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Exlusive, CIA Conducted Drone Strike on Port Facility in Venezuela; Pipe Bomb Suspect to Appear in Federal Court for Detention Hearing; Sheriff Says, New Dash Cam Video Appears to Show Missing Texas Teen. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 30, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: A new strike and another escalation. We've got exclusive CNN reporting out this morning on the CIA drone strike directly against Venezuela, the first time the U.S. has hit a target inside the country. We'll have the latest details.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And the urgent search for the missing teenager who vanished on Christmas Eve intensifies in Texas. The clues surfacing from newly released dash cam footage that may show the 19- year-old the morning she went missing.

And the beehive is buzzing. Queen Bee now on the list of billionaires. Who Beyonce joins on the Forbes list of billionaire musicians, and she's not the only one in the family.

I'm Sara Sidner with Omar Jimenez. John Berman and Kate Baldwin are out this morning. This is CNN News Central.

JIMENEZ: All right. Breaking overnight, a CNN exclusive, sources say the CIA carried out a drone strike on a port facility on Venezuela's coast earlier this month. This is the first known U.S. attack on a target inside the country. Now, before this, the U.S. had only conducted strikes on suspected drug trafficking boats in international waters destroying more than 30 vessels in the Caribbean Sea. You can see some of the images of what we've seen to this point. And this has typically been in the Caribbean Sea in Eastern Pacific.

Now, President Trump first acknowledged the strike on a remote Venezuelan dock in an interview last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: And we just knocked out -- I don't know if you read or you saw they have a big plant or a big facility where they send the -- you know, where the ships come from. Two nights ago we knocked that out. So, we hit them very hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: I want to bring in CNN's Kevin Liptak, who's in Palm Beach, Florida, for us. So, Kevin, what can you tell us about this new escalation really at this point? KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. And it is a major escalation. You know, President Trump has been threatening for weeks now to begin action on land in Venezuela. Now that we're learning that that has actually begun, it does seem to signal a much more aggressive phase in this pressure campaign on the leader there, Nicolas Maduro.

Now, what sources tell us is that this CIA drone strike took out a facility on a dock on the coast of Venezuela where the U.S. government believes the gang, Tren de Aragua, was loading up ships with drugs for onward shipping.

Now, there was no one in the facility at the time, so there were no casualties. But I think the way all of this came to light is also extraordinary. You know, CIA operations are normally shrouded in secrecy. And unless President Trump had sort of let it slip in that radio interview, which I would note was with a billionaire at Republican donor, it's possible that we may never have known that this had happened.

And the president over at Mar-a-Lago yesterday was not particularly forthcoming about what all of this looked like. He said it was a major explosion in a dock area. He said they load the boats up with drugs. We hit all the boats and that this was the implementation area.

I was over there and I asked the president point blank whether this was a military strike or whether this was some sort of CIA action, and the president said, I don't want to say that. I know exactly who it was. So, you hear him there sort of not revealing any more details than he let slip in that radio interview.

You know, the president did authorize the CIA to take action inside Venezuela earlier this year, but this is really the first we're hearing of what exactly they've been up to in that country. You know, the focus really publicly from the administration has been those strikes on the alleged drug boats.

And yesterday, the Pentagon announced that they had struck the 31st boat. This was in international waters in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. They say that it was transiting a known narco-trafficking route, and that two alleged narco-traffickers were killed. But as with previous strikes, they didn't provide any evidence to back up those claims. That, of course, has drawn all kinds of scrutiny from Congress who say that this could amount to extrajudicial killing.

[07:05:00]

And so now that we know that these actions have begun on the ground in Venezuela certainly does signal that we're entering a new phase of this pressure campaign. Omar?

JIMENEZ: Yes, a phase that, in some ways, had been projected and, to your point, we just were waiting to see what that would actually look like if it happened, and here we have the reporting.

Kevin Liptak, thank you so much. Sara? SIDNER: All right. Happening today, the man accused of planting pipe bombs in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the January 6th attack set to appear in court. Prosecutors say Brian J. Cole gave a detailed confession after he was arrested earlier this month on charges of placing pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic Party headquarters.

Court documents show that Cole believed someone needed to, quote, speak up, as he put it, for people who believed the 2020 election was stolen and that he wanted to target the DNC and RNC because they were in charge.

CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig is here with us. First, let's go to what we can expect to happen in court today.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: So, the main thing that's going to happen today, Sara, is the bail or detention argument. Prosecutors are arguing that he should not be given any bail, he should not be released, he should be held pending trial because he's too much of a danger to the community. Of course, the defendant, Mr. Cole's lawyer, will be arguing that he should be given some bail, that he's reliable, that he'll come back, and that he won't do any harm.

I don't love predictions but I will tell you no chance he gets bail. He is too dangerous that the charges against him, use of explosives, are too serious. The evidence is too strong. He's not going to get out. He's going to get held without bail today.

SIDNER: I want to talk to you about this confession that was in court documents. According to the FBI, the suspect's talked about, you know, why he did this and, you know, kind of the purpose of all of this, and admitted ultimately in the documents to doing the -- to performing this crime.

When you look at what they have so far, with the video, this confession, how strong is this case?

HONIG: You know, this confession really to me, put it over the top because without this confession, if you just look at the initial complaint, the case was solid, but it was circumstantial and not quite overwhelming. There was evidence showing from credit card records that he had purchased some of the components, not the exact same items, but the same general type of items found in the bomb, the casing, the wiring, the end caps, the explosives, that kind of thing.

There was also evidence showing that he was in the vicinity of where the bombs were set in D.C. on the evening of January 5th, based on cell tower records and license plate reader records. That's fine. That's a good case. Now, on top of all that, he's admitted it. And so that's going to be used against him. To me, that's going to be really hard for him to come back from.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you what you think the defense is going to do in this case. They have already mentioned that they say that he has severe autism, right?

HONIG: I don't know exactly -- well, let me say this.

SIDNER: Yes.

HONIG: The autism is not going to be a defense in itself. What they could say is that the statement that he gave to the FBI should be given less weight by a jury, or should be somehow less compelling because he has this condition. However, that is not in any way going to be an actual defense. That's not going to lead jurors to a potential not guilty verdict.

So, I don't know what his defense is going to be. I can tell you that a lot of defense lawyers in a position like this, where the evidence is this strong, are just looking to minimize the damage, looking to work out some type of plea deal where they can reduce the number, where they can get some sort of reduction in the sentence.

And here he's looking at, if he's convicted at trial, he's looking at a minimum of 5 years in a max of 30. So, there's a lot of play there. So, I think they're going to try to get him on the lower end of that scale. I don't know if prosecutor's going to be willing to agree though.

SIDNER: Yes. We will have to see, because this case was such a public case that went on for five years. The likelihood of prosecutors saying we're going to make a deal --

HONIG: Yes, I don't --

SIDNER: And it's fairly strong, as you say.

HONIG: They're not going to like the look of a deal, I can tell you that.

SIDNER: Yes. Elie Honig, it is a pleasure, and we'll talk to you next hour.

HONIG: See you in a bit.

SIDNER: All right, new clues and new video this morning. And the search for a Texas teenager who police say is in imminent danger after she disappeared from her home on Christmas Eve.

And happening today, an undersea robotics company set to resume the search for missing flight MH370 after all these years. Why they believe they are closer than ever to finding the plane that vanished more than ten years ago.

And a motorcycle collection worth more than $40 million seized by the FBI. The international manhunt for a former Olympic snowboarder who is now one of the FBI's ten most wanted fugitives.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

JIMENEZ: This morning, we've got new developments in the urgent search for a missing Texas teen who vanished on Christmas Eve. Authorities say new dash cam video shows a person matching the description of 19-year-old Camila Mendoza Olmos, you see her, this description, at least of -- in that circle going by, walking alone shortly after she was seen leaving her home.

Now, the Bexar County Sheriff's Office released a dash cam video. They say it was recorded by a person in Camila's neighborhood who was driving to work shortly after 7:00 A.M.

Now, authorities believe Camila left home that morning with only her keys and possibly her driver's license. Camila's mother says she thought her daughter was just taking a walk, but then noticed she left her phone behind.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSARIO OLMOS, MOTHE OF CAMILA OLMOS: I called her cell phone, but the cell phone was there on the bed and it was turned off. So, I put it to charge and I went out to look for her. I thought I would find her, like other times, walking and we would come home together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: Now, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar told CNN, is believed to be -- Camila is believed to be an imminent danger.

I want to bring in CNN Senior National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem now. I just want to start with, does anything stick out to you as strange here? What does stick out?

[07:15:00]

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, basically that she left without her phone, which would strike me as both a security expert and a mother of a teenager, that she did not want to be tracked by her phone. Most parents have find my iPhone, so that if she either met someone or has left alone and is in some sort of self-harm or whatever else that she did not want to be found. So, that's the scary thing for her the parents. I think also the video showing that she was alone, at least at the time that she left the house, what investigators are going to be looking at was, is she in contact with anyone that lured her out of the house, or is this again an instance of, you know, something that's internal to her. She wanted to get away from her parents and now the police are looking for essentially a runaway. We don't know right now.

I do want to say to parents everywhere, you know, stranger abductions are less than 1 percent of abductions of children. There's about 750,000 a year in the United States. Most of those are by a parent or a family member. So, the risk calculation is such that the police will be looking to whether she was just trying to escape.

JIMENEZ: You know, we're almost a week out at this point. How does the nature of an investigation like this change when you get to basically a week since the disappearance? KAYYEM: Yes. That's the scary part, obviously, is that this is a long time normally. So, that would -- that's why the police are saying imminent danger is that she's just simply been gone way too long, whether it was an abduction or someone that she knew who lured her out. They could be anywhere at this stage. If it was something that was more sort of self-inflicted, they would -- you know, if she's in some sort of stress to be able to contact her is of the essence. Time is not on investigator's side because they worry that the trail has gone cold.

So, what they're doing now, at least by being public coming out so aggressively, saying things like imminent danger, is to get people to check their ring phones to check -- yes, I can.

JIMENEZ: Juliette --

KAYYEM: Oh, sorry, someone came through the light, yes.

JIMENEZ: Yes. Sorry, Juliette, I believe we lost your audio for a little bit. Thank you, though, for the insight, as usual.

Following a lot of stories this morning, including a viral video, then a surge of federal resources to investigate alleged fraud in Minnesota, a lot of which had been prosecuted for years. But now some Republican state lawmakers are calling for Governor Tim Walz to resign.

Plus, an absolute nightmare on the roads as severe winter storms slam major parts of the United States and the temperature plunge is only just beginning.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

SIDNER: All right. This morning, the biggest winter storm has moved on, but lake-effect snow, gusty winds and colder air behind it could still slow travel today.

Over the last few days, the storm system brought a little of everything and not everything good. Blizzard conditions, ice, strong winds, even tornadoes. In Detroit, the snow caused whiteout conditions leading to a major pileup. You see it there involving dozens of cars.

It's not just the Midwest. In Buffalo, New York, the winds so powerful, they were pushing Lake Erie's waves onto shore.

CNN's Derek Van Dam is tracking the storm and what we can expect on New Year's Eve. I have noticed the temperatures dropped pretty drastically here in New York. What are you learning about this -- the result of this big old storm,

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And, Sara, it's a huge wake up call. Look at these waves on Lake Erie. I got to reiterate this because this is helping fuel the nasty weather across the Great Lakes right now. Notice that they're wide open. There's no ice on the lakes, but yesterday, and you don't see this that often, there was a heavy freezing spray warning for portions of the Great Lakes yesterday because of the winds that whipped over the open lakes of the Great Lakes, and that caused some of that lake water to freeze on shore, even saw one of the encrusted vehicles on the ground because as that water spilled over the edges of the lake shore, because of the strong winds, it froze on contact with some of the surfaces there.

So, the winds are still extremely gusty and we have an impressive amount of lake enhanced snow effect that is really starting to produce some significant accumulations in those favored downwind locations. But what I found very interesting is some of these lake-effect snow bands are running hundreds of miles from Lake Huron through Lake Ontario, across upstate New York and even into the Western Berkshire. So, that just gives you an indication of how strong the winds are.

We all know when the winds are pointed from the north and west, that air is very arctic, very cold, and that is going to continue the lake- effect snow machine. That's the big story here for, let's say, Buffalo into those favorite areas of Rochester, New York. You can see the radar just lighting up with plenty of snow, even Grand Rapids, my hometown in Michigan.

So, the wind here could cause some delays, especially at the airports, Boston to New York, Philadelphia to D.C., under a high wind alert for the afternoon, gusting between 30 to 45 miles per hour.

Get this yesterday, Buffalo, New York, reached a wind gust of 79 miles per hour. That's equivalent to a category 1 hurricane. That is something that they haven't seen since 1980.

[07:25:00]

So, impressive wind gusts, of course, that makes it feel terribly, terribly cold outside.

And while I'll leave you this, Sara, it feels 35 degrees colder this morning than it did yesterday in Panama City. The cold air is coming.

SIDNER: Wow, that's something. But it is winter, so that we need to be prepared.

Derek Van Dam --

VAN DAM: Right, that drastic change --

SIDNER: It's that -- that's hard to deal with, especially in the morning when you don't want to leave, don't want to get out of the covers.

Derek Van Dam, I appreciate you.

All right, breaking overnight, exclusive CNN reporting new details on how the U.S. carried out the first known strike inside Venezuela.

And Beyonce bet big on country music, and let's just say, boy, did it pay off. The elite group of musicians she has just joined.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]

SIDNER: Breaking overnight, CNN has exclusive details on the first.