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U.S. Launches Deadly Strikes On ISIS Terrorists In Nigeria; Year-End Holiday Travel Expected To Set Break Records; DOJ: 1 Million Plus Documents Possibly Linked To Epstein Uncovered. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 26, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Marquez was shot and killed by a man who entered her salon all while on a TikTok live stream in Zapopan, Mexico. Her death sending shockwaves through a country grappling with frequent suspected cases of femicide.

Number two, Jimmy Kimmel speaking out. After a brief suspension following controversial comments he made about conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Jimmy Kimmel returned to ABC Late Night to say he never intended to make light of Kirk's murder. Also delivering powerful remarks about freedom of speech.

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE: This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.

SANCHEZ: And the number one, viral video on CNN's countdown, the feud seen around the world. On the left, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy hoping to win more lethal aid from the President. On the right, President Trump moments before he would launch into a verbal rampage against Zelenskyy.

Boris Sanchez, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with breaking news. Overnight, U.S. strikes on Nigeria. The President ordering strikes on ISIS targets saying it's to fight the killing of Christians there. What Nigeria is saying this morning?

And homes and cars swollen by mud after dangerous storms slam the state of California, more rain there. And a big blast of winter weather across the country could cause a travel mess as people head home after Christmas.

And a 12-year-old was home alone when a burglar broke in. Police say his quick thinking landed the suspect in jail.

John Berman out today. I'm here with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central. KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And we are getting new details on our breaking news story this morning coming in at this hour about the deadly strike operation that President Trump ordered on Islamic State terrorists in Nigeria. U.S. official now tells CNN that the strikes included tomahawk missiles fired from a Navy vessel that struck to ISIS camps.

The U.S. Military reports multiple ISIS terrorists were killed in the attack, and this comes after President Trump has warned for months that the United States could take action in the African nation, claiming ISIS has been targeting Christians in the region.

The President writing this in part when announcing the strikes. "I've previously warned these terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, they -- there would be held to pay, and tonight there was."

The defense secretary also posting about the strike operation, writing that there was, "more to come." Nigeria confirmed the two countries coordinated and collaborated on this strike. Nigeria's foreign minister told CNN this morning that the attacks on civilians, say, point out both Christian and Muslim is a wider regional problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YUSUF TUGGAR, NIGERIAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: It's not a Nigerian problem. It's not a Christian-Muslim problem. It is a regional problem. But we're putting all of that aside. We accept that we need the support of other countries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNN's Kevin Liptak is in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the President is spending the holiday. Kevin, what more are you learning and hearing from the White House about this operation? And what more to come? Maybe Pete Hegseth is talking about.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Right. And President Trump is describing these is perfect strikes. I'm told it was more than a dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from that U.S. Navy vessel towards two ISIS camps in the northwest part of Nigeria up there along the border with Niger.

What U.S.-Africa Command has said is that multiple ISIS terrorists were killed, at least according to their initial assessment. President Trump making this announcement on Christmas Eve very pointedly. And he wrote, "Tonight at my direction as commander-in-chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS terrorists scum in northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians at levels not seen for many years and even centuries."

Now, these do appear to have been coordinated with the Nigerian government. And I think that's significant, because in the past, the leadership there has kind of bristled at President Trump's suggestions that the U.S. could intervene. And you've heard him talking about this really for weeks, stating all the way back to November, when he ordered the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to come up with options and said that the U.S. would go into Nigeria, "guns a blazing" if, as he puts it, the slaughter didn't end.

[09:05:05]

Now, what we heard from the foreign minister earlier today was that he did speak with the Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He said that he had also spoken to the Nigerian president, who said that he had given the go-ahead to the United States to take this action. You know, the plight of Christians in Nigeria has kind of been an animating subject for American conservatives, particularly evangelicals, for quite some time now. Many of them have been calling on President Trump to do more to try and protect Christians in that country.

But it is quite a complex security situation. Muslims and Christians have been targeted for violence. The violence stems certainly from persecution, but also from crime, from disputes between herders and farmers over land. So there's all kinds of contributing factors to what's going on there.

