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U.S. Seizes Another Oil Tanker Off Venezuela; Lawmakers, Victims Slam DOJ Release Of Heavily Redacted Epstein Files; Turning Point USA's "AmericaFest" Underway In Phoenix; Economy Concerns And Health Care Costs Loom Over Midterms; Russian And U.S. Teams Hold Talks In Miami On Ending Ukraine War; Officials Seek Motive For Brown University-MIT Killings; Temperatures Around The Country Expected To Be Warmer Than Normal. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired December 20, 2025 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:28]

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Thanks for joining us here in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Erica Hill in New York. Jessica Dean is off tonight.

The Trump administration ramping up the pressure on Venezuela going after that country's economic lifeline, oil, seizing yet another oil tanker today. This is the second one. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem releasing this video. The seizure follows President Trump's announcement earlier this week of a total blockade of sanctioned oil tankers into and out of Venezuela.

CNN's senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak joining us now with more the details.

So what more do we know about the seizure of this tanker?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And what Kristi Noem has said is that it occurred in the pre-dawn hours of today. And in that video, you see a helicopter hovering over this ship, which I'm told by a U.S. official was carrying Venezuelan oil, sailing under the flag of Panama. This official says that the crew on board did not contest the seizure. And they said that the ultimate destination for this oil was in Asia.

Of course, most of the oil that Venezuela sells ends up in China. And it does sort of add on to this pressure campaign that the administration has been building over the last several months. It comes 10 days after the seizure of the vessel called Skipper. That vessel also carrying Venezuelan oil. And of course, President Trump has announced what he calls a total and complete blockade of sanctioned ships going in and out of Venezuela.

What's interesting about the ship today is that the official I was speaking to said that this particular vessel is not covered by U.S. sanctions, which I think illustrates just how intently the administration is working to try and cut off the leader Nicolas Maduro's economic lifeline. The money from oil essentially what allows him to keep his grip on power in that country as they work ultimately to oust him. That is the objective of this pressure campaign, according to

officials, but also according to the chief of staff, Susie Wiles in that interview with "Vanity Fair" that came out earlier this week. And you've seen this campaign mounting, whether it's the strikes on alleged drug boats, whether it's the massive buildup of military muscle in the region. President Trump says that the next steps will be strikes on land in Venezuela.

He says that will be happening soon. But of course, he's been saying that for the last several weeks, so far has not ordered up that final order for those strikes to take place -- Erica.

HILL: Yes. All right. Kevin, appreciate the updates. Thank you.

Some new revelations emerging as the public pores over those newly released Epstein files from the Justice Department. The complete release, of course, was ordered by law, was supposed to happen by midnight last night. Well, not everything has been released at this point, and a number of folks in Congress are now saying the DOJ is simply not following that law.

While a number of well-known names have popped up in the files, there are relatively few references to Donald Trump, which is causing at least some Democratic lawmakers to raise questions. And at least one image with the president that had a photo of the president in it seems to have been mysteriously taken off the Web site, taken out of the files.

Officials chalk up the many redactions to trying to protect the victims of Jeffrey Epstein. However, Lisa Phillips, who is one of the Epstein survivors, says that just delaying the release of these files does not help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LISA PHILLIPS, JEFFREY EPSTEIN SURVIVOR: Victims want answers. We want to know -- we want to connect the dots. We want our stories to make sense. We want to know a lot of different things. So, I mean, of course they're just going to say that, that this buys time, but they're protecting themselves, not the victims.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Camila DeChalus has more now from Washington.

CAMILA DECHALUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erica, there's a lot of things that really stood out on the latest batch of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that was just released by the Justice Department. I mean, number one, the documents really provide an even bigger glimpse into how extensive Jeffrey Epstein's social network was, especially among high profile figures in the political world and in the entertainment industries.

