said into custody and try to smash his cell phone in the ground to destroy evidence, he was tackled and taken into custody. he was known to law enforcement but authority say after the terrorist attack in israel by hamas in october he began mobilizing >> he admitted wanting to use explosives to commit a mass killing here in houston. he offered his home as a safe sanctuary to ices operatives. he brags that he would commit a 911 style attack if he only have the resources. >> wolf, he allegedly told authorities at one point you wanted to join the u.s. military to conduct some kind of insider attack. we reached out to his attorney for comment and he starts with one point of providing the terrel support to a terror group. >> thanks for that. i'm wolf blitzer in the situation rooms.

erin burnett out front starts right now. >> the breaking news, vaccine makers shares are telling -- tumbling. that's after trump names rfk jr. to the cabinet with his top health official. good evening, i'm , outfront tonight the breaking news, trump taking -- naming robert f kennedy jr. to be america's next health and human services secretary. tonight, an immediate reaction, the companies that make

vaccines, their stocks are tumbling. that's because trump has made it very clear that kennedy will have free reign and his administration. >> i'm going to let him go wild on health, i'm going to let him go wild on the food, medicines . >> kennedy has gained a following. let's start here. in part, because he talks about things that a lot of people care about, making america healthy again is the motto and that connected with a lot of people, better water, breathing air free of chemicals, all things that should not be controversial, but kennedy then goes further, he goes straight for unfounded conspiracies. >> you've talked about that the media slanders you by calling you and anti-vaxxer and you have said that you are not anti-vaccine, you are pro-safe vaccine. a difficult question,

can you name any vaccines that you think are good? >> i think some of the live virus vaccines are probably averting more problems than they are causing. there's no vaccine that is safe and effective. >> that is not true. when he says there's no vaccine that is not safe and effective. just to give you a basic example, if you look at the chart of polio cases in the united states, you can see the drop, the drop is after the vaccine was introduced. so what did that vaccine do? in the early 20th century, polio is one of the most feared diseases in the world. over 2000 people died and at its worst, it was killing or paralyzing half 1 million people a year. remember the guy with the last iron lung

just died earlier this fall. that changed in the 1950s when the polio vaccine came out. those people have seen people paralyzed, children, paralyzed and when that happened they didn't question the vaccine efficacy. today, it's considered to have been one of the greatest vaccine campaigns in the world, eliminated in the united states and kennedy now has urged parents not to vaccinate their children. >> our job is to resist. if you are walking down the street and i do this now myself. i see somebody on a hiking trail whose carrying a little baby i say don't get them vaccinated and if he hears it from me and then 10 other people, maybe he won't do it. maybe it'll save

that child. >> okay, that's not vaccine skepticism, you heard him, he said it, and obviously, that sort of thing, not vaccinating in a mass way could kill children and would kill children. cases of measles searches are up more than 120%. the reasons that it's surging when mmr, that's a vaccine that is widely available and every child in the united states should get it is because vaccine levels have fallen. but the reality of it is, while the vaccine issue itself is so crucial, some of kennedy's conspiracy theories go beyond that. for example, he was talking about the antidepressant prozac and he said this. >> prior to the introduction of prozac, we had almost none of these events, and we had never seen them in human history where people walk into a schoolroom of children and

start shooting people. >> there's no evidence of that, study after study has not found a link between antidepressants and school shootings but there's no question that rfk has strong opinions, founded or not, about the health of his country. he made news during the campaign for this rather bizarre revelation. >> in 2010 i was having brain fog and i was having trouble with word retrieval and short-term memory and a friend of mine, i was trying to figure out what it was and at the end they said this is almost certainly a parasite . >> that was the worm. all right, so kristin holmes is outfront live in west palm beach, trump making a controversial pick for his cabinet , this is somebody that

