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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Law Enforcement Officials: Investigators Believe They Have Identified A Suspect In Brown University Killings; Dr. Reiner: "Seriously Concerned" About Trump's Health; Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), Is Interviewed About Kennedy Center Board Votes To Rename It "Trump Kennedy Center"; Childhood Cancer Bill Passes House, Fails In Senate; Trump Delivers Winding, Factually Challenged Speech On Economy. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired December 18, 2025 - 17:00   ET

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

ALLISON JASLOW, (D) NORTH CAROLINA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: That is needed for the health of the all-volunteer force.

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: All right. Allison Jaslow, thank you very much for taking some time with us today. We will be following your race very closely. Thank you. See you soon.

JASLOW: Thanks for having me.

HUNT: All right. Thanks to my panel for being here. Really appreciate all of you. Thanks to all of you at home for watching. "The Lead with Jake Tapper" starts right now.

[17:00:27]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. And we are following breaking news on a number of fronts. In Providence, Rhode Island, right now, two law enforcement officials tell CNN investigators believe they have identified a suspect in the Brown University killings from last weekend. Police are also investigating potential ties between the Brown University murders last Saturday and a fatal shooting two days later near Boston.

As we told you, a professor from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, was shot and killed in his home in Brookline, Massachusetts. Brookline, about 50 miles from Brown University. We were expecting a news conference in the last hour from police in Providence. That update has now been delayed. We'll have more on that in a moment.

Then another big breaking news story in North Carolina, seven people were killed in a horrific plane crash. A fiery scene you can see in brand new video of what appears to be the moment of impact. So source says a small private jet went down shortly after takeoff in Statesville, North Carolina. That's just south -- I'm sorry, that's just north of Charlotte. And the North Carolina Highway Patrol has just confirmed former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle and his family were among the victims of this crash.

We'll have more information to come on both of these breaking stories. We're tracking all the new developments with CNN's Brian Todd, who's in Providence, and CNN's Chief Law Enforcement Analyst John Miller. We also have with us former FBI special agent and profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole.

John, let's start with you. What do we know about this suspect?

JOHN MILLER, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, we know that this is somebody that they developed within the last day and a half with a number of leads and threads that came together with some particular information. We also know that he is identified. So what's the big difference here is we've gone for a manhunt where they did not know who the man they were hunting was, to a manhunt where they now have someone identified.

Now, when we say they've identified the suspect, they know who he is, they have not released his name publicly. They have been seeking him throughout the day. And they do have a warrant for his arrest, which means any law enforcement officer who encounters him, has the authority to arrest him. The press conference obviously canceled because the investigation is at a very dynamic stage.

And that stage is, Jake, they have to make this decision now whether they continue to hunt him with what they know and the resources they have or whether they push that name and picture out to the public and say, we need all eyes looking for him. And there's an upside and a downside to that consideration.

TAPPER: The downside being, John, that if they put out his name and photograph that potentially he becomes more of A, a flight risk or B, a danger to others? MILLER: Exactly. And I mean, one of the considerations here is, you

know, if it's out there in the media that they have him identified, they know that and now he knows that. This is something that we were not the first to report, but it has now been, you know, significantly discussed across the media. And it's one of those decisions which has now put them in the position to say we have to decide whether to go more public with this or not.

TAPPER: Yes. And Brian, you're on the ground there in Providence at police headquarters, what activity are you seeing there? What are you learning from officials?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a lot of activity with the media here, Jake, and officials had, as you had noted, some scheduled a news conference at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time. We've been told by two city officials, myself and Danny Freeman, have been told by two city officials that's been delayed indefinitely. We've been pressing them for answers on why it's being delayed, what they're going to be able to say and when this will actually be. They haven't been able to give us those answers. One official did tell me that they're going to try to get this going as soon as possible.

But, you know, since that time, John has been reporting his news there about them iding a possible suspect in this case. I can tell you that before other news conferences that have been held this week, they have been releasing other incremental information, especially video surveillance footage, still footage. They've released a map of the area where they believe he was, quote, casing the area right before the shooting. The police chief, Oscar Perez, told me that they believe this person -- the person who they previously called a person of interest, was casing the area for about five and a half hours, at least continuously before the shooting from about 10:30 a.m. until the shooting occurred at about 4:00 p.m. that he was walking around those streets in Providence that they released a map of now for at least five and a half hours, casing the area. That's the phrase that the chief used.

[17:05:08]

So they do have some images of what he looks like. They don't have a good, really great image of his face, but they have shown him walking around wearing kind of a two tone dark jacket. In various images, he's carrying like a satchel that's strapped to his front. And in other images, you don't see that satchel. He's wearing what appears to be a black ski cap and a black mask and he has a kind of a distinctive gait.

So that's, you know, what we've been able to show you this week. And they've kind of released those images incrementally before each news conference. We are pressing people for answers, of course, as to who this person is and what more they'll be able to tell us later tonight, hopefully.

TAPPER: And Mary Ellen, as they start the search, well, I'm sure they've already started it, but how can they be sure as they intensify the search that the suspect is still in Rhode Island itself?

MARY ELLEN O'TOOLE, FORMER SENIOR FBI PROFILER: Well, I don't think they can be assured that he is in Rhode Island. At this point it's been six days. And so I mean, he could actually be at any, you know, anywhere in the United States. So -- but I do think that they've got that base covered because they've got federal agencies that are working on the case. So they're probably -- if he is out of -- out of Rhode Island, then they have contacted FBI field offices throughout the United States, wherever they think he is.

That can certainly affect an arrest.

TAPPER: Brian, Brown University has been facing questions about the number of cameras on campus and why it doesn't appear that more of these cameras didn't pick up clearer images of the shooter. Just to remind our viewers, here's what Brown University had to say yesterday. Here's the provost.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCIS DOYLE, BROWN UNIVERSITY PROVOST: We have 1,200 cameras located throughout the campus. We don't publish the locations of the cameras that would give a map to somebody to evade detection on the cameras. So that would be counterproductive to do that. There are cameras in this building. And as I answered the previous question, we have turned over all evidence that we are holding at Brown to law enforcement and are cooperating fully with them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: But Brian, you and so many journalists have questions about the cameras at Brown. Give us some examples of what you're wondering.

TODD: Well, Jake, what they really have not answered and what they been -- what we have been pressing them repeatedly on this week is why, according to officials, and multiple officials have said this, they did have multiple cameras in the newer part of that engineering building. We've been told that this is a newer building attached to an older part of the building. So that they did have multiple cameras in the newer part of the building, and that those cameras actually did capture a lot of activity, but that that activity really just showed students running for cover and scattering all over the place, which the attorney general of Rhode Island, Peter Neronha, said was not particularly helpful in identifying this person of interest. But they have not answered the question as to why there were few, if any, cameras in the old part of the building. And the old part of the building is, of course, where the shooting occurred.

They have never answered that question as to why there were not more cameras outfitted in the older part of that building. And we've been pressing them on this repeatedly. Students and others have really criticized the school for this. The school defending its security measures, saying that they, as you played that clip, that they have 1,200 security cameras around the campus, which is a lot. But one thing we also learned yesterday was that that particular building did not have a security guard.

And we were told by students that many other buildings do have security guards.

TAPPER: And Mary Ellen, there are nine survivors of the shooting. One remains in critical condition. Two have been discharged from the hospital. Six are in stable condition, which is an upgrade from critical but stable. At this point, are investigators able to get eyewitness accounts from sufficient number of survivors to help supplement all of the photo evidence that they have, whatever videos they have -- video evidence they have?

And would that be used to track down the perpetrator?

O'TOOLE: Yes to each of your questions, they will be getting detailed information, as much as they can from each of the students that have been identified as being in that classroom and then students identify as being victims. So that becomes really important. And then they'll look at all of that data and see what are the commonalities that are being reported to them. And that really does help the investigator get a much better idea of what this person was wearing, what were they carrying, what did they say, what did they look like? So even though that information is impacted by the emotional stress of what these people have been through, it's still a wealth of information. And they absolutely would have been working to secure as much as they could from each one of those victims as well as each person in that room once they were able to identify them.

TAPPER: All right, Mary Ellen O'Toole and John Miller and Brian Todd, thanks to all of you. We're going to get back with you as we get more information in this case.

[17:10:06]

That other breaking news this hour, former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle and six others believed to be victims of a fiery plane crash in North Carolina. We're going to have much more from that scene. Plus a high profile physician who watched last night's primetime address by the president and said he is seriously concerned about the president's health. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our politics lead, it's only Thursday, and already it's been a week full of behaviors from President Trump that are unusual even by his particular standards, the latest example of which is President Trump's primetime address to the nation last night. Such presidential addresses usually carry some weight. One might expect to hear some big news, an announcement of some sort. Instead, the nation heard Trump just rattle on about his accomplishments like he does on any given day, although he just did so faster and louder.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now with the hottest country anywhere in the world. And that said, by every single leader that I've spoken to over the last five months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[17:15:00]

TAPPER: Conservative radio host Erick Erickson's initial response as the speech began, quote, "Why is he yelling at us?" unquote. It wasn't just the president's tone in the speech that was a bit off putting. Much of the content was simply false misstatements that have been fact checked so often. He must know by now that they're just lies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years and some would say in the history of our country, which caused prices to be higher than ever before, making life unaffordable for millions and millions of Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So inflation was not the highest in the history of our country when President Trump took over in January 2025. It is true that in 2022, under President Biden, inflation peaked at 9.1 percent, and that was very high. But it was not the highest ever in the history of our country, and that was 2022. By January 2025, when Trump took office, it was down to 3 percent, which is what it was just a few weeks ago. As of the latest November numbers today, it was 2.7 percent.

It's not gone, it's lower. But how he describes it is just false. The president seems frustrated, of course, that the majority of Americans, according to polls, are dissatisfied with the economy and with his handling of it. But they have good reason to feel that way. Inflation continues and the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs data is bad.

When Trump took office, 6.8 million Americans were unemployed. The number of Americans unemployed now, 7.8 million, 1 million more. So Trump's strategy in the speech appeared to be shout about how things are better than the public believes that they are. And here's where things go sideways again. Trump delved into the looming health care crisis as monthly premiums for 22 million Americans who use the enhanced Obamacare subsidies that are about to expire, well, those premiums are about to skyrocket.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The current Unaffordable Care Act was created to make insurance companies rich. It was bad health care at much too high a cost. And you see that now in the steep increase in premiums being demanded by the Democrats. And they are demanding those increases. And it's their fault. It is not the Republicans fault, it's the Democrats fault.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Blaming Democrats does not appear to be working. December KFF poll says, quote, "If the tax credits are allowed to expire, most enrollees who want to see the credits extended think either President Trump, 41 percent, or congressional Republicans, 35 percent, deserve most of the blame.

Here's the thing, do you think Trump would be giving this random primetime pre-Christmas rambling hype speech if the White House actually believed he was winning politically and when it came to the perception of how he's handling the economy? In his exchange with Chief of Staff Susie Wiles after the address, the president suggested that Wiles had told him he had to give the speech. And in the end, it's hard to see how voters other than his most stalwart supporters are going to walk away feeling any more confident in the president after that speech. It left many conservatives underwhelmed.

Erick Erickson tweeting, quote, "Trump's fans really loved last night's speech, but will they show up without him on the ballot? Because right now they're not. Trump voters who supported him but aren't his fans were not as enthusiastic about the speech. They need an incentive to vote GOP, and they didn't get it."

Now, the president's demeanor in last night's address is far from the only concerning behavior he's exhibited this week. After hearing the news that beloved Hollywood director Rob Reiner, a Trump critic, was murdered along with his wife, allegedly by their troubled son, the president took to social media and crassly made it about himself and he blamed the victim for the gruesome, tragic murder.

On Monday, just to remind you, the President wrote on Truth Social that they died, quote, "reportedly due to the anger Rob Reiner caused others through his massive, unyielding and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as Trump derangement syndrome, sometimes referred to as TDS."

Look, let's just call it as it is. That is not how a normal, mentally healthy person responds to news of a horrific tragedy. Trump's remarks on Reiner did draw widespread bipartisan criticism, including from some of his biggest fans. But Trump still stood by his remarks later that day.

This week, he also took the unusual step of installing plaques along the wall of the White House, the people's house, with inscriptions on the plaques that insult his predecessors, using language one has sadly come to expect from him in his late night social media rants. Of President Joe Biden, he said, quote, "sleepy Joe Biden was by far the worst president in American history." And the plaque of President Obama declares Obama one of the most divisive political figures in American history.

Now, look, we're not unused to the president of the United States, Mr. Trump, replicating the burned book from "Mean Girls" on social media, but these insults were put on plaques and hung on the wall of the White House. As conservative commentator Guy Benson tweeted, "petty and ridiculous." Again, these are conservative Trump voting commentators I'm quoting here. This behavior is not normal. Not in a mayor, not in a governor, not in your boss, not in your mom or your dad or your friend.

[17:20:13]

Never before in the history of our country have we had a president who acted this way. The president has been flouting the hallmarks of basic decency. And while there have been a few of his supporters and a few members of his party and some in the conservative media willing to call him out on some of this, for the most part, let's be honest, it's been crickets. There appears to be no one in his White House or the Trump administration willing to say anything to him. In fact, whether or not they're legally allowed to do it, his handpicked Kennedy center board earlier today voted to change the name to the Trump Kennedy Center.

And anytime anyone, even his supporters, questions any of this aberrant behavior, they're accused of having Trump derangement syndrome. So just ask yourself, being offended by the most powerful man in the world mocking the victim of a gruesome murder is the being offended part? Is that what's deranged?

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, who served as the late Vice President Dick Cheney's cardiologist for years, was among the many observers alarmed by what he saw from President Trump last night. His behavior -- he posted on X, quote, "I'm seriously concerned about the health of the president." And adding, "No one should be happy to see the president like this. He looks unwell." And Dr. Reiner joins us now. He's a professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University and a CNN medical analyst.

Dr. Reiner, what specifically was it about President Trump that you found so concerning watching him last night, especially in the context of, you know, he gives outrageous speeches and has been for years?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, it wasn't the content. I think -- I thought the content was just standard fare that we'd become accustomed to. But it was the way it was delivered. It was delivered in with a manic cadence, almost a frantic cadence. It was as if you felt like you were listening to a podcast on 2X.

And that kind of manic delivery was very, very disturbing, very pressure, very pressurized speech. And as the address went on, his -- the cadence of his remarks became quicker. And we've never seen the president, you know, like that. He seemed almost frantic. And it was disturbing to watch.

It was disturbing because he's the commander in chief. He's not just the head of the government. He's the commander in chief of the greatest armed forces this world has ever seen. And it's -- it was disturbing to see him with in such a -- almost uncontrolled cadence. TAPPER: So you call his cadence manic and uncontrolled. And then

earlier today, and this is not the first time this has happened, the president appeared to be struggling to keep his eyes open during a public White House event in the Oval Office earlier today. We're showing the video right now. I don't know if that worries you. What's your take on that?

What is that? REINER: So he's done this several times now in the last few weeks.

He's fallen asleep in a crowded Oval Office and he's also fallen asleep at Cabinet meetings with people talking directly to him. And that's what's called increased daytime somnolence. And there are a lot of things that -- there are lot of things that can do that. Sometimes people with sleep apnea, people who wake up many times during the night and don't get restorative sleep have that.

That's treated typically with CPAP, with CPAP masks. We've never been told the president has sleep apnea. So but it's jarring to see the president go from basically asleep in the Oval Office to, you know, really this rapid fire pace, you know, during basically a 30-minute speech that he gave in 18 minutes.

It was -- and again, what I said last night is no one should be happy to see that. Certainly his supporters shouldn't have been happy to see him so sort of loud and almost out of control. And his detractors should not be happy to see him. You know, the president of United States should be well, but there have been a lot of health issues. You know, he has -- he has the chronic -- he has the chronic bruise, he had swollen ankles, he's had these mysterious scans.

We mentioned the daytime somnolence and then last night's speech. So I think all of this raises consider, you know, realistic concerns about the health of the president. And it would be great if the White House was a little bit more forthcoming about that. You know, I can't be the only person who had concerns after watching him last night.

TAPPER: You weren't. Dr. Jonathan Reiner, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Breaking news from --

REINER: Sure.

TAPPER: -- Providence, Rhode Island, law enforcement officials tells CNN investigators believe they have identified a suspect in those horrific Brown University killings on Saturday. We're going to be looking for updates there.

[17:25:01]

The politics lead, that vote today to rename the Kennedy Center the Trump Kennedy Center. My next guest says that she's on the board. She was trying to object and she was muted when she was trying to object. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: We're back with our politics lead. The board of the Kennedy Center voting today. Voted to rename the renowned performing arts facility in D.C. the Trump Kennedy Center, saying in a statement that the, quote, "Unanimous vote, recognizes that the current chairman," that's President Trump, quote, "saved the institution from financial ruin and physical destruction." We should note the vote was actually not technically unanimous.

Here with me now is Democratic Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, who serves as an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center board.

So, Congresswoman, you attempted to object to this vote today, but tell us what happened.

[17:30:00]

REP. JOYCE BEATTY (D-OH): That is true. At the end of the meeting, it was brought to our attention that the Kennedy Center was going to now be renamed, and at that time in the official board meeting, they said Trump Center. At that time, and we have a mute, unmute button. I had been unmuted all along. And as I wanted to ask questions, you know, traditionally on a board, and especially a board of this caliber, you would have said the study committee, the naming rights committee, we had meetings, there was no discussion, just some of President Trump's cronies announced, oh, we've got this new thing we're going to tell you, we're going to rename it.

At that time, President Trump said, oh, I didn't even know about it, all of this is absurd. And at that time, I wanted to ask questions, voice my opposition, ask why, and immediately I was muted. And as I continued to press unmute, I then received a message saying I would not be unmuted. As I continued to push the button, and we have screenshots of this from my end, we then got a message and said, participants will not be unmuted. They proceeded to say it was unanimous. TAPPER: Right.

BEATTY: That is not true, and as an ex-officio member, according to the John F. Kennedy Amendment Act of 1994, ex-officio members do have a right to vote, I have voted previously to speak and to voice my opinion on things. And so I was very bothered about this.

TAPPER: Yes.

BEATTY: And I want the record to be straight. It was not unanimous. And when you think of not allowing me to even speak, that's a form of censorship.

TAPPER: Right.

BEATTY: So it was not unanimous, it was not by consensus, it was by censorship.

TAPPER: So let's put up the website again if we can, guys, and I just want to bring people's attention. On the top left of your screen, it says the Trump-Kennedy Center. They've already changed the website. It's not clear at all that actually the board has the ability legally to --

BEATTY: They do not.

TAPPER: -- rename the Kennedy Center. Former Congressman Joe Kennedy III, the grandnephew of President John F. Kennedy, after whom the Kennedy Center's named, responded on social media saying the Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law. It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone. What do you make of the fact that they've already changed the website?

BEATTY: Well, of course, this is what they do. They have no regard for the rule of law. They're acting as what criminals do, and it's criminal that they are doing this. I served with Joe Kennedy when I first went on the board. He's absolutely right. They cannot independently, as a handful of self-appointed people who giggled and laughed, the whole board meeting was a mockery of professional boards.

There were 10 or 15 minutes where we could hear people laughing and singing jingle bells because they didn't know how to even operate the equipment. The board meeting was held in someone's home, the home of the wins, that were hosting it. I don't know if they were in their library, the kitchen, or where they were.

Typically, on a Zoom, you can see the table where the board members are. None of this happened, just as most of the things that they have been doing. It was a dog and pony show to Donald Trump that he had cut down trees. He claimed that the whole Kennedy Center was crumbling, and he came in and saved it.

TAPPER: Yes.

BEATTY: It's all very disappointing. TAPPER: And we should note that President Trump called the board a very distinguished board, but he appointed, he fired members of the board.

BEATTY: He fired.

TAPPER: Yes, earlier this year, and they're led now not only by President Trump, but a bunch of Trump acolytes and sycophants like Ric Grenell and Dan Scavino and Pam Bondi.

BEATTY: Exactly.

TAPPER: A couple of his sycophants at "Fox," Maria Bartiromo and Laura Ingraham. Anyway, Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, Democrat from Ohio, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

BEATTY: Thank you. Thanks Jake.

[17:34:24]

TAPPER: A live look at the Capitol tonight, where a funding fight could have a detrimental impact on children with cancer. A woman in the middle of that fight, who we interview all the time about this issue, will join me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our Health Lead, the fight to end childhood cancer faces a new roadblock in the Senate. The Mikaela Naylon Give Kids A Chance Act would expand access to experimental treatments and encourage companies to further develop medicines for pediatric diseases, including cancer. The bill was renamed after a Colorado teenager, Mikaela Naylon, who passed away in October at the age of 16 after a battle with bone cancer.

The bill passed unanimously in the House of Representatives earlier this month, but was struck down last night after an objection from Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Joining us now are Executive Director of Kids v Cancer, Nancy Goodman, and a survivor of bone cancer, Sammy Ulloa.

Nancy, let's start with you. So Senator Sanders and his office say his main concern was not about the actual legislation itself, but about funding for community health centers, which had been included in a previous draft of the bill that was agreed to on a bipartisan basis, but it was removed, the funding for community health centers in the latest version. Here's what he had to say on the Senate floor yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): We all know that primary care is critical for children. In fact, in detecting cancer early, saving lives, researchers at the Emory University School of Medicine and the University of Chicago found that having access to primary care in childhood has been shown to lower the rate of death in blood cancer by over 10 percent. It is vital that we begin to increase funding for community health centers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[17:40:15]

TAPPER: So I think their plans, according to Senator Sanders' office, is to reintroduce the healthcare bill that had been agreed to that is not part of this, make it an amendment to the bill, and then have it passed in January. What's your response to all of this?

NANCY GOODMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, KIDSVCANCER.ORG: Yes, thanks for having me on, Jake. So first of all, he actually did propose it as an amendment and it was voted on last night. And Senator Mullin objected to it, and so it didn't pass, Senator Sanders' amendment. So that's already clarified. I think this whole thing is crazy.

I view myself as a liberal Democrat. I care deeply about primary care, and yet when my son, Jacob, had terminal brain cancer, you know, I didn't want to go to his pediatrician and get another air infection check. I just wanted a curative therapy. That's what the Mikaela Naylon Give Kids A Chance Act would give kids like Jacob a chance of receiving.

TAPPER: It feels like every year you're here, and the bill is right on the finish line --

GOODMAN: Yes.

TAPPER: -- to increase funding for pediatric cancers research and experimental treatments. And there's always some reason. There's always some reason. Sammy, you knew Mikaela. Tell us what she was like, and what would this bill actually becoming law mean to her?

SAMMY ULLOA, SURVIVOR OF OSTEOSARCOMA, A BONE CANCER: Yes, thank you for having me. Mikaela meant a lot to me. We met last year at our annual factor conference with MIB agents, Osteosarcoma Alliance. And not only were we really good friends, we actually shared a birthday, and we just had a really good bond. And I -- she meant a lot to me, and she meant a lot to a lot of people on our board.

This bill passing would mean hope. She was aware of this bill being named in her honor prior to her passing, and it would mean a lot to her to pass, as well as to the families who have lost children to cancer. I think this is a long overdue step forward that we need, and we already don't have enough time.

TAPPER: Sammy, politicians on both sides of the aisle, and even some people at the White House watch this show. As someone who went through bone cancer herself, thankfully emerging at the other end of it, what message do you want to send them about the need, as demonstrated in this legislation, to increase funding for research for pediatric cancers and other diseases and experimental treatments? What should they know?

ULLOA: I think what we see over and over again is that children and young adults with cancer run out of options. And when they run out of options, their families just have to watch them die, and there's nothing they can do about that. And this bill would give us a sense of hope, and it's hope that's long overdue. We run out of hope when it comes to treatments because we don't have access to the most innovative and the most current medications on the market. Those are only available to adults.

So to those watching who are in positions of power, we're asking you to help us and to really give kids a chance because we say that kids are our future, but giving kids a future doesn't seem to be a priority.

TAPPER: And Nancy, just piggybacking on what Sammy just said so eloquently, why are these treatments and cures available for adults but not children?

GOODMAN: Sure, and that's sort of the issue we've been addressing. Well, I've been working on since Jacob died 15 years ago. The fact is pediatric cancer, horrific, but very few kids luckily get pediatric cancer. So the markets are tiny. Patent law does not provide adequate incentives for drug development for kids because, you know, there's no return on investment.

And so what Congress has done in other instances in which patent protection also isn't adequate for drug development, like antibiotics, like rare disease drugs, like biologics, is Congress creates new kinds of incentives. And so we're just asking Congress to extend that privilege to children who have cancers that for which there are no incentives for companies to develop drugs.

TAPPER: All right, Nancy Goodman and Sammy Ulloa, thanks to both of you, appreciate your being here.

[17:44:13]

What in the world were Americans supposed to make of last night's primetime address and the President "yelling at them," as one conservative pundit put it? We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Our Politics Lead now the President's 18-minute seemingly manic primetime speech last night in an effort to tout an economy that, frankly, many Americans are not feeling great about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our country is back, stronger than ever before. We're poised for an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen. Soon we will host the World Cup and the Olympics, both of which I got.

When the world looks at us next year, let them see a nation that is loyal to its citizens. Faithful to its workers. Confident to its identity. Certain to its destiny. And the envy of the entire globe. We are respected again like we have never been respected before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: My panel joins me now. T.W., "The Washington Post," quoted a Trump supporter saying, "Trump is speaking so fast he seems panicked. I've never seen him like this, and I've attended 42 of his rallies." That does sound like an expert. What did you make of it?

T.W. ARRIGHI, VICE PRESIDENT, PUSH DIGITAL GROUP REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: It was fast at times, there's no doubt about it. And I heard some reporting that there was time limits, that he was trying to keep it under Susie Wiles, like you got to keep it under 20 minutes. He did. But look, I think a lot of the reaction I'm hearing sound like people who've never heard him before. This sounded like Trump, right? Trump is attack, attack, attack, always.

The base, as you said in some of your commentary, are happy that he's back on the attack footing.

TAPPER: Yes.

ARRIGHI: And look, I've always -- if people were expecting the consoler-in-chief, they're not getting that. That's never been his M.O. We got to get over that. It's not like I'm talking to my dad. He's always just like, why does he talk like that? He's always talked like that. Look, I think you need -- it's always important to acknowledge the problem and then tout the wins. He has some wins to tout.

[17:50:17]

TAPPER: Sure.

ARRIGHI: There are gas prices, some domestic, a lot of domestic products that he put up in his PowerPoint that didn't reach everybody. Those were important. And look, Rome wasn't built in a day. In some ways, he's a victim of his own anticipation. We're going to fix it tomorrow. We're going to fix it on day one. That was never going to happen. But there's progress to be made.

TAPPER: Jamie --

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

TAPPER: -- what did Trump accomplish for either himself or the Republican Party last night, do you think?

GANGEL: Not much. It wasn't good politically. Look, if you give a primetime speech, if you ask everybody, give up the time you got there, it's because you have a problem and you want to fix it. Your polls are underwater. Your own party is worried about elections. But if you can't acknowledge that there is a problem, and Trump is not, genetically, I think, DNA able to do that, if you can't show empathy, then voters are going to continue to say he's out of touch, he doesn't get it.

TAPPER: So he certainly diagnosed the problem, and the problem was, in his view, his predecessor, Joe Biden. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess, and I'm fixing it. This is what the Biden administration allowed to happen to our country.

Under the Biden administration, car prices rose 22 percent, and in many states, 30 percent or more. Under Biden, real wages plummeted by $3,000. Electricity costs surged 30 to 100 percent under Biden.

The worst thing that the Biden administration did to our country is the invasion at the border.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Here's the thing. On the, I can fix what Biden did, he won that debate last November.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

TAPPER: He won that argument, but now, according to polls, people hold him responsible, not Biden anymore.

FINNEY: Of course they do, and look, yelling at America a week before Christmas, right? It's like, he sounded like, I literally thought this, you know, the drunk relative in the corner at the holiday party that you don't want to get stuck with, because it's like, why are you yelling at me, right? Americans are saying, we just want you to deal with inflation. We just don't want you to send, you know, millions of dollars to Argentina or invade Venezuela.

We just want to know what your plans are. Our healthcare costs are about to go up, and yet, instead of, he's not an empathetic person. You're right, that's not what he does, but he at least could have said, I know you're frustrated. I'm frustrated too, right? There was a way to do this that actually could have worked with his personality. But here's the other piece about this, Jake, and I was watching when you were having the conversation about the medical experts who are a little concerned.

The other piece of this is he's just not capable of change. He's not capable of delivering something other than what he did, which was a very political speech. It felt more like a rally speech than the kind of, I mean, we all know this Hail Mary, you know, you do the primetime address, especially if you don't have a big policy announcement. It's meant to be, I mean, think about Ronald Reagan, right? Like, let's have a conversation. He's not able to do that.

TAPPER: See, I don't know that, maybe he's not able now, but in the first term, there was always like a speech he would give that pundits would be like, oh, he's pivoting. And, oh, you know, remember when Van Jones said like, that's the president of the United States because he had recognized the widow of a Marine.

FINNEY: Yes, yes.

TAPPER: He is capable, or at least in the first term, he was capable of it. And here's the bigger issue, I think, whether or not, you know, the vibes of people who reacted. The fate of the House and the Senate, especially the House, are in the balance here. And if he can't convince people that he's actually fixing the problems and he isn't more empathetic and sympathetic, at least seeming to voters, then he's going to have a Democratic House.

ARRIGHI: Perhaps, look, to the point of Trump being Trump, he believes that he is the biggest cheerleader of his own policy. And I think the big reason why they wanted to get him in front of the national media was to talk to an audience outside of who he reaches on social media to tout what he is doing.

What he is doing, look, the no tax on tips, the no tax on overtime, the no tax on Social Security, those are great things. Had that bill not passed, we'd have the largest tax increase in American history. Hold on a second, I know where you're going with this.

Those are great things, those are great things. And I want him to be the cheerleader of his policies. They should have been doing this since the get-go to see where we're moving forward.

GANGEL: Can I just say, he does have a roadmap. His vice president has said over and over, please be patient, it's going to get better. I just want to say Susie Wiles must be the most optimistic person in the world because she's sending him out to North Carolina.

[17:55:11]

TAPPER: All right, thanks everyone, appreciate it.

If you're just tuning in, there is a lot of breaking news going on. We're going to go to Providence, Rhode Island. The suspect in the ground killings has possibly been identified and the case might be tied to the fatal shooting of the MIT professor. On Monday in North Carolina, tragic news, a former NASCAR driver is among the victims of a fiery plane crash. The new details in both of these stories, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. And tonight we're following breaking news here in Washington and across the United States. Investigators believe they have identified the suspect in that Brown University shooting that killed two students and injured nine others on Saturday. Sources say authorities have signed an arrest warrant and are actively searching for the male suspect. We're going to go live to the Providence Police Department for the latest details in moments.

[18:00:05]

Plus, a tragedy in North Carolina, at least seven people are believed to have been killed when a --