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Ford Joins Growing List Of Trump Inaugural Fund Donors; Biggest Crime and Justice Headlines Of 2024; House Report Finds Evidence Matt Gaetz Paid For Sex & Drugs. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired December 24, 2024 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[06:30:20]
RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.
You can now add Ford to the growing lineup of major companies donating to Donald Trump's inaugural fund. The company confirmed that it is donating $1 million plus a fleet of vehicles, to the president elects upcoming inauguration.
Ford is now the latest company to make a donation, joining General Motors, OpenAI, Amazon and Meta. There's also been a steady stream of tech industry CEOs cozying up to Trump, making the trek down to Mar-a- Lago since his reelection.
Among them, the leaders of Meta, Apple, Google, TikTok, Netflix and Amazon. A phenomenon that has not gone unnoticed by the president- elect.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: I did have a dinner with Tim Cook. I had dinner with sort of almost all of them, and the rest are coming. And this is one of the big differences, I think, between we were talking about it before. One of the big differences between the first term, in the first term, everybody was fighting me. In this term, everybody wants to be my friend. I don't know, my personality changed or something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: All right. Lets' bring our panel back in.
Alex, let me start with you. What are you hearing on this?
ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, I can tell you that people around Donald Trump do not think his personality has changed. What has changed is that people, the sort of society around him and that all these companies no longer feel any sort of stigma of donating to Donald Trump, and they know Donald Trump is incredibly transactional person. The reason why Elon Musk has so much influence in this incoming administration is not just because Donald Trump likes SpaceX or likes spending time with Elon Musk. It's because Elon Musk spent over $200 million helping him get elected, and all these companies are taking that cue.
SOLOMON: Hmm. Brad, let me get your take on the topic of tariffs, especially. U.S. automakers could get hit particularly hard when it comes to the components needed to build a new car. So this is according to CNBC. But they, quote, putting tariffs on components could add $600 to $2,500 per vehicle in parts from Mexico, Canada and China. That's according to estimates in a Wells Fargo analyst note.
Prices on vehicles assembled in Mexico and Canada, which account for about 23 percent of vehicles sold in the U.S., could rise $1,750 to $10,000.
Brad, how does that help Trump?
BRAD TODD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I don't think Donald Trump wants to put tariffs on Mexico and Canada. He says he's going to put them put tariffs on them. If they can't get the border secure on their side of it. That's -- and clearly, that's -- that's a tariff. There's a tariff and there's a threat of a tariff.
And access to the United States market is one of the biggest weapons we have to effect change in policies in our other trading partners. I think Donald Trump will be satisfied if Mexico and Canada do all the things they need to do to secure the border and to -- to let our products in there and then and then move on.
Remember, he's the one that renegotiated the what was NAFTA now is the U.S. Mexico, Canada trade agreement. So let's -- let's all watch this play out and lets watch see how the threat works.
SOLOMON: Max, how are Democrats watching this play out? I mean, obviously, Trump ran on a on a campaign of lowering prices. Some economists have pointed out that some of his policies that he has floated. To your point, Brad, floating a policy versus implementing a policy are very different. But some have pointed out could be really inflationary.
MAX ROSE, FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: I'm sorry, was that to me? So, so look -- I my apologies.
So, look, in the end, right. This is not what Donald Trump ran on. Donald Trump ran and won this presidential election largely by co- opting traditional Democratic talking points in and around, fighting an elitist class that was both culturally estranged from working people and working against the economic interests of working people. He did not run on this notion that he was going to parade billionaires down to Mar-a-Lago in what is ultimately an escalator of transactional deals.
So this speaks to potentially what the Trump administration will actually look like, which is traditional Republican politics of being there for the top 1 percent. That's not only a bad set of policies and agendas for working people in the United States of America, but its also going to be very poor politics. --
SOLOMON: Well, let me let you have the last --
TODD: Wait a minute, people like Mark Zuckerberg --
SOLOMON: Go ahead. Go ahead, Brad. Go ahead.
TODD: Well, people like Mark Zuckerberg have been in the pocket of Democrats and donating millions and millions of Democrats -- to Democrats for -- for generations, these same donors who you're decrying for going to Mar-a-Lago to meet with President-elect Trump, they're Democratic donors. I don't know how you can -- how you can take those things and not equate them.
ROSE: So I'm not decrying this. What I'm saying ultimately, is this is not what Donald Trump ran on. Where were the commercials that said that he is going to surround himself by billionaires at Mar-a-Lago who give me give him a million bucks?
[06:35:07]
Where were the commercials that said he's going to listen to donors and then talk about annexing the Panama Canal because someone's upset about their higher toll rates, that they're -- that they're paying. This is not what he spoke about, but it is how he is governing.
SOLOMON: Max, let me actually. Brad, we're actually going to turn to Panama Canal because that's the perfect segue there. Donald Trumps pitch to retake the Panama Canal has been drawing harsh criticism, at least from Panama's president, who said that the president-elect doesn't really understand history. Take a listen.
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JOSE RAUL MULINO, PANAMANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): This was -- that is a manifestation of gross ignorance of history. So all those speculations and all that range of eventualities that are not going to happen, well, I leave them there as totally irrelevant issues and quite bordering on historical incoherence with what the Panama Canal has been, is and will be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Now, the people of panama falling in line with their president, saying that they are prepared to fight for what's theirs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): That will never happen. That will never happen because you will have to kill all the Panamanians who live here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): All Panamanians of all ages, of all classes, and of all social conditions, and with all political beliefs have to close ranks at this moment when the country demands that we defend the canal. (END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Leah, let me have you have the first word here. Your thoughts on this.
LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST & HISTORIAN: So I think this is a tactic by Donald Trump. And in fact, it's not a new tactic. It's a tactic that he has. He consistently went with during his first term in office. And it's a tactic to ultimately get something that he wants.
He doesn't actually want the Panama Canal. He wants something else. He's just not being transparent as of yet about what he actually wants. It's the same thing with Greenland.
Greenland is a little bit a little bit more transparent in and of itself because of the trade routes, because of the resources, because of the melting ice caps. And so there's something within there that Donald Trump wants. And so usually when he wants something, he says something outlandish around it. Mexico is going to build a wall.
We are going to take back this. We are going to make Canada the 51st state. And what it's designed to do is, in fact, attract a lot of attention to a larger issue. And so that he can sit at a table and say, this is what I want. These are the demands.
The actual idea that the United States is going to invade Canada or force Canada to invade Panama, or force Panama to give back the canal is actually is outlandish and as ludicrous as the president alluded to. The president of Panama alluded to.
This is very Donald Trump. This is a very Donald Trump tactic. And as we move into 2025 and his second term in office, I would not be surprised if we continue to see tactics like this.
SOLOMON: But, Brad, if Donald Trump isn't serious or if there is actually something else he wants, does he run the risk? And what are the risks of antagonizing allies? Neighbors that were previously friendly with the U.S.?
TODD: Well, first off, most Republicans who are old enough to remember it still regret the fact that we gave away the Panama Canal in the 1970s. Americans built it. Americans bled and died to build it.
And it's a key to American trade. But secondly, Donald -- you can't criticize Donald Trump for not promoting trade on tariffs and then promoting trade by trying to secure trade routes. It's got to be one or the other.
I think that most people hear him talk about the canal and talk about other trading routes, and they know he's a little -- there's a little bit of bluster here, a little bit of overstatement. But they get that he's trying to put America's interests economically first, ahead of our allies and not caring what our allies think.
Now, that was in the campaign. It was part of his mandate to put America first in all these dealings and not worry about what our allies will think about us.
SOLOMON: Alex, your thoughts? What are you hearing? I mean, there's always sort of I think sometimes -- you know, Leah has said outlandish, but sometimes when there are these comments from Trump that that come out of left field, there's always a question of is he serious? Is he not serious? Is this a negotiating tactic? Is this a bargaining tool? What are you hearing?
THOMPSON: Everything's a negotiating tactic with Donald Trump. And to Brad's point, the Panama Canal has actually been sort of an issue on the right. Going back to Ronald Reagan, who was really an active campaigner against the return of the canal, which was part of the treaty with the canal.
But, you know, the thing is that Donald Trump sees everything as transactional, and he wants in every single thing he says is about leverage. And it's a joke until it's not.
SOLOMON: Max, your thoughts about what this tells us, about what the next four years could look like?
ROSE: Yeah, look, this is Donald Trump implicitly threatening military action because in the end, right, if you if you look at this clash of two nations interests, what Donald Trump is saying is in the end, we can just take it from you. The same administration, the same campaign that said that they were the most anti-war politicians in modern political history.
[06:40:01]
This is exceedingly dangerous, not just because it represents a threat of military action, but because also negotiation 101 is don't make a threat that you cannot actually follow up on. And for the life of me, I can't understand how Donald Trump would actually take back the Panama Canal involving a nation that doesn't want that to happen without military action.
SOLOMON: Brad, your reaction to what Max just said?
TODD: Again, I think you have to always -- you know, I said this back in 2016, but first you have to take Donald Trump seriously. Not literally, because that's the way his voters take him. I think that what you have to look at this and say, Donald Trump is very serious about promoting American interests in our dealings with all of our partners. That's where -- that's his number one lodestar.
You know, we've come out of this period where of Obama-ism, as I like to call it, where Barack Obama really mainly wanted us to have a better reputation that the United Nations. That's not Donald Trump. This is the opposite of that, where he puts the interests of Americans first and foremost and is willing to take on some scar tissue with some of our partners because of it.
SOLOMON: Okay. We'll leave it here. Panel, thank you.
And straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, Bill Clinton hospitalized. What we are learning about the former president's condition?
Plus, a bombshell report. The House Ethics Committee finds Matt Gaetz broke Florida's statutory rape law with thousands of dollars for sex and drugs. Coming up, Congressman Glenn Ivey, who sits on the House Ethics Committee, is here next to discuss.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D-IL): Would they ever have released it if he had not resigned ind if he was no longer under consideration? That's very disturbing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Well, first of all, I -- it's -- it's an honor to meet you. I'm -- I'm sorry for what happened. And what -- what is it like being back?
PAUL WHELAN, AMERICAN WRONGFULLY DETAINED IN RUSSIA FOR MORE THAN 5 YEARS: Well, thanks for having me, Anderson. It's an honor for me, too. I've been a fan for years. Being back, it's -- it's surreal. I'm in a world that used to be familiar and it isn't. I'm getting used to just simple things.
COOPER: You were held in a prison in Moscow initially, which is a notorious. It's a high, like, maximum security prison, I think, it's a very notorious prison.
WHELAN: Yes. Lefortovo, it's called the Shooting Gallery because that's where the Russians used to and probably still do shoot their own people. It's a -- it's a horrendously old rundown facility. And, you know, you're in a small cell by yourself basically 23 hours a day.
COOPER: How long were you in that facility?
WHELAN: For a year and a half.
COOPER: I cannot imagine. Suddenly, from being in your hotel room visiting your friend for a wedding, to being in this notorious prison, how do you mentally not just panic and freak out?
WHELAN: I probably did panic and freaked out.
Very quickly, I -- I realized that what was happening was real. You know, there was some solace in the fact that I knew my -- my ambassadors would be coming to find out what was happening. I wasn't sure how long it would take to resolve.
I knew I hadn't done anything. I hadn't violated the Espionage Law. I'm not a spy. I never have been. They'd either made a mistake or they were making it up.
COOPER: Once you, after the trial, you were sentenced like 16 years, I think?
WHELAN: Right. Yes.
COOPER: You were sent to a labor camp in Mordovia, and you're still, for the next three, four years, you are woken up every two hours at night.
WHELAN: Yes, I was an escape risk, apparently. Mordovia, there's nothing -- there's nothing out there, it's woods, it's forests, you know.
COOPER: And so what they would come in, wake you up, and what?
WHELAN: They'd shine a light in my eyes and then take a picture with a camera to prove that they had -- they had checked me.
COOPER: Every night, every two hours?
WHELAN: Every two hours.
COOPER: For years.
WHELAN: For four years.
COOPER: Do you -- can you sleep normally now?
WHELAN: Now I'm getting back to a normal sleep pattern. It's difficult.
COOPER: What was that flight like? What was, you know, we saw the video of you at the tarmac in, you know, on American soil, being greeted by President Biden, by the -- the vice president as well. What was that like?
WHELAN: You know, that -- that was -- that was incredible. And, you know, we see on the monitor the -- the president putting something on my shirt, and it's actually this.
COOPER: That's the --
WHELAN: The flag. Yes. This is the lapel pin. I didn't realize when we got on the plane, it was a CIA plane flying back, that we were going to meet the President and Vice President. You know, I -- I'd been in solitary confinement for the five days prior. I hadn't had a shower in two weeks. I had clothes on that I'd actually worn when I went to Russia. So --
COOPER: The clothes you're wearing there, are those the clothes you were --
WHELAN: Those are the clothes, yes, yes. So they were dirty. I was dirty. On the plane, I had to clean up as well as I could and, you know.
COOPER: Also look like they don't really fit you anymore. WHELAN: No, they don't because I'd lost so much weight. Yes. It, you know, I, you know, you -- you saw me walking off very kind of gingerly coming down those stairs, holding on, because I -- I didn't have the strength. I didn't have the balance. The malnutrition had -- had taken a toll.
It -- it was interesting to see the President. It was interesting to see the Vice President, but there was a lot of media, too, and I was -- I was glad to see them. Those were the people that had supported me.
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JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Music superstars charged in criminal court, parents of a school shooter land in prison, and an insurance executive gunned down, shot in the back in the heart of New York City, all part of the top 10 crime and justice stories of 2024.
[06:50:04]
Number 10, a conviction in the murders of Abigail Williams and Liberty German.
(voice-over): Two young Delphi, Indiana, girls have an afternoon off from school in February 2017. A family member drops them off to hike at the Monon High Bridge Trail. Libby and Abby were never seen again. Their bodies were found together the next day, with their throats cut.
Libby's phone had pivotal video evidence of a suspect.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Down the hill.
CASAREZ: Local resident Richard Allen was arrested in 2022 and was later convicted by a jury of his peers.
Number nine, charges in connection to the death of a beloved actor.
MATTHEW PERRY, ACTOR: When I dance, I look like this.
CASAREZ: Matthew Perry, who became a household name on the hit show "Friends," found dead in October 2023, his body floating face down in a hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home with ketamine in his system. Five people now charged in connection with his death, including two doctors.
ANNE MILGRAM, ADMINISTRATOR, DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION: Matthew Perry sought treatment for depression and anxiety, and went to a local clinic, where he became addicted to intravenous ketamine.
CASAREZ: Three of the defendants have reached plea agreements, while the other two have pleaded not guilty.
Number eight, a stunning end to Alec Baldwin's manslaughter trial. Baldwin goes to trial following the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of his film "Rust." Prosecutors said Baldwin pulled the trigger of a prop gun during a rehearsal, but the gun had a live round, killing Hutchins.
Within two days, the involuntary manslaughter case was thrown out over withheld evidence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dismissal with prejudice is warranted.
CASAREZ: Number seven, pop star Justin Timberlake arrested for driving while intoxicated.
Timberlake is pulled over while driving in Sag Harbor, New York. Court records alleged he was glassy-eyed with a strong odor of alcohol on his breath. He told police he only had one martini. Three months later, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of driving while impaired.
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, MUSICIAN: Even one drink, don't get behind the wheel of a car.
CASAREZ (on camera): Number six, an Illinois woman shot and killed in her own home by police.
(voice-over): Thirty-six-year-old Sonya Massey called 911 on July 6 because she thought an intruder was in her home. Deputies responded, but a dispute over a pot of hot water on the stove became the focus.
SEAN GRAYSON, FORMER SANGAMON COUNTY, ILLINOIS, POLICE DEPUTY: Huh. Away from your hot, steaming water?
SONYA MASSEY, KILLED IN POLICE SHOOTING: Away from my hot, steaming water?
GRAYSON: Yes.
MASSEY: I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. I rebuke you in the name of --
(CROSSTALK)
GRAYSON: You better (EXPLETIVE DELETED) not. I swear to God, I'll (EXPLETIVE DELETED) shoot you right in your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) face.
MASSEY: OK. I'm sorry.
GRAYSON: Drop the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) pot! Drop the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) pot!
(GUNSHOTS)
CASAREZ: Sangamon County Sheriff's Deputy Sean Grayson was fired and has pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges.
Number five, after 35 years in prison, two brothers have the possibility of freedom. Lyle and Erik Menendez planned, plotted and executed the murders of their parents in 1989. The brothers said they acted in self-defense after suffering years of physical and sexual abuse by their record executive father.
The first jury trial ended in a mistrial, but included their sexual abuse testimony.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you recall the first time that he wasn't nice during the session?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you were 11?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was 11.
CASAREZ: But during a second trial, the brothers were convicted. Now
they say they have new evidence. And with a Netflix docudrama on the case --
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: We did it.
CASAREZ: -- as well as the sudden support of now-former L.A. district attorney George Gascon, the chance for freedom is possible.
But the new DA, Nathan Hochman, is making no promises.
NATHAN HOCHMAN, INCOMING LOS ANGELES COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Got to review thoroughly the facts and the law.
CASAREZ: Number four, the chief executive officer of insurance giant UnitedHealthcare gunned down in New York City.
Brian Thompson, in town for a conference, was shot and killed in the early morning hours of December 4 outside of the Hilton in Midtown Manhattan.
TISCH: It appears the suspect was lying in wait for several minutes.
CASAREZ: On December 9, the NYPD announced 26-year-old Luigi Mangione had been arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, while eating at a McDonald's. He was in possession of a document criticizing the health care industry, a police official told CNN.
Mangione has been charged with murder, among other counts, in state and federal court.
[06:55:03]
Mangione's attorney denies his client was involved in the killing.
Number three, a Georgia nursing student murdered on her morning jog.
Twenty-five minutes into that run, Laken Riley was killed. GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): This community, all of Georgia and the entire country have been robbed by this inexcusable and avoidable murder.
CASAREZ: Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old migrant from Venezuela, was charged with her murder. The trial in November brought an unemotional Ibarra and Riley's family together in the same room.
ALLYSON PHILLIPS, MOTHER OF LAKEN RILEY: This sick, twisted and evil coward showed no regard for Laken or human life.
CASAREZ: Ibarra was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Number two, it was precedent-setting, parents of a mass school shooter on trial themselves for the deaths of the students their son gunned down.
KAREN MCDONALD, OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN, PROSECUTOR: Gun ownership is a right. And with that right comes great responsibility.
CASAREZ: Jennifer and James Crumbley the parents of the Oxford, Michigan, high school shooter, went to trial in early 2024 on involuntary manslaughter charges.
In a first-of-its-kind prosecution, the state alleged the Crumbleys bought their son a gun days before the mass shooting and didn't properly store it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Despite her knowledge of his deteriorating mental crisis, this gun was gifted.
CASAREZ: Jennifer then took the stand.
JENNIFER CRUMBLEY, DEFENDANT: There's a couple of times where Ethan had expressed anxiety over taking tests, but not to a level where I felt he needed to go see a psychiatrist or a mental health professional right away, no.
CASAREZ: With the community still overcome by grief from the four students murdered by their son, both parents were convicted by unanimous juries. They are appealing their verdicts.
And the number one crime and justice story of the year, music superstar Sean "Diddy" Combs arrested.
Combs was charged in September with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and prostitution-related charges.
DAMIAN WILLIAMS, U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: Combs used force, threats of force, and coercion to cause victims to engage in extended sexual performances with male commercial sex workers.
CASAREZ: The indictment specifically notes surveillance video showing Combs beating his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura at a hotel in March 2016. Combs apologized after CNN aired that video in May.
SEAN "DIDDY" COMBS, DEFENDANT: I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I'm disgusted.
CASAREZ: Combs remains in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York City. He has pleaded not guilty.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLOMON: Groceries, dry clean, kale and, quote, being my friend, those are all descriptions that former Congressman Matt Gaetz allegedly used to disguise the Venmo payments that he may have made to women for sex and drugs. That's all according to a newly released House Ethics report into alleged sexual misconduct and illicit drug use by Gaetz. One Democratic congressman warning that there was a chance the public would have never gotten to see the report.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUIGLEY: The Republican controlled ethics committee had refused to release this report while Mr. Gaetz was still under consideration for that position. Would they ever have released it if he had not resigned and if he was no longer under consideration? That's very disturbing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: All right. Joining me now is Democratic Representative Glenn Ivey of Maryland. He currently sits on that house ethics committee and was previously a state and federal prosecutor.
Congressman, so good to have you this morning. Thanks for the time.
REP. GLENN IVEY (D-MD): Thanks for having me.
SOLOMON: So what do you make of what you just heard from your -- your colleague there of the fact that the committee only released the report only after Gaetz was no longer in the running for a cabinet position?
IVEY: Well, I think, you know, there was certainly a strong interest in releasing it so that the Senate could hear it, in the event he'd had confirmation hearings and they would have had to vote on whether he would be the attorney general or not. After he stepped away from that, I thought it was important for the public to get the information.
In any event, I think, you know, the serious nature of the findings here really justifies that. And its also important for the House members who are still going to be sitting to know what -- what he did and what's over the line and what's not.
SOLOMON: And unfortunately, were running out of time here. We had some technical issues, but was there something specific in the report that ultimately pushed two of your Republican colleagues to vote to release it?
IVEY: Well, I'm not speaking about which number of, you know who did what on the vote, but, I think it was just the combination of facts and the findings. The staff did an outstanding job in this investigation and brought forward, you know, very serious issues, that of things that, you know, the evidence backed up that he had done the sex with the 17 year old girl, I think was -- was the most prominent among those.
But the issues about prostitution, the payments and the like, the illicit drug use while he was in office, all of those things, I think, combined to give us a sense that these are things the public should know. And, you know, whether he, you know, runs for office down the road or just stays in the private sector, you know, voters or future employers ought to know what -- what took place.
SOLOMON: Representative Glenn Ivey, so good to have you today. Thank you. And happy holidays.
IVEY: Thank you.
SOLOMON: And thanks to our panel. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Rahel Solomon.
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