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Urgent Search for Gunman Who Killed CEO in Targeted New York City Attack; Hegseth to Meet With More Lawmakers Amid Fight for Pentagon Post; Stowaway Back in the U.S., First Court Appearance Today in New York. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 05, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: What was written on the shell casings of the bullets that killed the healthcare CEO right here in New York? We've got major new reporting this morning, as new video surfaces and the manhunt ratchets up.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Pete Hegseth vowing to fight like hell are his words to keep his nomination alive. But even after an all out media blitz, senators who will decide his future still remaining mum. Is this Hegseth's last stand today?

And the Dow surging to a new record high as we learn more Americans planning for retirement are millionaires.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. Sara Sidner is out today. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight, major new clues in the hunt for a killer in New York City now at large for almost exactly 24 hours. This morning, ABC News reports the words, deny, defend, and depose were found on shell casings right where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down. So, there are also a series of new images of the suspect. A photo obtained by The Washington Post appears to show him leaving a subway station 30 minutes prior.

The New York Times has new video that appears to show him on the phone near the scene arriving only about ten minutes before. The clearest image of him was taken at a Starbucks where he bought energy bars and water. Police have recovered a cell phone and a water bottle, and they say the video of the actual shooting shows that they are dealing with an experienced marksman.

So, as a possible motive, overnight, Thompson's widow told NBC, quote, I don't know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him. All right, so a lot of new developments as this manhunt continues.

With us now, CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller. John, you just walked in. What's the latest?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, police are very focused on these words, written on shell casings. Two of these words, deny and depose, are found on shell casings. One is on a live round that he ejects when it appears he's having a jam. The other is on a shell casing from a round that was fired into the victim. These two words would fit together with deny, delay, depose. The three Ds of the insurance industry, as they're cynically called by critics, who say the industry's job is to try and not pay in cases where they don't want to pay.

So, the killer here could be sending us a message. And there could be another round in that gun that contained the third word, or it could have been burned off on one of the recovered shell casings after it was fired.

BERMAN: All right, so just to be clear, these words, some people do see a connection between these words and the healthcare industry itself.

MILLER: Exactly. There was a book written with a version of this about practices in the healthcare industry. This is, if you go online, you will see numerous blogs and articles with combinations slightly varied, but of these general three words as critical of the healthcare insurance industry.

BERMAN: All right. So, these may be the biggest clue as to motive, although it was clear he was laying in wait, the killer was at the time.

MILLER: Let's think about what that could mean.

BERMAN: Right.

MILLER: It could mean that there's a case involving UnitedHealthcare and an individual who feels very aggrieved by that. Some treatment was denied some disease. He may have some family member who may have died, very personal. Or it could be an individual who used the trip of this person to New York at this meeting that was publicly disclosed as an opportunity to strike out at a high level executive, which is why yesterday the heads of major healthcare concerns in their security departments were adding people, security details, precautions, mail screening across the country.

BERMAN: All right, that certainly makes sense.

The status of the physical manhunt at this point, John, and you've got perspective on this, having been inside the New York City Police Department, what's happening this morning 24 hours later?

[07:05:03]

MILLER: 24 hours later, they are sifting through very good tips coming in from the public about individuals who people out in the public suspect for different reasons. They'll run those down. That is standard old-fashioned detective work.

On the flip side, they're using all the most modern technology, including this expanding video canvas to try and recreate the killer steps from the moment those shots are fired, before that at the coffee shop, and then see if they can then take that backwards to the moments before the shooting.

Already, they have a sighting on video of him prior to the shooting on the upper west side carrying what appears to be a battery for an ebike. They're trying to close that circle to have what was his trail to get there, what was his trail to get away and do either one of those either start or end at home.

BERMAN: Do they think he's still in Manhattan? Do they even have that level of detail?

MILLER: Well, they don't know that, but there is a working presumption that this individual may be a New Yorker because of the way he moved around the stashing of the ebike, the transport of the battery and, you know, his general appearing to be very comfortable.

BERMAN: Knew how to get around the city, knew there was an alley behind the Ziegfeld.

MILLER: Knew how to get away through Central Park, knew that he could avoid more cameras inside the park than on the street. There's a lot of savvy here, but there also may be some local familiarity.

BERMAN: All right. John Miller, we'll let you get back to work on this. Thank you very much for filling us in on the very latest.

MILLER: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Kate?

BOLDUAN: So, President-elect Donald Trump, his pick for defense secretary, heading back to Capitol Hill again today, continuing on his full-on blitz. Pete Hegseth is fighting to hold on to his nomination, and also in doing so, trying to calm Republican concerns about his qualifications to have the job and allegations in his past.

