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Trump Picks Loyalists; Amsterdam on Edge; Trump Selects Pete Hegseth as U.S. Defense Secretary; State Department: Israel Not in Violation of U.S. Law on Gaza Aid; Amsterdam Grapples with Violence and Antisemitism. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired November 13, 2024 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELON MUSK, CEO TESLA: Your money is being wasted and the Department of Government Deficiency is going to fix that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is exactly what we worried about and we warned about Donald Trump. Being a serviceman, it does not make you qualified to lead the Department of Defense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the heart of Amsterdam, anti-Semitism thugs attack a tram. The fabled European city has been on edge since last week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The corpse plant will only be in full bloom for around 24 to 48 hours. It will have the distinct sense of rotting flesh.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Something you see on an alien movie maybe but yes, really good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, welcome to our viewers joining us from the U.S. and around the world. I'm Max Foster.

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christina Macfarlane. It's Wednesday, November 13th, 9 a.m. here in London, 4 a.m. in South Florida where one of the major questions about the incoming Trump administration has finally been answered. What role will Elon Musk play?

FOSTER: The U.S. President-elect has announced the Tesla CEO and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead what he calls the Department of Government Efficiency. Trump says they'll be in charge of cutting bureaucracy, excessive regulation and wasteful spending. Musk posted on X, of course, Department of Government Efficiency, the merch will be fire.

Ramaswamy saying: We will not go gently.

MACFARLANE: Well, among the other new picks announced by Trump, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as U.S. Ambassador to Israel and Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary.

FOSTER: Hegseth served in the U.S. Army in Iraq and Afghanistan and is known for his work as a veterans advocate. He stirred controversy just last week whilst promoting his new book.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, AUTHOR AND FOX NEWS HOST: I'm surprised there hasn't been more blowback on that already in the book because I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn't made us more effective, hasn't made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, people in Trump's orbit and at the Pentagon are expressing their surprise at Hegseth's pick. One Trump advisor says he didn't even emerge as a candidate for the job until Monday.

FOSTER: Critics are pointing to Hegseth's lack of experience, especially in the Pentagon, which is the single biggest federal government employer. CNN's Kaitlan Collins has more.

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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, THE SOURCE WITH KAITLAN COLLINS: Things are moving so quickly in terms of how these picks are happening. Now, Pete Hegseth is someone who has long been on Trump's radar. He's a two-time -- he's an Iraq War veteran and he's got two bronze stars, but he is much better known to certainly the president-elect from his stint as a Fox News host.

He co-hosts the program on the weekends. I remember when Trump was in office the first time he debated with Making Hegseth, the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Though there were questions at the time over whether or not he could get confirmed.

He doesn't have any government experience. And so that is something that is certainly going to be a reaction that we're seeing on Capitol Hill tonight. Even some lawmakers not knowing who Pete Hegseth is.

So I think that's a big question tonight over what that confirmation process is going to look like, because obviously he has been tapped to now lead what is the government's biggest federal agency with a massive budget and millions of employees at the Department of Defense.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Kaitlan speaking there,

Democratic Congressman Daniel Goldman summed up his reaction to the Hegseth pick with two words. I'm shocked. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DANIEL GOLDMAN (D-NY): This is exactly what we worried about. And we warned about Donald Trump, which is that he is going to appoint unqualified loyalists to shape this government into his own personal fiefdom, and get revenge on generals and put essentially really unqualified people.

I appreciate Mr. Hegseth's service in our armed forces, but being a serviceman, it does not make you qualified to lead the Department of Defense and to have access to our nuclear weapons. I'm very disturbed by this, and I'm very concerned about what it demonstrates about Donald Trump's priorities, which now seem to be coming true, as many of us warned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: We'll see you then, Senior Political Analyst and Senior Editor at The Atlantic, Ron Brownstein weighs in on the latest Trump picks.

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[04:05:00]

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: In terms of having the management or military experience to manage a department of this magnitude, you know, this would not be where anyone would have predicted. There is a certain inherent logic or convergence of Trump naming a Fox News host to his cabinet.

But I think this is just a reminder of how disruptive he intends to be across how many fronts and we will see how far if any Republicans in the Senate go on pushing back against something like this.

In Trump 1.0, Trump was making concessions or deference or outreach to different power centers in the party. This time he is picking people he believes are personally loyal to him.

There are many choices that are probably causing heads to scratch elsewhere in the Republican Party, the Defense Secretary, for example, Elon Musk and Vivek, you know, being asked to overhaul the federal government. Trump does not believe he really needs to give ground to anyone inside the GOP and this cabinet reflects that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Well, Israeli officials are praising Trump's pick to be ambassador to Israel, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, the one- time presidential candidate has been a strong defender of Israel throughout his career.

FOSTER: But he's also stirred controversy over the years with his support for Israeli annexation of the West Bank and his claim that there's no such thing as a Palestinian. Take a listen.

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MIKE HUCKABEE, FORMER ARKANSAS GOVERNOR: The two state solution, if we mean two governments holding the same piece of real estate, is irrational and unworkable. If there is a two state solution, the Palestinian state needs to be outside the boundaries of the nation of Israel. There's plenty of land in the world that we could find a place and say, OK, let's, let's create a Palestinian state.

HUCKABEE: Basically, there really is no such thing as -- I need to be careful saying this, because people really get upset -- there's no such thing as a Palestinian. There's not.

You have Arabs and Persians. And there's such complexity in that. But there's really no such thing. That's been a political tool to try to force land away from Israel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: The U.S. says Israel is not in violation of U.S. law and has made some progress in improving the humanitarian situation in Gaza. These comments from the State Department came on, excuse me, on the 30 day deadline for Israel to have taken steps to improve the situation in the enclave.

MACFARLANE: But not everyone agrees with the U.S. assessment. Eight humanitarian aid organizations say Israel has failed to meet the U.S. criteria. And at the United Nations on Tuesday, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. stressed there's more work to do.

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LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: Israel has taken some important steps, including restoring aid deliveries to the north. Still, Israel must ensure its actions are fully implemented, and its improvements sustained over time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, the U.N. Security Council meeting comes as experts warn of a strong likelihood of famine in northern Gaza, where an Israeli military offensive is still underway. One top U.N. official had this to say about the dire situation.

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JOYCE MSUYA, U.N. ACTING UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS: Most of Gaza is now a wasteland of rubble. What distinction was made and what precautions were taken if more than 70 percent of civilian housing is either damaged or destroyed? We are witnessing acts reminiscent of the gravest international crimes.

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MACFARLANE: CNN's Alex Marquardt has details now on the latest from Washington.

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ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: The situation on the ground in Gaza, particularly in the northern part of the Gaza Strip is truly desperate as the Israeli military continues to besiege much of the area.

On Tuesday, the Biden administration said that it would not be making any policy changes towards Israel. This comes after a strongly worded letter was sent last month by the Biden administration, saying that Israel could be in violation of U.S. law if it did not improve the humanitarian situation, the humanitarian access, the amount of aid going into the Gaza Strip, and violating U.S. law could threaten the aid, including military aid that would go to Israel. The U.S. said that it wanted to see dramatic improvement on more than a dozen different concrete measures.

Ahead of the Biden administration's announcement on Tuesday, we did hear in a joint statement from eight different aid agencies, and they said together that Israel not only failed to meet the U.S. criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in northern Gaza.

So those eight agencies saying that Israel is actually making things worse, which stands in stark contrast to what we heard from a State Department spokesman who said that progress is being made, that the U.S. does continue to want to see changes made by Israel, but that Israel is not for now in violation of U.S. law.

[04:10:04]

At the same time, we also heard from the United Nations. They said the situation in northern Gaza is nothing short of catastrophic. That's a quote, and that people in northern Gaza are begging for pieces of bread and for water.

Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Well, the families of U.S. hostages captured by Hamas are now hoping that President-elect Donald Trump will be able to bring their loved ones home.

FOSTER: The families met with Biden administration officials at the White House on Tuesday. They've yet to meet with Mr. Trump or his running mate, J.D. Vance, though, but they are hoping the President- elect will prioritize their family members still trapped in Gaza.

