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Erin Burnett Outfront
Manhunt For Killer Of CEO Entering 13th Hour; Hegseth Vows To "Fight Like Hell", Nomination In Peril; CNN Speaks Exclusively With Putin's Deputy Foreign Minister. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired December 04, 2024 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:37]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Breaking news, a massive New York City manhunt in its 13th hour. The gunman who shot and killed the CEO of America's largest health care company on a busy Manhattan street is on the loose. The motive, unknown, as we are learning more about CEO Brian Thompson's past.
And KFILE doing it again, revealing how Vivek Ramaswamy really felt about Elon Musk, the man he's about to team up with to cut government waste. Ramaswamy once calling Elon a circus monkey.
Plus, a CNN exclusive. A top Russian official threatening the United States in an interview you'll see OUTFRONT, first saying tensions have never been worse between Russia and America.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, we begin with the breaking news, manhunt. At this hour, police are scouring New York City looking for an assassin who killed the CEO of Americas biggest health insurer. By the way, we are in the 13th hour. No idea where this person could be.
"The New York Times" is just posting right now some brand new video of the gunman. Take a look at this. This was taken steps away from where the assassination that's what it was, took place. So there he was, just a between 6:30, 7:00 this morning, the suspected gunman walking down the street in Midtown Manhattan.
And I want to warn you that what we are about to show you next is graphic. This is according to police, the masked gunman lying in wait for the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, to appear. He waited several minutes. Then, just before 6:45, you see him stalking Thompson, using what police say was likely a silencer and then firing several shots from behind. So he passes him.
Now, what we are not going to show you is that the gunman then walks up to Thompson and fires several more rounds. We have made a decision not to show that part.
Seconds later, though, you see the gunman crossing the street and taking off, and then that's it. According to police, they know this, they say the path he took to get away was that he ran down 54th street in midtown Manhattan these are big, wide avenues, but in the middle of one of these, and this is not -- not, not normal in midtown.
There's only a few streets like this in the entire city. There's a break halfway through the block. That's the famous Ziegfeld Theater in midtown. And that little alleyway is where the gunman ran. He then got onto a bike and made his way north into Central Park.
Now, tonight, we do have a new image of the suspected gunman, police releasing this picture which was taken at a nearby Starbucks just before the shooting. So he goes into Starbucks. We don't know what he bought obviously.
He had his face mostly covered, but you can tell, for example, that he's Caucasian. You can tell a general age range, you can tell you know more than you might think from a picture like this. You can also tell that he didn't want anyone to see his full face.
And the motive is unknown at this hour. Sources tell CNN that there were threats made against the insurance company, but no idea as to whether any of that is related to this. And tonight, there's a massive police presence just a few blocks away from the crime scene.
You see there, the Rockefeller Center tree. Tens of thousands of people are right at this moment as we are speaking gathering for a Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting.
Brynn Gingras is OUTFRONT live near where the deadly shooting took place just hours ago were now, as I said, we're in the 13th hour of a manhunt.
What is the latest that you are learning about the status of this hunt and the investigation?
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Erin, you know what? We know that search warrants are being conducted in the hotel room that Brian Thompson was staying, which is just across the street from the hotel behind me where the actual shooting occurred. We know that forensics is being run on a cell phone that was recovered. And police are also using some of that same video that you were just showing your viewers trying to piece together a timeline of this gunman's movements, in addition to even just trying to identify that person, hoping that the public with showing those images also can provide some clues.
I can tell you really quickly that one of the deputy commissioners of the NYPD just came here to the scene to see for himself where this all took place. There are so many questions that are still out there, including a motive this as this massive manhunt in New York City continues at this hour.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GINGRAS (voice-over): Stunning new video obtained by CNN showing the moments a gunman carries out a brazen attack in the heart of New York City. At about 6:40 a.m., the suspect waiting for Brian Thompson, the CEO of
UnitedHealthcare, and then firing several shots, killing him.
JESSICA TISCH, NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER: I want to be clear, at this time, every indication is that this was a premeditated, pre- planned targeted attack.
GINGRAS: Police say that gunman camped out for about five minutes before Thompson arrived. You can see from these images, he's wearing a mask, hooded sweatshirt and backpack. Sources say a silencer was attached to his handgun.
Police say he watched as people walked by and then at approximately 6:45 a.m. fired at Thompson from behind, hitting him before the gun jams.
JOSEPH KENNY, NYPD CHIEF OF DETECTIVES: It appears that the gun malfunctions as he clears the jam and begins to fire again.
GINGRAS: He fires another shot, then the suspect fled, likely following this route, according to police, down a back alley of a midtown theater before jumping on an electric bike. Police losing his track after he entered Central Park.
