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Congress Certifies Trump's Election Victory; Trudeau To Step Down As Canadian Prime Minister; Major Winter Storm Sweeps Across U.S.; Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter Lies In Repose In Atlanta. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired January 06, 2025 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:00:34]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington. Thanks so much for joining me today on CNN NEWSROOM. And let's get right to the news.

We begin on Capitol Hill, a quiet ceremonial scene today as lawmakers did their job certifying the results of the 2024 presidential election. A final procedural step before Donald Trump is sworn into office on January 20th.

It's a sober day for Kamala Harris, who in her role as vice president and president of the Senate, presided over the Electoral College certification of her own election loss. But the bigger story is what we did not see today. That is no chaos, no violence, no Capitol police officers overpowered, some of them beaten with flagpoles. Lawmakers running for their lives, hiding inside barricade offices.

This was the scene four years ago -- as you see there with your own eyes -- when a mob of angry Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to disrupt this very same procedure, moved by claims of election fraud, false ones by then-President Trump and his allies, as well as by lawmakers who objected to the electoral count in key battleground states. Those are the facts, a screaming police officer, but so many attempting to rewrite the history today.

CNN's Annie Grayer is on Capitol Hill for us.

Annie, walk us through these past few hours here. And I wonder in particular, about the mood from members who witnessed those events four years ago, many of them fearing their lives, the lives of their staffs were in danger. And I should note those were Democrats and Republicans.

When you spoke to them today, what were their recollections of that day and their feelings today?

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Well, the mood that I'm getting from members on both sides of the aisle, Jim, is really complicated, and I think complex. I was in the chamber just now watching the certification process happen, and the tone was very cordial and calm. There were some moments of clapping or standing ovation, but for the most part, members sat in their chair. And for those who were in the chamber four years ago, it was a

completely different, starkly different scene. And a lot of the Democrats that I spoke to, you know, are proud of the fact that they are standing up to certify this election, even though their candidate did not win. But they also have a lot of mixed feelings, Jim, because they feel like the that the that the lie that Donald Trump continues to promote that he won the 2020 election, which led to so much violence here at the Capitol four years ago, is still in the ether, and that that fight still carries on.

So there is this -- there is this tug of emotion between, you know, being -- being excited about putting the country back on track and certifying it the way that it should, and also carrying a lot of the personal the burdens and grief from four years ago. And just part of what made today run so smoothly was a piece of legislation that really formalized what the role of the vice president and members of Congress were today. The vice president, her entire job was just to stand over this process. She could not object in any way.

And as we remember four years ago, Donald Trump tried to get his then Vice President, Mike Pence, to object to the results. We know how that story ended. Pence upheld his duty and oversaw the certification process.

We also didn't see any members object to any states electors. And that's partly because there -- this new law that raises the threshold so that not any one member could just raise an objection. There's a little more of a formalized process there.

But beyond just those kind of legislative changes, there was a general consensus on both sides of the aisle that -- that people wanted this to run smoothly and not have any objections or issues compared to four years ago.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, which we should acknowledge. It's great. You mentioned that legislation. It was bipartisan legislation passed deliberately in the wake of January 6th, 2021, to prevent another situation like that in which you had an outgoing president attempting to pressure his or her own vice president to stand in the way of the process of democracy.

Annie Grayer, thanks so much for giving us a view from the Hill.

Well, federal prosecutors charged nearly 1,600 individuals for storming the Capitol on January 6th. That includes some 600 charged with assaulting members of law enforcement, ten who were convicted in court of seditious conspiracy, which is a rare, quite major charge of conspiring to overthrow the government.

[15:05:09]

But those counts and convictions are now in jeopardy as Trump returns to power with his promise to pardon some or many, or perhaps all of the January 6th defendants.

CNN's Marshall Cohen has been tracking these many hundreds of cases since 2021, and has new reporting on how Trump's impending return is already upending prosecutors' continuing work -- Marshall.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: It's been a long four years since the January 6th insurrection, and the Justice Department and FBI are still investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

They're running down new leads and making new arrests, and they are actively prosecuting about 300 pending cases in court.

A federal law enforcement source told CNN that Trump's election has already upended these ongoing efforts to hold the rioters accountable. A big reason for that is because prosecutors were hoping to resolve most of those 300 active cases with plea deals.

But with Trump taking office in just two weeks, sources say many of these defendants are in no mood to negotiate. Many of the plea talks have simply broken down. Yes, it's been four years, but new arrests are still trickling in. The FBI recently nabbed a member of the Proud Boys from New York, and a man from Alabama who allegedly stabbed police with a flagpole. The investigation is very much ongoing.

But a source says that after the November election, the FBI issued new guidance telling agents to prioritize felony cases instead of misdemeanor cases. With limited time and limited resources, investigators are focusing on the rioters suspected of assaulting police or using weapons.

That means many of the Trump supporters who breached the Capitol but didn't contribute to the violence will likely never face justice if they haven't been charged yet. Morale has also tanked inside the DOJ division that's been working these cases. One official told me that, quote, sometimes it feels like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, and you can understand why they just spent the last four years of their lives, many of these agents hunting down and prosecuting more than 1,500 rioters.

And President-elect Donald Trump might wipe that all away when he takes office just two weeks from today.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Marshall Cohen, thanks so much.

It is hard to overstate the extent of Trump's comeback after the events of January 6th from pariah among many in both parties now to president-elect.

Here's how Republicans responded to the violence then, and Trump's role in it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough. KEVIN MCCARTHY, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The president bears

responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): There's no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it.

Well, the turnout there was questioned about it because all of those Republicans later supported Trump's 2024 reelection campaign. And of course, voters themselves delivered Trump a popular vote victory in November. A senior Trump adviser told CNN that Trump's mood today could be described as, quote, pure vindication.

Let's bring in Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst and senior editor for "The Atlantic".

Ron, it's good to have you. I wonder what his return, despite the events of January 6th. And by the way, we should remember it wasn't just one day. It was over a series of weeks in an attempt to overturn the election at the state level, at the federal level, what his return means, as well as the rewriting of January 6th history, mean for how he will govern? Will he, in your view, feel unfettered by standards, norms, laws?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah. Look, I do think that Trump certainly, first of all, will feel more unfettered than he did the first time in kind of operational terms, there are many fewer constraints on him than when he first entered office. When he first came in 2017, the Republican leadership in the House and the Senate were Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, who are both openly skeptical of him. The Supreme Court at that point was 4 to 4, with Anthony Kennedy as a swing vote, who was not always reliable for conservatives.

And you had many business leaders who were reluctant to be associated too closely with him, as well as media organizations that were kind of, you know, on aggressive reporting footing right from day one. All of that looks very different four years later.

[15:10:02]

As we talked about before, I don't think that's an unmitigated blessing for Trump that he has fewer constraints. On the one hand, it does mean that he is probably going to be face less resistance in advancing some of his core agenda ideas.

It also means there's going to be less pushback on some of the things he wants to do that in his first term. Voices inside and outside his administration stopped, and this time, he may be more likely to just kind of power through.

SCIUTTO: President Biden published an op-ed in "The Washington Post" today. He said the following. I'm quoting:

An unrelenting effort has been underway to rewrite -- even erase -- the history of that day. To tell us we didn't see what we all saw with our own eyes. To dismiss concerns about it as some kind of partisan obsession, to explain it away as a protest that just got out of hand. This is not what happened. We cannot allow the truth to be lost.

But the fact is, for a large portion of this country, the truth has been lost, not just on this event. Trump successfully created a fiction that the 2020 election was stolen.

What does that say about the increasing distance between the realities that people on the left and the right experience and believe in, in this country? And what does it say about just how this nation can and will operate?

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah. Well, a critical dynamic is the one you cited. You know, in the immediate aftermath of January 6th, there were voices that Republican voters trust who called out the obvious and egregious shattering of Democratic norms that the insurrection represented. But then people like Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy kind of looked over the ledge and found that the core of the Republican coalition, the core of their own voting coalitions, were more with Trump than with them. And so still, that criticism and basically what you've had now is four years in which the entire right side of the spectrum has heard from very few voices other than, you know, Adam Kinzinger or Liz Cheney or the occasional media personality willing to acknowledge and criticize what happened.

And that allowed it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, right? When you have so many Republican voters saying, well, this doesn't bother us. Republicans become even more reluctant to speak out. You know, the risk here is that Trump's success.

Look, what we saw in the election was that voters prioritize their own economic situation over some of these broader concerns, right.

So the risk is that Trump takes from that, that there is no limit on what he can do without a backlash from his party. I mean, the questions you and I are discussing right now are not only in the rear view mirror. They're the questions of what Trump is willing to do. And those around him, like his new attorney general, may be willing to do to further strain the boundaries of law and restraints on the, you know, arbitrary exercise of presidential power. This is a very live question. It's not only one for the history.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this. You will hear from some Democrats that their response will be, I'm just going to watch it all fall apart, right? You know, and I'm paraphrasing there, but this idea that, well, let Trump be his worst self and voters will eventually punish him. And that strikes me as some combination of grim wishful thinking, but also submission, right, and just given up.

I wonder if is that is there any logic to that position, or might the Democrats want a better plan?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, as I said, what we saw in the -- in the election and as I've written, is that Trump, I believe, was elected by a slice of voters who still retain significant doubts about his agenda or his character or both, but felt that they needed to vote for him anyway because they thought he would be better on the issues they care most about the economy and immigration. The risk for Democrats is that voters still make that calculation, even if Trump does a lot of things that they don't like in office, starting with the widespread pardons of the January 6th rioters.

The one exception to what you're talking about, that I think is already clearly set in motion, is that Democrats are going to be very comfortable opposing the core Republican economic agenda, the tax bill that will be coming up in reconciliation, either in one bill or two, to extend the Trump tax cuts, to expand the Trump tax cuts and will be coupled, inevitably, based on what were seeing in the in the uprisings from the House Republican conservatives, those tax cuts will be will be coupled with spending cuts.

So you'll have tax cuts for the wealthy, coupled with spending cuts for programs that benefit the middle class and the working class, like Medicaid. That's a fight I think we've seen very clearly. Democrats know how to do. They know how to run that fight.

And that is someplace where I think they're going to try to focus their resistance to Trump, even as you say, they may be less animated on some of the other fronts.

[15:15:06]

SCIUTTO: We'll see. Ron Brownstein, always good to have you on. Thanks so much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: Coming up, Canada's Justin Trudeau says he intends to step down as the country's prime minister. We're going to discuss why he's making that decision so soon before a general election, and what that means for the direction of the country.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Justin Trudeau will resign as prime minister of Canada and leader of Canada's ruling Liberal Party. Trudeau, who was already facing a tough reelection campaign, has been under significant pressure to resign since his deputy prime minister stepped down just last month.

CNN's Paula Newton explains exactly how he got to this moment.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Canada's Justin Trudeau announced he would step down as both liberal party leader and prime minister when his party chooses a new leader. Trudeau ending months of turmoil about his future with a reluctant goodbye. One of the country's youngest ever leaders, Trudeau promised to usher in sunny ways when he was first elected in 2015. But nearly a decade later, members of his own party recently joined a growing chorus of Canadians who wanted the sun to set on his tenure.

Amid plummeting opinion polls, Trudeau's liberal party was widely expected to lose a general election later this year if he remained as prime minister.

Still, for months, he said he had no intention of resigning.

TRUDEAU: Like most families, sometimes you have fights around the holidays. But of course, like most families, we find our way through it.

NEWTON: Despite calls to resign from his own members of parliament, Trudeau insisted that he was best placed to fight Canada's corner as President-elect Donald Trump threatens 25 percent tariffs on all goods imported from Canada, which is home to about 40 million people and one of Americas largest trading

[15:20:18]

But last month, even Trudeau's finance minister and longtime ally, Chrystia Freeland, resigned from his cabinet, leaving him on even shakier ground with a blunt resignation letter accusing the prime minister of using costly political gimmicks at the expense of Canada's fiscal health. Freeland added that the government needed to start pushing back against America first economic nationalism.

A former high school teacher in the eldest son of Pierre Trudeau, one of Canada's most well known prime ministers, Trudeau was elected three times. He became a poster child for the country's progressive agenda on the global stage, seen as an antidote to Trump during the incoming U.S. presidents first term. His government pursued policies on alleviating child poverty, gender equity, cutting middle class taxes, and the legalization of cannabis.

And while he was generally praised for his handling of the pandemic, voter sentiment has soured since high inflation, an affordable housing crisis and an increase in legal immigration have tested Trudeau's government.

TRUDEAU: We continue to handle migration seriously.

NEWTON: And will that include taking migrants that sometimes even present themselves at the southern border, or taking migrants directly from the United States?

TRUDEAU: Canada's always willing to do more. We just need to make sure were doing it in responsible, proper ways to continue to have our citizens positive towards immigration, as Canadians always are.

NEWTON: Now that Trudeau is resigning, once a new liberal party leader is in place, an election will follow by summer or early fall at the latest. Former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, Chrystia Freeland and

Foreign Minister Melanie Joly are all considering a run for the liberal leadership.

Pierre Poilievre opposition conservative party currently holds a more than 20 percent lead over the liberals in polling averages.

Paula Newton, CNN, Ottawa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Quite a political turn in Canada. Paula Newton, thanks so much.

Here to discuss Trudeau's resignation and what comes next, "New York Times" Canada correspondent Ian Austen.

Ian, thanks so much for joining.

IAN AUSTEN, CANADA CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Hi. It's a pleasure to be here.

SCIUTTO: Trudeau has been under pressure, unpopular for some time. A recent Ipsos poll released in late December found just 14 percent of Canadians polled believe Trudeau was the best equipped to handle Donald Trump, 39 percent say Poilievre, the conservative leader, is best.

Why now for Trudeau, especially several months before an election?

AUSTEN: Well, it's certainly not an ideal time in terms of the country and its stability, because Trump's tariffs 25 percent tariff threat could be very, very disruptive to Canada's economy. But it certainly was triggered by that letter from Chrystia Freeland, her very stinging resignation letter.

She was his first big catch when he was an opposition leader. He brought her in from journalism into politics. She was her Miss Fix-it for a number of crises, including renegotiating NAFTA. And now she's gone. And that just set off a tidal wave of opposition within the caucus towards him.

SCIUTTO: Can you help us understand the positions of today's Canadian conservative party under Poilievre? What do they have in common with Trump's Republican Party?

AUSTEN: Well, you know, I think its a facile -- too facile to say they're Trump-like. Mostly under Poilievre, what they've been about is attacking liberals and attacking Trudeau and blaming him for everything. Their actual agenda has been a bit oblique to date, but they've gone heavily after Trudeau's carbon tax, which the government failed enormously to explain. Most people get more money back from it through rebates than they pay in it.

They've hit Trudeau on the cost of housing, which is spiraled out of control, and a lot of urban areas and just the general inflation that's gone around the world. That's -- they've -- they've sort of hit at them in a negative way. How, you know, he promises to build more houses. He doesn't have a lot of specifics. Inflation has come down.

You know, we'll -- we'll see. But they're -- they're not I mean, though he recently did an interview with Jordan Peterson, you know, the Canadian conservative psychologist, he's -- he's not -- his rhetoric isn't like Trump's. It's very anti-Trudeau. He talks about wokeism but that's, you know, you know --

SCIUTTO: That's about the same, yeah. And listen it's interesting all those pressures you talk about are certainly not unique.

[15:25:03]

They were certainly part of the election here in this country. We saw it in France. We've seen it in other countries as well, those economic issues.

Let me ask you this. Regardless of party, what is Canada's plan to respond to Trump's tariff threats? We should note it's not the first time he has threatened Canada in his first term. He was quite aggressive as well, and he seems even more aggressive now.

Does Canada have a plan?

AUSTEN: Well, I mean, the plan so far is, you know. Trudeau zipped down to Florida to have dinner with Trump over the Thanksgiving weekend. Some of his ministers have gone down since.

They've been careful not to antagonize Trump, not to criticize him. I mean, there's a lot of wonder here, though. I mean, the threat, the threatened tariffs are supposedly around what Trump sees as a vast outflow of migrants from Canada, which statistics don't support, and a lot of drugs coming from Canada, particularly fentanyl. Again, statistics don't support that on the Canadian border.

So the governments come up with this plan that it costed out at a conveniently at about $1 billion to tighten up the border. But no one knows if that's really going to work. I mean, Trump then started posting on social media about how the United States is subsidizing Canadians and doing this.

So, who -- you know, who knows what's -- what's going to happen with that?

SCIUTTO: I mean, the trouble is, as you know, Trump has a long track record of making things up, right, and to justify quite aggressive policies. I want to ask you about something else which -- which I know that folks in Canada may not be taking seriously, but I just want to quote Trump, because it's not the first time he's said this.

Truth Social post today, many people in Canada love being the 51st state. The United States can no longer suffer the massive trade deficits and subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat. Justin Trudeau knew this and resigned.

If Canada merged with the U.S., there would be no tariffs. Taxes would go way down, making a case there for Canada to become a 51st state.

I know personally -- I've lived in Canada. I've got a lot of Canadian friends. The Canadians are just as patriotic as Americans are about their country, Ian Austen.

Can you tell us, is there anybody in Canada who is taking this Trump 51st state pitch seriously?

AUSTEN: Well, I mean, the government's official line is that it's just Trump joking, but its really, really angered a lot of Canadians. I mean, I've been getting emails from readers saying they're going to stop subscribing to "The New York Times". They're going to boycott all things American. They're no longer going to go to on vacation to places like Florida. I mean, I've heard some of that back when Trump was first elected, too, from readers.

But, there's a real, real anger about that. And I think some degree of fear. I mean, people I don't think people seriously think that Trump tries to annex Canada, but that, you know, he may try and impose measures on Canada that that Canadians won't want to accept, particularly around water, which came up during the election, where he talked about how there were some big spigots somewhere that would allow that if it's turned, it would allow fresh water to flow down to California from Canada. That would be an enormous issue among -- with Canadians.

SCIUTTO: Well, listen, there are a lot of targets he has overseas right now. If you look at Greenland and Denmark, the Panama Canal, talking about Canadian resources, might want to take some of them seriously.

Ian Austen, thanks so much.

AUSTEN: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Still ahead, the heaviest snowfall in a decade for parts of the U.S. Tens of millions of people affected. I'm one of them. Lots of snow here in D.C.

We're live out in the cold, checking on the conditions as people start out their workweek.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:32:20]

SCIUTTO: Welcome back.

A huge winter storm is bringing snow and ice to the U.S. Northeast and Midwest. More than 60 million people are now living under weather alerts across the nation. One region really feeling the impact of snow and ice here in Washington, D.C.

Many flights at the regional airports canceled or delayed. It's cold. I shoveled a lot of snow this morning. I know a lot of my neighbors did. CNN's Gabe Cohen joins us now from Washington.

I suppose the worry is right is that it's not getting any warmer, right, and that ice may follow the snow.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Jim, that's absolutely right. There is concern about snow, about sleet, about freezing rain. It really runs the gamut here.

This is a massive storm that we have seen move all the way from Kansas east to the nation's capital. We have seen states of emergency in six different states as well as here in Washington. And really so much of this region is frozen right now. Schools are shut down, the commute almost silent this morning when we were out here, federal government offices are closed, Jim, and we have watched as the snow has been piling up all day.

I'll tell you, the official total more than five inches on the ground here in Washington, though I also live less than a mile from where we're standing here on the National Mall. Jim and I measured a little bit earlier, at least six inches outside my home, and we're expecting a little bit more later tonight. So there is that storm warning, that snow warning in effect through the night here in D.C. and then after that, we're talking about, as you said, ice and also bitter cold. They're going to be brutally bone chilling. Temperatures across this region over the next few days.

And, of course, safety on the roads are going to its going to continue to be a massive issue, Jim, for so many people across this region, this is a deadly storm. Several people have died on the road for total, um, across the country because of it. And it ain't over yet. We're talking about potentially several more inches here in D.C. before the night is done.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, and folks just aren't used to it, right? I mean, these storms are becoming fewer and further between. Gabe Cohen, thanks so much.

So what's next for the storm? Is there another storm on the way?

Tracking all of this from the CNN Weather Center, meteorologist Chad Myers.

So, Chad, I got some skin in this game. I got a lot of kids who are out of school today, and I'm wondering when they're actually going to go back to school, given where this is all going.

So, is there any relief in sight?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No, there's -- there's not a day that it's going to get above 32. And even if the sun does come out and melt the road a little bit, it will be back down into the teens in the morning hours.

And so, it's going to refreeze, anything that looks wet by morning will certainly be some black ice out there. So somewhere in here on this earth cam picture is our Gabe Cohen.

[15:35:03]

Just can't find him. Still visibility, still a little bit low, about a half a mile or so. Snow still coming down as you saw in his live shot. But the wind chill in the teens right now.

So these are the bigger numbers that we can find. So far, a lot of numbers will start to print out about 7:00 tonight, but still almost a foot in Easton, Maryland, all the way down to the shore. It may lose, pick up somewhere between 5 and 7 inches, and then Chapman, Kansas, I guess the winner or the loser, depending on your point of view, 20.5 inches of snow and where it was just a touch warmer.

I mean, we're talking about 30 to maybe 28. That was raining and 30 in places here across parts of Virginia, Missouri, where ice has been on the ground, wind is now blowing, trees are coming down, power lines are coming down, and it will be a very long, cold night for some people.

Yes, there is more snow coming, but not really that much. I mean an inch or two a lot here back into West Virginia. They could pick up maybe 3 to 4 more inches there.

As that little band swings through D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, maybe even up toward New York City tonight, there will be another dusting of snow. But that's it. But look at this swath all the way from Kansas, not quite to Colorado, but Salina, Kansas, in this pink area, somewhere between eight and 12 inches of snow on the ground from just one storm. And just south of there, that's where all the ice was.

Still have people under winter storm warnings. Those will expire tonight because this snow is going to move away. Here we go. This is 8:00, 9:00, 10:00. And it's completely offshore.

So the snow is over tonight. But boy, if you shoveled once or twice already because of the wind, you may have to keep doing it because the wind is not done. More frigid air coming down from the north, across Hudson Bay all the way here.

Look at the morning low in Saint Louis on Thursday. It will be two. That'd be great if it was two Celsius. And -- but it's not. That's two Fahrenheit. So that's significantly colder than that.

Temperatures not getting above freezing. Here you go. Chicagoland, seven will be your low.

And then finally, finally, Jim, for you somewhere, at least on Saturday and Sunday, it begins to warm up into the 30s. That will help a little bit, but it doesn't melt when the temperatures are 20, you don't get any help. That's just all refreezing in the morning hours.

And those little symbols right there. Now that means wind, which means its no fun to even be out there, even as a pet.

SCIUTTO: I hear you, man. One more data point, about nine inches of snow, I think in my backyard.

All right. It's going to be a tough week. Thanks, Chad, I guess.

MYERS: You're welcome.

SCIUTTO: Good to have you.

Coming up next, the British prime minister says Elon Musk's political meddlings have now gone too far. What the owner of X did that garnered swift reaction from multiple European leaders. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:40:50]

SCIUTTO: Elon Musk continues to wield his influence as owner of X and Trump's new confidante, as well as massive political donor, to intervene now in other countries politics. His latest target: the UK.

Last week, Musk accused British Prime Minister Keir Starmer of covering up a grooming and sexual abuse scandal, posting or reposting more than 50 times on X.

Today, he asked his followers, quote, if America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government. Well, Britain's a sovereign country. Parliamentary democracy just had elections in July. Anyway, that's Musk.

CNN's Nic Robertson joins me now.

Nic, you know, I noted in one of Musk's most recent postings on X that his own sites readers comments debunked the claim that he was reposting. But can you fact check Musk for us here on what he's calling a grooming scandal so our viewers know what the facts are?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Do we have enough time? Because I think the perception here in the U.K. is that while musk is hitting on a tiny kernel, if you will, of an inflammatory issue, that was a very sensitive issue for the nation.

