of christmas trees, and we'll still have helene to blame. again a ten year span. so the farmers out here are really just you know, the message is if you can please buy a real north carolina christmas tree this season because they lost out on the business and the leaf peeping season from the fall because that was right after the disaster and now they're trying to get people to come up to the choosing cuts. roads have been okay. we've been able to get around. so they're trying to let people know, hey we're still open for business. please come take whatever trees that we have because they need that business. what he also told me was the community here has been so special and so moving. the neighbors really loving on each other at this difficult time. >> sarah it's a beautiful thing to hear, but it's also hard to look at those pictures from the drone to see just how widespread the damage is there. and you can bet for folks looking for christmas trees that the prices are going to have to go up because supply is

clearly been knocked way down thank you so much. elisa raffa. from a very snowy newland north carolina. a new hour of cnn news central starts right now new. >> the president elect moving quickly to put up a new pick for attorney general after matt gaetz bows out over his controversies. now adding new pressure to the controversy surrounding another of trump's picks, pete hegseth. and this morning sean "diddy" combs will be back in court as his lawyers try for a third time to get him released on bail. what makes this bail hearing different? and six tourists, including one american, are dead after drinking alcohol suspected of being tainted with methanol. one person now detained in connection with the deaths. i'm kate bolduan with sara sidner. john is out today. this is cnn news central

president-elect donald trump's cabinet. this morning. cabinet 2.0 is facing its first big shakeup hiccup, whatever you want to call it. matt gaetz is out and pam bondi is now in as donald trump's pick for attorney general what is clear right now is that body's path to confirmation appears far less, far more stable and far less controversial among republican senators than what they saw in matt gaetz. some expressing relief to cnn and hearing that gaetz pulled his name from consideration, aka he saw clearly that the math was not there for him to survive confirmation. this raises new questions about the math for some of donald trump's other nominations marred by controversy and facing allegations that have previously not been made public. cnn's alayna treene. she's got much more. she's tracking all of this for us. and trump quickly did move to

name pam bondi as now his nomination for attorney general. what happened behind the scenes well, there's a few things one, just to get back to the matt gaetz of it all. >> i mean, donald trump, after matt gaetz had been with jd vance on wednesday going around the senate meeting with the people who would be, you know, crucial to getting him through his confirmation hearings. many people reported back to donald trump that it was clear that the writing was on the wall and that he likely would not have the votes to make it through. we've learned now that donald trump called matt gaetz on thursday morning, telling him that the math was not there, but leaving the decision up to him to pull out and withdraw his own name, which he did do, of course, later that day. i'm told gaetz called up donald trump and jd vance separately to tell them that he was going to be removing himself from consideration, but to get to the pam bondi of it all now. i mean you're very you're right. he moved very quickly to announce a new attorney general. part of that is because that role is the most

important to donald trump. he really wanted to push aside all of the other confirmation or excuse me, appointees that he had to make for different cabinet picks like treasury, like labor and really figure out who would be his attorney general. now, part of the reason he selected bondi, i'm told, is one he has known her for years. she did serve in his first term as part of his white house counsel. she represented him during his first impeachment trial. he also loves to see her on television defending him. that has been a key qualification we've seen with some of the other picks as well. and she also knows people in donald trump's orbit including his incoming chief of staff susie wiles, who of course, her herself has been involved in florida politics for a very long time. and you're right, kate, that when i talk to people working on the transition process those close to donald trump, they said that they were a little bit relieved that matt gaetz is no longer in the picture. that was going to be a very difficult battle for them to fight. whereas they think pam bondi of course, she still has a lot of questions that she's going to be

confronted with by different senators, but they believe that she will have an easier time. i'm told getting confirmed. >> great to see you. thank you for kicking us off this hour sarah. >> all right. >> with us now is democratic strategist julie roginsky and former trump administration official tricia mclaughlin. tricia most recently served as senior adviser and director of communications for vivek ramaswamy 2024 run. welcome to the both of you. let's start with with pam bondi. not a household name, but she is, you know, the attorney general of florida, the first female attorney general and has a heck of a lot more experience than than matt gaetz has. do you see, tricia, this sort of sailing through? because there are some issues she's faced some scrutiny over payments that donald trump made to her campaign while she was overseeing that investigation of of trump university and her being a registered lobbyist at one point for qatar. >> yeah, i think republicans across the board are breathing a sigh of relief. matt gaetz was taking up a lot of media oxygen, but as well as political capital, she pam bondi really is eminently

