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Next Round of Torrential Rain Moves into Southern California; DOJ Scrambling to Find Holiday Volunteers to Redact Epstein Files; Looking Back at 2025's Top Political Stories. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 24, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

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[07:00:00]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and Merry Christmas Eve to those who celebrate. I'm Audie Cornish.

And we are following breaking news this morning out of Southern California, the Los Angeles area bracing for a strong Christmas storm. The next round of rain is moving in triggering flashflood warnings and mudslide risks. Overnight, first responders going door to door in high-risk communities urging residents to leave.

Now, ahead of the storm, residents in burn zones are preparing with sandbags and tarps in an area ravaged by the Palisades Fire earlier this year. And this morning, officials warn this could be one of the wettest Christmas Eves on record.

For the latest, we're going to go to CNN Meteorologists Allison Chinchar.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's right, Audie. And you weren't wrong. It could be one of the wettest Christmas Eve and Christmases for this particular area.

Here's a look at the radar, and you can, again, you see all of this rain surging back in just here over the last couple of hours there was a little bit of a lull overnight. Now, you've got a lot more rain. And some of it, that yellow and orange color indicating how heavy it when it's coming down. The purple and pink that you see here, that's the snow. So, you're talking about the upper elevations there of the Sierras. But you've got some heavy rain moving into San Francisco, Sacramento, and even as we slide farther down to the south, into areas of L.A., San Diego, all of these areas getting a lot of that moisture kind of surging into these areas.

Keep in mind, this is on top of what these areas have already had the last few days. So, that ground is saturated, which means even a small amount of rain today could lead to some flooding concerns. That's why we have a high risk highlighted right here in that pink color, a moderate risk, which is level three out of four in the red color. We have a moderate risk, not only for today but also for Christmas Day as well, two days in a row for very similar areas, again, in anticipation of how much rain is expected to come for some of these areas. And we zoom in a little bit closer because one of the biggest concerns, as we mentioned, are those burn scars. So, these are the three areas that were kind of highlighted in that white color to show you where they own. All three of them are within that high risk area. So, we're talking about phenomenally large amount of rain coming into these areas where the burn scars were. And the problem there is all of that water doesn't get absorbed by the ground. It just runs right off. But it can take a lot of the debris and content with it.

The other thing to note, high risks are very, very rare. We do not get these very often. They only account for about 4 percent of the total days in a year, but they count for 36 percent, unfortunately, of all flood-related fatalities and 80 percent of all flood-related damages. So, it's very significant when one of these is actually issued.

Now going forward in time, you can see most of this heavy rain is still going to be coming through for the remainder of the day today. By tonight, however, might get a little bit of a lull for certain portions of the area, but then we get even more rain coming back in on Christmas Day. So, there's not much of a break there for a lot of these areas, not just with rain, but also snow. In total, some of these areas could be looking at as much as a foot of rain.

CORNISH: Okay, wow. Allison Chinchar, thanks so much. I'll be checking in with you later today.

This morning, we are standing by for more of the Epstein files to drop. CNN has learned exclusively that the Justice Department, a day before Christmas, is scrambling to find prosecutors to volunteer over the next several days to help redact the files.

Also this morning, new questions about who the DOJ is trying to protect among the redactions in the latest release, the names of what federal agents call Epstein's co-conspirators. According to one email with the subject co-conspirators, the person whose signature line includes FBI New York writes this. When you get a chance, can you give me an update on the status of the ten co-conspirators? Now, the response hours later, nearly each name blacked out.

The body of missing nine-year-old Melodee Buzzard is found and her mother is now charged with murder. The girl's remains were found in a rural area of Southern Utah. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff Coroner said that the remains showed the victim died from gunshot wounds to the head. This is the end of a multi-state search for Melodee, who was last seen on October 9th. Officials called her mother uncooperative throughout that investigation.

[07:05:00]

And the Supreme Court hands President Trump a major loss, blocking him from deploying the National Guard to Chicago. The Trump administration argued the deployment was needed to protect ICE agents, but in its decisions, the Supreme Court said the government failed to, quote, identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois. The White House says this ruling will not stop its immigration efforts. And you've still got a shot to win the lottery. No one won Monday night. So, $1.7 billion still up for grabs. And nine people did match five white balls, which was good for a cool $1 million. This is the fourth largest jackpot in the game's history. Each ticket costs $2. Keep in mind, the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292 million. Kate?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, as we close out, what I think everyone can agree has been a turbulent year in politics, what were the most defining moments though in politics of 2025? Was it the upheaval inside Trump world over the Epstein files? How about the increase in -- the tragic increase in political violence that we all unfortunately saw play out? Or was it the Supreme Court immunity ruling that's given Donald Trump and future presidents broad protection and immunity from prosecution?

