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CNN This Morning
Trump Names Pam Bondi For Attorney General; ICC Issues Arrest Warrants For Netanyahu, Gallant; West Faces More Record-Breaking Rainfall. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired November 22, 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 Friday, November 22nd.
Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:
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PAM BONDI (R), FORMER FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL: When Republicans take back the White House, the Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted, the bad ones.
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HUNT: Trump's new choice for attorney general. The president-elect wasting no time picking a replacement for Matt Gaetz.
Plus --
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PETE HEGSETH, TRUMP'S PICK FOR SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The matter was fully investigated and I was completely cleared. And that's why I'm going to leave it.
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HUNT: Pushing ahead. Trump's pick for defense secretary lobbies for support as details of a sexual assault allegation are made public.
And --
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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Israel does not. Israel will not recognize the validity of this decision.
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HUNT: Wanted man. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, defiant with a warrant now out for his arrest.
(MUSIC) HUNT: All right, 5:00 a.m. here on the East Coast, a live look at Capitol Hill on this Friday morning. We made it to the end of another very busy week.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
It has been just over two weeks since Donald Trump won the presidential election. He's already on his second pick for attorney general. Trump named Pam Bondi to replace Matt Gaetz after Gaetz withdrew from consideration yesterday after growing bipartisan pressure to release a House ethics report into him investigating sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.
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SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED). I didn't see that coming.
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HUNT: Gaetz spent time on Capitol Hill earlier this week trying to lobby for his own confirmation. But on Thursday morning, Trump called Gaetz to tell him that he didn't have the votes in the Senate to be confirmed, according to a source with direct knowledge of the call.
By early afternoon, Gaetz posted on social media, quote, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump-Vance transition.
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SEN. KEVIN CRAMER (R-ND): It was made clear that there's not a path and if there's not a path, you just -- you're going to spend a lot of political capital for a losing cause, and it wouldn't have been worth it. I know enough people that were "hell no" in the -- in the conference, to know that the path would have been very, very difficult if possible. Even then, I doubt it was.
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HUNT: Just hours after Gaetz's announcement, Trump revealed his new pick, Florida's former Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondi is a supporter of the president elect, has close ties to Trump's incoming chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and to his advisor Boris Epshteyn.
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BONDI: When Republicans take back the White House, you know what's going to happen. The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted, the bad ones, the investigators will be investigated because the deep state last term for President Trump, they were hiding in the shadows, but now they have a spotlight on them and they can all be investigated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Joining us now to discuss, Washington correspondent for Spectrum News in New York 1, Kevin Frey.
Kevin, good morning.
KEVIN FREY, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, SPECTRUM NEWS NY1: Good morning.
HUNT: Wonderful to see you. Happy Friday.
FREY: Yes.
HUNT: On this Friday, we are already dealing with the switch here from the Trump team. The other piece of this of course, my colleague Paula Reid here was about to report that the ethics committee had looked at a second allegation of Matt Gaetz having potentially sexual misconduct with a minor, a 17-year-old.
Clearly, this was too much for the system to bear. What does it tell you that they actually were willing to pull this, even after they spent days saying, you know, Trump is all in no matter what?
FREY: It shows that there are still some guardrails in Washington, but the question is, are they -- are these -- is this such an extraordinary situation that this is one place where the guardrails, you know, flew up as opposed to some of the other nominees? Will they be as willing to perhaps buck this one? That's one of the extraordinary questions here because Gaetz checks so many obscure boxes.
One, obviously, the ongoing ethics probe, but also he's just not necessarily well liked by some of his colleagues. Many of his colleagues on Capitol Hill because of his flame throwing nature, because he ousted Kevin McCarthy, or at least was one of the leading proponents of that. So there was a lot going against Gaetz to begin with that maybe don't read too much into the guardrails that were put up.
HUNT: All right. Let's talk briefly about Pam Bondi Trump's choice. I mean, she is someone who had filed lawsuits, you know, worked on lawsuits on his behalf in the wake of the 2020 election.
[05:05:01]
She is -- has been a Trump loyalist. Now, that said, unlike Gaetz, who while Gaetz was an attorney, had really not practiced law, she was the attorney general of Florida. What is your initial sense of whether -- of what her confirmation prospects are?
FREY: It seems that there is certainly much better just because she checks more of the boxes that that Republicans would be comfortable looking for.
I mean, you saw Mitch McConnell saying it was appropriate that Gaetz stepped aside. He was certainly one of those that clearly was not on board with this nomination. It seems he would probably be more palatable to this one. Senator Lindsey Graham coming out and basically calling her a rock star, and that this was an Olympic gold medal sort of pick.
