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The Lead with Jake Tapper

White House Plan What's Next for Venezuela; Alina Habba's Unlawful Position; Man Denies Killing His Wife. Noem: Believe Shooting Suspect Was "Radicalized" In The U.S.; WH: Trump's MRI Was Of Cardiovascular & Abdominal Systems; Trump Lashes Out At Reporter: "Are You Stupid?". Aired 5-6p ET

Aired December 01, 2025 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

UNKNOWN: This is CNN Breaking News.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: And welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. And we begin with the breaking news on our world lead.

Right now, President Trump is convening a White House meeting of his top national security officials to discuss the next steps regarding Venezuela. Now, perhaps you're sitting out there wondering why do there need to be next steps with regard to Venezuela? And if so, you are not alone.

Why we're even discussing military action against the nation of Venezuela is a topic that the president has yet to explain in any full or satisfying way.

Still, the meeting comes as the administration is intensifying its pressure campaign on the country because of narcotics trafficking that comes from that country. The U.S. since September 2nd has fired upon and sunk 22 boats of alleged narco-traffickers, killing more than 80 people.

The U.S. military has amassed an armada in the region, more than a dozen warships and 15,000 troops as part of what the Pentagon has branded Operation Southern Spear. And President Trump is teasing looming warfare, warning that the country's airspace, Venezuela's airspace, should be considered closed and saying that the U.S. would be stopping Venezuelan drug trafficking by land in addition to by sea, quote, "very soon."

Now this White House-Venezuela meeting also comes as the administration is for the first time acknowledging a September follow- up strike on an alleged drug boat, known as a double tap, as the Pentagon is facing growing questions about the legality of that move and the campaign in general.

Now the concession comes following reporting from CNN's Natasha Bertrand, as well as others at the Washington Post and The Intercept, that the U.S. carried out this double tap after the initial attack, which a source told CNN that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said needed to kill everyone on board and were told that that first strike did not kill everyone on board, so the second strike killed those survivors, even though, according to the Washington Post, they were quote, "clinging to the smoldering wreck," unquote, and posed no apparent threat to the United States. It's a move, the double tap, that President Trump said yesterday he opposes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I wouldn't have wanted that, not a second strike.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Now today there is growing bipartisan concern on Capitol Hill about that second strike with some suggesting that it could constitute a war crime. This is what White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said about that earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: Does the administration deny that that second strike happened or did it happen and the administration denies that Secretary Hegseth gave the order?

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The latter is true, Yame (Ph).

UNKNOWN: To clarify, Admiral Bradley was the one who gave that order for a second strike.

LEAVITT: And he was well within his authority to do so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Now please note, the Trump administration went from the Pentagon spokesman claiming, quote, the entire narrative is false. These people just fabricate anonymously sourced stories out of whole cloth. Fake news is the enemy of the people. He said that two days ago. To today, the White House confirmed the story. The Hegseth order, the September 2nd strike, the double tap. Remarkable.

The White House's acknowledgement of the double tap comes after Secretary Hegseth went on X and said that the stories were, quote, "fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory," though neither he nor anyone at the Pentagon ever specified what, if anything, was inaccurate. Hegseth also, believe it or not, posted this meme of a fake depiction of a children's book showing gunboats targeting narco traffickers featuring the turtle Franklin dressed as a member of the military.

Yes, this is an actual post from an actual secretary of defense sharing a meme presumably to own the libs, though the administration will not share the classified legal justification behind any of these lethal strikes being carried out in your name.

We should note the interesting timing of all this. Several top flag officers prematurely left their posts. In October, after these strikes in the Caribbean began, South Command commander Admiral Alvin Holsey, who is in charge of the operations in the Caribbean, announced he's retiring from his post only one year into his tenure.

[17:05:03]

CNN reported at the time that quote, "SOUTHCOM was concerned about these Caribbean operations not being lawful for sources." In addition, three-star General Joe McGee, director for strategy plans and policy on the Joint Staff, also departed early, in part amid concerns he had with the Caribbean strikes, according to CNN reporting at the time.

