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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump's Revenge Push Suffers Blow, Judge: Ex-Trump Attorney Lacks Authority; Kyiv Under Attacks As White House Says Trump "Hopeful" On Peace Deal; Crypto Suffers $1 Trillion Wipeout, Unclear If It's Hit Bottom. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired November 24, 2025 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:26]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Comey wins against Trump. The White House vowing to appeal after the cases against James Comey and Letitia James were thrown out.
And breaking news, under attack. Explosions right now in Ukraine as we're learning details about the, quote/unquote, "peace plan," even as Trump lashes out at Zelenskyy, falsely accusing him of not saying "thank you".
And the Trump family fortune suffering a massive loss after crypto plunges as fears of a bubble grow.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: Good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
And OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news, Trump's revenge tour detour. The White House tonight saying it will appeal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and the New York attorney general, Letitia James.
Why? Well, they had a big loss today. A federal judge tossed both cases out. The judge writing that U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, who was Trump's personal attorney for a time and had never before tried a case, was appointed illegally. The judge writes, quote, "I agree with Mr. Comey that the attorney general's attempt to install Ms. Halligan as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was invalid. And because Ms. Halligan had no lawful authority to present the indictment, I will grant Mr. Comey's motion and dismiss the indictment without prejudice."
Now, Halligan had only been on the job for four days before indicting Comey, and I put that in quotes, because this is the whole point about whether she had been fully and lawfully in her position and able to sign the indictment. Remember, she was appointed after the former acting U.S. attorney resigned -- resigned because of pressure to indict Trump's perceived enemies like Comey. They didn't think there was a case, couldn't get them to go ahead and prosecute it. So, they brought in Halligan to do it. Well, tonight, Comey is speaking out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: I know that Donald Trump will probably come after me again, and my attitude is going to be the same. I'm innocent. I am not afraid. And I believe in an independent federal judiciary. The gift from our founders that protects us from a would-be tyrant.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Now, the case against Comey is something that Trump willed into existence. I mean, for years, he's been attacking Comey. Most recently, he made it very clear that he wanted his own former FBI director to pay.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will tell you this: a great honor to fire James Comey. He was a terrible person, did terrible things and persecuted people and all in the guise of being an angel. But he wasn't an angel.
Because the old FBI under Comey was crooked as hell. He was one of the most crooked.
Comey lied to everybody.
I think I'd be allowed to get involved if I want, but I don't really choose to do so. I can only say that Comey is a bad person
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And he said similar things about Letitia James.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The fascist and racist attorney general of New York state, Letitia James.
You have an attorney general who's a total stone cold crook. New York state, Letitia James, a total crook.
A crooked A.G. Letitia James.
Letitia James from New York. This is another real lula (ph).
There's no question about it. Letitia James, the corrupt attorney general of New York.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: But today's ruling, right, tossing both of those cases does come at a precarious time for President Trump. So last week, right. A judge ordered an end to Trump's national guard deployment in Washington, D.C. They called it unlawful. And deployment orders then were temporarily blocked in Oregon and Illinois. That's a big blow to his plan with the national guard.
And just a week ago, this moment in history when Trump lost every single Republican vote, but one in the entire House and Senate on something that he forbade them to do, he told them it was a hostile act against his administration if they did it. All but one went against him voting in favor of releasing the Epstein files.
For months, only four house Republicans backed that bill. They were all too many people afraid of Trump. But then all of a sudden, that sea change. And when Trump saw the writing on the wall suddenly changed his tune and Republican support exploded from four to 216.
And then the filibuster during the shutdown, right, Trump wanted to shut it down by ending the filibuster, demanding Republican senators nuke it. It requires 60 votes for most legislation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The Republicans should terminate the filibuster.
If you don't terminate the filibuster, you'll be in bad shape.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: That did not happen. Republicans again defied the president and defied him explicitly because they felt that, gosh, one day, he won't be president. The shoe might be on the other foot. This would be a bad idea.
[19:05:01]
And during the most recent election, Republicans lost across the board and across the country. Right? There was Virginia, there was New Jersey, and there was New York, where the guy that Trump called a communist and he said would be the most terrible person ever as Mayor Zohran Mamdani won easily. And when Trump came face to face with Mamdani, he turned. He saw the pressure and he offered nothing but praise for a man that he has called a lunatic a radical, and yes, a communist.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think you're going to have hopefully a really great mayor. I think he is going to surprise some conservative people, actually. I expect to be helping him, not hurting him. I want him to do a great job. I'll be cheering for him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Kristen Holmes is OUTFRONT live outside the White House.
