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Lawmakers Split After Viewing Video Of Boat Strike; Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA) Is Interviewed About The Boat Strikes; DC Pipe Bom Suspect In Court; Dr. Ashish Jha Is Interviewed About The Vaccine Vote. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 05, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

ADAM SANDLER, ACTOR: And was there a piano player in the room or was it a tape?

ARIANA GRANDE, ACTRESS: Yes, he was in the room.

SANDLER: Yes.

GRANDE: And it was -- that was the first one. And then I had a callback, which was just Glinda, because I think they figured out when I walked in with my, like, pink thermos and my pink sweatshirt and my pink everything, what I was campaigning for.

SANDLER: Oh, my goodness. Yes. Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

GRANDE: That time had scenes and different songs. They added "Thank Goodness," which is my song in the second movie. And then my third call back --

SANDLER: Oh, gotcha. Gotcha. Yes, that was a great one.

GRANDE: Oh, thank you.

SANDLER: "Thank Goodness" is a tremendous one.

GRANDE: Thank you.

SANDLER: I mean popular in my house. Was played a lot, a lot, a lot.

GRANDE: That's so sweet.

SANDLER: And "Defying Gravity" was played a lot. It was kind of like, when the kids were like six and eight, it was every ride, every, every time we'd want to kind of calm them down, we'd throw on, right?

GRANDE: Same. Oh, yes. That was me too.

SANDLER: We listened to that a lot too.

GRANDE: Uh-huh.

SANDLER: You know what else we listened to in the car a lot? SANDLER: (singings): If there's a prize for --

SANDLER: You sang it.

GRANDE: "I Won't Say I'm in Love" from "Hercules."

SANDLER: Yes. Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: So, as you can tell, these two are huge fans of each other. I interviewed Ariana and Adam right after their conversation. And Ariana was gushing over Adam Sandler, telling him that her favorite movie growing up was "The Waterboy" and "Billy Madison." They even said that they want to work together.

But, of course, this is just the first episode of many, Kate. This weekend we also have a conversation coming with Julia Roberts and Sean Penn. The list goes on and on. The stars can't get bigger. We are so excited to have "Actors on Actors" here at CNN.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: You could also even see in -- on -- in the wall when you're speaking to them, Ariana Grande even has like a book, like a notebook, like she was going into this, like a real interview with Adam Sandler perhaps.

WAGMEISTER: She came prepared, Kate. She came very prepared. She may be coming for our jobs

BOLDUAN: You're going to have to fight me for that, Grande. You're going to have to fight me for that one.

Elizabeth, you're the best. Thank you so much.

And you can see -- there's much more to come here. You can see more of those amazing interviews that Elizabeth had. "Variety's" "Actors on Actors" exclusively on cnn.com and launching every weekday on CNN All Access at 9:00 a.m. Eastern. You see this amazing series.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, new for you this morning, the U.S. military targeting another suspected drug boat, this time in the Eastern Pacific, killing four people. The new strike comes just as scrutiny around that double-tap strike is intensifying.

And a federal grand jury declines to re-indict New York Attorney General Letitia James for alleged mortgage fraud. Will the Justice Department try a third time? What CNN is learning about that this morning.

And today is the day that soccer fans around the world have been waiting for. We are just hours away from the World Cup draw to find out which teams will face off in the largest World Cup ever.

I'm Sara Sidner, with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, a new strike and new questions. The U.S. military attacked yet another alleged drug boat, this time in the Pacific, killing four people. This morning there are new details about the earlier so-called double-tap strike in the Caribbean that some have called a potential war crime. And the reporting contradicts the version of the story that some defense officials have been telling, that the survivors, they say, on that boat were calling for backup.

CNN has learned that Admiral Frank Mitch Bradley, who oversaw the follow-up strike, told lawmakers during classified briefings that the survivors did not appear to have a radio or other communications devices. Republican Senator Tom Cotton said he did not see them trying to use a radio. Ultimately, we are told that Admiral Bradley said he ordered the second strike because part of it was still afloat, part of the boat was still afloat, he believed with cocaine, and the survivors could have, in theory, made it to safety and continued their operation.

Lawmakers came out of those briefings split along party lines over whether it was justified. And those who were not in the room are pushing back on reports about what was said inside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARK ALFORD (R-MO): I would be very wary of any information that comes out of there, because it's not going to be the full and complete picture. I've learned that. I was on the Armed Services Committee last term. And I know when you get in these settings, there's a lot of information coming at you.

