tim Cook just last Friday.

I mean, we're seeing a number of these people really flock to Donald Trump's resort to get an audience with him. Now, one thing that's really interesting is that, yesterday, during that news conference Donald Trump held at his Florida home, he mentioned that this is very different from what he saw during his first term. Back in his first administration, he said that all of these different leaders wanted to fight him, but now they want to be his friend.

I would note though, however, that not only are they being friendlier toward Donald Trump as he's about to be sworn in in January, to the Oval Office, but he's also being much friendlier toward them. Back during his first term, Donald Trump had a very hostile relationship with many of these different business and tech leaders.

[08:20:00]

Give the example of Mark Zuckerberg, someone that Donald Trump really vilified throughout his first four years in office. They had a very contentious relationship. Donald Trump largely blaming him, but also many of these other tech leaders for what he argued with censorship of conservatives. He also largely blamed a lot of these tech leaders for what he believed was their fault in many cases for his election loss.

So this is a very different tone that Donald Trump is striking with these leaders and that they are striking with him. One meeting though that I think is very notable that I want to dig into a little more is that meeting yesterday with TikTok CEO, Shou Chew, because that is a meeting that -- the timing of it is pretty remarkable. They met yesterday afternoon, just hours after the TikTok giant or TikTok CEO had asked the supreme court to weigh in on that law that Congress passed last year, that Biden signed into law, that essentially said they need to divest from their Chinese-owned company, ByteDance by January 19th. So a deadline that is coming up.

Donald Trump was asked about this specifically as well during that news conference, and he said that he believes that TikTok or -- he is warming to TikTok saying that he believes a lot of young people and users of that app were responsible for helping him win, saying that many of them voted for him. So it's very unclear how Donald Trump is going to approach it, but it does seem that he has very much distanced himself from his prior position when it came to TikTok.

I'd remind you as well that in the later years of his first administration, Donald Trump very much was embracing a potential ban on TikTok. So, very different rhetoric that we're hearing from the president-elect now as he meets with these different CEOs, and met with that CEO yesterday. Amara?

WALKER: All right. Alayna Treene, fascinating stuff. We'll see what comes out of all of these meetings. Thank you very much.

Meanwhile, Trump's controversial pick to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is trying to tamp down concerns about his history of vaccine skepticism. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. began meeting Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Monday to make his case. Several Senators say they would press him on his views on vaccinations before they decide on whether or not to support him.

Now, Trump talked about Kennedy, vaccines and a wide range of other issues Monday at his first news conference since his election win, here's a part of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you say to people who are worried that his views on vaccines will translate into policies that'll make their kids less safe?

TRUMP: No, I think he's going to be much less radical than you would think. I think he's got a very open mind, or I wouldn't have put him there. He's going to be very much less radical, but there are problems. I mean, we don't do as well as a lot of other nations, and those nations use nothing. And we're going to find out what those problems are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: All right. CNN Senior Politics Reporter, Stephen Collinson, joining us now from Washington, D.C. Stephen, let's start with RFK Jr. and we heard in that news conference, it was about an hour long where Trump talked about all kinds of issues. But let's first start talk about his HHS pick. He was downplaying concerns that his administration would potentially revoke the -- push to revoke the polio vaccine.

He also said, you're not going to lose the polio vaccine. It's just not going to happen. He said he's a big believer in it. Will Trump's moderating of RFK Jr.'s health agenda reassure critics on the Hill? What are your thoughts?

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: I think they might reassure some Republican Senators because that will give them cover to vote for RFK Jr. in the confirmation -- after the confirmation hearing early next year. The problem here is that RFK Jr. has a long history of vaccine skepticism. At the weekend, "The New York Times" reported that a lawyer that was associated with him had petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to withdraw approval for the polio vaccine, which has been in circulation for decades and has saved much misery and lives over that time.

Mitch McConnell, who is the outgoing Republican Leader of the Senate, who is himself a polio survivor and still bears the consequences of that illness when he was a child, came out and gave a very strong statement and said, anybody that would associate themselves with attempts to get rid of the polio vaccine should not seek a position in the administration. That was very widely taken to say that he might vote against Robert Kennedy Jr. if he didn't rule out his past vaccine skepticism.

And it only takes four Senators, four Republicans to desert a Trump nominee for them not to be confirmed.

WALKER: Right. COLLINSON: So you can see all the background politics playing out here. Trump realizes that if this hearing that will take place in January becomes all about getting rid of the polio vaccine, it could be very difficult for Kennedy.

[08:25:00]

WALKER: We heard Alayna Treene just moments ago talking about all these tech CEOs trying to court Trump, even those who have been hostile to him and vice versa in his first administration. Here's a bit of what Trump had to say about being the man of the moment yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I had dinner with sort of almost all of them, and the rest are coming. And this is one of the big differences I think between -- we were talking about it before -- one of the big differences between the first term. In the first term, everybody was fighting me. In this term, everybody wants to be my friend. I don't know, my personality changed or something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: Well, also perhaps their approach to Trump has changed, right? I mean, what do you think these tech CEOs, especially the ones who didn't have the best relationship with Trump, like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, what do they want in return?

COLLINSON: Well, it's all clearly motivated by self-interest. Remember that Elon Musk, perhaps the most important tech CEO, is in Donald Trump's inner circle. He appears in a position not just to get huge benefits for his companies from that access, but he's also been put in charge of gutting government regulations and the size of the federal government. That could be a very competitive disadvantage for some of these rival tech firms.

So that's why you're seeing them all flock to Trump. They're all trying to win his favor. They understand as well that he responds to flattery. The question here though I think, is that there are massive ethical questions about all of this. Donald Trump, after all, ran for office saying he was going to help working Americans, the Americans who can't afford their groceries, yet he spends almost all of his time in the company of millionaires and multi-billionaires. And it seems that there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work going on to benefit a lot of these corporations.

So, I think one of the subtexts of this administration is the way that there will be huge conflicts of interest playing out just because of the way Trump does business in this transactional manner. But he's loving it, of course, as you mentioned, he has all the trappings of the presidency, foreign trips, calls with foreign leaders. He has already seized control of future foreign policy in the Middle East and in Asia. And this is wielding power without responsibility.

I think once he's in the Oval Office, all of his actions will have consequences and political blowback. He may not be enjoying it as much when he gets back there.

WALKER: Yeah. Talk to us more about that. I was going to ask you about this article that you just wrote on cnn.com where you start off by saying that, Trump is having the time of his life, but of course, reality and accountability will set in at some point.

COLLINSON: Yeah, and I think it's interesting. Only once before in American history has a president, Grover Cleveland at the end of the 19th century, won a non-consecutive second term before Trump. Trump therefore has the opportunity that most presidents don't have of starting his second term from scratch. Most presidents are still haunted by the decisions they made in the first term. Even though they get rid of some staff, it's essentially the same presidency.

Trump has had a time to sit back and reflect on what he wants to change from his first term. He has found cabinet picks who won't restrain him, as some of the establishment officials did back during his first four years in the White House. So he is in a very advantageous position. The question is, can he be more disciplined than he was in his first term? Can he bring more than half the country with him on some of his major policy issues?

If as we saw in the past that his volatile personality, his easy taking of grudges gets him off track, that could be much more difficult. And we should also remember that, effectively, although he's going to be very powerful when he takes office, Trump will be a lame duck. He only has four more years in the White House. He can't constitutionally run again. So he has a short-term period, I think maybe a year, a year and a half before the midterm election start to really put his stamp on his second term and to leave a very strong political legacy.

WALKER: Stephen Collinson, always appreciate your analysis. Great to have you. Thank you.

