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Netflix CO-CEO: Paramount's Hostile Bid for WBD Entirely Expected; Interview with Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): More Lawmakers Back Release of Double-Tap Boat Strike Videos; Education Department Temporarily Bringing Back Workers Placed on Leave. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired December 08, 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]

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: ... Friends or relatives of the president or the power broker trying to buy up media companies, trying to buy up news outlets. We have seen that in countries like Hungary. I'm not saying it's happening right here in the U.S., but Kushner's name attached to the Paramount bid raised a lot of eyebrows earlier today.

Now, when it comes to Trump talking about Netflix, Ted Sarandos, the co-CEO of Netflix, has been working that relationship hard. He was in the Oval Office last month selling Trump on the merits of the deal. So notice how Trump reacted just now.

He didn't play favorites. He said he doesn't really like either of them. I think he's enjoying being able to keep his options open.

I want to read what Business Insider's Peter Kafka said a few minutes ago. He said, Despite grave warnings about Trump's concern about this bid versus that bid, he is delighted to be the kingmaker, right? This is a little bit like The Apprentice, Boris, Trump being able to choose between multiple suitors.

But it's important to note Trump does not get a veto here. Yes, he can make this process more painful for a buyer, but he cannot actually block it. In 2017, the Trump Justice Department went to court trying to stop AT&T from buying Time Warner, which at the time owned CNN and HBO.

There was a lengthy court fight, in part because Time Warner and AT&T were worried that Trump was trying to interfere with CNN. Those executives took it to court. They fought and they won.

AT&T was able to go ahead with the merger. So there is a history here of Trump trying to meddle, and there is a history here of media companies fighting back.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We'll see how it goes. Brian Stelter, thanks so much.

Still to come, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth facing new criticism over the deadly strikes in the Caribbean. Will that video of the double tap attack be released? The president also just addressed this. Here what he said next.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: The administration under pressure to release the full video of a follow-up strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean that killed survivors back in September. Only a handful of senior lawmakers have now seen this classified footage, and the feedback so far is sharply divided along party lines. Moments ago, President Trump was pressed by a reporter about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you ordering the secretary to release that full video?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Whatever he decides is OK with me. So every boat we knock out of the water, every boat, we save 25,000 American lives. That was a boat loaded up with drugs.

I saw the video. They were trying to turn the boat back to where it could float, and we didn't want to see that because that boat was loaded up with drugs just like everything else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Of course, questions about the direction of that boat and whether that was ultimately drugs heading for America. Nonetheless, let's talk now with Democratic Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois. I wonder, do you think that this strike was a war crime, as your Illinois colleague and Iraq War veteran Senator Tammy Duckworth told CNN's Dana Bash she believes it is?

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): Based on what my colleagues have said about that video, because I haven't seen it myself, it appears that it would be a war crime. We have specific rules and regulations that would prevent somebody from doing what was done here. In fact, the law of war manual that's issued by the Navy would say to go and rescue these people if it would not risk their own safety.

But just putting this in perspective, this is yet another instance where the Trump administration and Pete Hegseth don't want to be held accountable. And where people don't get held accountable, bad things happen. I think that's what's going on right here.

KEILAR: Two sources with direct knowledge tell CNN that Admiral Mitch Bradley told lawmakers last week that he'd consulted with the uniformed lawyer on duty during the operation before he approved that secondary strike that killed survivors. The sources added that the JAG officer assessed that it would be legal to move forward with the second strike. How are you viewing that new information?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, remember, when Pete Hegseth came to the Pentagon, he fired every JAG officer at the time. And so the people that have been put in place are largely his own choices and people who toe the line. And I have to see it for myself.

Let's see the video. Release the video so we can verify for ourselves exactly what happened.

KEILAR: Do you want to hear from that JAG officer?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Absolutely. I'd love to hear from the JAG officer, but I want to see the video. That's what everybody is asking for.

Why do people want to see the video? For multiple reasons. One, to be able to verify the account of how Pete Hegseth and others are describing it.

And then two, so that there's accountability here. The American people need to know for themselves how force is being used in their name. You know, we have the DEA and other agencies that have been charged with committing or basically interdicting drugs and narcotics.

And here it appears that a secret war is brewing off the coast of Venezuela in the American people's name. Even at the same time that the president is pardoning and releasing narco-terrorists into the wild, like the former president of Honduras. So we need to know for ourselves what's going on here.