I mean, she does do one thing that Gaetz doesn't, which is one she comes with experience, but she still has all the loyalty tests that she passed on behalf of Trump, which is obviously a key part of his selection process.
HUNT: Let's talk about Pete Hegseth, who is, of course, the choice to be defense secretary yesterday, actually, around this time overnight, we received the police report into an incident involving allegations of sexual assault in Monterey, California.
Right now, Hegseth has claimed claims that he was cleared of wrongdoing. That's not what the police report says. There was a settlement. He did end up paying money saying, you know, the idea being he was concerned about his job at Fox News.
But Senator Kevin Cramer, who has obviously been a voice on a lot of this, on the -- on the Hill, talked a little bit about Hegseth's, you know, chances as Hegseth himself was making the rounds on Capitol Hill. Let's watch what Cramer said.
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CRAMER: It's a pretty big problem given that we have -- you know, we have we have a sexual assault problem in our military that a number of us and certainly the champions being Kirsten Gillibrand and Joni Ernst. But I've been on board legislation to deal with it since the since the chain of command was not. I'm not going to prejudge them, but, yeah, it's a pretty concerning accusation.
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HUNT: And, of course, Trump world reportedly taken by surprise by this accusation. What is what happened with Gaetz? What we're seeing with Hegseth say about the chances for his nomination going forward?
FREY: I mean, there's like two kind of thought processes here. One is that this shows that the Senate, as we mentioned earlier, is willing to buck Trump when the opportunity presents itself and stand up those guardrails.
At the same time, there's also the question of, okay, we've done it once. How frequently do we want to expend our own political capital crossing Trump this early on in the administration and thus go ahead with trying to block him? But as Cramer was just pointing at, Senator Joni Ernst, probably going to be a problem for her. We'll see exactly as this proceeds and as we get more information about this police report, and it's more deeply looked into.
But obviously, she, along with Senator Gillibrand and others, have been outspoken in pursuing and going after sexual assault in the military. So this is a prime issue for key members that could be decisive. HUNT: Right. And again, trying to count to four if -- if you're
counting to four on the Republican side, you got a major problem and if you've got Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, potentially Joni Ernst, the question becomes who are the other ones?
FREY: Who is the fourth.
HUNT: Right. Okay.
Kevin Frey for us on this Friday -- Kevin, thanks for starting us off today. Appreciate it.
All right, straight ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, Elon Musk continuing to pal around with Donald Trump. Now he's picking a fight with a fellow billionaire.
Plus, Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon makes his case to GOP senators amid those sexual assault allegations.
And the world's top war crimes court issues arrest warrants for Israel's prime minister and former defense minister.
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NETANYAHU: We will continue to do everything we must do to defend our citizens and defend our state.
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HUNT: All right. Welcome back.
The International Criminal Court in issuing an arrest warrant for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and one for former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the war in Gaza.
Prime Minister Netanyahu was defiant against the warrant, calling it absurd.
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NETANYAHU: The truth is simple. No war is more just than the war that Israel has been waging in Gaza after Hamas attacked us unprovoked, launched the -- launching the worst massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Israel does not -- Israel will not recognize the validity of this decision.
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HUNT: All right. President Biden stood by Netanyahu, released this statement saying in part, quote, the ICC issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous. The Gaza death toll now stands at more than 44,000 people. Netanyahu
and gallant are accused of, quote, starvation murder, persecution and other inhumane acts. The warrant also includes a Hamas commander believed to have been killed by Israel.
CNN's Max Foster joins us live now from London.
Max, good morning to you.
I mean, there's been global reaction to this across the board here in, in Europe as well, as other places. Are you hearing? The E.U. foreign policy chief, he said the arrest warrants are not, quote, a political decision. He calls it a decision of the court of justice. But, obviously, the ICC not accepted the same way by everyone.
MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: No. So many countries, over 100 countries have signed up to it, including the main ones in Europe and the U.K. and the E.U. have both said they would respect this decision, which essentially means that they would feel a requirement to arrest Netanyahu, for example, if he did come to Europe. So, it is a big moment but they are saying it's a separate legal matter. They would just living up to the court that they signed up to.
[05:15:01]
The U.S. and Israel are not signed up to this court. So when Mr. Netanyahu talks about not recognizing this decision, it's not really in his place to be able to recognize it because he's not signed up to the court and he wouldn't be carrying out the arrests. But there's some, you know, some fury. I think, in parts of America and certainly in Israel, that there's an equivalence here being given to Israeli ministers versus a Hamas terrorists because they've all been given the same treatment effectively. So there's a lot of anger about it.
And it does restrict Netanyahu's ability to travel now. So he feels he's being punished for something that was just a natural reaction for a country.