Now we're told that the Senate and House Armed Services committees are very concerned and they're going to conduct oversight over this operation. It does remain to be seen just how seriously the Republican-led Congress will take any of this.

CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House. Alayna, what do we know about this national security meeting about Venezuela coming after confirmation of the double-tap boat strike?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, it'll be interesting because one of the people expected to be in that room, Jake, is the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth himself. Now, when our colleague Natasha Bertrand and I reported on this meeting this morning, we were given few details, but we were told that it was going to be regarding next steps on Venezuela.

Also expected to attend is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Caine, as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Stephen Miller who has been actually very heavily involved in these discussions as it relates to Venezuela, he's expected to be in attendance, as well as the White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.

So that gives you some sense of that. This is likely going to be talking about what comes next here. And I'd remind you what we heard the president himself say just days ago, which is that you can expect possible more strikes but also potential land strikes quote, "very soon." And so, all of that on the heels of what you just laid out regarding this double tap, I think is going to be really central to this discussion, especially as they're getting so much heat really from both sides of the aisle at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue with lawmakers raising concerns about whether this was actually lawful and legal.

Because one of the things I've been picking up in some of my conversations, Jake, with Republicans is the idea that the United States is not at war with Venezuela. We heard Leavitt lay out today that citing that they were able to do this double tap strike because of the law of armed conflict. And so, all of that, I think, going to be crucial to this meeting and where they go next in relation to their future plans for Venezuela.

TAPPER: All right, Alayna Treene at the White House, thanks so much.

With us now is Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona. He's on the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee. He's also a retired U.S. Navy combat pilot.

So first of all, they confirmed the double tap strike today, the White House, even though two days ago Sean Parnell at the Pentagon was saying the entire story was fabricated, made up out of whole cloth, he said.

It seems as though they're saying that Hegseth gave the order kill everyone on board a lethal strike, and that's Mitch Bradley, I'm sorry, Admiral Frank Mitchell Bradley was in charge, he's a head of special forces and that he is the one that gave the order for the second strike, the double tap on the whatever survivors there were.

Who is ultimately responsible if there is something wrong with the double tap strike, with the second strike?

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): Well, Jake, I think it's going to be really important for my committee, the Armed Services Committee, that I sit on the same thing in the House to get these people in the room and get testimony from them under oath. Maybe part of it in a SCIF and in a secure facility and part of it publicly to get what the exact real story is.

I think this is what happens when you put an incompetent individual in perhaps the second most important job in our country, the Secretary of Defense. Pete Hegseth had no business being nominated. Republicans in the Senate should not have confirmed him. He's been there for less than a year now, maybe seven or eight months. And this is the result of incompetence at the highest level.

Here's a guy, runs around on a stage, talking about lethality, warrior ethos, killing people. The president even echoes that. We're going to kill people.

We're good at this in the military. We have the most professional and capable military this planet has ever seen. But when you have leadership that speaks in those terms, that aren't talking about the things that really matter, like training, what kind of combat power do we have. how do we make our military more efficient and effective and talking about like what are the laws. The law does matter.

TAPPER: Well, you tell me because you fired upon boats --

KELLY: I did.

TAPPER: -- in the Gulf War, right. I mean as a navy commander.

KELLY: I sunk two ships.

TAPPER: You sunk two ships. Are you allowed once people -- once the ship start sinking in their survivors, I mean with the Washington Post as they were clinging to the wreckage, but whatever, there are survivors. We know there were survivors. Are you allowed to then attack the survivors?

KELLY: Absolutely not. I sunk Osa II missile patrol boat. It was in the middle night like 3 a.m. with two cluster munitions in Kuwait Harbor and then we left, we're out a ponochni troop carrier in the Persian Gulf during the day getting shot at by their two ships, one of them was shooting at us.

[17:10:08]

No, you don't do that. Everybody knows that. You know that is against the Geneva conventions. That's against the laws of war which we should always be abiding by. We're the United States of America. We're not Russia. We're not Iraq. We're not Iran. We have to hold our people to a higher standard. This is really serious.

