Facebook Under Fire; Celebrity Chefs Cooks for Fire Victims and First Responders.
ALLEN: The Thanksgiving holiday did not keep President Trump from talking politics. Asked what he was thankful for, the president praised himself and, the quote, "tremendous difference he's made in the country." He had been speaking by phone with members of the U.S. military around the world. Jeff Zeleny is in West Palm Beach where the president is spending the holiday.</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: In a Thanksgiving Day phone call from his resort in Mar-a-Lago President Trump talking to military commanders across the world. Talking to a general in Afghanistan, talking to a commander of a ship in Bahrain and other military officials. Now this would all be a normal course of events for a commander in chief to call in on troops serving around the world but the president quickly turned it political talking about a variety of hotspots around the world, including the U.S. southern border. The president essentially asking members of the military if they agreed with his position. The president also blasting other countries for their policies against the U.S. also disposing some operational details. But it was the conversation with the president doubling down on his defense of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, that certainly raised eyebrows all over that brutal murder of Washington Post opinion columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The president said he believes the Saudi crown prince feels badly about it. Let's listen.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I hate the crime, I hate what's done, I hate the coverup. And I will tell you this. The crown prince hates it more than I do. And they have vehemently denied it. The CIA points it both ways, you know, and as I said, maybe he did, maybe he didn't. But I will say very strongly that it's a very important ally, and if we go by a certain standard, we won't be able to have any allies with almost any country.</s>ZELENY: So, the president there drawing a moral equivalence to what he believes is an ally in Saudi Arabia versus other allies around the world, never once talking about the moral leadership and the moral questions here that so many others have raised, including Republican allies of the White House. Now the president went on in that unusual phone call with military advisors followed by a Q&A session with reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort for nearly an hour talking about troops along the borders and that controversial ruling that ended up with the president in a fight with the Supreme Court justice here in the U.S., Chief Justice John Roberts. He called him an Obama judge. Of course, the chief justice pushed back so the president pushed back as well, and it was essentially bringing in the independent judiciary into his political argument fray here. So, the president certainly unscripted and unsupervised in many respects. Most senior White House advisors are not here in Florida for the Thanksgiving Day vacation. But the president after doing all of that spent most of the rest of the day on the golf course. Jeff Zeleny, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.</s>ALLEN: So, is President Trump trying to pit the U.S. military against the U.S. judicial branch over his border policy? I post that question earlier to Scott Lucas, professor of international politics at the University of Birmingham in England.</s>SCOTT LUCAS, POLITICS PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM: From the military side, Donald Trump over the wishes of military advisers, including the Defense Secretary Jim Mattis ordered almost 6,000 U.S. troops to that border to stop immigrants who in fact are thousands of miles away. Not in near Texas but near in California. Donald Trump has ordered that the military, possibly unconstitutionally should be allowed to use armed force against those immigrants and that has the military concerned. At the same time over immigration, Donald Trump is trying to overrun the courts. He has tried to say that the ninth circuit court is unjust when it tries to rule, for example, that there is a right to asylum. And when John Roberts intervened to talk specifically about judicial independence Donald Trump tried to push him back and say sorry, chief justice, you need to be quiet here because courts, in order words, should not act against Donald Trump, the military should not respond to Donald Trump. That cutting-edge issue right now of immigration will continue for weeks because of Trump and his advisor Stephen Miller. And the question is, does the White House get its way or is there some attempt by the military and especially the courts to defend their position in the American system?</s>ALLEN: U.S. House Republicans have issued subpoenas to former FBI director James Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch. The House judiciary is asking for private depositions early next month on FBI actions during the 2016 presidential campaign. Comey tweeted that he received the subpoena and he's happy to answer questions publicly but he says, he doesn't want to speak privately because of what he calls selective leaking and distortion. In Northern California, the nonprofit group World Central Kitchen teamed up with celebrity chefs and businesses to provide 15,000 meals to fire victims and first responders this Thanksgiving. They're in the Paradise region, an area hard hit by the so-called Camp Fire over the past two weeks. Our Nick Watt has more on this generous deed and the latest efforts to control this deadly fire.</s>NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, a moment of respite here for the people in Chico, California. Two weeks ago, this fire broke out and it's still not fully extinguished. Although we had some rain last night that did help dampen those spots. In fact, more rain tonight that authorities fear might actually cause some problems and cause some mudslides, they are fingers crossed that is not going to be the case. But it is of course, Thanksgiving here in the United States. And that means Thanksgiving dinner. Now here we got chef Jose Andres who is over there and Guy Pierre, both celebrity chefs in this country who have made Thanksgiving dinner for 15,000 people and it is being served by volunteers and members of Cal Fire who have been fighting this blaze as well. The destruction one firefighter told me unlike anything he's seen in his 25 years fighting fires here in California. Nearly 14,000 homes have been destroyed. The death toll will sadly probably continue to rise as the searchers make their way through more and more devastated neighborhoods. Some people are being allowed back in, but not yet to the town of Paradise, that town of 27,000 people virtually burned off the map. The hurt goes on here in California. But for now, a bit of respite, thanks to chefs, and some pie. Back to you.</s>ALLEN: We've all had plenty of pie. Now we got to move on. The Trump administration is just hours away from releasing a major report on climate change. President Trump of course has been openly skeptical of global warming. And critics argue the report is being released on black Friday, that's one of the lowest news days in the year in the U.S. And that it is being released at this time in an effort to bury the story. Our Derek Van Dam joins us now to talk about it. Certainly, at every occasion, President Trump will not acknowledge climate change.</s>DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right.</s>ALLEN: So, the timing is kind of interesting.</s>VAN DAM: Yes. Regardless of the controversial early release of the important assessment, the one thing is for sure. It's an important report for us. Because specifically in the U.S., because it puts in the context the state of our climate as we speak right now. And what it is going to do is this is going to contribute to this overwhelming amount of evidence that's piling up that global warming is happening, it is manmade and its serious impacts like the California wildfires, for instance, are only going to become more frequent and more severe in the future. We do know that 17 of the top 18 warmest years have occurred since the year 2000. This just puts it all in perspective as well. The period of warming that the earth has gone through lately. Now we're releasing volume two of the national climate assessment. What was volume one about? Well, that was actually the science, the driving forces behind climate change. The difference with volume two is that it is going to break down the U.S. into regions, instead of a national outlook, we'll going to talk about the specific impacts, the risks and the potential adaptations for individual cities and locations across the country. Two thousand seventeen was a record-breaking year, 16 record disasters costing the U.S. over $1 U.S. billion. That tie to previous record back in 2011. Volume two of the National Climate Assessment report as I mentioned, is going to talk about the specific impacts and threats for individual locations across the U.S., like sea level rise, for instance, or about the frequency in occurrence of heavy rain events that cause widespread flooding along the East Coast that's increasing. We also know that wildfires are increasing as well. The burn year is becoming longer and our ongoing drought that we talk about so frequently. One thing for sure, global greenhouse gas emissions they are going up as we emit these warming gases into the atmosphere, from transportation, electricity, our industries, our agriculture. And we're seeing that direct link with this explosive amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and extreme weather events like droughts, wildfires, and even hurricanes and the intensity of hurricanes, for instance. So, lot to talk about in this report, it's going to be released on black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. It is a U.S. specific climate analysis, but there is a lot of really good information. I can't wait to sink my teeth into this 300-page report, Natalie.</s>ALLEN: Yes. You'll be reporting on it and hopefully I will be talking with a climate scientist about this as well.</s>VAN DAM: I'm looking forward that as well.</s>ALLEN: And you know, Derek, I want to show our viewers this treat -- this tweet from President Trump. So, we just mentioned, he does not acknowledge climate change and he tweeted this. He says, "The brutal and extended cold blast could shatter all records. Whatever happened to global warming?" He's often looking for ways to debunk it and this is something he often says a lot and we address it.</s>VAN DAM: yes. You know, this is a really misleading tweet for people around the world. And it's because he's misleading the person who is reading the tweet that weather and climate are the same thing. But, indeed, they're not. Weather is what happens to us in the short-term. It's snowing outside, it's raining today, the temperatures are very cold in the northeast today, a climate is weather average over a long period of time, like 30, or 40 years or even longer periods. And analogy to better understand this, is weather is like your mood today, maybe you're angry, maybe you're sad, maybe you're happy, but climate which is a long-term average is like your personality, it's how you and I behave over the course of our entire lives.</s>ALLEN: All right. Thank you for that. Of course, again, we'll covering that story tomorrow. Derek, thanks very much. All right, unwanted attention. This is a fascinating story, unwanted attention on a remote tribe on a forbidden island after they allegedly killed a missionary who was there to try to reach them and spread the gospel. We'll tell you why that was so dangerous, not just for him obviously, but for these people. Plus, Facebook under fire after a marriage auction goes viral on its site. Why some say the social network is responsible for allowing the bidding to take place.