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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Police: Teacher and Teenager Killed, Shooter Dead; Trump Holds Wide-Ranging News Conference At Mar-A-Lago; Trump On Ousted Syrian Leader: "Assad Was A Butcher". Aired 4-5p ET

Aired December 16, 2024 - 16:00   ET

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

CHIEF SHON BARNES, MADISON, WISCONSIN POLICE: -- deceased who may have been a shooter, you want to make sure that their family is okay.

[16:00:04]

You don't know. And so that is what we're doing right now. It is about the safety of everyone. This is going to be a long day for the Madison Police Department. We just want a little -- some of your patience.

Yes.

REPORTER: Had the school had any prior threats and then just, you know, jumping off of that, do you know if the shooter had had any prior contact before?

BARNES: We do not know that the shooter had any prior contact with law enforcement. But I did do a check of the school. There were some calls, but they were like 911 hang ups, things of that nature. There was nothing that suggested that the school was a place that violence would occur.

REPORTER: Okay, chief, I know that you mentioned that the shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Did that happen before officers arrived at the school? Or when the shooter saw officers coming into the school?

BARNES: Yeah, so let me say that the cause and manner in which the shooter died will be determined by the inmate. But what I can tell you is the shooter was dead upon our arrival, police department arrival, and no officers fired their weapons. Okay?

REPORTER: What are these search warrants you're executing, right? They -- are they at the residence on, like, a device, the shooter had.

BARNES: What do you -- I'm sorry.

REPORTER: Yeah, the search warrants.

BARNES: So they sent out the search warrant is to be able to go in a place that we don't have permission to be in, and make sure that everyone is okay, and then if there's any evidence that we think we need to collect, we could only do that with the use of a search warrant. And so again, we have to determine if there is evidence that we will need. Everyone wants to know what led up to this. Are there any additional threats to public safety? Is this person or

was this person by themselves? There are a lot of questions that we want to answer, but we have to answer the safety questions first and then well move on to some of the more investigatory questions?

REPORTER: Of any of the shooter's devices.

BARNES: I am not, no.

REPORTER: I'm wondering about metal detectors. You mentioned in the first meeting that you were not a fan, but and that this school probably doesn't have them. And do you know other schools that do, do you think that that's something we should start talking about? Metal detectors in schools?

BARNES: I guess the question is, would you want your child to go to a school with or without metal detectors?

REPORTER: I can't answer that.

BARNES: I can't, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So the idea is to create the safest environment that we can without metal detectors. That is my answer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the back.

BARNES: Okay.

REPORTER: Shooting in a Christian school right before the Christmas holiday. Can you address the impact of that? And is the Christmas holiday at all in your belief related to as a motivation for the shooter?

BARNES: Yeah. So to again, to the question of motivation, we don't know why, but to the question of so close to Christmas, we have a lot of people who are going to be impacted. If it's a Christian school, then obviously our holidays, our Christian holidays are very important to the students, very important. It's a time for family, students probably getting ready to go out on break.

And now, the break will be a little less about celebrating Christmas than more about celebrating perhaps friends and loved ones and staff members who perhaps lost their life. That's why I'm asking everyone to, of course, keep Abundant Life Christian School in your thoughts and in your prayers. And well get a couple of more, okay?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay. Real quick.

REPORTER: So it's a private school that takes public money through the voucher system. So what has this revealed about maybe gaps in security or training for staff? Is that something you're thinking about, about whether schools that are private, that take public money need to be, you know, kind of on par with public schools when it comes to safety?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, well, what I'm telling you is, is that in 1997, I began my professional career as a public school teacher. I taught history for four years before becoming a police officer, so I did not get far enough to take courses in administration and budgeting of schools. I don't know what governs private schools if they receive money where that comes from, that would probably be a question that you would probably need to ask someone who's more intimately involved in the school system and what their requirements are if they do receive that.

