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Mangione Facing Federal Charges In CEO Murder Case; Sen. Mike Lee: Musk Or Ramaswamy Should Be Next House Speaker; Trump Cheers Disqualification of "Corrupt" Fani Willis. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired December 20, 2024 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:30:25]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, it is 5:29, just ticking onto -- there it is, 5:30 here on the East Coast. A live look at Dallas, Texas where it's 4:30 Central time. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
The alleged CEO killer Luigi Mangione waking up this morning in the same federal prison where Sean "Diddy" Combs is being held. He was flown from Pennsylvania to New York on Thursday to make his first appearance in a Manhattan court. Authorities turning the perp walk into a spectacle on the -- on the Wall Street helipad with Mangione surrounded by NYPD officers and FBI personnel.
A new federal criminal complaint charging him with murder punishable by the death penalty. That complaint providing new details about a notebook belonging to the suspect with handwritten pages expressing hostility toward the health insurance industry and wealthy executives.
Earlier in the week a Manhattan grand jury indictment charged Mangione with murder as an act of terrorism. His attorney keeping her defense strategy under wraps for now.
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KAREN FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO, ATTORNEY FOR LUIGI MANGIONE: We're going to respectfully decline to make any comment at this time, but Mr. Mangione appreciates everyone's support. Thank you so much.
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HUNT: All right, we are going to bring in our Joey Jackson in just a couple of moments to talk more about that. Just remarkable images coming out of New York yesterday.
But we're going to turn right now to this story. Elon Musk's role in tanking the original bipartisan deal to keep the federal government operating has some asking who is really in charge. Democrats seizing the opportunity to troll Trump, calling the billionaire CEO the real leader.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. GERRY CONNOLLY (D-VA): We're not the ones that blew up the deal; he was -- Elon Musk -- president Musk. I'm sorry, not president Musk -- that's President Trump, isn't it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's president and Trump is now vice president. I think that's clear.
REP. ROSA DELAURO (D-CT): They got scared because president Musk told them -- president Musk said don't do it. Don't do it. Shut the government down.
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HUNT: And what are Republicans doing? Some are floating a new idea, making Musk Speaker of the House.
Senator Rand Paul posted his on X. "The Speaker of the House need not be a member of Congress. Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk."
Mychael Schnell, congressional reporter for The Hill joins us now. Mychael, good morning.
MYCHAEL SCHNELL, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, THE HILL: Hey, good morning.
HUNT: You have been up there covering the chaos --
SCHNELL: Yes.
HUNT: -- and I'd honestly just like to know the bottom line of your reporting right now. Elon Musk does seem to have blown this up --
SCHNELL: Um-hum.
HUNT: -- with, of course, Trump coming in at the end of the day earlier this week. What now?
SCHNELL: That is the very question that we're asking lawmakers and that lawmakers are asking their leadership. At this juncture there really is no clear path forward.
Yesterday House Republicans -- a group of House Republicans and Democrats torpedoed Speaker Johnson's plan B, which was endorsed by Trump. It was seen as the next effort to try to avert this shutdown. But that was not palatable for Democrats and for a handful of Republicans.
So now Speaker Johnson is back at the drawing board and there really is no cohesive idea of what comes next. I've heard from a number of -- asked -- spoken to a number of House Republicans. Some think maybe a clean C.R. is coming. Some think maybe the Senate will move on something to try to jam the House. But at this moment there is no clear path forward and, of course, the shutdown deadline is now less than 24 hours away.
HUNT: And, of course, this all raises incredible questions about the House Speaker Mike Johnson's future.
SCHNELL: Yes.
HUNT: Let's watch Sen. Lee who was on Fox yesterday floating -- he's again talking about Musk, but it really underscores the issue Johnson's facing -- watch.
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SEN. MIKE LEE (R-UT): I don't think the speaker is going to remain in power. That's my prediction. I'm not in the House. If I'm correct in that --
JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST, "JESSE WATTERS PRIMETIME": Yeah.
