Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Maxwell Will Make New Plea to Judge to Let Her Out of Prison; In Narrow Win, Republican Holds Onto Red Tennessee House Seat; Israeli Military Kills Two Boys Gathering Firewood in Gaza; RFK Jr's Handpicked CDC Advisers to Weigh Major Change to Childhood Vaccine Schedule. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired December 03, 2025 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: This just in, according to a new court filing, convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell is planning to make a new plea to a judge to release her from prison. The long- time girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: CNN's Kara Scannell is following this for us. Kara, the Supreme Court recently rejected her appeal of her conviction and the sentence, so what's new about this effort?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris and Brianna, her lawyer is informing the judge that she plans to file what's known as a habeas petition, which is the grounds that an inmate makes to say that they've been unlawfully detained.

[15:35:00]

Now, the lawyer does not get into the details of how she will try to support that argument, but it is the next step of what Maxwell is trying to do here to try to get out of prison. Now, she was convicted of sex trafficking of children. She's serving a 20-year prison sentence.

And what's interesting is her lawyer said that she's going to go about this effort pro se, which means that she will do it on her own without the use of an attorney. So that is also a new wrinkle here, since she has had an attorney representing her through the course of the investigation up until the recent bid that was dropped by the Supreme Court, where they declined to hear her case.

She is saying that she should be released from prison. She is currently serving in a minimum-security prison in Bryan, Texas. And that was an improvement from the low-security prison that she was in in Tallahassee, Florida. And she got that transfer just days after a two-day meeting with Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general.

And there have been no details about the reasons for her transfer, but that was something that sparked a lot of controversy, because people were questioning, including some of the victims, whether she got special treatment for somehow helping the Trump administration. So that is the next step here. And this was revealed in a letter to the judge surrounding the questions by the Department of Justice, asking the judges, in overseeing both Epstein and Maxwell's case, if they could unseal grand jury records, including transcripts of the witnesses that testified before the grand jury, as well as lifting a protective order over the materials. Which could mean, if the judge grants it, the release of financial records, search warrants, victim interviews, and additional materials. So that is still pending.

Maxwell says she doesn't oppose that, but she does say to the judge that if that does happen, it might hurt her ability to have a fair trial in the future, if this petition is granted -- Boris, Brianna?

SANCHEZ: We know you'll keep an eye on it. Kara Scannell, thank you so much.

Pivoting to a special election last night in Tennessee, House Speaker Mike Johnson says that he hopes to swear in newly elected Republican Matt Van Epps this week.

Epps winning a relatively close fight against his Democratic rival last night for Tennessee's 7th district.

KEILAR: The nine-point margin of victory is actually a big improvement for Democrats, because just last year, President Trump won that district by 22 points. We're joined now by CNN contributor Lulu Garcia-Navarro. She hosts the interview podcast for The New York Times.

And also, the previous member of Congress also won by more than 20 points, right? So it was very big for the House race as well there. You have Republican Congressman Tim Burchett saying this should be a wake-up call.

He's warning about complacency within the GOP. What should Republicans be taking away here?

LULU GARCIA NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think there is good news and bad news for everyone in this. The good news for Republicans is that it wasn't five or six points, which had been sort of the estimates. So it even -- I mean, don't forget, Democrats are putting a lot of money into this race.

They were thinking, hey, maybe we might even win this. They got very buoyed by what happened in the last election that we just had in New Jersey and in Virginia. So nine points ain't nothing, you know.

So I think that they can take heart in that. At the same time, that's a huge swing. And I'm already seeing all Democrats looking at these maps and saying, if there's a 13-point swing, a 15-point swing in the midterms, this is what it means.

You know, it's going to be a blowout election, 40 seats for the Democrats. So they're feeling very energized by this.

So I think that Republicans are worried. They are saying that they're worried. And what they're really worried about is that there's a lot of dissatisfaction within the electorate. Donald Trump is underwater.

And we know that Republicans aren't very reliable voters when he's not on the ballot. And so it's a big problem for them, especially at a time when, you know, Americans persist on being sour on the economy.

SANCHEZ: Voters say that their principal issue, at least in the last round of elections that we've seen and last night in Tennessee, is affordability, a word that the president says is made up by Democrats. But it's very real. As you said, Americans feel that the economy generally isn't benefiting them.

NAVARRO: Yes, I mean, it's an interesting tactic, right? If tactic it is that the president is adopting. He ran on affordability.

He didn't call it that --

SANCHEZ: Right.

SANCHEZ: -- but he ran on affordability. He was basically saying that the prices were too high. Remember when he was -- did this whole thing with like different prices, groceries, and it was kind of like he was in the shopping network.

Anyway, this was a big thing for him. He really wanted to have people think about prices. It was a big complaint.

And so now kind of flipping the script and saying, this is no real thing. Americans don't like that. They know what they pay for and they're mad about it.

