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CNN This Morning

Democratic Lawmakers Targets Of Thanksgiving Day Bomb Threats; Notre Dame Set To Reopen Five Years After Fire; Lake-Effect Snow Warnings In New York. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired November 29, 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]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: It's Friday, November 29th.

Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:

Thanksgiving threat. Four Democratic lawmakers targeted by bomb threats while celebrating the holiday at home with their families.

Plus, the war on woke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: You may have a few people on the top that are woke, and we're going to get rid of them so damn fast, your heads going to explode.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Major retailers scaling back their DEI programs to avoid the wrath of the president-elect.

And --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT: We will rebuild Notre Dame even more beautiful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Cathedral comeback. Five years after a fire ravaged Notre Dame, the iconic jewel is rebuilt and ready to reopen.

(MUSIC)

CORNISH: Good morning. It's 5:00 a.m. here on the East Coast.

Here's a live look from New York at the Statue of Liberty. Thanks for joining us. This day after Thanksgiving I'm Audie Cornish in for Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

Now, we're going to talk about some pretty serious news to start this morning, because multiple Democratic members of Connecticut's delegation say they were the target of bomb threats it happened yesterday while they were home celebrating with their families.

Law enforcement determined there was no evidence of any bombs and members report their families are safe.

One of the threats was made against Congressman Jim Himes. He's the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Himes said in a statement, quote, there is no place for political violence in this country, and I hope that we may all continue through the holiday season with peace and civility.

Yesterday's flurry of incidents, well, they come just a day after several of Donald Trump's administration picks were also targeted with similar threats.

Former FBI director and CNN contributor Andrew McCabe says he's not surprised by the threats, telling CNN earlier this week that they've become commonplace for individuals in high profile positions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: It presents the same challenge to law enforcement each time someone engages in it. They probably know 90 percent sure that these threats as they come in are worthless. They are hoax. There's nothing to them, but they can't take the risk of not responding on the off chance that one real threat gets through.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Okay, we're going to flesh this out and some other headlines out of Washington with Bloomberg News, White House reporter Josh Wingrove and congressional reporter for the Hill, Mychael Schnell.

So first, I want to start with you, Mychael. It feels like lately this is kind of a -- I don't know, the cost of doing business if you want to be a lawmaker. Now, if you are in public life, do you see this as part of just the political atmosphere now?

MYCHAEL SCHNELL, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, THE HILL: I think that's definitely part of it, Audie. And look over the past several months, years, we have seen this steady rise in threats against lawmakers. U.S. Capitol police puts out the statistics for every year. So I'm curious to see what the numbers look like in 2024. But we have seen increases in that number in regards to threats against lawmakers.

And that's led to a flurry of discussion on Capitol Hill about security for sitting lawmakers. It is a discussion that we have seen. I suspect that we will see it crop up again next week when lawmakers return to Capitol Hill and react to these threats and you know, these bomb threats made not just against the Connecticut Democrats, but also as you mentioned, some of President-elect Trump's picks for his cabinet.

I do think part of it is that were in a very polarized environment right now. The partisanship of politics has reached an all-time high in a lot of ways, and we're seeing the residual effects of that, which appears to unfortunately, be these -- these rising threats against lawmakers.

CORNISH: One more thing I want to ask you. At one point, there was talk of raising funds to improve security or kind of making more resources available. Did that ever happen?

SCHNELL: Yeah, there were some different programs that were put in place in some different changes to the rules that were put in place in terms of lawmakers getting access to resources and funds for security. This particularly cropped up after the attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. That individual of course, went through the legal process prosecuted for that, for that incident.

After that we did see some more funds open up for lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

[05:05:02]

But I suspect that will continue to hear this conversation. And have lawmakers look for more resources and more funds because, again, we are still seeing these flurry of threats.

CORNISH: Josh, I want to move to you and talk also about transition and the sort of transition going on at the White House, what have you learned so far about how the Trump team is thinking about ethics? This has come up in terms of some of the conversations with departments, where you have to kind of sign a pledge to say, we're going to follow this rule or that rule. What can you tell us?

JOSH WINGROVE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, BLOOMBERG NEWS: Hey there. Good morning, and thank you for having me and apologies for being at a hotel room in Palm Beach.

This is the life of following Trump right now. So --

CORNISH: I mean, that's a bit of a flex, but I appreciate that.

WINGROVE: Well, I wouldn't go that far. I wouldn't go that far anyway. But yes, these -- those ethics agreements were finally signed between the transition and the Biden administration. There have been a lot of consternation about whether and how those would come through.