[15:40:00]

KEILAR: The defense secretary is noncommittal on releasing the video. He's raised concerns about protecting sources and methods. What's your reaction to that?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: That's laughable. I think there are ways to release this video so that sources and methods are not revealed. Remember, they've already released video of maybe a dozen or more similar strikes. The fact that they don't want to release similar footage with two people potentially clinging for their lives to wreckage, potentially hailing for what appears to be overhead aircraft, maybe to come save them, is maybe an indication that the real reason he doesn't want to release the video is because it's somehow incriminating.

That it would somehow kind of show that what happened here was wrong and indeed illegal.

KEILAR: You are -- separately I want to ask you about this. You're running for Senate in 2026. And the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting today that over the course of your congressional campaigns for years, including this one for the Senate, you've received more than $90,000 in contributions from Trump allies and MAGA donors, including almost $30,000 from Shyam Sankar, the chief technology officer for the company Palantir. CNN has reported that ICE awarded Palantir nearly $30 million earlier this year to develop something called Immigration OS. It's a system not just for collecting information, but for shaping enforcement decisions in some of these immigration actions.

CNN reached out to Palantir for comment at the time on that. I know you have voiced your repeated concern about federal immigration operations in Illinois. Are you comfortable with the financial support of Palantir's CTO, which has come as recently as June 2025, according to this report?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I think it's very disconcerting what ICE is doing and any tools that they might be using in their operations. With regard to the bigger charge, it's kind of laughable. 0.2 percent of my contributions have come from similar Republican donors. I think my main opponent has received 10 times that amount. Nobody's more anti- MAGA than me, whether it's ICE, or with regard to tariffs, or with regard to Donald Trump himself, having voted to impeach him twice and led the initial investigation of him for impeachment.

So I think at this point, I'm going to let my record stand, and I'm going to continue to hold the president accountable at this point.

KEILAR: I mean, to that point, though, and I hear what you're saying about the breadth of your donations, but this one specifically being from Palantir's CTO, as Palantir has been paid for this particular service, which I mean, I imagine is, I mean, is that something that you oppose sort of the -- I'm asking you, is that the service that Palantir is being provided?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Yes, I don't want -- yes, I don't want anybody providing ICE with tools that could be used to somehow racially profile people or discriminate against anybody. They are out of control at this point. And so what ICE is doing, especially in my district and in Chicago is completely unacceptable.

KEILAR: So then are you rethinking that? And I'm not talking about the breadth of your donations, I'm talking about specifically about this one that, you know, this story is being written because that donation appears to go counter. You don't support this particular kind of service, and yet you're accepting some financial support from Palantir's CTO.

Does that give you pause about that donation? Is that something you might revisit?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Yes.

KEILAR: All right, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, thank you so much for being with us. Really appreciate it.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Thank you so much.

KEILAR: And still to come, an update from a key hearing in the murder trial of Luigi Mangione.

[15:45:37]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Now to some of the headlines that we're watching this hour. After calling out sick last Friday, accused killer Luigi Mangione was back in a New York courtroom today to resume his pretrial hearing.

Mangione is charged in the fatal shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. He came face to face with the police officers who arrested him inside a Pennsylvania McDonald's. Those officers found potentially incriminating evidence inside Mangione's backpack, evidence that defense attorneys are trying to get tossed out.

Also, a powerful earthquake triggering a tsunami warning and evacuations in Japan. Video shows violent shaking across different parts of the country. The Japan Meteorological Agency said some areas experienced tsunami waves early this morning that it caused power outages.

That warning has since been downgraded to an advisory. Japan's new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, says the government is now working on emergency response measures.

And after months of speculation, pop star Katy Perry and former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are an actual couple. Look at this photo here. They went Instagram official over the weekend, cuddling up to each other here. Perry posting photos online, all smiles, cheek to cheek during a stop on her world tour.

Cute photo there -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Hundreds of previously fired workers at the Department of Education are being told to return to work temporarily.

[15:50:00]

Back in March, nearly half of federal workers at the Education Department were fired by the Trump administration. But after a court battle, they were reinstated and then placed on administrative leave. Now, department heads are bringing back some 250 employees with the Office of Civil Rights to help with an existing caseload of discrimination complaints.

CNN Washington correspondent Sunlen Serfaty joins us now. Sunlen, what else can you tell us about this reversal?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, employees within this agency, they say that this reversal really is, they say, a tacit admission on the part of the administration that they went too far with the gutting of parts of this agency at the Department of Education, that they essentially just need people to come back and do the work that's being undone at the moment. Now, this is happening in a very small office within the Department of Education. It's called the Office for Civil Rights.

