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Shutdown Looms After Dozens of Republicans Defy Trump; Emotional Reunions as Syrian Refugees Return Home; Luigi Mangione Makes First Appearance in Federal Court; Gaza Humanitarian Crisis Worsening Amid Ceasefire Talks; Putin Coy About Meeting Trump in Annual Press Conference. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired December 20, 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]
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the ways that this could get fixed fairly quickly would be if President Trump would come up to Washington.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He got bugged by 38 members of his own party.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Accused killer Luigi Mangione, back in New York and behind bars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not in the practice of dismissing charges simply because someone has more serious charges somewhere else.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The U.S. delegation is in the Syrian capital right now to meet with the interim government leaders. It is the first in-person visit to Damascus by U.S. officials since the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
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ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Max Foster. It's Friday, December the 20th.
It's 9 a.m. here in London. It's 4 a.m. in Washington, where we are 20 hours away now from a U.S. federal government shutdown after a bipartisan revolt sank the latest spending bill that was backed by Donald Trump. Republicans are scrambling after resistance to the bill's two-year suspension of the debt limit left the legislation well short of the majority needed to pass.
But the President-elect remains undeterred, adding fuel to the fire. He now says, quote, Congress must get rid of or extend out to perhaps 2029, the ridiculous debt ceiling.
That's going to put him at odds with fiscal conservatives and his own party. He could see spending control as a red line in any deal. Amid all of this, some are asking the President-elect to come to Washington to help sort things out.
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SEN. KEVIN CRAMER (R-ND): Quite honestly, I think one of the ways that this could get fixed fairly quickly would be if President Trump would come up to Washington tomorrow or spend the weekend here and talk to people face-to-face. Let's face it, I mean, he's got a lot of sway and persuasion. He acts more like the sitting president than the sitting president. And if he'd come up, I think he could help move things along.
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FOSTER: GOP leadership is now regrouping. Looking at what steps to take next, CNN's Manu Raju has that.
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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Even though Donald Trump tried to pressure Republicans to fall in line behind this 11th hour effort to avoid a government shutdown, he got bucked by 38 members of his own party, as well as Democrats who voted en masse against this proposal to avoid a government shutdown. One big reason why, it included a provision to suspend the national debt limit for two years. Remember that issue of a debt limit was a complex, complicated issue that typically Congress tends weeks, if not months, to try to negotiate.
No one wants to vote really to raise the borrowing limit in the United States. And Donald Trump does not want this to be part of his first year agenda. So he wants to take it off the table now. He's saying deal with it now, so he doesn't have to worry about when he's president.
But there's a problem. There are Republicans in the ranks who say that they will never vote for a debt limit increase, especially if it does not have spending cuts.
REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): This just stinks. That's why America doesn't trust government, and it's for good dadgum reasons.
RAJU: And you said shut it down.
BURCHETT: That's what it takes to bring us to the table.
REP. BOB GOOD (R-VA): Any extra supplemental ought to stand on its own merits, not be attached to it, and it ought to have pay-fors, and the debt limit must not be increased without commensurate spending cuts and fiscal reform.
REP. ERIC BURLISON (R-MO): When I ran for office, I said that I would not vote to raise the debt ceiling. And so I've never voted to raise the debt ceiling. I mean, I love Donald Trump, but he didn't vote me into office. My district did. RAJU: You want to shut it down?
BURLISON: I'm not afraid of a shutdown.
RAJU: Now this all comes as Donald Trump, of course, intervened late in this whole process. There was a bipartisan deal that was on the glide path to becoming law to avert a government shutdown. But then when Trump intervened late and said that he wanted the debt limit increase to be part of this plan, and he berated that bipartisan deal that Mike Johnson cut, as a result, it's left Congress scrambling to try to figure out a solution.
And now that Plan B has failed, Mike Johnson is trying to figure out if there's any way to avoid a government shutdown. That will occur at midnight this Saturday morning. And how long that could last remains a major question.
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The two sides on opposite sides on how to resolve an issue that could be crippling to so many Americans who rely on government services, government employees, contractors, and the like as a shutdown now looms in just a matter of hours.
Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
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FOSTER: Well, Republicans were forced to revamp the deal that had bipartisan support after pressure from Trump and his tech billionaire advisor, Elon Musk. Political analyst Michael Genovese spoke with CNN about what could be next for this duo.
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MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Plan A was on course to be passed until Donald Trump intervened and added something to it, which is the debt ceiling. And so Donald Trump scuttled his own best interests. And then now, today, they failed to pass the Donald Trump- supported bill.
What's next? Let's see what Elon Musk decides to do and how he weighs in. Because increasingly, Republicans are looking to Elon Musk instead of Donald Trump for their direction.
And so, you know, no one wins in a budget shutdown. There are a lot of losers. And Donald Trump will be one of them.
Plan A is still the best course of action. And so Donald Trump's desire to get the debt ceiling included probably is off the table. I don't think the Democrats want it. Certainly, a lot of Republicans don't want it.
So Trump would be best served by just backing away. He's been politically tone deaf on this and shot himself in the foot. He needs a budget deal. He needs it now. He does not want to face that in January.
Elon Musk is sort of still on the sidelines shouting at all the players. And he has a much bigger profile on social media than Donald Trump. And so Musk is in a much better position than Trump.
Elon Musk is younger, he's richer, and he's had a more important social media impact than Donald Trump. I mean, he's all the things Donald Trump wants to be. And he's free to do what he wants because he isn't tethered by the fact that one will become president and it will all be thrown on his shoulder.
So Elon Musk can play the field as much as he wants. And Republicans are looking more and more to him for leadership and guidance.
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FOSTER: Well, a U.S. delegation, meanwhile, in Syria's capital right now to meet with the interim government leaders there. It's the first in-person visit to Damascus by U.S. officials since the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The White House has tapped former ambassador and Syria envoy Daniel Rubinstein to lead the effort in the final weeks of the Biden administration.
The State Department says U.S. officials will meet with the group that now comprises Syria's de facto government to discuss the transition and other issues, the U.S., the U.N., and other countries that designated that group as a terrorist organization.
The head of Syria's new government says in an interview with the BBC that Syria is not a threat to the world and called for international sanctions to be lifted.
Former security forces for the Assad regime have been handing in their weapons to the new interim government. Video from one city in the country's south shows handguns and ammunition piled high in a government office. There were long lines of men dressed in civilian clothes waiting to turn over their weapons to the new interior ministry. State media says other cities have started similar programs for returning weapons.
Officials interviewed and photographed some of the former security forces and the new government says the men receive a temporary card that gives them freedom to move about Syria's liberated areas whilst their legal proceedings are completed.
Many Syrian refugees are eager to return home now that the Assad regime has fallen. It's a day millions in the Syrian diaspora have been waiting years to see. But mixed with the hope for the future, there are fears about the current instability that could lead to further chaos in Syria. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz reports.
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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before Ahmad Morjan hugs his mother for the first time in 13 years, they both kneel in prayer. Gratitude for a reunion they never believed would come. This is one of many emotional homecomings across Syria after the sudden fall of the Assad regime.
At just 19 years old, with security forces hunting him down, Morjan fled his family's home in Aleppo. Here he is in 2016. Reporting for an opposition-based media network as barrel bombs rain down from the sky.
Later that year, Morjan filmed the exodus as thousands withdrew from the last remaining rebel enclave in Aleppo.
We are leaving with, Morjan says in this clip, and we will return one day.
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That promised return is now finally on the horizon. Morjan says he is planning to move back to Aleppo from Gaziantep, Turkey, where he currently lives with his wife and their two young daughters.
ABDELAZIZ: What is your dream now for Syria's future?
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): I'm optimistic about the future, he says, and I have huge hope that the country will be better than before.
But not all are keen to hurry back to an unstable country with an uncertain future, says this human rights defender.
HUSSAM KASSAS, SYRIAN ASYLUM-SEEKER: There's no sustainable peace, which makes me really afraid of getting back there.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Hussam Kassas, who is seeking asylum in the United Kingdom, is among tens of thousands of Syrians whose applications for asylum were suspended after the U.K. and other European countries paused the process to reassess now that the threat of Assad is gone.
For years, Kassas has documented potential war crimes committed by all major parties to the conflict. If he goes back, he says, his family could be targeted or worse.
ABDELAZIZ: Why do you not feel safe to return?
KASSAS: We expected a lot of revenge killing will happen. Those soldiers will seek revenge from the people who were trying to hold them accountable, actually.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Many Syrians in the diaspora long to return and rebuild, but this moment of great hope brings with it great uncertainty.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.
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FOSTER: It was a whirlwind day for the accused CEO, a killer, Luigi Mangione. He had appearances in three courtrooms in two states and was hit with new charges that could bring the death penalty. And two weeks after the deadly shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk, court documents are revealing new information about Mangione's alleged motivation.
Kara Scannell reports.
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KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Accused killer, Luigi Mangione, back in New York and behind bars. New video showing him handcuffed and in an orange jumpsuit, stepping off a helicopter and being escorted toward a transport van by scores of armed officers. Mangione is now also facing federal charges in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel.
SCANNELL: Karen, do you have any comment on these charges today?
KAREN FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO, LUIGI MANGIONE'S ATTORNEY: Not at this time. Thank you so much.
SCANNELL (voice-over): Mangione's high-profile defense team not saying much about the new charges before and after their client's first appearance in federal court. Inside, Mangione traded the jumpsuit for street clothes as he entered the courtroom flanked by marshals with his ankles shackled. His federal charges are a firearms offense, two stalking charges and murder through the use of a firearm, which carries a potential maximum sentence of the death penalty or life in prison.