LEE: -- and I think I am, we need bold, new leadership -- outside leadership. And I think it needs to be a DOGE leader. It needs to be either Vivek Ramaswamy or it needs to be Elon Musk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: He's saying it needs to be Vivek Ramaswamy, or it needs to be Elon Musk.
SCHNELL: OK. So whenever we have conversations about the speakership -- this happened when Kevin McCarthy was trying to get the speakership. It happened after he lost it, and Republicans are trying to figure out who was next.
[05:35:00]
Technically the Speaker of the House does not have to be a member of Congress. Realistically the Speaker of the House is not going to be somebody that is not currently serving in Congress.
HUNT: Yes.
SCHNELL: But the fact that Mike Lee and, for example, Marjorie Taylor Greene also, are floating other people for speaker, including Elon Musk, is a reflection of their discontent with Speaker Johnson.
And that's the significant part here because Republicans -- the House, rather, is going to gather in the chamber on January 3 to select the next Speaker of the House. And while Mike Johnson was unanimously nominated by his conference last month for the gavel that -- his grip on that looks extremely tenuous right now.
There's at least one Republican, Tom Massie, who is already saying he will not support Johnson on January 3. I've spoken to a number of others who say they are uncertain, and they are very upset with House Speaker Johnson's currently handling this spending deal.
Talking about Marjorie Taylor Greene for a second, she was somebody who led the motion to vacate against Johnson earlier this year then ultimately said she would support him. The fact that she is now floating somebody else shows how deep this discontent is with the Republican Conference. And it is a worrying sign for Mike Johnson as he heads into this speaker vote next week -- next month.
I will note the whole conversation in the leadup to this spending fight was Republicans were saying we are watching so closely to see how Mike Johnson handles this. This will determine if we can support him in January. Right now it's not going well for him.
HUNT: Right. Well, and Punchbowl is reporting this morning that during a meeting with key lawmakers in his office Thursday, Johnson said, "If anyone else can get to 218, God bless them" -- according to three lawmakers present. Again, this is Punchbowl News.
SCHNELL: That's House Republican politics these days.
HUNT: Yeah. And it's worth noting that when the speaker vote takes place on January 3 when he needs 218 --
SCHNELL: That's right.
HUNT: -- right, the majority is likely to be just 219 --
SCHNELL: That's right.
HUNT: -- which means he can only lose one.
SCHNELL: As razor thin as things can get.
HUNT: All right, Mychael Schnell. Thanks very much.
SCHNELL: Thanks, Kasie.
HUNT: Appreciate it.
All right. Ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, D.A. Fani Willis disqualified. Now Trump says it's time to put this case to rest. What it's going to take to keep it moving forward.
Plus, the L.A. Chargers bolstering their playoff hopes with a big win over the Broncos. We'll have CNN sports coming up soon.
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[05:41:40]
HUNT: Back now to that stunning scene in New York. The NYPD and the FBI taking suspected CEO killer Luigi Mangione on an extended perp walk after his extradition Thursday. It comes as he faces a slew of new federal charges. If found guilty he could face the death penalty.
CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson is here with more. Joey, good morning.
Can you explain to us how it works here? And did it surprise you that he was federally charged on top of the state charges?
JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, FORMER PROSECUTOR (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah, Kasie. Good morning to you. The answer to that question is no. So the state certainly has a role, as we know, in prosecuting street-level offenses and they do it pretty effectively. However, the federal government also -- as we look at him there with law enforcement officials and the mayor, by the way -- has a significant role as well as it relates to federal crimes.
And so the federal government took it upon themselves to engage in a prosecution here charging with four separate things -- two relating to stalking by way of interstate commerce, right? Whenever you travel through state lines to do something it elevates -- it's a federal offense. One, relating to murder by firearm because he used a firearm and crossed state lines to do so from Georgia to New York. And the other relating to the possession of the weapon itself.