TAPPER: So, the White House said that the admiral, Admiral Mitchell Bradley acted quote, "well within his authority and the law." You disagree.

KELLY: Well, you know, the White House is going to have their story, their story changes all the time. I hope that we find out more information that demonstrates that maybe it's hard to think that this is possible, but maybe exactly what is being told here is not true, because I really care about our members of the military. And I knew the Secretary of Defense was not competent immediately.

I mean, he does not have the experience to do this job. And this is the kind of results you get when he says, if he in fact gave an order that was to kill everybody, that's irresponsible. It could be. It could be criminal. We're going to have to see.

TAPPER: So, before the story broke last week, Hegseth and President Trump were talking about you and five other Democratic members of the House and Senate who did that video talking about how members of the military should not obey illegal orders.

Did you know about this? Did you know that this had happened on September 2nd when you and your colleagues put out that video?

KELLY: Well, first of all, let me say we said something that was essentially followed law. The president said hang them, execute them. He didn't what we said. Maybe he knew something. What I knew about these strikes in particular, that's not what our video was about, it wasn't about --

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: Is it more about the troops in the cities?

KELLY: Well, no. I mean it was about having a president who's talked about shooting protesters in the legs, about a president who in 2016 indicated that the military would always follow his orders. They would not refuse his orders even if they were illegal. He said that on a debate stage with Bret Baier of Fox News. He has talked about deploying troops into U.S. cities and using those cities as training grounds, which means American citizens are going to be used for training for the military. So, we were looking forward.

Having said that, when we were briefed on the Venezuelan boat strikes, these guys are tying themselves into knots, trying to explain why this is legal. And they never really did a good job answering our questions.

TAPPER: Well, they haven't released the legal justification for it.

KELLY: They haven't.

TAPPER: They said it's classified.

KELLY: I've read it.

TAPPER: And?

KELLY: But they should release it. They should release it to the American people. Why is a document that is explaining why we are moving a battle group halfway around the world at huge expense and putting American service members at risk every single day by operating in the Caribbean against these boats? Why is the justification for that classified? It should not be.

TAPPER: Maybe it's not impressive. I mean, that would be my, the only thing I can think of.

KELLY: Well, it's not that it's -- it's got problems. It's got a lot of holes in it.

TAPPER: Last question for you. Has the FBI reached out to you about your video, because we understand that President Trump has pushed the FBI to do that, and has the military all reached out about this court martial that Hegseth is talking about?

KELLY: Yes and no. The court martial, you know, Hegseth notified me in a tweet. I mean, how ridiculous is this? That this guy, I mean, it's not a normal process. It doesn't make any sense. He tweeted something. That's how I got notified. That's all I've heard from the Navy. And that says everything about Pete Hegseth. He wants to see, you know, how many views he can get on Twitter. That's what he cares about. He doesn't care about the law or process.

You know, on the FBI question, we heard something from the FBI. My question and I think yours should be, was this the idea of the FBI or was this Donald Trump telling the director to tell the FBI to come after us. He's trying to intimidate us. That's what he did when he said hang them, execute them. When he tells Hegseth the sick the military on me, he is trying to intimidate and silence me. I'm not going to be intimidated by this president or the secretary of defense and I'm not going to be silenced.

TAPPER: You'll meet with the FBI though?

KELLY: I will follow the law.

TAPPER: All right, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, thank you so much for being here.

KELLY: Thank you.

TAPPER: I appreciate it, sir. Coming up, why a federal appeals court says President Trump's former

personal attorney, Alina Habba, is currently serving unlawfully as the top prosecutor of the U.S. attorney in New Jersey. Unlawfully.

Plus, what the White House revealed about President Trump's MRI that took place in early October after President Trump yesterday said he had no idea what the doctors were scanning for.

And a powerful winter storm is on track to strengthen into a bomb cyclone in the next 24 hours. Stay with us.

[17:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our law and justice lead, a federal appeals court found Alina Habba, President Trump's former personal attorney, is serving unlawfully as the U.S. attorney for the state of New Jersey.

Let's bring in CNN's Katelyn Polantz, and CNN senior legal analyst, Elie Honig, who also happens to be a New Jersey favorite son.