There's still some questions and doubt hanging over the process. Trump has largely rejected a lot of the conventional transition resources or the playbook. You might call it that. Previous transitions have had, and were sort of in uncharted territory a little bit on how this is all going to shake out. You know it's just kind of hanging in the air one thing that we do know is that going forward, there will be more of this formal sharing that hadn't been allowed to happen in the previous few weeks which the administration had sort of been sending alarm bells about and so maybe that will continue to have sort of a more smooth process.

And we'll see in the meantime, also, Trump is continuing to sort of roll out his announcements and nominations here we had a flurry of them before the holiday from here in Palm Beach. Some, sort of, you know, tear into the next tier after he sort of rounded out his cabinet, we saw, for instance, National Economic Council director, a U.S. trade representative pick. And so we're going to continue to see that trickle out here, moving into the sort of deputy secretary level as well, in the coming week or two.

CORNISH: I can't help but get back to the name people are so focused on which is Elon Musk he's been talking on the campaign trail, of course, about his department of government efficiency that he would kind of co-chair with Vivek Ramaswamy. Here's what he was saying on the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We set up doge.

ELON MUSK, TECH BILLIONAIRE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How much do you think we can rip out of this wasted $6.5 trillion Harris-Biden budget?

MUSK: Well, I think we can do at least $2 trillion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Josh, can you talk a little bit about -- I don't know -- how easy that might be because we're hearing it's more complicated than people might think.

WINGROVE: It's a huge number. It's a huge number. And if it got anywhere near that, it would fundamentally reshape the American government. One thing that Musk has talked about is deleting entire agencies, like for instance, this week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau just sort of getting rid of it altogether.

But even if they did things like that, they would still have to go a lot farther in direct payments, direct transfers, Medicaid and Medicare, potentially Social Security potentially to get to that kind of number if in fact, they are still seeking that kind of number. But musk continues to have tremendous access to the president. He's consistently, you know, hanging around Mar-a-Lago, showing up in photos.

He's really influential person in Trumps orbit right now he's not the only one. We had a surprise visit by Mark Zuckerberg, the Meta executive, and other prominent American billionaire who was spotted at Mar-a-Lago the day before Thanksgiving, for meetings there, had dinner with Trump. And so he continues to sort of have direct access to some of these major figures. And we'll see where Musk's influence goes.

But were you talk about I talked about uncharted territory in my last answer. I mean, this is just almost a symbiotic sort of, relationship staff level type of relationship between the president elect and Mr. Musk, who, of course, through his businesses has many ties with government connections with government and with SpaceX. For instance so this is just a quite the setup as you can see where we're going. I don't even know how to describe it beyond that.

CORNISH: Yeah, truly.

WINGROVE: But they are preparing the -- preparing the cut for sure.

CORNISH: Josh Wingrove, thank you so much for that detail.

Mychael Schnell, thank you for being with us this morning.

Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, ready for return. The iconic Notre Dame Cathedral is set to reopen five years after a devastating fire nearly destroyed it.

Plus, rolling back why some of America's largest corporations are changing their DEI policies.

And first of its kind, Australia passes a watershed social media ban for children under 16.

[05:10:02]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY ALBANESE, AUSTRALIA PRIME MINISTER: We're making sure that moms and dads can have that different conversation today and in future days. We've got your back, is our message to Australian parents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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CORNISH: Joy in Paris today because the bells of Notre Dame are once again ringing through the heart of the French capital after a fire destroyed the spire and roof of the 900-year-old treasure in 2019, French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to rebuild it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MACRON: I tell you tonight, with strength, we are a nation of builders we have so much to construct so yes, we will rebuild Notre Dame even more beautiful, and I want that to be done in the next five years. We can do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: And five and a half years later, Macron is back at Notre Dame to inspect the rebuild.

Melissa Bell joins us live from Paris.

And Melissa, give us a sense of where these renovations are at this point. Is it completely finished? What are people looking at you know, it's actually going to continue being rebuilt until 2030, Audie, and it gives you an idea of the scale of the task.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now, I'm standing at the back of the cathedral. Now, you can still see there's so much scaffolding on it, right? What's extraordinary is to consider that you played that moment when the French president had some had suggested in a slightly foolhardy way, suggested that it would take five years. It took them two years just to secure the structure.

That's how fragile it had been after the fire of 2019. You'll remember those flames coming out of the top. The spire collapsing, the crowds gasping, the fears about one of the towers and whether they would hold at all. This had been an extremely damaging fire that raged for many hours before firefighters were able to bring it back under control, so the fear had been even in the months, and the couple of years that had followed the fire, whether the structure would hold either in part or entirely.