And, Kristen, when it comes to the Comey and James rulings, right, tossing those cases out, the White House now says they're going to appeal. Where do things stand now? KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Look, it's
really unclear when they're going to appeal. This is going to have to come from the Department of Justice. And we heard from the White House earlier today saying that they were going to immediately appeal if it hadn't been done already. But that was hours ago, and we still haven't seen this appeal.
Now, I was told by a source that inside the DOJ, the Department of Justice, that the attorney general is meeting with the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche. They've been having conversations as to what exactly to do next, because there are two paths to go down here. One, there is this appeal that would essentially fight the fact that Lindsey Halligan was put in as interim U.S. attorney, saying that it is valid. And that's kind of what you heard from the press secretary and what you're hearing from the White House, that they want the Department of Justice to do.
But there is another option here, which is go through the actual traps of appointing and getting confirmed a U.S. attorney, and then re bringing the charges, because, as you noted, these cases were tossed out but without prejudice, meaning that they can bring back the charges. This wasn't about the evidence in the case. This wasn't about the cases themselves. This was about particularly Lindsey Halligan saying that she was not valid in her role as U.S. attorney.
And one thing to note, the White House has been in lockstep with the Department of Justice throughout this entire process, particularly when it comes to Comey and James. It was President Trump and his White House who put the political pressure on Erik Siebert, who was the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Virginia, which ultimately led to him leaving because he was not going to bring charges against Comey or James. That is when President Trump publicly put out that he wanted Attorney General Pam Bondi to appoint Lindsey Halligan because Lindsey Halligan would go after political enemies, namely Comey and James.
So, obviously, president is very invested in this. He was happy when those indictments came down for both of them. So, we'll see what happens next in terms of what the Department of Justice does. Remember, one of these options is going to take longer than the other. We know President Trump wants this done quickly.
BURNETT: Yeah. Well, that's right. And as he had made on that original post, that was meant, I suppose, to be private and was public, pushing Bondi to go ahead with the indictments.
Kristen, thank you.
Ty Cobb is here now, former Trump White House lawyer.
Ty, you've been predicting this for weeks now. You were pretty black and white about it. You went out on the limb and you said it at the start. A few days ago, you told me, quote, "This case will be tossed along with the illegality of Halligan's appointment." So I guess tonight's your official, "I told you so".
TY COBB, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE LAWYER: Huh. Well, I think anybody who was an experienced federal prosecutor and spent some time in supervisory positions understands this law very well. You know, Sam Alito now, Trump's favorite Supreme Court judge, in 1986, shortly after this statute was revised and to the form it is today made it very clear that, you know, the attorney general and the president have 120 days to have an appointment pursuant to Subsection A of the statute, and that gives them the opportunity to have whoever they want for 120 days.
After 120 days, whoever is going to be the interim U.S. attorney is a decision of the federal court. And that's -- that's all that this judge did today, this, you know, calling her a rogue judge when Sam Alito is the person who, who interpreted the case first, that the Justice Department, when he was, deputy assistant attorney general, you know, that's pretty -- that's pretty far out there. And it's typical of the, you know, the rhetoric and the, you know, fraudulent rhetoric that is of, you know, what this administration says in these circumstances.
BURNETT: So, you know, you're making the point that this is about just the formal legality of Lindsey Halligan being in the job to begin with, as opposed to the merits of the case itself. When the White House spoke about it today, Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, gave this assessment
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It's as clear as day. And this judge took an unprecedented action to throw these cases out to shield James Comey and Letitia James from accountability based on a technical ruling.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, they say they're going to appeal. Is that wise? And what do you make of her use of the word "technical"?
COBB: You know, that's sort of silly. It's like you know, saying that its technically wrong to run a red light, you know?
[19:10:01]
I mean, the reality is it's wrong and here, it's wrong to try to take two bites of the apple on 120-day rule.
So, it's -- that's pretty simple. And that's sort of the, you know, historical -- hysterical rhetoric that you get from this administration that we've really never seen before in history. I mean, these people make stuff up. It's false. It's silly.
And I think, you know, I'm sure that Comey and Pat Fitzgerald and the legal team are very happy that creepy Karoline is dictating legal strategy.
BURNETT: So, Attorney General Pam Bondi was asked about Lindsey Halligan specifically and her future, as opposed to the merits of the case. But what's going to happen to Lindsey Halligan? Here's what she just said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAM BONDI, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: We have made Lindsey Halligan a special U.S. attorney, so she is in court. She can fight in court just like she was, and we believe we will be successful on appeal. And I'll tell you, Lindsey Halligan, I talked to all of our U.S. attorneys, the majority of them around the country, and Lindsey Halligan is an excellent U.S. attorney, and shame on them for not wanting her in office.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Ty, what happens?
COBB: I think that's -- well, she's not -- she doesn't have to go to Burger King. But you know, she can -- and she can be lawfully in a U.S. attorney's office, but not in a supervisory role.