We saw images that included of Michael Jackson, of Diana Ross, of the former President Bill Clinton, and even President Donald Trump himself. Now on the president and even on the others, it's really important to make clear that there's no evidence that Jackson, Clinton, Ross or Trump engaged in any illegal activity connected to Epstein, but these images really do kind of show just how wide his network was.

And even on the president, there has been some speculation on whether the Justice Department may have held back any information regarding him, and a top DOJ official addressed this. And here's what he had to say.

[19:05:07]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: There's no effort to hold anything back because there's the name Donald J. Trump or anybody else's name. Bill Clinton's name, Reid Hoffman's name.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To be clear, you're saying DOJ has not been ordered to redact anything related to President Trump, that there's no order to do such?

BLANCHE: No, I mean, I would give the order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DECHALUS: Now, Erica, it's also important to note that law enforcement was warned very early on about Epstein and the documents really reflect that. And in fact, one of the documents, it confirmed that one of Jeffrey Epstein's victims filed a complaint as far back as the mid- 1990s about him and his behavior. And just even later on, her lawyer confirmed the accuracy of this report.

And so really, when these documents are being released, it really just sheds more light into just how expansive his network was and just about some of the filings of complaints that law enforcement received about him.

HILL: Camila, thanks for the reporting there.

Also here to discuss, defense attorney Shan Wu, who, of course, is also a former federal prosecutor.

My friend, it has been a minute. It is nice to see you.

Shan, when we look at what was actually released here, you have heard, I know, the criticism, the frustration at the sort of lack in terms of the amount, but also the sheer number of redactions that we're seeing here, what do you make of what has been put out there?

SHAN WU, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: The first thing I make of it is that DOJ has violated the law that told them to release very specific things, like the prosecution memorandums or the 302 captures of the witness interviews. So they're clearly violating the law here. They've also, of course, violated because they're late. You know, in very large productions, there's something called rolling production so they're going to argue, well, you know, we're in the midst of doing this, but they clearly have withheld information.

They've redacted information that they had no business doing based on what they were supposed to do under the law. So that's my first takeaway from it. The second takeaway is it really confirms the idea that this DOJ is very much looking to delay any kind of production of documents. I mean, Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general's statements about how they're still using privilege issues is really a bunch of nonsense because there's no live cases. So any idea that it's interfering with live cases goes out the window. I mean, in fact, there's supposedly a live case on President Clinton, but they're happy to put up images of him.

The prosecution memos they're trying to claim are attorney work product. Normally that makes some sense, except for this law directly contradicts that. So not really to my surprise, but they're relying on these ways to delay things. And they'll want to litigate it. I mean, Congress should, you know, bring a lawsuit to say you're not complying with it, and they will want to fight it in court and just further delay things.

The only other thing I really take away from this is it also really validates the idea that not just this DOJ, but other DOJs for decades practically now have failed and fallen down on this case. There is so much information here that they could have followed up on, so many people they could have interviewed that it really is a staggering failure of their investigation.

HILL: And that is what we're hearing both from attorneys who represent a number of survivors and survivors themselves. I was also struck, I spoke with a survivor last hour, and there has been criticism with some of these dumps and even the -- what has been released in some cases by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. Some people are frustrated that they didn't have as much, as much context and as much notice.

And the survivor I spoke with said she wasn't given any sort of a heads up as to what was coming out from this -- from the Justice Department. Does that surprise you, especially given what we have heard in terms of the need to redact documents to protect survivors?

WU: Yes, I mean, that's a complete disconnect between what the administration and DOJ says about their concern with protecting them, being sensitive to them, versus having zero contact with them. And even under the laws governing victims' rights, these are the kinds of things that they should be required to be giving victims the heads up, letting them know what might come out just to prepare them and actually offer them support for the kind of stress that's going to be involved with it.

HILL: You mentioned in terms of recourse, I guess, that Congress could sue, you know, because you believe and we've heard from other lawmakers, they also would agree with you that the Justice Department did, in fact, violate the law here. We've also heard from some members of Congress who have talked about potentially articles of impeachment involving the attorney general, Pam Bondi. Do you see that going anywhere? WU: Well, not with the current makeup of it. I mean, I think they

could use the impeachment hearings as a way to make further inquiries about what had happened here. Were they given directives to redact certain things? But, you know, the clip that you played of the deputy attorney general, it's very easy for him to say there's no order given just to redact Trump's information because all he has to do is use these general privilege issues, this facade of protecting victims' rights, and he can get rid of anything to do with Trump or anyone they don't want their information to come out under those broad categories.

[19:10:08]

It doesn't have to be specifically saying, don't look for this, don't look for that. But I do think if they began more hearings with it and this should be a bipartisan issue, I mean, both sides should be interested in figuring out what happened here, that would at least begin to give more of a window into what had happened.

HILL: We will see if any of that happens. Shan, good to talk to you. Thank you.

WU: Good to see you.

HILL: Still to come this evening, young conservatives clashing at the annual Turning Point conference over the future of the MAGA movement. We'll take you there live. Plus wild weather coast to coast really getting in the way of your holiday travel plans. We're going to try to help you get ahead of it. Plus, the college football playoffs in full swing. One upset already today. We have those highlights ahead for you in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:15:31]

HILL: Thousands of conservatives are gathering in Phoenix for Turning Point USA's AmericaFest conference. That organization co-founded by Charlie Kirk is credited with encouraging millions of young voters to support Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. This year, however, a decidedly different tone for the millennial and Gen Z crowd. Some say President Trump hasn't yet delivered on some of his promises on lowering prices and so-called generational change. And a number also telling our reporters that they're worried about their path to the American dream.

CNN's Steve Contorno was at the conference.

And Steve, you join me now. Sounds very loud there behind you. What more are you hearing from young people?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Erica, Donald Trump addressed this group a year ago and promised them a golden age. While many people here are still waiting for them that they remain deeply concerned about the direction of this country, worried about whether they can afford a home. Will they have to work with them and their wives or husbands, two-parent working households in order to survive? They're worried about whether artificial intelligence will replace

them in the workforce, or whether there will be jobs at all for them in the future. And a lot of concerns about social media and whether there are ways to meet people in the real world these days. And these concerns are reflected by the broader population of young people. In fact, a Harvard poll recently found that people under 30, only 13 percent of them believe that America is headed in the right direction.

Now, this is a very pro-Trump group, and when you speak to them, they remain optimistic that Donald Trump will bring the change that he has promised. But it is a year in and he said that there would be no new foreign wars and yet we have more foreign entanglements. He said that prices would be coming down and that hasn't happened yet -- Erica.

HILL: Yes, it's true. And, you know, we talk about, too, how important young voters were in 2024. Where is the focus, right, in terms of what that impact could be for 2028, especially with Donald Trump not on the ballot?

CONTORNO: Yes. Well, Charlie Kirk himself, before he passed away, was shot earlier this year, said he was concerned that Republicans were taking that youth vote for granted, that they weren't doing enough to address their concerns. And you definitely have seen that in some of the elections that we've already had this year, where young people have shifted back to the left.

Now, this organization, Turning Point, looking ahead to 2028, has already said they intend to endorse Vice President J.D. Vance to succeed Donald Trump. Well, I talked to some of the attendees here about whether they support that decision. Take a listen to what they said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATHERINE MUNSON, 25-YEAR-OLD ATTENDING AMERICAFEST: That's the way we should go. Like, if we want to move America forward and to be a Christian nation again, we have to keep the same driving force going forward. And right now, President Trump's successor is Vice President J.D. Vance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Now I did speak to one other person who said that this is way too early to be having this conversation. But Erica Kirk, on this stage on Friday, made it clear that Turning Point will be behind J.D. Vance going forward.

HILL: All right. Steve Contorno, appreciate it. Thank you.

Also joining me this hour, CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein.