Katelyn, what is the appeals court saying about how Alina Habba's appointment violates the law?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN REPORTER: They looked at a couple different things here. The first was that she has to be confirmed by the Senate after a certain point of time. So, Alina Habba she had been sent there as the nominee and was never Senate confirmed and then once that 120 days ran, which is the length of time you have to get the confirmation by Congress, the blessing by Congress, they didn't do it and then the district court didn't appoint her as the U.S. attorney there.

Those are your two options to be the official U.S. attorney. It didn't happen. And then they said the Trump administration can't make an end run around this either. They can't put her in a career position and have her elevated. They can't do that because she had been nominated and also because it was happening after the fact. They just did it wrong in that instance.

[17:20:00]

And then the third thing that they said was that the attorney general can't just bless her as the special attorney in New Jersey and just give her the powers of a U.S. attorney, it doesn't work like that. They're really affirming how much Congress and the other branches of government, the courts even, have to say whenever you have a situation like this where someone is not getting confirmed into a political position leading a prosecutor's office.

TAPPER: Elie, what does that mean for the cases, these pending cases that have come down under acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba, as well as the other federal prosecutors the courts have found are serving unlawfully?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Jake, there's a bit of chaos here in the Garden State and in three other federal districts where we've seen similar rulings. Today's ruling though actually could have been worse for the Justice Department because it was possible that the Court of Appeals found Alina Habba is serving unlawfully and therefore all the dozens of cases that have been indicted under her authority are null and void.

They did not rule that, however. What they ruled is, she's serving unlawfully, therefore, she's disqualified, but we are not going to dismiss these cases. Now there's a couple reasons for that. One, we try not to give windfall's free passes to the dozens of alleged serious criminals who've been indicted. And second of all, in the New Jersey cases, Alina Habba signed, but so too did another properly appointed prosecutor.

That's in contrast to the Virginia situation, which we saw play out last week, where Lindsey Halligan was ruled to be improperly appointed but the problem was on the Comey and Letitia James cases Lindsey Halligan was the only signatory. So, when she was removed that's why those cases got dismissed but as of now the New Jersey case has not been dismissed.

TAPPER: Is this debate about these individuals serving unlawfully, according to this judge, is this likely to head all the way up at the U.S. Supreme Court?

HONIG: It almost has to, Jake. I mean, one of the judges on this case said this is an issue of first impression which means we've never seen anything like this before. And as we discussed before, there are four different districts where they're all grappling with this. There's Central District of California, which is Los Angeles. There's the District of Nevada. There's the Eastern District of Virginia. And then there's the District of New Jersey.

All those decisions have come down on the same side that the appointments were illegal. But the reasoning has been a little different. We need uniformity. We need certainty. This is what the Supreme Court is here for.

TAPPER: All right, Eli Honig, Katelyn Polantz, thank you so much.

A Massachusetts man insists he did not kill his wife. But he did confess to disposing of her remains and lying to police. It's a compelling and bizarre case. What went down on day one of trial, next.

[17:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: International lead. A manhunt underway right now for the person suspected of a deadly shooting at a child's birthday party this weekend in Stockton, California. That's about 50 miles east of San Francisco. The attack killed four people, including three children. It wounded 11 others.

Officials have not released the victims' names, but say that those killed were eight, nine, 14, and 21. Police say they're confident this was a targeted act of violence, perhaps gang related.

In our law and justice lead, day one of the murder trial of Brian Walshe, the Massachusetts man accused of killing and dismembering his wife, Ana, in 2023. Now, Brian denies committing the actual murder, but he did plead guilty to misleading police and to disposing of his wife's remains, which to this day have not been found.

Joining us to try to make sense of this is CNN's Jean Casarez. And Jean, what arguments did the defense and the prosecution make today?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the opening statements to show the jury what the evidence will be started out by with the prosecution. And they said that Brian Walshe never called police, but called his wife's, Ana's Walshe's employer, which was Tishman Speyer in Washington, D.C. on January 4th, 2023 to say his wife was missing. He hadn't seen her since the early morning hours of January 1st.