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RUDY CHEN, FATHER OF SLAIN ISRAELI-AMERICAN HOSTAGE ITAY CHEN: I would give the Biden administration an A plus on effort and relationship with the families. But at the end of the line, we're still here after 400 days. So they have not succeeded in delivering what they should, which is bringing back U.S. hostages out of Gaza. We are looking for that commitment from the President-elect. We hope as soon as possible to state again his commitment to bring back U.S. hostages before January 20th. If not, God help us all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, meantime, protesters in Israel are also demanding their government keep their attention on the hostages and bring them home. There have been growing concerns about their fate after Qatar said it has paused its role as mediator for Gaza's ceasefire and hostage release talks due to a lack of willingness by Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement.

FOSTER: Nada joins us here with reaction to U.S. saying Israel hasn't broken the law. I think a lot of people are asking today about this deadline, this 30 day deadline doesn't seem to have meant anything.

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. We've been hearing words of concern, of condemnation from the Biden administration, from many others in the international community. But these words are very rarely followed with any substantial action. And that is exactly what we're seeing again.

Now in the situation in the U.S., they had issued that 30 day deadline in mid-October, essentially calling on Israel to take more action to improve the humanitarian situation on the ground in Gaza, warning that Israel could be at risk of violating U.S. laws which govern foreign military assistance.

Now, the U.S. says it doesn't believe that Israel has broken any laws. And in fact says that it believes Israel has taken action to improve the situation on the ground and that there won't be any changes in policy at this stage, so long as Biden remains in office.

However, we have heard from humanitarian organizations, a group of eight organizations, including Save the Children, Oxfam and the Norwegian Refugee Council, all of whom have said in a joint letter, and it is in fact actually sort of a scorecard, which essentially outlines where the failures are. And they have said that they believe Israel has on many accounts failed to meet the U.S.'s own criteria.

And they've also said that they believe that Israel has actually taken action in the last 30 days to dramatically worsen the situation, particularly in northern Gaza, which, as we've seen, has been essentially sealed off. We've seen thousands of civilians essentially forced to evacuate, and now being told they won't be able to return to their homes.

And of course, the situation has been getting worse and worse. And we've been hearing the alarm bells being sounded for over a year now. Just in October, we had reports, of course, that 57 aid trucks were getting into the Gaza Strip each day. That is far below the 600 aid trucks that humanitarian organizations say need to be getting into Gaza, just to meet Gaza's basic needs.

So as you can imagine, many people are facing the very worst of this humanitarian situation. And we're talking about severe malnutrition now, as you mentioned, famine on the parts of northern Gaza, dwindling medical supplies, again, the health infrastructure already collapsing in Gaza. So it is a hugely desperate situation.

MACFARLANE: And Nada, in the last day, we've also heard that Donald Trump has announced his pick for ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, someone who has called himself an unapologetic, unreformed Zionist. I think it's worth reflecting on some of the comments he's made in the past, such as there is no such thing as a Palestinian, that Palestinian identity is a political tool to try and force land away from Israel. How do we read this with regard to the direction Donald Trump's administration are looking to take over as well?

BASHIR: Well, it is deeply troubling to see this shift, of course, in the U.S.. And of course, under President Biden, we have seen attempts, at least on the diplomatic front to push forward. We heard from Vice President Kamala Harris during her campaign that she was hopeful to secure a pathway toward the two-state solution.

This seems to be moving us in the complete opposite direction. And in fact, this seems to be emboldening some of the more right wing voices that we've been hearing from within Prime Minister Netanyahu's own cabinet.

We've been hearing in recent days from Bezalel Smotrich, the Finance Minister, essentially telling authorities that he wants to secure sovereignty over parts of the occupied West Bank, where there are currently illegal settlements. These are settlements considered by many in the international community, of course, to be illegal.

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So of course, this sends a worrying signal as to where President Trump, during his administration, will be looking in terms of policy when it comes to Israel-Palestine and the rights of Palestinians, both in the occupied West Bank, and of course, in Gaza as well.

MACFARLANE: All right, Nada, thank you.

FOSTER: The U.S. grounding all commercial flights to Haiti for a month after three planes were struck by bullets over Port-au-Prince. One crew member was slightly injured when a Spirit Airlines plane was hit by gunfire whilst trying to land in the Haitian capital on Monday. JetBlue and American Airlines flights also reported bullet damage after taking off from the ground.

