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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Johnson Re-Elected Speaker After Dramatic Vote; Judge Sets Date For Donald Trump Sentencing In "Hush Money" Trial; New Orleans Officials Scramble To Tighten Security; Alcohol Use Contributes To 20,000 U.S. Cancer Deaths Each Year; Nippon & U.S. Steel Threaten Lawsuits After Biden Blocks Sale. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired January 03, 2025 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[16:00:00]

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: It marks the first time the federal government has fined an airline for what they call chronic delays. JetBlue, facing a $2 million penalty here, half of that goes back to passengers who have been impacted by this.

The Department of Transportation zeroed in on four different JetBlue routes that were chronically delayed. Of those flights, they were delayed a total of 395 times. JetBlue says it's insisting on making things right and has invested millions in avoiding delays.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Pete Muntean, thanks so much for the update.

"THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" starts right now.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Once again, drama on the floor of the House.

THE LEAD starts right now.

Protest votes before Congressman Mike Johnson could be reelected as House speaker. The message sent today by a handful of Republicans. But was it received? We're going inside those huddles, talking with members seen in the side conversations and a view we rarely get to see from the House floor.

And in New Orleans, barriers on Bourbon Street that were not there before. Might they have been able to stop the terrorist attack that killed 14 innocent people? CNN is digging for answers as the family mourning the loss of a young mother joins us ahead.

Plus, the links between alcohol and cancer risks apparently so urgent. The U.S. surgeon general today calling for warning labels. Will those happen?

(MUSIC)

TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper, and we begin with our breaking news.

After a marathon first ballot in the vote for House speaker, Republican Mike Johnson of Louisiana will hold on to the gavel by a splinter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Honorable Mike Johnson of the state of Louisiana, having received a majority of the votes cast, is duly elected speaker of the House of Representatives for the 119th Congress.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: In truth, nothing is ever simple. In Congress form, it appeared as though Johnson was going to initially lose on the first round of voting. Here he is, watching those last initial roll call votes come in, in which he did not have enough votes. He looks rather forlorn there, with the three official GOP defections, he could only afford to lose one. We were, as a country, headed for a second vote in which everything might become even more uncertain. But the final vote tally was never called.

The gavel did not come down because deals were still apparently happening. We saw Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia on the phone, while other members huddled together talking. Then, as the vote was held open for this extra long period of time, Congressman Keith Self of Texas and Ralph Norman of North Carolina flipped their votes to Johnson and made his victory official.

It's not only a win for Johnson, of course. It's a win for President- elect Trump, who strongly endorsed the House speaker and encouraged members to back him.

Let's bring in CNN's Kristen Holmes, who covers President-elect Trump and CNN's chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju, who is on Capitol Hill for us.

Manu, what was happening behind the scenes? You've now spoken to both of these congressmen, Self and Norman, who switched their votes to Johnson.

Why did they change their minds?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, in fact, I just spoke to Congressman Norman, who's right behind me, just moments ago, he indicated that that he did speak with Donald Trump actually twice today. One time, he said that Donald Trump was in the middle of his golf game, and they had a discussion about that. And then they went on to talk about how Trump simply wanted to get this done. He didn't want this to drag on any longer.

Keith self, the Texas Republican, also had a conversation, two conversations today with Donald Trump as well. What they essentially got a commitment from, from the speaker of the house is to engage them more in the legislative process. It wasn't did -- they say there were no real deals? There's no real horse trading, but just a general commitment to be involved in some of the key negotiations. Now, one of the key negotiations that the speaker apparently agreed to

was a major bill to enact part of the Donald Trump agenda. They want to try to do that early in this term, potentially dealing with issues involving immigration, with energy, with taxes.

What Keith Self told me was that the speaker agreed to allow members on the hard right, the members of the House Freedom Caucus to be part of that negotiation, to draft that bill. And that bill is going to be something they're going to have to need to pass along, essentially straight party lines. They expect Democrats to oppose that measure.

That means they need to get the support of the hardliners and the more moderate members in their conference to avoid a collapse of their bill. Given the narrowness of this majority and the razor thin majority, which was underscored that challenges of legislating, Jake, of course, underscored in this day long drama that played out before our very eyes on the House floor, because more than one Republican, if they were to vote against Mike Johnson, that would be enough to scuttle their agenda, same way on any party line bill. More than one Republican could be enough to scuttle the Republican agenda.

So that is going to be the challenge for Speaker Johnson going forward. But no question, it was a big relief to convince those holdouts, those members, to get on board behind him.

And, Jake, though, that doesn't mean that there's an ample frustration.

[16:05:01]

Several of those members who said they begrudgingly supported Mike Johnson because they are supporting the Trump agenda, but they want major changes done to how this place is being operated. And if that does not happen, that could be a problem for Johnson as he tries to get piece together a coalition to pass major legislation this Congress -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Manu, thanks so much.

Kristen, so Trump's pick for speaker won. He won on the first ballot and he won with Trump's support, some might say only because of Trump's support. How is the president-elect viewing all of this?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. In fact, one of our reporters, Kate Mar (ph), was up on the Hill and caught up with Andy Biggs, who is not a huge fan of Johnsons, and essentially said that he didn't believe Johnson would have survived without the support of President-elect Donald Trump. And Donald Trump was all in.

Now, here is what he just posted after speaker Johnson won the gavel, he said: Congratulations to Speaker Mike Johnson for receiving an unprecedented vote of confidence in Congress. Mike will be a great speaker and our country will be the beneficiary. The people of America have waited four years for common sense, strength and leadership. They'll get it now, and America will be greater than ever before. One thing to point out here, we've been talking to senior advisers for

days who said that Donald Trump just had no appetite to watch this kind of drawn out fight over the speakership that we saw with McCarthy, that we saw go several rounds, especially this close to the inauguration. That's part of the reason that he was all in on Johnson.

Trump wants the attention on him. He also wants it to seem as though the Republican Party is united behind him.

And I spoke to Trump this morning who said he was confident that Speaker Johnson was going to walk away successful, which obviously now we have seen that he has. And in part of that was because he was speaking to a number of these holdouts, telling them essentially that he won the election. There was a popular vote that he won by large margins, and that this would be an extension of that, something that we've heard Trump say over and over again.

But as you mentioned, Jake, there are a lot of people out there, a lot of congressmen and women who really voted for Speaker Johnson, supported him because of Donald Trump. Trump himself telling people around him they didn't -- he didn't believe there was any other member in Congress that could get the votes to become the speaker.

So part of the reason that, again, he went all in on Johnson and was successful.

TAPPER: Yeah. Let me put up that that Truth Social post again or Twitter post again, just the one an unprecedented vote of confidence in Congress.

I mean, just as a fact checking matter. It's 2025. Let's start with the year with the fact check. This is not an unprecedented vote of confidence. In fact, I mean, you had six people abstaining, three people voting against. And then ultimately they all came forward for him, for Speaker Johnson. But it is not an unprecedented vote of confidence.

Kristen Holmes, Manu Raju, thanks to all.

Our panel here is well versed in all things Capitol Hill.

Let's discuss.

And, Brian, let me start with you. You were chief of staff for Senator McConnell. Johnson said he would not make deals to secure the speakership.

Let's be honest, though, for a second, like, of course, he made some deals. We might not know about them, but there's no way that there weren't some deals cut even before they started voting.

BRIAN MCGUIRE, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF, SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL: It looks to me like there was no deal. I think ultimately this was a weak resistance against Johnson and they folded in the end. The letter that they put out with 12 Republicans signing saying that they wanted changes to the way that the House does business, there was nothing really.

TAPPER: Oh, I don't -- I don't disagree with that. Although we did hear that they did. They offered some opportunity to negotiate when it comes to the bill. But I mean, like certain individuals might have gotten like a hideaway in the Capitol. Certain people might have been able. I mean, that's just -- I don't mean it as a -- as a criticism. That's how -- that's how it happened.

MCGUIRE: In most cases, I would say yes. In this case, I actually think Trump came over the top and none of these guys wanted to stand in the way of Trump certification as president. He just won with 73 million votes in his favor nine weeks ago.

TAPPER: Yeah.

MCGUIRE: And one of these guys would have been the reason that he didn't get certified as president if they didn't vote for Johnson.

TAPPER: That's a good point. Of course, January 6th looms on Monday.

Karen, Hakeem Jeffries, of course, the Democratic leader. It is a very narrow majority that Johnson has four votes, which means and they're going to lose Waltz and Stefanik because they're going to the Trump administration. So, soon, it will be two votes. I mean, that's going to move around. But still, what -- what is the role of Hakeem Jeffries in this incredibly divided Congress?

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think the role a couple of things. One, step back and let the chaos play itself out when appropriate, which is what they were doing as the sort of wheeling and dealing was going on. But obviously, there are, you know, certain issues, as he said in his remarks, that towards the end there, if there are places where they can work together to be seen and to actually be working together.

I think the challenge is going to come, you know, we've talked about the Freedom Caucus. We talked about some of those members who they're very concerned about adding to the deficit. Well, guess what? Some of the things that the incoming President Trump wants to do will add to the national debt? So what's that tension going to be? What's my --

TAPPER: Extending his tax cuts, for example.

FINNEY: Let's start there. Democrats are not for that.

[16:10:00]

You will have some Republicans who may not be for that. And so in that instance, I think, you know, Congressman Jeffries as the minority leader, his job is to figure out what can Democrats get out of a negotiation if it means getting a, you know, winning less or getting a slightly better deal of a bad deal. And so I think that's how he's going to be able to play those dynamics for a period of time.

TAPPER: So former Congressman Davis, you served with a lot of these folks. We've heard the Congressman Ralph Norman, for example, who was a holdout, who flipped his vote ultimately from North Carolina.

You know, we saw we saw the images of members of Congress on the floor with the phone. Presumably some of those calls were to the president or at least to the president's team. How important is it, how impactful is it for a guy like Ralph Norman -- not to pick on him, but he's not like a committee chairman or like a member of leadership -- to get a call from President-elect Trump?

RODNEY DAVIS (R), FORMER ILLINOIS CONGRESSMAN: Well, obviously, the results show, it was pretty important. Both Ralph and Keith Self said that they spoke to the president multiple times today, that had to have an impact on them going back down to the floor, down to the well, on the floor and changing their vote for Mike Johnson.

You know, this is an unprecedented vote of confidence for Mike Johnson when you compare it to you and I talking two years ago.

TAPPER: All right, well, that's the metric. I said -- I said, I don't know what the metric is. That's the -- that's the metric. Yes.

Well, I'd have to go back and look, its certainly more of a vote of confidence than Speaker McCarthy got, or Speaker Johnson -- Jordan or Speaker Emmer or any of the others.

Brian, so President-elect Trump has supported Speaker Johnson. CNN this morning asked Trump about his conversations with Congressman Chip Roy of Texas, a key holdout, and Trump said, quote, Chip Roy will do what's right for the country.

Now, Chip Roy did ultimately vote for Johnson, but then he was part of this team that sent out a letter afterwards. I think Johnson was still speaking at the time, saying this is what we expect him to do.

So what does this say about Trumps hold on the party, do you think?

MCGUIRE: I think its strong. And as I said, none of these guys wants to be the reason that he doesn't get certified. And I think ultimately it was a fairly small group of people. I mean, you really just needed to flip one of these two votes. In the end, we knew that Massie wasn't going to vote for him. So the only declared no vote ended up being the only no vote.

And in one round of votes, Johnson got the speakership. The president got what he wanted and everybody is off to the races. It's a very good day for Trump. It's a very good day for Johnson.

TAPPER: So what might this portend for the future in terms of nine individuals making their case? Look, we can we can make your life very difficult with this narrow majority. Speaker Johnson, you and then you, Congressman Davis, what do you think? Like what? What does this portend for the future?

DAVIS: Well, I think it portends that hopefully, we're going to see some governing.

TAPPER: OK. DAVIS: Hopefully, they're going to be able to address the policies that the American people wanted by giving Republicans unified control, be it re -- be it reauthorizing the Trump tax cuts. I mean, that's a big deal to President Trump. It's his number one issue, the number one issue that many people who said they voted for President Trump and Republicans, they want the economy and inflation to be addressed.

And there's no better way to do that than through tax policy right now in many, in many eyes, of Republicans who are serving in Congress. But let's not kid ourselves. Anybody can have leverage in the small majority that Republicans have right now in the House. So for those 12 members to say, this is what we want, they were always going to be engaged in any legislative activity.

TAPPER: Well, what do you think?

FINNEY: Well, look, politically, the flip side of saying you have a, you know, this mandate is the pressure is on to deliver. And I think they all went into the chamber today knowing that. And so the question becomes, is this the easiest day that Mike Johnson actually ends up having? Because there are going to be some really tough votes coming.

When you talk about tax policy and talking about immigration, there's some very different ideas about how to get there. Even within the Republican caucus. Forget about Democrats. And so this may have been the easiest day he has. He better enjoy it tonight with his family and friends.

TAPPER: And let's not forget the 60 vote threshold in the U.S. Senate. Thanks to all. Appreciate it.

We have breaking news in our law and justice league now. Days before being sworn in to be president, Donald Trump will now face sentencing for being found guilty of those 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal the $130,000 in hush money payments to adult film star and director Stormy Daniels.

Paula Reid is here with this move just moments ago from the judge -- Paula.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: But here, in this new opinion, Jake, the judge makes it clear that President-elect Trump will not face any penalties after being convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records.

Now, again, that sentencing is scheduled for January 10th, but it will mostly be performative. Here in this lengthy opinion today, the judge makes it clear that even though he has the option to potentially assign a prison sentence here, he does not believe that is, quote, proper. He said that at this point, he usually doesn't give a preview of what hes going to do at sentencing, but he believes the best thing to do is what is called an unconditional discharge.

[16:15:04]

So there will be no punishment and no penalty applied to the president-elect here. And the judge goes on to say that he agrees with the defendant's concerns about, quote, the mental and physical demands during the current transition, as well as a guidance that the federal level about the extent to which you can have -- have legal action against a sitting president, how that applies to a president-elect, and therefore he says he is going to allow him to appear virtually so he can continue to do his work as president-elect.

So, yes, the headline is that he is going to be sentenced. President- elect Trump will be sentenced on January 10th. But the judge has already previewed that there will be no penalties for President-elect Donald Trump.

TAPPER: Paula, are any of the other cases against Trump moving forward at all, or is that it?

REID: That's pretty much it. I mean, that's pretty much the ball game, Jake.

This is the one thing we were waiting for. Just to review, the two federal cases brought by special counsel Jack Smith have both been dismissed because, of course, when Trump gets into the White House, he will have the ability to have his attorney general dismiss those cases, dismiss Jack Smith. So, Jack Smith getting out ahead of that, though we still are waiting for Smith's final report detailing many of the findings in his investigation.

Down in Georgia, of course, recently, a court disqualified district attorney Fani Willis from that case. That will be appealed. But if that is upheld, they would need to find another prosecutor, another office that would want to use all of its resources to pursue that case. That will be likely on ice for the next four years, as you cannot bring a state case against a sitting president.

So even though earlier this year, Trump was facing four criminal cases at this point he is a convicted felon. He was convicted on those 34 counts of falsifying business records in Manhattan last year. That's outside the scope of his pardon power.

But aside from being a convicted felon, he has faced no other trials, no other consequences.

TAPPER: All right. Paula Reid, thanks so much.

Folks who know Congress well have repeated today's vote for Johnson was likely his easiest. I'm going to speak about the agenda ahead with the House Republican, who proudly cast his vote today for Speaker Johnson.

Plus, the major deal involving U.S. Steel derailed by President Biden and likely will be also derailed by incoming President Trump, or cosigned at least. Will that now cost you the consumer? Is it the right move? We're going to take a deep dive on that.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [16:21:13]

TAPPER: Back with our politics lead, House Speaker Mike Johnson will remain House Speaker Mike Johnson. He kept the gavel today after a dramatic vote. He was initially on track to lose in the first ballot. That is, until two holdout Republicans changed their no votes to Johnson votes at the last minute.

Shortly after Johnson's victory, Republican Congressman Mike Lawler of New York posted on X: Congratulations to Speaker Johnson. It's time to get to work on behalf of the American people.

And that Congressman Lawler joins us now.

Congressman, happy New Year.

So you were always in support of Johnson. What was going on behind the scenes? You had six people refusing to vote. Then they voted for Johnson, three people voting against him, then two of them flipping their votes. Did you talk to any of them?

REP. MIKE LAWLER (R-NY): Throughout the last few days, certainly. But look, Jake, it's the theater of the absurd. But I'm glad, obviously, that we were able to get this done in one round on one day and get Mike Johnson elected speaker so that we can actually get to work.

There is so much to do on behalf of the American people, especially once President Trump is sworn in and we got to hit the ground running. And obviously the certification of the presidential election is on Monday, we wouldn't have been able to do that without a speaker.

So to get this wrapped up today, I think was an important step. And we move forward and get about the business of the American people.

TAPPER: So Johnson did prevail on this one ballot, but it was -- it was dramatic. It was a painful. It required President Trump to do some lobbying.

If it's this difficult for your party to choose a speaker, are you worried at all about being able to pass legislation?

LAWLER: Look, the American people gave us a majority, albeit a slim one, but they did give us a majority, and we're going to have to work together as a team to get legislation passed. Sometimes it will be party line votes, other times it will require bipartisan support.

As you mentioned during the panel, there's still the 60-vote threshold in the Senate. And so, there's going to be times as we work through different legislation where we're going to have to compromise within the conference, other times within the entire body.

My objective each and every time is to negotiate, to get to a resolution that is favorable to the American people, and that actually does the job that we were elected to do.

It will be a challenge at times. There's no question about that. We've seen that throughout this 118th Congress that we just completed.

But I do think people recognize the moment that we're in, recognize the importance of actually governing and the need to get legislation passed when it comes to dealing with the border energy, the economy and the international crises that Donald Trump is inheriting on day one.

So there's a lot of work ahead. It's not going to be easy. There's going to be days where people are going to want to bang their head against the wall. But at the end of the day, everybody's got to put their egos aside, put their big boy pants on and get to work. That's what we were elected to do.

TAPPER: Okay. Republican Congressman Mike Lawler of New York, thank you, and congratulations on your new term. We appreciate it. Happy New Year to you, sir.

LAWLER: Thanks, Jake. Happy New Year.

TAPPER: From the drama in Washington to the absolute heartbreak in New Orleans. Ahead, could those much talked about barriers on Bourbon Street theoretically have prevented Wednesday's terrorist attack? We're also going to talk to a man who lost his niece that day. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:28:56]

TAPPER: Topping our national lead as President Biden prepares to visit New Orleans on Monday in the wake of the horrific terrorist attack.

A new and urgent warning from federal security agencies today, telling local law enforcement to be on the lookout for potential copycats after the ISIS-inspired car ramming attack early Wednesday morning that killed 14 people and wounded dozens others.

CNN's Omar Jimenez is there in New Orleans, speaking with local officials working to ensure this type of tragedy never happens again.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So you're the council member that represents the French Quarter. How would you assess the ability to prevent something like this before New Years day in this area?

FREDDIE KING III, NEW ORLEANS CITY COUNCILMAN: Well, seeing how it hadn't happened before, I would assume that for us to figure that we had it pretty under control. But after the events on New Years Day, we clearly have weak spots. We clearly have vulnerabilities.

JIMENEZ: I saw some of those archers on the streets. You know, those yellow ones on the sidewalks now? Why weren't those there before?

KING: That is a question for -- for our -- our law enforcement. JIMENEZ: This is where that truck entered Bourbon Street in the early

morning hours of the New Year. There was a police vehicle here, essentially stationed as a makeshift barrier as some of the city's previously installed barriers were under repair.

But even if a vehicle took up this entire street, you can see there still was a good amount of space to go around that onto the sidewalk, which, as we know from video, is essentially what happened.

Now you see some yellow temporary barriers on the sidewalk, but those were not there when this attack unfolded.

JEAN-PAUL MORRELL, INCOMING CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT: We have had some contradictory messages from internally as far as when the work was awarded and when it should have started, and we are going to do our own deep dive investigation.

JIMENEZ: The city police department has made clear in recent days that barriers previously installed to try and prevent vehicles from coming down the street were under repair ahead of February's Super Bowl in the city, and many of the current measures in place are temporary.

CHIEF ANNE KIRKPATRICK, NEW ORLEANS POLICE: We are going to make it where any penetration would be almost next to impossible to get here. So that's what you're seeing here.

JIMENEZ: But going back years to 2019, a private security firm warned the risk of terrorism, including by vehicular attacks, remained, quote, highly possible, and recommended the vertical safety structures that can move up and down, known as bollards, be fixed and improved immediately.

The district attorney expects this incident to spur changes in security for the French Quarter.

JASON WILLIAMS, ORLEANS PARISH DISTRICT ATTORNEY: We were working on some solutions and some new tools and technology that can be brought in the French quarter because it's a finite area, it's not that big -- to increase public safety here.

JIMENEZ: For some business owners who were open at the time of the attack --

CHARLES WEBER, CO-OWNER, THE ALIBI BAR AND GRILL: It was traumatic. You know, it wasn't just like a random shooting or something or whatever. This was like you were seeing it all down the street.

JIMENEZ: The extra barricades are a welcome sight for him.

WEBER: It's very nice to see 'em. And we know we have more to go. I'm happy to see them all. And I'm happy to see, you know, all the police officers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ (on camera): And still a pretty big police presence at the entrance, blocking into Bourbon Street. But a big question in this is, was some of those up and down bollards that we knew were under repair for this were only approved for repair in November of this year, with the expectation they would be done next month. But there was knowledge that they were defective for years.

And so I asked that city councilman we spoke to, why did it take so long to even get approvals for repairs? And he says that's something they're trying to figure out right now that he's gotten different answers, different timelines at this point and is likely why we learned from the city council president today that they're setting into motion an official fact finding commission to sort of get to the bottom of what happened leading up to this attack on that front -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Omar Jimenez in New Orleans, thank you so much.

Joining us now is Raul Perez. His niece, Nicole Perez, was killed in the New Years terrorist attack. He's joined by his wife, Nelly. Nicole's aunt.

Raul and Nelly, we're so sorry for your loss.

Raul, how is the family doing?

We're lost -- we've lost -- we've lost. Raul's audio. We're going to fix that and bring them right back to you.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:37:26]

TAPPER: In our health lead, the country's top doctor is sounding the alarm when it comes to the risks of drinking alcohol, even just a glass of wine a day. The U.S. surgeon general, now calling for cancer warnings on alcohol bottles.

In a statement, Dr. Vivek Murthy writing, quote: Alcohol is a well- established, preventable cause of cancer, responsible for about 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States. The majority of Americans are unaware of this risk, unquote.

Here to talk about the risks, CNN's Meg Tirrell.

Meg, what are we talking about here? How many drinks really increase the potential for cancer?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Jake, unfortunately, the evidence increasingly over the decades has been pointing to the news that the less alcohol we drink, the better for our health.

And if you really want to try to quantify the risks, the surgeon general's advisory actually does break this down. They separate it by men and women. Women are tending to be higher at risk of cancer related cases because of breast cancer specifically, but if you look at these absolute risk profiles.

So over the course of a woman's life, she has about a 16.5 percent chance of getting any cancer that's related to alcohol if she drinks less than one drink per week. Now, if she goes up to a drink per day, that risk goes up to 19 percent, and two drinks per day brings that risk up to almost 22 percent.

For men, its lower starts at 10 percent for less than one drink per week, and at two drinks a day, their risk goes up to 13 percent. So you can see that really more alcohol increases the risk. But really any drinking they say unfortunately is not great for your health.

TAPPER: What is it about alcohol exactly that makes it so harmful?

TIRRELL: Yeah. So they go through about four hypotheses here, two of which they say are the most established. One is that the way alcohol breaks down into your body, it becomes a metabolite known as acetaldehyde. And that essentially can damage your DNA and cause your cells to multiply uncontrollably. And that leads to cancer.

Another thing is it can increase oxidative stress that can lead to increased inflammation, which essentially has that same effect of damaging your DNA. There are also things associated with hormones that it can affect estrogen, for example, which can affect breast cancer risk.

And finally, this is really interesting. One way that alcohol may increase cancer risk is it increases absorption of other carcinogens, for example from tobacco. So if you're using tobacco at the same time as drinking, that can really multiply the risk that it will lead to cancer down the line.

TAPPER: All right. Meg Tirrell, thanks so much.

A notable post from President-elect Trump on December 2nd.

[16:40:03]

Quote, I am totally against the once great and powerful U.S. Steel being bought by a foreign company, unquote. The sitting president, Joe Biden, agrees, and he did something about it today. His executive move ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:44:22]

TAPPER: We are back now with our national lead. The horrific New Year's terrorist attack in New Orleans.

We're joined by Raul Perez. His niece, Nicole Perez, was killed in that Islamist terrorist attack. He is joined by his wife, Nelly, Nicole's aunt.

Raul and Nelly, first of all, we're so sorry for -- for this horrible loss. Raul, how are -- how is your family doing?

RAUL PEREZ, UNCLE OF BOURBON STREET ATTACK VICTIM NICOLE PEREZ: Hello, Jake. Our family is devastated, very upset and in some fashion angry for this horrible attack where we lost our niece. My sister Martha, mother of Nicole, she is devastated.

[16:45:06]

She's -- she's going crazy. It's been very, very difficult.

On top of that, Nicole's sister, 37 years old, she's eight months pregnant with a high risk pregnancy. So you can imagine where we at here in New Orleans with this situation, trying the trying to put this back together, which is going to be very hard, very --

TAPPER: We understand, we understand. We have we lost her -- his audio again.

All right. I'm so sorry about that. Were having issues communication problems with the Perez family. May Nicole's memory be a blessing.

Also, right now in our national lead, major arctic weather moving in to much of the country, the system is set to impact 1,300 miles of the eastern United States, bringing treacherous winter weather, including snow, ice and thunderstorms, all hitting this weekend through early next week.

Meteorologist Chad Myers is here.

And, Chad, how big is this storm going to be?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is going to be very disruptive. There are so many interstates that are in the way of an ice storm of a snowstorm. Could be two feet of snow, could be a half inch of ice, a half inch of ice will bring down power lines, bring down trees.

Now, the snow we're seeing now outside just kind of for effect. This is not the storm. The storm is just now developing in the Colorado Rockies.

And it will move across into Nebraska and Kansas overnight tonight. If you need to be somewhere on Sunday, you need to get there tomorrow. That's how busy this will be and how bad this is going to be.

Four o'clock tomorrow afternoon, we can still get places. Things are okay. You can still get back home. But by Sunday morning, all of a sudden, this is a wide system, 700 miles at this point.

Now, we're talking 1,300 miles by Sunday night. And by Monday morning, when you thought you were going back to work in D.C. and Philadelphia and Baltimore, that may not be the case, maybe not even going to school, not going to class because were going to see so much snow even up and down the East Coast.

The big threat will be the ice. Of course, that's impossible to drive on, but then the real strenuous part is how much snow could actually fall here, Jake. I mean, a foot and a half to two feet of snow. This is the first big storm of the year, without a doubt.

And then we're talking about the ice, snow and then rain to the south. But behind it, this is when were going to see the severe weather. There could be the possibility of tornadoes to the South, and then that cold air that you were talking about drops all the way down to the Gulf Coast.

I mean, we're going to see freezing temperatures all the way down to the beach down in the gulf. That's how cold this air will be. The coldest air of the season, certainly for the great lakes, for Chicago, you don't get above freezing for seven days.

That's going to be hard on pipes. That's going to be hard on the electrical system, on the heating systems, all of those things you need to keep going, and on the pets, of course, as well.

D.C., you drop off a rock again back into the single digits for wind chill factors. It's going to be very cold. There will be winds across parts of the Appalachian Mountains, from the Poconos, all the way down to the Blue Ridge Parkway. That will blow 60 miles per hour. And those winds could also not only make wind chill factors, but certainly bring down power lines, trees blow that snow around.

So even though you thought that that road was nice and clear when you went by it, now all of a sudden, it's back to being drifted over. This is a significant storm. This is the biggest one we've seen I think in a couple of years that will be so widespread from Colorado, Kansas, all the way to Delaware and Philadelphia.

TAPPER: All right. Meteorologist Chad Myers, thanks so much.

In our national lead, President Biden announced this morning that he is going to block the $14.3 billion sale of U.S. Steel to Japanese owned Nippon. Biden said, quote, this acquisition would place one of America's largest steel producers under foreign control and create risk for our national security and our critical supply chains, unquote.

Both companies are blasting the move, calling it an unlawful and, you know, extremely political decision, vowing to fight it.

Let's bring in CNN's Kayla Tausche at the White House, as well as Vanessa Yurkevich in New York.

Kayla, to you first.

U.S. Steel was once the largest company in the world. It has a tremendous legacy. Did that factor into Biden's decision? And does he think that this is going to survive the inevitable legal challenge?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was one of the various factors at play here, Jake, but the truth is that its size and scope had been diminished over recent years. Now, just employing 14,000 people. But perhaps more important was where U.S. steel was located in the states that it operates in. Its headquartered in Pennsylvania, which, of course, is a critical swing state for both parties. And on the campaign trail, it was where Biden proclaimed that he believed the company should remain domestically owned. That was also the position of the of the prominent U.S. Steel Workers Union, to whom he made that promise, and he was delivering essentially on a campaign pledge by following through with this.

As for whether the decision will hold up in court? Certainly there are many who believe that it won't. Pennsylvania's own governor, Josh Shapiro, noted in his press release today that the situation is, in his words, far from over.

[16:50:05]

And certainly there are a lot of officials here at the White House who are wringing their hands over this decision because of the painstaking nature of the review that took place leading up to the decision, and some of the other facts that were behind it, Jake.

TAPPER: And, Kayla, lawmakers from both sides strongly oppose the deal, right? Including President-elect Trump?

