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Hegseth to Brief Gang of 8 on Boat Strikes today; Interview with Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA): Trump Says Zelenskyy Has to Start Accepting Things, He's Losing; Forensic Scientist to Retake the Stand in Walshe Murder Trial. Aired 9-9:30a ET
Aired December 09, 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]
JACOB ELORDI, ACTOR: You can't just go, I'm going to just,
GWYNETH PALTROW, ACTOR: I know --
ELORDI: I'm going to just get off now.
PALTROW: Basically feel like as actors, we're so lucky to be in a position where we're able to do it and get paid for it. And it doesn't, I mean, I can just speak for myself. I never thought like, hey, like maybe you should take a break or just say no to this one thing or slow down.
It was like this, I don't know, breathless ferociousness around. Like if I, what if I don't get another job and as opposed to being more strategic.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Now I interviewed them after off the set and Jacob told me that he grew up watching Gwyneth's films and was such a fan. And Gwyneth said that she was a fan of Jacob in Euphoria -- Kate.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So I'm very interested to hear out more of this conversation. It's great to see Elizabeth. This has been an amazing series as it's been rolling out. And you can catch more of this "ACTORS ON ACTORS" Interview with Gwyneth Paltrow and Jacob Elordi right now on CNN All Access.
A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking this morning, President Trump says he has seen the video of the double-tap strike off the coast of Venezuela that some call a war crime. What he just said about these images.
Millions of Americans bracing for a giant atmospheric river, possible flooding and landslide as a different front moves east.
And a plane makes a crash landing on a busy highway and slams right into a car.
I'm John Berman with Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.
BOLDUAN: Let's get to the breaking news this morning. President Trump in a lengthy new interview addressing again that deadly double-tap strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean. The president telling Politico that he would be fine with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testifying before Congress about it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't care if he does. He can, if he wants. I don't care
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think he should?
TRUMP: I don't care. I would say do it if you want. He's doing a great job --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you watched the video?
TRUMP: -- and he's stopping. I watched everything. Yes, I watch everything. I see a lot of things.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And do you believe that second strike --
TRUMP: It's not pretty.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- was necessary?
TRUMP: Well, it looked like they were trying to turn back over the boat, but I don't get involved in that. That's up to them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOLDUAN: The president saying he doesn't get involved in that. Sources tell CNN that Hegseth will speak to lawmakers today alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs briefing a group of lawmakers known as the Gang of Eight. These are the Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate and the top members, as you see, they're listed, top members of the intelligence committees.
That double-tap strike will almost certainly come up as Congress is continuing to push for the release of that follow up strike that happened on September 2nd. And in a new twist, we've learned there's a provision tucked inside that massive defense policy bill that would cut the defense secretary's travel budget unless he releases unedited versions of the boat -- of boat strike video to the relevant congressional committees. But will he and will it -- meaning the second follow up strike -- will that video be released publicly?
As of last week, President Trump said that he had no problem seeing that follow strike video release. But now he denies ever saying that.
CNN's Zach Cohen has much more on this. A lot's just happened just this morning. And now what are you hearing about this briefing today?
ZACH COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Kate, sources telling us that this briefing is expected to cover a range of topics, including U.S. military operations around Latin America. But this is really the first opportunity top lawmakers will have to directly question Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about his role in that September 2nd strike. Where U.S. forces appeared to kill the survivors of the first strike with a follow on double-tap strike, the one that has raised allegations of a potential war crime from U.S. lawmakers. Hegseth, General Caine and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, will be joined by CIA Director John Ratcliffe as they all travel to the Hill to brief these top lawmakers today.
I mean, it, of course, comes after General Caine and Admiral Bradley, the special operations commander who oversaw that September 2nd strike, talked to lawmakers behind closed doors last week and showed them that unedited video, that unedited video that Democrats and Republicans are both calling for to be released publicly. Now, that's something, as you mentioned, that Donald Trump at first said that he supported and has since walked that back, leaving the decision up ultimately to Pete Hegseth.
Listen to what Pete Hegseth said this weekend, though, when asked very directly if he planned to release that video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[09:05:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, Mr. Secretary, you will be releasing that full video.
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We are reviewing it right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that a yes or no?
HEGSETH: That is for the most important thing to me are the ongoing operations in the Caribbean with our folks that use bespoke capabilities, techniques, procedures in the process. I'm way more interested in protecting that than anything else.
So we're reviewing the process and we'll see.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: So lawmakers are ramping up the pressure on Hegseth, which includes including a provision in their massive defense policy bill that would cut Hegseth's travel budget if he does not give that unedited video to the relevant committees, the Senate and House Armed Services Committees. So we'll have to ultimately see what he decides on that front. But lawmakers today are certainly going to have a lot of questions for him when he goes to Capitol Hill.
BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And it is quite interesting to hear the president. This may be one of the rare areas where he wants to keep his hands -- and is making clear he wants to keep his hands as far away from this one as possible.
Zach, it's good to see you, thank you -- John.
BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight, brand new comments from President Trump saying that Russia has the upper hand and that it is time for President Zelenskyy of Ukraine to, quote, start accepting things. The president's comments come, obviously, at a sensitive moment in negotiations, as Zelenskyy is stating very clearly that Ukraine will not give up land to Russia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If this deal, if Zelenskyy rejects this deal, is there a timeline? Is there a point at which you say, OK?
TRUMP: Well, he's going to have to get on the ball and start accepting things. You know, when you're losing, because you're losing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Let's get right to CNN's Jim Sciutto in Washington. Jim, I have to say, it seems more clear than ever this morning based on what we just heard from the president and also Zelenskyy overnight.
They're in different places here.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: They are. And listen, John, it's turning the clock back to February to that infamous Oval Office meeting, at least in Trump's view of the situation. You remember at the time he said, you have no cards, you know, scolding the Ukrainian leader to say, in effect, you're losing. You got to give up.
We're back in that place after some brief signs of hope in recent months, including just going back to September. You remember when Trump said quite publicly that he thought Ukraine could even win back all the land that Russia had taken since its full scale invasion.
What's key here, John, is that it is not clear what President Trump is basing his view of the war on, because there is no definitive new U.S. assessment saying that Ukraine is losing the war. Russia is making progress on the front lines, but slow progress at a very great cost to its own forces. And while Ukrainian defenses are under strain, those defenses still remain quite formidable.
So in a war of attrition, perhaps over years, but the idea that Ukraine is losing today is not something that even President Trump's own intelligence agencies believe. So it's not clear where he's getting this new view.
BERMAN: In the meeting that Volodymyr Zelenskyy had, we were with you as it was beginning with European leaders. Is there a sense what came out of it at the end, where he left things with Europe?
SCIUTTO: This is my understanding, and I spoke with multiple European diplomats yesterday and last night, is that Europe is doing its very best not to further alienate the U.S. president. They don't want to say anything too different from the president publicly, while privately they are trying to maintain their own unity of support for Ukraine, because their view of the war is frankly quite different from the American president's view of the war. They view it as existential, not just for Ukraine, but for Europe.
They don't believe that the Russian threat ends at Ukraine's borders. They believe that Russia quite directly threatens the rest of Europe. They want to keep the U.S. on board for as long as possible, for as much as possible. They worry they might lose that with this president, that he might just get bored and turned away, but they are not on the same page that the U.S. president is, that Ukraine is losing, or that the U.S. and Europe should apply pressure on Ukraine to give up territory. There's a big divide between the U.S. and its allies on this.
BERMAN: Walking on some eggshells there, in the meantime.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
BERMAN: CNN's Chief National Security Analyst Jim Sciutto, always great to see you. Thank you very much -- Sara.
SIDNER: All right, joining me now is Democratic Congressman Adam Smith of Washington state. He is a ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee.
Thank you so much for being here. I do want to start with just asking you what you make of the president's latest comments where he's attacking Zelenskyy again.
[09:10:00]
REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA), ARMED SERVIES COMMITTEE: Yes, we're back to the same problematic place that we were from the start of this administration, where President Trump fundamentally misunderstands that Putin is driving this war. He invaded. Putting pressure on Putin is what's going to end the war.
Ukraine is holding strong at the moment, despite what Russia is doing. But the biggest impediment for the last, gosh, almost year now has been President Trump consistently undermining Zelenskyy, whereby our European partners have made it clear, we're not going to abandon Ukraine.
If we had a clear statement of support, if Putin didn't sit there thinking, well, if I just wait for another month or week or however long, then maybe the U.S. will abandon Ukraine, that would put us in a much stronger position to help negotiate an end to this war. So, you know, Trump's priorities are in the wrong place. And then the national security strategy that came out last week that didn't even really mention Russia as a threat, I think fundamentally misunderstands what's going on in Europe, undermines Ukraine, but it also undermines our ability to actually get to a peace deal, because Putin keeps fighting if he thinks eventually we might bail on Ukraine. SIDNER: I'm curious what you make of these comments where he talks to the president, tells Politico. These are just freshly released comments. He tells Politico what he thinks about how Europe is doing.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you intend to send kind of a message of tough love to our allies to push them to make reforms, or do you think that many of them are just weak and you don't really want to be allies with them?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think they're weak, but I also think that they want to be so politically correct that I think they don't know what to do. Europe doesn't know what to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: Does the U.S. know what to do?