But President Trump making pretty clear that this may not be the last strike in Nigeria, saying that there will be many more if the slaughter of Christians continues. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Kevin, thank you so much for your reporting. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. This morning we're tracking some major storms, one that has pounded California and another that could create real problems for post-Christmas travel. This is what parts of Southern California are dealing with this morning.

A state of emergency declared in multiple counties as millions brace for another round of rain and potentially life threatening floods from record breaking storms there. Evacuations and shelter in place orders remain in effect for the hard hit community of Wright Wood in San Bernardino County. There you can see what happened. Heavy rains triggering mudslides that ended up burying some homes and vehicles and washing out roads.

Also on the move, another winter storm expected to bring freezing rain to the Midwest before slamming the Northeast with ice and snow later today. More than 23 million people are under winter storm warnings, including in New York City, which could see its biggest snowfall since 2022.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar joining me now. What do you see out there? It sounds dire, except for that little pocket of record warmth. That odd little pocket.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is that -- this is -- this is the nice spot right through here. Yes, this is this is about where we're going to see the driest weather. We have two separate systems that we're continuing to track.

The one is finishing up out into the West, finally going to give those folks a little bit of a dry break that they need. But then the second system, this is the one that's making its way, excuse me, from the Midwest into the Northeast, and it will do so for the next 24 hours. So here's what we're going to take a look at.

Let's begin out into the West because this is the one that's going to be wrapping up rather than getting worse. Here's a look at where we have the rain you can see on the radar. Most of the heavy rain is really focused over portions of northern California, but we're going to start to see that line shift southward as we go through the rest of the day.

So really, the bulk of the concern for flash flooding is really going to be focused across southern California as we wrap up the rest of the day on Friday. But the good news comes as we enter into the weekend. Again, here you can see, look at that. All of that drying back out as we head into Saturday, it's going to stay that way Sunday and give them at least a few days break before more rain comes back.

Now, it's going to keep temperatures a little bit on the cool side. Everywhere else in the center of the country is going to be looking at record breaking heat. You're talking more than 40 cities that could be looking at record temperatures over the next few days. It is, however, still going to be a little cool in the northeast, and that's what's going to allow for this next system as it slides in to bring the winter precipitation. So the purple color here is the snow.

The pink is going to be your sleet and you're freezing rain. That's what's going to slide in over across the northeast as we go through the rest of the day on Friday. There will still be some of it lingering into early Saturday morning, but by lunchtime Saturday, we finally start to see all of that precipitation moving back out, making it a little bit easier to travel in the back half of the day.

SIDNER: All right, Allison, Kate and I are now demanding that you go get some rest and rest that voice of yours. Boy, you've been through it this morning. All right, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much.

Joining us right now is Clint Henderson, the managing editor for the travel website, The Points Guy. It's good to see you. Thank you for coming in. We've got wet mess of weather and dangerous weather out west. You've got snow coming for the northeast this weekend in a very big way. How busy is this weekend going to be? What are you seeing and how could weather impact it?

CLINT HENDERSON, MANAGING EDITOR, THE POINTS GUY: Yes, we're already seeing impacts across the northeast, especially Detroit. Really hard hit. I'm here in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's been pouring rain. And the airport's been a mess for the whole week, basically, but I'm really worried about the northeast right now. Delays, cancellations piling up, and this is the busiest weekend of the holiday period going into today and into Sunday.

[09:10:04] So make sure you're paying attention to what's going on at your arrival and departure airport. Get to the airport early. But if you see that your airport started to go into meltdown, see if you can get your flight rescheduled because the airlines all have weather waivers in place. They'll rebook you, you know, leave a day earlier, leave a day later, especially if you're going to be at the airport right when the storm is at its worst.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And Clint, how is holiday travel kind of this period of time shaping up compared to years past just in general?

HENDERSON: So it's really interesting. We are having record-breaking travel again this year. Every year I say, oh, next year is going to be slower, but every year we're breaking records, and that's true of both air and driving. You know, gas prices are down, so more people are driving. I think the shutdown scared people off, so more people are also driving, but still record-breaking crowds at airports.