MACFARLANE: Well, Haiti has been embroiled in political chaos and widespread gang activity for nearly a year. The country's transitional council blames the airplane attacks on those gangs, accusing them of trying to isolate Haiti on the international stage.

FOSTER: Still to come, there's been a spike in violence and anti- Semitism in recent days in Amsterdam. We'll have the latest on actions being taken to keep the city and its residents safe.

MACFARLANE: And the Church of England's most senior leader has resigned after a damning report revealing he covered up child abuse. We'll have those details.

FOSTER: Later, the lead singer of one of Princess Diana's favorite bands get a special royal honor from her son, Prince William.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: This morning, the Dutch Parliament is set to debate the recent violence and protests in Amsterdam. Dutch police detained several people on Tuesday who had defied a ban on protests.

MACFARLANE: The ban was put in place after violent clashes last week between Israeli soccer fans and pro-Palestinian supporters. The violence continued this week, with protesters setting a tram and bus on fire on Monday.

CNN international correspondent Melissa Bell joins us live from Paris with the details. Now, Melissa, Amsterdam's authorities last week were very quick to condemn the violence after this football match, to brand it as anti-Semitic. But what's emerged in the days after that is a bit more of a complicated picture, with the Maccabi fans themselves being accused of provocation of violent acts. How are the Dutch authorities viewing this now? What do we expect to come from this parliamentary hearing happening today?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we'd heard, Christina, from Dutch authorities, even as early as Friday morning after that violence of Thursday night, is that the tension, as you say, had been building since the arrival in Amsterdam of the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans shouting anti-Arab slurs, tearing down Palestinian flags.

And Amsterdam's police chief has spoken to that in the last couple of days, saying, look, there's no equivalence to be made, that soccer fans should have misbehaved on their arrival is entirely different to the kind of violence that was faced by many Israeli fans and not necessarily those involved with the provocations of the day before.

And the nature of what happened on Thursday night, the anti-Semitic slurs, the fact that these were hit and run targeted attacks that were carried out on isolated football fans who may have been heading back to their hotel. What the investigation is beginning to show is that WhatsApp messages were used to try and coordinate those attacks.

So the early investigation speaks to something that may have been organized before and certainly that app messages were used to try and coordinate those attacks.

So the early investigation speaks to something that may have been organized before and certainly that was very violent in its nature against these individual Israeli fans.

Now, since then, we've seen a pro-Palestine protest in Amsterdam over the course of the weekend and a bunch of arrests on the sidelines of that. And then, of course, the violence that we saw on Monday night, Dutch authorities have banned protests until Thursday, given the strength of feeling there is. But what we saw on Monday was more vandalism this time, a tram, satellite and arrests made. As to the investigation and the prosecutions that had been sought after Thursday's violence, Dutch police now say that 71 people have been taken in for questioning and with the Israelis working very close now with the Dutch in order to try and bring those prosecutions -- Christina, Max.

FOSTER: The Dutch prime minister and the king actually came out, didn't they, and apologized for the failure of the Dutch police to protect the Israelis. And there's certainly an argument there. They didn't look like they were surrounded by police pushing away the people attacking the Israelis.

But equally, many people who take the other point of view feel that their points of view weren't protected either by the Dutch authorities. It's the Dutch authorities that are coming under huge criticism, isn't it? And that's going to be a very sensitive part of today's debate.

BELL: Absolutely, because, of course, they had seen this tension rise as a result of the events of Wednesday and the behavior of some of those Maccabi Tel Aviv fans. They had seen on social media the videos of those Palestinian flags being taken down, felt the tension that was rising and the outrage that that was provoking again in the part of the world where there are not just large Muslim populations, but an extremely strong pro-Palestinian sentiment, not just in Holland, but in other European countries as well. And so extra policemen and women had been put on the streets of Amsterdam by Thursday night, 800 in all, which is a lot for the city.

And yet it was the nature of the attacks. It didn't happen around the stadium. The attackers waited for the fans to be in more isolated parts of the city in order to hunt them down. And I use there the words of the Dutch authorities that have been investigating what happened. And, of course, that would've been very difficult for Dutch police to prevent.

