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FBI: Suspect Visited New Orleans, Traveled to Egypt; Trump's January 6 Pardon Promise Divides Son, Imprisoned Father; Pope Names Trump Critic as Washinton's Next Archbishop. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired January 07, 2025 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. Here are some of the top stories we're following today.
Right now, search and rescue efforts are underway in Tibet following a powerful earthquake that killed at least 95 people. That's according to Chinese state media. Authorities say the shaking could be felt as far away as Nepal and northern India.
The U.S. has now transferred 11 Yemeni detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Oman. One human rights organization said at least one of them was never charged with a crime and has been in custody for more than 20 years. 15 detainees remain at the Gitmo detention facility, with three eligible for transfer.
Now take a look at this rare glimpse of the most vibrant natural phenomena. NASA astronaut Don Pettit captured the Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis, as the International Space Station orbited over eastern Canada on Sunday. He says it felt like, quote, we've been shrunk down to a miniature dimension and inserted into a neon sign.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden honored victims of the New Orleans terror attack on Monday at an interfaith memorial service. The President promised to make every resource at his disposal available to the families of those killed. He also acknowledged the hardships people in the city have endured in recent years and promised the country would stand with them as healing begins.
Here's more of the President's remarks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The families left behind, we know from some experience it's hard, but I promise you the day will come when the memory of your loved one, you pass that park, open that closet door, smell that fragrance, just remember that laugh, when the memory of your loved one will bring a smile to your lips before a tear to your eye.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: CNN's Rafael Romo has more on Biden's visit, as well as the investigation into the man who carried out the deadly attack.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden landed here in New Orleans at 3:41 p.m. local time. They attended an interfaith service here at St. Louis Cathedral honoring the 14 people who died in the New Year's Day terrorist attack. The President also met with local officials as well as the families of the victims, perhaps the last time he will be in the role of Comforter-in- Chief.
[04:35:05]
Meanwhile, the FBI has released crucial details about what the attacker was up to, way before using a pickup truck to kill innocent people. Among the new details, the FBI says Shamsud-Din Jabbar visited New Orleans twice before the attack, the first time in October when he recorded video of the streets in the French Quarter, and the second time in November.
The FBI also said he traveled internationally. He was in Cairo, Egypt in the summer of 2023, and a few days later he traveled to Ontario, Canada.
We have learned through a report exclusively obtained by CNN's Pamela Brown that politics and bickering hindered security in the French Quarter here in New Orleans. The 2019 report prepared by Interfor International and commissioned by the French Quarter Management District, or FQMD, identified internecine politics and bickering as a significant hindrance to the good efforts by stakeholders to address security in the district.
In a statement to CNN on Saturday about the public version of the report, FQMD said that the strength of our ongoing partnership with the city and the New Orleans Police Department allows open communications of resident and business concerns and the results of any studies of reports completed.
Rafael Romo, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACFARLANE: Well meantime, Louisiana's Attorney General has ordered a full review of security plans for New Orleans' New Year's event and the Sugar Bowl football game. The state will look into security recommendations made for both of those events and how local, state and federal funding was used to pay for security measures.
FOSTER: It comes as the Department of Homeland Security designated New Orleans Mardi Gras as an event requiring top-level security support. It means they'll likely get more federal support for security. Mardi Gras celebrations begin -- or began, rather, this past Saturday. They run through to March 4th.
Donald Trump will become the next U.S. president in 13 days and it couldn't come sooner for the more than 1,500 people charged with crimes connected to the January 6th insurrection four years ago. Trump told Time magazine he'll issue pardons in his presidency's first hour.
MACFARLANE: A big claim. The issue hasn't just split the nation but also a family where one son turned in and later testified against his father, who for now remains in prison. Donie O'Sullivan has that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If Trump pardons your dad, what's your biggest fear?
JACKSON REFFITT, SON OF JANUARY 6TH CONVICT: You know, just getting shot in the street. I don't know.
O'SULLIVAN: By your father?
J. REFFITT: By my father, by someone he knows. There's a bunch of people that I don't know and I don't know their intent. So, you want to help me lift this?
O'SULLIVAN: Sure.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): This is Jackson Reffitt.
O'SULLIVAN: Do you want me to take this end here? Or how do we do this?
J. REFFITT: Yes, please.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): He says he's moving out of his rental home and into hiding for his own safety.
J. REFFITT: Bought a gun because I got so paranoid and moving out because I'm scared.
O'SULLIVAN: Do you know how to fire a gun?
J. REFFITT: Yeah, I've been shooting it.
O'SULLIVAN: Do you have it on you right now?
J. REFFITT: Yeah, I have to wear it around the house kind of often just to get used to how it feels.
O'SULLIVAN: OK.
J. REFFITT: But I'm part of that, like --
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Jackson's dad is Guy Reffitt, who was a member of the Texas Three Percenter militia.
GUY REFFITT, JACKSON REFFITT'S FATHER: And I just kept going, go forward, go forward. I couldn't even see, bro.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): He's serving a more than seven-year sentence for his role in the January 6th Capitol attack. Reffitt was convicted of five felonies, including carrying a firearm on Capitol grounds.
O'SULLIVAN: So you reported your dad to the FBI?
J. REFFITT: Yes.
O'SULLIVAN: That's what got him arrested, basically?
J. REFFITT: More or less, yeah.
O'SULLIVAN: What effect has that had on your family?
J. REFFITT: It's destroyed it.
O'SULLIVAN: Was there a moment where you thought I know my dad has done all this stuff, but I don't want to report him?
J. REFFITT: Yeah, I still feel horrible. Of course. Like, I, I can't get over it, but I don't regret it.
O'SULLIVAN: When was the last time you spoke to your dad?
J. REFFITT: Five months ago, it was the first time I talked to him and it was just a crying fest for the first 10 minutes, and that was great. And then, I brought up the fact that I'm worried about him getting out and he was almost puzzled, you know, like he was confused as to why I thought that.
O'SULLIVAN: Are you overreacting?
J. REFFITT: No, I get death threats daily, hourly at this point.
NICOLE REFFITT, JACKSON REFFITT'S MOTHER: Unbeknownst to us, it was our 18-year-old son who turned his dad into the FBI.
CROWD: Why?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did he do it?
N. REFFITT: My son is a declared Democratic Socialist.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Jackson's mom, Nicole, has become one of the most prominent people campaigning for the release of people serving time for January 6th.
N. REFFITT: We lift up each and every one of our J6s. Christopher Albert.
[04:40:00]
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Nicole left Texas and moved to Washington, D.C. where she takes part in a nightly vigil out here, outside the city's jail.
O'SULLIVAN: You've been coming here for hundreds of nights.
N. REFFITT: Almost 900. O'SULLIVAN: Why?
N. REFFITT: You know, after I saw what happened to my husband, I could not sit on my hands at home anymore.
O'SULLIVAN: Do you wish Guy didn't come here on January 6th?
N. REFFITT: No. I'm glad he stood up for something.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Every night, January 6th prisoners from around the country call into the vigil.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Continue holding the line. This thing's almost done.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Including Guy Reffitt who recently called in to wish Nicole a happy birthday.
G. REFFITT: Happy birthday. Sorry I couldn't get you something better than 80 months, but you know, they're assholes.
O'SULLIVAN: Are you confident that Trump will let your husband walk free?
N. REFFITT: I feel like Trump is a man of his words.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's the next step for your family?
N. REFFITT: To continue to fight together.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Nicole is sometimes joined in D.C. by her two daughters, Jackson's sisters who've been caught in the middle of a divided family.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is not shown to my father.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have nothing against Jackson. Jackson is my brother. I love him. I love him no more than I love my father. I love my father. I love my family.
N. REFFITT: From the beginning, the girls and I have received hundreds of mailed death threats. I'm not talking about online things. I'm talking about rape to my daughters, death to my husband, death to me.