qualified. she served, as you said, as attorney general, the first female. she's been a prosecutor for 20 years. she oversaw the the first impeachment of donald trump. and i think a lot of republicans also say, okay pam bondi is going to get us back to the norms of the be weaponizing the justice department like we saw under merrick garland, that unprecedented raid of mar-a-lago against donald trump, the unprecedented prosecution against a former president and a leading candidate for the republican nomination. people are ready to get past that. and like donald trump said, he said success is going to be his retribution. >> to be fair, the raid happened because there were classified documents inside of mar-a-lago that that shouldn't have been there. same thing that happened with, with with joe biden. there were classified documents that the government you know, should have. i do want to ask you about bondi because something that you said, something that scaramucci we just talked to said, look, she has said in interviews that she is going to prosecute the prosecutors inside of the doj looking at the prosecutors who went after

donald trump and saying that, you know, they are going to be investigated. so is this revenge? is what does that mean to those working at the doj and to the american public? >> of course it's revenge. i mean, donald trump said to voters i will his voters, i will be your vengeance. and he meant it. and this is what that means he was never going to put anybody in there who was going to be conventional attorney general, who was going to do the business of the united states and not the business of donald trump. and you see that today. look, what's going to end up happening is there's going to be a massive brain drain from the justice department, and that's going to be incredibly hard to put back together after donald trump is gone. these are people who worked there who are apolitical sometimes for decades. people who could have gone to major law firms and made a lot of money, but decided to serve the united states instead. and what's going to happen now is that if she decides that her business is not to do the business of the united states, but the business of donald trump, and go after prosecutors

who are doing nothing more than their jobs. one of two things is going to happen either nobody's going to want to work at the state department unless they're full on maga, which is not great for the people or they're not going to want to work there because they don't want to work for somebody like that. and what that means is effectively that we're not going to have competent qualified people who've been there all along doing that. now, maybe that's donald trump's idea of draining the swamp. quote unquote. but the truth of the matter is, it does not do any good for the people who put him there. and those are the people that the justice department is supposed to serve. they're not the president's lawyers. they're our lawyers. >> now that now that matt gaetz is is out do you see this sort of full focus going to pete hegseth because there are these allegations that the sources have told us that the trump team was unaware of. so apparently it wasn't disclosed. do you see him having trouble getting through? >> i think that pete hegseth will be confirmed. i mean he

does have a strong background as far as he served in the military for 20 years. he has two bronze stars, but i will say we're already seeing the media shift to the focus on the pete hegseth investigation, which we should be clear that he was cleared of. and there were no charges pressed. so yes. will he face more scrutiny will rfk face more scrutiny? will kristi noem will tulsi gabbard, of course. but i think we're also going to see that the senate is going to do their own investigations with these folks. and i think pete hegseth will be a great leader for the pentagon. and he's going to focus on rooting out toxic ideologies pete hegseth technically was not cleared. >> he just was not charged. there is nothing in the 22 page report saying he was cleared. however, he has said he has not done it. he was not charged. but there is another line of concern that we heard from north dakota's senator cramer. and the line of concern is when he said that women should not serve in combat roles in the military, with the military having such a deep problem with

recruitment and with women coming forward saying that they've been sexually assaulted in the military what do you make of this line? and it being brought up by a senator who ostensibly will vote as to whether or not pete hegseth will get this nomination? >> pete hegseth has many problems in addition to what you just said pete hegseth, when he was at princeton published an article that said that women who are raped while they're passed out actually, that's not really can't consent, if they're not aware of what's happening to them, that's not rape. i mean this is somebody who's going to be in charge of a military that has had massive sexual assault scandals to be very clear on both sides of the aisle. this is something that people have been looking into. senators on both sides of the aisle, it's a problem. and if you speak to women who've served in the military, they say it's a question of not if but when they will be sexually assaulted. to have somebody like this as the leader of our military, who, by the way, i think also because of his own

