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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Controversies Swirl Around Hegseth; ICE Operation Underway In New Orleans; Extreme Cold On The Way. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired December 04, 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 in the United States and all round the world. I'm Brian Abel. Thank you so much for being with us.

It is Thursday, December 4th, 5:00 a.m. here in Washington, D.C.

And straight ahead on EARLY START.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information.

PAUL RIECKHOFF, U.S. ARMY VETERAN: It's just nonstop chaos. It's nonstop drama. It's nonstop politics. It's nonstop incompetence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Border Patrol agents were seen throughout Louisiana making arrests and detaining people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: New Orleans right now is in a place of fear and anxiety over this planned Catahoula Crunch, as they're calling it.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Prepare yourself. The bottom is about to drop out in terms of the temperatures over the next week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

ABEL: We begin this hour with a secretary on the defensive. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, under fire for U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean. One in particular killed two survivors of a first strike, and critics called that a war crime.

U.S. Navy Admiral Mitch Bradley, who the Trump administration says gave the order for that follow up strike, will meet with members of the Senate Intelligence Committee today.

President Trump is standing by Hegseth, although he says he supports releasing video of the second strike.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REPORTER: If it is found that survivors were actually killed while clinging on to that boat, should Secretary Hegseth, Admiral Bradley or others be punished?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think you're going to find that this is war, that these people were killing our people by the millions, actually.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: Meanwhile, Hegseth's discussion of military plans on the Signal messaging app is back in the spotlight. According to four sources, a Pentagon inspector general has concluded that Hegseth risked compromising sensitive war plans, which could have endangered American troops.

Republican Lisa Murkowski is calling for Hegseth to be replaced, and she is not the only one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): I think this and what's now happening in Venezuela, all this demonstrates that he is unqualified for this job.

SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R-SD): We'll make our decisions based on the facts of the case. We haven't got the facts yet in front of us in a classified setting.

SEN. MARK WARREN (D-VA): The fact that he's standing on the legal principle that his ability to declassify cleared him I don't think passes the smell test. If this was a one-off, you might find some rationale, but this is a pattern. We've seen the pattern of this kind of careless activity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: More now on the defense secretary's controversies from CNN's Zachary Cohen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered American troops and jeopardize an ongoing mission back in March, when he used the messaging app Signal to communicate with other top Trump officials, sending information related to an ongoing military operation targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Now, these messages stem from a document that the inspector general who came to this conclusion, inspector general, confirming that the document was marked classified at the time that Hegseth shared the information in that group chat. And of course, the group chat also included a reporter who was accidentally added and was watching this conversation play out in real time. So, all that said, the repercussions here remain murky. The inspector

general report, acknowledging that the defense secretary has broad declassification authority and noting that Hegseth told them that he made an operational decision in the moment to declassify this information. There's no documentation that the inspector general could find to show that that is true.

And ultimately, this was going to raise more questions about Hegseth's judgment. That's something that's already under scrutiny as it relates to the ongoing military campaign in the Caribbean, where Hegseth is facing immense pressure to explain what led U.S. forces to double strike or double tap an alleged drug boat in that region. Some lawmakers have already accused of committing a war crime as a result of that action, and Hegseth and the White House distancing themselves from what played out.

But ultimately, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are going to demand more answers from us. On both his use of Signal to transmit this information, as well as about his plans in the Caribbean and ultimately the decision as far as his future is concerned, really comes down to one man, and that's President Donald Trump.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[05:05:07]

ABEL: All right. Zachary Cohen reporting -- Zach, thank you.

CNN spoke earlier with U.S. Army veteran Paul Rieckhoff, now a podcast host, who's known for 20 years. Here's what he had to say about the defense secretary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL RIECKHOFF, U.S. ARMY VETERAN: Enough already. Enough. It's just nonstop chaos. It's nonstop drama. It's nonstop politics. It's nonstop incompetence.

And I think the real issue here is that he has now been disclosed to have endangered the lives of troops with his own carelessness and arrogance. That's the bottom line here.