Joining me right now is CNN Political Commentator S.E. Cupp and Maura Gillespie, the former senior adviser to then-House Speaker John Boehner.

Let's take a look back to help us learn the lessons of the year.

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. We're so good at that, aren't we?

BOLDUAN: We are. Okay. Let's hear. What is the -- it could be a -- it could be a story, it could be a thing, or even just a theme in the politics of 2025 that you think really is having a lasting impact. What do you think S.E.? What's one?

CUPP: I think when we look back on the health of the Trump -- the second term, whether that's at midterms or in 2028, I think a defining moment is going to be liberation day, that day in April when Trump decided the tariffs were going to set us all free, tariffs being dumb from the start, tariffs being attacks on consumers from the start, he couldn't magically change any of those economic realities. And they've had a really disastrous effect on his administration and faith in it. And on the economy, right, they've led to increased costs, reduced investment in the U.S., worsened relationships with our allies, more unemployment, higher operating costs for businesses, I mean, it goes on and on.

And if we really believe, and I do, that it's the economy, stupid, and will be in midterms and will be in 2028, I think this more than anything else in his administration is going to be determinative.

BOLDUAN: Because also when you think of what this story, this moment has meant in 2025, it's also upended what kind of Republican orthodoxy has been for so long?

CUPP: Like a century. Like a century, we've been anti protectionist, right? And to have, to now have an entire party abandon those principles to defend what Trump alone has been pushing right against the will of economists and Republicans and conservative think tanks and everyone who knows better, he will have to own this. And it's making life for, you know, Congressional Republicans hell. MAURA GILLESPIE, FORMER PRESS ADVISER TO THEN-HOUSE SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER: It has been.

CUPP: Yes, it has been.

BOLDUAN: And you have the treasury secretary like rounding out the year, also even admitting, saying, well, with some products, like coffee and bananas, that we don't produce here, we're going to lower the tariffs and that's going to bring down prices immediately. I mean, that was a moment for me when I was like that's the admission that this wasn't working but that just kept bulldozing through.

GILLESPIE: And that it wasn't fully thought out. I mean, we saw that liberation day, but then it pushed down and down until August 1st. And then, really, we've seen that they have struggled to articulate, here's the plan and here's how it's going to work, and here's the timeline of how that's going to work. That has -- we still don't know because they just keep telling us that it's going to get better and that prices are going to come down, but that hasn't been the case.

And so, unfortunately, and to S.E.'s point, it all stems from Trump's desires as a personal strategy, not a political strategy or one that has been vetted through people who actually know how our economy works.

BOLDUAN: And you kind of look at the tentacles from it. I mean, it has also reset the politics of relationships with all other nations, what China has done in the absence of leadership from the United States on this issue. I mean, it really --

CUPP: What Canada's done. I mean, it's not -- we can look to those superpowers, but also just our neighbors and the way they've been treating us.

GILLESPIE: If you think about it on liberation day, we didn't have anything set against China yet. We were going after all of our friends first.

CUPP: Right. That's exactly right.

GILLESPIE: And then wanted them to also then put the pressure on China. Well, what if we had just gone to our allies first and said, hey all, let's maybe put some pressure together on China, maybe that would've been a better strategy, but we didn't do that.

[07:10:00]

We went after and attacked Canada and then claimed we're going to take it.

BOLDUAN: Attack Canada. So, that is clearly was a very impactful story of '25. What's another one that sticks out to you, Maura?

GILLESPIE: The executive orders, I think from the pardons to how it emboldened President Trump 2.0 and the White House. I think you mentioned the Supreme Court ruling on immunity. That also further emboldened him in ways that we I don't know that we're necessarily prepared for because it really does feel as though once that came down, he thought, I can do whatever I want and I cannot be stopped. And even they try to stop me, nothing will happen to me.

And then he realized he had the pardon in power and he can pardon everyone and anyone and what Joe Biden did before he left office pardoning Hunter Biden, and for past and future, you know, issues he may come up against, Trump saw that, was like, great, I'll do that for my world as well.

And so we've already seen him use the part of power to an extreme degree, obviously with the January 6ers of day one. But I do think that really set the tone. And there are some things that I don't know that we'll be able to claw back with the immunity in the Supreme Court.

BOLDUAN: And also that this one also seems one that maybe because it comes like kind of that drinking from the fire hose nature of the administration that a lot of people, I think, regular Americans are kind of like just, okay, okay, moving on. Like no one was able -- there was a period of time when you couldn't even keep track of how many executive orders were being signed.

GILLESPIE: Yes.

CUPP: And you just get numb to it. When he is pardoning, you know, the 300th person or whatever, and it just stinks, and you can tell it stinks, but it's not the first one that stunk, like you just get a little numb to it. And, yes, I think to the average voter, they're, well, what -- A, what can we do? Because --

BOLDUAN: That's right. That's right.

