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Dominique Pelicot Found Guilty in Mass Rape of Wife Gisele; House Republicans Slam Johnson Over Bloated Spending Bill; Asia- Pacific Markets Lower as Dow Loses 1,100+ Points; New Details Emerge About 15-Year-Old Female Wisconsin School Shooter. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired December 19, 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]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Max Foster. Thursday, December the 19th, beginning in Avignon, France, where Dominique Pelicot has just been found guilty on all charges in the mass rape of his wife, Gisele, and organizing that.

We're awaiting verdicts now for dozens of other defendants whom Pelicot had recruited to sexually abuse his wife for nearly a decade. This has been one of the darkest criminal cases in France's modern history, one in which Gisele Pelicot was determined to make public, hoping to help other sexual abuse victims. She's become an icon.

Prosecutors are seeking the maximum 20-year prison sentence for Dominique Pelicot and lower sentences for the other defendants. Melissa Bell standing by for us at the courthouse in Avignon. When do we get the actual sentence then, Melissa?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, for the time being, Max, what's happening inside that courthouse behind me is they're going through the verdicts of each of the men. More than a dozen of them now found guilty. The sentences we understand, will be announced afterwards.

Essentially, they face sentences from between four to 20 years in the case of Dominique Pelicot and a few others. And, of course, as you can see by the amounts of people outside this courtroom today, Max, this is a trial that has been so extensively followed.

It isn't simply the gravity of what these men are accused of having done. It isn't the scale of this trial, France's largest mass rape trial in modern history. It is, of course, also at the very heart of this trial the courage of Gisele Pelicot. We watched her arrive a short while ago to the cheers of the crowd shouting merci, madame, merci, Gisele, for her courage.

Essentially, by waiving her anonymity, what she did is not simply waive that of the men accused of her rapes, but also placed at the heart of the trial and for the trials to see and the journalists to follow and then transcribe the details of the acts that were captured on camera by Dominique Pelicot, their violence against his own wife captured over a decade. What we're talking about, investigators say, is 200 rapes captured on those appalling videos that were recorded by Dominique Pelicot. Remember also, simply found, because he was caught one day in a supermarket trying to film up women's skirts, a particularly vigilant guard at that supermarket insisted the woman take it on to police.

It was only then that police, looking through his phone and computers, found the horrors of what had been captured by Dominique Pelicot over that time. Gisele Pelicot then discovering it for herself. And again, through her courage, the courageous decision to waive her anonymity, the wider world hearing the very sordid details of what went on and what these men are now accused of, 50 of them in court here today, one of them still on the run.

And I think chillingly, investigators saying that there are many other men also captured on those videos that they were simply unable to identify. So, the scale of what Gisele Pelicot has been through matched only by her extraordinary courage in being willing to speak about it. And she's been very clear about why.

This is for other women to understand that, in her words, if Madame Pelicot could speak out, so then can other victims of sexual abuse -- Max.

FOSTER: The maximum sentence, as I understand it, is 20 years. It's difficult to see how the judge won't impose that. But so much commentary I know in France that, you know, that just does not speak to the gravity of the crime that this man carried out.

So there's an issue here, isn't there, with the sentencing rules, too, it appears.

BELL: I think that's right. There's been a lot said about these sentences and how they simply don't reflect the barbarity, the violence, the destruction of what was done to Gisele Pelicot over so many years. I think this is a trial that raises a lot of questions about that, but also about the question of consent.

One of the fascinating things about this trial, again, followed as publicly as it has been, has been the defense of these men.

[04:05:00]

Very few recognize their guilt. Many of them argued that they believed they were duped by Dominique Pelicot into engaging in some kind of sordid sex game whereby his wife was pretending to be asleep.

And others still said that they believed that by the presence of the husband, the wife's consent was a given. So these questions are now profoundly societal ones. And I think that was exactly Gisele Pelicot's point.

And you can hear there the cries of joy coming out of the crowd. The support for Gisele Pelicot also translated into relief that the verdicts so far, certainly for Dominique Pelicot, have found him guilty on all counts. And little by little, as we hear man after man after man found guilty on these charges, you're going to hear this crowd react.

