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Trump's Controversial Cabinet Picks Looking for Support; Investors Watch Fed Meeting for Interest Rate Cut; Pope Francis' New Book Details Two Attempts on His Life; Horrifying Police Reports Shed Light on Pelicot Case; Starliner Astronauts Have Return to Earth Delayed Again. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired December 18, 2024 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. If you're just joining us here are some top stories today.
The suspect in the ambush killing of United Healthcare's CEO is now indicted for murder. Luigi Mangione facing 11 charges, including murder as an act of terrorism. Mangione is accused of gunning down Brian Thompson outside a New York hotel two weeks ago.
Later today, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will become the latest tech titan to meet with Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The CEOs of Apple, Meta and TikTok have already visited the president-elect in Florida.
Blue Origin, the space company owned by Bezos, is a space race -- in a space race against Elon Musk's SpaceX.
And Japanese auto giants Honda and Nissan are discussing a potential merger. The automakers say they are exploring various possibilities for collaboration and leveraging each other's strengths. They didn't offer any detail on the timing of any possible deal.
U.S. lawmakers have unveiled a stopgap spending bill that would keep the government running through to mid-March, but it's not clear if it can make it through Congress. Conservatives are frustrated with House Speaker Mike Johnson for negotiating with Democrats.
The bill includes nearly $100 billion in disaster relief and another $10 billion in economic assistance for farmers. Many Republicans are irate over the number of provisions tacked onto a bill that was intended only to extend current funding levels and prevent a shutdown.
Several of Donald Trump's controversial Cabinet picks have been lobbying Senators on Capitol Hill trying to pick up support ahead of next month's confirmation hearings.
Much of the focus right now is on Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who's been making the rounds with lawmakers. CNN's Manu Raju has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., making the rounds on Capitol Hill for a second day, meeting with Republican senators and trying to get them in line. One of the big things he has been trying to do is try to reassure some who are concerned about his views on vaccines.
He has, according to Republican senators, not reiterated what he has said before, to repeat that debunked theory that vaccine use leads to childhood autism. There's been signs, of course, just not making that case. He has said that before.
But in his meetings, he has said that he is concerned about rising rates of autism, says he wants to get to the bottom of that. And he's also indicated he wants to have a top-to-bottom review of vaccines altogether. Now, in a good sign for him, he had the Senate Republican leader -- incoming Senate Republican leader John Thune told our colleague Ted Barrett that, indeed, he could support him for the job. At least he suggested that he could, because he said he viewed his answers about vaccines in a very positive light.
And also, he has reassured Republican senators who have concerns about his pro-abortion rights views, saying instead that he would 100 percent support Donald Trump's position on abortion, if confirmed, as the health and human services secretary.
Now, I caught up with another key senator, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who actually met with Tulsi Gabbard to be the director of national intelligence. Gabbard has been controversial in her own right. In 2017, she met with then Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for a very controversial trip. She also has espoused views that have been critical of Ukraine, as Collins and others have pushed for more U.S. support for Ukraine. I asked her about both her meeting with Gabbard and also whether she could vote for Gabbard or RFK Jr.
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): We talked about Syria, her visit to see Assad. We talked about Ukraine. We talked about Putin. We talked about NATO. We talked about her positions on introducing legislation that would have removed the criminal charges for Snowden. And so, it was a very broad and wide-ranging discussion.
RAJU: Do you have any reservations about her or RFK Jr. at this point on vaccines?
COLLINS: As I've told you many, many times, I'm not going to make a decision on nominees about whom I have questions until we're through the process. That's the approach I have always taken.
RAJU: So, noncommittal on both. But for any Trump nominee, of course, they can afford to lose no more than three Republican votes on any party-line vote. And at the moment, no Republican senator is coming outward and saying they're publicly opposed to any of these nominees, all keeping their door open, even if they may have some concerns about their positions, which is why the Trump team is confident that they can get most, if not all, these nominees confirmed early in the new year.
Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: The Federal Reserve is set to hold its final meeting of the year today. Investors are watching for predictions about the incoming Trump administration. And they're waiting to see if the Federal Reserve follows through with an expected cut for the third time this year.
[04:35:00]
CNN's Julia Chatterley reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN ANCHOR, FIRST MOVE: The Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut interest rates by a quarter of a percent in their final meeting of the year, making it a nice round one percentage point of cuts to borrowing costs for the year. But then comes the tougher part, which involves communicating some kind of plan for 2025. And that includes what's widely expected to be a pause in the cutting cycle in January.
Why? Well, it's a few things. And actually, a lot of it's good news, including solid growth, tracking up more than 3 percent annualized.
We can then add in a stronger than expected labor market, plus a U.S. consumer that's actually increased spending into the holiday season. Then there's rising prices that actually have cooled a lot, but not enough.
And then comes the bad news. Plenty of geopolitical risk, whether that's the Middle East, Ukraine or the potential impact of tariff policy from President-elect Donald Trump. Now, the decision to pause rate cuts, though, would be far more, I think, about the relative economic strength, at least in my mind, than future policy decisions like tariffs that may not, in fact, materialize.
So first comes their updated economic projections and the so-called dot plot of where they think cuts in rates can come next year.
Now, if you remember back in September, they were thinking four rate cuts next year. That could very likely be reduced to just three cuts based on what they see today. Though, let's be clear, as we've seen this year, nothing is set in stone.
And Fed Chair Jerome Powell will likely be keen to emphasize a degree of flexibility when he speaks on Wednesday. And that leaves the Fed with a core message that they've cut rates a full percentage point, that the economy is doing pretty well, and that they do remain data dependent and that they can't react to things like tariffs until they get them. And then they'll see how things progress between now and the January meeting.
Julia Chatterley, CNN, New York.
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FOSTER: Ecuador has now completed its second debt swap, this time to free up money for Amazon conservation. The government says by buying back more than one and a half billion dollars of discounted existing bonds with new, cheaper money, it'll see a savings of $460 million over the next 17 years that will go towards protecting and managing the rainforest. The Amazon bio-corridor program looks to improve the management and protection of millions of acres of forests and wetlands, as well as to protect more than 11,000 miles of rivers.
Pope Francis is expected to release a new book early next year. A memoir of his life entitled "Hope." It will include details of two attempts on his life. CNN's Christopher Lamb has more.
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CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Pope Francis says he faced two assassination attempts during his 2021 visit to Iraq in what was the first time a pontiff had visited the country. In a forthcoming autobiography, parts of which were released on Tuesday, the Pope said he was told of a female suicide bomber who planned to blow herself up in Mosul, whilst a van travelling at high speed had the same intent. Both these assassination attempts were foiled, the Pope said, by the U.K. intelligence services and by the Iraqi police.
Now, of course, Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, was under the control of Islamic State from 2014 to 2017.
In his autobiography, the Pope says he was advised strongly against visiting Iraq due to the security risk and the COVID-19 pandemic. But the Pope said he was determined to make the trip to a country that is rich in biblical history and, of course, is home to one of the world's oldest Christian communities that has faced extensive persecution in recent years.
Whilst in Iraq, the Pope was also able to have an historic meeting with the Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani, the leading Shia authority in Islam. The news of the assassination attempts against the Pope came as Francis marked his 88th birthday, making him one of the oldest Popes in the Church's history.
However, the Pope shows no sign of slowing down and he's a busy schedule ahead of services during the Christmas period.
Christopher Lamb, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: In the South Pacific, at least 14 people are reported dead in Vanuatu after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake hit the islands on Tuesday. Officials say at least 200 people have been treated for injuries. The quake caused buildings to collapse, smashing cars, potentially trapping victims beneath the rubble.
