Return to Transcripts main page

Erin Burnett Outfront

House Vote To Avert Shutdown Fails, Elon Musk Blows Up Deal; Inside Mangione's Notebook; Wisconsin Shooter Not Plotting Alone. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired December 19, 2024 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[19:00:36]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:

Breaking news, chaos on Capitol Hill tonight. And Elon Musk is front and center as the U.S. hours away from a government shutdown.

And more breaking news, the death penalty could be on the table for the alleged CEO killer Luigi Mangione, as we're learning new details about a notebook that belonged to him. "The words the target is insurance" written inside.

And tonight, a California man now connected to the deadly Christian school shooting in Wisconsin. What was he allegedly plotting with the 15 year old female shooter?

Let's go OUTFRONT.

And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.

OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news, the U.S. closer to a government shutdown at this hour, a House vote moments ago failing. And it comes after Elon Musk blew up a deal that was headed for passage. The world's richest man right now holding the country hostage. It's all him calling the shots, it seems.

The government shutdown could be just over 24 hours away, and Capitol Hill is scrambling right now after Trump's self-proclaimed first buddy torpedoed the deal. That had been months in the making. Democrats and Republicans have finally agreed to a deal. They were ready to go and go home for the holiday. But then Elon came in, heard about it, and tweeted 92 times about the bill since 4:00 a.m. yesterday morning, 92 times, tweet after tweet before Trump ever mentioned the deal.

Now a person who is not elected and who has never been elected has just blown up a bipartisan bill to fund the entire U.S. government. Musk's newfound power is stunning some on Capitol Hill today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM MCGOVERN (D-MA): He's president, and Trump is now vice president. I think that's clear.

REP. ROSA DELAURO (D-CT): All of a sudden, we have an outside influence who believes I think he is president. And that's President Musk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Now. That's one -- one view. Another view is that some are branding him a hero, trying to officially give him the power that he hasn't been elected to have. Senator rand Paul tweets: The speaker of the House need not be a member of Congress. Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk.

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene ready to enter the scrum, responding to Paul, quote: I'd be open to supporting Elon Musk for speaker of the house.

Now, just to give you a sense of how fast this is all unraveling for the current speaker, Mike Johnson, who spent months working on a spending deal and getting it over the finish line just two days ago, Marjorie Taylor Greene said this about Johnson when she was asked if shed support him as speaker in the next Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): I'm not answering your ridiculous question. I've already said publicly that I'm supporting him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Well, times change, a day passes and guess what Elon Musk should be. Speaker says she.

Well, Musk does not have time to be speaker, much less president. He is spending, in fact, an inordinate amount of time on X or Twitter, as many refer to it. He currently sends dozens of tweets a day. He does not even have time to actually even be CEO, according to one Tesla investor, Ross Gerber, quote: Having your CEO not working at your company and working at the job of having to fire government employees. As a shareholder, I'm paying someone to not work for my company.

Now, look, of course, Musk is not actually firing government employees yet. He's just spending more than 20 hours a day tweeting about doing it and about various other things. "The New York Times" found one week in September that almost a third of Musk's 171 posts were false, misleading or missing vital context. And now, his tweets have caused a deal that took months of negotiating between Democrats and Republicans to implode.

And part of what's so bizarre about this last minute blowup is that both Musk and Trump spent the day with Speaker Johnson this past weekend at the Army-Navy game. I mean, they were all together. They were all hanging out.

None of this came up. No one had any. Oh, gosh. Hey, were going to just blow up the government next week.

No, they were all friends, lovey-dovey. They could have talked about it. But Musk waited until the final hours to come out with his tweet storm and blowing up the deal gets a lot of attention. Now, eventually, though, there will be a deal in some way, shape or

form. There will be a deal because the truth is, if Musk wanted to create a sound and fury that signifies something, he could focus on shutting down the waste, not the government.

Just imagine if he was tweeting nonstop and talking nonstop about Medicare and Medicaid fraud. The Department of Health and Human Services estimated a combined total of over $100 billion of just improper payments in those programs last year alone. What if Musk used A.I. and his technology prowess to end that?

[19:05:00]

Manu Raju is on Capitol Hill.

And Manu, you know, we are in this unbelievable moment, right, 36 hours ago, 48 hours ago, for sure. Nobody saw anything like this on the horizon. Yet here we are. What is the latest you're learning?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, there were Republicans who defied Donald Trump just moments ago on the House floor. As it is part of this, this 11th hour plan, Donald Trump making this these demands yesterday scuttling a bipartisan deal that led to the Republicans trying to put some other proposal across the finish line to make Donald Trump happy.