But you could probably compare what has happened or what goes on their security measures with the security measures of any school, in MMSD. And then that will -- may give you your answer. That's a very --

REPORTER: It's a very quick follow up. Okay. As you know, there has been some criticism to other law departments and their response to these school shooting incidents, particularly involving how did that inform your game plan today and how quickly were your officers able to get into the school? What were they told to do?

BARNES: Sure, we trained on this. As I spoke about earlier, when officers arrive on the on the scene, they immediately go in, which we did in this case, stop the threat, stop the killing, find the killer.

[16:05:06]

That's how we train. And that's exactly what we did today. There's no waiting. There's no coordination of who's in charge. Everyone knows exactly what to do.

I spoke about this earlier. We train on this constantly. Our commanders, including the fire chief, and I was in a commanders training less than two weeks ago going over this exact same scenario for another fictional location. And so all of that came into play today, and our officers performed extremely well based on their training and based on the expectations that they know exactly what to do.

Stop the threat, stop the killing, find the threat.

Mayor?

REPORTER: Can we just do one more?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on. Right here.

MAYOR SATYA RHODES-CONWAY (D), MADISON, WISCONSIN: Thank you all.

I think the questions have been asked, and were straying a little far from what's most important at this point in time, and that is the victims and their families.

I have three things to add. First of all, there is a lot that our community can and will do in the coming days to support the victims and their families, and we will have more information at future briefings. If anyone -- and I would urge you all to include this in your stories -- if anyone needs mental health support as a result of this incident and the coverage of it, I encourage them to reach out to 988 by phone or text, and to get the mental health support that they need.

It is incredibly important that we take care of our community in this very difficult time. We all have a role in preventing gun violence. Our entire community needs to be part of the solution here. There are many things that we can do and we can have those conversations in coming days.

But first and foremost, what needs to be the priority for all of us is supporting our young people. And that is where our community's attention needs to turn. At this point in time, the police department, the fire department, the city, the county will share additional information about the investigation as it becomes available.

But I urge you all to help our community find resources to support their mental health and to find resources to support the victims and families at this time. Thank you all.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stephanie and Cynthia will stick around to answer any other questions about this. That's all.

BARNES: Let me let me just say, let me say just before I go because, the mayor mentioned that this was a whole of government response. It certainly was. And there's so many people that we want to thank. We cannot thank everyone.

But this is also a whole of law enforcement response. Even though we are in different agencies, we all have the same training. And so I want to thank our partners with the FBI who are here with me today, partners with the ATF, Dane County Emergency Management.

Of course, we already talked about our fire department. We've got calls from the attorney general of the United States, Wisconsin State Patrol, our governors office, state patrol, Monona, as well as our sheriffs office. I know I may have left someone out, but thank you for how you responded professionally. Quickly, and according to the way that we all train. And it all came together to ensure that no other persons were hurt. Thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

And you have been listening to the breaking news in this news conference from police and community officials in Madison, Wisconsin. New details just coming in about today's deadly shooting at Abundant Life Christian School, a private, parochial Christian school with about 400 students, K through 12.

Police just confirmed the two victims killed were a teacher and a teenage student. Six other victims were injured, including two students who currently are believed to have life threatening injuries. Police got the call about the shooting just before 11 a.m. local time in Madison, Wisconsin. We learned moments ago that someone at the school called 911 to report the active shooter. Police say the shooter, who was also dead, was a juvenile, was a student at the school.

Madison's police chief, Shon Barnes, noted earlier today this tragic event coming just one week before the holidays.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARNES: To be honest with you, I'm feeling a little dismayed now, so close to Christmas. Every child, every person in that building is a victim and will be a victim forever. And these types of trauma don't just go away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[16:10:03]

TAPPER: Today's deadly shooting in Wisconsin comes two days after the nation marked the anniversary of a different school shooting, the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, which left 26 innocents dead, including 20 children, young children, six and seven years old, as well as six adults.

