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Trump & Mexican Pres. Give Differing Accounts of their Call; Meta Chief Mark Zuckerberg Meets with Trump at Mar-A-Lago; Biden Gives First Significant Criticism of Trump Since Election; Israel and Hezbollah Trade Accusations of Ceasefire Violations; Netanyahu Says Conditions for a Hostage Deal have Improved. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired November 28, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: For the first time since President-elect Donald Trump announced his plan to put tariffs on Mexico, Trump and Mexico's president actually talk about it, but they're giving very different versions about what was said. Those tariffs are also on President Biden's mind, and on his final Thanksgiving as Commander-in- Chief, the president has some advice for his successor.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: Plus, a Kentucky man with a lot to be thankful for. He woke up in a hospital minutes before doctors were set to remove his organs. Yep, you heard that right.

We're following all these stories and many more, all coming in right here on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: Thank you so much for spending your Thanksgiving alongside us. We hope it's been a good one so far. I'm Boris Sanchez alongside Alex Marquardt. Our colleague, Brianna Keilar, has the day off.

Today, Mexico's president is giving a starkly different account of her call with President-elect Trump after he pledged to slap hefty tariffs on Mexico over the issue of immigration. Trump posted on social media that President Claudia Sheinbaum, quote, "Agreed to stop migration through Mexico and into the United States, effectively closing our southern border."

MARQUARDT: And then in a second post, Trump said, quote, "Mexico will stop people from going to our southern border effective immediately. This will go a long way," he says, "towards stopping the illegal invasion of the U.S.A. Thank you." Three exclamation points.

Let's get straight to CNN's Steve Contorno, who is in West Palm Beach near the president's Mar-a-Lago - former president's Mar-a-Lago resort.

So, Steve, what is Mexico's president, Sheinbaum, now saying about this call?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: A very different description of the phone call, Alex. Let me read for you her comments earlier today. She said, quote, "Everyone has their own way of communicating, but I can assure you, I give you the certainty that we would never and we would be incapable of it, to propose that we would close the border. It has never been our approach. And, of course, we don't agree with that."

Now, I will point out, as you said, Trump said that Mexico had agreed to, quote, effectively close the southern border. So perhaps that word effectively is doing a lot of heavy lifting for President Trump in that statement. It does show that there is, though, this chasm between the President-elect and the Mexican president over this - the future of trade between these two countries and how these 25 percent tariff threats that he has put in place or he is threatening to put in place would potentially play out.

It is an early sign, too, of just how Donald Trump intends to conduct his trade policy via threats on social media, direct phone calls, very transactional approach where it's hard to pin down exactly what is hyperbole, what is a direct threat, what exactly would be effective and what a victory even looks like. Because after that conversation and after those posts on social media where Trump seemed to claim victory, it's not even clear what policies he has won and also whether he intends to take away that threat of a 25 percent tariff.

And I've asked his transition team if that is the case and this 25 percent tariff would go away and I have yet to get a response.

SANCHEZ: Steve, we've been discussing over the last few weeks since the election this set of meetings that Trump has been having at Mar-a- Lago, sort of a parade of folks trying to get the President-elect's ear. And we heard yesterday Meta confirmed that Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder, met with Trump yesterday. What are you hearing about that meeting?

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CONTORNO: Yes, just the latest in a warming between Donald Trump and Silicon Valley. We've seen a number of people involved in the tech industry increasingly siding with Donald Trump, getting close to him. Obviously, Elon Musk is one of those individuals. It's kind of ironic that Mark Zuckerberg is not one of them. Remember, Zuckerberg and Musk at one point had threatened to get into a cage match with each other, but here we are where their two sides are now behind Donald Trump.

And Meta spoke with our Hadas Gold yesterday and provided this statement saying, quote, "It's an important time for the future of American innovation. Mark was grateful for the invitation to join President Trump for dinner and the opportunity to meet with members of his team about the incoming administration."

