Manhunt Over, UHC Murder Suspect in Custody
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Opendoor is represented by Opendoor Brokerage Inc., licensed 02061130 in California, and Opendoor Brokerage LLC in its other markets. Terms and conditions apply. It's Tuesday, December 10th, right now on CNN This Morning. We should never underestimate the power of the public to be our eyes and our ears in these investigations.

Manhunt over how police say they tracked down the suspect in the murder case of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. And... I look forward to the actual under oath conversations with senators. Building momentum, Trump's embattled choice to lead the Pentagon faces another critical week in his fight for confirmation. And... The end of this regime is a defeat.

for all who enabled his barbarity and his corruption. Power vacuum. How the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad could have unintended consequences for the U.S. and the world. And taking the stand, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu testifies in his own corruption trial. All right, clock ticking towards 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Live look at Chicago, where it is 5.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. New details, new images this morning of the suspect accused of killing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, 26-year-old Ivy League graduate Luigi Mangione, arrested and charged with second-degree murder after a day-long manhunt. Police captured Mangione at a Pennsylvania McDonald's yesterday, over 275 miles away from New York City.

police say an employee tipped them off calling authorities after recognizing the suspect when police approached him and asked him if he'd recently been to new york police say he had a quote physical reaction he was visibly nervous and began shaking police say that mangione was carrying a backpack at the time of his arrest and in that backpack they found a black 3d printed pistol with a loaded glock magazine and a 3d printed black silencer

A police official also telling CNN he had a handwritten document that expressed ill will toward corporate America. But Mangione himself, well, he comes from a wealthy Baltimore family that built a local business empire. He graduated from a prestigious all-boys school in 2016 where he was valedictorian. - The class of 2016 truly has the fearlessness to explore new things and the obvious ability to excel.

But as inventive as the class of 2016 is, our class was able to explore the new while also preserving the old. Wow. After high school, he went on to the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated with a master's and a bachelor's degree in computer science. His last known address in Hawaii...

But a look at one of the social media profiles shows that he hasn't been active online since the midsummer, and it seems that other posts addressed to Mangione's account suggest that some of his friends were trying to get in touch with him, including one post from late last month where a user wrote to Mangione, know you are missed and loved. Mangione's family responding to the news of his arrest in a statement, quote, our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest. We offer our prayers and

to the family of Brian Thompson, and we ask people to pray for all involved. Joining us now, retired FBI supervisory special agent James Galeano. Sir, thanks very much for being here this morning. I really appreciate it. Can we talk a little bit about what's going to come next in this investigation? But also this man himself, I think,

People are so interested in the background that this young man had, where he came from, and now where he's ended up. Yeah, Casey, this is a day, I think, where New York City and the country writ large can breathe a collective sigh of relief. It took the New York City Police Department

five days to catch this individual and it's going to come down to two things it came down to crowdsourcing which we see the photos that were taken inside the hostile and inside of cabs and the fact that through the media through networks like c_n_n_ uh... the law enforcement was able to to leverage that by crowdsourcing this and if you see something say something the second piece of this i think is the great detective work look there is a abundance

of physical evidence, whether it's probative evidence like latent fingerprints or DNA. This is going to be an air-shut case here. Now, you reference the individual. You reference Mr. Mangione, who is a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate. And, Casey, you've reported on and talked about, you know, mass shootings around the country. I've done the same thing.

The thing about that is these people, people like Mr. Mangione and like mass shooters, they are in a sense grievous collectors. And that's what we have here. Somebody that was aggrieved or felt they were aggrieved by the health care system and decided to take matters into their own hands. What did we learn from the document that was found with him? Can you just dig into a little bit about that, what that tells us about that, about all the things you just outlined?

Sure. It's not often that you're able to catch an alleged perpetrator of a heinous crime like this, essentially the assassination of a health care group leader. It's not often that you catch the individual with the weapon that was used in the murder, ostensibly once that's proven, as well as a manifesto. Now, people talk all the time and they think that motive is required to prove a crime. It's not. You don't need motive to indict somebody. You don't need motive to convict somebody. What it does is it

puts law enforcement into the mindset or the mentality of this person, this grievance collector, that because he'd had some physical maladies in the past regarding his spine and was upset about the nature of the healthcare industry, which he saw or viewed as an evil, evil industry. Look, Casey, I will not be surprised if either New York State or the feds don't come down with terrorism charges, because this is a classic terrorism case.

