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Syrian Leader Assad Flees To Russia After Fall Of Damascus; Trump Suggests Executive Action To End Birthright Citizenship; Backpack Found In Central Park Filled With Monopoly Money. Aired 5:30- 6a ET
Aired December 09, 2024 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:31:45]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, 5:31 a.m. here on the East Coast. It's 2:30 out West. A live look there at Los Angeles on this Monday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
Sryian rebels toppling President Bashar al-Assad's longstanding regime. An 11-day offensive ending the more than 50-year-long dictatorship. Assad fleeing to Russia. Russian state media reporting that he and his family have been granted asylum.
People in Syria were quick to celebrate the fall of Assad, taking to the streets and even ransacking the presidential palace.
President Joe Biden declaring the moment a historic opportunity but also underscored the risk and uncertainty.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I want to say it again. Sovereign Syria with a new constitution, a new government that serves all Syrians. And this process will be determined by the Syrian people themselves. And the United States will do whatever we can to support them, including through humanitarian relief to help restore Syria after more than a decade of war and generations of brutality by the Assad family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right, joining us now, CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier. Kim, good morning. Always wonderful to see you.
Let's talk about that risk and uncertainty that President Biden mentioned there. What are the strategic imperatives for the United States going forward here?
KIM DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST (via Webex by Cisco): Well, they don't want Syria to turn into a patchwork of different territories run by different armed groups, which is essentially what it is right now. So the HTS, one of the groups that's taken over, has said they will
hand over to a transitional government in days to weeks, but what that government and who are the nation states pulling the strings behind the scenes, we don't know any of that yet.
So far, we haven't seen any sort of vengeful bloodletting. We haven't seen people from the former regime pursued to their houses and killed in the streets -- the kind of thing we've seen after, for instance, the fall of Kabul. But people in Syria are watching for that. Some people still afraid to come outside. And everyone's waiting to see who will end up on top after this initial joyous celebration.
HUNT: Kim, there have been some comments from -- you mentioned HTS -- this group that we have seen in Damascus and, of course, their leader al-Golani, formerly of al Qaeda but split with them some years ago. Now some commanders under him saying some things that suggest that they might be willing to allow religious tolerance in the country, saying things about how it's a -- you know, Syria is a place for Druze and for Christians for others.
Do you buy that? And how do you think that relates to whether or not we're going to see a stable Syria?
DOZIER: Well, the group has been going through a metamorphosis since breaking from al Qaeda a few years back and areas that it has ruled over. Christians, for instance, have been allowed to go about their daily lives, so that's been seen as a hopeful sign.
[05:35:10]
But the group is still on the U.S. terrorism list. The U.S. can't legally have communications with them right now. And when we were trying to press an administration official about this last night briefing reporters, we couldn't really get a good answer on what sort of legal hoops they would go through to try to talk to the incoming people. The leader you mentioned -- there's still a multimillion dollar bounty on his head from the FBI. So this is going to be complicated.
At the same time, this group seems to want to embrace power and be seen as a responsible act and saying all the right things initially.
HUNT: All right, Kim Dozier for us this morning. Kim, always grateful to have you. I hope you'll come back soon. I'm sure this -- we're going to be covering this story for quite a while, so thank you.
DOZIER: Thank you.
HUNT: All right, let's turn now to the -- to politics.
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump had promised mass deportations starting on day one. And now, during his first sit-down interview since winning re-election, Trump reiterated that deportation pledge. He also vowed to end birthright citizenship.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KRISTEN WELKER, NBC MODERATOR, "MEET THE PRESS": Is it realistic to deport everyone who's here illegally?
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT-ELECT: We have no choice. First of all, they're costing us a fortune. But we're starting with the criminals, and we've got to do it. And then we're starting with others and we're going to see how it goes.
You know, we're the only country that has it. Do you know if somebody sets a foot -- just a foot -- one foot -- you don't need two -- on our land, congratulations -- you are now a citizen of the United States of America. Yes, we're going to end that because it's ridiculous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right, joining us now to discuss this is Nick Johnston. He is publisher at Axios.
Now, Nick, of course, he is wrong. We are not the only country in the world with birthright citizenship.
NICHOLAS JOHNSTON, PUBLISHER, AXIOS: Yeah.
HUNT: Now, that said, it has historically been a central part of the founding of this country.
JOHNSTON: It's goes back to British common law. Look at the case history on this. Back to the 1600s. And you can vow to end anything but, like, that's not how government works at all.
