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Russia Says, Ukraine Fires U.S.-Made Longer-Range Missiles into Russia; Trump Confirms Plan to Use Military for Mass Deportations; Musk, Trump Increase Pressure as Some GOP Push Back on Gaetz. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired November 19, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

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JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. You are live in the scene of Newsroom. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

We begin this morning with Ukraine firing the first powerful U.S.-made longer range missiles inside Russia just days after President Biden Authorize their use. That's according to the Russian military. Moscow has said this constitutes direct U.S. participation. It's being seen by the Kremlin as a major escalation of a conflict that began 1,000 days ago. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warning about what's ahead if Vladimir Putin is not stopped,

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Putin has brought 11,000 North Korean troops to Ukraine's borders. This continent may grow to 100,000. While some European leaders think about, you know, some elections or something like this at Ukraine's expense, Putin is focused on winning this war. He will not stop on his own.

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ACOSTA: All right. Let's discuss with incoming Democratic Congressman Eugene Vindman. He just won a seat in Virginia. He's also a retired U.S. Army colonel. Congressman-elect, welcome back to the program. I see you're up on Capitol Hill getting started there, but I do want to get your reaction to Russia saying Ukraine has fired these ATACMS missiles, your sense of how this could change the direction of the war.

REP.-ELECT EUGENE VINDMAN (D-VA): Well, look, first of all, Jim, thanks for having me on. It's great to be up here on Capitol Hill. We've got a lot of work to do. Look, the Ukrainians' use of ATACMS has long been necessary for the battlefield. And it's not an escalation, especially if you look at it in the context of the fact that the North Koreans have sent 11,000, 10,000 or so troops. The Russians are the ones that have been escalating this conflict repeatedly. The Ukrainians are responding.

And, you know, they're fighting an existential war. So, they need to have their hands untied so they can fight it and defend their territory.

And, Congressman-elect, what about our reporting that Russia is updating its nuclear doctrine after saying Ukraine fired U.S. weapons into the country, into Russia, Russia essentially saying that now the U.S. is involved?

VINDMAN: Look, the Russians have claimed that NATO and the U.S. have been involved since day one. This is typical Russian nuclear saber rattling. I'm not saying to dismiss it out of hand, but I'm saying to treat it with the seriousness that it deserves to be treated with, which we can't ignore it, but we can't also be self-deterred with this nuclear saber rattling.

I wouldn't put a huge amount of stock into it. They've already had nuclear systems deployed to Belarus. And this is their technique, tried and true technique to get the United States and the west to self-deter.

ACOSTA: And I did want to get your reaction to this, I'm sure you saw this, Congressman-elect, Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying that this war will end, quote, faster when Trump takes office. Trump has promised to cut a quick deal. It sounds as though the Ukrainians from his standpoint will have to give up some land in order to end this conflict. What's your sense of all that? And what do you make of what Zelenskyy has said?

VINDMAN: Well, look the Ukrainians have been fighting for 2.5 years. They've been under sustained pressure the entire time. It's the Russians, frankly, that have not had a great deal of pressure on them. So, this war ends only when the Russians feel pressured. Right now, they feel like they have the initiative on the battlefield. They feel like they may have initiative in the geopolitical sense and the way some of the elections have turned out, in the U.S. election, in some ways, especially with some of the appointments or the nominations from this next administration. But it only ends when the Russians feel pressure.

And so I think the president has said he's going to end this war in 24 hours. I would love that. I think the Ukrainians would love that as well. But it's got to be on terms that are acceptable to the Europeans, the Ukrainians, the west. And that only happens if the Russians have pressure on them. And so it's time, you know, for the president to put the money where his mouth is.

ACOSTA: Yes. And, Congressman, you did mention Trump's cabinet picks. That is quickly taking shape, no question about it. The Wall Street Journal editorial board is slamming his selection of former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as his director of National Intelligence, saying she has given no indication, that's according to The Wall Street Journal, that she is the right person for the job.

[10:05:01]

You were White House National Security Council senior ethics official. Are you concerned about Gabbard serving as the director of National Intelligence? What do you think about that pick? VINDMAN: Look, I'm concerned about a number of his appointments. They range in some ways from folks that I would disagree with on sort of policy grounds, to folks that are unqualified, and folks that have a questionable commitment to the rule of law.

I think Tulsi Gabbard is somebody who's peddled in conspiracy theories for years. She's been an apologist for dictators, including Bashar al- Assad and the Russians for that matter.

So, I'm concerned about this nomination. I think that the Senate, which has a constitutional obligation to advice and consent to the president's appointments, is going to take its job very seriously. I hope they do, and they do their due diligence.

ACOSTA: And you're coming into the Congress as a Democrat, part of a minority there up on Capitol Hill, but just by a little bit. I mean, we'll have to see how the final numbers shake out, but the Republicans look like they'll have the majority just by a smidge. And yesterday, Trump did confirm that he will declare a national emergency and use the military to carry out mass deportations. You obviously served in the military. What's your response to that? And given the numbers up on Capitol Hill, is there anything Democrats can do to stop him from carrying out those mass deportations with the use of the military?

VINDMAN: Look, the president has made a statement. It's not backed up by any details, so it's hard to assess exactly what he's looking at doing. Anytime you have American troops on American soil performing what appear to be law enforcement functions, that's obviously a concern in Posse Comitatus and whether it complies with the laws of the land.

So, I am concerned, but I look forward to seeing exactly what it is the president is referring to. Is he using troops to construct camps? Is he using troops to round people up? I have no idea. The whole thing is concerning and I think that our caucus and every member of the House and Congress is, with of good conscience, ought to be concerned and ought to be looking at this very closely.

ACOSTA: And just finally, while I have you here, I mean, you won a House seat in Virginia while Democrats didn't do so well in elections across the country when there were some cases here and there where Democratic senators were elected where Trump won battleground states and so on. So, I mean, it's hard to form hard and fast conclusions at this point, but you did win that House seat in Virginia when things were moving in Trump's direction, even in Virginia, although he didn't win the state. Do you draw any lessons from the 2024 elections that you think the Democratic Party could learn from?

VINDMAN: Jim, I've drawn a ton of lessons since this is the first time I've entered sort of politics from this year of running for office and being elected. And there are lots of lessons to be learned from my race in Virginia's Seventh Congressional District, which is a bellwether, very purple district, and from Virginia in general.

And so I think those lessons the entire country ought to be looking at the Seventh Congressional District in Virginia and drawing the lessons about where to make our case, how to make our case, go to places like Democrats, frankly, are not seen very often, go into a rodeo, go into NASCAR races, go into mosques, churches, synagogues, and making sure we're talking to every constituent, that we're not writing anybody off even if we feel like they may not be our voters. Voters want to be listened to, and that's probably one of the biggest lessons that I've learned.

ACOSTA: All right. Congressman-elect Eugene Vindman, best of luck up on Capitol Hill, thanks very much for your time, we appreciate it.

VINDMAN: Thank you, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. In the meantime today, President-elect Donald Trump is determined to see his most controversial cabinet picks confirmed by the Senate, including his selection for attorney general, embattled former Congressman Matt Gaetz. Trump is back on the road today, set to attend a SpaceX launch in Texas with Elon Musk. And CNN's Alayna Treene joins us now.

Alayna, Musk and Trump are trying to get Gaetz confirmed. I mean, it's sort of a two-man front here working these senators behind the scenes. What are you learning?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: That's right. And I think the key thing to keep in mind here, Jim, is just how important the attorney general role is to Donald Trump. That is the most important cabinet position that he is going to fill. And also Gaetz is someone that Donald Trump hand selected. And so he is very much determined to get him through. We know that in the past 24 hours or so, he has been calling up Republican senators, putting pressure on them to really fall in line behind him.

And one thing we've heard as well that I find really interesting is that Gaetz is not someone that Donald Trump wants to sacrifice. He and his team know behind the scenes how hard it is to be able to get enough votes to get him confirmed. But he's thinking Gaetz isn't the one that he's going to want to sacrifice. There are other picks that are also controversial.

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We know Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth, others who might have trouble as well in the Senate. Gaetz is not someone that Donald Trump wants to back away from.

Now, as for what Musk is doing, we saw him weigh in on this publicly. I know that he's telling Donald Trump this privately and others on the team, but he's also making his opinion known publicly. This is what he said this morning. I'm going to read some of it for you. He posted on X, quote, Matt Gaetz has three critical assets that are needed for the A.G. role, a big brain, a spine of steel and an axe to grind. In another post, he wrote, as for these accusations against him, I consider them worth less than nothing. Under our laws, a man is considered innocent until proving guilty. He went on to criticize Merrick Garland. All to say, though, I think we're going to have to see what happens with this report. We know that Congress is weighing whether to publish the House Ethics report against him. There's so much controversy around him. But all in all, Donald Trump is really digging in until he believes that this is untenable. And as for now, he thinks that he's going to be able to get gates through one way or another.

ACOSTA: Yes, he's really testing these Republican senators to see whether or not they're going to disobey. And Trump also unveiling more cabinet picks, including transportation secretary, yet another Fox host. This is becoming kind of a Fox cabinet.

