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Judge to Decide on Trump Case; Ukraine Fires U.S. Missiles into Russia; Testimony Resumes in Riley Murder Trial; Trump Lobbying for Gaetz; Russia Says Ukraine Fired Missiles into Russia. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired November 19, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: The ground and they let people off. It's unclear what caused that ride to stop in the first place.

All right, dramatic video out of Columbus, Ohio, shows a police officer rescuing a man from his burning pickup truck. Take a look at these pictures. The man called 911 saying that his truck had brake trouble and he slammed into a highway pillar.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My truck is on fire.

DISPATCHER: Can you get -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't get out of it. No.

DISPATCHER: Can you get out of it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I can't.

DISPATCHER: Where are you?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Oh, awful. That sound of that poor man struggling. At one point during the six minute 911 call, the man asked the dispatcher to send a message to his wife, fearful that he was going to die.

A minute later, officers arrived and were able to pull him from that burning truck. He was taken to the hospital where he is recovering this morning.

All right, a new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump trying to execute his self- titled mandate with an attorney general pick that has many in Congress saying they have questions. Sources tell CNN Donald Trump is 100 percent all in on Matt Gaetz. The reality of getting him through the Senate, though, still a bit more complicated than that. This morning, a resolution by a Republican member of Congress to ban transgender women from women's restrooms at the U.S. Capitol, and the response from the first transgender woman elected to Congress calling it a manufactured culture war.

And a Hawaiian woman has vanished after she missed a connecting flight more than a week ago. Her family now desperate for help after they received suspicious text messages from her phone.

I'm Kate Bolduan, with Sara Sidner and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SIDNER: Happening now, important legal day for President-elect Donald Trump. Will a New York judge toss out Trump's criminal hush money conviction? He could release his ruling really any time now.

Let's bring in CNN's Kara Scannell.

The decision was expected last week, but then there was a delay by the judge. Walk us through what could happen here.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, the most important thing that we're expecting today is the district attorney's office to say what they think should happen in this case. And as many people as you talk to, you'll get as many different possible outcomes and answers here. So, it's really going to be in the wording and what they say.

At one extreme, they could say legally they don't think there's a way forward because Trump's team has said, you know, the president is immune, there's a transition in place, a state judge shouldn't have any say over an incoming president.

Some of these are unanswered legal questions. But the DA's office could say, we don't think there's a legal way forward, and then put it in the judges hands, who would decide whether or not to dismiss the case. They could say, we do think there is a legal way forward here. There is so much uncertainty in the law. Let's move ahead. And then again, though, it's in the judge's hands to decide what to do. If the DA's office wants to proceed, I think we'll see Trump's team try to step in there.

But there's still so much that's unclear. It's about proceeding. But does that mean the judge will issue his decision on immunity? What does he say, if anything, today about sentencing, which is currently scheduled for next week.

So, a lot in the air and certainly unprecedented times. We say it, but it truly is something here that people just - they can't even figure out when you're talking to people who are very informed on this, there's no clearly identifiable path forward. It's a lot of analysis that they're doing.

SIDNER: There's no precedent for this as we - as we have been talking about for a very long time. But this is a very pivotal day potentially for this particular case.

Kara Scannell, I know you're watching it all, all of the twists and turns. Appreciate you.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking news this morning, Ukraine has fired longer range U.S. missiles into Russia. That is according to Russia's defense ministry. It comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a new nuclear doctrine. He announced he's lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. It's in response to President Biden's decision to allow Ukraine to use those longer range missiles, which now apparently are landing inside Russia.

With us now, CNN's Clare Sebastian.

Clare, talk to us about these strikes.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, at the moment the only confirmation that we have is from the Russian defense ministry that says in the early hours of Tuesday morning on the hundredth day of this war, Ukraine fired six of these ATACMS, army tactical missile systems, long range missiles at an ammunition facility, they call it a military facility, inside Russia.

Now, Russia claims to have shot down five of those missiles. They - they tend to do this. They tend to claim that they have averted the majority of Ukrainian attacks. They say that the sixth missile was damaged and that fragments fell on this military facility.

[09:05:05]

So, they're saying no casualties and no damage.

Ukraine isn't saying anything at all about it at this point, but I think it makes sense that they would want to move quickly. This is now two days since the news broke via U.S. officials, not officially, of course, but via officials that they had given permission for these long range weapons to be used on Russian soil. And, of course, they have the uncertainty hanging over them over what will happen to supplies of U.S. aid when the second Trump administration takes office.

So, I think, you know, that is the calculus there for Ukraine. For Russia, though, this is a major blow. And I think it's no coincidence that we see President Putin signing that decree. Also, this morning, updating the nuclear doctrine.

It's a little vague. It's a little debatable, but it seems to broaden the definition of what would justify, under this doctrine, a first strike by Russia. And the Kremlin is very much painting this as something where they say that any potential adversaries should see this as the inevitability of Russian retaliation if they are subject to aggression. So, they are rattling the saber here, as they have done so throughout this conflict.

BERMAN: I mean, clearly, he wants to send a message by signing the doctrine. It's not as if he needs to sign anything new, but he's clearly doing it to get the public - the public aware of it. Look, this is the thousandth day since Russia's most recent invasion

of Ukraine. Small question, what's the situation in Ukraine for Ukrainians now?

SEBASTIAN: So, this is a very dangerous time, John, for Ukraine. They are losing territory on the eastern front slowly but surely, albeit at an immense cost to Russian troops. They are facing an exponential rise in drone attacks. Over the weekend we saw one of the biggest attacks involving missiles and drones in months by Russia targeting the energy grid. The lead up to this bleak milestone is 1000 days. We've seen an uptick in civilian casualties. So, they are facing challenges on multiple fronts.

BERMAN: Clare Sebastian, thank you so much for sharing your reporting.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Also happening right now, testimony has resumed in the murder trial against the man accused of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley. Moments ago the judge ruled that a recorded jail phone call between the man and his wife will not be allowed as evidence in the trial.

CNN's Rafael Romo has much more outside court in Athens, Georgia.

What is the latest? What does this ruling mean?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, it is a very interesting ruling by Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard, because the prosecution chose to play that recording in court because it felt it was significant that the wife, the estranged wife of the defendant, Jose Ibarra, had a lot to say about what happened and how surprised she was about some of the facts in the case. So, you may remember - and we reported this previously, she was urging the suspect to, number one, tell the truth, and also she said in that phone call that she felt that it was crazy, in her words, that they had only found her husband's DNA at the crime scene. And then at one point she had said that she finds it unbelievable that someone can see a person die and not call 911.

Well, the judge said that admitting - admitting this in court would have been - it would have violated the defendant's rights to confront a witness. Specifically, the judge said the following after hearing the translations, "I do find that it was more than contextual and therefore violates the confrontation clause in the Sixth Amendment."

So, those rulings, those - those recordings are not going to be considered for the verdict.

Also, the judge ruled out several videos. There were selfies, essentially, of Jose Ibarra, the defendant, Spanish lyrics. The judge reviewed them overnight and he decided that they were not relevant to the case.

Now, today, the prosecution may rest their case. The defense had said that it's going to take about half a day for them to finish. So, this trial is moving much, much faster than anybody anticipated, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Rafael, thank you so much.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, new details on how Donald Trump and Elon Musk are all in with their attempts to leverage Matt Gaetz as the country's next attorney general, as we hear from a lawyer describing what his clients say happened when it came to him paying for sex.

And speaking of Trump and Musk, find out how the two are taking their newfound bromance to new heights today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:14:02]

SIDNER: This morning, President-Elect Donald Trump now preparing to announce more cabinet picks as the controversy escalates over his AG pick Matt Gaetz. Who he chooses next, anybody's guess, given the way the last few days have gone. Also anybody's guess if Gaetz will get a GOP green light from Senate Republicans in that nomination, as House lawmakers on the Ethics Committee weigh whether or not they will release findings from their investigation into Gaetz.

All this as a lawyer representing two witnesses from that report now speaking out to our Erin Burnett.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOEL LEPPARD, LAWYER FOR WOMAN WHO TESTIFIED AGAINST GAETZ ABOUT SEX ALLEGATIONS: She testified to the House that Representative Gaetz did not know her friend's age at the time they had sexual intercourse. And when he found out about her age, that Representative Gaetz stopped having sexual intercourse with her and he only started the sexual intercourse interactions later on when she turned 18.

The testimony before the House was, yes, that Representative Gaetz paid my client, both of my clients, for sexual favors throughout the summer of 2017, all the way to the beginning of 2019.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:15:07]

SIDNER: All right, let's get right to CNN's Alayna Treene.

What are you hearing about Trump's attempts to really rally support around Gaetz, who couldn't be more controversial at this point, especially listening to what his attorney is saying that the House Ethics Committee heard?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Right. Well, I think the thing to keep in mind here, Sara, as we look at all of this, is just how important Donald Trump views the attorney general role. He had hand-selected Matt Gaetz to serve at the top of the Justice Department. And we're told that he is not backing away from that. He thinks the attorney general is going to be the most important cabinet position in his future administration. And because of that, he is now putting pressure on Republicans in Congress, privately calling them up over the past couple of days and telling them that he needs their support, because this is a decision that he does not want to back away from.