And so as we say yesterday with respect to the workings of it, they brought him right after his appearance in Pennsylvania to the courthouse in New York, having flown him to Long Island and then, of course, helicoptered him to New York to face the federal charges and go before the judge. And now he'll be federally prosecuted in addition to the state charges as well, Kasie.
HUNT: So Joey, can you talk a little bit about what this looked like with all of those officers, and you noted the mayor? Like, is this normal? Why did they do it like this?
JACKSON: Yeah, so this is far from normal though nothing about this case is really normal, including people on the internet calling someone saint Luigi and making trinkets and shirts with angels on them. Speaking about issues of wow, you know, what he did is a great thing. He's a hero.
So that's not -- that's really not normal in and of itself but I think it's really struck a raw chord as it relates to what people are thinking about corporate America or the health care industry in particular, and this vast public interest.
And so as a result of that they -- that is, law enforcement -- undertook this -- undertook this unusual action to really just get him back here immediately via plane, via helicopter, with all these law enforcement officials -- the mayor, the police commissioner. Wow, it was quite a spectacle.
HUNT: It really was. And, of course, we saw some protesters there supporting him, including dressing as Luigi from Mario and Luigi the Nintendo games, and holding signs that say "Free Luigi." Really remarkable scenes yesterday.
Joey Jackson, always grateful to have you, sir. If I don't see you before the holidays, Merry Christmas and happy holidays.
JACKSON: Thank you so much, Kasie -- and you. Thank you.
HUNT: All right, let's turn now to this. Donald Trump's Georgia election interference case now in serious jeopardy.
[05:45:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Corrupt Fani Willis hired her lover Nathan Wade so they could fraudulently make money together. She paid her boyfriend -- a lawyer who had no experience as a lawyer and no experience doing what -- almost a million dollars. And then they decided to go on beautiful Norwegian cruise line trips all over the place.
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HUNT: That was last March. Today the president-elect is cheering the disqualification of prosecutor Fani Willis. A state court of appeals disqualified the Fulton County D.A. on Thursday finding a "significant appearance of impropriety" that could potentially taint the case in the public eye. The racketeering conspiracy case can still move forward with a new special prosecutor.
Willis' prosecution was upended earlier this year when her affair with her handpicked special prosecutor Nathan Wade became public. She immediately denied benefitting financially from bringing him onto the case.
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FANI WILLIS, FULTON COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: I don't need anything from a man. A man is not a plan. A man is a companion. And so there was tension always in our relationship, which is why I would give him his money back. I don't need anybody to foot my bills. The only man who has ever foot my bills completely is my daddy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Willis will fight to stay on the case. Her team asking the State Supreme Court to review the appeals court decision.
Trump insists the matter is now closed. He told Fox News Digital, "It should not be allowed to go any further. She has been disqualified and her boyfriend has been disqualified. And they stole funds and went on trips."
Joining us now from Atlanta, CNN legal analyst and former U.S. attorney Michael Moore. Michael, always wonderful to see you. Great to have you on the program.
So can you help us understand, I mean, who is right here? Is Trump correct that this case is all -- is all but dead?
MICHAEL MOORE, CNN LEGAL ANALYST, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY (via Webex by Cisco): Well, good morning. I'm glad to be with you.
He's partly right, and I've not said that very often. But in essence this case is so deep on life support that it will be hard to bring it back as it relates to Trump. Remember that the ruling only dealt with disqualification of the D.A.'s office. It did not dismiss the indictment. It did not do away totally with the case. So there's still a chance that a prosecutor, through the process set
up by the state, and a prosecutor attorney's counsel will make a selection, and they'll essentially see if there's any interest by a D.A. somewhere in the state to take this case forward. I think that's going to be a longshot.
I mean, that's -- who would want that job, right? I mean, that would be like saying I -- you know, I've had this beautiful horse. I've now taken him out to pasture. Why don't you just go clean up the barn? And that's sort of what the prosecutor would be left with is just cleaning up the mess after the fact.
