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CNN International: Trump Expected To Offer Kelly Loeffler Job As Agriculture Secretary; Gaetz Says He's Not Rejoining Congress After Withdrawing As AG Pick; Gaza Health Ministry: Death Toll Surpassed 44,000; UK Defense Official: We'd Fight Russia If It Invaded Eastern Europe; Crime Ring May Be Linked To Star Athlete Robberies. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired November 22, 2024 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:30]
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington. Thanks so much for joining me today on CNN NEWSROOM.
And let's get right to the news.
President-elect Donald Trump continues to fill his ideal cabinet at breakneck speed. CNN has just learned he intends to offer Kelly Loeffler, the former Georgia senator, the role of agriculture secretary.
And he wasted no time to announce a replacement for what is his top priority, attorney general. It went from one Floridian to another, Trump selecting former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead the Justice Department. She, of course, replaces Matt Gaetz, who withdrew from consideration yesterday.
Trump, conceding that Gaetz did not have the votes in the Republican majority Senate to be confirmed. Bondi is a longtime Trump loyalist who, we should note amplified his false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAM BONDI (R), FORMER FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL: We are still on the ground in Pennsylvania. I'm here right now and we are not going anywhere until they declare that we won Pennsylvania.
We know that ballots have been dumped. There were ballots that were found early on. We've heard that people were receiving ballots that that were dead. You know, the thing that's happening all over.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were they legal ballots?
BONDI: It is about the integrity of this election. And every vote as Mayor Giuliani said, in every state, must be counted fairly.
We need to fix this. We need to remedy this now because we've won Pennsylvania and we want every vote to be counted in a fair way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Of course, that turned out not to be true. She is thought still, though to be easier to confirm than Gaetz, who is deeply unpopular on Capitol Hill and also is facing allegations of sex with a minor.
With me now for more is CNN correspondent Sunlen Serfaty.
So, Sunlen, a major shakeup at the attorney general position from Gaetz to Bondi. What's next for Gaetz?
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, one thing we know, according to Matt Gaetz himself, he says today that he does not intend to return to Congress and you'll remember that this was something of an open question. It was uncertain if he was able to return. He did resign last week from his Senate seat, that he -- from his seat that he has in the current Congress over in the House of Representatives.
But he also won reelection for the next Congress. So in this moment of uncertainty, a lot of senior leaders on Capitol Hill were kind of scrambling, wondering if he intended to be back. Could he be back?
But Gaetz himself today confirming that is not his intention. And he did so in an interview where he also interestingly blamed politics on Capitol Hill for the demise -- his demise as the AG nominee.
And he pointed a finger at Kevin McCarthy. Of course, those two have no love lost there. Gaetz widely known for being behind the ousting of Kevin McCarthy -- Kevin McCarthy.
And look today how he called out Kevin McCarthy in this interview for being, he believes, partially to blame for his demise as a nominee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT GAETZ, WITHDREW AS TRUMP'S PICK FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL: I was dealing with a politically motivated body. They didn't like me because of what I did to Kevin McCarthy. All of them were handpicked by Kevin McCarthy, and they had an ax to grind. So that was going to serve as at least enough of a basis to delay my confirmation as attorney general.
And I could have answered all those questions. I could have engaged in a months long fact battle, but we don't have months to go through that. We got to have an AG ready to go day one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SERFATY: And Gaetz also saying that he plans to be in the fight. He's just going to be from a new perch, unknown what that actual perch is going to be, Jim, but he did go on to praise Trumps selection of Pam Bondi and notably saying that he believes Bondi's confirmation wont have the same sharp edges that his would have had.
SCIUTTO: There are still some potentially tough confirmation battles to come, though, aren't there? SERFATY: There are certainly a whole handful of going to be tough.
First, notably, we still have some folks that are still left to be chosen in some of these key spots. We have the HUD secretary labor secretary and treasury secretary. Those three are still outstanding. We do not know who the nominees will be for those positions.
And we know as far as treasury, this is a position that Trump certainly views as critical. He has taken numerous applicants for interviews. So certainly that's a big one yet to be named. But yes, as you said, Jim, absolutely. Next page is can Trump get his people through Congress?
And we have a whole slate of people -- Linda McMahon, the HHS secretary, RFK Jr., that have a lot of question marks and a lot of people on Capitol Hill waiting for those hearings.
[15:05:02]
SCIUTTO: Sunlen Serfaty, thanks so much.
So for more on the Trump transition and the president-elect's picks for his cabinet, I'm joined by Republican Congressman Don Bacon from the great state of Nebraska.
Thanks so much for joining us today back.
REP. DON BACON (R-NE): Thank you, Jim, for having me back.
SCIUTTO: A lot to get through. I do want to begin with your reaction to Matt Gaetz's withdrawal. A good thing?
BACON: Yeah, I think it was the right, he did not have the votes. And I think part of it was dealing with the how he treated Kevin McCarthy. You know, from my vantage point, we had 222 Republicans and eight took down Kevin McCarthy, even though 214 of us supported Kevin McCarthy. And so that -- that's going to create a lot of anger and resentment from the vast majority that wanted Kevin to be the speaker.
So there's no doubt there was some connections to Kevin McCarthy or maybe not the way he thought I would say. Secondly, too, with these this investigation and the results there that was hanging over his head as well. So I think it was good to move on and put -- submit somebody else as the nominee.
SCIUTTO: I want to talk about another particular one of his appointments because of your military experience, you served in the Air Force in active duty for nearly 30 years. You deployed to Iraq. You flew combat missions there.
You deal with the Defense Department all the time on a number of key national security issues.
Do you believe that Pete Hegseth has the right experience and leadership to be defense secretary?
BACON: I like a lot of things that he has said when he's on Fox and you know, making commentary. I don't say I agree with everything, but I agree with much with what he's had to say. I think it remains to be seen if he has the experience level to lead one of the largest organizations in the world with the trouble spots that we have, whether it's Iran, Russia and Ukraine, China, Taiwan.
So I think he's going to have to prove himself in the hearings with the Senate and I hope he does well but I think I think the jury's out on that.
SCIUTTO: One thing that Pete Hegseth has called for is the firing of generals in two categories. One, those who he accuses of supporting diversity initiatives. I want to get to that in a moment.
But before I do, he has also put a target on generals who were involved in any way in Afghanistan blaming them, in effect, for the Afghanistan withdrawal. Do you believe they should be targeted and removed for their involvement in that?
BACON: I do not, Jim. They were following the orders of the president and the secretary of defense, so Biden and Austin, and I read the 350- page Afghan after-action report. In the end, that President Biden and the National Security Council, the NSA Director Sullivan in particular, they made this -- made the orders to withdraw out of Afghanistan over the objections of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the CentCom commander, the Central Command commander that oversees our operations in the Middle East.
So, in other words, the military, our military recommended against the Biden plan. They were overruled, and they were actually ordered to withdraw the troops out of Afghanistan before the civilians at the embassy. So we had a situation where the troops were being withdrawn while the State Department was growing the number at the embassy. And then Kabul was taken, and they had to bring troops back in to rescue our civilians at the -- at the embassy.
This was not the fault of General Donahue, who's some people are blaming. He had to pick up the pieces that were broken from this White House. So I -- the military was given lawful orders, but they not concurred and they were overruled.
So I don't think they were at fault for what happened in Afghanistan. The fault lies largely on the president himself.
SCIUTTO: He also has put a target on those who he says has supported diversity, specifically calling out the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who I know you know, CQ Brown, who previously became the first Black American to lead a branch of the military. He's also targeted Admiral Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations, the first woman in that job.
I mean, both were broadly on bipartisan lines. Should generals who were involved in DEI initiatives be removed from their positions?
BACON: I know General Brown well. We were colonels together. We were one stars together. I went to school with the chief, the current chief of staff of the Air Force twice, General Allvin, and the fact is our military takes orders from the president and the secretary of defense, two civilians, and they get to change the direction of the military or set the direction.
It is a fact that general -- or President Biden and Secretary Austin put out executive orders on diversity training and diversity programs, the military responded and followed those orders.
[15:10:06]
Our new president will have the ability to do new orders and he can scale some of that diversity programs back, DEI, we call it. They can tone it down. He can change the direction because our military will take orders from the president and the secretary of defense. And that's what General Brown was doing.
He was following the orders of President Biden. He will also take the orders of President Trump and President Trump has the right to, you know, change the heading on some of these programs, whether he wants to tone it down part way or change the, you know, the azimuth of where it's going. And our military will respond.
So General Brown was simply following orders of President Biden and he should not be blamed for doing that.
SCIUTTO: Women as you know, account for roughly one fifth of the Defense Department's active duty force. You served alongside women. Hegseth has said women should not serve in combat. What's your response to that argument?
BACON: I think we have (INAUDIBLE) where if a woman can meet the standards, whatever the combat standard is, that they can, you know, be part of that team and be part of that combat unit.
And I've certainly I've worked with great women in the Air Force. They've made great pilots. We have, you know, women in the Thunderbirds and I flew with -- I know the very first combat Air Force pilot, Martha McSally.
And so, as long as folks can meet the standards, that is the right standard to have.
SCIUTTO: Understood. And, listen I met years ago the first combat helicopter pilot who was a woman. I mean, these are -- these are tough people. They're tougher than me.
Before we go, I want to talk about Ukraine because you've been a vocal supporter of U.S. support to Ukraine since Russia's invasion, full scale invasion in 2022. Both Donald Trump and J.D. Vance have questioned the U.S. commitment to Ukraine. J.D. Vance, you'll remember during his Senate campaign in 2022, he said publicly he doesn't care what happens to Ukraine. And more recently, in the final days of the campaign he said, you know, you can't really distinguish who the good guys and the bad guys are in that war, even though, as you know, Russia invaded.
Are you concerned that Trump will end or reduce U.S. support to Ukraine? And if he does, would he be handing Putin a victory?
BACON: I hope he does not. I hope he (VIDEO GAP) committing crimes against humanity. Ukraine is trying to maintain its independence and defend itself.
And so, I think the -- I think it's -- I have moral clarity on it., I know who the good guys are. I definitely know who the bad guys are here.
And if Russia prevails and Ukraine loses its independence, our national security will be undermined. It will cost us more in the long run and treasure, and probably also blood, because you're going to have Russia right on the border of NATO, in Warsaw. I would -- I guarantee you, Jim, if Ukraine falls, Moldova will be next. We could very well see the Baltics. We could see Georgia or Azerbaijan.
You know, the Russians have been raised to think that they should control all of those near-abroad countries. That's what they call the near-abroad. But these countries want to have their independence.
A lot of them want to be our friends. They want to be. They want to have a democracy. They want free markets and they want to be part of the West and Russia is trying to prevent that. These are independent countries.
(VIDEO GAP)
They want to do for their people and their countries. And so great if Ukraine falls, our national security interests will be hurt. It's going to cost us more.
SCIUTTO: That's right. I always say, listen to the Ukrainians, ask them what they want. Congressman Don Bacon, we appreciate it. We wish you and your family a happy holidays.
BACON: Thank you.
Still to come, I'll be one on one with New Jersey Senator George Helmy. What does he think a second Trump administration means specifically for Israel, Gaza and the Middle East?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:17:14]
SCIUTTO: Welcome back.
According to Gaza's ministry of health, 44,000 people have been killed since the war began in Gaza following the October 7th attacks. The majority, women and children, with many more believed to be trapped under the rubble, not yet counted. It's a grim milestone in a war with no current end in sight.
This week, alone Arab-American senator now serving George Helmy, addressed Congress with a message to the American public.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. GEORGE HELMY (D-NJ): My fervent plea is for all of us in this body and in our country, to see what is happening in the Middle East through the lens of our humanity. First and foremost, no human should be worth less than another based on which side of the checkpoint or crossing they may live on. Perhaps, just perhaps, if we keep the principle at the center of our approach, we can do better by the innocent people of Gaza and the West Bank, who so desperately demand and need our humanity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Well, the senator from New Jersey joins me now.
Thanks so much for taking the time.
HELMY: Thanks for having me, Jim. Really appreciate it.
SCIUTTO: You know, we listened to your words on the Senate floor, and I wonder do you believe the U.S. has failed the people of Gaza and the West Bank? I'm not talking about Hamas. I'm talking about the civilians there.
HELMY: I wouldn't use the word failed, but I think there's a recognition in the administration and a recognition in Congress that there was absolutely opportunity to do better, and looking forward we have to hold ourselves more accountable and our strongest ally in the Middle East, Israel, more accountable, to stem the humanitarian crisis and the needless suffering -- suffering from noncombatants.
SCIUTTO: So what does holding them accountable look like? As you know, this week, the Senate rejected a series of votes introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders to block weapons transfers to Israel. The first ever vote to block weapons to Israel and while it failed, 18 Democrats did vote to support the bills.
What -- do you believe the U.S. should at least condition those arms shipments on reducing civilian suffering?
HELMY: Well, I think -- I think that's exactly what a number of us did by voting in support of some -- of some of Senator Sanders' joint resolutions of disapproval. I think many of us raised our voice, and we walked in knowing that we didn't have the majority to pass those, and we were careful about, like I did, splitting our vote on defensive weapons or making dumb bombs into smart bombs. But the message there was very clear that many of us who are watching closely and folks who will be there for a long time and have the jurisdiction on the Senate Foreign Relations Commission -- Committee, are watching closely, are going to hold Israel accountable with international norms and the compliance with our rules.