Now, I think what's also interesting is we know that behind the scenes as well that Donald Trump and his transition team recognize how hard of a chance Gaetz is going to have, particularly in light of whatever we learn, whether or not this House Ethics report is released. But also in general, there is no question that there is a lot of uneasiness in Congress right now, particularly among Republicans in the Senate, about how to move forward with this. And that's why you're seeing the former president, now president-elect, call them up personally and tell them that he is committed to getting Gaetz through.

Now, one thing that I also found noteworthy is that Elon Musk, we know, of course, how important and influential he has been to Donald Trump, not just as an ally, but someone who is also really making his opinions known to the former president, as well as publicly, how he feels about certain transition picks. They are very much aligned on a lot of what Donald Trump wants to do in his second term.

This is what he posted really early this morning. I'm going to read for you what Musk wrote. He said, quote, talking about the allegations against - against Gaetz. He said, quote, "as for these accusations against him, I consider them worth less than nothing. Under our laws, a man is considered innocent until proven guilty." He went on to say, "case closed."

So, clearly, Donald Trump is not moving away from this, nor is Musk, who the two are also going later today to Texas for the SpaceX launch.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, Alayna Treene, thank you so much for your reporting.

John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now, Paul Begala, CNN political commentator, and Terry Sullivan, former campaign manager for Marco Rubio's 2016 presidential campaign.

Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan reported overnight that privately Donald Trump is saying behind the scenes he thinks that Gaetz has less than a 50 percent chance of being confirmed. And I was just on X, Twitter, whatever the hell it's called now, and Erick Erickson, conservative broadcaster, just wrote, "it is increasingly unlikely that Matt Gaetz can make it through a confirmation process."

Terry, let me just put this first to you. What does it feel like to be Senator Thom Tillis, for instance, today from North Carolina, having potentially to vote on Matt Gaetz? TERRY SULLIVAN, FORMER CAMPAIGN MANAGER, MARCO RUBIO 2010 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Yes, well, look, he's had four luxurious years of not being asked about Donald Trump's tweets or other comments or decisions. So, you know, it's time to - this is the new normal now. And the reality is, is that Donald Trump was elected to blow things up, to blow Washington up. And that's exactly what he's doing. And anybody who's surprised by it now wasn't paying attention and didn't believe that he was going to do what he said he was going to do. Last - he said that last time he thought that he picked too many conventional picks that weren't loyal enough to him. He said he was going to have loyalists. And that's what he's doing.

And so for a Thom Tillis, you're going to have to decide, are you going to really be willing to stand up to the president who, you know, not only won Electoral College decisively, but the first Republican in decades to win the popular vote. And I don't think a lot of these senators are going to have that much backbone. They're just going to sit and wait and hope that the time that it takes to get to the nominee or to the actual confirmation process, more information comes out.

BERMAN: Paul, is my memory right on this? It was Zoe Baird, right, whose nomination for attorney general blew up because she didn't pay taxes - payroll taxes for nannies or something? That was it?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Payroll taxes on the nanny - or a cleaning - cleaning woman, yes. Yes, that's how -

BERMAN: Got - got it. So - so - so combine that -

BEGALA: (INAUDIBLE) Bill Clinton was about his attorney general.

BERMAN: So - so, that, compared to what we heard on Erin Burnett last night with this lawyer saying, yes, Matt Gaetz paid my clients for sex. I don't know. I mean one sunk a nomination. Will the other?

BEGALA: No, it won't. I think Terry makes a very good point, you will never lose money betting on congressional Republicans to be feckless, supine and pusillanimous. That actually would be a good law firm for Republicans.

[09:20:02]

They will bow to the dear leader, if they can - if Mr. Trump believes he can't get Gaetz confirmed, he'll go around the confirmation process and go around the FBI background check, go around the committee and go around the Senate and install him as a recess appointment. And the Republicans will lay down and let him.

But my - I have a bigger question, why. Why fight for Matt Gaetz like this, right? He's not a judge like Michael Mukasey or Alberto Gonzalez or the current attorney general, Merrick Garland. He's not a career prosecutor like Eric Holder.

"Politifact" looked at his legal record. Eight years at a law firm, most of which he was a state representative in Tallahassee, so he wasn't free to do much lawyering. They found seven cases, maybe there were more, but "Politifact" found seven cases. A couple of speeding tickets. He had a cool case where a farmer wanted to let skydivers skydive on his farm. He won that one. So, he's pro skydiving. And he represented the Crab Trap in Fort Walton Beach in a workers comp case. The Crab Trap, which is great. You know, they have an early bird special I think Trump would love. There's a lot of fried food there.