We've been hearing it throughout the morning. Rapists, we see you. They've been chanting.

And as Gisele Pelicot arrived, again, huge support. Thanks for what she's done in the name of women everywhere and for shining this extremely uncomfortable light not only on these 51 men, but more broadly on the question of how so many men could night after night have come into a home, found a woman clearly unconscious and never raised the alarm.

FOSTER: She really is an inspiring figure, isn't she? Melissa, back with you as we get those sentences. Thank you.

Still a month away from Donald Trump's return to the White House. But he's already having a major influence on business in Washington, this time effectively tanking a bipartisan bill that would have funded the government through to mid-March, forcing lawmakers back to the drawing board. In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump complained about what he called Democrat bells and whistles in the stopgap measure. And he even threatened any Republicans who backed the plan.

Coincidentally or not, Elon Musk posted a similar message just hours before calling for harsh action against dissenting Republicans. But no one is drawing as much ire as House Speaker Mike Johnson, the man who helped negotiate the bipartisan bill. Republicans say he allowed too many add-ons to the deal and a warning his time as speaker may be in jeopardy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a complete monstrosity. Yes, no, I don't think it was handled well at all, but it's kind of par for the course for this town.

REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): And we've now added $330 billion, by my count, in deficit spending, unpaid for. It's just, I said earlier, we're profoundly unserious on spending.

REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): They got a bunch of garbage they want to pass, so they'll attach emergency things to it, like, you know, for the hurricane relief or the farmers or what have you. To me, it's gutless.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So you won't vote for him?

REP THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): He does not have my vote.

RAJU: Will you change your mind?

MASSIE: I would take a Christmas miracle.

We just won the elections. We have a mandate. And he's giving away the farm. He's turned this thing into a Christmas tree.

REP. RICH MCCORMICK (R-GA): I'm wondering why we have control of Congress if we're not going to do what we say we're going to do.

RAJU: Do you think the speaker, given the way he's handled this, deserves to be re-elected on January 3rd?

MCCORMICK: I think there's going to be debate on it. If we're not careful, we'll be having some serious debate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Well, after doing those interviews, Manu gave us his thoughts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: Donald Trump torpedoing a carefully negotiated bipartisan compromise to avoid a government shutdown by the end of the week. This negotiation had happened behind closed doors for several weeks, and ultimately a deal was reached. It came out just last night.

That deal, about 1,500 pages in length. It had a whole wide range of provisions, but the most significant part, it would extend government funding until mid-March to avoid a shutdown.

Now, throughout the course of the day, anger began to build on the right. Republicans, particularly conservative members, said that it was a bad deal that Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, cut with Democratic leaders and cut with the White House. They pointed a number of provisions that they did not like in there. There were some politically toxic measures as well, such as raising the salary, giving a salary increase to members of Congress.

But perhaps most significantly, it was Elon Musk who came out to oppose the bill very loudly, calling on members who vote for the bill to essentially lose their elections. And it wasn't just Musk. After Musk came out in his opposition, then Donald Trump himself came out opposed to the measure.

He and J.D. Vance issued a scathing statement over this bill. He attacked the bill, and he also added a highly complex issue on top of it. He is now demanding that Congress raise the national debt limit, avoid the first ever debt default.

That could have happened next year. He wants that done now because he doesn't want to deal with it when he's president, even though doing so is a highly complicated issue that will be very difficult to resolve in just two days. That's one reason why Republicans and Democrats alike have concerns, including this Republican senator.

RAJU: Are you frustrated?

SEN. KEVIN CRAMER (R-ND): Very frustrated. Can you tell?

[04:10:00]

CRAMER: But I'm frustrated with a smile.

RAJU: I mean, are you frustrated with the president-elect?

CRAMER: I'm frustrated with his team to not have engaged sooner than this.

RAJU: Do you think Trump should have made his demands out earlier?

CRAMER: Well, that would have been very helpful, yes. I mean, maybe he hadn't thought about it until just today, but yes, that would have been very helpful.

RAJU: Is it realistic to raise the national debt limit in two days?

CRAMER: I would not think so. I would not think so. But, you know, it's almost Christmas. It's amazing what people might do to get home.

RAJU: Now how this gets resolved remains an open question, but there is considerable concern and frustration within the ranks. Republicans don't think it's realistic to add the national debt limit. Democrats say they don't want to negotiate, and if they do negotiate the debt limit, they're going to demand a whole host of measures that probably would go too far for Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

So how this gets resolved remains a major question as yet another crisis moment begins to engulf Washington.

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Political experts warn that this could be the way important government decisions are made in the U.S. for the next few years either adhere to the plan set out by Donald Trump and his followers or face losing a position in Washington altogether.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADAM KINZINGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: President Musk this morning made it clear with all his vast government experience, which is basically he became rich on the federal government, that he doesn't want Republicans to pass this. And seemingly Vice President Trump kind of backed him up then at that point. And what it says about the politics is this is going to be a messy four years.

The whole debt ceiling thing, Donald Trump is making it clear that he wants the debt ceiling to go up. By the way, the debt ceiling is going to have to go up, but he doesn't want to have to take ownership for it because he will again for four years look at the Democrats and blame them. And so what this says about the politics is good luck for the next four years.

I don't think they'll shut the government down because ultimately they'll want to get home for Christmas. They'll do like a one month CR pretending like that's going to fix everything. But yes, I mean, I think President Elon has made it clear what his agenda is going to be for the next four years.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Everyone who's watching this should strap on their seatbelts because this is what the next four years are going to be like. And Speaker Johnson ought to be strapping on his parachute because I don't know how he's going to have a narrower margin come January. And, you know, if this is -- if he's in this kind of jam now, imagine where he's going to be then. I don't know what's going to happen to him.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Well, there is economic uncertainty around the globe, really, ahead of Donald Trump's second term in the White House. The U.S. Federal Reserve, shaken by the possibility of tariffs that could keep inflation high for the next several years. The Fed cut interest rates by a quarter of a point on Wednesday, as expected.

But the central bank is now forecasting only two rate cuts next year instead of four. Fed chair Jerome Powell says economic growth and the job market look good for next year, but inflation must come down more quickly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME POWELL, U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR: We've had a year on projection for inflation and it's kind of fallen apart as we approach the end of the year. So that is certainly a large factor in people's thinking. I can tell you that might be the single biggest factor is inflation has once again underperformed relative to expectations.

It's still, you know, going to be between two and a half and three. It's way below where it was. But, you know, we really want to see progress on inflation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, the Fed's outlook sent Wall Street into a selloff. The Dow fell more than 1,100 points, extending its losing streak to 10 days, which is the worst since 1974. CNN's Marc Stewart live for us in Beijing.

You've covered the ups and downs of the markets for many years and there's nothing they hate more than uncertainty. And we just don't know how this is going to play out in the next presidency.

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Max. It's just after five o'clock in the afternoon. And it proved to be a rough trading day today based off those remarks, in part by the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Certainly, we hope it's not an indication of what you will see later today in Europe. And, of course, when the U.S. markets open just after nine o'clock Eastern time. But when you hear the Fed chair talk about inflation and uncertainty, it's hard to feel excited.

When we talk about inflation, of course, we have to talk about interest rates. That is the cost of borrowing money. So for an American, for example, who is looking to buy perhaps a car made in Japan or some high end fashion made in Europe, the interest rate that they will pay on their credit card bill will likely remain elevated for quite some time.

The Fed chair saying that the potential for more interest rate cuts is something that's just going to have to be tempered. He had looking to 2025. He's expressing a lot of caution.

[04:15:02]

Let's take a listen to more of what the Fed chair had to say from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POWELL: The point about uncertainty is it's kind of common sense thinking that when the path is uncertain, you go a little bit slower. It's not unlike driving on a foggy night or walking into a dark room full of furniture. You just slow down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: Yes, no one wants to hear the Fed chair say the word slow down. I did talk to one source today who felt that the reaction we've seen so far on Wall Street has been, quote, way overrated, a little bit exaggerated. But again, this also may serve as an opportunity for people to start buying, especially as we look closer to Christmas.

There's this idea of a Santa Claus rally when people just get excited about the holidays and the festivities that we do see Wall Street start to climb.

Max, as we've discussed many times, the markets are fickle. And if there is any opportunity for people to celebrate over any kind of morsel of good news, it's something that luckily we will see. We just need that nugget to happen, so to speak.

FOSTER: Absolutely. Marc in Beijing. Appreciate it as ever. Thank you.

Now to the deadly school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin. Investigators are looking into a possible connection between the shooter and a 20 year old California man who authorities say was plotting a mass shooting with the teenager.

Officials have identified the two people killed in the school shooting. One's a 14-year-old student, Rubi Vergara. 42-year-old teacher, Erin Michelle West, also died.

New details are now emerging about the 15-year-old female student who carried out the shooting before killing herself. CNN's Whitney Wild has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Families of students at Abundant Life Christian School returning to the scene of a horrific crime, retrieving belongings. The first step in a long road to healing.

MACKYNZIE WILSON, STUDENT AT ABUNDANT LIFE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL: It's going to be hard going into the school again after all the like fear and trauma.

WILD (voice-over): Mackenzie Wilson had a locker next to the shooter, 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow.

WILSON: She was really quiet. She didn't really have any friends and like she just seemed really lonely. And she was just like it wasn't like she was trying to like fit in. She seemed very like content being alone, I guess.

WILD (voice-over): This is new details are emerging about Rupnow, who opened fire at a private Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin, Monday, killing two and wounding six others. According to court documents obtained by CNN, her parents married and divorced twice within the span of about 10 years. The documents show a complicated arrangement with Natalie moving between homes every two to three days.

Ultimately, her father, Jeff, had primary custody with regular visits from her mother and they lived roughly 40 minutes apart. The documents also show that Natalie attended therapy and her parents were encouraged to join her. Neither Jeff nor Melissa Rupnow have responded to CNN's multiple requests for comment.

But court family documents say at one point reported a generally positive co-parenting relationship. Police say Rupnow's parents, Jeff and Melissa, are cooperating with the investigation.

According to police, Rupnow used a handgun in the attack, but it's unclear how she obtained the weapon. A Facebook photo posted by Rupnow's father in August shows her at a shooting range. A comment from her dad on the photo says they joined the range in the spring and, quote: We have been loving every second of it.

She's also seen wearing a KMFDM shirt, a German industrial rock band, whose lyrics were cited by the shooters at the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 in Colorado. The band at the time condemned that horrific attack.

The band's music also accompanied a TikTok post from Dylan Butler shortly before he opened fire at a school in Iowa in January, killing a sixth grader and wounding seven.

Police say they're looking into Rupnow's activity online. Experts say any social media footprint left behind by Rupnow is crucial to the investigation.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: In order to get to that motive, investigators will have to rely on witnesses, any writing she left behind, and a deep dive into her social media history to see if there's any indication why she conducted this heinous act.

WILD (voice-over): A heinous act that took the life of a teacher who Wilson says was popular among students.

WILSON: She really loved her kids, and she really, really loved everyone at her school, and she would have done anything for them. Looking back, I wish I could have gone back and given her a hug.

WILD: Mackenzie's mom, Lindsey, went to school here, too. She started at the school when she was just eight years old, and what is so clear talking to Mackenzie and Lindsey and the other families is that this is a school with a really strong sense of community. They are very close-knit.

They have generations of families have gone to this school, and what binds them is their faith, and they say they are clinging to that closely tonight.

Whitney Wild, CNN, Madison, Wisconsin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[04:20:00]

FOSTER: Still to come, as the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare's CEO is set to appear in court, tensions now turning to his family and his background.

Plus U.S. border guards take surprising measures to disperse a group of migrants.

And Russian President Vladimir Putin just kicking off his annual press conference. You can see him there. A live report on what he's saying just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: We have the sentence for Dominic Pelico, who was found guilty in the mass rape trial involving his wife over a period of nearly a decade. Let's get back to Melissa Bell. He's standing by for us at the courthouse in Avignon -- Melissa.

BELL: Max, we've had over the course of the last 20 minutes or so, first of all, the verdicts delivered for the men, and it takes some time. You're talking about 50 men who are here in court today to hear their sentences. That of Dominic Pelico, which we've just learned, the man who was accused of recruiting these other men to rape his wife and filming the acts over the course of nearly a decade, he gets that maximum sentence of 20 years that was requested by prosecutors, two- thirds of which, will have to be served in jail.

[04:25:05]

He'll also be inscribed on a sex offenders registry. Little by little, we're going to get the rest of the sentences.

Remember, again, this is a trial extraordinary in its nature, in its scale. So the judge is going through verdict by verdict and then sentence by sentence. So far, guilty verdicts for the men, and that we were really waiting to hear about Dominic Pelico, the architect of his wife's abuse over so many years, and it is the maximum sentence that he has now received.

And each time we've heard fresh news outside the courthouse of verdicts being delivered, sentences being handed down, there have been cheers out here from many of those people who've come out day after day to support Gisele Pelico, not just her courage to show their support for what she's gone through, but to thank her.

As we watched her arrive earlier, this is what they were shouting, saying, thank you, Gisele, for having chosen to make this trial public and having chosen thereby, in her words, to see shame change camps and end up properly where it belonged, with the men sitting in that box today hearing their sentences read out -- Max.

FOSTER: Do we expect to hear from Gisele? She's obviously emerged, as you say, as this, not just a French icon and a have-her-own, but also a global one. People want to know whether or not she feels this is justice, because I think a lot of people already on social media are saying 20 years certainly wasn't enough.

BELL: I think -- I think Gisele Pelico has really attracted the world's attention, partly, of course, for her act of choosing to make this public. She didn't have to. She requested it. There were a lot of implications involved in that, not least the witnessing day after day of the videos of what had been done to her. She chose that very bravely, but I think she's also touched a nerve because of the dignity with which she's done it.

A great deal of humility as well. She's said over and over again, I am just a normal person. And in many ways, although she's at the center of this trial and the heart of it and the focus of so much attention, she's really insisted day after day that this isn't just about her. It's about the victims of all sexual abuse, and she's explained that that was why she'd chosen to make the trial public.

In her words, she wants other victims of sexual abuse to say, if Madame Pelico could do it, could speak out, could ensure that shame was in the other camp, then I can too.

So I think it is that bravery, it is the sense of what she's doing for others that has touched a nerve, and also I think the fact that this case doesn't just shine a very harsh light on these particular men and their particular acts and guilt. It also shines a light, perhaps more importantly, on societal questions. The question of how so many men could have thought it was OK to turn up at a house, find a clearly unconscious woman, do what they did, and none of them ever take that further or report it or raise alarms about what might be happening to these women.

Again, these are acts that took place over nearly a decade, and the only reason the world found out was that one day Dominique Pelico was found in a supermarket trying to film up women's skirts. The contents of his phone then discovered otherwise.

Gisele Pelico might not have learned of it, the world might not have learned of what was done to her, and therefore these questions might not have ever been brought to light -- Max.

FOSTER: Melissa, thank you so much for bringing us that sentence. 20 years then for the mass rape of his wife, organizing that, an extraordinary day in French history, I think that.

We're also watching live pictures coming out from Moscow, the Russian president there. Vladimir Putin addressing his annual press conference. Right now he is talking about key domestic issues, including the economy. The big question is, will he say anything about the fighting in Ukraine and whether he'll address the recent assassination as well of a senior Russian general which the Kremlin blames on Kyiv?

Clare Sebastian monitoring the speech will join us later in the show for any global highlights for you. We'll be back in just a moment.