TREENE: It is. It's a little bit of a pattern. I mean, obviously, Pete Hegseth, his pick for the Department of Defense, was a Fox News host as well. I mean, Sean Duffy, a former Republican congressman from Wisconsin. I think it is most notable that he has been on Fox News a lot. He hosted a show on Fox Business.

The thing I hear behind the scenes is that Donald Trump, and it kind of reminds me of what he did in the lead up to his vice presidential pick, is he was watching these people that he is choosing for these top roles on television. He very much wants people who are going to be defending him on T.V., but --

ACOSTA: That's not hyperbole. He's literally doing it.

TREENE: He is literally watching this behind the scenes and helping make these decisions. And he also wants people who will be attack dogs for him on television as well and people who will be able to talk about what they're doing. That's why someone like Sean Duffy was appealing, I'm told, for that role.

Now, some of the other things playing out behind the scenes, of course, we know that there's still a number of positions that Donald Trump needs to fill, labor secretary, commerce secretary, et cetera. But one of the most interesting is what's happening, I think, with treasury right now.

We know that Donald Trump had many ideas in mind for who he wanted. Potentially Howard Lutnick, potentially Steve Bassett (ph). Now, those two not looking as likely. He wanted to make a decision earlier on, but now there's kind of been this contentious play behind the scenes for this. He's going to be interviewing more people for this, this week. So, I find that whole fight behind the scenes to be very interesting, and I think that'll likely be one of the new picks that we see come out.

ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, I remember when I was covering his first administration, I mean, he was very much into where the stock market was on a daily basis. And he sees a selection of a treasury secretary or perhaps somebody to lead the Fed as being very much tied to what's taking place in the markets.

TREENE: Right. And also one thing as well is remember that Steve Mnuchin was one of his only secretaries that actually lasted the entire four years. It was an actual pretty stable position, you know, when you take in all of what the Trump administration was.

And so, yes, he wants someone who's going to have a big name for treasury, a big business name that people will, you know, see that he has -- this person has the credentials, but also someone who will be compatible with him, and, of course, like everything else, loyal to Donald Trump.

ACOSTA: All right. Alayna Treene, thanks very much. I appreciate it.

Any moment, the judge and Donald Trump's New York hush money case is expected to make a key decision on whether that conviction will hold. We're going to tell you about this. It could be a very dramatic moment and decision coming up in just a few moments.

Stay with us.

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ACOSTA: Just in to CNN, New York Representative Hakeem Jeffries has been reelected to lead the House Democratic Caucus in the next Congress. Jeffries, of course, had hoped the Democrats might win the majority, giving him the speaker's gavel. That did not happen, and many in the party are now looking to him to help Democrats return to power.

But he could still wield a significant influence with Democrats behind him if Republican Speaker Mike Johnson needs him to pass critical legislation. We'll keep a close eye on all of this moving forward.

In the meantime, at any moment, we're expecting a decision from Judge Juan Merchan on whether Donald Trump's New York felony conviction will hold up. The president-elect was found guilty in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records.

Let's bring in CNN's Kara Scannell. Kara, could we get -- I mean, I think last week we were saying this was delayed and we were wondering what was going to happen. Could we get a -- I feel like this is Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Are we going to get a final answer on this today? What's happening?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think that is still the big unknown. What we do know is going to happen today is that the district attorney's office will tell the judge what they want to do, how they want to proceed with this case. The deadline for them to give their note to the judge on this is 10:00 A.M. But when we get this information, we still don't know.

But there could be a number of options. The D.A.'s office could say that they want to proceed with this case. They're willing to litigate it, which Trump's team has signaled is something that they would do. They don't want this immunity decision to come down. They don't want Trump to be sentenced, and that's currently scheduled for next week. It's possible, the D.A.'s office says, looking at the law, looking at their legal options, they don't see a way to proceed forward, and then it would be in the judge's hands to decide what to do if he would move and grant Trump's motion to dismiss this case.

I mean, there are a range of options here. The number of people I've spoken to, I get that many different scenarios of how this could play out. I mean, it's also possible the D.A.'s office could say, why don't we just put this on hold for four years? I mean, ultimately, it will go to the judge for him to decide how he wants to proceed. And if this case is going to move forward, we do expect Trump's team to file additional legal filings. They've hinted at that as much in their last filing.

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So, you know, a lot waiting on this decision and how things move forward will really be dictated by what the D.A.'s office says they want to do here. So much at stake, but we say it all the time, it's unprecedented. This really is because none of these laws have been challenged in this way of having a president-elect in a state conviction colliding at the same time, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. I know you'll be watching it. Everybody's refreshing their browsers in New York following this case. Kara Scannell, thank you very much.