HUNT: Yeah. Max, I mean, what does it in practice in terms of global diplomacy? What the leader of a country would typically want to do? I mean, what will he not be able to attend or appear at or work through?
FOSTER: Well, if there was an event in London, he would be -- he, you know, would he go? I don't know whether he would go. It would be a huge test on the British authorities. They're effectively saying now, you know, the police would have be expected to arrest him and hand him over to the ICC. That's how the system is set up.
If the British government would have to get involved to stop that, and I'm not quite sure how that would work because they are signatories to the ICC and the same would apply across the European Union as well.
HUNT: For sure. All right. Max Foster for us on this Friday -- Max, thank you very much. Have a wonderful weekend.
FOSTER: And to you. HUNT: All right. Ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING: remember Jussie
Smollett? Why his conviction in an alleged attack on himself has now been overturned?
And can Donald Trump's pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, overcome disturbing allegations of sexual assault?
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[05:21:20]
HUNT: All right, 20 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.
Actor Jussie Smollett's 2019 conviction now overturned because of, quote, prosecutorial issues. He was convicted on charges of staging a racist and homophobic phobic attack on himself. But the Illinois Supreme Court now says he shouldn't have been charged a second time after initially reaching a deal with prosecutors.
The busiest airport travel days of the year, they are almost here. Concerns already brewing that the FAA -- the FAA is warning that air traffic could be slowed down because of traffic control, staffing shortages. The Northeast United States expected to feel the greatest impact here.
A Wisconsin kayaker who is accused of faking his own drowning -- well, he's alive and well in Europe. A Wisconsin sheriff says that the kayaker here is seen here in a proof of life video is somewhere in eastern Europe, but they don't know exactly where. The 44-year-old husband and father staged his own death back in August.
All right, time now for weather. The first snow of the season making its way across the east, while northern California cannot catch a break, there's another round of heavy rain moving in there.
Let's get straight to our meteorologist, our weatherman, Derek Van Dam.
Derek, good morning.
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kasie.
Who doesn't want to start their Friday out with polar bears in the snow?
HUNT: I love this. This is great.
VAN DAM: Exactly.
We got to start off our weekend like this. This is what they enjoyed in Chicago yesterday.
Look at this tiger. Even enjoying some of the snowflakes, I think he's probably taking under cover within this. I mean, I would too, right? I mean, those are big flakes -- first snowflake of the season in
Chicago. You got three inches at O'Hare. The last time you saw a measurable amount of snow was back in March of 2024. So, yeah, it's been a while.
People reporting some accidents as well. We know we get our first snowfall of the season. People can't drive that well. This is the reason. We have a storm system that's kind of rotating about.
And it's creating snowfall for some of the higher elevations of New York into the Catskills, even central portions of Pennsylvania. There were even a report or two of snow flurries mixed in with rain at times in and around New York City overnight.
But it's mainly rain for Boston. You can see the winter weather alerts across northern New England, stretching across the spine of the Appalachian Mountains, where a few flurries could fall as far as far south as western North Carolina.
Bottom line, it's cold and old man winter is coming in early across the Deep South. Here's the evolution of the storm system. You can see how it draws in a bit of moisture. More rain, more wind along. Let's say Cape Cod and into the coastal areas of Massachusetts Rhode Island and Connecticut. That Acela corridor.
Grab your umbrella and your raincoat heading out the door this morning. It will be chilly. It will be wet. And if you're far enough inland, you'll feel some snowflakes as well.
Now, on the West Coast, we've been following the storm system that sent in a plume of moisture. We called it an atmospheric river tap that moisture all the way back towards the Central Pacific. And it's producing a lot of rain, especially across the northern sections of California.
Rainfall totals there exceeding a foot. There has been reports of some localized flash flooding in and around Santa Rosa.
Hey, who doesn't want to start their day on a Friday? That means for instance, I know the polar bear in the snow.
HUNT: Perfect Friday, for sure. Derek, thank you. We'll see you next hour. I appreciate it.
VAN DAM: All right.
HUNT: All right. Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING; the man with dreams of Mars putting himself squarely in Donald Trump's orbit. We're going to take a deep dive into the role Elon Musk is playing in the transition.
Plus, more baggage around Trump's choice to lead the Pentagon as he meets Republican senators on Capitol Hill.
[05:25:07]
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SEN. BILL HAGERTY (R-TN): It's a disgrace that those allegations are nothing but what you said allegations that are he said/she said.
CRAMER: It's a pretty big problem given that we have -- you know, we have -- we have a sexual assault problem in our military.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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HUNT: All right, 5:29 a.m. here on the East Coast on this Friday. Live, look at Miami Florida as we head into the weekend.
Good morning everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
