Wray Wraps it Up
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It's Thursday, December 12th, right now on CNN This Morning. The right thing for the bureau is for me to serve until the end of the current administration. By the Wray side, FBI Director Christopher Wray leaving office before the president-elect has a chance to fire him and... I got to know President Xi of China, a very strong man.

Cordially invited? Donald Trump reportedly extending an invitation to his inauguration to China's Xi Jinping. Plus... We were able to match that gun to the three shell casings. Mounting evidence, the new findings from police that could place the CEO murder suspect at the scene of the crime. And... I get why everyone's freaking out now. It's kind of spooky. Mystery in the sky. Drones swarming over New Jersey. What officials think could be behind it.

All right, 6 a.m. here on the East Coast, a live look at the White House. More lit up than normal, actually, at this 6 a.m. hour. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. FBI Director Christopher Wray bowing to the pressure, announcing he'll resign when President Trump takes office, avoiding, for himself, for the Bureau, and for the country, another moment like this one.

Breaking news, President Trump firing FBI Director James Comey. The bombshell announcement, something that was completely unexpected to anyone, came just moments ago. A stunning development. It is lost on no one that the president just fired the man who is leading an investigation into the Trump campaign and whether it colluded with Russians. That Russian investigation angering Trump in his first term

After he left office, Ray's FBI searched Mar-a-Lago. See it there. They were looking for these classified documents that they allege Trump took with him when he moved from the White House back to Florida. That search, a significant part of why Trump has turned on a director he appointed. Listen to how Trump praised Ray then and why he disdains him now. I believe that we will have a great FBI director. I think he's doing really well.

And we're very proud of that choice. I think I've done a great service to the country. Well, I can't say I'm thrilled with him. He invaded my home. I'm suing the country over it. He invaded Mar-a-Lago. He invaded Mar-a-Lago. Ray will leave with three years left on his 10-year term. He says that he wrestled with whether or not to resign for weeks. In my view, this...

is the best way to avoid dragging the Bureau deeper into the fray while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important in how we do our work.

So that brings us to Trump's pick to replace Wray, Kash Patel, who has been on Capitol Hill courting Republican senators, making the case that he's best qualified to reform, their words, a bureau he has said should all but be dismantled. I'd shut down the FBI Hoover building.

on day one and reopening the next day as a museum of the deep state. And I take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals. Patel has said he'll go after the president-elect's perceived enemies, including in the media.

We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government, but in the media. Yes, we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We're going to come after you, whether it's criminally or civilly, we'll figure that out. But yeah, we're putting you all on notice. The Kash Patel that we saw on Capitol Hill yesterday, a bit more measured.

We look forward to a very smooth transition and I'll be ready to go on day one. The Senators have been wonderful and I look forward to earning their trust and confidence through the advice and consent process and restoring law and order and integrity of the FBI.

Our panel's here. Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst, national political reporter for Axios, former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams, Kate Bedingfield, former Biden White House communications director, and Mike Dubke, former Trump White House communications director. Welcome to all of you. Thank you very much for being here this morning. Good morning. Elliot, let me start with you. I don't want to lose sight of the remarkable situation here because we have gone from that... I mean, we showed that shocking moment, right? It shocked the country when he fired James Comey. This... It's more...

It's more like a whimper. It is more of a whimper. And it's hard to understand why he did it and the wisdom of doing it. Now, none of us are Christopher Wray. None of us are in his head. And quite frankly, it's a personal choice from someone who's at

either at or about to be in the middle of a major maelstrom with the former and soon to be president. What I think is a little hard to get my head around is this idea of doing this to avoid dragging the FBI into the fray, which were his words. It's going to be there regardless of whether he is the head of the FBI or not. And it's not clear that this action actually eliminates

all of the attention that the FBI is going to be getting. In many respects, it may have made more sense for the rule of law and quite frankly, for the reputation of the FBI, for him to stay and actually get fired by the president. Bait the president into firing him and demonstrating how it's the president

coming in wanting to politicize the FBI. - Yeah, it does in some ways sort of normalize. I mean, we're talking about the difference between the reaction to the firing of Comey and now sort of Wray going out with a whimper and not a bang. It does, you know, and again, I understand his, you know, to your point, I understand the personal desire to not endure what would be a pretty hellacious public moment.

