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The Year Ahead in Politics; Pope Leo Celebrates Christmas; Justice Department Discovers New Epstein Documents; Powerball Winner; Storm Slams California. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired December 25, 2025 - 13:00   ET

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

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SARA SIDNER, CNN HOST: All right at this hour, millions of people under a state of emergency and evacuation orders are expanding as California braces for another storm, bringing more flooding, mudslides and debris flows.

Plus: The Justice Department, in a Christmas Eve announcement, says it's found more than a million documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein case it was not aware of, and the timeline for the documents' release suddenly expanding. How long will that take? More on that ahead.

And we have a winner, a Christmas jackpot. One person picked those very special numbers and won that $1.8 billion Powerball jackpot. So where was the ticket purchased so you can start figuring out if a relative or friend is available for you to borrow a few bucks from? Details on that coming up.

We're following all these major developing stories and more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

All right, merry Christmas to you and yours. And thank you so much for joining us on this holiday edition of CNN NEWS CENTRAL. I'm Sara Sidner.

Millions of Californians are marking this Christmas Day battered by a powerful winter storm that has dumped more than 10 inches of heavy rain up and down the Golden State. Dangerous floodwaters rushed over roadways Wednesday, submerging and sweeping up cars in parts of Southern California.

You see a picture of it happening there. A fire department rescue squad hoisted a stranded hiker to safety after he couldn't cross an overflowing creek. Several counties are under states of emergencies, and the National Weather Service warned more heavy rain and strong winds are coming, and for the rest of the country, potential record- breaking heat and a lot of snow, depending on where you are.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar more from the CNN Extreme Weather Center.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We have two separate systems impacting both coasts. The first one, this is the one that's going to be wrapping up across the Western U.S., but also a newer one that's likely going to bring some snow showers across the Great Lakes and the Northeast.

But we begin out to the West, where it has been days upon days of torrential rainfall and very heavy snow for California. We still have one more day to get through with the risk for excessive rainfall. The focus here is mainly going to be across southern and central portions of the state.

Here, you can see that second wave coming in through the overnight and very early hours of Friday. By the time we get to the latter half of the day, Friday, though, most of the focus really is across portions of Southern California.

One thing to note, though, take a look at this. Once we get to the weekend, finally, we will start to see some much drier conditions across the state, which is very much needed for these areas. Until then, however, still looking at a few more inches of rainfall, especially along the southwestern portion of the state.

In terms of snow, especially across the higher elevations of the Sierras, you are still looking at several more feet of snow. This is on top of the several feet that they have already had.

This means any more travel throughout the day today, say, from around Lake Tahoe and Reno area, going westward over towards Sacramento or San Francisco, or even going eastward from those cities back and forth, you are likely going to encounter some delays on the roads just because of how rough those conditions are going to be driving across that region.

One thing to note, too, is we're still expecting some pretty gusty winds for this area, so also possible some airline delays due to very gusty winds. Now, those systems that are there are keeping temperatures in California either at or slightly below average, but, for the rest of the country, it's quite the opposite.

All of these dots represent a potential record that could be broken either Friday or Saturday, lots of them. The only other cool spot across the country is actually going to be across the Northeast as that next system begins to spread through.

But look at the disparity amongst all of these temperatures. You're talking some 80-degree temperatures in places like Texas. Meanwhile, up into the Northeast, most of these cities won't even make it to the freezing mark for their high temperatures on Friday.

Now, having that cold air in place is what's going to allow this next system as it slides from Canada down to the Southeast, bringing mostly winter precipitation. So, for much of the latter half of the day on Friday, you will see this system move from the Midwest over into the Northeast. [13:05:07]

Now, you're going to have that thin line where those temperatures are very close to that freezing mark and likely going to have some ice accumulation. Everything north of that, though, is going to get their precipitation in the form of snow.

When we look at the ice, some of these areas could be looking at upwards of a quarter-of-an-inch of ice total. The concern here is, when you get that thick glaze on trees and power lines, it can lead to power outages.

And then snowfall totals, some of these areas could pick up at much as a foot of snow total.

SIDNER: All right, our thanks to Allison Chinchar for that.

Now, a storm of a different sort, a storm of frustration, brewing in President Trump's orbit. He's spending the holiday at Mar-a-Lago as concerns grow inside his inner circle over the handling of the latest Epstein files release.

