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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Zelenskyy Says He'll Meet With Trump Sunday For Peace Talks; U.S. Launches Deadly Strikes On ISIS Targets In Nigeria; Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks U.S. From Detaining British Anti-Disinformation Activist; DOJ Says It Found 1M-Plus More Docs Potentially Related To Epstein; After Adding His Name To The Kennedy Center, Trump Reveals Potential Marble Armrests For Audience Seats; Democrats Plot Their Path Back To Power In 2026. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired December 26, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:00]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN HOST: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Phil Mattingly in for Jake Tapper.

This hour, President Trump facing down two big international priorities, he plans to meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday in an effort to reach a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. But while Trump seeks peace in Europe, he announced the U.S. military just launched strikes against ISIS in Nigeria, the latest on what's happening there.

Plus, the Christmas message from President Trump that focused on Jeffrey Epstein. Trump distancing himself from the dead pedophile after the Department of Justice announced they just found a million more Epstein files.

Also, a federal judge in New York temporarily blocked the Trump administration from detaining a British researcher it accuses of promoting online censoring of American viewpoints. That researcher joins The Lead.

The Lead tonight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he plans to meet with President Trump this Sunday in Florida, potentially propelling forward a 20-point peace plan broker between Ukrainian and U.S. officials to end Russia's nearly four-year war in Ukraine, with Zelenskyy now prepared to make concessions on issues that have so far been sticking points for the Kremlin.

Ahead of the meeting, President Trump appears somewhat indifferent to Zelenskyy proposal so far, telling Politico in a brand new interview published this afternoon, he doesn't have anything until I approve it. So, we'll see what he's got.

CNN's Larry Madowo is in London, but let's first start things off with CNN's Kevin Liptak, who's in West Palm Beach, and, Kevin, this new interview, the news of the meeting on Sunday, what do we expect here?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. And the president did sound somewhat tepid there about what this meeting is actually going to produce, but remember it was only a couple of weeks ago that President Trump said it would not be useful to meet with Zelenskyy unless they were close to a deal to bring peace to Ukraine.

So, just the fact that this meeting is on the calendar, I do think, shows that there has been some significant progress and there have been quite intensive talks underway, including down here in South Florida, the president's team, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner meeting with the Ukrainians, meeting with an envoy from Russia to talk about this multi-point peace plan that the president has put forward.

Now, what Zelenskyy says is that the agenda will be broad when they're over at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday, that there are certain things that only the two leaders will be able to agree to. He has also said in his own interview today that he's willing to call a referendum on any peace plan as long as Moscow agrees to a ceasefire.

But Moscow is not agreeing to a ceasefire. Vladimir Putin will not be down here in Palm Beach. And that, I think, is the big question that's going to shadow these talks, what actually is Moscow willing to agree to? You know, we heard from American officials about a couple weeks ago that they were 90 percent there on this peace deal, but that 10 percent remaining remains incredibly difficult.

You have the issue of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant occupied by Russia right now, no resolution there. But the biggest one, of course, is the land concessions, what Ukraine is going to have to give up in order for this war to end. Russia has not backed off its maximalist demands that they give up the entire Donbas region.

And so I think the task for President Trump is going to try and massage this issue with Zelenskyy to try and see if there is something, anything that he is able to agree to on that front. Phil?

MATTINGLY: Yes, a lot of outstanding questions, even if it's just on that 10 percent of issues. Kevin, before we get to Larry, this comes on the heels of President Trump's post yesterday that he'd ordered the deadly strike on Islamic State terrorists in Nigeria. What do we know about how this came to be?

LIPTAK: Yes. And the president says that this is targeting Islamists, who he says we're persecuting Christians. The attack, I'm told, involved more than a dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from a U.S. Navy vessel towards Northeastern Nigeria. The president saying on Truth Social that he had warned these terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was.

You know, the president has been focused on this really for the last couple of months or so. It's an animating issue actually for American conservatives, particularly evangelicals who had been urging the president to do more to stop the persecution of these Christians in Nigeria.

[18:05:01]

But the security situation in that country is extraordinarily complex. You have Christians being targeted. You have Muslims being targeted. President Trump suggesting that this may not be the last instance, saying that there would be many more if the slaughter of Christians continues.