I mean, how can our troops trust him not to get them killed? You're going to have reporters asking members of the Senate and the House, do you have confidence in him anymore?

Our troops are losing confidence in him every single day. Our military families are losing confidence in him every single day. And every single day, he's in that office, our country is less safe and our enemies are celebrating.

So, I don't know what the straw will be that finally breaks the camel's back. But this collectively is consuming our entire defense apparatus and leaving us vulnerable by the day. At the same time, the president seems to be putting the pedal down and wants to do strikes on Venezuela any day now. So, with all that happening, we need a solid, strong secretary of

defense with integrity. And right now, we've got the opposite.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: Well, two weeks after Congress voted for the release of the Epstein files, there's still no sight of them. And many wonder what's taking the U.S. Justice Department so long. They have until December 19th.

Meanwhile, House Democrats have released never before seen images from the late sex offender's private Caribbean island where underage girls and young women were sexually abused and trafficked.

The photos and video show several bedrooms and bathrooms from the opulent estate, as well as images of what looks like a dentist chair. It's in a room filled with strange looking masks hanging on the walls.

And the Trump administrations immigration crackdown has now spread to Louisiana, with federal operations underway across the state. Top border patrol official Greg Bovino and masked agents were seen at a Home Depot parking lot in the New Orleans suburbs on Wednesday. Bovino has become the on the ground face of President Donald Trump's efforts for mass deportations.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem says they are going after, quote, the worst of the worst criminal offenders. City officials, however, say they're concerned the federal operation is not targeting the most violent people, as it claims.

CNN's Ryan Young reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The official start of this operation started on Wednesday, and Border Patrol agents were seen throughout Louisiana making arrests and detaining people. Video has spread throughout social media. Really making people concerned about what the next steps could be.

We know the operational number that they want to arrest is at least 5,000 people. Some folks feel like that's a number that's way too high. But for community members, that is really scared them.

We saw restaurants that had their doors shut, had signs up saying no ICE or CBP. We also saw restaurants handing out whistles just in case members of ICE or CBP were in the area. They could blow those whistles to alert the neighborhood.

There was a slowdown at some of the stores as well, because people weren't coming in, and we actually saw some of the grocery stores in neighborhoods trying to slow down, if not close early on Wednesday afternoon.

From there, we've been trying to figure out what were the next steps be when someone was detained. There is a belief that they will be taken to an ICE facility before moving to Mississippi. That's something that we're still working through.

As we talked to the mayor elect, she really had some concerns about how this would move forward for her community.

HELENA MORENO, NEW ORLEANS MAYOR-ELECT: What they're seeing is what appears to be racial profiling of brown people and then going after these individuals and treating them like they are these significantly violent offenders.

YOUNG: One thing that stands out that's different about this operation is the state is involved. This is the first red state that's been involved in this sort of operation. Of course, when it happened in Chicago or California or even North Carolina, those states are run by Democrat governors.

And so, here, you have a Republican governor, and the structure really has set up itself to make sure that these agents not only will get escorts, they will be able to make the arrest they want to make. And it's been also made clear by the FBI and the state troopers that if anybody tries to impact or stop these border patrol agents from making arrests, they will face prosecution.

Ryan Young, St. Rose, Louisiana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: Meanwhile, in Minnesota, officials are pushing back against the federal immigration raids targeting the Somali community. Minneapolis has banned immigration enforcement activities from city owned parking lots and other areas. The mayor of Minneapolis has invited President Trump to visit the city after the president again called Minneapolis a, quote, hellhole and attack the Somali community there.

[05:10:06]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JACOB FREY (D), MINNEAPOLIS: Come out to Minneapolis. What you won't find is a hellhole, but a beautiful city. It is a city in a park. You won't find a community that is tearing down Minneapolis in our Somali Americans, you will find a group of people that is uplifting Minneapolis and is proud to be here. They are proud to call this extraordinary place home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: As the Minneapolis mayor met with community members at a mall catering to Somali patrons on Wednesday, a different scene was playing just outside. Three vehicles with tinted windows pulled to a stop near a man who was outside the mall and multiple armed men in law enforcement vests came out. The man was asked for his identification before being let go, he later told CNN. He said he is a 35-year-old U.S. citizen who was born in Buffalo, New York.