he telegraphed loud and clearly that would be in his cabinet if he won. what are you learning from your sources? >> reporter: right now, the people i'm talking to are thrilled that rfk will have a role in this cabinet, just a reminder, that he has to get confirmed, and there's a lot of skepticism that rfk can get confirmed but when i talk to the people close to trump, they believe this is donald trump following through on his promises. i do want to flag one thing that we saw just a few weeks ago which was on caitlin collins show when he was asked if rfk would have a role and he kind of laughed it off and said, no, for the same reason that we thought it was unlikely that rfk could get confirmed and we heard from sources they were considering an outside role for rfk when he would have to be confirmed and wouldn't have the same level of power and it would be more like a health czar however as we've seen all of that went out the window when donald trump ended

up asking rfk to be the head of hhs, and i will remind you, there were a lot of people who were very upset about even the idea that rfk would serve in and the administration even as a czar role and now as a secretary role, obviously hearing a lot of pushback but of course the question being, could he get confirmed that i will say one thing about rfk and trump's relationship, rfk worked very hard to get trump elected. there's a significant group of people out there, when it comes to an election that had small margins, there's a significant group of people who backed donald trump because they liked rfk's platform, this make america healthy again, and i know that from anecdotal experience when i sat in the audience and saw donald trump introduce a slew of various people and rfk got the most standing ovation and

applause of anyone he. across the state. so clearly trump is on this loyalty tour and trying to pay back the people that helped him win this election. he was always going to choose people that he believed were loyal to him for the last couple of years. >> thank you, so much important new detail there. all right, so assange, can i start with you, on the basics here. you have this vaccine issue, so what is your reaction to him becoming the hhs secretary. >> it's exactly what you're saying, there are parts where i think a lot of people are in agreement on, we are a country that spends $4.5 trillion on healthcare and we have some of the worst outcomes in the developed world. a lot of that probably has to do with our food supply. 70% of chronic disease is probably preventable. the problem is the second part of what you were talking about, there are so many things that he contorts to his version of the truth. he takes these little correlations

and turns them into true causation , the antidepressants and the school shootings, for example. prozac came out in 1987, school shootings have been happening since the 60s, number 1, number 2, i don't know how many of these children were on prozac, these school shooters, that were on this but it sort of fits what he's trying to say so he conforms these things to his true, so when he talks about the gold standard of scientific research, what that means is trying to look at correlations and say let's study this, let's study it like we did vaccines and autism, let's do a global study, let's follow hundreds of thousands of let's follow them for a decade and a half and see, was there a correlation or a causation between vaccines and autism and that was debunked a long time ago and it keeps instilling fear and it keeps coming up. >> he has frequently spread, you heard him say that about

walking up to the baby on the hiking trail, don't vaccinate your baby and if 10 more people say it, it's very clear, and him being asked if there was any vaccine that you thought was safe and effective and he said no. >> he is dialing that back. he's always said i'm not anti-vaccines, he says things like that. so how do you reconcile those two things together. it makes it difficult to interview and have conversations because he changes depending on how the question is asked. >> so margaret, the democratic governor of colorado, jared polis is taking a lot of heat for this but he said i'm excited by the news that the president-elect will appoint robert kennedy jr. to the hhs. he will help make america healthier again and he says that he specifically supported

him on not having vaccine mandates, he said i don't want them band but i also don't want them mandated, this is a democratic governor of colorado. are we going to see more of that? >> perhaps you will. i don't know, here's what i do know. i can't explain the specific circumstances around jared polis and his arguments, colorado is my home state, it has a significant population of people who abstain from vaccinations and they also have significant outbreaks of measles and other diseases from time to time because they don't have compliance. what we know is that if you have an hhs secretary who believes and tells people that vaccines don't work or discourages people from getting vaccines, it will cost lives, and we know it will because it already has.