BOLDUAN: So talk to me, I mean, yes, the shutdown, which then had to do with air traffic control and air traffic control shortage in general, has been a concern and, you know, an issue that people have been grappling with and travelers have been having to deal with for quite some time at this point. Now you've got mixed in holiday, the holiday rush and weather. What are the big concerns that you're hearing from people who are traveling?

HENDERSON: I think a lot of folks, and we did some polling on this at The Points Guy, a lot of people concerned about weather delays, about flights getting canceled and delayed, and they're right to be a little bit concerned. That has been an issue. I will say the airlines have been recovering more quickly than they used to, and we have not seen the severe air traffic control shortage impact as many flights as we did during the shutdown.

However, this is an ongoing problem, and it's the area I'm most concerned about because during the shutdown we did lose more folks at air traffic control training centers who decided it's just not worth it, this job, and so it's an ongoing issue that's going to be with us for some time.

BOLDUAN: That's an excellent point. So best advice now for everyone out there asking for a friend who might be traveling today and this weekend, what's -- what is -- how can you be smartest as an air traveler especially?

HENDERSON: You really need to be an informed consumer. I use an app called Flighty. It saved me the other day when I was trying to get into San Francisco. I ended up switching my flight to Oakland because I saw there was a ground stop at SFO. You know, tracking apps, even just a simple Google search will tell you what's going on with your flight. But you need to make sure you're aware of what's happening at your arrival and departure airport, and then, you know, make sure where your plane is coming from is important too because if it's going through Detroit to get to you, that you might miss that flight.

So have that airline app installed, you know, make sure you have an alternate plan. Sometimes the airlines will put you on a competitor if they're having a meltdown, but right now you just want to avoid the worst of the weather.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Great advice. As always, thank you so much, Clint. Sara?

SIDNER: All right, thank you to Clint. We love getting tips from him. All right, this morning, a mother accused of killing her daughter during a bizarre road trip is set to be arraigned. How investigators were finally able to find the body of nine-year-old Melodee Buzzard.

Plus, the DOJ says more than a million additional files potentially related to Jeffrey Epstein have been found. New reporting on where they were found and when they might be made available to the public.

[09:13:39]

Also, a bit later, what would you do with $1.8 billion? Someone in Arkansas right now making some plans because they're the only person that came up with the right numbers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: All right, new this morning, the fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein file release was on President Trump's mind over Christmas. He used one of his dozens of holiday posts to wish, "Merry Christmas to all, including the many sleazebags who loved Epstein." It comes as the Justice Department now says it has uncovered more than a million additional documents potentially related to the case and that it may need a few more weeks to review and release them to the public.

Under the law signed by President Trump in November, all the DOJ Epstein documents were supposed to be released last Friday. Joining me now is Nick Akerman. He was an assistant special Watergate prosecutor and a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

All right. So these Epstein files, they go back decades, right?

NICK AKERMAN, FORMER ASST. U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: Correct.

SIDNER: How can something like this happen where the DOJ on Christmas Eve, mind you, suddenly says, hey, we're now become aware of more than a million more files potentially related to Epstein that it's going to take us weeks now to send out to the public?

AKERMAN: Total nonsense. They had to know that these files existed right from the get go. First of all, we know that prior to May of this year, Pam Bondi had lots of FBI agents going through all of these files to determine whether President Trump's name was in these documents. So she knew where the documents were.

But on top of that, even more glaring is the fact that all of these documents they had to know were in the Southern District of New York that prosecuted the Maxwell and Epstein criminal cases. SIDNER: Why is that?

[09:20:00]

AKERMAN: Because when you're a prosecutor, you are obliged, you're commanded to return over to the defense exculpatory evidence under a Supreme Court decision known as Brady. And in order to do that, you have to get every file that's in the federal government, whether it's in the FAA or some other agency, they have to be under your control so you can comply with your Brady obligations.