Turning now to the war in Ukraine and the ongoing peace negotiations, a Ukrainian source says a delegation from Kyiv is on its way to Miami to meet American negotiators for talks today. This comes after lengthy talks in Moscow between Russia and the U.S.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country was heard and listened to at recent meetings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We are preparing meetings in the United States of America. Everything is developing quite effectively right now at the meetings in Geneva and in Florida, Ukraine was heard and listened to. And this is important. We expect it will continue this way. Only by taking Ukraine's interests into account is a dignified peace possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: And joining me now from Kyiv is CNN's Nick Paton Walsh.

Does it look like, Nick, there's been much progress in any of these discussions?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It's incredibly hard to tell. The outgoing message is of positivity. Yet also to recognizing there's a lot more work to do. And indeed, the Russians were quite clear they saw no compromise ahead or need for Putin and Trump to meet. Trump himself suggesting that -- paraphrase here -- that they thought they had something going in the Russia sorry in the U.S. Ukraine element of this. And then he cut himself sort of short and went back to the old talking point of how the war would never have happened if he had been president.

Look, ultimately, Vladimir Putin today in an interview with Indian media, saying how really they will take the territory they want by military force. And he was specific, the territory of Donbas and what he called Novorossiya. Now, that's a term we haven't heard for some time.

And it harks back to tsarist imperial time and potentially refers to significant chunks of Ukraine in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which Russia does not occupy at this particular point.

So, Putin, clearly going back to his maximalist demands there as he's about to go and see a key energy purchaser, India, whether this is just bluff and behind the scenes, there is real actual potential progress towards a compromise. Unclear. Weve seen no real signs from the Ukrainians that they feel some imminent meeting of minds is afoot. We do know that their chief negotiator, Rustam Umerov, is bound for Miami to meet Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, the Trump envoy and son in law there.

And I think really, that may be about debriefing him from what the details of that Kremlin meeting indeed were, what stood out, what potentially could be further areas for work. But I wouldn't dismiss, Brian, the possibility that what we're seeing here is a very intransigent Kremlin who've heard the concessions potentially cooked up by the United States and Ukraine, delivered by Witkoff, rejected them, asked for more. And now we are seeing a flurry of European, Ukrainian and also two now U.S. activity to try and keep this process alive.

The Europeans and Ukrainians probably acutely aware that if it seems to stall, if President Trump feels that he's not necessarily getting progress in his ambition for peace, that he might again turn on the Europeans and Ukrainians and pressure them to make further concessions. That's all the mind games here, ultimately.

But on the surface, we're in Groundhog Day. Putin wants what he wants, and its land, and it's the Europeans, the Ukrainians and the Americans talking amongst themselves about how potentially they get there in a manner that suits them, Brian.

ABEL: Yeah. Nick Paton Walsh for us in Kyiv. Nick, it seems that we have indeed been here before. Groundhog Day is a perfect way to put it. Thank you.

A pilot with the U.S. Air Force's elite Thunderbirds team ejected from an F-16 jet before it crashed. Authorities say the Fighting Falcon went down on Wednesday in a dry lake bed near Trona, California, during a training mission. You see the fireball here from the crash.

It's still unclear why the plane crashed. Fire officials say the pilot was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

When we return, what Venezuela's president says about his phone call with President Trump as the U.S. steps up its military presence in the Caribbean.

[05:15:07]

Plus, more Palestinian casualties in Gaza. Why the Israeli military, says it struck a refugee camp in Khan Younis. That's ahead.

And later, subzero temperatures are in store for parts of the U.S. as a frigid cold snap moves across the country. We'll have the latest forecast.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ABEL: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro confirms that he spoke with President Trump as the U.S. continues its massive show of force in the Caribbean.