Today's shooting marks at least the 83rd school shooting so far this year, surpassing last year's total by just one. 2024 has now seen the most school shootings in a single year since CNN began keeping track of this horrific statistic in 2008.

Let's get right to CNN's Shimon Prokupecz and John Miller and Whitney Wild, who is in Madison.

And, Whitney, you're at the press conference. You just asked a question to Chief Shon Barnes on whether the suspect was known to have had any other prior run-ins with the law. What did he say?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he said that the suspect was not known to law enforcement. I also asked if the school had had any threats, and he said they were really little surface things, 911 calls, hang ups, things like that. But there wasn't anything that had indicated that violence would happen at that school, especially that violence would happen today.

Jake, we did learn a little bit more. What we know is that someone from the school called reporting an active shooter, which the police chief says initiates a very specific protocol. The chief described an immediate response from law enforcement, although they did not say exactly what time they made entry.

What we know is that that call came in at 10:57. I and other reporters here asked exactly what time did law enforcement make their way into that school. We are still waiting on that detail.

Law enforcement is saying very little about the shooter, other than to say it was a teenager at the school. Jake. They did not say the age of the shooter. They did not say the shooters gender, but they did say that that shooter had a handgun. And we know from CNN's Josh Campbell that that was a nine millimeter pistol, a very common type of handgun, a very common type of handgun for gun violence.

Further, Jake, we learned that this area was confined to one space, although the chief did not know if it was if it was confined to a hallway or a classroom. Those are still details that were waiting on.

Jake, at this point, the chief does not believe that they had a school resource officer. You know, he that would have come from the city. It would have been one of his officers. He said he is not aware of that.

Further, Jake, and this is something that we learned earlier today, but as well, finalizing this, that when law enforcement finally made entry, Jake, what they saw was that the shooter had died of a self- inflicted gunshot wound.

There are so many questions. The foremost, of course, Jake, is why? Here's what the chief said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARNES: Many of you have asked me about the why of this. Why did this happen? What do we know? What was the motivation? I do not know.

But I will tell you this. Our detectives are working hard in the investigative process to find out as many answers as we can so that we can further prevent these things from happening, not only in this community, but in other communities around our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: Jake, what we know is that the two other people who died, one was a teacher, one was a teenage student. At this point, there are six people who are in critical condition. The chief described that with life-threatening injuries. Four other students have non-life threatening injuries.

Jake, many more questions to answer here. We expect to get an update later this evening, Jake.

TAPPER: Shimon, the police chief noted as officers responded to reports of a school shooting, none of them needed to fire their weapons. I suppose that suggests that the shooter had already killed himself when they arrived?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that is the case. They believe that the shooter shot himself, and I don't want to necessarily at this point. Jake, I don't think were identifying the gender of the shooter. There are some questions. So we can't identify the shooter yet as male or female, as we heard from the police chief there.

But yes, they do believe that the shooter took -- took their own life. And it was in the process of their response. They responded. They got the call around 10:57 a.m. and then within 15 minutes, we heard this incredible tell from the fire chief there of how within 15 minutes they had transported everyone from the scene to the hospital, including the shooter.

The shooter was still alive when emergency officials responded to the scene, and then they even removed that person and they were able to get them some treatment. But they died at the hospital. But the key here, obviously, Jake, is they're still working through trying to identify exactly the shooter.

[16:15:07]

TAPPER: And, John Miller, a law enforcement source, says a nine millimeter pistol was used in the shooting. Tell us about that weapon.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, the typical nine millimeter pistol is a semiautomatic handgun. Most nine millimeter pistols can have a magazine that takes up to 14 rounds, which means if you have one in the chamber, that's 15 rounds. So this is a small, compact weapon, relatively easy to conceal, and one that gives you a large capacity of rounds to fire, which in a case like this, of course, just increases the damage, the danger, the impact.