It's also an interesting development given just what Trump had to say about Musk only months ago in a book he released. He accused Zuckerberg of, quote, "plotting" against him and even threatened to serve him with a life sentence if Zuckerberg got involved in the 2024 election in any sort of way. But now they're having dinner together, just a complete reversal from just a few months ago, guys. MARQUARDT: Yes, got to wonder if Zuckerberg brought up that very, very significant threat to throw him in prison for the rest of his life. Steve Contorno from West Palm Beach, thanks so much.

Today, President Joe Biden says he is thankful for a peaceful transfer of power as his successor prepares to return to the White House.

SANCHEZ: Yes, but President Biden isn't just giving thanks today. He's also offering advice and a warning to the President-elect. CNN's Arlette Saenz is live for us in Nantucket, Massachusetts, where the First Family is spending their holiday. Arlette, take us through what President Biden said.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris and Alex, President Biden weighed in for the first time on President-elect Trump's tariff threats towards Mexico and Canada, saying that he thinks the President-elect should rethink those threats, warning that it could jeopardize U.S. relations with some of our closest allies. Now, these are significant comments from President Biden who really has refrained from criticizing Trump and his policy proposals since the November 5th election, but they serve as a reminder that Biden and Trump hold very different views on how to approach the economy, trade and also relations with U.S. allies. Here is how President Biden provided his advice to Trump as he spoke to reporters earlier today.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I hope he rethinks it. I think it's a counterproductive thing to do. You know, look, one of the things you've heard me say before that we have an unusual situation in America. We're surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and two allies, Mexico and Canada. And the last thing we need to do is begin to screw up those relationships.

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SAENZ: Now, the president made these comments as he was visiting a firehouse here in Nantucket, Massachusetts, delivering some desserts to the first responders. And it comes as President Biden is currently celebrating his final Thanksgiving as commander-in-chief. He placed a round of phone calls to members of the military, speaking to people from each military branch. He talked to troops who were stationed around the globe in places like Guam, Bahrain, as well as bases in Saudi Arabia.

The President really trying to thank those first responders for their service and also working during this time abroad away from their families on this Thanksgiving holiday. The President told reporters as he was at that firehouse today that he is thankful for a number of things, including a peaceful transfer of power, the power of diplomacy, and also saying that he hopes that they could try to work towards a greater peace in the Middle East as he is trying to really focus in, in his final weeks on the presidency on trying to secure that ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza.

SANCHEZ: Arlette Saenz live for us in Nantucket, traveling with President Biden. Thank you so much.

Let's discuss the politics with Pete Seat, former White House spokesperson under President George W. Bush. He's also vice president of Bose Public Affairs Group. And also joining us, Nomiki Konst, Democratic activist and 2016 delegate for Bernie Sanders. Thank you both for being with us.

Pete, starting with you, these very different accounts of the call between Claudia Sheinbaum and Donald Trump, where do you think this discrepancy originates?

PETE SEAT, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN FOR PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, first off, Happy Thanksgiving, Boris, Alex and everyone watching.

I think this is less he said, she said and more lost in translation. The Mexican government has been patting themselves on the back for months, saying that they are doing enough to stem the flow of migrants, potential illegal immigrants, into the United States of America. They have highway checkpoints and they're rounding up folks on buses and trains, but they're not doing enough.

Donald Trump knows they're not doing enough and the voters who voted for Donald Trump know that they are not doing enough. So I think there was some lost in translation there, but give Donald Trump a lot of credit.

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He is moving fast on this issue, which was a priority for him on the campaign trail and has been consistently among the top two issues that voters care most about because they want to protect their communities and our economy.

MARQUARDT: Nomi, to you, lost in translation, what do you think? What do you make of Trump and some of his allies really claiming victory after this phone call with the Mexican president?

NOMIKI KONST, 2016 DELEGATE FOR BERNIE SANDERS: I think it's part of the course for Donald Trump to have his own version of events and obviously put that out on Truth Social, his own social media platform, that he's making money off of as he goes into the next presidency.

But with that being said, you know, yes, the top two issues polled up until the election were, of course, inflation, the economy and migration. But what's fascinating about this proposal, this tariff proposal to basically dismantle the UMCA if Mexico does not abide by what Donald Trump says, even though immigration is down over 40 percent in the last five months, is that the burden is actually going to be put on the United States. The people of the United States.

We know that the UMCA is critical for - globally, it provides the framework for national and international investment. The costs of goods, of course, are going to go up for the American people. So if you think inflation's bad now, wait until he dismantles the UMCA and puts tariffs on China. We import 40 percent of our goods from China and Canada. So he's using a pretty much not completely resolved, of course, but an improved migration situation at the border as a tool, as a weapon to actually hurt the American people. And that is the brilliance of Donald Trump. I will give him that.

He runs as a populist, but he operates as a capitalist who wants to deregulate, dismantle and, basically, destabilize the world by using very popular tactics as weapons.

MARQUARDT: We just played that sound a moment ago, Pete, of President Biden publicly criticizing Trump for his tariff plan against Mexico and Canada. It's quite notable because, frankly, since the election a couple weeks ago, President Biden has really refrained from going after former President Trump in any way. What do you make of what he said? Does it have any merit, do you think, because of what Nomi just pointed out, the potential for prices to skyrocket here in the U.S.?

SEAT: I think President Biden knows what a lot of Americans know, and that is we've seen a version of this movie before. Then-President Donald Trump in 2018 used very similar tariff threats against Mexico to get the then-President of Mexico to negotiate stronger security measures to stop migrants from going across the border. So, we've got two months until he's president. There's only one president at a time. We'll see if he actually uses the power of his Sharpie to sign executive orders or if this is just Donald Trump being Donald Trump and using the power of his speech to get others to bend to his will.

SANCHEZ: Nomi, I want to get your reaction to something I heard from Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin yesterday. I asked him how he and Republicans plans to mass deport so many agricultural workers might disrupt the nation's food supply. Something like half of all agricultural workers according to the FDA in the United States or rather the USDA in the United States, are undocumented. Here was his response.

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REP. DERRICK VAN ORDEN (R-WI): And if it means that I have to pay more for guacamole, but fentanyl poison does not come across the Canadian and Mexican border, and our mothers, and sisters, and brothers and daughters aren't poisoned to death by this chemical that's coming across the borders, I'm willing to pay more for guacamole as is the rest of the United States of America.

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SANCHEZ: Isn't the conventional wisdom that voters elected Donald Trump because they were dissatisfied with inflation and high prices for everyday goods?

KONST: Exactly, I mean you said it yourself. He is again weaponizing a border conflict which I am not convinced and I think now that the numbers are much more clear that the voters that voted for Donald Trump were voting on immigration. It was a great rhetorical weapon just as trans athletes were and some of the manosphere blog issues were, but it really came down to the economy. And if he cares about the American people and if he cares about the people that voted for him and if he wants to have the House of Representatives in two years, Donald Trump cannot do this. This will not only hurt and destabilize, you know, the workforce in this country, it will also disrupt the global economy, it will disrupt, obviously, how we - how much we pay for our goods and what goods that we are purchasing. It's bad economics, which is why every economist doesn't agree with this, but it's bad foreign policy. It's bad for America. It's bad for, you know, the stability of the globe. And it's everything that he ran against, frankly.

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I mean, if you want to be the populace that you are, you have to act like one. For, you know, the rest of his picks for the transition team for the Cabinet right now, a representative of that, I don't think this is just rhetoric. He is choosing people that do not take things seriously like COVID. They don't take public health seriously. They don't take the global alliances that we have seriously. They don't take the fact that Russia and Ukraine are at a serious standstill right now and we need to be strong allies seriously. They don't take NATO seriously.

I mean, you go through one by one, his picks. This man is not acting. This is not just rhetoric. This is about destabilizing this country and the world order.

SANCHEZ: Nomiki Konst, Pete Seat, we have to leave the conversation there. Appreciate you both. Happy Thanksgiving.

KONST: Happy Thanksgiving.

SEAT: Thank you.

Still to come, the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appears to be holding for now despite accusations of violations from both sides. And now Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu says that conditions have improved for a potential ceasefire deal with Hamas that could release Israeli hostages from Gaza. We have a reaction from one family straight ahead.

MARQUARDT: And then later, a Kentucky man is wheeled into surgery to have his organs harvested. Weeks later, he left the hospital alive. That and much more coming up on CNN NEW CENTRAL.

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MARQUARDT: A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appears to be holding, even though both sides have been accusing each other of violating this new agreement. The Israeli military saying it carried out an airstrike today in southern Lebanon after claiming that it saw, quote, "terrorist activity." The Lebanese army, for its part, says that Israel has breached the deal several times and that it is monitoring the alleged offenses. Let's get straight to CNN's Jeremy Diamond, who is live in Tel Aviv.

Jeremy, this is a very tenuous truce. There's a lot that still needs to happen. There's all this finger pointing. But bring us up to speed on these accusations from each side.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no doubt about it, Alex. And what is complicating this, in part, is the fact that this withdrawal from the Israeli military is taking place over the course of the next 60 days. And that means that at least for the time being, you still have the Israeli military in southern Lebanon, including in areas where Lebanese civilians are trying to return to.

In addition to that, the Israeli military is also taking up a role here, they say, of enforcing this ceasefire agreement by going after Hezbollah militants who they say are returning to this area. The Lebanese army has said that Israel has violated this agreement multiple times over the past two days, saying that they did this through the, quote, "targeting of Lebanese territory with various weapons."

The Israeli military is indeed admitting to carrying out attacks in southern Lebanon, but it says it did so (INAUDIBLE) Hezbollah militants were violating this deal. The Israeli military today actually carried out two airstrikes in southern Lebanon. In one of those cases, they say they identified, quote, "terrorist activity at a Hezbollah rocket storage facility." They also say that they struck, quote, "two terrorists arriving at a known terrorist infrastructure site" that they say had been used to fire on Israel.

The Israeli prime minister, for his part, is actually touting these actions by the Israeli military. He did so in an interview tonight.

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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through interpreter): We enforced it already on the first day. You saw yesterday we killed five Hezbollah operatives. We captured four. Today we strike more. There is no trickery with us. We enforce it forcefully. But if necessary, I have given directive to the IDF. If this framework, this ceasefire is violated, it will lead to an intense war.

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DIAMOND: And the Israeli prime minister is not the only one in the Israeli political establishment to be touting this ability, as they have claimed it, by Israel to enforce this ceasefire unilaterally by carrying out attacks against Hezbollah. And that's because much of the opposition in Israel, both from the right wing in the Israeli government, but also from residents of northern Israel, has been about this notion that they don't trust this ceasefire agreement. They don't trust that Hezbollah will abide by it. And they also don't trust that the Israeli government will actually enforce it.

And so that is why Netanyahu is going out and making that point. But certainly, it raises serious questions about whether or not the ceasefire can be abided to, especially as the Israeli military has already and makes clear that it will continue to take these military actions, as they say, to enforce this ceasefire. Alex?

MARQUARDT: Yes, many there don't think that Israel went far enough against Hezbollah. Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv, thanks so much for that report.

SANCHEZ: The agreement between Israel and Hezbollah is renewing hope for Gaza and efforts to end the fighting there and bring the hostages home. Today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that conditions to reach a deal to secure the release of captives have improved, but he adds a lot still needs to happen and a lot is still being done to get there.

I want to bring in Moshe Lavi to discuss with us. His brother-in-law, Omri Miran, was abducted on October 7th after being held captive with his wife and two daughters who survived and were rescued.

Moshe, thank you so much for being with us. I wonder what your reaction is to hearing Netanyahu say that there may be an opening for some kind of deal.

MOSHE LAVI, BOTHER-IN-LAW TAKEN HOSTAGE: Thank you, Boris, for having me.

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You know, we spoke exactly a year ago on Thanksgiving last year as the ceasefire agreement, hostage release agreement, temporary ceasefire collapsed between Israel and Hamas. And since then, a lot has changed, but to be honest, not much change for us families of hostages.

I do not trust the words of the Prime Minister that the situation improved for the mere fact that we've been told those messages since May and July, and especially July, by the entire security apparatus that conditions have ripened and yet the hostages are still held captive. Hostages were murdered since then. Others may have lost their lives. And of course, all of them were still alive under duress and torture by Hamas and their accomplices in Gaza.

If he really thinks the conditions improved, he should enact and be bold, be courageous and call for their release by signing the only viable way to bring him on, which is a deal.

SANCHEZ: And what was your reaction to this deal between Israel and Hezbollah and now the accusations both Hezbollah and Israel accusing each other of breaches of the ceasefire?

LAVI: On one hand, I think that the agreement with Hezbollah and the government of Lebanon is problematic. We are returning to the patterns we saw on the eve of October 7th when the Israeli government is tolerating a terrorist organization that is threatening to keep attacking it and it is trying to silence it temporarily only to have a much greater escalation in the future. So I'm very concerned by that.

But on the other hand, what the agreement brought is the fact that Hamas is more - is isolated more than ever at the moment. They are - they have no, their closest ally that joined their fight on October 8th have left the scene at the moment. And perhaps that will push whoever left in Hamas leadership in Gaza to understand that they need to stop sacrificing the life of their own people, sacrificing the future of the Gaza Strip and seal a deal. Depart the Gaza Strip themselves as a leadership and bring - allowing Israel to bring on the hostages and bring the humanitarian need - and alleviate the humanitarian need of the Gazans.

SANCHEZ: I do wonder, given that we've spoken to experts who believe that Netanyahu agreed to this ceasefire deal with Hezbollah in part because he wanted to make President-elect Donald Trump happy, how you feel about the chances of a deal under an incoming Trump administration, how they might handle Netanyahu and the region?

LAVI: First and foremost, I will say that like many other families of hostages, I'm thankful for the efforts of the Biden administration since October 7th to secure the release, to prioritize the hostage crisis above other objective that needs to be achieved in the conflict with Hamas, both in the short term and of course long term.

On the other hand, the Biden administration failed. They failed with - when it comes to Hamas and their sponsors like Qatar, Turkey, Iran, they kept emboldening them, kept harboring them, kept funneling money possibly to them over the past year. On the other hand, they were not able to push the Israeli prime minister and the Israeli government to understand that we managed to dismantle Hamas militarily and in the short-term we need to achieve the other objective of this war, which is returning home the hostages.

So the Biden administration failed on both those fronts. I hope the Trump administration will be able to force the prime minister to understand that we need to prioritize the return of the hostages. We need to prioritize a larger kind of vision for this future between us, the Palestinians and the wider region, Saudi Arabia, of course, and then other actors in the region. And perhaps we can return to what was the peace plan that the Trump administration proposed at the time in the Abraham Accords.

But in order - the first step will be signing an agreement, bringing home the hostages and providing humanitarian care for the Gazans. Sadly, the Trump associates were informed in the past few weeks by unknown Israelis or those close to the Israeli government that most of the hostages are dead. But actually, we know from the Israeli intelligence that more than half of them are still alive and I hope Trump's people are listening to this interview and will keep listening to the families of hostages who are asking them. We need to act now in the transition period, so that they'll be home by your inauguration on January 20th.

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SANCHEZ: Moshe, have you gotten any update on your brother-in-law Omri's condition?