All right. Still to come, the U.S. government looks too calm. The concerns over mysterious drone sightings that have been going on for weeks now, nearly a month, while also countering a wave of conspiracy theories, we'll have more next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:32:03]

WALKER: More drones, more questions, and fewer answers. That seems to be the formula for the last few weeks as mysterious drones continue to appear in the skies over New Jersey and at least five other states. Today, hopefully a step towards reassurance and perhaps understanding, the U.S. House Intelligence Committee is set to receive a classified briefing on the sightings. Moments ago, White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby says he doesn't think there's anything to be alarmed about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER: We're seeing the lights on these things, the navigation lights. That is what's required if you're going to be flying in U.S. airspace at night, are navigation lights. So clearly, they're being operated in a lawful and legal way, and we've seen nothing from their behavior, nothing that tells us there's a public safety threat or a national security threat.

I do want to add one point though. We still got about a hundred leads that the FBI is following up on, and if we learn something that contradicts that, or something more, something additional, something more specific, my goodness, we're going to come public and we're going to talk about it. We have been trying to be as transparent with the American people as we can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: While the White House insists, as you saw there, that there's no evidence these drones pose any kind of security threat or a threat to the public, it has done little to quiet a chorus of concerns that are growing. Here's CNN's Pete Muntean with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Drone hysteria is soaring as federal authorities are scrambling to tamp down false alarms, breeding conspiracy theories online. Fanning the latest fears, reports of unmanned aerial systems over secure Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All aircraft use extreme caution. Patterson Class Delta is now closed for heavy UAS activity.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Pentagon officials now say the Ohio case is not connected to possible drone sightings in a half dozen states. Even still, President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago doubled down on conspiracy theories after Alex Jones and Joe Rogan amplified claims that drones over New Jersey are looking for a stolen dirty bomb.

TRUMP: Something strange is going on. For some reason, they don't want to tell the people.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Federal aviation rules allow drones to fly legally, so long as they stay below 400 feet and away from airports, airplanes and stadiums. Biden Administration officials tell CNN that of the almost 1 million drones registered in the U.S., 8,000 might be flying at any one given time and "We haven't seen evidence of anything non-compliant."

But that has not stopped lawmakers from demanding new technology to help detect hostile drones. Defense officials now confirmed to CNN that the government is sending drone tracking systems to a pair of military installations in New Jersey.

CHUCK SCHUMER, U.S. SENATE DEMOCRATIC LEADER: If the technology exists for a drone to make it up into the sky, there certainly is the technology that can track the craft with precision and determine what the heck is going on. MUNTEAN (voice-over): New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy says he's been briefed by the FBI, now that it and the Department of Homeland Security say most cases of possible drones are in fact manned aircraft.

[08:35:00]

Science writer Mick West is debunking purported drone videos online. New Jersey airspace is some of the busiest in the country with videos surfacing from under Newark, Teterboro, and New York flight paths.

MIKE WEST, WRITER AND UAP ANALYST: If you get the details, the date, the time, and the location, you can actually look up what was in the sky at that point and look at what direction they were looking in. And you can see that it was actually just a plane.

MUNTEAN: The FBI says it has taken in about 5,000 tips of purported drone sightings since this frenzy began, but is deemed only about a hundred of those legitimate enough for any follow up. This fixation on drones is also causing a concern for commercial flights. There's video surfacing online of flights being hit by laser pointers from the ground. It could temporarily blind pilots and can lead to a massive fine from the FAA. The FAA says it's investigating such incidents in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALKER: OK, Pete, thank you for that.

Joining me now is Retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent, Rob D'Amico. Rob, appreciate your time. I first want to start with the report that the House Intelligence Committee is expected to receive a classified briefing about these mysterious drones. A classified briefing, that might raise some eyebrows that why does this briefing need to be classified?

ROB D'AMICO, RETIRED FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: Well, actually, I thought the same thing. I worked -- I ran the FBI's Counter Drone Unit. We did not really have classified systems in there, but what people don't know is Congress dictates if they want a classified or unclassified briefing. It's not the agencies. So it's the Congress that is saying, Hey, we want classified, which I think just fuels the fire of all these conspiracies. Like, oh, it's classified. They can't -- they're not going to be able to tell us.

But I think that's more on the Congressmen having some cover, so if they don't hear what they want to hear, they can just say, oh, we can't talk about it, it was classified. But they're the ones who asked for it that way. I think the agencies would've been more than happy to give an unclassified briefing that they could then go out and talk about.

