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CNN This Morning
26-Year-Old Ivy League Grad Charged In Health Care CEO's Killing; Trump Remark Raises Questions About Health Of King Charles; More Than 12 Million People Under Red Flag Warnings. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired December 10, 2024 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:30]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Tuesday, December 10th.
Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:
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JESSICA TISCH, NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER: We should never underestimate the power of the public to be our eyes and our ears in these investigations.
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HUNT: Captured. The alleged CEO killer taken into custody at a Pennsylvania McDonald's and charged with murder.
Plus --
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PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY NOMINEE: This is what the left does, Sean. It's the anatomy of a smear.
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HUNT: Fighting back. President-elect Trump's pick to run the Pentagon, going on offense to save his nomination.
And --
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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Who's running Syria this morning?
JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL SPOKESMAN: I think that's an open question.
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HUNT: Uncertainty in Syria. The ousting of the Assad regime and what the fallout means for the future of the Middle East.
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HUNT: All right, 5:00 a.m. here on the East Coast, a live look at the Capitol Dome on this Tuesday morning.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
We now know the name and we have a clear look at the face of the man whose search has captivated the nation over the last week. The suspected killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO is now in custody. It's a 26- year-old Ivy League graduate Luigi Mangione, charged with one count of second degree murder. Police arrested Mangione at a Pennsylvania McDonald's yesterday when employee called authorities after recognizing him.
According to a criminal complaint, when officers arrived, the man was wearing a medical mask and a beanie sitting at the rear of the building on a laptop. They asked him to pull down the mask to quote to see his face and quote immediately recognized him.
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DEREK SWOPE, DEPUTY CHIEF OF POLICE, ALTOONA: Within several minutes seconds of the first contact he had asked the suspect if he had been in New York city recently, and that really invoked a physical reaction from the suspect. He became visibly nervous, kind of shaking.
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HUNT: Kind of shaking there.
Mangione had key evidence on him when he was arrested. Police found a black 3D printed pistol with a loaded Glock magazine and a 3D printed black silencer in his backpack, and they recovered a fake New Jersey ID. The fake ID matched the ID that was used to check into the New York City hostel before the shooting, according to the New York police commissioner.
Authorities say they also found a handwritten document that speaks to his quote motivation and mindset. NBC News obtained this video showing Mangione arriving in court yesterday. Mangione's family responding to the news in a statement, quote, our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest. We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved.
The shocking Midtown Manhattan assassination uncovered a deep dissatisfaction with the nation's health care system. According to his former roommate, it's something that Mangione was in the middle of navigating himself.
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R.J. MARTIN, FORMER ROOMMATE OF LUIGI MANGIONE: I remember he said he had a back issue, and he was hoping to get stronger in Hawaii, so he's always focused on trying when he first came, he went on a surf lesson with other members and unfortunately, just a basic surf lesson, he was in bed for about a week.
I know he was really focused on being strong and healthy but it also weighed on him that he knew that there was an impending surgery.
I knew he was going to have a surgery, so earlier this year. I checked in with him. He confirmed that he had had surgery and he sent me the x-rays. It looked heinous with just giant screws going into his spine.
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HUNT: All right. Joining us now is former supervisory FBI special agent, Scott Duffey.
Scott, good morning to you.
[05:05:01]
Thank you so much for being here.
I think one of the things that people are really focused on in talking about this morning is the background of this young man. He came from a very privileged family. It seemed, in the Baltimore area, very prominent family. His grandfather had owned a country club and a nursing home and some other things.
He went to a private school that cost a lot of money. He goes on to the Ivy League. He's the valedictorian in 2016. What -- what do you understand when you when you think about the profile here, I mean, the one of course, thing that stands out is that he broke. He seems to have broken contact with his family about six months or so ago, although the timeline, of course, still being nailed down by authorities.
How do you understand why this young man may have done this?
SCOTT DUFFEY, DIRECTOR, CRIMINAL JUSTICE INSTITUTE OF WILMINGTON UNIVERSITY: Yeah. Good morning, Kasie, and thank you for having me on the show.
The motive with regards to the why and the planning, et cetera, all that will lend itself as -- as this kind of goes through the prosecution. I think, though there is plenty of evidence not only what you were speaking of with regards to his background, the fact that he might be privileged versus not privileged, I don't think lends itself so much as much as his education. The fact that he is well-rounded, well-spoken valedictorian of his class in high school.
And so, the fact that you have all this, everything at his fingertips, everything for a bright future, what is it that clicked in his mind where everything now gets pushed to the back? And it seemed like his sole goal was to accomplish what he accomplished last week in New York City.
