Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Biden Administration Approves Anti-Personnel Mines For Ukraine; Texas Offers 1,400-Acre Ranch For Deportation Facility; Sean "Diddy" Combs Facing Five New Civil Lawsuits. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired November 20, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Absolutely.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Continue, please.

EGAN: But nothing like inheriting this job and immediately having to diffuse a financial ticking time bomb. But that's what's going to happen here because the treasury secretary has to not only diffuse it by getting Congress to address the debt ceiling --

BOLDUAN: Right.

EGAN: -- but also come up with these accounting maneuvers to make sure you keep paying the bills on time.

But listen, Kate, if you thought 2024 has been fun, 2025 is going to be even better because there's twin fiscal cliffs. It's not just the debt ceiling, it's the tax situation. Because if Congress doesn't do anything tax rates are going to spike because the 2017 tax rate law --

BOLDUAN: Right.

EGAN: -- will -- that expires at the end of the year and it's going to be up to the treasury secretary to convince Congress what to do here.

And Trump -- he's proposed over $3 trillion in additional tax relief on top of extending that tax law.

Also, to the treasury secretary to figure out how to pay for all of this because there's projections that Trump's economic plan could add almost $8 trillion to the national debt and treasury has got to figure out a way to borrow all that money in a way that doesn't freak out the bond market.

BOLDUAN: One, your definition of fun needs --

EGAN: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: -- to be looked at. Two, this is overly intertwined though -- the powers of Congress, the powers of the presidency, and the powers of the treasury secretary. How much -- how much power does the treasury secretary really have when it comes to all this?

EGAN: The treasury has a significant amount of power. And some of this is regulatory and statutory but also some of it is just sort of the influence of the treasury secretary because they're kind of like the quarterback of the economy, right? They're trying to execute the president's game plan, which is going to be especially important now because not only did Trump win, in part due to frustrations --

BOLDUAN: Yes.

EGAN: -- with the economy, but he's planning to massively shake it up.

And the treasury secretary is going to have to manage all of this, right, selling the public, and investors, and lawmakers on tariffs and deportations and potentially putting out some fires in the stock market, and trying to convince everyone that they can do all this without causing all of that inflation that we've heard so much about.

One last point here, another unofficial duty of the treasury secretary is trying to manage the relationship between the President of the United States and the chair of the Federal Reserve. And given the complicated relationship between Trump and Fed chair Jerome Powell that is going to be an especially important role for this treasury secretary.

BOLDUAN: Maybe complicated publicly but to Jerome Powell very uncomplicated. There is no relationship, right?

EGAN: In one word, right -- no.

BOLDUAN: It is independent.

EGAN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Exactly.

Good to see you, Matt. Thank you so much.

EGAN: Thank you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The treasury secretary, quarterback to the economy. It's that like an Aaron Rodgers-type quarterback?

EGAN: Hopefully, better than that.

BERMAN: OK, OK. Set the bar.

All right, with us now, May Mailman, former White House associate counsel under Donald Trump, and Joe Trippi, Democratic strategist and senior adviser to The Lincoln Project.

I want to put some faces up so people can see, so far, what Donald Trump's announcements for who he wants in his cabinet and his administration looks like. You can see that those are the folks that Donald Trump has named so far. And by and large, there are some exceptions. Pretty white, pretty male.

By Politico's count, only five women, so far, and one person of color compared to what Joe Biden's were four years ago. And granted, this was by the end. By January, Biden had 11 women and 11 people of color. We may have a screen for that also.

But May, what about that? Look, I mean, Donald Trump likes to claim that this victory for a Republican had more participation for people with color than a lot of Republicans have ever had. So why not put a few in the cabinet or more women for that matter?

MAY MAILMAN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE ASSOCIATE COUNSEL UNDER DONALD TRUMP (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah. I guess I'm surprised we're even talking about this because the American people voted precisely against this -- about dividing us and labeling us on the basis of our race and our sex. And instead, we just want the government and the economy to work for us.

We are less interested in what somebody looks like and what their sex is, and we are far more interested in whether they are going to execute the president's agenda and whether they are going to unleash American business. Whether they're going to weaponize the Department of Justice against people who don't agree with them politically. Against businesses that don't agree with them politically.

And so this is the thing. If a woman were to be put in a spot because she is a woman, she would never be respected. If we are going to celebrate things on the basis of diversity, then you can't gain the respect that you want and you deserve.

If the president puts someone somewhere it is because he trusts them. He thinks that they are going to do a great job. And that -- for Linda McMahon, that is empowering. For Kristi Noem, that is empowering. And that is what people want. That's what people voted for.

BERMAN: Joe, is May right that it's silly that I even asked about this?

JOE TRIPPI, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, SENIOR ADVISER TO THE LINCOLN PROJECT, HOST, "THAT TRIPPI SHOW" PODCAST (via Webex by Cisco): Uh, no. I don't think that's what the American people voted for. I think she's right that they voted because they believed or hoped that he would fix whatever ills they believe are in the economy.

[07:35:00]

And that's why I think the previous reporter you had had it right because it -- there could be a ton of economic consequences to what the president is proposing and to the kind of people he is putting in power that, frankly, are just -- most of them are yes men, not whether they're men, women, what their colors. They're all yes men for the most part so they're going to implement his policies. The treasury secretary is going to have a really incredibly tough job with the debt ceiling and with all the things that were just listed. And I don't think that's the problem here. When a party -- any party gets all three branches -- I mean, have a -- has it all -- House, Senate, president, and the court -- the Supreme Court -- they tend to overstate what they believe their mandate is.

I think the American people want them to fix the economy not in a -- they did not -- the voters over and over again said what they did not like about the -- about Trump was the chaos. Just the craziness of it all. But they wanted his economic policies. Well, we'll see how that goes because they're going to get a lot of chaos and that's what this -- that's what this -- most of these appointees are there to do.

BERMAN: A counter to that, Joe, is that maybe this is exactly what voters were asking for. And I'm not sure which way it goes.

But The New York Times has been running a series where they're out there talking to voters about why they made the decisions they did, particularly voters who switched from Democrat to Republican.

They spoke to someone named Brian Kozlowski, a 40-year-old lawyer in Orlando, who said, "It's an actual fulfillment of a politician dispensing with the norms. The number one thing to me, and a lot of Trump voters, is getting rid of the swamp. And that is what is shocking some people -- it may actually be happening."

So is this exactly, May, what people voted for, like Brian -- or Joe, if you want to jump in there, go ahead.

TRIPPI: Uh, well, a convicted felon or convicted criminal president, you know, appointing a -- somebody that the Ethics -- that we're looking for the Ethics report on -- for attorney general -- I think, yeah, it's disruptive.

I do think a lot of the president's base wanted that and probably enjoys seeing this. I'm not sure that the rest of the country, which again, was I think supportive of what they believed would be good economic policies -- and we can debate that -- but I don't -- that's what I -- I just think this is like way over the top.

BERMAN: May?

MAILMAN: So, people were not voting for small change. They saw -- there were 70 percent of Americans who said that America was on the wrong track. And the advertisement that performed the best was Kamala is for they/them and President Trump is for you. And so that's not a particular thing; that is a feeling. That is a feeling that there is a class -- there is an elitist, multiple-degreed class that is sitting there operating more than two million government employees, and what are we getting for it?

And so I think that is why people are so excited about DOGE -- government efficiency. It's not about creating chaos; it's creating streamlined efficiencies. Creating a government that works for the people. And yes, that is disruptive, but it's disruptive in the right direction.

It's disruptive in the sense that we don't -- nobody elected these bureaucrats. Nobody elected the halls of these -- well, nobody goes to work anymore. But nobody elected the empty halls of the USDA. They elected a president who is going to make the government work for them.

And so I don't think the American people are shocked by cabinet picks that are in line with that vision.

BERMAN: All right, May Mailman, Joe Trippi, thanks to both of you -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Developing now, the U.S., Greek, and Spanish embassies in Ukraine's capital of Kyiv are all closed today as missiles land across Ukraine. Ukraine's Air Force says one man was wounded and they managed to shoot down dozens of drones launched from Russia.

And in a major shift in policy for the White House, two U.S. officials say the Biden administration just approved sending anti-personnel mines to Ukraine as Russia continues its assault.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand joining us now. Give us some sense because there is a controversy surrounding mines in general on the international stage.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Sara. And actually, the Biden administration -- in the very early days of this White House, they sought to limit the use of anti- personnel mines, a shift from the Trump administration which had loosened restrictions on those mines because they said that there was a "need to curtail the use of these mines" worldwide because of the very real possibility that these mines can mame and injure civilians long after a war ends. Of course, they can remain in these minefields and pose a very real danger to people who may come across them.

[07:40:10]

Well, now we are hearing, including from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, that the U.S. is going to be sending these anti-personnel mines to the Ukrainians to use primarily because the Russians -- according to Austin, they have changed the way that they are fighting this war. Instead of leading with kind of mechanized forces -- tanks, for example -- they are now leading with those dismounted forces -- those just troops on the ground who are kind of paving the way for these tanks to kind of enter the conflict and fight the Ukrainians.

So the U.S. is now saying look, in order to blunt the advance of those Russian troops we need to give the Ukrainians these anti-personnel mines in order to give them a better chance of retaining the territory that the Russians obviously want to keep taking.

So this is going to cause, of course, some controversy simply because it does mark such a significant shift. And in the waning days of the Biden administration to now be sending such a controversial tool to the Ukrainians, that is sure to set off some alarm bells. But still, the U.S. is really emphasizing here that these are only

going to be used in Eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainians have assured the U.S. that they are going to be in areas that are not populated by civilians.

And importantly, the kind of mines that the U.S. is sending have a very short kind of trigger and life span. So essentially, they are battery-powered, and they have the ability to last anywhere from two weeks to a month. These are not going to be lasting for a very long time on these mine fields. They're a different kind of anti-personnel mines than something that the Russians are using, for example.

So that is how the administration is spinning it here. But clearly, you know, they are trying in the waning days of the Biden administration to give the Ukrainians everything that they need just to blunt the very real onslaught of Russian forces that are continuing to take serious amounts of territory, Sara.

SIDNER: All right, Natasha Bertrand. Thank you so much for that -- John.

BERMAN: All right. This morning, for the first time in what feels like 327 years, Rafael Nadal is not a competitive professional tennis player. Nadal retired. This is after this his 22 Grand Slam victories. His career -- it ended with a loss in a Davis Cup match to the Netherlands.

CNN sports anchor Andy Scholes is with us. Rafael --

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- Nadal -- I mean, just one of the best.

SCHOLES: Certainly, John. You know, the big three in men's tennis now -- it's down to just Novak Djokovic. And when Nadal, Federer, and Djokovic -- they were at their peaks from 2004 to 2023, they won more than 80 percent of the Grand Slam titles. No one really had a chance going up against those three.

And Nadal -- his incredibly career -- it came to an end yesterday as he was knocked out at the Davis Cup. Nadal -- he leaves the game with 22 Grand Slam titles. The 38-year-old -- you know, he was the king of clay. He won a record 14 French Open titles. Nadal lost only four of his 116 matches at Roland-Garros, which is just incredible.

And the crowd in Spain yesterday showing Nadal tons of love. And here he was before leaving the court one final time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAFAEL NADAL, 22-TIME GRAND SLAM CHAMPION: I am one of these that I have been very lucky that the life give me the opportunity to live unforgettable experiences because of tennis. So I just want to be remembered as a good person and a kid that followed their dreams and achieved more than what they ever did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Yeah. So it truly is the end of an era.

And John, think about this. Nadal, Federer, and Djokovic -- it really is the only time in sports history that the three greatest of all time players in their sport were going up against each other at the peak of their powers. I mean, we may never see something like this ever again.

BERMAN: You know, he won 22 Grand Slams, but one of his career highlights for him, and me, was when we got to hang out for a day once. There it is right there. You know, I said tennis -- I think it's good for you. Play as long as you want because I think you'll have a long and prosperous career. And then he pulled up his pants.

SCHOLES: I did look forward to it every time he won, John, of you posting that picture --

BERMAN: Yes.

SCHOLES: -- and saying between us we have 22 Grand Slam titles.

BERMAN: All right. I mean, I will still find a way to post this photo whenever I can.

In the meantime, it turns out the Cleveland Cavaliers are no longer undefeated, Andy. Tell us about that.

SCHOLES: That is true -- playing your Boston Celtics. You know, the longest winning streak to start a season was the Warriors back in 2015. They won 24 in a row. The Cavs -- they were at 15 heading into Boston last night and this was an NBA Cup game.

The Celtics -- they've got that green court. Not really my favorite but Boston -- they certainly played well on it. Behind Jayson Tatum, they opened up a 17-point halftime lead. And in the third quarter, Tatum -- the step-back three and Georges Niang, there, hit it at the buzzer. Tatum said get out of there. He had 33.

The Cavs didn't go quietly, though. Donovan Mitchell hit a three here and made it a three-point game in the fourth. Mitchell had 35 points. But Tatum and the Celtics -- they held off a late charge and ended up winning 120-117 handing the Cavs their first loss of the season.

[07:45:10]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAYSON TATUM, FORWARD, BOSTON CELTICS: We was excited for today. We lost the last couple of games. They've been the best team of the league, you know, all season. They're 15-0. They came in and they felt like they was the best team, and we feel like we the best team. It's all in competition, so we was ready to play today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Yeah, so the Celtics now 1-1 in the NBA Cup. Berman, you're a Celtics fan. What do you think about that green court there? You like it?

BERMAN: I -- I'm not sure about the whole NBA Cup thing altogether, Andy. I mean, what do you get for it except these courts with these, like, big colors here, you know?

SCHOLES: Yeah. Well, a lot of money.

BERMAN: For not much.

SCHOLES: You can get a trip to Vegas, maybe, and play for an NBA Cup championship. I don't know. LeBron won it last year.

BERMAN: That's all he won last year.

SCHOLES: That's kind of good.

BOLDUAN: Wait, wait. I'm sorry. And from the uninitiated -- Andy, please stay here -- is this the new Celtics court or is this just for the special thing?

BERMAN: Just for the NBA Cup, which is an in-season tournament. The normal floor at the Garden is the parquet -- the famous parquet floor.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. That's what -- OK.

BERMAN: They take that out. They put in this special one. They have special courts all over the NBA.

BOLDUAN: I was going to be like that is a major rebrand and a --

BERMAN: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: -- headline that we really missed --

BERMAN: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: -- if that really was like a permanent thing. Everyone hates it until someone really wins on top of that --

BERMAN: Exactly.

BOLDUAN: -- and then they're all into it.

BERMAN: And then it's OK.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, cool. Thanks, guys. Thanks for that. I should have asked off-camera before. But regardless, here we go.

Coming up for us, five new lawsuits filed against Sean "Diddy" Combs today, and a strange twist coming with a separate lawsuit now -- one brought against the very attorney representing many of Combs' alleged victims.

And home prices too high? Italy offering to help you out with that now, offering homes for one dollar to Americans wanting to relocate after the presidential election.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:51:30]

SIDNER: New this morning, Texas officials have offered 1,400 acres of land for President-elect Donald Trump to build deportation facilities on, according to a letter reviewed by CNN. The land's previous owner had refused border wall construction and blocked law enforcement from accessing the property. But then the state bought the ranch.

CNN national correspondent Gloria Pazmino is here. Has the Trump team responded to this offer of 1,400 acres of land?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sara, not yet. We reached out to the transition as well as the Department of Homeland Security last night to see if they are familiar with this offer. They have not gotten back to us yet.

But it is important to mention that the Trump campaign, on a promise to do these mass deportations, immigration was a cornerstone of his campaign. And we also know just how expensive and difficult these potential deportations will be. So the idea that a state like Texas, which is run by a Republican governor, would offer land like this is actually not outside of the realm of possibility that Trump might consider.

Now, this letter was sent by the Texas General Land Office, and the commissioner there, Dawn Buckingham, wrote to Trump saying there is 1,400 acres of land in Texas and near the Rio Grande. It is ready for you and federal agencies to come in and build as needed.

Take a listen to part of how she described the area last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAWN BUCKINGHAM, COMMISSIONER, TEXAS GENERAL LAND OFFICE: It's essentially farmland, so it's flat. It's easy to build on. We can very easily put a detention center on there -- a holding place -- as we get these criminals out of our country. It's accessible to international airports as well as, of course, a major crossing over the river.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: So whether or not this happens, when it begins remains unclear at this moment. But without question, if the Trump administration moves forward with these plans -- and everything suggests that they will -- they are going to need facilities like the one that the commissioner is proposing.

And, at least for now, Texas is saying there is areas here where you can do this. And they're pointing to a precise location near the Rio Grande where there is -- there are several crossings where they are suggesting a facility like this one that could help with processing, bringing people in, and eventually getting them out after they have been deported where one of these facilities can be put up -- Sara. SIDNER: All right. I know you'll be watching this. Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much. I appreciate your reporting this morning -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Disgraced music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs is still sitting behind bars facing federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges right now.

And also this morning, he is now facing five new civil lawsuits. In them, Combs is accused of drugging and raping alleged victims who were all listed as Jane and John Does. Most of the victims allege the assaults took place at those big parties that Combs was famous for hosting. One accuser claiming that he was assaulted by Combs and others at a casting call. And one of the women says that she was underage -- just 17 years old -- at the time of the alleged assault.

Combs now -- put it altogether -- faces 30 civil lawsuits.

Joining us -- joining me now is CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson. And there's a lot going on --

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Yes.

BOLDUAN: -- with regard to what Combs is facing.

[07:55:00]

Let's start with this. Thirty lawsuits -- civil lawsuits altogether.

The new lawsuits are coming from attorney Tony Buzbee. He is representing, I believe, 20 of these lawsuits that have been brought -- these civil lawsuits. And he says that he expects to file a -- new cases against Combs on a weekly basis.