And, you know, it's silly to talk about Lindsey Halligan as somebody who actually should be an assistant U.S. attorney or should even be in court on behalf of the government, because what we know from her time, her limited time in the grand jury from magistrate Judge Fitzpatrick's ruling last week, is she committed a host of constitutional errors, even going so far as to unlawfully explain to a jury that they didn't need to rely on the evidence that they'd seen because the government would have better and more evidence at trial. And denying that Comey had a Fifth Amendment privilege.
So, you know, I mean, she hasn't done anything to distinguish herself, including lying to the judge in court, in front of Judge Nachmanoff the other day, saying -- saying that, that she was, you know, she that the that the grand jury had actually voted on this when we know it's just not true.
BURNETT: Yeah. All right. Ty, thank you very much. Ty Cobb.
And everyone is here with me now.
I mean, Van, you get a ruling like this, and it's interesting as Ty is saying, they're going to appeal a ruling that was just whether she has the right to be there or not. They could just let the whole thing go and try to bring the case separately, right? Go on the merit. But that's not what they say they're going to do.
Does this ruling, both of these cases being tossed, change Trump's political power right now?
VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I think the fizz is starting to come out of the soda. The fizz is coming out of the soda. Donald Trump has had. He's just starting to run into a problem after problem.
You had seven million people come out and march against him, most in history brushed that off. Then gets whooped in the elections. I mean, just whooped anybody with an R next to their name gets chased out of the ballot box.
Then he gets forced to release this, the Epstein files. Now he's getting stopped in court. You're just -- the way I would be, tyrant gets to kind of do his thing as he seems invincible. He's invulnerable. Nobody can stop this guy. Everybody, run for the hills.
And now you're starting to see the air come out of the tires on this guy. And it's -- look, it's not over. But this is not the kind of month that you saw three or four months ago. He was just running over everything and everybody.
BURNETT: Gretchen?
GRETCHEN CARLSON, FORMER FOX NEWS ANCHOR: I think I'll come at this from even the GOP side, which is I think he's losing some of the GOP, which I think is the biggest political story over the last 10 days. Look, he's obsessed with going after his political enemies. But what he should be focusing on right now is the average American citizen. And that's the economy.
Polls came out today that were devastating. Sixty-two percent of Americans say it's Trump's responsibility for the economy, not Joe Biden, 71 percent believe tariffs have made their life worse as a result of things being more expensive. I'm talking about groceries, utilities, health care, housing.
And then you have Marjorie Taylor Greene resigning Friday night. That is not -- that -- that is not a victory for Trump. That is a victory for Marjorie Taylor Greene. Stay tuned to what she's going to be up to. And there may be more following her footsteps.
BURNETT: Okay, yeah.
CARLSON: Which brings me back to how important this is for the cracking, potentially of the GOP.
BURNETT: So, okay, to this point, Marjorie Taylor Greene I heard a Republican operative I can't remember who it was, but they were used to work for Marco Rubio was making the point that this was actually proof that Trump was strong, because Marjorie stood up to Trump. And guess who is gone?
But Gretchen's point, I think, speaks to what a senior House Republican told "Punchbowl" today. More explosive early resignations are coming. It's a Tinderbox. Morale has never been lower. Mike Johnson will be stripped of his gavel, and they will lose the majority before this term is out.
ANDREW YANG, INDEPENDENT, FORMER DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yeah, he had a very razor thin majority. He could only lose a few members. And what's happening is the clock is ticking forward and the midterms are less than a year away.
[19:15:00]
There are all of these members who are looking up saying, wait a minute, the people in my district are not fans of the tariffs, are seeing grocery prices go up. They don't like the focus on political revenge, the ballroom or whatever the heck is going on. And they're looking around saying, hey, like, what about me?
And so, there's this fragmented trust between a lot of rank and file Republican House members and this administration. And so, some of them are looking up and saying, instead of losing and going out on my Hill, I think I'm going to join Marjorie Taylor Greene and seriously consider resigning, because then I can vote how I want and speak freely for this final number.
CARLSON: But I even think people staying in office and not resigning are going to start voting how they feel. See, that's also the big difference here. The crack was the Epstein file vote.
JONES: Yeah.
BURNETT: Yeah.
CARLSON: Because that -- we may see Republicans now get a spine and decide that they're actually going to vote based on what their constituents want and maybe what their own personal convictions actually are, and not just because they're fearful that Trump will primary them.
BURNETT: So Erick Erickson, and I know there's been many a times he would be sitting here tonight, but I'm going to bring him into it even though he's not here.