And certainly Todd Blanche, who was in charge of this whole matter, was a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. He should have known that. So they had to know that these were there. There's no excuse for it.

SIDNER: All right. I do want to ask you about the process of going through these documents to make the can be a tedious thing. Is it any surprise with the number of years this case has gone on with the number of victims in this case that it didn't meet its deadline, that the DOJ was not able to put everything out?

AKERMAN: Well, they should have been able to because they knew who the victims were. It's a matter of just putting a black mark over people who are victims. That was it. There's certainly nothing in there for national security. There's no other really valid reason not to turn over all this information.

This should have taken no time at all. They should have been able to do it in that month. They knew where the documents were. This is just a lame excuse.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you, you know, you've gotten bipartisan criticism of how this Pam Bondi has handled this, how her office has handled the release of these files. What do you think it is doing as far as the way people feel towards the DOJ, the public trust?

AKERMAN: Oh, I think the public trust is completely dissolved. There is no public trust in the DOJ anymore, whether it's appearing in court before judges or whether it's just what they're doing with the public and telling the public what they have or don't have. I think she's got zero credibility at this point.

SIDNER: And when it comes to how these were put out, you had all of this back and forth where a couple of times the DOJ put documents out, then they rescinded them saying there are some issues here that we need to do some redactions. And they put a hugely redacted where you couldn't see anything, just pages and pages that were darkened. I mean, is this a normal process for putting out information to the public?

AKERMAN: Not at all. Even when you do a federal, you know, Information Act request, you get things back that are redacted. You saw the Mueller report that was redacted. But it's just little bits and pieces so that you can't understand something that might relate to personal information or be really confidential on another investigation. There's none of that here.

I mean, this is stuff that goes back to, you know, 2010 and before that they should have had ready to produce at the moment that law passed. I mean, this is -- there's no excuse for any of this.

SIDNER: They were given a month and there are a lot of documents, but they also had some inference that this was coming because it was discussed over and over and over again. And then Congress finally passed the law. The President signed it.

Nick Akerman, thank you for giving us some insight into how this should work and how you see it breaking down. We really do appreciate it. Thank you.

All right, still ahead, life imitating art, the "Home Alone" movie plot playing out in real life. What happened when a burglar began ransacking a home with a 12-year-old inside alone?

[09:23:20]

And we now know where the record $1.8 billion winning Powerball ticket was purchased, but we may never know who actually won. Why and where, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: One massive jackpot and one very lucky winner. There was a single winning ticket for the $1.8 billion Powerball jackpot drawing that happened on Christmas Eve. That ticket purchased at a gas station in Cabot, Arkansas. Easy for me to say. CNN's Rafael Romo is there. So, Rafael, any word yet on who the lucky winner is?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's the million dollar question right now, Kate. Pun intended. And this is it. This is the lucky Murphy USA gas station that sold the winning ticket. We are, you mentioned it, Cabot, Arkansas, population 27,000, about 25 miles northeast of Little Rock. The big question here is the question you have.

It is who the lucky person who won the $1.8 million Powerball jackpot on Christmas Eve. Last minute ticket sales, Kate, and Wednesday's drawing pushed the jackpot to $1.8 billion with a cash option to, listen to this, 835 million, making it the second largest U.S. lottery jackpot ever Powerball said in a statement.

Just a few moments ago, I spoke with an official with the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery who expressed the feelings many people have here regarding how they feel like, you know, and we've all felt this before, like you never win anything. Well, that has changed here.

Sharon Strong, she's the executive director of the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery and an attorney herself, told me what the person who hit the jackpot should probably be doing right now. This is what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SHARON STRONG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ARKANSAS SCHOLARSHIP LOTTERY: I want that person to visit with their attorney, visit with their financial advisor and when they come to the claim center to claim their winnings, to have a plan in place of how they're going to handle this life changing amount of money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:29:52]

ROMO: In a nutshell, Kate, lawyer up and talk to your financial advisor. While there was only one big winner Wednesday, eight tickets nabbed $1 million to stuff their stockings. Those tickets were sold in California, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania.