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CNN This Morning

Sources: Key Cabinet Picks Could Come At Any Moment; The Future Of President-Elect Trump's Criminal Case; Biden Races To Cement Legacy Before Trump's Inauguration; Democrats Begin Pointing Fingers After Election Loss; Iran Denies New Foiled Plot To Kill Trump, Suspect Charged; Sources: Key Cabinet Picks Could Come At Any Moment; Israeli Airstrikes Hit Southern Beirut Suburb Following Warning. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired November 09, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to CNN THIS MORNING. It is Saturday, November 9th. I'm Amara Walker.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: It's so good to have you along. I'm Victor Blackwell. Here's what we're working on for you this morning.

President-elect Donald Trump is building his cabinet and is preparing to head back to the White House with more names expected to drop at any time. Who's in? Who's under consideration for top posts? We have that coming up.

WALKER: President Biden is working to protect his legacy and legislative achievements as he prepares to hand over power. The steps that he is taking to keep Republicans from dismantling some of his key accomplishments.

BLACKWELL: New this morning, Iran is responding to the Justice Department's allegations that have plotted to kill President-elect Trump and the lead-up to the election. Their response, and what we know about those indicted in the case.

WALKER: Plus, monkeys, dozens of them on the run in South Carolina. What researchers are doing to round them up. And the warning for people near the areas where they have been spotted.

President-elect Donald Trump's transition team is working quickly to fill critical White House positions and sources tell CNN we could learn some of those names at any moment. Trump made history Thursday by announcing the country's first-ever female chief of staff, Susie Wiles. As for his other cabinet positions, many in the GOP sphere are filtering in and out of Mar-a-Lago this weekend, jockeying for a spot on the team.

BLACKWELL: A source tell CNN that North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum is under consideration for role as Energy Czar. Representative Elise Stefanik could become the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Sources also say former Trade Advisor to the Trump White House, Peter Navarro, is trying to get a job too.

CNN's Arit John is here to walk us through what we could see really at any time starting now. Actually, they could drop a tweet or a Truth post. How many positions do they need to fill?

ARIT JOHN, CNN REPORTER: So, this is going to be a massive undertaking. The Trump Transition Team needs to fill 4,000 political appointee roles, including 1,200 that will need Senate confirmation. And that's why the results of this year's Senate elections are so important. Republicans were able to flip control of the Senate. They flipped at least three, possibly four seats, which will give them roughly 53 Republican votes.

And that means that as they're considering these confirmations, they won't need -- Trump won't need to rely as much on the vote of moderate Republicans like Senators Susan Collins of Maine or Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. He'll have a broader base to sort of get these appointees through.

WALKER: And you know -- as we know, Trump has highly praised Elon Musk. They've obviously grown closer over his campaign. He's been seen in and out of Mar-a-Lago this week. We've also, you know, heard how Trump promised to let RFK Jr. go wild on health. What potential roles might they serve in the Trump administration?

JOHN: We've been hearing conflicting things on this. In the final weeks of the campaign, we heard Trump say that, you know, Elon Musk would be the "secretary of cost-cutting," and that he would lead sort of a commission on government -- on sort of trimming down the government, which obviously poses some conflict-of-interest questions because he, between X, SpaceX, and Tesla, he's proposing that he would be regulating the same agencies that are regulating his companies.

And then with RFK Jr., yes, that he said, go wild on health, that he would have a role in women's health care. But we've also heard Trump transition officials saying that, you know, they're going to be helpers. They're going to have influence, but definitely not cabinet positions and possibly not even actual, like, government political jobs. But more just sort of having influence.

Maybe RFK Jr. would get data on vaccines, so sort of spread his concern about the safety of vaccines, but it's not clear that they would have real roles.

WALKER: Arit John, thank you for your reporting.

Donald Trump will be the first president to take office while several criminal cases against him are pending.

[07:05:03]

BLACKWELL: Trump's assent to the presidency while facing dozens of criminal charges has left the country in really uncharted territory. CNN's Katelyn Polantz has more on the future of Trump's criminal cases. KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Victor and Amara, this is the beginning of the end of the case against Donald Trump related to the 2020 election in federal court in Washington. The special counsel, Jack Smith, went to court at noon on Friday to say, we need to cancel everything that is on the schedule now, we need to figure out what we are going to do in this " unprecedented circumstance of Donald Trump coming in as the president-elect and serving as the president in the next four years for that term.