CUPP: He's got all the power, Republicans have the majority. What can we do? And, B, there's a thousand other things to worry about in my backyard, in my own town, not just these sort of high-minded, high- level things like democracy that we should be worrying about, you know?

BOLDUAN: What about the Jeffrey Epstein files, investigation and what happened? I mean, that is -- it really became -- talk about a snowball effect that started one way and ended in a different place for this year.

GILLESPIE: It feels like the biggest moment for MAGA, I think, in terms of creating an actual rift where MAGA voters and Trump loyalists were faced the question, was I being lied to for my vote, or is the president hiding something from me? And that is a stark thing for people who have given their entire loyalty to him, who don't want to blame him for anything, who are constantly looking for somebody else to blame. And even in those first moments, they were looking at Pam Bondi, get rid of her Trump, like she's hiding something, she's doing something. You know, they were trying to find some way not to blame Trump, and I think that has really created this first big rift that we've actually seen in the MAGA world and over the Epstein files. CUPP: But it's a story -- that story's not finished, right? And so, yes, it's a big moment of, you know, sort of looming over all of 2025. It's not done yet.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

CUPP: And so we don't know exactly the impact that that's going to have. As I said, like it's going to be the economy stupid, Epstein is going to matter-ish. But if the economy's doing great, it really won't on midterms, I don't think, or even inside MAGA because, you know, ultimately, every lawmaker just has to go back home and explain the economy to their constituents.

BOLDUAN: Tell me if you agree or disagree, but the Epstein situation was also, I would say, maybe the top I'm going to call a story that I kind of assumed would have been bookended and done by the end of this year, right?

CUPP: It could have been.

BOLDUAN: It should. Let's just say it should, right?

CUPP: Mike Johnson almost intentionally decided to delay and prolong this by not holding the votes, by letting people go home and kind of marinate in it. I mean, I don't understand that strategy. I don't know if Trump is telling him this is what he wanted, but this could have been done and bookended and any strategist would've been telling party members and leadership get this done and over with, and instead it is still not finished.

GILLESPIE: It's festered. And I do agree, I think a lot of it has to go with Johnson not holding that vote and then letting the people question. Again, MAGA world is questioning. What are you hiding? Why are you not holding a vote? What is it that we're not getting to know? And I do think that it's not finished, but the more that's withheld from the administration, the more -- it'll just seep questions that'll fester in terms of Republican voters, but MAGA voters who are wondering, okay, if you lied about this or if we're being misled here, what else are we being misled --

BOLDUAN: It becomes a general distrust.

GILLESPIE: And when people talk about tariff, they talk about how you were told during the whole campaign that tariffs were going to affect other countries and that you weren't going to be taxed. Well, a tariff has a tax on you. And so they may start to hear that and realize, oh, maybe we were lied to during the campaign as well.

CUPP: Oh, and affordability, by the way, is a hoax. All the stuff that were promised to his voters if he's trying to -- yes, if he's trying to pull the wool over, voters are going to figure it out.

BOLDUAN: And then also things that were promised, which was like calming things down, you know, like we were going -- there was going to be, there was going to be unity and Donald Trump was going to bring it together after the election. [07:15:05]

And that is sadly one of the things that we have seen is just the insane level of political violence, deadly political violence, I mean, we look to Charlie Kirk, that has defined 2025.

I don't -- and this thing that bothers me the most is it feels that there were very few lessons learned from what we have seen.

GILLESPIE: The quickness of which we moved on from what happened in Minnesota to state senators and what Senator Mike Lee and his flippant response to that, and then you flip to what happened with Charlie Kirk and his -- you know, people in his orbit being so offended by anyone who wasn't as deeply disturbed by what happened to Charlie Kirk, it's just this -- how do we so quickly have moved on from people being targeted on a list at their doors? Somebody dressed up as a cop, shooting state senators in their homes and their families and not have an outraged reaction to, and being so deeply concerned about where we are as a nation, and then to see what happened to Charlie Kirk. It's just -- it really -- it's sickening. And I don't know how we move forward in a way that isn't cycled down further from what the --

BOLDUAN: if you can't -- it's almost like if you didn't learn a lesson from the last, what --

GILLESPIE: Would teach us.

BOLDUAN: Last 12 months?

CUPP: Well, how does it get worse than a political assassination for free speech? Like how does it get worse than that? And that moment had so many ripple effects, right? It had a ripple effect across the country. It had a ripple effect inside media because there are a lot of us who do what Charlie does in some way, right? We go out and give speeches. We're out meeting strangers. We're targets. It had a huge impact inside of conservatism and MAGA and, you know, who takes up Charlie's mantle and his huge platform and where does Turning Point go and where does MAGA go. I mean, the ripple effects were considerable. I think we're still dealing with them. And I don't think there's been any consensus either in the country or in right wing media or media in general or politics, I don't think we've gotten to that point.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

GILLESPIE: I think that comes from the top too, though. I mean, think about the memorial service. Erica Kirk said, I forgive, I want to move forward, and the president was like, I hate Democrats. And I just don't think that that's helpful in any sense but I do think, to S.E.'s point, there hasn't been a moment where we say, okay, that we've hit rock bottom. Now we need to turn the tide. And how do we do that?

BOLDUAN: 2025.

CUPP: Quite a year,

BOLDUAN: Quite a year in politics. Guys, it's really good to see you. GILLESPIE: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Ahead, scammers are going even higher tech, how they are using DeepFake technology now to target innocent people and their loved ones.

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SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Hackers are targeting businesses with video DeepFakes of top executives that can trick people into sending money, sharing passwords, or revealing sensitive information all in mere seconds.

CNN's Tech Reporter Clare Duffy has the story.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow, that looks a lot like Clare.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: There's a new type of A.I. scam that's increasingly targeting businesses, and eventually maybe anybody.

Last year, an exec at Ferrari was targeted by someone posing as the company's CEO, and a finance worker at a multinational company paid out $25 million to scammers that used DeepFake recreations of the company's CFO.

So, I'm here in Silicon Valley to meet up with Ethical Hacker and SocialProof Security CEO Rachel Toback. She's going to walk me through how these scams work and how people can protect themselves.

Explain to us what we're going to see today.

RACHEL TOBAC, CEO, SOCIALPROOF SECURITY: So, you're going to see. A demo of what it looks like when somebody uses a deep fake to try to trick somebody with your likeness.

DUFFY: Okay.

TOBAC: And it's not too hard to make.

DUFFY (voice over): Ahead of our meeting, Rachel created a deep fake version of me using software commonly used by hackers pulling video and audio of me posted on YouTube. It can be played back on something like a Zoom call realizing that it's a recording.

We have a colleague of mine in New York who is ready and waiting. She knows this is coming because you are an ethical hacker. We didn't want to trick anybody here.

TOBAC: Right.

DUFFY: But talk about how this would actually happen in the wild if she were there unsuspecting, what would happen?

TOBAC: She would probably get a text message or an email, hey, I'm on the road, can you jump on a call real quick? I need something. So, it'll look like it's coming from you. And when she gets on there, she sees you quickly ask for something like a wire transfer or a password or a code. And, usually, these types of conversations aren't lasting. They're short and they're sweet.

DUFFY: Okay. All right, we've sent that email. Let me get it queued up and we'll see when she answers.

Hey, thanks for jumping on so fast. Can you remind me of our password for our shared drive? I need it for an interview starting in 30 seconds.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow, that looks a lot like Clare. The movements though are a little bit off, like it definitely doesn't seem human. I've never seen Clare look this surprised. Also, she's usually very chill.

DUFFY: Sorry, my connection is bad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Okay, Clare. Oh, this is a little bit creepy.

DUFFY: All right. Misha (ph), can you hear us on your end?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I heard you guys laughing a little bit.

DUFFY: This is real Clare, not the fake Clare.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

DUFFY: What are your thoughts like if this had been our boss, Dave, calling you really quickly to ask you for something, do you feel like there would have been red flags going off, or do you think that you might have been fooled?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are definitely were red flags that going off. I feel like your movements were very jerky. But, yes, this is so realistic. It sounded exactly like you.

DUFFY: It does sort of look like I've had 17 cups of coffee, which could happen.

TOBAC: And you're probably seeing that I added in like little phrases for her to say just to bolster the pretext a little bit, that your connection's bad, you know everything's going wrong, we need your help right now.

DUFFY: I need your help right now. Well, and I can imagine that this is only going to get better, right?

[07:25:01]

TOBAC: Yes. I mean, this is where we're at right now in 2025. Give it a year. DUFFY: So, this is mainly happening in a work setting, right? It's not necessarily like my husband is going to get a Zoom call request from DeepFake me.

TOBAC: I mean, it could, right? If you are well known enough and your threat model is high enough, then I'm pretty sure that an attacker would pretend to be you to anybody that trusts you. This is the type of thing that we see it right now in a business context in a limited way, but it is pretty much hitting people who have a lot of authority at the company asking somebody who really is supposed to do that task for that person of authority.

DUFFY: What can people do to make sure that they don't fall victim to something like this?

TOBAC: You and the people around you have to be politely paranoid. So, essentially, verify that people are who they say they are before taking action on their sensitive request. So, before sending the wire transfer, giving a code giving access to a password or a document, if you do that after the fact because it felt weird, it's already too late.

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SIDNER: Ahead for us, from tariffs to presidential power, the biggest Supreme Court cases we're watching that are coming up in 2026.

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