O'SULLIVAN: You don't think Jackson has to be afraid of his dad?
N. REFFITT: No.
O'SULLIVAN: Yes.
N. REFFITT: I think that's been put on the record several times.
O'SULLIVAN: So why is Jackson still afraid?
N. REFFITT: I just think that it's the same thing where people think this red hat on my head is scary and dangerous. It's that same mentality. Jackson comes from a lot of love and there's a lot of love left to be given.
CROWD: And justice for all.
J. REFFITT: I mean, I love my mom, of course. I love her.
O'SULLIVAN: Do you love your dad?
J. REFFITT: Of course, I love my dad. I love my dad, but I can't -- I can't feel safe around him. I hate having to put myself in this situation, to feel some sort of comfort after the election and what's going to happen when my dad gets pardoned, when all these hundreds of people get pardoned, and all these thousands of people get validated for their actions. And I'm one of those people that they call a traitor. And my dad once said traitors get shot. So that's been ringing in my head for years and years and years.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): In a message from prison, Guy Reffitt said that Jackson has never had anything to worry about from me, and he will never have anything to worry about from me ever.
O'SULLIVAN: If your dad's watching this, what's your message to him?
J. REFFITT: That I love him and that I hope he gets better. And I hope I get better too. I hope I grow out of this paranoia right now and that I really thought what I did was right. I thought I did what I did to protect him and my family and the people around him, and the people he could have hurt.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACFARLANE: Well right now, Georgia is saying goodbye to its native son and the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter. The former president has been lying in repose at the Carter Center, his presidential library in Atlanta.
FOSTER: In a few more hours, an Air Force plane will carry the casket to Washington, where he'll lie in state at the Capitol Rotunda, where people can pay their respects until his state funeral, which is on Thursday. Carter died last week in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, at the age of 100. He'll be laid to rest there, next to his wife of 77 years, Rosalyn, who died last year.
MACFARLANE: CNN will have special live coverage of today's event, starting at 2 p.m. Eastern and 7 p.m. right here in London.
[04:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: The corruption trial of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is now underway. He's accused of receiving millions of dollars from the Libyan government for his 2007 election campaign in exchange for supporting the country's late strongman, Moammar Gadhafi.
MACFARLANE: Sarkozy has long denied the accusations. The trial is expected to last three months. If found guilty, Sarkozy could face up to 10 years in prison and nearly $400,000 in fines.
FOSTER: Pope Francis has tapped Cardinal Robert McElroy, a Trump critic and vocal defender of migrants, to be the next Archbishop of Washington, D.C. Monday's appointment follows the President-elect's decision to nominate a critic of Pope Francis as his Vatican ambassador. All this playing out less than two weeks before Trump takes office.
MACFARLANE: Joining us now here in London is CNN Vatican correspondent Christopher Lamb. Christopher, a bit of a bold move from Pope Francis in the month of Donald Trump's inauguration.
CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. I mean, it's a very significant appointment and it sends a signal the Pope wants his Archbishop of Washington to be bold, to speak out, to criticize, potentially, any moves around migration that conflict with Catholic doctrine.
Cardinal McElroy is someone who has spoken out in the past against the first Trump administration and yesterday he said, after his appointment, that it was incompatible with Catholic teaching, the planned deportation of migrants. That's incompatible with Catholic teaching. So already being quite clear that he is going to speak out.
It's also interesting that Cardinal McElroy was chosen. Cardinal McElroy is very much in line with Pope Francis. Not all leaders of the U.S. Catholic Church support Pope Francis. Some of them also quite sympathetic to Trump, whereas Cardinal McElroy is someone very much in line with the Pope.
I also expect Cardinal McElroy not just to speak out but also to try and bring people together. He is a learned man. He has a doctorate in political science from Stanford University. He's an historian. So I expect him to try and deal with some of the ideological divides that are in the U.S. political culture. So someone who's willing to speak out but also try and bring people together.
