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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Trump Wraps Up 2025 Pushing For Peace In Major Global Conflicts; More Questions Remain After DOJ's Epstein Files Release; Dangerous Winds And Plunging Temps Sweep Parts Of U.S.; Shark Tank's Mr. Wonderful Goes Hollywood; 2025's Biggest Political Headlines; Two Pilots Dead After Helicopter Crash In Southern New Jersey. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired December 29, 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]

JAMES STAVRIDIS, FORMER SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER, NATO: In this particular case, I think there is a reasonable chance of success, particularly less about Maduro deciding to go and more about his inner circle saying why are we carrying this guy along. And I think if that heats up, it will be those senior military around him who force him to take a deal and get out of the country.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I suppose you could add to the list Bashar al-Assad, not from U.S. pressure but from pressure inside his own country. Admiral James Stavridis, thanks so much for joining and thanks as well to my panel for sticking around. Phil Mattingly is standing by for "The Lead." Phil, look forward to show.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, man. We'll look forward to more in "The Arena" tomorrow.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

MATTINGLY: The hot spot for world leaders these days, Palm Beach, Florida. "The Lead" starts right now.

Zelenskyy one day, Netanyahu the next. The revolving door at Mar-a- Lago as President Trump takes up some of the biggest conflicts on the planet. But is he making progress? Plus, at the extreme howling winds, blinding snow, winter weather causing havoc, and to blame for crashes that shut down, one of the busiest interstates in the country. And Mr. Wonderful's new gig, Kevin O'Leary, yes, the Shark Tank guy, will be here to discuss his new role opposite none other than Timothee Chalamet in a film that's getting Oscar bucks.

Welcome to "The Lead." I'm Phil Mattingly, in for Jake Tapper. We start with our "World Lead" as President Donald Trump tries to wrap up 2025 by pushing for peace in major global conflicts. Today at his Mar- a-Lago Resort in Florida, the president hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two speaking publicly just moments ago with Trump saying he will try to initiate the second phase of the ceasefire deal -- quote -- "as quickly as we can." The first phase, of course, in October, stopped the fighting between Israel and Hamas. The second phase would include Hamas disarming, the beginning of reconstruction, and the establishment of post-war governance.

Then there's the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine, which Trump once repeatedly said he could solve in just one day. Well, this morning, Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone, just one day after hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Mar-a-Lago. Trump says Putin told him that a Ukrainian drone attack targeted one of his residences. Ukraine denies it. But here's what Trump said about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It's another thing to attack his house. It's not the right time to do any of that, and can't do it. And I learned about it from President Putin today. I was very angry about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: That remark came on the heels of the president yesterday claiming that Russia wanted Ukraine to succeed. Let's pay close attention to the reaction here from Zelenskyy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They're going to be helping. Russia is going to be helping. Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed. Once -- it sounds a little strange, but I was explaining to the president, President Putin was very generous in his feeling toward Ukraine succeeding, including supplying energy, electricity, and other things at very low prices.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Just moments ago, in an interview on Fox News, President Zelenskyy stressed that Ukraine cannot win the war without American support.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE: If we are speaking, can we win without American support? No. Because we can't. First, we will think about all the soldiers, will think only about their families. And without American support, we can't defend the sky. Even now, it's very difficult. And on the battlefield, we use some weapon, which we buy from America, some rounds, artillery and etcetera from Americans. Without it, of course, we can't win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: We start things off with CNN's Alayna Treene here in studio. Alayna, it has been a rather busy couple of days down in Mar- a-Lago. I want to talk about what we saw from the president with Prime Minister Netanyahu speaking for a pretty lengthy amount of time after their meeting. What stood out to you?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: A number of things. One was just how much praise both leaders were heaping on the other. I mean, for example, Netanyahu said that he was awarding Trump the Israeli prize. That's something that has never been given to an American before. Another prize, of course, that the president said he was honored to have accepted.

And you heard President Trump say the same repeatedly about Netanyahu, which I should note was music to his ears, given that Netanyahu is looking at elections in the next year, in 2026, and having that support from Trump is so crucial.

But really, what today was supposed to be about this meeting was really about trying to get Israel to agree to move to next steps for phase two. And what the president said was actually putting the onus on Hamas and saying that they need to disarm in a very short timeframe or face potentially what he called very bad problems. Listen.