Essentially, he to his demands, changes to this proposal. This bill went down 174 voted for this plan, 235 voted against it. That included 38 Republicans who voted against it. Just two Democrats voted for it.

Now, one of the big changes that Donald Trump threw in late in this process was to include a suspension of the national debt limit. Remember, if the debt limit is breached, that would lead to the first ever debt default in American history. But that was going to be punted until sometime next year. They wouldn't have to deal with it until next year.

Donald Trump, however, changes his mind. He wanted to deal with it now so he wouldn't have to worry about it when he's president. But Republican, conservatives didn't like the plan, and speaker and the leader of the House Democrats also pushed back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Are you -- are you going to support this plan? Are you going to support this plan?

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: Musk, Johnson proposal is laughable.

RAJU: So you're not -- are you going to whip your members against it? Are you going to whip your members against it?

Well, policy is not like

REP. STEVEN HORSFORD (D-NV): So, the policy that President Musk is advancing is one that is about cutting Medicare and Social Security so that he can give tax breaks to billionaires.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And that last point refers to the fact that Democrats believe that by suspending the national debt limit as part of this plan, it would actually make it easier for Donald Trump next year to pass a lot of his agenda, including his sweeping tax cut plan that Donald Trump wants to move ahead with.

Democrats believe that giving away on the issue of the debt limit would take away their leverage at a key point next year to battle Donald Trump while they are in the minority. So where does this all leave everything, Erin? It's unclear. We are headed into a government shutdown by -- by midnight tomorrow night. If there is no agreement and there is no path to an agreement at the moment because of Donald Trump's demands that caused a rebellion on the right, and that caused Democrats to push back, leading to major questions about what's next. And if there is a shutdown, how long will it last?

BURNETT: All right, Manu, thank you very much on Capitol Hill tonight.

And let's go now to the Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. She is the chair of the Progressive Caucus.

And, Congresswoman, I really appreciate your time. Thank you. A moment no one expected to be in here 48 hours ago because there was a deal.

Now, now it's gone. So I guess the question for you at this moment, now you must come in. The thing blew up. The Republicans put out a bill. It failed. Here we are.

Are you open to negotiating again, or are you in a position where you're saying you're only going to accept the bill that had already been agreed to before Musk got involved?

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): Well, Erin, you did such a good job of describing the process that we went through. It's a four corners process, which means all the parties have to agree. That was the deal that got negotiated, that Mike Johnson, the speaker of the house, the Republican speaker of the House, negotiated.

Now, what happened here was laughable. This bill that they just put up, they are in the majority. The Republicans control the House. They are in the majority. And they couldn't even get the majority of votes for this bill that they put up. So this is a long process to go through these negotiations.

We already had a bill. We negotiated it. Mike Johnson agreed to it. And because, as you said, Elon Musk, a billionaire, tweeted about it. President Musk tweeted about it. These Republicans tried to go around their own caucus, all the work that's been done, and they are in charge of shutting down the government. Now, that is what's going to happen tomorrow night at midnight if we don't come to a deal.

So we don't have time. We got to go back to the negotiated deal. That is exactly what we've spent so much time negotiating. We didn't get everything we wanted. They didn't get everything they wanted.

And let me remind you, it is still Senate Democrats that have to agree to this as well. The White House, a Democratic White House, has to agree to it as well.

BURNETT: All right.

JAYAPAL: So let's just pass the bill that we already negotiated.

BURNETT: All right. Now the reality of it is, though, of course, I guess these things end up being a blame game. You had a deal and everybody knows that, right? There was a deal. And then Musk gets involved.

Now that we're in this new world, he's tweeted, if Dems reject this and the government shuts down, they deserve to lose big time in the midterms. Obviously, that's political gamesmanship. There's also money that he can put to bear behind that.

[19:10:01]

Are you concerned that Democrats could now get blamed for a shutdown if Republicans keep putting out a bill and it keeps failing? Does the blame go to you?

JAYAPAL: What I'm concerned about is that a billionaire who is not even elected is acting like a like a shadow president and doing the work that Republicans have to do here. They are in the majority.

And so, no, I'm not concerned that were going to get blamed. This is clearly on the Republicans. We had a negotiated deal. We could have all gone home tonight.

But you know, what is really the tragedy here is all the civilian employees that are not going to get paid tomorrow night, all the, you know, the FAA employees who are not going to be able to work. So families are going to have their flights delayed. All the small farmers who are desperately needing aid, all the cities that need disaster relief. These are all things that we negotiated.