rfk gmac has a specific example, the island of samoa where he decided, he went to the island of samoa and there was an outbreak of measles because there have been a circumstance where poorly administered vaccines had caused deaths, he then said it was because of the vaccines that these deaths occurred, which led to an outbreak of measles with thousands of individuals got measles because they were told that the vaccine had killed people. and many scores of people died of measles. you can't lie about vaccines and not have people believe it, to some degree and have real-life consequences. people will die if this kind of spokesman ship is elevated to the chief health department in the united states of america. by the way, not to mention the research he's going to define for infectious diseases and

viruses, that's what he said, he will stop it temporarily for eight years. there are real consequences. i think this is one of the most impactful and potentially dangerous decisions that donald trump has made in his nine days of being president elect. >> scott, okay, this has to go through the senate -- >> maybe. >> maybe. putting aside the recess appointments but the thing is, president trump has put forth matt gaetz and pete hegseth and tulsi gabbard and now rfk jr. there will be some

choices, if they choose to block any of them, certainly rfk jr. won't be top of the list, or will he? >> i would not put him in the same category as matt gaetz. i think he has a long way to go, rfk, i saw a few positive vibes out of the senate tonight. you know, he, like everybody else that gets nominated gets to sit at a table and answer questions. and to your point, a lot of what he talks about, there is widespread agreement with on the left and right about, if we just improve the way we ate in this country we would solve a lot of health problems and it would be really good. so you will get widespread bipartisan agreement. i'm certain the vaccine staff will be the biggest flashpoint in the hearings and like everybody else who gets nominated, he will have a chance to answer for those statements and the senators will have to decide whether that is satisfactory or not. as a political matter, there's no hiding the ball, this isn't like donald trump pulling someone out of the closet and saying, now i'm doing this, he was the most

visible campaign surrogate, trump embraced him on the trail, he didn't disavow anything he did. this was a full part of trump's campaign and trump won the election. my view is, he will go up to the hill and answer questions and we will see what the senate has to say about it. some people when they get in front of the table under oath, you talk about him in interviews, when you are under oath, it's a different story about what you might say, one other issues, i think the pro-lifers are weird on this right now, if i were the trump people i would be coming up with something proactive because i think those attacks are coming. >> specifically that he's pro-choice, pro-life senators may have difficulty confirming him. >> that's a whole other aspect. i wanted to give you a chance, what is so important there? >> look we just came out of the pandemic, they're always concerned about new viruses . he has threatened to define, keep in mind, hhs oversees the cdc, fda, nih, among several other agencies. he has threatened to take away a lot

of that funding so we would be in a bad spot. there might be another virus, i don't know what kind of position it would put us and if something else were to start percolating. >> next, more republicans casting doubt on matt gaetz chance of getting to be attorney general . russian television tonight cheering trump's choice of tulsi gabbard, a special report from moscow.

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calls growing tonight for the house ethics committee to release the report on matt gaetz. gaetz has denied any allegations. the report was very much done, supposed to be released tomorrow but gaetz resigned from his house seat last night which effectively ended the probe. but the report was ready to go. it's coming as more examples are coming to light about the way trump's would be attorney general talks about women, take a listen. >> why is it that the women with the least likelihood of getting pregnant are the ones

most worried about having an abortion? nobody wants to impregnate you if you look like a thumb . >> you are suggesting that these women at abortion rallies are ugly and overweight? >> yes. >> what do you think would you say to people who think that those comments are offensive? >> be offended. >> you've spent time with gaetz because you were both on the judiciary committee so you have seen him personally and professionally in that context , putting that context on this, what is your reaction to his selection as attorney general? >> matt gaetz is a maga zealot and a trump sycophant and confidant. on the way i see all of the appointments that we've been reading about over the last couple days is this is the

absolute triumph and takeover of the republican party by maga, and it will be the takeover of the us government by maga if the senate let's all of these people go through. so you are not seeing just right wing conservative corporate types like rex taylor said that you saw in the first trump administration. i mean these people are maga true believers like matt gaetz. now, there is a theory on capitol hill that president-elect trump is just doing a favor for matt gaetz, that nobody really holds out hope that he will be confirmed according to this theory, but it gave him an excuse , a way to save face and say he was resigning from congress, so that would suppress the release of the ethics committee report because that's been the tradition and the norm if somebody is no longer in the house of representatives than an ethics report would not be released.

