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Trump-Backed Johnson Faces Critical Vote To Remain Speaker; Bourbon Street Reopens With More Security, Barricades; DHS: No Evidence Trying New Orleans, Las Vegas Incidents. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired January 03, 2025 - 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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[05:30:05]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, 5:29 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at Capitol Hill. We're going to get a lot of action there later on today. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

The House Speaker Mike Johnson about to find out whether or not he is going to get to keep his job. The congressman -- the speaker hoping to avoid an ugly, drawn-out floor fight today when his colleagues vote for who they want to lead Congress' lower chamber in the next Congress this afternoon. Repeated votes against Johnson could delay the certification of Donald Trump's presidential victory.

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REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I think it's going to be OK, Larry. We'll have maybe one no vote, I think. I think we get it done on the first round. I'm certainly hopeful for that because as we noted we've got to stick together.

We'll be operating with the smallest margin in U.S. history for much of the first 100 days of the Congress and perhaps longer into the year. So it necessitates that every single Republican, as diverse as our caucus is, can put aside their personal preferences every day and work together for the team.

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HUNT: Speaker Johnson can only afford one Republican defection if he wants to keep his post, if everybody votes, and one member already on the record as a hard no.

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REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): You can pull all my fingernails out. You can shove bamboo up in them. You can start cutting off my fingers. I am not voting for Mike Johnson tomorrow.

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HUNT: OK, let's bring in Mychael Schnell, congressional reporter for The Hill. Mychael, good morning.

MYCHAEL SCHNELL, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, THE HILL: Good morning.

HUNT: Nice to see you.

That, of course, was -- he was on with Matt Gaetz who was the instigator the last time.

SCHNELL: That's right.

HUNT: It was a really long, drawn out speaker fight. Massie has been out there saying he's a no on Johnson, which means everyone else has to hang together.

The big question: is Johnson, I guess, going to get it in a -- in a big picture? But is he going to get it on the first ballot or is this going to be a really nasty floor fight all afternoon?

SCHNELL: That's what folks have been trying to figure out. I was talking to sources on Capitol Hill all day yesterday. It really appears unclear at this moment if Johnson can, like you said, get it on the first ballot or if this is going to be another contracted speaker race.

Now it's worth noting Speaker Johnson has expressed confidence that he will get it on the first ballot a number of times, not just yesterday, but in the weeks prior. But there is still roughly a dozen Republican members of Congress in the House who have not yet said how they stand on Johnson.

Now, folks were shuffling in and out of his office yesterday having conversations, but this roughly dozen group really holds the fate of Johnson. If they decide to support him today then all is well for him, but if they decide to vote against him that could be a problem for the speaker.

And I also reported yesterday that there were some demands that were being made among those hardline conservatives, asking for commitments on different spending issues and different process issues for how the House works. But also, folks are saying that Johnson is in -- has no intention of cutting any deals with some of these holdouts.

We'll remember what happened with Kevin McCarthy. He cut a number of deals when he was first trying to win that speakership back in 2023. A lot of those promises he made ultimately led to his demise. Johnson very keen on not repeating those mistakes.

So we'll figure out what's going on here in just a few hours. The House convenes for the 119th Congress at noon and this is the first order of business.

HUNT: So what role does President-elect Trump play here? You know, we heard -- Johnson gave a local radio interview earlier this week that Trump had a plan to bring him down to Mar-a-Lago on New Years and do a big photo splash, and Johnson kind of called him and said, hey, like, how will we get -- how will we do that now? SCHNELL: It's a little early.

HUNT: A little earlier.

But is Trump going to really weigh in for Johnson if he needs it or -- I mean, this is one of those -- there's not really a clear alternative to Johnson --

SCHNELL: Yeah.

HUNT: -- on the one hand. But on the other hand Donald Trump doesn't really like seeing weakness either.

SCHNELL: That's right. And also -- but on the other side of the coin you also have the fact that any delay in this speaker race could a) delay the certification of Trump's election, which is set to happen on Monday. You can't do that unless you have a speaker because you can't swear in members of the House unless you have a speaker.