Why did they blow it up? I think this is really important, and Manu referred to it. They blew it up because Donald Trump also inserted a suspension of the debt ceiling. Remember that the Republicans under Donald Trump with the Trump tax scam 1.0, increase the deficit by $2.3 trillion, and now they want to be able to do that again with the vast majority of the benefits going to the wealthiest. That's why they're pushing for this debt -- debt ceiling suspension.

So every piece of this is wrong from the negotiation and walking away from the negotiated deal to taking out a bunch of things that were part of that deal to adding an absolutely unacceptable thing into the deal.

BURNETT: So when it -- when it comes to Musk, Republican Senator Rand Paul, I mentioned him a moment ago, but, you know, he put out there that the speaker of the house need not be a member of the House, right, when he's referring. Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk.

And, obviously, he's technically right. The House speaker doesn't need to be a member of Congress. If that's where we get then, then obviously there'll be a lot more conversations to be had.

I guess we just take a step back. I guess the bigger picture question, though, when you look at what happened here, right, because he had been tweeting Elon Musk had for 14 hours before Trump weighed in, he tweeted more than 70 times about this. It had blown up all before Trump weighed in.

Are you shocked by the speed with which Musk has taken control of the Republican Party?

JAYAPAL: Yeah, I'm shocked by the speed with which Donald Trump has ceded control to Elon Musk. I mean, this is a real crisis in my mind for Donald Trump, who's the president right now, who's going to be the president or who's the president-elect, I should say, and who's going to be the president come -- come the New Year.

I don't know who we negotiate with. Are we now negotiating with Elon Musk? Is Mike Johnson not the speaker anymore?

I mean, this is abdicating all of the responsibilities of elected officials, whether it's the Republican speaker or the Republican president to be and giving it to an unelected guy. So I am shocked at the speed with which Donald Trump seems to have conceded his power to Elon Musk. And I think that at the end of the day, once again, let's remember that if we do not pass this negotiated bill, that leader Jeffries negotiated with all the four corners, then it is the American people who are going to suffer.

Why? Because a billionaire who doesn't have to worry about where his rent comes from doesn't have to worry about, you know, being able to pay the rent or being able to afford his drugs. He is the one calling the shots and really hurting everyday Americans, working class Americans across this country who depend on the federal government to provide these different programs.

BURNETT: All right. Congresswoman Jayapal, I very much appreciate your time. Thank you.

JAYAPAL: Thank you, Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Everyone is here with me now.

Scott Jennings, you hear the congresswoman, you know, she's putting the blame for this squarely on Elon Musk first and foremost and Trump after that. And that would be the -- that would be the timeline of how this played out. What do you say to her?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, she let the mask slip right at the end. She said, who's the president right now? I mean, who's the president-elect?

But she asked the right question first, who is the president right now? Joe Biden, who we rarely hear from in "The Wall Street Journal" reported today, has been diminished for the last four years, and we've had unelected people running around running the federal government, apparently.

So if that is what they're worried about, if they're worried about people who aren't Donald Trump, you know, running the government or having influence, I wonder where they've been the last four years.

Now, this doesn't excuse anybody's behavior on Capitol Hill tonight, but I think its pretty rich for Democrats to be worried about people who aren't Donald Trump having influence when the current president, a Democrat, is AWOL and apparently not able to execute the duties of the office.

BURNETT: Well, he's -- we don't -- I don't know the level he's been involved in this. I did say he's going to visit the pope. We haven't heard anything about him being involved in this -- this crisis, David Axelrod, that we're now facing here as congresswoman said, they were supposed to be going home tonight.

There was a deal. And it is just if you look at the timeline of it, factually, Elon Musk, who ended that.

[19:15:02]

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, look what I -- if I were Scott, I'd want to deflect a little bit too here because what happened was the White House, the Senate, the Democratic Senate, the Republican house came to an agreement.

That agreement was on the doorstep of being approved. And then Musk went on his tweet fest, and then Trump piled on and added the debt ceiling component to it. You know, leaving aside questions about Biden and the story and the journal and everything else, he -- the White House did what they did. They negotiated. Everybody agreed to a deal. All the Democrats were on board, 38 Republicans weren't on board today with what the Republicans wanted to pass.

BURNETT: Yeah.

AXELROD: So, you know, I mean, that's the reality of the situation.

As to Elon Musk, he's going to learn very quickly. The House is very closely divided. Now for all this talk of a landslide, Trump got less than a majority. He did win the Electoral College. You won those battleground states, some by a close margin.

But the house is going to be closer, more closely divided in January than it is today. And what that means is you have to compromise. This is not the Tesla board, okay? This is a democracy in which there are people representing different parts of the country, and its very closely divided.

BURNETT: And -- well, and that's an important point, as you say, it will be more so at the end of January than it is now. Lulu, I'm curious when you think about what happened though here for

Musk, what Musk has just learned is that he could go out on Twitter and blow up a deal that had gone through the entire normal processes and procedures of the U.S. House. So does that just mean were going to see a lot more of this?

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, let's see how long Donald Trump is willing to have his government upended by Elon Musk and his social media machine. I mean, Elon Musk bought Twitter, turned it into X to have this vast megaphone. Now he has the ear and is, you know, basically, co-leader with Donald Trump. And what we're seeing is just chaos.

I mean, this looks like a clown show. I mean, this is just how many times can we get to a place where it's almost Christmas and, you know, the Grinch comes out of out of its hole and all of a sudden says, no, were not going to fund this government anymore. I mean, this is the United States of America. What do you think? Everyone is looking at this and thinking about? I mean, it's insanity. It's insanity.

BURNETT: Scott. I mean, it is insanity and sort of a basic thing, which is even months ago, you know, when Nikki Haley was saying chaos follows Trump wherever he goes, she wasn't talking about Elon Musk. And what were seeing. I mean, this is sort of -- this is an incredible situation that we're seeing.

You can't -- you can't get a photo of Trump without Musk being in it. And I'm not saying that to mock. I'm just saying it's an incredible turn of affairs.

JENNINGS: Yeah, he's very influential. I actually talked to a member of Congress today about this whole situation, and he said that when Musk sent out his tweet, the first tweet about this whole deal --

BURNETT: Like he's never seen so much pork in his life.

JENNINGS: Instantly, instantly the phone started ringing and the congressional office and people from the district started calling. And so that's real. That's real power that, you know, the power to communicate and then have it instantly translate into, in that case, grassroots action.

So you can see why members of Congress are, you know, running around freaking out a little bit about -- about what's happening. I think likely what's going to happen tonight, hopefully, you get 38 Republican no votes here. You get Donald Trump on the phone. You try to begin to work inside the party to pull those people back.

It's easier to win the debate over blame if your party is unified. The way to unify the party has always been to get Trump involved in it more.

BURNETT: The Democrats only lost two. I mean two Democrats. The Republicans lost 38.

JENNINGS: And what? And I will just tell you this. My sense is what Republican voters want is for Republican elected officials to be unified and mostly unified around Trump. So my hope is that's what the leadership is going to do, try to get him to engage with the 38, unify the Republican Party, and then you can kind of operate from there.

BURNETT: Do they -- does this alliance, Lulu, last, the Musk-Trump alliance?

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: No, I think there can be only one. And I think eventually the one will be Donald Trump, as we've seen. But I also will say, you know, you brought up President Biden and his absence, Scott. And I think that that's clear. I mean, he has been AWOL. We don't know where he is, but this isn't his mess to clean up. So that's the first thing.

But the second thing is that Donald Trump is also a man who's almost 80 years old. He's going to be the oldest sitting president. And so the concern is going forward is how much influence does a unelected Elon Musk exert over someone who is elderly and has been also in decline?

So, you know, these are questions going forward that I think are going to be of great concern.

BURNETT: All right. So, David, can I just say, you've had an incredible day.

[19:20:03]

You had a grandchild this morning. You know, here you are talking about Elon Musk. But you also have an incredibly bittersweet milestone that you're marking today because you're ending "Axe Files" podcast. It has been a remarkable run, 605 episodes. I remember talking to you and you just have this true gift in that format.

Your final guest is the outgoing ambassador to Japan, although that's not what we all sort of know him for, but that's what he is. Rahm Emanuel, prominent Democrat. He is pondering what to do next, and you had some very pointed questions.

And here's part of what he said.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

RAHM EMANUEL, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO JAPAN: We have a schism between what e think we are and how we talk and what we advocate. And the party and unfortunately, highly educated, or as I like to say, highly educated, highly caffeinated and undersexed college educated people have shut out everybody else's voices. They need to sit and listen a little.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BURNETT: Those are the kinds of conversations that made those 605 episodes so great. But, you know, when you take a step back and this final one talking about the future of the party that, you know, you called home, that you were among those who led, do you think he's right? AXELROD: Yeah, I think there's a lot to that. I think the Democratic party has become too much of a cosmopolitan, college educated party. It still advocates for working people, but it doesn't really communicate with them very well. It doesn't project the kind of respect and humility that it should at times.

You know, you mentioned my podcast. One of the reasons I love doing the podcast was that there were conversations in which we actually listened to each other. I had plenty of people on the podcast, including Scott Jennings, just recently, with whom I don't agree on a lot of things, but it's a lot different when you sit down and talk to people about who they are, where they came from, what motivates their thinking and their thinking itself than to turn each other into caricatures on social media.

And what we need is more humility. We need more of the ability to listen to each other, to treat each other respectfully. I think that's what the Democratic Party needs. That's what our country needs. And so that was always my goal with this podcast to promote that ethic.

BURNETT: Well, you have done so and you do so in your conversation. I hear it from people all the time. So we're glad you will continue here with us. Of course, even though it is a bittersweet moment for the podcast.

Thank you all so very much.

AXELROD: Thanks so much, Erin.

BURNETT: And next inside Luigi Mangione's notebook. Mangione allegedly writing that the target is insurance because it, quote, checks every box. This comes as he makes his first New York court appearance and really an unprecedented moment in America's biggest city.

And Putin threatening to launch his new nuclear capable missile to Kyiv. President Zelenskyy calling him a dumb ass tonight.

Plus, Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis disqualified from prosecuting Trump. Is her case against him dead?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:27:29]

BURNETT: Breaking news, alleged killer Luigi Mangione is in New York city, surrounded by dozens of heavily armed officers. He arrived. Their guns were drawn, no bulletproof vest on Mangione.

It was an incredible scene in New York, which is you know, used to high profile, people being charged. I mean, this -- this was unprecedented. Mangione's fans showed up in force lining up outside the courthouse. There were signs reading free Luigi chants. I mean, there was even a supporter with the Luigi hat.

Mangione tonight, facing federal charges as well, which make him eligible for the death penalty. Those federal charges include two counts on stalking, murder through use of a firearm and a firearms offense, and that is on top of the 11 state charges against him in New York.

Now, Kara Scannell was inside that courtroom today with Mangione, and she is OUTFRONT tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tonight, accused killer Luigi Mangione back in New York and behind bars.

New video showing him handcuffed and in an orange jumpsuit, stepping off a helicopter and being escorted toward a transport van by scores of armed officers.

Mangione is now also facing federal charges in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel.

REPORTER: Karen, do you have any comment on these charges today?

KAREN AGNIFILO, ATTORNEY: Not at this time. Thank you so much.

SCANNELL: Mangione's high profile defense team not saying much about the new charges before and after their client's first appearance in federal court.

Inside, Mangione traded the jumpsuit for street clothes as he entered the courtroom, flanked by marshals with his ankles shackled. His federal charges are a firearms offense, two stalking charges and murder through the use of a firearm, which carries a potential maximum sentence of the death penalty or life in prison.

Mangione did not enter a plea, and his defense team did not seek bail. The new federal criminal complaint also revealing new details about the notebook found on Mangione during his arrest at an Altoona, Pennsylvania, McDonald's.

According to the complaint, the notebook contains several handwritten pages that expressed hostility toward the health insurance industry. And one entry dated October 22nd, 2024, less than two months before the murder of Thompson, describes an intent to quote whack one of the CEOs at an insurance industry conference.

The federal charges are added to the long list of state charges he's already facing.

ALVIN BRAGG, NEW YORK DISTRICT ATTORNEY: We charged him here in Manhattan earlier this week with murder in the first degree, among additional charges, which carry the maximum sentence of life without parole.

[19:30:02]

We've had state prosecutions and federal prosecutions proceed as parallel matters, and we're in conversations with our law enforcement counterparts.

SCANNELL: Mangione began his day in a Pennsylvania courtroom where he had two back to back hearings, first on the firearm and forgery charges brought against him in Pennsylvania. Second, to waive his extradition to New York.

PETE WEEKS, BLAIR COUNTY, PA DISTRICT ATTORNEY: He committed crimes in Blair County. There are allegations at this point, but we're not in the practice of just dismissing charges simply because someone has more serious charges somewhere else.

SCANNELL: Mangione won't face the charges in Pennsylvania until after he is tried in New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCANNELL (on camera): Now, his attorneys saying that Mangione appreciates the public support. She also called the federal charges a pile on and inside courts that was highly unusual in her 30 years as an attorney. She did not see federal and state charges appearing to conflict.

Now, tonight, federal prosecutors saying that they currently expect the case, the state case, to move forward first. But, Erin, it is really unclear when Mangione will appear in federal court, in state court to be arraigned on those 11 felony counts -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Kara, thank you so much.

All that reporting, as I said, Kara was in the courtroom today.

Let's go now to criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Mark O'Mara.

So, Mark, I got to ask you about these new federal charges because they seem significant. You got two counts of stalking, murder, the use of a firearm and a firearms offense. But again, murder through the use of a firearm. That's on top of 11 state charges in New York. But the federal charges put the death penalty on the table.

Do you think that's what this is about?

MARK O'MARA, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I do think it's about making sure that they have every shot at him that they can. I sort of look at this almost like a double barreled shotgun. The states going to have their shot at him. Their events that they've already charged him like 11. And then the federal government has them as well.

What's interesting is going to be the timing, because generally speaking, the federal system works much faster. But I see the feds deferring to the state system to let them have sort of the first trial at him.

I heard the defense team say it's a little bit of adding on. I think its just making sure that they have the insurance that the argument of terrorism raises the sort of standard for everybody. BURNETT: So -- all right, so you've got this situation where he'll be

judged by a jury, right, a jury of Americans. And yet he shows up in New York and this unprecedented moment, Mark. I mean, this is not how federal suspects are normally processed in New York, which is used to profile -- you know, processing very high profile people, right? I mean, this was, you know, he's coming with this phalanx of officers, guns drawn, and then there's people, you know, with hats and yelling support for him.

I mean, it was it was really an incredible moment. Does this spectacle help or hurt him?

O'MARA: So strangely, I think the federal government and the state system should go low key. They've got them. They've got good forensic evidence.

It seems the idea of making him a celebrity, which is what part of this is doing, I think is counterproductive to a proper verdict, whatever they get. And the other side of that same coin is there are those people out there who like him for whatever reason, and they are now sort of ginning up that for support for him.

And don't forget, those people -- some of them may well be on his jury. So I think they should tamp this down rather than making the spectacle that they made of it today.

BURNETT: And it certainly was that.

So the other thing we learned today, Mark, was about the notebook that they said was in his possession. And we're finding more about what's in it. So today we learned that there were several handwritten pages in there that expressed hostility towards the health insurance industry and wealthy executives in particular. That's what they're telling us today.

They specifically said that the investor conference that he wrote about it as the perfect place to, quote, whack a top insurance executive. And the notebook entry, according again to officials, also stated that the target is insurance because it checks every box.

I mean, that's right there in black and white in his notebook. I mean, how significant is that? I mean, does that make this in a sense something that -- I mean, are you at an open and shut? This should move very quickly sort of a situation or not?

O'MARA: Well, I mean, forensically, they've got an extraordinary amount of evidence now they have his very own words saying the premeditation. So this is not going to be a case of facts, I don't think, an application of the law pretty straightforward.

And, Erin, I mentioned to you the other day, I think this is a mental health mitigation defense where you try and explain away his behavior, whatever his mental health conditions may be, because he's got to get away from this argument of terrorism, this intent to instill terror in the populace. I think that's sort of an overcharge in and of itself. But they are creating that the more they make him the celebrity that they're making him.

BURNETT: All right. Well, Mark, thank you very much as always. Good to see you.

O'MARA: Great to see you.

[19:35:01]

BURNETT: And next, Putin making a desperate pitch to Trump as he's spinning his gains in the face of broader, massive loss.

And Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis fighting back tonight after being disqualified from prosecuting Trump. Is it enough to save her case or is it a goner?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Tonight, Putin breaking his silence, calling the assassination of his top nuclear general a terrorist attack. This during his 4-1/2-hour annual press conference, which was a tightly controlled event, an event where Putin blatantly lied, saying Russia did not have ground troops in Syria, that they, quote, simply were not there.

Of course, Russia has two military bases in Syria, and we can see them now.

[19:40:04]

You see them troops leaving the country in mass. But he was not called out on that because, unlike last year, there were no public questions or anything allowed to slip through to avoid the embarrassment of a moment like this one where Putin was on stage last year, while a viewer comment flashed on the screen behind him saying don't run for another term as president.

Matthew Chance is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Vladimir Putin's audience virtually standing to attention as he swaggered into the auditorium. But the Kremlin's strongman is under intense pressure on his devastating war in Ukraine, for instance, and he's keen to promote Russia's recent territorial gains.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: The situation is changing dramatically, as you well know. Movement is taking place along the entire front line, every day.

CHANCE: But every day, the cost of the war in blood and treasure is also rocketing, with an incoming President Trump calling for a rapid end to the conflict. The Russian leader said he was open to compromise on Ukraine and ready at any time for a Trump meeting.

PUTIN: First of all, I don't know when we will meet because he doesn't say anything about it. I haven't spoken to him at all for over 4 years.

CHANCE: But it would be, Putin added, from a position of Russian strength.

PUTIN: I believe Russia has become much stronger over the past 2 or 3 years. Why? Because we are becoming a truly sovereign country. We are no longer dependent on anyone.

CHANCE: But that strength seems to have disappeared recently in Syria, where key Kremlin ally Bashar al Assad was overthrown. It was a geopolitical blow for an overstretched Russia, which maintained critical bases in Syria.

And now, Putin, who admits he hasn't even spoken to Assad since he escaped to Moscow earlier this month. He's forced to negotiate, if not plead, with the Syrian rebels. He once ruthlessly bombed.

PUTIN: The overwhelming majority (of the groups) tell us that they would be interested in us keeping our military bases in Syria. I don't know, we have to think about it.

CHANCE: This annual Putin extravaganza, highly choreographed and tightly controlled, is designed to trumpet achievements. But it is getting hard for the Kremlin amid a spate of setbacks to claim everything is going Russia's way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE (on camera): Well, Erin, Putin was also asked whether he would help find missing American journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared in Syria 12 years ago. Putin promised he would ask those in control of Syria, but cast doubts on hopes that former President Assad, now in Moscow, of course, would know about his whereabouts.

Back to you, Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Matthew Chance.

And next, Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis tonight disqualified from prosecuting Trump. The special counsel has dropped his two cases against Trump. So what's left?

And the 15 year old female shooter at a Wisconsin Christian school didn't plot alone. Officials tonight saying she communicated with a 20-year-old man who was planning his own attack using explosives and a gun.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:48:00]

BURNETT: Tonight, Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis fighting back after an appeals court disqualified her from prosecuting Trump. Willis asking Georgia's Supreme Court to keep her on the case. And this status comes after Trump and his alleged coconspirators argued that Willis financially benefited from the case. And they have been pointing, of course, to her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade and vacations that they took together after she hired him.

Trump celebrating this long awaited decision tonight. This is 16 months after he took this mug shot at that infamous Atlanta jail tonight, telling Fox News, quote, the case is entirely dead. Everybody should receive an apology, including those wonderful patriots who have been caught up in this for years.

The reality of the big picture here is that now, all four criminal cases brought against Trump are either wiped out or in dire peril.

OUTFRONT now, Ryan Goodman, OUTFRONT legal analyst, co-editor in chief of "Just Security".

So, Ryan, I guess lets just start here with the Willis case specifically. Appeals court votes to remove her from the case, saying to, quote, address the appearance of impropriety and restore public confidence. That's the reason the appeals court is giving.

She, of course, is saying she's going to appeal it. Does she have a chance?

RYAN GOODMAN, JUST SECURITY CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: She has a chance. I think she has an uphill battle. So I would prefer -- from a pure legal standpoint, I prefer to be in Donald Trumps shoes rather than hers, because you have a 2 to 1 decision by this court, and then the next court is even more conservative.

So there's every likelihood that they'll just uphold this decision and say the significant appearance of impropriety is enough to completely disqualify her. Let's just start with a new clean slate.

BURNETT: All right. So uphill battle at the least. It sounds like what you're saying. So if she doesn't get the Supreme Court in Georgia to put her back on the case, and odds are she won't is the case done?

GOODMAN: So it's not done in a way. In one way, its just done like it's over. He's going to be president and in all likelihood, she cannot prosecute him. And nobody in her place can prosecute him. For the next four years, he will be found to be immune, as a sitting president from any ongoing criminal prosecution.

[19:50:01]

The Supreme Court --

BURNETT: Even on state level.

GOODMAN: Even more at a state level, because the idea is that a sitting president shouldn't be subject to federal prosecution. And it's even more so for state and local. You wouldn't allow state and local prosecutors to go after a sitting president.

The Supreme Court hasn't decided that issue before, but that's probably where it would come out. And then in any case, if this goes to a substitute prosecutor, they may decide the situation differently that even to let the entire case go. And there are other hurdles, like the U.S. Supreme Court decision that just got decided. That said, there's immunity for past president's acts.

And a large part of the case is about his acts while he was president and before January 6th.

BURNETT: All right. So it is almost certain that it is gone, but not totally. It sounds like is the takeaway, but I mean, that's where we get back to the big picture here. Jack Smith dropped the DOJ January 6th case. He dropped the Mar-a-Lago documents case, which by all accounts was a very black and white open and shut clear case. In New York, the sentencing in the Stormy Daniels hush money case has been postponed indefinitely.