KENNY: We're still tracking video. There are GPS on those bikes. We'll be working with the company.
GINGRAS: Investigators also recovering a cell phone, three shell casings at the scene and are asking the public for help in identifying the gunman.
Police also releasing these images of what appears to be the gunman in a Starbucks shortly before the shooting.
Fifty-year-old Thompson was the CEO of the health insurance unit within the Minnesota based UnitedHealth group. He arrived in New York City on Monday for an investors' conference. As of now, police don't believe he and the gunman crossed paths until this morning and are still searching for a motive.
Thompsons wife, Paulette, told NBC News, quote: There have been some threats, but she didn't know why. Thompson was father of two boys. His wife also released a statement saying Brian was an incredibly loving, generous, talented man who truly lived life to the fullest and touched so many lives.
ANDREW WITTY, CEO, UNITEDHEALTH GROUP: There are no words to describe how so many of us are feeling right now. Brian was a truly extraordinary person who touched the lives of countless people throughout our organization and far beyond.
GINGRAS: The brazen murder happening at the start of morning rush hour in an area of New York City crawling with tourists for the holiday season.
MICHELLE WYCKOFF, STAYING AT THE HILTON: So we just heard sirens going off. I thought, oh gosh, what's going on? I did not think it was actually right here.
ANDY KENNY, STAYING AT THE HILTON: You know, we really don't know what it was about but were shocked that somebody would be killed in the in broad daylight in New York. That's really quite shocking.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GINGRAS: And look, Erin, we've been giving you updates on this case as we've been learning from police sources and initially NYPD thought that this gunman fled on a city bike.
And you heard in that piece right there that it was hopeful that the GPS tracking was going to help with this investigation. Well, now, we're learning that it was just an electric bike so of course, this is another hindrance of other investigation. Of course, they might run into many of those roadblocks as they search for this gunman -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Brynn, thank you very much. Brynn, as I said, outside that hotel, right in the heart of midtown Manhattan, where this unbelievable assassination occurred.
All right. My panel is with me now. I want to start with Mary Ellen O'Toole here.
Mary Ellen, you know, you're a former senior profiler, senior agent at the FBI. And I know in that capacity, you've had a chance to analyze every second of this video. And I do tell everybody we've shown large parts of it. We are not showing the shooter, you know, with the -- with the actual shots.
But what you see here is the shooter in a black hoodie waiting for Thompson to pass by him. So Thompson comes from behind him, walks past him, so then he shoots him in the back. There doesn't appear to be any interaction between the two men, shoots him in the back then as we are not showing. But I know you have seen. He then comes up and shoots again once he has -- has shot him and he's fallen.
What does this entire video tell you from what you can see, Mary Ellen?
MARY ELLEN O'TOOLE, FORMER SENIOR FBI PROFILER & FBI SPECIAL AGENT: It's a great question. It certainly says that this shooter came there with the intention of not having a conversation with the victim, but shooting the victim and shooting and killing him. And I say that for a variety of reasons, but number one, there's no verbal communication that is, that we can see between the shooter and the victim would suggest talking is done. The intent was to shoot and to kill.
And it also is really devoid of any emotion, so the shooter is very cold. The shooter is very detached, and the shooter is very focused. Those tend to be personality traits that would pre-exist the shooter at that crime scene.
Again that the victim themselves looked really like an object. It was a job and the offender came there to complete the job, which was to kill him. BURNETT: Right. And I mean, of course, raising the questions as to whether this person was some sort of an assassin or a hitman or, I mean, you know, we just don't know. We don't know the motive. So we don't know if the person shooting was the -- was actually the person with the motive or not.
I mean, David, again looking at the video as we have it, when you watch it -- I know that it stood out to you that the shooters appears to have a decent distance from his victim as opposed to firing from close range, which he could have done because Brian Thompson walks past the shooter.
[19:10:12]
He walks right by him and he waits until he's a little bit past actually shoot. We know police said that the gun appeared to malfunction maybe multiple times. The shooter was very proficient at clearing the jam and firing again. Used what appeared to be obviously, in common parlance, a silencer.
And then before any of this even happened, the gunman had gone into a Starbucks. We don't know what he bought or what he did, but there he is in a Starbucks. Certainly he knows he's going to be on camera in the Starbucks. His face is covered mostly.
What does this tell you about the gunman?
DAVID SARNI, RETIRED NYPD DETECTIVE: Well, first of all, it looks like he's getting back to what Mary Ellen said. He's very cool calculated. He's not concerned about anything. He's covered up.
What your concerns about is, you know, when he went and shot, did the shooting he was almost a car length out. He felt confident enough to take that shot, even though there were individuals. If you look to the right, it looks like there's a person standing there. It might be a person standing off. So he's confident in his shooting.
