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President-Elect Donald Trump Draws Controversy by Selecting Former Representative Matt Gaetz as His Nominee for U.S. Attorney General; Donald Trump May Try to Appoint Matt Gaetz as Attorney General During Senate Recess; Protecting Trump Poses Unprecedented Security Challenges; Trump Taps Loyalist Gaetz to be AG, Sending Shockwaves Through DOJ; Report: "X" had Largest Single-day Drop in Accounts the Day After Election. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired November 14, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

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CESAR ESPINOSA, FEARS DEPORTATION UNDER TRUMP: -- and we got married almost right away, because when you know, you know.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We asked Velazquez and Espinosa the same final question.

Do you have a plan in case you get deported?

GELACIO VELAZQUEZ, UNDOCUMENTED TRUMP SUPPORTER: I respect the decision. I leave the country. I'll not come back.

ESPINOSA: There is a plan. We have talked about it openly with our family.

FLORES: Turns out, these two Hispanic families with two different takes on Trump's win have the same plan if they get reported. They would go to Mexico as a family.

Rosa Flores, CNN, Houston.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The president-elect sending shockwaves again. His picks to run the Department of Justice and oversee the nation's intelligence service stunning to silence even his strongest allies on Capitol Hill.

Plus, X might be looking at an exodus. Users jumping ship and ditching Elon Musk's social media platform on a scale not seen since he bought Twitter.

And some now call them miracle drugs. What doctors are now learning about weight loss medicines like Ozempic. The long-term effects of them, whether they are right for you. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta just wrapped a year-long investigation into this, and he joins us. I'm Kate Bolduan with Sara Sidner and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS

CENTRAL.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This is just in, brand-new reporting from our Kayla Tausche from inside President-elect Donald Trump's inner circle as Trump's latest controversial cabinet choices rock Washington, D.C. One Trump ally requesting anonymity to discuss private deliberations with the president -- president-elect -- tells us that people being in a state of shock was the goal. That's exactly what the MAGA gang, as he puts it, wants. They want people who are a total challenge to the system. That is what he is telling Kayla Tausche.

Arguably the most controversial of those picks this morning is the now former Congressman Matt Gaetz tapped for attorney general, which means Trump now wants the Senate to confirm a man that had been under a sex trafficking investigation to take over the very law enforcement agency that conducted that investigation but never ended up charging him.

Let's go to CNN political analyst Mark Preston, who is joining me this morning. Mark, the question of the morning is whether Gaetz could get confirmed, and the answer among Republicans things to be very, we don't know, very mixed at this hour.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, lukewarm, no question. But of course, as you noted, he was staring down this ethics report that potentially we were going to see be released as early as the end of the week. Could have been very damning for him. But now that he has resigned yesterday as he was nominated by Donald Trump, again, lukewarm support.

Now, this could be a play by Donald Trump to throw a stick of dynamite into the mix and try to rally his base as he tries to push through all of his cabinet nominees. But even if he does get some resistance within the Senate, there could be a bit of a civil war. Listen to what Tommy Tuberville, the senator from Alabama, had to say to those who don't get in line behind Donald Trump's peaks.

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SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE, (R-AL): I've already seen where a couple of them say, I'm not voting for him. Wait a minute, you are not the United States of America. You have one vote in the U.S. Senate. You did not get elected president. Vote with President Trump. This is the last chance we're going to have of saving this country. And if you want to get in the way, fine. But we're going to try to get you out of the Senate, too, if you try to do that.

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PRESTON: I've got to tell you, I just got off the phone with a senior Trump advisor. He tells me, Trump is going to in somebody to burn down the DOJ from the inside, and Matt is going to do that. Conservatives believe that the DOJ is in chaos. Now, he has to get there first, and of course, as you noted, Sara, and as we have seen, there is going to be opposition to Matt Gaetz. SIDNER: I do want to talk about the sort of leaks in loyalty part of

Donald Trump, which is a big deal to him. There is some reporting on that, too, and the differences that we are already seeing. What are you hearing?

PRESTON: It really comes from the top down. His chief of staff, Susie Wiles, incredibly disciplined, somebody that Donald Trump respects, leans one for advice, and listens to. She ran a very, very, very strong campaign, along with Chris LaCivita, one of his political advisors. She has been able to keep things basically in line. Susie Wiles is smart enough to let Donald Trump be Donald Trump when Donald Trump is going to be Donald Trump. But as we have seen so far, we are looking at an administration now that has experience, OK. This is not the Donald Trump of 2016. This is the Donald Trump of 2024.

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SIDNER: What are we expecting to happen next? What are the biggest roles still sitting out there that might be a shock in the campaign by Trump?

PRESTON: That is my fear, because we didn't think Matt Gaetz was going to be named yesterday, or Tulsi Gabbard was going to be named DNI director. But there are still a lot on the board. Listen, the biggest one right now, Treasury Secretary. Obviously, not only for our economy, the world economy, we've got to see who Donald Trump is going to pick for the treasury secretary. In addition to that, the HHS secretary is somebody who can push back against the likes of Robert F. Kennedy, who has said he is going to overhaul HHS as a health czar.

And then of course the Department of Education is another one in a whole list of other ones that they have talked about eliminating. When you talk about these cabinet secretaries that have to be nominated, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, just a whole slew of them, not only are we going to see a change in policy, but they are talking about moving some of these, we're going to call them organizations, outside of Washington, D.C., out into the heartland. That could be a big change from what has been a company town from day one. Sara?

SIDNER: Mark Preston, there is so much going on, you are keeping up with it well, sir. I think it is very fair to answer you those questions because you always have the answer. I appreciate you coming on thank you very much.

John?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: With us now, former deputy assistant attorney general Tom Dupree. Thanks so much for being with us. I want to read you some reporting from kind of the dean of Florida political reporters Marc Caputo on "The Bulwark" who talks about how they settled on the Gaetz pick. Quote, "Everyone else looked at A.G. as if they were applying for a judicial appointment. They talked about their vaunted legal theories and constitutional B.S." We have a graphic of this. "Gaetz was the only one who said, yes, I will go over there and start cutting effing heads. That is according to a Trump advisor." Again, that was from reporter Marc Caputo. So, cutting effing heads, what does that tell you about the kind of attorney Matt Gaetz will be?

TOM DUPREE, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, I think it tells you all you need to know. If Trump was trying to send shockwaves through official Washington, he succeeded. Gaetz was not on anybody's short list. And from my perspective, it shouldn't be that surprising. Trump's campaign on this platform, that he was going to shake up the DOJ, he was going to turn it upside down, he was going to clean house, et cetera, et cetera. And from that perspective, Matt Gaetz is arguably a very logical choice. I think is going to be difficult to get him confirmed. I think that there are a lot of Republicans who either publicly or privately have serious doubts about this nomination.

BERMAN: And that is what people are talking about, and I think without hyperbole in this case, a constitutional crisis because it will pit Donald Trump against the Senate potentially. So there are kind of three possibilities to get Matt Gaetz as attorney general. Number one, hold confirmation hearings and hold a vote. But what are the problems with confirmation hearings with a guy like Matt Gaetz?

DUPREE: Well, the problem is, is that you could have a public repudiation of Trump's nominee. Now, look, if that's the way this is trending, my strong suspicion is that the Senate will find a way to pull a plug on this before the nomination gets to the floor.

But the other thing is that from Trump's perspective, I think he's also going to very focused on who the deputy attorney general is. The deputy attorney general is the person who actually runs the Justice Department on a day-to-day basis. So everyone is paying attention to the Gaetz nomination, as they should, but we also should keep our eye on the ball on who Trump is getting to fill in the second-tier positions in the Justice Department because they are the people who are going to be implementing his agenda from day one.

BERMAN: One problem with confirmation hearings is that Gaetz could be asked very publicly in front of the world about these allegations of sexual misconduct against him that were apparently part of this House ethics report that was going to come out in a few days. He has denied those allegations, but imagine that being talked about in a hearing.

So there are two recess appointment possibilities. Number one, that the Senate votes to go into recess. Now, it's possible. The problem there is that senators would know that they are voting to go into recess so that Donald Trump could appoint Matt Gaetz as attorney general. If they wanted to avoid that, it is hard to imagine they would do that willingly.

But then there is this third possibility in the Constitution, potentially. In the Constitution, it says the president may on extraordinary occasions convene both houses, or in either of them, and in case of disagreement between them with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper. Now, no president has ever done this to appoint a cabinet secretary. What if Donald Trump tries it, Tom?

DUPREE: Look, this is what we saw during the first Trump administration, is we all of us, constitutional lawyers were dusting off these old provisions of the Constitution to figure out how they apply.

Look, my sense is that Trump solves the mystery in part as to why he was so focused on preserving his power to make recess appointments. When he said it the other day, people were scratching their heads because they said, in what world would a Republican-controlled Senate declined to confirm one of Trump's nominees? We may now have the answer.

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Look, my sense is that a recess appointment could be a possibility if you have a contingent of Republican senators who just cannot bring themselves to confirm Matt Gaetz for attorney general. So they would take kind of the low road. They would work in the shadows. They would recess the Senate, and then they would allow Trump to make that appointment. So I see that happening, but that strikes me as more of a break glass in case of emergency in the event that Trump can't get the votes he needs for confirmation.

BERMAN: What about the idea he could force an adjournment, though, unilaterally declare a Senate adjournment to get a cabinet appointment? Because, again, it doesn't seem impossible based on what Trump has said before him and said recently in terms of getting picks through. But that seems an incredible, incredible use of power.

DUPREE: It does. And look, frankly, I am a little bit skeptical that the president could do that unilaterally. One question I would have is if presidents did have that constitutional authority to effectively recess the Senate over their objection, how come passed presidents haven't exercised that power? In other words, we have seen many situations where presidents are frustrated because they can't get their people approved and they want the Senate to go into recess, but they're stuck in deadlock. No one has exercised that power in that way before. So my guess is, if Trump did go that route, there would be some serious court challenges to it.

BERMAN: All right, we will see. Tom Dupree, "Dupree's Diamond Blues," always great to see you, thank you very much.

Kate?

BOLDUAN: New reporting this morning, protecting the president-elect as he heads back to the White House is presenting some unprecedented security challenges this time around.

And Trump's pick for director of national intelligence, no former intel experience, why some are warning Tulsi Gabbard could be a national security threat herself.

And a bear costume, a Rolls-Royce, and a kitchen shredder -- yep, the wild scheme one group staged just to get an insurance payout.

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BOLDUAN: Sources tells CNN in a new report the challenges they face protecting President-elect Trump as he prepares for his second term are almost impossible to fully prepare for. A reminder, China tried to hack the president's inner circle, Iran has allegedly plotted to kill him, and that's of course not to mention the two assassination attempts during the campaign.

Now, there are also new threats they must account for, especially as people are flocking to Mar-a-Lago to visit the president-elect during the transition.

Joining us now for some important perspective is the former deputy director of the FBI and CNN senior law enforcement analyst, Andrew McCabe. Thanks for coming on.

How different is the threat landscape now than what he and his detail faced in his first term? What do you think?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, Kate, based simply on what we know in open-source reporting, what has been revealed to us in the last couple of weeks. The threats that the president-elect faces are seem to be much more active and intense now than they were in the first term.

You have these competing streams of intelligence about Chinese hacking, and efforts to penetrate the telephone networks used by the president-elect, the vice president-elect, and other political figures. At the same time, you've got multiple attempts by the government of Iran to place assassins in the president's presence.

It is a really remarkably dangerous time to be serving as president or president-elect. It is in a moment that the Secret Service and the rest of the intelligence community really need to be at the top of their game.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely.

You worked at the Department of Justice for, I think my math showed me more than two decades. We have seen the job -- you have seen the job of attorney general up close, time and time again. You have now Matt Gaetz tapped to be the next attorney general of the United States. And about the job and maybe his goal and mission going in, our Mark Preston just spoke with a senior Trump adviser and this is what a senior Trump adviser just told Mark Preston today.

"Trump is going to bring in somebody who is going to burn down the Department of Justice from the inside, and Matt is going to do that. Conservatives believe the DOJ is in chaos."

If that is the marching orders, what is that going to do and what is that going to look like, Andy?

MCCABE: I have no doubt that that is the marching orders. Let's face the obvious fact here, Matt Gaetz is profoundly unqualified for this job in any of the traditional, normal kind of requirement sense of what the attorney general does day to day.

This is the first step, likely, in Trump's revenge tour against the Department of Justice. A department he bears such animus and such a grudge against for the way he believes he was mistreated by the multiple investigations targeting him over the last couple of years.

So, Matt Gaetz sent into the Department of Justice to cause chaos, to fire people from critical positions, to leave positions empty, to vacate long-standing guidance and policy positions, and replace them with nothing, to un-fund programs that are for whatever reason, disfavored by the president.

I mean, you can imagine all of these things happening at a time when a department of one million people and multiple component agencies relies on the department to provide legal advice and direction and prosecutorial expertise on a daily basis.

None of this should be surprising to the American people. This is exactly what Donald Trump has talked about for months during the campaign and Matt Gaetz appears to be his chosen tool to go in and wreak that sort of havoc.

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BOLDUAN: And I think it does present a question, I'm not entirely sure who can answer it is, is this what the American people voted for or think they were voting for when they voted for Donald Trump this time? That does remain a question and let me add this into it, and you have Tulsi Gabbard in as being tapped for Director of National Intelligence. Trump's former National Security adviser, no friend, John Bolton, he just told me this about Gabbard and Gaetz, listen.

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JOHN BOLTON, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER UNDER PRESIDENT TRUMP: So, now we are going to see whether the American Senate can stand up and reject two people who are totally unqualified, unfit professionally, and really lacking in moral characteristics, the character that you need to hold these jobs. I think this vote should be a hundred to nothing against both of them.

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BOLDUAN: To the question you are just kind of thinking of, Andy. Do you think this is what Americans voted for when they voted for Donald Trump this time?

MCCABE: Well, whether they knew that or not, it is exactly what they did vote for, right. So, the question is, does America understand, it is one thing as you are listening to Donald Trump stand behind a podium at a rally and rant and rave and make his jokes, rally up the crowd to laugh at what he says and kind of cheer him on.

It is one thing to shake your fist and say, yes, let's tear it all down. Nobody likes Washington, the government is a pain in the neck. We don't feel like we are getting what we want out of them, I am not sure what it is, but we think we are not getting it, tear it all down.

Okay, now, you are going to see what tear it all down means. Now you are going to find out what it means to have a non-functioning Department of Justice, to see the system of justice at the federal level essentially collapsing around you.

People who are caught in different aspects of criminal process that cannot get resolutions, because there aren't attorneys to work those cases. Crime rates start to rise. This will be an inconvenient truth for the party that ran on this idea that crime is out-of-control, which it is clearly not right now and they are going to do something about that.

As crime rates rise, as more fentanyl comes into your community, as drug gangs proliferate because nobody is there to arrest them. These are some of the things that are going to cause the American people to stay like, am I really sure of what I got here? But be there no mistake, this is what they voted for. Now, we are all going to see how that works out.

BOLDUAN: Andrew McCabe, good to see you. Andy, thanks for coming in -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, are we witnessing a mass exodus of X? The enormous drop we are seeing from users on Elon Musk's platform.

And, a vote to make the Ethics Committee investigation public into Matt Gaetz, his alleged sexual misconduct was expected by tomorrow. But now that he has quit Congress, will the public ever see that potentially damaging report? Those stories ahead.

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, Twitter or X might be seeing a mass exodus of users. The largest single day drop since Elon Musk took over. CNN's Clare Duffy is here with the latest. There is some nuance here, but a lot of the users are just going away.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS TECH REPORTER: Yes, John. So, X had actually its best day, a spike in usership on the election and the day after by one estimate about 46.5 million visits just to the website. That doesn't include the mobile app.

But we've seen that activity taper off and as you said, there are 115,000 US users deactivated their accounts the day after election day. That is the single largest drop we've seen since Elon Musk took over the company and it includes some really big names.

UK newspaper, "The Guardian" deactivated. Our former colleague Don Lemon deactivated his account. "The New York Times" Mara Gay. a lot of these really big prominent users of the site and (AUDIO GAP)

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BERMAN: All right, it seems that someone didn't want that reported. The truth is out there.

What we're reporting right there is a lot of users just deactivated their accounts, even though there had been a lot of traffic on X before. Some of these other social media platforms are seeing a bump now in usership.

All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta just wrapped up a year-long investigation into what people are calling miracle drugs. The popular weight loss medicines like Ozempic. What Sanjay discovered about the long-term effects of it all.

And, the video was said to be evidence of a bear attack on someone's car. Now, the state of California says, it is actually evidence of blatant insurance fraud.

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