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CIA Conducted Drone Strike in Venezuela; Pipe Bomb Suspect's Lawyers Ask for Release; Sheriff Javier Salazar is Interviewed about the Missing Texas Teen; Search for Missing MH370; Republicans Call for Walz Resignation. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 30, 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]

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: In 2026.

See you next year.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, an escalation in the Trump administration's crackdown on drug smuggling. Exclusive CNN reporting out this morning on the CIA drone strike on a Venezuelan dock. A major move marking the first time the United States has hit a target inside the country.

Plus, new dash cam video may provide much needed information in the desperate search for the missing Texas teen who vanished on Christmas Eve. We'll bring you the latest in just a few minutes.

And 2026 is going to be a massive year in the skies and beyond as NASA's ambitious Artemis program looks to give us a view of the moon we have never seen before.

I'm Omar Jimenez, with Sara Sidner. John Berman and Kate Bolduan are out this morning. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: New, exclusive details to CNN on the U.S. strike on Venezuela. Sources saying it was a drone strike conducted by the CIA. It's the first known U.S. attack on Venezuelan soil. The strike destroyed a port facility and boats suspected of being used to traffic drugs. Before this, the U.S. had only conducted strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in international waters. The U.S. has blown up more than 30 vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific, killing more than 100 people.

CNN's Zach Cohen joins us now.

Zach, what are you learning? What's the latest on this?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Sara, this is a significant escalation by the Trump administration. And it comes in the form of a covert CIA drone operation that we're told was targeting a remote port facility on the coast of Venezuela. Now, we've heard Donald Trump threaten to conduct strikes against targets on land inside Venezuela for weeks now. But this is the first indication that that's already begun. And it does signal a more aggressive phase in this ongoing pressure campaign against Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

Now, the CIA drone strike, we're told, targeted a dock that the U.S. believes was being used by a Venezuelan gang to load and unload ships with drugs for transport. Now, we're also told that the facility was vacant at the time that it was hit, meaning there were no casualties. But still, this covert operation does send a pretty strong message to the Venezuelan regime and also does indicate that the Trump administration is moving forward with that more aggressive approach.

But I also want to note that it's really remarkable how this came to light. Donald Trump revealing in a radio interview recently that the U.S. conducted a strike inside Venezuela, referring vaguely to a major explosion.

But I want to take a listen to what he said yesterday when he was pressed by our Kevin Liptak on what exactly he was talking about in that interview, and who was behind the strike.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There was a major explosion in the dock area, where they load the boats up with drugs. They load the boats up with drugs. So, we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area. It's the implementation area. That's where they implement. And that is no longer around.

REPORTER: Was the facility taken out by the U.S. military, or was it another entity like the CIA?

TRUMP: Well, it was along (ph) -- well, I don't want to say that. I know exactly who it was, but I don't want to say who it was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So, of course, in addition to this CIA drone strike, the Pentagon announcing last night that it conducted another strike on an alleged drug boat in international waters. All kind of coming together and painting a picture of the Trump administration's increasingly aggressive campaign, not only against Nicolas Maduro, but also against these narcotics traffickers.

SIDNER: All right, Zach Cohen, thank you so much. Do appreciate your reporting this morning.

Omar.

JIMENEZ: All right, breaking news this morning. We're learning new details about the legal defense of the man accused of planting pipe bombs in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the January 6th attack. In a new filing, attorneys for Brian J. Cole argue he should not be detained pending trial. They say he's been diagnosed with autism and is no danger to the community. But prosecutors say 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. Cole is set to appear in court today for a detention hearing.

I want to bring in Evan Perez in Washington for us.

So, Evan, what's the latest here?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we expect that this hearing today is part of the process here as this case goes forward. This is a detention hearing, and the judge will decide whether Brian Cole can actually go home. According to his lawyers, he suffered from -- suffers from autism spectrum disorder, level one, as well as obsessive compulsive disorder. And they're suggesting house arrest. Perhaps an ankle monitor. And they say that nobody was harmed. There was no property damage as a result of these two pipe bombs placed there at the RNC and DNC buildings.

[09:05:02]

And they say that he poses no danger to the community. However, the government is pointing out that these two bombs were viable. And just by the grace of God, they did not actually go off.

