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Sources Say, As Many As Three Search Warrants in CEO Killing Probe; Wavering Senators Face Major Pressure Campaign from Trump Allies; Lawmakers Briefed on Unsettling New Jersey Drone Sightings. Missing U.S. Citizen Apparently Found In Syria; Biden Grants Clemency For Nearly 1,500 People In Biggest Single-Day Act In Modern U.S. History. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired December 12, 2024 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, sources are telling CNN authorities have executed as many as three search warrants in the CEO killing investigation. And ABC News is reporting a New York grand jury is already hearing evidence in the case against the suspect, Luigi Mangione.

Also tonight, Republican senators are feeling the heat right now as Donald Trump's allies unleashed an aggressive pressure campaign on lawmakers wavering over some of his controversial cabinet picks. This as the president-elect lays out a blueprint for his return to the White House in a wide ranging new interview.

And in New Jersey right now, fear and frustration are mounting as weeks of mysterious drone sightings terrify residents. We have new details on a briefing federal authorities just gave lawmakers.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in The Situation Room.

First up tonight in The Situation Room, breaking news in the CEO killing investigation, sources now say police have executed as many as three search warrants as they probed the murder of Brian Thompson. And according to ABC News, prosecutors in Manhattan are now presenting the mounting evidence against the suspect, Luigi Mangione, to a grand jury.

Our Senior Crime and Justice Correspondent Shimon Prokupecz is on the story for us. Shimon, fill us in on these late breaking developments.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, that's right, CNN is learning that three search warrants have now. At least three search warrants have been executed in connection with this investigation.

You have, as you will recall, there was a backpack that it's believed the gunman was wearing. Police recovered that inside Central Park. And in it, they found Monopoly money. They also found a jacket, they believe, belonged to the alleged shooter. So, for all of that, police were able to obtain that search warrant to search inside the bag.

Also significant is that they have been working with a search warrant for a burner phone. There was a cell phone that's been described as a burner phone that was located near the scene of the shooting that they believe is connected to the gunman. So, authorities have a search warrant for that phone.

The question now, Wolf, becomes is whether or not authorities, the police, have been able to get inside the phone, whether or not they've been able to crack the code to get inside and look at the contents of the phone. That is very, very important for investigators who are trying to build out a timeline as to what the alleged shooter was doing during his time here in New York City and, of course, in the days and months before. So, they have all of that.

Meanwhile, while all that is going on, we now have learned through ABC News that a grand jury has already been impaneled and they are hearing evidence. That is not that surprising, Wolf. It is important for authorities to move very quickly in this case. Certainly, based on everything we've been reporting between the ballistics match and the fingerprint match, they now have enough evidence, it would appear, to get an indictment. So, it won't be very difficult.

The question, though, we heard from the D. A., Alvin Bragg, yesterday, who said they are trying to figure out exactly what to charge the alleged shooter with. They definitely will charge the murder, too. But given the calculated nature of this, what is essentially an assassination, could they possibly bring other charges against the shooter? And that is something that we wait to hear from the D.A. And we can have an indictment, Wolf, really, any moment now.

BLITZER: Very interesting. All right, Shimon Prokuepcz, thank you very much for that update.

Our legal and law enforcement experts are now joining us for some analysis. Andrew McCabe, let me start with you. Breakdown for us the significance of prosecutors at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office beginning now to present evidence to a grand jury against Mangione.

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Sure, Wolf. So, it's obviously an essential step in this process. Everybody has a right to be indicted by a grand jury of their peers before they're put on trial for any criminal offense.

Sometimes people are arrested on complaints and then indicted later, but in this case, anticipating that they will be receiving Mr. Mangione from the state of Pennsylvania at some point in the near future, they're trying to get their ducks in a row.