I do believe these were righteous strikes. Look, I wish that we, in America, had as much passion and empathy for the victims of fentanyl.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Of course, it was cocaine alleged to be in that boat, not fentanyl.

But let's get to CNN's Arlette Saenz in Washington with the latest this morning.

We keep hearing new details from these briefings, Arlette.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We do, John. And senior lawmakers who received these briefings really emerged from them with different conclusions, with these reactions splitting along party lines.

[09:05:00]

Admiral Frank Mitch Bradley spent several hours behind closed doors in a classified setting, briefing senior lawmakers on the intelligence committees, armed services committees, trying to offer a fuller picture of how these strikes played out. I think what you were talking about earlier is quite notable. The

fact that Admiral Bradley told these lawmakers that these two survivors who were targeted in those second strikes, that they did not appear to have radio or communications equipment. Those are details that lawmakers will really dig into and begin to scrutinize as they're trying to determine the legality of these strikes, with some senior Democrats saying that this could amount to war crimes.

But as these lawmakers left these briefings with Admiral Bradley, they really were split in how they felt the Trump administration acted in this moment.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): The first strike, the second strike and the third and the fourth strike on September 2nd were entirely lawful and needful, and they were exactly what we would expect our military commanders to do.

REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I've seen in my time in public service. You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, who are killed by the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, one senior Republican lawmaker, who we have yet to hear from, is Senator Roger Wicker. He is the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who had vowed that there would be oversight of these strikes. So, he will be an important figure to watch going forward as they try to determine what the next steps on the congressional review of these strikes will look like.

We have heard from several Democratic lawmakers who have said that this video that was shown to them in these classified settings needs to be made public so people can see exactly how this played out. There are others who want hearings for Admiral Bradley to come and testify in front of the public, as lawmakers continue to have questions about how this strike was played out and whether, in fact, it was a legal authority or within the Trump administration's legal authority to take this strike.

BERMAN: And, of course, we're waiting to see if and when the video in its entirety is made public.

Arlette Saenz, for us in Washington, thank you very much.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And joining us right now to talk much more about this is Democratic Congresswoman Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, a member of the House Democratic leadership.

It's very good to have you here. Thank you so much for coming in. REP. KATHERINE CLARK (D-MA): Good to see you.

BOLDUAN: Let's start with this.

There is a large number of members of the House and Senate who have not seen this classified video. You among them. But what you have heard coming out, and you've spoken to those who have -- who have seen the video. Where do you think this goes? What do you think happens?

CLARK: Yes, we need to get the truth to the American people because we have two critical concerns. One is for the security of our troops, and one is for the security of the American people.

And I have talked to members of the Intelligence Committee, including our ranking member, Jim Himes, who is not somebody who is -- he has seen lots of these sort of videos over his career and service.

BOLDUAN: Right.

CLARK: He was very upset by what he saw. And I think that we should take the president up on what he said, that he wouldn't be, you know, that he's not against releasing this video.

We need to know where we stand legally as a country. That is critical to keeping the American people safe. And what we have seen from Secretary Hegseth, from this administration, is an unprecedented withdrawal of information. They are not sharing orders that they have always shared with Congress. They are not sharing their targeting and intelligence.

And this is not a partisan matter. This is a matter of national security. It is a matter of our standing. It is a matter of protecting our troops. And we need to have a full investigation and be as public and transparent as possible.

BOLDUAN: This is clearly on the plate of the Congress in the last days of the year. There is, I think, a couple weeks left on the House, on the House calendar. And a big question is, what is Congress, what is the House, what is the Senate going to do about the Obamacare health care subsidies?

CLARK: Yes.

BOLDUAN: This was the center of the shutdown, the government shutdown. This was an agreement, on reopening the government, that there would be a vote. Chuck Schumer just said that the Senate's going to hold a vote, bring it to the floor. Dems are going to bring it to the floor next Thursday. What does that mean for the House?

CLARK: We will see, because we no sooner saw the shutdown end, we saw the president around Thanksgiving put forward a plan that was completely upended by Speaker Mike Johnson.

[09:10:03]

And he said very recently that the House has no interest in pursuing this.

BOLDUAN: So, you don't think -- you think there is a -- do you think the House will vote before the end of the year, before you go on recess, on anything having to do with subsidies?

CLARK: Listen, if the Senate puts a vote up, we are going to do everything we can. And we have been extending our hand in bipartisanship to House members since Donald Trump took office. We know that health care is pivotal for the American people. And what they are seeing, not only with the draconian cuts that they made to Medicaid, to Medicare, to medical research in this country, but also to these ACA tax credits that so many people depend on. Half of all our family farmers, our small businesses and the --

BOLDUAN: Congresswoman, you've -- you count votes for a living. This is -- this is part of your job.

CLARK: Right.

BOLDUAN: I mean, but -- so give me your gut. Are you -- will there -- will -- if it comes to a vote in the House, which doesn't seem assured, is it going to pass?

CLARK: I can see no reason why we couldn't have four people --

BOLDUAN: But do you think you will?

CLARK: This is up to the Republicans.

BOLDUAN: OK.

CLARK: And I don't know how they are not going home and hearing the same stories we are hearing. Moms filled with anxiety that they will not be able to treat their child's disease. People worrying that their cancer survivors unable to continue those lifesaving check-ins that they need to make sure they remain cancer free. People afraid they're not going to be able to manage their diabetes. We have a health care crisis that the Republicans have created, and we are running against the clock.

BOLDUAN: You're definitely against the clock.

CLARK: These tax credits end in December.

BOLDUAN: Well, and Congress -- and Congress is -- and Congress is going to go on recess before that. So, this is a -- I mean, I guess we'll put it in the category of let's see. Also --

CLARK: We will -- we will stay in session as Democrats, and we will meet with Republicans --

BOLDUAN: Through the recess?

CLARK: Any time to do --

BOLDUAN: Through the recess? CLARK: Of course.

BOLDUAN: OK.

CLARK: To do this for the American people.

BOLDUAN: The Supreme Court -- the Supreme Court, last night, just cleared the way for Texas to move ahead with its redistricting, with its new redrawn map. This means that Texas could now flip five Democratic held House seats to be Republican next year. How much of a setback is this for your effort to win back the majority? What the -- now that this map is going to move forward?

CLARK: Listen, this mid-decade gerrymandering is against -- it is so bad for the American people.

BOLDUAN: But how much is it -- how much does this one move hurt your efforts to win back the majority?

CLARK: Listen, we are -- we are determined to win back the majority. And you can see from the election results on November 4th, in special elections, that the American people understand that they have been betrayed. That Republicans ran on saying, we're going to lower your cost of living. We're going to help you find your footing in this economy. And they have done everything to make things harder and more expensive.

BOLDUAN: If all of the Republican gerrymandered maps -- and, you know, also factor in the -- what's happening in California, which is doing the same. But if all of the maps that are being reworked, that would lean more in Republican's favor, even with what you say, leans in the Democratic favor, you think the affordability crisis, do you think -- how much -- is it harder now to win back the majority for Democrats?

CLARK: Of course it's harder, but we are -- we are going to be meeting them in every single district. And what we are seeing, the results, it's the reason the Republicans are trying to choose their voters instead of having voters choose them, is they're looking at the same polls we are. And when they are taking away people's health care in order to fund tax cuts for the very wealthy, when they are doing tariff policy that is driving up the cost of living, instead of finding ways to make more affordable housing, to lower the cost of groceries and utility bills, they are going to pay an electoral price for that.

And we're going to remain right where we are as House Democrats, putting people first, saying to the American people, you deserve better. You deserve lower costs. You deserve a health care system that works for you. And you deserve to get corruption out of government.

BOLDUAN: And see what the -- let's see what the House can do, will do, and maybe won't do over the next couple of weeks before the recess.

Thank you so much for coming in. I really appreciate your time.

CLARK: Thanks, Kate. BOLDUAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, in just hours, a suspect accused of planting pipe bombs near the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic National Committees in Washington, D.C., the night before the January 6th Capitol riot is going to appear in federal court for the first time after his arrest.

CNN's Evan Perez is with me now.

What are you learning about the plans that Attorney General Pam Bondi has in this case that are changing?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, what we know is that he is right now facing just a couple of charges, but that is about to change.

[09:15:03]

We know that he's going to appear in court today for the first time, and he has been talking to investigators. We heard that from the deputy FBI director, Dan Bongino, last night on Fox News.

Here is the attorney general previewing what we might see later.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I can't talk about any of the evidence, but its ongoing. They are pouring through evidence. You saw hundreds of agents are on this case because this is a very dangerous person. And again, I believe there are more charges.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: And so those new charges, we'll see what those exactly are. But this -- the affidavit that they filed in court yesterday really lays out some of the evidence that they've collected over the last almost five years of this investigation, Sara. You know, the evidence that they mentioned here really hones in on his cell phone, the alleged attacker's cell phone, who he -- the route he took near the U.S. Capitol, near the DNC, near the RNC, where those two bombs were found. Also places him at -- near that location of the restaurant that is right near the RNC. It appears, according to the FBI, what he might have been doing was casing the locations before he planted those bombs. Again, we're going to expect to see -- to hear a lot more from prosecutors and from the FBI in the coming hours.