What is missing here, what he doesn't talk about because he's clearly targeting this current government, and the prime minister, who was the chief prosecutor in the U.K. during some of that late period when these abuses were coming to light. That, you know, he is -- he is portraying a very -- Musk is portraying a very simplified version of it which aims to smear the prime minister.

But he also tried to smear another minister in the government, Jess Phillips, the safeguarding of children and women minister. That's her portfolio, if you will, for not running a national inquiry into what was a national scandal. The investigations, the inquiries came in the different cities where these scandals were unearthed at the time. It took a long time before there was a national inquiry.

But Musk overlooks that. He overlooks the fact that the national inquiry actually produced its results during the conservative government's time in office back in 2015 and during the conservatives remaining eight, nine years in office, they didn't implement a single recommendation.

What Musk is right about is that this was a real -- a very damaging thing to happen and one that wasn't handled in the best way. And that's what the inquiry has talked about. The police have had inquiries of social services here, had inquiries.

So, you know, I think the response we've heard from the prime minister today, pushing back, saying that this is lies and misinformation, really gets to the nuanced understanding in the U.K. as opposed to the smear that Musk appears to be trying to push against the prime minister.

SCIUTTO: The thing is, what we saw in this country, right, is that Musk does have enormous influence via X for certain. In particular, it seems certain categories of voters that may very well have helped Trump in the most recent election and had influence beyond that, right, had influence here in the U.S. on the most recent budget negotiations situation, in which Musk again, was sharing things that were either outright not true or were not entirely true to help move that vote there.

I wonder, what is the political influence do we know of X in the U.K.? Do politicians there, whether on left or right, believe that Musk can move votes when he pushes -- pushes things like this?

ROBINSON: Yeah, I think there's a couple of ways to look at that because obviously Starmer got in last year with a massive, massive majority. And at the moment, there's no reason to think, even with musk attacking him, that the his Labour Party, Starmer's Labour Party will -- will have to call an election any time ahead of when they're required to in five years.

[15:45:07]

So there's that kind of view that why is Musk doing this now? I mean, this is a government that's got a long way to run. It would be very hard to bring it down, particularly bringing up an old issue like -- like this.

However, as you say, there is a certain appeal to a certain segment of the community and that on -- on the extreme right. And that's what Musk appears to be going after. Is he really trying to set an agenda here for a longer term agenda?

I think most British politicians feel that Musk is going to fall by the wayside in his relationship with Donald Trump before he does any political damage here in the U.K., but I don't think that's a -- that is necessarily that is necessarily a given. But as far as, you know, what damage can Musk do with this at the moment, real political damage, it doesn't seem to sort of grow to the influence that it's had, let's say in the U.S. elections, the margins between the positions of the parties are just not there.

And in fact, where Musk is going at the moment is even to go right of the populist right wing at the moment, has just had a falling out with Nigel Farage, the head of the U.K. reform party, which was the party of Nigel Farage brought you. Nigel Farage brought this Brexit to the U.K.

This was Musk has sort of moved further right from him championing somebody in jail who's been fanning the flames of racist demonstrations in the U.K.

So, you know, it's hard to see where why Musk is picking on the U.K. at this moment where France is in a more fragile or precarious position, and Germany, the same.

SCIUTTO: Well, listen, you also have him attempting to interfere in Germany, right, by supporting the right wing again, right wing AFD party there.

Nic Robertson, I know you'll continue to follow it. Thanks so much.

Well, Syrian officials met with Qatar's prime minister in Doha over the weekend and called on the U.S. to lift its ongoing sanctions on Syria. This, according to "Reuters", those sanctions had been imposed on the ousted President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Since Assad's government fell and he fled for Russia. A number of facilities have been discovered that may have been involved in developing and using chemical weapons.

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh goes inside one of those facilities.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They're gearing up for one of the most dangerous missions in Syria, and they have to be prepared.

Exposure could be lethal.