And the issue is not going to fade. The Justice Department says it has uncovered more than a million more documents possibly related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

CNN senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak joining us from West Palm Beach, Florida, keeping his eye on all these details.

What is the White House saying about this latest issue, which, on Christmas Eve, we all learned that there were these potentially a million more documents that had not been previously discovered?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes.

And I don't think it's welcome news to anyone in the administration that they're going to have to keep contending with this drip, drip, drip of information from these Epstein files. What the Justice Department said is that the prosecutors in the Southern District of New York came...

SIDNER: All right, so we have a technical issue. I mean, it is Christmas, so something's got to go wrong, right, because everyone's happy otherwise. But Kevin Liptak is there.

I do -- I know that we are learning that the Justice Department is now saying it's going to take weeks, not days, but weeks, before they send out this to the public, which is required by law.

Kevin Liptak is back with us.

What can you tell us, Kevin?

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LIPTAK: Yes, so what the Justice Department said is that these documents came from the prosecutors in the Southern District of New York from when they were charging Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.

But that happened years ago, 2019, 2020. And so there is an open question of why it took them so long to tell the Justice Department that they had this million more pages of documents for them to go through. And I think, if you're in the White House, one, you have to contend with this continued release, this drip, drip, drip of information, which is certainly inconvenient.

But it's also raising questions about how they have handled this now mandatory disclosures. And it's drawing a lot of questions, certainly from Democrats. What Robert Garcia, who's the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said is that it was outrageous that they were withholding some of these documents from the public.

And so I do think this is sort of a continued controversy, certainly that President Trump once hoped that he would just be able to move past. But when you talk to officials now, there's sort of a recognition that the only way to get around this is through. And certainly they're going to have to be dealing with this for the foreseeable future.

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, it is not going away. Every time there is a document release, everybody goes through them, as we should, and the public wants to know what's happened there.

I do want to move on to a different subject, President Trump making threats against broadcasters again. What are you learning?

LIPTAK: Yes, and he was kind of getting in the Festivus spirit, wasn't he, sort of airing these middle-of-the-night grievances about late-night television.

And just to frame how this was all happening, it happened just as CBS was airing the Kennedy Center Honors, which you will remember the president was hosting. He seems to have left the TV on, caught the Stephen Colbert show, and did not particularly like what he saw.

He said: "Stephen Colbert is a pathetic train wreck with no talent or anything else necessary for show business success." Then the president starts getting into the veterinary euphemisms, when he says CBS should put him to sleep now. "It's the humanitarian thing to do."

He followed that up a few minutes later -- remember, this is all after midnight. He says that the newscast and the late-night shows, they're 100 percent negative to President Trump. And then he asks: "Shouldn't their very valuable broadcast licenses be terminated? I say yes."

It's not the first time the president has raised this. He has said that this will be a decision up for the FCC chairman, Brendan Carr. But, remember, Brendan Carr just said this month that he doesn't think the FCC is an independent agency, so certainly something to watch going forward, Sara.

SIDNER: Unfortunately, this is all happening on Christmas Eve, as families and people are trying to come together, not tear each other apart.

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Kevin Liptak, thank you so much live for us from West Palm Beach with all those details.

All right, Pope Leo has used his first Christmas message to call for peace in Russia's war on Ukraine and to denounce the suffering of people living in Gaza. Crowds gathering in Vatican City to watch the pontiff celebrate the first Christmas since his election back in May

CNN's Christopher Lamb has the story.

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CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, despite the cold and the rain, thousands gathered in St. Peter's for the first Christmas celebrated by Pope Leo since his election.

Leo was out in the Popemobile on Christmas Day and, on Christmas Eve, before the midnight mass, came out to the square to greet the thousands gathered under umbrellas to follow the mass from outside. He said he admired them for their courage in coming out to be part of the celebrations.

Now, Leo in his messages has emphasized that Christmas is about peace. He specifically called for peace and for concern and solidarity with people in Gaza. And he made that call during the homily that he gave on Christmas Day morning from St. Peter's Basilica.

POPE LEO XIV, LEADER OF CATHOLIC CHURCH: How then can we not think of the tents in Gaza exposed for weeks to rain, wind and cold, of those, so many other refugees and displaced persons on every continent, or of the makeshift shelters of thousands of homeless people in our own cities?