Among allegations that Hegseth denies is that he was known to drink excessively. And new reporting from The Washington Post cites six former Fox News employees who say that they witnessed it, saying that Hegseth, quote, had a reputation as a heavy drinker and say that they saw him drinking on the job, or visibly drunk at work events.

Yesterday, according to a senior transition official, Hegseth also faced blunt questions from lawmakers, such as, are you an alcoholic? Are you a womanizer? Do you embezzle money?

CNN's Kristen Holmes is in West Palm Beach for us with the very latest on this. What is in store today, Kristen?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate. I mean, that's not really the starting line you want when you walk into these meetings. Now, he has a full dance card today. More senators will be back up on Capitol Hill. We were told he's going to be meeting with Rick Scott, Mike Rounds, among them, Tom Cotton, which fun fact about Tom Cotton, he was on the short list to be defense secretary before he withdrew his name to see what these questions actually are.

Now, one thing to be clear, Donald Trump has not yet pulled his support for Hegseth, but we do expect more serious questions, particularly around his drinking after that report in The Washington Post, after that whistleblower report that The New Yorker published.

Yesterday, Hegseth did seem to try and address this to quell fears about his drinking when he was talking to Megyn Kelly. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, FORMER FOX NEWS HOST: First of all, I've never had a drinking problem. I don't -- no one's ever approached me and said, oh, you should really look at getting help for drink. Never. I've never sought counseling, never sought help. I respect and appreciate people who do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So, again, not the starting point you want when you're on T.V. defending yourself and defending your drinking, and these reports obviously allege a drinking problem. One thing to keep in mind here that we've been watching very carefully is how the senators are reacting when they come out of these meetings with Hegseth. Some of them are still mum.

Now, Donald Trump's team believes that he could still get the vote. They obviously know that this is in peril. They know it's a dicey situation. They know it's an uphill battle. But they have not yet pulled their support from him.

And one other thing about Hegseth doing that interview, there is a reason you have not seen other cabinet nominees, other administration picks out there on the airwaves. That's because Donald Trump's team doesn't want them out there essentially, quote/unquote, stepping in it before those confirmation hearings. They are clearly having a strategy here when it comes to Hegseth to try and get him out there to address these issues, whether or not it works, something we're keeping an eye on, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, that is exactly right, whether or not it works. It's great to see Kristen. Thank you. John?

BERMAN: All right. The woman who snuck past multiple security checkpoints to stowaway on a flight to Paris is in court this morning. What Delta now says went wrong.

Two kindergartners are in critical condition after a gunman opened fire at their school. We've got new information this morning about the suspect.

And do you want to be a millionaire? Well, you might already be one.

[07:10:00]

A new record just set for the number of 401(k) millionaires. We'll tell you why you may want to go check your balance this morning.

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BOLDUAN: So, the stowaway who managed to evade multiple levels of airport and airline security to hop a flight to France that she did not have a ticket for, she's now finally back in New York. The woman is also now identified, 57-year-old Svetlana Dali. And she's expected in court today for an initial appearance on at least one federal charge.

[07:15:03]

CNN's Polo Sandoval is tracking this one. I keep calling this like the latest chapter in the strangest, weirdest trip to France ever. What's expected to happen next?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're now almost a week-and-a- half into the story, right? And it continues to bring you developments right now. We're trying to find out exactly when this 57-year-old woman will face a judge in Brooklyn. But as we learned yesterday, according to multiple law enforcement sources who tell us CNN that they expect that federal prosecutors would charge her with being a stowaway on an aircraft without consent, and that could carry up to five years in prison, if convicted.

We were there at New York's JFK yesterday, as her plane landed. Soon after that, that's when the FBI confirms that they went ahead and detained her, that they arrested her. And that's what brings us to today with that initial appearance is scheduled.

Not long after the plane landed, we also heard from Delta for the first time since the initial stowaway incident last week. And in a statement, they basically not only thanked their French counterparts in terms of orchestrating this, making sure that she was able to get to -- put on that plane and made it to New York incident-free.

But they also said that what they described, Kate, deviation from standard procedures. It's what allowed this woman initially to get on that flight to Paris. They said that they are aware, that they are addressing this matter, but they did not exactly elaborate on what that deviation was, only saying that they're taking care of it.

BOLDUAN: So, their point is our systems work if you follow the systems, is what they're trying to say there. But also there's a question for what happened with the systems when it comes to --

SANDOVAL: The TSA.