[18:05:05]

So, they're very careful about bringing, as they collect more evidence that points to his guilt, like we learned about the positive ballistics match from the firearm yesterday. We know, as Shimon just told us, about the information that was contained, the articles that were contained within the backpack, the positive fingerprints that were recovered from the water bottle and the Kind bar wrapper, these are all things that the prosecutors will put in front of the jurors to defeat a potential defense, which will be, it wasn't me.

That's probably the best defense that he has to go with at this point, although I would argue it's not a particularly strong one. So, they are going to pound these grand jurors with every piece of evidence that indicates he was there, he had that gun, he is the guy you see on that video.

BLITZER: Elliot Williams, you're our legal analyst. How likely do you think an indictment is in this case right now? What is the chances that there will be an indictment, in your view?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Based on what's publicly available, very high, Wolf. And this is just to back up the things Andrew has said.

Now, over the last couple of days, I've gotten the question several times, if he's already been charged with a crime, why are they going to the grand jury? Well, it's the way New York law is crafted. As Andrew had said, he was, in effect, informed of the charges against him in a complaint, which is almost a lower form of notifying a defendant of the charges that he might be facing.

The kinds of things that we're looking at here, a homicide charge, a second degree murder charge, or perhaps more, as Shimon had said at the start here, has to go through a New York grand jury.

Now, based on the evidence that's available, number one, suggesting that this suspect was at the scene of the crime, the ballistics evidence, the fingerprint evidence, some of the information from Pennsylvania, eyewitnesses and so on, seem to suggest that there is probable cause to move forward with an indictment. I would think we would see one quite soon.

BLITZER: So, Elliot, let me follow up. How strong is the evidence that we know about right now for an indictment against Mangione in New York?

WILLIAMS: Now, again, based on what's publicly available, very strong. The standard is probable cause. Is it more likely than not that an individual committed an offense? That's the standard for charging someone. It's not reasonable doubt, the very high standard that it'll take to actually send someone to jail and deprive them of their liberty. But, again, more likely than not, is there a substantial likelihood that the individual committed the offense. Based on that evidence that we have seen in the public thus far, yes, likely that you'd get indictment.

Now, of course, he has a right to mount a defense, if he wishes, and can challenge any of the evidence, can challenge the integrity of it, how it was preserved, how it was maintained. But, of course, just for getting to the indictment stage, I would think we are there.

BLITZER: Chief Ramsey is with us as well, Chief Ramsey, the former police commissioner in Philadelphia, police chief here in Washington, D.C. Chief Ramsey, what stands out to you about the three search warrants we now know the NYPD executed?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, what stands out is the fact that they're doing everything by the book. I mean, this is a case that they want to be very careful, that they don't do anything that could jeopardize the case. Elliot mentioned earlier the preservation and the collection of evidence for an example, making sure that they've done everything properly, getting search warrants before they go into the bag, getting search warrants in order to get into the phone. All those things are necessary so that they don't have a problem later on when this case goes to trial.

They've got strong evidence right now. They've got strong forensic evidence. We're still waiting on DNA, I would imagine. But they have the gun, they have the silencer, they have the fake I.D. that he used in New York at the hostel, and then, of course, his writings, where he pretty much describes the why he did it.

So, they've got a good case. They just don't want to take anything for granted. So, they are definitely doing things by procedure.

BLITZER: And, Andrew, you're the former deputy director of the FBI. This is all on top of the very impressive ballistic and fingerprint evidence tying Mangione to the scene of the crime as we just heard from Chief Ramsey. So, how challenging is it going to be for him to mount a credible defense here?

MCCABE: It's going to be very challenging, Wolf. You know, this is the -- one of the unique details of this crime is we all saw it happen. There's no question that Brian Thompson was the victim of a horribly targeted assassination on the street of Manhattan. The only question really for the prosecutors in Manhattan to have to address is to prove that Luigi Mangione was the man we saw in that video shooting Brian Thompson.

So, he, of course, will likely take the opposite perspective saying, hey, it wasn't me.