But it does have the effect of kind of normalizing what Trump is doing here. And that seems dangerous to me. Let's be clear. I mean, he was going to fire Ray regardless. I agree. So to your point, yeah, on both of those sides. And it was an unusual step for him to also nominate Patel before they have Ray either resigning or stepping aside as he has. So it's creating a situation. I think for the American people, though,

The 10-year term is not a usual term of office. It's probably not that well-known. And so I'm sure for the casual observer, it's expected that a new president comes in. Ooh, hard, hard, hard, hard, hard. I disagree on that point. You okay? Yeah, yeah. And here's why. It's the point of the 10-year term is to ensure that FBI director traverses presidential administrations and to get these kind of political questions out of the

the role of the FBI. Same with the Federal Reserve. But my point is, I think for the casual American observer, this seems like a normal course of business. But in some ways, that's why it seems so dangerous. I would argue we don't want it to seem like a normal course of business. I mean, this is the incoming president saying, I don't like the person who is heading up the FBI because I believe he's going to... He has pursued me in the past when I have...

I would say taken criminal action. And I'm concerned that he's going to hold me accountable in the future. So we don't, I don't think we want that to be normal. And to both of your points, Ray, resigning,

makes that an easier transition? I'm in agreement with you this morning. You're always in agreement with me, man. No, and last thing, just about this idea of what the American people understands and doesn't understand about the FBI, I think what's unfortunate is that many people have in their heads that, well, the FBI is Mar-a-Lago and invading Donald Trump's home. What people do not realize is that the FBI is the only law enforcement agency that has both counterterrorism and law enforcement functions. And this idea...

You know, Kash Patel talking about it's the deep state and we need to get these people out of Washington. There's a national security element to this sort of political fighting that's not good, certainly not good for law enforcement, but also for American national security. Sorry, go ahead. I was going to say, in Trump's mind, all that matters is that Mar-a-Lago. Mar-a-Lago. Yeah, I mean, like, and I don't think it's, it is...

sort of extraordinary that you have a president fire two FBI directors. And I think the only really person that did that. But I don't think it's really surprising. After the Mar-a-Lago raid, it was over. There was no way for them to... He invaded his home. That's the way Trump interprets it. And that's the bottom line. Alex, is there a sense that they're...

Republicans are not the only ones that have been upset about how the FBI has dealt with political candidates and political issues. I mean, obviously Hillary Clinton was extraordinary. I mean, she in many ways blames Jim Comey for losing the election. And if you talk to her staffers, they will tell you that as well.

Is there any truth to the idea that, I mean, Kash Patel and others have pushed that the FBI has gotten overly involved in political candidates and campaigns in recent decades and not just in One Direction necessarily? The FBI has, in some ways...

a terrible history with dealing with political figures. Go back and read some of the stuff that just came out like the last few years about the extent of the, you know, the way they were monitoring and spying on Martin Luther King Jr. in the 60s.

And then obviously, you know, there's still a lot of Democrats, including, you know, I think Bill Clinton even recently told people that he's still upset about James Comey. I don't think they'll ever get over it. In their view, they see James Comey as like election interference.

in the very final days of that election. So yeah, I think there's plenty of, there are plenty of examples of the FBI from both parties being upset about their involvement. I will add this. From my time in the White House, it was during the Comey firing and the pure power politics

of that firing really came home for Trump because he thought when he was moving forward with this that Schumer and Pelosi because of what Clinton said and and the views of Democrats about the election in 2016 he thought they'd applaud this and when he made those calls and they turned that around and made this all about Russia and made this all about pure power politics it

That, I think, was an eye-opening episode for the president. I have one really, really quick point of just about, we've got to be careful about equating sort of the different levels of discomfort with the FBI across presidential administrations. With respect to the Clinton stuff, it was one person's decision, Jim Comey's, to...

give that press conference in the weeks before election day, when you're talking about the Mar-a-Lago search, you are talking about a search warrant that had gone through a federal judge through different levels of the FBI. Now, folks don't have to like it, and folks can have concerns about whether we are politicizing documents and whether it was really obstruction of justice, but you're talking about one action of a man, Jim Comey, versus a law enforcement action that people just didn't want to happen and Donald Trump sees it as an invasion. So it's just not, to me, it's not apples and apples.