If somebody decides to use violence or intimidation to coerce public policy or to coerce an entity to act the way they want to, classic case of the terrorist mentality. Do you think that what we've seen in terms of public sympathy because of concerns about health care is going to impact the outcome of this trial? Yeah.

Yeah, it's I think it's disappointing. I commend Governor Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania, who came out yesterday and said, hold on a second. This gentleman is not a hero. This suspected assailant is not a hero. What he did was take the life of a father of two. And he has his arguments about the health care system. This is not the way in the United States of America that we seek redress to our grievances. So

Yeah, it's disappointing also. You look on social media, police are scrubbing social media right now because we understand that this suspect, you know, apparently liked a quote from Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber from back in the 1990s that had the similar ideological bent. But it is sad to see. I think it's a lot of keyboard warriors that come out and are hailing this gentleman as a hero for this heinous crime that he perpetrated.

All right, James Galliano starting us off this morning. Sir, very grateful for your perspective. Thanks very much for being here. Thanks for having me, Casey.

All right, coming up next on CNN This Morning, who will take control of Syria and how will it impact the U.S.? Congressman Ryan Zinke, member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, will be here to discuss. Plus, Jay-Z wants his sexual assault accuser named publicly. The new motion, the music mogul filed, that'll be in our morning roundup. And the road to confirmation, Donald Trump's more controversial picks meeting one-on-one with senators.

I'm Anderson Cooper.

Grief isn't talked about much, but that's what my podcast is all about. I'm grieving all the time. This is All There Is, Season 3. My guest, Alex Van Halen. Alex and his younger brother, Eddie, were founding members of Van Halen, one of the most successful rock bands in history. And he's just written a book called Brothers about his life with Ed.

When I'm alone and I put on a piece of music and I hear him play, I break down uncontrollably. Listen to All There Is with Anderson Cooper wherever you get your podcasts. It was a very good meeting with the senator. You know, the more you spend, I've known her for 10 years. The more we talk, the more we're reminded of, as two combat veterans, how dedicated we are to defense.

After a rocky nomination rollout amid allegations of sexual assault, alcohol abuse, financial mismanagement at veterans groups, Pete Hegseth's nomination for defense secretary is very much alive at the start of another critical week on Capitol Hill. On Monday, the Army veteran, former Fox News host, returned for another round of meetings with key senators, including another one with Iowa Republican Joni Ernst. She has, of course, seen as a pivotal vote...

She signaled yesterday that she's going to, quote, support Pete through this process, end quote. She has yet to publicly endorse him. You said supporting the process. It doesn't sound like you're a yes yet. Is that fair? I'm supporting the process. I heard about those assault allegations. Do you believe those demands? I'll refer you back to this statement. Is there pressure getting back home and primary court has claimed this? We have been talking these same issues.

Every meeting that we've had, and he has really thought about it seriously. Hegseth will continue to press for votes as he meets with moderate Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski today and tomorrow. Two more of Trump's picks to lead his national security team also hitting the hallways to meet with Senators Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel. Trump's choices to become Director of National Intelligence and the FBI, respectively, are both getting favorable early reviews from Republicans that they met with on Monday.

Well, I had a good meeting with Kash Patel, the nominee for FBI director. We still don't know what Director Wray's plans are, but eventually I assume that Mr. Patel will be confirmed as the next FBI director. We've had policy differences. I know her. I like her. You know, she...

wanted to stay in the JCPOA. I thought that was a mistake. But, you know, she'll be serving Trump. We'll see how the hearing goes. I like her.

All right, joining us now is our panel, Zolan Cano-Youngs, CNN political analyst and White House correspondent for The New York Times, Isaac DeVere, CNN senior reporter, Kate Bedingfield, CNN political commentator, and former communications director at the Biden White House, and Brad Todd, CNN political commentator and Republican strategist. Welcome to all of you. Thank you very much for being here. Brad, you were here, I think it was last week at this point, basically predicting that the allegations against Pete Hexeth were going to actually be what saved his nomination. Is that what we're seeing here?

