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Interview With Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH); Trump Cabinet Picks Under Fire. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired November 21, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: And later: A mother sits on death row in Texas even after a judge decided that she was actually innocent of killing her daughter. Why is she still there then? Will she walk free?

Hello. I'm Pamela Brown in Washington, and you're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

This morning, growing controversies involving Donald Trump's top administration picks are threatening his new Cabinet before some are even officially nominated. Pete Hegseth, the man who Trump wants to lead the Department of Defense, is on Capitol Hill today meeting with the senators who will decide his fate.

But his visit is overshadowed by a police report that's offering some new details about a sexual assault allegation against him, something he is denying.

Sara Murray joins us now. So, again, Hegseth has denied these allegations, but we are learning more from this police report.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

The police report really sheds light on the competing narratives around what happened this evening in October 2017 in California surrounding this Republican women's conference. And I want to talk about the woman's account first.

She's referred to as Jane Doe in this police report. She said Hegseth was giving off a creeper vibe during this conference. She said she later ended up in a strange hotel room and she claims Hegseth took the phone from her hands, that he blocked the door with his body and that she remembered saying no a lot.

Now, there was a lot she couldn't recall. She said at one point maybe somebody slipped something in her drink, although there were other eyewitnesses who said they saw her that evening,she seemed sober. There were also differing eyewitness accounts about an encounter this woman had earlier in the evening with Hegseth at a hotel bar.

One person said she showed up as a crotch blocker when Hegseth was hitting on another woman who wasn't interested in his advances. Another person said they saw this woman, Jane Doe, and she appeared to be flirting with Hegseth. At any rate, after what happened in the hotel room, this woman waits a

couple of days. She then seeks medical care. They do a rape kit and she says she believes she may have been sexually assaulted and the nurse ultimately is the one who reports this to authorities.

This is very different from the account Pete Hegseth gives to authorities. He says that she ends up in his hotel room. It's kind of odd that she's not leaving, but that they became intimate and that there was a consensual sexual encounter. He said there was always conversation and always consensual sexual conduct.

He said that he and this woman, Jane Doe, discussed the fact that she was married and she said she would tell her husband she had fallen asleep on a couch in someone else's room. And he also said she showed early signs, some early signs of regret, although he didn't explain what that was.

As you pointed out, Pete Hegseth has denied that there was any kind of sexual misconduct. His attorney, Timothy Parlatore, told me that: "This police report confirms what I have said all along. The incident was fully investigated. The police found the allegations to be false, and that's why no charges were filed."

We should note, though, the police report doesn't say that they found all the allegations to be false. It's true that no charges were filed, but there is other evidence in this case. There's surveillance video. There's a memo from the district attorney that could shed light on why charges were not filed, but at this time there are no plans to make any of that public.

We should also note that our team approached this woman again, the woman referred to as Jane Doe last week. She declined to comment, and when our team tried to ask her about these allegations, she broke down in tears, Pam.

BROWN: All right, Sara Murray, thank you for bringing us the latest on that.

And now to another controversy involving one of Donald Trump's recent Cabinet picks, Linda McMahon for education secretary. In this lawsuit, the former pro wrestling executive is accused of enabling the sexual abuse of children by one of her company's employees.

Now, McMahon has denied these allegations, which go back to the '80s.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz joins us now.

What else have we learned, Katelyn?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Yes, Pam, this is a new lawsuit filed in Maryland earlier this year, but it's about things that happened decades ago,decades ago, when Linda McMahon was still the CEO and co-founder of WWE, alongside her husband, Vince McMahon.

In this lawsuit, it is anonymous plaintiffs bringing it against Linda McMahon, Vince McMahon, WWE, the parent company. And they are saying that, in the 1980s, the 1990s, when they were as young as 12- or 13- year-old boys who were serving as ring boys for the WWE, so ringside and helping out an announcer there, that they were being abused by this man, this announcer, a man named Mel Phillips, who is now deceased.

And what they're claiming in the lawsuit is that Linda McMahon and Vince McMahon knew about the sexual exploitation of these children that were affiliated with WWE and were turning a blind eye to it. So that's the lawsuit. It is something that we have known about for many years now.

In the '90s, there was public reporting about this man, Mel Phillips, his abuse of children at the WWE. But now, because of a change in the law in Maryland, there is the ability of people to bring a lawsuit like this now, many, many years after the fact.

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And it's highlighting this at a moment where Linda McMahon is being chosen by Donald Trump to lead the Department of Education, a department that is about helping the nation's children. And so there are questions about how she would have been handling the care of children who were in and around the WWE whenever she was leading that company.

We do have a quote from her attorney though, Pam, saying that this is a false allegation against Linda McMahon and she will -- she will win this lawsuit ultimately.

BROWN: All right, Katelyn Polantz, thank you so much for that.

New this morning, one of Donald Trump's biggest boosters in Congress is getting a new job, pushing his mission to make the federal government more efficient. This morning, we learned the Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene will chair a new House subcommittee that will work with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, their new project, the Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, as people call it.

We have learned one of the first orders of business for them could be ending remote work for federal workers, based on our reporting. But this is about more than bringing people into the office. It could also drive people out of government altogether, which is sort of the point here.

So I want to bring in CNN's Rene Marsh.

So tell us more about this effort to try to get members of -- employees of the government who work remotely back into the office and how they think that will help cut down on the work force.

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right.

So, their big goal here is to slash government spending. And they -- Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, what their first ideas are for this DOGE is essentially to mandate Monday through Friday in the office for all federal workers across the federal government,in hopes that many of these federal workers will quit and in turn saving the federal government money and salaries.

So let's take a look at the numbers. Right now, as we speak, 1.3 million federal workers are approved for telework. That's about half of the federal work force. And of those working these sort of hybrid schedules, they spend the vast majority of their time in the office, 60 percent of their time in the office, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

And then just a small percentage of the larger bucket of the over two million federal workers are completely remote. But that is the sect of the work force that they're really focused on when it comes to this mandate that they're pondering of saying no more working from home, everyone come back to the office.

And they're also thinking about coupling that with moving some of these agencies out of Washington, D.C. So we have those two things together, moving the agencies, some of them, and also demanding that everyone is in office five days a week. They are hoping they will be able to shed and thin out the ranks.

BROWN: And, of course, dismantling the Education Department is a key goal of the Trump administration too.

And Marjorie Taylor Greene is now going to be heading this subcommittee. I mean, how is this going to work?

MARSH: Yes.

I mean, so, and I know you were on the Hill. You had some reporting on this as well, Pam. I mean, this just shows us the extension that this Department of Government Efficiency will have and that there will be this other arm on Congress on Capitol Hill where the House Homeland Security -- I'm sorry -- House Oversight Committee...

BROWN: Oversight Committee.

MARSH: .. will have a role in this and be partnered with DOGE on this as far as identifying waste across government, Marjorie Taylor Greene saying in her announcement -- she's again going to be heading this subcommittee on House Oversight -- saying -- and I'm quoting -- that they will be exposing people who need to be fired, bureaucrats who don't do their job, fail audits in places like the Pentagon and don't know where billions of dollars are going.

She also says that they're going to be looking at salaries. So, again, a partner in Congress with Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, who these two men are working outside of the government. They won't have the power to do -- make these cuts, but they will have the power to make recommendations to the president and also recommendations to members of Congress.

BROWN: All right, Rene Marsh bringing us the latest, thanks so much.

MARSH: Sure. BROWN: We have some breaking news into CNN.

Jussie Smollett's conviction of allegations that he staged a racist and homophobic attack against himself has been overturned. In 2019, Smollett claimed that two men assaulted him, spouted racial and homophobic slurs, and tossed a noose around his neck.

Well, prosecutors said that he staged the attack and he was convicted of five counts of disorderly conduct in 2021. He has repeatedly said he is innocent. We're going to have more on this story as it develops.

Up next on CNN, I will speak to a Republican congressman about the questions facing Trump's picks for his Cabinet and whether they will even serve in his administration. That's next.

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You're in the CNN NEWSROOM this busy Thursday.

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BROWN: With just 60 days until the inauguration, some of the most important names in president-elect Trump's Cabinet already seem to be in jeopardy of not being confirmed.

Recess appointments could solve that dilemma, but what our Congress will go along with that plan is very much in doubt.

Let's discuss all of this with Republican Representative Warren Davidson of Ohio.

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Congressman, great to have you on.

Let's start with the Cabinet questions. Do you think Congress should do what the president wants by allowing recess appointments to happen if some of his picks will not get confirmed the traditional way?

REP. WARREN DAVIDSON (R-OH): Well, I think the lag that has happened certainly in President Trump's first term, people were slow-walked for months, in some cases years, and they couldn't even get a vote.

So, I think that's not fair to the person that's being nominated. They leave their lives. And in the case of Matt Gaetz, for example, he's already resigned from Congress. So, you should get a vote quickly. And in the absence of that, I think President Trump, in Matt Gaetz's case in particular, that's who he wants to be as attorney general.

And I think he said very clearly he will be the interim if you don't appoint him quickly. So, he's not even really going to hold out for a recess appointment for Gaetz. He's just going to name him the interim A.G.

BROWN: To be clear, many Republican senators do not appear to want to recess. They want to carry out their constitutional responsibility to advise and consent. I hear what you're saying about the interim part, but on the recess part and what the Senate's responsibility is, constitutional responsibility, do you disagree with them?

DAVIDSON: I mean, they do have a constitutional role in confirming the president's appointees. They should give advice and consent on those.