Sara.

SIDNER: Evan Perez, it is always good to have you on to just explain all that's going on in these kinds of cases. Really do appreciate it. Thank you so much for your reporting.

John.

BERMAN: All right, happening now, Health Secretary Robert Kennedy's handpicked vaccine adviser is set to vote on new regulations. Why one person there says this is unconscionable.

A federal grand jury decides not to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James. New reporting on if the Justice Department will try again.

And how police broke up a million-dollar sneaker theft ring. And what a stop at Wawa had to do with it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were good at what they did. But Detective Pearlman back here is better at what he does. These individuals are going to be trading in their -- their nice Air Jordans for these kicks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:21:15]

SIDNER: Happening right now, a panel of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s hand-picked advisers are meeting, expecting to vote on scrapping long-standing recommendations to give the hepatitis b vaccine to newborns. This vote was actually supposed to happen yesterday, but it was delayed because of confusion and disagreement among the panel over the language of what they'd actually be voting on.

Joining me now is Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, and former White House Covid-19 response coordinator.

Thank you so much for being here.

Let me, for viewers, just get to what things -- where things stand right now. Why is a hepatitis b vaccine recommended for newborns at this moment?

DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Yes. First of all, thanks for having me back on the show.

Look, hepatitis b is transmitted into newborns, one of the major modes of transmission, from moms who might be infected, and giving vaccines at the time of birth essentially immunizes that child against developing long term chronic complications, like liver failure or liver cancer. So, it's an enormously useful thing to do.

And we've been doing it for 25 years. It's worked great. Kids largely don't have hepatitis b in the U.S. because of it. There is no reason to go back and revisit this policy at this point.

And that's what ACIP is doing, is revisiting all of these well- established policies in a way that's really just not helpful.

SIDNER: Dr. Jha, if there, in your words, there isn't any new evidence to justify these changes, then why do you think this is being pushed forward, the vote is being pushed forward?

JHA: Well -- yes. So, Secretary Kennedy has been very skeptical of all vaccines for his entire life, or his adult life has been. And what he's done now, as secretary, is begun to dismantle the strategy we've had for keeping kids safe using vaccinations. So, this is just one part of that broader attack on the vaccine strategy that America has used to lower infections and deaths among kids. There's no new evidence here. There's no good reason to do this.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you this. You know, when you're looking at the details of what happened to stop the vote from happening yesterday, some of the members said that the voting language changed three times over three days. I mean how unusual is that?

JHA: All of what is happening at ACIP is very unusual. I thought Senator Bill Cassidy, yesterday, said it best when he said ACIP, this committee that Secretary Kennedy has, is now totally discredited. Usually these meetings are public, they're open. There is very clear evidence presented. The votes are on language that has been well vetted and everybody knows it. None of that is really happening in any serious way. So, this is all very unusual and very unfortunate.

SIDNER: Do you think that the public is just losing confidence in the CDC and the ACIP? I mean, how do you read it?

JHA: Yes, I mean, look, unfortunately, you know, what we're seeing right now is a further attempt to undermine confidence in vaccines. My view is that CDC has become so dysfunctional. As Senator Cassidy said, ACIP is -- has become so discredited that the public is going to have to turn to their doctors, to their state health officials to get high- quality information because, sadly, it is no longer coming from the CDC.

SIDNER: Well, all right, Dr. Ashish Jha, thank you so much for your expertise on this.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, today, sports fans around the world will have all of their eyes on Washington, D.C. And the FIFA men's World Cup draw is just a couple hours away. And joining us ahead of that, one of the top players on the U.S. team.

[09:25:01]

So, who let the dogs out? Oh, my goodness. Apparently artists in Miami. What's behind this half human, half canine art?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Drama inside court. Judges telling the Justice Department that Lindsey Halligan's name should not be in court documents. Going as far as even striking her name from paperwork while sitting on the bench. All of this after a court found Halligan's appointment as interim U.S. attorney invalid.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz has much more detail and more reporting on this.

Katelyn, what is going on?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Kate, it is the falling action of what happens after a judge dismissed both the cases against James Comey and Letitia James.

[09:30:02]

Cases that Donald Trump really wanted. What has happened in court since then is this judge is finding it was that Lindsey Halligan, the prosecutor.