Mangione did not enter a plea and his defense team did not seek bail. The new federal criminal complaint also revealing new details about the notebook found on Mangione during his arrest at an Altoona, Pennsylvania McDonald's. According to the complaint, the notebook contains several handwritten pages that expressed hostility toward the health insurance industry.
And one entry dated October 22nd, 2024, less than two months before the murder of Thompson describes an intent to, quote, whack one of the CEOs at an insurance industry conference. The federal charges are added to the long list of state charges he's already facing.
ALVIN BRAGG, NEW YORK DISTRICT ATTORNEY: We charged him here in Manhattan earlier this week with murder in the first degree among additional charges, which carry the maximum sentence of life without parole. We've had state prosecutions and federal prosecutions proceed as parallel matters, and we're in conversations with our law enforcement counterparts.
SCANNELL (voice-over): Mangione began his day in a Pennsylvania courtroom where he had two back-to-back hearings. First, on the firearm and forgery charges brought against him in Pennsylvania. Second, to waive his extradition to New York.
PETE WEEKS, BLAIR COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA DISTRICT ATTORNEY: He committed crimes in Blair County. There are allegations at this point, but we're not in the practice of just dismissing charges simply because someone has more serious charges somewhere else.
SCANNELL (voice-over): Mangione won't face the charges in Pennsylvania until after he is tried in New York.
SCANNELL: Karen Friedman Agnifilo said that Mangione appreciates the support. She called the federal charges a pile-on, and federal prosecutors today saying that they expect the state case will move forward and go to trial first.
However, at this point, it is unclear when Mangione will appear in state court and be arraigned on those 11 felony counts.
Kara Scannell, CNN, New York.
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FOSTER: Palestinians in Gaza are facing more deadly strikes as ceasefire talks continue between Israel and Hamas. We'll have negotiations just ahead.
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Plus, Russia's president talks about a possible meeting with his future U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, without making any commitments. We'll explain after the break.
And Amazon drivers across the U.S. are going on strike just days before Christmas. What the company is saying about the possible impact on the holiday rush later this hour.
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FOSTER: New details emerging about a terrible tragedy in Nigeria where at least 35 children were killed in a crowd crash at this fair. Police say six others were critically injured. The mayhem unfolding at an Islamic high school in the south-western part of the country there.
It's not clear what set off the crowd, but authorities say the main sponsor of the event is amongst the eight people arrested.
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BAYO LAWAL, DEPUTY GOVERNOR OF NIGERIA'S OYO STATE: The resultant effect of this very careless act is the huge death that we have recorded, unfortunately and avoidably, too.
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FOSTER: According to a local radio station, organizers were expected to host 5,000 children under the age of 13 at the free event. Where they could win prizes like scholarships, a police spokesperson has promised justice will be served.
Medics in Gaza tell Reuters Israel launched several strikes on Thursday killing dozens of Palestinians. The attacks were mainly focused in and around Gaza City where buildings and homes were flattened. Some shelters and refugee camps were also hit. Medecins Sans Frontieres, Doctors Without Borders, is accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing in a new report published on Thursday.
Israel has denied allegations of ethnic cleansing in the past saying its goal is to wipe out Hamas.
Meanwhile, an Israeli official says real progress is being made towards a ceasefire and hostage deal, but the official added there are still gaps that must be closed with Hamas.
Aid groups claim the IDF is not allowing enough supplies into Gaza as the war rages on. CNN's Jeremy Diamond travelled to the Kerem Shalom crossing and spoke to an Israeli official about the worsening humanitarian crisis.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: We are on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing where you are seeing pallets of humanitarian aid being offloaded here. But the problem is this aid simply isn't getting to the people of Gaza in the quantities that are needed. Humanitarian aid agencies say that the Israeli government and the Israeli military are to blame for that, not facilitating the safe distribution of aid.
The Israelis deny that. They insist that enough aid is getting into Gaza and that they are facilitating that aid. But I pressed one of the top Israeli officials responsible for getting that aid in on that very question.
DIAMOND: They say that the issues are the Israeli military's unwillingness to facilitate safe distribution of aid.
COL. ABDULLAH HALABI, ISRAELI COORDINATION AND LIAISON ADMINISTRATION: The Israeli troops on the Israeli side just in the last few weeks facilitated several options in order to enter the aid to the Gazan side.
DIAMOND: Does your role stop at this checkpoint? Do you believe that your role stops at this checkpoint, that you're not responsible for how safely the aid can get distributed inside Gaza?
HALABI: The international community is responsible to deliver the aid from the crossing points to the people of Gaza. It's their responsibility.
DIAMOND: But don't you have a responsibility for making it safe?
