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GOP Centrists Back Democratic Push to Extend ACA Subsidies; Jack Smith Says He Had Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt of Trump Crimes; Trump Orders Blockade, Demands Venezuela Give Up Land; Lawmakers Briefed on Controversial September 2 Boat Strike to U.S.; Trump Attending Dignified Transfer of U.S. Troops Killed in Syria; FBI Says No Apparent Links Between MIT Professor's Death and Brown University Shooting; Tesla Faces California Sales Ban Over Marketing of Autopilot; Couple Beats One-in-24-trillion Odds to Win $1 Million Lottery Twice; Blue-collar Jobs Shrinking Under Trump. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired December 17, 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]

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: But that's a vote that will not be able to happen until January. And then, there are big questions of what Senate Majority Leader, John Thune will do with it over in the Senate.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah, we'll be looking for that. Arlette Saenz on the Hill, the real, the one and only, thank you so much for that hit.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: In a stunning moment on Capitol Hill, you also saw former Special Counsel, Jack Smith, telling lawmakers he had proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in crimes. Smith is defending his criminal investigation into the president in a high- stakes interview. That's happening behind closed doors. But we did see him here, before he appeared before the House Judiciary Committee.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": As sources tell CNN, Smith was called to testify about President Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents and his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election results. You're not going to believe who's here. CNN's Katelyn Polantz joins us.

(LAUGH)

SANCHEZ: Katelyn, Jack Smith wanted a public hearing. Actually, President Trump also wanted him to testify publicly.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME & JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah.

SANCHEZ: He did not. And now, it seems like we know why.

POLANTZ: He is on Capitol Hill. He is behind closed doors --

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

POLANTZ: -- on Capitol Hill. But I am so glad you're not having me talk about House votes, and the --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: We could have done it. We could have seen, does she know?

(LAUGH)

SANCHEZ: Let's find out. Yeah.

POLANTZ: But as far as Jack Smith goes, one of the things that is really notable about this is the fact that he's talking. He could have decided, I'm going to take the Fifth. Donald Trump has already been out there saying he thinks Jack Smith should be prosecuted, behind bars. One of his deputies, Jay Bratt, who led the classified documents investigation, took the Fifth one. He testified behind closed doors. But Smith says, I'm answering questions. You should have had me in public. Let's go. He's been up there since about 10:00 a.m. So this has been already a pretty lengthy session for him.

Some of the quotes we've learned from sources providing these snippets to us of what's going on behind that Hill hearing to CNN, he has said to the committee, our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power.

Our investigation also developed powerful evidence that never went to trial, that showed President Trump willfully retained highly classified documents after he left office in January 2021. Smith also is go -- had said to the committee in one of his statements, I made my decisions in this investigation without regard to President Trump's political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election. We took actions based on what the facts and the law required, the very lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor.

So he's really diving into the substance here and that's not necessarily why he is up there. There's other questions that the investigators want to ask him about, especially this idea that they believe he was politicizing this office.

KEILAR: It's such an interesting thing and good for you, getting this information from behind the scenes. Katelyn, thank you so much for bringing it to us.

President Trump increasing pressure on Venezuela by targeting Nicolas Maduro's economic lifeline, what we know about this new blockade he announced, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:37:22] KEILAR: President Trump is turning up the heat on Venezuelan leader, Nicolas Maduro, announcing a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers coming into and leaving Venezuela.

SANCHEZ: Oil is obviously an economic lifeline for Venezuela, which is already under strain after new sanctions earlier this year. The Venezuelan government is calling the move a reckless and serious threat. CNN National Security Correspondent Natasha Bertrand joins us. Natasha, still a lot we don't know about how exactly this is going to work. What are you learning?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's still one of the big questions. And President Trump said in his Truth Social post yesterday, that the military presence we're seeing in the Caribbean is only going to get bigger. And he is suggesting that the U.S. Military is going to help enforce this blockade on sanctioned oil tankers coming and going from Venezuela.

Now, obviously, that really does ramp up the pressure on the Venezuelan government because they rely so much on overseas oil sales to China in particular for revenue. But that's something that the Treasury Department obviously is trying to stop because they say that those oil sales and that revenue is propping up an illegitimate Maduro government. And so, it remains to be seen just how this is going to be enforced and whether the U.S. Navy is going to get more involved or if this is going to be handled by the Coast Guard, like we saw last week with the interdiction of that sanctioned oil tanker at that point.

But, this all comes as the pressure is just building here, and it's totally unclear just what the Trump administration is hoping happens, right? Because we're getting different justifications for the different actions they're taking. For example, the boat strikes are about stopping drugs from coming into the U.S. ostensibly, publicly, but then behind closed doors, we're hearing from Susie Wiles, who is President Trump's Chief of Staff, that actually is about putting pressure on Maduro.

Now, we see that he shifted to attacking the oil revenues. That also seems to be part of this applying pressure to Maduro, hoping that he steps down or that he's forced out. So all of this really is in an attempt to kind of put pressure on the regime, but it's unclear if it's going to work and if this is going to get the U.S. Military more involved in something that could potentially get very messy.

KEILAR: Yeah. What's the end goal here? So many questions. Natasha, thank you so much for the reporting. As President Trump is ramping up the pressure on Venezuela, the House and Senate Armed Services Committees are receiving a closed-door briefing this morning on the second strike, that follow-up strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat back in early September. We'll speak to a member of the House Committee about that and the video next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:44:26] KEILAR: Today, the House and Senate Armed Services Committees received closed briefings on the September 2nd attack on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat that killed survivors, the follow-up strike of which did. And we're now hearing from some of those lawmakers. Republicans saying that they're satisfied with what they heard, as Democrats are raising more skepticism about the legality of the deadly strike.

This is happening as President Trump orders a total and complete blockade of sanctioned oil tankers coming to and leaving Venezuela. I'm joined now by Colorado Congressman, Jason Crow. He's a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

[13:45:00]

Congressman, did you get to see the video of all of the events in question? Can you talk to us about your impressions of it?

REP. JASON CROW, (D-CO) ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: I did see the video and I went into it with an open mind because I used to be one of those commanders on the ground doing these types of operations. I know how hard they can be. But I can tell you, Brianna, I saw nothing to justify that second strike. And in fact, this is precisely the type of situation, an incident where you would refrain from striking a second time. Very, very clear in my view, but let's let the American people decide and see that for themselves. Right? There's no reason not to release the video.

There's nothing that's different about this video than the other videos that have been released. So, let's stop the cover-up. Let's have the video released so people can see for themselves.

KEILAR: You're a former Army Ranger. You're familiar with the rules of engagement. And you're hearing from the Secretary of Defense that there is not going to be a release of this video to the public. What do you say to his rationale for that?

CROW: Well, there's no rationale. Again, I was very clear in asking the commanders today whether or not there was any reason they could not release the video. Their answer was very clear. No, they could prepare this video for release just like they have every other video. What we know is that this Department of War, Department of Defense as it's actually called according to Congress, has been able to release videos at lightning speed when they want people to see the results. But there's no reason why they can't release this one. They absolutely should. It's very telling that they won't. It's very clearly a cover- up, just like the Epstein file cover-up that continues to this day.

KEILAR: You -- according to the Ranking Democrat on the Committee, you were supposed to be briefed by Admiral Bradley and also others from SOCOM. Can you tell us what you walked away with from the briefing from him? And also, were you able to hear from the legal authority that he got advice from during the course of this strike?

CROW: No, we didn't hear from the lawyers. But what I walked away from this briefing thinking is, number one, the terrible position that Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth put our military folks in, on the ground, in a legally dubious mission without congressional authorization. The language this administration continues to use is exact same language, the same construct, the same tactics as our war on terror against ISIS and Al-Qaeda. The difference being, for the war on terror against ISIS and Al-Qaeda and terrorism, there actually was a congressional authorization. There is not in this instance.

So they're trying to have their cake and eat it too. Treat this like a war on terror, classify these folks as terrorists, but do so without any debate, any oversight and any congressional authorization. It's simply unacceptable and exactly why Congress needs to reinsert itself into matters on war and peace. We cannot continue to go down this road again. And then the second takeaway, of course, is me seeing no justification for what were obviously stranded shipwreck survivors of an initial strike, that had no means of locomotion, no means of survival, were not a threat to any of our service members, and there's no reason, again, for a second strike in this case.

KEILAR: Did you learn anything about this "total and complete blockade" of all sanctioned oil tankers going in and out of Venezuela that the president announced on social media last night? And considering how you hear him talking about the Maduro regime and how you're also seeing his chief of staff talk about sort of this whole operation, he wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle, does the objective here appear to be stopping drugs or does it appear to be regime change to you?

CROW: It appears to be the latter, right? This is not a drug operation, and this is exactly why Congress needs to get involved now and recapture its power. This is a slippery slope. This does not end well. Right? The escalation, the continued escalation against Venezuela is exactly how wars start and how conflicts spin out of control. We have to make sure we're stopping this. Congress has the authority, has the power to do it.

Congressional Republicans are the ones that are stopping us from asserting that authority as our constitution requires us to do. This is not a right; this is actually an obligation. This is not a -- I want to be really clear about that. We have the right to do this, but it's more than that. We have the duty to do this. This is what the Congress says our job is, is to prevent conflict and to authorize war like this. We need to get involved.

KEILAR: As the president has talked about U.S. involvement in land, is it clear to you what that would look like to you, U.S. involvement in a land war in Venezuela? How that would play out?

CROW: Well, that would be complete insanity. We've spent the last 25 years, trillions of dollars, thousands of American lives, tens of thousands of Americans wounded, with stress and invisible and visible scars of these battles.

[13:50:00]

Hundreds of thousands of people died around the world in these conflicts, and most of these conflicts ended poorly. Right? Terrorism is still alive and well. We pulled out of Afghanistan. We saw how poorly that went. Iraq did not go well. United States needs to get out of the regime change business. Let me be clear about that.

Now we can assert pressure on Maduro, who is a brutal dictator, and definitely needs to have pressure asserted on him. But regime change, this does not end well for the United States.

KEILAR: As I mentioned, you are a former Army Ranger, someone who's lost friends in war. And I want to ask you separately, because we're about to cover the dignified transfer of the remains of two American service members who were killed in Syria over the weekend, how are you reflecting on this moment? And I do just want to mention their names because that is important here. Sergeant Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, Iowa and Sergeant William Nathaniel Howard, who's 29, of Marshalltown, Iowa. How are you thinking of this moment?

CROW: Well, we have to reflect on Sergeant Torres and Sergeant Howard's sacrifice. And I think this is an opportunity for America to realize that every single day, as we're sitting here under the Capitol, as you're in your studio, as folks are at home or at the offices watching this broadcast and watching us have a conversation, that there are tens of thousands of Americans, National Guards men and women, active-duty service members around this world doing very risky stuff to keep us safe. They deserve the best. They deserve leadership. They deserve accountability.

They deserve a Congress who's willing to fight for them and do their job and their duty. And I will never back down from that because that is my obligation as a combat veteran to make sure that we are keeping that faith.

KEILAR: Congressman Jason Crow, thanks so much for being with us.

CROW: Thank you.

KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines that we're watching this hour, the FBI says the mass shooting at Brown University does not appear to be connected to the killing of an MIT professor 50 miles away. Officials say 47-year-old physicist and fusion scientist, Nuno Loureiro died in the hospital yesterday after being shot at his Boston area home the night before. The president of MIT calls Loureiro's death a shocking loss. Last check, no suspects have been taken into custody.

SANCHEZ: Meantime, Tesla is facing a 30-day sales ban in California over the name of its self-driving feature. California's DMV suggests that autopilot may be false advertising since Tesla vehicles are not yet capable of being fully responsible for their own driving. Tesla itself says the drivers must stay alert and ready to take control of the vehicle in case of problems. California has given the carmaker some 90 days to resolve the issue. Tesla, of course, critical of the move saying that no customers in California have actually yet complained.

And Christmas came early for a Welsh couple who now have won $1 million lottery, not once, but twice. The lucky duo first took home a seven-figure prize in a EuroMillions Game back in 2018. And they just cashed in their second $1million ticket this week in the U.K.'s National Lottery. Experts say the odds of that happening, one in 24 trillion. Pretty lucky.

KEILAR: I'm jealous.

SANCHEZ: I mean, that's amazing.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: Totally amazing.

SANCHEZ: That's a pretty, pretty lucky deal there. For the rest of us not so lucky to win the lottery twice, there is some concerning new data on the jobs market.

KEILAR: Bummer.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, not to bum you out, but we'll be right back. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:58:09]

KEILAR: New job numbers show many blue-collar industries losing jobs over the last month and over the last year.

SANCHEZ: That's in contrast to President Trump's promises for a boom in those blue-collar manufacturing jobs. CNN's Matt Egan joins us now. Matt, that was the point of tariffs, right? To bring manufacturing back to the United States. But the latest jobs data reveals the opposite.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: That's right, Boris and Brianna. Look, candidate Trump, he didn't just promise to increase blue-collar jobs. He promised to deliver a blue-collar jobs boom by spiking tariffs, slashing taxes, and making energy cheap again. But the latest numbers reveal that the exact opposite has happened. Look, this is the three-month average for blue-collar jobs. And you can see that most of them are down, right? Mining and logging losing an average of 2,000 jobs per month over the last three months. Manufacturing down by 6,300 per month. Transportation and warehousing down even more, by 17,000.

The only bright spot here is construction, which had been losing jobs earlier this year, but it's starting to recover. Now, when you look at the trend in manufacturing, what really stands out to me is, look, this is basically April, when the president rolled out his Liberation Day tariffs that were designed to boost manufacturing jobs. And what you can see is it's really been down ever since then. In fact, manufacturing employment in the United States is now at a three-and-a- half year low. So when you look at this, this does not look like a blue-collar jobs boom. It looks like a jobs bust.

KEILAR: So, why so much pressure on blue-collar jobs? EGAN: Yeah, well, look, economists points to a number of different reasons, including automation, high interest rates, a shortage of skilled workers and yes, the president's chaotic tariff and trade policy. If you look at -- this is a monthly look at manufacturing jobs over the last two years. And so the left side here is 2024. And you could see there was some job loss last year as well, although there were also some months where manufacturing --