And then b) if this really drags on a while Republicans have very ambitious plans to get the -- to hit the ground running with Trump's agenda. They're trying to get work done as soon as next week.

So the Trump factor here is so key. It's probably the biggest wildcard behind the question of how will some of these holdouts actually vote.

We did see Trump's endorsement. We heard from Speaker Johnson yesterday that Trump is not yet calling members on his behalf because he hasn't asked them to, although there has been some reporting that Chip Roy has been called by Trump. He's one of those key holdouts here.

So the Trump factor is huge because you have a number of members of Congress who we've heard say that despite some gripes with Speaker Johnson, they'll support him because he has Trump's endorsement because it's Trump pick. Marjorie Taylor Greene is at the top of that list.

But this is also going to be a huge test, as you mentioned, of Trump -- of Trump's power in the House GOP Conference. He's entering a very high stakes, two-years of a Republican trifecta. It's going to be fascinating to see how much of a pull he has on these members.

[05:35:00]

This is one of the big first tests. There was a sneak peek of it with this -- the government funding and the debt limit last month. This is going to be even more key though because it's a personnel issue, it's Speaker of the House, and Trump has made very clear that Johnson is his pick.

So again, in just a few hours we're going to see, but it's a very tenuous situation at the current moment.

HUNT: All right, Mychael Schnell for us this morning. Mychael, thanks for being with us. SCHNELL: Thanks

HUNT: Good luck today. Thanks.

SCHNELL: Thanks.

HUNT: And do join CNN for special live coverage of the vote for speaker. I will be up on the Hill with our great Dana Bash. We start live today at 12:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

All right. Up next here, Bourbon Street in New Orleans back open just one day after the horrific terror attack with a heavy police presence.

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Bands playing on Bourbon Street.

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HUNT: Music helping the French Quarter, one of the most famous areas in the city, to heal. The iconic strip cautiously reopening just ahead of the Sugar Bowl Thursday afternoon with more barricades in place. You can see them there.

Some business owners say nothing will keep them down.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're known for big parties -- you know, the Super Bowl. About to have the Super Bowl, Sugar Bowl. And the Super Bowl is going to be, what, three-four weeks away?

And they're not going to win. They're not going to beat us. We're going to open up and people are going to come out. We're going to get through this just like we got through COVID, just like we got through Katrina. This city is here to stay.

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HUNT: All right, joining us now to discuss, former mayor of New Orleans and the president of the National Urban League, Marc Morial. Marc, always grateful to have you on the show.

MARC MORIAL, FORMER NEW ORLEANS MAYOR, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE (via Skype): Good morning. Thank you.

HUNT: But, of course, I want to talk about your beloved New Orleans. You know the city better than anyone else. The music -- reopening those streets seems absolutely appropriate. That said, there obviously are significant -- there were significant security failures here.

Do you think the city is ready to be reopened?

MORIAL: I do. I think the city is ready. And I believe that the order of the day is to quickly evaluate where, if you will, the leaks, the holes, the breaches, the weaknesses in the security system were and fix them as quickly as you can. You can't protect against everything, but you have to protect against those things that are foreseeable.

It's important for people to recognize that Bourbon Street is an entertainment district that is part of the French Quarter, which is the original New Orleans. It goes back to 1718. So the significance of Bourbon Street is it's a cultural center and it's an entertainment center. But it is also a historic district with so much of the history of colonial Louisiana, indigenous Louisiana, the growth of jazz, the growth of the culture of New Orleans, the growth of civil rights in New Orleans.

Bourbon Street represents certainly an entertainment district, but it represents so much more. So it's important not only for the city but for the nation to recognize that getting Bourbon Street back open quickly sends a signal to those that would attack us that we will not be deterred. And I think that is what is so important.

Now, lots of work to go forward. But Kasie, the attack in New Orleans could happen anywhere. This is what's important. A message to mayors and police superintendents and communities across the nation. Evaluate security systems around any place where crowds gather for entertainment purposes, for sporting events, for cultural events.

This is important because we haven't had this type of terrorist attack in some time in New Orleans, but it's happened abroad. It's happened in Israel. It's happened in Europe. We've seen it in a number of other places.

So this is a time to be diligent and vigilant.

HUNT: Sir, Mitch Landrieu, who I know you know, was on with my colleague Anderson Cooper last night from New Orleans talking a little bit about how he saw this as a vulnerability when he was charged with some of the decision making there.

Why do you think it was that it seemed to be left vulnerable here? And it is also my understanding -- and correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is it's typically open to traffic during the day. Do you think changes should be made to further fortify it and perhaps preserve it? Keep traffic out of it in a way that would keep pedestrians more secure for the entirety of the day?

MORIAL: It's difficult to keep traffic out of the Quarter 24 hours a day because businesses need to receive deliveries -- products and goods. Trash needs to be picked up. There are many, many reasons that, in fact, you can't remove vehicles from the Quarter 24/7.

[05:40:00]

But it is in order to reevaluate exactly how the security system around the French Quarter works but remember this. The French Quarter is just a part of let's call it the downtown area where visitors gather. You've got the Dome. You've got the arena. You've got big hotels. You've got the convention center. So the evaluation has to go beyond the Quarter to try to tighten and strengthen the security system. I know the leaders of the city are going to do that. After 9/11 -- I was the mayor during 9/11, and we were concerned after the attacks in New York that we would be attacked and our tall buildings would be attacked. And we put for the 2002 Super Bowl an entire system in place which is the system that every city has followed since then that really hardened the wall of security around that event.

That type of security may need to be the order of the day for College Football Playoff games, New Orleans festivals like the French Quarter Festival, the Jazz Fest, Mardi Gras, or the Essence Fest.

When this happens you've got to do lessons learned and you've got to balance security with people's constitutional rights -- with people's rights to be free and to have ingress and egress.

HUNT: Yeah.

MORIAL: So I hope that -- I hope that evaluation is going to be taken extremely seriously and very quickly by the mayor and the leaders of New Orleans today.

HUNT: Yeah.

All right, Marc Morial. So grateful for your time.

MORIAL: Thank you.

HUNT: And, of course, our heart is with you and your hometown. Thanks very much.

All right. Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING searching for a motive. Investigators trying to piece together why a highly decorated combat veteran would blow up a Cybertruck outside a Trump hotel.

Plus, a somber start to the Sugar Bowl. Players and spectators honoring the victims of the New Year's Day attack. CNN sports is up next.

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[05:46:10]

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jabbar, himself, was born in the United States and is a U.S. military veteran.

SHERIFF KEVIN MCMAHILL, LAS VEGAS METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT: We do know that our subject here served in the military. In fact, he is a current member of the military.

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HUNT: Although officials say they have found no connection yet between the New Orleans truck attack and the Cybertruck explosion, both of which occurred on New Year's Day, there are some eerie similarities, including the fact that both vehicles used in the incidents were rented through the website Turo and both suspects had ties to the U.S. military.

A law enforcement source familiar with the Cybertruck explosion investigation said the driver of the truck was Matthew Allen Livelsberger, an active duty U.S. Army Green Beret who was on leave. He's a highly decorated combat veteran with five bronze star medals.

The suspect in the New Orleans attack was also an Army veteran.

Both men were stationed at Fort Liberty, formerly known as Fort Bragg, but there's not record that they were in the same unit or served during the same years. They also both served in Afghanistan in 2009. But according to Las Vegas law enforcement they weren't in the same province or the same unit.

Joining us now is U.S. Army veteran and former senior adviser to the Defense secretary Bishop Garrison. Sir, thanks very much for being with us this morning.

I'd like to just start -- we do want to underscore repeatedly that right now law enforcement is saying these things are not connected. But I'm interested to know what you think about the similarities here and what it tells you about radicalization in our country right now.

BISHOP GARRISON, U.S. ARMY VETERAN, SR. FELLOW AND ADJUNCT PROFESSOR, NATIONAL SECURITY INSTITUTE, GEORGE MASON LAW SCHOOL, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO DEFENSE SECRETARY LLOYD AUSTIN (via Webex by Cisco): All right. Well, thank you for having me.

First and foremost, my condolences go out and my heart goes out to both of the communities. I know how hard it is -- what they're dealing with and what they're trying to maneuver through. It's really terrible in this type of situation in which you have so many people living in fear and they're living in terror because we just simply don't have more information than what's been provided at this time.

I will say that look, we're talking about Camp Liberty. You have something of a magnitude of 50,000 active duty soldiers that serve at that base every year. You're talking somewhere in the neighborhood of almost 300,000 people within the population of those bases.

So we can't just immediately start drawing lines and saying well, there is some -- there is some connections here because they're related in this regard. All of this is really just (INAUDIBLE) and it's given the size and scope of the population.

What we really need to be discussing and saying is that law enforcement needs to go deeply into this so we can better understand some of the motivations for both individuals.

With the special forces master sergeant, special forces are used extensively right now ever since the beginning of the global war on terrorism. We're stressing them to their absolute limits. And there seems to be more information that's slowly coming out about his life and about some of his operations and it's tragic. It seems as though he was going through a lot. There may have -- there may have been additional stressors, and we need to just get more information and data and understand that.

And lastly, more than anything, it demonstrates a need to really be out there supporting our veterans. Whenever they transition from active duty, particularly, into the civilian world they can be susceptible to some of these types of groups that are looking to give them structure, a sense of community, a sense of home that they really enjoyed while they were in the military.

So everything we can do to support this veteran community is going to be very important, and service members as well.

HUNT: Your -- absolutely, your point about how stretched our special forces operators are, it doesn't take long in a conversation with any member of that community, family, or active duty service to understand what they're -- the pressures that they are under.

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Sir, we did hear from Congressman Ryan Zinke on this who is, of course, a former Navy SEAL. Let's listen to what he said.

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REP. RYAN ZINKE (R-MT): What takes a person that has given an oath to this country and what takes a person so far out of that where they're wanting to run over innocents or shoot innocents at a mall?

The case in Tesla, we still don't know, although he was active duty, and he was a special forces guy. That's just not run of the mill. There's a lot of training behind special forces.

But something's going on and I think -- I think we have to look at it. What is causing this pain?

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HUNT: It speaks to a little bit what you were -- what you were saying there, sir, as well.

GARRISON: Yeah, no. I wholeheartedly agree. We know that, particularly, someone of the master sergeant's background would have had a great deal of experience and a skillset that allowed him to do more or less exactly what he did in terms of creating an IED and detonating it the way he did. But he also could have done a lot more damage. So we just don't know what his motivations are.

We need for law enforcement officials to continue to be allowed to investigate.

And most importantly, I think we don't need individuals online on the internet trying to do their own internet sleuthing. And all of that is going to create more misinformation, disinformation, and it further erodes the trust between the civilian population and a military in which approximately one percent of the population serves. And at a critical time in which a lot of these veterans -- a lot of

these service members need more benefits. They need the ability to go into these communities where they can trust that they can get help without being ostracized and without have any type of negative impacts on their --

HUNT: Yeah.

GARRISON: -- life or livelihood. And this type of activity could potentially threaten that.

HUNT: All right, Bishop Garrison for us this morning. Sir, thanks so much for your perspective. I really appreciate you being here.

GARRISON: Thank you for having me.

HUNT: All right, time now for sports and we are going to start on a somber note. Notre Dame stunned Georgia in an emotional Sugar Bowl. But it was held a day after the deadly terrorist attack in New Orleans.

Andy Scholes has this morning's CNN sports update. Andy, good morning.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah, good morning, Kasie.

So fans we heard from yesterday say they felt completely safe walking around New Orleans with the amount of law enforcement that was on the ground there. And they were happy that the game was being played yesterday afternoon because to quote some of them, they said "You can't let the terrorists win."