BOLDUAN: -- TSA.

SANDOVAL: That's a big question right now. So, the TSA insists that out of 18 million passengers who flew during the Thanksgiving holiday, this was the one passenger who actually had unreported access. But as we know, it takes one to compromise security.

BOLDUAN: And that's the challenge for TSA, right? They can't just be perfect. 99 percent of the time is the problem.

SANDOVAL: And they do insist, as we know that after she bypassed the boarding pass security checkpoint, she did actually get screened not only herself, but her bag, so they were pretty sure that she didn't have any sort of threat.

BOLDUAN: So, that level of a security threat was mitigated.

SANDOVAL: She still made her way onto a plane unrestricted access and all the way to Paris.

So -- but the prosecution is going to be interesting. I will tell you this. It was just this past January that a man holding an Israeli and a Russian passport was prosecuted by the Department of Justice after he actually snuck on a plane from Copenhagen all the way to LAX. Again, he was convicted for the same crime that this woman will be charged with. He was sentenced to time served three years probation and had to pay the $2,100 ticket that he avoided when he flew from Copenhagen to LAX. So, it gives us a preview.

BOLDUAN: Let's just see if this is the final chapter in the saga. It's almost hard to believe.

It's good to see you, Polo. Thank you very much.

All right, coming up for us, the manhunt continues to find a suspected hitman, the gunman who shot and killed the CEO of UnitedHealthcare yesterday right on the sidewalk. We have more reporting on what police are learning from clues that he left behind.

And Bitcoin hits $100,000 for the first time ever. What does that mean for you?

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[07:20:00]

BERMAN: All right. Good news for investors this morning. All three major averages closed at record highs with the Dow closing about $45,000 for the first time ever. It comes as new data from one of the largest providers of 401(k) retirement plan shows the number of accounts with balances topping $1 million jumped last quarter.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is here. Maybe we should call them 802(k)s. The Dow jokes are free.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Very good. But Fidelity looked at their account holders, 24 million account holders, and saw that they had more millionaires in the mix this quarter compared to last quarter, the amount of millionaires up 9.5 percent from Q2. And they saw that they had about 550,000 account holders that were now millionaires, and they were carrying an average 401(k) balance of about $1.6 million.

They also looked at Gen X. This is the next group of folks that are going to be retiring. People have been saving for close to 15 years now. They saw that folks in that range had about a balance of about $600,000, so up about 6 percent from the previous quarter.

Why is this happening? Obviously, we've had a strong market, stock market, but also people are saving. So, we're seeing that folks are contributing more and then the company matches are somewhat higher, about 14 percent on average in savings there.

Also, though, not everyone is so lucky to be a millionaire, and not everyone is so lucky to have a 401(k). The average account balance for Fidelity account holders is about $132,000, still up from the previous quarter, but obviously a far cry from the million dollars that about half a million of their account holders have right now.

BERMAN: Look, it's just been a good few years to be in securities, period, full stop. And if you are a young employee, invest in your 401(k)s when you're young, it helps.

All right, there are new news about tariffs and companies that seem to be upset with them.

YURKEVICH: Always every single day. We're hearing from a new company. We're hearing from Dollar Tree now. They are saying that 40 percent of their sales are on goods that they import. And so they're preparing to be hit by tariffs if they go through. So, 40 percent of goods are going to be impacted. Dollar Tree saying we're going to have to look at buying from other countries. We're going to try to have to negotiate with our vendors. We may have to raise prices.

And this is not just Dollar Tree. Obviously, Walmart has said the same thing. They're known for low prices. They're going to have to raise their prices. But an analyst from UBS explained that the base price now, a Dollar Tree is not a dollar, by the way. It's $1.25. But they expect that they're going to have to raise prices about $0.10 to $0.20 on their items.

And, obviously, for folks who go to Dollar Tree, it's because they're feeling the pinch of inflation and they're looking for deals.

[07:25:04]

So, $0.10 to $0.20 cents may not seem like a lot, but when you're buying a lot or everything from Dollar Tree, it does make a difference. But this is just the latest company, Dollar Tree, to be preparing for the president-elect's tariffs that may go into effect come January, very soon.

BERMAN: And we spoke to just about every shoe manufacturer in the country, and they tell us that they're not looking forward to the possibility of price hikes either.

Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you very much.

All right, new reporting this morning that several former Fox employees were called seeing Pete Hegseth drinking on the job before 10:00 in the morning.

And a winter storm alert for more than 60 million people. Stay tuned.

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