The U.S. embassy in Vanuatu, which shares a building with other western embassies, was badly damaged and is now closed. A doctor with the emergency relief group Respond Global says the entire ordeal is something residents won't forget soon.
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DR. BASIL LEODORO, HEALTH EMERGENCY RESPONSE DIRECTOR, RESPOND GLOBAL: We've definitely been overwhelmed. In the first few hours, it was very clear this was a major incident with the risk of overwhelming the health services.
[04:40:02]
Also, recognizing the importance of mental health and psychosocial response in this. It's going to take a toll on the cultural safety net of the communities and this will be something that will definitely remain in our memories for a long time. It's just before Christmas and I'm sure it will have lifelong impact for many in Vanuatu.
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FOSTER: Authorities and aid workers in the French territory of Mayotte are working around the clock to keep the peace and prevent the spread of disease. After the worst cyclone to hit the region in at least 90 years, at least 22 people are dead and more than 1,400 injured, according to a local mayor. But those numbers could rise significantly as crews move further into areas blocked by debris.
Much-needed supplies began arriving on Tuesday. The French government expects half of the island's water supplies to be restored soon and nearly all of it by early next week.
Now we have exclusive new reporting on France's mass rape trial, including details on how Gisele Pelicot's husband was able to orchestrate the abuse.
A report after the break.
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FOSTER: A verdict is expected on Thursday in the Pelicot rape trial that shot France and much of the world. Dominique Pelicot is accused of organizing the abuse of his own wife, Giselle. She decided to waive her right to anonymity and has spoken openly in court, saying it's time to look at this macho, patriarchal society and change the way it looks at rape.
Fifteen men, including Pelicot, have pleaded guilty to rape. Others say they thought that a husband's consent was enough. Now exclusive access to French police reports reveal exactly how her husband found men to rape his wife.
[04:45:03]
We have to warn everyone that the content is graphic and it's disturbing. Saskya Vandoorne reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SASKYA VANDOORNE, SENIOR PRODUCER: I've come here to retrace the steps of all those men who visited Dominique Pelicot's house in the middle of the night. This case really has captured the world's attention with so many people asking why. We're going to focus instead on how Pelicot led the men right here.
VANDOORNE (voice-over): The way he communicated, the tactics he used, how he came to be on trial for mass rape and drugging his wife. What was his playbook?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fifty men accused in the mass rape of Gisele Pelicot. She was drugged.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Drugged unconscious by her husband,
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dominique Pelicot.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dominique Pelicot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Enlisting other men to join him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rape his wife sparked outrage across France.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Global concern about violence against women.
VANDOORNE (voice-over): CNN has gained exclusive access to police reports with thousands of messages that Dominique exchanged with the 50 men on trial alongside him. He didn't have to search far for his alleged accomplices. They all live within a 30 mile radius of his house in Mazan.
The horror is still felt here by local women.
NEDELJKA MACAN, MAZAN RESIDENT: This area was so quiet and nice area. And now we don't know if somebody who is the next job is one of these men. It changed everything.
VANDOORNE: From a firefighter to a journalist, to a nurse. From 27 years old to 74 years old. All the men were connected by one website, Coco.
Shut down this summer, Coco's chat rooms were easy to access. It was not buried in the dark web. As one man accused of raping Gisele Pelicot said.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (translated text): I got in touch through Coco in the evening when I was by myself. My wife had gone to bed and I was a little bored.
VANDOORNE: But because the so-called dating site was entirely unmoderated and anonymous, it boasted chat rooms selling date rape drugs and spaces to glorify sexual violence. Under the pseudonym AvailableAllNight, Pelicot posted in a chat room called Without Her Knowledge. It was there that misogyny and sexual abuse were completely normalized. While Pelicot has pleaded guilty to rape, most of his co-defendants say that they believe Dominique Pelicot's consent was enough. Coco was the door. Pelicot would then move the discussion to Skype.
He traded videos of his wife being raped for intimate images of the men's own partners. According to the police report.