One of the things that we have learned throughout the terrible and repetitive history of mass shootings and school shootings, but particularly with school shootings, is that most guns come from the home. You know, when we ask questions like, how did this child in every place from Uvalde to other places, you know, obtain these weapons? It comes from the home in most cases, and with a teenager, this is one of the reasons that we hear the chief saying we're obtaining search warrants.

When they go to search that home, they're going to be looking for the phone, the computer, the laptop, the things where they may find the building blocks, the planning, the writings about what led to this shooting to establish motive. Any notes or communiques left behind where maybe the shooter put forth motive.

But they're also going to be looking for are there guns in the home? Are the guns accounted for? Is this one of those guns? Is one not accounted for? Are there boxes, ammunition and so on?

Because they're going to want to obviously find out where this weapon came from and how it ended up in the hands of a student that young.

TAPPER: All right. John Miller, Whitney Wild, Shimon Prokupecz, stand by.

Police are -- police are underscoring right now they do not have a potential motive for today's events. How did detectives begin to determine a motive even with the shooter now dead? I'm going to speak next with some folks who have experience with these kinds of investigations.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:21:12]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETHANY HIGHMAN, PARENT OF STUDENTS AT ABUNDANT LIFE'S CHRISTIAN SCHOOL: That this won't happen and it's the world like that we live in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: New reaction from a mom with children who attend abundant life Christian school, the site of yet another school shooting in the United States of America. Today, it was in Madison, Wisconsin.

Police say a teacher and student were among those killed by another student. I want to bring in retired FBI supervisory special agent, Steve Moore, as well as Marisa Randazzo, former U.S. Secret Service chief psychologist and founder of Sigma Threat Management.

Steve, based on what we know so far about the timeline of the shooting, would you say that the law enforcement response was quick and adequate?

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah, I think it was both. If they had everybody, I don't know the exact response time, but if they had everybody out in 15 minutes, then their response had to be fairly quick because you do need to secure the hallways for the paramedics.

One thing we've learned when I when I was teaching active shooter response is that when most shooters see the first responders arrive, the first lights and siren, they will usually end their shooting, frequently by killing themselves because they don't want. And our other your other guests will probably be able to talk about this more. They don't want to let the police be the ones to end it.

TAPPER: And, Marisa, officials said the school did not have a school resource officer and that the first press conference. They also said they were not aware of any metal detectors at the school.

How common are school resource officers and metal detectors in schools? And are they effective?

MARISA RANDAZZO, FORMER CHIEF PSYCHOLOGIST, U.S. SECRET SERVICE: You know, they're far more common in our public schools and more so in different parts of the country than not. For many, many, many independent and private schools and religious based schools, we don't see them oftentimes because those schools are smaller, but they may have some liaison with local law enforcement.

I'll tell you from the effectiveness standpoint, what we know works for prevention is having a process like school threat assessment, where you can look at emerging, troublesome or alarming behaviors or concerns, rather than necessarily hardening the target with metal detectors. And, you know, sort of an additional police presence. School resource officers are an incredible asset to schools, oftentimes because they develop relationships with the students themselves.

And maybe some of the students go to when they have a problem, when they're worried about someone in crisis, but simply hardening the target doesn't -- doesn't do what we need for school safety.

TAPPER: And we should just note this news just coming in. According to law enforcement officials, the shooter was a female student. And Steve, that seems rather rare.

MOORE: It's quite unusual. It's -- males are predominantly -- I'm searching my mind to see whether I've ever heard of it -- of a female shooter in a school shooting. And so this is amazing. But I will say that while -- while students have concern, committees and things like that are important, we also learned that if you can delay the shooter 3 to 4 minutes at the at the most, you can -- you can usually interdict the shooter.

So you can't -- we can't just say a student of concern committee or a similar thing is going to solve the problem itself, absent some kind of hardening, because as we've seen so many times, people are reluctant to talk about things. And then you get something like this where a female student comes in and you wouldn't have even put two eyes on the situation beforehand.

[16:25:03]

TAPPER: And, Marissa, in terms of campus safety and preventing these horrific shootings, what are some of the things that schools should be looking to do and what should they be looking for in terms of pre- attack indicators of violence?

RANDAZZO: So the vast majority of students who carry out acts like this, male or female, and Steve is absolutely right. The vast majority are male, but females have still carried out a handful of these shootings over the years. What we see are common, alarming behaviors beforehand.

And I'll tell you, kind of the shorthand version of this is that the vast majority of students who carry out school shootings are students who are in crisis. They have problems they feel like they can't solve another way. They look to violence as a solution.

Oftentimes, they either plan to kill themselves at the end, or they're hoping for a suicide by cop. They're hoping responding law enforcement will kill them in the process because they don't want to live anymore.

We have a lot of tools that can help someone who's at that point of desperation and doesn't know what to do, doesn't feel like they can. They can cope with life any longer. And so what schools like Steve was talking about the students of concern committee, behavioral threat assessment committees. These are eyes and ears within the schools.

And often with information that come from the student population, because they are the first ones to likely hear or know if a fellow student is in crisis, they can take a look at what's going on for this student. Talk with the student directly.

Are you thinking about engaging in violence? Are you planning to do so? Why? What's what problem are you trying to solve? And then help that student solve the problem through nonviolent means.

We see so many of these students engage in what the FBI calls a leakage, telling other people, other peers beforehand, posting on social media what they're thinking about doing from a violence standpoint, feeling desperate, showing pictures of weapons.

Those are all behaviors that if they get to adults in school, the adults, especially when they have threat assessment training, can look further and say, what's going on with this student? How can we figure out what are they considering violence? Are they feeling desperate? Are they suicidal? And how can we help stabilize that person and put them on a better path?

TAPPER: All right. Marisa and Steve, thanks to both of you. Really appreciate it.

Coming up one week before Christmas, a young student has been killed. A teacher has been killed. How will Madison, Wisconsin, even begin to deal with this horrific day? And area leader will join us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:31:20]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARNES: When officers arrive on the -- on the scene, they immediately go in, which we did in this case. Stop the threat, stop the killing, find the killer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: The message just a few minutes ago from Madison Police Chief Sean Barnes. As we continue our coverage of the tragic Madison, Wisconsin school shooting where a teacher and student were killed.

I want to bring in Wisconsin State Senator Dianne Hesselbein.

Senator, we know this is a horrible day for the Madison community. We heard police Chief Barnes say, this is this about -- he said this about the students in the school. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARNES: We're not going to interrogate students. We're going to give them an opportunity to come in and speak to what they may have saw when they feel ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: I imagine this is just going to be impossible for the kids in the Madison community. How are you planning on helping to lead the response? Are you reaching out to other communities that have been so touched? Is there any sort of guidebook on how to deal with this -- this horror?

DIANNE HESSELBEIN (D), WISCONSIN STATE SENATOR: No, there isn't. This is just an absolute tragedy for the people in our community. And my heart is breaking for everybody in that school. I mean, what an awful thing to go through. And for those parents and those loved ones, the community, their friends. What a terrible day. There really is no guidebook on what to do when such a tragedy comes to your front door.

TAPPER: We heard there -- there is not a -- or was not a school resource officer at the school. It's obviously a private school. And I think that public schools in Madison might have school resource officers, but I'm not sure.

Do they? And do you think more police resources should be deployed to all schools in Madison, not just public?

HESSELBEIN: Well, obviously, we don't know exactly what happened today except for the tragedy. And it's up to every school district whether they decide whether to have school resource officers or not. We let that be a local control.

TAPPER: What have you been hearing from members of your community?

HESSELBEIN: What I've been hearing is just the complete and utter devastation of what this means to those students, those parents, those loved ones, family members, and everybody that goes to not only those school, but it is a private school. And because it's a private school, it impacts more than just that neighborhood. You have people all over the county of where it is in Dane County that go to that school.

So it's going to be really impacting every single part of our county.