JACKSON: That's what he's saying.

BOLDUAN: What is -- what is this going to mean? How do -- how do -- how do all of these civil lawsuits work or not work together?

JACKSON: All right, so here is how it goes, Kate. Good morning to you.

BOLDUAN: Good morning, darling.

JACKSON: So you have this attorney in Texas and apparently, he's indicating that he represents about 120 right now. These are the lawsuits that have been filed already -- significantly less than that. But when you say he's filing every week, the latest ones we've seen relating to three men, two women -- you gave a little recitation of the facts -- they're civil in nature.

What does that mean? It means they are about monetary damages. They're about compensating people for wrongdoing, and that's what our system has, monetary.

BOLDUAN: Um-hum. JACKSON: At this point, they're allegations. They'll go to court. They'll be vetted. And in the event they don't settle -- that is, resolve for a specific monetary amount -- then you'll have a full airing of the trial.

Now, that's separate and apart, of course, from his criminal case --

BOLDUAN: Right.

JACKSON: -- right, which is totally different and being heard in the Southern District of New York when it gets there for which he's currently detained.

So at this point, allegations -- the allegations will be revealed in a string of lawsuits to come by Mr. Buzbee, the attorney for these alleged victims. We'll see whether or not those allegations can be proven in a court of law.

BOLDUAN: Staying with civil for another beat because another layer of this now is that attorney is now being accused of basically running an extortion scheme by an anonymous celebrity. The celebrity has filed a lawsuit accusing Tony Buzbee of -- in the lawsuit of -- here's a quote from it. "...shamelessly attempting to extort exorbitant sums from him or else -- him or else public -- or else he would publicly file wildly false horrific allegations against him" -- the celebrity -- claiming that these are all -- these are claims relating to Sean Combs.

And he's saying basically that Tony was trying to extort him --

JACKSON: Right.

BOLDUAN: -- for money or he was going to link him to being related to what Sean Combs is being -- is being sued over.

JACKSON: Sure.

BOLDUAN: How much does this complicate things?

JACKSON: So what happens Kate is that generally speaking, attorneys, whether they're civil and they're filing sexual harassment lawsuits -- any type of lawsuits -- they have this thing in law called a demand letter. What does that mean? It means that prior to lawsuit you would send out a letter giving some recitation of the facts -- what you believe you can prove -- and trying to resolve it prior to the case going to trial. So these demand letters are not new.

Now, there are certain protocols with respect to ethical things that you have to do --

BOLDUAN: Right.

JACKSON: -- in a demand letter. You can't say I'm going to arrest you. You will be arrested unless. But by and large, they don't rise to the level of extortion. At least, they're not deemed to be leveraging people for money. They're deemed to be a critical tool. But it does -- you know, it'll raise the specter of whether or not the allegations are factually accurate or whether or not it's a shakedown which, of course, the Combs team is saying -- this is a shakedown monetarily and has nothing to do with the merits. We'll see how it plays out.

BOLDUAN: And this is all of the civil lawsuits. You mentioned the criminal -- the criminal side. He has a bail hearing again on Friday, so we'll have more time to talk about that later this week.

JACKSON: Without question.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Developing now, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is fighting the InfoWars fire sale, now suing the bankruptcy trustee, The Onion, and some of the Sandy Hook families who helped but it after Jones tormented them in their worst grief.

CNN's Hadas Gold is here now. Hadas, what can you tell us about the latest on this? There were -- the big headline was that The Onion was going to take over Infowars.

HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. So Alex Jones, as well as the company that tried to bid for Infowars, have both filed motions. Alex Jones has sued to try and stop the sale.

What they're arguing is that this was an unfair auction process, saying that it had changed from a live auction to what was a written final and best bid closed auction. And they also are arguing that their bid from the Jones-aligned company was a better bid because it's a higher cash offer. But these are actually two very different bids.

And I want to explain how The Onion won this auction as it stands, according to the trustee. The Onion put up $1.7 million in cash.

But then what they also did is got an agreement with the families of some of these -- with some of the Sandy Hook families who agreed to forego 100 percent of whatever they would have earned from this because remember, Alex Jones owes these families nearly $1. 5 billion because of that defamation suit. And so The Onion is arguing that their bid is actually worth $7 million because it has -- they had -- they had gotten this credit for the families.

Now, the other bid comes from what's called First United American Company. This is a company that part of its business is to sell some of these Alex Jones-branded supplements. So it's affiliated with him. They put $3.5 million in cash on the table, and they are saying that's obviously the better bid.