but all he did was resign from the 118th congress. if he felt like there's no way he could get through the people he considers rino republicans, he could go ahead and get sworn in, in january with the rest of us because he did win reelection so he could join the 119th congress. >> let me ask you about that. you think they should release the ethics report anyway, especially he is going in front of the senate. and you think you have an idea about what is in the report? >> we know what the allegations are of drug use and sex trafficking, those are the same kinds of things that were investigated by the department of justice. look, i think it's just impossible to contemplate

that the u.s. senate, you know, even as much as they are under the thumb of donald trump would actually vote to confirm him without the ethics committee report being released because this was an exhaustive investigation in a republican congress, by a bipartisan committee in a time of very serious concern about these kinds of allegations that go to sex trafficking. so i would imagine that it would have to be released if they really want to try and get the senate to confirm him. they could move and try into a recess appointment which would escape the requirements of getting an actual senate vote. >> let me ask about that, then. do you think that is likely, from what you are hearing, and you know, whether the majority leader will allow that to happen, essentially, that means that gaetz gets confirmed?

>> well, he gets appointed, he would be installed, essentially, on a recess appointment basis, he wouldn't be confirmed by the senate. look, you know, it may be that trump doesn't have enough political might with the senate to get them to actually confirm gaetz but he might have enough political influence to get them to take a recess and allow him to engage in the recess appointment . but the questions are very serious that are being raised, not even primarily i democrats at this point who are standing back to let the republicans pose these questions, and it really does go to the issue of whether or not they are going to meaningfully defend their power, that really is the essential differential between the senate and the house that they get to render advice and

consent on presidential nominations. >> congressman, i appreciate your time. thank you very much. >> you bet. >> next, case file with more unfounded conspiracy theories, we will play those. >> if you and a lab put atrazine in a tankful of frogs, it will chemically castrate and forcefully feminize every frog in there. >> inside one of the world most brutal prisons. the one that matt gaetz toured and called quote, the solution.

breaking news, these are pictures from a couple of moments ago at mar-a-lago, rfk jr. is there for a gala, trump of course, just tapping him to leave the health and human services department. can be shared a theory a while ago that man-made chemicals in the environment are making children transgender or gay and causing the feminization of boys in the masculinization of girls. >> these chemicals, we are just raining down and our children right now it's inducing these profound sexual changes and it's something we need to be thinking about. they are swimming through a soup of toxic chemicals today. andrew, all of these things are going to come up in a confirmation

hearing and all this will be discussed. >> he has repeatedly suggested that man-made chemicals in the water could be making children gay or transgender. any spread the theory that chemicals in the water could be responsible for the feminization of boys and making girls more masculine. the experts that we've spoken to last year when he was running for president strongly pushed back on the claims. take a listen to a few more of what kennedy was saying in those comments. >> there's atrazine throughout the water, atrazine by the way, if you in a lab put atrazine, in a tankful of frogs, it will chemically castrate and forcibly feminize every frog in there. >> what does this have to do with the sexual development in children, nobody knows what it

will do to children. >> you asked what experts thought about these claims. >> people probably remember that alex jones went viral for making similar comments and said they were putting chemicals in the water that were turning the frogs , gay. the experts said you are combining apples to oranges. we did pose this question to the kennedy campaign, how do you square what he said with what all the experts said and here is what they told us at the time, they said he is merely suggesting that given copious research on the effects of other vertebrae, this possibly deserves research. >> hopefully he will have a chance to answer questions about this and confirmation

hearings assuming they occur. andrew, thank you. and i want to bring in the cofounder of axios, breaking so much news on this incoming administration. mike, here we are, rfk jr. is trump's latest cabinet choice. this is one, rfk jr. said that trump, 10 a cabinet position and there was a little bit of vagueness but that appears to be what happened. all these choices, are they all serious, is this really what trump wants to do or is this shock and awe. >> those things aren't mutually exclusive but based on my reporting at mar-a-lago, these are 100% things that president-elect trump wants to do. he wants it. their attitude

is bring it on, these pics have come faster and have been more defiant than even some insiders thought. i'm told it's clear the president knew what he wanted. they thought he would spend much more time with these lists, considering the options but he feels like he has a mandate and he feels like there's a lot of people, he has learned over the last four years what he's up against and the way they put it to me is you want to be in a foxhole with fighters, you want to be in a foxhole with people you trust, but i can tell you, here on capitol hill where the cnn bureau is, as i've talked to people there, real concern about these pics, you mentioned the rfk confirmation, the trump view is, that's a great opportunity, there will be no bigger stage ii air many of his