Second, I would give the administration credit. In the middle of October, Secretary Blinken and Secretary Austin sent a strong letter to the Netanyahu government, with 15 -- laying out 15 things that they needed to see improvement on.
[15:20:01]
And on 12 of them, I think we're starting to see some progress.
But as you mentioned in the intro, Jim, when you're looking at nearly 50,000 dead, many of which are infants and children and mothers, clearly, we are watching one of the great decimations of a human population and all of us should be doing more.
SCIUTTO: As you know, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister yesterday for war crimes -- crimes against humanity. I want to read some of their statement now. There are reasonable grounds to believe that the lack of food, water electricity and fuel and specific medical supplies created conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the civilian population of Gaza.
What they're saying there, as you know is not just that the bombs have killed too many people, but that there is a deliberate effort to punish or at least take away essential supplies from the people of Gaza. Do you think that was a fair charge?
HELMY: I don't and as you noted, playing a part of my speech and my positions on some of the yesterday. You're not going to see me as a defender of the Netanyahu government's efforts as it relates -- as it relates to alleviating the suffering of noncombatants. So I'm not in the, you know, carte blanche defender category.
At the same time, I agree with, you know, President Biden and others and the national security leadership that that is an unfair characterization. And I think goes too far.
Now, obviously, the ICC will have research and evidence that it presents in its warrants, and I don't have access to, but I think it conflates the defense of a sovereign nation going after terrorists who brutally murdered a thousand and more. And on October 7th and are still holding American terrorists, including a young man from New Jersey. I think it conflates that defense, operation, with what Hamas and others who the ICC has come after in the past.
SCIUTTO: You traveled to Jordan recently, and when I've been in the Middle East recently, prior to the election, there's a feeling there. I hear and I hear it from Israelis. I hear it from Palestinians that if Trump were to win, of course, he's now won, that he will give carte blanche to the Netanyahu government to do whatever it wants, including as far as expelling the Palestinian people, perhaps from Gaza, perhaps from the West Bank. And I wonder what you believe the Trump presidency means for the Palestinians, their way forward?
HELMY: Yeah. Yeah, well, I'd start with concern. And clearly, Jim, I think where you were going as well is the Netanyahu government and Bibi specifically played politics with the system and waited out the election before, you know, really coming to terms either, A, increasing access to necessary goods.
You mentioned my trip to Jordan, just a few miles across the crossing. I saw at least two warehouses filled to the brim with winterized tents, latrines, hygiene products, food basic medication that can't get in because the crossings are unsafe, and there's no secure way to get it from the crossing to the distribution center. So clearly, our election cycle was used for political gain by the -- by that government.
In terms of where I have some concern and maybe some optimism, I'm going to hold the president to his word. The president-elect said that he hopes the guns will come silent and the war will end before he takes office. I'm hopeful that he will find a way to bring the guns silent so that we can, A, get the aid necessary as winter approaches to those who desperately need it and save unnecessary lives from being lost and, two, pursue a peace process and the only way forward will be a two-state solution. It's in Israel's best interest, and the only path to peace in the Middle East.
SCIUTTO: You believe that, many believe that. It's not clear the new president-elect believes that, or at least some in his circle believe that. I mean, you have this new ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has said publicly he doesn't believe the Palestinians exist. He won't call illegal settlements in the West Bank settlements at all. He just calls them communities. And he describes the West Bank, in effect, as Israeli territory.
So I wonder, despite your hopes, if you believe this administration will credibly pursue a two-state solution?
HELMY: Well, listen, we're going to see and that's why I said -- I was -- I was concerned and challenged with this. I think we're putting people in, you know, U.N. positions and positions that ambassadors to Israel that have said that. I'm hoping that much of that is political -- political rhetoric. And when they see the devastation on the ground and sit with our partners who are going to demand a two-state solution, whether it be Jordan or some of our other critical Arab allies, that they'll see a path to scaling back some of their political rhetoric and actually working towards the only viable peace solution.
And, Jim, I was in some of these communities working on behalf of the Harris-Walz campaign. The president was also in those communities and made commitments to the Arab community to bring the guns silent and to work towards a peace solution.
[15:25:06]
There can be no peace solution without a Palestine.
SCIUTTO: Senator George Helmy, thanks so much for joining. We look forward to speaking again.
HELMY: Really appreciate it. And thanks again, Jim, for what you do.
SCIUTTO: Well, the war in Ukraine has continued to escalate this week. The rules of the battlefield seemingly changing, expanding. First, after finally getting permission, Ukraine fired U.S. supplied ATACMS missiles and British and French made Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russian territory. Russia responded to what it called reckless decisions and actions of
Western countries by launching, and you're seeing the video there, a new missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, a multi warhead missile. As Moscow adds new weapons to its arsenal, it's also sending new troops to bolster its efforts, North Korean troops and officers now Kharkiv and Mariupol.
In London, a top UK military official sent a message to Putin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. GEN. SIR ROB MAGOWAN, DEPUTY CHIEF OF THE DEFENSE STAFF: If the British army was asked to fight tonight, it would fight tonight. And I don't think anybody in this room should be under any illusion that if the Russians invaded Eastern Europe tonight, then we would meet them in that fight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Fight tonight.
CNN chief national security correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is in Kyiv.
Nick, there are a couple of ways to read North Koreans joining this war. One is that Russia has been suffering such significant losses. It needs the help, right, to replace those troops, and having difficulty replacing them.
On the other hand, it shows two nuclear powers now fighting in the largest war in Europe since World War Two, on the same side against a sovereign Ukraine. What's been the reaction there?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I mean, the solidarity between the two are not two of the greatest military powers on the planet getting together. I do think it's fair to say that Russia is anxious about another wave of mobilization, particularly amongst the middle classes of Moscow and St. Petersburg, and perhaps therefore seize the idea of tens of thousands, certainly at this point, only 11,000 North Korean troops joining their frontline forces as a way of bolstering their manpower, certainly suffering from what western officials claim is potentially a casualty rate of 1,200 a day in the current activities, they're undertaking, the North Koreans can help fill that void for presumably an acceptable financial cost for Moscow.
I should say what were hearing at the point of now about where they are is predominantly Kursk, and they seem to be separate as a unit from the Russian troops. They're functioning not as a sort of integrated part of that military machine. And as you mentioned there as well, the Ukrainian security source suggesting that they've had information, there are some North Korean troops in Russian uniform in Mariupol, the port city in the south, and other indications indication of their presence around Kharkiv too.
But this personnel contribution is not the only thing, Jim, that North Korea is bringing to the Russian onslaught against Ukraine. The number of ballistic missiles outside of the high tech incident we heard yesterday morning that hit Ukraine regularly has significantly increased and we learned that about a third of those are actually North Korean ballistic missiles. At this point, so many of them dependent on Western supply circuitry, simply to function. Here's what we know:
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATON WALSH (voice-over): The scramble for the dead or the living horrifically commonplace in Ukraine. Yet this series of homes in Kyiv turned to rubble by something other, not Russian, but a North Korean supplied ballistic missile and made able to fly here to cause this barbarism, killing a man and his 4-year-old son by circuitry from the United States.
Ukrainian officials told CNN ballistic missile attacks by Russia were rising fast. 194 so far this year and about a third of them, at least 60, were using North Korean KN-23s. But these crude missiles part of growing aid as North Korean troops also come to Russia rely on a sophistication smuggled into their hermit kingdom. One on display by Ukrainian investigators at this Kyiv warehouse of missile fragments.
It is a house of horrors, drones that haunt the night skies, rockets that tear down lives. They pick through the dust to learn how the killing machines work here rebuilding a Shahed Iranian drone circuits.
Parts from a Kinzhal missile, a Shahed Iranian drone and a Russian Orlan reconnaissance drone. All things Ukraine has been subjected to for many months. But key these North Korean KN-23 missiles rely, they say, on components from the United States and the Netherlands.
This box containing dozens of small bits of circuitry made by household names in the USA or Europe subject to sanctions globally but smuggled often via China to North Korea.
When you open all this up and find American components, how do you feel?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text translation): Like sanctions are failing.
ANDRIY KULCHYTSKYL, KYIV SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF FOREIGN EXPERTISE (through text translation): All the electronics are foreign. There is nothing Korean in it. The only thing Korean is the metal, which quickly rusts and corrodes.
PATON WALSH: The journey the chips and circuits take to Russia may lead through North Korea, even China as a middleman, though ultimately they are U.S. design and make.
OLEKSANDR VYSIKAN, KYIV SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF FOREIGN EXPERTISE (through text translation): The chips most often from the United States.
But the country of manufacture can be China, Malaysia, Taiwan. However, it means that the headquarters is in the United States. PATON WALSH: As the toll from these missiles deepens, Ukrainian officials say the Western firms need to be held accountable. From Thursday's Russian launch of a new weapon to their growing use of prolonging North Korean missile, the global reach of this war grows.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCIUTTO: The bombardment continues on Ukraine. Our thanks to Nick Paton Walsh for that story.
Still to come, a warning for professional athletes here in the U.S. you could be the target of an international crime ring. The details coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: Welcome back.
Sources involved with the Trump transition tell CNN they have identified an aggressive strategy to try to persuade Latin American countries to take back migrants deported from the U.S. on what they said would be a large scale.
David Culver went to the border in Arizona to show just how hard it can be to secure the border and their biggest nemesis the cartels.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than 30 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to go run that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely not. I just had him at 85, so we're going to talk.
CULVER: Arizona deputies close in on a suspected migrant smuggler. This SUV going 40 miles over the speed limit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get back in the car. Now!
CULVER: After a quick search though, no migrants found. They let the driver go with a reckless driving ticket and move on to the next, running down cars like this all day. It's part of the stepped up search efforts for cartel backed drivers.
On average, deputies tell us they bust two to three vehicles a day carrying migrants or drugs here.
SHERIFF MARK DANNELS, COCHISE COUNTY, ARIZONA: This is a really hot spot. So the cars that come down from Phoenix, take the three-hour journey, pull on this highway, pull into a spot in here, hit the horn and they'll pop out of the brush.
CULVER: Sheriff Mark Dannels tells most smugglers are U.S. citizens paid by Mexican cartels. DANNELS: We've got to get back engaged into what the cartel's all about. A ruthless, murderous gang. And number two, they have no respect for this country.
JIM CHILTON, OWNER, CHILTON RANCH: They need to secure the border at the border.
CULVER: Jim and Sue Chilton tell me the cartels use their ranch as a crossing ground.
J. CHILTON: The idea that people coming through here, through my ranch, are coming into poison our people is very, very objectionable to me.
SUE CHILTON, OWNER, CHILTON RANCH: You can see they're all carrying backpacks. Many of them are identical.
CULVER: They show me about two hours of surveillance footage collected from just five cameras on their 50,000 acres in Aravaca.
CULVER: They all look like they're wearing fatigues, camouflage. I mean, it almost looks like a military operation.
J. CHILTON: Over 3,000 people coming to my ranch in the last three and a half, four years are in the country. We have no idea who they are. They're what's called gotaways.
CULVER: The Chilton say the surging gotaways started when President Biden took office and halted construction of the border wall. Sue points to the half mile gap on their ranch that she calls the door.
S. CHILTON: Obviously, if you leave your door standing open in your house, where do people come in?
CULVER: The open --
S. CHILTON: The door, right?
CULVER: Right.
S. CHILTON: OK.
J. CHILTON: Federal government's warning us that there are bad people coming through here.
CULVER: Jim says he's come face to face with them.
J. CHILTON: About 20 guys ran across the road and up that hill to going northwest and the guy in front appeared to have a AK-47.
CULVER: Do you carry any protection while you're out here?
J. CHILTON: I always have a weapon, David. Here's my pistol. You have a weapon, people go the other way.
CULVER: We soon learn Jim isn't the only one armed in these parts. TIM FOLEY, ARIZONA BORDER RECON: You name it, I've been called it.
CULVER: Some called Tim Foley a vigilante. He says his self-funded group, Arizona Border Recon, is here to deter the cartels.
FOLEY: It's a game of chess, or whack-a-mole.
CULVER: Who's winning?
FOLEY: Them.
CULVER: Volunteers from across the U.S. joined Foley in his unofficial and at times controversial patrol effort.
And so, why do it?
FOLEY: I love my country and that's why I said I'll be here until I feel it's secure.
CULVER: When you look at where the border wall ends, what goes through your mind?
J. CHILTON: Why did it end? Why wasn't it finished? But I'll guarantee you that President Trump is going to finish it and secure the border.
CULVER: Pulling up to where the wall ends, Jim warns us the cartels have been battling it out to control this corridor.
Would you hear gunfire?
J. CHILTON: Oh, yeah, I've heard gunfire. Yes.
CULVER: Like a war zone.
J. CHILTON: A war going on over there. I don't hang around. I get out of here.
CULVER: We see some movement up on the ridge, which, according to Jim, is very likely one of those cartel scouts because they have lookouts all over. They'd likely be watching us because were at, as the Chiltons say, the doorway into the U.S. And that also happens to be their money making route.
About 50 miles east of the Chilton's Ranch, Nogales businessman, Jaime Chamberlain, knows the economic importance of the border. His produce import company relies on the port of entry here.