[17:05:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We talked about Hamas and we talked about disarmament. And they're going to be given a very short period of time to disarm. And we'll see how that works out. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will be in charge of that from our side. But if they don't disarm as they agreed to do, they agreed to it, and then they will be held to pay for them. And we don't want that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: He went on to say later that some of the other, you know, 59 or so countries that had backed this peace plan between Israel and Gaza and Hamas specifically, they would be the ones to potentially go in, and he said, wipe them out if Hamas did not disarm.

Now, I will say another thing we heard from the president was that essentially, he believes Israel is living up 100 percent -- was the term he used -- to their commitments in this deal.

And that is different, Phil, than what I'm hearing in some of the conversations with other Trump administration officials, which there has been a lot of concern and some skepticism that, potentially, Netanyahu is slow walking this process for phase two to kind of -- you know, he was never fully invested in a long term peace deal. So, it was fascinating to see this, but they're clearly committed to trying to get to phase two. If Netanyahu is there, we'll still have to see how it all works out.

MATTINGLY: Yes. It was striking that there was no hedge at all about something that, to your point, administration officials have raised some concerns about. I just want to ask about the before meeting with Netanyahu, he had the second of the bracketing phone calls with President Putin in between, of course, the meeting with President Zelenskyy. Where does that stand right now? TREENE: Yes, I mean, look, I think Zelenskyy, he said this before the meeting yesterday at Mar-a-Lago, and he said it after, that he believes that they are 90 percent agreed on the terms laid out in this 20-point peace plan, and that it's the 10 percent that is really going to be the thorniest to solve. We know that includes security guarantees. He said that the U.S. and the president seems to be on board with a 15-year security guarantee for Ukraine. Of course, we'll have to see what that actually looks like once they hash out these details.

But then there's also the question of land concessions and removing troops from the Donbas region. That's something that we've heard Zelenskyy repeatedly say he does not believe Putin is actually committed to and that, of course, they want to see, Russia wants to see them remove troops from the Donbas region. You also have this idea, you know, talks over this Ukrainian nuclear plant and -- which Russia has been continuing to hit.

But what's interesting is just to hear how the president has been talking about Putin because it has really been back and forth on where his frustration lays. Is it more with the Russians or is it more with Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians? And to hear what President Trump said about Putin being the one to tell him about this attack, this alleged Ukrainian attack on one of Putin's residences, something I should say the Ukrainians and Zelenskyy specifically deny, saying that he heard it first from Putin, and that was pretty remarkable to hear.

MATTINGLY: Yes, it was notable to say the least. It has been a busy day. Thank you, Alayna Treene.

TREENE: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: Great reporting throughout. Really appreciate it. Well, let's discuss more now with Democratic Congresswoman Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania. She sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Congresswoman, just to start off, based on what we know so far about today's meeting between Israeli prime minister and President Trump, what's your level of optimism that the second phase of the ceasefire deal could come into effect sometime soon?

REP. MADELEINE DEAN (D-PA): Well, feel good to be with you. I want to say that I'm pleased that the president met with Prime Minister Netanyahu today and yesterday with the president of Ukraine, Mr. Zelenskyy. This is important work to be done. So, I'm glad that the White House and the administration is focused on these things.

My optimism in terms of Mr. Netanyahu and moving into phase two, you should know that I, along with about 90 other members of Congress, late October, early November, wrote a letter to the president urging him to stay focused on the 20-point peace plan for Gaza, for Israel, and for the whole region.

And in that letter, we did say, number one, Hamas must disarm and return the hostages. As you know and as was reported, the one remaining hostage, the family of that hostage, is in Mar-a-Lago tonight. I'm very glad about that. I hope that his remains or he, if he is still living, will be returned. But what I am gravely concerned about is how Mr. Trump doesn't seem to stay focused long enough on what is going on.

The second point of our letter was to make sure that he holds Mr. Netanyahu and the Israeli coalition to the returning of all of the humanitarian aid that is necessary and, of course, the rebuilding of Gaza. Those things are not happening in the speed and with the required elements that need to take place.

So, I'm worried about it. I think we all see Mr. Trump through a lens now that we have gotten used to. We have gotten used to his lies and misstatements, saying that Biden got no hostages home, for example. We have seen that Mr. Trump needs so much for flattery.

[17:10:02]

And, of course, Mr. Netanyahu arrived today with yet another prize, like FIFA. And then what is very worrisome to me is Mr. Trump's misunderstanding of who is -- what international law really requires. So, those things are worrisome to me but I'm very pleased that the president has met with both of these leaders who are in grave conflicts.

MATTINGLY: Yes. Certainly, credit for staying on these very, very critical issues late in the year. I know this has been a huge focus of the administration in both of these conflicts throughout the course of the year.

I think the question, which I think you're alluding to, is the ability to actually follow through to whatever the outcome is expected to be or whatever the aspired outcome would be, and that includes on the Russia and Ukraine war, critics arguing that the president has really kind of tried to browbeat Ukraine, President Zelenskyy, into a peace deal that involves huge concessions even though it's obviously the victim of an unprovoked invasion.

The war has been going on for nearly four years now. Do you think Ukraine should be compromising when it comes to land, issues like that at this point?

DEAN: Again, I'm just pleased that they are talking. It is critically important that they are talking. As a member of Foreign Affairs, I had the great honor of traveling to Kyiv and meeting with the president there during this war. I want nothing more than for peace in Ukraine. Do you know, does the world know that more civilians have died in 2025 in Ukraine than in the years previous? As you said, February 24 will mark four years.

And worrisome to me is that, well, these two phone calls, the sandwich phone calls of before and after meeting with President Zelenskyy at Mar-a-Lago, speaking to Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump doesn't seem to focus on who's the aggressor here. Again, international law demands that the aggressor be held to account, that the truth be told for all of history, and that Russia pay for its crimes, including the returning of the children. So, I'm gravely concerned about that. But I'm very -- I think Mr. Zelenskyy is quite wise, and we've seen it. And I'm pleased that the president praised his bravery and the bravery of his country. I got to see it up close and personal when I visited there.

MATTINGLY: Congresswoman Madeleine Dean, really appreciate your time. Thanks so much.

DEAN: Thank you, Phil.

MATTINGLY: We'll have ahead new details about British boxing champion Anthony Joshua and the crash that injured him and killed two people in his SUV. Plus, an Epstein survivor will be here. What she makes of all the revelations coming from the Justice Department as more Epstein files are released. Stay with us.

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[17:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: In our "Law and Justice Lead," more questions emerging after the Justice Department recently released hundreds of thousands of its files on Jeffrey Epstein with more, much more coming in the weeks ahead.

Files so far are divided into four main categories on the Justice Department's Epstein Library website. Court records, which include already public filings from civil and criminal cases. Another category is Freedom of Information Act, which contains documents released over the years through requests for public records. A third category links to House Oversight disclosures. And a fourth and key category is DOJ disclosures which contains most of the new material.

Let's bring in CNN crime and justice correspondent Katelyn Polantz who has been following all of these. There has been a lot of people distracted with the holidays. Catch people up here on everything you've been combing through and what you've really found.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Yes. Well, we found some new things, but there hasn't been a huge amount that is revelatory about Jeffrey Epstein and the crimes he and Ghislaine Maxwell committed. She is in jail. She had been taken to trial. He is dead.

What we are seeing in the new portion of records, which is only a part of what is up on the Justice Department's website, and one big question here is how much more of there is out there that the Justice Department will still release. We think that that is going to be quite a lot. But the one thing that we've learned so far is more about the depth of the relationships that Jeffrey Epstein was having with powerful figures.

We see more of the moment when prosecutors saw Donald Trump's name on flight logs with Jeffrey Epstein. Now, Trump has never been accused of wrongdoing or a crime here, but you see that play out and the prosecutors realized that and flagged it essentially to other people in the administration in 2020 when they got those records. We also see many more photos of Bill Clinton than we saw before.

And then there's another prong of this that's new. It's the investigative record. We don't have the full extent of the investigative record yet. That is something we know is out there, prosecutor memos, a prepared indictment from almost 20 years ago that has never seen the light of day. We are waiting to see if the Justice Department is going to put those sorts of things out.

But we do see the investigative steps of what the Justice Department and the FBI had been doing for many years. We're seeing pieces of that come together now, including like when they discover those flight logs.

MATTINGLY: And you say pieces in it. Whether intentional or not, it's pieces in part because there are redactions. There are decisions made about what can be released, what will be incomplete because of, I guess, decisions the Justice Department has made about the documents that they're releasing. Explain to people what's actually happening here.

POLANTZ: There is a lot that is not out there yet. And we don't know yet if that is the Justice Department's decision making or if there -- we just haven't gotten to it yet and it is to come, things like memos in the prosecutorial record, an indictment that was the draft.

But what the Justice Department has faced here is a hole that they did not seem to fully grasp how large that hole was and how long it would take for them to dig out of.

[17:20:06]

I describe it as a hole because there is so much material here. And the Justice Department doesn't seem to understand how much they need to get through or how long it will take them. They say it could be many more weeks, that they're making extensive redactions. They're clearly not meeting the congressional deadline. And they have a million more documents to go through, at least.

MATTINGLY: There are moments when it seems like instead of digging out, they're digging further down. We'll have to see how this plays out going forward. You'll be on top of all of it. Katelyn Polantz, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

I want to bring in Epstein survivor, Danielle Bensky, to give her perspective. Danielle, first, I think we talk a lot about kind of the politics of things, about what's coming out when and how the process is going. Just to start off with, how are you doing as this all unfolds?

DANIELLE BENSKY, EPSTEIN SURVIVOR: Yes, thank you for asking. I think there's just growing frustration, I think, for survivors because the reductions really don't make a ton of sense. I came across something last night that I was looking at that had my name and my cell phone number and while it didn't have my last name, it still was completely unredacted in this file. And then in the very same file, there was a memo that had said, I have a female for him. We don't know who him is, of course, but that name had been redacted. So, the reductions don't seem to make a ton of sense.

And we just as survivors really wanted our stories and our lives to be handled with care. It was what we expected from our DOJ.

MATTINGLY: And it should be the bare minimum of what you expect. Earlier today, an attorney for Epstein survivors, Jennifer Freeman, said the Justice Department gets an F on its release of the Epstein files so far. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER FREEMAN, ATTORNEY FOR EPSTEIN SURVIVORS: They say there may be 11,000 documents they've produced so far, but then they just found another million documents. So, does that mean they've produced about one percent of the documents that they have? They were supposed to produce all the documents on December 19th. And then they get another F, if not worse, on their handling of the survivors, which has really just been so frustrating and disappointing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: How would you characterize the way the Justice Department has handled this so far?

BENSKY: I think it has been handled so poorly. I think that they really needed to consult survivors. I still believe, and I think many of us survivors believe, that we need a third party to step in here. I think the office of the inspector general should definitely take a look at what's happening here because it seems like -- I'm not sure if it's intentionally careless or if it's ignorance or if they just ran out of time, but there needs to be some oversight here. Otherwise, I think we're going to keep seeing the same.

And, you know, we passed a law, the law should be abided by. There's no room for the slow rollout that is happening here. And there's no answer for why these files, why now.

MATTINGLY: You I think alluded to something that I've been really surprised to hear from other survivors or their attorneys in the last couple weeks, which is the lack of contact, the lack of communication with the Justice Department. Have you spoken to anybody at the Justice Department? Have you heard from them in any way, shape or form?

BENSKY: No. Not at the moment.

MATTINGLY: Did you expect kind of going into this, that that would be a baseline?

BENSKY: Yes. I think that we were hoping to work pretty closely with them because I think survivors hold the keys to a lot of this. We all know our stories and we all know what happened to us. So, I think we are really hoping to really at least have a dialogue so that we could, you know, be a part of all of this.

MATTINGLY: Again, it just seems like would be the bare minimum. Before I let you go, you know, obviously, there's a lot more to come. The Justice Department has made that very clear. What are you looking for in the documents that haven't been released yet that you hope will be able to convey your story or the story of survivors that have been wanted to have out now for years?

BENSKY: I think the full story when you step out and zoom out, it's all about power versus vulnerability. I think it's really important that we take a look at that because I think that that's where our system continues to fail us. It's not necessarily about my individual story or somebody else's individual story. It's about how power has taken advantage of vulnerability time and time again. And it's what is at the heart of all exploitation.

And so, we just -- we need to call it out. I do think that it was really important that the files did come out and are out. I think, you know, the answer wasn't oh, we should have never done this. I think it just needed to be handled with so much more care.

MATTINGLY: Danielle Bensky, I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much.

BENSKY: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

MATTINGLY: Well, this hour, we are tracking crippling winter weather that is taking its toll on some major U.S. cities right now. We'll show you some of the impact, next.

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[17:25:00]

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Do you hear that? It's wild, right? Keep in mind, someone captured this video inside a house, not outside. This is Newberry, Michigan where presumably, they have good insulation. It's Upper Peninsula. Wind gusts there top 70 miles per hour. Down in Detroit, another scary scene. Blinding snow is the blame for several car crashes along I-75. In city after city, the winter weather is creating havoc.

Let's go straight to CNN meteorologist Chris Warren.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Chris, powerful wind has been the big weather talker for a few days now.

CHRIS WARREN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. And Phil, when you factor in the wind with the snow, these are the scenes like you're showing here in Detroit around lunchtime. These are the scenes that we can end up with.

Now, the snowfall at the time of when, you know, a couple dozen vehicles were involved with this probably was worse than this. So, we often see the video after the fact. And these snow squalls, which we do have and are watching right now, can create blinding conditions in a matter of minutes and last several minutes, maybe even an hour or more.

[17:30:04]

And that's what we're seeing right now with reduced visibility down throughout a half a mile, likely a lot less than that where these snow squall warnings are right now. This is the kind of deals where you're driving, just cloudy skies look fine, all of a sudden, bang, you smack right into essentially a curtain of snow.

Remember, snowflakes are solid, they're pieces of ice. So the visibility with a lot of snow falling out of the sky goes down big time. Meanwhile, some of the latest wind gusts here, up around 50 miles an hour. Buffalo had a wind gust earlier of 79 miles an hour, the strongest wind gust at the airport in Buffalo in 45 years. It does remain cold, it does remain snowy, especially coming off the lakes with that winter storm warnings posted in Michigan, New York, with possibly about a foot, even a foot and a half still to come in the next couple of days.

And with the wind also seeing the power outages bound up, we've seen some freezing rain, so coating of ice on some of the trees in New England with a little bit of wind or even a lot of wind, some of those branches could come down and we could see even more power outages, more wind making things not just difficult at the airports and driving, but it's going to make things feel, feel much, much colder in some areas, about a 50 degree temperature change in just 24 hours, cooling down big time.

MATTINGLY: Yes, I mean, it was a hell of a football game last night in Buffalo, definitely didn't want to be sitting in that stadium at any point. The major temperature drop setting in for the East Coast, who's going to feel it for how long?

WARREN: Well, it's going to be around for a bit and it's going to be an absolute shock to the system. Just looking at some of these temperatures, what it feels like, some of the wind chill single digits in teens is what it feels like. Remember yesterday, record warmth in some of these areas, it was near 80 degrees in St. Louis. And Phil, over the next few days, temperatures will struggle to get above freezing in some of the areas here in the Midwest.

MATTINGLY: That makes me sad. Not your work though, which is fantastic meteorologist Chris Warren, appreciate you my friend, thank you.

Well, from a money man to a movie man, Kevin O'Leary will be here next with the film that's getting him some Oscar buzz. Stay with us.

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[17:36:19]

MATTINGLY: A combination of big money and Hollywood glamor tops today's Pop Lead. Among the films making the rounds in theaters this season is "Marty Supreme." It stars, among others, Timothee Chalamet and Gwyneth Paltrow. Here's a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GWYNETH PALTROW, ACTRESS: Let me ask you something. Do you make money at this little table tennis thing?

TIMOTHEE CHALAMET, ACTOR: Not yet.

PALTROW: Do you have a job?

CHALAMET: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Backhand, backhand, forehand.

PALTROW: How do you live?

TIMOTHEE CHALAMET: Well, I live with the confidence that if I believe in myself, the money will follow.

PALTROW: And what do you plan to do if this whole dream of yours doesn't work out?

CHALAMET: That doesn't even enter my consciousness.

PALTROW: Maybe it should.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: So from that, you can gather, one, he plays table tennis, and two, they're having an affair. What you didn't see is her husband, who's played by my next guest, Kevin O'Leary, as in the powerhouse investor, Shark Tank's own, Kevin O'Leary. Kevin O'Leary joins me now. And Kevin, it's -- I got to say, like, reading about the movie, but reading about your role in the movie specifically, I think Hollywood Reporter in a profile of you said, undeniably impressive performance. How did you get here?

KEVIN O'LEARY, CHAIRMAN, O'LEARY VENTURES: You know, it's one of those serendipitous things in life. I got a phone call from Josh Safdie and Ronnie Bronstein, who co-wrote "Uncut Gems," a film I love, with Adam Sandler. And they said, listen, there's this guy named Milton Rockwell. He's the richest man in America, royalty guy. He kind of reminds us, as we're writing him, of that guy on Shark Tank, you. And we're looking for a real A-hole, and you're it. And you got to fly to New York tomorrow to read this, because you're the last character we're casting.

I said, boys, I'm sitting up at my lake house in peace in the middle of July, and I'm not going anywhere. I'll send a plane for you. You get on the plane. You come here. If you're serious, we can watch the ducks float by and read the script, which is exactly what they did. And, you know, the more I read it, the more I got into it. And they were also pretty smart.

They let me accommodate my own comments about Milton, what he would have said in 52, who he was in 52, and why he would have said that. And they adjusted the script. So I really felt I owned that character by the time we shot it. They're remarkable. I mean, it was just such a crazy outcome. And once I got in the groove with Timmy and with, you know, Gwyneth, we were having a blast. It was 1952. It was incredible.

MATTINGLY: I want to give people a little bit more flavor of what the movie's like and how you are in it. Just watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'LEARY: I'm not trying to control you, Marty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is unacceptable. It is unacceptable.

O'LEARY: But I don't think you understand the stakes. You have no power here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: I want to get into what you were just talking about, kind of the process that ended up evolving between you and the other cast members. I've seen a ton of press. Timothee Chalamet has done a ton of press. He's done, I think, an excellent job marketing the movie. You all have. But how you guys were able to work off one another throughout the course of the actual filming of this?

O'LEARY: Well, I'm going to give you a little trade secret about how Josh Safdie works with Ronnie Bronstein, because I lived it. And, you know, I've never done scripted before. First of all, the way Chalamet works is, you're sitting there waiting, and Darius, the guy that was the cinematographer, he is an insane person who wants perfection.

So you're waiting for frigging hours while he's setting up the light. These guys shot at old school with an Aeroflex 35 mil camera, Panavision lenses. It takes forever to set that up. So we're sitting across from each other, just talking about whatever, and then it's time to shoot. And Chalamet gets up out of his seat, walks 20 feet, and boom, he comes back, Marty Mouser. I mean there's -- the guy is, electricity's flying off him. He is the character.

[17:40:17]

And there's that little guy in front of me, that arrogant little guy, and he is that guy. And I'm having no trouble riffing into him in real life. So we're just going at it. And there were many takes when after we were finished going at each other, there was 10, 15 seconds of silence as people said, whoa, you guys maybe took it too far. But no, that's not how it works. You zone in there and it happens.

And the way those two guys work, Bronstein and Safdie, there -- Ronnie, the writer, co-writer, sitting in a production booth somewhere off the set, you don't see him, but he's in Safdie's ear and they're talking to each other, waiting for the right take. So you may have to do it 50 times. And it's not a democracy. I've said this many times. I would say to, you know, Josh, I think we got it. We want to move on.

He said, what are you talking about? We're not moving anywhere until I say so. And I'm not used to being told what to do. That was a little bit of a freak. The whole idea was until they get it. And then once in a while, we'd make a mistake. And then he'd say, wait a second, there's an idea there. Let's riff off it. Let's try something completely different. And when I saw the final film, the improv stuff made it in there too.

MATTINGLY: Yes.

O'LEARY: So they're magical the way those guys work. They make -- they pull stuff out of you that you didn't know you had in you. And I really, really, you know, when I finally saw it before it was color corrected, it blew me away. I mean, this film is an extraordinary emotional experience. You got to see it in a theater and have somebody beside you, you know, because it's going to rip your heart out inside out during that journey. And tell me if you have a dry eye when it's over. It's just extraordinary.

MATTINGLY: Just -- real quick before I let you go, the idea of having to spank with a paddle, the most, I think now currently most famous person and the backside of the most famous person in all of Hollywood, was that daunting?

O'LEARY: We had a stunt ass. I told Timmy, I don't have to do this to you, but he wanted to immortalize his ass. He wanted to do something that no one had ever done before, put his own ass on screen, immortalize it. And I hit him so hard. I mean, I don't know how he took it because we didn't use a fake paddle.

We broke the fake paddle on the first hit. And the second one, if you see the outtakes, there's an imprint on his rear end of the paddle itself. It was unbelievable what he took, but what an amazing scene. He's immortalized and that's his ass.

MATTINGLY: It's -- I mean, I tell you what, there are a million reasons to go see this movie. Now there's a million and one. Kevin O'Leary, a huge congratulations on the film for all the amazing reviews you and the entire cast are getting. Really appreciate your time, sir.

O'LEARY: Take care, thank you.

[17:43:07]

MATTINGLY: Wait, what? There's just two days left in 2025? Yes, seriously. Still thinking about what we were just talking about. Some of the biggest political stories about to spill over into 2026, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) MATTINGLY: With about two days and six hours left in 2025, let's talk about some of the biggest headlines that could shape politics in 2026. My panel is here now. And guys, look, there was a lot that happened this year. We're going into a midterm year going forward. But Yemisi, I want to start with you. New York City mayor was probably the biggest political story of 2025. What's your expectations? What's the Democratic Party's expectations for Zohran Mamdani once he takes office?

YEMISI EGBEWOLE, FORMER ADVISER, BIDEN WHITE HOUSE: Well, the expectation is that he'll do well as the mayor of New York City. I mean, the best part about having watched his campaign to now transitioning to governance is that he's been able to come middle of the road with some things. We've watched him work really well with Governor Kathy Hochul, who's going to be running her own race at that same time, and is going to be watching him closely because a lot of how well he does will predicate on how well she can do and what things she can uplift that he's doing well in the city.

And so it's to see if a lot of the policies that he's been pushing forward actually do take hold and float in New York City, but also to remind people that politics is local. Just because he's pushed something in New York City doesn't mean he can do the same in my hometown of Marietta, Georgia.

MATTINGLY: Do you think that that's, he's become such a national figure, which I don't necessarily think was his goal when he came out, but he became such a national figure throughout the course of the year that it's possible that people will actually understand, no, this isn't a New York City thing. This isn't a national politics thing.

RINA SHAH, GEOPOLITICAL STRATEGIST: You know, I think Mamdani has been interesting because I actually don't know that was his goal to become a national figure. I think he just wanted to topple the establishment, which he was very successful at doing. And now comes the hard work of legislating, promising people that you will make good on those very same promises.

How does that happen? I don't quite know because a lot of it felt like bluster. I'm not sure if that's the exact word. I think there's inexperience and then there's also a sense of fear in him. That's what I see in recent weeks, ever since he, you know, made this great disruption. I just see him calming down at times and then I see him kind of getting faster. And that's typical of politicians that break the mold.

I've worked with dozens of them that don't really quite know how they're going to meet the moment. And the first month is going to be so pivotal because he's going to have to counteract really the narrative that Republicans are going to throw every day of the week, right? Look at New York. It's a terrible place. And now you've got this immigrant who isn't even American out here leading you all. When everybody knows this was just really an anti-establishment vote is how he got there.

MATTINGLY: Yes, it'll be fascinating to watch. I want to get both your takes on something that was very troubling throughout the course of the year, which is the rise of political violence. You had several high profile examples. You had the two Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota were shot and killed. You had the assassination of Charlie Kirk. You had the Josh Shapiro, the arson at his governor's mansion. And his family survived that arson attacks. Here's what Utah Governor Cox told CNN about President Trump's leadership in all of this. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[17:50:21]

GOV. SPENCER COX (R-UT): I have to say during the Charlie Kirk shooting in the conversations we had, he talked to me about nonviolence and trying to be a voice for that. I understand he's not interested in uniting the country. And he would tell you that, I think, if he were sitting here with us tonight. But I would also say that it's not going to be a president who fixes this. It's not going to be two governors who fix this. It really has to be all of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Do you agree with the assessment that the President can't fix this? He couldn't make it better if he wanted to?

