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Donell Harvin is Interviewed about the New Orleans and Las Vegas Incidents; Martin O'Malley is Interviewed about the new DNC Chair Election; Johnson Faces Critical Vote. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired January 03, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:33:12]

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I can tell you right now is that he was 100 percent inspired by ISIS. And so we're digging - we're digging through more of the social media, more interviews, working with some of our other partners to - to ascertain just how to - to - to ascertain a little bit more about that connection.

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KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: The FBI investigating Wednesday's attack in New Orleans as an act of terrorism. Fourteen people killed when a pickup truck rammed through a crowd of people on Bourbon Street early New Years Day. Officials had originally said that 15 had been killed. Law enforcement identifying the suspect as 42-year-old Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar of Texas. He was killed in a firefight with police.

CNN obtained this exclusive video showing the driver shortly before the attack. You can see him putting something in the bed of the truck and working on the hitch. Investigators say an ISIS flag was among one of the things that he placed in the truck. According to President Joe Biden, explosives were found in ice coolers in two other locations in the French Quarter, and the suspect had a remote detonator in his vehicle. A law enforcement official familiar with the investigation telling CNN that FBI agents and local police found chemicals, typically used to construct explosives, at the attacker's home in Houston.

Plus, another investigation on the other side of the country. Law enforcement looking into an explosion in a Tesla Cybertruck that also occurred on New Years Day. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says there's nothing linking the two incidents yet.

However, both men seemingly involved had military ties and both vehicles were rented through their website, Turo.

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KEVIN MCMAHILL, SHERIFF, LAS VEGAS METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT: If these turn out to be simply similarities, very strange similarities to have. And so, we're not prepared to rule in or rule out anything at this point.

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[06:35:00]

HUNT: All right, joining our panel, Donell Harvin, who is with Georgetown University's Emergency and Disaster Management.

Donell, good morning. Thanks for joining us.

Let's kind of - big picture here. We need to underscore authorities are saying that there - they have not found links here, right? They're saying these appear to be unconnected. However, the similarities are remarkable, shall we say.

What do you see in it, particularly the fact that, you know, these are both ex, you know, well, one active duty military, but people with - both people with military experience and training?

DONELL HARVIN, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY'S EMERGENCY AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT: I hate to - I always get in trouble when I link military to extremism, but we've been talking about this since 2018 when I ran the Fusion (ph) Center here in D.C., the intelligence center, we actually wrote an intelligence product talking about extremism in the ranks of active and retired military. And if you, you know, fast forward to January 6th, you know, 16 percent of those individuals that were arrested and tried for January 6th were active or former military or first responders. And so, we see this radicalization in those individuals that, you know, swear the oath to the Constitution. You know, they're still looking at why these individuals are doing this, but it's something that's been on our radar in the homeland security space for a few years now.

HUNT: Well, I think we should - we should just be careful to make sure that we distinguish that this - this particular person was linked - has been linked to ISIS with an ISIS flag. Different and distinct, perhaps, from what you're talking about with January 6th.

But that said, we were speaking earlier with, you know, an expert who pointed out that there can be, when you leave the military, some alienation from - you know, the loss of a community and that that can contribute. Do you see that?

HARVIN: Well, in our analysis, when we did this intelligence report in 2018, there's a whole lot of factors. Some of the factors are individuals that lose that sense of camaraderie. And they need to reconnect with other individuals that - that feel some of the political or sociological issues that they share.

And so - but, you know, people have been in the military for hundreds of years, right? And so we've only seen this spate of attacks, you know, Fort Hood, things like that, recently.

I also think that ISIS and al Qaeda, to a lesser extent, but mostly ISIS appeals so much more. They have so much more outreach. And if you're downtrodden, and I've consumed their products for over ten years, I have to dissect them, I have to train individuals on them, they're very appealing to many people who are downtrodden, who are very angry at individuals. They're psychologically geared towards individuals who are on the margins or in extremes of our population.

HUNT: When you say it's psychological, when you say it's appealing, I mean, how? Can you like - what's the detail there?

HARVIN: They have a little bit of something for everybody. You've probably heard Director Wray, over the last few years, talk about the salad bar ideology. It doesn't matter how you show up to the salad bar, there's a little something there for everyone. So, if you're a black nationalist, right, and you don't like, you know, police beatings, they have products for you.