FOSTER: Interesting that he's not ingratiating Trump in the way that other world leaders are. But I want to ask you also about this Italian nun that he's appointed to a Vatican office, which hasn't happened before, I don't think.
LAMB: It's a historic first. Pope Francis has appointed Sister Simona Brambilla to be the leader of a major Vatican department. The first time that a woman has been in charge of a Vatican office.
Very significant. And comes after a lot of pressure within the Church for more roles for women in leadership positions in the Catholic Church. Pope Francis has been moving step by step in this regard. But this is the major shattering of a Vatican glass ceiling.
MACFARLANE: So is it because of that pressure, external pressure, that he's moved to do this? Or is this actually something Pope Francis himself, you know, feels he has wanted to do for the Church?
LAMB: Well, it is something the Pope feels strongly about. He wants to, in his words, demasculinize the Church. But there has also been a lot of pressure.
[04:50:00]
There's been a consultation recently amongst Catholics, and one of the major topics that came out was more roles need to be given to women to lead the Church. Of course, the Catholic Church has an all-male hierarchy. Pope Francis says he's not going to change that, but he wants to find ways to include women in leadership roles so you don't have to be a bishop, a cardinal or a priest to lead in the Church. You can be a religious sister or a layperson.
MACFARLANE: Well, as a Catholic woman, I am very happy to see it happen.
FOSTER: Is it enough for you?
MACFARLANE: I'd say it's a good step in the right direction. So, yes, Christopher, appreciate your thoughts. Thank you.
LAMB: Thank you.
FOSTER: Ahead, a groundbreaking new venture for a sport often stuck in tradition.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACFARLANE: A new high-tech golf league will make its debut later today at the first of its kind virtual golf course in Florida. Here's a little preview of how the Tomorrow Golf League -- that's what it's called -- will work.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Each team will tee it up on our real grass tee box to start each hole, heading into our massive screen. This is what we call screen play. Depending on the result of the tee shot, the teams will continue to play their shots into the screen off the fairway. The rock or out of sand if they happen to land in a bunker.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[04:55:00]
MACFARLANE: The Tomorrow Golf League is the brainchild of the golf greats Tiger Woods and Roy McIlroy and will include some of the game's best players in a weekly competition. We're told they'll be mic-ed up with some likely trash talk, golfer trash talk, giving fans a new perspective on every shot live as it happens.
FOSTER: Six teams representing six cities will go head-to-head in the season-long competition.
I think it'll work as long as it's accurate because we play a local virtual course and it is, I mean, you do get lost in it, but sometimes when there's a glitch and you feel, actually, I did get it in.
MACFARLANE: Yes, but having weirdly worked in virtual golf before as part of my career --
FOSTER: You're pre-virtual.
MACFARLANE: I know, crazy, right? Two years in virtual golf. I mean, the stuff that goes out on air now on TV is so accurate. I mean, it's quite impressive, actually, so I imagine it's moved along.
Meanwhile, hockey fans in Hershey, Pennsylvania, did not disappoint at the team's annual Teddy Bear Toss.
FOSTER: Tradition dictates that fans throw stuffed animals onto the ice after the Hershey Bears score their first goal of the game. This year's sell-out crowd tossed more than 102,000 toys. Is that true?
MACFARLANE: Yes, but it does go to charity, which makes it all a bit better. The Bears have been collecting more than half a million stuffed animals over the past 23 years and they went on to win the game 5-1.
FOSTER: What a lovely idea.
Finally, why walk when you can wakeboard?
MACFARLANE: Conditions were certainly right for it after the weekend of rains and flooding in Leicestershire. I knew this was going to be an England story, where this video was taken as well as other parts of the U.K.
That's you, Max, on a weekend down at your retreat, isn't it?
FOSTER: I wouldn't be able to stand up that long. My question is why there's a drone. Anyway --
MACFARLANE: Or, indeed, a wakeboard. We'll leave that for you to mull over.
That's it for us here at CNN NEWSROOM. CNN "THIS MORNING" is up next.
FOSTER: Yes, indeed.
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