LAMB: Leo came onto the balcony of St. Peter's, where he greeted people in different languages, wishing them a happy Christmas. He spoke in Arabic, in Chinese, in Polish, showing his linguistic skills.

Leo, in his Christmas message, calling for the guns to fall silent in Ukraine. Before Christmas, he said he hoped that there could be a cease-fire in Ukraine just for Christmas Day for 24 hours. He also talked about different conflicts taking place around the world, trying to bring the Christmas message to the here and now in what he was saying, Leo seeming in festive spirit, seeming happy to be marking the first Christmas since his election.

Christopher Lamb, CNN, Rome.

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SIDNER: All right. And now, to a Christmas that came early. There is a lucky lottery winner. Where? Arkansas. The owner of a single ticket in Wednesday night's drawing nabbed Powerball's $1.8 billion jackpot, the second largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history. Let's bring in CNN's Randi Kaye.

Randi, you don't have an apartment or anything in Arkansas, do you?

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SIDNER: I'm just -- I just wanted to check.

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Would I be here?

(LAUGHTER)

SIDNER: No, I guess not. That was a stupid question on my part.

KAYE: Yes, that is one really lucky winner, though, the $1.8 billion prize. And the winner has options, Sara. They can get this cash option, which is that lump sum payment of a mere $834.9 million, or they could take 29 annual payments.

And most winners, of course, do take that lump sum payment. And all of that is before taxes. But the good news is, we are getting more information about the winner. We know that the winning ticket was sold in Cabot, Arkansas. That's a small suburb just outside Little Rock.

And we don't know who the winner is yet, or we don't have any information on the store who sold the winning ticket. But in the state of Arkansas, the winner can remain anonymous for three years, according to state law. So it may take a while before we actually know who this person is.

But here are the winning numbers once again, if you want to check your ticket, four, 25, 31, 52, and 59 with the red Powerball of 19. The drawing got pushed really because of these last-minute ticket sales. Everybody wanted in on this jackpot and their chance at winning.

The odds of winning, by the way, this jackpot, according to Powerball, was something like one in 292 million. The jackpot has been won once before on Christmas Eve, some on Christmas Day, but they have never reached that billion-dollar mark.

And there was that one big winner on Wednesday, but there are -- actually, Sara, eight tickets also won $1 million. So that's nothing to sneeze at, a little extra cash for those stocking stuffers. Those tickets were sold in California, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

And, nationwide, 114 tickets won a $50,000 prize, 31 tickets won $100,000, and the Powerball jackpot now resets to $20 million for Saturday's drawing, which kind of sounds like nothing compared to nearly $2 billion, doesn't it?

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SIDNER: I mean, it does, but I would take it. I was also just like busying myself seeing if there are any Sidners in Cabot, Arkansas, and it turns out there are none. (LAUGHTER)

KAYE: Darn it.

SIDNER: Too bad.

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SIDNER: I thought I might have a connection or something.

(LAUGHTER)

SIDNER: Randi Kaye, it is a joy to see you.

KAYE: Thank you. You too.

SIDNER: I get to hang out with Randi Kaye on Christmas Day, and that is present enough.

KAYE: Love it.

SIDNER: Thank you so much.

KAYE: Aw, thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

SIDNER: All right, still to come: It's set to be another momentous year in politics. We will take a look at what Democrats and Republicans are facing as we head into the 2026 midterms.

Stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: 'Tis the season to be self-reflective?

Americans sure seem to be sending politicians that message. A new Gallup poll showing a larger majority say both parties have gone too far when it comes to the rhetoric that they're using to attack their opponents. And intense polarization is really taking its toll on younger adults.

A Harvard Youth Poll shows a majority of responders think the country is headed in the wrong direction.

So let's talk strategy here because both parties have some serious work to do in what's going to be a pivotal midterm election year.

We're joined by Washington bureau chief for "The Boston Globe" Jackie Kucinich and NOTUS White House correspondent Jasmine Wright. All right, Jackie, coming off some pretty pivotal elections, certainly

elections that got a lot of attention this year, what should Republicans and Democrats be focused on as they're heading into 2026?

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, I think the answer is quite easy. It's affordability. I mean, that is something that we're hearing from voters no matter where you are, whether you're in Tennessee, whether you're in Georgia, whether you're in one of the states that had these off-year elections.