WALKER: Right. I absolutely believe that it will add fuel to the fire. I mean, what are your thoughts of just what's been going on now for four weeks? I mean, obviously, people are concerned. I would be concerned if I look up outside in the evening and I see several drones just kind of hovering over my home. And then you have the federal government saying nothing to see here. Everything is fine. There's no national security threat that we know of.

Do you think the federal government, first of all, is doing enough, not only just to reassure the public, but also in terms of trying to get to the bottom of this quickly?

D'AMICO: Well, I think it's, as people in Britain call it, a wind up. I think it started with, first, FAA changed the ability to fly drones at night. They made it easier. Before it wasn't allowed, they have a waiver. They just said 400 feet and below, lights on, and you had to have visual contact with your drone if you were controlling it. That caused more drones to be flown at night.

I think as soon as politicians started telling people get out and look for drones, that's where a lot of misidentification started happening. I did it when I first got into the counter drone business. I thought planets, I thought airplanes were drones, and my guys were telling me, no boss, that's a planet, that's a plane. It gets really tough.

But then I think as everything started spinning up, more people started flying drones, either looking for drones or trying to add to the chaos. And now, it's just a composite of all that, and the conspiracy theories getting thrown in there are just really making a bad, bad mix up. And I think the government was behind this. I don't -- I think it wasn't on purpose. I think they didn't think it was a big deal. And the more and more media attention that came to this and outrage from folks, I think they're caught behind. And now, they're getting systems up there to at least talk about what they're seeing or what they're doing.

WALKER: What would you want to know? If you were in this classified briefing, Rob, what would you be asking?

D'AMICO: Well, again, there's certain systems out there around airports, around military bases, that do track drones. Do you have any information from those systems to show what drones are out there and about how many? A lot of the areas in New Jersey are rural that aren't covered by any of these systems. So hopefully, they're putting systems there.

But I would start like looking really into, can you tell us how many drones legally are flying? Because most of these are legal. And then, if they start looking at other things, like, can you absolutely tell us that you have no military things going on? And I don't think the military, if they did have something, if it started causing this, I think they'd shut it down immediately.

But the biggest thing now is this nuclear warhead, which -- in my former team, the hostage rescue team, one of our missions was nuclear take back.

[08:40:00] So we are trained in how to look for nuclear devices or warheads, and this is absolutely not the way, because when you do that, you don't want to cause panic. You do it through vehicles that bring in air and do sensors. You have people walking. You don't need drones to fly around. You can drive, you can use regular manned aircraft that have sensors on them. So you don't need to do this for nuclear devices. But the conspiracy side of it, again, it's going to get fueled by "This classified briefing."

WALKER: I'm sorry, nuclear warheads, is this part of what you've been hearing online or chatter that these drones might be carrying them?

D'AMICO: No, they're looking for them. That they -- the rumor online is there's a nuclear warhead missing from Ukraine or nuclear material out there for a dirty bomb, and that these drones are looking for them is what's being spun right now and that is --

WALKER: Understood.

D'AMICO: -- absolutely not the case because that's not how you look for those.

WALKER: In terms of your concerns, I mean, because there's so many of these flying objects out there now, what's your main concern right now? Is it potential accidents in the air as a result?

D'AMICO: Not accidents. My biggest concern is someone shooting, or like your news spoke of, the lasers. People are now being told to go out and shoot, or put lasers on them, and that's going to be, with all the misidentification, someone is going to either shoot a manned aircraft or someone is going to shoot at an actual drone and miss it, and that bullet is going to land somewhere and it could hit somebody.

So, I think the chaos of that, and that's the last thing you want to do, is shoot at a drone, point a laser at it, because 99 percent of the time, either you're going to miss and that bullet's going to go somewhere, or it's a manned aircraft, and then you're going to have bigger issues.

WALKER: And that's why the public needs a lot more information than what the federal government is giving right now. Rob D'Amico, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

D'AMICO: You're welcome.

WALKER: Jay-Z's attorney says the sexual assault claim against the hip-hop mogul is false. A woman has accused Jay-Z of raping her at an afterparty for the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards when she was 13 years old. But Attorney Alex Spiro says, the allegations are "all a fantasy". CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister has the latest from New York.

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Jay-Z's attorney is doubling down on a denial that his client ever raped a 13- year-old girl. Now, Jay-Z has already fiercely denied these accusations and his legal team has already asked the court to dismiss this case entirely. But now, for the first time speaking to reporters since these accusations came out, Jay-Z's Attorney Alex Spiro held a press conference of sorts. There was a private meeting at Jay-Z's Roc Nation offices in New York City where CNN was invited to watch a presentation put on by Jay-Z's attorney, where he had a PowerPoint where he showed different details that he says disprove Jane Doe's case. Let's take a look at some of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX SPIRO, JAY-Z'S LAWYER: This is not an account of inconsistencies. I wanted everybody to understand that this never happened. This is completely false. You have to look at the timeline, you have to look at the timeline. So there's an old expression that time doesn't lie. Everything else that I'm talking about, these glaring inconsistencies, these are not minor inconsistencies. These are not minor problems with these stories -- this story, this is utter falsehoods.

Time never lies. And so if you look at the time, no matter what, this couldn't have happened. It's not even possible that this happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WAGMEISTER: Now, as you heard there, Jay-Z's attorney is saying that these aren't just inconsistencies in Jane Doe's case, he's saying that the entire thing is false. In fact, he says it's not even possible that Jay-Z was there. Now, if we go back to Jane Doe's initial complaint, she alleges that she was raped by both Jay-Z and Sean Diddy Combs at an afterparty for the MTV Video Music Awards in the year 2000.

Now, this afterparty, she said, was held at a white house that was outside of the city. Well, Jay-Z's attorney actually showed photos of Jay-Z that night at an afterparty, but it was in New York City. So he says, if you look at the timeline, it's not possible that Jay-Z was in the suburbs at this alleged afterparty because he was photographed being somewhere else. Now, in her initial complaint, Jane Doe also said that she got to this alleged afterparty by getting into a limo from a driver outside of the MTV VMAs who said that they worked for Sean Combs.

While today, Jay-Z's attorney is saying that's not possible because the limousine line was barricaded by the police and fans were not able to access it.

[08:45:00]

Now, I reached out to Jane Doe's attorney, his name is Tony Buzbee. He says that he is representing over 120 accusers of Sean Diddy Combs. This is the first accuser to come forward and name Jay-Z, but he tells me that he stands by his client. He says that they're still vetting her. But when I asked about the vetting process, here's what he told me. He said that four individuals at his firm interviewed the client and check details. He says that a background check was run on Jane Doe and that his firm actually engaged a seasoned investigator to vet some details she disclosed to us and he said, "Those results were consistent with what the client had told us."

He also says that she assigned two separate affidavits and he tells me, "Courts exist to resolve factual disputes. Our client remains adamant about her claim." Back to you.

WALKER: All right, Elizabeth, thank you.

Still to come, has Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lost control of his government? One of his top ministers has resigned in what may amount to a stinging rebuke of his leadership.

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WALKER: Syria's new rulers are making a push for international legitimacy, more than one week after the fall of the Assad regime. Rebel leader Mohammed al-Jolani seen here visiting a mosque in Damascus last week. Met with British officials in the capital Monday and called for sanctions to be lifted. Meanwhile, U.S. and Western officials say Russia has begun a large-scale military withdrawal from Syria.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may be facing the biggest test of his political career. One of his most powerful and loyal ministers, Chrystia Freeland, announced that she is resigning from the cabinet. In her resignation letter, Freeland, the finance minister who has also served as Deputy Prime Minister, says she and Trudeau have found themselves at odds about the best path forward for Canada, and said Canada should avoid using what she called costly political gimmicks as it deals with Donald Trump's threat to impose sweeping tariffs.

