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Trump Headlines Conservative Political Event In Phoenix; Two Navy Pilots Show Down Over Red Sea In Friendly Fire Incident. Aired 3- 4p ET

Aired December 22, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:27]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello again everyone. Thank you so much for joining me this Sunday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right, talks with Putin, taking back the Panama Canal, changing the name of the tallest mountain in Alaska, President-elect Donald Trump is ticking off his wish list for 2025 in his upcoming administration. He gave the specifics today at a conservative convention in Phoenix.

Also on his agenda, building a US version of the Iron Dome and an official policy saying "there are only two genders."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: With the stroke of my pen on day one, we are going to stop the transgender lunacy.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation. Get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Under the Trump administration, it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: But Elon has done an amazing job. Isn't it nice to have smart people that we can rely on? No, he is not going to be president, that I can tell you. And I am safe, you know why, he can't be? He wasn't born in this country.

We are being ripped off at the Panama Canal like we are being ripped off everywhere else. A secure -- he just said, take it back. That's a good idea.

The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous. Highly unfair. Especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama, I say very foolishly by the United States.

We did go on TikTok and we had a great response. We had billions of views, billions and billions of views. They brought me a chart, and it was a record and it was so beautiful to see. And as I looked at it, I said, maybe we've got to keep this sucker around a little while.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN's Daniel Strauss is joining us now from Phoenix, where the president laid all of that out.

Daniel, Trump outlined a lot there. Plus, still standing up for Elon Musk against attacks by critics.

Daniel, can you hear me okay?

All right, it looks like we are having some audio problems with Daniel. We will try to get connected with him momentarily.

All right, tomorrow, sources tell CNN the House Ethics Committee is expected to publicly release its report on former Congressman Matt Gaetz. The years' long probe dove into several allegations against the Florida Republican, including whether he engaged in sexual misconduct and used illicit drugs.

Gaetz denies all the allegations. CNN's Brian Abel is covering this story. So what can we expect from this House Ethics report and how it might be made available?

BRIAN ABEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think we can expect, Fredricka, more details, details on the allegations themselves, as well as details on the investigation. Who did they talk to? What were their findings, if any?

Now, earlier this week, we did learn that the House Ethics Committee had a secret vote to release its report into the conduct of former Rep. Matt Gaetz, and now, we know when that release will happen.

Multiple sources telling CNN the report will be released tomorrow. The release is a stark reversal by the Ethics Committee, which just last month voted to shelve the report while Gaetz was president-elect's Donald Trump's attorney general pick after he resigned from Congress for the position.

Now, Gaetz withdrew himself from consideration of that role after Trump called him to say Gaetz didn't have the votes in the Senate to get confirmed. This report concludes a years' long probe by the Ethics Committee into numerous allegations against Gaetz, including whether he engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor, whether he paid for sex, he used illicit drugs, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, and more.

Gaetz has strongly denied all the allegations and has said the committee's investigation is "a witch hunt." He said this on X after reports of the committee's decision to release the report, saying: "The Biden-Garland DOJ spent years reviewing allegations that I committed various crimes. I was charged with nothing. Fully exonerated."

[15:05:04]

The post went on to say: "It is embarrassing, though not criminally, that I probably partied, womanized, drank, and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now."

But we should note, Fred, that it is rare for an Ethics report to be released after a member has left Congress, though it has happened on a couple of occasions in the past. House Speaker Mike Johnson lobbied for this report to not be released, calling it a moot point.

Now, Gaetz has said he has no plans of returning to Congress next year. But just hours ago, at a conservative conference, he did float the idea of running for Marco Rubio's vacant Senate seat, with Rubio being picked to be Trump's Secretary of State.

Gaetz was recently announced, so he does have a job as a host and anchor of an OAN show that is set to begin in January. The exact timing of this Ethics report, when it will be released tomorrow, that is still unknown -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Brian Abel, thank you so much.

All right, we are going to try our connection one more time to Arizona, where we find CNN's Daniel Strauss, who is at that convention where the president-elect spoke a moment ago. He gave his wish list for 2025.

Daniel, what did he say.