Now, before the Sugar Bowl, a moment of silence was held to honor those who lost their lives and were affected by Wednesday's attack.

As for the game, Notre Dame had one of the greatest one minutes of football in their school's history. Tied at three late in the first half the Irish -- they kicked a field goal to go up 6-3. Then they got a strip sack and recovered the fumble. Well, Riley Leonard, he would then hit Beaux Collins for a 13-yard touchdown before halftime.

And then Notre Dame -- they got the second half kickoff and Jayden Harrison would take it 98 yards for the touchdown.

So the Irish with 17 points in just 54 seconds of game time. Georgia would never recover from that. Notre Dame would end up winning the Sugar Bowl by a final of 23-10.

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MARCUS FREEMAN, HEAD COACH, NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL: I'm proud of this coaching staff. I'm proud of this team. I love this university. It's an honor to be a part of this place.

RILEY LEONARD, QUARTERBACK, NOTRE DAME: Shout out to the defense. They played outstanding. And that's a really good team we played so, man, I'm just so grateful for this opportunity. This is a beautiful thing and a dream come true.

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SCHOLES: All right, so Notre Dame now moves on to face Penn State in the Orange Bowl next Thursday. The winner of that is going to take on the winner of Texas-Ohio State for the national title.

All right. In the NBA, meanwhile, Jimmy Butler's days in Miami appear to be numbered. Butler scored just nine points last night in the Heat's loss to the Pacers. He didn't play at all in the fourth quarter for a second-straight game.

And afterwards he said he's lost his joy playing for the Heat.

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JIMMY BUTLER, FORWARD, MIAMI HEAT: What do I want to see happen? Um, I want to see me get my joy back from playing basketball. And wherever that may be we'll find out here pretty soon. But I want my joy back. I'm happy here off the court, but I want to be back to somewhere dominant. I want to hoop and I want to help this team win, and right now I'm not doing that.

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SCHOLES: All right. LeBron, meanwhile, is 40 years old now but he's still dominating players half his age. King James knocking down a season high seven threes against the Blazers last night, including one near the end right here where he gets the pump fake. Now, that one put the game away.

LeBron finished with 38 points as the Lakers would win 114-106.

[05:55:00]

Steph Curry, meanwhile, was also on a heater last night. He made all eight of his three-point attempts. It was the most threes he's ever made without a miss. Curry had 30 points in this one as the Warriors blew out the Sixers 139-105.

And finally, Simone Biles is named the Sports Illustrated Sports Person of the Year. And in her interview Biles hinted that the 2024 Paris Games may have been her last. She said, "Because I have accomplished so much there's almost nothing left to do rather than to just be snobby and to try again, and for what? I'm at a point in my career where I'm humble enough to know when to be done."

So Kasie, Biles -- she would be 31 years old in 2028 when the -- when the Summer Games are here in the United States. You know, she didn't say 100 percent she's not doing it, but it sounds like she's done.

HUNT: Yeah. You know, it's a -- it's been amazing to watch her run. Really interesting that she has that perspective as well. Thirty-one -- every old for gymnastics but very young in life.

SCHOLES: It would be, yeah -- yeah, yeah. HUNT: OK? Like so. Appreciate that. Andy, thank you very much.

SCHOLES: All right.

HUNT: I appreciate it.

All right. Coming up in our next hour here on CNN THIS MORNING, hanging on to the gavel. In just a few hours the House returns to vote to choose a speaker. Can Mike Johnson keep his post?

Plus, the Democratic Party looking for new leadership as well. Former governor Martin O'Malley wants to be one of those leaders. He joins us now to discuss his run -- joins me live to discuss his run for DNC chair.

And we're on the ground in New Orleans as the city tries to return to a sense of normalcy.

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ANNE KIRKPATRICK, SUPERINTENDENT, NEW ORLEANS POLICE DEPARTMENT: We're confident that we can keep them safe. And so that is what the message is. New Orleans is a resilient city.

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