But what the hell? Why is this the guy? He has no experience. He has no qualifications. Set aside these astonishing allegations, by the way, which the Biden Justice Department said there wasn't enough evidence to pursue. I don't like Matt Gaetz.

BERMAN: Right.

BEGALA: But I think, in defense of Matt Gaetz, you've got to put that in the record. that the Biden Justice Department didn't find enough evidence to pursue it. But what the hell qualifications does he have? He might not be a child molester. OK. Good.

BERMAN: Terry.

SULLIVAN: Yes, but, look, I - look, first of all, I had to look through my thesaurus to follow what Paul was saying at the beginning there, but I finally figured it out. The - look, he has more legal experience than one president who named his 35 year old kid brother, who was his former campaign manager, when JFK named Robert F. Kennedy. I'm not saying that Matt Gaetz is Robert F. Kennedy, so don't - don't claim that. But he had more experience than previous - legal experience than previous nominees. And the president gets to pick whoever the hell he wants. That's - that's - he won. And that's how this process works.

BERMAN: Well, but - but I keep - Terry -

SULLIVAN: And the Senate gets to advise and consent.

BERMAN: Yes, exactly. That - that's the second part that sometimes people who are just want to rubber stamp it always forget. Yes, the Senate - the president can nominate whomever. Absolutely. They can nominate whoever they want. But the Senate gets a vote in it. And it's about how they choose to exercise that vote.

And to, you know, Paul's question, why - why do you want Matt Gaetz to be the hill that you die on, when one thing that every president I've covered, you know, they - the one thing they all suffer from after they get elected is hubris. I mean there's some way they go too far, and then they invariably lose seats in one of the houses, you know, in the midterm election. But why over Matt Gaetz, Terry?

SULLIVAN: Look, because Donald Trump is - is amazing at communicating and - and basically drawing the other side offsides. He's amazing at it. He does it repeatedly and does it well. We're here talking about Matt Gaetz. There's a lot of other picks that are pretty controversial. I mean, you know, RFK might be a controversial pick. There's some other ones that are pretty, you know, Tulsi Gabbard to do - head DNI, Mike - but we're not talking about that. BERMAN: So -

SULLIVAN: So, he threw out the red meat on this one. And everyone's hyperventilating about it. And everybody else is getting a pass that he nominated.

BERMAN: So, Paul, since we have a football metaphor here, hook 'em horns, drawing them offsides, you know that means you get a free play on offense. Is Trump getting a free play here basically with Robert Kennedy Jr., Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, because of the Matt Gaetz nomination?

BEGALA: Yes, I think Terry makes a really good point. That's exactly what's happening here. Because there's only so much - you know, remember, it's - to mix our metaphors. Remember Amadeus, when the emperor says, there's only so many notes the human ear can absorb. He didn't like Mozart because he gave him too much music.

OK, there's only so much baloney that we can eat. And - or so many scandals.

By the way, Hegseth and Kennedy have also been accused of serious improprieties of a sexual nature. So, there's sort of a pattern here. Why Trump, who himself was adjudicated in a civil case for being liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll, why he has such affinity for people who have been accused of really awful sexual misconduct I think is a bit of - is self-evident. I think we know why. He feels - he feels a kinship perhaps.

BERMAN: All right, Paul Begala, Terry Sullivan, thank you for all the metaphors. As I understand it, Mozart's bologna will draw you offsides. Appreciate it.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thank you, John.

Coming up for us, she vanished after missing a connecting flight in Los Angeles, and now her family is desperately seeking answers after getting suspicious text messages from the woman's phone.

And breaking overnight, Ukraine has fired American longer-range missiles into Russia for the first time, just after the Biden administration gave the green light for Ukraine to do - to go where it had previously deemed a no go.

[09:25:08]

Much more ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: This morning, the Russian defense ministry says Ukraine fired U.S. made long-range missiles into Russia. President Biden had OKed their use in a major policy shift. In response, Putin updated Russia's nuclear doctrine because of Biden's decision, which now lowers the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons.

Joining me now, Washington post columnist Josh Rogin.

I want to talk about these two things first and much more.

First, when you hear from Russia that it has changed its nuclear policy, is this just bluster or is this a nightmare escalation scenario that stopped the Biden administration from allowing these weapons to be used in the first place?

[09:30:08]

JOSH ROGIN, COLUMNIST, "WASHINGTON POST": Right. I don't think that we should