HUNT: What did you make of how Donald Trump addressed this issue because there were some nuances?
JOHNSTON: Yes.
HUNT: For example, let's watch what Trump said about the Dreamers, in particular --
JOHNSTON: Yeah.
HUNT: -- he was asked about. There are people who were brought to the United States as very small children and have lived here for most of their lives. Let's watch that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WELKER: You said once back in 2017 they "shouldn't be very worried about being deported." Should they be worried now?
TRUMP: Um, the Dreamers are going to come later. And we have to do something about the Dreamers because these are people that have been brought here at a very young age, and many of these are middle-aged people now. They don't even speak the language of their country. And, yes, we're going to do something about the Dreamers and --
WELKER: What does that mean? (END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: It's hard to tell what he means there by "do something about the Dreamers."
JOHNSTON: I mean, it's hard to tell what he means in a lot of this interview. We talked about Donald Trump in the weave on the campaign. Like, just pulling out the transcript of the interview yesterday you get the exact same kind of thing.
But the nuances are interesting as he begins to tick through what he actually means on the immigration stuff. Starting very broadly, we're going to deport everyone. Well, what do you actually mean by that? OK -- well, we're going to focus on some of the criminals, actually, first.
And then he digs in more. OK, what are reviewing about the families of that? If there are children who were born in the United States of whoever came here illegally. What are you going to do about that? You dig in a little bit more. OK, how are you going to deport Dreamers? Well, we're going to do something about that.
So there's just massive amounts of nuance in this.
What's fascinating about this -- I think what we need to be watching for after inauguration next year is how this stuff becomes reality. This is grand sweeping Trumpian statements about murderers, and gang members, and millions of people, and billions of dollars in tariffs, OK? When we translate actually into policy, what does it actually become? And I think we've just begun to sort of chip away a little bit at that in that interview yesterday about what he actually means when he's talking about this deportation.
HUNT: And it's worth noting that of all the things he promised when he came in, in 2016, he wasn't able actually to -- able to execute on a lot of his -- even his immigration-related policies -- the wall.
JOHNSTON: The wall is not done. The tariffs weren't as extreme as every -- as they have announced in the previous campaign. Like, there's a huge gap between this kind of campaign rhetoric and what Trump is famous for.
This broad -- the weave of this rhetoric and what it actually becomes into policy and how it impacts the Hill. How it impacts the policymaking apparatus. If we have to go to the Supreme Court. If you're going to try and change the Constitution. That's what birthright citizenship is. There's a big gap in between that and I think we're going to spend a lot of time up until Inauguration Day trying to figure out what's going to fill that.
HUNT: Nick, the other piece of the immigration question is, of course, family separation --
JOHNSTON: Right.
HUNT: -- which we saw at the border coming in when Trump was president last time. Now, of course, the conversation is around families that are here --
JOHNSTON: Yes.
HUNT: -- and what do these deportations mean for them.
Trump was asked -- pressed about this in this interview. Let's watch that piece also.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WELKER: Your border czar Tom Homan said they can be deported together.
TRUMP: Correct.
WELKER: Is that the plan?
[05:40:00]
TRUMP: Well, that way you keep the -- well, I don't want to be breaking up families. So the only way you don't break up the family is you keep them together, and you have to send them all back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Of course, if you send them all back -- and you're talking about members who are members of a family who are U.S. citizens, then --
JOHNSTON: I mean, the policy gets complicated there. Some of those people have been here and also with those people be Dreamers if you're sending their families away.
And so, again, he speaks in very broad strokes. We're just beginning to figure out what those broad strokes will look like when they begin to translate into policy. We know what his aspirations are. It's millions of people being deported. It's if those families need to be deported. The children who might be American citizens go with them.
What does that look like when it actually comes to policy and when he's working with state and local law enforcement to enforce it? If he has to go to Congress or other policymaking activities to get it done.
HUNT: All right, Nick Johnston for us this morning. Sir, very grateful to have you.
JOHNSTON: Thanks.
HUNT: Thank you.
All right. Straight ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING the latest on the search for the CEO killer. Police releasing two new photos of the suspect. Three key pieces of evidence remain missing.
Plus, slugger Juan Soto -- yeah, he's staying in New York but he's not going to be a Yankee. The Bleacher Report next. (COMMERCIAL)
[05:45:20]
HUNT: All right, welcome back.