So, what happened in this case, it had been headed toward trial. There had been much debate about whether Donald Trump would be able to be tried for actions he took after the 2020 vote, where he allegedly tried to obstruct Congress by using private lawyers, others to spread the lie of election fraud. That case is now paused. There's no work to be done on it. It is not moving forward toward trial.

The judge did agree very soon after the special counsel made this ask. And we're going to be getting an update from the Justice Department at the beginning of December. So, about a month and a half before Trump's inauguration at the end of January as president again, where the Justice Department will be updating the court about what they want to do.

They say they need to have deliberations. We know that they have a policy on the books already not to prosecute a sitting president for any criminal charges because he has to be serving in the presidency at that time. There's other questions about what to do while Trump is president-elect formally. And we will be waiting to see exactly what happens with this case in its wind down.

Victor and Amara?

BLACKWELL: Thank you, Katelyn.

In the final months of president-elect Donald Trump's campaign, he repeatedly promised to fight the enemy from within. You remember that? He suggested he was open to using active-duty military forces to do it.

WALKER: Well, now Pentagon officials are holding informal discussions about how the Department of Defense would respond if Trump issues any controversial or illegal orders. CNN's Oren Liebermann has more. Oren?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Victor and Amara, Pentagon officials are beginning to have informal discussions on how to respond and how DOD would respond if President Donald Trump tried to use the active-duty military domestically and what would happen if he tried to reinstitute an executive order called Schedule F that would allow him to more easily fire apolitical civilian employees across not only the federal government but also specifically the Pentagon and the Department of Defense.

In terms of the question of how to handle the attempted deployment of active-duty military troops domestically or the issuing of an unlawful order, Defense officials we have spoken with say that largely relies on the chain of command. And that chain of command specifically following lawful orders and abiding by the laws that determine how they can be deployed. But it is a question of whether they would choose to resign or refuse to obey that order and how that would happen.

Crucially again, it relies specifically on the chain of command following the law, knowing the law, and handling it properly. But the Insurrection Act, which Trump threatened to invoke during his first term as president, still gives the president a large amount of leeway into how and why he would try to deploy the active-duty military domestically.

It has happened in the past, but it was used for enforcing desegregation or for the handling of, for example, the Rodney King riots. Trump has threatened to use those active-duty troops in his first term to handle large-scale protests. Again, recently he has threatened to use troops to carry out mass deportations. Should he choose to do that and use active-duty military troops in a domestic law enforcement capacity, that in and of itself would be quite unprecedented for that use. So that's something the Pentagon is beginning to game out essentially to look at the possibilities.

There is also the possibility that he reinstitutes Schedule F, and that would reclassify a number of apolitical civilian employees in a way that would make them more easily fireable. Crucially that could also disrupt the day-to-day operations of the building.

The Pentagon is of course a very large organization that relies on that apolitical civilian population and the number of employees simply to function on a day-to-day basis. So, the Pentagon having those conversations about the questions and crucially the concerns.

Victor and Amara?

WALKER: All right, Oren Liebermann, thank you.

Now to the latest on the balance of power in the Senate. CNN projects Nevada Democrat Jacky Rosen will win reelection and retain her seat, her Senate seat, holding off Republicans from adding to their incoming 52 seat majority. With Donald Trump projected to win Nevada, Rosen is now one of several Democrats who were able to win Senate seats this year while the president-elect was carrying their states.

Well after years of calling Donald Trump a threat to democracy, President Biden is now preparing to turn over the White House to him.

[07:10:30]

BLACKWELL: The President tried to comfort Americans who fear the prospects of another Trump term in office after the election all while his own legacy is in question. CNN Senior White House Producer Betsy Klein is live in Rehoboth Beach. Betsy, talk to us about this meeting that the President offered the President-Elect.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Well, Victor we do expect President Biden to host former president and now President- Elect Donald Trump at the White House in the coming days. Now, notably that is a meeting that Trump refused Biden back in 2020 as he was contesting the election results. But let's just remember, for the last few weeks, we have been talking about how Biden's aides and advisors believe that the president's legacy was so intrinsically tied to a success for Harris in this election. And with Harris' loss now, the clock is taking to really bolster and shore up protections for some of Biden's key accomplishments.

Now, you can't unbuild a bridge, but there is really very little that cannot be reversed from a policy perspective. And we also have that added dynamic of Democratic -- or excuse me -- Republican control of both chambers of Congress expected. Victor and Amara?

WALKER: And can you talk a little bit about what's at stake here for Biden, especially when it comes to preserving his legacy versus having much of his accomplishments being undone?

KLEIN: Yes, just to take through a couple of these few key areas. Number one, legislative accomplishments. I'm talking about the Infrastructure Bill, the Chips Bill, and of course, that health care, climate and tax package known as the Inflation Reduction Act. A vast majority of the funding for those bills has already been spent or allocated, but there is significant amount of money that will not be unlocked until the next fiscal year and beyond. So, Democrats are hopeful that Republicans will not try to claw that back because some of those programs are popular, but of course, they can hold those things up.

Shifting to Ukraine, of course, the U.S. has provided tens of billions of dollars for the war-torn country, and there is a race right now to get as much funding and weaponry into Kyiv as possible before January 20th as the future of support for Ukraine is uncertain in a Trump term. Now, there is also an effort to shift some of that aid away and to alliances like the G7 and NATO.

On the topic of environmental and climate regulations, the White House has taken steps to make those rules more legally durable. Of course, they can be rolled back in a Trump term, but there will be a lengthy rulemaking process to really slow that down. And of course, judicial nominations, the president submitting an extra batch just last night as he is really working to shore up his legacy there while Democrats still have control of the Senate, Victor and Amara.

BLACKWELL: Betsy Klein for us in Rehoboth Beach. Thanks so much.

Democrats, they are passing around the blame after the defeat by President-Elect winning over Vice President Harris. Why former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says President Biden is the one who should take some responsibility for the loss. That's a hit.

WALKER: Plus, major new developments in what federal investigators say was Iran's thwarted plot to kill President-Elect Trump before the election. The two arrests in the case and where the search for the third suspect stands.

BLACKWELL: Plus, monkeys on the run. For some reason, this is feel -- this story feels like it should be an 80s, like rock song or something.

WALKER: It's the way you say it.

BLACKWELL: Dozens -- monkeys on the run. Dozens of monkeys that have escaped their research lab in South Carolina are spotted just hanging out in trees. Why officials are confident they'll be captured soon.

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[07:15:00]

BLACKWELL: President-elect Donald Trump's landslide reelection win left a lot of Democrats wondering what went wrong. And a lot of the blaming has already begun inside the party and President Biden is getting some of the blame, including from one of the most influential Democrats in the country. Here's what former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the New York Times.

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REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race. The anticipation was that if the President were to step aside, that there would be an open primary. And as I say, Kamala may have -- I think she would have done well in that and been stronger going forward, but we don't know that. That didn't happen. We live with what happened.

And because the President endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Joining us now, Axios Senior Contributor Margaret Talev. Good morning to you. And before we get into conversation, just for context here, Margaret, I want to play what Speaker Pelosi said on the day that President Biden announced he was running again. This is April of 2023.

[07:20:05]

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PELOSI: That was very excited about the president announcing. In terms of the Democrats, I know a little bit about that because I go to their meetings all over, and yes, they'd rather be younger, but they're all for him. Then people are going to say, we're going to -- everybody's going to be on board. I mean, there's little, should we say, side bar stuff, but by and large, this is -- people understand. It's -- there's so much at stake in this election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Now, Margaret, we watched Speaker Pelosi in the weeks after the June CNN debate. If she wants the President out of the race, she knows what to do. Why is this the narrative from her now? Is it clear? MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, AXIOS: Well, Victor, I think what's happening now is the entirely inevitable kind of finger pointing and kind of shaping of the way history will see this from everyone. We're going to -- we're seeing it from former Speaker Pelosi. We'll see it either officially or from behind the scenes from President Biden, from Vice President Harris, from the Obama camp, from literally everybody.

But I think of those two video clips, which one seems more true to you about the way Nancy Pelosi actually felt? And so, I think we're going to see a lot of this sort of analysis of, should he have gotten out sooner and should there have been an open primary? And a lot of these questions we're playing out behind the scenes before his eventual decision not to seek reelection. But I think politically speaking, it doesn't really matter that much now.

I mean, Donald Trump has been reelected, he's President-Elect Trump now. And the task for the Democrats is really not going to be decided, I think, long term in the future by President Biden or by former Speaker Pelosi or by most of the Democratic politicians who are in the -- in the late years of their career. They're going to be decided by the next generation of Democratic leaders.

And the big question is, who is at the top of the pyramid of the next generation of Democratic leaders? Where does the generation start? Is it very young boomer? Is it someone in Gen X? Are we just skipping right over and going straight to the millennials? And who is that figure? And I think that is the conversation that hasn't fully started to take place yet, and that we don't know the answer to.

BLACKWELL: And what needs to change? Because if we sit Pelosi's assessment that it was the calendar, we sit that aside, we've heard that, there are some who say it's the messaging and the way in which they approached policies. There are some like Bernie Sanders and others who say it's the policy itself that needs to change.

So, in that contrast, for those who think it's one of those, is there a leading narrative? Is there a majority that says -- I mean, are we going to see a 2012 autopsy report of the party?

TALEV: There's definitely going to be the autopsy report for sure. But I think in my reporting and my conversations over the last few days, and it's only been a few days, the one critique that I do hear consistently from Democrats across the partisan spectrum is that the way Democrats talk about the economy and define the economy and talk to people who are middle class and working class and talk to rural voters that there is a feeling that there -- there seems to be a generalized feeling that there is a communications problem or an opportunity to not just to talk differently, but to listen differently.

Having said all that, there was like nine percent inflation. I mean, the post-COVID inflation, which happened globally and wiped out or seriously checked incumbents around the world in Western-style democracies, is much bigger than what happened in the United States. And even if vice president message -- Vice President Harris had messaged more skillfully, etcetera, etcetera, it's still not clear that she would have been able to overcome those headwinds, even if President Biden had chosen to get out of the race earlier.

Like, we can't know any of those things. But what I hear Democrats saying, whether they're extremely progressive or more centrist, is that there is -- there's some work to do in the Democratic Party in listening to and talking to Americans for whom the checkout prices are more important than the S&P 500.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about the incoming second Trump administration now. We're still waiting to get potentially nominees for cabinet positions, but the picture is clear about, you know, maybe the people the president will be calling late at night from the East Wing. We've got now potential energy czar in Doug Burgum and maybe a health czar in RFK Jr., or an efficiency czar in Elon Musk.

I mean, what are the American people to make of this infrastructure is being built as we wait for the people that I don't know how much say they'll actually have if the call goes to RFK Jr. first before it goes to the Secretary of HHS.

[07:25:30]

TALEV: Right. Well, I think when you're trying to assess what an incoming administration will do, you can look at what the candidates done in the past and then what the candidates said that they're going to do. And in this case, we have four years of a Trump administration. That gives us clues about who he's going to bring in. Some of those people will be the same people that you already know.

It'll be Stephen Miller, you know, maybe Kash Patel, like some of these figures who already have well-known policy views and track records, and you can see what they did in the four years that he was in office. And then there are other folks. Axios reporting on Elon Musk's being attached to a call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. We know that Susie Wiles, who was running now President-Elect Trump's campaign, will be the first female chief of staff.

These give us real clues as to the voices in his ear. And I think with any president, but with Trump, it's elevated because he's shown sort of less concern for the norms. Your guess, it's entirely possible that whether or not these are Senate-confirmed officials or just on his speed dial, that Elon Musk is going to have access to sensitive information and be a key to making decisions that impact both ends of the world.

BLACKWELL: And already on these important calls. Margaret Talev, thanks so much.

WALKER: We are getting new insight into an alleged Iranian plot to kill President-Elect Trump before the election. The arrests and how authorities broke the case, that's straight ahead.

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[07:31:23] WALKER: All right. To some of the top stories we are following this morning, Pakistani officials are investigating a suicide bombing that left at least 25 people dead and more than 50 injured.

The attack happened earlier this morning at a train station in the southwestern part of the region. Passengers, railway employees, and security personnel are among the dead. A separatist militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Six days after a volcano erupted in Indonesia, killing at least 10 people, the volcano remains active this morning. Authorities have expanded the danger zone, forcing people to evacuate.

Rescue crews continue to search devastated areas to ensure all residents have evacuated. The series of eruptions throughout the week have already affected more than 10,000 people. Authorities warn people who fled the area not to return to home at this time.

43 monkeys that escaped a research facility in South Carolina earlier this week are still on the loose. Yemasee police report sightings of the primates around the facilities, socializing with one another. Workers are trying their best to lure them back with food, and authorities are confident that they will be catching up with the monkeys soon.

In the meantime, residents are urged to keep their doors and windows shut to avoid any surprise visitors. Victor?

BLACKWELL: New this morning, Iran is strongly denying allegations that is behind a failed assassination plot against President-elect Donald Trump.

The Justice Department says Iran hired Afghan national, 51-year-old, Farhad Shakeri to spy on and propose a plan to kill Trump. Shakeri was charged in the case, but has not been arrested.

Now, the DOJ says Shakeri worked with two American citizens to conduct surveillance on people Iranian officials wanted to assassinate. The two U.S. citizens were also charged and appeared in court on Thursday.

CNN's senior justice correspondent, Evan Perez, has more on that foiled plot. Evan.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Victor, Amara, the Justice Department says that the latest Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump was part of a broader effort to carry out attacks on a prominent critic of the Iranian regime, as well again -- as against U.S. and Israeli citizens.

U.S., prosecutors unsealed in federal court in Manhattan, complained against an alleged IRGC operative living in Tehran and two U.S. citizens who he allegedly recruited in at least one of these assassination plots. The two Americans are in custody and have been ordered held pending trial.

Now, according to Court documents, Iranian government officials tasked Farhad Shakeri, 51 years old, to focus on -- in recent weeks, to focus on surveilling and ultimately assassinating Donald Trump.

He couldn't come up with a plot in a short time frame before the election, and the Iranians believed that Trump would lose and that they could target him later.

Now, Shakeri is still at-large in Iran, the Justice Department says.

Now, also on the target list of the Iranians, journalists and activist, Masih Alinejad, a prominent critic of the Iranian regime, who the FBI says that the Iranians have tried to kill several other times.

Prosecutors say Shakeri told the FBI in voluntary interviews about the task that he was given by the IRGC. Now, this includes plans for a mass shooting, targeting Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka.

And he also told the FBI that he was tasked with surveilling and assassinating two Jewish businesspeople living in New York City.

Now, the U.S. government has repeatedly raised concerns that Iran is trying to retaliate for a 2020 U.S. drone strike that killed IRGC general, Qasem Soleimani.

[07:35:02]

They have plotted to kill Trump who ordered the strike, as well as a number of prominent Trump administration officials. And more recently, this summer, a Pakistani national was arrested and charged with seeking to hire assassins to target Trump, as well as other U.S. political figures, including some in the Biden administration. Victor, Amara?

BLACKWELL: All right. Evan, thank you so much.

President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet is coming together. We haven't heard a lot of names, though.

And as key positions are announced, the transition of power from one administration to the next is starting to get underway. What's happening behind the scenes? That's coming up.

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[07:40:19]

WALKER: It is a busy weekend for President-elect Donald Trump. Trump and his team are looking to fill the key positions in his Cabinet, and we could get an announcement on those appointments at really any time.

Trump has already named his campaign manager Susan Wiles, as his incoming White House Chief of Staff, making her the first woman to ever hold the title.

Joining me now is Heath Brown, author of "Roadblocked: Joe Biden's Rocky Transition to the Presidency". Heath, it's good to see you this morning. As you know very well, because you wrote the book on it. Four years ago, there was a pandemic and insurrection as Trump handed over power to Biden. And the outgoing administration refused to concede the race.

Do you expect this time around, a smoother or smooth transition for the incoming Trump administration, given that, as it stands right now, it's a very different landscape?

HEATH BROWN, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC POLICY, JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE: I do.

I think, President Biden understands the stakes here. He is been through transitions before, both leaving office and also coming into office. He also went through the 2020 transition.

I think he understands how important it is for this to be cooperative, seamless, and a peaceful transfer of power. So, I'm very confident that that's going to happen.

WALKER: But as you wrote, the 2020 transition wasn't as cooperative, right? What were some of the disturbing things that happened in that handoff from Trump to Biden four years ago, and what are some lessons to learn from it?

BROWN: Sure. Yes, there were two, really. One was that the start of the transition was delayed by about three weeks because the ascertainment of the election hadn't happened.

Congress changed that law, and so, the ascertainment process now happens almost immediately. That's what happened this year. But something happened after ascertainment, which was across federal agencies, the process of cooperation, teamwork and sharing of information wasn't as universal and open as it had been in the past.

There were some agencies where that was the norm and information was shared in a quite open and regular way. In other agencies, not nearly enough information was shared. That was a part of the obstruction that happened in 2020.

People that I talked to involved in the Biden-Harris transition said that, that prevented them from being ready for day one in the way they should have been. They felt that, that was risky, and unnecessary, and that they could have been better prepared.

My suspicion is that's not going to happen in 2024 as it did four years ago.

WALKER: Right. I think that's most people's suspicion as well.

You say, Heath, during this transition, a lot of Americans, they are going to be watching to see if it is a free, a fair, open, and free of conflicts of interest. But as you know, the president-elect has business ties to foreign governments.

He is probably one of the most conflicted presidents in U.S. history. The anticipation is also that Elon Musk will get a role in the administration, while his company, SpaceX is a major U.S. government contractor.

So, when you say voters are going to be watching that, you know, this is a transition that's free of conflicts of interest. I mean, do you think voters really care, especially when they knew all this when they voted for Trump?

BROWN: I think voters care deeply. And it's one of the reasons why, during the campaign, we knew -- American people knew who was supporting financially the Trump campaign. That was open and known.

During the transition period, it becomes much less transparent. It's one of the reasons why Congress has passed a law which establishes a set of rules about how the transition period works.

Two of the most important of those rules are a set of agreements that the incoming transition team will cap donations at $5,000, and then will make public the names of everyone who has -- will donate to the transition team.

That's why we know exactly who supported the incoming transition team in 2016, and we also know in 2020. It's not clear today that we're going to know the same thing about this transition team.

The failure to sign memorandum of understanding with the General Services Administration is preventing the kind of openness and transparency. I think most voters and most Americans really want out of the incoming administration.

WALKER: Yes, it looks like Trump has missed at least a couple of deadlines in signing these memorandums. Heath Brown, we'll leave it there. Thanks for the conversation.

BLACKWELL: More than a dozen Israeli strikes, rock Beirut overnight.

[07:45:02]

We are live with what we know right now. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Lebanese officials say Israel carried out a series of strikes overnight in the suburbs of Beirut.

Now, it's unclear at this point, whether there were casualties in the crowded residential neighborhoods, but explosions and smoke were spotted across the area that is the seat of power to Hezbollah.

WALKER: CNN's Nada Bashir Joining us now, not of the strikes came just an hour after the IDF told people to evacuate. What more do we know?

NADA BASHIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL REPORTER: That's right. Amara and Victor, it's unclear how many of the civilians living in these suburbs were given the notification to evacuate in time.

[07:50:06]

Again, we have seen the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, targeted in airstrikes. At least 13 airstrikes taking place overnight, targeting the districts of Haret Hreik and Burj al- Barajneht.

These are areas that are regarded to be Hezbollah strongholds. But as you mentioned, these are densely populated residential areas as well, and Lebanon is already grappling with a significant mass displacement crisis, as a result of these ongoing Israeli airstrikes.

And in fact, the entire country facing a mass displacement crisis as a result of the ground incursion that we have seen in the south as well. So, troubling and concerning development there.

As you mentioned, the Israeli military did issue a warning. We have seen evacuation orders issued in the past. But in many cases, some civilians are not getting these evacuation orders. They are relying on word of mouth.

And what we've seen in the past in these airstrikes is that oftentimes it is civilian infrastructure and residential areas, which are coming under attack, despite the Israeli military saying they are targeting Hezbollah infrastructure.

Of course, we have seen schools and hospitals also feeling the impact of these strikes. So, a troubling development as this continues in Lebanon.

BLACKWELL: And Nada, the reports of Hamas leaders being expelled from Qatar. Take us through what's being said, what it might mean, what we know about it.

BASHIR: Well, that's right. We are hearing from sources and officials that the Qatari officials have responded to a U.S. call for Hamas officials to be expelled from the country.

Now, it's understood, according to sources, that U.S. officials had previously pressed Qatari officials to use this as leverage in the stalling negotiations, but in response to the fact that negotiations haven't moved forward and the killing of Israeli hostages held captive in Gaza, they have now called on Qatar to expel Hamas officials.

They say that Hamas -- that Qatar has agreed to do this and had agreed to last week. However, we have had new comments from a senior Hamas official who has described these reports at this stage as, "baseless".

BLACKWELL: All right. Nada Bashir, thank you.

WALKER: All right. Coming up, the Cleveland Cavaliers, looking for a perfect 10 and 0 start. But could they keep it going against Steph Curry and The Warriors?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:56:43] BLACKWELL: Cleveland Cavaliers won again on Friday. They are off to the best start in the team's history.

WALKER: Andy Scholes is here. So, a lot of people didn't expect the Cavs to be this dominant this season.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: No, no. Not this good, you know.

WALKER: Yes.

SCHOLES: Because, you know, they were -- they were a pretty good team last year, but they changed their coach in the off season, bringing in Kenny Atkinson. I mean, he is just turned them into an offensive Juggernaut.

The Cavs, hosted Steph Curry in the 7-1 Warriors last night, and they just pounced on them from the get go. They started the game on a 20 to 2 run. Cleveland was up by 17 after the first, up 41 at halftime.

The Cavs, they are now the first team in NBA history to start 10-0, scoring at least 110 points in every single one of those games. They just wall up the Warriors. 136 to 117 to remain NBA's only undefeated team.

Kevin Durant, the Suns, they only have one loss this season, and it remained that way last night in Dallas, tied at 113 in the closing seconds. The Suns, they miss here, but Jusuf Nurkic is going to end up getting the rebound, and he gets fouled with less than a second left on the clock. He hits one free throw to give him the lead.

Then, Luka Doncic, he throws up a prayer at the buzzer, but it was not answered. Suns win, 114-113, it was their seventh win in a row.

LeBron, meanwhile, recording the 114th triple double of his career last night against the Sixers. The 39-year-old, 21 points, 13 assists, and 12 rebounds in the 116-106 win.

Bronny James, he played one minute in this one, and he is now heading to play for the Lakers G League team, the South Bay Lakers who start play today.

A rough times continuing Philly though. There, without Joel Embiid, who suspended and Tyrese Maxey, who is now injured, they are one in seven on the season.

All right. Some college hoops, huge matchup. Top rank Kansas and ninth-rank, UNC met for just the 13th-time in history. Last night, Jayhawks jumped out to a 20-point first half lead.

But the Tar Heels, they came all the way back, actually led by three with under four to go in this one. But then, Kansas' big man, Hunter Dickinson, comes through with the big-time bucket here. Put the Jayhawks back up to with a little over a minute left.

North Carolina now down three in the final seconds, going for the tie here. Their shot, though, no good. Kansas survives winning 92 to 89. Given Bill Self his 590th win, tied for the most in program history.

And finally, 11th-ranked Auburn, well, they jumped in a plane last night to head to their big game against fourth ranked Houston today. But get this. According to multiple reports, the plane had to turn around and go back because the players were fighting each other. What?

Per ESPN, the apparent scuffle was over before it became a serious situation, but the flight personnel still decided to divert the plane back to Auburn. They then did take a replacement flight late Friday. But Amara, I'm not sure I've ever heard of a plane having to go back around because the players were fighting each other.

WALKER: Wow.

SCHOLES: Turn it into a whole travel nightmare. They are now in Houston. We'll see how they play against the Cougars today.

WALKER: I wonder what that was all about.

BLACKWELL: They pull the dad move. Don't make me turn this thing around.

(CROSSTALK)

SCHOLES: And I'm sure the coach was not happy.

BLACKWELL: Don't make me turn this thing around.

SCHOLES: Yes. Turn this thing around.

BLACKWELL: I will turn this thing around.

WALKER: Thank you so much, Andy Scholes.

SCHOLES: All right.

WALKER: All right. "FIRST OF ALL WITH VICTOR BLACKWELL" is up next. Victor, what do you have?

BLACKWELL: All right. Listen, get somebody else to do it. That's what we're hearing from a lot of black women since the election. Right on social media. They are frustrated.

[08:00:01]

We are going to have a conversation about why and what comes next.

And there also may be no surprise that the president says that his promise of mass deportations in the campaign is his number one presidential priority.