Yeah, no, it's a great point to end on. All right, coming up here on CNN this morning, reshaping Syria after the fall of Assad. Congressman, Air Force Colonel Zach Nunn here to discuss. Plus, exceptionally poor timing. One of President Biden's former top aides blasting his rollout strategy around pardoning his son. And unexplained reports, drones flying over New Jersey, sometimes hundreds a day.

We're not hearing from people who see a Bigfoot. We're not hearing from people who see the Loch Ness Monster. We're hearing from really smart people

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These drones statewide are hovering and appearing to be surveilling New Jersey's critical infrastructure. First sightings were reported in November 18th, about three weeks ago. Since then, sightings have happened every single night, dawn to dusk. The frequency range from reportings anywhere between four to 180 sightings per night.

The big question this morning, why New Jersey? Someone or something seems to be super interested in the state that it's famous for, among other things, Bruce Springsteen, the Sopranos, and Snooki. Governor Phil Murphy saying that there is no known threat to the public, but officials are still pushing for answers as these aircraft's proximity to some military facilities has raised concern. One lawmaker going so far as to place blame on one of the United States' adversaries.

I'm gonna tell you the real deal. Iran launched a mothership probably about a month ago that contains these drones. That mothership is off, I'm gonna tell you the deal. It's off the east coast of the United States of America. They've launched drones. Everything that we can see or hear, and again, these are from high sources. I don't say this lightly. The Pentagon was quick to shut down that theory. Let's bring my panel back

In fact, let's watch what the Pentagon said about this. We have what the deputy spokeswoman had to say. Watch this. There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States, and there's no so-called mothership launching drones towards the United States.

Okay. So there we have it. But like the reality is there are like SUV size drones flying over people's houses and it's, I mean, it's, it's wild. Yeah. I mean, it's reasonable to want answers to the questions. It's, I think irresponsible to fear monger about the supposed Iranian motherships. And I think, you know, if the Congressman is trying to divert, uh,

blame or point fingers because he doesn't have answers. That's just an irresponsible way to go about it, but completely reasonable to want answers to these questions. There should not be massive drones flying in the sky that we have no idea where they're from or what they're doing.

If you talk to defense officials, we are now in an era of drone warfare, drone surveillance that is going to just keep continuing and escalating. You're going to see more of these sort of things, not just in the sky of the United States, but skies all over the world.

You know, my home state of New Jersey is famous for Bruce Springsteen and Snooki, but also War of the Worlds, if you remember. The 1939 radio broadcast that had aliens coming from Mars and Grover's Mills, New Jersey. But, you know, to all of these points, it's entirely... So we're all on edge a little bit about things flying around.

over on this side of the table. - And the Hindenburg, right? - Got it. - A lot of things happen in New Jersey, including where all your tomatoes get grown. But needless to say, it's, no, I think it's, people have every right to be alarmed by things that are of this size. It's a national security, homeland security question. Perhaps the Defense Department is certain that there's no Iranian ship, who knows?

I think it's the kind of thing that gets resolved in a matter of days. I do think it's fair, though, after three weeks of SUV-sized drones over people's homes, that you would expect your public officials to take some action rather than just speculating on television. That's the part that I don't understand. Like, this is a... If they are that large, and they're not just the little ones that people fly over their kids... Not crossovers, no. It seems like there should be some U.S. or...

you know, the mounted police in New Jersey taking some action. If there were concerns, if there were concerns, I mean, look, when the Chinese spy balloons were over the United States, I was in the White House at that time, and there was action taken to determine what they were, their origin. So,

I don't know, maybe I'm now irresponsibly fear-mongering just like Congressman Van Drew. But if there were reason to have national security concerns about this, then the White House, the Pentagon would be taking those steps. Now, maybe we're going to learn in a few days that they are.

But there are also companies like Amazon and others who are using drones to deliver packages. I mean, there are a lot of private sector explanations as well. And it's kind of all the more reason why the intelligence apparatus in the country should not be politicized because they'll be looking at it. True. Very true. Is there a reason, if you're in the White House, you're talking about this, to withhold from the American people information about this being a potential national security threat or not? There is.

No, there's no reason to withhold information about it being a national security threat. There would be reason potentially to withhold some detail if you are trying to assess, if you are having back channel conversations with the nation that's deploying them. There are reasons to not always put every single card you have on the table.

