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CNN This Morning

New Details From Sexual Assault Allegation Against Hegseth; Ukraine: Russia Launched ICBM During Morning Attack; Excessive Rainfall Risk In Place For Northern California. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired November 21, 2024 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:35]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Thursday, November 21st.

Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:

A disturbing report. New details overnight on the sexual assault allegation against the man that Trump wants to lead the Department of Defense.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-OK): I think it would be very, very damning. I don't think there's any way he could get confirmed if -- this is -- if this is accurate.

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HUNT: A trail of payments. A new document unveils just how much money Matt Gaetz allegedly paid women for sex.

And developing right now, for the first time, Russia fires an intercontinental ballistic missile at Ukraine.

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HUNT: All right. It is 5:00 a.m. here in the East Coast. A live look at Capitol Hill on this Thursday morning.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

Breaking overnight, new details from the sexual assault allegation against Donald Trump's defense secretary pick, Pete Hegseth. Monterey, California's city attorney releasing the police report from the 2017 incident after a public record's request.

The report lays out competing versions of what happened including conflicting accounts of how intoxicated Pete Hegseth and the woman in question were, as well as descriptions of video surveillance from that night. Hegseth said the encounter was consensual, but the woman told police that he blocked her from leaving a hotel room, and he went on to sexually assault her. Hegseth was not charged with a crime, but his attorney acknowledged that he paid the accuser a settlement that included a confidentiality agreement. It is unclear how questions about this incident might impact his nomination.

Hegseth is set to visit Capitol Hill today alongside the Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, making the same visit another embattled Trump cabinet pick made yesterday. Trump's choice for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, also at the center of sexual misconduct allegations traveling to Capitol Hill yesterday to lobby for his nomination.

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MATT GAETZ (R), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: It's been going great, the senators have been giving me a lot of good advice. I'm looking forward to a hearing. Folks have been very supportive, they've been saying we're going to get a fair process. So, it's a great day of momentum for the Trump-Vance administration.

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HUNT: The House Ethics Committee voted not to release the results of their investigation, but even some Republican senators are calling for the panel to make the findings public ahead of Gaetz's confirmation hearing.

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REP. DERRICK VAN ORDEN (R-WI): I think it's very important that everybody has as much knowledge as possible so that they can make an informed decision.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESISONAL CORRESPONDENT: It sounds like yes.

VAN ORDEN: That's a yes.

MULLIN: I don't think there's any way he could get confirmed if this is -- if this is accurate and I will tell you, I don't, I will say, Matt, when he's been confronted about this, he has denied it over and over and over again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Joining us now, managing editor of politics and White House correspondent at "TheGrio", Gerren Keith Gaynor.

Gerren, thank you so much for being here. Nice to see you.

Lets talk about first, this report into Pete Hegseth. This is a police report redacted. Not all the materials that are part of the investigation were released, but we did learn more about the incident. This in particular has raised questions in Donald Trump's orbit, not least because the transition team was surprised by this allegation when they learned about it.

What impact might that have on his confirmation process?

GERREN KEITH GAYNOR, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THEGRIO: You know, it remains to be seen whether or not this will actually kill his nomination, but certainly, there are concerns amongst Senate Republicans, especially Democrats, with these allegations. And it really speaks to whether or not the transition team really did his homework on not just Pete Hegseth, but other nominations. But certainly this is concerning. There are discrepancies in terms of the details there. He claims that this woman was allegedly the aggressor, but he also claimed that it was consensual. So there's a lack of consensus there.

But the concern around Pete Hegseth is not just around these allegations, but also the fact that many people feel he's just not qualified to be defense secretary. When you think about the comparison to the current defense secretary, who is a four star General Pete Hegseth, has no pentagon experience whatsoever, and so that is also concerning to Democrats in particular.

[05:05:00]

But this is seen as Donald Trump really flooding the gates with his nominations because this is not the only person who has disturbing or concerning allegations as we mentioned, Matt Gaetz, as well as attorney general. And so it becomes a -- this game as to whether or not Republicans are going to buck the president-elect who feels like he has a mandate, or will they fall in line.

HUNT: So you mentioned others with challenges. Matt Gaetz, of course, the attorney general pick. "The New York Times" yesterday, obtaining a graphic that they say was built by federal investigators who were looking into Matt Gaetz. If we could put that up, please?