[18:10:04]

I wasn't there. It's somebody else. I look like that guy, but that's not really me. That becomes harder and harder to present credibly to a jury with every piece of evidence that puts him at the scene of the crime and that ties him to the murder weapon specifically.

For me, his possession of the murder weapon in the backpack when he's arrested in Pennsylvania is absolutely inexplicable. There are probably a thousand places he could have gotten rid of that gun between Manhattan and Pennsylvania. The fact that he chose not to do so will probably be the worst decision he made in terms of his defense of these charges.

The charges are very strong. It'll be interesting to see how they face them. But we'll just have to let time play out to understand that. BLITZER: Elliot, I want to play for you and our viewers some of what the D.A. in New York, Alvin Bragg, said about the public reaction, at least so far, to this case. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALVIN BRAGG, MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Celebrating this conduct is abhorrent to me. It's deeply disturbing. And what I would say to members of the public, people who, as you described, are celebrating this and maybe contemplating other action, that we will be vigilant and we will hold people accountable. We are at the ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, what do you make of that?

WILLIAMS: I think he's doing two things, Wolf. Number one, he's making the big moral point that we should never cheer violence and never cheer vigilantism, but also he's trying to ensure that he gets a clean jury pool. He needs to ensure the public that anybody who's coming at this case and looking at it ought to see it with a fair eye. And it's really just a matter of trying one defendant, not some bigger, broader political matter that can get people kicked off a jury for being biased.

BLITZER: And this is all just beginning right now, this case. All right, everyone, thank you very, very much.

Just ahead, there's more breaking news just coming into The Situation Room on Donald Trump's inauguration and whether China's president will accept an invitation to attend.

And later, CNN is live in Syria once again with our own Clarissa Ward. She has another gripping new report inside a morgue. Police searching for missing family and friends, fearing their loved ones were the last victims of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:15:00]

BLITZER: More breaking news coming into The Situation Room tonight. We've just learned a delegation of senior Chinese officials is expected to attend President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20th.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is joining us. She's live near Mar-a-Lago, down in Florida for us. What are you learning precisely, Kristen?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, we knew that Donald Trump had reached out to Xi Jinping to offer an invitation to the inauguration. He had done this through aides, and now we are learning that Xi Jinping is not going to attend but instead send this delegation.

But the move itself of Donald Trump reaching out is really unprecedented, particularly reaching out to this communist leader. And one of the things that we have heard is that this is how Donald Trump has been handling a lot of the inauguration outreach, that he has been going to various foreign leaders when he's having phone calls with them or when he runs into them, like when he was in France visiting the reopening of Notre Dame. Then he is asking them if they want to come to the inauguration. It's almost informal conversation.

We've also heard behind the scenes that there have been some back- channeling in terms of administration or incoming administration reaching out to various delegations or world leaders to invite them to the inauguration. All of this is because Donald Trump himself wants it to be a global affair.

Usually, how this process works is that you don't see foreign leaders at the inaugurations. Instead the joint committee that does the inauguration, it's a bipartisan committee, reaches out to the diplomats in various countries, they go through the State Department and invite them to the inauguration. But it really is up to the president, or incoming president, to determine if they want to invite foreign leaders. And Donald Trump himself has decided that he wants to make this, again, a global affair. So, he has been doing the reach out.

Now, I was told in some, say some circumstances, it was him on a phone call about a completely different matter and casually mentioning, why don't you come to the inauguration?

So, we'll see how this actually plays out. We don't have answers on who's actually coming. And particularly because of the informal nature, not even some of his closest aides know who he has invited. So, we'll still have to watch and see who actually accepts and shows up on inauguration day.

BLITZER: All right. Kristen Holmes reporting for us from West Palm Beach down near Mar-a-Lago, in Florida, thank you very much.

Coming up, new CNN reporting on a behind the scenes pressure campaign by allies of Donald Trump to make sure all Republicans in the Senate fall in line behind his cabinet picks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:20:00]

BLITZER: Tonight here in Washington, allies of President-elect Donald Trump are delivering a rather blunt message to Republicans still wavering over his contentious cabinet choices until they fall in line or else, that's the message.

Our Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju has the latest details for us. He's joining us live from Capitol Hill. Manu, tell us about this pressure campaign. I understand it's rather intense, and is it working?

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they're threats, Wolf, for primary challenges. In fact, one Republican senator who voted to convict Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial, Bill Cassidy is already facing primary challengers. Others who are allied with Donald Trump are saying that if anyone breaks ranks, that they could also face primary challenges in 2026, and some of those senators coming from some conservative states.

Now, there's also pushback from Republican senators who say that going too far could actually lead to some of these members breaking from Donald Trump and actually could backfire in some ways. And one senator who has broken with Trump repeatedly over the years, Senator Lisa Murkowski, someone who opposed his pick of Brett Kavanaugh to serve in the Supreme Court, also voted to convict Donald Trump in that second impeachment trial, indicated that this effort is all trying to get Republicans to toe the line.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): The approach is going to be everybody toe the line. Everybody line up. We got you here. And if you want to survive, you better be good. Don't get on Santa's naughty list here because we will primary you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[18:25:00]

RAJU: But even so, Wolf, this pressure campaign seems to have worked to some extent. Senator Joni Ernst, one person who had been critical, at least had been pointedly declined to take a position on Pete Hegseth to be the next defense secretary after much online pushback and pressure, Wolf. She's been more positive going forward.

She contends it has nothing to do with that pressure campaign, but a lot of people believe that it is effective in at least keeping these Republicans let them keep the door open to some of these more controversial picks.

BLITZER: And, Manu, it's interesting. Hegseth was up on Capitol Hill today, as you well know, for more meetings with senators, including his first meeting with a Democratic senator.

RAJU: Yes. And, look, for most of this time, these controversial nominees have been meeting with Republicans, trying to keep all Republicans in line. But now for the first time, Pete Hegseth meeting with John Fetterman amid all those concerns about allegations of past misconduct and the like, Fetterman told me that they would discuss this and going into the meeting.

And I asked him if he was open to backing Hegseth for the job, and he indicated some openness.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): I have decided to engage with people that are going to be incredibly important parts of the new administration.

RAJU: Are you open to supporting him? FETTERMAN: Well, I'm hoping to having a conversation. That's where I'm at. A lot still has to happen before all of that place, where, again, the FBI vetting and the hearing.

RAJU: Are you going to support him?

SEN. TODD YOUNG (R-IN): I haven't decided yet as I shared with him and I'm happy to share with others.

We had a very fulsome meeting, we covered everything on my mind and I suspect the minds of most everyone who's watching this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And that last comment came from Senator Todd Young of Indiana. He's someone who actually did not support Donald Trump this election year. He's, of course, a conservative Republican, someone to watch as a potential swing vote. He met over an hour with Hegseth last night. He said he has not taken a position yet, but also, Wolf, someone who is subject to that pressure campaign, even though he brushed that off and said it would not affect his vote, but he's someone to watch, as Republicans and the Trump team tries to get Republicans in line, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, that pressure campaign is intense. Manu Raju up on Capitol Hill, thank you very much.

We're also getting right now some new remarks from the president-elect as he prepares to return to the White House.

CNN's Brian Todd is digging into Trump's lengthy person of the year interview with Time Magazine. Brian, what are some of the main takeaways?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the takeaways are that Donald Trump may try to use a controversial tactic to deport illegal migrants, that he might try to do away with some vaccines for children, and that some people involved in the January 6th attack might get a reprieve from the president-elect.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: Thank you.

TODD (voice over): The now two-time Time Magazine Person of the Year spared little controversy in his interview. President-elect Donald Trump saying, in his first hour in office, he'll look at possibly pardoning people convicted of participating in the January 6th attack on the Capitol, focusing on the nonviolent offenders.

Quote, I'm going to do case by case, and if they were nonviolent. I think they've been greatly punished. I'm going to look if there's some that were really out of control.

VIVIAN SALAMA, NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: There is a lot of pressure from the base to see this happen. People in Trump's base really feel like these people were treated unfairly. TODD: Trump also reiterating to Time his plan to use the American military to deport migrants who entered the U.S. illegally, a stand that was popular with his base during the campaign.

TRUMP: We will use all necessary state, local, federal, and military resources to carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.

TODD: Trump told Time he'll push to use the military for deportations, quote, up to the maximum level of what the law allows. Although U.S. law says the military can't be used to enforce domestic laws without an act of Congress, Trump said, it doesn't stop the military if it's an invasion of our country. And I consider it an invasion of our country.

Trump also seemed to be open to the unproven, debunked theory that childhood vaccines cause autism, an idea often peddled by Trump's pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an unabashed vaccine skeptic.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., INDEPENDENT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I do believe that autism does come from vaccines.

TODD: Trump told Time he'll direct Kennedy to study the matter and would consider getting rid of some vaccines for children, quote, we will know for sure what's good and not good.

How will real health experts react to Trump and RFK Jr. determining what's good and not good?

SALAMA: Of course, there's going to be enormous pushback if Trump and RFK Jr. are the ones that are assessing scientifically, medically or otherwise, what is good and not good. Every case is different. And you need enormous medical research, scientific research to back that up.

TODD: Trump told Time he vehemently disagrees with the Biden administration's decision to allow Ukraine to use American-made weapons to strike inside Russia. We're just escalating this war and making it worse, Trump said, fueling worries that his administration might curtail U.S. aid to Ukraine.

[18:30:02]

Trump complaining in a recent interview with NBC about how much the U.S. was paying.

TRUMP: Europe is in for a fraction, and war with Russia is more important for Europe than it is for us. We have a little thing called an ocean in between us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on camera): In that interview with Time, Trump declined to say whether he's actually spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin since the election. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Brian Todd reporting, Brian, thank you very much.

Our political experts are joining me right now for some serious analysis. And, Nia-Malika Henderson, does another part of this Time Magazine interview with Trump. I want to get your reaction to this. Let me put it up on the screen. The president-elect is moving the goalposts on some of his pledges, like lowering the price of groceries. It's hard to bring things down once they're up, Trump says. You know it's very hard. And in addition to repeatedly saying he would bring prices down when he was out there on the campaign trail, listen to what he was saying just last week. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're going to do things that a lot of people thought. We're going to drill baby drill. We're going to get your prices down.

I started using the word, the groceries, when you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time. And I won an election based on that. We're going to bring those prices way down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, why do you think Trump is now backing away from that plan?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, it's unclear. I mean, one of the things that's clear is he never really had a plan to actually bring down grocery prices, right? He thinks that tariffs are a magical solution to bringing down the cost of everything, they'll even pay for your daycare apparently if you have tariffs. Of course, tariffs are inflationary. So, that wouldn't work. Even when he talks about expanding oil production in terms of lowering prices, there are record high of oil production currently, so that doesn't seem to work either.

But it is interesting that in this interview, he is suddenly, you know, sort of, in reality, in many ways, because it is very hard to bring down prices once they go up. We'll see what his voters think, and we'll see in a hundred days or so what the price of eggs and milk is at the grocery store and what voters think.

BLITZER: We shall see.

Shermichael Singleton is with us. Shermichael, was Trump being honest with the American people when he said he would bring grocery prices down?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, I think he was honest in terms of wanting to bring grocery prices down, Wolf. But if you look at the data that just came out this CPI, Consumer Price Index rose around 2.3 percent. And so there are some indications across the economy and a lot of economists appear to agree there's general consensus here that the strategies that were put in place maybe 60 days ago, or let's say the third quarter, right, we're in the last quarter of this year haven't necessarily yielded the results that the Fed chair would have hoped for.