MATTINGLY: And that complexity, Kevin, is exactly why I want to talk to Larry Madowo. Larry, you've reported extensively on the region or on this region, the Trump administration, saying the Nigerian government is cooperating on the effort. But give us a sense of the threat on the ground there.

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The terrorism problem affects not just this region of Nigeria, but the entire area known Sahel. This is a semi-arid part that covers south of the Sahara Desert from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. And I want to show you exactly where this airstrikes targeted. It's in Northwest Nigerian and in a state named Sokoto, which is surprising because it's predominantly Muslim. They haven't seen a lot of militant attacks targeting Christians, at least not in the state.

The wider region has had problems with kidnappings, banditry, with the struggle for resources between hoarders (ph) and farmers. And you see the impact in this area where this small village was hit overnight. They thought an aircraft had fallen from the sky and it created a crater in the ground, and they were kind of cordoning off that area by security forces this morning, trying to make sense of what happened there.

But we haven't seen any battle damage assessment, how deep, how serious was the impact of these airstrikes yet despite the claims for the U.S. military that some ISIS camps were obliterated in these strikes. But the Nigerian government maintains that they don't have a terrorism problem targeting specifically Christians, that these attacks target both Muslims and Christians. In fact, more Christians have been -- more Muslims have been affected by these terrorist attacks, and they are a regional security issue. They welcome all kinds of international support to deal with it.

Listen to the foreign minister Yusuf Tuggar, talking to CNN earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YUSUF TUGGAR, NIGERIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: This is not about religion. It is about Nigerians, innocent civilians and the wider region as a whole.

When you talk about Sahel, a majority are Muslims. They're not Christians.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADOWO: The Nigerians are a little upset with the Americans messaging this as an attack that is aimed at Islamist terrorists who are targeting Christians, and they wanted to push back on that in this messaging campaign to make sure that, yes, they welcome the U.S. support. President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria approved these airstrikes, but they are targeting terrorists who attacked both Muslims and Christians. Phil?

MATTINGLY: All right. It's been fascinating to watch the messaging on both sides and what was an agreed upon and actually a good demonstration of cooperation in its initial stages.

Larry Madowo, Kevin Liptak, great reporting from both you as always, my friends. Thanks so much.

Well, joining me now, CNN National Security Analyst and former Deputy Director of National Intelligence Beth Sanner.

Beth, I want to start with the upcoming meeting in Mar-a-Lago. We have spoken many times about upcoming meetings, about the potentials for deals, about proposals that are on the table. Land concessions seem to be at the center of what both Ukraine and Russia are still dissatisfied with. This has always been kind of the baseline, the last 10 percent, as Kevin Liptak says it. What do you make of where things stand right now?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, so I think that we are actually at a moment where we could get some sort of framework agreement between the United States and Ukraine in Florida this weekend. It's not out of the question. And even if it doesn't work out, I would say that there's so much work that has been done now on all of these details, and not the next layer of details that still needs to be done, but still so much work has been done. This provides a very useful framework, whether it's this weekend or whether it's next year, that it will be helpful.

So, I think that we -- you know, we need to be careful of not poo- pooing things, but the real question now is, you know, when the president said, you know, let's see what he's got, that's part about Zelenskyy. That's part of this whole effort to pressure Zelenskyy, to give and give and give, and we still have not seen one inch, not one inch of compromise by Russia toward what Trump is proposing, what his team is proposing in terms of maybe a demilitarized zone, maybe an economic zone, right? That hasn't happened yet,

MATTINGLY: Which I think my biggest question, one, your points were very good and I think everybody needs to remember them going into this meeting and whatever comes out of this meeting, but there's also been a ton of work done, it appears to have been a ton of work done, at least from afar, between Putin's emissary to this process, Kirill Dmitriev, and Steve Witkoff and Marco Rubio and Jared Kushner, administration officials involved in this, or whatever role Jared is playing, involved in this as well.

[18:10:04]

What has that led to from the Russian side of things?

SANNER: Yes. Well, I would guess I would frame this standing back just a little bit, is I feel like this whole -- since the Trump administration came in, this has been a tale of two negotiations. One is a negotiation to end the war, and the other is a negotiation for the United States to normalize relations with Russia and to make Russia a normalized state again.

And as the president pushes on this end of war, he doesn't want to ruin the Russian normalization part because he cares so much about it. And so the risk is here that Dmitriev has been influencing the negotiations clearly. But if Zelenskyy agrees, Phil, is Putin just going to say no? I kind of think he won't. I think that they're going to be kind of, what has the president put it himself, tapping him along.

And we had today the Kremlin spokesman say, Peskov, say, you know, well, Putin has agreed after getting debriefed from Dmitriev that we're willing to continue these negotiations. And another official said, but we don't want to agree with timelines or anything specific. You know, more talk is needed. So, that is like a big, you know, talk to the hand,

MATTINGLY: Isn't the normalization the biggest carrot of the war ending, ending of the war process? Like why are these on two separate tracks? And I --

SANNER: It should be.

MATTINGLY: Acknowledging this might be a very ignorant question.

SANNER: No, it's not. I mean, I feel like this is so complicated, but it should be, but it is more where the president doesn't want to ruin the prospects for that normalization, which he feels will be very beneficial to the United States economically.

And there are questions about that. You know, I have questions about that. But like, that's the idea. So, he doesn't want to ruin that at the same time. And that's why the United States is trying to play this role of being a completely unbiased mediator in between these two parties, we're not picking sides. But that is a problem when one side is completely the aggressor and unwilling to make any compromises.

So, coming out of this, what we all have to watch is if there's some agreement, if there's movement forward, what is next for the U.S. pressure on Russia?

MATTINGLY: Yes, it's a huge, huge question.

Before I let you go, I do want to ask the Christmas Day strikes that the U.S. carried out in Nigeria, the president told Politico they were going to do it earlier, and I said, nope, let's give a Christmas present. They didn't think that was coming, but we hit them hard. Every camp got decimated. He told Politico he'd done -- he'd ordered the delay for symbolic reasons. And he says, this strike is in retaliation for the Islamic State -- Islamic terrorists killing of Christians. Your reaction when you saw the news yesterday of the strikes themselves, Christmas present?

SANNER: I mean, I've been expecting something to happen because we've been doing these surveillance flights over Nigeria since this first kind of came up in November and the president asked for war plans. So, I've been expecting this. But what was surprising to me was where. So, this state in the northwest is not a place, as you've just heard from the reporters, where there's been a lot of attacks on Christians, and it's not where the strongest Islamic militant groups are. Those are in the northeast.

And I think most viewers probably recognize the name Boko Haram, right? This is an Al-Qaeda affiliate. There's another ISIS affiliate over there. Just on Wednesday, Boko Haram, you know, had a suicide bomber in a mosque that killed five people, injured dozens. This is an ongoing issue there.

So, the question now is what's next? And there is an issue, I think, in the northwest about not having those Sahel groups spread into the northwest and destabilize more. That could be what this is about, but we need to find out more.

MATTINGLY: Yes, and it does seem like there's more coming.

Beth Sanner, I always appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

SANNER: Thanks, Phil.

MATTINGLY: Well, on Christmas Eve, the Justice Department dropped a bombshell, saying it uncovered over a million more documents potentially related to the Jeffrey Epstein case. So, what are they and when will we see them?

Plus, a judge has blocked the Trump administration from detaining or deporting a British researcher accused of censoring American viewpoints. That researcher joins me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:15:00]

MATTINGLY: In our Law and Justice Lead, a federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from detaining the British leader of an organization that works to stop the spread of hate and disinformation online.

Imran Ahmed is the founder and CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate. He's among five people the State Department sought travel bans against this week claiming they, quote, led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize and suppress American viewpoints. They oppose.

Imran Ahmed joins me now. I appreciate your time. Just to start, why do you think you were targeted here?

IMRAN AHMED, CEO, CENTER FOR COUNTERING DIGITAL HATE: Look, the truth is I think we're being targeted because we've taken on some of the biggest companies in America, social media companies and A.I. platforms, which frankly spend an enormous amount of money in Washington and have shown themselves to be really, really resistant to any form of accountability. We've even been sued by them before.

MATTINGLY: Secretary Marco Rubio posted on X about the action taken by the State Department, quote, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose. The Trump administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extra territorial censorship.

How do you respond to that?

AHMED: Well, it's an odd statement and I find it confusing. The European Commission recently find X, Elon Musk's platform, for failing to abide by their rules on transparency. So, they were saying, we want more information, we want more informed discourse. And the United Kingdom announced an investigation into the proliferation of anti- Semitism after a terrorist attack in a synagogue in England.