- I think so. I think it galvanized Republicans because it came from quarters that Republicans don't like. Democrats got over their skis a little bit, and some of the media outlets like the New Yorker magazine with anonymously sourced articles, I think Republicans got a little PTSD. They saw the Kavanaugh hearings playing out all over again, and that's sort of signaled to Republicans it's time to rally. I also think Pete Hegg says he's probably doing pretty well in his meetings with senators, from what I understand. And that's how this advise and consent process works.

Isaac, how much of this do you think is about what Pete Hegseth has done media-wise? Like, he's looked at cameras on Capitol Hill and talked in a way that other nominees are more deferential to senators. Seems aimed at Donald Trump more than anything else, but maybe it's working for him. He has kept Donald Trump behind him, and that seems to be the most important thing here.

There were a lot of people who, when he was first nominated, thought that this wouldn't go anywhere, not even because of the allegations, but because he didn't have the experience that most defense secretary nominees have. And he made sure to keep Trump in his corner. You saw that interview that Trump did with Meet the Press on Sunday, where he was strongly behind Hegg Seth. If that remains where it is, what we've seen, I think, through this process of nominating the cabinet, is Donald Trump making clear to Republicans in the Senate

who he wants in the cabinet and that he expects them to go along with his choices. And the only one of note that he's really backed off of is Matt Gaetz, and that was 'cause Gaetz couldn't get anywhere. He is staying there with Hank Seth, and that's probably enough to get there. - It's also just an indicator of how much of a factor moving forward as well,

pressure from the president-elect and his allies sort of MAGA world is going to be when it comes to congressional matters. You've also had ads that have been picked up and bought in a place like Joni Hurst's main district as well, sort of pushing for this. So there's also a pressure campaign going on right now, which isn't necessarily new with some of these nominees, with some of these picks, but

You are seeing once again just how much that is going to be in influence. Yeah, it's not even just that he's managed to get and keep Donald Trump on board. It's that Trump and his team are now aggressively making the case. They're pushing. I mean, as Solon said, there were ads running in Iowa. Steve Bannon was floating. We're going to recruit Carrie Lake to primary. Joni Ernst. I mean, there was a really targeted campaign in Senator Ernst's backyard to make this politically unpalatable for her.

So, you know, in some ways we're seeing the manifestation of, uh, you know, Trump's victory in November. People say elections have consequences. This is the Trump political muscle saying we are going to get to choose our nominee and we're going to make it almost politically, uh,

unviable for you to oppose them. But it's also a preview, I think, of what we can expect next year of the way the Trump White House will have its relationship with the Hill, with the Republican majorities in the House and Senate. It's a slim majority in the House and a wider majority in the Senate, but still,

they are making clear they will win these fights if they are put to it. Well, and especially if it's only one person, right, Brad? Well, I think, first off, you have to, the 53 makes a big difference. Republicans have 53 senators, and so Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, who have been noted outliers in a lot of things, suddenly that math doesn't work for them. It takes two more, and really, I think it takes three more

I think no one wants to be alone in being that deciding vote to sink one of the nominees. And this is not a Donald Trump thing. You go back all the way to the Clinton administration, I think there have been 70-something nominees for cabinet choices, and only like two of them have had opposition in their own party. Like, this is what happens. Of course the senators who support the nominees of their own party because the same voters elected them. This is normal. All right.

Coming up after the break here on CNN This Morning, Israel's prime minister on the stand. Right now, Benjamin Netanyahu is testifying in his corruption trial. Plus, a TikTok ban just one month away? How the app's parent company is working to stop it from taking effect.

Right now, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu taking the witness stand for the first time in his ongoing corruption trial. He is facing allegations of fraud, breach of trust and bribery in three separate cases. The trial, which began in 2020, could potentially consume Netanyahu at a critical time for the country he leads. The prime minister still has to manage the war in Gaza, the fragile ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon and potential threats from Iran.

This will be the first time an Israeli prime minister has ever taken the stand as a criminal defendant. CNN's Jeremy Diamond joins us live now from Tel Aviv. Jeremy, good morning. We didn't even mention, of course, what has been happening in the last few days in Syria, the Israeli strikes on chemical weapons facilities. What is the prime minister saying about the trial and how do people in Israel feel about it?

Well, Casey, this really is an extraordinary moment, not only because it is the first time that a sitting Israeli prime minister is taking the stand in his own defense, but also, of course, because of the extraordinary moment at which this is happening. And that is why we are actually here in this Tel Aviv courthouse instead of in the Jerusalem district court. And that is because

This proceeding is happening underground because of the ongoing security situation and what the prime minister and his allies have claimed are potential threats against him. And the prime minister is certainly taking advantage of that backdrop as he has begun to take the stand in the last couple of hours. First, before he even came into this courtroom, he and his lawyers, his political allies, including ministers in his own government, sought

endlessly to delay this trial, citing the ongoing security situation. And this morning, as he began testifying, the prime minister has been going on, you know, lengthy diatribes, I think it's fair to call it, about the security situation, about foreign policy, about all of the things that he has had to face as prime minister in addition to dealing with this case,

which has been ongoing for the last four years. Now, in terms of the allegations that the Prime Minister is facing, he is facing allegations, he's facing charges, I should say, of bribery, of fraud and of breach of trust. There are three cases here, case 1000, 2000,

and 4,000. The case 4,000 is the most serious of them, involving these allegations of bribery, arguing that he sought to implement regulatory benefits for a wealthy media mogul in exchange for more favorable media coverage.

The other cases involved allegations that he received hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts. The prime minister has denied all of these allegations and as his testimony is ongoing, he is currently speaking out against the media for how they have portrayed this case and accusing prosecutors of effectively picking the defendant and then looking for the crime rather than investigating serious criminal allegations. That is his playbook so far.

But it is important to note that this will go on likely for several weeks. It will begin with his testimony responding to questions from his own defense attorney, but then it will involve the more serious cross-examination by prosecutors. He will testify as much as three days per week for as long as six hours per day for the next several weeks. Casey. Wow. That is a remarkable time commitment for someone who is in charge of leading a country that is

fighting wars and embroiled in obviously a region where everything is up in the air right now. Jeremy Diamond for us this morning, sir. Thanks very much for that report.

All right, we're going to go live now to Malibu, California, right now, where a large brush fire is raging out of control. The Santa Ana winds sparking flames overnight, scorching about 850 acres in Malibu Canyon. That's near Pepperdine University. The blaze tripling in size in just an hour. Mandatory evacuations are in place right now. The area is under a high wind warning. Gusts could reach up to 70 miles an hour later on today. We'll be keeping an eye on that all day long.

All right, coming up next here on CNN This Morning, not guilty, Daniel Penny walks free, acquitted in the subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely. Plus, our team on the ground in Syria goes inside one of that country's most notorious prisons as families search for their loved ones. And how that power shift in Syria impacting interests for the United States. We have a clear interest in ensuring that whatever weapons of mass destruction or components are left in Syria do not fall into the wrong hands.

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This week on The Assignment with me, Adi Cornish.

What Senator-elect Andy Kim has learned about humility, authenticity, and winning in the first Trump era, and how he thinks Democrats could approach the next one. We have to show that when we talk about protecting democracy, that doesn't mean that we are defending what is inherently a broken status quo that has led to the greatest amount of inequality in American history. Listen to The Assignment with me, Adi Cornish, streaming now on your favorite podcast app.

Welcome back. As rebel forces take control of Syria, thousands are heading inside the country's most notorious prison. They are desperate to find their loved ones, people who went missing under Bashar al-Assad's regime. CNN's Clarissa Ward has been on the ground in Damascus, and she took CNN cameras inside.

The stream of families never stops climbing towards Syria's most notorious Sednaya prison pushed on by reports that thousands of people imprisoned by the regime of Bashar al-Assad are still trapped alive in a section underground.

The red section of the prison, they've been trying for days to reach it. Maysoon Laboud tells us, there's no oxygen because the ventilation went out, and so they all may die. For the sake of Allah, help them. Is someone from your family in the prison? Who is it?

My three brothers and my son-in-law, she says. The roads are choked with cars full of people looking for loved ones. As soon as they see our camera, they approach holding lists of names of those who vanished inside Assad's dungeons never to be seen again. "You'll have to get them out before tomorrow," this man says. "They don't have food. They don't have water."

Everybody's just started running. It's not clear if they have managed to get into this part of the prison. "My God, my God," the woman prays. "My God," as the crowd surges towards the prison. So it looks like they think that they have managed to get access. A lot of celebratory gunfire. People now just flooding in. After the initial jubilation,

An agonizing wait for confirmation from the rescue workers. Many here have been waiting for decades. Hope was something they didn't let themselves feel until now. Rescue workers with Syria's white helmets break through the concrete looking for a way in. No one is certain where this red section is or if it even exists.

Inside the prison, family members are searching too. You can see people everywhere just combing through all the papers and records they can find, looking for names, seeing if maybe their loved ones are there. Tens of thousands of Syrians were forcibly disappeared in Sednaya.

Lost in the abyss of a prison that was known as a slaughterhouse. Industrial scale, arbitrary detention and torture all to keep one man in power.

They call this the white area of the prison because they say the conditions here are much better than in other areas, but you can see it's still miserable. In the center of the prison, another frantic rush. Someone thinks they have found a tunnel. They desperately try to get a look inside. Others look on, helpless. Not knowing is agony. Assad may be gone,

But the legacy of his cruelty remains.

After we returned from our trip to Sidoniah, a group called the Association of Detainees and the Missing in Sidoniah said that they do not believe that the Red Section exists, that they are confident that all of those who were detained in Sidoniah were released on December 8th before 11 a.m. And the White Helmets, those rescue workers that you saw there, have now confirmed that they have concluded their search. Clarissa Ward, CNN, Damascus.

Just remarkable reporting from our Clarissa Ward. And this new balance of power in the Middle East has sent the U.S. and other powers scrambling to shore up their interests in Syria as they weigh how to navigate the country's emerging power vacuum and uncertain future. For Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the American interests in Syria are, quote, clear and enduring.

We have a strong interest in preventing the re-emergence of ISIS. We have a clear interest in ensuring that whatever weapons of mass destruction or components are left in Syria do not fall into the wrong hands. We have a clear interest in doing what we can to avoid the fragmentation of Syria, mass migrations from Syria, and of course the export of terrorism and extremism.

Right, our panel is back. And Brad Todd, I mean, what you are hearing Antony Blinken there say, which is that America has an interest in what happens to this, it contrasts very directly with the language that we heard from President-elect Trump over the weekend, which we can put up on the screen, where he very clearly says that America, the United States should have nothing to do with it. This is not our fight. Let it play out. Do not get involved.

This is one of those places where the old Republican Party would have viewed it a certain way, would have said it is America's responsibility, like it is in our national security interest to be involved in the ways in which we should be involved, be debatable.

Is that actually going to happen in Donald Trump's Washington? Well, I don't think so. I mean, I think the George Bush Republican Party is not here when it comes to issues like this. I mean, it's also very complicated, to be fair. I mean, we have a new government in Syria that's been designated as a terrorist actor by almost everyone who designates terrorists as a terrorist actor. That we can't even talk to for that reason. Right, as a result.

But on the other hand, Iran and Russia, who are not our friends, are clearly losing out here and losing a key ally in Assad. So it's a complicated situation. Trump made very clear that he took on ISIS. And if these elements are going to realign with ISIS, he will take care of them very quickly. So I don't think that we're seeing a total isolationist move by him. But he also does not want Joe Biden to get him into a situation that is harder to get out of.

And I think that's what you're seeing in McClary. I think it's, you know, it is easy to say in a Truth Social post, "We have no interest here. We're not going to be involved." I think the reality is, as president of the United States, these situations, if you don't go to them, they come to you. And I think,

you know, it is going to be a difficult challenge for, for example, you know, Donald Trump says he's a stalwart ally of Israel. Well, Israel is going to have interest in whether the United States is helping to stabilize the, uh, stabilize Syria in a way that's beneficial to them. So it's, you know, I agree with Brad. It is a complicated situation. Um,

But it is very, very rarely as simple as just saying, hands off, this is not our problem. It's made even more complicated by the fact the U.S. really hasn't had a diplomatic presence in Syria now since 2012. And as you were saying, when you have a rebel group that was designated as a terrorist organization in the Obama administration, will we see a change there now moving forward? The ambassador that made that designation told my colleagues it should be considered at this point to open up channels

In the meantime, the U.S. is going to have to rely on Turkey, essentially, for any type of communication, diplomatic ties here. But you do see, for 10 years now, across the Obama-Trump administration, Biden administration, and now the incoming Trump administration, a hesitation about getting involved in a foreign conflict. Barack Obama knew that 10 years ago, and that is why the U.S. wasn't more involved at the start of the Civil War. Of course, this seems like another one of those places where we hear from a lot of people who are...

a part of the incoming Trump administration or allies of it that he is going to have a different world in front of him than the one that he left in 2021. - Yeah, and I'm glad you mentioned, I remember covering Barack Obama on Capitol Hill when he, in theory, had a red line on Syria and Congress had. - And the red line moved. - The Republicans were ready to support him too. Tom Cotton and Mike Pompeo were ready to support him and he backed off. - Yeah, he did. All right, straight ahead here on CNN This Morning, Donald Trump's pick

The director of national intelligence clarifying her stance on Syria, aligning with the president-elect. Congressman Ryan Zinke joins us live next to discuss. And the suspected CEO killer taking the internet by storm.

I think we can all agree that no one could have imagined this suspect would have a name as funny as Luigi Mangione. I mean, with a lot of murderers or alleged murderers, when you arrest them, you have to use the middle name. Like, we don't need Luigi Wayne Mangione. It's not necessary. I stand in full support and wholeheartedly agree with the statements that President Trump has made over these last few days with regards to the developments in Syria.

My own views and experiences have been shaped by my multiple deployments and seeing firsthand the cost of war and the threat of Islamist terrorism. Donald Trump's pick for director of national intelligence, former Democratic congresswoman, turned Trump supporter Tulsi Gabbard on offense yesterday on Capitol Hill. She has been meeting with GOP senators this week in preparation for her nomination hearing. How many guys?

regime in Syria, bringing fresh scrutiny at an inconvenient time for Gabbard, who has already faced criticism for her controversial tweet against Bashar al-Assad and comments that she made defending his rule. Those views, though, yet to faze Senate Republicans. We've had policy differences. I know her. I like her. You know, she...

wanted to stay in the JCPOA. I thought that was a mistake. But, you know, she'll be serving Trump. President Trump has hired her for a very specific job. He's in the process of doing that. And she's actually raised questions with respect to the intelligence community, I think, that need to be asked, that need to be delivered upon. Also, Tulsi represents a broadening of the tent, if you will.

All right, joining us now, Congressman Ryan Zinke of Montana. He currently serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is a former Navy SEAL commander, Republican, of course. Congressman, thanks very much for being here. Great to be with you. So you overlapped in the House with Tulsi Gabbard. You have also been responsible for troops in combat. You know what it means when intelligence officials are making decisions that really affect the lives of the people around you.

Do you think Tulsi Gabbard is the right person for this job, or do you have concerns based on what you understand our interests in this region to be? Well, you know, I served with her. We served in the House Armed Services together, and no doubt she has talent. What I like about Tulsi is she's a military background. She's certainly talented, and she understands the dynamics. She also understands President Trump.

President Trump has his own set of ideas. He works, or Tulsi will work at the pleasure of the president. And so she'll tighten up where we're going as a country and in the administration. So I'm confident that she will get confirmed. There's some issues that we probably disagree on.

But ultimately, she'll be working for the commander in chief. I think she'll serve well. So if you were commanding a SEAL team, you'd be comfortable with her as your director of national intelligence? I would. And I remember the director of intelligence also as a coordinating body. There's a lot of intelligence both in the field and at the headquarters. So she's going to have to sort through. And there's a prevailing thought, and I think justified in some reasons, that the intelligence agencies themselves have not been totally honest.

They are driven with internal objectives and agendas sometimes that are different from the administration. So she's going to have a task on her hand going through and making sure that our intelligence agencies are true to this administration and also true to the public.

There's a report from NBC that Democrats and Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, they were worried about Gabbard coming to a hearing with a Syrian defector, right? They wanted the defector to cover his face before she got into the hearing because they were concerned that she may leak his identity to Bashar al-Assad. What's your reaction to that?

I think it's overrated on this. At the end of the day, you know, she works for the president. And she had some views on Ukraine that are—on Ukraine as an example, is that perhaps, you know, Putin's relationship

with Ukraine and Putin's relationship with the US can be improved. Some of it, of course, had to do with Ukraine going into NATO. There's a lot of us that look at, we're going to need to slow down on this, and the Crimean Peninsula. So she articulated some views that maybe were not uniformly popular, but I think they're worthy of debate.

So big picture, the House of Representatives is going to have the narrowest of narrow majorities for Republicans, right? Going into the winter and the first four months, basically, because Donald Trump's picked a couple of these people to go serve in his administration. They're not going to be in Congress.

What's the dynamic right now between House Republicans and President-elect Trump? Is there anything noteworthy about it? You know, it was different. The 118th Congress, you know, we stumbled a lot. And I said there was a few that blew up the tracks, if that's a good analogy. What's different now when President Trump is the commander in chief, if you disrupt

the path and agenda of the House, you in fact are blowing up Donald Trump's tracks. And there is a difference. Before, you could blow up the tracks, you could cause some confusion, you could perhaps vote against bills, and the House would not proceed forward in our work. Now it's different, because when you're obstructionist with President Trump and his agenda, you move from a rebel

that sometimes profited from blowing things up to an outlaw if you were in fact destroying and disabling and blowing up Donald Trump's agenda.

So, what, if anything, do you and your colleagues see coming out of President Trump that tells us, I mean, there are a number of critical issues here, right? Like the government has to get, has to be funded for a certain length of time. Do House Republicans have independent ideas about that, or are you just waiting for the president?

You know, in many ways, I'm hoping it's well-coordinated. You know, the House is a separate body. But what's clear is there's not been a president, certainly in my lifetime, that has had more influence on the internal workings of the House. Remember, a lot of House members relied on President Trump's endorsement.

And President Trump got involved in a lot of these very close races. So they're beholden to him a lot of ways in their political careers, and they pay attention to Donald Trump. And again, if

one of these guys gets out of line too far and begins to blow up the agenda and cause havoc within the House, I think Donald Trump will take notice because then we're not getting things done and we're not doing what we said we would do. We said we would get the job done. That means move ahead at a lightning pace according to what we can in the House.

But again, it's the agenda, the American first agenda. If we fall short of that, the American public should be upset. And you know what? We need to pay attention.

Let me ask you about one of President Trump's nominees, Pete Hegseth, also a veteran. He, at one point, pushed on the issue of war crimes. There were some service members who were found to have committed these crimes, and he pushed for that to be wiped away. Do you have any concerns about that piece of Pete Hegseth's record?

No, you know, what I appreciate about Pete Hegseth is that he was a combat veteran himself. He understands the dynamic of what's going on in the field.

There's a connection between a soldier and a secretary that I think is important. Some of the comments have been, "Well, he's young." Well, Donald Rumsfeld was young. Certainly, McNamara was young. And then there's been a lot of secretaries that haven't had the military experience as Pete Hegseth. Les Aspin, for instance, Perry had no military experience. So I'm pretty confident that Pete Hegseth will bear the burden

and the responsibility of being a secretary well and understand the troop level and why it's important. Very briefly, sir, on Syria, I know this is something you've worked on in your committees. Donald Trump has said that the U.S. should have no involvement in Syria. Do you agree with that?

Well, there is influences. You have in northern Syria, you have the PPK, YPG, also terrorist organizations that Turkey has long been in war with and battle because they are a terrorist, Marxist-Leninist organization. You have Israel now with the Golan Heights seeing a threat along the border. So Israel has moved to secure that area. And in the midst of this, it's almost a

a throwback to Lawrence of Arabia marching on Damascus, is you have multiple coalition groups with different interests. Most of them are on a terrorist list somewhere. But what we do know is now Russia and Iran's influence is waning.

as the influence builds up and you see a government come in of some sort. The U.S. does have an interest in ensuring, number one, it doesn't spill out. And then our allies, particularly Turkey in the north and Israel in the south, their interests need to be protected as well. All right. Congressman Ryan Zinke, thanks very much for being with us this morning. My pleasure. I appreciate it very much. Nice to see you.

All right, 54 minutes past the hour. Here is your morning roundup. We're going to go live to Malibu, California, where the Franklin Fire has tripled in size overnight, the blaze forcing mandatory evacuations and threatening structures. It is burning close to Pepperdine University. The school says the worst of the fire is past the campus now. The Santa Ana winds, coupled with dry air and low humidity, fueling the flames.

A Manhattan jury finds former Marine Daniel Penny not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the subway choking death of Jordan Neely last year. Neely, who struggled with homelessness, was acting erratically on the train when Penny confronted him. Penny also faced a more serious second-degree manslaughter charge, but that was dismissed after jurors twice told the judge they were deadlocked on the count.

New video of Jay-Z on the red carpet with his family last night as he asks a judge to reveal the identity of his rape accuser or throw out the case. An alleged victim known only as Jane Doe claims he raped her alongside Sean Diddy Combs 24 years ago when she was 13 years old. Jay-Z denies the allegation. All right, let's turn now to this story.

Biggest problem right now is I wanna believe that he didn't mean to just fizzle out in the middle of the McDonald's. Menendez brothers move out. Luigi is about to take the girls by storm. Look at the photos they used when this man got picked up. Not the 14 pack, he's GTL. The man accused of killing United Healthcare's CEO going viral. Images of Luigi Mangione seem to captivate the attention of online masses. The Manhattan killing

Also uncovering a deep dissatisfaction with the United States healthcare industry, the incident sparking outrage online over health insurance policies, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro pushing back against some of the hateful rhetoric after the murder suspect's arrest. Violence can never be used to address political differences or to address a substantive difference or to try and prove some ideological point.

That is not what we do in a civilized society. That was true in Butler. It was true in New York City. The suspect here who shot at that CEO and killed that CEO is a coward, not a hero. All right, our panel has returned. Zolan, clearly people are, you know, the things that they're willing to say on the internet often feel extraordinarily distressing.

But that said, there also is clearly very deep anger in the American public about this. What do you make of what Josh Shapiro said there and what we've learned about our country? Sure. I think, you know, we didn't need this...

to know that on the internet under sort of the geyser shield of anonymity, you know, people don't exactly show their best selves, you know. This has sort of exposed

a deep, deep-seated anger in the country towards the healthcare industry. But as public officials have said here, still, you have to use this moment to condemn a violent act like this. That being said, I do think that it has shown that anger is existing. There is a little bit of risk, though, when you see sort of

all of these memes and this attempt at humor at times and sort of putting this person up as a folk hero of also lionizing somebody that just did commit a violent act and a killing. That's something I used to cover the NYPD in crime and would talk to people that study some of these incidents and they would, this is why they were worried about the internet when these things happen.

the attempt of putting these people on a platform and almost lionizing them in a way. - But you see that this is, I mean, just the cover of the New York Post today, the contrast of Daniel Penny and Mangione. I mean, these are, one to the Post readership is a hero and the other one is terrible.

It does seem like we should be able to have a, I mean, I have a general anti-murder policy myself. - Obviously, that shall not kill, okay? Very basic. - There's also just a, the reaction online is also just such a reinforcement of how much aesthetics

attractiveness, I mean, like the shallowness of the American people, the American people who are online, we'll say, is very much on display here. Part of, yes, there's absolutely a bubbling anger about the inequity in the country writ large and in the healthcare system, no question, but so much of, you know, the clips we were watching at the top of this segment are driven by the fact that this is an attractive segment

And we've got to drop the banner to show why. And it is deeply troubling that we are celebrating this person who's committed cold-blooded murder because he clearly went to the gym.

You know, one takeaway though is the health insurance industry, the health insurance industry is the one industry in America that seeks to not deliver its product. That's the business model. So I think they have to watch out with this, with the sentiment. I think the hard part is that literally, I mean, they're all private, so I'm not asking people to tell the stories, but I imagine everyone at this table probably has a story.

fighting with these companies and how that impacted their lives. All right. Thank you guys very much for joining us. Thanks to all of you for being with us as well. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now. This holiday season, find the perfect gift at CNN Underscored. From the latest fashion to expert-approved tech to the best beauty finds. Discover it all at Underscored.com.