'Absolutely Critical Day' for Pete Hegseth
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A critical day: Trump's choice to leave the Pentagon in jeopardy as Trump allies raise questions about his past and... Martial law surprise: South Korea plunged into political chaos after their president declares martial law before quickly backing down.

Plus, a desperate search underway, a grandmother missing right now after possibly falling into this sinkhole. And... The airlines are relying more and more on these junk fees as a source of revenue. Airline cash grab, what a new Senate investigation is uncovering about those extra fees you pay to fly. All right, 6 a.m. here on the East Coast, a live look at the very, very beginning of the sunrise in New York City.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. It is a make-or-break day for Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense. In just hours, Pete Hegseth plans to return to Capitol Hill. He's supposed to meet with key Republican senators, including the next majority leader, John Thune, a senior Trump transition official, telling CNN today will be, quote,

absolutely critical. That source also suggesting that Hegseth hadn't been forthcoming with transition officials about his past behavior.

Over the weekend, The New Yorker reported that he was, quote, forced out of previous leadership positions for financial mismanagement, sexist behavior, and being repeatedly intoxicated on the job, end quote. Responding to those allegations and others, Hegseth has denied all wrongdoing. But amid these developments, a slight change in tone, it might be slight, but it's significant from Senate Republicans who would need to approve his nomination.

You know, some of these articles are very disturbing. He obviously has a chance to defend himself here, but some of this stuff is going to be difficult. You know, time will tell. I have not met with him yet. I'm looking forward to meeting with him. We'll be asking questions, but look, the president always gets the benefit of the doubt on his nominees. Of course, it's concerning, but I look forward to visiting with Pete about it and seeing. I'm interested in who Pete Hicks is today.

and who he is going forward. I believe that we need an FBI background check to evaluate the allegations. Multiple sources telling CNN Trump's allies are now making a list of possible replacements to lead the Pentagon.

On that list, Florida Governor, the former Trump challenger Ron DeSantis, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, and Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty. DeSantis and Ernst are both veterans, and like Hegseth, DeSantis has previously criticized the Pentagon for what he describes as woke policy. Should Hegseth's name be withdrawn, it would be the second Trump cabinet nominee to fail after would-be Attorney General Matt Gaetz.

Just yesterday, I spoke with senior Trump advisor Jason Miller, who seemed fairly certain about Hegseth's chances on Capitol Hill. Was the Trump transition aware of this information about Pete Hegseth's past? And are there any concerns inside the transition about it? Well, so when it comes to Pete Hegseth, there aren't any concerns. And we feel very good about his positioning for being confirmed by the Senate.

All right, our panel's here. Mark Preston, CNN senior political analyst. Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst, national political reporter for Axios. Megan Hayes, former director of message planning for the Biden White House. And Kristen Soltis Anderson, Republican pollster, strategist, and CNN political commentator. Welcome to all of you. I would be remiss for not mentioning that it's Wednesday, so we're wearing pink.

It's wonderful to have both of you here. Kristen, let me start with you on Hegseth and how this is looking because it does seem like what's coming out of Mar-a-Lago in the last 24 hours has really changed in tone. I think that what Lindsey Graham is on the Hill saying about him is pretty significant.

your sense of whether Trump is really willing to go to the mat as we learn more about Pete Hegseth when apparently he didn't tell them a lot of this and he could have.

So my sense is that Republican senators want to get to yes on as many of these choices as possible. They are not relishing the thought of a fight with Donald Trump. And frankly, Matt Gaetz, who had been nominated for attorney general and then withdrew, that was going to be, I think, the spiciest fight of all of them. So with him then stepping down, I wonder to what extent Republican senators are thinking, OK, if we put pressure on now for some of these more difficult choices,

can we actually avoid a big fight with Trump in front of the cameras during hearings? I think that's notable, that list of alternatives, folks like Joni Ernst from the Senate, very well liked in Trump world, would be very capable. But I think these senators, they're not relishing a fight with Trump. I think they'd rather avoid it if they can. - Right, well, but pulling Hegseth out now would of course avoid a public fight later. I mean, Mark Preston,

It's like if the list of people that's going to replace you is already out there, I mean, as the ship sailed. Maybe on the West by noon. Who knows? What's your sense of whether he can? I mean, this is a critical test day for him. We're expecting him to appear in the media, possibly with his mother, who sent an email during his 2018 divorce basically saying that he needed to seek help because of the behavior that he was exhibiting toward women. Yeah.

Yeah, devastating. I mean, no matter what his mother says right now, I mean, what she said initially in that email, I think was the final nail in the coffin for Hegseth. You know, not only is it an important day for him, which I think it will probably be his last day, if not one of his last days, it's an important day for John Thune, right? Now, somebody who has to tell Hegseth today, listen, you're not going to get through.

Like, that's his job now as the Republican leader, to try to clear the decks where there are problems. As Kristen was saying, try to get through as many people as possible. And you know what? Joni Ernst, I mean, what a twist on this. Joni Ernst is basically going to sink his-- you know, we would think that she would sink.

Hegsatz nomination, she could be defense secretary and she is very well liked. I mean, she is well liked. - I mean, to add to that, you know, don't look now, but the Senate Republicans may have really found their backbone the last two weeks. I mean, you could see if what you're saying is true, they could have sunk both, quietly sunk, Trump's nominees for attorney general and secretary of defense, despite this reputation of like, oh, they're doing, they're just like overly loyal. And they're basically very quietly,

Telling Trump, you know, this person can get through, this person can't get through. About Joni Ernst, you know, the one thing that she's going to have to overcome is that she's been very supportive of Ukraine and its war against Russia. A lot of sort of the MAGA base are very, very skeptical of her. And the way they aren't about Ron DeSantis. And Ron DeSantis, you know, despite the tensions between the two, the one thing about DeSantis that I've heard appeals to sort of some of the Trump team, the guy's a nerd. The guy's a wad.

Wait, so why does this appeal to the Trump team? Well, because the Pentagon is a huge, sprawling bureaucracy. And they feel like maybe he actually would be good for that. Let me say this. If DeSantis does become a Secretary of Defense, I mean, look, if he gets to the Senate, he will be confirmed. If he becomes in, we're talking about now a redrawing of what the MAGA...

political party is going to look like in a couple of years because now Ron DeSantis is going to be taken out of Florida where he knows he's been very successful. He's been a successful governor. Now he's going to get that foreign policy background with him. And then it's going to be J.D. who? There's going to be...

Well, yeah, I mean, we're setting up for, yes, I mean, for DeSantis, definitely some significant steps towards another. The idea that he doesn't want to run for president again is probably, it's not realistic. Megan, but to that point, I mean, DeSantis likely, he at least has been publicly vetted in a presidential campaign, right? Well, right, and it's easier for senators to take a vote on him, right?

I think that the senators don't want to have to publicly go against Trump here. They can do this quietly and no one knows. They don't become a target for the MAGA base or the Republicans outside that want to, you know, wage a primary campaign against some of these people. So they can, DeSantis is a person that they can take a vote on. Yeah. All right. Coming up next here on CNN This Morning, search and rescue efforts continue to save a woman who fell into a sinkhole while searching for her missing cat.

Plus, the balance of power, how a few Republicans may be able to wield significant power in the House, decided by the slimmest of margins. We're going to talk live with Republican Congressman Tim Burchett and potential allies, New York City's Democratic mayor, singing a similar tune to the president-elect. President Biden and President-elect Donald Trump now agree on one thing.

The Biden Justice Department has been politicized. Does that sound familiar? Rest my case.

I know you're busy. We all are. But if you have 15 minutes or so every week and want to better understand the news, I've got a podcast I think you should check out. I'm David Rind, and I'm the host of CNN One Thing. Every week, I call up a plugged-in CNN correspondent, and we talk about a story they're covering. We break it down carefully and with context, without the unnecessary noise, so you can get on with your week. Follow CNN's One Thing on iHeartRadio.

Mayor Adams, I'd like to poke some fun at Eric, but I'm going to be nice. I just want to be nice because I know what it's like to be persecuted by the DOJ for speaking out against open borders. We were persecuted, Eric. I was persecuted and so are you, Eric.

Hmm. President-elect Donald Trump may have a sympathetic New York City mayor to work with in his upcoming administration. During a press conference on Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams, who is facing a federal indictment from the Department of Justice under the Biden administration, says he's looking to work with the incoming administration on issues like immigration. Adams has been outspoken on how current immigration policies have impacted his city.

The American people have communicated to us loudly and clearly we have a broken system they want to fix. And we need to fix our immigration system. We need to secure our border. I made it clear that I'm not going to be warring with this administration. I'm going to be working with this administration. In the era of cancel culture, no one's afraid to be honest about the truth. Well, cancel me.

Because I'm going to protect the people of the city. Megan Hayes, there is a lot going on there. I was thinking about all the messaging in the back. It's the pandemic years. No, but like so he's the cover of the New York Post this morning. Cancel me. I don't care. But there's he's got personal reasons to work with the incoming Trump administration. No.

- Well, absolutely, I think he needs a pardon and I think he's gonna need a job. There's an election for his reelection and I don't know that New Yorkers are gonna support him and he will win, but I mean, absolutely he needs to work with the Trump administration. He needs to save himself from going to jail. - There's this fascinating evolution because you'll remember when he was elected, he was Joe Biden's best friend.

He was calling himself the Joe Biden of Brooklyn because they saw their basis of very similar is that they were anti woke. They were really appealing, especially to older black voters in New York. And then that relationship completely frayed over this migration issue. The Adams administration felt the Biden White House was very dismissive and did not realize the severity of the problem until two years too late.

Right, and Adams was willing to speak out against it in a way that didn't sit well, right? Yeah, and the Biden administration basically just deemed him as disloyal rather than taking some of his concerns seriously. Part for the course for the Biden administration.

- Sure. - I think something that's really interesting about all of this is the way that the conversation about immigration has changed so dramatically in major cities in America over the last year or two. Frankly, as a result of some of those policies that were derided as very cruel, of governors from southern states sort of sending migrants along up to these bigger cities, it has really changed the conversation that we're having in this country about

the challenges folks are facing. I mean, you look in the news media at any headline coming out of New York, crimes being committed, it's so often, oh, this was a person who is here undocumented, they've been living at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan. I mean, it has so dramatically changed the way many of these mayors talk about this issue. - In many ways, what Republican governors did worked.

for them. I mean, we go back to the time when Ron DeSantis, remember all of the mystery around how did these folks get to, you know, up to Cape Cod basically and it turns out that... Well, he flew people to Martha's Vineyard. Correct. Great fanfare. Correct. But again, you know, if you go back to that time and you think, oh, you know, that was cruel, that was cruel.

The folks up in those cities and in those areas really got a taste of what it was like living along the border, and they didn't like it. All right. Still coming up here on CNN this morning, just in the nick of time, officers stop a runaway car with a pregnant woman trapped inside. That's just one of five things you need to see this morning. Plus, Republicans might be preparing to control both chambers, but with an extremely thin margin in the House, Republican Congressman Tim Burchett joins us live.

All right, 21 minutes past the hour. Five things you have to see this morning. Take a look at this sinkhole in Pennsylvania, the scene of a desperate search now underway at this hour for a grandmother who's believed to have fallen in. Police say Elizabeth Pollard disappeared last night. Her cat was found just feet away from a fresh sinkhole, her car.

My heart of hearts were pushing forward to try and find her, but that mind is becoming very unsafe. Police say that Pollard was looking for her cat when she went missing. A dramatic fire rescue caught on camera. Police body cam footage shows officers helping two children out of a burning home in Colorado. Glad that they are safe.

A snowboarder in New Hampshire narrowly escaping from an early season avalanche, he stayed just ahead of the snow while hurrying down Mount Washington last week following a winter storm. Again, glad he is also okay. New video shows the moment a stowaway on an international flight from New York to Paris was confronted by Delta crew members. The 57-year-old woman with a Russian passport boarded the flight during the busy Thanksgiving travel rush last week without a ticket.

She is scheduled to return to the U.S. on a flight today. And...

Dashcam video showing the moments that deputies in Illinois saved a pregnant woman whose car brakes were malfunctioning. The rescue happened just moments before the car was set to drive into a lake. The officials positioned their car so it gently collided with the runaway vehicle, stopping it.

All right, time now for weather. If you're in the Great Lakes region, do not put your snow shovels away just yet. More snow on the way for parts of the upper Midwest through the Northeast United States. Let's get straight to our meteorologist, our weatherman, Derek Van Dam. Derek, good morning.

Yeah, good morning, Casey. This is the culprit. So we're winding down the lake effect snow that we've been talking about the past several days and now a reinforcing shot of wind cold air that will help trigger another lake effect band over the next couple of days. So this is called an Alberta Clipper. The name comes from where it is developed. Alberta being the province in Canada and then a Clipper moving as quickly as a Clipper. You know, the ships named over 100 years ago or so they move very quickly and that's just kind

of the nature of these storm systems, but there's a lot of wind and energy associated with them as well. So when you get wind arctic wind moving across the relatively warm Great Lakes, you're gonna kick up some lake enhanced snowfall. That's why we have these winter weather alerts. This is kind of a mixture of the snow that will fall from the clipper, but also the lake enhanced snowfall that will fall from the sky once it passes. By the way, there's a blizzard warning across

the mountains of West Virginia right now, so we could see near whiteout conditions. There are lots of wind that will impact the plains all the way to the east coast. This is for today and into the day tomorrow because winds are really going to pick up. I want you to notice this kind of like a

bowling ball moving across the Great Lakes and then eventually reaching the East Coast cities. This time tomorrow is going to be very cold because the wind chill factor will make it feel like the twenties and even in the teens for some locations. So yes, there will be snow associated with the system.

Mainly for the higher elevations away from the coastline, it should remain all rain with the exception of Boston. Maybe one inch of slushy wet snow on the ground. But again, those favored areas downwind of Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and Lake Michigan could see another two to upwards of six inches of additional snow. Casey. All right. Derek Van Dam for us this morning. Derek, thank you. I appreciate it. See you tomorrow. All right. Straight ahead here on CNN this morning.

South Korea plunged into political chaos, the country's president facing possible impeachment and treason charges if he doesn't resign. Plus, Republican Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee is here. We're going to ask him about navigating a historically razor-thin majority in the House.

We have an embarrassment of riches. We have a really talented Republican conference. Many of them could serve in really important positions in the new administration. But President Trump fully understands and appreciates the math here, and it's just a numbers game.

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All right, welcome back. It's nearly official. Come January, House Republicans

could be governing with a brutally slim 220 to 215 majority. California Democrat Adam Gray currently leads Republican incumbent John Duarte by a couple hundred votes in the last remaining House seat to be called after a month of vote counting. Gray's expected win leaves Speaker Mike Johnson with a thin majority that is squeezed further by Donald Trump's selection of several House Republicans to join his administration.

That balance of power will give a single member of the GOP conference a whole lot of sway over Johnson's agenda in the time before those seats are filled. Do you remember how that went last time?

I really don't give a rat's ass what anybody up here says about what I'm doing. The one thing everybody has in common is that nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy. You go around talking your big game and you thumping your chest on Twitter, yeah, come to my office and come out and debate, mother. What does it matter funding the government? The American people don't give a . I got elbowed in the back and it kind of caught me off guard because it was a clean shot to the kidneys and I turned back and there was Kevin.

There was Kevin. Joining me now is the man that you saw there, Republican Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee. Congressman, thanks very much for being here. Thank you. I was hoping you were going to say I was going to be the most important member of Congress in that intro when you started that. I thought, here I am. Well, there you go.

Is that kind of the deal though here for Republicans in Congress? I mean, any, it's, this is a dynamic we confront in the Senate all the time, but it's a smaller body. Any single Republican member could potentially hold up all of the business at hand. Are you willing to do that, for example? Or how do you- - Yeah, if it's morally correct, if it's something that I really believe in, if it's,

If we continue down this path of economic destruction, spending our great grandchildren's money, yeah, I will, and I have. And we'll continue on that path until we regain some sanity. If we could just do like we do in Tennessee, single issue spending bills. It's a great way if you're in power, Democrat or Republican, you drop a 3,000 page spending bill on your desk two hours before.

And all you do is read down, oh, there's page 25. There's all the stuff I need or there's the lobbyist. I need degrees or what have you. And then they vote for it. And that's why we're thirty six trillion dollars in debt. So are you saying that if there's a situation where you need to fund the government on a continuing basis between now and a couple of these elections, April 1st is a is a key deadline when more Republicans will be. Are you saying that you would

not vote to continue the, you would not vote for a continuing resolution, potentially shut the government down? - It depends on the situation, but if we continue on this path, it's inevitable we're gonna destroy our economy and shut the government down anyway. You know, right now we're, Americans are paying around 600 to $1,200 more a month just to survive.

And the reason we are doing that is because of our reckless spending. It's deficit spending. Every economist will tell you that is what

causes the devaluation of your dollar, and we just can't continue on this path. All we're doing is really just buying our reelection, and both parties are guilty of it. - Are you happy with how House Speaker Mike Johnson has approached this issue, and has he talked to you in the conference about this? - Yeah, I'm incredibly pleased with the work that he's done. He's had a tough situation.

When he came in, we had Republicans that were in districts, say in New York, where Joe Biden had won by 15 points, yet they were Republicans elected there. So he had a really fine line to walk, and he had to, I guess you could say, protect them as well as protect the integrity of the conference.

And Mike Johnson is a very honorable man. I find him to be, he's an unusual person in that position because he didn't get there by cutting people's throats or cutting backroom deals. He's been straightforward, and I've enjoyed working with him.

Let me ask you about Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary nominee. He's going to be on Capitol Hill today. He's actually going to be meeting with some House Republicans in addition to this critical meeting that he has with Joni Ernst in particular, a senator from Iowa. Do you think that Pete Hegseth should continue as Donald Trump's defense nominee? Do you think he can be confirmed? Well, that's up to Pete. I think every time somebody runs, they bring up things that are

unfortunate in their life. And everything that they brought up though has been, every claim that they've made against him has been

the Justice Department or whoever has decided not to prosecute for whatever reason. So to me, that leaves, you know, I just... Well, I think that a lot of the allegations, I mean, there was a police report around a sexual assault incident out in California that was not pursued. Recently, over the weekend in The New Yorker, there were allegations from an organization that he led that he, of financial mismanagement, of sexual impropriety, sexist behavior. And then there's this letter from his mother who basically said...

in the course of his divorce that he had a problem mistreating women. Would your mom have ever said, I mean, how would you feel if you were in that situation with your own mother? My mama would never have written that. Mama would have said, honey, I've raised you better than that. And she would probably smack my jaws. But I would not have been in that situation. I don't know. That's a family situation. You always wonder how those emails came to light. And

You know, the court of law is all we really have to go on. It's what we've seen in the past with these investigations. They're just investigations. And until somebody comes forward with the proof,

you know, I think it's going to be up to the United States senators. All right. Congressman Tim Burchett, very grateful to have you on the show. The most important member of the House Republican Conference. I keep telling myself that. You and every other one of your colleagues. I always say I'm the 435th most powerful member of Congress, man. Thank you all for having me. Thank you for being here. All right. Still ahead here on CNN this morning, South Korea plunging into political chaos after the president there declares martial law. Now his cabinet is resigning and the country's parliament is moving to impeach him. We'll bring you the latest. Plus,

Trump continues to poke at our neighbors to the north over his plan to slap tariffs on products from Canada. Trudeau told Trump he can't levy the tariff because it would kill the Canadian economy completely. So Trump responded, maybe Canada should become the 51st state. Maybe next time, Puerto Rico. So close. Welcome back. Upheaval in South Korea following a stunning attempt to impose martial law by embattled President Yoon Suk-yool. Oh!

The announcement sparking massive protests in Seoul, this woman's confrontation with an armed soldier going viral as she screams, "Aren't you embarrassed?" at him. Opposition Democrats who control the National Assembly vowing to bring treason charges and launch impeachment proceedings if Yoon does not leave office. He should step down, resign immediately. This is the mandate of the people.

South Korea's largest union vowing to strike until the president steps down. Yoon's chief of staff and other top officials already submitting their resignations. Yoon declared martial law and then rescinded it after accusing South Korea's opposition party of sympathizing with communist North Korea. CNN's Ivan Watson joins us live now from Seoul, where a candlelit protest march is making its way straight toward the president's office. Ivan, what are you seeing?

Yeah, Casey, I mean, it's almost 9 o'clock at night here, and there are thousands of people marching through Seoul right now to the president's office. This was part of a protest started by a labor union that is calling for the president to resign. People here chanting for President Yoon Suk-yeol to be arrested. This, of course, is a protest.

after he declared what may have been the shortest martial law the world has ever seen in an announcement Tuesday night that was followed by these dramatic events where lawmakers gathered in the middle of the night at the National Assembly.

soldiers that tried to stop them, they failed. And ultimately, about 190 lawmakers voted to overrule martial law, among them 18 members of the president's own party, which has also come out condemning what he did. Before dawn this morning, he backtracked and canceled martial law.

But now he's got to face with the aftermath of that. His own political party calling for his close ally, his defense minister, to resign. His chief of staff and a number of top officials have resigned. And meanwhile, the opposition political parties are preparing for an attempt to impeach the president. So he's really politically in hot water right now.

But I need to stress the fact that even though there is, in effect, a form of a political crisis, it's not really being felt on the streets. I landed at Incheon Airport, the main international gateway to South Korea this morning.

It was functioning normally. There was no unusual law enforcement or security presence there. At lunchtime, the restaurants downtown were full of office workers grabbing lunch. They were talking about this, and everybody I've addressed this with

is incensed that the president tried to do away with decades of democratic governance in a move that really shocked this nation. But the political consequences look like they will be affecting this country for some time to come. Indeed, Ivan Watson for us on scene in Seoul. Ivan, thanks very much for that. Really appreciate it.

And with more on the latest developments in South Korea, we're joined now by Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin. Josh, good morning. Thank you so much for being here. I want to pick up where I've been left off there in terms of what the repercussions are for a significant ally of the United States, democracy, in terms of what we're seeing around the globe. Sure. It just goes to show you, Casey, how fragile this idea of democracy is. It's a bargain. It's an agreement between leaders and

to share power to respond to the people and it depends on everyone sort of doing their part in good news here is that president you didn't succeed he tried to impose martial law he tried to bring create backwards into a military dictatorship it didn't work but it could have worked and anywhere in the world you see a

a democracy struggling, it really is those institutions and those people who stand up to the people who are trying to abuse power that keep those democracies going. And we see similar things in Europe, and we see similar things here in the United States. And it's just a lesson to all of us, I think, that

This whole idea of democracy is something that we all kind of have to buy into or it doesn't really work in the end. Yeah, what are the implications for what's going on here for the incoming administration, for American relationships with China? Sure. We know how President Trump felt about Kim Jong-un in North Korea, for example. Yeah, I think it's a disaster for U.S.-South Korea relations on a couple of levels. One is that, you know, you have an incoming Trump administration that's really skeptical of allies.

President Trump wanted to withdraw troops from South Korea the last time. Now he's got a pretty good excuse if he wanted to do it again. He didn't succeed the first time, he might succeed the second time. So we really need a strong ally in Asia, in Seoul, and right now it's just a mess. Their whole democracy is in upheaval. That's not good. Another thing is China. You know, China's making the argument to all of these Asian countries that democracy doesn't work, that authoritarianism is better, that dictatorship really works better. It's not true, but today it kind of looks kind of true.

And so anywhere in the world you could see the Trump administration saying, well, is this democracy thing really something that the American people should be in the business of? South Korea is not really putting up a really good argument for that right now. Kristen Soltis Anderson, how do you look at what Josh is talking about here, especially with Trump coming in? Well, I think, I mean, yesterday, if you were watching the coverage minute by minute, it was fantastic.

you were wondering, is the system going to hold, right? You had the parliament there in South Korea voting to undo the martial law, but you had the military right there at the building. And this was a case, as he mentions, that the system held. I'm a little bit dismissive of the idea that Donald Trump being elected democratically is a threat to democracy. I feel like that gets talked about a lot.

but we do need strong institutions to ensure that anybody who's in power certainly any executive does not have power and does have does have the ability for their power to be checked I should say by other parts of the government yeah it's not completely ridiculous was Donald Trump the first time he was president tried to use the military in ways that were unprecedented American democracy so it's not crazy to think that he might try to do that again and President Yoon was democratically elected too and he just tried to pull off a military dictatorship so

You know, I don't think it's something that we can dismiss. It's actually something I think that Donald Trump himself has thought about a lot. So we should look out for it. All right, Josh Rogin, thanks very much for being here this morning. Really appreciate it.

All right, 48 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. In just a few hours, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments over a transgender care ban in Tennessee. The Biden administration sued the state over the ban, which prohibits parents from seeking gender-affirming care for their children. Roughly two dozen similar bans have also been passed in Republican-led states.

Donald Trump's pick to run the FBI targeted by Iranian hackers. Sources tell CNN that Kash Patel was recently told by the bureau that he was targeted. One source says they believe hackers accessed at least some of Patel's communications.

Deliberations resumed this morning at 10 a.m. Eastern in the manslaughter trial of Daniel Perry. Perry is a former Marine accused of killing 30-year-old street artist Jordan Neely by putting him in a chokehold on a New York City subway car. Prosecutors allege he acted recklessly, while his defense argues he was protecting others from a threat.

President-elect Donald Trump is doubling down on a joke he made to Canada's Prime Minister last week. Sources tell CNN during a discussion over tariffs with Justin Trudeau, Trump told him that Canada should become the 51st state if the move would harm their economy. Trump is now posting about that joke, including this AI-generated image of him next to the Canadian flag with the caption, Oh Canada.

Okay. All right, let's turn out of this. In just a few hours, executives from five major airlines are set to testify on Capitol Hill about so-called junk fees. A recent congressional report revealed that from 2018 to 2023, five U.S. airlines made more than $12 billion just on seat selection fees.

Last year, United Airlines charged as much as $319 for extra legroom, while Spirit Airlines charges as much as $299. The airlines are relying more and more on these junk fees as a source of revenue, and they are obscuring them. Very often, you as a passenger won't know how much you're being charged until after you buy the ticket.

All right. Our panel is back. Mark Preston, you fly a lot for work. These fees have gotten like crazy, right? I mean, the sicker when you look at, you know, hey, I want to fly on Delta Airlines on a basic economy fare. From where you get to from that fare to actually getting on the airplane and forget even sitting together with your family necessarily. Sometimes they don't even guarantee that.

Okay, I don't want, I certainly don't want the bosses to be watching right now because yesterday I booked flights for the holidays. And like it literally, I'm not kidding, it took me about three hours to figure it out. And I'm not a good consumer for the airlines because I will try to find the best fare possible, much to the chagrin of my children who expect to be

You know, feed it to first class, for God's sakes. And I'm like, let's go on Spirit. Even if it is bankrupt, let's go. But no, but it is expensive. I was shocked at not only how expensive it was, but how the ledger, like how the fees added up. And I was like, wow, that's...

It's ridiculous. Kristen, how do you think Americans feel about the airlines and all of this? And does that mean clearly the Biden administration, Pete Buttigieg, have made this a huge priority, right? Like passengers, Bill of Rights, kind of making it easier for you to get money, claw your money back from the airlines in all these different ways.

Now that said, it is actually a tough business as well and we need the airlines to be able to function accordingly. But where are Americans on this? Yeah, I mean the difference is that if you have a policy that is forcing the airlines to uphold their end of the bargain, right? If they promise you a service and that service isn't delivered, the ability to somehow get your money back

That's something that's pretty popular. But the reason why these airlines do this isn't because consumers hate it, right? They're still in a market where they're trying to compete with other airlines. Delta is still competing with a Spirit or something like that. And you have some customers that say, you know what? Fine, stick me in the overhead business.

I don't need a bag. I don't need leg room. Give me a fare that's $30. And so the idea of these, they're calling them junk fees, but the airlines always push back and say, this is really about making sure that that person that doesn't care about leg room doesn't want to bring on a bag. If they want a super cheap fare, they can get it. But then you as the consumer who wants a normal flying experience,

It does look worse for you in the cart. But I view this more as something that companies should be deciding what do customers want. And if customers find these fees to be obnoxious, then surely some airline is going to figure out just charge a flat fee. Don't do it that way. And they'll benefit in the market. This is a supply and demand thing, right? Like people are paying for more legroom. Like I will pay for more legroom or someone else might not. And so this is a supply and demand thing.

supply and demand. They wouldn't be doing this if consumers were not participating. Yeah, but the problem is, though, through all of this, it's not just that we perceive these as junk fees. It's the whole industry. You know, you go to the airport, you have to be there how many hours early? Then you get there and then, oh, by the way, the airline doesn't tell you that, you know,

delayed three hours. Oh, by the way, by the end of the night, we have no flights. You know, so there is this anger at the industry because we are relying upon it to actually move around. I mean, in many ways, they have a monopoly because, I mean, it's either the airlines that are in the sky that are flying or like get on a bus. But to Kristen's point, the fact that we're now all calling them junk fees has actually been a sign of like the Biden administration's success at

at labeling these things. I mean, they're just fees. But the fact that they're junk fees is really caught on in a political way, and that's why you're going to see them on Capitol Hill. I would just say that if they could start charging for your carry-ons, I think I might like that better so that, like, everyone could just put their stuff underneath the plane instead of us having to wait while everyone jams a suitcase. I mean, I'm guilty of this, okay? Like, jamming the overfilled suitcase in the bin. I don't know. KC for president. My personal thing.

All right, let's turn out of this. This has emerged as a top priority for Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy's newly formed Department of Government Efficiency. It's 10 a.m. You didn't set your watch forward. Happy Daylight Savings Time. Saving. Daylight Savings Time is today? Saving, and it started yesterday. Mr. Speaker, Daylight Saving, not plural, is today.

Time has never saved us from anything. Once the pet project of Veep's Jonah Ryan, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have set their eyes on daylight saving, not plural, as they look to cut government inefficiencies. And now their effort may have some bipartisan support. Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz becoming the first Democrat to say he will join the new Doge caucus intended to support Musk and Ramaswamy's department.

I'm sure there's going to be things that Elon and Vivek are going to come up with that I'm vehemently going to disagree on. And I will make sure that I'm a loud voice voting against that stuff. But we got to go to where the conversations are happening. The idea that we're not going to go to these places and just pretend the conversations aren't happening is not a way to conduct business here.

So we've done junk fees. Now, where are we on daylight saving time? I mean, watch, they're also going to say that we should go back. We should go to the metric system next. I feel like that's going to be their next thing. I think you're going to see just like Elon Musk and Vivek, you're going to see a bajillion ideas thrown against the wall and you're going to see what sticks.

Yeah, but I do think that the daylight savings time thing is something that might happen. They almost got it through the last Congress. It had a bipartisan push behind it, and it kind of died at the end. Well, so we tried it back in the 1970s, right? Permanent daylight saving time. Saving time. And nobody liked it, right? So...

I personally would be miserable if it was daylight saving all the time. Now, granted, that's because I do this very, very early shift, right? Standard time is much preferable to me. But, I mean, Kristen, do you think this is something that would actually happen? I mean, there's an economic argument around permanent daylight saving time, but again...

For actual human beings, it's another thing. - Well, and add to that the fact that if you have little kids, getting them to bed at a strange hour that they don't totally understand is also not a lot of fun. But I do like in the summer that the sun is out longer. I think there's a higher likelihood that this happens than that we change the metric system. I certainly cannot imagine a Trump administration

to our European allies and giving them the metric system. - Yeah, well, so speaking of, the children have problems. You know who else has problems with daylight savings time? Dogs. Let's look at this, okay? This has become a whole thing on TikTok. Like what happens to your dog on daylight savings time? Watch. - Sally, you already ate your dinner. You asked for it during lunch today. Are you confused with the time change? You already ate today. - It's not dinner time. It's only four.

- Worst day of his life. - My dog thinks it's dinner time at 3:00 p.m. every day anyways, so this is not relevant because he always thinks it's dinner time. What do you think? - I mean, I think that when major newspapers say we don't know if this is a joke or not when they are talking about that, it just shows that maybe Doge isn't gonna be the most serious thing and that there are probably other things in efficiency besides saving time that we could be talking about right now, but what do I know?

Well, I'm not sure I actually knew it wasn't daylight savings time until today. Thanks, Jonah Ryan, for teaching me that. All right. I'll leave you with this. The YMCA taking another turn in the spotlight. President-elect Donald Trump turned the song into his unofficial anthem on the campaign trail. He played it at rally after rally. But YMCA gets people up and it gets them moving.

Village People founding member Victor Willis tells CNN his group received thousands of complaints from people over Trump's use of the song since 2020, and they wanted them to bar Trump's using it. But now Willis says he had a change of heart. I noticed that Trump actually

Among those people, how about the world's richest man, Elon Musk, who was seen dancing to the song alongside Trump during Thanksgiving dinner last week in Mar-a-Lago.

It really has Alex become kind of like now the YMCA is so deeply associated with Trump. - And you're seeing football players do the dance in the end zone and just the, you know, I'm not gonna do it. - I won't take care of all you just made a graph of yourself. - Yeah, you just did. - Well, you do it. - This is it, right? I mean, that's how he does it. But I mean, doesn't it make you like, it reminds you of like a bad '90s wedding when he starts doing the dance and then people, you know, and the crowd start doing it, it's...

It definitely evokes wedding, but, you know, it's become a cultural thing. Yeah, does this mean we're going to see the electric slide next if 90s wedding is the vibe that we're going for here? Or the Macarena? But you know what? The other song that I like, I think, wasn't Tiny Dancer a big part of his rallies earlier on, or that's a song he really likes? Uh,

The soundtrack at Trump events is actually quite varied and different from any other Republican candidates who mostly used to stick to country music. Anyway, we're out of time. Guys, thanks very much for joining me today. Thanks to all of you at home for being with us as well. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now. I run a school for young women.

We're not a threat to anyone. In the new HBO original series, Dune Prophecy, it is sisterhood above all. I'm Greta Johnson. And I'm Ahmed Ali Akbar. Join us on the official Dune Prophecy podcast, where we unpack each episode with the show's creators, cast, and crew. Stream Dune Prophecy Sundays starting November 17th exclusively on Max, and you can listen to new episodes of the podcast every Sunday night.