TAPPER: We can now report from a source that the shooter was a female student. She took her own life after killing and shooting the others. We heard her family is cooperating with police. What do you know about that? What is your reaction?

HESSELBEIN: I do not know about that. I'm so sad for the entire family as well. And I'm sure there will be a lot of conversations happening with those students that go to that school.

TAPPER: State Senator Dianne Hesselbein from Wisconsin, thank you so much. We're going to go back live to Madison, Wisconsin, as a community deals with tragedy.

Also ahead, a bit of the news making remarks from President-elect Trump, commenting on his conversations with world leaders. The outgoing administration and his cabinet picks, and more.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:38:36] TAPPER: We're back. And we're going to keep following the latest developments in the deadly school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin. CNN just learning that the shooter was a female student at the school. She took her own life after shooting up her classmates and a teacher. We're going to bring you updates as we get them.

But, first, we're going to take a brief turn to our politics lead and a slew of new comments today from President-elect Donald Trump during a wide-ranging news conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're talking about a friendly takeover, a friendly transition, as they like to say, this is a friendly transition, and it is. But there are two events that took place that I think are very terrible. One is that if people don't come back to work, come back into the office, they're going to be dismissed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Let's bring in a pair of political voices, Shermichael and Kate.

So, right now, RFK, Jr. is on Capitol Hill meeting with Republican senators trying to line up support for his bid to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Earlier today, Trump said RFK Jr. would be, quote, much less radical than you would think if confirmed, to head up the HHS. He said Americans are not going to lose the polio vaccine as an aide to RFK, Jr. has been pushing.

But he also said this when asked if schools should continue to mandate that students be vaccinated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I don't like mandates. I'm not a big mandate person. So, you know, I was against mandates, mostly Democrat governors did the mandates and they -- they did a very poor thing.

[16:40:04]

You know, in retrospect, they made a big mistake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPER: We should note there was a big difference between the emergency COVID vaccine and those mandates, and decades long, you know, measles, mumps, rubella. It's polio vaccines.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, hard to argue you're not extreme if you're -- if you're also simultaneously arguing that you're going to -- you're not -- you don't support vaccine mandates that have kept Americans safe and healthy for decades, for 100 years now, essentially.

So, I mean, look what I hear Trump saying there is that he recognizes that RFK, Jr. may have a problem on the Hill. I mean, you hear him saying, well, he's not going to be as extreme as you know, you might think.

I think part of the challenge here is Kennedy has an actual record, by the way, not just a lot of rhetoric, you know, saying he opposes these vaccines. He has an actual record of trying to limit access to vaccines that people, children died as a result of his intervention.

TAPPER: In Samoa.

BEDINGFIELD: In Samoa, yes.

TAPPER: Yes. In Samoa, measles.

BEDINGFIELD: In Samoa. And so, he's going to have to explain that. And I think that I would hope that for many of these --these Republican senators, that will be a serious issue and one that they'll really probe him on.

TAPPER: Shermichael you just heard about that, quote, friendly takeover or transition playing out in D.C.?

Today, the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is out with a new essay in "Foreign Affairs Magazine", and he's warning about some of Trump's America First policies.

He writes, quote: Donald Trump will inherit a world far more hostile to U.S. interests than the one he left behind four years ago. But the response to four years of weakness must not be four years of isolation.

McConnell goes on to write, quote, America will not be made great again by those who simply want to manage its decline.

What do you make of this?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think the minority leader is somewhat correct, and I would expect that the president elect is going into this recognizing the importance of the United States to maintain its international dominance for national security purposes, but also in terms of our economic interests. I think there are several parts of the globe, particularly throughout Africa, where China is showcasing some considerable dominance. That really concerns me, where the United States can build partnerships with several countries.

There, unilateral partnerships that I think would be interesting in the interest of many countries and also other companies within the U.S. domestically, you think about technology, you think about building more electronic cars. A lot of that stuff in terms of that raw material comes out of Africa. I think the United States should be the dominant partner and leader with many of those countries instead of China. I'm also looking at Russia and Ukraine and their interest in usurping their dominance there. I think the U.S. needs to figure out a way to bring that to a close.

And so, I think the president elect is aware of these things, Jake, and will attempt to bring closure as quickly as he possibly can to showcase the U.S. is still the leader of the world.

TAPPER: I want to contrast what Senator McConnell warned with something that Republican Senator Mitt Romney told me, outgoing Republican Senator Mitt Romney said to me during his basically exit interview on State of the Union. Here's what he said, not only about the current state of the Republican Party, but also who he thinks will be the standard bearer in 2028.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): MAGA is the Republican Party, and Donald Trump is the Republican Party today. And if you were to ask me who the nominee will be in 2028, I think it will be J.D. Vance, all right. He's smart and well-spoken, part of the MAGA movement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: That's very different from what he said about J.D. Vance a few months ago. But he said he's gone on to work with him since then. What do you make of this all?

BEDINGFIELD: Well, look, I think that's a reasonable assumption based on where the politics of the day are. Obviously, Vance was, I think, chosen for the ticket, in part because he is somebody who is seen as a standard bearer for the MAGA movement, the kind of intellectual powerhouse behind some of the thinking that Trump and his team want to put in place. So perfectly reasonable assumption from Senator Romney.

I think the problem that Vance may have is four years from now, hell be the dreaded creature of Washington. He will have been in Washington for four years. He will have been vice president.

So it will be interesting to see whether some of the -- you know, some of the policy pieces that are important to the MAGA movement outweigh, you know, what will ultimately kind of the fact that Vance will become sort of an establishment creature by -- by necessity.

TAPPER: We'll take a listen to something else that Romney said about Trump's victory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: Donald Trump won. He won overwhelmingly. He said what he was going to do, and that's what he's doing.

I mean, people are saying, oh, I don't like this appointment or this policy that he's talking about, but those are the things he said he was going to do when he ran. So, you can't complain about someone who does what he said he was going to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What do you think?

SINGLETON: Mitt Romney's right. I mean, you can assess this on face value. The American people had every opportunity during this election to choose if they wanted to vote for the former president, now president-elect, or the vice president. They made the decision to vote for the president-elect because they believe he's better on a litany of other issues. They heard that he wanted to be a disrupter, that he was going to choose unorthodox individuals to be a part of his cabinet.

[16:45:08]

They assessed all of those things and said, okay, I'm comfortable with it. As long as you figure out a way to address some of my economic plight, some of that economic dislocation that I would argue comes from mass illegal immigration. And if you can do that, then we'll roll with you and rock with you for everything else.

And as long as Trump, I think enters the first 60, 90 days focusing on those things, Jake, I think his approval rating will continue to rise.

TAPPER: Well, we're going to -- at the next panel, we're going to talk about some of the other issues he's talking about. But I do want to ask you about this.

Tulsi Gabbard, former Democratic congresswoman, now Republican nominee to be director of national intelligence. She was also on the Hill today.

Here's a part of an exchange he had with a journalist after one of her meetings. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: How did the meeting go today?

TULSI GABBARD, TRUMP'S DNI NOMINEE: It was a good meeting. Thank you.

REPORTER: Do you have any regrets on meeting with Assad in 2017? Trump called Assad a butcher today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: No answer there. What do you think?

BEDINGFIELD: Yeah, well, all of the chatter about how these meetings have been going for her have been that they've not been that great, that she has not been all that impressive. There's been a lot of talk as people have come out of these meetings. People have said, you know, she hasn't really been able to go more than an inch deep on some of these issues.

Obviously, you can't have somebody sitting in the seat of the director of national intelligence who's responsible for quarterbacking the PDB for the president every day.

TAPPER: Presidential daily brief.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes, sorry. Presidential daily brief. If she doesn't have a comprehensive understanding of some of these issues. So, you know, I think the chances that her nomination runs into a real snag I think is significant. We'll see.