But what you have seen is unanimous consent from Democrats. They supported 100 percent of Biden's picks. And, occasionally, Republicans get weak in the knees when it comes to Republican nominees, but they seem to find a way to vote for Democrat nominees.

And I think Republican voters are pretty sick of that. And the president's, frankly, not going to show a lot of patience for it. He dealt with it in his first term, and he's saying, look, there's certain roles. Like, I need an attorney general right away. I'm not going to waste time with that. We're going to move.

And we know we need a strong and focused military. That's why he picked Pete Hegseth. He's the right person to deliver that. And I think you can't have an absence as secretary of defense. I think Pete Hegseth is going to do a great job.

BROWN: I want to follow up on Matt Gaetz, who we were talking about early on in the conversation. The Ethics Committee, as you know, deadlocked yesterday over the release of the draft report on Matt Gaetz.

You have been an advocate for transparency in the past. Do you think the report should be made public? And doesn't -- don't Americans deserve to know what Congress learned about the person who could be the next attorney general?

DAVIDSON: No, I really don't think so, because it would break a precedent that they have had. And, in Matt's case, he's already resigned.

BROWN: It wouldn't break a precedent.

DAVIDSON: It would.

BROWN: It wouldn't.

DAVIDSON: And, frankly, if you want to disclose them all, I think that people have said, fine, let's publish all of them. If you want transparency, we will drop it all out there. And I think that's mutually assured destruction.

People are like, oh, let's not do that. Well, let's be transparent then. And I think, look, Matt Gaetz has been targeted by all kinds of people. It's not a secret who Matt Gaetz is. And people are accusing of things that even the FBI under Biden's administration found weren't crimes.

In fact, the people that were trying to blackmail him and his family are the ones that wound up in jail, not Matt Gaetz. BROWN: OK, I just want to follow up on this. First of all, there is

president of a member of Congress resigning and then the Ethics Committees continue on with the investigation and releasing the findings in at least two examples. So there is president for that.

And on Matt Gaetz, he would oversee the Justice Department. He would be the chief law enforcement official. The DOJ did investigate him. Just because he wasn't charged does not mean they didn't have evidence of concern, right? You have to meet a bar before you charge someone.

So, why not release that report?

DAVIDSON: Well, the problem is, the American people have a lot of concern about what the DOJ has been up to. And Donald Trump tried reforming these things from the inside. He tried the insiders like Barr. He tried the longtime Senate person with Sessions. He got no results.

And now he's going with people that he knows are going there to change the place. And that's the same with Pete Hegseth. He tried Mad Dog Mattis. He didn't do anything useful. He tried the inside lobbyists with Esper. He didn't do anything useful.

So now he's going with people that he knows are going to change. And that's -- Pete Hegseth's represents that.

BROWN: Yes.

DAVIDSON: A company-grade officer, combat veteran, served in the infantry in combat.

He's going to come back. And he's written extensively about what he wants to do in the Department of Defense. He needs to be confirmed and given the opportunity to do it.

BROWN: I understand what you're saying about Pete Hegseth, and I'm going to follow up on that in just a second.

But, on Matt Gaetz, I take your point about who Trump did not -- did not -- he didn't like who he put in there before. He wants a loyalist.

But this is the chief law enforcement officer in the country, the attorney general. Why shouldn't the American public see what is in this Ethics report, especially given the precedent that I laid out?

DAVIDSON: Well, look, the American people knew the kind of mandate they were giving Donald Trump when they elected him president of the United States. And they know that the Department of Justice has been weaponized.

[11:20:04]

We have had a weaponization task force that's exposed this. And the administration needs to have a leader like Matt Gaetz who's going to drive change. We have -- remember when it was a conspiracy theory to say that the FBI and federal agencies were censoring American citizens' speech, and then Elon Musk bought Twitter, and we had the Twitter Files?

Now even Mark Zuckerberg is saying, yes, yes, we were doing that. No one's been held to account for that. That's not retribution. That's justice. And we need somebody that's committed to doing it. Matt Gaetz is clearly and convincingly going to go do that.

BROWN: Just to follow up on that -- and there are certainly concerns that you point out about censorship and so forth. That is true.

But you're talking about concern about weaponizing DOJ. Donald Trump has talked about wanting to have retribution against his enemies, right? I mean, he has talked about using DOJ to go after people that either weren't loyal to him or he sees as enemies. I mean, he has been open about that.

So, in terms of weaponizing DOJ, does that concern you? And it's something that he also did in his first administration?

DAVIDSON: No, he's -- he did not do that in the first administration.

He's simply trying to apply...

BROWN: He did ask DOJ to investigate people like Hillary Clinton and others.

Go ahead.

DAVIDSON: For crimes. For crimes. Remember when they tried to -- they did impeach him because he asked the obvious question, shouldn't somebody look into this connection to Hunter Biden and Ukraine? It took the president to do that. No one in the Department of State did it. No one in Department of Justice did it. The president of the United States did it.

Now he's going to have an attorney general that's going to say, yes, you should look into corruption like this. I mean, the Clinton Foundation, you have sovereign governments giving $100 million donations to it. And the minute she's not in power, all the foundation money dries up.

Are you kidding me?

(CROSSTALK)

DAVIDSON: The American people know they want justice, and Matt Gaetz is going to deliver it.

BROWN: That wasn't investigated and no charges were brought. So, by your standard with Matt Gaetz -- I mean, no charges were brought against the Clinton Foundation.

Look, we're going to move on from that, right, because I want to talk about Pete Hegseth, who you brought up. You are a veteran and a former Army Ranger. The allegations against Pete Hegseth are serious. Should those be discussed by the senators who would interview him during confirmation hearings? DAVIDSON: Well, the gossip is already going on. And people want to

talk about everything but the right kind of leader to change the Department of Defense.

And we need a strong and focused military. That's what Pete Hegseth is going to bring. And we need to not deal with these distractions. It's the same playbook as always, character assassination, stuff that stayed idol for years is somehow magically regenerated and brought back to life to try to take down nominees.

Pete Hegseth needs to be our next secretary of defense. And he's going to do a great job.

BROWN: OK. I hear what you're saying about moral assassination. Just to be clear to our viewers, there are -- this was an allegation that police did investigate.

I want to move on to RFK Jr. Clearly, you are very much in favor of Donald Trump's picks we have discussed so far. With RFK Jr., I want to ask you about this, because you have an anti-abortion stance. I was just reading it before our interview. I mean, I have interviewed you about it actually in the past as well.

RFK Jr. has been in favor of a woman's right to choose. He has a history of comments about that. And he said during his presidential campaign that the issue of late-term abortion is being used to artificially divide the American public.

Does that give you pause about him running HHS? As we know, Mike Pence, the former vice president has come out against this pick over the abortion issue. What do you think?

DAVIDSON: Look, I'm enthusiastic about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. being the director of -- the secretary of Health and Human Services. I think he's going to bring the kind of accountability and reform that they need.

You look at people like Fauci staying in the same job for years, boasting in front of Senator Rand Paul that he doesn't have to disclose how he's being paid millions of dollars for approving drugs that aren't working the way that they were supposed to. People are sick of this and they want change.

And, again, he tried reforms from the inside. Now President Trump is bringing people like Robert F. Kennedy that we know are going to bring reforms from the outside. And that's exactly what my constituents want and I think the American people not only want, but need.

BROWN: Does the abortion stance concern you at all, given your views?

DAVIDSON: No. The Dobbs decision made clear this is a matter for the states. And the Hyde Amendment makes clear there's not going to be federal funding for abortions. And there shouldn't be federal funding for abortion.

And there won't be in the future. And the reality is, Dobbs didn't say that there can be no legislation. It basically gave the states the ability to do what they were banned from doing. In a democratic process, the government reflects the will of the people. And in an authoritarian system, the government imposes its view on the public.

And that's exactly what happened for 50 years under Roe v. Wade. Some black-robed tyrants imposed their will on the entire country. And legislatures were forbidden from expressing the will of the people. And now they can do that, and they will do it differently in California than they do in Ohio, and they will do it differently in Ohio than in Louisiana.

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And maybe over the period of time, we will recognize that the science does show that life begins at conception. And maybe, like a lot of the rest of the world, we will treat it that way. But that's not going to happen while Robert F. Kennedy is...

BROWN: The science does not definitively show that. That is an ongoing debate, and that is for a different conversation than we have time for right now, unfortunately.

I do want to quickly ask you, on Ukraine, you serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee. President Joe Biden has been changing some of the rules of engagement in Ukraine recently, allowing the use of these attacks -- attack missiles, these ATACMS, and also antipersonnel mines, so these mines that could be used against humans.

Do you think president-elect Trump should keep those policies in place?

DAVIDSON: No, look, President Trump should help a peace break out in Ukraine, between Ukraine and Russia and everyone involved. I mean, we want the war to end, and it was an avoidable war in the first place.

I don't think anyone believes this war would have happened if President Trump could have started his second term right away. But in the interim, Joe Biden's administration has been a disaster, especially on foreign policy. We have had to evacuate 11 embassies at this point. His administration is a complete disaster on foreign policy.

So, thankfully, help is on the way, and I feel optimistic that we will get a peaceful resolution there.

BROWN: All right, Congressman Warren Davidson, thanks for coming on to share your point of view, your perspective on these really important issues of the day. We do appreciate your time.

DAVIDSON: Thanks, Pam.

And when we come back, more on our breaking news. The conviction of actor Jussie Smollett has been overturned three years after he was found guilty of lying about being the victim of a racist, homophobic attack.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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