JAIME CHAMBERLAIN, PRESIDENT, CHAMBERLAIN DISTRIBUTING, INC. Any time that you take away those resources, whether it's personnel or whether it's funding for Border Patrol, you are weakening those ports of entry.
CULVER: But he believes the economy and national security are about to improve.
CHAMBERLAIN: I think the new administration has made it clear that they're going to go after criminals first.
[15:40:00]
CULVER: Are you nervous with President Trump coming in? Do you have uneasiness about it?
RAFAEL, MEXICAN IMMIGRANT: Yes. It's different, you know. Trump is different, so. But I respect him too, you know.
CULVER: Along the border wall, we meet Rafael, celebrating his 34th birthday with his mom and son visiting from the other side. A decade after crossing illegally, he is still undocumented, working on a construction site with a team of about 10.
CULVER: How many of them would you say are undocumented?
RAFAEL: Like 10, 10 --
CULVER: Like, everybody?
RAFAEL: Yes.
CULVER: But Cochise County deputies say they aren't focused on migrants like Rafael. They want the cartel fueled smugglers who operate day and night.
DEPUTY DAN BRENNAN, COCHISE COUNTY SHERIFF'S INTERDICTION TEAM: I can kind of safely assume that I think activity will pick up in the coming days until the inauguration.
CULVER: And that's just the cartels basically saying, ten thousand times.
BRENNAN: Hey, let's get it. You know, we're here to make money. Let's get it while we can.
CULVER: David Culver, CNN, Cochise County, Arizona.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCIUTTO: Police say that a South American crime ring may be behind a spate of high profile burglaries going after athletes here, including the homes of Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his teammate Travis Kelce.
And now, the NFL and NBA have sent a security memo to all teams alerting them that players across multiple sports leagues are potential targets.
Joining us now from Los Angeles, CNN security correspondent Josh Campbell.
Josh, I mean, how widespread is this? And where does the investigation stand?
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've seen multiple incidents now in this investigation has now gone global. The FBI being brought in and that's because authorities believe that this could be the work of a transnational set of burglars coming to the U.S. from abroad to stage these you know, wealthy burglaries, and what they're noticing in looking at NFL players NBA players is that a lot of them have the same attributes. We'll show you some of the examples.
They're saying that as far as their investigation, they're seeing that some of these using sophisticated surveillance in advance, going so far as some burglars to pose as delivery drivers and groundskeepers to get a sense of the coming and going of residents. They're also scaling residences, trying to get up to the second floor master bedrooms trying to go after cash, trying to go after jewelry.
Now, Jim, you and I have reported so-called burglary tourists, who come to the U.S. It's been of great concern to law enforcement from coast to coast. I talked to one prosecutor who said, these aren't keystone crooks. These are sophisticated operations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TODD SPITZER, ORANGE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: They're very sophisticated. They lie in wait for days at a time in people's backyards. They have Wi-Fi jammers to stop the alarm company from being notified, because a lot of people have Wi-Fi systems, and then they have police jammers to jam the signal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMPBELL: Jim, these are essentially business operations. These aren't your run of the mill criminals.
SCIUTTO: I guess they're targeting professional athletes because they got a lot of money and they I imagine they make very attractive targets. But is there something specific about professional athletes that makes them go after them?
CAMPBELL: No, absolutely. It's the wealth, but it's also another thing. And that is these are people who are frequently away from home and their schedules are public. So you have these burglars that are actually researching the teams schedules authorities say, which makes them attractive targets.
Now, as far as what the league is recommending, they have a series of recommendations to try to prevent becoming a victim. These players, they're saying they should install security systems. They should also watch what they post on social media. That's a good tip, not just for professional athletes, but for all of us, because a lot of these burglars, Jim, authorities say they're actually going and scraping the Internet, scraping social media, try to find out if people are away, if they are, that could be a good window of time to try to strike.
SCIUTTO: I mean, trouble is, of course, NBA and NFL schedules are very public. You could see them on television where they're playing.
Josh Campbell, thanks so much.
CAMPBELL: You bet.
SCIUTTO: Still to come, researchers investigate the health impacts of ultra processed foods, which make up now nearly 70 percent of Americans diets. So what did they learn just how bad is it? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:47:17]
SCIUTTO: In what could become a landmark study, the potential role of ultra processed foods in the U.S. is now under investigation. The first trial of its kind, this is slated to be finished by the end of 2025, could contribute to exactly how this country approaches nutrition policy for years to come.
CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell joins me now.
And, listen, we've been hearing about the dangers of processed food for years. So they're going to take a broader look now. I just wonder what's new in particular about this study.
Is it the scope of it? And what will the impact of it be like? Will they actually listen to the findings of this study?
MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is a very good question. So, you know what's really fascinating about all the research into ultra processed foods? We see these headlines constantly, right. Like ultra processed foods are associated with heart disease, cancer, mental illness, even an earlier death rate than when people don't eat so many ultra processed foods.
But those are all studies that are sort of linking those things, asking people to look back on what they eat. You can't make causal associations with those kinds of studies. You need a randomized, controlled study that actually sets out to study this kind of thing. And there are very few of those really only two to date that have looked at ultra processed foods in that way.
One of those was done at the NIH. It was published in 2019. And what it found is that folks who were eating mostly ultra processed foods. So these are foods with all these additives, things we don't know what they are, and they're 70 percent of the food supply.
Eating most of those leads to eating more calories. About 500 calories more per day, which led to a weight gain of about 2 pounds per week. So that published a study was published in 2019.
Now the same team of researchers wants to understand what's driving that overeating and do all ultra processed foods cause this effect? And so what they've done is they've devised a study where 36 people come to live at the NIH clinical center, a hospital essentially for a month at a time they give them four different diets, and they're testing two different things.
How energy dense the foods are. That means how many calories you're getting per bite essentially. And their hyper-palatability or really that bliss point you get when you eat foods that have that perfect combination of salt, sugar, fat, and carbs that makes you want to keep eating them. They're sort of mixing up these diets to see how much those two things influence overeating, particularly when it comes to ultra processed foods.
The hope, really, is that they will see that, you know, maybe there are some foods in this category that don't drive that effect that really aren't so bad for us. Because, Jim, its really expensive and it takes a lot of time to buy and prepare minimally processed foods as the majority of your diet and a lot of folks don't have that either ability financially or the ability the time to do that.
SCIUTTO: Yeah time and money. It's impactful. Well, I hope they make some progress because it seems the science is pretty clear on this.
[15:50:01]
And, you know, folks need healthier options.
Meg Tirrell, thanks so much.
TIRRELL: Thanks.
SCIUTTO: And we'll be right back with more.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: Welcome back there.
They're one of the most cherished animals in all of Africa, but their population, like so many others, is rapidly dwindling. And unless something changes, the African penguin is on track to disappear from the wild in the next decade.
Elisa Raffa has the details and a look inside at what's being done to try to save them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): Wobbling in warmer temperatures, the African penguin enjoys its days in the sun. This beloved bird is found in colonies along the southwest coast of Africa. But the African penguin is now on the critically endangered list due to lack of food, climate change, and other factors.
ALLISON KOCK, MARINE BIOLOGIST, SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL PARKS: There's only about 10,000 breeding pairs left in South Africa and Namibia where they occur. Means we've lost 97 percent of the population, and the species could become extinct within my lifetime.
RAFFA: Many tourists flock to see these adorable birds and their unique feathers. They have dot-like markings across their chest. These patterns are unique to each penguin as fingerprints are to humans.
RICK JOSACK, TOURIST: The penguins here, you know, are beautiful, and it's a shame that they're now critically endangered. And I just hope that there's a lot of activity taking place to try and help them.
ZANDILE CHRISTIAN, TOURIST: Seeing them well, hearing that they are critically endangered actually kind of breaks my heart.
RAFFA: Habitat is one key factor in their population decline. The birds build nests in seabird droppings called guano.
This shelter protects them from the harsh African sun, but the guano is often harvested for fertilizer.
KOCK: The actual material for digging their nests was removed. And so artificial nests are incredibly important, and the recent science has shown that it does improve breeding success. So we need to keep on doing interventions like that.
RAFFA: Nutrition is one of the biggest threats. According to scientists, penguins are starving and not getting enough food. Their diets consist mainly of sardines, anchovies, even squids and crustaceans.
South African authorities have imposed a commercial fishing ban around six penguin colonies for 10 years starting in January.
Elisa Raffa, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCIUTTO: Let's hope we find a way to save them.
[15:55:01]
On a lighter note to end the week, as residents of Chicago are bundling up as the city is seeing, the first snowfall of the season, the animals at the Brookfield zoo are taking in the wintry weather as well.
Visitors got to see a polar bear named Hudson playing with the ball. It looks like fun. The Siberian tiger didn't seem so bothered by the snow, lounging around in his enclosure.
The zoo is also home to a pair of brown bears named Tim and Jess, Mexican gray wolves, African lions and American bison, they seem to be having some fun.
Thanks so much for joining me today. I'm Jim Sciutto. I hope you have a good weekend.
"QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is up next.
