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Johnson Faces Narrowest House Majority; Authorities Investigate Links Between New Orleans Attacks and Las Vegas Explosion; Postponed Sugar Bowl to kick off in New Orleans. Aired 10:30-11a ET
Aired January 02, 2025 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:30:00]
LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and he has to get the speakership tomorrow in order to do the business in the next couple of days, including certifying the election for Donald Trump on January 6th. So, tomorrow, what he has to do is he has to ensure he only loses one Republican vote. And right now, we already know of one Republican, Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who said he is going to be voting for someone else. He's not even going to be voting present, which could help the math for Johnson. Instead, he's going to be voting against Johnson.
So, assuming full attendance, Johnson cannot lose any additional votes tomorrow. Obviously, he's been working these members, he's been having phone calls, he's going to continue trying to get the support that he needs to get the speaker's gavel, but people are starting to entertain the idea that this may take a couple of rounds. And just remember, it took Kevin McCarthy 15 rounds to get that job.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: How could we forget?
FOX: That's right.
ACOSTA: All right. Lauren Fox, thank you very much. Let's discuss more now with the Republican strategist Neil Chatterjee and Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha. Neil, let me start with you. Is Speaker Johnson going to make it? What do you think?
NEIL CHATTERJEE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST AND FORMER POLICY ADVISER TO SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL: I think so. Look, the people that are contemplating voting against Speaker Johnson, if they had another candidate that could get 218 votes, that would be one thing. They don't. Speaker Johnson, as President Trump noted, he's well liked, he's well respected, he can -- I think he's probably the only one that can get the 218 votes. President Trump doesn't want to start a new Congress and therefore a new presidency with chaos. These guys need to get it together and get it together fast.
ACOSTA: Yes. But, Chuck, they may get chaos no matter what happens here. I mean, look at this, the Republicans won just 220 seats in November, that will drop even lower to 217 after three Republicans leave Congress. A CNN article this morning details just how narrow this party's majority is. It says, the last time a minority in the House held 215 or more seats was after the 1930 elections when Republicans won 218, Democrats had 216. And the Farmer-Labor Party has won the seat. I don't think we have that going on this time around, but --
CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I'm all about bringing back the Farmer-Labor Party. That sounds like a party I belong to.
ACOSTA: Might the Democrats need to bail out Speaker Johnson here?
ROCHA: I don't think that they will.
ACOSTA: Depending how this goes down.
ROCHA: And I think that we're going to be used to lots of chaos with a Trump presidency. And I've never seen anybody work so hard to have a horrible job. This will be the worst job in Washington, D.C. to try to take all of these folks and make them all push in the same direction. It's going to be like getting your hands around Jell-O.
I will promise you to the good report was saying about Massie in Kentucky that you've already got one against you. Like, I think what they're going to do here is make it go through several different rounds and try to get an ounce of flesh is what they want. They -- all these folks on different parts of that party in the Republican Party want something from the speaker, and this is how you get that from the speaker.
ACOSTA: Yes. And the other thing, Neil, after House Republicans elect a speaker, if that happens, they'll vote on whether to raise the threshold to force a vote on ousting a speaker. Right now, you just need just one Republican who can force a no confidence vote. If they pass this rule, that threshold goes to nine.
CHATTERJEE: It goes to nine, and there's an important distinction --
ACOSTA: They got to have that, right, or this is just going to be a nightmare.
CHATTERJEE: And it's not just nine, it's nine Republicans. It's nine members -- the rules package specifically spelled out it has to be nine members of the majority party. So, a lot of Democrats are crying foul that, you know, they will lose the ability that they've historically had to call for the speaker.
I think it's necessary for stability. Look, this is all about enacting President Trump's agenda. And with these narrow majorities and narrow majorities in the Senate as well, if they want to achieve results on taxes, on the border, on energy on A.I. and winning the A.I. race against China, they're not -- I suspect they're not going to be able to count on very many Democrat votes for this agenda. There's going to have to be Republican unity.
This speaker vote and the rules package is the first test to see can these guys come together and be unified. I think they'll pull it together.
ROCHA: Just think about it, if you're doing through all these different votes, think your own round two or three, and just think that if Elon Musk or Donald Trump starts tweeting about it. This is the real world we're living in right now. They --
ACOSTA: Which is what happened right before we almost had a government shutdown.
ROCHA: Exactly.
ACOSTA: Yes.
ROCHA: And I think this is the new paradigm that we're living in that none of us really understand. Like, this is a new way of governing that I don't like. I don't think the American people like. The American people -- let's remind everybody, I do politics for a living. They voted for cheaper gas and groceries. They did not vote for chaos.
ACOSTA: Yes. And let's talk about some other potential for chaos here. I mean, Donald Trump is posting misinformation about the deadly attack in New Orleans. We can show some of this on screen. He posted on Truth Social earlier this morning that it was somehow related to immigration, blaming open borders. But CNN is reporting the suspect in New Orleans is a Texas born U.S. citizen.
We were just mentioning earlier in this program that the person who rented the cyber truck in Las Vegas was a member of the U.S. Special Forces. Neil, I mean, we're right back where we were in 2017, where Donald Trump, he takes misinformation, he takes false news from wherever, and he puts it out there, and it just confuses the hell out of everybody. What's the solution here? I mean, why can't he just stick to the facts?
[10:35:00]
CHATTERJEE: Look, in this particular instance --
ACOSTA: Or wait for the facts to come in?
CHATTERJEE: In this instance, if the reporting is correct, and what we're hearing from law enforcement. The suspect in New Orleans was, in fact, an American citizen who served in the army and was radicalized by ISIS. That said, we can't ignore the fact that from 2021 to 2024, there were 400 people on the terrorist watch list that were stopped at the border. And those are just the people that we stopped. So, it is a real issue and I think that's what President Trump does.
ACOSTA: Yes, but, Neil, I mean --
CHATTERJEE: He brings focus to these issues --
ACOSTA: -- you might have people coming across the border and yes --
CHATTERJEE: On the terrorist watch list.
ACOSTA: OK. That's obviously a problem. But if that is not the case in New Orleans and that is not the case in Las Vegas, you can't bring it up. You can't bring it up. CHATTERJEE: I think --
ACOSTA: It's not up -- it's not --
CHATTERJEE: What the president's objective is, is to bring attention to what he identifies as the problem. He believes that concerns about border and border security were vital to his winning election and wants to highlight those issues. And I think that is what he has chosen to do in this particular instance.
I think, as we have seen for really the past decade you don't necessarily take all his tweets literally, it's about the issue that he's trying to raise.
ROCHA: This is the same old scapegoating that we've seen. Like, this is nothing new and this is disgusting of what we're seeing. Like, what happened in New Orleans is disgusting. We should talk about all the facts to make sure this could never happen again. But not put it on the backs of my grandparents or my parents who were immigrants. All immigrants being something that's bad. Immigrants are good. Immigrants are good for our economy. Having bad people stopped, I agree is good as well, but we can't let misinformation -- this is how you get more attacks like this, like somebody from Dallas, Texas, driving to Walmart, El Paso who start shooting Mexicans because they think that Mexicans are invading the country. This is where something like this starts.
ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, Neil, I mean, this is a problem. And you know, you were saying a few moments ago, you can't take him literally. The president -- why -- shouldn't you take the president of the United States literally? Isn't that sort of a baseline expectation that he should stick to the facts?
CHATTERJEE: I think, look, in this particular instance -- and I didn't see the exact language he used in the Truth Social Post, I don't think he was saying that this individual crossed illegally or if he was, it was based on initial reporting that was incorrect, that somebody had crossed that legal path.
ACOSTA: And we could show it up on screen again. I mean, he's talking about the --
CHATTERJEE: But he has a valid point.
ACOSTA: He's blaming Biden's open borders policy.
CHATTERJEE: And again --
ACOSTA: He's talking about that on Truth Social. I mean --
CHATTERJEE: But does he tie it --
ACOSTA: When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the fake news media, but it turned out to be true. Not in this case. CHATTERJEE: Not in this case --
ACOSTA: What he is saying in that --
CHATTERJEE: 400 --
ACOSTA: What he is saying in that Truth Social post is false. That is false.
CHATTERJEE: He's not saying that this individual crossed the border illegally, but there were 400 people --
ACOSTA: But when there's -- of course. But when there's an act of terrorism in this country, the incoming president should tell the truth to the American people. I mean, that is just -- isn't that what the president should do at all times?
CHATTERJEE: He's talking about securing the border, and he's been talking for years about securing the border, and he believes, and I think the data bears out, that he won the election partially because of his push for a secure border.