Okay. He posted the kids in the executive branch working on behalf of the president, pushed the president on a plan to extend Obamacare subsidies without having a buy in from House and Senate Republicans, elevated the stature of Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, as Democrats had been flirting with Gavin Newsom, put out a Ukraine plan no one likes, failed to fill 18 judicial vacancies in nine red states. It looks like amateur hour has returned.
I thought it was interesting. There was referring to Mark Kelly that they've launched an investigation into him because he's part of that video that said, don't follow illegal orders.
Erick went down to three substantive issues here.
JONES: Yeah. Look, I mean, he's not wrong. You do -- when you first came in, when Trump first came in, they knew what they were doing. What they were doing was terrible.
I was against it. But you could see the discipline and the execution. And it was shock and awe. Shock and awe.
I think they did a bunch of stuff and now they just don't know what to do. And so, they're just riding their little tricycles around in the Oval Office doing whatever comes to mind. And it's not working.
Meanwhile, every day Americans are looking at these prices and they're looking at a president with a golden ballroom with a golden bath -- toilet and going all over the world and gallivanting and doing whatever he wants to do. And I think they have lost the plot.
And I think the problem is when people are in love with somebody and they fall out of love, it's hard to fall back in love. You got a bunch of farmers out there that were in love with Donald Trump. They are now losing their farms. They're not coming back.
WANG: You're seeing this line between dictator and lame duck. It turns out it's a fairly short trip.
(LAUGHTER)
BURNETT: And those two things were next to each other.
CARLSON: If you went back to the voters and said, especially the independents, why did you vote for Donald Trump? They would say the economy and immigration. Likely those would be the top two things.
Trump promised that on his first day of his presidency, he would reduce the price of groceries. That has somehow fallen off the back of the tractor. That is no -- and apparently, he may be changing. Maybe even his chief of staff and top people as of a report today, because he doesn't like how the economy is being messaged.
But the problem is it's him. He is more concerned about developing these political enemy story lines than he is about focusing on the economy, which is what the people voted him to do.
BURNETT: And he also said, I mean, Van, not that the economy is obviously the most important thing to people, but something like the Epstein files to some of his base, whether it be Laura Loomer or Steve Bannon, many others, some of them in this administration, Kash Patel, Dan Bongino, Pam Bondi, you know, he was going to release the Epstein files.
JONES: Yeah. Well, I don't know why he made that promise. Maybe he hadn't seen them, but apparently once he saw them, he was like, never mind.
And I mean, he has fallen down the stairs on that. And they're just everyday people. This is not a hard thing to figure out. If you had a list -- anybody here had a list of people who had done bad stuff to hurt children, you'd let it -- you release it. If you're sitting on that list, you don't have to say anything else about that person. Their character is in the toilet. And that's what happened to Donald Trump on this issue.
YANG: You know, a lot of Donald Trump's energy is kind of this anti- elitism, which played into the Epstein files. And so, the fact that he's like, hey, nothing to see here. All of a sudden, I was like, wait a minute. Like, I thought you were like our instrument for revenge against these people. And now, somehow, you're one of these people. It's a terrible look.
The fact that the Republican House members flipped to that degree, I think it's a terrible sign. And if you see him speak right now, it doesn't seem like his heart is really in it. Am I -- the only one looking at this being like, hey, this guy seems like he's, you know, he's kind of filling the seat, but he doesn't really have a vision or a plan beyond some of the revenge machinations that right now are falling short.
BURNETT: Right, and we'll see what happens with that. Obviously, we're waiting. Kristen said they thought there might even be an appeal filed before our program, but it hasn't come yet.
All right. Thank you all.
And next, the breaking news. Explosions in Kyiv at this hour as Trump expresses optimism about a peace plan.
[19:20:03]
I think we've seen this before, haven't we?
And crypto losing $1 trillion in value in just weeks. Is there a bubble bursting? The Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari is OUTFRONT.
And Elon Musk's new policy for X reveals that foreign trolls are posing as MAGA influencers. MAGA influence that Don -- influencers, I'm sorry, that Donald Trump himself has reposted.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Breaking news, a ballistic missile attack is underway as I speak on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. According to the Ukrainian Air Force right now, ballistic missiles. The attack comes as the White House says President Trump is, quote, hopeful and optimistic that a deal can be struck to end Putin's war in Ukraine.
[19:25:06]
This, after a weekend of intense negotiations in Switzerland, which all came on the heels of the Trump administration releasing a 28-point peace plan that was entirely Putin's wish list.
Now, when Ukraine didn't accept that plan on its face, Trump went to social media and wrote in part, quote, Ukraine, quote, "leadership," end quote, has expressed zero gratitude for our efforts, in caps. Now, of course, this entire situation is not about saying thank you. That trivializes something quite existential.
But we do know that "Thank you" may be at the core for Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Thank you for your leadership, for your boldness, for your clarity, for common sense.