So the first thing was to consolidate it to large wooden belts were put around the flying buttresses the nave, and then the reconstruction proper could start when they were sure that the structure itself would hold. And what you're seeing today with that visit by the French president, this is his seventh but ultimate visited the construction site ahead of the grand opening that will take place next week, Audie, this is an opportunity for Parisians, but also the world to have a look at what that restoration has brought inside. And the images are quite extraordinary. It had been for anyone who can remember it before, five years ago, quite dark inside no longer there is. It is much cleaner, of course, than it was.

And what they did, having taken the original decision that they would rebuild it exactly as it was, rather than try something new it took 2,000 men and women over those five years to get in there with extraordinarily specialized skills gilders, woodworkers stonemasons to get in there and restore that intricacy to the details of Notre Dame. Within that very vast scale, that it's famous for.

It is, of course, the world's most famous gothic cathedral, and built, as you mentioned, over 900 years ago, now restored to its former glory. And these are some of the first images of the inside of that cathedral so carefully lovingly restored. And again many had thought that it simply couldn't be done.

Audie, one last thing I'd like to point out is the amount of money that was raised for this restoration project. 340,000 individual donors from 150 different countries managed to raise nearly $900 million. And I think that speaks to the place that this cathedral has in the hearts of so many around the world, Audie.

CORNISH: Melissa Bell, thank you so much. It's incredible to see.

Now, still to come on CNN THIS MORNING, tech companies are now on notice following Australia's passage of landmark legislation banning social media for kids under the age of 16.

Plus, Trump's win prompting some companies to roll back diversity initiatives.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:23:03]

CORNISH: It's 22 minutes past the hour, and here's your morning roundup.

Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani demanding his former interpreter hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of baseball cards. The Dodgers star claims that they were fraudulently purchased with his money. The former interpreter has already pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud for stealing nearly $17 million from Ohtani.

Australia passing the world's first law that bans social media for children under the age of 16.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALBANESE: We've got your back is our message to Australian parents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Now, this is a move that puts tech companies on notice, as they'll have to show they've taken reasonable steps to keep underage users off the platforms.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PLANE CAPTAIN: Folks, this is the captain.

We are just waiting for the police to come on board. They may be here now, and they directed us to keep everyone on the airplane, until we sort out the extra passenger that's on the plane.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: An investigation into how a stowaway got on board an international Delta flight from New York to Paris is now underway. TSA officials say the person, a U.S. green card holder, went through security and did not have any prohibited items. But then the woman alluded to more identity and boarding status stations to get on the fully booked trip, where she then hid in the bathrooms for the entire transatlantic flight.

And with Thanksgiving in the rearview mirror, time for everybody to travel home. Of course, some wintry conditions could actually make it pretty tricky for some of us.

Let's go to meteorologist Allison Chinchar with the latest.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And good morning.

Yes, we're taking a look. Look at some of the snow that fell in just the last 24 hours. So, yeah, if you've got to drive through some of these cities, you really hope that they've been able to clean out most of it at least off of the roads before you get on those same roads today.

[05:25:04] Mount Holly, Vermont, topping out at 17 inches. Other areas of New York, Vermont and also Maine. Looking at, at least a foot of snow in just the last 24 hours, we've got more snow on the way, especially near the lakes.

You're going to be looking at some pretty significant lake effect snow, not just today, but as we head into the weekend as well. So places like Traverse City, Buffalo, Watertown, New York, Erie, Pennsylvania, and even Cleveland looking at especially once those wind directions begin to shift over the next 12 to 24 hours, could be looking at some pretty substantial snow amounts.

So you've got a lot of these winter weather alerts in place just for that very reason, especially this green, the teal color that you see here, those are lake effect specific snow warnings indicating just how much snow is expected to fall.

You see some of these dark pink colors here where you could be looking at more than 2 to 3 feet total of snow. Now, granted that's going to be a very narrow path for some of these areas because it has to line up just right with lake effect snow. But yes, for the communities that are in it, they are going to be very hard hit.

As for the rest of the country today, especially if you are traveling by the air, were not expecting too many issues whatsoever. Most of these airports expected to have pretty much everything on time, at least from a weather standpoint. But after today, you are really going to start to see the bottom dropping out in terms of temperatures especially for the eastern half of the country but even southeast, where we've got some freeze alerts in place for as areas even as far south as Florida.

CORNISH: Oh, man, they're not ready for that.

Allison Chinchar, thank you.

CHINCHAR: Thanks.

CORNISH: Still ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, record numbers of shoppers are expected to get their holiday purchases started this weekend but our habits -- well, they look a lot different than in years past.

Plus, as Donald Trump gets ready to return to Washington, more retailers are actually dumping DEI programs targeted by conservative activists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I will eliminate all diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the entire federal government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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