personal life and his failure to disclose certain details of that to the white house and to others is really ripe as an intelligence compromise human being. i mean, the bottom line is this is exactly the kind of person that should not be serving in a national security capacity, because this is the kind of person who has things that he doesn't want coming out, that our enemies are probably already aware of surely, tricia surely there is somebody in the trump organization and the trump orbit who doesn't have sexual harassment issues that they can put into this job. it does not need to be pete hegseth. >> well, i have to note, though our current commander in chief, joe biden, has sexual assault allegations against him. he is the leader of our country. he's the leader of the military. so we can go through this all day. but there is multiple people who face these allegations, whether they be true or not. we need to make sure that there's sound investigations without i mean without coming to sweeping. >> but he didn't disclose. >> he did not disclose that he didn't disclose to the transition team. >> he did not disclose to anybody. and that if i were the trump administration, if i were

susie wiles, if i were the whoever was doing the vetting on him, i would be furious. why not disclose something? why is it that that apparently donald trump had to find out, along with the rest of us, that there is a credible allegation of sexual assault? and by the way, i think we all know that sexual assault is incredibly hard to charge. it's incredibly hard to prosecute for reasons that are obvious. one person says a and another person says b, and as a result of that, you can't really figure out what happened as tara reid did but okay, tara reid is now tara tara reid is now living in moscow working for vladimir putin. so i think we understand where that's coming from. but look, this is a republican woman at a republican conference who accused pete hegseth of this. this is not some democratic deep state plant where there are no charges. >> there were eight years. there were no there were listen, i worked, listen, i worked i worked with pete hegseth at fox. >> and let me tell you something, pete hegseth has issues above and beyond this that need to be examined because pete hegseth has a problem where he goes out and gets drunk, and that's also not something that we need

necessarily need in our department of defense. and the person leading our military. so i would just say i like pete on a personal level. surely there are people who are more qualified than he is. >> julie roginsky tricia mclaughlin. thank you both for talking through that with us. >> kate, this morning. sean "diddy" combs will be back in court. his lawyers are now accusing prosecutors of altering evidence that they leaned on to keep him behind bars. much more on that. and also new overnight, more strikes in ukraine as the kremlin blames the west for its use of a new missile capable of carrying nuclear weapons. and is a turf war underway between rival hate groups in ohio, right now. how the city of columbus has gotten caught in the middle of it. and preparing now to fight back taken a toll on my body i take qunol turmeric because it helps with healthy joints and inflammation support. >> why qunol has superior absorption compared to regular turmeric qunol the brand i trust.

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the today sean "diddy" combs will be back in court for his third attempt at getting released on bail. >> and in a new court filing ahead of this hearing, his attorneys are now claiming that prosecutors altered the video of combs, of combs attacking his then girlfriend cassie ventura in 2016. a warning when we show you this video again. this video really is disturbing. it's the surveillance footage first obtained and reported by cnn, showing combs grabbing ventura by the back of the neck, throwing her to the ground in a los angeles hotel, and then dragging her. combs legal team now says an edited version of that video was used by prosecutors at an earlier bail hearings, and they argue those edits omit some footage and changes the order of events. joining us right now is cnn legal analyst joey jackson. joey, what do you think of this new argument that combs team is going to be making we've seen it in filings to try to get him out on bail. >> so good morning kate. i think a lot of it. >> and here's why. right

courts do not like to be misled. and what happens in the relevance of this, kate, is that this was used. >> that is the video in the bail hearing to evidence sex trafficking. that's what prosecutors suggested, that this was a sex trafficking video, that he was otherwise bringing her and dragging her back as part of this common scheme. the defense has said that this is evidence of a consensual relationship and domestic dispute doesn't make what we saw on that video any more. right. but the reality is, is that if you're going to have an indictment and claim someone was sex trafficking, and if you're the government, they're going to use this critical piece of evidence to show that, and you're going to edit the video, number one, number two, take it out of context. number three, reorder the series of events. that's troubling. and when you use it in a bail hearing to say he cannot be trusted, he's a danger to the community. he cannot be released. and then we learn about this. it's problematic and troubling. and i don't think a court will take too kindly to that even if the and we don't we have to