And so my question becomes what type of economy will the president- elect be walking into once he's ultimately sworn in? And what strategies will Republicans attempt to put in play to do what the president argued he would do for several months, which is to bring down that price and cost of living for the American people?

BLITZER: Let me get Kate Bedingfield into this conversation. Do you see an opening, Kate, for Democrats right now that Trump is seemingly backing away from his promise, his pledge to bring prices down?

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, absolutely. I mean, President Trump is going to learn, or relearn, I guess, that it is much more challenging to be president in many ways than it is to campaign for president. And I think the Democrats will have a big opportunity here because the reality is the president of the United States only has limited influence over fiscal policy in this country and limited impact on how much something at the grocery store costs. There are many other factors that go into determining what the cost of eggs is.

But, you know, I think Democrats are going to have an opportunity here to lay this at the feet of Donald Trump once he's president. You know, any domestic policy that he puts forward, Democrats will reasonably be able to paint as driving up prices or at least not bringing prices down if that is in fact what we see happening here. And it's clear that he is recognizing that a little bit as he's kind of backing off a little bit rhetorically. So, yes, they will absolutely have an opening here.

BLITZER: It's interesting. On Capitol Hill, Nia-Malika, Senate Republicans who express any concern or facing growing pressure from Trump-aligned forces. Here's one example from Mark Caputo of The Bulwark. Let me put it up on the screen. Shortly after Joni Ernst offered a chilling reception to Pete Hegseth's nomination to head the Department of Defense, she recognized she was in trouble politically with grassroots Republicans calling for her head. How do I make this go away, a flabbergasted Ernst said, to an intermediary?

And listen to what Senator Lisa Murkowski said about this pressure campaign against Senator Ernst earlier today. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MURKOWSKI: My friend, Joni Ernst, who is probably one of the more conservative, principled Republican leaders in the Senate right now, is being hung out to dry for not being good enough.

[18:35:03]

And you're going to get primaried.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, what does this tell you about how Trump is likely to behave during this next term? HENDERSON: Yes. I mean, he's going to call in the MAGA dogs, I mean, the MAGA mob. And remember, the MAGA mob are the folks who descended on the Capitol on January 6th and behaved in a very violent way. So, if you're somebody like Joni Ernst, there is, of course, the threat of a primary challenge. She's up for reelection in 2026. But there's also a real threat of possible physical danger, right? I mean, given what we know about some of these forces in the MAGA movement, what they have done already. And Donald Trump certainly knows that he has this very vast array of folks out there who are willing to do almost anything to make sure that he gets his way, to make sure that he stays in power and as well to make sure that Republicans toe the line.

So, listen, if you're Joni Ernst, you probably are a bit nervous about what it would mean if you stand up to Donald Trump, the MAGA dogs are going to be after you.

BLITZER: These Trump allies are not shy, by any means. Republican Senator, Shermichael, Thom Tillis is warning that this pressure campaign on his colleagues risks backfiring on the Trump administration. Do you agree?

SINGLETON: I don't agree with that. I mean, the president-elect received over 90 percent of Republican voters support in this election. If voters in their states are calling them and saying, we expect that you support these individuals, that's their job. Those are the people who empowered them to represent them. And if they aren't going to support these individuals, at least have enough decency and respect for the president-elect to say, look, I'm not going to wait two, three, four weeks. I'm just not going to vote for this person. You don't have the support, Mr. President. Choose someone else. But that's not what we're seeing here.

So, I understand the frustration among many Republicans, including allies of the president-elect, make a determination on these things, Wolf, and stop playing games. You're either going to support some of these folks or you are not, but make it clear. Stop saying, I'm going to wait, I need another conversation. How many conversations do you need to make a decision?

BLITZER: Kate, do you foresee Republican senators standing up to Trump amid this very immense pressure campaign that's now underway, even on the most controversial cabinet nominees?

BEDINGFIELD: Past precedent would suggest no, you know, and I think the math is very candidly in Donald Trump's favor here. I mean, he can lose three senators, so he can lose Murkowski, he can lose Collins, he can lose a third, and still get his nominees across the finish line, and a lot of the votes he will need are from Republican senators who need the MAGA base in their states.

So, you know, I think the reality is that this will be very challenging for some of these senators to stand up to this really muscular MAGA campaign. And I think what we saw from Senator Ernst around Pete Hegseth is the perfect illustration of that.

BLITZER: All right. Guys, thank you very, very much. Coming up, we're getting new details tonight on mysterious drone sightings in the skies over New Jersey. Officials addressing a potential national security risk as key lawmakers push for answers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:00]

BLITZER: U.S. security officials have just briefed lawmakers here in Washington on a series of unexplained and unsettling drone sightings in the skies over New Jersey. Concerns have been mounting for weeks now about the mysterious drones, with some authorities worrying they could be surveying critical infrastructure.

CNN's Omar Jimenez has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA ROSSETTO, WITNESSED DRONES: What are they? Who's sending them up there? What are they doing there? Why doesn't anybody know what they are, you know, and why New Jersey?

JANET MOSNER, WITNESSED DRONES: They actually flew in a circle around our building, both of them, and then crossed and then disappeared.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The FBI is now investigating weeks of reported drones over New Jersey. That's according to a document given to state and local officials, as a growing number of people report seeing drones. Some described as six feet in diameter flying in the skies.

NICK TECCHIO, STUDENT WHO WITNESSSED DRONES: You see like red and green, like flashing lights on the corners. They'll just change direction, like go from like 90 to like 270 degrees, just like fly different directions, and planes obviously can't do that.

JIMENEZ: There have been questions about when these drones first started popping up. Reports seem to vary, but the Picatinny Arsenal, which is a military installation in Northern New Jersey, has confirmed sightings in the area going back to November 13th, and public officials are starting to get frustrated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're creating so much fear and uneasiness in the public.

MAYOR MICHAEL MELHAM, BELLEVILLE TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY: They appear to actually avoid detection by traditional methods. So, when our helicopter, our state police helicopter has gotten close, lights go off and they go away.

JIMENEZ: So far, authorities have stressed there is no known threat to the public. That's not enough for some.

BRIAN BERGEN (R), NEW JERSEY STATE ASSEMBLY: It's really concerning. And, quite frankly, it's not acceptable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ (on camera): Now we're also hearing from Department of Homeland Security officials tonight who say that there is no known national security risk at this point. What they're trying to do now is to go through some of these reported sightings to see if they're actually drones or instead manned vehicles operating legally, to use their words, which they said has been the case in some of what has been reported.

That said, a lot of the people here that we've spoken to in the New Jersey area insist that they have seen drones and they are wondering why there is not a more readily -- why there's not a more ready explanation. And we're told that this is a hot spot to try and look for some of those drones in this part of Denville, New Jersey. We haven't seen anything yet, but we were told that if we were going to see anything, this would be the place to be.

JIMENEZ: All right. Omar Jimenez, keep us posted, indeed. Thank you very much.

Coming up, a powerful report from our CNN team on the ground in Syria right now, the emotional search to find loved ones who went missing by the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad.

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[18:49:05]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Turning now to Syria, where a missing American citizen has apparently just been located amid the chaos of the swift and stunning rebellion that brought down the Bashar al Assad regime. The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the Biden administration is working very hard right now to bring him home as soon as possible.

All of this as ordinary Syrians desperately search for their loved ones, even as they fear the worst.

CNN's Clarissa Ward has our report. And we need to warn our viewers, it contains graphic content.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A woman wails on the floor of the Mujtahid Hospital.

My mother, she's been missing for 14 years, she says. Where is she? Where's my brother? Where's my husband? Where are they?

Dr. Ahmed Abdullah shows us into the morgue where about 35 bodies have been brought in.

[18:50:02]

Discovered in a military hospital days after the regime fell, they are believed to be some of the last victims of Bashar al Assad. Take a look. This is the crime of the regime. He says even in the

middle ages, they didn't torture people like this.