HALABI: We facilitated the crossings and the aid till the crossing. We inspect the aid. We put it in the platforms and we encourage the humanitarian community and the organizations to come and to take the aid. The main problem, the main obstacle is the capabilities distribution.
DIAMOND: Amid that dispute between the aid agencies and the Israeli military, these pallets of aid, they are piling up. And this isn't a theoretical problem. We are seeing that the humanitarian conditions in Gaza, they simply aren't getting better. In fact, there's a lot of chance that it could get worse. With the arrival of winter, the rains, the need for shelter is rising. Respiratory illnesses are rising and people are sometimes going without food for days.
Of course, a ceasefire deal could improve all of this, bringing an enormous flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. We know that those negotiations, of course, are ongoing.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing.
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FOSTER: Ukraine says at least one person is dead and nine others wounded after a new Russian missile strike on Kyiv. Officials say the attack sparked multiple fires across the city in recent hours, damaging heating systems and infrastructure.
In Moscow, the suspect in the killing of a senior Russian general was charged with murder and acts of terrorism on Thursday, according to state media. Russia blames the killing on Ukraine, which said the general was involved in the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's president ditched the diplomatic language and called his Russian counterpart a questionable word. In a social media post, he was responding to President Vladimir Putin's idea of holding what he called a duel between Ukraine's air defenses and Russia's new Oreshnik missile.
The Ukrainian leader wasn't subtle in his verbal response either.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): He says that we will strike somewhere in Kyiv, for example, with the Oreshnik, our new bomb, and let them put up air defenses. And let's see what happens. Do you think this is an adequate person? Just a scumbag.
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FOSTER: Mr. Putin proposed the idea during his annual press conference on Thursday, where he also addressed the elephant in the room, which is the war in Ukraine, and a possible meeting with U.S. President- elect Donald Trump, who's expected to push for peace talks.
As Brian Todd reports, the Russian leader isn't putting his cards on the table just yet.
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[04:25:00]
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the tightly choreographed, celebrated ritual that's become his year-end news conference, the 72-year-old Russian president spoke about the possibility of meeting with President-elect Donald Trump after Trump takes office.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I don't know when we'll meet, because he hasn't said anything about it. I haven't spoken to him at all in over four years. Of course, I'm ready for this at any time, and I will be ready for a meeting if he wants it.
TODD (voice-over): Vladimir Putin's claim that he hasn't spoken with Trump in more than four years contradicts reporting by journalist Bob Woodward that the two men have had as many as seven conversations since 2021. Trump has also denied having multiple calls with Putin since leaving office. But Trump told CNN last May he could end Russia's war on Ukraine within 24 hours, a promise he repeated throughout the 2024 campaign, though offering few specifics.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECT: We'll be talking to President Putin, and we'll be talking to the representatives, Zelenskyy and representatives from Ukraine. We got to stop it. It's, uh, it's carnage.
TODD (voice-over): One analyst says Putin is being ultra-careful when publicly discussing a potential meeting with Trump.
JILL DOUGHERTY, ADJUNCT PROFESSOR, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: He says, yes, I'm open to discussing, et cetera, but he doesn't really get specific, and I think that is because he doesn't know exactly what Trump is going to propose.
TODD (voice-over): At the news conference in Moscow Thursday, Putin put a positive spin on his war in Ukraine, insisting Russian forces will push the Ukrainian army out of the southern Russian region of Kursk, where it's been since August.
PUTIN (through translator): The guys are fighting. There's a battle going on right now, and serious battles. It's unclear why. There was no military sense in the Ukrainian armed forces entering the Kursk region. We're holding on there now, as they're doing, throwing their best units there to be slaughtered.
TODD (voice-over): Trump has said the Biden administration's decision to allow Ukraine to hit targets deep inside Russia with American-made missiles could escalate the war, and he again lambasted that move this week.
TRUMP: Certainly not just weeks before I take over. Why would they do that without asking me what I thought? I thought it was a very stupid thing to do.
TODD (voice-over): But one analyst says this.
EVELYN FARKAS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE MCCAIN INSTITUTE: I think it strengthens Donald Trump's hand as he enters office because he will have a Ukraine that continues to have a bargaining chip, a Ukraine that can potentially pressure the Russian president.
TODD: At the Moscow news conference during the entire four and a half hours of it, Vladimir Putin never spoke about and was never asked about the thousands of North Korean troops fighting alongside the Russians in the Kursk region, and there may be good reason for Putin's omission. In recent days, U.S. and South Korean officials have told CNN the North Koreans have suffered hundreds of casualties there, including about a hundred believed to have been killed.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
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FOSTER: An appeals court in the U.S. state of Georgia has disqualified a district attorney from prosecuting the 2020 election subversion case against Donald Trump. Where things go from here, that's just ahead.
And later on, the latest government measures to deal with the strange widespread drone sightings across the northeastern U.S. Still a mystery. Stay with us.