Ron, always good to talk to you. You know, I think it's so interesting --

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, Erica. HILL: Hi. Steve is laying out sort of the shift and what he's hearing

from young people at the conference. Does any of that surprise you?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. No. Look, I mean, as he pointed out, this is the kind of the Trumpiest end of kind of the youth cohort, people who are activists in this organization. But overall, what he's describing is what we saw in the November election and what we've seen in polling all year. I mean, Trump in 2024 made significant gains among younger voters, particularly men. He also made significant gains among Latinos and among the broader universe of nonwhite voters without a college degree. And there was a lot of exuberant predictions among Republican strategists in the aftermath of that that he had engineered kind of a durable and lasting realignment.

Now, a year later, his approval rating is significantly below his vote with all of those groups, including young people. And what we saw in November was that those numbers kind of on a screen, translated into actual behavior in that not only has Trump's approval rating declined with those groups, young men, Latinos, non-college, non-white voters, but Democratic performance improved with them in New Jersey and Virginia.

[19:20:07]

And so if you're looking forward to '26, that erosion of his new beachheads is clearly one of the biggest challenges facing Republicans.

HILL: Which is fascinating, because when you look at the challenges, too, what Republicans did very effectively and specifically President Trump in 2024 was point out the disconnect on the economy, with President Biden saying, hey, everything is great, and Americans saying, hey, they don't feel so great, and my checkbook doesn't look so great.

And we are seeing this play out now in real time as he's continuing, even just last night, to still point the finger at Joe Biden. Right? And yet you have 57 percent, I believe there was a Quinnipiac poll, 57 percent of voters are very clearly pointing to President Trump as the reason that there are issues with the current state of the economy.

I mean, how much longer can he hold on to that and expect it to work for him?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, he can't expect it to work for him. He can hold on to it as long as he wants, but it's already not working for him. You know, again, looking back at '24, there are obviously a lot of things that Joe Biden did wrong and the Democrats did wrong, but there were people who pointed out that there were incumbent governments all over the world who were suffering in the polls, and at election time, because of inflation.

Inflation is an incumbent killer. Donald Trump is now the incumbent. And beyond, you know, the first step, as you say, is to try to blame the predecessor for the problem, that usually doesn't work for any president after about three or four months. But when he goes beyond that, his answer to, you know, to the criticisms is strikingly similar to what Biden tried. You know, first saying it's really not that bad.

This is a hard issue to argue people out of their feelings about.

HILL: Yes.

BROWNSTEIN: Because, you know, you're not telling them how the war is going in Ukraine. It's not something that they have no independent information about. They have a pretty good idea how much money they have in their pocket at the end of the week. And if they don't feel like it's enough, it's really very dissonant for a president to try to convince them otherwise. And the other thing Trump is doing that's echoing Biden is he's talking about all the investment he's attracting into the country.

Well, Biden attracted a lot of investment, too. But as he discovered, you know, opening a new A.I. facility somewhere in the southeast doesn't really mean that much to a Hispanic guy in Las Vegas who doesn't feel he has enough money to make ends meet. So right now, I think, you know, Trump is kind of suffering from the same problems that Biden did on inflation and that governments around the world have faced on inflation. It is an incumbent killer.

HILL: And now we have health care looming. Right? So premiums for millions of Americans set to spike when those Affordable Care Act subsidies expire in a little over a week. And also, I mean, look, it's important to point out writ large, even if someone is not getting their health care through Obamacare and is not available for those subsidies, health care is skyrocketing across the country.

There does not seem to be a real way to resolve this even after we saw some Republicans break ranks here. The fact that Speaker Johnson said, we're not even going to address it until the new year, it also raises questions about whether Republican leadership is listening to their constituents.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. You know, look, I mean, as I was saying, I mean, part of Trump's problem on inflation is proximity. He's there when people are dissatisfied with their affordability and cost of living. But he's got another level of problem, which is that consistently in polling, most Americans are saying that his agenda is compounding the problem. Part of that is tariffs. But also part of that is health care.

And what's really significant about these ACA subsidies that will expire in about 10 days is that they close the circle from the one big, beautiful bill, the reconciliation bill this summer made big, unprecedented levels of cuts in Medicaid. That hits hardest at blue states that use the money under the Affordable Care Act to expand the eligibility to Medicaid. About 10 million people, the Congressional Budget Office says, will lose coverage as a result of those cuts this summer.

But those cuts didn't really hit that hard at red states that did not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. And that's where the subsidies come in. The subsidies are used most heavily in those states, places like Florida, Texas, and Georgia, that did not expand Medicaid under the ACA. And as a result, by letting these subsidies expire, they've now created -- the Republicans in Congress have now created a world where basically every state in the country is facing a coverage loss and potential increase in prices as a result of their twin decisions on health care. First on Medicaid, now on the ACA.

And as you and I have talked about before, Democratic image is not very strong right now. Arguably, it's the weakest it's been since the late '80s and early '90s. But even at their lowest ebb, the issue on which more people trust them than the Republicans, the biggest gap they have is health care. And they are very comfortable making an argument that Trump is compounding your affordability challenges through the choices he's made on health care to fund tax cuts that primarily benefit the affluent.

[19:25:10]

HILL: Well, it is certainly something that we're going to continue to talk about, that's for sure. As much as some politicians would like for it to go away, this is only continuing the conversation.

Ron, always appreciate our conversations. Thank you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

HILL: Just ahead here, can President Trump end the war in Ukraine? A former U.S. ambassador to NATO weighing in, and a look at why he says there may be chaos and confusion surrounding any effort to end that conflict. We're going to dive in deeper here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:30:00]

HILL: Another round of diplomatic talks into ending Russia's war on Ukraine happening this weekend in Miami. Senior Russian negotiator meeting today with U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump's son- in-law Jared Kushner.

The Russian side says the talks are "proceeding constructively." They are set to continue tomorrow. Meantime, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hinting today at his next step, saying the U.S. has proposed a new format for talks.

We are joined now by former U.S. Ambassador to NATO during the Obama administration, Ivo daalder.

Ambassador, always good to talk to you. So we've seen this real flurry of diplomacy it would seem, in recent weeks. Do you believe that there is actually any progress being made?

IVO DAALDER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: No, unfortunately, I don't. I think what we are seeing is a narrowing of the differences between the United States and Europe and Ukraine, on the one hand, but we are not seeing any of the differences between Russia and Ukraine and that's really what matters.

This is a very strange negotiation in which the United States seeks to have a negotiation with one side, narrows those differences, and then tries to figure out a way to sell that to the other side.

Here is the problem: As Vladimir Putin said just yesterday in his four-hour long press conference, he thinks that the war will end when Ukraine agrees to subjugate itself and undermines its own independence and Russia controls, if not all of the territory, at least all of the decision making power in Ukraine.

Ukraine is not going to be able and willing to accept that, and that's the fundamental problem. We have a war here for a simple reason. Russia wants Ukraine, Ukraine wants to maintain its independence, and as long as Russia is willing to use force to get to -- to seek that end, we will have a war.

HILL: Do you see anything in terms of pressure that the U.S. or Europe could put on Russia that could shift that position?

DAALDER: Yes, I do. I think Russia is facing serious economic pressure. Continued sanctions and in fact, bulking up of those sanctions, going after the shadow fleet that Russia is using in order to send oil to other countries, notably to China, would be one thing.

We are, in fact, in the Caribbean intercepting the shadow fleet from Venezuelan oil. Why don't we do the same with Russian oil? After all, the Russians are actually engaged in an act of war against another country, a country that is in the middle of Europe, a Europe in which we have, still today, 76,000 troops and for the last 80 years, have demonstrated a sense that the security of Europe is important for us.

So economic sanctions is one thing, military aid is another thing. The United States has provided billions of dollars of military aid to Ukraine, as have the Europeans.

But since President Trump came back, the Europeans will have to pay for every single bullet that the United States is sending to Ukraine. Why not just send that equipment, as we have done for the past three- and-a-half years directly to Ukraine? So there is ways we can pressure Russia to start and to find a way to end this war.

HILL: Do you think there is any appetite for either one of those? Specifically, I would say the first one, since I think we know where this administration stands when it comes to you know, arming and additional funding.

DAALDER: Yes. I think the additional funding, although there is $800 million in the Defense budget that was signed by President Trump, but certainly not enough.

On the economic pressure, there is economic pressure. The sanctioning of two major economic oil companies of the Russians will have a major impact and is having a major impact, but we need to do more, and we need to press more rather than spending all of our time trying to find a political solution to a problem that really can only be solved if Russia comes to the conclusion that it won't achieve the goals it seeks by the use of force, why don't we try to figure out a way to push Russia economically, politically, and even militarily to come to the table and negotiate a peace that is acceptable to all sides. HILL: I was struck by what we heard this week in terms of NATO, right, which has been such a push from the Russian side. Right? They want to make sure that in no way Ukraine can join NATO. We know this is obviously important in Ukraine, where it is in the Constitution, and yet, we heard from President Zelenskyy a willingness to maybe drop that immediate push for joining the alliance.

What do you make of that?

DAALDER: Well, I think President Zelenskyy is recognizing that so long as President Trump opposes Ukrainian membership in NATO, which he does, indeed, so did President Biden, at least in the immediate term, he is not going to join NATO, so why not make hay out of that reality and say, okay, if we are not going to do immediate membership of Ukraine for NATO, give me at least NATO like security guarantees, real security guarantees that are similar to NATO.

[19:35:10]

And in fact, that seems to be what the President and the administration has now been willing to provide, although we don't know the details and we haven't seen anything of it.

But he has indicated, according to the European and American negotiators, a willingness to provide real security guarantees and that's the core.

Now, I would prefer to have Ukraine as a member of NATO. Ukraine would prefer to be a member of NATO. But if a commitment to real security guarantees gets the same result, and I see President Zelenskyy trying to go yet another distance in order to find a peaceful solution, but ultimately, the way we are going to end this war is a decision in Moscow. It is not on Kyiv, it is not on Washington, it is not even in Brussels, it has to be in Moscow.

HILL: Ambassador Ivo Daalder, appreciate it, as always. Thank you.

DAALDER: My pleasure.

HILL: Still to come here, investigators say the suspect in the mass shooting at Brown University did not appear to target any particular students, but there was a connection to the professor he killed at MIT, the MIT professor he killed in his home, rather, what we know about the search now for a motive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:40:56]

HILL: One week after the horrific shooting at Brown University, the search for a motive is intensifying. This, of course, after the 48- year-old suspect's body was found in a storage unit in New Hampshire on Thursday, where he had reportedly we are told died from a self- inflicted gunshot wound.

CNN's Brian Todd has more details now on the continuing investigation. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): With the manhunt finally over in the Brown University and MIT professor shootings, many questions still remain as to a clear motive in the killings. Providence Chief of Police, Colonel Oscar Perez, believes the killer was very strategic in his measures to dodge detection before the shootings.

COL. OSCAR L. PEREZ, JR., PROVIDENCE POLICE CHIEF: I mean, he was communicating with apps he was utilizing certain ways to drive and picking certain neighborhoods to drive around. He wasn't picking main streets. I would assume that he was probably trying to avoid, like, certain licenses -- license plate readers.

TODD (voice over): The gunman, 48-year-old Claudio Manuel Neves- Valente, was found dead late Thursday in a New Hampshire storage unit from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He's originally from Portugal, and his last known address was in Miami.

PEREZ: We also learned that he had an address here in the city of Providence, which led us to believe that he was pretty familiar with the east side, with Brown University.

TODD (voice over): And they know that Neves Valente attended Brown roughly two decades ago as a PhD student studying Physics, but he only stayed for about a year, enrolling in the fall of 2000 and leaving in the spring of 2001. At one point, he was even assigned an office in the same building where the shooting took place.

CHRISTINA PAXSON, PRESIDENT, BROWN UNIVERSITY: I think it's safe to assume that this man, when he was a student, spent a great deal of time in that building for classes and other activities as a PhD student in Physics.

TODD (voice over): A post pulled from an Internet archive, first reported by "The New York Times," but which could not be independently verified, appears to show a post left by Neves-Valente on a Brown Physics message board after he left the school. Part of it was left in Portuguese and was translated to, "The greatest liar is the one who is able to lie to themselves. These exist everywhere, but they sometimes proliferate in the most unexpected places."

Authorities also know Neves-Valente attended the same university in Portugal as the MIT professor he killed. In an interview with "Publico," a newspaper in Portugal, former classmate Felipe Mora describes his impressions of Neves-Valente as aggressive, "He had a confrontational personality in class. In other words, the other good students would intervene, ask questions. But Claudio liked to say that he was the one who knew."

And in a Facebook post in Portuguese, Mora wrote, "Claudio was obviously one of the best, but in class he had a great need to stand out and show that he was better than the rest."

As for the man who helped break the case wide open, a man known only as John in the affidavit who posted on Reddit, writing in part, "I'm being dead serious. The police need to look into a gray Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental. That was the car he was driving." That post, eventually leading investigators to his car.

PEREZ: It was a great, great thing that he was actually paying attention and that he was actually observing his surroundings. He helped us out a lot. He was able to break this case.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: And our thanks again to Brian Todd for that report.

Still to come here, are you in for a headache as you make your way to Grandma's for the holidays? We will take a look at where the forecast is impacting travel plans.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:48:58]

HILL: Just minutes ago, James Madison in Oregon kicking off in the final college football playoff game of the night. Now, earlier, Ole Miss won big against Tulane despite losing their head coach. CNN's Patrick Snell has all the weekend's action, plus a very viral moment in the boxing world.

PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: Well, Erica, what a start to the college football playoffs as Alabama and Oklahoma went head-to- head on Friday night. They had a 50-yard pickup from Zabien Brown, Alabama scoring 27 unanswered points. Fourth quarter, check out the catch from Jeremy Bernard leaping and catching it behind the defender's helmet, just amazing. Alabama going on to win it 34 to 24, tying the biggest comeback ever in a college football playoff game.

The Miami-Texas A&M game playing out in the Lone Star State on Saturday. We had to wait until four minutes and 26 seconds into the second half before we finally had some points on the board there in College Station, thanks to a 21-yard field goal for the number ten seeded Hurricanes. That field goal coming after the first scoreless first half in college football playoff history in 11 years since playoffs began, in fact, back in 2014.

[19:50:12]

The Hurricanes with a touchdown with less than two minutes to go, but A&M drove all the way down on its last drive to Miami's five-yard line, but quarterback Marcel Reed, throwing an interception in the end zone. It would be a thrilling ending. Miami win it ten to three, and they caused the upset.

Now Friday night in Miami, British heavyweight superstar, Anthony Joshua fighting former YouTuber, Jake Paul. Joshua is five inches taller than Paul and came in almost 30 pounds more than him at the weigh-in. This was a total mismatch.

The Englishman is one of the sport's elite punchers and he would drop the fading Paul twice in the fifth round and from that moment on, we just knew there was only going to be one winner and it wasn't Paul. The American did everything he could to stay away from Joshua, ducking and weaving, but Joshua rocked him with a right uppercut early in the sixth and A.J. flooring his opponent with a devastating combination to the head.

The ref counting Paul out a minute and 31 seconds into the round in front of the capacity, almost 20,000 crowd, a chastening night for the 28-year-old Paul.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE PAUL, YOUTUBER AND PROFESSIONAL BOXER: I think my jaw is broken, by the way, so, yes, it is definitely broke. But man, that was good. Nice little ass whooping from one of the best to ever do it. So I love this (bleep). I am going to come back and get a World Championship belt at some point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNELL: Paul then driving himself to a nearby hospital after his defeat and later taking to social media to say he had undergone successful surgery on a double fracture to his jaw, the American adding he had titanium plates inserted during the operation and a number of teeth removed as well.

We wish him well in his recovery.

Erica, right back to you.

HILL: And I will take it, Patrick, thank you.

Well, a powerful storm system is bringing damaging winds to parts of the Northeast. More than 70 million people are now under Wind Alerts.

Here in New York City, an unsecured crane was captured on video spinning in the wind. Now, it is important to note here that may look out-of-control, it is actually designed to spin freely in the wind to keep it from falling over.

The wind threat could disrupt travel for more than 122 million Americans who are expected to travel from now through January 1st.

CNN meteorologist, Allison Chinchar has a look at the latest.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: If you are dreaming of a White Christmas, you may have to keep dreaming and that's because warm air is expected to surge across much of the U.S. as we head into the upcoming week.

And one thing to note is that it starts in a lot of places over into the West, but then you start to see it spread eastward, even places that have been relatively cold over the last two to three weeks are now finally going to see their temperatures jumping back above normal, especially for Christmas Day itself, and not just a few degrees above average, we are looking at several areas that could be looking at record temperatures, and a few places that could break record temperatures two or even three days in a row.

This is a look again at Thursday, Christmas Day. Look at all of these dots representing location that could end up having a record high temperature that day.

Now again, if you're looking for snow, you may have to kind of see where the snow is located now to determine whether or not you actually have much of a chance. Here is where we have current snow cover. You can see a lot of it out into the Rockies, portions of the Great Lakes, and even some of the higher elevations of the Northeast.

Now, one area where we may actually add some snow before Christmas is going to be out West. We've got a series of systems coming in that's going to bring not only rain, but also snow, especially to the Olympics, the Cascades, and even into the Sierras.

You notice a lot more color coming into the screen right through here, through Christmas Day because of those next systems that will be arriving. Everywhere else though, it is going to be warm air that starts to surge in.

Take a look at Chicago. The average this time of year, about 36 degrees, Sunday will be below that. Every single one of the rest of the seven days is actually going to be at or above that, and it is not just portions of Chicago, Kansas City is also going to be above average. Their average of 41 degrees, they will be above that every single one of the next seven days, including look at this, Christmas Day almost getting to 70 degrees.

Again, remarkable how warm some of these areas are going to be. Even Dallas, take a look at this, the average high temperature is 57 degrees. Most of the low temperatures forecast for this week will actually be warmer than their average high temperature.

HILL: That is a very warm Christmas Day. Allison, thanks.

Well, we may not see a White Christmas for pretty much most of the country this year, there is a chance for a little extra holiday green. That's right. You still have time to buy a lottery ticket.

The Powerball jackpot is up to an estimated one-and-a-half billion dollars, making it the second largest prize of the year after no winning ticket was sold for Wednesday's drawing.

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Now, it is important to note, there is a chance, but your odds of winning are one in 292,000,000, so there is that. The next drawing tonight, 10:59 P.M. Eastern.

And if you win, just think of how much holiday cheer you could spread.

Moments from now, you are in for a real treat right here on CNN. Roy Wood, Jr. hosting a holiday special featuring the United States Air Force Band, comedy from Craig Robinson, music from Jessie James Decker and much, much more. "The Very, Very, Very Merry Holiday Special" starts next. You can also catch it, of course, on the CNN app.

Thanks so much for spending part of your evening with me. I am Erica Hill, and just a reminder, if you are in the U.S., you can now stream CNN whenever you want on the CNN app. Just head to cnn.com/watch for more.

I will see you back here tomorrow night. Have a great night.

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