Brian Cole, according to prosecutors, essentially was frustrated with the 2020 election, which is an issue that President Trump, at the time, was pushing forward, the idea that there was -- that there was fraud in the 2020 election. That's what drove Brian Cole, by his own confession, to place these two bombs. He had frustrations, according to prosecutors, with both the Democrats and the Republicans, because he believed that the 2020 election was stolen.

So, as it stands right now, the irony here is that because Brian Cole was not caught until this administration, the current administration, he may very well be the only person that the current Trump administration wants to hold accountable for anything related or around -- surrounding January 6th. You remember, of course, the president has pardoned or commuted the sentences of 1,500 people who were involved in the riot. And that's, of course, when right about the beginning of that riot is when these two pipe bombs were found near the Capitol Building, at the RNC and DNC headquarters.

So, we expect to see more today from this court hearing where Brian Cole will make his appearance.

Omar.

JIMENEZ: And, Evan, just quickly before we move on. I mean this was -- the fact that we have at least what appear to be some answers to this case.

PEREZ: Right.

JIMENEZ: I mean it was really years in the making. Can you just tell us a little bit about sort of the process that got us even to the point where we had an indictment to talk about judicial proceedings here?

PEREZ: Yes. Look, I mean, this was definitely one of those cases. It wasn't quite a cold case. That's not what the FBI says it was. But certainly for five years, the FBI struggled to get enough leads to be able to make an arrest here. And it wasn't until this year and they brought in a new team to get fresh eyes on some of the evidence, and they did a reanalysis of some of the cell phone signal data that this suspect had in his cell phone on the day of the -- of those two pipe bombs being placed, that they finally were able to make an arrest. And so, it's something that Dan Bongino, who is the outgoing deputy FBI director, had focused on for many months. So, yes, this has been a long time in coming for the FBI.

JIMENEZ: Yes. And we will see what happens moving forward.

Evan Perez, appreciate the reporting, as always.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, ahead, new clues this morning, a video emerging that could give a clue in the search for a Texas teenager who disappeared on Christmas Eve.

And the search is on again, ten years after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared from radar over the Indian Ocean.

And what does a motorcycle collection worth more than $40 million have to do with the international manhunt for the former Olympian who is now one of the FBI's ten most wanted.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:12:21]

JIMENEZ: Potential new clues this morning in the urgent search for a missing Texas teen who vanished on Christmas Eve. Authorities say new dash cam video, you can see it here, shows a person matching the description of 19-year-old Camila Mendoza Olmos walking alone, as you can see, shortly after she was seen leaving her home. The Bexar County Sheriff's Office released the new video. They say it was recorded by a person in Camila's neighborhood who was driving to work shortly after 7:00 a.m.

I want to bring in Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar right now.

And I know you all are working hard on this search right now. Can you just tell us, what are you most concerned with right now? What are you looking at?

SHERIFF JAVIER SALAZAR, BEXAR COUNTY, TEXAS: Well, you know, what we'd really like to do is be able to better construct -- reconstruct the morning of her disappearance. And this video, although it may seem, you know, small and inconsequential to somebody looking in from the outside, to us it was huge in that, you know, it -- we really only had proof -- video proof of her being at her driveway. This video here, as grainy as it is, actually goes a long way in showing us what we believe to be her and giving us at least a direction of flight of where she may have last been seen around that time.

JIMENEZ: And, as you know, her family and others in the community are every second trying to figure out if this clue could help lead to at least a little bit closer to where she is.

I want you to actually just take a quick listen to what we've been hearing from some of her family this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY OLMOS, AUNT OF MISSING TEEN: Please don't believe fake news. Camila, we feel, has a family that she's in danger because she disappeared, (INAUDIBLE). And there's nothing that we can do to find her.

We don't have no -- nothing that we think that she's in -- she's in Mexico or in any other place. We just think -- have a feeling that someone took her. Someone took her from our house, from outside.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: Yes, that's how the family feels right now.

I just wonder, hearing that -- what's your reaction to hearing that?

SALAZAR: Well, you know, at present, we don't have any evidence that she was taken. You know, as I mentioned, now that we've got video of her walking alone, that certainly is something. You know, we can't -- I wish we could rule that out, though, that she had been taken. So, right now, we're still having to look at the whole spectrum of possibilities from willful disappearance, you know, and she's alive and well somewhere, to the possibility -- the distinct possibility of self-harm, to -- all the way to the -- to the other extreme, that somebody may have taken her and is holding her.

[09:15:06]

So, absolutely, we're considering all options at this point while we wait for more evidence to point us in one direction or the other.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, you mentioned how critical that dash cam video was, even if it appears to be small. I mean how much are you relying or trying to get more video footage at this point, whether from Ring cameras or otherwise?

SALAZAR: Well, look, anytime that we leave our homes, we're on camera, whether we know it or not. And it's from ten different angles at any given time. And so, I know that there's other videos of this young lady that exist around that time. It's just a matter of convincing people to please take a look and check. You know, don't -- don't feel like, well, I live a mile or two away. There's no way she walked this far. Check the video anyway and let us be the judge of it. And, you know, show it to us. Call us if you think that -- that there's even somebody in there that you -- yes, well, we can't really make out who it is. Call us. It may be just the clue that we need to help us out in figuring out a better direction of flight. For now, we're going to continue to work all angles, all leads and

until such time as we can get her reunited with her family one way or the other.

JIMENEZ: Sheriff Salazar, I appreciate you taking the time and bringing us these updates. Keep us posted as you all do your important work.

SALAZAR: Sure. Thanks for having me.

JIMENEZ: Sara.

SIDNER: Now to a mystery that has gone on for a decade. It's that issue with MH370. This morning, the search for the Malaysian Airlines flight is officially back on. Malaysia's transportation ministry says the search will be carried out by Texas-based marine robotics firm Ocean Infinity over the next 55 days. The firm restarted the search for the Boeing 777 earlier this year, but had to stop in April due to bad weather.

The Boeing flight disappeared from radar back in 2014 carrying 239 people, mostly Chinese nationals. Satellite data showed the plane turned from its flight path and headed south to the far southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.

Joining me now is CNN's Richard Quest.

Richard, you and I and many other reporters here covered this. Some of us went to Malaysia, some went to Australia, you know, trying to figure out what happened here. This is remarkable, do you not think, that ten years later their search is still ongoing. They've started again.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR AT LARGE: It is remarkable, but it goes to the fundamental tenet of aviation mysteries, which is, you cannot have this sort of event happen and not know why or what or who or how. The industry needs still to know what happened to MH370.

And the difference this time of the previous searches is advances in things like oceanography, radar technology, sub ocean abilities and submarine abilities to search. In the last 12, 14 years, there have been huge advances. And that's why the Malaysian government has, for the second time, agreed to let Ocean Infinity search this area. They're keeping very quiet about the area, the search details, the technology being used. If you look at Ocean Infinity's website, there's very little that's there. And the entire search is being done on the basis of, no find, no fee. If they don't find the plane, they don't get the $40 million or $50 million worth of finder's fee.

SIDNER: I do want to have you talk us through a little bit of, there are so many theories when this happened and since then, for the ten years since then, as to what potentially happened here. Have any of those theories changed? Is there one that they're chasing more than another when it comes to what actually caused this plane to go down? I remember them talking about potentially, was it the pilot who was trying to kill himself? Was it that there was an engine problem? Was it -- was there something that exploded on the plane? I mean so many people came up with so many theories and we really never learned exactly what may have happened.

QUEST: And I've got a little secret to tell you.

SIDNER: Do tell.

QUEST: To this day, nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. We have no greater information about what happened. Anybody who says they do is simply either speculating, fabricating, extrapolating. The reality is, since that map that you're looking at, so the plane goes up, turns left, goes right over the country, over Indonesia, straight the way down off the western coast of Australia.

[09:20:02]

Now, the thing that happened in the year or two after is debris. Only three or four confirmed pieces of debris washed up on the west Indian coast. That allowed them to drift flow, if you will, and model where the plane came from. But to the core -- and there you see the flaperon and all the various bits that did get washed up. But was it Captain Zaharie in some sort of perverted suicide attempt? Was it a major malfunction of the aircraft? We don't know. We have no more information now than we did when you and I were going night after night trying to understand what took place. That's why this search is so important.

SIDNER: Yes. I mean, everyone is wondering what happened there. And no one more than the 239 people, families, who were there for days and weeks just hoping for any information that they could get. So, we will see what happens with this search.

Richard Quest, it is such a pleasure to be able to see you as the new year is about to commence.

QUEST: Indeed.

SIDNER: And I'm sure we'll be seeing you out there having a good time this new year. Do appreciate seeing you, Richard. Appreciate you.

This morning in Minnesota --

QUEST: You will indeed. You will. Thank you.

SIDNER: All right, ahead, this morning in Minnesota, some Republican state lawmakers are now calling for Governor Tim Walz to resign. There is a federal investigation after a viral video potentially uncovered what it says was fraud.

And after a historic victory, Zohran Mamdani will officially become the mayor of New York. What we're learning this morning about his inauguration and his plans for office when his term begins on Thursday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:25:53]

JIMENEZ: This morning, the FBI and Homeland Security say they are surging resources to Minnesota to investigate claims of widespread fraud in the state. Now, the federal crackdown comes just days after a YouTube creator posted what's become a viral video, boosted by Vice President J.D. Vance, accusing Somali-run childcare centers of taking money without actually caring for children. But critics say these accusations are being made without any actual concrete proof and call it a troubling continuation of the Trump administration's targeting of Minnesota's Somali community.

But in the wake of all of this, regardless, a group of Republican Minnesota state lawmakers are calling for Governor Tim Walz's resignation.

I want to bring in former White House spokesman under the Bush administration, Pete Seat, to talk about this as well. And we're going to have Karen Finney, CNN political commentator, with us in a minute as well.

But, Pete, I want to start with you because, look, I mean, I can say personally, I've covered --. I personally covered fraud allegations and arrests back in September 2022, and the arrest have continued for years to this point. But I think what we've seen in the past few days is really this surge in Republican official attention for sure. But I wonder, just politically speaking, do you think this actually poses a threat to someone like Governor Tim Walz?

PETE SEAT, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN, PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: It absolutely should pose a political threat to Tim Walz. Look, this is a sophisticated, orchestrated, multiyear scheme to defraud the people of Minnesota and American taxpayers. Why it matters to Tim Walz is, he has known about it. He is not denying that this fraud took place. He is now on defense. He's in damage control mode trying to say that he's done his part. He tried to do something about this. He clearly didn't do enough. I think we're up to 92 people who have been charged with crimes now. Something like 60 or 70 of them have been convicted. And he is going to face a political reckoning, whether that is having to resign, being forced to resign, or finding himself in a really, really difficult re-election campaign next year.

JIMENEZ: And the scale of these fraud schemes is pretty large. I mean at least in the beginning portions of when people were charged, it was described as the largest Covid-19 fraud scheme in the country.

I want to bring in Karen Finney to this conversation as well, because, Karen, you know, you hear Pete. And while even though Governor Walz is saying, look, we have done everything we can, people are being arrested, they're going to prison, they're facing the consequences of the judicial and legal system. Politically, though, will voters see it that way if the Republican messaging is, hey, it happened under your watch?

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think it depends on whether or not Governor Walz is able to make the case to the voters of the state that he has efficiently done what he could, you know, cooperated with the federal investigation and, you know -- so he's going to have to make his case. He's going to have to, you know, sort of show his work, if you will, and the voters will have to decide.

But I do want to say, look, this is horrible, but it is also one of thousands of cases that have been prosecuted over the last six years, actually starting in about 2020, 2021 that, you know, people -- there were investigations at the federal level, at the state level. And unfortunately, you know, it was horrible that anyone would have taken advantage of these Covid relief funds that were meant to help people.

So, I also hope that the Trump administration will continue to investigate this, not just in blue states or states run by Democratic governors, but in red states. Because, as we know, this has been a rampant problem, unfortunately, in the aftermath of Covid.

JIMENEZ: I want to turn to -- speaking of red and blue states, blue state, blue city here in New York City, Pete. We've got Mayor Mamdani scheduled to become or to be sworn in. I should say Mayor-elect Mamdani.

[09:30:02]

And, you know, his campaign has come with a lot of big promises for New Yorkers. A lot of attention on the Democratic side too to see, you know, is this.