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Speaker Johnson: "We're Not Going To Have A Shutdown; At Least One Dead, Several Hurt After Car Plows Into Crowd At Christmas Market In Germany. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired December 20, 2024 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Manu Raju in the bowels of Capitol Hill. I believe we have the signal now.

And, Manu, we were asking you about Speaker Mike Johnson, who was talking to reporters, seemingly, outlining his vision for what this deal to avert a government shutdown is going to look like.

He's confident. He's saying we're not going to have a shutdown.

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he is confident. He didn't lay out the specifics. But I can tell you what the specifics are here, based on what I'm hearing from a number of members.

There were -- essentially, what they're talking about is to move a stopgap measure.

Let me ask this, Congressman.

Congressman, we're live on air right now.

So it sounds like to me, based on what I'm talking to other members, is that they're talking about these three different bills, the stopgap measure to keep the government funded until mid-March, and also the about $100 billion or so of disaster relief and $10 billion in aid to farmers, all in one bill to come up tonight.

Is that what's going to happen?

REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): Well, the $10 billion to farmers, 83 percent of that is food stamps. And the largest portion of that is using food stamps to pay for soft drinks. So there's a lot of misnomers.

RAJU: But with that being said, the three bills will be tied together as one?

(CROSSTALK)

BURCHETT: -- grasp. OK --

(CROSSTALK)

RAJU: And that's going to come up tonight?

BURCHETT: Well, possibly, possibly.

RAJU: Do you think that it will pass the House?

BURCHETT: I think it will. I think -- I think Hakeem's for it probably. So I think we're probably --

(CROSSTALK)

RAJU: How does it -- I mean, you've been disappointed by this process. I mean, what do you think about this?

BURCHETT: It's just -- it's just the sewer. It's just what it is. It's never any different. Just this time, its -- people are a lot more aware of what's going on, and they're -- and we're getting more public input.

RAJU: I mean, you guys were in there for two hours. Take us inside the room. What was it like in there? And how much debate, how much division was there?

BURCHETT: Well, first of all, I was a little disappointed in the sandwich tray. It was a little lackluster at best.

(LAUGHTER)

BURCHETT: But, no, you know, it was -- it was good debate and everyone was allowed to speak. And everybody came to the mic and people would -- something would trigger something else, and they'd go back up to the mic and they were given their one minute.

So, you know, it's the way it's supposed to work. It's just there's a lot to comprehend in the next little bit. So we'll see.

RAJU: How many Republicans do you think will oppose this plan?

BURCHETT: I have no earthly idea. No earthly idea.

RAJU: You'll vote no?

BURCHETT: Do what?

RAJU: You'll vote no.

BURCHETT: Possibly. Possibly.

RAJU: Thank you.

So, as you heard there, just to sum up where things stand. So the government shuts down at midnight tonight. They need to figure out how to pass a bill to keep the government open.

That passes the Republican-led House, the Democratic-led Senate, gets signed into law by the president. The decision, it sounds like, based on what Congressman Burchett said

and other members, is to advance a three month stopgap measure to keep the government open up until mid-March.

Tied along with that, aid to farmers, roughly about $10 billion or so of aid to farmers. A lot of Republicans have been pushing for that. But also about $100 billion or so in disaster relief that helps people who have been hit -- communities by natural disasters, like hurricanes, that have been all discussed as part of this plan.

There have been some discussions going into today's meeting that they would separate these out, vote on these individually.

But coming out of this meeting, looks like they're going to wrap this all together as one package and try to pass it tonight. Matter of fact, under a process that requires two-thirds of the House to approve it. That's 290 votes or 219 Republicans.

That means that they're going to lose some Republicans. Perhaps Tim Burchett is one of them, and some others as well who do not like this.

They will need significant numbers of Democrats to back this. So that puts the ball in Hakeem Jeffries' lap, the Democratic leader. What does he decide? That's going to be key?

Also, the Democrats in the Senate, what do they decide? And the White House will they get behind this approach?

Also, very notably, Donald Trump is the one who blew up this process, of course, middle of the week when he said this bipartisan deal that had been reached.

(CROSSTALK)

RAJU: Likewise, you, too, Congressman.

I should include a debt ceiling increase. So that is something that has been so difficult for Congress to deal with for years. But Trump wanted this off the table when he becomes president.

The decision inside this room is to not deal with the debt limit increase now, to punt that issue until next year. Trump is going to have to deal with it when he is president.

So here's another big question. Because they're doing something that Trump is -- the opposite of the position that Trump took publicly, will Trump get on board with this new approach?

We are hearing that Johnson is communicating with the president- elect's team. Will the president-elect get behind this? All big questions.

But at the moment, Republicans believe they have a plan. A number of Republicans coming out believe they can actually vote to approve this tonight.

What will Democrats do? And can they avert a shutdown at the11th hour? We'll see here in the hours ahead -- guys?

SANCHEZ: Manu, I just want to pick up on something you said and something that you asked Congressman Burchett. He said that he believes that Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader, is behind this plan.

Is it your sense that if they need two-thirds of the House to vote for this, that there are going to be enough Democrats that actually signed on to this? Because Republicans, they're in like the 219-, 220-vote range. They'll need a substantial number.

[14:35:03]

RAJU: Yes. Its unclear. You know, I was talking to a number of Democrats, top Democrats, while this is all going out. They were really holding their cards close to their vest.

Because they were not part of the negotiation. And they were part of the other negotiation, the bipartisan bill that Trump killed earlier this week, but not this one. So they're pretty irked about that.

They also wanted to see what would happen behind closed doors at this meeting. Will Republicans actually come out behind one plan? Would they be at loggerheads? Would they have to come up with a new strategy? So they were not saying.

But now that we have heard from the speaker, now that we've heard from other members about what the strategy is, which is, again, to repeat, to keep the government open until mid-March, include disaster relief, aid to farmers, not deal with the national debt limit now, tie it all together as one bill, try to get it out tonight to avoid a government shutdown.

Now that they know that that appears to be the plan going forward, what does Hakeem Jeffries do? That's going to be the next big question here.

But a lot of Democrats believe they'll be hard pressed to vote against such a plan with staring at a government shutdown. And one of the big concerns, they didn't want to give Donald Trump a debt limit increase now, because that's leverage for them to fight against the Trump agenda in the next Congress.

They've won that fight. So what else will they fight on now? They don't like some of the things that we're stripped out, like cancer research and other issues. But it will be probably difficult for them to stand in the way of this, as Johnson seems confident a shutdown will be avoided -- guys?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: One thing we can count on, there will be another fight around the corner.

Manu Raju, thank you so much for your great reporting there in the basement of the capitol.

And we are also right now following some breaking news out of Germany, where there are reports that a car has driven into a group of people at a Christmas market. The driver of the car was arrested.

There is no immediate information on whether people have been killed or injured here, but we are going to work on getting that for you.

Stay with CNN. We'll be right back with more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:41:29]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

KEILAR: And we are following breaking news out of Germany. This is from moments ago in Magdeburg, Germany, where there are reports that a car has driven into a group of people at a Christmas market. German media now reporting that at least one person was killed in this.

SANCHEZ: CNN law enforcement contributor, Steve Moore, joins us now.

I believe, Steve, that this is not the first time an attack like this has taken place. What do investigators look for when they try to figure out exactly what happened?

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: Well, first of all, they're going to be trying to find out whether the driver was the owner or the -- the regular driver of this vehicle. That's going to be very important.

They're also going to look for any indications that it might be religious based, because it is a Christmas attack.

And they're also going to look for timing. The last -- they're called vehicle-as-weapons attacks, VAWs. The last time one of these occurred in Germany was in 2016 at a Christmas market in Berlin about 100 miles away.