The search for the gunman in the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, it's now nearing a week long. Two photos -- two new photos released by police -- they show the suspect with a hood in the back seat of a taxi and wearing a jacket walking on the street.
The backpack he wore when he shot CEO Brian Thompson found discarded in Central Park. It was filled with Monopoly money but no weapon. NYPD divers looking for that firearm and other clues over the weekend in a Central Park pond.
And while authorities believe the suspect is long gone from New York they remain optimistic they'll capture him even though they are missing three key pieces of evidence: the suspect's identity, the weapon that he used, and the bicycle that he escaped on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR ERIC ADAMS, (D) NEW YORK CITY: The manner in which they were able to follow his footsteps to recover evidence. Some of it -- some of it is known, some of it is unknown. But the net is tightening and we're going to bring this person to justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: CNN senior law enforcement analyst and former Philadelphia police commissioner Charles Ramsey joins us now. Chief Ramsey, always wonderful to have you on the show.
This is just a remarkable situation. What stands out to you about what we know, what we don't know, and whether you think at this point it's likely that they're actually going to find this guy?
CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCMENT ANALYST, POLICING REFORM CONSULTANT, FORMER PHILADELPHIA POLICE COMMISSIONER, FORMER WASHINGTON, D.C. POLICE CHIEF (via Skype): Well, first of all, I think eventually they will find him, but this is more complicated than we thought in the very beginning.
They've recovered a lot of evidence but, so far, the evidence hasn't led them directly to a suspect. The fact that they're putting out photographs with no name attached to it tells me that they're still trying to find out who this person is.
They've recovered some DNA, for an example, but this person is not in CODIS, or the DNA database. And unless you're in that database then there's not going to be a hit.
Apparently, a fingerprint, whether it's a full print or partial print. But again, if you're not in the system then there's not going to be a hit on that.
And so they've recovered evidence, but the key is to find the person responsible. You know, being able to identify that individual. And so far, I don't believe they've been able to do it, although like any other case, detectives hold things close to the vest. They may have a person of interest, but they just haven't released it yet publicly.
HUNT: So, Chief, how does the public and the public reaction to this impact the ability to identify him? Because I know -- my sense from talking to folks like yourself and others who've come on the show is that you can crowdsource with this picture, right? Like, there's someone out there who saw the photo of him from the hostel with his mask down and knows who he is.
But there has been this really striking reaction in the wake of this crime where people seem to be taking their own feelings about the health insurance industry and the frustrations they have. I mean, when UnitedHealth posted something about this on Facebook there were tens of thousands of laughing emoji responses to this.
Is that do you think, getting in the way of the police's ability to figure out who he is?
RAMSEY: Yeah, I do think it gets in the way because someone may actually recognize who this person is but they're sympathetic toward that individual for whatever reason, and so they're not notifying the police. You have to take all these things into consideration. Now, there is a pretty hefty reward on this individual. Eventually someone may call.
But they're getting thousands and thousands of leads. They have to follow each and every one of those hoping that one actually leads them to the suspect. But the fact that you're starting to hear so much through social media toward -- negatively toward the health insurance industry that certainly doesn't help things at all.
But again, the police have to just keep at it. Eventually they will find this person but the longer it goes, the more difficult it becomes. He could be anywhere in the country right now.
HUNT: What do you make of the Monopoly money in the backpack? Is he just trolling?
RAMSEY: You know, he could be. When I heard that I don't know if that's a reference to some kind of paid hit. If it's some reference to the fact that the insurance agency -- companies don't want to really pay anything --
HUNT: Yeah.
RAMSEY: -- should a person file a claim. I mean, who knows? It was intentional though.
[05:50:00]
And that individual had been in New York for, like, 10 days prior to the actual killing, so he had plenty of time to go through Central Park and figure out what's a good place to plant the backpack where it's not easily found. He certainly didn't put the gun in there. The gun is somewhere else. It could be in the water. It could be anywhere. Who knows?
I mean, this is well planned out -- not just the assassination itself but that period of time afterwards -- the escape, the clues -- all those kinds of things -- and that's not typical in a lot of these cases.
HUNT: For sure.
All right, Charles Ramsey for us. Chief, thank you very much for being with us. I really appreciate your time.
RAMSEY: Thank you.
HUNT: All right, time now for sports. The bracket now set for the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff.
Coy Wire here on -- with more on who made it, who was left out. It's the morning's Bleacher Report. Coy, good morning.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Good morning, Kasie.
The long-awaited, much anticipated Selection Sunday finally arrived and the matchups have been revealed.