TAUSCHE: President-elect Trump has opposed the deal, and he said so just a few weeks ago. And today he put out a post on Truth Social saying, I am totally against the once great and powerful U.S. Steel. Rather, this was a few weeks ago, in this case being bought by Nippon Steel of Japan. Through a series of tax incentives and tariffs, we will make U.S. Steel strong and great again, and it will happen fast. As president, I will block this deal from happening. Buyer beware.

So, certainly, President Biden getting out in front of the potential possibility that Trump would then block this deal while in office. Some Trump allies believe that the blocking of this deal would set up U.S. Steel to be bought by another American company, perhaps another rival here in the U.S. one company had made an earlier offer that was far lower than what Nippon had offered. So there's still a question of whether that company comes back to the table.

Now, as for those tax incentives that he's promised on the campaign trail, Trump had promised that any company who moves manufacturing or expands manufacturing in this country would see its corporate tax rate fall to 15 percent or lower. That is something that he campaigned on for several months.

Clearly, he's trying to use the carrot here for other companies that are either thinking about engaging in mergers or thinking about making their own production plans by suggesting that he will, in fact, try to lower that corporate tax rate, Jake.

TAPPER: And, Vanessa, let's talk about the economics of this. Will this deal being blocked have an impact on -- on everyday Americans, our viewers, how big a player is U.S. steel? How important is it for Americans?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, just to put it into perspective, Jake, Nippon Steel is the number four producer of steel in the entire world. But you have U.S. Steel at number 27, so its really diminished in its production of steel.

We actually in the U.S. import most of our steel, the most out of any country from countries like Brazil, Mexico, Canada and Japan. And here in the United States, auto companies who may be using steel, U.S. Steel are using a lot less of it because they want to make cars lighter, more energy efficient, and also appliances that everyday Americans buy, those are mostly shipped in from abroad and using steel from abroad.

So while this is going to be a big decision for U.S. steel in terms of will they be able to keep up with production if some of these mills are sold off, as U.S. steel has promised for the average American, we probably wont feel it as much just because so much of our U.S., our steel production, really comes from abroad, Jake.

TAPPER: Vanessa, U.S. Steel has claimed that it would close union mills without the deal. I know that Governor Shapiro of Pennsylvania has expressed real concerns about this.

What would -- what would be the economic ramifications?

YURKEVICH: Yeah, U.S. Steel is really a shell of what it used to be in the 1940s, during World War III. They employed 340,000 people and had steel production of more than 35 million tons.

Just look at it today, 14,000 employees, 11,000 of those, however, union members. And just through September of 2023, looking back 12 months, they shipped out about 11.3 million tons.

So U.S. Steel really not what it was. And for many people on the ground who work in these small towns where there's steel production, U.S. Steel production, this is more of an emotional issue for them. This is a company where people working there today saw their fathers work there, their grandfathers work there, and it's very emotional, especially in these key battleground states, as Kayla mentioned, like Pennsylvania, where these small towns really rely on U.S. Steel.

So the company saying that this deal needs to go through to protect these union jobs, but the union workers do feel like today's decision by President Biden is, in fact, a win keeping U.S. Steel production here, owned and operated by a U.S. company and not a foreign company, Jake.

TAPPER: Not the same company it was during World War Two.

Vanessa Yurkevich and Kayla Tausche, thanks to both of you.

So, were there any backroom deals that got Speaker Johnson reelected?

CNN's Manu Raju is working to find out. He's coming back to update us on what he's learned.

Plus, what were Republicans telling Speaker Johnson when his job looked to be on shaky ground? We're going to ask one Republican member who was in his ear, next.

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TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

This hour, brand new details just coming in on that explosion outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, and the man whom police say blew up a Tesla Cybertruck. Plus, the sentencing date just set for President- elect Trump and the New York hush money cover up case. What the judge is saying today about the penalty and the hearing that will now come just days before President-elect Trump takes office.

And leading this hour, the nail-biting afternoon for House Speaker Mike Johnson. He was reelected, but only after some tense moments, including a handful of fellow Republican colleagues who voted against him in protest.

Republican Mike Johnson tells CNN that he is ready to, quote, get to work after clinching the votes to be speaker of the 119th Congress, after two key Republican detractors switched their votes against him to votes for him at the last minute.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Norman, Johnson.

Mr. Self, Johnson.

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(END VIDEOI CLIP)

TAPPER: All right. Congressman Keith Self of Texas had originally voted for fellow Freedom Caucus member, Congressman Byron Donalds of Florida.