This is a web of what they say are payments from Gaetz to women who attended a variety of what the times refers to as sex parties over a period of years. And they write this, quote, federal investigators established a trail of payments from Matt Gaetz, Trump's choice to be attorney general, to women, including some who testified that Mr. Gaetz hired them for sex. This, according to the document obtained by "The Times".

And we've been hearing from the lawyer as well for these two women. So while the House Ethics Committee may have blocked this report, we are starting to see pieces of what's known here. That said it doesn't -- it does seem like the Trump team is full speed ahead on Matt Gaetz.

What's your understanding of the behind the scenes dynamics on the Hill around this right now?

GAYNOR: So there are major concerns about Matt Gaetz and these allegations. And while the federal investigation did not lead to actual charges it calls into question ultimately what is the federal government going to look like under a second Trump administration? Who I've spoken to, not just Democrats, but also civil rights leaders who point out the fact that they see Donald Trump as a creating this world in which the federal government looks like a mold of him. Let's not forget that the former president and president-elect has

allegations of him, of himself also being accused of sexual assault, being found liable for sexual assault. And so this, this, this there's a concern around this acceptance and permission structure of violence against women or alleged violence against women. And that is deeply concerning to many on the Hill.

And let's not also forget that Matt Gaetz also has, like Pete Hegseth has -- does not have any experience in -- to lead the DOJ according to many of critics. And that is a major concern for someone who's going to be leading a department that President-elect Trump has vowed that he would upend and create -- use as a cudgel to go after his political enemies.

And Matt Gaetz is obviously someone that the president elect believes can do that. He has been a disrupter on Capitol Hill. And so this is really about bucking norms and what does that mean for the federal government and what does that mean for Democrats who investigated President-elect Trump, like Letitia James in New York and Fani Willis in Georgia? Matt Gaetz is certainly someone who seems willing to do the bidding of President-elect Trump. And that is deeply concerning to many people.

HUNT: I do want to point out, just as you were talking, there Gaetz, the allegations against Gaetz are around sexual misconduct, potentially with a minor. The ones against Hegseth do involve an assault allegation.

Gerren Gaynor for us this morning thank you. I appreciate it.

GAYNOR: Thank you.

HUNT: All right. Straight ahead here on CNN this morning, another escalation in Russia's war against Ukraine. The Kremlin reportedly launching an internet continental ballistic missile.

Plus, Nikki Haley's harsh feedback on the president-elect's pick for the nation's top intelligence post.

And Donald Trump wants a conservative media star to lead the Secret Service.

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DAN BONGINO, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Cutesy time is over and we led the way. We are the news to double down on the MAGA agenda.

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[05:13:49]

HUNT: All right. Welcome back.

Developing overnight, another escalation in Russia's war on Ukraine. Russia launching an intercontinental ballistic missile attack on the country. This, according to Ukraine's military.

CNN's international security correspondent Nick Paton Walsh joins us live in Kyiv.

Nick, what are we hearing at this hour and what does it mean?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Look, we have limited information at this stage but the reason we're talking about this is the Ukrainian air force has said that an intercontinental ballistic missile was fired at Ukraine from Russia at about 5:00 this morning. They say that it was accompanied by about six or seven other missiles. One of them, a hypersonic Kinzhal, presumably designed to confuse or busy air defenses. And we are hearing reports that the Dnipro, one of the largest cities in Ukraine, was hit. It appears that industrial infrastructure there may have been the target.

Social media reporting of a different type of explosion, a significantly abnormal noise being heard by locals there. Why does this matter?

Well, if indeed it does turn out that this was an ICBM or perhaps a intermediate ballistic missile with new capabilities, it would mark Russia trying to escalate back after the United States permitted Ukraine to use U.S.-made and supplied ATACMS missiles to hit targets inside of Russia.

[05:15:12]

This new type of missile, clearly, from the damage that we've seen, suggested on social media, able to get through Ukraine's significant air defenses and that could herald potentially a change in Russian capabilities going forward.

There's a lot, though, Casey that we don't know at this stage, and that's possibly part of the Russian design here that the gap between what is known about what was fired and what people speculated to have been causes anxiety -- anxiety here already felt in Kyiv. Just yesterday, the U.S. embassy closing for the first time since it relocated at the start of the war because of what they considered to be a specific threat.

Was it related potentially to the use of a new type of missile, if indeed that has happened by Russia? We don't know. But it probably at this stage looks less likely to have been related to the fake Telegram messages. Ukrainian officials derided and called for calm afterwards that warned of a large Russian attack.

So we're looking now, I think, to see what western officials have to say about this particular type of missile. We are hearing from a Western official that they do not believe it was an intercontinental ballistic missile just a ballistic missile and they declined to go into further detail about that.

A lot of this is going to be semantics. Is a missile fired over short range that could go further into continental or ballistic? This is something I think that well see Western officials poring over right now and into the future.

Ukraine, of course will have its experts at the site of what was hit. Looking for wreckage there are some videos circulating that seem to suggest a slightly different type of attack here, but look, think about the last week, we've gone from Germany's leader reaching out to the Russian president for diplomacy, to this U.S. escalation with ATACMS missiles to large air attacks, to the British missiles being used. And now this extraordinary if indeed it is the case development of a new type of Russian missile being used against Ukraine, spiraling fast -- Kasie.

HUNT: Yeah, really important context there. Nick Paton Walsh, always great reporting for us, Nick, thanks. I really appreciate it.

All right. Still to come here after the break. Convicted on all charges. Laken Riley's emotional murder trial comes to a close.

Plus, how Donald Trump's next administration could favor the cryptocurrency industry.

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[05:22:04]

HUNT: All right. It is 5:21 a.m. here on the east coast of the United States.

This is a live look in Paris, where, look at that. It's snowing. It's beautiful at 11:21 a.m. there.

All right. Here's your morning roundup.

The man who killed Georgia nursing student Laken Riley will spend his life behind bars. Jose Ibarra convicted on all counts, including three counts of felony murder. The verdict yesterday came after emotional courtroom statements including from Riley's mother.

A 30-year-old man from Florida charged this week with planning an attack on the New York Stock Exchange. The FBI says the suspect told undercover agents he wanted to set off a bomb there the week before Thanksgiving. Agents say he had materials for making a bomb in a storage unit.

A woman who drowned her two young sons 30 years ago is denied parole. Susan Smith is serving life, a life sentence for killing her 3 year old and 14-month-old boys. She testified on her own behalf yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN SMITH, CURRENTLY SERVING LIFE SENTENCE: I don't know what I did was horrible and I would give anything if I could go back and change it.

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HUNT: Her ex-husband delivering a statement saying that Smith hasn't served enough time for what she did to their sons.

All right. Time now for weather. The deadly "bomb cyclone" battering the Northwest is moving out of Washington state, but hundreds of thousands of people still in the dark. And while that storm moves out, the flood threat in northern California does remain.

Let's get straight to our meteorologist, the weatherman, Derek Van Dam.

Derek, good morning.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kasie.

So this bomb cyclone, it was a very strong low pressure. We saw that evident in the trees and the power lines that were knocked down yesterday. But now, it is tapping into this moisture feed all the way. You can trace it all the way back towards Hawaii.

So it's got deep aiming this kind of a fire hose of water right at the central northern coastline of California and I want to highlight this area south of Eureka. This shading of pink and purple that is actually a high risk from the Weather Prediction Center. These are very rarely issued.

And I bring this up because we remember what happened with Hurricane Helene a few months ago back in western North Carolina. There was a high risk involved there, 40 percent of all flood related fatalities and 80 percent of flood related damage comes out of these high risk scenarios that the National Weather Service rarely issues. The Weather Prediction Center rarely issues.

These are the rainfall totals so far, so we've already seen a half a foot of rain in some locations. Remember that tropical connection I talked about? You could basically trace it from northern California backwards towards Honolulu.

We call this the pineapple express. There it is subtropical torrent of moisture. And, of course, it's producing the rainfall on the lower elevations. And the mountain snows that's piling up. Not in inches, but in feet.

For some locations, the Cascade had blizzard conditions across western Washington.

[05:25:04]

Now, we're looking towards the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Flood watch in place for this location. Winter storm warnings. And look at what they're contending with already. This is soda springs and Mount Shasta and California, yeah, we're talking about several feet of snow already falling from the sky. Winter has arrived -- Kasie.

HUNT: And yet it's still fall, which we have missed here on the East Coast, like entirely anyway.

Okay, Derek Van Dam for us this morning. Derek. Thank you. I'll see you next hour.

VAN DAM: Okay.

HUNT: All right. Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, some of the president elects cabinet picks under fire from his own party. What former Trump rival Nikki Haley is saying about Trump's choice for his top spymaster.

Plus, the incoming administration's plans to make the U.S. the crypto capital of the world?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: That's enough, because we have to talk about crypto. We have to talk about bitcoin. We have to talk about all these great companies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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