DANIEL STRAUSS, CNN REPORTER: Hi, well, it was a long speech, but it was one that covered a lot of ground, including his assurances that he is the president, not Elon Musk, that he would like to see the United States retake control and ownership of the Panama Canal, and also that he would like to re-rename Mount McKinley from Mount Denali, which was renamed under the Obama presidency years ago.

This overall was a President Trump who is very emboldened and defiant against any resistance that he might have seen in the past on his personal agenda in the days and weeks to come ahead of his presidency.

WHITFIELD: What was the reception like there in the crowd?

STRAUSS: I mean, the reception is -- you have to understand that this is his people. This is the crowd that loves him. It is a large crowd of thousands, many of which are young Trump voters who are activists and very enthusiastic, especially on points like immigration and deporting illegal immigrants and reducing crime in the United States.

The crowd was ebullient. I mean, I just can't express how excited they were throughout this speech.

WHITFIELD: All right, Daniel Strauss, thank you so much, out of Phoenix, Arizona today.

STRAUSS: Thanks.

WHITFIELD: All right, let's talk more with Lynn Sweet. She is the Washington bureau chief for "The Chicago Sun Times."

Lynn, great to see you. So let's talk a little bit more about the president-elect's agenda from putting an iron dome similar to what is in Israel over the US, meeting with Putin. You heard Daniel Strauss talk about, and we rolled the soundbite earlier that Trump wants that to recognize only two genders. He wants to eliminate any transgender, you know, classification or any means to that community.

So, it sounds like that he feels like he has a mandate on all things after winning this election.

LYNN SWEET, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "THE CHICAGO SUN TIMES": Well, he did. He also spent a good chunk of time at the beginning of that speech, Fred, in talking about his great victory, how he says he won in 2020 and, you know, relishing all the swing states that went for him.

But here is some other takeaways from that speech. What is notable is he talks about not to a degree, he doesn't really talk about us. He talks about there is them, the people that didn't vote for him and you, the people, the MAGA people before him.

But when you look at this speech, it does show a very emboldened President Trump who is laying out a vigorous agenda of things he says he can do and things that he says he could do, probably won't be able to do past day one or week one, such as end inflation and raise our wages.

WHITFIELD: Yes, well, you know, we didn't get to hear -- or I didn't get to hear all of his speech because we've been on the air. But of those portions that we heard, is he intimating that he is going to do this with the cooperation of Congress or through executive order? Because we just saw through this funding bill that there are some Republicans, there were 38 of them who weren't necessarily on board with everything he had to say as it pertains to the funding bill, when it comes to the debt ceiling.

And then we've since heard from some lawmakers today on some of the Sunday talk shows, who said, I like Trump, but I am not necessarily going to be on board with everything that he is advocating.

So how might he be getting a lot of his wish list done?

SWEET: It won't be as easy as he says for everything.

You know, he thinks Republican Senate, Republican House, piece of cake. It is not a whole piece of cake because the Republican Majority is only by a few people.

[15:10:16]

And just think, if an outraged Matt Gaetz decides to take that oath of office on January 3rd, it seems for the moment there is nothing to stop him. He only said he wasn't going to take the seat then that's one more person who could throw a wrench in Speaker Johnson's plans.

So there are a lot of things that Trump can do with the stroke of a pen, but for some of the things that he talked about in the speech, and he has been talking about even the Iron Dome system, he just can't snap his fingers and have it done.

By the way, the iron dome system in Israel is an expensive defensive system. It is there to shoot down rockets shooting at them. No evidence of that right now in the United States.

WHITFIELD: Right, okay, well, speaking of Matt Gaetz, tomorrow, we are expecting that Ethics report on Gaetz will be released. Do we know in what form or fashion that will happen? What will you be looking out for?

SWEET: Well, I will be looking out to see proof of subject matter. You know, he already has said, as you well noted when he was younger, he did foolish things. He is doing that to minimize stuff. I am looking at this report to put down a pattern and practice and context to show the gravity of what he has done so that the public can decide.

Also, usually these reports lay out that they have a different standard than a federal prosecutor does. They could still say, there are things that we don't like that aren't proper behavior for a member of Congress that still don't necessarily rise to the level of criminal charges.

All of that said, it remains to be seen how strong the evidence is and if they release the transcripts of the interviews with the woman who they interviewed.

WHITFIELD: All right, Lynn Sweet, we will leave it there for now of "The Chicago Sun Times." Thank you so much. Happy Holidays to you, Lynn.

SWEET: You, too.

WHITFIELD: So great to have you throughout 2024. We look forward to more of you in 2025. Thanks so much.

All right, the soon to be First Daughter, Ivanka Trump says she is done with politics and that means she won't be in Washington to be part of Donald Trump's new administration. It is a major change for someone who has worked for her father most of her life.

Here is CNN's Betsy Klein.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Ivanka Trump was one of President Trump's closest advisers during his first administration, but when her father announced his re-election campaign in 2022, Ivanka said she did not plan to be involved in politics and that remains true after his November win.

Talking to her close friends and former colleagues, it is a dramatic turnaround, but an intentional one after a bruising four years in Washington. Ivanka Trump faced constant scrutiny and criticisms for decision made by her father that she was unable to totally influence or moderate. She was alienated by some liberal friends in her New York circle, and she shut down a relatively successful namesake brand after persistent ethics questions.

But she is also forging a new path now, where her father is not her boss for the first time since she was 24 years old. She followed him from real estate, to reality TV, to the West Wing. And that is possible in part because her family's businesses have profited from proximity to the presidency and those resulting relationships.

Here, in her own words, why she is sitting this one out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IVANKA TRUMP, DAUGHTER OF PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Politics is a -- it is a pretty dark world. There is a lot of darkness, a lot of negativity and it is just really at odds with what feels good for me as a human being.

And, you know, it is -- it is a really rough business. So for me and my family, it feels right to not participate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KLEIN: Now, Ivanka trump remains close with her father, and she is expected to continue to advise him on a range of issues behind-the- scenes, but unlike the last time around, one source tells me that if she chooses to weigh in and use her influence, it is never going to be something that people are going to see publicly.

Now, one reason her decision may come as a surprise is that she was signaling a more aggressive posture, aligned with her father in the final days of his first term, and sources at the time told us that Donald Trump viewed Ivanka as heir-apparent to his political success.

But friends describe a gradual shift away after she moved to Miami with her young family and we have seen her tap into new hobbies, from jiu-jitsu to surfing. She is also focused her influence in the nonprofit space, including disaster relief and addressing food insecurity.

Meanwhile, we've seen her brothers, Don, Jr. and Eric Trump and sister-in-law, Lara Trump, in part filling that vacuum on the political stage, fully embracing their father's MAGA movement. But Ivanka Trump, for now, is seeking some privacy -- Fredricka.

[15:15:07]

WHITFIELD: All right, Betsy Klein, thanks so much.

All right, still to come, the US. military says one of its warships shot down a plane over the Red Sea, but it turns out, it was a Navy fighter jet. What we know about this apparent friendly fire incident. Plus home field might have been the biggest key to victory in the first round of the new and expanded college football playoff. We have details. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:20:15]

WHITFIELD: Two US Navy pilots are lucky to be alive right now. They were shot down over the Red Sea in the Middle East by an American warship in an apparent case of friendly fire. US Central Command says both of the pilots flying an F-A18 jet just like this one safely ejected from their fighter jet after being mistakenly fired upon by the guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg. An investigation is underway.

Joining me right now is CNN correspondent, Julia Benbrook at the White House.

Julia, what more do we know?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are still a lot of questions. And as you mentioned, a full investigation is underway. But US. Central Command is calling this an apparent friendly fire incident. They said that the two US Navy pilots were ejected safely after their fighter jet was shot down over the Red Sea on Saturday.

Initial assessments found that one crew member did sustain minor injuries. Now, according to CENTCOM, the aircraft, an f-A18 was operating from the USS Harry S. Truman when it was mistakenly fired upon by the USS Gettysburg.

The USS Gettysburg, a Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser, is a part of the Truman Carrier Strike Group which entered the waters of the Middle East one week ago.

Now, as I mentioned, this investigation is still ongoing, but CNN military analyst and retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton detailed the types of questions that are asked in an investigation like this, including what the sailors on the USS Gettysburg saw, what they thought was coming toward them, and why they fired.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: When you are in a zone like this where there is combat happening at one end of the Red Sea, and then there are other flight patterns that the folks on the USS Gettysburg, the sailors on the USS Gettysburg, have to deal with, it can be pretty easy to mistake targets from one to the other. In other words, is one a friendly target, or is one an adversarial or potential adversarial target?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: The US has maintained a near constant presence of major warships in the region since the start of the war in Gaza, and on the same day as this apparent friendly fire incident, the US carried out airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, hitting a command and control facility, as well as a missile storage facility.