What we expect now, even as this investigation and these parliamentary debates continue in Holland to try and figure out what went wrong with their system. Here in France, of course, there will be a match between Israel and France, Thursday night rather, the Stade de France, very high security there. And in order not to see a repeat of the scenes that we saw last Thursday in Amsterdam with these fears that these events might now become lightning rods for this kind of protest and this kind of tension,

French authorities are deploying no fewer than 4,000 policemen and women around the Stade de France with a special elite police unit guarding just the Israeli fans in order that the match can go ahead peacefully and that the fans don't face violence -- Max and Christina.

FOSTER: Melissa in Paris, thank you so much.

Now, as Donald Trump works on building his new administration, Europe is bracing for what his next presidency could bring. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Brussels right now for a meeting of NATO officials.

Earlier, he met with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. He's also meeting with other NATO and European officials.

MACFARLANE: The agenda will undoubtedly focus on future support for Ukraine and the NATO alliance. And Blinken assured NATO allies that the U.S. will continue to stand with Kyiv.

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ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We had a very productive discussion today about our ongoing support for Ukraine in the face of an ongoing Russian aggression as well. This added element now of DPRK, North Korean forces injected into the into the battle. President Biden fully intends to drive through the tape and use every day to continue to do what we've done over these last four years, which is strengthen this alliance.

It's so critical to the security of the United States, the security of countries throughout Europe. And we will do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: It's interesting listening to Blinken at the moment, isn't it? Because he just doesn't have the authority.

MACFARLANE: No.

FOSTER: Knowing that the Trump administration is going to have a very different view very soon.

MACFARLANE: But they are trying to do all they can in this window --

FOSTER: Yes.

MACFARLANE: -- is less than 70 days now.

FOSTER: China and Russia drawing closer together, both militarily and economically, meanwhile, in order to counter what they see as growing threats from the West.

MACFARLANE: They're also trying to capitalize on the uncertainty that the new Trump administration in the U.S. will bring. CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports now from Moscow.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Jet fighters streaking across the skies at China's largest air show, aiming to show just how fast the People's Republic is modernizing its massive military.

China's main partner is Russia. The head of the Russian National Security Council, Sergei Shoigu, in Beijing, praising ever closer ties. We are not a military-political alliance like the ones formed during the Cold War, he says. Relations between our countries are closer ties. We are not a military-political alliance like the ones formed during the Cold War, he says. Relations between our countries are superior to those forms of interstate ties.

This as China shows off its brand-new stealth fighter, called the J- 35A, for the first time ever, while the Russians were showcasing their own stealth jet, the Su-57, which has already been used in combat operations.

Russia and China have dramatically expanded their military cooperation in recent years, with regular exercises like these major naval drills the Russians say were the largest in more than 30 years.

This, as Vladimir Putin says, he wants what he calls a new world order with less U.S. influence and more power in the hands of countries like Russia and China.

Russian-Chinese cooperation in world affairs acts as one of the main stabilizing factors in the global arena, he said.

And China's Xi Jinping added, in the face of the turbulent international situation and external environment, the two sides should continue to uphold the original aspiration of friendship for generations to come.

All this as relations with the U.S. grow ever more adversarial. Washington concerned about Chinese territorial claims and military expansion in the South China Sea. President-elect Donald Trump vowing to rein Beijing in.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECT: There are certain countries, I can tell you everyone, I can give you from top to bottom, China's the toughest of all, but we're taking care of China with the tariffs.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): But the U.S. now also faces an emboldened North Korea. Kim Jong-un, heavily courted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, recently conducting another round of ballistic missile tests. The U.S. also believes more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers are currently fighting on Russia's side in its war against Ukraine.

Russian political analyst Sergei Markov telling me the alliances forged by Vladimir Putin will be a major issue for the new administration.

SERGEI MARKOV, POLITICAL ANALYST: All these coalition has a major goal to support each other in the only one thing, sovereignty. And because the challenges of the sovereignty comes first of all, from the United States and the Western coalition, it moves them automatically to be anti-American.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE) FOSTER: Well, still to come, a surge in violence as some Israeli settlers in the West Bank target Palestinian civilians. We'll hear from one Palestinian farmer who was threatened by a settler and it was all caught on tape as well.

MACFARLANE: Plus, Donald Trump reveals more picks for his incoming administration, including a controversial choice for defense secretary and a role for Elon Musk.

FOSTER: To be honest, John, he was an anchor.

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