LEE ZELDIN, EPA ADMNISTRATOR: Thank you for putting this entire team together.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you for the largest tax cut in American history.
KRISTI NOEM, DHS SECRETARY: Thank you for the opportunity to work for you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you for everything that you've done.
PAM BONDI, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Thank you, President Trump, for your leadership.
SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: Thank you for reclaiming Labor Day for the American people.
BROOKE ROLLINS, AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: Thank you for saving college football.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And since Trump says that this situation in Ukraine is about "thank yous" and whether leadership has said those words to him, we checked to checked to see, has Zelenskyy said thank you?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: I'm grateful to the U.S. for their support.
So what can I say to American people in English? My English is poor, to say all -- all my messages and all my thanks to you.
Thank you for your personal efforts to stop this war just now, Mr. President.
Many thanks to your wife.
I thank every American family.
I was always very thankful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Even Republicans are pointing out how far off base Trump is on this. Republican Congressman Don Bacon. One example posting, quote, "The president continues to ignore that it is Russia who invaded Ukraine and bombing cities every night. Putin ordered this invasion. Why the moral confusion? The war started before Trump's first term. I've heard president Zelenskyy thank America many times for our military aid."
And Congressman Bacon is, of course, as we just showed, correct. In fact, our fact check team went and looked and Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said thank you to the United States, at least 78 times.
OUTFRONT now, Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton, who sits on the armed services committee, also a marine veteran.
Congressman, I appreciate your time. This whole obsession with being thanked is --
REP. SETH MOULTON (D-MA): Nice to see you, Erin.
BURNETT: -- well, it actually appears to matter. Why do you think Trump is so focused on this issue, on being told thank you from Zelenskyy?
MOULTON: Because it's all about him. For Donald Trump, it's all about him. I mean, never mind that innocent Ukrainian kids are being killed every week in Ukraine. Trump thinks this is about him. We all know that that's who he is.
BURNETT: So, your Republican colleague Don Bacon, I just mentioned him. He posted "Why the moral confusion?" And, you know, that sort of struck me because the plan that the White House or -- well, it's unclear whether Russia had provided it or what went on with that whole thing, right? It's quite confusing to put it kindly.
It was, of course, much of a Putin wish list, right? Even saying NATO would not expand at all. Russia gets back in the G-8. Ukraine slashes its military. Putin gets all this territory in Ukraine.
My question to you as -- as we are speaking right now, and we understand that there are ballistic missiles coming down into Kyiv, coming at Kyiv right now as we speak. Will Putin honor any legitimate deal?
MOULTON: No, of course he won't. I mean, any deal that depends on Putin's promises is not a deal at all. Any deal that rewards war criminal Putin for his criminal war is not a deal that does not send the right message to Russia. It's not fair to the Ukrainians, and it certainly doesn't send the right message to any other nation around the world, like China, that might want to start a war of aggression.
So, we need to be very clear. I mean, the 28-point plan, it's pretty obvious. If something looks Russian, sounds Russian and serves Russian interests, it's obviously engineered by the Russians.
Now, the question is, you know, what is the final deal? And I think one of the things we have to be sure is that Congress may remains united. People like Don Bacon on the Republican side aligned with me on the Democratic side, that we will not accept a deal that's good for Russia.
BURNETT: And, you know, as we speak, of course, those missiles coming into Kyiv, we understand. What do you read into that? Right. It was a 28-point plan and sort of take it or leave it. You have a few days, then all of a sudden, there's some negotiation. There's a counter plan from Europe. It gets a little confusing, and all of a sudden, it's another night of missiles in Ukraine.
MOULTON: Right. Let's not be naive about what Putin wants to do here. Let's not be naive about his aims here.
Remember, there was this agreement called the Budapest agreement that supposedly would prevent Russia from invading Ukraine a decade ago.
[19:30:08]
And that's been grossly violated by Vladimir Putin. So that's not where we can end up.
Now, one of the things that Democrats like myself can do at this time, at a time when Trump's hold on the Republican Party is slipping, is actually make sure that we get Republicans on our side here. And there are a lot of Republicans, not just Don Bacon, who fundamentally support Ukraine in this war effort, right? So that's what I've been doing in part, is having some conversations with Republicans to make sure that they're still on here, even if the president is not.
And what I'm hearing from Republicans like those I serve with on the armed services committee is that there is still a lot of Republican support for Ukraine, that were not just going to give in to -- the Congress is not just going to give in to the administration on this. So, we'll see where they end up. But what the important message is here for the Ukrainians is don't give in here. There's a bipartisan group in Congress that is still behind you. It's a bipartisan majority, and we need to show that we're willing to stand up to Russia. And there we're also willing to stand up to Trump.
BURNETT: Well, it's important that you point out it's bipartisan because it is, and it's been one that has been since the very beginning with so many of your Republican colleagues.
I want to ask you about one other topic, if I may, Congressman, because you are a marine veteran, the pentagon says its investigating Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, who's a retired navy captain, in light of what they call serious allegations of misconduct. Kelly was among the six lawmakers who put out a video telling military personnel not to follow illegal orders.
Now, Trump, as you know, had accused the group of sedition. And he noted in that post that that was punishable by death. Then he posted, quote, "The traitors that told the military to disobey my orders should be in jail, right?"
What is your reaction to this investigation now against Kelly?
MOULTON: I mean, it's completely absurd. You're investing, you're investigating someone who happens to be a veteran, an astronaut, a hero to many Americans. For what? Telling the troops to follow the law? I mean, it's just crazy.
In a normal world where you actually had a president who respects the Constitution and a secretary of defense who follows the law himself, they would just say, yeah, of course. Of course, the troops should follow the law. We're only going to give you lawful orders.
But that's not what you're hearing. It's almost as if the president wants to start an illegal war in Venezuela. Or maybe we have a secretary of defense who himself violated the law, sharing classified information with his family, texting it to them, something that would have gotten any private under his command, thrown into prison.
So suddenly, he's a little bit nervous that veterans in Congress are simply saying to our troops, just a reminder, follow the law.
BURNETT: Congressman, I appreciate your time and thank you.
MOULTON: Good to see you, Erin.
BURNETT: And next, the plunge in crypto affecting the Trump family personally, more than $1 trillion in value gone in weeks.
Plus, a number of MAGA influencers reposted by Trump. And we're now learning more about them, about the foreign trolls who own the accounts. And it is all because of something Elon Musk did. It's an important report you'll see here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:37:25]
BURNETT: Tonight, cryptocurrency cratering, losing more than $1 trillion in market value just since last month.
All right. Take a look at bitcoin. It hit a record high on October 6th. Now it's down more than 30 percent. I mean, still at an incredibly high price. It seems between $80,000 and $90,000 since Friday. But it is a tumble. And it rattled Wall Street and the White House.
Dan Alexander of "Forbes", frequent guest, of course, on this show, estimates that President Trump has lost close to $1 billion in personal money on this since the peak of bitcoin in October.
OUTFRONT now, Neel Kashkari, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
You know, crypto is at the core of -- well, all of -- a lot of the surge that we've seen in the market. We've got A.I. We've got crypto. Do you think that we are witnessing a bubble bursting here, I guess explicitly, when it comes to crypto?
NEEL KASHKARI, PRESIDENT AND CEO, FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF MINNEAPOLIS: Well, I would start the segment, Erin, crypto and A.I., there's nothing fundamental underneath crypto. So, I've compared crypto to Beanie Babies for a long, long time. Beanie Babies prices went up. They went down. Who knows why.
A.I. are trillions of dollars now are going to be invested in A.I., and I'm much more confident that A.I. is actually doing things that are useful in the economy. That will ultimately make us more productive as an economy. Will all that investment pay off? I don't know if all of it will pay off, but at least there are real use cases for A.I. I can't say that for crypto.
BURNETT: All right. So, I'm curious about this because there are so many who, you know, have been critics of crypto who have come around and then suddenly gotten on board. But I actually -- you just said Beanie Babies. I get that maybe everyone watching gets that right. Who knows why people want Beanie Babies while they're hot at some cabbage patch kids? Strawberry shortcakes whatever you want to call them at that time.
But crypto itself, you have criticized it, whether it be Beanie Babies or other words you've used over the years -- nonsense, fraudulent. What do you think of crypto at this point? I mean, you were talking about something. Even with this plunge, that's still worth almost $100,000 to buy part of it.
KASHKARI: Yeah, I just -- I just asked people, what can you do with it in America? What problem is it solving? I've been asking this question now for a decade, and I haven't gotten any good answers.
The best example is that if you want to get around banking regulations and know your customer and anti-money laundering regulations, it's a way to do that. That sounds lousy to me as a Federal Reserve policymaker. Now people say, well, stablecoins, this other thing is a little bit different. That should be safer.
[19:40:00]
But I still don't know what problem it's solving. You know, I can send you $5 right now with Venmo. That is effectively a stablecoin. So what is it that this new crypto thing can do, that existing products like Venmo or PayPal can't do? Nobody's been able to answer that.
So, I don't spend a lot of my time thinking about crypto. I'm much more interested in A.I. and what it means for the future of the economy.
BURNETT: All right. So let's talk about that, I guess adjacent to the real economy itself, the San Francisco Fed president, Mary Daly, she rarely breaks with Jerome Powell, but now is in favor of lowering interest rates at the next Fed meeting. And the reason is jobs.
And we know he's talked about worries about jobs. Youve talked about that with me. But she told "The Wall Street Journal", "On the labor market, I don't feel as confident as we can get ahead of it. It's vulnerable. Enough now."
And some of the headlines out there, Bloomberg, some U.S. consumers say recession is here. "Business Insider," the U.S. economy's seven deadly signs. "Fortune", half U.S. states are effectively in a recession right now.
You know, I just am contrasting. That's the real economy that everybody is living in. A.I. is this -- it's not virtual. It is real in some -- in some sense. But the A.I. stocks, Nvidia, I mean, what's happened with Nvidia is incredible, right? When you look at how much it surged.
Are you worried that were in a recession and that the divergence between what we're seeing in the A.I. market and the real economy that we're all living in is simply too divergent to have both things be true?
KASHKARI: Well, there's a big divergence just for the reasons that you said, Erin. But, you know, I've been talking to a lot of companies that have large consumer operations, and what they tell me is that their middle class and lower income consumers are really feeling stressed. And you can see it in the spending behavior.
People are going to lower price restaurants. They're going to lower priced grocery stores. They're shopping, you know, lower priced brands, for example. So those look recessionary.
But if you drill into why are they feeling that stress? Part of the reason they're feeling that stress is because of inflation that they've experienced over the last four or five years. And so yes, I agree that the Federal Reserve can affect the labor market and that we ought to be able to support the labor market from having a further increase too much, hopefully, in unemployment. But if people are just feeling economic hardship because of inflation, if we cut rates, that doesn't help the inflation problem for the American family.
And so, this is a particularly tricky time for the federal reserve to try to navigate that, given that we just have monetary policy as our only tool.
BURNETT: Yeah. It is a moment where it just -- it's good you've got it, but it just doesn't feel enough as you point out, right? It's too blunt. It's too blunt.
All right. Neel -- well, I appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you for being with me.
KASHKARI: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, Elon Musk's new policy exposes a number of MAGA influencers to actually be foreign trolls -- trolls that have actually caught Trump's attention. This is a really fascinating report coming up.
And new reaction from the Kennedy family tonight after JFK, Jr.'s granddaughter reveals she may have less than a year to live while also taking aim at RFK, Jr.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:47:37]
BURNETT: So we have new details tonight about how a new policy implemented by none other than Elon Musk exposed a wave of foreign trolls posting and posing as MAGA social influencers on x. In fact, President Trump himself has reposted some of those trolls to his Truth Social platform.
CNN's Hadas Gold is OUTFRONT
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The X account MAGA Nation with nearly 400,000 followers, boasts itself as standing strong with President Trump and America first with post after post backing Trump. But one click shows it's based in Eastern Europe. One of its most popular posts about the Epstein files has been viewed 1.9 million times. It's just one of a number of popular political accounts, mainly pro-Trump, outed when Elon Musk's X rolled out a new feature that shows where accounts are actually located, from Russia to Nigeria. Dozens of accounts revealed to be based outside of the United States.
Another this account, named America first, featuring the image of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. It's operated by someone based in Bangladesh, posting things like this image saying President Trump will go down in history as the greatest president of all time. Even president Trump himself, reposting several accounts that are not from the United States on his Truth Social platform, like this account called Commentary. Donald Trump posting about whether foreign born citizens should be barred from running for office. The account itself based in Africa.
The revelations bringing back memories of 2016, when Russian state-run networks of fake accounts and bogus online personas to tried to influence that year's election by boosting Trump.
JEH JOHNSON, FORMER SECRETARY OF DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: It's going to get worse before it gets better. And bad cyber actors all the time are more and more ingenious, more tenacious, and more aggressive.
GOLD (voice-over): While it's not clear any of these accounts are from a coordinated foreign influence campaign, experts say there are financial and political incentives behind such accounts.
JAKE SHAPIRO, PROFESSOR OF POLITICS & INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: There are some people who hop on lots of different issues that can get attention and therefore drive revenue and monetization and ads. And then there are people who have political goals, both benign and more malign. Foreign countries that have organizations that are dedicated to trying to shape U.S. politics.
GOLD (voice-over): While X has suspended some of the MAGA accounts, the company did not respond to a request for comment. It's head of product said the new feature is an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square, while warning there were still some kinks to work out on the feature.
[19:50:06]
SHAPIRO: Well, I think X and many other companies have an existential problem that's coming, which is it's going to become increasingly hard to figure out what is real human and what is A.I. agents.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: So, Hadas is here.
Hadas, you know, when you were watching that, right? You're thinking of these -- some of these Russian troll accounts, right? People might think back to 2016, when Russian troll accounts were important in the election itself. Is there any indication that what we saw then is coordinated with what you're reporting on now?
GOLD: It's hard to tell yet whether there's sort of a coordinated foreign influence campaign. Researchers are still digging into this data. But I think -- and it's also important to say that CNN cannot independently verify X's own location data. But I think it's important to note a big difference between what we have today and what happened in 2016. And that is now there's a big financial incentive because x within the last year or so made it so that creators can earn a lot of money based off of engagement that they get.
If you look a lot of these accounts that we found that were based out of other countries, a lot of them are engaging this sort of engagement farming, trying to get people to respond to them. And so, there is a question of whether it's just more of a financial incentive.
BURNETT: So less of a political motivation or foreign intelligence.
GOLD: I'm sure there's political motivations out there. But there's a lot of money-making incentives as well.
BURNETT: All right. Hadas, thank you very much.
And next, we're hearing more from the Kennedy family after the heartbreaking announcement from JFK, Jr.'s granddaughter that she may have less than a year to live.
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[19:56:06]
BURNETT: Tonight, the Kennedy family rallying around John F. Kennedy, Jr.'s granddaughter, Tatiana Schlossberg, who revealed she has terminal cancer. And also taking direct aim at Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s cuts to health care.
Katherine Schwarzenegger, daughter of Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger, said of her cousin's diagnosis, "I am and continue to be grateful for all of the doctors and nurses helping her and encourage you to read her words about how the state of the country. The cuts and uncertainty impacts and terrifies those in medicine and receiving treatment like Tatiana".
Sunlen Serfaty is OUTFRONT
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TATIANA SCHLOSSBERG, GRANDDAUGHTER OF JFK, JR.: Hi, I'm Tatiana Schlossberg.
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Five years ago, Tatiana Schlossberg seemed healthy.
SCHLOSSBERG: I was so surprised that people, I don't know, want to listen to me talk.
SERFATY (voice-over): But now, 35 years old, with all forms of treatment, exhausted, Schlossberg is sharing that her doctors say she has less than one year to live. "I feel so cheated and so sad that I don't get to keep living this wonderful life."
The daughter of Caroline Kennedy --
JOHN F. KENNEDY, JR., FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: We shall pay any price --
SERFATY (voice-over): -- and granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy, Schlossberg says routine blood work performed the same day she gave birth to her daughter last year revealed a rare version of acute myeloid leukemia that does not have a cure.
Her brother, Jack Schlossberg, who recently announced he is running for Congress, posting, "Life is short. Let it rip."
Her cousin, Katherine Schwarzenegger, saying she has only tears and anger reading that this is her reality.
Maria Sshriver, the journalist and cousin to Schlossberg's mother, Caroline Kennedy, saying, "Let it be a reminder to be grateful for the life you are living today. Right now, this very minute."
Schlossberg is herself a journalist and author, writing about the environment and climate change.
SCHLOSSBERG: Somebody actually does pay for the cost. We pay for the cost in terms of the ecosystem health or the health to the oceans.
SERFATY (voice-over): She is the mother of two young children, a one- year-old daughter and a three-year-old son. Part of a broader family that has a history of tragedy which has often played out for the world to see. Her grandfather's assassination as president, the assassination of her great Uncle Robert Kennedy, the plane crash that killed her uncle John F. Kennedy Jr., among many others.
She painfully acknowledges she is now adding to it. "For my whole life, I have tried to be good, to be a good student and a good sister and a good daughter, and to protect my mother and never make her upset or angry. Now I have added a new tragedy to her life, to our family's life, and there's nothing I can do to stop it."
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Ted Kennedy once said he wonders if there's such a thing as a Kennedy curse because of so many untimely deaths or family members who hit freak accidents. The historian, the pragmatist in me just doesn't believe in curses. I think it's just sad.
SERFATY (voice-over): Schlossberg described undergoing a series of treatments chemotherapy, bone marrow transplants and a clinical trial of immunotherapy as her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is at odds with much of the rest of the family, was confirmed as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, calling him an embarrassment. "I watched from my hospital bed as Bobby, in the face of logic and
common sense, was confirmed for the position despite never having worked in medicine, public health or the government."
Schlossberg says that her remaining time is not going to be about politics, but about her children, writing that as she watches her young kids play, "Sometimes I trick myself into thinking I'll remember this forever. I'll remember this when I'm dead."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SERFATY (on camera): And we reached out to HHS to get comment from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. They did not get back to CNN, and RFK has not said anything yet publicly about his second cousin, about her diagnosis or her mention of him in this article.
But this family tension, Erin, RFK has addressed in the past. Of course, without this new context. He has said that they have a large family and that they were raised to differ with each other on issues -- Erin.
BURNETT: Sunlen, thank you very much.
And thanks to all of you for being with us.
"AC360" begins now.