HUNT: So what happens next here in terms of the investigation, the trial? Obviously, this charge has already been made and it seems they're very clearly confident that they've got their guy. What else still needs to be nailed down?
DUFFEY: Yeah. So New York City is resting a little bit with regards to spending countless hours, probably no sleep for many of these detectives because they needed a name and they needed a location in order to arrest him. So that was accomplished yesterday, at least in the mind of New York with regards to they believe they have sufficient evidence to tie the individual at the McDonald's in Altoona, to the scene for the shooting of Brian Thompson.
In my world, this is where we say now the work begins. It is a tremendous amount of work with all the different, units in the police department. And of course, all their law enforcement partners, you have your bosses that are constantly, at your desk, probably saying, what do I -- you know, what do you know? And what can you give me?
Now, it's the prosecutors. Now it's the evidence. It is tying Luigi Mangione to the crime scene, to unmask that individual, to put that gun that was recovered at the McDonald's to the very gun that shot those bullets into Brian and being able to ensure there's no gap between the individual when he arrived in New York, all the days leading up to the shooting. And then, of course, the five plus days that he was on the run -- and being able to -- for law enforcement to go through each and every spot, location, anywhere that he might have stopped other than that McDonald's.
So now they have those five days of gap to fill in and ensure that all the evidence speaks for itself.
HUNT: How big of a mistake, sir for this person, for Luigi Mangione was not getting rid of the gun in his possession. That that detail seems to be a little bit surprising. Obviously, you know NYPD detectives have been saying they were looking for it in central park, for example.
DUFFEY: Yeah, these are -- these are the questions in my mind and in all of society where so now this has been on the news day and night and law enforcement has been looking to put a name to a face. And then for this individual, not only -- think about it, what we have most of our photos are of him with some sort of masking, whether it be a medical mask, this scarf that was on him, at least a similar one.
And then, having his weapon, I think the key and the key here is astute law enforcement, a fantastic call into 911 by whoever it was at the McDonalds, and then ultimately, I think what -- what nailed it was the fact that he used the very New Jersey ID that he provided to the hospital -- to law enforcement, for him not to realize that law enforcement is going to check that and that they're not just going to look at it and say okay, go on your way to be able to tie those initial pieces. And then, of course having the weapon, says a lot about the character the mindset was there was his work, not done? Was he going to continue on all those questions need to be answered.
[05:10:01]
HUNT: All right. Scott Duffey for us this morning -- sir, very grateful to have you on the show today. Thanks for being here. DUFFEY: Thank you. Good morning.
HUNT: All right. Straight ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, President- elect Donald Trump shares what Prince William told him about the king's ongoing battle with cancer.
Plus, the challenges of a new Syria. How does the U.S. now navigate a region already in turmoil. And Trump's picks for his next administration trying to win support from skeptical senators?
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SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R-SD): I think there's a path forward. This is a case of where people will ask her questions about her knowledge of the -- the intelligence community, about the information that's out there, and they'll ask her about some of her past statements with regard to President Trump -- President Trump.
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[05:15:06]
HUNT: All right. President-elect Trump raising concerns about the health of King Charles. The king has been carrying out his royal duties in recent months following a cancer diagnosis in February. But there have been few health updates from the royals on his condition.
And while Trump was in Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral over the weekend, he met with Prince William and this statement that he made to "The New York Post" raised some alarms.
Trump said this, quote: I had a great talk with the prince. I asked him about his father and his father is fighting very hard and he loves his father and he loves his wife. And so it was sad.
All right, let's go live to London and bring in CNN's Max Foster.
Max, Donald Trump often says things that other people would consider to be speaking out of school, which this seems to be something that, of course, the royal family has been extraordinarily tight lipped about. How have they responded to what Trump had to say here?
MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, they're not responding because they don't want to interpret what he said. You've got to understand that, you know for Europe, this was a massive visit. I can't think of another time where I've seen the red carpet rolled out more for anyone. If you imagine that, you know obviously the representative of the us on this case in this case, Notre Dame, was Jill Biden would normally get the top billing. She got a pretty good seat.
But you actually had Donald Trump who wasn't representing the U.S. on this occasion, sitting between the Macrons. That's just one example of how Europe was rolling out the red carpet and after Trump was announced as coming to this event, we heard that Prince William would be going.
We always knew King Charles wasn't planning to go, but there appears to have been some sort of shift towards the end where they decided, we've got to, you know, go out to France and you know, now that Trump is going, let's try to give him a warm welcome, try to get those relationships going. And Prince William then ended up going, I'm not party to the discussions there, but we didn't know Prince William was going until the last minute.
That meeting went incredibly well, and I think the palace was very pleased with how that went. And we heard lots of positive sounds as well, didn't we. I'm sure you did as well, from the Trump side. So that was seen as good.