MATHIAS DARMON, LAWYER, INNOCENCE EN DANGER: We saw Coco was a very dangerous website.
VANDOORNE: Innocence en Danger has been campaigning against the site for years.
DARMON: They went to this website to realize their worst fantasies. So it became reality thanks to Dominique Pelicot.
VANDOORNE: He told police that over time he built a network of men.
DARMON: The place where they could meet, what time, what they could wear, they couldn't wear.
VANDOORNE: He allegedly told the men what drugs to buy and how to use them. This all went undetected for 10 years.
Dominique Pelicot never thought his text messages or his alleged crimes would see the light of day.
And they probably wouldn't have if it weren't for the events that took place right here on September 12th when a security guard caught him red-handed filming up the skirts of several women.
DARMON: This kind of website, as long as there is demand, then there will be supply.
VANDOORNE: In the wake of Coco's shutdown, more websites have gained in popularity in France. CNN extracted data from just one of those websites. After going through almost 6,000 messages from a 24-hour period, we found a strikingly similar pattern of men sharing explicit photos of their wives and girlfriends and asking to move the discussions to private messaging platforms.
Some men went as far as offering up their wives to other users in a manner like Pelicot, but it's unclear if any of them set up real-life encounters.
VANDOORNE: There are some websites that could be the new Coco. How does that make you feel?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For these websites, it's a kind of marvelous thing, what happened with Gisele Pelicot.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It brings them advertising.
[04:50:00]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translated text): It could very well happen again tomorrow in another place.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We expect that some laws will change, but of course, I'm not sure that it will be enough. So I don't feel at ease here in the streets.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Saskya Vandoorne reporting there and she'll be following the cases it completes as well. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: A new milestone in outer space. Two Chinese astronauts have broken the record for the longest spacewalk. The China Manned Space Agency says it lasted nine hours on Tuesday. That beats the previous record of eight hours and 56 minutes set by a pair of U.S. astronauts in 2001. China's been increasing its role as a major player in space with plans to land on the moon by 2030.
Two astronauts who've been stranded on the International Space Station since June will have to stay in orbit even longer now, it seems. The one-week mission for Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore was unexpectedly extended due to issues with their Boeing Starliner spacecraft. CNN's Kristin Fisher has details on this delay.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[04:55:00]
KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE ANALYST: You'll remember Butch and Suni, they were supposed to come back on that Boeing Starliner capsule on its maiden test flight back in June. It didn't happen because NASA deemed it to be unsafe. So they've been waiting up at the International Space Station as part of a crew rotation, right?
So you have to wait until the next crew and the next spacecraft is ready to come up there and relieve you. So crew nine came up. Now they're waiting for crew 10.
That was supposed to be in February. Now we just learned it's going to be delayed one month until mid to late March of 2025. And the reason why, according to NASA and SpaceX -- I'm quoting here -- they say they need extra time to complete processing on a new Dragon spacecraft for the mission.
So this is, you know, SpaceX has a lot of Dragon spacecrafts. They've been used quite frequently. It's the primary means by which NASA astronauts get to and from the International Space Station.
So they've been planning on getting this new one up and running. It's just not quite ready to get. So for Butch and Suni, it means they've got to wait at least one more month.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) (TOP GUN MOVIE CLIP)
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FOSTER: Tom Cruise has spent years playing military heroes, but his service is more than just make-believe. The U.S. Navy is honoring him with a Distinguished Public Service Award. The Navy says films like Top Gun and its sequel, Maverick, significantly boosted its recruitment of fighter pilots. Cruise is a licensed pilot and says that it's a true honor to represent service members.
Finally, we leave you this hour with a Santa who ditched his sleigh for a jet ski to deliver presents to kids in Rio de Janeiro. The non- profit Heroes of Love joined forces with the fire department to hand out gifts to children in the community.
Thanks for joining me here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London. "THIS MORNING" -- CNN "THIS MORNING" up next after a break.