Hundreds, if not thousands, are feared dead in the French territory of Mayotte off the coast of Mozambique after the worst cyclone to hit the region in at least 90 years. French President Emmanuel Macron says in the coming days, he will visit the island where damage is so severe, some are comparing it to the aftermath of a nuclear war. CNN's Larry Madowo has more on the destruction and the long road to recovery.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY MADOWO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Catastrophic, that's how residents of Mayotte are describing the damage from Cyclone Chido, the worst to hit the French Archipelago in nearly a century. The Category 4 storm killed at least 14 people as it tore through the Indian Ocean over the weekend, but government officials fear hundreds or even thousands could be dead according to the Associated Press.

[08:50:00]

Torrential rain and winds of more than 220 kilometers per hour wiped out entire neighborhoods, knocked out electrical grids and the water supply, leaving Mayotte almost entirely offline for over 36 hours according to the website, NetBlocks.

JOHN BALLOZ, MAYOTTE RESIDENT: It smashed right into us here. And to be honest, it was complicated. It was a complete disaster. Lots of houses and even towns are wiped out.

CAMILLE COZON ABDOURAZAK, MAYOTTE RESIDENT: It really is a war landscape around me. I don't recognize anything anymore.

MADOWO (voice-over): Mayotte's prefect says, the most devastating damage was to the island shacks, where roughly 100,000 undocumented migrants live in a population of just over 300,000. That is making search and rescue efforts even more difficult and nearly impossible to account for all the victims. French relief efforts are underway and the country's interior minister was briefed on the hurricane's impact as they began an official visit to their territory on Monday.

BRUNO RETAILLEAU, FRENCH INTERIOR MINISTER: If we want things to go smoothly, we're going to pull out all the stops. We're going to mobilize everything we can in terms of civil and military resources.

MADOWO (voice-over): With 75 percent of the population living below the national poverty line, Mayotte is heavily dependent on financial assistance from France. Speaking from Brussels, the foreign minister pledged to help rebuild the Archipelago. The island nation of Comoros, north of Mayotte, was also battered by the cyclone, which then went on to make landfall in Mozambique where it continued to cause damage. The storm has now weakened, but for the residents of Mayotte, the nightmare is only just beginning.

Larry Madowo, CNN, Nairobi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALKER: Still to come, who -- the woman who made headlines when she snuck onto an international airplane is on the move again. We're going to tell you where she was trying to go this time, when we come back.

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WALKER: A woman who made headlines after she stowed away on an international flight last month has been taken into custody again. Law enforcement sources says Svetlana Dali was caught Monday trying to sneak into Canada from the U.S. CNN's Randi Kaye has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Busted again. This time, Svetlana Dali was traveling by bus. Just last month, she had stowed away on a Delta flight from JFK Airport in New York to Paris. A law enforcement source tells CNN, Dali had managed to cut off her ankle monitor on Sunday and was taken into custody today, while on a Greyhound bus bound for Canada, multiple law enforcement told CNN.

That was Dali last month, the first time authorities tried to return the 57-year-old Russian national and a U.S. permanent resident to the United States from Paris. She created such a disturbance, Delta kicked her off the New York bound flight.

GARY TREICHLER, DELTA PASSENGER: What I saw was basically this lady that was progressively getting more and more irate and raising her voice louder and louder.

KAYE (voice-over): Earlier this month, another attempt to bring her back to the United States was successful.

[08:55:00]

Dali sat in the back of the aircraft and was flanked by two French security officials the entire flight to JFK.

A week and a half ago, Dali was charged in federal court with one count of being a stowaway on a vessel or aircraft without consent. Among other things, the judge ordered Dali to wear an ankle bracelet with a GPS monitor, surrender any travel documents, and told her she cannot go to airports or leave the area where she is staying. That includes, of course, jumping on a Greyhound bus to Canada.

Dali had been staying with a roommate, a law enforcement source told CNN, her roommate reported her missing after he saw her GPS ankle bracelet on the floor.

Randi Kaye, CNN, Palm Beach County, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALKER: All right, that is my time. Thank you so much for being with me here on "CNN Newsroom." I am Amara Walker. "Connect the World" with Becky Anderson is next.

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