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taps. >> take control of your finances with rocket money today cnn. >> this morning with kasie hunt next it's wednesday, december 4th. >> right now on cnn this morning of course, it's concerning, but i look forward to visiting with pete about it mr. hegseth is going to have to address that on thin ice. donald trump's pick to run the pentagon faces resistance inside the republican party. plus transgender rights, the supreme court ready to hear a challenge to tennessee's ban on gender affirming care for minors and what's the nuclear walk up political chaos. south korea's embattled leader facing possible impeachment and treason charges if he doesn't step down all right. 5 a.m. here on the

east coast, a live look at capitol hill. good morning, everyone. i'm kasie hunt. it's wonderful to have you with us. donald trump's pick to run the defense department. pete hegseth facing headwinds as some key republican senators are raising questions about whether it's possible he'll have the votes to be confirmed. since trump announced his plans to nominate the former fox news anchor to lead the pentagon, a number of misconduct allegations have been reported, including significant allegations about his treatment of women and his drinking. still, just yesterday, a top trump adviser told me there was nothing raising alarm bells for the transition team so when it comes to pete hegseth, there aren't any concerns and we feel very good about his positioning for being confirmed by the senate that did not last long because it doesn't still seem to be the case. assuming all democrats vote against hegseth, he'll need to limit his republican opposition to just three gop senators. but there are already more than three republican senators who are

appear as though they are on the fence some of these articles are very disturbing. >> he you know obviously has a chance to defend himself here. but, you know, some of this stuff is is going to be difficult. you know, time will tell. i like pete, i've known him for a very, very long time cnn is reporting that trump allies involved in the transition process have been compiling a list of alternative names including iowa senator joni ernst and florida governor ron desantis. >> joining us now washington correspondent for spectrum news new york, one, kevin frei. kevin, good morning to you. good morning. so my colleague jake tapper reporting yesterday that the trump transition was not pleased, shall we say by some of the things that have been coming up about pete hegseth and that they were starting to have significant concerns about this. now, we're hearing that this alternative list is being compiled and the reality is it's a it's a significant day for pete hegseth himself watching for a

media appearance today. later on in the morning alongside his mother, who, of course, sent that email in 2018 saying that he didn't treat women very well. you, i know, have been up on the hill this week. what are you hearing? i mean, look, there's clearly a growing, shall we say concern, or at least lots more questions than there were just a matter of 2 or 3 days ago about the future of his nomination. >> when you even have lindsey graham in the clip that you just played, who's clearly a trump ally, clearly someone who's more than willing to speak to truth to power, though with trump at times, too suggesting that there are concerns that there could be a difficult path ahead. and so i believe today he's going to be meeting with senator joni ernst, which could be really the pivotal swing point here as to whether or not he can get confirmed. just because of her own background in the military and her own background as a sexual assault survivor. i'm not to limit also the fact that she's also done work on preventing sexual harassment in the military so combine all those things together. all of these factors, that could be a critical meeting as much as

whatever he manages to say on fox news later today. right. >> i mean and in many ways, perhaps the fox news appearance aimed as much at trump as anyone else but i think right to to zero in on that. joni ernst meeting because of course, she's also one of the names that's on the list as a potential replacement. she could be confirmed probably pretty easily without worrying about the math of will there be three votes there for her to be able to get through? >> one could imagine she could sweep the republicans pretty clean and maybe even pick up a democrat or two. i'm thinking of maybe maybe a senator gillibrand, for example, who has worked on with her on sexual harassment, sort of legislation. >> yeah, she has relationships on the other side of the aisle. and has been someone who has been, well respected on the hill. the the other piece of this kevin, that, you know, i think when i talk to republicans who kind of are around the trump orbit, while on the one hand they you know, we see this as trump making these kind of bold picks that maybe raise eyebrows initially.

right. he also, if it turns out that they're going to cause problems for him, he's got a list of other people to turn to. right. yeah. and is potentially willing to just say okay, sorry. like to make that call like he did to matt gaetz. >> yeah. i mean, one would be interested to see and i can imagine it would play out this way if the matt gaetz model is replicated where ultimately hegseth is the one that comes out and says, you know what, i'm not going to pursue this. like we saw with the d.a. dea nominee just within the last 48 hours as well, right so that trump doesn't have to take necessarily the blame for to the same extent. >> yeah. for sure. so let's talk for a second about ron desantis who is, of course, the current governor of florida, but who ran against trump in the primary i mean, the the degree of animosity between these two camps was so high. >> ron desanctimonious. >> right. the one and only. do you find this plausible? >> i mean, it is kind of just a fascinating change a kind of twist of fate for all of this.

i mean, he does have the military background. he obviously, unlike hegseth, comes with managerial experience. >> and one could imagine also a public vetting public vetting, and also has experience on capitol hill. >> you know, he has friends on all sides at least on the republican side of the aisle. one could imagine this could get through. but it is such a i mean, it's just the kind of the epitomizing trump world where you're in his good blessings. one day and then out of his blessings the next day. and if it works out for him that this could be like the fallback plan, then sure, come back on board. >> it would be a lot to overcome, i will say. but you know, we'll see. kevin fry, thanks for starting us off this morning i really appreciate it. all right. straight ahead here on cnn this morning, plunging into chaos mayhem erupts in south korea after their president declares martial law before abruptly reversing course. we're going to have the latest live on the ground from seoul when we return. plus, a high profile case transgender rights taking center stage at the supreme court as they hear the challenge to tennessee's ban on gender affirming care for minors. plus, pardon

fallout, some democrats left scratching their heads over the president's decision to pardon his son apparently, a lot of democrats are fuming over the decision. >> yeah, because up until now democrats were thrilled with biden the pardon is upsetting a lot of people experts say this could really hurt biden's reelection bid in 2028. it's to really be the jacques the turkey with gravy and fixings. >> fa la la la la la la la la. >> dad, we are at a restaurant. >> tis the season for ham and pork roast. fa la la la la la la la la. >> good thing i forgot my hearing aid. we wish you a lot of yeast. >> an alternative to pills. voltaren is a clinically proven arthritis pain relief gel which penetrates deep to target the source of pain with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicine directly at the source. voltaren the joy of movement. ha ha! >> i've been warned by celebrities, athletes and world leaders, but i've always felt

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>> south korea's largest union vowing to strike until the president steps down. u.n. chief of staff and other top officials already submitting their resignations. yoon declared martial law and then rescinded it after accusing south korea's opposition party of sympathizing with communist north korea. lawmakers then forced their way past soldiers into parliament to vote to strike down the decree. cnn's ivan watson joins us live now from seoul. ivan, good morning. wonderful to see you. what is the next step here? can yoon survive this well, that is a very good question. >> and in fact, a member of the president's own political party told me he doesn't see how it's possible that president yoon can continue to govern after the fiasco of really the last 12 hours where he declared martial law. there were soldiers that tried to prevent lawmakers from gathering in the middle of the night in the national assembly. and yet they

did. they voted 190 of them to overturn the martial law. and that included 18 lawmakers from the president's own party. and then before dawn this morning, the president backtracked and lifted martial law. it lasted around six hours. so now what we have is the opposition calling for his resignation. and look where i am right now. it's a protest led by a large labor union francois is going to pan the camera over here. this is in one part of seoul where you have hundreds of people gathered at a candlelight vigil here holding signs demanding the president's resignation. and we've seen another similar protest in front of the national assembly today. i think what's so striking is that amid this political upheaval the country seems to be functioning as usual. i flew in landed at the main airport, incheon airport. it was functioning normally no extra kind of security presence on the ground. the streets were

busy. the businesses were open. people are certainly talking about this. the stock market here took a dip about 2% and then came back up but the main opposition parties are drafting up a resolution to try to impeach the president which could be presented as early as tomorrow. casey ivan what are the sort of global implications here? >> can you just talk a little bit about why this instability honestly, that we're seeing has had ripple effects around the world evenity well, i think it's possible ivan can't hear us. we lost him all right, ivan watson, very grateful to have him on the scene for us. thanks to him. still to come here on cnn this morning, donald trump's pick to lead the fbi targeted some of kash patel communications reportedly intercepted by iranian hackers. plus, folks across the great

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this season order your gifts from nuts com today the situation room with wolf blitzer tonight at six on cnn all right 19 minutes past the hour. >> here's your morning roundup. a russian woman who stowed away on a delta flight from jfk to paris is headed back to the u.s. today. videos show the delta employee confronting the stowaway. authorities say she was originally supposed to return to the u.s. on a delta flight over the weekend, but after boarding the plane, she started screaming and had to be removed from the plane trump's choice to lead the fbi, now learning he was the target of iranian hackers. a source tells cnn that some of kash patel communications were intercepted by the hackers. patel was just

recently informed by the bureau about the breach. top executives from the major airlines on capitol hill hotseat today. over those fees. you know what they are. that they charge for baggage and getting to pick your seat. the ceos of american delta, united, frontier and spirit will all be there according to a senate report, those five carriers made more than $12 billion on seat selection fees alone from 2018 to 2023. all right. time now for weather. after a short reprieve, more snow heading toward the great lakes region. parts of the northeastern united states. let's get straight to our meteorologist. our weatherman derek van dam. derek. good morning. good morning. i'll give you the weather forecast for a cool $5. >> if you're good with that. >> come on. >> i'm on to something. >> if the airlines can do it. >> hey, we can get you a chair. you know, that's what you got to pay for. really derek? it's like they force you to stand up. i'm sorry. okay. i'll have to pay for your seat. >> look, we try our best here. look, it's 5 a.m. in the

morning. i've got a lot to tell you about, including the previous lake effect snow system that dumped so much snow that eventually it's causing structures to collapse. we talked about this earlier in the week. remember snowfall on average can weigh about 10 to 15 pounds per cubic foot and that weighs up, especially when you're talking about 5.5ft of snow. and unfortunately, it caused a barn to collapse over into new york, where we saw some of the highest snowfall totals in the extreme western portions of the state near just downwind of lake erie now we have another clipper system that's moving through the great lakes right now. so this is a wind driven storm. so yes it's going to enhance the lake effect. snow potential. once again, you can see the alerts associated with this. some of this is a mixture of the clipper bringing snowfall that could cause some hazardous conditions but also it is bringing the enhanced lake effect snow potential so that's why we have these barrage of alerts. and in fact there's a blizzard warning. so the criteria for blizzard conditions could be met today.

and into the overnight hours tonight near west virginia. the higher elevations there again a lot of wind. i'm going to stress that because this system is coming in with quite a punch, you can see it moving today across the northern plains through the great lakes. and eventually into the east coast. by thursday morning. if you don't feel it now, you'll feel it by tomorrow morning. along the major east coast cities, winds gusting over 30mph. you know what that does this time of year to the temperature. it causes that wind chill to plummet. it will be cold. bundle up. plan accordingly. and yeah, the snow machine kicks in right behind the storm system. once again, typical favored downwind areas, but on top of that, a general 2 to 4 inch snowfall total from the storm system as it quickly moves through the area and another burst of very cold air. and then finally some reprieve and a warm up coming up for early next week casey. >> all right, i'll wait for that i do feel like it was unseasonably warm through the fall, which i normally love. and then all of a sudden it's winter which i don't love. >> now we're paying for it.

>> i know derek van dam for us. this morning. derek. thank you. i'll see you next hour. thanks all right. still ahead here on cnn this morning, the supreme court taking up a significant case on transgender rights. how the case dealing with a tennessee law could impact families nationwide. plus many in president biden's own party have condemned his pardon of his son. but one ally in congress says he urged the president to do it. weeks ago i don't know how many people urged him to do so but i did. >> i emphasized the fact that we, as fathers have obligations to our children an alternative to pills. >> voltaren is a clinically proven arthritis pain relief gel which penetrates deep to target the source of pain with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicine directly at the source voltaren the joy of movement still have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's disease symptoms after taking a medication like humira or

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5:28 a.m. >> here on the east coast, a live look at las vegas, nevada 2:28 a.m. out there. i bet you there's a lot of folks in that picture who have not yet gone to sleep here we are up early. good morning everyone. i'm kasie hunt. it's wonderful to have you with us today. the supreme court will hear arguments over a transgender care ban in tennessee. the law bans gender affirming care for minors lawyers from the biden administration are arguing that the law is a form of sex discrimination while tennessee says that lawmakers are justified in denying medical care for residents under the age of 18. cnn's paula reid has more. reporter trans rights are human rights. >> last year, tennessee republicans voted to make it illegal for transgender youth to be prescribed certain medications or treatments for gender dysphoria. >> i couldn't imagine that i would be headed to the supreme

court l. >> williams a teen identified only as l in court documents and speaking to us in shadow, was one of those directly impacted by the law. she and her parents sued tennessee after the ban disrupted her treatment at the start of adolescence something to you felt like it wasn't quite right. >> why was that? >> well, it was because essentially i was born in a male body and i am a woman, and that's incredibly uncomfortable for me. >> her parents, brian and samantha, had no idea. >> i was surprised, but i was never i was still like from the very beginning supportive, like, okay, this is what's going on with you we're there for it. >> and debated whether this was all just a phase. >> i asked lots of questions, had a lot of pushback. >> you know, asked probably a lot of the questions that people are who are in opposition to this case are probably asking you know, is this a phase what does this

mean? >> they got her a therapist and eventually started treatments it's been very helpful. >> life changing. even i for some people it's even been life saving. >> the tennessee ban forced doctors to stop treating transgender patients like l with treatments that included puberty blockers and hormone therapies. >> it was just purely political. it was let's use these poor kids and these families as a pawn. and like, we just want to be able to take her to the doctor. protect trans kids. >> roughly two dozen similar laws have been enacted in recent years in republican led states. >> now ellis case, which was joined by two other families is before the u.s. supreme court. >> when i go before the high court i i'm not going to be thinking about myself as the first transgender lawyer chase strangio will make history as the first known transgender person to argue before the high court on behalf of teens like l, the other side of this case,

the state of tennessee, has gotten support from groups like do no harm and doctor stanley goldfarb, who believes this treatment should not be available to minors. >> we feel that children just are really unable to do this in a way that involves informed consent primarily, and that many of them are just children that are very troubled. >> we pressed him on why patients like l claim their lives have benefited from this treatment. >> there's a huge placebo effect anytime a patient is told, you know i'm we're going to help you with this medication, you're going to feel better it's going to be the answer to your problems. there's often an acute response that's positive to it. >> but l says that explanation belies her experience. supporters of this bill say it's too easy. you're saying there's nothing easy about it. >> there isn't anything easy about it. >> l's parents, who have had to travel as far as ohio to continue her treatment, have

not ruled out moving to another state. if this case does not go their way, you have you know, strong career ties and neighborhood that we love and a house that we love. >> kids have friends, kids have friends. i don't want to pull them out of school and go to another state. it's just, i don't know. we shouldn't have to do that. >> our thanks to paula reid for that reporting and in just a few hours, the supreme court is going to hear arguments challenging the ban. let's bring in cnn legal analyst joey jackson. joey, good morning to you. so what really will this case hinge on today from a legal perspective yeah. >> casey good morning. >> it's going to hinge on the framing of the issue and what happens is, is that this is an equal protection case, right. it's based upon equal protection under the law. and who should be afforded equal protection but not so fast. maybe it's not. what do i mean? when you look at equal protection, the government certainly can make laws that relate to gender based classifications. and when you make laws based upon gender,

it's subject to a heightened level of scrutiny. and what is that heightened level of scrutiny? whatever the law is has to be substantially related. right to an important governmental purpose here, the issue is whether or not minors should be getting this reaffirming surgery and really whether or not they're mature enough to get the reaffirming surgery that however, relates to minors. right. and i think they're going to frame the issue. if you're on the one side saying that, hey the supreme court should not recognize protection here it's about minors. it's about whether minors are mature enough. it's about whether minors at that point in their life possess the requisite mental capacity to make a decision that is so long lasting and impacting on their life. if, on the other hand, it's about the issue of of gender and whether or not you're part of a suspect class and whether or not you should get protection under the law it's about gender and sex, not about simply minors. and so i

think the framing of the issue as to whether or not it relates to a gender based classification and this heightened level of scrutiny that should be applied by the court, or simply whether it's about minors and whether they're mature enough. i think that's going to carry the day. >> so basically if you if the argument is that you would be treated differently under this law in tennessee, depending on your sex, and that would would be not allowed under our current system is exactly right. >> casey. if the issue is whether or not this is applicable to transgender, it's based simply upon sex. if it's based upon that, then you have to subject it to a very heightened standard of scrutiny and under that issue, it may not pass muster. because if you're talking about creating laws and you're talking about equal protection, that's one thing. if you talk about protecting minors and that's the basis for the law, that's another. that's that's subject to a more relaxed standard not to get to constitutional law, issue but that's subject to a standard of, hey is the law

rationally related to a legitimate purpose? and i think that's going to be the framing of the issue is going to be important. and then let's not forget the politics behind the issue and whether you're a republican and democrat. and this past election and how gender certainly played in transgender, played into that for sure. >> all right. joey jackson, for us, this morning, sir. always grateful to have you. thank you all right. let's turn now to this while many in president joe biden's own party have condemned him for issuing a pardon for his son, one ally saying he urged him to do it and should maybe go farther. south carolina congressman jim clyburn was a key voice in helping joe biden win the democratic nomination. four years ago, and now he says he has no problem with the hunter biden pardon i am absolutely okay with it. >> i don't know how many people are urged him to do so, but i did you did two weeks. yes, i did because i know he was targeted. we all know that. but for the fact that he was joe biden's son, he would

never have been taken through these gyrations clyburn also tells cnn the president should also take steps to protect others before trump takes office jack smith name is on my list. liz cheney's name is on my list. i think that they all should be preemptively pardoned because i think that there are people who trump may bring into this government who will go after these people in a serious way and it's no need to subject them to that. >> all right. joining us now to discuss tiffany smiley, former republican candidate for senate in washington state, and maria cardona, cnn political commentator and a democratic strategist. welcome to both of you. thank you so much for being here. so pretty interesting what clyburn said there especially about whether the president should preemptively pardon some of these people that let's be

real, many some of these republican officials at kash patel has a literal enemies list for example, in his book. tiffany, let me start with you. is it a good idea? you know, look, let's be honest. >> president trump made comments that he would be willing to pardon, that he would consider pardoning, you know, pardoning hunter biden and you know, as a mom of three boys, like, everyone can sympathize and understand what president biden is, is doing with his son. >> but i think it's important to also know that president biden's department of justice, you know, tried a back door deal um, to help hunter biden. >> right while simultaneously going after concerned parents on school boards, going after catholics and pro-life activists. >> so, um, you know, at the end of the day um, the democrats have a hole to dig out of. >> and this just made it worse because president biden lied repeatedly and the the dc

democrats need to wake up and realize that the rest of america is in a completely different place on this. >> and and and not only that, president trump is going to be bringing he he wants to bring respect back. truth back into these departments and what is going on with president biden and hunter is a clear case. why the american people have lost faith in. >> maria, do you think how do you feel about what president biden did here and the sweeping nature of it? i think that his mistake was not pardoning his son i think anyone who has a heart, who has sympathy, who is a parent, can understand that. and i think the majority of americans understand that and i, i believe the majority of americans, especially those who are parents, would agree with with this decision. it is hard to conceive that if you had this power and you were facing this as a parent, i mean absolutely, i take your point there, but continue absolutely. i think his mistake was having been so definitive before prior

to all of this, that he would not do it now, i don't think he lied. i think circumstances changed and i think had the election gone the other way we may not be in this situation but when you take a look at the people who donald trump is nominating and i'm sorry, but i find it laughable when you say that donald trump wants to bring truth back into the government. >> um, that's a goof right there. >> but when you see the people that he is nominating, they literally along with donald trump, like you just mentioned, have a list of people that they are focused on revenge against, on retribution. and the fact that hunter biden has been this one thing that republicans have been obsessed with as the way to get to president biden and president biden sees that and he's like, you know what? i have this power. i have this one chance to shield my one. >> and only surviving son and my family from the kind of

torture these people want and are salivating to go against my son and my family. >> i'm going to do it. >> i'm sorry there was a political witch hunt out against president trump, and democrats in fact, ran on locking donald trump up and raised money on putting donald trump in jail. >> well chanting, chanting lock someone up is not was original to trump rallies in 2015. >> that's not what democrats did. and he is a 34 times convicted felon and that is not something that democrats did. that's something that donald trump did that weaponized the doj against parents in this country against catholics, against pro-life that happened. >> i mean, look, look at the mandate that the american people just sent out to donald trump. >> let me ask you about that that mandate, because i am curious for. right. there's one thing they did win the election, right? they have they have a mandate to govern we have seen there is a pendulum in our politics. and when a party in power overreaches, oftentimes the voters step in and they say, no, we don't want to do that. there is this question about

