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CNN International: President Biden Commutes 37 Federal Death Sentences; Ethics Report Finds Evidence Matt Gaetz Paid Thousands for Sex and Drugs Including Paying a 17-Year-Old; Hundreds of Far-Right Supporters Hold "Remigration" Protest; Hamas-Controlled Government Media Office: 50 Plus People Killed or Injured in Israeli Assault on Central Gaza. Aired 8-8:30a ET
Aired December 23, 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]
RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR: Good day to you. Welcome to you. I'm Richard Quest, CNN Newsroom. The headlines we're following, President Biden has announced he is commuting the sentences of 37 prisoners on federal death row. Only weeks before Donald Trump returns to office.
We have obtained the final draft of the House Ethics Committee report into the Matt Gaetz's sexual allegations, misconduct allegations will tell you what is in it. And in Germany, the far-right AFD Party in a matter of hours has told a public memorial in Germany, in -- a moment after the Christmas market attack.
President Biden has announced that he is commuting the sentences of 37 inmates on federal death row to life without the possibility of parole. It is a decision that leaves only 3 federal prisoners whose crimes, including mass shootings or acts of terrorism still on death row awaiting execution.
The president said, in his words, in good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted. Opponents of the death penalty have been urging the current president to use his final weeks in office to issue the commutations before Mr. Trump comes back to the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): These are people who should never be out of prison. But Pope Francis has called on President Biden, as have many other criminal justice reform leaders, faith leaders, to step aside from federal death penalties, because, frankly, Former President Trump executed quite a few -- directed the execution of quite a few individuals on federal death row.
There are some real questions about the fairness and the process of the death penalty in the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: So, as he was just saying, there the actual number of federal executions under Donald Trump was 13 in the first administration. And the president-elect has already indicated in his second, he will increase the types of crime that are eligible for capital. Punishment, along with getting on with executing those that he would have done if they hadn't been commuted. CNN MJ Lee reports
MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: In one of his last major acts as President, President Biden is using his presidential clemency power to commute the death sentences of 37 inmates that are currently on federal death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Now remember back in 2020, President Biden campaigned on getting rid of the federal death penalty.
And in recent weeks, there had been a swirl of speculation about whether he might take this kind of action before he leaves office, particularly as he was under a good amount of pressure from human rights activists and a number of advocacy groups, some of whom have argued that the death penalty tends to disproportionately affect black people and other people of color.
Now President Biden, in his statement announcing these commutations, said this, make no mistake, I condemn these murders, but guided by my conscience and my experience. I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level. In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.
That last reference there to a new administration resuming executions I halted. That obviously, is a reference to incoming President, Donald Trump.
[08:05:00]
Keep in mind that during his first term in office, there were 13 federal death row inmates who were put to death. And in his most recent presidential campaign, Trump has made very clear that he is set on moving forward with additional federal executions once he returns to office. This is a little bit of what Donald Trump has said over the last year on this issue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm hereby calling for the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer. We are an institute and a powerful death penalty. We will put this on. We have to bring in the death penalty if we want to stop the infestation of drugs coming into our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: Now, after today's announcement of clemency from President Biden, there are still three people who will remain on federal death row, some of these people really responsible for really atrocious mass killings and acts of terrorism. They are the murderer who killed nine black worshipers at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, one of the brothers of the Boston marathon bombing. And then also Robert Bowers, the man who killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018. I should finally note that President Biden, who is a devout Catholic, says he will be traveling back to Italy to meet with Pope Francis. Of course, the Pontiff is one of those people who has publicly said that he would like to see the commutations of those on federal death row here in the United States. Back to you.
QUEST: Breaking News and CNN obtained a copy of the U.S. House report to the Former Representative Matt Gaetz and the allegations of sexual misconduct. According to the report, there is evidence that Gaetz paid for sex and drugs, which included paying a 17-year-old for sex in 2017.
The official report is expected to be released later today. And sources are telling us the committee secretly voted to release the report despite Gaetz no longer being a member of Congress. As for Matt Gaetz, speaking at a conservative conference, he says he still has options for the future.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT GAETZ, FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Some of you throughout this conference have even given me a few suggestions. My fellow Floridians have asked me to eye the governor's mansion in Tallahassee, maybe special counsel to go after the insider trading for my former colleagues in Congress.
