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Instacart Using AI to Gauge Customer Price Sensitivity; Interview with Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH): Senate to Vote on Republican and Democratic Health Care Plans; At Least 8 Rivers and Creeks Hit Major Flood Stage in Washington State; Brian Walshe's Defense to Present Case After Prosecution Rests. Aired 8:00-8:30a ET

Aired December 11, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: To everyone in the studio.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: I mean, do you do this right now?

BERMAN: Everyone important in this.

BOLDUAN: Anyone who's -- everyone who's seen the movies maybe, maybe. Let's turn to this right now.

If you are using Instacart to get your grocery deliveries, you may be paying hundreds of dollars more than if you just shopped in-store. A new investigation by Consumer Reports found that Instacart is using AI to increase prices for some customers. CNN's Clare Duffy explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: This report found that Instacart used an AI algorithm designed to gauge how price sensitive different consumers are. Essentially, how much a retailer could charge someone for a specific item before they decided not to purchase it. And that Instacart used that information to charge different consumers different prices for the same household staples from major retailers like Costco, Kroger, and Target.

They note that this is different from regular dynamic pricing where prices change automatically based on supply and demand. And the group that conducted this report, Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collective, they said in a statement, "Corporate practices like these increase prices for American families. When prices are no longer predictable, shoppers can't properly budget."

Now, Instacart told CNN that each retailer's pricing is displayed on the company's storefront on the website so that consumers can see the difference between online and in-store prices. The company also said that it runs limited short-term randomized tests to help retailers decide which items to keep affordable for consumers. But of course, this isn't a great look given this is a time when so many American families are struggling right now with higher grocery prices.

Back to you. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: A widespread weather threat across Washington state. The governor warning life-threatening conditions -- of life-threatening conditions as floodwaters continue to rise and there is more rain in the forecast.

Plus, shockwaves through college sports this morning. University of Michigan's head football coach fired for what the school calls an inappropriate relationship. And then he's jailed, which is where he is still this morning. What is going on here? We've got new reporting.

And terrifying video. A skydiver's chute gets caught on the wing of a plane tangled during his jump. How he managed to get free and how he made it back to the ground safely.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. Sara is out today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BOLDUAN: Let's start with that breaking news. Records shattered as historic rains are slamming the Pacific Northwest. And this morning, a serious warning from officials there that it is far from over.

Some people were trapped in their homes overnight. They had to be rescued by a helicopter to get to safety. Also, multiple other high- water rescues are taking place across Washington state and Oregon.

At least eight rivers are now at major flood stage. Heavy rains have just pounded the states for the past few days as what's called an atmospheric river sweeps across the Pacific Northwest. The city of Bellingham, Washington, and just north of Seattle, the way they're described it, quote, shattered its daily rainfall record.

Up to 100,000 people were told to evacuate their homes yesterday as this threat was really setting in. The warnings remain in effect today. We're going to talk to the mayor of a town hit very hard by this rain and the flooding in just a few minutes -- John.

BERMAN: Yes, we are keeping our eye on that as the sun will rise there shortly.

Meanwhile, happening today, maybe the last best chance for Congress to vote on health care measures before costs for millions of Americans rise substantially at the end of the year. Expanded subsidies for Obamacare expire after December 31st.

The Senate is expected to vote today on two dueling proposals. Democrats want to extend the subsidies for three years. Republicans are proposing something else, expanding health savings account, putting money into some health savings account.

That would not directly address the expiring. And there is new reporting this morning, signaling there may be cracks forming among Republicans over what they are proposing. With us now is Senator Jon Husted, a Republican from Ohio. He is on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Center.

Senator, it's great to see you this morning. Thanks so much for coming on. You have a proposal that isn't going to a vote today that would extend Obamacare subsidies at their current level for two more years.

Why do you think it's important to do that?

SEN. JON HUSTED (R-OH), HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR AND PENSIONS COMMITTEE: Well, because American people are suffering. I talked to pastors, small business owners who seen -- seeing their premiums skyrocket. And so, I want to intervene and do something about it.