HUNT: ISIS does?

HARVIN: Absolutely. Absolutely. We've seen our white nationalist, our far right extremists, they have something for them as well. They have people for - they have something for a little bit of everybody.

And, you know, we saw, for the very first time, I think it was 2018, we had a suicide bomber in - in the Middle East who came from Florida, a middle class family, gated community. He had left the U.S., burned his passport, and went out there to join ISIS. He said he didn't like his life. And, you know, they offered something to him.

So, they do this - there's an appeal that they have for women. We've seen young women leave the United States and travel to join ISIS. And so they're - they're very effective in their communication.

HUNT: Terrifying.

All right, so this attack in New Orleans has also prompted reactions here in Washington, including from President-elect Donald Trump's pick for national security advisor, who argued the country's safety is at stake.

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REP. MIKE WALT (R-FL): We need Governor Noem at DHS. We need Kash Patel at FBI. We need Pete Hegseth at - at DOD. This is an across the government look. Marco Rubio at State. And, of course, Ratcliffe in - at CIA and Gabbard, Tulsi Gabbard, at DNI. That has to be in place day one, guys, because this is a - this is a moment in transition of vulnerability, and President Trump is going to project because he is a leader of strength the narrative that we project on day one will be just important, and that's having our people in place.

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HUNT: So, Mike Dubke, how does what the country is going through with this potentially change how the trajectory of these nominees for President-elect Trump and some of the national security imperatives? MIKE DUBKE, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Well, I

think - I think Waltz is - is absolutely correct, it's going to fast track a lot of these nominations. I think the - the rhetoric is going to be, if there is opposition to some of these nominees, we don't have time for this debate.

[06:40:08]

We have to put people in place now.

So, the - Kristi Noem, Tulsi Gabbard, Hegseth, these individuals, I think, are ultimately, if we're just talking about the realpolitik of this, they're going to benefit from the attacks - a couple days - from a couple of days ago.

HUNT: Molly Ball, the Republican Party writ large on some of the - on national security has, in many ways, been splitting apart from itself, right? The old school national security conservatives of the Reagan era. Obviously, George W. Bush led the country into Iraq. You have seen the current MAGA movement very explicitly reject a lot of that - that thinking and saying, you know, we have to, you know, withdraw. We've got to get out of these foreign wars.

Something like this suggests that, you know, I mean, Donald Trump has said we need to do - have nothing to do with Syria, right? Where was the United States fighting ISIS? In Syria.

Does this kind of thing, if it - especially if, God forbid, there are more copycat attacks, does that change that calculus at all?

MOLLY BALL, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": I think that the senators are going to have a lot of questions for these nominees about exactly how they are looking at attacks like this, given that they - you know, particularly the New Orleans attack seems to have been, you know, inspired by a foreign ideology, but was not - but did not have, you know, foreign roots. It was essentially a - from what we know so far, a sort of homegrown lone wolf inspired by ISIS. You know, how are - how do they view these kinds of attacks? How do they want to approach them? How do they think that we need to take them on? Presumably it is not a military invasion of Syria.

But short of that, you know, what is the strategy? Because, you know, we saw Trump repeating misinformation about this attack initially, trying to blame it on immigration, trying to blame it on the border. That was not the case. So, are, ,you know - you know, you heard Mike Waltz talking about, you know, the narrative that the administration puts forward about these attacks. I think we need to hear from the various cabinet appointees how they are conceptualizing this problem and how they plan to approach it.

So, I do think it's going to put some urgency into the confirmation process, but I think it's also going to bring a lot of questions to how the government, you know, seeks to prevent attacks like this and how they can take on these types of problems.

HUNT: All right, Donell Harvin, thanks for being with us this morning. Appreciate your expertise, as always.

Still coming up here after the break, after sweeping election losses in 2024, Democrats ready to choose a new leader of the Democratic National Committee. One person who'd like that job, former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley joins us live.

Plus, in just hours, Republican Mike Johnson's fate as speaker of the House is set to be decided.

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REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): 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.

REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS (R-NY): I don't know if he has the votes right now, but I do believe that he will have the votes. And I'm not sure that it will be on the first round.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[06:47:06]

HUNT: All right, welcome back.

2024 was a difficult, shall we say, year for Democrats. They handed complete control of the White House and Congress to Republicans in sweeping election losses.

Now that it's 2025, Democrats are trying to decide who will lead the party's recovery efforts. They're set to elect their new Democratic National Committee chair next month. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is the highest-ranking Democrat in Congress, seeking to tip the scales in that crowded race yesterday. He endorsed Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler's bid. Wikler just one of eight candidates hoping to move the Democratic Party past those recent failures. And they all have various plans about how to do it.

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MARTIN O'MALLEY (D), FORMER MARYLAND GOVERNOR: We need to remember that when we're not talking about jobs and opportunity, we're not fighting on our firmest ground.

KEN MARTIN, VICE CHAIR, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: The majority of Americans believe that the Republican Party best represents the interests of the working class and the poor, and the Democratic Party represents the interests of the - of the wealthy and the elite. That is a damning indictment on our party brand.

BEN WIKLER, CHAIR, DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF WISCONSIN: We know that we lose when voters get their information about Democrats from Republicans.

JAMES SKOUFIS (D), NEW YORK STATE SENATOR: The Democratic Party, though, can't just be the anti-Trump party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, joining us now, one of the candidates for DNC chair, former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley.

Governor, thanks for being here.

MARTIN O'MALLEY (D), FORMER MARYLAND GOVERNOR: Thank you. Kasie.

HUNT: I guess I want to start big picture here. Why is it, do you think, that you, or anyone that we just saw who's running for the chair, represents a change, a break from the past for Democrats?

O'MALLEY: Yes, Kasie, this is a time that requires change in the Democratic Party. The stunning losses that we've had, the fact that our brand is so badly battered that the hardest working people in America lost sight of us, thought we were more for elites than we were for them. This requires a time of change. And I believe that I have the ability to be that change agent.

If you want a caretaker, if you want a state chair, somebody that understands state parties, I mean, certainly I understand that having been a governor, had to make my own party stronger. But I believe there's a skill set that's required for this moment of profound change that's actually bigger than any state chair has the power to offer.

I am a turnaround - operational turnaround leader. Probably the best in our party, which is why the president dispatched me to Social Security. Secondly, I've actually chaired a national committee, unlike the other fine people in this race, the Democratic governors, where we expanded the map and three years of record fundraising.

And third, and finally, I've actually run for office. I have been elected. I have knocked on those doors. I understand what the 36 Democratic governors who are up this year, I understand what those members of Congress who Hakeem Jeffries is counting on taking back the House, what they need in order to have their back to be successful and do the things that we must do, be ruthless about winning the next elections.

HUNT: What did Democrats misunderstand about 2024?

[06:50:01]

There were so many that I talked to who thought Kamala Harris was going to win. And, obviously, she did not.

O'MALLEY: What we failed to do was to connect to the biggest concerns that the hardest working people in America had, and that was the fact that inflation, they felt, was going up faster than their paycheck.

HUNT: Yes, James Carville wrote, quote, "we lost for one very simple reason." This was yesterday. "It was, and it always will be the economy, stupid."

O'MALLEY: There you go.

HUNT: "We have to begin 2025 with that truth as our political north star, and not get distracted by anything else."

So, you agree with him?

O'MALLEY: Totally agree with him. In fact, when I've been talking to James Carville, he said, if I were the chair of the DNC, I would be focused every single day on creating a brand that people want to run on instead of one that people want to run from.

And the good news is, Kasie, that change is really a return to our true selves because our party's very purpose for being is the economic security of every single American. When we're not speaking to that, we lose. When we do speak about that, we can not only win elections, we can accomplish so many other things to make our - our country and our society more inclusive, stronger, more just.

HUNT: Do you think that Democrats lost in this last election cycle, in part because they were too woke?

O'MALLEY: I don't know exactly what that means. I believe that we lost because we were not awake enough to the economic realities and the fears that people had at their kitchen tables.

You know, Donald Trump is a master practitioner of the politics of fear. Ours is the party that says, we have nothing to fear but fear itself. We can make tomorrow better than today.