see, of course, what happens in court and what is presented and said in court. >> but if that video, if the order of events are reordered how is it that could it how does a judge then see that he's any less the third time around, any less a threat to society just by a reordering of? yes. >> so here's what they're saying everything, kate. the defense's argument has a context, right? and context matters what specifically happened? does it justify hitting her in any way, shape or form no, but the defense is arguing that you prosecutors were using that to show that this was a sex trafficking and a freak off event. it was not. it was merely a domestic dispute. and if the core of your indictment is the whole sex trafficking, prostitution, racketeering issue, you misled me will say a judge. and that's how it could alter events. they're saying in fact, kate, that they used the cnn video right in court as opposed to the actual video. and that's troubling. >> what happens to the overall

criminal charges he faces if this what the prosecutor what combs's defense team is trying to allege here is true. >> so a couple of things to keep in mind, right. so first, this is simply a bail hearing. right. and that's an argument as to why he should be released that's number one okay. this is only a bail hearing to your question in the event we get to trial. right. and there's no resolution prior, it is going to be predicated upon the facts. what the defense is arguing is that this was, again, a consensual long term relationship that had nothing to do with sex trafficking. and this is the only witness in that allegation of the sex trafficking portion of the indictment. the defense is arguing, kate that there's a victim, another victim too, that's nonexistent. so it goes to the factual issue at trial of whether it was sex trafficking or something else. >> okay. on bail, how is after two how is third time a charm? how does it how is it different? is this is this what we're just talking about? this this allegation from the his

team, is that so much of a game changer that it would change a judge's view? third time around on bail. >> so it could be but there's a it could be. and here's why. number one it's not only what we've we've been talking about right. but it's the other issue. and that's this could he defend himself in court and prepare with his team. a lot of the defense papers are predicated upon him having the ability to be adequately prepared for trial while he's in a jail cell. and when you're rating his jail cell, then taking notes, et cetera., you're monitoring his phone calls. you're limiting his ability to have access to counsel. you're listening to everything he's saying that's troubling. and then you try to use that information against him. you need to be able to prepare with your lawyers. if you don't have the ability to do that, then it impedes your ability right to have a fair trial and therefore a judge could say, hey, if you guys are going to be going in his jail cell taking out these papers, maybe he should be out preparing as opposed to end with you peeping on everything that he's doing. >> so interesting. it's so

interesting because you'd think a third bail hearing, it's you know, same thing is going to happen but there has been a lot that's happened since that second bail hearing that these that we're just talking about that this, this hearing today could be really an interesting one in the long road to the in the criminal charges that he faces. overall. it's good to see you joey thank you always. thanks, kate sara. >> all right. >> thank you, kate, this morning. why tourists are being warned about drinking alcohol and not for the reasons you might think. six people have been poisoned. details on that ahead. and an unexpected twist in the story of a missing kayaker who was initially believed to have drowned in a wisconsin lake on a fishing trip. turns out he's alive, but he's living in another country. so what the heck happened? that story ahead healthy blood pressure and help maintain your energy, your stamina and your heart health, that's why super beets from human does the hard part for you. >> super beets, plant based supplements for blood pressure support are formulated with

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it and alon advanced home designed to outperform. >> there are amazing things that are happening all over the world. things that can make our lives better. that's the goal of my podcast to try and find the secrets to a longer and happier and healthier life, and then we bring those secrets to you. listen to chasing life wherever you get your podcasts the adl, the leading anti-hate organization in the world says that there is a turf war underway in columbus, ohio. >> right now, a turf war between hate groups. this all started last week when we saw

that march that took place in broad daylight. people carrying flags with swastikas and spewing hate like this newsguard khuza'a mariinsky theater american aaron judge the adl says those people are part of the hate club, a newly formed white supremacist organization, and they believe that was the group's 1st march. and the way they put it is, appears to have been an intentional effort to antagonize a rival white nationalist supremacist group called blood tribe. well, now local officials, jewish advocacy groups, civil rights leaders, they're all vowing to try and fight against this hate. and these groups before it gets any worse. ohio's republican governor mike dewine, he said this. there is no place in this state for hate bigotry, anti-semitism or violence, and we must denounce it wherever we see it. joining us right now is the city attorney for columbus, zach klein. thank you very much for