beliefs, yes, they're going to ask about vaccines and fluoride but he's going to talk about how the healthcare system is broken. but erin, listen , the senate can only lose three republicans to pass with an all republican vote that would be jd vance, breaking the tie, but erin, axios is reporting that four, five, sometimes even six senators may be against some of these pics. now, with matt gaetz for attorney general, he will get only republicans, they can't lose many, trump people tell me that they are optimistic that rfk might pick up some votes from the democratic side of the aisle. >> it's interesting, i mentioned earlier, the democratic governor of colorado came out with a strong endorsement of kennedy, even supporting him on vaccines in terms of not mandating or

banning them. you said people around trump had doubts that he would nominate rfk jr., what more can you tell us about that, what were his hesitancy's? >> there was some thinking, there were two options that i know were life, what was that he stays on the outside, makes money, and has his people in place at the agencies. another possibility that was contemplated was, put him in the white house with some broad mandate and of course he doesn't face confirmation and that's why, erin, i told you, our reporting reflects that the president wants the fight, he welcomes the fight and he's got through these pics , more than about half of his top pics are out, you saw that just tonight, you saw his legal defense team, going to be at the top of the justice department. i'm told all the pushback over the incredible

pics, defined x, surprising pics, aggressive pics over the last 48 hours, my conversations with who's in our circle, zero qualms. >> mike, thank you so much. it's great to see you. hopefully, see using. next, and out front exclusive. we are taking you inside one of the world's most brutal prisons. matt gaetz was supporting it and does it give him ideas of what he would do as ag? this is really important, we will tell you.

matt gaetz inside one of the world's most brutal prisons taking a tour and suggesting it should be a model for the u.s., tonight, exclusive access to that prison where el salvador keeps the quote worst of the worst, murderous, gang members including some deported from the u.s. here is kate after seeing the prison firsthand. >> there's a lot more discipline in this prison that we see in the presence of the united states. this is the solution. >> cnn is the first major news organization to gain access to the system. david culver takes you inside the prison in this out front exclusive. >> all right we will go in here. >> even as him stepping through the doors, i don't fully grasp what we are about to walk into.

suddenly, you are hit with the intense gaze of dozens locking on to you, these men described as the worst of the worst, tattooed with reminders of el salvador's dark past. it is tense and uncomfortable but here, officials say, comfort, isn't meant to exist. >> there's no mattresses, no sheets, you've got a toilet over there for them to go to the bathroom. you got the space where they can pay themselves and there's a barrel of water that they can drink from. >> this is a rare look inside the terrorism confinement center known as, >> you said there's always somebody standing here in front of the cell and if you look up there's another corridor with more security personnel , 24/7 light. >> it's it's like an isolated fortress about an hour and a half drive from the capital.

even with government officials on board with us, we are stopped a mile out. >> okay. he's going to inspect the bags. we are clear to get back in. >> only to hit another checkpoint. approaching the main gate are cell signals vanish. once we are cleared, we tour the campus. >> it's been equated to seven football stadiums. it's almost multiple prisons within the prison. you can see off in the distance, there's three different rings that they describe, the far end, you have one that is nine miles of concrete and three meters of electrified folds. >> more than 1000 security personnel. the director tells me that inmates, once they're inside, they never leave,

everything is done with them, including doctors as well as legal visits or court hearings. >> each sector holds more than two dozen large cells. roughly 80 inmates per cell but it can fluctuate. most of the markings of the gangs that held this nation hostage for decades, committing brutal acts of violence. >> you've got to kill people, do what you do to survive. >> we meet 41-year-old marvin vazquez, shackled and heavily guarded. >> what gang were you a part of? >> ms 13. i'm tattooed up. >> what is this? >> crazy criminal. i made this click in 2011. >> you were a gang leader? >> yeah. >> what's it like to live