Undefeated Oregon getting the number one overall seed in a bye. From there things get interesting. The other byes go to Georgia, Boise State, and Arizona State, with the biggest debate centering around whether Alabama deserved to get in ahead of SMU.
Three-loss Bama had a much tougher schedule but didn't make their conference title game. SMU had just two losses, one of them to Clemson in the ACC title game on a last-second field goal. The committee sided with SMU. They will go to Penn State while Clemson plays at Texas.
The other matchups are Notre Dame hosting Indiana and Ohio State hosting Tennessee.
The first round games kick off December 20 and 21 -- two of them on our sister channel TNT.
To the NFL where the Chiefs keep their eyes on a three-peat in dramatic fashion. Down one to the Chargers in the final moments when Patrick Mahomes just pulls off more wizardry setting up a game-winning field goal attempt for Matthew Wright with just one second left. And watch this, Kasie. Wright just signed with the team and doinks it off the upright, but in.
Chiefs win 17-16 claiming their ninth-straight division title. They've now won 15-straight games by one score or less. How in the world do you keep doing this, Mahomes?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PATRICK MAHOMES, QUARTERBACK, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS: We believe in each other, you know? It's never one group; it's everybody -- offense, defense, special teams. And that's what the special teams do. And so I was glad that Matt was able to knock that thing through and we get the win.
MATTHEW WRIGHT, KICKER, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS: I'm just glad it went in. I wish it went right down the middle but a three is a three.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: All right. The Bills' quarterback Josh Allen making history against the Rams. He's the first player ever with three passing touchdowns and three rushing touchdowns in a regular season game. But his six touchdowns still weren't enough to get the win. L.A. finding their stride winning in a shootout 44-42, snapping Buffalo's seven- game win streak.
Here's Allen after the game.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH ALLEN, QUARTERBACK, BUFFALO BILLS: I hate losing. If you lose by two, you lost by 100, it don't matter. You're still losing. And offensively we've got to find ways to score before the half and score after the half. So we didn't do our part either.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: All right, Kasie, get ready to spit out your coffee. Superstar slugger and outfield Juan Soto reportedly signing with the New York Mets with the richest deal in the history of sports -- 15 years, $765 million. That beats out Shohei Ohtani's 10-year deal he signed with the Dodgers last year.
The 26-year-old heads to Queens after one season in the Bronx as a Yankee where he helped lead the pinstripes to their first World Series in 15 years.
Kasie, that works out to about $51 million per year, which would be about $140,000 per day, every day, for the next 15 years.
HUNT: Pretty stunning when you put it that way, Coy. I have to say I -- you know, my husband is a Mets fan, poor guy, so some good news, you know?
WIRE: That is really good news. That's some juice for him.
HUNT: And you Bills, man, they could use some defense. I've got to say that.
WIRE: Ah, they'll be all right.
HUNT: I'm sorry.
WIRE: They will be all right. HUNT: All right, see you soon, sir.
WIRE: All right.
HUNT: Thank you very much.
All right. Ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, Trump's pick for the nation's top intelligence post heads to Capitol Hill to make her pitch to skeptical lawmakers. We're going to speak live with Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee on what lies ahead for Trump's nominees.
Plus, a regime toppled. Decades of brutal rule come to a close and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flees with his family to Russia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: The fall of the regime is a fundamental act of justice. It's a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria to build a better future for their proud country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:58:45]
HUNT: It's Monday, December 9. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: At long last the Assad regime has fallen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: The fall of a tyrant. What's next for Syria after the sudden end to a brutal civil war?
And --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: For what they did --
WELKER: Yeah.
TRUMP: -- honestly, they should go to jail.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Trump's retribution. The president-elect thinks somebody should be in jail for January 6, but it's not the rioters.
And --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) STEPHEN MILLER, INCOMING WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF: You're talking about what would be the largest investment in immigration and border security.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: A day one promise. How Trump plans to enact his border policies starting on Inauguration Day.
And new allegations. Jay-Z's fierce denial in the face of a lawsuit tying him, along with Sean "Diddy" Combs, to the alleged sexual assault of a minor.
All right, 6:00 a.m. here on the East Coast -- or just before 6:00 a.m. -- 5:59. A live look at New York City on this Monday. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
We begin with the stunning fall of the Assad regime in Syria. The people of Syria celebrating in the streets, marking the end of more than five decades of the Assad's family's brutal dictatorship.