And what's interesting is that happened exactly on December 20th. So that would make this the -- of that. And terrorist group frequently like to put special meanings to certain dates.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying that this is a terrorist act, but there are certain things that would make it suspicious enough to where you really have to consider that as a possibility.

KEILAR: Yes. The -- these have been targets before. There was also a Christmas market attack that was foiled by police actually earlier this month as well.

Let's bring in retired FBI special agent, Dan Brunner, to join the conversation on this.

Dan, we're looking at these pictures, and I'm not sure if you can see these out of Magdeburg, but it's highly alarming. You can see the aftermath of a lot of people on the ground, people tending to them, folks who seem unresponsive. This is a terrible scene. DAN BRUNNER, RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Its absolutely horrible. And

as Steve was saying, the -- you know, people that conduct in the terrorist organizations in the terrorist realm really look for anniversaries and really want to repeat those attacks.

And a lot of things that they're going to be looking at now, and you're going to see an increased security here in the United States, copycats. So I think, you know, Bryant Park in New York City, a lot of these marketplaces where there are open-air Christmas, there's going to be an increased level of security.

You'll see NYPD, in Los Angeles, Chicago, all across this country, they're going to increase security due to the possible response of copycats, and they're going to want to avoid that here. They want to prevent these types of attacks here.

It's incredibly easy to do a vehicle-borne attack. And it's quite simple. And, you know, obviously, it causes a lot of damage. I've seen a lot of the footage already coming out of Germany. It's an amazing amount of damage that that has been -- that has been conducted. It's absolutely horrible.

And hopefully, the individual who is supposedly under arrest and now is in custody, we'll find out more.

SANCHEZ: I do just want to point out for our viewers the attack that took place at a Christmas market in 2016 was actually on December 19th, not the 20th, not an exact anniversary of that incident.

[14:45:05]

Nevertheless, it does appear to mimic some of the same attributes, though it is too early for investigators to say conclusively what the intent of this driver may have been.

I do want to bring in CNN's Fred Pleitgen, who is in berlin for us. He joins us now over the phone.

Fred, walk us through what you're learning about this attack.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Hi, Boris. Yes, well, this apparently happened a couple of hours ago in Magdeburg, which is pretty much in central Germany. It's the capital city of -- of that state there.

And we're seeing from that CCTV video, just that car plowing through that -- that group of people. Christmas markets, of course, very common right now in Germany, especially packed on a Friday night as they would be.

The latest that we're getting from local media and also from the local authorities, is that apparently at least one person has been killed and several other people have been injured. We are hearing that a lot of people seem to be quite severely injured.

So obviously, the authorities there fear that the toll could actually get higher as time progresses.

The driver has been arrested, is what we're hearing. And what we're now hearing is that, increasingly, the authorities seem to be speaking of an attack rather than possibly some sort of accident that might have happened. But again, it is still the very early stages.

As you can imagine, a lot of the crews there. The EMS still on the scene there, trying to save people, trying to help people who were injured in all of this.

But, you know, you guys have been discussing it, and it's absolutely correct to say that Christmas market security has been one of the biggest issues here in Germany over the past month.

Usually, in the month before Christmas is when these Christmas markets open. They are a gigantic industry here in Germany. And since that incident in 2016, Christmas market security has been a huge issue here for this country.

There's a lot of Christmas markets that I've seen over the past couple of weeks where security has been increased, a lot of them, quite, quite, quite high-tech security measures that they've taken to prevent precisely something like this from happening, to prevent a car or a truck from plowing into the Christmas markets.

Because the Germans had had such bad memories of what happened in 2016. So certainly, this is going to be causing a huge stir, as you can imagine, in German politics. A lot of people are going to have a lot of questions to -- to answer.

But right now, the main thing, obviously, for the police that are on the ground there is to interrogate the driver, found out what the motivations are.

But increasingly, right now, politicians here and the authorities here speaking of an attack -- Boris?

KEILAR: Because normally, Fred, when they are protecting these markets, as you know, obviously highly desirable soft targets to folks who want to do damage and potentially terrorize.

They're trying to stop cars or vehicles from going in. Right? I mean, normally, do you see that kind of protection?

PLEITGEN: Yes. Look, I mean, it's something that you've increasingly seen.

And you're absolutely right. I think -- I think when you say that they're trying to protect these people, I can tell you when you're at one of those Christmas markets and you think about security, you do feel quite vulnerable

Because the stalls that are on those Christmas markets are obviously made of very thin wood. They're not nearly enough to stop a car when it's going through there. The aisles where people are sort of shopping at these stalls are very, very narrow. And so it's almost impossible for people to actually get out of the way. And at the same time, those little wooden huts offer no or virtually no protection at all.

So these are -- you are or you feel like you are a soft target when you're on these Christmas markets. And that's why they increase the security. And that means additional barriers around these Christmas markets, often with trees and other things planted in them.

But also at the entry point, to have barriers that come up and go down that can be lowered for if you have deliveries, for instance. That is also something that you've seen increasingly at Christmas markets.

And that you've seen here specifically in Germany after those incidents, after that incident that took place in 2015 or 2016, because the authorities here know that there is going to be a large group of people there.

There's very little to stop an automobile or something else for people to take cover if a car were to plow through there. And at the same time, it is jam packed with people that have no way or almost no way to get out of the way, and are therefore very much soft targets.

So this is something where we've seen the concepts for these security measures develop over time, and that's why it's -- its going to be interesting to see how exactly something like this could have happened.

SANCHEZ: Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much for the update.

[14:49:23]

We have to take a quick break. We'll be right back on CNN following this breaking news out of Germany.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: We are following breaking news out of Germany where there are reports that a car has driven into a large group of people at a Christmas market.

These are very popular in Germany this time of year. And German media says that at least one person is dead and the driver has been arrested.

SANCHEZ: CNN's Fred Pleitgen joins us now over the phone. He is live for us from Berlin.

Fred, you are familiar with these kinds of attacks, having covered them before. Specifically 1 in 2016 that killed a dozen people and injured almost 50.

Can you give us an idea of what that situation was like, in contrast with this one? PLEITGEN (via telephone): Well, in fact, it was -- it was actually

fairly similar, where, in the evening hours, we got news that apparently a car truck had plowed into a Christmas market. And turned out, back then, that it wasn't a car, but it was actually a very large truck.

Now, in that case, it was actually an Islamist terror attack where someone with that motivation had killed the driver of a truck and then driven that truck into one of the main Christmas markets in in Berlin, as you say, killing a dozen people there.

And that person wasn't arrested immediately. He was actually on the loose and was then later arrested in Italy. Right now, of course, we know that the driver has been arrested.

But certainly, if you look at the video from back then of the aftermath and some of the video that we're seeing right now, that is all very similar.

[14:55:01]

Because one of the things that was ascertained back then by the German authorities is that with the Christmas markets as packed as they are with those stalls as close to one another as they are, the people, there are essentially soft targets.

And that set off a wave of Christmas market security being -- being upped here in Germany, being increased.

And one of the biggest political issues or a huge political issue here in this country in the run up to the Christmas season, was the safety of people at those Christmas markets.

New types of barriers, any way to try and improve the safety, to make sure exactly what happened tonight does not happen, as it did in 2016.

So certainly, there's going to be a lot of people who are going to -- a lot of questions to answer, because this was a big political issue here in this country.

And again, right now, the authorities are saying that at least one person has been killed. It seems as though dozens of people have been injured. And we know that the governor of that state is now on the scene as well for us.

KEILAR: All right. And we are awaiting more information as authorities are going to update us. Huge concerns here about what kinds of injuries and if the casualty number here is going to grow in Magdeburg, Germany.

Very alarming. At least one person dead, several hurt after a car, a car plowed into a crowd at a Christmas market in Germany on a very busy Friday evening.

We'll get in a quick break. We'll be right back with more on our breaking news. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)