here? >> it's not a hotel, five-star but they give you three times with food and they give you programs and you go and do exercise. some church, religion programs, too. >> but that is limited to 30 minutes a day, the other 23.5 hours, they are kept inside and locked up. >> for inmates who get violent with other prisoners or guards , solitary confinement awaits . they can be in here for 15 days, potentially. i'm ready to get out. the director brought up that a lot of folks will raise concerns from a human rights perspective, and abuse of human rights but he is

calm hearing that because he sees it day today, the process they go through to maintain as he sees it, proper punishment. >> while you are cut off from society, whispers of life on the outside make their way in. >> i've heard about it, it's a new el salvador and it looks different. >> that new el salvador has emerged under their president who took office in 2019 and declared a controversial state of emergency, more than two years ago, it sparked an aggressive crackdown on crime. we see that firsthand as some 2500 police and soldiers deploy into one neighborhood. >> this will go on to the night or however long it takes to root out any suspected criminal elements. >> criminals argue his strategy has given him far-reaching power to suppress dissent and silence opposition. late last week as the u.s. state department lowered its travel advisory for el salvador citing a significant reduction in crime, it also warned that the

emergency measures allow authorities to arrest anyone suspected of gang activity and suspends constitutional rights. and yet most we meet seemed unfazed by the added show of force. >> i said how do you feel with all of the soldiers right outside your door and he said i feel safe. >> el salvador has one of the world highest incarceration rates, the most hardened criminals brought here were inside a life sentence awaits. and yet for many on the outside, the prison now a symbol of newfound freedom, the new el salvador, as they see it. >> it's just incredible to watch that. you know, and it's new and it's clean, you see it

there. matt gaetz said this should be a model and a solution. look, are we going to see more prisons in the world modeled after the one that you just showed us in such great detail? >> i don't think gaetz is saying that you will see these types of prisons popping up across the u.s. per se, but he does definitely see supporting this, and we are seeing ecuador and honduras, they are building with folks are describing as this kind of style of prisons. if gaetz is confirmed as attorney general and then you get senator rubio as secretary of state, these are two guys who are incredibly focused on latin america, both are incredibly supportive of that president and hence would very likely be supportive of extending those methods across latin america, why does that matter? as they see it, it's about stabilizing everything south of the border to stop migration northward, no question, this is

controversial, walking through those halls, it is unnerving. that said, nearly everyone we speak with in el salvador, even if they don't like the tactics, they say that they work and they say it is necessary to eradicate such severe gang violence. >> it's amazing, just to see how this will play out. we will see over these next months. david calder, thank you so much, that exclusive and first report inside that prison in el salvador. next, is trump's new cabinet, does it have an incredible gift to putin in it? we will take you to moscow to show you, next.

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tonight celebrations on russian state television after trump matt gaetz and tulsi gabbard for highly sensitive national security roles. >> reporter: crimeline control t.v. praising some of president-elect trump's cabinet picks, calling designated attorney general matt gaetz a trump loyalist and also speaking favorably about trump's pick for director of national intelligence, tulsi gabbard, for repeatedly parroting kremlin talking points on the war in ukraine. she from day one clarify the reason for russia's special operation in ukraine, criticizing the actions of the biden administration. her words

in 2022 right after russia launched its evasion does not invasion a ukraine caused panelist to ask if she is a criminal agent. yes, the host said without providing any evidence. but the russians were ripping into the national security advisor mike walz and pete had set. mike walz bragged about how trump threatened to bond as he put it is kremlin. that is what is called russ a phobic dream team or the american dream team. of course there is a lot of discussion here in russia about the new trump administration that is taking shape and what some of the picks could mean, especially when it comes to possibly ending the war in ukraine. >> [ speaking in a non-english language ]

>> reporter: russian president vladimir putin has said he is willing to talk to donald trump even before he takes office. the russians praising some of his appointments as officials who could help normalize relations with moscow. the criminal was asked about this today and the kremlin spokesman said the russians are monitoring this very closely. he also says this is not their main priority. therefore at this point in time they do not want