It seems I may not have had enough support in the United States Senate. Maybe I'll just run for Marco Rubio's vacant seat in the United States Senate and join some of those folks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Our Congressional Correspondent, Lauren Fox is with me from Washington. Well, I know this has just dropped, and it's just happened, and we're still digesting it. How easy is it going to be for Matt Gaetz, do you think? To simply say, no, this is all or this all nonsense never happened. Don't agree with it.
LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's just walk through what the House Ethics Committee is alleging, according to this final draft that was obtained by CNN. This report alleges that Former Representative Matt Gaetz paid tens of thousands of dollars over the course of several years to women for drugs or sex and on at least 20 different occasions. Now this report says that that includes Gaetz paying a 17-year-old for sex in 2017.
Now, the Committee concluded that Gaetz violated Florida state laws, including the State statutory rape law. I just want to quote directly from this draft version of the report obtained by CNN, quote, the committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privilege and obstruction of Congress. Now, Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrong doing. CNN has reached out to Gaetz this morning as we obtained this report, but I just want to also read you a series of tweets that he posted last week. This was after CNN reported that the committee had met earlier this month secretly and had voted to eventually release this report once Congress finished its end of year business.
And in that series of tweets, Gaetz said, in my single days, I often sent funds to women I dated, even some I never dated, but who asked? I asked several of these women for years. I never had sexual conduct with someone under 18.
[08:10:00]
Any claim that I have would be destroyed in court, which is why no such claim was ever made in court. Now we should also point out that Gaetz often points to the fact that back in 2023, the Department of Justice declined to bring charges against him after an extensive investigation, Richard.
QUEST: Do we know, Lauren? Do we know when the committee voted in secret?
FOX: We just know --
QUEST: No, no, no, sorry. Was it unanimous? Do we know it was bipartisan? Do we know -- do we have any idea of whether Republicans on the committee, having seen the same evidence, came to the same conclusion?
FOX: Well, I would just point out, Richard, here's what we know.
QUEST: Yeah.
FOX: The House Ethics Committee is evenly divided, which means that in order to release this report, yes, at least one Republican would have had to vote with Democrats to release this report. The full extent of that vote, I do not know.
QUEST: Thank you very much. This is going to run all day. Thank you very much for joining, Lauren. Obviously, it's a long report, and I'm grateful for going through it. Thank you. Now that you return to our top story and Joe Biden commuting the death penalty for 37 people on death row.
Thomas Gift is the Director at the Center on U.S. Politics at University College London. He's now with me live from Harrisburg in Pennsylvania. This was sort of to be fort to be expected, bearing in mind, I mean, he pardons his own son for goodness' sake. He's been against the death penalty, but it does. It's a bit weird. He didn't do them all that he's three terrors related that he didn't do.
THOMAS GIFT, DIRECTOR AT THE CENTRE ON U.S. POLITICS AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON: No, exactly, and I think that that is a notable exception, but you're absolutely right, Richard. The critics of the death penalty had been pushing for a while for Biden to clear federal death row before leaving office, and that's because Trump was widely expected to resume federal executions.
As you noted also, Trump oversaw 13 federal executions during his administration. I do think that the real problem though, with Biden's use of the clemencies here, and that includes for Hunter Biden and the commutations of roughly 1500 sentences and the pardons of 39 people earlier this month, is that it might spur on Trump to misuse the clemency power itself.
You know, if you remember, during his first administration, Trump pardoned multiple U.S. service members accused or convicted of war crimes.
QUEST: Right.
GIFT: He pardoned long time associates like Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, and he saw even promised to pardon January 6 rioters.
QUEST: But let's be honest about this. I mean, the whole pardon, yes, it's in the constitution. It is the ultimate privilege of the president, but it's widely discredited now, in a sense, that Clinton pardoned some people that were dodgy. They've all done it. They've all pardoned people who are dodgy, including their family members. And yet, there is no easier, obvious way in which you can make it better, because it's in the constitution
GIFT: Absolutely. And changing the constitution, of course, would require an amendment, and amendment is just not in the cards, especially with House and Senate that are so completely fractured. So, I think we're kind of left with this currency power, and we continue to see president after president use or misuse it.