FAROUQ HABIB, DEPUTY GENERAL MANAGER, WHITE HELMETS: While we are searching for these secret prisons, we received information that there could be hazardous materials in this facility.

KARADSHEH: The White Helmets volunteer rescue group suspects this is a chemical weapons research site.

We joined their hazmat team at a former state security building. They wanted us to witness what they find. Throughout the war, the regime and its Russian backers have repeatedly tried to discredit them.

With respirators fixed, and suit sealed, the final touch, chemical agent detector patches. With oxygen tanks and detection devices, these two men lead the way into the unknown.

They have to move carefully and methodically. Looters got here first. Every surface is scanned for traces of chemicals. A suspected weapons delivery system sits in the middle of this room, but no traces detected so far. Their advance team already told them it's the upper floors where they

need to be. Slowly, they move upstairs, step by step, on every floor and in every room, they're searching for clues.

What was the Assad regime doing here? Evidence of what appears to be a secret chemical lab emerges in several rooms. They find countless labeled bottles and containers filled with chemicals.

Their main mission today is to document, try and find out as much as they can about the chemicals they're finding in this facility.

Something sets off the detector. And they take pictures for experts to review the reading, it says TIC, toxic industrial chemical. He checks his patch and carries on.

[15:50:05]

Until another alarm goes off, and they realize it's one of the oxygen tanks he has to get out fast.

It's becoming clear they were experimenting with dangerous substances here, tucked in the middle of a residential Damascus neighborhood, the local Druze community had long suspected this was more than just a state security building. As regime forces withdrew, people rushed in to see what was really inside this feared compound.

It was a local pharmacist who sounded the alarm, and the White Helmets were called in. Securing sites like this one is critical, amid a post- regime vacuum and a volatile security situation.

HABIB: These materials could not only pose a risk to the civilians and neighboring areas, but also if they fall into the wrong hands, they could be used elsewhere and pose a threat to other communities and maybe other countries.

KARADSHEH: CNN shared images with four experts based on that snapshot. They all agree this was a chemical lab. It's unclear whether it was used for chemical weapons research or something else, including analysis of environmental threats or illicit drugs, among other possibilities.

Strewn about, they find what they describe as a trove of documents one we can't independently verify mentions communications between the facilities command and a Russian military officer. Preserving documents like this is now part of the team's mission.

They also find weapons storage and production rooms.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Made in Syria.

KARADSHEH: We see all the necessary components to build modified and improvised explosive devices.

HABIB: It was a shocking how the previous regime used all these government institutions as multi-purpose facilities.

KARADSHEH: Down this dark and dingy, cockroach infested basement is perhaps the most dangerous discovery so far.

Almost every surface and sealed container sets off the detector. It registers lewisite, a blistering chemical agent. Experts say it could be a false positive. Unlike everything here, it will need additional testing.

The fall of the regime may be uncovering what, until this day, had been hidden in the dark, leaving Syria and the world a dictator's toxic legacy.

Jomana Karadsheh CNN, Damascus.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Some dangerous reporting there. Our thanks to Jomana and her team.

Just after the break, the services plan for the week ahead as the U.S. remembers its 39th president. That's, of course, Jimmy Carter.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:55:45]

SCIUTTO: On Tuesday morning, the body of former President Jimmy Carter will travel to Washington for the next phase of his ongoing funeral services.

CNN's Eva McKend has more on exactly what's planned to honor this country's 39th president.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: People are wiping away tears and holding their hands to their hearts as they say their final goodbyes to President Jimmy Carter. Atlanta is a city that Carter held so dear.

It is not only home to the globally consequential Carter Center. It is also the city where he served as governor before he ultimately ascended to the White House.

And on a personal level, it wasn't uncommon to see Carter out and about with his grandchildren in the city or attending a Braves game. He's being remembered for his character, his courage, his compassion, and his lifetime of service. He will continue to lie in repose here in Atlanta until 6:00 a.m. Tuesday before his remains moved to Washington, D.C., and then ultimately back to his hometown of Plains, Georgia.

Eva McKend, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Our thanks to Eve McKend.

And thanks so much to you for joining me today. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

"QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is up next.