KEILAR: In Tennessee, Aftyn Behn was not the most -- I mean, this wasn't the most centrist candidate, right? You might have gotten sort of a better sense of things if Democrats have been able to run someone who hadn't previously expressed support for defunding the police and who had called herself a very radical person, right?

This was sort of ads that wrote themselves. Should Democrats have run a more moderate candidate? And actually knowing that, is there sort of something they can take away from that for the midterms?

[15:40:00]

NAVARRO: Yes, or a complaint about, you know, country music when you're based in Nashville. But apart from all that, I mean, she did run a good campaign. Everyone has said it.

It was a campaign that was very, very focused on affordability, on people's pocketbooks. At the same time, she had a lot of baggage. This is a very red district.

It was a strange choice to run that particular candidate. Where we've seen Democrats do really well is if they're running the candidates that fit the district, right? If it's a conservative district, run a blue dog Democrat.

If it is a more liberal district, you can run a Mamdani, right? And that is what you see in the midterms. That is a strategy that Nancy Pelosi adopted extremely well.

You know, she was recruiting candidates that said, OK, what is this look like in this particular district and can they win there? And that is the only thing that matters.

KEILAR: I think there's few places you can complain about country music safely in politics, especially Nashville, but few places. Lulu, great to have your insights. Thank you so much.

NAVARRO: You're welcome.

KEILAR: A Palestinian father sent his two children out to get firewood, but they never made it back home. Now he shares the devastating story with CNN of how they were killed by an Israeli drone attack.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Israel admits to killing two boys in Gaza for the crime of crossing the invisible so-called yellow line, demarking Israeli control of the Palestinian territory. The boys were trying to gather firewood for their father, who was paralyzed. It's the latest attack by the Israeli military that is testing the fragile ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is with us now from Tel Aviv with the details on this. Jeremy, tell us what happened.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. We have seen, according to the Israeli military, some 33 incidents in which individuals who apparently crossed the yellow line were fired upon by Israeli troops. Many of those cases were accidental and some of them did indeed involve civilians, as we saw over the weekend when these two boys were killed in an Israeli drone strike.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND (voice-over): Tamer Abu Assi cries out to God as he clings to two body bags. They carry the remains of his sons, Jumaa and Fadi, who were just 10 and eight years old. They were killed in an Israeli drone strike this weekend.

Their wheelchair-bound father says they had gone out to gather firewood. "Not long after, I saw people suddenly running, and after a short while, they told me the little children had been targeted," he said, "that the Israelis had struck right where they were." The boys were rushed to the hospital, where Tamer learned that the children who had been killed were his sons.

"I looked at my son, Juju, and there was almost nothing left of him. His head was gone. Only the skin was there. May God have mercy on his soul." Jumaa and Fadi are among more than 350 Palestinians who have been killed by the Israeli military since the start of the ceasefire, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, which says more than 70,000 people have now been killed since the war began in 2023. The Israeli military said it killed two, quote, suspects after they crossed the yellow line, which marks the beginning of Israeli- controlled territory in Gaza, claiming they posed a threat to Israeli forces.

While Israel has deployed some yellow concrete blocks to mark that line, it remains invisible in many parts of Gaza. We visited an Israeli military position near that yellow line last month.

DIAMOND: We asked where exactly that yellow line is, and I was just told that it's slightly beyond some of those few remaining buildings that are still standing there, but it's almost impossible for us to distinguish exactly where that yellow line is, and we know that it's also the case for the Palestinians on the ground.

DIAMOND (voice-over): A dangerously confusing reality that turned deadly for two boys now mourned by their families and a mother who wishes she could turn back time. "I told them to go collect firewood for their father so he could sell it and go to the doctor, and then in the blink of an eye," she says, "they were gone."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND (on camera): And, Brianna, since those boys were killed, the Israeli military has carried out several more attacks against individuals who apparently crossed that yellow line in just the last couple of days.

In addition, we're just now learning that the Israeli military has carried out a strike in the southern Gaza Strip against what they say is a Hamas terrorist, this in response to what the Israeli military claims to be a violation by Hamas. They say that Hamas militants attacked Israeli troops deployed in the southern part of the Gaza Strip on the other side of that yellow line. Five Israeli soldiers were injured as a result of that attack -- Brianna.

KEILAR: And, Jeremy, on the political front, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his coalition boycotted a Knesset vote today endorsing President Trump's plan for Gaza. What is the path forward for that plan?

DIAMOND: Yes, that's exactly right. It was a very interesting moment as the Israeli opposition really aiming to embarrass Netanyahu and his coalition, it seems, by staging this vote, which they knew Netanyahu would want to try and avoid endorsing. Instead, what happened was the resolution actually passed as a result of opposition votes only as Netanyahu's governing coalition exited the parliament and did not vote on the resolution.

So, officially, this Trump plan has been endorsed now by the Israeli parliament, albeit without the support of the majority coalition governments that is actually in charge in Israel.

[15:50:00]

We know, of course, that the Israeli government has been working closely with the Trump administration on this, on implementing the next phases of this plan. But, of course, it has been extraordinarily tenuous, not only because of Israeli attacks that we have seen play Gaza, but also, of course, because of Israeli reluctance on the political front here to move forward with the next steps. And the fact, of course, that there are still two bodies of deceased Israeli hostages that still remain in Gaza, still trying to be recovered -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Jeremy Diamond, thank you very much -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Now to some of the other headlines we're following. President Trump says he's pardoned Democratic Congressman Henry Quillar of Texas, who's been accused of taking more than half a million dollars in bribes. Quillar was an outspoken critic of former President Biden's border policies, and Trump says the indictment is proof that Biden used the DOJ to take out political opponents, including members of his own party.

The congressman says he's not changing parties and denies cutting a deal with the White House.

Also, the latest jobs data is ugly. According to private payroll data from ADP, the economy lost 32,000 jobs last month, the most in about two years. Corporate America has now cut jobs in four of the past six months. One of the biggest industries seeing job losses is manufacturing. Smaller businesses took a hit as well, losing 120,000 jobs in the latest month.

Also, a daring rescue caught on camera in snowy West Virginia. Look at this. First responders using ropes to reach the driver of a tractor trailer left dangling off a bridge after a crash.

The driver was just hanging there for some five hours before he was rescued. Fire officials say that the driver refused medical treatment but thankfully was pulled up to safety.

Still ahead, it's been in place to protect children for more than 30 years. Now, a significant change could be coming to the list of vaccines required for newborns.

You're watching CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We're back in a moment.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: A group of CDC advisors could vote as soon as this week to make major changes to the childhood vaccine schedule. The voting board has been handpicked by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., after he abruptly fired the 17 sitting members. Kennedy, of course, is a longtime anti-vaccine activist. You might recall that just a week ago, the CDC changed its website to include false claims linking vaccines and autism. Meg Tirrell is following these important developments.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this week, we could see some of the biggest moves yet under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to upend the vaccines we routinely get as kids. And that's because an influential panel of vaccine advisors to the CDC called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is set to meet Thursday and Friday.

And they're scheduled to have a whole day of discussions about the entire vaccine schedule. That's the set of vaccines we get throughout childhood and adolescence to protect us against more than a dozen diseases. They also say they're going to examine ingredients in vaccines used to boost how well they work called adjuvants, which could affect a huge number of the recommended vaccines we currently receive.

And they're set to vote on recommendations for hepatitis B shots, including potentially whether a dose should be given at birth. That's been a recommendation that's been in place for more than 30 years in the U.S. Kennedy has advocated against getting so many vaccines for years. And in June, he replaced all the members of this committee with his own handpicked members, many who share his views.

This group makes recommendations to the CDC director, which if adopted, become CDC policy. Doctors don't necessarily have to follow those policies, but the policies can also influence whether insurance covers vaccines. This new group has had two meetings so far and they've seriously alarmed public health experts by revisiting settled vaccine policy and putting an outsized emphasis on vaccine risks without considering their benefits or experts say by misinterpreting data completely.

And the meeting comes after RFK juniors vaccine chief at the FDA linked the COVID vaccine in an internal memo to deaths of at least 10 children, something outside experts say they can't evaluate without seeing the analyses. The memo also promised sweeping changes to vaccine regulation more broadly, including how seasonal flu shots get approved and reexamining giving multiple vaccines at the same time. President Trump has called for splitting up the measles, mumps, rubella, or MMR vaccine into three separate shots, for example.

It's been given as one since 1971. Calls to split it trace back to a British doctor who suggested in 1998 that the combination could be linked to autism. But dozens of studies since have found no link. Still, the CDC under RFK junior recently updated its website to say otherwise. Outside groups, including local public health departments have been trying to set the record straight.

But all of this is creating a lot of worry that important vaccines could become more expensive and harder to get making what happens over the next couple of days, especially important for parents or parents to be to pay close attention to.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Thanks to Meg Terrell for that report.

On a lighter note, you may have heard of drunk as a skunk. This bit of a new one, perhaps hammered like a trash panda police responding to a break in at a Virginia liquor store apprehending an unlikely suspect.

A masked bandit fell through the ceiling tiles, causing quite a mess, leaving scotch and whiskey puddles all over the floor.

KEILAR: Animal services say this raccoon went on a full blown rampage, drinking everything the trash panda turned trashed panda was found in the bathroom by the toilet. I'm not sure if that was written correctly. Anyways, officials say after a few hours of sleep, no signs of injury other than maybe a hangover and poor life choices.

The raccoon was safely released back to the wild.

SANCHEZ: He's a trashed panda.

KEILAR: A trashed panda.

SANCHEZ: Yes, it was.

KEILAR: I'm so slow today.

SANCHEZ: No, but this is now I think the second hammered raccoon that we've done. And look at this little guy. He knows that.

Let let he who has not crashed through the roof of a liquor store and wound up just like that cast the first.

KEILAR: That's right. Let's go now to "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt.

[16:00:00]