It is something that voters very much care about, and, listen, particularly during a season where they spent some money on gifts for friends and family. It's very much front and center for everyone who goes to a grocery store.

KEILAR: And yet it's tough for Republicans, right? Because the head of their party, Jasmine, the president, is downplaying the issue. He's calling it a con job by the Democrats. What kind of impact is that having for them as they're trying to message going into the midterms?

JASMINE WRIGHT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NOTUS: Well, I think you're going to hear a split in language used by Republicans at large versus potentially what the president is using, because he's basically saying that affordability is a hoax, i.e., the messaging around affordability, but people aren't necessarily taking it that way.

So I think you're going to hear Republicans try to strike a more empathetic tone, something that they're actually counseling the White House to adopt, because they know that people want to hear the message, I feel your pain. I understand when you go to the grocery store prices are a little bit higher, even if they're lower at the gas pump.

The question always is going to be whether or not Donald Trump, who is slightly an unpopular president right now, is going to adopt that same language.

KEILAR: There is a -- they don't have to reinvent the wheel, Republicans and President Trump, on this, because they can look back to Biden and how his messaging, which was seen as minimizing the economic hardship that people were feeling, how that landed with Americans. It didn't land that well, right?

I mean, taking that kind of lesson, I wonder if Republicans see that lesson and are concerned about it going forward.

KUCINICH: You would think they would be concerned about it because the -- it's one of the reasons you could argue that President Trump is president again, is because of inflation and because of the cost of living.

But, listen, they can only do so much. This is a Republican Party, given how much Congress has ceded their authority to this president, they're very tightly tied to the president in a way that even two, four years ago that they weren't. KEILAR: I wonder what you guys think about the vote to end the

shutdown, Senate Democrats ultimately deciding to go that route when so many folks in their base were glad that they were holding steady to defy President Trump.

And there was a lot of blowback as they did that. How might that look going into this election year, Jasmine?

WRIGHT: Well, I think one thing that Democrats are going to have to answer, and this may come during the primary season, is, how do they keep their base engaged without alienating voters that they're going to need in November for the general?

Now, this may be worked out in some of those high-profile Democratic primaries. Jasmine Crockett is one in Texas. There are a bunch in Iowa that are also going to be -- we're going to be looking at over all the months. And so they're going to have to answer that question, but also it's going to be answered as who is the messenger for their party?

And that's not just for 2028, but is it Zohran Mamdani, as Republicans like to say? Is it Jasmine Crockett, as Republicans like to say? Or is it more moderate, more centrist Republicans -- I mean, Democrats that can talk to potentially a larger part of it?

And then, obviously, what the Democratic socialist, DCA, that Zohran Mamdani is a part of, how they flex their power and how does that all play into the larger primary issue in just a few months.

KUCINICH: Yes, candidate selection is definitely going to matter as you look at these midterm elections. It always matters, of course. But when you're looking at particularly these very marginal districts, of which there are going to be several, who ends up in those seats or who's in those positions really does matter.

KEILAR: And I wonder, as we are looking toward those first few weeks of 2026, what that's going to look like for Republican congressional leaders.

So, for Leader Thune, for Speaker Johnson, what are they focused on?

KUCINICH: Speaker Johnson, math mostly, I mean, because he's -- I mean...

KEILAR: It's tough.

KUCINICH: It's going to be tough. And it's just going to get tougher for him with some departures.

And you might see even more retirements roll out. So he has -- I mean, that is going to be his biggest challenge going, not only the beginning of the year, but throughout the year.

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KEILAR: And it's not as if Democrats in leadership don't have maybe a little bit of a reckoning or certainly some self-reflection that they could do as well, Jasmine. There were a lot of questions about Chuck Schumer's leadership in the past year.

WRIGHT: Yes, I think Chuck Schumer, there are going to be questions about him potentially. There are going to be questions about Hakeem Jeffries and whether or not the Democratic leadership is representative of where the base and the party are at.

I also think they're going to have to contest with something that a lot of people aren't thinking about right now, which is President Trump's massive war chest. The reports say that it is somewhere in the hundreds of millions of dollars, potentially 600 millions of dollars.

How does that play into the Democratic primaries as Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are trying to expand their numbers and obviously not retract?

KEILAR: That's very interesting.

Jasmine Wright, Jackie Kucinich, thank you so much to the both of you for the discussion. We really appreciate it.

We'll have much more news right after the break.

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