Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Weather Clears After Light Snow on East Coast, Storms Slam the West; Trump Vowing to Seek Death Penalty for Violent Offenders; Elon Musk Suggests Cognitive Testing for Elected Officials. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired December 25, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Happy everything. I'm Kate Bolduan in New York. Jim is off this morning. Welcome to a special holiday edition of CNN Newsroom.

So, many Americans are just waking up, stretching, getting the coffee, getting the mimosa, whichever you would like to do on this Christmas morning, but celebrations have already been long underway all around the world.

Worshippers gathered for midnight mass at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, the site many consider the birthplace of Jesus. It's now a site in the shadow of war, though, of course, the surrounding violence making for more subdued festivities.

And in Paris, thousands packed the pews of the Notre Dame Cathedral to attend the first Christmas mass there since reopening earlier this month, following that devastating fire in 2019. Officials expect to see at least 40,000 visitors per day during this holiday season.

At the Vatican, Pope Francis spoke about the war in Ukraine and the humanitarian situation in Gaza and his Christmas address. This marks the start of a holy year for the Catholic Church and it's considered a time for peace, forgiveness and pardon.

The British royal family attended morning services in Sandringham, at the Sandringham Church. Notably missing, Harry and Megan and their children.

Tonight also marks the first night of Hanukkah, of course. And thanks to the very early winter nights, the lighting of the 30-foot National Menorah in Washington is going to take place this afternoon. This video we're going to be showing you is video from last year's event when Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, the first Jewish spouse of any vice president, attended the event. The lighting of the National Menorah dates back to 1979.

And it's a white Christmas for many parts of the country, including in New York City, which saw its first snowy Christmas even more than a decade.

Let's get back to Chad Myers. He's back with us and tracking it all. Let's start first with who's seeing a white Christmas and then also what people need to watch out for.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Happy everything to you too, by the way.

BOLDUAN: Thank you, Chad. You too.

MYERS: I did appreciate that all-encompassing happy, because it is a happy day. We're not seeing any snow now east of the Mississippi. The snow is in the Rockies where hopefully the skiers are enjoying it, but up here toward the northeast, we still have a little snow on the ground. Much of it melted yesterday in the lower elevations in New York City, Philadelphia, and then refroze overnight. So, watch for any slick spots if you're walking outside this morning, but certainly a white Christmas for Minneapolis.

A wet Christmas for New Orleans, all the way down toward Baton Rouge, seeing some heavy rainfall, possibly even with a little bit of lightning involved here. We'll take the rainfall there because it's been a such a drought-ridden year for the deep south there, the lower Mississippi. So, two to four inches of rain is really welcome.

But taking the rain into Sunday, here is the problem. So many people trying to get back home on Sunday with cloud cover coming into New York and D.C. The major airports could be fogged in, clouded in, even some spots may even have to de-ice if it's cold enough, with a little bit of that rain coming down.

But back out to the Pacific Northwest, they have been blessed. I mean, we are seeing so much snowfall out here. In fact, Northern Sierra, 168 percent of snow pack for the I just call the Bigfoot region of Northern California and Southern Oregon, because if you believe, you believe. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Got to keep believing.

[10:05:00]

You got to believe in something, Chad. You got to believe in something.

MYERS: I believe in Sasquatch.

BOLDUAN: Exactly. If you don't believe in Sasquatch, what is there to believe in anyway?

All right, our moments together on T.V. always take a fun turn. It's good. We'll see you a little later. Thank you so much.

All right, so talking about some other news that we are tracking this morning, dangerous debris from a California pier collapse is still washing ashore now along the state's central coast after a storm slammed into the area on Monday. The Sta. Cruz wharf had been under reconstruction when heavy surf caused a 150-foot section to just collapse into the ocean. And in doing so, it sent three workers, who were on the pier at the time, into the rough waters. Two of them were rescued. The other was able to safely swim to shore, thankfully.

Well, now, debris, including pilings and sections of the deck, are washing up on beaches and are also posing a very serious hazard now to navigation and public safety there. I mean, just look at it. Officials now say the wharf will now have to remain closed indefinitely.

Something else we are tracking new this morning, at least 29 people have survived a fiery crash of a passenger plane in Central Asia. At least two of those survivors are children, but dozens of other people who are also on board are feared dead. And we do want to warn you, this next video you may find disturbing. In it, you can see first responders and civilians rushing to help at the crash scene, bloodied passengers emerging from the wreckage and the front portion of the plane missing.

CNN's Nada Bashir is in London with the latest.

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, the Azerbaijan Airlines flight was traveling from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Grozny in the Russian region of Chechnya. But it was forced to make an emergency landing around two miles from the Kazakh city of Aktau.

Now, videos circulating from eyewitnesses and those nearby the crash site shows that the plane was circling the airfield somewhat erratically before the crash, then bursting into flames as it hit the ground. Now, emergency response teams were quickly at the scene and remarkably there were a number of survivors, including at least two children, according to authorities, with video showing some of those injured emerging from the wreckage.

But this is a moment of huge tragedy for those that did not survive. According to authorities, there were 67 people on board the flight, including five crew members. Preliminary reports, according to Russian aviation authorities, suggest that the pilot was forced to attempt an emergency landing following a bird strike. However, investigations are still ongoing. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Nada, thank you so much for that.

Also overnight, Russia's military launching a massive aerial attack across Ukraine. The target of the intense bombardments, Ukraine's energy sector. Ukraine's President Zelenskyy responded to these strikes and the fact that Russia's deliberately targeting them on Christmas day, calling it, quote, inhumane.

Rolling blackouts are now blanketing several parts of the country. This war now grinding into its third winter. Poland even had to respond, saying it scrambled fighter jets in response to Russian missile threat in Western Ukraine.

Coming up for us, using his platform to change U.S. policy, Elon Musk turns to X to call for cognitive tests now for elected officials in the wake of the news about retiring Congresswoman Kay Granger. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello, I am Trainee Umbacia, and I'm currently in the United States Air Force at basic military training on the Laughlin Air Force Base. I am from Tampa, Florida, and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE), and I can't wait to see you guys at graduation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:10:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, I'm Major Becky Cheman with U.S. Army NATO in Sembach, Germany. And I would like to wish all of the Chemans in Buffalo, New York, a very merry Christmas. Love to you all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Welcome back everybody. This morning, President-elect Donald Trump vowing to, quote, vigorously pursue the death penalty when he returns to the White House. This coming in a Truth Social post, Trump wrote that he will direct the Justice Department to seek executions for rapists, murderers, and monsters.

This, of course, also comes on the heels of President Biden earlier this week commuting the death sentences of most federal inmates.

Joining us right now, Democratic Strategist Brad Howard and former Spokesman in the George W. Bush White House Pete Seat. Good to see you gentlemen. Thanks for coming in on this Christmas day.

So, Pete, let me start with you. What can Donald Trump really do here after the commutations that Biden just offered?

PETE SEAT, VICE PRESIDENT, BOSE PUBLIC AFFAIRS GROUP: Well, he can send a very strong message that criminality will not be tolerated in a Trump administration. He projects strength domestically and globally by doing this, and he remains consistent with his campaign priorities to promote public safety and border security and also economic security at the same time.

But I do want to throw in a little piece of trivia just for you, Kate. 33 of those 37 who had their sentences commuted are all housed in a federal penitentiary in our home state of Indiana. There's always a Hoosier angle to these stories.

BOLDUAN: You always find one. I did not know that. You always find one, which is a very impressive as always, Pete Seat.

Brad, you got to bring your trivia. You didn't know this was going to be the game we play on Christmas day. Even when it comes to something as strange to be having trivia about, which would be federal death row, I digress.

Brad, I spoke to Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley about Biden's commutations. And he said that he has real concerns about Biden's approach here and the way he is using this presidential power. Let me play this for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D-IL): I understand the concerns and threats of a Trump administration going forward on these, but I think the baseline is I think you commute sentences or pardon people when you think justice was not done in those cases.

[10:15:01]

It sets a precedent here that goes well beyond his pardoning his own son, which, again, I think was a mistake because no one is above the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: What do you think of this, Brad? I mean, was Biden overreaching? Is it setting a bad precedent here?

BRAD HOWARD, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, you know, I didn't bring any you know, fun facts today, but I did bring statistics. And I'll point out that according to Gallup, American's faith in the capital punishment being applied fairly is at a record low and support for capital punishment is at a record low, at a five-year low, or, excuse me, five-decade low for Americans. So, the American people understand that when you misapply, even the risk of misapplying and executing an innocent person is far too high for this to be the policy of the land, we are a better country than that. And let's be clear, that these commutations didn't pardon them. They commuted their sentence from capital punishment to life without parole. So, these people are still getting what they deserve.

And to Mike Quigley's point, I respect the congressman a lot, but the Constitution is very vague on this power that gives the president. There's no what you're supposed to do. There's no this or that. There's tradition and, you know, what other presidents have done, but it is completely up to this president what he wants to do. And I suspect because of his faith and because of his, you know, political positions, this was an easy one for him.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Let's look ahead to -- I mean, there's so much to discuss in the year that just occurred. Let's look ahead though in what is to come, which is a Congress is going to be returning to need to tackle pretty quickly after this new year, the debt ceiling increase that Donald Trump was trying to avoid and the government funding situation, as this last fight that they finally just wrapped up, they only bought them time until March.

I mean, Pete, that mess from last week sparking new debate over how long Speaker Johnson will remain Speaker Johnson. Rand Paul decided is the latest to jump into this conversation in his annual roasts of festivist grievances, yes, it is an annual thing he does. Rand Paul said that Johnson is going to be, quote, gone before D.C. gets warm again.

How much harder did it get for Johnson to keep his job after what we saw last week?

SEAT: Well, when you have slim majorities, like they will have in this next Congress, any speaker is going to walk a tightrope on a daily basis. You know, the former governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels, used to say, big change requires big majorities, and the larger the margin, the easier the job.

This all, to me, is a lot like when your favorite football, basketball, or baseball team is underperforming. And what do people do? They train their fire and their grievances at the coach. Not the fact that the players stink on the field or on the court, but they go after the coach and they fire the coach and nothing really changes.

I think with these slim majorities, it is a job set up for failure. And if I had to guess, there are probably few aspirants who want it at this moment. In the end, I think Johnson will be okay. I think his relationship with Trump will prevail and the fact that Donald Trump is not going to want the drama of a speaker battle on the House floor in the weeks leading up to his inauguration and the first days of his presidency.

BOLDUAN: And that fact alone may have the most impact on kind of how that plays out when it comes to House Republicans.

Brad, with a very, as Pete was rightfully pointing out, a very narrow Republican majority, Mike Johnson has very little margin of error for keeping his job for anything. Democrats came to the rescue of Johnson once before. Do you think they would again? I mean, is this -- when it comes to like him keeping his job, I mean, is this the devil you know, argument?

HOWARD: Well, look, I think Leader Jeffries has hinted that last week that Democrats are not going to entertain the notion of, you know, saving him again because, you know, we have been willing partners in governing and keeping the government open. Several times Democrats have voted with Republicans to, you know, not shut down the government and work with them as because the far right had unreasonable expectations of what they were wanting and long and Trump at the last minute inserting chaos in these negotiations is never helpful. But, you know, they don't bring Democrats in as willing governing partners.

So, unless he's willing to do that, which I highly suspect he is not, I think you're going to see Jeffries stand up and say, you're on your own, man. And keep in mind that they enter with a four-seat majority. But with President Trump's cabinet picks, it drops to probably a one or two-seat majority, which is everybody's akin.

BOLDUAN: It's going to be a fun one, in a nutshell.

Pete, there was something I saw on Axios that I actually wanted to ask you about. It has some new reporting that Democrats are starting to warm to the idea of peering more on conservative media.

[10:20:00]

And the way they put it is nearly a dozen House Democrats tell Axios that party members need to increase their appearances on conservative- leaning and nontraditional platforms or risk irrelevance. Here's the quote, if half the country is watching and we got to win 50 percent plus 1, how can you reach anybody when you're not talking where they go? That's from Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz.

What do you think of that? Do you, Pete Seat, think it would make a difference?

SEAT: It's amazing that it took losing a presidential election for them to realize common sense. Yes, you have to go where the enemy is. You have to have a conversation with everyone. We tell this to candidates, you should say yes to the invites that are unexpected and the places where people don't necessarily agree with you. If you just preach to the choir over and over and over again, you're not building the tent.

So, as a Republican, I prefer that they not speak to conservative audiences, but as a political strategist it's sad that it took them this long to figure it out.

BOLDUAN: Brad, do you think this is the lesson of the 2024 election?

HOWARD: Oh, I think there are a lot of lessons from the 2024 loss of Democrats.

BOLDUAN: Where should we begin the erring of grievances, speaking of?

HOWARD: But I hope this is one of them. Look, I'm a former spokesperson for the House Blue Dog Coalition for the moderate Democrats in the House of Representatives. You know, those folks are on Fox News all the time because that's where their constituents are. And when you look at other conservative media outlets, the growing trend of influencers and podcasts, you've got to be everywhere all the time if you're running for office.

And so I think Democrats need to be unafraid to take on the fights to tell people what your bold ideas are and to go to boldly to these places. And you know, you may get dinged and you may get roughed up, but at the end of the day, people want to fighter. And that's what you've got to show. You got to show you got the fight in them.

I think Democrats have learned the lesson. I think they're going to-- we're going to -- there's a DNC chair race that's going on the elections on February 1st, I believe. I think you're seeing an operational focus on this, whoever wins that chairmanship race. And I'm branching out the communications, the media and putting us in rural areas, urban areas, Hispanic areas, you know, in black communities. So, we can get our message out there because I think our policies are right. And, clearly, they won on the ballot across the country when they were on the ballot as ballot initiatives. We just got to work on our message and our messengers. BOLDUAN: And those who did feel kind of bucked the trend, I may be drawing with a broad brush here, but the Blue Dog-esque kind of inclined candidates are the ones who won in the states that Trump took. And that is one of the lessons that we can see that you know well, Brad Howard.

It's good to see you guys. Thank you very much. Merry Christmas, guys.

HOWARD: My pleasure.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

So, Texas Congresswoman Kay Granger, she made history just a few years ago becoming the first Republican woman to lead the powerful House Appropriations Committee. But her long career in public service took a turn this week when it was revealed she has been -- how absent she has been from Congress, living in an independent living facility, and according to her son, has been dealing with dementia issues in recent months.

She had already announced that her upcoming retirement from Congress, when this term wraps, but all of this has renewed questions on the Hill and off about aging members of Congress and their fitness to serve. Elon Musk, for one, has jumped into this conversation, suggesting cognitive testing is needed for elected officials.

CNN's Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter joining me now, because this really gets to something quite interesting, Brian, which is you can add this to the growing list of topics that Elon Musk is successfully inserting himself into. And, I mean, look no further than the government funding fight that we were just talking about with the panel before this. You know, he tanked that first bipartisan government funding bill that sent the Hill into chaos last week, doing all of it just coming from him blowing up his Twitter/X account and all of this really coming from his -- whatever he's -- however, he wants to manage and how his managing his platform. What role do you think X is going to play in the next administration?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Right. And Musk is bringing his freewheeling attitude and spirit to basically every political story of the moment, reacting in real time. He's one of the only figures big enough, rich enough, famous enough to share a stage with Donald Trump and have that same kind of gravitational power. So, that's what we're seeing now every day, every week on every story.

When it comes to Granger, two things stand out. One, the idea of a Biden-Trump rematch that many people didn't want to see, that was rooted in concerns about the gerontocracy, you know, the idea that the government's run by old people and not making room for new energy and younger faces.

Well, that gerontocracy problem doesn't go away just because Biden dropped out of the race and Trump was reelected.

[10:25:03]

That gerontocracy issue is still very much alive in America and the Granger case, you know, shows that.

It also is revealing that it took so long for her condition to become public partly because of a lack of local news coverage. There were some reporters looking into where she was and why she was absent, but it took a long time to get to the bottom of it because of lack of local news coverage.

Of course, Musk says to his fans, you are the media now, and that's a flawed concept but it has a grain of truth, you know, the idea that everybody on X does have a voice is a powerful, powerful idea and an idea Musk is going to continue to push.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and that's true. And it does seem, I don't know, sometimes scattershot, Brian, on what he decides to weigh in on and how much attention he puts into a particular topic. And your tracking of it, do you see a through line or a commonality in the issues that he's trying to influence so far?

STELTER: I -- do I see a common thread? You know, it seems to me he enjoys being the main character on his platform. And whatever story is hot at the moment, he likes to insert himself into. And there's been a lot of criticism of Musk to that front.

But here's where I see a positive. Here's where I see an upside. We are seeing in real time in a very transparent way how government power works and how unelected figures with a lot of money can influence government.

Normally, this stuff happens in the shadows with donors, you know, making big donations to campaigns and then meeting privately with politicians. With Musk, it's all seemingly out in the open. You know, we know what he's thinking any given moment because of what he's posting. So, I actually think there's, in some ways, that kind of upside to this, even though some of what he's posting is misinformation about that spending bill last week, for example. At least everyone's kind of seen it happen in real time.

Most of what he's doing right now, the through line, I would say, is mostly about DOGE, about government efficiency. But as you reported, he's going to have relatively little actual power, right? It's going to be about using his megaphone to pressure the Congress to take action or put pressure on Trump to pressure Congress to take action. But let's not count that megaphone out. It is, as he's shown, a very powerful megaphone.

BOLDUAN: Yes, he has already shown that so far already. And they haven't even gotten into office yet.

It's great to see you, Brian. Thank you.

STELTER: Thanks.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, the It Ends With Us Actor and Director Justin Baldoni has been hit with a defamation lawsuit. The latest in the very public back and forth between him and Blake Lively, next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello, I am Trainee Pete Reeve Fernandez. I'm currently at U.S. Air Force Basic Military Training, Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, Lachlan. I'm from Yuma, Arizona. And man, happy holidays. Love you mom, love you dad, love you brother. Hey, Merry Christmas to everybody for coming up and I can't wait to see you at my graduation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:00]