coming in. so the adl thinks what happened in your city may have been the beginning of a hate group turf war. is that what you think is happening look, i think country. >> and these radical groups that spew hatred are trying to take advantage of america. but i can tell you one thing about being an american it's the love of one another and the rejection of hate. and that's exactly what we're doing in columbus, ohio. we're rallying together the folks that come up to me on the street, and i've talked to pastors. i've talked to faith leaders. you know, they are we are all standing together, united to reject hate. and we want to love our neighbor. and that's frankly what makes columbus so great is our rich culture neighborhoods, why our economy is so strong because of our strong lgbt community. the embracing and what we have going on in all of our wonderful neighborhoods. it's because of our cultural differences that make us so great. so it's easy for us in the right thing to do to stand together in a unified way to reject hate and columbus is a

fantastic city which is why when seeing this, it was so depressing and demoralizing to see this happening in columbus in broad daylight. >> how do you all stop this from exploding and getting worse? what can you do well, i think there's two major things. >> there's the rallying together as a community to reject hate. and that's bipartisan. it's apolitical it's working with our faith leaders. it's working with our labor leaders. you know, getting in the trenches with our allies in the lgbt community, the the jewish community and that's exactly what we're doing this weekend. we're having a peace march, an anti-racism march in the short north, the same place where these nazis walked last week there's dozens of congregations that are set up to to stand together to march against hate and the second is drawing a line in the sand and calling out the darkness that this is. and as a prosecutor, ready to pounce the moment that they move from free speech and the conduct moves to criminal law, i'm ready to prosecute. you know, we draw the line in the sand in columbus, ohio. and as a prosecutor if the facts are

there and we're able to prosecute these individuals, we will do it because we will not tolerate this conduct. it is anti-american, you know, taking a step back and thinking about what nazi ism is, you know, naziism isn't just white supremacy, it's white supremacy and the elimination of black brown, gay lgbtq jewish people that eliminate them from earth. like, this is such a radical dangerous thought. it is anti-american. and people that are pursuing, you know, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. nazi ism is anti-american because it eliminates 70% of america that is not what we stand for in this country we have to rally around and love our neighbor. i think we get away from that sometimes. remember that we can embrace each other and support each other, and we can do it in the rejection of hate. >> some of the members of this hate group, they were detained after that march on saturday there is an ongoing investigation. and you were talking about kind of the line in the sand when you're and you're ready to pounce. i saw that the police department

could be releasing their findingsdo you think charges could be coming of the police department, but what will be? >> it's my understanding. and talking with the division of police released this afternoon is public records so any reports taken, any body camera footage. and that's why i continue as the investigation is ongoing continue to ask our neighbors and friends that if you were part of a disturbance that was criminal in nature, if you have video evidence, if you have testimony or a victim of crime please work with the division of police so we can hold these individuals accountable. >> yeah, columbus is a great city and this should and this all needs to be stopped before it gets any worse. thank you so much, zach kline, city attorney for the city of columbus, will stay close to this. i really appreciate your time. thank you. thank you. coming up for us so now that matt gaetz has dropped out as one of donald trump's top cabinet picks, what are the chances his other picks get confirmed? other picks like those two who are facing controversy in in their own

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outside of testing. so it is significant for that reason. and we just got some information from ukraine's defense intelligence agency. and they also assessed that this ballistic missile was carrying six warheads and six submunitions. essentially, this missile was designed during the cold war to allow it to deliver multiple nuclear warheads during a conflict. and while this missile in particular carried conventional warheads, not nuclear warheads, it is an example of the kind of nuclear saber rattling that russia is doing right now. in response to that decision by president joe biden to allow ukraine to use long range weapons and missile systems to launch to attack inside russia itself. now, with all of that said, even given that this is a fairly new capability that the russians are basically trying out here, the u.s. has said that they do not believe that russia has a large supply of these kinds of missiles. in fact, they only have a couple, according to u.s. official, they don't carry

particularly large warheads, or at least this one that attacked ukraine yesterday did not. and importantly, the u.s. does not believe at this point that this kind of missile would be a game changer for the conflict in ukraine. so while they are assessing the implications of the use of this missile very closely, including for nato's deterrence and its own posture, they are not overly concerned by this at the moment, saying that it's more just an attempt by the russians to garner international attention and intimidate the ukrainians instead of actually changing the course of the war. sarah we will have to wait and see. >> natasha bertrand, thank you so much for your reporting there. from the pentagon for us, kate. >> so now that matt gaetz has withdrawn his name from consideration to be attorney general, does that change the odds that the president elect's other picks have in terms of getting confirmed? harry enten is back with us he's been running the numbers on this one. ahoy, matey. hello? um literally um, the

let's start with defense secretary. yeah. pete hegseth. yes. has have his chances changed in the last week? >> they absolutely have. you know based upon that sexual assault allegation. look at this. the chance that he gets confirmed as defense secretary a week ago, we were looking at an 82% chance, according to the betting markets. now we're down to just a 54% chance. so those odds have dropped dramatically. now this is still a little bit north of 50%, but we're basically looking at a 5050 proposition here. of course matt stepped back, his chances were well south of 50%. so hegseth is doing better than gates was, but far worse than he was doing just a week ago. >> kate, what about some of the other um, nominations that we're hearing a lot of bellyaching and concern about amongst even the senators who need to potentially confirm them, which would be tulsi gabbard and rfk jr.. yeah. >> so right now, hegseth has the worst odds at 54%. but gabbard and rfk jr. are not shoo ins by any stretch of the imagination. so national intel director, national intelligence

director, look at this. gabbard is at 70%. so there's a 30% chance that this could go the other way. many of the more secure nominations, like stefanik to be un ambassador, that's well up into the 90s. how about rfk jr.. he's standing at 73%, which again, is well above 50%, but well south of a sure thing. and kate, you were asking me before we got on set, has rfk jr. s odds gone down? in fact, they have. i was looking at them. they were close to about 90% when his first when his name was first getting floated. so as some of the more controversial stances of rfk whether they be as many in the big names in the medical community are speaking out against it and correct as many of the big names in the medical community have been speaking out against him, his odds have definitely been falling. again, still north of 50%, but this is far from a surprised if one of these end up going adios amigos! both of them being confirmed most likely. but at this particular point, at least one of them not getting confirmed. there's a pretty decent chance of that. >> let's see what another week brings. this is you're talking

about getting confirmed. then there's the added question and possibility of recess appointments. we've been talking so much about what about this. yeah. >> so the idea would be that maybe if you couldn't get someone confirmed, maybe you could get them to a recess appointment. trump is trying been working gop senators to say, hey, would you be amenable to this? at this particular point, the betting markets not necessarily seeing that as a particularly high possibility, just a 17% chance of yes, the vast majority here saying no. one of trump's picks is going to get through, or all of them are going to get through, it's most likely going to be of getting confirmed. of course, with donald trump, we just have to wait and see. untraditional is the name of the game, but at this particular point, it looks like tradition in the senate, which of course is a body of tradition, is going to win out. >> yeah. all right. stand by to see what another week brings. >> stand by. because, you know, a week ago, matt gaetz's nomination was still alive and no longer is at this point. we'll see if gabbard, rfk and pete hegseth nominations are still alive come a week from now. >> exactly. good to see you. thank you. >> nice to see you, sarah.

>> all right, gina and senior political analyst and senior editor at the atlantic. and great mind ron brownstein is joining us now. you heard harry there sort of going through the other potential issues and what people are seeing when it comes to whether or not those other nominees will run into problems but there's a couple of trains of thought when you look at what happened to matt gaetz, considering that the senate was not going to confirm him, and then he dropped out one. and i want to get your your thoughts on this. one is that the senators will now not push back as hard on others because they've sort of won this one battle and they are afraid that trump will, you know send folks after them to try to keep them from being reelected in 2022. those who will be up. the other sentiment though, is that it might encourage them to stand by their standards and not be pushed around by donald trump. for these nominees, where do you stand on this? >> yeah, i think i think it's

more toward the encouraging them for one key reason here they did not have to publicly vote against matt gaetz and he withdrew. you know, it is very rare for a president to lose a senate vote on confirmation of a cabinet nominee when his party controls the senate. i think the last time it happened was roughly a century ago usually when a president with his party in control of the senate is forced to back off. it's exactly what happened here. the nominee withdraws without a vote, and i think that, you know, any senator no matter republican senator, no matter how resistant to trump's gravitational pull they have a probably a number in their head about how often they can publicly oppose him without, you know kind of provoking the kind of consequences that you talk about. so i would think this leaves them with more freedom, not less, to vote against one of the other nominees that many of them consider. you know, by historic measures entirely

unfit for these positions. tulsi gabbard after the broadside that nikki haley delivered against her, this week, i think would be vulnerable rfk jr. obviously pete hegseth these are nominees that you know, in the before times would have faced. i think broad resistance among republicans. but i think this the way that gates got out gives them the room to at least oppose to oppose at least one of them. >> ron so often, though, we hear that they're you know, they were going to oppose someone or oppose someone. but when it comes to when the rubber meets the road and they're put in a position to do it publicly and they've been threatened, they tend to capitulate, don't they yes totally. >> i mean, that's the that is the dynamic we saw in trump's first term on most key issues. but sarah, we are talking about nominees that are way beyond the last boys. you know, and particularly in the case of junior and tulsi gabbard in terms of what senate republicans, i think would have considered acceptable for these positions. you know, at any

point, donald trump just won a stunning comeback victory. they don't want to oppose him very often but, you know, i think what haley, particularly the kind of arguments that haley leveled against tulsi gabbard, which shows how you could oppose her from the right, or mike pence's arguments against rfk jr. on abortion, which shows how you could oppose him from the right. no guarantee. but i think that creates more space potentially for a few republicans to say no. you know they've established a boundary, right? the trump's nominations of gates in particular, i think, was meant to send the message that there is nothing he could do that, that senate republicans would kind of stiffen their backs against. and resist. they've established that's not right there is at least some boundary and now we'll see. we'll have to see whether it encompasses any of these other nominees that, as i said, by traditional metrics, never would have gotten off the ground ron brownstein great to speak with you, going through what is going to be a very interesting

process of trying to get through all of these nominees. >> appreciate it we'll certainly have you back. >> thanks for having me. >> all right. this morning, an international warning after tainted alcohol is linked to now six deaths in southeast asia. new details on the investigation into the source of that drink. and why is this football field glowing? what is that now? over the next few weeks, we will be introducing you to our top five cnn heroes. this week's hero has always had a passion for math and engineering. when she went to study engineering at mit, she was one of the only two black women in her class. now she's fighting to help make the industry more diverse by bringing stem and dance together for young girls. this is step one. >> we bring stem and dance together by allowing the girls to create dance performances

that combine the two so they can work on costumes that light up as they move, and they're learning how to program the circuits. so that when they press a button on the circuit, the lights turn blue, or whatever effect that they want to be able to convey a message. we're going to talk about song structure today. they can create their own song through computer science and ai. so these are the poses in the make a dance routine to that song that they created love it. this is going to be so fly. we're normalizing that girls of color can do computer science and create something together servpro, the number one choice in cleanup and restoration when you're the leader, disaster cleanup and restoration.

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victims of suspected methanol poisoning in laos. >> an australian teenager is the latest person to die from the suspected poisoning, and the state media says they believe it was tainted alcohol could be the cause of at least three of the deaths. cnn's mark stewart is following this investigation, it seems, mark, there are just a lot of questions about what happened here. what are you learning curious because the government is calling this a case of tainted alcohol. >> yet if you listen to the u.s. and new zealand, for example, they are saying they suspect methanol poisoning. so there is there is some nuance here. uh nonetheless, it is important to point out that no one has been charged yet. it is prompting a number of governments including the united states, to send out this warning to people, tourists who may be in laos to be careful where they get their alcohol to go to a licensed bar or a licensed hotel, and to avoid

homemade beverages and that leads to this other question was this something that happened deliberately, or was this an accident it's not uncommon for people to drink homemade drinks perhaps something went wrong. we just don't know at this point. uh, it's also mysterious when we look at methanol because this is a substance that you can't necessarily see it's clear. so if it's in a drink, you really don't know. but it can do a lot of damage. it can do a lot of brain damage. and kate, in 20 to 40% of these cases they turn out to be fatal depending on exactly how much is actually consumed. >> and mark, there's also highlights kind of the draw to laos by so many young people. kind of heading to to laos. what is the draw right. >> this is a go to spot especially for backpackers, young backpackers, as we've seen from some of the video. i

mean, the terrain there is just stunning blue water, big green trees, big cliffs. it's got a very young atmosphere. it's very cheap. there are a lot of youth hostels, so it's why young people from the united states and other parts of the world are drawn there. but some important context to this story, uh, this is a very poor country, one of the poorest countries in all of southeast asia. tourism is a big part. so kate, this tourism aspect is perhaps why we are seeing so much sensitivity here. mm. >> good point. it's great to see you, mark. much more to come on this one. i really appreciate the reporting, sarah. >> all right. on our radar to northern california where people are dealing with this insane weather, a massive storm dumped nearly two feet of snow in the mountains. mind you it is. you know, not even thanksgiving yet. there whiteout conditions. it's beautiful dumped record rain in some areas. you can see the flooded vineyards in sonoma california.

yeah, the place that makes the wine. officials near san francisco warn now of rockslides. the storm also triggered scores of flight lations. also today, blue origin is set to launch its ninth space tourism flight mission. ns 28 will launch six people into space with the entire flight lasting just a bit more than ten minutes. the crew will include some familiar faces like emily calandrelli, also known as space gal. she is an mit grad, bestselling author, and host of the netflix show emily's wonder lab, where she works to inspire younger girls to see themselves in stem and meet major league baseball mvp dodgers shohei ohtani and yankee aaron judge. ohtani is the only the second player to ever win mvp honors in both leagues but it's his beloved pup decoy that is the one who stole the

>> 2024 most valuable player goes to my teammate shohei ohtani. you got it >> what a cutie. come on over here. decoy. decoy has done a lot of work for the dodgers himself. throwing out the first pitch, for example. and being in their world series parade. all right, as you well have heard, this is expected to be the busiest travel for the thanksgiving holiday on record. airports will be a crush of people on average. did you notice that you wait about 30 minutes in the standard screening at an airport? and then if you have tsa precheck, about ten minutes, but that is not during the holiday crush, and you know the drill it can be way longer one company is trying out new technology that could get you cleared in seconds, and not just at the airport. their grand plan is to make your face your id and even payment everywhere. the ceo of

clear says she is about to change the game making life just a little bit yaron sideman becker is the ceo of clear. you know the company with the kiosks at the airport that allows you to skip the other lines for a fee. so your company is really sort of a disruptor type of company. it's there. it's different. you go, you get your eyes scanned, you get your finger scanned but once it got really popular, then we as customers started getting frustrated because the lines started getting long. what are you doing about that? >> i always say we're obsessed with the member experience. we look at data all day long. we can see tons of trends. this has been a period of improved member experience over 2024. we expect to see that accelerate over the next 12 months as we roll out our face first. technology, which is really awesome. it's in about 12 airports today. it's been two weeks and it is, you know, five times as fast. >> we asked to see that new

tech. so you're in line somewhere it was too fast. >> i'm done seconds. >> she has more big plans for clear customers. >> we're also rolling out new products like assist, where you can have a clear ambassador help you to your gate where we have scout. if you lose something, you can call member care and they help you find it right? this is a period of rethinking the customer experience with technology and with people with innovation. and that's exactly what we're doing. and there's so much more to come. i think the coolest thing that we're working on is really the concept of the secure identity network. >> how could this end up making life easier, not just at the airport? >> not only can it make life easier, it is making life easier. so we want to go from using it multiple times a year in airports to multiple times a day. today, let's just say you live in la. you could use it getting into an uber for a ride or verification within the

rider app. and then let's say you're going to the intuit dome to watch a clippers game you can buy beer at the clippers game with just your face and your age and your payment, you could check in at a doctor's office with your face. you're r your appointment. what i see as the ultimate check in at the doctor's office is it's your insurance card that's verified and validated and then it is also your copay and your credit card. >> becker had no idea when she started venturing into trying to make doctor's visits a more seamless experience that it would become searingly personal. you were running a company. you were a mom to three kids, and obviously you're a wife. what happens to your family? >> my husband has also been an incredible part of this journey. he was with us the day we bought clear in bankruptcy, helping advise and push and then he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in january of