I thought that the vice president's best ads were the ones where she looked in the camera and said, I feel your pain. Inflation is too high. That's why we're bringing it down. That's why we're going to protect Social Security. That's why the things we are doing are working to bring down the price of prescription drugs.

We have to stay focused on the economic concerns of Americans. And believe you me, Donald Trump is going to give us opportunity after opportunity to reconnect to the kitchen tables of America and show that he is not for you. And, in fact, that he's making choices that actually harm your family's ability to get ahead.

HUNT: Who do you think is going to win in the future for Democrats? Is it going to be members of the squad and the progressive left of the party? Or do you need someone that's more in a Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter mold to lead you going forward?

O'MALLEY: You're - you're talking in the presidential race or you're talking to all these other races that connect to people?

HUNT: I'm talking - well, primarily the - primarily the presidential race, yes.

O'MALLEY: Yes.

HUNT: But there's going to be an argument over who gets to define the Democratic Party's brand, right? Who is - and - and I'm curious who you think that should be.

O'MALLEY: I think it should be the Democratic governors of the United States of America. I think it should be the men and women running for courthouse seats and city hall seats. I believe it should be the Democratic mayors of the United States of America.

It's interesting, Kasie, you know, I was chair of the Democratic Governors Association and - for three years. And it was during President Obama's re-elect. For a brief, shining moment, we were all communicating, you know, on the same page. But our national party tends to run itself like an exclusive club rather than being cognizant of the fact that the very people that connect us to the economic realities in all 50 states, in all of these big metropolitan economies are mostly Democrats. And it's the Democratic mayors. And we need to make sure that we communicate with the Democratic mayors, with the Democratic governors, bring them together in a - in a sort of battle cadence, a war council, if you will, so we can all get on the same page and communicate to the economic concerns of the American people.

I - I look at the Democratic Party's challenges. I see a bunch of cables lying on the ground that need to be reconnected to each other so that we can make the changes necessary to win the next elections. It's all there to be done, but it's not going to happen if we pretend that this is some sleepy caretaker election that a state chair can do this. It requires a broader skill set and that's why I'm running.

HUNT: All right. Martin O'Malley. Governor, thanks very much for being here.

O'MALLEY: Thank you, Kasie.

HUNT: Always appreciate your time. Hope to see you again soon.

O'MALLEY: (INAUDIBLE).

HUNT: All right, good luck.

O'MALLEY: Thank you.

HUNT: Fifty-three minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

In southern California, two people are dead and 19 injured after a small plane crashed through a roof of a warehouse. At least 200 people working inside. The plane crashed just two minutes after taking off. The people who died believed to have been on the plane. The cause, still under investigation.

A week-long farewell to former President Jimmy Carter beginning this weekend. America's 39th president will lie in repose starting tomorrow night at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta. He will then be moved to Washington to lie in state beginning January 7th at the U.S. Capitol. The state funeral takes place the morning of January 9th here in Washington. He will be buried in Plains, Georgia, that evening.

President Biden awarding the Presidential Citizens Medal to 20 people in an East Room ceremony. [06:55:04]

All of them honored for, quote, "exemplary deeds of service to their country and their fellow citizens." Most notable among them, Liz Cheney, the co-chair of the January 6th Committee.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Elizabeth L. Cheney, for putting the American people over party.

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HUNT: Congressman Bennie Thompson, the January 6th Committee chairman, also receiving the award from the president.

All right, let's turn back now to The Hill.

In a little over five hours, lawmakers are going to start to decide the fate of Mike Johnson's speakership. One congressman, Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie, has been saying he will not vote for Johnson. Of course, the Trump-backed speaker can't afford to lose the support of any other Republican if all members are voting today. President Trump, whose election victory certification could be delayed if a prolonged speaker battle ensues, seems to have relative little appetite for the drama, agreeing to personally call any Johnson holdouts ahead of the vote. One of those holdouts saying the key to re-electing Johnson as speaker is simple.

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REP. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-CO): There are some - some folks who have concerns and have not committed to vote for Mike Johnson as speaker of the House. I believe that there is one thing that can secure Mike Johnson as speaker of the House for the 119th, and that is by bringing us together and selecting Chip Roy to be the chairman of the Rules Committee.

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HUNT: All right, our panel has returned.

That, of course, was the voice of Lauren Boebert, who has been willing to take on leadership at various different points.

So, Mike, we were talking about this a little bit earlier in the show. Here's what our Stephen Collinson, who tends to write our big - paint our big pictures every day here at CNN. He says this, quote, "House speaker elections on Friday are less about Mike Johnson and more about Donald Trump. If Trump fails to lift Johnson over the line, he will sow new doubts about his capacity to effectively lead the GOP trifecta of power in the House, Senate and White House. Time is short. New presidents have limited time to enact their program with midterm elections always looming. The GOP's shaky unity and tough fights to come make Trump's window even smaller." It does seem like if Johnson doesn't get this together, it says as

much about Trump as Johnson. I mean, this is tough for him, potentially.

DUBKE: There's some truth to that. And - but I think the major point there is speed. I mean there is a lot ready to go on the agenda for Donald Trump, the Republican controlled Senate and the Republican controlled House. So, all of this, if we have all of this delay out of the gate, it is going to push back almost all of the Trump agenda.

So, absolutely, there's a lot there going on. The one thing, though, that was mentioned, and I really want to point out, is, almost more important than the Johnson vote is who is in charge of the Rules Committee. What makes it to the floor? How does it get to the floor? What parts of the legislation are going to be voted on? If Johnson gives the Rules Committee - if he does not control Rules, he wins the speakership but doesn't control Rules, this entire Trump agenda is going to be delayed.

HUNT: Yes, fair enough, although we are getting a little bit down into the -- into the weeds on that. I absolutely take your point.

DUBKE: Is it too early in the morning for getting into the weeds? I'm sorry.

HUNT: For the Rules - well, he's got to get the gavel first.

DUBKE: I was - he's got to get the gavel first.

HUNT: Let's just stay there.

DUBKE: But it's - it's so vitally important. I mean there's so many moving parts to this. That's - that's what I'm trying to point out.

HUNT: Yes, that's - that's fair enough.

Let's - I want to - our team dug up this interview that Mike Johnson did in a Louisiana - with a Louisiana radio station. And this - this interview was - it aired - it was conducted December 31st, on New Years Eve, which I mention just because he talks about the timeline of his calls with Donald Trump. But basically, he got on the horn with the president-elect and said, hey, I need a little bit more help from you sooner.

Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): He was going to endorse from the very beginning, but his plan was he had a big - an idea. I'm going to be with him at Mar-a-Lago on New Year's Day. We're going to map out some strategy. And he wanted to take photos and do a big endorsement on that day. And I called him yesterday. I said, Mr. President, just let's go ahead and do that. Get it out there. So, he did.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: So, Johnson apparently aware he needed a little help.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, this is not a position of strength for the new speaker coming in, right. And it is also, I think, importantly for what going forward would be, if he wins this vote and eventually, whenever it happens, if it does, that he will not be the one calling the shots really about how things go in Congress, even though he will be the speaker of the House. It will be Donald Trump.

Which is not a shock given how Donald Trump has exerted his influence over the Republican Party over the last eight years and the years to come now that he's coming back to the White House. But it's still an amazing thing to have a co-equal branch of the government that is completely in the sway of the president.

[07:00:06]

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: And he's probably better off trying to hold the line on making the argument to the far right discontents in Congress that he will be the loyal Trump foot soldier, rather than making some of these process, you know -

DUBKE: Promises.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes, promises that are be - essentially like pulling a, you know, a loaded gun close to him. It seems risky.

HUNT: Yes. Three seconds.

BALL: Well, I think the problem that he has, is that Donald Trump doesn't want to be the speaker of the House. If you had a Donald Trump who was going to be out there and say, I want this bill and this bill, I want it written in this way, I want these committees, I want so and so and so though, they would do it. But Trump does not engage with Congress on that level, and that makes Mike Johnson's job that much harder.

HUNT: It sure does.

All right, thanks, you guys, for being here. Thanks to all of you for joining me. And join us again for special live coverage of the vote for speaker. We're going to get started, 12:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

I'm Kasie Hunt. Don't go anywhere. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.