SHAH: Why should the president try to fix it? It's already out there. When you see the assassinations, like we have in real time coming through our phones, there's no turning back time. I mean, Trump has taken us to a place where political violence is normalized. It's normal to say your enemies were X, Y, and Z, to even to be distasteful about them in death, to insult them in death.

That is Trump. But let's put Trump aside for a moment. A Utah leader like Spencer Cox, who I've watched for many years, is the kind of political leader we need for the moment. And I can say that from the center right, we've celebrated Cox for a long time. We know that his pragmatism, we know that the way in which he carries himself in public office, which by the way, he's done throughout the ranks, that is what we need as a party to turn back the effect of Trump.

I think it's wrong of us to continue to fixate on Trump's every move every day. We know he's not the person we expect a leader to be. And therefore, let's divert our attention. Let's look back at the states and look at what kind of new leaders are coming about.

In the Republican Party, we see a lot of young, fresh faces. These faces in Gen Z especially are moving forward in life. Having seen Charlie Kirk killed in cold blood in front of them, a bullet in that man's body, that is going to forever change that generation of young conservatives.

MATTINGLY: What do you think from the Democratic side?

EGBEWOLE: Well, from the Democratic side, I think that we have to look at how a lot of young people are gaining their news. And a lot of that is happening on YouTube and in these platforms. I mean, we're looking at Republicans platforming people like Nick Fuentes. But Nick Fuentes is speaking to a group of disgruntled young people that are coming up in America that doesn't have an economy that supports them. And so I think that Democrats are really going to have to refocus on how they message to young people and how we move past this kind of political violence and this increased inflamed rhetoric.

MATTINGLY: Yes, I think that in particular is a conversation we could have for hours. Luckily, I'm going to have you guys back next hour so we can continue this conversation. Thank you guys very much. More to talk about ahead.

Also ahead, the crash today that injured boxing champion Anthony Joshua and killed two others in his SUV. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:57:10]

MATTINGLY: In our Sports Lead, new video shows the aftermath of the crash that injured boxing champion Anthony Joshua and killed two others in Nigeria today. Officials say the driver of Joshua's Lexus SUV was speeding and hit a parked truck. The driver and a third occupant died. The crash happened on an expressway notorious for deadly crashes. Now, just 10 days ago, Joshua had a knockout win in Miami against YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul.

Well, in our National Lead, police say a second pilot has died after yesterday's mid-flight collision between two helicopters in New Jersey. The collision happened shortly after the two helicopters took off from Hammonton Municipal Airport, southeast of Philadelphia. CNN's Rafael Romo is tracking this one. Rafael, what do we know about the pilots killed?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Phil, Hammonton police have released the identities of the two pilots who died in the crash while providing an update about the tragic incident. According to Hammonton Police Chief Kevin Friel, 71-year-old Michael Greenberg was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, 65-year-old Kenneth Kirsch, the second pilot who died, was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Both victims were from New Jersey. Chief Freil described the crash as a mid-air collision between an Enstrom helicopter, Model 280C, and another Enstrom helicopter, Model F-28A, adding that both aircraft had just departed from the Hammonton Municipal Airport when they collided approximately at 11:25 Eastern Time on Sunday morning.

Chief Freil also said that the helicopters crash-landed in a field and a tree line when helicopter was engulfed in flames, he said, and the fire was later extinguished by the Hammonton Volunteer Fire Department. According to police, statements from witnesses had the two helicopters flying close together just before the crash. The crash site was approximately a mile and a half from the airport in a farm field.

CNN has obtained a video showing the moment one of the helicopters went down spinning out of control. A restaurant owner at the Hammonton Municipal Airport says he had just seen both pilots at his establishment prior to the crash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAL SILIPINO, APRON CAFE OWNER: They were just at our cafe having breakfast. They're regulars. They come in every week or every other week. I don't know them personally, just that they seem to come in all the time together. They fly in together and they seem to be close. You know, they sit together and they seem to be good friends or relatives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: The mid-air collision happened in Hamilton, located in Atlantic county, which is about 35 miles southeast of Philadelphia and sits near the New Jersey Pine Barrens, a vast area of forested wilderness. Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the accident, but the NTSB will be in charge. Phil, now back to you.

[18:00:01]

MATTINGLY: Welcome to the lead. I'm Phil Mattingly in for Jake Tapper.