And so while the case is not technically dead, I think the reality is that Trump is partly right, and that is that the court has made a pretty strong statement that, in fact, there was so much of an appearance of impropriety that there was no public confidence and the D.A.'s office should be disqualified. And, of course, she was the one driving the case forward.
HUNT: Yeah. Can you help us understand a little bit about why this happened now? This has obviously been going on --
MOORE: Yeah.
HUNT: This case has been going on for years, and what it was about this particular court. If there are any politics involved at all. You know, I think --
MOORE: Yeah.
HUNT: -- that there may be viewers out there who found it surprising that this is where we landed here after --
MOORE: Um-hum.
HUNT: -- all of this time.
MOORE: Well, the case got a late start. I mean, I think the D.A. took so long to investigate the case. You may remember we had a special purpose grand jury. There was years of an investigation that -- from the initial phone call that is sort of the crux of the matter with the Secretary of State that Trump had or asking him to find those 11,000 votes.
So some years later then the case is brought. It goes through the criminal process. There's motions and appeals, and all this stuff going on. There's people challenging whether or not they should be brought into state court or federal court. So the case took a slow roll to get to this point.
Well, there was a hearing obviously in this trial and the judge said look, I don't think the D.A. has to be removed but I think Mr. Wade needs to step out. That way it will look a little better. And the court of appeals -- the Trump team appealed that.
And then the court of appeals said look, you can't sort of halfway fix this problem. You can't put the genie back in the bottle just by getting rid of one of the genies. You've got to -- you've got a situation where the whole case is being viewed through the lens of this perceived and at least a possible conflict of interest, and we just think that it's too big of a mess to move forward.
One thing most judges will agree on is that there should be public confidence in the judicial system and in the outcomes of cases. And so this appeals court said look, we're going to pause this thing.
They set the case for oral argument, actually, and then -- that was set right after the election. Then they removed the case from the oral argument calendar. That is, the court of appeals took the case off the calendar. My guess is at that point the three judges that had been selected to be on the panel to make the decision had already sort of reached a majority consensus, and we see that in the order.
[05:50:00]
We've got good judges here in the state. I will tell you that most of them -- the vast majority of the appeals court judges are Republican appointees. That means they were appointed by our Republican governor and then have to sit for an election later.
And so was there politics involved? I'd like to say no. But I also think the judges oftentimes think well, if I happen to be the one that writes the opinion that finds favor with the president, who knows? I might get to be a federal judge or a federal appellate judge somewhere who, of course, those positions are appointed by a president.
So these are -- you know, I don't want to sort of taint the order or give it the appearance that there was something wrong at all with the order.
This is something I've been saying for a while. This situation should have been fixed by the D.A. herself. I don't really care about her personal life at all. That could be personal. But when it comes into a case and when you have a situation where the appearance is so strong that there may have been something that shouldn't have been -- shouldn't have been happening --
HUNT: Yeah.
MOORE: -- she could have, herself, removed him from the case. But she chose not to do that and so we're here at this place now.
HUNT: All right, Michael Moore. A winding journey and, yes, we have landed here. Thank you very much for your time and expertise this morning. I appreciate it.
MOORE: Nice seeing you. Happy holidays to you.
HUNT: Happy holidays to you as well.
All right, time now for sports. Lakers' superstar LeBron James sets another career record once considered untouchable.
Carolyn Manno has this morning's CNN sports update. Carolyn, good morning.
CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
LeBron has shattered numerous records in his 22 seasons in the NBA. He's the league's all-time leading scorer. He's the first to reach 30,000 points, 10,000 rebounds, and 10,000 assists.
And now he's at the top of the all-time list for regular season minutes played. LeBron spent 34 minutes on the court against the Kings last night to give him 57,471 for his career, moving past Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul Jabar for the record. And that amounts, Kasie, to nearly 40 days of playing nonstop basketball.
James finished with 19 points in the 113-100 win.
And afterwards the 39-year-old spoke about reaching this milestone.
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LEBRON JAMES, FORWARD, L.A. LAKERS: Obviously, any time I'm linked with some of the greats that have ever played this game. And to know that I've been available to my teammates and to know I've been able to do this at a high level for two decades and continue to put myself in record books in this game of basketball that I love so much in the best league in the world is pretty cool and it's very humbling.
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MANNO: In the meantime, Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns got a standing ovation from the fans at his return to Minnesota for the first time since his blockbuster trade back in October. And in return he gave them quite a shot. KAT with 32 points, 20 rebounds, and six assists while going 5-5 from beyond the arc in New York's 133-107 win. That makes him the first in NBA history to record that exact stat line.
And what made the feat even more special was doing it in the place where he started his career.
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KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS, CENTER, NEW YORK KNICKS: This is a place I called home for nine seasons. I mean, this place means a lot to me and my family. You know, everyone was trying to make it seem like it was just another game. I knew it wasn't and I'm just happy that our team could play the way we played tonight and get the win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MANNO: Turning to the NFL now. The Chargers scored three second-half touchdowns to beat the Broncos 34-27 last night. They began their comeback with one of the rarest plays in football. Cameron Dicker nailing a 57-yard fair catch kick with no time left on the clock in the first half.
So this rule allows the team that's just made a fair catch to attempt a free kick from the spot of the catch. Now, the attempt cannot be blocked, and if it's converted it's worth three points. No one had converted on since Ray Wersching in 1976 with the then-San Diego Chargers.
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JIM HARBAUGH, HEAD COACH, LOS ANGELES CHARGERS: It's my favorite rule in football. And it's just been trying to get one of those, like, every game, you know? And Cam Dicker stepped up and nailed it and I thought that was -- that was a huge good momentum. You know, got the momentum back.
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MANNO: It was fun.
And the state of Indiana has the spotlight tonight for the first round of the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. Number seven Notre Dame hosting number 10 Indiana in South Bend in the first playoff game at Notre Dame stadium.
This one could come down to what happens on the ground, Kasie. The Irish averaging 225 rush yards per game but the Hoosiers have yet to allow a team to rush for more than 140 yards this season. So keep an eye on that.
The winner of tonight's game -- which could be pretty chilly, by the way -- will face Georgia next. The other three first round matchups are on Saturday. And you can catch the early games -- SMU-Penn State, Clemson and Texas -- on our sister channel TNT.
And when I say chilly, I'm talking like 30 degrees in South Bend, Kasie. So if you are lucky enough to be going to the game make sure you bundle up. It is going to be cold out there, but it should be fun.
HUNT: Yeah, for sure. It sounds chilly.
Carolyn, that play that Harbaugh ran -- that's amazing. Like, I'm sort of stunned by that. Very cool.
MANNO: So fun.
HUNT: His favorite rule in football. I didn't even know it was a rule in football at all.
MANNO: Not many people do.
HUNT: Carolyn, thank you. Happy holidays to you.
MANNO: Thank you.
HUNT: All right. Coming up next in our -- in our next hour, with a second Donald Trump term on the horizon President Biden trying to protect his legacy. He is making a last-minute push around electric vehicles. We'll discuss.
[05:55:05]
Plus, the clock is ticking on a deal to keep the government open. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell joins us to discuss.
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SETH MEYERS, HOST, NBC "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS": Also, a shoutout to the billionaires. Shut it all down on the holidays -- energy. This is like if a "Christmas Carol" ended with Scrooge kicking in Bob Cratchit's door and screaming "Give me that (bleep) turkey! Also, I want the boy's cane."
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HUNT: It's Friday, December 20. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING --
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SEN. KEVIN CRAMER (R-ND): I don't see how we avoid a shutdown.
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HUNT: Shutdown stalemate. Republicans back to the drawing board after their plan to keep the government open fails.