I also think, given what happened in Syria and the fact that she is somebody who has been effectively an apologist for Assad, the fact that this is now kind of the backdrop, what we've seen happening in Syria over the last two weeks, now almost two weeks, is the backdrop to her nomination, I think is also going to be problematic.

TAPPER: All right. Thanks to both of you. Appreciate it.

President-elect Trump also had some sharp words about Bashar al Assad. As we just noted, the dictator of Syria just pushed out what Trump says about the region.

Plus, the new comments today from Assad as he reportedly is hiding out in Russia in plain sight. That's next.

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[16:51:33]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I can say that Assad was a butcher, what he did to children. You remember I attacked him with the 58 missiles, unbelievable, missiles coming from ships 700 miles away. And every one of them hit their target.

But I did that. That was the red line in the sand. Obama drew it, and then he refused to honor what he did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: President-elect Trump earlier today, in a wide ranging news conference, 35 days until he takes office again. He weighed in on the seismic shift were seeing in the Middle East, the fall of dictator Bashar al Assad and Assad's brutal regime.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports now from Moscow, where it appears Assad is finally speaking out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): As Syrians celebrate the demise of the Assad regime, the deposed dictator, seemingly delusional, apparently speaking out for the first time since fleeing to Russia.

His statement on the social media page of the former Syrian presidency, appearing to be from Assad himself, datelined, Moscow. I have never sought positions for personal gain, but have always considered myself as a custodian of a national project, the statement says.

This after Syrians ransacking Assad's palace discovered the luxury the dictator and his family were living in, including a garage with dozens of luxury cars, including Ferraris and a Lamborghini.

Assad's wife Asma, also known for her lavish outfits, once called, quote, a rose in the desert by "Vogue" magazine.

But Assad, also admitting, as rebels were closing in on his palace, it was Russian leader Vladimir Putin who bailed him out. Assad fleeing to Russia's air base in Syria as he claims to oversee combat operations but then, quote, it became clear that our forces had completely withdrawn from the battle lines and that the last army positions had fallen, his statement reads. With no viable means of leaving the base, Moscow requested that the bases command arrange for an immediate evacuation to Russia, on the evening of Sunday, December 8th.

That was not only the end of Assad's rule in Syria, but possibly also the beginning of the end of Russia's military footprint in Syria, as Russian forces have been seen apparently flying some of their equipment out of their Air Force Base. And Israel is now busy bombing Syrian military installations like this naval base in Latakia. Russian Middle East experts warning about the huge loss to Russia in the wake of Assad's fall.

When I saw these ships with our weapons burning, I simply felt like crying. This expert says, these are our weapons, our gear, after all, and our help to the Syrians to protect their statehood but those now in charge in Syria are working on a new statehood without Assad, the former dictator, seemingly grappling with his loss of power.

When the state falls into the hands of terrorism and the ability to make a meaningful contribution is lost, the statement says, any position becomes void of purpose, rendering its occupation meaningless.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[16:55:01]

PLEITGEN (on camera): And Jake, both U.S. and Western officials are now saying that there's actually a large scale Russian withdrawal going on from their military bases in Syria. That is the air base that they have in Khmeimim near Latakia, but also the naval port that they have in Tartus. Unclear whether all of that is permanent, but the Kremlin was actually asked about all of this again today, and the Kremlin spokesman saying, the Russians at this point in time, have no idea whether they're going to be able to keep their assets in Syria -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Fred Pleitgen in Moscow for us. Thanks so much.

New details confirmed this hour about today's deadly school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin. A law enforcement source says the shooter was a female student at the school. CNN teams are on the scene. We're going to go live to Madison next.

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TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

And we begin this evening with breaking news and new details about today's tragic school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin, a law enforcement source now telling CNN that the shooter was a female teenage student at Abundant Life Christian School, a private school with about