QUEST: But I also wonder how much was do you think President Biden's decision motivated by the fact that there was a real risk? Well, not really, very much a real because he tells you what that Donald Trump was going to go back to turning the federal death row into a killing machine, essentially an execution machine. He sped up executions at the end of his first term, and he was likely to attack them again with gusto in his second.
GIFT: No, you're 100 percent right, Richard. I mean, we all know what Donald Trump is going to do. He wants to sort of amp up the use of this power of federal executions in Washington. And so, you had a lot of human rights groups, you know, advocacy organizations, people lobbying Joe Biden that he has to do this as he's exiting power.
But again, you know, it's sort of a lame duck presidency, and I think you know, anytime you're executing an act like that at the end of office, it's going to raise questions.
QUEST: Right. So now we just wait to see whether or not he offers pardons. Well, we'll never know if they rejected or if he pardons those who stand to be prosecuted or investigated. I'm thinking of obviously, Liz Cheney and Adam Schiff as a result of vengeance from the incoming administration. What's your gut feeling?
GIFT: No, 100 percent. I don't think that he's ultimately going to do it, just because that would really be unprecedented, preemptive pardons. Especially for Republicans, I think are not really in the cards, but he may do it. I think he's also under quite a bit of pressure, not just for the Liz Cheney's of the world and some other Republicans who went after Trump on January 6.
But other Democrats who kind of might be on that, that target list that especially with Kash Patel leading the FBI and Donald Trump really threatening to use the Department of Justice as a weapon to go after political adversaries.
[08:15:00]
It's at least something that's going to be discussed in the White House. No doubt about that.
QUEST: Sir, I'm grateful thank you for your time and attention. Have a good Christmas. Donald Trump shot the stage for his first rally style speech since the election. He was speaking to conservative activists in Arizona when he pushed back against the suggestions that the billionaire Elon Musk was acting as de facto president.
And he also added that the Panama Canal now another list of his international disputes. He says fees to the -- for using the canal are too high, and if they aren't reduced, the U.S. might just take the canal back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: It was given to Panama and to the people of Panama, but it has provisions. You got to treat us fairly, and they haven't treated us fairly. If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America. In full, quickly and without question, not going to stand for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: The President of Panama says the fees are set by market conditions and costs to run the canal and the U.S. retaking it is not an option.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSE RAUL MULINO, PANAMANIAN PRESIDENT: I want to express that every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent areas belong to Panama and will continue to belong to Panama. The sovereignty and independence of our country are not negotiable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Also, the president-elect once again refers to the idea of buying Greenland. This is despite it being actually part of Danish territory sovereignty. And the last time Trump broached the idea, the Danish government said it's not for sale and called the whole thing absurd. Still to come, a man set a woman on fire on a New York subway train, a depraved and brutal murder, according to the police commissioner. We'll tell you more about this in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Germany's far right AFD is to hold a public memorial in Magdeburg in the next few hours. The city is still reeling, obviously, after Friday's horrific attack when a car rammed through shoppers at a busy Christmas market. It's now known 5 people were killed and 200 people injured.
The suspect is a 50-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia who settled into Germany nearly 20 years ago. He's being held on five counts of murder. The deadly incident has sparked widespread public anger. And people on both left and the right are using it to criticize the German government for its immigration policies. So now look at these scenes. They are a far-right protest in the city over the weekend.
[08:20:00]
To put it all into context, earlier, I spoke to Michaela Kuefner, the Chief Political Editor at Deutsche Welle, and asked her about where the blame for this attack is now being politically placed.
MICHAELA KUEFNER, CHIEF POLITICAL EDITOR AT DEUTSCHE WELLE: In fact, very fast won't matter, because we have elections coming up in February, as you rightly pointed out. And this heads in Olaf Scholz's direction, also his Interior Minister, Nancy Faeser from a Social Democrat Party, who now is pushing for implementing new laws which frankly, wouldn't have made any difference here, not necessarily because the authorities didn't act, but she's in charge of the police.
This is offering the far-right Alternative for Germany, the AFD, who is holding this gathering in Magdeburg today.
QUEST: Yeah.
KUEFNER: Yet again, an opportunity to say, look, the established parties aren't really guaranteeing your security time, for a change. That is the case the narrative they are now trying to spin. And of course, it does help that someone like Elon Musk is jumping on to this.
QUEST: Yeah.