In moments from now, FEMA Director Deanne Criswell is set to testify up on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers are expected to grill her over the federal response to hurricanes Milton and Helene. This comes after a FEMA supervisor was fired for allegedly telling some aid workers in Florida to avoid homes with Trump signs.

CNN's Gabe Cohen joins me now. Gabe, this is just one of two hearings with Criswell today. What can we expect? And if you could, help us sort through these allegations about what was going on with this one worker at FEMA, this one supervisor at FEMA.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So to your first question, I think this is going to feel like an interrogation by Republican lawmakers of the FEMA administrator, because they are arguing that what we're seeing in this story is evidence of a culture problem at FEMA that they have been refusing to help Republicans, Republican victims of storms in these hard-hit areas for years. But as you mentioned, there is some additional context here that I think is really important.

So, you may remember that after Hurricane Helene hit in September, what we saw was Donald Trump on the campaign trail spreading a lot of rumors about FEMA that really felt baseless. One of the big ones was that the agency was not helping Republicans in these hard-hit areas.

Now, after that, we started to see these really alarming incidents of FEMA workers on the frontlines who are being harassed and threatened by people in these communities and FEMA officials even started to quietly raise red flags saying our crews really just don't feel safe in the field, and it is right after that, just a couple weeks later that we see this supervisor, Marni Washington, who sends this guidance to her team. It's a very small group of aid workers in one part of Florida saying today your guidance is to avoid homes that advertise Trump. That means they put out things like flags and signs.

When this story leaked, FEMA immediately fired Washington. They said, this does not hold up with their values, and it will not be tolerated, but I have since talked to Marni Washington. She says she's being scapegoated here, that she was getting orders from above at FEMA.

The thing is, she says it wasn't political. It was about safety in those moments, that there was this growing concern about the threats they were receiving because of the rumors. I want to play a quick clip from Marni Washington. Here's a bit of what she told our CNN team last night.

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MARNI WASHINGTON, FORMER FEMA EMPLOYEE: What I'd like for the American people to know is before I even deployed to Florida, that this was the work culture there. I was on two teams in Florida, and the first team, when I arrived, they were implementing avoidance and de-escalation. And, unfortunately, that trend ran with those Trump campaign signs.

I don't create policy. FEMA does. I just implement it in the field.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Yes. And so, again, she says this was coming from her supervisors. How high up that goes, we don't know, and we'll see what evidence Republicans have. But I asked her last night, would you do the same thing again? She said, hell, yes, because that's what it took to keep our crews safe.

But there is this bigger question, Jim, of does this violate federal law, The Hatch Act, the state of Florida, we know, is now suing both Marni Washington and FEMA's administrator. They claim, like a lot of prominent Republicans, this is a conspiracy from the top down. The question is, what evidence do Republicans actually have of a big conspiracy as opposed to a one-off, a miscommunication, we will see as these hearings get underway.

ACOSTA: And so, Gabe, I mean, because what you see online, what you see alleged by figures on the right, is that what FEMA was doing was saying, don't help the Trump people, don't help Trump supporters. If you see a house with a Trump sign, don't help those folks there. But what Marni Washington, and I guess what we might hear from Deanne Criswell up on Capitol, we don't know what she's going to testify, is that there was some guidance to be careful of certain areas because of these threats that were happening earlier on in the process after these storms hit. Is that essentially it?

COHEN: Correct. I mean, seeing Marni Washington and FEMA's administrator saying -- well, certainly, Marni Washington saying, we were still helping Trump supporters. We were just told avoid situations -- it's de-escalation tactic, essentially. That was avoid getting yourselves into that situation. If someone is seeking aid, give them support.

ACOSTA: Interesting. All right, that's a little different than what we're seeing online by some figures on the right in terms of stories that they're putting out there.

Gabe Cohen, thank you very much for that context. We appreciate it.

Coming up, a disturbing parade of hate swastikas in Columbus, Ohio. We'll speak to someone with the Anti-Defamation League about all of this. They're tracking it. That's next.

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ACOSTA: Ohio officials are denouncing a group of neo-Nazis who paraded through a Columbus neighborhood. We want to warn you, this video of the march is disturbing.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why are you hiding your faces? Don't hide your face. Don't hide your face.

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ACOSTA: More than a dozen people marched near downtown in Columbus. They carried swastika flags and did not show their faces. At least one yelled a racial slur over and over. It's just the latest among hundreds of white nationalist events in the U.S. over the past year. Just over a week ago, another group carried Nazi flags outside of Michigan community theater that was putting on a production of the Diary of Anne Frank.

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Oren Segal joins us now. He's vice president of the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism.