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America Responds to the Fall of Assad; Missing American Travis Timmerman Found in Damascus; Trump Named Time's Person of the Year, Again; Mysterious Drone Sightings in New Jersey. Aired 4:00-4:30a ET
Aired December 13, 2024 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to avoid sparking any kinds of additional conflicts inside of Syria.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A U.S. citizen was found disoriented, barefoot, and wandering south of Damascus.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The now two-time Time Magazine Person of the Year spared little controversy in his interview.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is a lot of pressure from the base to see this happen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are they? Who's sending them up there? What are they doing there? Why doesn't anybody know?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's really concerning, and quite frankly, it's not acceptable.
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ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane.
BEN HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. Welcome to our viewers joining us from the United States and all around the world. It is so good to have you with us. I'm Ben Hunt.
CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome, Ben. Happy Friday.
HUNT: Thank you. So good to be here.
MACFARLANE: I'm Christina Macfarlane. It's December 13th, 9 a.m. here in London, 12 noon in Ankara, Turkey, where the U.S. Secretary of State and Turkish Foreign Minister have just wrapped up a meeting on the future of Syria. Antony Blinken has been shuttling between countries in the region, lining up support for the government that has taken over from longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Here's some of what he had to say.
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ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I think there's broad agreement on what we would each like to see going forward, starting with the interim government in Syria, one that is inclusive and nonsectarian, one that protects the rights of minorities and women, one that preserves institutions of the state and delivers services to the people, one that deals with any chemical weapons it may find to secure them and appropriately destroy them, one that rejects any alliances with extremist groups, and, of course, one that does not pose any kind of threat to any of Syria's neighbors.
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HUNT: Jordan will host a weekend summit with foreign ministers from Western and Arab nations after the fall of the Assad regime. The United Nations reports more than 1.1 million people have been displaced across Syria since the fall of the Assad regime. Refugees are streaming into and out of the country as some minority groups fear they might be targeted by the new Islamist government.
MACFARLANE: Well meanwhile, in Los Angeles, a former Syrian military official is under arrest and facing charges for torture. According to the Associated Press, the man is accused of overseeing Syria's infamous Adra prison from 2005 to 2008.
A missing American was found walking around Damascus barefoot on Thursday, Missouri native Travis Timmerman says he spent months in a Syrian prison after entering the country as a pilgrim.
CNN's Salma Abdulaziz has the story.
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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A U.S. citizen that went missing in Hungary has turned up in Damascus. Travis Timmerman, a Missouri native, 29 years old, a U.S. citizen, was found disoriented barefoot and wandering south of Damascus in a field. He has spoken to media.
He has spoken to residents in the area. I want you to take a listen to this interview with NBC to get a sense of his state of being.
TRAVIS TIMMERMAN, AMERICAN FOUND IN SYRIA: After that, I went to the Syrian border illegally. I crossed the mountain between Lebanon and Syria. And I was living in that mountain for three days and three nights with no water.
And I was seen by a border guard, I did that. And then that's when I was arrested. I was sent to a Syrian prison called Philet Philistine (ph).
ABDELAZIZ: Now, as you heard there, Timmerman does admit that he illegally crossed into Syria from Lebanon under the very tight control of President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Anyone crossing into Syria would absolutely be stopped by security forces. That's what took place a few days after he arrived in Syria. Timmerman was then taken to a regime prison. He was held there for seven months. He says he was treated relatively well, given food, given water, given bathroom breaks. But he says he heard the sound of people being tortured in that prison every single day.
Now, when rebels liberated Damascus, he, among others, was able to break out of prison.
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The U.S. says it is aware of his case and is providing support on the ground. An extraordinary tale and a welcome end for his family.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.
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HUNT: Hundreds of Syrians turned out in Damascus on Thursday for the funeral of activist Mazen al-Hamada. His body was among 30 corpses found in a hospital morgue this week. Al-Hamada was a well-known face among the Syrian protests during 2011's Arab Spring movement.
He fled to the Netherlands where he testified about the torture he was subjected to during the Assad regime. Al-Hamada was arrested in February of 2020 at Damascus airport when he returned to Syria and he hadn't been seen since.
MACFARLANE: And the U.S. believes the new reality in Syria could be opening the door for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza. More than 100 hostages are still believed to be held there, most of them since Hamas launched its rampage in Israel more than 14 months ago.
But now U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is expressing cautious optimism that a deal could be reached this month. He met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem Thursday. Sullivan says Hamas is negotiating differently now that the Assad regime is gone and there's a ceasefire in Lebanon. He also dismissed suggestions that Israel is waiting for the next U.S. administration to make a deal.
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JAKE SULLIVAN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I got the sense today from the Prime Minister he's ready to do a deal. And when I go to Doha and Cairo, my goal will be to put us in a position to be able to close this deal this month, not later. Now, we've been close before and haven't gotten there. So I can't make any promises or predictions to you. But I wouldn't be here today if I thought this thing was just waiting till after January 20th.
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HUNT: President-elect Donald Trump won't rule out supporting Israel annexing the West Bank. When asked by Time magazine if he supports a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, he said he supports, quote, whatever solution we can do to get to peace, adding that there were other alternatives to a two-state solution. This stance is a reversal from his first term when Trump proposed a plan that included Israel removing some of its West Bank settlements.
When asked if he would prevent Israel from annexing the West Bank, the president-elect said, quote, we'll see what happens.
Pointing to Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023, as an inflection point in his views on the conflict.
The U.S. president-elect stepped away from inauguration preparations to accept two big honors on Thursday.
MACFARLANE: That's Donald Trump ringing the opening bell at New York Stock Exchange, accompanied by family members and the vice president- elect. The appearance was coordinated with Time magazine, which named Trump its person of the year for a second time.
CNN's Brian Todd has more on the controversial issues Trump addressed in his sit-down interview with the magazine.
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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECT: Thank you.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The now two-time Time magazine person of the year spared little controversy in his interview. President-elect Donald Trump saying in his first hour in office, he'll look at possibly pardoning people convicted of participating in the January 6th attack on the Capitol, focusing on the nonviolent offenders.
Quote, I'm going to do case by case, and if they were nonviolent, I think they've been greatly punished. I'm going to look if there's some that were really out of control.
VIVIAN SALAMA, NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: There is a lot of pressure from the base to see this happen. People in Trump's base really feel like these people were treated unfairly.
TODD (voice-over): Trump also reiterating to Time his plan to use the American military to deport migrants who entered the U.S. illegally, a stand that was popular with his base during the campaign.
TRUMP: We will use all necessary state, local, federal and military resources to carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.
TODD (voice-over): Trump told Time he'll push to use the military for deportations, quote, up to the maximum level of what the law allows. Although U.S. law says the military can't be used to enforce domestic laws without an act of Congress, Trump said it doesn't stop the military if it's an invasion of our country. And I consider it an invasion of our country.
Trump also seemed to be open to the unproven, debunked theory that childhood vaccines cause autism, an idea often peddled by Trump's pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an unabashed vaccine skeptic.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR: I do believe that autism does come from vaccines.
TODD (voice-over): Trump told Time he'll direct Kennedy to study the matter and would consider getting rid of some vaccines for children.
Quote, We will know for sure what's good and not good.
TODD: How will real health experts react to Trump and RFK Jr. determining what's good and not good?
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SALAMA: Of course, there's going to be enormous pushback for if Trump and RFK Jr. are the ones that are assessing scientifically, medically or otherwise what is good and not good. Every case is different and you need enormous medical research, scientific research to back that up.
TODD (voice-over): Trump told Time he vehemently disagrees with the Biden administration's decision to allow Ukraine to use American made weapons to strike inside Russia. We're just escalating this war and making it worse, Trump said, fueling worries that his administration might curtail U.S. aid to Ukraine. Trump complaining in a recent interview with NBC about how much the U.S. was paying.
TRUMP: Europe is in for a fraction and war with Russia is more important for Europe than it is for us. We have a little thing called an ocean in between us.
TODD: In the interview with Time, Trump declined to say whether he's spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin since the election. He was pushed repeatedly on whether he would abandon Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump responded that if you want to reach an agreement, the only way to do that is not to abandon.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
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HUNT: Well, as Trump previews his plans for January the 6th, rioters, a new report into the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack has been released. CNN's Evan Perez has that.
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EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR U.S. JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The Justice Department's watchdog says that there were no undercover FBI employees at the U.S. Capitol during the January 6th riot, rejecting claims from allies of President-elect Donald Trump, who have for years suggested that the violence that day was provoked by federal agents.
The Justice Department's inspector general issued a report on Thursday finding that there were 26 people who were paid FBI informants who came to Washington with Trump's rally seeking to overturn the 2020 election results. Of those 26 people, three had specifically been tasked by the FBI to report on specific domestic terrorism subjects who were set to attend the Trump rally on January 6th. And one of those informants actually entered the Capitol itself, while the other two were outside on the grounds near the Capitol.
The findings are part of a long awaited report from the inspector general, who launched an investigation into the Bureau's preparations just days after the 2021 attack from Trump supporters who are trying to stop the confirmation of Joe Biden's presidential victory. Republicans on Capitol Hill have repeatedly clashed with top officials at the Justice Department and the FBI over the riot, most notably over suggestions that the FBI informants or employees actually helped instigate the attack.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has flatly rejected the claim that the Bureau orchestrated the violence. The inspector general also found that the FBI did not gather intelligence from all of its field offices. Some of that intelligence from informants could have helped the U.S. Capitol Police and other law enforcement agencies be better prepared for the protests that day. And the Bureau actually inaccurately told the Congress that it had actually done that. Now, no informants have been charged with any crimes, according to the inspector general.
Evan Perez, CNN, Washington.
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MACFARLANE: Amazon has confirmed to CNN that it's planning to donate one million dollars to Donald Trump's inauguration and it will make a one million dollar donation in kind by streaming the events on Amazon Video. Company founder Jeff Bezos is expected to pay a visit to Trump in the coming days. Bezos and other tech leaders are seeking a closer relationship with the president-elect after years of friction.
On Wednesday, Meta confirmed that it donated one million dollars to the inauguration fund. And this came two weeks after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg met privately with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
HUNT: With the presidential inauguration only weeks away, Trump is doing things his way when it comes to the invitations. CNN's Kristen Holmes explains.
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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: President-elect Donald Trump is reaching out directly and through back channels to talk to foreign leaders and invite them to his inauguration on January 20th. We do know that he sent a personal invitation through aides to President Xi Jinping of China, a very unprecedented move, particularly given the fact that this is a communist leader and overall that he has been engaging in these sort of informal asks to make his inauguration a global affair. Now, normally, these foreign leaders don't attend an inauguration.
Instead, the joint committee that does the inauguration, it's a bipartisan committee, reaches out to diplomats with the State Department to invite them to observe the inauguration.
But Donald Trump is doing things a little bit differently. And in these conversations he's having, some of them through back channels, as I noted, others through phone conversations, because of the way he's doing it, even some of his closest aides weren't sure exactly which foreign leaders had or hadn't been invited.
All of this to say Donald Trump is looking forward to that inauguration, looking to make this a bigger event, a more spectacular, and that's the word that a source used with us, event than we have seen in inaugurations past.
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But that might mean that there are people who are invited, and this is in his own words, that are more controversial, more risky. That was something that we heard from him today, from him when he was talking at the Stock Exchange, as well as from some of his spokespeople. So we'll see how this all plays out.
But a lot of this is still a big question, because of the fact that so many of these outreaches are done in such an informal way.
Kristen Holmes, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.
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MACFARLANE: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the FBI say there is currently no evidence that the mysterious drones seen across New Jersey for weeks pose any threat to national security or have a foreign connection.
HUNT: And the White House says the objects may actually be manned aircraft operating lawfully, but lawmakers and residents in New Jersey want answers right now. Details from CNN's Omar Jimenez.
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LISA ROSSETTO, WITNESSED DRONES: What are they? Who's sending them up there? What are they doing there? Why doesn't anybody know what they are? You know, and why New Jersey??
JANET MOSNER, WITNESSED DRONES: They actually flew in a circle around our building, both of them, and then it crossed and then disappeared.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The FBI is now investigating weeks of reported drones over New Jersey. That's according to a document given to state and local officials. As a growing number of people report seeing drones, some described as six feet in diameter, flying in the skies.
LISA ROSSETTO, WITNESSED DRONES: What are they? Who's sending them up there? What are they doing there? Why doesn't anybody know what they are, you know, and why New Jersey?
JANET MOSNER, WITNESSED DRONES: They actually flew in a circle around our building, both of them, and then crossed and then disappeared.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The FBI is now investigating weeks of reported drones over New Jersey. That's according to a document given to state and local officials, as a growing number of people report seeing drones. Some described as six feet in diameter flying in the skies.
NICK TECCHIO, STUDENT WHO WITNESSED DRONES: You see like red and green, like flashing lights on the corners. They'll just change direction, like go from like 90 to like 270 degrees, just like fly different directions, and planes obviously can't do that.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): There have been questions about when these drones first started popping up. Reports seem to vary, but the Picatinny Arsenal, which is a military installation in Northern New Jersey, has confirmed sightings in the area going back to November 13th, and public officials are starting to get frustrated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're creating so much fear and uneasiness in the public.
MICHAEL MELHAM, MAYOR, BELLEVILLE TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY: They appear to actually avoid detection by traditional methods. So, when our helicopter, our state police helicopter has gotten close, lights go off and they go away.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): So far, authorities have stressed there is no known threat to the public. That's not enough for some.
BRIAN BERGEN, (R) NEW JERSEY STATE ASSEMBLY: It's really concerning. And, quite frankly, it's not acceptable.
JIMENEZ: Now, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are pouring a little bit of cold water on this. They released a joint statement saying that they have no evidence the reported drone sightings pose any national security threat. And they're continuing to investigate whether these reported drone sightings are actually drones at all or if they are really manned aircraft.
And they have said some of the cases they've looked into to this point haven't actually been drones. They've been manned aircraft operating legally. That said, they are continuing to investigate what has been a flood of reports from this area to this point.
And while they don't have a definitive answer to all of the cases, that lack of definitive answer is leaving a lot of people here with questions in the meantime.
Omar Jimenez, CNN, Denville, New Jersey.
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HUNT: Ahead, more men are coming forward to accuse Sean Diddy Combs of sexual assault. We'll have the latest on the allegations.
MACFARLANE: And we're learning new details about the murder of UnitedHealthcare's CEO as a grand jury in New York reportedly hears evidence against the prime suspect.
HUNT: And later, evidence of torture. CNN's Clarissa Ward takes us inside a Syrian government building with a gruesome prison underground.
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MACFARLANE: Disgraced music mogul Sean Diddy Combs is facing more accusations of sexual assault. Three men filed separate anonymous suits on Thursday in New York State Court. They allege the assaults took place between 2019 and 2022 at two Manhattan locations and at Combs' East Hampton home.
They say they were given drinks spiked with drugs before being raped by Combs. His defense team says the suits were, quote, full of lies. Over 30 claims of sexual assault have been filed now against Combs, who has pleaded not guilty.
He's in federal custody awaiting trial on counts that include racketeering, sex trafficking, and conspiracy.
The man accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare's CEO is not a member of the insurance company, according to the spokesperson, and neither is his mother. Sources tell ABC News that prosecutors in New York have started presenting evidence against Luigi Mangione to a grand jury. We're also learning that investigators have executed search warrants tied to the case.
HUNT: Sources say the warrants cover a backpack found in Central Park and a burner phone found along the believed getaway route near the crime scene. Meanwhile, we're hearing the alleged killer is not interacting with other inmates in prison. CNN's Jason Carroll has the details about what his life is like behind bars.
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JASON CARROLL, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Luigi Mangione is fighting extradition to New York. While that happens, this is the prison where he's being held. It's the state correctional institution at Huntington, the oldest operating state prison in Pennsylvania.
Mangione's cell looks much like the one you see here, according to a law enforcement source. His actual cell is 15 by 6 feet. A Department of Corrections spokesperson says he's in a single cell and not in solitary confinement. He is not interacting with other inmates at this time. He has a bed, sink, toilet, and a desk with a seat.
STEVE BOHNEL, PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE: It's always interesting to see, you know, a prison in your backyard that, you know, frankly, most people wouldn't be able to pick out of a map or wouldn't know the name of, and now everyone's interested in the type of food he's eating, you know. So the cell block that he's in.
CARROLL (voice-over): Meals at the facility are served three times a day, 6-15, 10-40, and supper at 5-15. On the menu, Mangione has a choice between chicken parmesan and a dish called pizza beans.
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The Department of Corrections says Mangione has taken his meals in his cell and is not interacting with other inmates, adding: All inmates are afforded time outside their cells, even if they are a higher custody level.
Mangione's case has received a great deal of national attention, so perhaps no surprise, he's already known to some inmates. That type of notoriety is also an added security concern at a correctional facility.
JUSTIN PAPERNY, PRISON CONSULTANT: Any prison, state or federal, is a predatory environment, and there could be prisoners who are there for a long time, perhaps looking to get in the media, get some attention. So he's got to learn to enjoy his own company in a little cell, with a desk, with a toilet, with a pen to be able to write, with a sink, because he will not be around prisoners, as I see it, for quite some time. The prison just can't risk it.
CARROLL (voice-over): Huntington's inmates have made headlines before Mangione. Cosmo DiNardo, who was convicted of murdering four men and burying them on his parents' property, served part of his life sentence there.
Nick Yarris also served time there. Yarris was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in 1982 on rape and murder charges. His sentence overturned in 2003 due to DNA evidence. He says his time at Huntington are years he will never forget.
NICK YARRIS, WRONGLY CONVICTED OF RAPE AND MURDER: He decided to send me to Huntington Prison, the hardest prison in America at that time.
CARROLL: What was he going to do before that?
YARRIS: I don't know, but he made sure I went to the place that they broke you.
CARROLL (voice-over): Mangione's time there could be measured in weeks, as prosecutors push to have him brought back to New York.
CARROLL: The Department of Corrections also says that Mangione is allowed to have visitors there at the facility, but so far the only person to visit him has been his attorney, and that was Thursday afternoon.
Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE) MACFARLANE: Coming up, Syria is facing a humanitarian crisis. Aid groups are working to step up their aid delivery as millions of people need food.
HUNT: Plus, negotiators have failed time and again to strike a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza. But a top U.S. official believes they may have a chance to make it happen this time around.
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