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U.S. Unemployment Rate Hit Four-year High in November; Unemployment Rate Rises for Young Workers in November; New Videos Released in Manhunt for Brown University Shooter; Two Teens Killed in Brown University Shooting Identified; Hegseth, Rubio Brief Lawmakers on Boat Strikes; Second Plane Reports a Midair Near-Collision With U.S. Air Force Jet Off Venezuela. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired December 16, 2025 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: -- jobs that beat expectations. But look at the trend. This shows jobs by month all year, and you can see how bumpy the ride has gotten recently. In fact, we now know that out of three -- three out of the last six months, the economy has lost jobs, right? We just mentioned October, but also lost jobs in August, lost jobs in June. So, three out of six months were negative. That's after going about four years without any months of negative job growth.

And in fact, the economy is now on track for its worst year of job growth since 2020 during COVID. Now, normally when the job market is healthy, you see broad based job gains across the economy, but that hasn't been the case this year. It's been mostly in healthcare. We saw that again in November. A lot of other sectors continue to lose jobs, including manufacturing which lost another 5,000 jobs. Boris and Brianna, that sector has lost jobs seven months in a row. Back to you.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": I wonder, Matt, what does today's report say about America's affordability problem?

EGAN: Yeah, well, Boris, we've got some disappointing news on that front as well. This chart shows in blue price -- in blue shows wage gains for consumers, and in red it shows price gains. And we learned today that wages were only up by 3.5 percent in November. That's a fresh four-year low. Now, it is ahead of inflation which was 3 percent in September, but just barely. And what really stands out here is the gap between wages and prices is narrowing. And that is one of the reasons why life feels increasingly unaffordable. It's because for a lot of workers, their pay is not keeping up with prices.

Now, something else I just want to call out for you is the unemployment rate. When you look at specific demographic groups, we mentioned that the overall unemployment rate is at -- above 4 percent, 4.6 percent. But look at this, black unemployment, 8.3 percent and younger workers, those ages 20 to 24 and 16 to 19, they are continuing to have problems getting a job. Their unemployment rate remains significantly higher. So, bottom line, you put it all together, this job market, it continues to look shaky, right? Hiring is down and unemployment is up. BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah. Matt, thank you so much. It's so helpful to have you walk us through all of that.

EGAN: Thank you.

KEILAR: Still ahead, investigators say they need the public's help as they're chasing a new lead from the mass shooting at Brown University. We'll have details next.

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[13:36:26]

SANCHEZ: We're now learning the identities of the students killed in the shooting at Brown University over the weekend, both of them teenagers. Ella Cook was a leader in Brown's College Republican Club. She's described at her church in Alabama as a faithful bright light. And Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov of Virginia planned to be a neurosurgeon. His family calls him kind, funny and bright.

Police are hoping that these newly released surveillance videos will help identify a new person of interest. They've promised that an enhanced photo of this suspect is soon coming. Brown University, meantime, is emphasizing that safety remains its foremost priority on campus now, rocked by this latest mass shooting. We're also told that Providence Police plan to give us an update on the latest in the investigation in the coming hours. We'll, of course, bring you those details as they come into our newsroom.

For now, let's speak to Zoe Weissman. She's a student at Brown University who witnessed the 2018 Parkland School shooting and is now the Parkland Director for "March for Our Lives," a student-led group pushing for gun safety legislation. Zoe, thank you so much for being with us. You and I have actually spoken about this before and I appreciate you coming back on. I, first, just want to get your reaction to what happened and also how concerned you are that the shooter has not yet been apprehended.

ZOE WEISSMAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY STUDENT AND PARKLAND SCHOOL SHOOTING WITNESS: Yeah, thanks for having me again. So when everything first happened, I honestly was in shock. I was thankfully in my dorm room. But when my friend called me to tell me what was happening, I just couldn't believe that this was something I was going through yet again. And yet at the same time, I wasn't surprised because I already know people who have been through two mass shootings, whether that be friends from Oxford, Michigan, who then went on to Michigan State, or people who were at Douglas and then went to FSU.

And so, it quickly became a reality that that was happening to me, and I became really angry. And as for the fact that the shooter is still at large, obviously, I do think that the university themselves had a really good response to everything. I think they did everything they possibly could. But the federal and local response on the police end is incredibly disappointing. It makes me concerned about the FBI's ability to coordinate an investigation like this. SANCHEZ: Talk to me about that anger that you're feeling. Obviously, the experience that you had at a nearby middle school not far from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and now years later, again touched by this kind of violence.

WEISSMAN: Yeah, I think that I just couldn't -- I couldn't even comprehend it. I couldn't wrap my mind around it. And once I finally did, I was infuriated that after seven years of advocating for my community and for my country, we still haven't made enough progress to prevent someone like myself from going through this again. This was always something that I was glad I couldn't relate to anyone at Brown about, besides my friend Mia, who has now also survived two school shootings. But unfortunately now, this is something that my friends and I all have in common, and I hate that we have that in common.

SANCHEZ: So, Brown's academic calendar states that next semester's courses begin on January 21st, just over a month from now. Are you going to be comfortable going back to class if significant progress isn't made in this investigation?

WEISSMAN: I mean, I doubt we're going to get to that point, knock on wood, but I really do think that this investigation will be wrapped up by then. I do think the fact that it took any longer than a day is kind of disappointing and makes me very concerned.

[13:40:00]

But I -- at this time, I don't think that it's going to last that long. But in general, I do feel safe going back to Brown. I think there's only so much that schools can do security-wise when the issue is guns and the fact that there's more guns in circulation in this country than people. I think the school has done a really good job with security so far and a good balance between keeping us safe and also not making us feel like we're going to school in a prison. So, I definitely think I'll feel safe going back to school. Although at the same time, my baseline is kind of already heightened hyper vigilance. And so, that might be an experience that's kind of jarring for a lot of my classmates.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. I wonder what actions specifically you would like to see from lawmakers to mitigate this kind of violence.

WEISSMAN: Yeah. So obviously, the most important things I think are federal legislation, federal gun control legislation. So things we've been advocating for decades, like a federal assault weapons ban, closing loopholes in the universal background check system, so that people with pre-existing mental health conditions or violent convictions can't access guns. Red flag laws on a federal level, so that if people are concerned about their loved ones, they can petition to get their firearms taken away from them.

And also, funding for things like community violence intervention programs and mental health treatment. This is an issue that we have to approach in many different avenues. But the main avenue that we need to approach this with is one that's been neglected the most, and that's controlling guns in this country. SANCHEZ: Zoe Weissman, thank you so much for sharing your perspective. I'm glad to reconnect with you and I -- it's infuriating that it's under these circumstances again.

WEISSMAN: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Of course. Still ahead, Secretary of State, Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, briefing lawmakers regarding those strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats. We're going to speak to someone who is at today's briefing in just moments. Stay with us.

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[13:46:09]

KEILAR: Just into CNN, President Trump is planning an address to the nation for tomorrow night at 9:00 PM Eastern.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, short on details on exactly what he's going to talk about, but he posted moments ago on social media, "My fellow Americans, I will be giving an address to the nation tomorrow night, live from the White House at 9:00 p.m. I look forward to seeing you then. It's been a great year for our country, and the best is yet to come."

KEILAR: Now, it's not clear again what he will be discussing, but we will update the story as we learn more. We are learning that a private business jet going from Aruba to Miami narrowly avoided a near collision with a U.S. Air Force refueling tanker near Venezuela. This marks the second reported near midair collision in as many days near Venezuela. Pete Muntean joins us now. Pete, what are you learning about this?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, the good news is these incidents have been happening in clear weather in daytime, so these pilots have been able to spot these collisions in the making before they got much, much worse. This latest case happened Saturday afternoon, but just coming to light now. And we're able to piece this incident together from the air traffic control audio from LiveATC.net. This close call was detailed by the pilots of this private jet that just departed from Aruba on its way to Miami. That's only about 15 miles from the coast of Venezuela, where the airspace is pretty sensitive right now, to say the least.

The pilots essentially reported what the crew of a JetBlue flight reported just the day before. A large United States Air Force aerial refueling tanker appearing without triggering their in-cockpit collision warning systems. The pilots of this private jet say they were climbing through an altitude of 26,000 feet when they said they would've climbed into the Air Force jet. And I want you to listen now to the radio transmissions in which they described this encounter being too close for comfort. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just got that traffic. I don't how we didn't get an RA for that. But they were really close.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: RA meaning a Resolution Advisory on the traffic collision avoidance system. The pilot said the plane looked big like a Boeing 777 or 767, which is similar to an Air Force tanker. That new incident comes just one day after the pilots of a Jet Blue flight said they had to abruptly stop their climb due to an Air Force refueling tanker that crossed directly in front of their flight path. That incident happened after that JetBlue flight took off from Curacao (ph).

So in roughly the same area of the Caribbean Sea where this new incident occurred. The Pentagon and Dutch officials are reviewing that case involving that JetBlue flight. The National Transportation Safety Board tells me, it is gathering information on these two incidents but has not officially launched an investigation on either one of them.

KEILAR: All right, we'll be looking, for that. Pete, thank you very much.

Senate Democrats are furious about Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State, Marco Rubio failing to show the unedited video of a deadly strike on an alleged drug boat during a classified briefing today. And Secretary Hegseth says the public will not get to access the video, to be able to see this full video of this September 2nd incident that included a follow-up strike that killed two survivors. This attack is raised by partisan concerns about whether a war crime was committed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, UNITED STATES DEFENSE SECRETARY: In keeping with longstanding Department of War policy, Department of Defense policy, of course, we're not going to release a top secret, full unedited video of that to the general public.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Yesterday, the U.S. launched three more strikes, the U.S. Southern Command saying the U.S. Military killed eight alleged drug traffickers in the Pacific. There have now been at least 26 strikes since September that have killed 95 people. We're joined now by Congressman Adam Smith from Washington State. He's the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. He has seen the video of the strike on survivors in early September. Congressman, this morning, Hegseth said the committee would get to view the full unedited video. Has the entire committee seen it? What have they seen?

[13:50:00]

REP. ADAM SMITH, (D-WA) RANKING MEMBER, HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: We have not yet. Tomorrow morning, we are supposed to have a House Armed Services Committee briefing where the video will be shown and where the full committee will be briefed by Admiral Bradley and others from the Southern Command. But thus far, it's only been a small group of us who have seen the video. And let me emphasize, this should be released publicly.

They have released, I don't know, 15, 20 different videos of boat strikes to date. There was nothing classified or secret contained in the video, that they could release to show this second strike on the two survivors from the first strike on September 2nd. It should be released publicly.

KEILAR: The Secretary of Defense says it should not. What do you say to his reasoning?

SMITH: Well, first of all, I mean his reasoning is kind of a bait and switch there and a little bit of a dodge. He said, we're not going to release the full video. Nobody is asking him to release the full video. The full video is like five-and-a-half hours long from the moment they start tracking this boat on September 2nd, straight up through the second strike. No one's asking for that.

They're asking to release the portion of the video that shows the second strike, just as he has released the portion of the video that shows the first strike. And second, it's a little bit dishonest to say, well, of course, we're not going to release it. It's top secret information. No, it's not. And the secretary has shown a certain willingness to release top secret information previously, of course. But in this case, it's not. It is a video. You see the two people on the boat, and then you see that boat blow up. It's no different than the other videos.

There's no top secret information. There's nothing being placed at jeopardy here in terms of our national security interests. It's clear that Secretary Hegseth does not want to release this video because he knows how bad it's going to look and how it is going to undermine a lot of the dishonest things that he and other Republicans have said about what's on that video.

KEILAR: So, you said Admiral Bradley is going to be briefing you all tomorrow. Can you talk to us a little bit about that? What you want to hear, what kind of opportunity this is for members to get answers?

SMITH: Yeah, it's a good opportunity. I've already had two opportunities. I did a one-on-one classified meeting with Admiral Bradley, VTC meeting, not in person. And then we had the briefing where he came up and briefed to the chairs and rankings on HASC and SASC. But I think we need to continue to pull at this, what exactly was the chain of command and what was the legal guidance given? So that's one big part of it for this particular strike.

How does this not meet the classic definition of shipwrecked where you're not supposed to attack the survivors of a shipwreck? So that's one. But two, the expanded theory that both Secretary Rubio and Secretary Hegseth pitched today to the full House briefing where they didn't show the video, that basically once we designate you part of a narco terrorist group and if you are affiliated with that group, you are now a legitimate target of the United States Military for lethal force, which is a dramatic expansion of presidential authority. To basically say if you are part of a drug trafficking group, you're just like someone trying to fly a plane into a building in the United States. You are a legitimate target.

I don't think we should expand that authority that far, particularly since Congress hasn't authorized any of this. And I think it is a real problem that the president is exercising this authority in general, but certainly without any congressional authorization.

KEILAR: As you mentioned, you spoke one-on-one with him, I think that was last week. So, did you ask him? Sources have told CNN that he has told members of Congress, he did talk to the JAG officer who was there at his disposal to give him advice and was told this was legal to do this second strike. I know there are many critics who believe that that advice, I don't know, may have been incorrect. Did you talk to him about the legal advice that he got?

SMITH: Absolutely.

KEILAR: What have you learned?

SMITH: Yeah. Yes, we did. And that's part of what we want here. We want to talk to those lawyers. The chairman of the committee, Mike Rogers, Republicans even asked for that. The lawyers who gave that specific advice should also testify before us and we should also have that conversation with them. And again, his explanation was that, as designated, they were part of a designated terrorist organization, deemed an imminent threat to the United States.

Mind you, these are people, with cocaine on a boat, a couple thousand miles away from the U.S., not even destined for the U.S. at this point. They were a legitimate target. And then even after the boat blew up, the argument was somehow they could have continued their mission and gotten the cocaine somewhere, which I don't find plausible based on the video that I saw. But that's what the legal advice was based on. We need to get into the chain of command, get into all the different lawyers. You gave them that advice based on what? What was your analysis? We need the opportunity to conduct oversight and question those conclusions to see how valid they are.

[13:55:00]

KEILAR: So, I want to ask you about part of this new Vanity Fair piece that features White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, because she talks about the Venezuela strategy. She says that Trump "wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries Uncle and people way smarter than me on that say that he will." What does that tell you about Trump's objective and do you agree with it?

SMITH: Well, that in -- therein lies a major problem. Because we just had the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense come before all of the United States House of Representatives and say, this is about stopping the scourge of drug trafficking in the United States. They said this was about -- they didn't say anything about Venezuela, anything about their intent there. And now, we have the Chief of Staff at the White House, basically, putting the lie to all of that and saying, no, this is about putting pressure on Maduro to affect regime change in Venezuela, again, without any congressional authority. But that's an entirely different mission. If you're trying to stop narcotics from coming into the U.S., you would have a much different approach. So, I mean, if they can't even be honest about why it is that they're blowing these boats up, as dramatic an action as that is, as I've said, major expansion of presidential power to kill people without congressional authorization in this way, they ought to at least be clear on why it is that they're doing it and what it is that they're hoping to accomplish in the action.

KEILAR: Congressman Adam Smith, thank you so much for being with us.

SMITH: Thank you.

KEILAR: Still ahead, charges could soon be filed against Rob and Michele Reiner's son Nick, as we're learning new details about the hours before they were killed. Stay with CNN.

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