They deal with civil rights violations against students in school. And many employees, they had been on administrative leave after they were terminated in March, they were brought back with a court case. So they were essentially in this purgatory where they could not work, they were being prohibited from working.

But they essentially were still being paid. So they're in this purgatory situation. That's all changed this late in the day e-mail on Friday afternoon of last week, they were called back to 50 of them called back according to the e-mail that we obtained.

It says, It is important to refocus OCR's work and utilize all OCR staff to prioritize OCR's existing complaint caseload.

Now that certainly piqued the interest of many employees that were in this situation where they saw the backlog in this time over the course of the year just grow and grow. By way of comparison, prior to the inauguration this year, OCR had 9,000 cases pending.

They now, according to sources, have 16,000 cases pending. So those are cases that are not getting solved, not getting taken up and students that certainly need help. So the office is calling these employees back essentially saying we need help to get through this caseload.

Interestingly enough, though, this is on a temporary basis. Now, that's important to note here. Julie Harmon, who's press secretary at the Department of Education says, ... in the meantime, it will utilize all employees currently being compensated by American taxpayers, saying that the move is very temporary.

It's important to note there because their final goal, of course, is to dismantle the agency. So they're saying we come back for a certain time period, but then we intend to not have you stay full time.

SANCHEZ: Wow, Sunlen Serfaty thanks so much for that reporting.

Still ahead, a Pineapple Express that ain't so sweet. Details ahead.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: A bit of an odd name for weather phenomena, a "Pineapple Express." And though it seems kind of funny right now, it's raising extreme flooding concerns that could bring life-threatening conditions to millions of Americans in the coming days.

KEILAR: We have meteorologist Derek Van Dam standing by. All right, Derek, what exactly are you tracking and where?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Boris, Brianna, I wish it sounded as sweet as it does, but unfortunately, the pineapple express is bringing gloomy conditions to the Pacific Northwest. Just look at this live sky cam of Seattle. It's shaking.

The winds are out of the south. You can see the raindrops hitting the lens. Very low ceiling here.

And there's a space needle with downtown Seattle in the background, really paints a big picture here of what's happening. And we call it an atmospheric river. And we really have to look to where this originates to get a better handle of what type of weather pattern we are going to be dealing with across the Pacific Northwest, which it is here to stay for the next several days.

We call it a pineapple express because of its deep connection with the tropics. And a lot of this moisture just being funneled in from Hawaii, where they grow a large portion of our, let's say, pineapples, for instance, right? So that tropical connection is so key to what type of weather we'll encounter here across the Pacific Northwest.

And with the mild connection from the pineapple express, it looks like it's going to be all rain and a lot of it we could see over a foot in some locations. This is the current radar. It's really lighting up like a Christmas tree right now.

Of course, snowfall indicated with the blues and purple, the heavy rain indicated in the yellow. And look at how it fluctuates from north to south. That's very characteristic of an atmospheric river, which we actually dub as a river in the sky.

Get this, it has the ability to transport up to 15 times the amount of water that flows through the Mississippi River. So that is all being transported in the form of heavy rainfall. And it will be significant enough to potentially raise river levels to major flood stage going forward.

You can see all the projections here around nine major flood stage gauges here in the coming days. So we're going to look out for landslides, mudslides, and urban flooding from Seattle southward into Portland, Oregon. So this is really the hot spot for rough weather coming up.

Along with that, with all the rain and all of the wind, we have the potential to knock down some trees, some power lines, and that will be a concern for much of the Intermountain West -- Boris, Brianna.

KEILAR: Derek, thank you so much. I thought he -- I thought we had a kicker story about like an off-season cocktail.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: And it turns out.

SANCHEZ: No, it's scary weather.

KEILAR: Yes. We have to keep an eye on that.

SANCHEZ: We also have this. This is pretty cool.

KEILAR: We do. OK we do have this and this is cool.

The Rockham Sockham robots that we grew up with. Certainly they didn't look like this. Did they?

No. A straight left kick sending the CEO of a Chinese robotics company flying to the ground. Engine AI showing off its latest technology in a new video posted online.

SANCHEZ: This is in response to accusations that it's humanoid T800 robot wasn't real at all, but rather a CGI effect. Tell that to their CEO, who's now on the ground, even though he's smiling. I bet that didn't feel great.

[16:00:00]

The company says it's planning more demonstrations in the future. That's today's edition of what are we doing?

KEILAR: That is the fakest smile. He's like, I'm so glad this robot just kicked my you know what.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: My goodness. All right, "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

END