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CNN Obtains Draft U.S. Peace Plan For Ukraine; White House Denies Trump Wants Members Of Congress Executed; Judge Rules Trump's Deployment Of National Guard In D.C. Illegal; Qatar: "Brutal" Israeli Strikes Threaten Fragile Truce With Hamas. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired November 21, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:23]

BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to our viewers joining us from the United States and all around the world. I'm Brian Abel. Thank you so much for being with us.

It is Friday, November 21st, 5:00 a.m. here in Washington, D.C.

And straight ahead on EARLY START.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: CNN has learned the details of a draft U.S. peace proposal for Ukraine.

OLEKSANDR MEREZKHO, CHAIR, FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE IN UKRAINE'S PARLIAMENT: This is a typical case of the appeasement of the aggressor.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The White House is doubling down after President Trump essentially said Democratic lawmakers should be arrested or tried for a video they put out.

REP. CHRIS DELUZIO (D-PA): It's a dark day for the country. And the president called for our death.

REPORTER: Does the president want to execute members of Congress?

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: No.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESONDENT: The president and mayor-elect are touching gloves ahead of this meeting.

MAYOR-ELECT ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK: I have many disagreements with the president.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We want to see everything work out well for New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC) ABEL: We can now tell you the details of a draft U.S. peace proposal for Ukraine, which the White House has so far kept under wraps. CNN has obtained the 28-point draft, which calls for major territorial concessions by Kyiv. They include the recognition of the Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions as de facto Russian. The current front lines in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions would be frozen. Ukraine would also have to stay out of NATO and limit its military to 600,000 troops. It would be required to hold new elections within 100 days, and in return it would receive security guarantees.

That's happening as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marks Ukraine's day of dignity and freedom this morning, he said he's ready to work on the U.S. proposal. Even though Kyiv had rejected similar ideas in the past.

Let's bring in CNN senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman, following developments live from Rome.

And, Ben, European leaders have said they expect any peace plan to have input and buy in from them, much less Ukraine. None of that, to the best of our knowledge, has happened with this U.S. drafted plan.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, none of that has happened. And the reaction so far of European diplomats has been quite negative to what appears to be a Russian peace plan for Ukraine, even though it seems to be coming via the United States. One European envoy who spoke to CNN requesting anonymity, said this has been all -- this has been all gone through before and rejected, and now we're back to square one.

It would be political suicide for any Ukrainian leader to accept it. And certainly, the idea that essentially that Ukraine would be giving up the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, in addition to freezing the lines in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, leaving the Ukrainian army to 600,000 elections with 100 days and essentially amnesty for everybody would be exactly what the Russians would wanted.

And the only thing the Ukrainians seem to be getting out of it is some sort of vague security guarantees, which isn't -- which is at best thin gruel for a country that has fought so hard and lost so much in this war that initially, of course, the United States was very supportive of. But now is at best lukewarm in terms of its support for Ukraine.

Now we can expect, on the other hand, that publicly, officials in Ukraine, as well as European officials are going to try to be as positive as possible. At this point, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States saying its a positive first step, but I think this is largely the result of the fact that this is a very touchy, very sensitive U.S. president who, on his whims will be so angry he might punish Ukraine as a result of any negative feedback to this plan.

But I would say that this 28-point plan that CNN has obtained, the details of is little more than a Russian plan demanding the surrender of Ukraine -- Brian. ABEL: Ben, as you highlight, it seems we've been here before with so

many points of this plan. So, we've heard that first step, that good first step before as well. We will see what happens this time around.

[05:05:03]

Ben Wedeman in Rome for us -- Ben, thank you.

President Trump is facing major backlash after accusing some Democrats of, quote, seditious behavior punishable by death. He's attacking a group of Democratic lawmakers for releasing a video urging military members to defy illegal orders.

CNN's Kristen Holmes has more from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The White House is doubling down after president Trump essentially said that six Democratic lawmakers should be arrested or tried for a video they put out targeting U.S. military.

Now, in this video, they essentially ask or tell U.S. military and the intel community that they don't have to follow orders if they are illegal. This is specific to this video. They say over and over again, if these orders are illegal or at one point they say if they break the law, they are making it very clear its about specific orders, although we aren't sure what exactly prompted this video, it's done by these six Democratic lawmakers, all of whom have some sort of military or intelligence background.

The press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, gave a briefing where she answered questions about this. And again, essentially doubled down on what President Trump said.

Here's what she said.

REPORTER: Just to be clear, does the president want to execute members of Congress?

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: No. Let's be clear about what the president is responding to. You have sitting members of the United States congress who conspired together to orchestrate a video message to members of the United States military to active duty service members, to members of the national security apparatus, encouraging them to defy the president's lawful orders.

HOLMES: Now, I will also note that one of the posts that President Trump made out of roughly 16 posts on social media was this seditious behavior punishable by death. And when Leavitt was asked, does President Trump believe that these Democratic lawmakers should be executed? She said, no, but any other questions about this topic were deflected to essentially place blame on the Democrats, saying that Democrats were telling U.S. military to defy the commander in chief, to work around the chain of command. So, it certainly seems as though this is now a White House position.

But I will say we heard from a number of Republicans, high ranking Republicans, who said President Trump went too far, who tried to distance themselves from those remarks. But again, that being said, the White House doesn't seem to be wanting to pull this back anytime soon.

Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: And speaking of other lawmakers, House Speaker Mike Johnson is distancing himself from the president's comments. But he also called the Democrats, quote, wildly inappropriate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The words that the president chose are not the ones that I would use. Okay? Obviously, I don't think that this is -- these are crimes punishable by death or any of that. Okay. But what the point that is that we need to emphasize here is that members of Congress, in the Senate and the House should not be telling troops to disobey orders. It is dangerous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The six Democratic lawmakers. In the video, specifically spoke about illegal orders. In fact, members of the military are required to refuse unlawful orders. These lawmakers have served in the military and intelligence communities. They are vowing they will not be intimidated and urge people to condemn President Trump's threats.

(BERGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DELUZIO: It's a dark day for the country -- I mean, the president called for our death and arrest every elected official, no matter their party, should be condemning and condemning clearly what the president has called for here, violence against me and others. I haven't heard much from my Republican counterparts who were quick to criticize and demand that Democrats condemn political violence.

When Charlie Kirk was killed, as I condemned it, when Donald Trump was targeted for assassination in Pennsylvania, as I condemned it, and others. That's what moral clarity and leadership requires. You condemn political violence, no exceptions.

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): He has talked about sending troops into more U.S. cities. He's talked about invoking the Insurrection Act. You don't have to go too far back to his first administration or in 2020, he went to his secretary of defense, and he asked the question. He said, can't we just shoot these protesters in the legs?

That is an example of an illegal order, if it was given. He didn't give the order, but its obviously rattling around in his head. He's got these ideas and these are dangerous ideas. What he said today again was a dangerous idea. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: A federal judge has ruled President Trump's deployment of the National Guard to the nation's capital is illegal. The district judge says the Trump administration exceeded the bounds of their authority in sending the troops to Washington and acted contrary to law when they deployed the D.C. national guard for nonmilitary crime deterrence missions in the absence of a request from the city's civil authorities.

[05:10:07]

Washington's attorney general sued the Trump administration in early September over the deployment.

The White House, responding to Thursdays ruling, saying, quote, "President Trump is well within his lawful authority to deploy the National Guard in Washington, D.C., to protect federal assets and assist law enforcement." The judge delayed an order that would require the troops to leave and gave the Trump administration 21 days to file an appeal.

The days-long immigration crackdown that started in Charlotte, North Carolina, last week appears to have ended with the same confusion as when it began. The Mecklenburg County sheriff said Thursday the operation was over, but moments later, a top Department of Homeland Security official rejected that claim.

Adding to the confusion, top border patrol official Gregory Bovino left Charlotte on Thursday. He and hundreds of his agents are expected to launch an operation in New Orleans after the Thanksgiving holiday as early as December 1st, the Trump administration says the Charlotte operation resulted in more than 370 arrests. At the same time, fearful residents closed businesses and kept their children out of school.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LETICIA OLMEDO, RESTAURANT OWNER: It's kind of hard to recover from this. It's not going to just -- they leave because I think we're going to still have the feeling everything can happen and everything we know. Even me, I don't feel like safe because they can come any time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: Six weeks into the Gaza ceasefire, Palestinians find themselves burying more loved ones after Israel attacked what it said were Hamas targets in Gaza. Now some worry whether the fragile truce can hold. That's ahead.

And fiery violence in the West Bank as settlers carry out a new attack. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is saying about the growing unrest.

Plus, a group of freed hostages visit the White House and push for the release of the deceased hostages still in Gaza. Their message next on CNN. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:16:33]

ABEL: A new wave of arson attacks is hitting the occupied West Bank. Israeli settlers setting fire to a vehicle scrapyard in the northern town of Huwara. The scrapyards owner says more than a dozen settlers descended on the site, smashing cars and starting fires that damaged or destroyed some 150 cars. You see some of that damage here. The attacks came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was holding a security meeting focused on settler violence. It has surged over the past few months.

On Monday, in a rare condemnation of settler violence, Mr. Netanyahu blamed the attacks on a small extremist group.

Meanwhile, one of the countries that helped mediate the Gaza ceasefire is condemning the new Israeli airstrikes. Qatar says the IDF's brutal attacks are threatening to destroy the tenuous truce. The Palestinian health ministry says the latest strikes killed at least 32 people in Gaza.

Israel says it attacked Hamas targets after IDF soldiers came under fire. Hamas rejected the IDF account and is urging the U.S. to pressure Israel to respect the ceasefire agreement.

Some Palestinians in Gaza say they wonder what happened with the long- awaited truce.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They say there's a ceasefire. Where is this ceasefire they're talking about? Where are the guarantors of the ceasefire? Every day, 10, 15, 20 martyrs die. We wake up to martyrs and go to sleep to martyrs. And they say there's a ceasefire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Azzam's house, five people. They were sleeping. They are children -- children, children, old people, children. They are children. Children. What is the fault of these children?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: Palestinian Authorities say 312 people have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire began last month.

CNN's Nic Robertson is joining us now from Jerusalem with the latest developments that are really testing this ceasefire, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: They are. And there's another event this morning that the IDF is reporting that happened inside of Gaza, in what they describe as the east of Rafah. That's in the southern end of Gaza, the east of Rafah would put it in that area of Gaza that the IDF controls.

The IDF say that five people they describe as terrorists came out from a tunnel an underground structure inside of the east of Rafah. And then they were targeted. The IDF say, in accordance with the protocols of the ceasefire, they say, because the IDF troops were under immediate threat, the IDF has released video of what they say is the incident and appears to show a strike on figures on the ground.

Now, no response from Hamas about that yet, but its indicative of the fragile nature of the ceasefire that's existing inside of Gaza at the moment. And as well, it sort of feeds into a situation here where the tensions not just in Gaza, but in the West Bank, 150 vehicles that were in a that were in a second hand car lot, a sort of a used car lot were torched last night, damaged -- some of them. Fire damaged. The fires were pretty extensive. Three different units of the Palestinian fire brigade in the West Bank had to be called in to douse the flames.

[05:20:03]

And that was because of a small group of settlers. Now the IDF say that they were called out to reports that a small group of Israelis were throwing rocks. They went out, didn't find them. And then they said the IDF said they got reports of the fire. They said that there were no injuries that they could see. And also, they weren't able to find the perpetrators.

But the owner of that second-hand car lot said that that, you know, this is absolutely critical for his family's income. He says he has olive groves, which settlers have taken control of. So, the family has no income from them and has got children at university, has got grandchildren, he said. And they depended on this second-hand car business. And right now, the whole thing appears to have been torched.

As you said there, the prime minister earlier this week calling them a small group of extremists leading a lead opposition figure called the settlers Jewish terrorist. The head of the IDF and in the West Bank has called them anarchists. And this came just yesterday evening as the prime minister was holding a cabinet session, a security cabinet over the over these West Bank -- rising West Bank attacks by settlers. But they seem to act with impunity and little if any accountability at the moment.

ABEL: All right. Nic Robertson, for us in Jerusalem -- Nic, appreciate your reporting. Thank you.

A delegation of former hostages freed from Gaza met with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday. They also met with senior U.S. officials, including special envoy Steve Witkoff, who helped negotiate the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The group is calling for renewed efforts to bring home the bodies of the three hostages still remaining in Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEGEV KALFON, FORMER GAZA HOSTAGE: The fight isn't over. We're here in Washington, D.C. to close our own chapter, but there are families still living through the pain. Our families endured. This won't be over until everyone comes home. There's a rally this Saturday night. I'm asking everyone to show up. Everyone needs to come home now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: Still ahead, a CNN exclusive investigation. Thousands filled the streets of Tanzania after a disputed election in October. Now, CNN has found evidence that police killed protesters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:26:56]

ABEL: We have this just into CNN. Police say armed bandits have kidnapped an unknown number of students from a private Catholic school in north central Nigeria. The Trump administration has been sounding the alarm in recent weeks about violence against Christians in the West African country. President Trump has even threatened possible military action.

Earlier this week, gunmen attacked a boarding school in northwestern Nigeria, kidnaping 25 girls and killing the vice principal.

A CNN exclusive investigation has found evidence that Tanzanian police killed protesters in the aftermath of a disputed election. Tanzania's general election at the end of October was the trigger for week long protests that rocked the country.

CNN's Larry Madowo joins me now live from Johannesburg with the details.

And you and your team, Larry, analyze a lot of information to figure out what happened during those protests.

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESONDENT: That's right. Brian, we analyzed dozens of videos. I spoke to more than 100 Tanzanians to figure out exactly what happened after that October 29th presidential election.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan claims to have won it with 98 percent of the vote. But many in the country say there was no election because in the months and weeks leading up to the election, there was a big campaign. No reform, no election, as prominent critics, opposition figures were arrested, detained, disappeared, abducted. And that is the background for these protests on election day, which quickly descended into violence. Security forces violently cracked down on protesters not just in the capital, in Dar es-Salaam, in Dodoma, in Arusha, in Mwanza and other parts of the country. This is the story of how one of Africa's most popular tourist destinations descended into a hunting ground.

And I need to warn you here. This report contains extremely graphic video.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MADOWO (voice-over): Election day, Tanzania, bloody scenes across the country. The streets have become a hunting ground.

Security forces crack down on protesters, angry at the government of President Samia Suluhu Hassan amid claims of an unfair election. Three weeks on, the true scale of the bloodshed is still emerging.

In an exclusive investigation, CNN analyzed dozens of videos showing protesters shot and found evidence linking security forces to the killing of civilians, as well as signs of mass graves that conceal the extent of their brutality.

The main opposition party says at least 2,000 people were killed during the week-long protests.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need our freedom in my country. Why are you killing us?

MADOWO (voice-over): With eyewitnesses now too terrified to speak out, CNN, alongside open source investigator Benjamin Strick, has examined what happened across the country.

In the city of Arusha, forensic analysis of video reveals how two people died near this intersection.

It's mid-afternoon. A group of protesters gather at this corner as armed police approach.

Note the man in the red T-shirt holding what appears to be a rock, who we'll come back to.

At this point, the police are here on the map. Two minutes later, chaos as people run down the street, the police.