What he might have had an issue with is the suppression, the silencer, which might have caused the jamming because he walked up as almost professionally that he's been trained or he has been proficiently worked on firearms, but maybe not with a suppression device which might have caused the jamming and also when he walked up to the to the victim and attempted to finish the job.
So, this is a person who was motivated, wasn't concerned about anything that was around him. He was going to do what he was going to do. As brazen as it is, that's what he did.
BURNETT: All right. So, so many questions here. Darrin, let me just start with that we are looking at midtown Manhattan, okay, 6:46 a.m. It's still dark, but people are out and about. So you look at the Hilton Hotel, it is a huge hotel, New Yorkers, we've all been in it many times. Its a huge hotel with big ballrooms, ostensibly where these meetings were going to happen, escalators, many entrances, including a main front one. But Brian Thompson walks up along the side from a hotel across the
street, crosses the street, walks up by the shooter and goes in a side door, okay, to the hotel. He doesn't walk around to the front door. He goes in a side door.
These are a lot of specific details, right? You could look at a hotel like this and say, well, he could have gone in a lot of doors, but he went in this door and the shooter was at this door and it doesn't seem like these things were left to chance.
DARRIN PORCHER, FORMER NYPD LIEUTENANT: Absolutely. I believe this was premeditated. And somehow the shooter had to coordinate this with someone else. That's why it begs the question as to has the NYPD dove into the hotel surveillance? Who went into that room the night before?
Because this shooter was tactically in place when he came out of this specific exit in order to shoot and kill him. Therefore I want to know who did this person, meaning the deceased contact the day before within that 24-hour period? Because that's going to be telling that there was communication which would allow the shooter to believe that this individual would have been at a certain point.
I believe -- you got to take into consideration in a city like New York, the average person is photographed the videotape 100, 200 times 200, 100 to 200 times a day. The shooter was wearing a mask, so he was clearly surreptitious about his appearance but I believe that there's another person that's working with him.
BURNETT: Right, okay. So that is going to be crucial. And let me just ask you also, David, in all the care that the shooter took, at least as we know it so far about appearance he, you know, he goes in covered into Starbucks. But we do see part of his face. We see his hands, we see all of that. Are we seeing enough for police to actually figure out exactly who he is?
SARNI: Well, at this point, you know, he's disguising himself. We could utilize facial recognition again. We want to get the totality of circumstances. You know, were going to look as to when did this mask get put on. Was it put on there?
So you're going to go backtrack as far as -- as far as you can with this video. We have him at a location. They're going to backtrack where he was prior to the shooting. We've seen that.
Is there a chance that he had that mask, did not have that mask on at the around there. And then put it on when he was going to do the shooting? They say a half hour later.
So you're going to -- it's going to take some time. But I'll tell you, detectives do their job and they're going to be this is a unified force that is going to find out and identify the person as best as with all the world and tools they have.
BURNETT: And all of us remember covering the Tsarnaev attack at the Boston marathon that it took days to get the better footage, that it took time to figure out exactly who they were and then tell the public to begin a more public manhunt of, we're looking for this these individuals.
I mean, Mary Ellen, to that point, it's -- we are in the 13th hour since the shooting. So we've got the video that we have the gunman crossing the street after opening fire and taking off.
[19:15:03]
Then there was this whole day talk about whether he was on a city bike, which are these bikes that you can use an app to rent in Manhattan. And, you know, you pick one up and then you can drop it off at another spot. It turns out that's not what he did. He was on a bike though, goes to Central Park. How far do you think the shooter has mapped out his escape?
I mean, do you think 13 hours later, Mary Ellen, that the odds are that he's still in New York City?
O'TOOLE: Well, I can say this based on the planning that looks like he invested in this crime, he included how he was going to exit New York City and where he was going to go. He would not have left that kind of planning to chance.
So whether or not he's in New Jersey or he's in another state how he exited the crime scene would have been a huge part of how he planned it, and put this together.
But I will say this, and I think the other guests will -- will agree with me on this, no matter how perfectly it seems that this was executed, he will have made mistakes and that started with leaving the casings at the crime scene and I'm also interested in whether or not those hands are really bare in Starbucks, because if they are, he could have inadvertently touched something.
We touch things probably upwards of a thousand times a day. So those are the things that detectives will be looking at. Where did he make mistakes? Because he did.
BURNETT: And, Darrin, there's also the fact that if he was hired by someone else or a hitman of some sort, if that ends up being the case because of the lack of emotion, et cetera, then that means the real motive for him, perhaps, was money, or who knows, or he did it on his own.
But then if he was hired, then that means somebody else did it, somebody else. And we don't know yet. We don't know the personal details here of Brian Thompson's life.
We do know the DOJ investigation into impropriety, financial impropriety, selling massive amounts of stock ahead of the company, losing quarter or a third of its value, that that was under investigation by the DOJ. We know about the threats that that his wife says that they had received.
So we know some things like that, but we don't know what the motive -- ultimate motive may be, nothing even about it at this point. PORCHER: You're absolutely right. That's the million dollar question.
When we look at there was a hack earlier in the year, whereas the company lost upwards of $2 billion. So the company was worth $5 billion. Then it went down to $4 billion.
And then, as you mentioned, the financial impropriety, he never got that information out to the shareholders until after the fact because he sold millions of dollars in stock before he let the shareholders know about it.
BURNETT: They took a 25, 30 percent loss. He sold before that.
PORCHER: But you know what's interesting? After he was shot, the stock actually went up. So it begs the question that normally when a person, a CEO is shot and killed, the stock goes down this time it went up today.
So it begs the question of was there a financial concern as to why he was shot? And we'll wait and see as this rolls out.
BURNETT: Yeah, we just don't -- we just don't know the motive of this unbelievable situation.
All right. Thanks very much to all of you. As our breaking news coverage continues here in the 13th hour of this stunning manhunt, police now digging through Brian Thompson's past, looking for clues as to who may have wanted him dead. A man who worked with Brian Thompson joins me next.
And breaking news this hour from Capitol Hill. Trump's embattled pick for defense secretary not backing down he is trying to win over skeptical Republicans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, TRUMP'S PICK FOR DEFENSE SECRETARY: We're going to fight like hell. There's no reason to back down. Why would we back down?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And just in right now, we have a new photo of the Russian stowaway who snuck onto a flight from JFK in New York to Paris. And now, she's been sent back, arriving back into the United States. So who is she? And what happens now?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:23:11]
BURNETT: All right, we have more breaking news on the manhunt in the 13th hour underway to catch the killer who shot and assassinated the CEO of the largest health care company in America in the middle of Midtown Manhattan this morning.
John Miller, our chief law enforcement analyst and former top intelligence chief at the NYPD, is with me. You were literally just on the phone with some of your sources and
what have you just learned?
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, I mean, were learning that as they expand this video canvas, they are getting more pictures of him in other places. So they now have more direction. It's a puzzle. They have some -- some pieces, they have some gaps and they're going to they're going to put those together. But it's starting to give them a richer picture of his travels today.
BURNETT: Of his travels, so they are starting to piece together, as you know, Darrin Porcher was just saying, you know, the average persons film 100 to 200 times a day, that they're now already starting to piece some of that together as to where --
MILLER: Right. So, I mean, the last thing they had was of him entering Central Park on the bicycle they've expanded that outside the park and, you know, they've developed some other images in other places.
BURNETT: So as the hours have gone by.
MILLER: Exactly.
BURNETT: All right. So let's talk about a couple of other things that I know you are just learning at this moment. There was a cell phone found at the location, and it had been unclear whether that was perhaps Brian Thompson, the CEO, cell phone or not. And you're learning more about that phone.
MILLER: So there's two critical things that were found in that alley. One is a cell phone, which they believe the suspect may have dropped as he was trying to take that gun and put it back where he got it from. There's a phone, but there's also a bottle of water.
Here's the thing. The bottle of water is identical to the bottle of water they have him on video purchasing at Starbucks with two power bars before the shooting.
Now, what does all that mean? Both are potentially rich if you drank from the bottle of water, there could be DNA there.
[19:25:04]
If his DNA is in a record, because perhaps he's a former felon, that could lead to an identity. If the phone is his phone and they're able to get inside it to bypass the code and enter it, that could tell a whole story of his communications, his locations, his travels, his identity. But it could be a burner where it may have, where it may just have some information about searches and places he was.
BURNETT: And they don't have that information yet?
MILLER: No, that's a meticulous process because there are things you can do in trying to bypass a code that can cause the phone to erase. So they go slowly and carefully. BURNETT: All right. And in terms of the images and you say that
they've been able to track him now subsequent to when he went into the park were an hour 13, you know, how many hours are unaccounted for at this point? I mean, you know, in a sense of when you think about this, how far could someone like this have been? Or is your instinct from both your reporting and your experience that he is still in New York City?
MILLER: I think that what they see suggests he's still in New York City.
BURNETT: All right. Now --
MILLER: And I think it suggests, and these are -- they're not there yet.
BURNETT: Right.
MILLER: But the clues -- the clues they're looking at gives him much more the feel of someone in New York from New York.
BURNETT: All right. And the firearm experts, you've talked to, your sources there, what are they saying to you? Obviously, we know it was originally passed him, shot him in the back, went up finished. Well, I don't know if he needed to finish the job, but did go up and shoot him again.
MILLER: So it's very interesting because you look at him and what you see is a stealthy, confident, slow-moving, deliberate, professional hit man.
He raises the gun, he fires from 20 feet away. He hits his target. But what happens there is the gun jams.
He doesn't panic. He clears the jam racks a round out racks. Another one in fires again. What happens? The gun jams.
He clears another jam and he draws in closer to his target and fires a third time. So he kills his target but there's this silencer.
And you talk to the firearms expert and you say, why? If he is so good at what he's doing, is his gun jamming, and they're saying it is much more likely that it's the silencer he tried to use a device that gave it some professional air of people won't hear the shots. It won't draw attention to me. They won't focus on the getaway.
BURNETT: Right.
MILLER: But without fitting it with a modification, it's going to cause the gun to jam. And that happens a lot, right?
BURNETT: And that I guess that could indicate his -- his preparation. Also, though, you know, that time of the morning, there are people out and about, but it is still quiet. I mean, that would be, you know, it's not -- it would be an echoing of gunshots. Before you go -- one, one, one next point, though if indeed he is a hired hitman or something of that sort, that this was not his vendetta, then that means it was someone else's. Has there been any progress as far as you know at this point into that? The motive of who, if it was not the gunman, caused the gunman to do this?
MILLER: So this is a wide aperture. You know, you have a CEO who's coming out of a divorce. That's something they're going to look at in the natural course of business. What was involved there?
You have a company that's acquiring another company and a bit of a takeover. They're going to look at the business end.
You have a company that's laid people off. They're going to look at the personal stories.
And they're going to focus on letters. Desperate people who were denied care or tests or something that could have saved a life, who blame the company.
So that gives you multiple universes of directions in terms of motive and suspect.
BURNETT: All right John, thank you very much.
If John gets more, of course, going to bring it to us, as I said, literally on the phone before we came to air. That's how quickly this story is moving right now.
Stephen Parente joins me now. He worked with Brian Thompson.
Stephen, look, it's a shocking day. And I know you had a chance to work with him during the beginning of COVID when you were on a project together.
When you see this news this morning you hear this -- I can't even imagine the shock that you must have felt.
STEPHEN PARENTE, WORKED WITH UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO: It was -- it's pretty amazing. I mean, I -- I've worked with united for years, almost 35 and but -- I only got to know Brian recently, but I remember seeing the news at first and I was just shocked.
And then when I scrolled to see it was him, I just couldn't believe it. I still am processing. I just don't understand this and he's just a wonderful guy and the truth is, I barely got to work with him in person because of it was COVID. We were all basically sheltering down.
BURNETT: And -- all right, so at the time when you worked with him, this was during COVID -- obviously, you as a senior White House economist, were in the center of it. He was in the center of it, as the CEO of the largest health insurer in America.
At that time, I don't know if anyone remembers, but I guess its worth reminding everyone, Stephen, remember, all the hospitals were going to shut down. They couldn't stay open because they had to stop elective surgeries, so they weren't having money come in and they couldn't keep them open to try to care for all the people who at the time were coming in incredibly ill, getting on ventilators, dying of COVID.
So what was he like to work with at that time when you were working together to keep those hospitals open?
[19:30:04]
PARENTE: He was -- he was a prince among men because what -- what we needed to do was figure out a way, after Congress appropriated initially $100 billion to keep health care operational at exactly when it needed to be operational during COVID, we -- we needed a pathway to make this done. And most of the things we tried to do with first, with the Treasury Department, then with the Medicare program were not working.
We, by coincidence, when working with some folks over at HHS who knew Brian, we were on a phone call late at night just actually just talking to him because we were frustrated about the whole situation and he came back and said, like, you know what, we at United can offer you a solution. Give us until tomorrow morning. We're going to work something up. We'll talk to you at basically 7:30 in the morning and let's see if we can work things out.
And that led to a process where within really a week and a half, we moved $30 billion to 300,000 hospitals and physicians and basically recapitalize the whole health care industry.
BURNETT: So -- and those -- those hospitals were able then to stay open, you know, in that time of crisis.
Stephen, Brian was obviously in New York for an investor meeting, right? So people knew he would be here, right? This is an investor meeting. A lot of people come. That's why it would be at the Hilton with those big rooms. There's escalators in there. There's ballrooms.
But he's coming in. He's having meetings for a day, maybe a dinner the night before. Who knows? This would be very standard operating procedure for him.
And then he's going to go home. And now his family, his two sons are dealing with this shock.
What sort of a person was he?
PARENTE: I mean, he -- sort of a -- sort of reference from the movie "Tombstone". He was everybody's huckleberry. He came through when we needed someone at the -- at most. I mean, if nothing else, I don't know if his sons ever heard the story of what we did, but he -- he helped so many people.
I mean, there's family that know him and talked about him just wonderfully. But I mean, the impact that he had was, you know, in the millions potentially, in terms of being there the right time. And it was always gracious. There was self-effacing humor. I mean, we did so many calls early in the morning. It had to be
humorous because we were up all night and then up in the morning. It was just a really great guy to deal with. A very just a normal guy that just happened to be in the right place at the right time with great skills.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Stephen, thank you very much for -- for sharing that. You know, in the midst of this, the, you know, the human being who is -- was, you know, assassinated, was murdered today. Just unbelievable. Thank you very much, Stephen.
PARENTE: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, our KFILE uncovering how Vivek Ramaswamy feels about Elon Musk, the man he's about to be side by side with in Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VIVEK RAMASWAMY, FORMER GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You have no reason to think that Elon won't jump like a circus monkey when Xi Jinping calls in the hour of need.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And an OUTFRONT exclusive tonight, a top Russian official with a chilling warning for the United States -- support Ukraine and risk a Russian response that the world has never seen.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:36:53]
BURNETT: The breaking news, Trump's embattled defense secretary pick not backing down. Pete Hegseth saying the allegations against him of sexual and alcohol abuse are false. He says he's not dropping out. He says that Trump agrees.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HEGSETH: He reiterated the same thing this morning. Hey, Pete, I got your back. It's a fight. They're coming after you, get after it.
We're going to fight like hell. There's no reason to back down. Why would we back down?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: We are also now learning, though, that Trump did have a conversation with the Florida Governor Ron DeSantis about potentially replacing Hegseth as Trump's nominee. DeSantis is open to the idea and, of course, has a deep resume, both of managing a massive institution, managing the state of Florida, as well as a military record.
Manu Raju is OUTFRONT on Capitol Hill. And, Manu, I know that you have been talking, you know, constantly to key senators on the hill because peoples views on this can change by the moment. What are you learning right now?
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, there are a lot of Republican senators are simply noncommittal, not willing to say if they're willing to go out and give him a critical vote and essentially give him the job, including Senator Joni Ernst who had a meeting with him earlier today.
Ernst is seen as a pivotal senator. She's someone who has actually been a victim of sexual assault herself, has pushed to change how sexual assault claims are dealt with at the Pentagon. And, of course, Hegseth has been accused of sexual assault himself. He has denied those allegations, of course.
But after they met for about 45 minutes today, Erin, and I asked her whether she would support him for the job, and she said, we only say she had a frank conversation with him and a thorough conversation would not say if she would support him, but there have been lots of questions about all these misconduct allegations that have come up, including excessive drinking on the job.
That is something that actually came up in a meeting with several senators, including the incoming chairman of the critical committee, the Senate Armed Services Committee, Roger Wicker. And he told Wicker that if he's confirmed, he would no longer drink.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: You told me earlier that he said that he would not drink on the job. Well, how did that come up?
SEN. ROGER WICKER (R-MS): And -- well, I -- really, I normally don't discuss what we have talked about specifically, but you know, the allegation was made about him being intoxicated at several times. And so, the questions that every member will be asking him led to his statement.
RAJU: And he categorically said he would stop drinking altogether if he becomes secretary of defense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: Now, Hegseth has more meetings on Capitol Hill tomorrow and some critical ones next week, including with some key swing Republican votes, including Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins but the question, Erin, is, can he make it that long? That's still a question in the halls of the Senate.
BURNETT: All right. Manu, thank you very much. With those breaking details tonight.
And now, KFILE revealing that Vivek Ramaswamy, the man who is teaming up with Elon Musk to slim down the federal government. Well, he has a history of trashing Musk, calling him a circus monkey for China, who kisses the ring of Xi Jinping. Of course, that's a very different tune than the Vivek Ramaswamy we heard today who went out of his way to publicly praise Musk after KFILE's reporting came out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[19:40:03]
RAMASWAMY: I have never worked with somebody who I feel more challenged by in being surrounded by. I mean, he's -- he is somebody who's able to think outside of the box, outside of the matrix in a way that I haven't actually seen before. I've learned a lot from working with him. It is not surprising to me having -- having worked with him, that he's created some of the greatest manufacturing companies that America has ever seen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURENTT: So that was today.
And KFILE's Andrew Kaczynski joins me now. So, Andrew, obviously that was after you had posted online some of your reporting here. What did you find?
ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: Yeah. So we found that he has an extremely long history of attacking Elon musk as a puppet, as subservient to the Chinese communist party, and look, with a lot of our stories, it's like we uncovered something that somebody said, five, ten, 15, 20 years ago.
He made all of these comments within the past two years, many of them within the last year. And what did he say? Well, he accused Elon Musk of shaping his views, his political decisions, his business decisions, all to be subservient to China, to get tax breaks in China.
He particularly singled out comments that Elon Musk had made about Taiwan, in which he suggested that Taiwan could become part of China, and he, Vivek, basically suggested that Elon had made those comments to get tax breaks in China.
He said that Elon's business businesses like Tesla were relying so much on China was a threat, sort of compromise American values.
He even suggested in a tweet that I want people to look at here -- he even suggested that his stewardship of Twitter could be insecure in this tweet here, where he says, now the crusader for free speech. He tags him @elonmusk, kisses the ring of the worlds biggest censor, Xi Jinping.
BURNETT: And he also quotes with free speech.
KACZYNSKI: In quotes for free speech, obviously referencing his ownership of Twitter.
And then in another tweet, he had said, he said, we don't need U.S. leaders who are in, quote, China's pocket. That's what he said about Elon Musk.
And if you think those tweets are bad, I want people to listen to hear to some of those comments that he made about him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAMASWAMY: You have no reason to think that Elon won't jump like a circus monkey when Xi Jinping calls in the hour of need.
Elon Musk has, I think, demonstrated his willingness to change his political tunes based on the favors that he gets to be able to do business in China.
I do think it is a kinship that that Tim Cook and Elon Musk probably have is that they both bend the knee to the true overlord which is Xi Jinping.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KACZYNSKI: And the thing about these comments, Erin, that I think makes them so hard for him to walk back, besides the fact that he was saying this stuff last year is these are sort of fair criticisms that many people have had about American companies.
I mean, you're the business reporter, you probably know this a lot better than I do, but these are sort of fair criticisms about American companies that are doing business in China.
And it's, I think, sort of also raises the question of here, you do have somebody who, like he said in some of those interviews that we reviewed, who is so intertwined with the government, government contracts, government subsidies, working with the government, to now have that person in charge of cutting the government spending and government subsidies raises sort of conflict of interest questions.
BURNETT: Well, certainly, if this is somebody that you said is bending the knee to the true overlord, which is Xi Jinping, you know, and to your point, saying this in recent months, this isn't -- this isn't oh, this isn't oh, I've changed my view. I mean, it would be it would be hard to make such an argument and be and, you know kind of face to face.
So how is he responding to your reporting?
KACZYNSKI: So we reached out to him for comment. We, we I mean, you saw him there earlier praising him. We asked, sort of, how do you square what you said then with and even what you say now a year ago or year later?
And this is what he told us in a comment. He said: As much as I'd love to have one of the first acts of DOGE be deleting some of my past tweets alongside the agencies, we plan to delete, I said it long before Elon and I had ever met. I know him well. We've been in the trenches together these past couple of months.
I love him and respect the hell out of him and I'm proud to call him a friend. So now he says that he loves Elon Musk -- very different from what he said just a year ago.
BURNETT: Yes. All right. Well, thank you very much, Andrew Kaczynski of KFILE.
And next, an OUTFRONT exclusive, a top Russian official speaking to our Fred Pleitgen with a dire warning for Washington and for the incoming administration.
Plus, the Russian woman who snuck on a Delta flight from New York to Paris, complete stowaway, got through security, is now back in the United States, likely to face charges. What happened?
Well, guess what? CNN was on board that flight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:48:35]
BURNETT: Tonight, a top Russian official telling CNN exclusively that tensions with the United States are higher now than at any other point in history, and that includes the cold war and that Russia will hit Ukraine with an even stronger military response if the U.S. doesn't end, support, bluster or not.
Well, Fred Pleitgen is OUTFRONT in Moscow with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): As Russia makes some of its most rapid advances since the beginning of the full on war in Ukraine, Moscow warning the U.S. and its allies it will hit back hard if the West continues to step up support for Kyiv, Russia's deputy foreign minister tells me in an exclusive interview.
SERGEI RYABKOV, RUSSIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER: In NATO, there are a group of people, I would even call them cheerleaders, that stand there and clap and shout and just want big boys in the field to go into this game further and further. They will be defeated like the U.S. was defeated by Soviet Union in basketball in 1973.
Irrespective of how many billions of dollars will be burned in this conflict by the U.S., irrespective of what people at the European union believe they should do to support Kyiv, to assist U.S., we will prevail there, no doubt.
[19:50:01]
PLEITGEN: After the Biden administration allowed Ukraine to use longer distance, U.S. supplied missiles to strike deep inside Russia, the Russians responded, hitting central Ukraine with an experimental intermediate range ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
And Moscow continuing to showcase its nuclear power with navy drills featuring sea and ground, launched missiles designed to carry nukes. Do you think that right now, as far as escalation is concerned are we
in a more precarious place than, for instance, during the Cuban missile crisis?
RYABKOV: We have no comparison. We have no roadmaps. We have no routines. We have no culture of how to manage this type of situation and absence of common sense in many places, absence of sober analysis in different offices in the West is so alarming.
PLEITGEN: The Russians now waiting for the Trump administration to take office. Trump saying he wants to end the war in Ukraine, ASAP. At an event in Moscow, Vladimir Putin once again praising the president elect.
Mr. Trump is a person who does not need advice or recommendations, he says.
Do you think that the Trump administration will follow through on its pledge, or Donald Trump will follow through on his pledge to try and solve the crisis as fast as possible?
RYABKOV: Please make no mistake, not at the expense of what are the basic elements of our national position.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PLEITGEN (on camera): And, Erin, the deputy foreign minister, also telling me so far there have been no contacts between members of the Trump team and the Russians. He also had a warning for the Biden administration, saying that the Russians will, quote, respond if they are provoked -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Fred, thank you very much, in Moscow tonight with that exclusive interview.
And next, the Russian stowaway, the woman who flew from New York to Paris and just stowed away, got on the plane, is now back in the United States. So what is Delta saying about how she was able to get past security? Who is she?
CNN was on that plane, and we'll be back with that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:57:04]
BURNETT: Breaking news: the Russian stowaway who snuck onto a Delta flight from New York to Paris just landed on American soil back -- sent back, expected to be hit with federal charges, facing up to five years in prison.
CNN was on board the plane that brought her back. Our producer capturing the photos that you're seeing on your screen. What happened on that flight and what is next for this Russian stowaway? What is this all about?
Polo Sandoval is OUTFRONT from JFK Airport, where she just landed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Delta stowaway is back in the U.S., where it started, touching down Wednesday night at New York's JFK airport.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We saw police and all kinds of officials out waiting at the gate, which is something that you just never see.
SANDOVAL: Svetlana Dali, a U.S. permanent resident and Russian national, escorted by French security officials on the flight back from Paris, seated in the middle of the last row, she listened to country music and walked around the cabin during the eight hour flight.
CNN on the plane as it flew to New York without incident. It's a drastic change from the first attempt to return the 57-year old to the U.S. on Saturday.
SVETLANA DALI, U.S. PERMANENT RESIDENT: I don't want to go to United States.
SANDOVAL: When she caused this disturbance and was removed from the flight before takeoff. A second attempt to send her back on Tuesday ended when Delta refused to fly her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, that boarding pass is a completely different name.
SANDOVAL: TSA now confirms Dali bypassed ID checks without a boarding pass during the busy pre-Thanksgiving travel rush and using a lane reserved for flight crews, then slipping into the regular screening lanes. The agency says while they did not check her documents, Dali and her bags were screened. A senior law enforcement official tells CNN Dali blended in with a large family boarding the Paris flight to get past the gate agents and onto the plane. She then hid in the lavatories in flight until she was discovered.
Why? Dolly is trying to get to France remains a mystery. According to records, she lives in Philadelphia and petitioned for asylum in France years ago, but was denied. A long list of questions and possible criminal charges meeting her today at JFK as investigators want to know more about how she bypassed layers of security exposing vulnerabilities in one of the worlds busiest international airports.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: I mean, the whole thing, Polo, is incredibly disturbing and also just still so many questions about why and what the and how she planned it?
I mean, so she's back in the U.S. still so much outrage about this situation of sneaking past security in the first place. What is Delta saying tonight? SANDOVAL: Well, Erin, in their first statement since the initial stowaway incident, which happened about days ago, Delta finally issuing a statement tonight after that aircraft landed here at JFK.
And in it, Delta saying, quote, that it was a deviation from what they called standard procedures that allowed Dali onto that Paris bound flight last week. They stopped short of saying exactly what that deviation was, only saying that they are currently addressing the matter.
And finally, on the federal front, multiple law enforcement officials telling CNN that she will likely be specifically charged with being a stowaway on an aircraft without consent, a crime punishable with up to five years in prison if Dali is convicted -- Erin.
BURNETT: The whole situation is so bizarre.
All right. Polo, thank you very much, at JFK, where that flight just landed. Appreciate that.
And thanks so much to all of you for being with us. We appreciate you.
And "AC360" starts now.