And then this report comes out and they don't want to speak to it. But I'm not hearing anything concerning about King Charles. What I will say is that I think, you know, the last year has been very tough on Prince William. If you consider his wife's diagnosis, his father's diagnosis, the fact that harry is no longer supporting the crown and, you know the troubles that Prince Andrews had.
There's been a huge amount of pressure on his shoulders. And I may have just been speaking to all of that.
HUNT: Yeah. He's been pretty candid as well in other settings. Ive seen some of the other public comments William has made about how its been really difficult for him I will also say, Max, there was another comment that stood out to me from this. It was actually a lengthy interview that Donald Trump gave to "The New York Post" about his trip.
He said about Prince William, quote, he looked really very handsome last night. Some people look better in person? Was --
FOSTER: I have to say that's something that people do say about Prince William because he's tall, you know, and he's -- he's a sporty guy. He's very impressive when you meet him. He's very, you know, he does feel like a leader when you meet Prince William. He's really grown into his position. So maybe Donald Trump was affected by that. You know, he doesn't really come across as you see him on TV.
HUNT: Fair enough, which is, of course, how Donald Trump consumes most of his content about people like this.
Max Foster, thank you. I really appreciate it. See you next time.
All right. Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING: the fall of the Assad regime explosions heard overnight in Syria's capital as the end of a civil war shakes up the Middle East.
Plus, Jay-Z facing a sexual assault allegation. He's now demanding the case be thrown out if his accuser won't come forward.
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[05:23:12] HUNT: All right, 22 minutes past the hour.
Here's your morning roundup.
A jury finds Daniel Penny not guilty in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely on a New York subway last year. Neely who struggled with homelessness was acting erratically when penny confronted him. A jury found Penny not guilty of criminally negligent homicide, and prosecutors dismissed a more serious manslaughter charge after the jury deadlocked.
Jay-Z asking a judge to reveal the identity of his rape accuser or throw out the case. An alleged victim known only as Jane Doe claims that he raped her alongside Sean "Diddy" Combs, 24 years ago when she was 13 years old. Jay-Z denies the allegation.
Former Congressman Matt Gaetz is joining One America News as an anchor. You're looking at the own web page for the show called "The Matt Gaetz Show". This is after Gaetz resigned from Congress then eventually withdrew his name to be Donald Trump's attorney general after he lacked the support after sexual assault allegations.
All right. Live images right now of a large brush fire in Malibu. It's pushing some residents to evacuate this morning. High winds are intensifying as the fire threat in southern California with more than 12 million now under red flag warnings.
Let's get straight to our meteorologist, our weatherman, Derek Van Dam.
Derek, good morning.
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kasie. This is a very volatile situation, very fluid and kind of breaking overnight. We're talking about Los Angeles County and this Franklin fire has been issued and has been expanding in size very, very quickly because of the volatile conditions on the ground and in the air, and I'll explain that in just one moment.
But you can see some of the impacts of this overnight fire just being highly visible from the road and from the air right now, just over 850 acres burned, but zero percent containment.
[05:25:07]
That is because it is bone dry and the winds are gusting very hard. In fact, some instances over hurricane force. Now we have what is called a PDS, a particularly dangerous situation. The last time that this was issued by the national weather service out of L.A. back in early November when we had the mountain fire in Ventura County. Now we're talking the western portions of Los Angeles County again near Malibu with wind gusts, look at that, 80 miles per hour. So it is going to get worse before it gets better unfortunately.
The winds still on the increase through the course of this morning, but you combine that with what we call a low relative humidity. We're dropping between 5 to 10 percent relative humidity values for this area. And that is the recipe for rapid fire growth. And that is some of the explicit language that's being used in the discussions here from the National Weather Service.
That's why we have this critical fire threat in those areas shaded in purple. All the way down to southern California. This is an area where we still have a considerable fire danger for the afternoon, and with the mandatory evacuations in place, some good things to consider here, Kasie, take all the necessary, necessary items. The six P's for an evacuation -- people, pets, papers, phone numbers, prescriptions, and anything that's personal to you. Take it with you and move quick.
HUNT: Move quickly indeed.
Okay. Derek Van Dam for us this morning, sir, thanks very much. See you next hour.
VAN DAM: Okay.
HUNT: All right. Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING: fighting for confirmation. Where do Trump's cabinet picks stand now after another round of meetings on Capitol Hill?
Plus, how Donald Trump chipped away at a once reliable voting bloc for Democrats to return to the White House. Ron Brownstein joins us up next.
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BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: You don't have to sell out what you believe in, but you do have to meet people where they live.
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