Now, that, of course, completely aligns with American foreign policy the newly appointed anti-Semitism czar by the State Department.

[18:20:05]

Yehuda Kaploun just gave a speech saying that he supported holding social media companies accountable for the spread of the lies that underpin anti-Semitism. So -- but that's the European Union and the United Kingdom, and I run a small nonprofit in Washington, D.C.

And I think in reality what this, this is a story about big money, big tech, and companies that simply refuse to be held accountable.

MATTINGLY: You are a legal, permanent resident. Your wife, your child, they are American citizens. How did you first learn you'd been sanctioned and how is your family dealing with this?

AHMED: Yes. My wife is -- my wife's from Oklahoma, so I believe she's American, American. So -- and, you know, I got a text message from someone telling me that there was a press release from the State Department. I haven't actually seen anything. That's the extraordinary thing is that, as of now, I haven't received anything at all from the government.

But, of course, as you said, we applied for a temporary protective order just to make sure that there was no risk of an arrest. I mean, look, we all know what's been happening recently in some of these cases where people have had their green cards challenged. They've been whisked into detention, often taken hundreds or thousands of miles away from their friends, family, and support networks, and we just wanted to make sure that didn't happen.

But now, if they do bring forward proceedings, I look forward to, you know, protecting my First Amendment rights and prevailing in court.

MATTINGLY: Are you confident -- the order is temporary on a Monday hearing. Are you confident you'll ultimately prevail on this?

AHMED: Well, look, we've taken on Elon Musk before. He sued my organization for our speech in that case. I was represented by Roberta Kaplan and she -- we had the case dismissed with prejudice and Judge Breyer in California said it was clear that Mr. Musk was trying to evade accountability by trying to impinge on our First Amendment rights to research and communicate that research to the public.

And the research that we do is vital, of course. It's not just into anti-Semitism. It's into the kind of stuff that really hurts our kids' mental health, eating disorder and self-harm content, A.I. platforms that will draft a suicide note for your 13-year-old child that we found recently.

So, with all of that in mind, I'm feeling really confident that the courts will see the importance of our work and recognize the vitality of protecting our First Amendment rights.

MATTINGLY: And we will certainly be watching and reporting every step of the way.

Imran Ahmed, I really appreciate your time. Thanks so much.

AHMED: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: Well, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has said its operation in Chicago was focused on criminal threats, but CNN has talked to migrants caught up in this who appear to have no criminal record at all. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:25:00]

MATTINGLY: In our National Lead, thousands have been arrested by federal immigration agents in Chicago as part of Operation Midway Blitz. CNN's Whitney Wild spoke to multiple people who were detained, then released, including one mother who has a work permit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, please, leave her alone. She's just working here.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice over): These are moments of heartbreak --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She got babies, bro, please.

WILD: -- and homecoming for Patricia Quishpe, Veronica Escobar and Victor Madrid. All three are migrants, parents who appear to have no criminal history, and yet were among the thousands arrested by federal agents during Operation Midway Blitz. They were detained hours from their homes then released by federal judges.

Attorneys say mass arrests are designed to intimidate migrants into leaving the U.S.

VERONICA ESCOBAR, ARRESTED DURING OPERATION MIDWAY BLITZ: When I get there, they push me like a lot and like, you have to sign. You have to sign. You got to sign this. And I was reading. I'm like, no.

WILD: What did it say? ESCOBAR: Is this for deportation thing?

WILD: Veronica spent 38 days in detention after her arrest outside this gas station on her son's eighth birthday.

Because you've been here for 19 years, did you ever think that you would be one of the people that they would target?

ESCOBAR: No. No, because they say they're for criminals, and I was not a criminal. And I was like, hey, I'm a single mom. How you do this to me?

WILD: Did you ever come to a moment where you thought, maybe this isn't worth it, maybe I should leave?

ESCOBAR: Oh, yes, so many times. But I was -- in my mind, I was like I don't want to leave without my kids. I can't. I can't.

WILD: How did you feel when you finally walked out and you knew that you were going home?

ESCOBAR: And he was like, you're going to be released, so who's going to pick you up? And I was like, oh my God. It was (INAUDIBLE).

WILD: Patricia also has an eight-year-old son. She sought asylum from Ecuador and has a work permit, yet in October, she was arrested at a flea market.

PATRICIA QUISHPE, ARRESTED DURING OPERATION MIDWAY BLITZER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

WILD: What was the hardest part about being in detention?

QUISHPE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

WILD: What is giving you hope now that you're home?

QUISHPE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

WILD: Victor is a Colombian citizen who moved to Venezuela, then fled the violence there. October 1st, federal agents arrested him while he sold street food.

How did you feel when you made that call to tell your family that you had been taken by ICE?

VICTOR MADRID, ARRESTED DURING OPERATION MIDWAY BLITZER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

[18:30:00]

WILD: As Victor heads to an ICE appointment, we asked if the stress is worth staying.

MADRID: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

WILD: Are these arrests about public safety?

MARK FLEMING, ATTORNEY: No, it's never been about that.

WILD: Mark Fleming is an attorney who represents hundreds of other detainees in a class action lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's detentions. Fleming says More than a thousand people arrested chose to leave the United States.

FLEMING: They gave up because the vast majority of those people were being trapped not only in mandatory detention, but in squalid overcrowded conditions.

WILD: So, basically, the administration is putting them in conditions that are so horrible, making their life so miserable, that deportation sounds like the relief?

FLEMING: It's the only option out.

WILD: Despite an uncertain future, Patricia, Veronica and Victor say their only option is to stay.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WILD (on camera): Phil, Veronica applied for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, but she was denied. Victor and Patricia both have immigration court dates in 2027. Finally, Phil, we reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for our story, but we did not hear back.

MATTINGLY: Whitney Wild, thank you for that reporting.

Well, in a brand new post on Truth Social, President Trump is again railing about the Epstein files, calling on the Justice Department to release the names of Democrats associated with the deceased pedophile, and asking if the Justice Department should stop releasing files all together in accordance with the law that he signed. I'll ask Republican congressman about it next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:35:00]

MATTINGLY: In our Politics Lead, just moments ago, President Trump posted, quote, now 1 million more pages on Epstein are found. DOJ is being forced to spend all of its time on this Democrat-inspired hoax. When do they say no more and work on election fraud, et cetera? The Dems are the ones who worked with Epstein, not the Republicans. Release all their names, embarrass them, and get back to helping our country. The radical left doesn't want people talking about Trump and Republican success, only a long ago dead Jeffrey Epstein, just another witch hunt.

Victims, I'm sure, have some role in this as well that you would want to pay attention to. This after the Department of Justice says it may need, quote, a few more weeks to review and release the newly discovered material. Joining me now is Republican Congressman Kevin Kiley from California, a member on the House Judiciary Committee, and probably one of many members who is waiting to do a television interview and hears the president just posted something on Truth Social and maybe didn't necessarily appreciate that moment in time.

But with that, Congressman, your reaction to the idea that this is just a distraction from Republican success.

REP. KEVIN KILEY (R-CA): Yes, you know, you learn to be prepared for anything. I think that there is some level of frustration that that this issue has just sort of overshadowed everything else with so many other pressing challenges going on in the country, which is not to say it's not an important issue. Of course, it's extremely important, and Congress overwhelmingly passed the bill was and signed into law by the president.

So, it's extremely important that we get the victims the closure they need and the American people the transparency that they deserve, which is all the more reason why I think that, you know, we want to make sure that the -- everything comes out as expeditiously as possible, consistent with protecting the victims so we can get that closure and then move on.

MATTINGLY: Do you believe that that's happening right now, the Justice Department is essentially doing what was required by law or what has been required by law?

KILEY: You know, I've been following it. They say there's a million new documents that have been discovered. Obviously, a lot of material has been released. Also there was material released by the Oversight Committee. So, I've heard them say they have a lawyer there that are working around the clock trying to get through the documents as quickly as possible and redact.

And I do sympathize with the need to be really, really careful about the redactions given the sensitivity of what we're dealing with here. So, I think they've said they're going to try to get them all done within the next couple weeks. And so if that's the case, then, you know, the material will be out there and people can make up of what they will.

MATTINGLY: There has been some talk between Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna, the two co-sponsors of the legislation that was signed into law by the president here, that they would pursue some type of remedy from the Congressional side of things if they didn't feel like this was being done properly. Is that something you would support?

KILEY: Well, I think that's always a last resort when you're talking about something like contempt. Even during the Biden administration, when we pursued -- when things like that were pursued, it was after a long process of back and forth and, you know, sort of take an analogy from the legal context when you have document disputes. There's a very long process, a give and take that goes on before a judge will ultimately weigh in and maybe hold one side or the other responsible for not fulfilling their obligations. So, I think that, you know, that would be a long way down the road. We've really just had one tranche of documents come out and, you know, they've said that we're going to try to get this wrapped up with them in the next few weeks. So, I think it's probably premature to talk about that.

MATTINGLY: What I really want to ask you about, I think something that is really important, especially going into the New Year, health insurance premiums set to skyrocket for millions of Americans in the next week. Senator Bill Cassidy has been one of the leading negotiators on the Senate side for Republicans and healthcare talks, expressing some optimism about a potential deal, telling the Hill, quote, the outline of the deal would be to extend the enhanced premium tax credits for a period of time and put in health savings accounts to give the enrollee the choice of which to take.

You have been on the House side of things really pushing on this issue, advocating for a solution to this issue. Are you optimistic, at least in the near term, that there can be a solution here?

KILEY: I am optimistic that there is enough support in the House and the Senate to get a solution that will stop this massive increase in premiums for 22 million Americans.

[18:40:01]

And that it'll consist of something like the senator outlined, or that I put forward with my bill with Sam Ricardo, the Fix It Act, that we need a temporary extension with reforms in order to control costs and fight fraud. And then we can work on the bigger issues that are causing health insurance costs to spiral out of control in this country.

Now, it's absolutely unacceptable that we are now going to miss the deadline at the end of this year, but it is definitely not too late. It's better late than ever. And so there are a very large group of us that are committed to working out a solution when Congress reconvenes in the New Year. And we just need to make sure that our leadership on both sides hears that message loud and clear that the American people are asking for a solution here, and that means we need to compromise.

No side is going to get everything they want here. And we can't insist on that level of rigidity when you have 22 million people whose quality of life and quality of health is at stake.

MATTINGLY: Just real quick before I let you go, because we're out of time, but do you believe your leadership would listen to that message?

KILEY: They've listened, but they've failed to act on it. That's what's happened so far. Speaker Johnson failed to put any of the very reasonable compromise measures, including the one that I proposed, on the floor in December. But the minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, also refused to, you know, endorse any of those compromises as well, and instead directed his members to an uncompromising proposal that had already failed in the Senate. And so it had no chance to become law. So, I think that's the problem right now, is you have the two sides have so far tried to sort of do whatever they can to blame the other side rather than coming together to find a solution. So, that's the new approach we need to take in the New Year, is that we need to actually have a solution that will be in the interest of the American people.

MATTINGLY: Yes, a novel idea. It's been a lot of work and I know you've been putting a lot of it into it.

Congressman Kevin Kiley, I really appreciate your time in California. Thanks so much.

KILEY: Of course, thanks for having me.

MATTINGLY: Well, after adding his own name to the Kennedy Center, President Trump may be adding something else. We'll discuss this latest potential change just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:45:42]

MATTINGLY: We're back with our politics lead and more on what President Trump just posted regarding the million new documents the Justice Department says it's found related to the Jeffrey Epstein case.

My panel joins me.

Now, Jim Schultz, I want to start with you. As somebody who served in the White House counsel's office to this president. He's clearly irritated, to say the least, about the Epstein files release, though we should remind viewers it was Trump signed the law that led to this release.

Take us inside the mindset right now. Kind of why he feels the need to weigh in on something like this.,

JIM SCHULTZ, CNN LEGAL COMMENTATOR: Just clearly frustrated in terms of the of the resources and things like that that are going towards this. The fact of the matter is, it's a law that was passed. The Justice Department is required to abide by the law, turn over the documents they're using U.S. attorney's offices from around the country to review these documents, not just Main DOJ, reports have just shared have recently showed that they've been using U.S. attorneys offices from around the country in order to bring more resources to bear, to try to meet -- you know, to try to meet a deadline of next couple of weeks of turning over all the documents.

MATTINGLY: Yeah, it's understandable frustration when you have your law enforcement elements having to focus on this issue. But again, it was an issue that he campaigned on, on some level.