ACOSTA: Well, I mean, I just have to say, here he goes again. He talks about everybody else being fake news, and he's the one peddling fake news. But, all right, Neil and Chuck, thanks very much. We appreciate it. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:40:00]
ACOSTA: All right. This morning, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry visited the scene of what has become the deadliest attack on U.S. soil since the 2023 mass shooting in Maine. At least 15 people are dead and dozens more are injured after a man rammed a truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street just hours into the new year. The FBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism and says the attacker had an ISIS flag in his truck at the time. The attacker was an army veteran from Texas who was killed in a firefight with police.
Joining me now to discuss former deputy operations chief for the FBI's hostage rescue team, Rob D'Amico. Rob, what do you suspect the FBI is looking at right now in this phase of the investigation? And I guess we were just talking about this with John Miller a couple of segments ago. The fact that you have two individuals with military backgrounds, one involved in New Orleans, one involved in Las Vegas. I know you probably are not in the business of believing in coincidences too much, but that seems like too big of a coincidence. What do you make of all that?
ROB D'AMICO, RETIRED FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: Yes, I never believe in those coincidences. It's -- it is too similar, and I think you're seeing probably some fallout from the problems we had with people in the military, especially the ones that deployed -- coming home and having some issues. And I think ISIS is really good at exploiting that type of person. They look for young teenagers that are looking to become something. They're looking for people that are mad, that want to blame others, that they can get to join their cause and then do something in the name of it.
I think right now they're really trying to -- probably if this deceased subject in New Orleans had a phone on him, or if they find a phone in the search warrant, getting into that phone, because right now, social media is not a big place. He may have posted a few things, but he's probably communicating the people on the encrypted apps, like Discord and Telegram and Signal, and the government has a blind spot with that.
I'm actually working with the software company to help with that because that's how they communicate, knowing that the government can't intercept them unless you have the device itself. So, I think it's really important to get in and find out if they were either talking to each other or if it was coincidence that maybe they were on the same type of chat groups and got inspired together. I think the December attacks in Germany may have triggered them. They might have been thinking about this, saw the results of that and decided to do it. I think that's what you're probably going to come up with.
[10:45:00]
ACOSTA: Yes. And, Rob, how do investigators get to a point where they can determine whether this event was inspired by ISIS, directed by ISIS? I mean, you know, there, there are lots of various distinctions here. I mean, he had an ISIS flag, that doesn't necessarily mean it was directed by ISIS. He could have just been someone who -- because of he had fallen, you know, into hard times and had all sorts of issues going on in his life, found ISIS to be something that inspired him. I mean, there's just a lot of different ways this could go.
D'AMICO: I think so. I think you're probably going to look at a cross between some mental health issues and this, quote, "inspiration." Because he talked about like gathering his family and killing them and then decided to do this ISIS attack, which isn't really a normal path. You see something else on some of these. But I think the one common between the two is the Turo app.
I think that the FBI needs to go back and start looking at these chat groups to find out did ISIS did any of their chat groups or their discussions talk about using that as a way to rent the vehicle with less scrutiny than some of the regular rental car companies? And if they did, then looking at, were these two people on some of those chats that we're discussing Turo, because again, that coincidence is not -- should not be taken lightly. It could be something that they talked about. And then, I think they -- if they find it, then they can tie it back and see if these guys were in there looking at, again, laptops and phones, their history on their internets and then some of their chat groups.
ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, Rob, it is strange that in addition to the individuals in New Orleans and in Las Vegas having these military backgrounds that they both used -- apparently used Turo to rent these vehicles. And it does suggest, as you were saying a few moments ago, that maybe there's a vulnerability there with that particular way of renting vehicles that sort of flies under the radar.
D'AMICO: Absolutely. You may not need like -- you know, to rent a regular vehicle, you need the credit card, you need other things, their driver's license in there. And this app may like prevent some of that. And same thing with like an Airbnb compared to the hotel, there's probably less scrutiny. And maybe that some of these chat groups discussed that saying, hey, if I do it, I would use this to get the vehicle because I don't have to give him a driver's license or I can give him a fake driver's license and they're not checking it.
So, I think that there's some vulnerability in there. And, again, looking at their social media and other things, did they discuss that in any of these chat groups and then bring it back to the larger thing where the Intelligence Community is looking at this and say, hey, was this ever mentioned going out to all your sources? You know, the Bureau and the CIA had tons of sources into there and say, hey, do you guys remember any chats discussing this using this app or any of these plans type of thing? And again, I think that's going to lead down several paths.
It may take a little while, but I do think there's a general connection between these, and it could be a triggering event that happened in Germany or a discussion that was going online that caused them to do this. It may be coincidence they did it at the same time, because I don't think the timelines lined up where New Orleans happened and then, the gentleman out in Vegas said, oh, I'm going to do it now too, I don't think that lines up. So, something got this going in this direction.
ACOSTA: But it does speak to how we just have soft targets in American society, places like Bourbon Street, where you have lots of tourists, hotel entrances. I mean, I covered -- you know, I covered the aftermath of 9/11. I'm old enough to be able to say that, and I remember this being a very big discussion at that time. Places like this are just -- they're just vulnerable and law enforcement and security in these places they have to find ways to harden up these targets, potential targets.
D'AMICO: Well, you know, the problem is -- I guarantee the Sugar Bowl is probably the safest place you could be in the country this afternoon. It is such a hard target. They're not going to look at that. What's going to end up happening is they push out this no vehicle sector wider, and then you're going to have a bunch of Uber drop offs outside of that sector because the Ubers won't be able to get there. And then, you're going to have a crowd of people sitting there, you know, figuring out how to walk to the Sugar Bowl. And then, that is the target.
ACOSTA: Yes.
D'AMICO: When you look at -- again, when you look at some of these, like, you know, New York City, Times Square, they use unbelievable, you know, apparatus to block that off. But outside of that, again, you have vulnerability. And that's what ISIS looks for. They don't look to hit the hard targets. And if you look at 9/11, they brought down the World Trade Center's box cutters. It was a creative way to understand where the vulnerabilities are.
ACOSTA: All right. Rob D'Amico, thanks, as always. Really appreciate it. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:50:00]
ACOSTA: All right. The Sugar Bowl is now expected to kick off today at 4:00 p.m. Eastern at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. It was postponed, of course, because of yesterday's attack just a mile away on Bourbon Street, and the City of New Orleans has been increasing security ahead of the game between Notre Dame and Georgia.
CNN's Andy Scholes joins us now. Andy, you know, I wish we could just talk about football here and this great game we're going to see this afternoon, which obviously could go either way, but my goodness, there's so much else to talk about with the security and New Orleans trying to get back up on their feet. What can you tell us?
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, Jim. Well, we heard back from Sugar Bowl officials just a little while ago and they said security is certainly going to be enhanced all around the Superdome and fans should plan on arriving early to get through that extra security.
You know, as any big game in New Orleans, Jim, you know, most fans, you know, they stay in the French Quarter area and then they walk down Poydras Street to get to the Superdome. Well, the superintendent of New Orleans police Anne Kirkpatrick said on the TODAY Show earlier this morning that that walk will be safe for fans.
[10:55:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNE KIRKPATRICK, SUPERINTENDENT, NEW ORLEANS POLICE: We are not alone. We are in partnership with many other partners, both local, federal, military, police, and so forth, will be here. And so, we are going to have absolutely hundreds of officers and staff lining our streets, lining Bourbon Street, aligning the French Quarter. So, we are staffing up at the same level, if not more so than what we were preparing for Super Bowl.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Yes, Super Bowl in New Orleans next month. Now, with that game postponed yesterday, Georgia's football team did hold a walkthrough at the Superdome last night while Notre Dame held meetings at their hotel. Kickoff today, 4:00 p.m. Eastern. The winner of the Sugar Bowl moves on to face Penn State in the Orange Bowl, which is one week from today.
Now, this was the first time in the Sugar Bowl's 91-year history that it was postponed. And, you know, Jim, moving a game of this magnitude with just so many fans, you know, traveling in for it, it was certainly tough, but the four major airlines have all issued a travel advisory for New Orleans, allowing people to rebook their flights for free.
ACOSTA: Yes. Well, and, Andy, you and I both know, and I know this all too well, New Orleans is a very tough city full of very tough people, and they will absolutely get through all of this and flying colors. I covered a lot of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Terrific people in that city, and it's just a great place to watch sports. We wish them the best later today. Andy Scholes, thanks so much. Really appreciate it.
And thank you everybody for joining us this morning. I'm Jim Acosta. Our next hour of Newsroom with Pamela Brown starts after a short break. Have a good day.
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[11:00:00]