KUEFNER: And, you know, tweeting exiting that the AFD needs to save Germany.
QUEST: Right.
KUEFNER: And he keeps posting articles which are, frankly, void of any kind of factual basis. But it doesn't matter. And this is the reality this election campaign is suddenly finding itself in. QUEST: Now, to latest developments with Israel and Hamas in the war, Gaza's Health Ministry is now accusing the Israeli military of placing explosive robots at the gates of a hospital in northern Gaza, the IDF we waiting to hear from. In central Gaza, local Hamas officials are saying that Israeli troops used drones, aircrafts and bulldozers in a military operation that injured or killed at least 50 people.
Separately, there's been an Israeli air strike on central Gaza that killed several members of the same family, with hospital officials telling us or saying at least 11 people died. We can't independently confirm the attack, and we are reaching for comment from the authorities, Israeli authorities.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is worsening. There are now chaotic scenes at NGO facilities with people pushing to get through long lines to get a meal. Elliott Gotkine is following the latest for us. He joins me from Jerusalem. A whole raft of developments, which is hard to gage, why now, or is it just these are the way things are happening at the moment. Is there a reason?
ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Richard -- has any specific reason, and I think that this has just been continuing to go on. But of course, we've seen so many dramatic developments in this corner of the world over just the past month even with the war and cease fire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the fall of the Assad regime.
And it's very easy to forget that the war between Israel and Hamas sparked, of course, by the militant group's massacres of October the 7th, 2023. That war still rumbles on and continues to exact a heavy toll on Palestinians living in the Enclave. And so, in that Nuseirat incident that was reported by Hamas officials, where you say, of course, Richard, that at least 50 people were killed or injured in that operation, which it says was carried out by the IDF.
The Hamas officials saying that all of those killed were civilians, many of them women and children. And at the same time, this area Nuseirat in Central Gaza, is quite hard for ambulance crews and the like to get to. So, it's very hard for them to get to those who are injured, or even to retrieve bodies.
And we've seen some horrific video, video that is too graphic to show you right now of cats actually feeding on some of these bodies that have clearly been left out in the street for a certain amount of time to such that these animals have started coming out to feed on them.
Another incident that has been going on for what more than 80 days is a kind of siege of the Kamal Adwan hospital in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, where as you say, the director of that hospital is saying that Israel has placed explosive robots in and around the hospital.
If you look at the video, it looks kind of just like wooden boxes, which the hospital director says contains explosives. But as you say, Richard, we have reached out to the IDF regarding both of these incidents. As far as Nuseirat is concerned, we've not received any official comment, official comment. When we spoke to the IDF on Sunday, they told CNN that there hadn't been any strikes carried out on the area of the hospital in the proceeding 24 hours. But as I say, you know, as so many dramatic developments in this corner the world over the past month, it's easy to forget that the war between Israel-Hamas continues to rumble on.
QUEST: Right.
GOTKINE: There are talks going on again, this renewed optimism about some kind of deal potentially being done between Israel and Hamas to get those hostages released. 100 or so who have been held in captivity since being kidnapped more than a year ago. Officials, some of them, saying that 90 percent deal is done.
QUEST: All right, Elliott.
GOTKINE: But of course, the devils in the detail, Richard.
[08:25:00]
QUEST: Thank you, Elliott Gotkine in Jerusalem. Police have arrested a man suspected of setting a woman on fire in a subway car in New York. According to the authorities, around 07:30 on Sunday morning, the suspect approached the victim on a train and intentionally set her alight while she -- he then fled the scene, officers say, eight hours after the woman was attacked.
This man was arrested on a separate train in Midtown. The Trevi fountain in Rome is again ready to grant your wishes. Why it needed to be cleaned up in a moment.
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QUEST: Coins at the ready. They said you toss a fountain, according to a fountain at the Trevi fountain, it ensures a return trip. Now you can get back to the fountain. Rome's most famous has reopened after a deep clean that took three months to complete. The iconic attraction is cleaned weekly, but was completely drained for a bit of scrubbing and restoration.
Now, with it being a jubilee year the Vatican next year, more than 32 million people are expected to celebrate their next year. That is the way things are looking. Join me here, and thank you for the CNN Newsroom. I'm Richard Quest. "World Sport" is next.
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(WORLD SPORT)