Adrienne Elrod, this morning, Congresswoman Madeleine Dean spoke to CNN about the discovery of these documents. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MADELEINE DEAN (D-PA): It defines -- it defies credulity for anybody to say, we just found a million pages of documents they have known all along where the documents are. And there are -- there have to be hundreds of people who worked on these files who would be able to provide the expertise to get them out, unless you tried to bury them somewhere, hide them in a ballroom or a basement, I don't know, but it makes absolutely no sense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Adrienne, how do you see the discovery of these documents affecting the Justice Department's credibility on this going forward?

ADRIENNE ELROD, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, look, Phil, the Justice Department has mishandled this investigation since the very beginning. And look, I mean, you just made the point that Donald Trump ran on this. He largely ran on. I'm going to release the Epstein files. It was something that was very important to his base.

So even without the congressional mandate that as you also accurately noted, President Trump signed into law his Justice Department should have been working on these documents a long time ago if they actually wanted to do what he said he would do on the campaign trail and to release these documents. Now they're working down to the wire. They've gone way past the December 19th deadline.

And yes, it feels very -- you know, mysterious a little sketchy, for lack of a better term, that all these documents would suddenly materialize over a million documents, I think, is what they said. And it feels like it's another way for them just to delay the release of some of the documents that may implicate Trump so that they can have more time to redact.

So, look, the bottom line is this is something that obviously the victims of Epstein deserve their justice. But this is also something that, Todd, that Trump largely wanted from his base. And the -- his base wanted. So, the fact that they're delaying this only makes it seem like they are trying to hide something.

MATTINGLY: But we'll allow sketchy. Sketchy is -- I like that word of -- people of my generation, of our generation. That's a -- that's a viable word here. We can utilize.

ELROD: Exactly. Thank you, Phil.

MATTINGLY: Jim, after the Kennedy Center board last week voted to add Trump's name to the center and a move somewhat legally questionable at this point today, Trump posted these photos as possible marble armrests at the Kennedy Center. Marble armrests -- I guess I wonder how this kind of flows into the affordability message here from the administration.

SCHULTZ: So -- look, he's done. He's brought a lot of private sector dollars to the -- to the -- to the arts, to the Kennedy Center has also devoted government dollars towards this effort. The arts are a very important, very important -- you know, very important for our society. And it's also very important that you try to fill the seats in that place.

I don't agree with them renaming the Kennedy Center in any way, shape or form. Certainly, questionable in terms of his ability to do so. That was something that was done by Congress. Probably has to be -- has to be -- you know, if it's going to be changed, it has to be changed by Congress.

But the fact that they're making investment into the Kennedy Center to try to draw in and draw attention to it and try to bring the arts and support the arts is a good thing.

[18:50:07]

Bringing private sector dollars to the Kennedy Center in order to accomplish that goal is a good thing. There's been a ton of fundraising around the Kennedy Center that president Trump should get credit for. Just not sure that his name needs to be on the building in order to do it.

MATTINGLY: Adrienne, we've got about a minute left. I really wanted you, especially going into this new year midterms, Democrats. What's the message you want Democrats taking in to be able to take majorities in '26?

ELROD: Affordability, affordability, affordability. And look, here's the bottom line. When you see Donald Trump tearing down the East Wing and using tech CEO money to rebuild it in a way that looks like Trump Tower, instead of using that money to help American families make ends meet, pay for their medicine, pay for their bills. You just talked about, you know, the marble, chairs or whatever it is at the Kennedy Center.

I mean, if you are the average family in America who's having a hard time trying to make ends meet, you're looking at Trump and the opulence that, you know, he's using every single day in the Oval Office. And you're thinking, this guy is not fighting for me. Democrats have done a great job making that contrast, which is why we have such a good cycle in 2025 with some of the off-year elections.

We are going into the midterms full speed ahead. But we've got to make sure that we continue to not only draw that contrast, but to tell the American people what we will do for them and how we will help them make ends meet, make their groceries and their medicine more affordable when we get some power back in Congress.

MATTINGLY: And, Jim, quick, last word to you about where Republicans are on this.

SCHULTZ: It's been -- it's been Republicans that have been lowering taxes for biggest tax cut for middle class Americans in history. You know, it's been Republicans that are focused on bringing resources back to the -- to the United States from foreign countries. So they're not getting ripped off. It's been Republicans that have been focused on an economic message.

It's been Democrats have been focused on anything but except during their campaign cycle. But national governing, anything but.

MATTINGLY: I feel like you two are leading the charge here for '26, for both your sides. I'd be willing to listen to both of you.

Thank you both very much. I really appreciate your time. Happy holidays to both of you

ELROD: Thanks, Phil. You, too.

SCHULTZ: Thank you. Take care.

MATTINGLY: Well, the founder and CEO of a sleep tech company may be losing sleep over the president's tariffs. He joins THE LEAD, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:56:12]

MATTINGLY: It's time for our business leaders series, where we hear from small business owners about the impact of President Trump's tariffs.

Loftie is a New York-based company known for their high tech alarm clock, with features that encourage users to leave their phones outside the bedroom. Founder and CEO Matt Hassett is actually here on set with me now.

And, Matt, we were talking a lot about this during the break. It's a fascinating kind of business story in terms of how you've tried to navigate things.

But just to start with, the first year of Trump's tariffs, what's the impact on your business?

MATT HASSETT, FOUNDER & CEO, LOFTIE: We nearly went out of business in the first year of these tariffs. I mean, we've been dealing with them since the first Trump administration. Our lamp, you can see it in the clips they were playing. But here it is without the shell on it. But that had a 30 percent tariff in the first Trump administration. And at one point it went up to 175 percent over the summer.

We just had to stop production. We had to stop moving goods. There was one container on the way to the port, and we turned it around because we just couldn't pay it. So, if you think about what 180 percent means, if you're paying $100 for something, now you're paying 280, just to bring it into the country before anyone's ever bought it. And so, there was no way we're ever going to make that money back.

So, we had to just pivot, and we were focused on sales outside the U.S. as much as the U.S. So, E.U., U.K., Canada. And that's been the only way we've been able to keep all of our U.S. employees employed.

MATTINGLY: That doesn't seem like -- like a process, you can just flip a switch overnight, like in the midst of when you were having to turn things around. Did you have to raise prices? What were you doing with your -- your company?

HASSETT: Yeah. So, we did raise prices. I mean, the price of this lamp at one point was, I think maybe $300 or $400. We just tried to pivot in terms of where we sell. Really. You can control supply or demand. And we have really no control over supply, right? Because these tariffs change every day. But we do have control over where we sell it. And in other countries there aren't these tariffs. So, we were able to focus on those countries.

And that's been not an intuitive plan but it's really been a very successful one. It's not what I want. I would love to sell more in the U.S. I'd love to make more products. We basically put all new product development on hold.

MATTINGLY: So, for people who are saying, well, why don't you just make the products here and they don't get tariffed.

HASSETT: Yeah. So, we looked into that. And the thing is, all the components of this product are not made here. So, it's not just, you know, there's a lot more under the shell for this product, for example. There's 150 different parts in here. And really almost none of them are made here in the U.S.

So even if we did make it here, wed have to import all these things and then those would be tariffed as well. So, you've got higher import costs because of the tariffs. And then you also have extremely high labor costs here. If you can even find the labor to do it here.

So, we did look into it. It's not possible. We looked into other countries too, but we didn't choose to pivot away from where we produce, which is in China, because the cost is a lot higher there. And actually, a lot of those countries now have higher tariffs than China does.

MATTINGLY: Right. Real quick, we've got about a minute left. What should people know? What should policymakers know? What's your message to them right now?

HASSETT: I think that these policies are just reckless and chaotic and are risking good American jobs, because when you increase, you know, the pressure on a small business, we're a small business where nine people -- all of our employees are in the U.S. It just puts these good jobs at risk because I don't think that these are the jobs that parents really want their kids to have.

They are, as Howard Lutnick said, just millions of little screws. I mean, it is not a fun job. This is a hard job. It's lots of hours. It's micro.

And so, it's just we can keep these great jobs in New York and across the country. Creative, marketing, all of those great jobs.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. I really appreciate your time. You could shop for Loftie products online. Matt Hassett, thank you so much for coming in, for telling your story.

Coming up Sunday on "STATE OF THE UNION", independent Senator Bernie Sanders, Republican Senator Katie Britt, and Geoffrey Hinton, also known as the godfather of A.I. That's Sunday at 9:00 a.m. and noon Eastern on CNN.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts now.