[08:05:00]

We know that the current system is broken. The ACA doesn't work. It's been getting bailed out. I don't want to continue to bail it out, but I also don't want people to suffer these premium increases.

So what we've done is said to the Democrats, I'll extend it for two years, but we've got to fix the fraud in it because we know that there's been 20 plus billion dollars in fraud in this system that the money's going to the insurance company. Sometimes people are being signed up without their knowledge.

I said, let's fix that. Let's fix the fraud part of it. Let's extend it for two years and then let's really start to tackle the drivers of health care inflation.

BERMAN: So there are two proposals that are getting votes that you have a proposal that would extend Obamacare subsidies. The Democrats have a proposal that would extend Obamacare subsidies. The Republicans are putting on the floor a plan for health savings account.

So which of the two plans are you going to vote for? The one that extends subsidies like yours does.

HUSTED: Well, I'm going to vote for the Republican plan because that puts the money in the hands of the individual rather than the insurance companies. But understand there's a compromise to be had on this. The reason that the Democrat plan doesn't work is because it just continues to subsidize a broken system.

It sends money to the insurance companies, and it does nothing to prevent the fraud. With what we're seeing in Minneapolis and around the country, people are tired of getting ripped off. How can we knowingly vote for a proposal that is going to rip off the American taxpayer to the tunes of tens of billions of dollars?

Let's fix that. Let's extend the premiums. Let's cap it so that we're not subsidizing the insurance premiums of millionaires.

There's a -- there's a way to do this, but people are going to have to come off of their entrenched positions and begin to compromise.

BERMAN: Off their insurance positions and begin to compromise. That gets to my what my question was going to be. Would you like to see Senate leadership -- because right now they're not putting a vote, a Republican vote on the floor that would extend Obamacare subsidies.

Would you like to see Republican leadership get on board with a plan that would extend them?

HUSTED: I brought my proposal to the floor yesterday. This compromise and the Democrats blocked it. I said, Look, you shut down the government for 43 days over this issue.

I'm giving you that gift in return for you giving us some accountability. And they said, no. I hope when we get through these votes this week that will finally get people to say, OK, let's try to find some middle ground. I know that the Republican leadership is willing to do that. I hope that Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are too.

BERMAN: I want to ask you a question about Venezuela. The United States seized an oil tanker off the coast. This is the latest really incident to happen in that region over the last several weeks.

What's your goal? What do you want to see happen in Venezuela and off the coast? What do you see as the best outcome there?

HUSTED: Well, Maduro should resign. That would be the best outcome there. But these narco-terrorists who have been killing Americans with their poison that they continue to to bring these drugs to -- drugs to our country.

I'm glad that the president is taking action there and stopping that from happening. In this case, with the oil tanker, you have illegal -- an illicit tanker that's violating sanctions and the president saying, hey, if we're going to have rules against this stuff, then let's enforce it. I think that this brings economic pressure on Maduro, and eventually you're going to see him have to step aside.

BERMAN: Senator, finally, Fed chair Jerome Powell yesterday, the Fed cut interest rates ever so slightly indicated they may not do it that much more next year. But in the process, he talked about the jobs market in a way that I had not heard him speak before.

So listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME POWELL, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR: First of all, gradual cooling in the labor market has continued. Unemployment is now up three tenths from June through September. Payroll jobs averaging 40,000 per month since April.

We think there's an over statement in these numbers by about 60,000, so that would be negative 20,000 per month.

It's a complicated, unusual, difficult situation where the labor market is also under pressure, where job creation may actually be negative.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: So that was Fed speak, which can sound dull to a lot of people. But what the Fed chair was actually saying was that he thinks it's possible the economy's been shedding 20,000 jobs a month. You know, what grade would you give to an economy that's losing those kind of jobs monthly?

HUSTED: Yes, it's hard to know with the numbers we get out of the Bureau of Labor Statistics about what the truth is. But I think jobs for American citizens are on the way up. I think jobs for people who are here illegally are on the way down.

And I think -- I think that's I think that's a major factor in this conversation, that you have people who are not -- who were taking jobs that were here illegally. Those folks are going away. I think you're going to see more American citizens get these jobs.

But then you have pressure from things like AI that are pressuring some of the white collar job growth in this country. And so it's it's a difficult transitional period in our economy.

[08:10:00]

But I think that what we did with the -- with the Working Family Tax Cut Act, you're going to see that kick in next year. People are no longer going to -- they're going to, they're going to -- like, the average family of four will save $7,000 in the state of Ohio because no more tax on tips, tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security.

You're going to see every, every family get a tax cut, including a $2,200 tax credit per child. All of that will start to kick in next year, and I think will drive the economy forward.

BERMAN: Senator Jon Husted from Ohio, we appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much, sir -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, so laying out the defense, the legal team for Brian Walshe will make their case today in his murder trial. The man who has admitted to disposing of his wife's body but says that he did not murder her. How do they make that case to the jury now?

And a new pathway to residency in the United States, one that comes with quite a price tag. What the Trump administration is calling and officially launching now, the Trump Gold Card.

And new dash cam footage shows how a trooper prevented potential tragedy, chasing down an alleged drunk driver driving on the wrong side of the road.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:15:00]

BOLDUAN: So the breaking news this morning, people living in communities across Washington state are being told to leave their homes. Eight rivers and creeks are hitting their most severe flood level this morning. Rescuers waded through nearly, as you see here, waist steep water to get to several people and bring them to safety from an RV park near the city of Orting, which is about 20 miles southeast of Tacoma.

And the rain not letting up another one to three inches is possible today and showers could still linger into tomorrow. But what are they dealing with and how are they handling it?

Joining us right now is the mayor of Orting, Washington, Mayor Joshua Penner. Mayor, thank you for being here. Just tell me what is -- what is happening and what has happened. How do you describe what's how hard the community has been hit so far?

MAYOR JOSHUA PENNER, ORTING, WASHINGTON: Good morning. What's happened is three exceptional events in a row. We have this atmospheric river that's hit in the entire region.

And normally we see one of these events maybe every five to 10 years. We've had three in the last two days. And so we're on our third -- third hit of this atmospheric river.

And each one of those is stressing our flood control projects, our flood control systems. We've done relatively well here in Orting. We've planned for this significantly and executed -- executed that the emergency operations center that we we'd set up.

And, you know, it's a system wide, region wide challenge to respond to these sorts of things. But I think we're doing pretty well, all things considered.

BOLDUAN: I guess that's the -- that's kind of the important poll relative, all things considered. I mean, the way the governor had talked about it is this when it comes to some records, they're not just going to be broken. They're going to just be shattered.

I mean, what's your biggest focus right now? What do you think? What's your biggest area of concern?

PENNER: I think my biggest challenge is getting accurate, timely information and making decisions. As you know, we issued an evacuation order for part of our city. Doing that while kids are on their way to school or parents are on their way to work is real challenging.

Being able to identify where the danger is, communicate and effectively get folks out of any potential danger area requires -- requires coordination between different partners. And it requires people on the ground actually going door to door and connecting with our citizens.

BOLDUAN: I was wondering how things are going with that regard. We've seen a lot of reports. We've seen of water rescues. I mean, have you heard any reports of injuries, like how people are managing because according to the forecast, it's still good -- it's still set to be coming.

PENNER: Well, folks are scared right now and there's good reason to be scared. Because, you know, these rivers, we do multiple swift water rescues a year. They can be very dangerous. You know, I think what people can do is they can pay attention to the channels where they communicate most, whether that's social media or news or phone tree.

And we try to put out our information in every modality possible. We also work very closely with our swift water rescue teams through the -- through the county and the state. And so, you know, it's a dangerous situation.

You don't want to get stuck in the river. It's not a slow moving river. It's very fast moving river in this area.

And we're between two rivers in our city. And so, it covers a relatively large geographic region and and we're doing what we can to work with our partners to make sure that it's covered, such as that RV park, which is maybe four or five miles outside of downtown.

BOLDUAN: And as we know, when the rain stops, the river can still rise for a time. So you've got -- you've got you still have hours and likely days before you really are in the clear and can start maybe breathing a sigh of relief here, Mayor.

But thank you so much for coming in. I appreciate your time. Good luck, we're going to be watching this very closely.

Coming up for us. Video showing the moments the United States takes control of a massive Venezuelan oil tanker. What this means in terms of the escalating tensions there and what President Trump says that he plans to do with the oil that was seized.

And hundreds of -- hundreds are quarantined in South Carolina after a big spike in measles cases in just the past week. How officials say exposure at a single location could be responsible for the outbreak.

[08:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, we're standing by for new testimony in the trial of the man who admitted of disposing of his wife's body, but he did not admit to murdering her. This morning, Brian Walshe, his defense, is set to begin presenting its case.

This after Ana Walshe's friends and former co-workers gave emotional testimony about their final interactions with her.

CNN's Jean Casarez is following this case so closely every day. And today we hear from the defense. What are the expectations?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the expectations are, number one, they have experts on their witness list, of course, with sudden death to explain it, understand what it all is. But the big question is -- and the defense case should start in about 30 minutes. Is the defendant going to take the stand?

Because Walshe could walk up to that stand in 30 minutes and suddenly he, the defendant, is testifying. We've got to wait and see. But yesterday was the conclusion of the prosecution's case in chief.

They put on the new best friend of Ana Walshe right before she died, Alissa. And what she had to say was that she saw her on December 29th. That's about 48 hours before on a past either natural causes or homicide.

And usually Ana was strong and vibrant and passionate. That night she was very emotional. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALISSA KIRBY, ANA WALSHE'S FRIEND: She was primarily upset about her and Brian's relationship, about being so far away from the kids and in feeling like she was upset. Having found out that the federal case was delayed or she thought the federal case was delayed by Brian and that she just really wanted to be with her kids. Their marriage had been really strained for a long time.

[08:25:00]

And she was -- she told me how like upset she was and how frustrating that was. And how she -- she was really at a breaking point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: The other big witness for the prosecution, Gem Mutlu, he was a very close friend of the couple. He actually had hired on in her first job in the industry -- that she was in the hotel industry. And he took the stand to say that he was invited on New Year's Eve.

He was there was a joyous evening with the couple. He left about 1:30, very close in time to when her life was ended. But then about two days later, he gets a call that she's missing.

And it was very strange, he said, from Brian Walshe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEM MUTLU, ANA WALSHE'S FORMER SUPERVISOR: I said I mean, I said I was incredulous. I said, what work emergency could there have been on New Year's Eve that, you know, was commercial property? What could what could it be?

I said, listen, did you guys have an argument or something? Did you have a fight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what was his response to that statement, sir?

MUTLU: He sees -- his response was I do remember this vividly as well. His response was, no, did it look like we had an argument? You were there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what did you say to that?

MUTLU: I didn't -- I didn't know what to make of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: State of mind is so much a part of this case. Why would he ask him? Well, did you have an argument?

Did you have a fight? And why did he respond defensively? Well, no, you were there Christmas Eve. You were with us Christmas Eve.

BERMAN: I got to say, Jean Casarez, as you're watching this case, I will be paying close attention to you on CNN All Access to see if Brian Walshe takes the stand, maybe even as soon as today. Thank you very much.

All right, what is happening in Michigan? The coach of one of the most prestigious college teams in the country is fired and then ends up in jail overnight. The very latest in what we're learning.

And the stars do not get bigger than this. Sidney Sweeney sits down with Ethan Hawke to discuss some of the physical challenges of their roles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNEY SWEENEY, ACTOR: I got a concussion, though.

ETHAN HAWKE, ACTOR: You did.

SWEENEY: I did.

HAWKE: You said that with pride. You said like that --

SWEENEY: I was proud of it.

HAWKE: You were.

SWEENEY: Yes. I loved the fighting sequences in the movie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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