And according to CENTCOM, the US also shot down one way attack drones and an anti-ship cruise missile. Now, those strikes did involve the use of Navy F-A18 fighter jets. But according to two US military sources who spoke with our team, the downed fighter jet that we have been discussing was not involved -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Julia Benbrook, thank you so much.

A high ranking NYPD officer has suddenly resigned after sexual misconduct allegations surfaced against him. An Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint was filed by an NYPD employee alleging the chief of the department, Jeffrey Maddrey, coerced her to "perform unwanted sexual favors in exchange for overtime opportunities in the workplace."

Local media reports Maddrey's accuser earned more than $400,000.00 this year, more than half in overtime. No official comment was given, but the NYPD says it takes all sexual misconduct seriously and is investigating.

Maddrey's attorney told "The New York Post" the accusations are, "completely meritless."

All right, coming up, new data shows more teenagers are abstaining from drinking, smoking, and doing drugs. What is causing this change in behavior, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:28:28]

WHITFIELD: Parents across the country asked the question: Is my teen drinking or using drugs?

New research shows fewer teens are doing just that: 89 percent of eighth graders say they have not used drugs or alcohol 30 days prior to participating in the survey. I would like to bring in now Richard Miech, principal investigator of the Monitoring the Future Study at the University of Michigan.

All right, so the survey was funded by the National Institutes of Health and I mean, these are some pretty encouraging numbers, Richard and observations. Researchers saying that abstaining is a trend among young people. As a mother of three teenagers, yay, I am happy to hear that.

So tell us, you know what you discovered in this study.

RICHARD MIECH, PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR, MONITORING THE FUTURE STUDY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: Yes. Well, let me tell you about the scope of the declines in drug use that we are seeing, which are really quite remarkable. So among teenagers in 2024, drug use is down 25 percent or more since the pandemic for the three major drugs that teenagers use, which are alcohol, cannabis, and the latest addition to the top three, which is vaping nicotine and these are really some of the largest declines we've ever seen in the history of this project and we have been surveying adolescents every year for the past 50 years.

WHITFIELD: So the National Institutes of Health researchers found that, I guess they're crediting that social distancing during the pandemic helped lead to these lower substance use kind of numbers among children, right, with alcohol consumption among 12th graders dropping from 45 percent in 2023 to 41 percent more currently.

[15:30:08]

Do I have those numbers right?

MIECH: Come again for alcohol are you talking about?

WHITFIELD: Yes. For alcohol consumption that it has dropped amongst 12th graders.

MIECH: Yes, that's right. It dropped from 46 percent to 42 percent among 12th graders just this past year.

WHITFIELD: Okay. And how or what is the recommendation to try and keep those numbers like that or drop even further? Because now, we are not in the pandemic. If we are going to credit the pandemic for, you know, contributing to all of this, now kids are socializing. But, you know, what do we do to try and keep these numbers, at least here or lower?

MIECH: Yes. Well, you know, going back to the pandemic. So those declines we saw from 2020 to 2021 were some of the largest declines we have ever seen in the history of the project. And as you recall, there weren't a lot of social events going on during the pandemic from 2020 to 2021, because of the social distancing policies that were in place and drug use is typically a social event. And so it made a lot of sense that drug use was declining during the pandemic.

And many of us, including myself, expected that once the social distancing policies were lifted, that drug use would return to the levels that it had been before the pandemic. But really, it is quite surprising what we find is that drug use levels have continued to decline and they continue to decline today.

And so I think this is good news. Good news, Fredricka, it suggests from what we are seeing, is that just a one year decline in drug use, a one year halt in substance use initiation, which we saw during the pandemic, or a one year stop in drug use among those who have been using drugs, that that seems to have a lasting effect to lower the drug use of teenagers for many years to come. That is what we are seeing today. And it may lower the levels of drug use for the rest of their life.

WHITFIELD: Wow. Well, that is very encouraging for sure. So what's your recommendation to families to try to continue to encourage what seemed to be declining numbers or declining use of drug and alcohol among teens?

MIECH: Yes, well, I will tell you what doesn't work. If you're a parent and you say to your teenage kid, I am really against drugs, and if I catch you using drugs, then I am going to take away your phone and I am going to punish you. That doesn't really seem to work very much.

If you do suspect that maybe your kid is interested in drugs or has been using drugs, what has shown to be more effective is if you have a family member or a close family friend who is an adult who has used drugs and has trouble with drugs and had trouble with drugs, if that adult can talk to the teenager and the teenager will trust them and the adult can ideally say things along the lines of, well, you know, it looks really fun and it is fun at first. But here is what they don't tell you about drug use. Here are some of the negative consequences that you only find out the hard way.

That seems to be much more effective than trying to lay out some punishments if the kid is caught using drugs.

WHITFIELD: Great advice.

Richard Miech, what a great way to end this year and now start a New Year with this kind of encouragement for all families. Thank you so much.

MIECH: Great. Yes. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Have a great holiday season.

All right, a new CNN film examines the storied career of one of the most influential artists of all time, Luther Vandross.

From his formative years in Harlem, appearing in the Apollo Theater house band and the first episodes of Sesame Street to the rise as the King of Love Songs. Using a wealth of archives, Luther tells his own story along with the voices of his closest musical collaborators and friends.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we were out there in the road, man, you know, you had your good nights and your bad nights. Not me. Every night, every night, he nailed it and he expected everybody to nail it also.

KEVIN OWENS, SINGER: We all appreciated the -- because it was making us better and we saw year after year how we were developing. We were ready to get up every day and go to work for him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:35:10 ]

WHITFIELD: I mean, magical. I was so lucky to see that concert with those ball gowns being worn by his backup singers. There is no one like him. Luther Vandross, an all-new CNN film, "Luther: Never Too Concert" premieres New Years' Day, 8:00 PM Eastern and Pacific right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:40:07]

WHITFIELD: All right, after years of declining, family homelessness, actually increased 15 percent between 2022 and 2023. CNN's Jake Tapper traveled to Boston to learn how one organization is working to help some of the city's most vulnerable families.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Say good morning.

(CHILDREN say "Good morning.")

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Hi.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't forget your green leaf.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): You'd never know it by looking at them, but the children in this school have at one point or another experienced homelessness.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you tell me how you feel so far since you've gotten here? Show me with your thumbs.

TAPPER (voice over): Five days a week at Horizons for Homeless Children in Boston, more than 200 kids are given free access to education, playtime, and meals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What have we been doing every day in community meeting, we've been doing what? We've been --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Breathing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been breathing. And what kind of breathing have we been doing? We've been doing what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Triangle.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A shape.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Triangle breathing.

TAPPER (voice over): The program has been a lifesaver for moms like Karian, who struggled with postpartum depression and anxiety after the birth of her second daughter.

KARIAN, MOTHER OF CHILD ENROLLED AT HORIZONS: It was really bad. I was all over the place. I couldn't concentrate.

TAPPER (voice over): Karian and her daughters moved in with a family member, but when that got too crowded, they moved into a shelter where they lived doubled up with another family.

KARIAN: It wasn't really ideal, you know, it was too crowded. We were all in one room, so they were all cramped up.

TAPPER (voice over): Karian worked overnights at a fast food chain to make money for her family while caring for them during the day. But her youngest daughter started to struggle.

KARIAN: She was very, like, in her shell. She wasn't really growing, you know, like, her developmental growth wasn't doing good. She has speech delays and everything.

TAPPER (voice over): Developmental delays are a common problem for children experiencing homelessness. It's an issue that the CEO and president of Horizons, Kate Barrand, has been trying to address for years, not just as a housing crisis, but as a public health crisis.

KATE BARRAND, PRESIDENT & CEO, HORIZONS FOR HOMELESS CHILDREN: At the age zero to six, your entire brain is being formed. If you're homeless during that period, it can cause significant challenges to your brain development. So children who've experienced a period of homelessness are four times more likely to have developmental delays. And if those developmental delays aren't remediated that will follow them.

TAPPER (voice over): Last year, families with children made up about 30 percent of the homeless population across the United States. And more than half of all families experiencing homelessness live in the nation's largest cities.

BARRAND: Cities like Boston are a perfect storm for family homelessness. We have high housing costs. We have a huge gap between the minimum wage and a living wage in the city of Boston, we have significant child poverty. So when you put all those together with the high cost of childcare on top of it, it is impossibly difficult for families.

TAPPER (voice over): Karian learned about Horizons through the shelter she was staying in. Then her family's life changed dramatically.

KARIAN: She's going to age out of here. So that gives me like, okay, a sense of security. She's going to stay here until she goes to kindergarten and she's getting everything she needs, you know, the nourishment, the warmth, not only education, the warmth, you know, that makes me feel, you know, calm.

TAPPER (voice over): Karian now has her own apartment, her GED and a new full time job. Most importantly, she's now on the same schedule as her children.

KARIAN: They're extremely happy now they have that consistency, you know what I mean? It's a huge sense of relief, you know, that we're all in the house at the same time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Jake Tapper, thanks for bringing us that story.

All right, coming up, the very first round of the all new college football playoffs is on the books. A recap of all the action after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:48:35]

WHITFIELD: All right, this weekend, home field advantage playing a key role in the first ever 12-team college football playoff. Icy conditions and some pretty rabid fans making for some rather fun atmospheres.

But on the field, these games were not even close.

CNN's Andy Scholes has more from Columbus, Ohio.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN WORLD SPORT: Well, the first round of the first ever 12-team playoffs is in the books, and let's just say we were not on the edge of our seats for any of it.

Now, a lot of Tennessee fans, they came here to Ohio hoping for a win, but it was a Buckeyes bash here in the horseshoe. The volunteers warming up shirtless in the 25-degree weather. That strategy, though, did not work, and many Buckeye fans were not in the best mood after the loss to Michigan, but that changed pretty quick.

Ohio State just pouncing on Tennessee. The defense smothering Nico Iamaleava hitting him so hard once his helmet cracked. OSU then scoring on every drive in the first quarter. It was 21 to nothing before you could blink. Ohio State would win big 42 to 17 to set up a rematch with Oregon in the Rose Bowl on New Years' Day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN DAY, OHIO STATE HEAD COACH: These are great guys. They really are. And you know, we got a lot of football ahead of us, you know, and we want to keep this team together. It is a great group, and so we are going to enjoy this for about 24 hours and then, it is going to be on to Oregon.

WILL HOWARD, OHIO STATE QUARTERBACK: It means the world, man. And you know at the end of the day, we all we all understand that we still have everything out in front of us. And at the end of the day, man, like, this is my last game this year. This is one of our last games this year and we wanted to make it count.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:50:07]

SCHOLES: Texas, meanwhile, fell behind seven to nothing to Clemson in Austin, but then they scored a touchdown on their next three possessions. Clemson made this game a little interesting late, but Texas had a season high, 292 yard rushing including the 77 yard score from Jaydon Blue that put the game away. Texas beat the Tigers 38 to 24 to move on to face Arizona State in the Peach Bowl.

Penn State, meanwhile, got two pick sixes in the first half against SMU. They would blow out the Mustangs, winning 38 to 10. They now move on to face Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl.

Now, the first ever home playoff games certainly were fun atmospheres, but in the end, they were all blowouts. So here is hoping the quarterfinals on New Years' Eve and New Years' Day are more competitive.

WHITFIELD: Yay. Exciting nonetheless. Andy Scholes, thank you so much.

All right, the bracket is whittling down. So let's bring in college football writer for "Bleacher Report," Morgan Moriarty.

Good to see you, Morgan.

So what's your big takeaway from the games we saw this weekend? Oh, Morgan, can you hear me?

All right, we are going to were going to try and work out that signal. We have a few little gremlins today. Just bear with us. We are going to try and rejigger something, and maybe we will get Morgan back.

All right, coming up, the House Ethics Committee is expected to release its report on former Congressman Matt Gaetz, detailing allegations of sexual misconduct and obstruction made against him. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:56:15]

WHITFIELD: All right, were going to try that college football talk one more time. We see that OSU was dominating. We saw Texas winning Notre Dame; Penn State, all of them. We've got college football writer for "Bleacher Report," Morgan Moriarty back with us. I think we have connection.

Morgan, you can hear me?

MORGAN MORIARTY, COLLEGE FOOTBALL WRITHER, "BLEACHER REPORT": I can hear you.

WHITFIELD: Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? Okay, great. All right, so what -- you know, what stands out to you in all that we have been seeing so far in the weekend? And what is to come this week?

MORIARTY: Yes, I mean, the biggest thing that stood out to me was just how electric every single atmosphere was for these on campus games. I mean, it was absolutely incredible.

Every single place that hosted a playoff game, whether that was Notre Dame, Penn State, Texas, and then Ohio State last night, that was just absolutely incredible. I think that was huge for college football, to be able to have those first round games on campus, to be able to give fans a sense of what college football is like week in and week out. If they were just, you know, casually tuning in. So that was really cool to see. Obviously, the games themselves were not great. Obviously, we had a lot of blowouts. That's pretty common in college football. So that was a little disappointing, but the atmosphere on campus were great.

WHITFIELD: I'm telling you, I think it really did, you know, translate through the television screen. You can see how exciting you know, it is and how excited the families, the fans, the players are about being on the field and playing.

And as you mentioned, while there were some real blowouts, it seemed like there were some real imbalance you know, with the SMU loss or with Tennessee's loss. What are kind of the audience is saying about what seems to be some, you know, I guess real uneven playing?

MORIARTY: Yes, I mean, that is obviously a big part of this conversation, just how not close these games were and that obviously was disappointing when you have the first year of the 12-team playoff. Obviously, we all wanted these games to be a lot closer, but if you look historically at the four-team playoff that we had from 2014 to 2023, virtually every single year in those first round playoff games, we had blowouts, at least in one of those games.

Sometimes neither of the games were close, so I think blowouts happen in college football. I think that's just kind of what we saw. But I do think the bigger conversation with SMU and Indiana, I still think the committee was right in putting them in. Obviously, they didn't play great. They didn't play how we've seen them throughout the year, but I don't know how you can keep 11-0win teams out of this playoff, especially with how they played throughout the season.

SMU almost coming back and beating a really good Clemson team on championship Saturday. So I think the bigger conversation is maybe some other teams could have done a little bit better. You say Alabama, maybe a Miami, Ole Miss, those teams that were right on the outside. But who is to say that Alabama doesn't go on the road and lose 24 to 3 like it did against Oklahoma or Ole Miss struggling against SEC teams on the road? They lost three to a bad Kentucky team, LSU and Florida.

So you just never really know, and I think the committee's job is to put the 12 best teams in and they did that with SMU and Indiana.

So I think it will be an interesting conversation with seeding maybe going forward, and it will work itself out in the coming years, but definitely a topic of conversation for sure.

WHITFIELD: So you do see that this weekend or perhaps this season might serve as, I guess, fodder for the college football playoff committee to rethink things or the formula or reexamine some of the choices they made this year that might impact the next season or seasons ahead?

MORIARTY: I mean, yes, I mean, we'll see. I think the criteria that they used, it was -- did work well, like I said, SMU nearly coming back and winning the ACC title game against Clemson. That would have earned them an outright bid regardless. But I mean, I just don't know how you can keep a team like SMU or Indiana, 11-win teams out, especially when the broader context of the 12-team playoff is to have these programs that haven't really been on these national stages, give them a shot to go out and prove what they can do.

Obviously, they fell flat on those stages. I don't think SMU and Indiana are necessarily going away. I don't know if it will drastically change the way that the committee selects these teams, because on Championship Saturday they are human. They saw SMU play a really good game. I don't think you can keep an 11-win Indiana team out, but it is certainly going to be interesting to see if it drastically changes the way that they select the teams.

It is not supposed to. Their job is to just look at a given season and put the 12 best teams in. But it is certainly a topic of conversation at least early on in these first round games. I do think in the next round, these games are going to be really, really good and we may forget about these lackluster first round matchups.

WHITFIELD: Well, nonetheless, it is so exciting for all of these athletes and these teams to have the opportunity and to seize the opportunity as they are and it is exciting for the fan base, too.

Morgan Moriarty, thank you so much.

MORIARTY: Thank you.

[16:01:51]