SMITH: Well, look, I mean, it's fundamental principle of our national security, and that is that Europe is a strong ally. You know, we are support -- supposed to support liberal democracy, a pursuit of human rights, a pursuit of greater equality and opportunity. Putin represents brutal autocracy and aggression violating the sovereignty of other nations.
We are supposed to be against that, and Europe is clearly against that. Look, Europe has economic struggles. We have economic struggles.
We're in debt more than they are. But I still believe the NATO alliance is incredibly strong and incredibly successful. I mean, what was it? Almost four years ago now when Putin invaded Ukraine, most people thought it would be over in a couple of weeks.
But a very strong alliance put together by Joe Biden of 54 nations helped Ukraine stand up and fight and resist that aggression, resist that autocracy. I mean, look, do we believe in democracy and freedom or not?
And I understand realism. I don't want us spreading democracy at the point of a gun. I don't think that works, and I don't think we can do it all over the world.
But when you have a sovereign democratic country like Ukraine invaded and attacked by an autocratic power, a repressive autocratic power, we ought to be able to say, we're with Ukraine, but we're not with Russia, and stop concerning ourselves about whether or not we love all of the politics that's going on in Europe or not. The alliance and standing up to Russian aggression is vastly more important.
SIDNER: Let me ask you about what the president told Politico about whether he watched the video of that double-tap strike that has stirred so much controversy. Here's what he said when asked.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you watched the video?
TRUMP: He was stopping.
I watched everything. Yes, I watched everything. I see a lot of things.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And do you believe that that second strike was necessary?
TRUMP: Well, it looked like they were trying to turn back over the boat, but I don't get involved in that. That's up to them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: You were in the briefing. Is that what Admiral Bradley said when he was asked about what happened to the two suspects and whether or not they turned the boat over to, as Senator Tom Cotton put it, continue their mission?
SMITH: Yes, if you see the video, there's no way they were trying to continue their mission. I mean, very early on, after they had gotten up on top of the wreckage, which is basically what this was, it's the capsized bow of the boat. It looks like the boat's probably split in half.
Now there's a portion of it that's under the water, so you can't tell for sure. Early on, they were pulling on it. What they were trying to do, I'm not sure.
But by the time we took the strike, even Admiral Bradley admitted they were not trying to turn the boat over. And that boat was going to be of no use whatsoever. It was drifting with the current. It was going wherever the current was going to take it.
But also, President Trump, just not taking responsibility for his decisions is deeply troubling. He's the commander-in-chief. He's the president.
Secretary Hegseth, Secretary of Defense, he too was trying to go, eh, well, no, it wasn't my thing. I wasn't there. I didn't see it.
They are our leaders. They are the civilian leadership of our military. And they shouldn't throw the uniformed people under the bus. They should stand up and take responsibility for the orders they gave.
SIDNER: Congressman Adam Smith, it's a pleasure. Thank you for speaking to us this morning. I do appreciate it -- Kate.
[09:15:00]
BOLDUAN: Buying bottles of ammonia and a hacksaw. Some of the new evidence just revealed in court as part of the murder trial of Brian Walshe. The trial is set to start back up moments from now.
And Kiss frontman Gene Simmons headed to Capitol Hill today, why he wants Congress to tell radio stations to pay up.
Plus, scary moments. There's new video that's coming in. Just watch this. As a train barrels into a car waiting to cross the tracks. Got an update on that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIDNER: Happening now, a flooding threat and even warnings of landslides as an atmospheric river rips across the Pacific Northwest, dumping record-breaking amounts of rain. Let's go straight to Derek Van Dam, who is tracking all of this for us. You talked about this atmospheric river and what that all meant.
How much rain is falling? How dangerous is it getting?
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, you know what? I just checked out some of the observations across the Pacific Northwest.
[09:20:00]
There's areas that have already received over a half a foot. And Sara, this is just the appetizer of what's to come. And you can see that it's already creating travel chaos on the roadways. This is coming out of Olympia, just south of Seattle.
The ground is saturated and trees are starting to tumble as well. Now, I want to talk about where this atmospheric river is originating. It's got deep tropical connections and that's so important because it's funneling in warm air to the Pacific Northwest.
But look at this. You can just track the moisture all the way to the state of Hawaii, into the Pacific Northwest. And that is funneling that fire hose of water into this region. Right now, located across Portland.
So the heaviest rain just south of Seattle. You can see the precipitation, the radar really lighting up like a Christmas tree. Interstate 5 and 90, really treacherous driving conditions with ponding on the roadways. Of course, this is spilling into the local rivers across the region.
Right now, we have five river gauges at major flood stage. Look what's predicted by Thursday. 14 river gauges could reach major flood status.
In fact, the National Weather Service is calling for a record-setting crest of the Snohomish River. That will previously break a previously set record of 17 years ago. So we have nearly 10 million Americans under this flood watch.
Remember, flood watch means be prepared. Flooding is possible. Flood warning and that bright shading of green means it is imminent. It is happening. Take action.
So look at the fluctuation in the intensity as this atmospheric river in the sky goes north to south. That is where it points the heaviest rain. And we could see well over a foot in some locations. Landslides, mudslides, urban flooding all on the table here -- Sara.
SIDNER: Yes, I mean, Washington's used to a lot of rain. But this is really dangerous. Thank you so much. This is tremendous. Derek Van Dam, really do appreciate it -- Kate.
BOLDUAN: All right, so this morning, testimony resumes in the trial of accused murderer Brian Walshe. First up, a forensic scientist is expected to retake the stand. Walshe, remember, says that he did not kill his wife, Ana, though he has pleaded guilty and admits to disposing of her body around New Year's Day back in 2023.
Monday in court, jurors saw more photos of evidence, including -- well, you're seeing some of it here -- but photos included a knife, hammer, hacksaw, all found in his home or in dumpsters that a witness said tested positive for blood. They also saw surveillance images in court of Brian Walshe in the days after his wife was last seen alive.
CNN's Jean Casarez following every development on this. Jean, walk us through what's expected then today.
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, court is just about to begin. The attorneys are in place. The defense wanted a sidebar.
The defense is on cross-examination now with the forensic scientist Matthew Sheehan. And he is the forensic scientist that did the testing to determine what was positive for actual blood. So you see this case is progressing now. And then we'll have the DNA expert to see if it's Ana's blood.
But yesterday, there were some videos that were published for the jury. And they were -- you just want to look at the details. That's what you want to look at. I think we have Lowe's, because he went to Lowe's on January 1st, about 5:30 in the evening.
So this is less than 24 hours since his wife either passed by sudden death or homicide. And he is getting so many cleaning supplies. Those blue things, those are five-gallon buckets. He got five of them.
He got mops. He got mop refills. He got some tools, including a hacksaw and a hammer.
He got the Tyvek suit. He got 200 rags. And look at his demeanor.
He's calm. He's calm. This is self-checkout, but they're helping him because he has so many items.
Actually, at one point, he starts bagging them himself to help out the cashier. He makes sure that everything is in order in the basket.
But think about what the defense said in opening. He became frantic once his wife died of sudden death. He went to a very dark place. This is not that personality that we see.
Of course, we don't know what zone he's in. If he takes the stand, he'll have to testify to that. But he went back to Lowe's on January 4th. You've got to see this because it was another Lowe's, but he walks in the door and he's not alone. He brought what we believe is one of his three young sons with him. And this was to get cleanup supplies from dismembering his wife to get all the evidence he could out of the home.
There he is at the self-checkout. The little boy is holding some of the items. He has no idea what he's holding right there.
And he is scanning the items. At one point, he looks into the camera at the self-checkout.
[09:25:00]
I want you to see this because he looks and he suddenly sees himself and he says, oh, my hair. Look at my hair. And he has a little smile on his face.
This is someone that just lost his wife. So what I'm saying is that video like this could turn a jury. They could look at this and decide, you know, beyond a reasonable doubt, that's a killer right there. There's no emotion.
But the defense is trying to show that's not premeditation, that's not causing the death. That's something he already pleaded guilty to -- Kate.
BOLDUAN: All right, Jean, thank you so much for walking us through that. And they start back up moments from now -- John.
BERMAN: Yes, that was an incredible play-by-play for me right there. And, of course, you can watch it all day long on CNN All Access.
American farmers suffering their worst crisis since the 1980s with tariffs making the situation worse. What they're now saying about the new White House bailout.
And stunning new video coming in after a powerful earthquake sparked worldwide concern.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