[05:20:04]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICOLAS MADURO, VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I received a call and spoke to the president of the United States, Donald Trump. I can say that the conversation was in a tone of respect. I can even say that it was cordial.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ABEL: President Maduro did not elaborate on what they discussed. The call, though, comes after months of U.S. threats against Venezuela and strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean.

President Trump is warning that U.S. efforts in Venezuela are, quote, much beyond a pressure campaign against Maduro. "Reuters" now reports that the U.S. military is ramping up its presence in Puerto Rico.

The Israeli Knesset has advanced U.S. President Donald Trump's 20 point Gaza ceasefire plan, despite a boycott. Far right coalition members left the chamber during Wednesday's debate. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also skipped the largely symbolic vote. The key sticking point for members of his coalition is still the path to Palestinian statehood.

Meanwhile, officials in Gaza report at least five people have been killed and dozens injured in an Israeli strike on a displacement camp in Khan Younis.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is joining us live from Abu Dhabi with more on the latest Israeli strike -- Paula.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brian, this happened on Wednesday. It was, as you say, in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Israel says that it was targeting a Hamas terrorist. And we know from health officials on the ground that at least five were killed, among them two children and dozens injured.

Now, this was in a displacement camp. And we should -- we do know that it is just one of the latest incidents where there has been loss of life since the ceasefire that was signed back in middle of October. We understand from the ministry of health in Gaza that more, more than 350 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since that ceasefire came into being.

Now, we also heard from the Israeli side that five Israeli soldiers were injured by a Hamas attack in the area as well. So, we are seeing the violence continuing, despite the fact that the ceasefire is largely holding. And as you mentioned there, this significant Knesset vote of approving this ceasefire, approving Donald Trump's 20 point plan, did pass the Israeli parliament.

But the far-right coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Netanyahu himself boycotted that vote, which also goes to show just how difficult it will be to move on to the next phase of this peace plan.

Now, we know that the far right has a problem with the part that mentions a Palestinian state or the pathway to Palestinian statehood. We've heard, Mr. Netanyahu as well, being quite clear in saying that he will not support a Palestinian state. So, it just really reinforces how difficult the task ahead and the steps ahead are at this point.

Now, one of the key parts of the first phase of this deal was that all Israeli hostages, both alive and deceased, would be released back to Israel in return for that partial Israeli military withdrawal. And Palestinian prisoner releases.

Now, there have been the I -- the remains of the final Thai hostage who was killed and his remains taken into Gaza on October 7th. He has had his remains have now been returned, which means that there is just one single hostage that is left in Gaza at this point.

Now, this is Ran Gvili. He is an Israeli hostage. We saw a post from his mother on Facebook saying, quote, the first to go into battle and the last to return. We won't rest until you are back.

Now, the prime minister's office also saying that they remain determined, committed and working tirelessly to bring the final remains back to Israel -- Brian.

ABEL: All right. Paula Hancocks for us in Abu Dhabi with the latest in Gaza -- Paula, thank you.

Still ahead, another pardon from President Trump, this time for a Democratic congressman. Why some on Capitol Hill are left scratching their heads

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:29:02]

ABEL: Another blast of Arctic Air is moving across the U.S. with some states set to hit single digits or go below zero this week.

CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam has the forecast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right. Prepare yourself. The bottom is about to drop out in terms of the temperatures over the next week, we will have roughly two thirds of the country experiencing temperatures below freezing. This is a very telling map.

Look at all that blue. These are the locations that will experience the freezing line or below freezing in many instances, especially across the northern tier of our country. This Arctic outbreak will break records. In fact, anywhere from the Plains through the Midwest, the Great Lakes eventually overspreading the East Coast.

And when we're talking about cold overnight lows dropping below zero. You factor in the winds. It could be dangerous for some.

So why is it so cold? Well, not only do we have the Arctic Air coming in from the north, but we have this fresh layer of snow that blankets much of the northern tier of our country. So roughly about 40 percent of snow coverage at this moment.