I mean, has the legal cloud over Trump, which appeared to be insurmountable at some moments now, just completely cleared blue skies?

GOODMAN: Not completely cleared, but the biggest obstacles in his way have been cleared. So I think -- and it's remarkable, it's hard to think of anybody else who would overcome those odds. That said, there is still the New York case, so he does still have the standing conviction against him. But it's not the most perilous case.

BURNETT: Right, I mean, a convicted federal felon. He's a convicted felon.

GOODMAN: That's right.

BURNETT: Yeah.

GOODMAN: And then you do have the kind of sleeper case, which is that there's a civil case that has been brought against him for the January 6th attack on the Capitol itself, including by plaintiffs who are Capitol police officers. It's just civil. It's not criminal. But I do think that one marches on, and there is a standing Supreme Court opinion, a unanimous opinion that a sitting president can be subject to civil litigation.

But that's important because its about the authoritative account of what the record is. What happened on January 6th. So to some extent, that puts him in some kind of jeopardy as well as potential damage awards. But it's nothing like a criminal case.

BURNETT: No, I mean, its the sort of case that, frankly, in the context of everything else, really almost never got even discussed.

GOODMAN: That's right.

BURNETT: You had all these major cases, and yet now that may be the one.

GOODMAN: Yeah, many people have forgotten about it. Yeah.

BURNETT: Yeah. All right. Ryan Goodman, thank you very much.

And next, new details on the 15-year-old girl who killed two people at a Wisconsin Christian school. And why the FBI now says it is zeroing in on the person you see on your screen. That is a 20-year-old man in California.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:57:06]

BURNETT: Tonight, the 15-year-old girl responsible for a mass shooting at a Wisconsin Christian school wasn't plotting alone. That is according to a court document that we now have. Police in California say that she had actually been exchanging messages with the kid you see on your screen. A 20-year-old Carlsbad man who was planning his own attack.

And Josh Campbell is OUTFRONT tonight in Carlsbad, California.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The FBI is now investigating a man with possible links to 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, who authorities say was planning a coordinated attack on a government building in California.

Natalie, who went by the name Samantha, died by suicide after the mass shooting Monday at the Abundant Life Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin.

According to an emergency protective order used to seize guns. Twenty- year-old Alexander Paffendorf of Carlsbad, California, allegedly discussed plotting a mass shooting with the Madison shooter. CNN has tried to reach out to Paffendorf or an attorney representing him without success.

But the gun violence emergency order obtained by CNN states that Paffendorf admitted to the FBI that he told Rupnow that he would arm himself with explosives and a gun, and that he would target a government building. The document also states that FBI agents saw the messages between the two.

Meanwhile, investigators say they will continue to dig through Rupnow's communications.

CHIEF SHON BARNES, MADISON, WISCONSIN POLICE DEPARTMENT: We're also be looking through her effects if she had a computer, cell phones. And that will give us an idea of what type of planning.

CAMPBELL: Local law enforcement in Carlsbad requested a restraining order against Paffendorf using a California red flag law that facilitates gun and ammunition seizures to search for weapons at his home.

Authorities searched Paffendorf's home Tuesday night. His neighbor says he witnessed law enforcement entering the apartment and bringing items out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're carrying out a big black box it looked like a gun case of some sort. They had their full guns out all over the street. There's cop cars. There's about 15 cops here, I'd say.

CAMPBELL: Rupnow seen in this photo at a shooting range in Wisconsin was found dead at the school after the shooting Monday with two guns. And investigators are still searching to find out how she got access to both weapons found at the scene.

BARNES: I do not believe that 15 year olds should have access to weapons that they can bring to school, and potentially hurt someone.

CAMPBELL: Using a handgun, Rupnow killed a 14 year old student, Rubi Vergara, who her family described as an avid reader and member of the family band. And 42-year-old teacher Erin West, who enjoyed family camping trips and spending time with her daughters and her husband.

The female shooter also opened fire on five other students and one teacher. Two students remain hospitalized with life threatening injuries.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMPBELL: And, Erin, tonight, federal and state officials are trying to quell any concerns about public safety. Both the FBI and Carlsbad police behind me issuing a statement saying they know of no ongoing threat associated with this incident. Of course, the big question now, what happens to this 20-year-old man? Those discussions that authorities wrote about in that restraining order warrant appear to be very serious. The big question, will they rise to the level of criminal prosecution? Erin?

BURNETT: All right. Josh, thank you very much, in Carlsbad tonight.

And thanks so much, as always to all of you for being with us. We'll see you back here tomorrow.

"AC360" starts right now.