the department of justice and whether they're going to look backward at some of these people that the president has listed as his opponents, or whether they're going to look forward. you've heard kash patel say things like, you know, we want the fbi to focus more on prosecuting criminals right? that is certainly something that that that he could do if he ends up leading the bureau. right, saying, we're going to prioritize this instead. what would you like to see republicans do? do you want to see retribution? do you think that that's productive for the voters or not? >> the messaging, what they're going to do is restore trust back in these federal departments for the american people who have seen the mistrust over the last four years, who have seen it weaponized, politicized, right, they're going to take politics out of it. >> and you're exactly right kash patel will say, go protect the american people. that's the mandate that was sent down and and that's he's also he's also said, we need to go after these, this set of people. >> so i mean, that's my question, right? which is the best. what is the best approach in your view going forward. >> and that's exactly what

we'll do. >> i mean look at donald trump. he elected an amazing chief of staff, siouxsie wiles who will help direct and get the right people in office and and in fact, the majority of americans, i think there was a cbs poll close to 60% of americans actually approve of donald trump's transition, who he's putting, who he's nominating, and the process going forward. >> well, hopefully it will be forward looking. but what like you said kash patel and donald trump himself are still obsessed with what has gone before. and donald trump is somebody who, as we all know, is obsessed with an enemies list. that's something that kamala harris talked about all the time. now, granted, the american people, from what i understand in the exit polls, they elected donald trump to take care of higher prices, to take care of inflation. everything that he has talked about since his election has been everything but talking about that. well, i guess we're about to find out. tiffany maria, thank you very much, both for being here. so early. i really appreciate it. all right. ahead here on cnn this morning, political turmoil gripping south korea. can the

embattled president remain in power after trying to impose martial law? plus, why warriors coach steve kerr is calling out the refs after a chaotic finish in denver over 600,000 usps employees working in sync to ensure everything sent on its holiday ride ends with a moment of joy you'll love this. >> centrum silver is clinically proven to support memory and older adults, so you can keep saying you mastered it. you fixed it, you nailed it you did it with centrum silver, clinically proven to support memory in older adults, the jewelry exchange, the source for lab grown two carat studs, 992 carat solitaires, 1293 carat, 2490 ten carat tennis bracelets, 3990 thousands to choose from always the lowest

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1-800-845-4316. >> cnn heroes, an all star tribute sunday at eight on cnn closed captioning brought to you by aarp. >> join and get instant access to member benefits. >> join aarp for $12 for one year and get instant access to member benefits and social programs. >> join and get an insulated trunk organizer free plus aarp, the magazine all right. >> welcome back. south korea's embattled president facing calls to resign and a threat of impeachment after attempting to impose martial law i declare emergency martial law to defend the republic of korea from the danger of north korean communist forces. that declaration by president yoon triggering massive protests in seoul forcing the embattled president to rescind the order. south korea's opposition party, now threatening to file treason charges if yoon does not resign let's bring in colonel david maxwell, a retired army green beret vice president of the center for asia-pacific strategy. colonel,

i'm so grateful to have you on the show this morning. thank you very much for being here. can you help us understand what this turmoil inside a key u.s. ally in the asia-pacific means? >> yes. first of all, obviously we don't like to get involved in domestic politics but this is really a conflict between president yoon and the opposition. minjoo political party leader. uh lee jae-myung and president yoon must have thought that he needed to take this action. really? to defend himself from the political opposition which has really been, uh, you know fighting him tooth and nail in the assembly where he does not have a majority. but south korea is a global pivotal state as president yoon has called it. it has become a partner in the arsenal of democracy and it has global relations both economically and politically and so the domestic political turmoil really has global implications. and, of course for the south korean us

alliance in the face of the continuing, very real threat from north korea. >> so speaking of north korea how does how to approach north korea factor into the dispute between the president of south korea and the opposition leader that you mentioned? >> well unfortunately, while we focus on the nuclear threat, which is very real and dangerous, we focus on the new relations with russia and support to putin's war in ukraine. but north korea has actively conducted a political warfare campaign to subvert south korean society. and the south korean government. its united front department, its two 25th bureau, has actively tried to subvert south korea for the last seven decades. and so the question is how will kim jong un exploit this for his political and strategic benefit? and further exacerbate the internal political conflict which is to

kim jong un's benefit, unfortunately. >> what are the implications for the americans who are stationed the american troops stationed in south korea well, i was in 1980s. >> i was in korea during the democracy movement. so i witnessed, uh, the protests there. i don't think there are great implications. first of all, the majority of u.s. troops are no longer in seoul. uh, and so, you know that was a lightning rod. uh back at the time during the democracy movement in the 1980s, i think that i think really things have subsided very quickly with the removal of martial law. but i don't expect that this will turn on, uh, on u.s. troops and have the kind of protests that that occurred during the 1980s, although the relationship between president yoon and the biden administration, um you know, there has been strong alliance relations and there are, of course, some who may

take advantage of that, some who who have anti-american sentiment, who might try to exploit that but i don't think there are big implications for the u.s. presence at the current time. >> all right. colonel david maxwell, very grateful to have you and your expertise with us this morning. thank you thank you. all right. time now for sports. the college football playoff selection committee reveals its latest rankings. plenty though, to sort out with the conference championships still to be played this weekend, andy scholes has more on who's in and who's out in the morning's bleacher report. andy, our favorite topic? college football playoffs. good morning. good morning casey. so i tell you what the ten and two miami hurricanes and their fans not very happy this morning. the playoff committee putting them behind nine and three alabama and the committee chairman said if you're not playing this weekend you can't jump in the rankings. >> so that means miami is not going to be going to the playoffs. and this is what the playoffs would look like right now. oregon, texas smu and boise state would get byes as the highest rated conference champions in the first round.

penn state would host arizona state. asu ranked 15th, but the fifth highest rated conference champ is guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, so they get in. tennessee would play at ohio state notre dame would host alabama and indiana would go to georgia. now we could see movement after the conference championship games this weekend unlv, iowa state and clemson are all in win and get in situations and if clemson beats smu in the acc title game to claim that spot we could see a situation where smu still gets in and that would knock out alabama final rankings and bracket going to come out on sunday. the nfl, meanwhile announcing that texans linebacker azeez al-shaair has been suspended for three games for his hit on jaguars quarterback trevor lawrence. the league calling his hit unacceptable and said azeez al-shaair has shown a continued disregard for player safety. now al-qahera news apologized earlier this week saying he didn't see lawrence slide until it was too late. now, texans general manager nick caserio.

meanwhile, he came out and defended al-qaim, saying the league is being inconsistent in how they handle these hits. and he also slammed anyone questioning al-qaim character for the league to make some of the commentary that he made about lack of sportsmanship, lack of coachability, lack of paying attention to the rules quite frankly, it's embarrassing. >> so i think the big thing from our end. talk about a player who's never been suspended never been ejected. so now we're saying that he's going to be suspended for three games. the picture that's been painted about aziz, his intentions, who he is as a person, i mean, quite frankly, it's bull. >> yeah. al-qaim is expected to appeal that three game suspension. all right. the nba cup group play, meanwhile wrapping up last night nuggets hosting the warriors closing seconds. golden state down four. off the miss christian brown. he's going to get the rebound. and it looks like he signals for a time-out on the floor there. but they didn't have any. and the officials they ended up calling a jump ball. steve kerr was livid

because a time-out would have been a technical. and warriors ball. instead, the game would just end after a jump ball. denver wins 119 to 115 and it was kerr afterwards brown called a time-out. >> he dove on the floor. he rolled over. everybody saw it except for the three guys we hired to do the games. and that makes me angry. you know, this is a like that's a technical foul. they don't have a time-out left. it's a technical foul. we shoot a free throw we get the ball. we got a chance to win the game as steve kerr probably going to hear from the league office about those comments. >> but despite that loss warriors are moving on to the nba cup quarterfinals. here are your matchups. warriors are going to play at the rockets. thunder will play the mavs in the east. the knicks host the hawks and the bucks will host the magic semifinals will then be in las vegas december 14th at the nba cup title the 17th of december. casey i'm pretty excited. my rockets have a chance. >> i i will back them back them up just for you andy i appreciate it. great. good luck. all right. straight ahead

here on cnn. this morning a painfully small majority house republicans left with little room for dissent in the upcoming congress. we're going to speak live with republican congressman tim burchett about how his party can navigate this mandate with the slimmest of margins. plus, judgment day in a matter of hours, pete hegseth heads back to capitol hill as more republicans raise the questions about allegations in his past yes he does need to address those because this was not something of which we were aware, nor was president trump aware of them i've been warned by celebrities, athletes and world leaders, but i've always felt most comfortable up here with the folks that made me who i am i'm right at home out here on the line, out here on the land, and i'm in my lane on the shoulder of the interstate. >> because this is where i come from. i've been showing up

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