But given the media attention this is continuing to get, if the White House, the Pentagon has information that they can provide to the public to provide explanation, it is generally beneficial to tamp down the fear-mongering rather than to allow it to mushroom. All right, fair enough. I guess we'll stay tuned. Still coming up after the break, a fire in California burning through more than 4,000 acres.

My concern was the wind because when it's very windy the fire is unstoppable. Residents are not yet in the clear even with rain possibly on the horizon. Plus how Meta is trying to mend fences with the new president-elect.

All right, welcome back. A scary scene caught on video in Texas. A dashboard camera captured the moments just before an airplane crashed on a busy highway. The plane ended up hitting three cars and four people were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The FAA still investigating the cause of the crash.

All right, time now for weather. The Franklin Fire in California burning through more than 4,000 acres. Two storm systems expected to move through California by the weekend. That could help firefighters contain the blaze, but some Californians still on edge. We're still not all sleeping at the same time. Everybody is taking shifts and on watch. At night, it's very spooky and very eerie because you can look out the window and see what might go up.

Let's get to our meteorologist, our weatherman, Derek Van Dam. Derek, while California really needs more rain, what's going on across the country?

Yeah, there is the Lake Effect snow machine kicking into high gear, which I'll get to in just one moment. But we've got to give the moment to the firefighters here. We've got nearly 2,000 personnel still battling the Franklin Fire 24 hours a day, seven days a week since this fire started a couple of days ago. And this is just incredible visuals coming from the firefighting efforts here with the rotor wing aircraft depositing water on some of these flames and some of the embers here that are just burning.

several stories high. Just incredible to see what's the effort that is going on in Southern California. There are making some progress. 7% containment, still about 4,000 acres burned, but as you mentioned, Casey, there is the potential at least for some wet weather and higher humidity levels that will bring in some relief for the firefighting efforts. The winds have relaxed.

Now we're noticing more of an onshore component to the winds here, so that's going to bring in an increase to the humidity levels. And that, of course, means that a firefighting efforts will become a little bit more easy and not so erratic with the northeasterly Santa Ana winds. Now, speaking of the snow that you talked about, well, the lake affects snow machine downwind in those favored areas across the Great Lakes could pick up one to two

to 2 feet, especially in those favored regions from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. There's a snowstorm and just a broader picture here. You can see we have cool weather dominating much of the eastern two-thirds of the country. It is winter. Casey? Indeed. All right, Derek Van Dam for us this morning. Derek, thank you. Appreciate it. Okay.

All right, this just in to CNN. A missing American found in Syria. We're going to have new details in our morning roundup. Plus, new evidence could place Luigi Mangione at the scene of the crime of the UnitedHealthcare CEO's murder. An independent journalist posted what is reportedly Mangione's manifesto, which is just 262 words. That's not a manifesto. That's a mini-festo.

He could have just made it a Yelp review. American healthcare sucks. One star. It's what dreams are made of. We just won a million dollars. David Bromstad is turning these winners' fantasies into reality by taking them on a thrilling house hunt for homes that fit their new lottery budget. You won two million dollars. Let's spend all of it. If you can dream it... We love the drama. ...David will find it. This is insane. You are a bad, bad boy. I know. Ha ha!

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I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. Plastic is much broader in its use. It's much more pervasive than meets the eye. That's Dr. Leonardo Tresonde. For the last two decades, he's been studying how environmental exposures can impact our health. What does it mean for you? How can you actually reduce your exposure to plastics? Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now, wherever you get your podcasts.

All right, breaking news this morning. President Biden preparing to announce clemency for about 1,500 people, including pardons for 39 who were convicted of nonviolent crimes. It comes as he's faced harsh criticism for the way he pardoned his son Hunter, not just from members of both parties, but now from a former top advisor to the president. Anita Dunn, a deeply loyal communications advisor, departed the White House after Biden pulled out of the race.

She made these remarks, and that's what makes them particularly painful. As we were in the midst of the president-elect rolling out his nominees, and in particular in the middle of a Kash Patel weekend, kind of throwing this into the middle of it was exceptionally poor timing, and that the argument is one that I think many observers are concerned about a president who ran for

to restore the rule of law, who has upheld the rule of law, who has really defended the rule of law, kind of saying, well, maybe not right now.