Another man points to their tattered clothing evidence. He says that most were detainees at the much feared Saydnaya prison. Even in death, they are still only identified by numbers.

Everyone here heard about the horrors that took place in Assad's notorious prisons, but to see it up close is something entirely different.

A lot of them have bruises, have horrible wounds that seem to be consistent with torture. I just saw one woman retching as she came out of the other room.

Families are now going through trying to see if their loved ones are here.

There's not enough room for all of them in the morgue, so a makeshift area has been set up outside.

More and more families stream in. The light from their cell phones the only way of identifying the dead.

My only son, I don't have another. They took him for 12 years now, just because he said no, 12 years, my only son, this woman shouts. I don't know anything about him. I ask Allah to burn him, she says of Assad. Burn him and his sons like he burned my heart.

A crowd swarms when they see our camera. Everyone here has lost someone.

All of these people are asking us to take the names of their loved ones, to help them try to find them.

It is a mark of desperation. Such is the need for answers. But finding those answers will not be easy.

At the military intelligence facility known as the Palestine branch, officers burned documents and destroyed hard drives before fleeing. But their terror was on an industrial scale. Troves and troves of prisoner files remain. It will take investigators years to go through them.

Below ground, more clues etched on the walls of cells that look more like dungeons.

So you can see this list of names of it looks like 93 prisoners here. There's also a schedule for keeping the cell tidy and just graffiti everywhere. People trying to leave marks for someone to find.

Down here, insects are the only life form that thrives. It's clear that anyone who could survive this will never be the same again.

The cells are empty, but the doors are finally open. The quest for answers is just beginning. (END VIDEOTAPE)

WARD (on camera): Now, Wolf, the one thing the Assad regime did do a very good job of was documenting its own crimes. And so the question now is how long will it be until you start to see human rights groups? And investigators coming in to Syria to try to start the vast process of poring through all that data, and then what's the next step towards getting some sort of justice for these people? Could these Syrians choose to do what the Ukrainians did, which was essentially to open themselves up to be under the jurisdiction of the ICC? That would be the hope of many Syrians.

But the disappointment as well, for a lot of people you talk to here, is that Bashar al Assad is very unlikely to ever see his day in court because, of course, he is now in exile in Moscow, Wolf.

BLITZER: Where they've granted him asylum.

Clarissa Ward in Syria, for us doing amazing, powerful reporting. We are so grateful to you and we'll be right back.

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[18:58:29]

BLITZER: President Biden just issued a sweeping clemency proclamation commuting the sentences of some 1,500 people and granting pardons to 39 more.

CNN's Kayla Tausche is joining us from the White House right now. She's got the latest details.

Update our viewers, Kayla.

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's an extensive act of clemency. With just weeks left in Biden's term, he's commuting or shortening the sentence of nearly 1,500 individuals who were released from prison during the COVID 19 pandemic but were confined to their homes. They will now have those sentences shortened.

He's also pardoning 39 individuals who will have their convictions wiped out completely. The president says this is because these individuals have committed what he calls nonviolent crimes, and also shown a successful ability to rehabilitate from their past lives and to reintegrate into their communities. But these actions come after the president faced bipartisan backlash from his pardon two weeks ago of his own son, Hunter Biden. And amid lots of pressure from advocacy groups to do more for other groups like those who are serving death sentences or facing death sentences, or elderly inmates.

Today, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said that the White House and the president will continue reviewing the thousands of petitions before them and that the president will take more action before his term is over.

Here's what she said. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He's going to continue to talk to his team to review any steps that he's going to be taking. He wants to take additional steps, obviously, obviously, to -- to provide meaningful second chances. This is what this is all about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAUSCHE: No word on whether that would include preemptive pardons for Trump's political enemies. We shall see -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Kayla Tausche at the White House for us -- Kayla, thank you very, very much.

And to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.