An all-out search began. Four long recorded interviews that the jury has heard three of today of him describing how she was missing and he couldn't find her. And he consented to all of his phones to be looked at by police, including his oldest child's iPad. He had three children, two, four, and six. The six-year-old iPad had numerous searches that police soon discovered. We want to show everybody what they are.

This would be on January 1st at 4:54 in the morning. How long before a body starts to smell? Four fifty-eight, how to stop a body from decomposing? At 5:47, 10 ways to dispose of a dead body if you really need to. Six twenty-four, how long for someone to be missing to inherit? And then it goes on from there, how to clean blood from a wooden floor goes on to talk about a hatchet. Is that the best way to dismember a body?

Police realized this man was not telling the truth so then they used the phone tower pinging to find him taking trash bags and putting them in dumpsters all around town and that included everything but the body of Ana Walshe that has never been found.

Now the defense has said no you've got it wrong. This is very wrong because he didn't murder, he didn't kill his wife. And that's because on the early morning hours of January 1st they had gone to bed that night. But then Brian decided he was going to go down and wash the dishes from the New Year's Eve festivities. He went down there when he came back a little bit later. She was dead in the bed. And it was sudden death. Listen.

[17:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY TIPTON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: One hour, he's with her, he cleans the kitchen, he comes back up, and she is dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And he nudged her so hard, she rolled off the bed, the defense attorney said in the opening statement. But Jake, he never called 911. That's when he started doing these Google searches.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Yes, those Google searches. I'm always amazed that people, I mean, that people leave digital footprints. Jean Casarez, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

This note, you can watch this trial as it unfolds. You can watch the live courtroom feeds and get analysis. It's all on the new CNN app. Go to the Watch tab.

Ahead, the acts of clemency from President Trump commuting the sentence for a man convicted in a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme, promising a pardon for the former president of Honduras. Forget his drug trafficking conviction. We're going to take a closer look at these cases, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:35:08]

TAPPER: In our Law and Justice Lead, today, the White House tried to defend President Trump's decision to bail out, to commute the sentence of a convicted fraudster. Over the Thanksgiving holiday week, President Trump commuted the sentence for David Gentile, a private equity executive who, along with another private equity executive, was convicted in 2024 in what federal prosecutors described as a $1.6 billion scheme defrauding more than 10,000 retail investors.

The New York Times reports some of those investors are farmers and veterans and teachers. Court documents obtained by the Times include victim statements, some of which read, "I lost my whole life savings," "all of the literal blood, sweat and tears we shed to work hard and be successful was taken from us."

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected the notion that Gentile was part of a Ponzi scheme.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: And this is another example that has been brought to the President's attention of a weaponization of justice from the previous administration, and therefore he signed this commutation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: The Times reports the Gentile served less than two weeks of a seven year sentence. CNN says reached out to Gentile's lawyer for comment. The White House is also attempting to defend Trump's promise to pardon the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez.

Trump said on Friday that he would pardon Hernandez, making the announcement just days before the presidential election in Honduras. Hernandez was convicted in the U.S. last year, given a 45-year prison -- federal prison sentence for conspiring to move tons, literally tons of cocaine into the United States. Asked why President Trump would pardon a notorious drug trafficker. Well, President Trump said this yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I was told I was asked by Honduras, many of the people of Honduras, they said it was a Biden set up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: President Trump did not give any evidence to that claim that this was a Biden set up. And just to be clear, prosecutors back in 2019 during President Trump's first term were the ones who accused Hernandez of being involved in a drug trafficking conspiracy.

The timing of this potential pardon is particularly bizarre, especially considering the Trump administration is now saying that they're so focused on the drug crackdown in the Caribbean so much so that they're ordering strikes of questionable legality on suspected drug boats.

Even some Republican lawmakers can't really explain why Trump would pardon a convicted drug trafficker. Here's Congresswoman Maria Salazar of Florida earlier today on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR (R-FL): I would have never done that. I don't think that that was what I would have done. But I repeat, I'm not in the Oval Office.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana put it a little more plainly, asking, "Why would we pardon this guy and then go after Maduro for running drugs into the United States? Lock up every drug runner. Don't understand why his -- why he is being pardoned." Well, Senator Cassidy, you are not alone.

Also today in the Law and Justice Lead, a big update after last week's ambush on two West Virginia National Guard members here in D.C., the surviving guardsman, Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, was able to give nurses a thumbs up and wiggle his toes. That's according to West Virginia's governor, who visited the hospital multiple times and met with the family of the 24-year-old. This as we're learning new details about the shooting suspect.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says investigators believe that he was radicalized after arriving in the U.S. from Afghanistan in 2021. Joining us now, Marine Corps veteran, former CIA officer Elliot Ackerman. Elliot, thanks for joining us. So both you and the suspect served in the CIA's Zero Unit in Afghanistan during the war there.

I know you didn't know him personally. I read your piece in the Free Press earlier today. Can you explain what his role would have been like? What exactly does this unit do?

ELLIOT ACKERMAN, MARINE AND CIA VETERAN: Well, the mission of the Zero Units, you know, unlike the Afghan National Army, the Zero Units were Afghans who worked directly for the United States, partnered with the CIA, and their mission was primarily to hunt down senior levels of the Taliban and al-Qaeda leadership throughout the country.

TAPPER: Sources tell CNN that in interviews with the suspect's family members, authorities have learned that he might have suffered from post-traumatic stress stemmed from fighting he did in Afghanistan. I assume that's not uncommon for people who served in the Zero Unit, post-traumatic stress.

ACKERMAN: It's not uncommon for people who served in the Zero Units or in SEAL Team 6 or the U.S. Army Rangers. I mean, violence has a very long tail and a real psychological burden.

TAPPER: In light of this targeted attack on these poor West Virginia National Guard members, the Trump administration is saying that the suspect had been sufficiently vetted before entering the U.S. We should also note that the Trump administration is -- is the administration that granted the suspect's asylum in April of this year. Do you think that the vetting process is thorough enough?

[17:40:18]

ACKERMAN: No, I think it comes into question of, you know, what is the vetting process. My intuition would be this isn't necessarily an issue of vetting. I mean, this is an individual issue specific to this person. I think what would be the real shame would be if this was used as a cudgel to categorically demonize an entire group of people, namely the Afghans who come to this country, you know, specifically members of the Zero Units who for 20 years fought alongside many of America's most elite special operators to hunt down terrorist leadership and Taliban leadership in Afghanistan.

TAPPER: Are you still in contact with any of the Afghans who fought alongside and assisted you?

ACKERMAN: I am. And these guys are my -- are my brothers in arms. And many of them have come to the U.S. and they're making a life here. Some are now green card holders and others are now U.S. citizens. And these are people who will contribute to the United States. You know, much the same way our Vietnamese population has contributed to this country since the end of that war.

TAPPER: How are your Afghan brothers in arms? How are they reacting to all this?

ACKERMAN: You know, I think this is a really trying time for that community. And they're extremely sad about what has happened. And, you know, an appalled that one of their own would engage in such actions.

TAPPER: Elliott Ackerman, thank you so much. And thank you for your service. Appreciate it.

ACKERMAN: Thank you.

TAPPER: Yesterday on Air Force One, President Trump said he had no idea what doctors were looking for during an MRI he had back in October. But now we're finally getting some answers from the White House. What they revealed just a few hours ago, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:46:06]

TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, it has been more than a month since President Trump confirmed that he got an MRI at Walter Reed Hospital back in October. Today, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt finally gave the public some answers as to why he got the MRI.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEAVITT: Advanced imaging was performed because men in his age group benefit from a thorough evaluation of cardiovascular and abdominal health. The purpose of this imaging is preventative. This level of detailed assessment is standard for an executive physical at President Trump's age and confirms that he remains in excellent overall health.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Now, according to President Trump, that is more than he knew. Or at least maybe more than he wanted to reveal after repeated questions from reporters on Air Force One yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: But if you want to have it released, I'll release it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you tell us what they were looking at?

TRUMP: For what? Releasing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no, no. What part of your body was the MRI looking at?

TRUMP: I have no idea. It was just an MRI. What part of the body? It wasn't the brain because I took a cognitive test and I aced it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: OK, my panel joins me now. Shermichael Singleton, I mean, this call could have been shared in October when it happened, right? Why -- why the -- the obfuscation?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, not -- not to be hyper-partisan here, but it's a lot better than what we saw over the last four years. The President's almost 80 years old. I think it's the right thing to do to take MRI and any other examination that's necessary for a man of his age so that the American people know that mentally and physically he's up to the task of being president, which we know is a very stressful job. And so, yes, maybe it took two months, but I'd rather two months than four years. And you know this because you wrote a whole book about it.

TAPPER: Karen?

KAREN FINNEY, CNN COMMENTATOR: Well, having had an MRI, several, trust me, when they're doing it, you know exactly what they're looking at and what they're looking for. There's no question. And you're, you know, quite aware of the whole time.

Look, this President has, unfortunately, I think what matters about this is it's not just about the MRI, right? It's about this pattern of this lack of transparency and this lack of truthfulness, right? This is a President who's trying to tell us everything's great with the economy when we know that's not true. He's trying to tell us everything he's doing with, you know, bombing boats off the coast in the Caribbean, these Venezuelan boats, is absolutely fine. And then this weekend he also said, well, maybe I wouldn't have done it that way now that there are concerns about the way that was conducted.

So on issue after issue, from the Epstein files to very serious matters of -- of war, we're not getting the truth from him. He's trying to tell us one thing that seems to not be true. So I think it's more about the pattern then. I mean, a lot of presidents are not fully truthful about their health. And I agree by the Biden folks should have been more honest much sooner.

SINGLETON: Just -- just one point of contention, I suppose. I get the comparative nature of Karen's assessment. And I will say on air, she was very strong in her opinion that the previous administration should have been very transparent with the American people. And I want to recognize that.

However, I -- I've seen a lot of Democrats saying this is an administration that isn't about transparency as it pertains specifically to this issue, that being the President's health. But those same individuals, Jake, were very quiet during the last four years when you wrote and released your book and did interview after interview. I saw a number of lawmakers come out and say, well, we didn't know that this occurred.

Despite the number of individuals on background who said the president's mental acuity was not what it was before the beginning of his term. And so I don't think that you can compare this particular issue to the last president and say that there is a difference because there isn't.

TAPPER: On the matter of health --

FINNEY: Yes.

TAPPER: -- let us turn to those Obamacare subsidies --

FIINEY: Yes.

TAPPER: -- which are still set to expire at the end of the year. The Democrats did get a promise from John Thune in the Senate that there will be a vote on whether or not to extend them. How do you see this playing out? It's December 1st. The clock is ticking.

FINNEY: That's right. I think it's going to have to be a vote because, again, the pressure is not just from Democrats. Some of these members are also hearing this at home from their constituents.

[17:50:07]

And this is another issue where the President was trying to obfuscate and didn't want to take it head on. But the reality is this is hitting people's pocketbooks. So certainly I think it's a political liability for the Republicans if they don't allow a vote.

But it's they're in a bind here because it's also political liability if they don't come up with some way to give the American people some kind of relief. If you can't say we can find the dollars to extend these tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, but we can't find the dollars to help give people a break on their health care while also let's also get together and try to actually solve the crisis on health care.

TAPPER: Do you think there's a bipartisan deal that actually might happen?

SINGLETON: It might happen. I don't know. I wish there were a bipartisan deal that could happen. I actually agree with Karen. I don't think conservatives want to see hardworking American families harmed by their inability to afford proper care. But I think one could also make the case that there are a lot of Americans who have real experiences about how the current ACA system is defunct, how it hasn't worked or benefited them the ways that it was promised.

And so can conservatives offer a solution to address that? I think we absolutely can. And I would argue many Democrats would probably be in agreement with some of those proposed solutions.

TAPPER: So it has not escaped notice of my 95 percent female staff that President Trump has taken a harsher tone with a lot of women reporters in the last weeks. He called one piggy. Then he -- he was -- he was rather nasty to Mary Bruce in the Oval Office. He called another one on social media ugly. And then this over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY CORDES, CBS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Why do you blame the Biden administration?

TRUMP: Because they let them in. Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person? Because they came in to -- on a plane along with thousands of other people that shouldn't be here. And you're just asking questions because you're a stupid person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: The first of all, Nancy Cordes is not stupid. She's very smart. Second of all, there obviously are a lot of issues having to do with this shooter. But he wasn't just like some random guy that came in on a plane. He'd been working with the CIA and had been vetted just for that job in Afghanistan. But beyond that, what do you make of this? A lot of strong women getting a lot of heat from the President.

FINNEY: Yes. Oh, I have lots of thoughts. But what I'll say, he was like this actually during the first term as well. We heard particularly with black female reporters, he called them stupid and -- and other, you know, sort of derogatory things. Look, this is a President, I'll bring it back to where I started, who does not feel that he is accountable to anyone for anything.

The Supreme Court basically said you've got full immunity. He takes that very seriously and seems to walk around that he doesn't need to answer questions with any sort of thoughtful fact based answers. He obfuscates. He'll, you know, berate people if they don't like the question. We've seen him do it to our own Kaitlan Collins.

TAPPER: Yes.

FINNEY: So not surprising to see this. He didn't want to answer that question. He probably didn't know the answer.

TAPPER: Shermichael, you are like the last person I would ever think would ever say anything like any of that. You are the way that you treat people is so kind and nice, even when you're disagreeing with them.

SINGLETON: I try.

TAPPER: But that must -- but that must -- I mean, and you're -- and the man you used to work for, Dr. Ben Carson, was the same way. That must bother you. The style.

SINGLETON: This is -- this goes to the point that I was making and I was saying that when you were talking about the President on the health issue and I said it's a distinction without a difference. Many Democrats have argued. I said that there is a difference. I'm happy that the President is actually answering questions from the press. That's number one.

TAPPER: Sure. Sure.

SINGLETON: I think he's doing a lot better people than the last president, in my opinion, there. That said, is there a different way that one could answer certain questions. Sure. The President has a unique style in answering things and some people aren't going to like it. I completely get it. But I would say, Mr. President, look, if you don't want to answer the question, don't answer it. Be a little calmer if you want to. There's nothing wrong with that.

TAPPER: Thanks.

SINGLETON: Almost a good thing, I would say.

TAPPER: Almost a good thing. Thanks to both. You appreciate it.

[17:54:14] Millions of you are going to be hit by a powerful winter storm in the next 24 hours. Forecasters are calling this one a bomb, a cyclone. We're going to tell you what that is and bring you its track, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our National Lead, an already powerful winter storm, will soon morph into a so-called bomb cyclone. Nearly 70 million people could feel this one as the system moves quickly from the plains all the way up to the state of Maine. Let's go to meteorologist Chris Warren in the CNN Weather Center. Time out this storm for us, Chris. Who's going to see what and when?

CHRIS WARREN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, we are seeing the winter weather, Jake, here stretching from Kansas to Maine. About 1,500 miles worth of winter weather alerts. Here it is right now. And the timing you can see this evening and the heaviest snowfall in the darker colors here, green and yellow is rain.

By tomorrow morning, Boston, New York still should be dry for the morning commute. That changes for the evening commute. A wet mess closer to the water, more snow farther away from the water. And this is the point where the storm will rapidly strengthen or bomb out, as it said. You can see kind of that swirl right in there, that kind of look that we're going to see. The amount of snow that will be widespread in pink, about 6 inches. Some of the higher elevations closer to perhaps to a foot of snow.

And on top of that or in addition to that, there is going to be a freezing rain threat when the rain freezes on, contact either power lines or roadways, which of course that could lead to power outages, Jake, and also some dangerous travel.

TAPPER: Appreciate it.

[17:59:58]

Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour President Trump and his top national security officials meeting behind closed doors about the next steps for Venezuela. This comes as lawmakers from both parties are raising --