Dunn says that she agrees with President Biden's decision to pardon his son, but there you saw it. She said she has issues with the timing and the strategy. The public seems to agree. A new CNN poll revealing 68% of Americans disapprove of the president pardoning his son, and barely half of all Democrats, 56%, back the president's decision. Just 29% of independents and 11% of Republicans approve of the

The pardon. Alex Thompson, were you surprised that Anita Dunn said this in public? No, because to give you a little backstory here, Anita Dunn and Hunter Biden have not gone along for a very, very, very long time. Anita Dunn, you know, Hunter blames Anita Dunn for sort of the strategy of the first two years, which was to just lie low and take it.

essentially. And you saw basically that Hunter fired all the lawyers that Anita and her husband, Bob Bauer, hired for him after 2022 and sort of took a much more aggressive PR strategy. So I'm not, there is some backstory here about the frustration between the two of them. I also think, you know, Anita is not as close in the inner circle, Biden's inner circle, in part because of that conflict, because at the end of the day, you know, the Biden family comes first.

Kate? Alex laid out a lot of what I was going to say. It's important to understand there is no love lost between Anita Dunn and Hunter Biden and Hunter's legal team. And particularly the communication strategy around Hunter over the last few years has been a point of conflict between Hunter's legal team, Hunter,

Anita and Bob. So I wasn't surprised either to see her criticize the communications rollout. I think doing it in the way that they did, did leave Biden open to more criticism than he might have otherwise gotten had he done it at the very end of the term or in conjunction with a number of other pardons. Doing it solo like that really kind of put a target on Hunter's back. I agree. I've said on our

I agree that the pardon itself is defensible, but I think Anita has a valid point about the way that the communication strategy was executed. - To pick up on some of that,

And some of it's about the timing of the Hunter Biden pardon. Pardons are an important part of any president's legacy, a way to carry out sort of a political or policy vision. You know, it's been, for instance, among Democrats, it's a big thing to go after nonviolent drug offenses that were administered decades ago, but, you know, don't fit with

America today and quite frankly Joe Biden probably would have pardoned some of these folks anyway or commuted their sentences. The problem and this is to your point is that every pardon he or commutation he does now has a giant asterisk next to it because of the 100 Biden pardon. The whole legacy of clemency in this administration now is tied to that one moment and whether it's the timing of it or the fact that they did it at all it's just almost not easy possible to take the

the president seriously on Clemson. Well, and the extent that this pardon took. It was a blanket pardon. It was 10 years looking backwards. It was above and beyond what a normal pardon would have been. And it...

leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth. And it politicizes the DOJ in a way that I think other Democrats are upset about. Because when Trump says the DOJ is politicized, Joe Biden proved him right. - And I think why it went back 10 years is sort of the thing we were talking about earlier in the show of the public not understanding some of the ins and outs of government. They kind of had to do that because there was a pending investigation and there was still conduct he could have faced. Now, okay, as a matter of law enforcement, that makes total sense.

as a matter of icky, it does not. And that's why the public doesn't really like stuff like this. - All right, let's turn now to the story, I mean, everyone has been so focused on for days now. The NYPD claiming to now have forensic evidence tying 26 year old suspect Luigi Mangione to the sidewalk execution of United Healthcare CEO, Brian Thompson.

First, we got the gun in question back from Pennsylvania. It's now at the NYPD crime lab. We were able to match that gun to the three shell casings that we found in Midtown at the scene of the homicide.

The NYPD saying some of the items Mangione allegedly dropped near the Manhattan crime scene are connected to his fingerprints. And the 3D printed gun found on him matches three shell casings found near Thompson's body. His lawyer challenging the charges, saying evidence and what's admitted into court are two separate issues.

What we're talking about is fingerprint evidence and some ballistics. Those two sciences in and of themselves have come under some criticism in the past relative to their credibility, their truthfulness, their accuracy.

What do you make of how this guy is defending Luigi Mangione in public, first of all, but also on the specifics? In public as a style question? Yuck. But as a defense attorney, he's doing what he needs to do. Look, something that's very important to know is that

The only fact that is undisputed here is that a man was killed in New York City with a firearm by someone who ran away. It is the job of law enforcement to link an individual to what happens there. Now, there are ways they can do it, such as with ballistic evidence and fingerprints and eyewitnesses and McDonald's workers and so on, but that's the job of prosecutors, not the job of

the media or frankly the defense attorney to do and he's doing what he ought to do. Now I would say as a former prosecutor when you have fingerprints which are really hard to find. Don't believe CSI or Law and Order. They're hard to get off of substances but when you... Really? I mean honestly TV makes it look so easy. Oh as a prosecutor. And then run his DNA and you've got it. What's the problem? Not to make this the Elliot show but

But no, to judges, to prosecutors, it's quite frustrating on television because that's just not reality. There's not DNA everywhere. There aren't fingerprints everywhere. So the mere fact that they have usable prints, apparently, it's quite significant. The fact that you have ballistic evidence is quite significant. The fact that you have multiple people in different jurisdictions seeing him. But that's not in court yet. And that's, you know, much of it will. But the defense attorney is doing his job perfectly.

Prosecutors and cops ought to do theirs, and it looks like they've got good evidence.

So let's talk for a second about the politics around all of this because it is seeping into our politics. We're still working on Elizabeth Warren. Made some comments. They're on camera. We're trying to track those down. But she made similar ones to the Huffington Post. And she says this, quote, the visceral response from people around this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practice of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the health care system. Violence is never the answer, but people can only be pushed forward.

So far, Alex Thompson, I mean, these comments have kind of ricocheted already as sort of she's she's careful to say violence isn't the answer. But it sounds like we may we do have the thought. Let's let's watch it.

And what happens when you turn this into the billionaires run it all is they get the opportunity to squeeze every last penny. And look, we'll say it over and over. Violence is never the answer. This guy gets a trial who's allegedly killed the CEO of UnitedHealth. But you can only push people so far. Alex Thompson, what do you make of that?

I think Democrats, well, I think both parties actually recognize there's a lot of anger in the country in different ways, and they're appealing to it in different ways. But clearly, that was an attempt to make sort of a populist appeal to what is this very violent, just seemingly, we don't understand exactly why, but just this incredibly violent murder. You mentioned kind of how this is something that's percolating across. This was Joe Rogan, actually, on his podcast talking about health insurance. Let's watch that.

I don't think anybody's gonna like be crying too hard over that guy. Maybe his family, but that's about it. It's a dirty, dirty business. The business of insurance is f***ing gross. It's gross. And especially healthcare insurance. Just f***ing gross. We're still listening to it. Mike Dubke. Yeah. That's, I mean...

He's not wrong, but it's also gross that thousands of donations are pouring in on a GoFundMe page for Luigi's defense. I mean, part of this is there is something wrong with health care in America. I don't think anyone can deny that. But we really, you know, we've got a child of means who, for whatever reason,

you know and he has been proven guilty Elliot you correct me here I'm so I can't say if yet I you know gunning down in cold blood on the streets of New York a guy that grew up in Iowa and and you know advanced in corporate America for reasons we don't necessarily understand right now all of that is bad but this is this is violence is really started to creep into our politics

Trump had two assassination attempts. I used to joke that, you know, people would say politics now is dirty, it's terrible, it's violent. I go, yeah, look at the 60s. With all the assassinations and all of that, at least we don't have that happening. No, we do. And that's what's worrisome to me. And we have the internet. If any of these people would say those things to Brian Thompson's family, they would not. And it can be true that the healthcare industry is awful, but, you know, it's

I just sometimes wish people would think before clicking send. Yes. That's all. Life advice. Life advice from Elliot Williams this morning. You're welcome. Coming up next here on CNN This Morning, restoring order in Syria after the stunning fall of Assad. Congressman, Air Force Colonel, Zach Nunn will join us to discuss. Plus, 2024, the year of the U.S. election. It's...

Only right? The Times Person of the Year would be the winner of that election. And a Hail Mary NFL coaching legend Bill Belichick heading to college ball with mixed reviews from students. I'm excited. I grew up as a Patriots fan. I'm from Massachusetts. He is just old as well. So that's also another issue. There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States. And there's no so-called mothership launching drones towards the United States.

Officials say the drones over New Jersey do not present a threat to public safety. But that doesn't change the fact that people are feeling uneasy. I'm out of here. What is going on? So bizarre. I get why everyone's freaking out now. I think it's kind of spooky.

Homeland Security officials and the FBI met with New Jersey lawmakers yesterday to discuss the situation. Some of them were left frustrated by the lack of answers. One New Jersey state senator demanding a stronger federal response. New Jersey doesn't have the resources to follow drones and understand exactly what the drones are doing. We just don't have that technology. So that's why I said bring in the Department of Defense,

shut down the airspace until we figure out what are these drones doing in New Jersey. I can tell you what they're not doing. If they're Martians, I guarantee you they're not staying because the taxes are way too high. I'd know they'd be in Florida.

All right. Joining us now, Republican Congressman Zach Nunn of Iowa. He is also a colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, previously served as director of cybersecurity at the White House's National Security Council. Congressman, thanks very much for being here. Thanks so much for having us on. And I think you're absolutely right. We have a real concern here where you have drones that are literally the size of a small vehicle flying in a held position over civilian airspace and even more importantly, over civilians.

And I think anyone would be concerned whether you're in New Jersey or whether you're on a Coast Guard cutter that's also had them trailing around. What we know about this is that the drone technology overwhelmingly is probably Chinese made. What we know is that this has been a pervasive challenge for months now. And what we also know is that this is interfering not just with the safety of the communities there, but also airspace and operations.

There's got to be an answer. And this has been a frustrating part as a member, both with an intelligence background, but an Air Force background to say, how are we at a point here where the FAA and the federal government and local government don't have an answer for people on the ground?

Yeah, to that point, obviously it was just New Jersey that was briefed on this specifically. One of the New Jersey members came out and as the Pentagon rebutted there, said that this was a mothership from Iran that was launching these drones. Obviously they pushed back and said, no, that's not happening, or rather that there's not an Iranian ship off the coast of the United States.

But do you think it's plausible that there are foreign actors behind these drones over New Jersey? Absolutely. And I think we've seen one of the most pervasive actors in this, whether you're talking about what's happening in the Middle East right now, where Iran sent a large-scale attack against Israel using drone technology, to what's just being...

produced indigenously in Eastern Europe that can come across this. Look, we know we've got some real challenges here in the United States to keep up with our drone technology. It's one of the things I actually put in this year's NDAA that we just passed, that we can catch up with some of our adversaries in this space. I think the bigger question we need to ask, though, is what is the pushback on this? Whether it's drones today, whether it's Chinese intrusion sets, which have

hit our telecommunications in something called salt typhoon. They've really put US on the defensive edge. I think a lot of Americans are asking, when do we start pushing back? When do we start doing more than defense, but aggressive offense on making sure this doesn't show up on our shores?

Sir, speaking of the Chinese, you mentioned, of course, that salt typhoon hack that has reportedly gotten into the American telecommunications networks in ways that allow them to listen to phone calls, read text messages and other things. There was also reporting overnight. This is from CBS News, still at this point not confirmed here at CNN. But the reporting that they have is that Donald Trump, the president-elect, has invited Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, to the inauguration.

next month. Do you think that this is a smart thing to do, considering all of the rest of these dynamics? Yeah, I mean, I think we should look at what are red lines, particularly in the space of a preemptive attack, whether it's on the United States through cyber intrusions. Let's not forget, this is the largest cyber intrusion into telecommunications ever in American history. And they're not just targeting President Trump or J.D. Vance.

They've crossed a threshold now where they're going after American citizens, taking their information and targeting them in the same way that spy craft would identify a target, cultivate it, and find things that it wants to about it to exploit it for later use.

I believe at this point we need to be far more aggressive in knowing what is our threshold and then targeting, whether it's the Chinese Ministry of State Security, the MSS, their CIA, or whether we go after their People's Liberation Army, top figures who are making these decisions. And at the top of that food chain is the Chinese premier.

And so President Xi has to be briefed on this, whether it's balloons flying over the United States, drones off the coast, or deep intrusions into Americans' personal information. I would expect that any leader be prepared to hold the Chinese accountable on day one. And if President Trump is going to invite President Xi to spend time here in the United States, I hope that that's a conversation. I know that will be a conversation that he wants to hold him accountable for. Candidly, something that hasn't happened in the last four years.

What do you think about the relationship, the personal relationship that President-elect Trump has had with President Xi? He has been someone who clearly relies on those relationships in the conducting of foreign policy. Are you comfortable with President-elect Trump's relationship, his personal relationship with Xi? I'm very confident in this. And I think this is actually one of the things, like Nixon, that opened up China, but also held China accountable. Our governor from Iowa, Terry Branstad, became the ambassador there. And it was really about...

of providing China with some on-ramps on what they could do correctly. But it was also the first time we'd really pushed back on China's military development, their shipbuilding, their threats in cybersecurity, and then also their operations towards other allies in the region. And I think building a personal relationship with President Trump, we have seen time and time again, whether it's the Europeans, folks in Asia, is probably the best way for us to have a strong voice. Because when the president picks up the phone and says, I'm going to do this,

Foreign leaders know he's going to follow through. All right. Congressman Zach Nunn, very grateful to have you on the program. Hope you'll come back through sometime soon. Thanks. Thanks. All right. 55 minutes past the hour. Here is your morning roundup. This just in. A U.S. citizen who went missing this summer in Hungary has been found in Syria. 29-year-old Travis Timmerman was found walking barefoot in a neighborhood just south of Damascus. It's unclear how he got to Syria.

A Hawaii woman missing for four weeks has been found safe. Hannah Kobayashi's family didn't specify where she is or how she was determined to be safe. Last week, police declared her voluntarily missing, saying that she crossed into Mexico from California on her own will.

Meta, formerly Facebook, making a $1 million donation to President-elect Trump's inaugural fund. It comes two weeks after CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with Trump privately at Mar-a-Lago. The donation first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Bill is heading to Chapel Hill. Bill Belichick soon be back on the sidelines, this time coaching at the University of North Carolina. It's his first go at a college team. He parted ways with the Patriots back in January after 24 seasons as head coach. The eight-time Super Bowl champ agreed to a five-year deal with UNC. It is pending approval. Mike Dubke, why do you think he feels like he needs to do this?

I am just glad he's, as a Bills fan, that he's out of the NFL. But I also can't imagine him sitting on a couch of a high schooler's family living room and saying, this is why you need to come to Chapel Hill. I just, it doesn't make any sense. I guess he really wants to be back in the game. Well, isn't he lining up his son to take over next as well on this program? A lot of his team, the folks that work with him on the Patriots, he's sort of bringing along as well. Oh, all right. Well, I guess it'll be fun times if you're UNC football. Yeah.

All right, let's turn to this. It's almost the end of 2024, which means a nearly century-old tradition about to be announced. Time has unveiled their shortlist of nominees for Person of the Year. The list includes Joe Rogan, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Mark Zuckerberg, Benjamin Netanyahu, Kate Middleton, and Elon Musk. Can you imagine if Elon Musk gets Person of the Year over Donald Trump? That'll be the end of that relationship.

Well, no need to worry, Elon. Time magazine has chosen Donald Trump as person of the year, a distinction bestowed upon the individual or group deemed most influential this past year. Trump held the title once before, back in 2016. He will celebrate today by ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. This puts Trump in the ranks of past winners Winston Churchill, Taylor Swift, Joseph Stalin, and nearly every U.S. president since FDR.

Despite previously claiming the magazine lost credibility for not including him in past rankings, Trump had this reaction when he first earned the title in 2016. Well, it's a great honor. It means a lot, especially me growing up reading Time magazine. And, you know, it's a very important magazine. And I've been lucky enough to be undercover many times this year. So and last year. But I consider this a very, very great honor.

A very, very great honor. If you've ever been in Donald Trump's office in Trump Tower, you know that there are framed Time magazines on his wall. He, I mean, for someone, a creature of the 80s, it's like the ultimate honor. Absolutely. And I think he's really gunning for Richard Nixon's longstanding title of having the most Time covers.

But yeah, he is like, I think this is something that's underappreciated, even though we talk about all the podcasts and everything else. Trump fundamentally is still sort of a creature of the 80s. He still reads the print New York Times, the print New York Post, and Time magazine. Perhaps gunning for Nixon's legacy in other ways as well. We shall see. I will say the print New York Post is really the way to go, like the New York Post would. Mike, what do you make of this choice?

Look, I think it's a logical choice when you give everyone that was on that list. Just look at the ceremony in Notre Dame. He was treated as an incumbent president coming and sitting at that ceremony. We've had multiple foreign dignitaries come to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump. This is, you know, he had a gap of four years, but this is the second term for Donald Trump. He came back from the ashes in

in multiple ways, it makes a whole heck of a lot of sense. - All right. Guys, thanks very much for being with us today. Thanks to all of you at home for joining us as well. I'm Casey Hunt, don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

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