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Brian Finucane is Interviewed about the Boat Strike; Trump Pardons Texas Democrat. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired December 04, 2025 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[06:31:07]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): Their latest explanation is, they weren't blowing up the people, they were blowing up the boat. If those darn people would -- just wouldn't cling to the wreckage, they would be fine. So, if they're swimming, they're OK, we won't bomb them. But if they're cleaning the wreckage, we're bombing the boats. And we have every right to bomb boats. That's ridiculous.
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AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: All right, questions remain this morning about the double-tap strike on an alleged drug boat. Why did the Trump administration make the call to kill the survivors of the initial strike? Today, the commander who gave the order will be in the hot seat on Capitol Hill.
Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.
It's half past the hour. And here's what's happening right now.
First on CNN, the Department of Homeland Security recommends more countries to add to the travel ban list. The current list of 19 countries is here, and that could go up to at least 32, according to a source. And it could continue to expand. Right now it's unclear which countries could be added.
And the immigration crackdown in New Orleans now in full swing. Top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino spotted at a Home Depot just outside the city on Wednesday. He was later seen in the French Quarter surrounded by federal agents in full tactical gear. DHS have a goal to arrest 5,000 people in New Orleans.
And Republicans on Obamacare have a message for Congress, extend the Affordable Care Act premium subsidies. New polling out this morning from KFF shows seven in ten MAGA supporters are in favor of extending the expiring tax credits. Democrats and independents also overwhelmingly support it. The ACA subsidies are set to lapse at the end of the year. Then premiums could more than double.
And in just a few hours, we may find out who gave the order. The admiral in charge of the mission, which led to a double-tap strike on the alleged drug boat, heads to Congress to tell his side of the story. The White House has pointed the finger at Admiral Frank Bradley for that September 2nd bombing, which reportedly killed two survivors who were stranded in the water after the first attack. The secretary of defense says the order was legal. And now the admiral is expected to tell Congress the same thing.
Now, "The Wall Street Journal" is reporting that Admiral Bradley is expected to tell lawmakers this, that the strikes were necessary because, quote, "the survivors were believed to be communicating via radio with others in the drug smuggling network." President Trump has signaled support for not only those in command, but for every boat strike so far.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I support the decision to knock out the boats. And whoever's piloting those boats, most of them are gone. But whoever are piloting those boats, they're guilty of trying to kill people in our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining the Group Chat, Brian Finucane. He's senior adviser with the U.S. Program, International Crisis Group, and a former State Department attorney.
Thank you so much for being here.
So, first, there's military law. Then there's international human rights law. When you have people on the Hill throwing around terms like war crime or unlawful, what laws or statutes are they referring to?
BRIAN FINUCANE, SENIOR ADVISER WITH THE U.S. PROGRAM, INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP: So much of the current debate regarding the attack on September 2nd on this vessel is about whether or not the second strike violated the law of war, whether it constituted a war crime because it amounted to the attack on the shipwrecked, or it was an order from the secretary of defense that there be no quarter, this supposed no survivors order. But the --
CORNISH: So when we say give no quarter, that's the same as saying no survivors?
FINUCANE: Right. And that is a war crime under the law of war.
The problem with this discussion is that the premise is flawed because there is no war. There is no armed conflict, and the law of war therefore doesn't apply here. And therefore, there are potential legal problems, serious legal problems, not just for the second strike on September 2nd, but with the first strike and every subsequent strike.
[06:35:01]
CORNISH: So basically, just the fact that they're saying this is a war or the fog of war is not the same legally as your operation against drug smugglers in the Caribbean that you haven't had approved by Congress.
FINUCANE: Exactly. There is a world of difference between what we see in the Caribbean right now and the actual war on terror against al Qaeda, ISIS, and their affiliates. Those were organized armed groups. They were fighting the United States after 9/11. Congress had authorized those hostilities. That is not the situation here at all.
CORNISH: I want to ask you one more thing before the group jumps in, which is Thom Tillis, Republican from North Carolina.
He was talking about sort of how this process would work. In terms of going into this scenario, into this operation. And he basically made it sound like, look, there are lawyers around, right? To have this conversation.
Here's what he had to say:
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SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): You typically have lawyers on the call. You have people reviewing every element to make sure that this is an operation that you can do that fully adheres to the law of war. Here's why this is so important. Our men and women get in situations where they may be blown out of the water, and we are putting our forces at risk if we're setting or lowering the bar for actually honoring the rules of engagement
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CORNISH: Two questions. One, does this mean there's legal memos around somewhere that Congress should be asking for? And two, his point about the whole point of law of war is because you don't want someone doing it to you later on?
FINUCANE: On the second point, it's absolutely right.
On the first point, yes, there is reportedly a secret Department of Justice memo that essentially creates a legal fantasyland and permission structure for these strikes. It declares that there is a number of non-international armed conflicts between the United States or other countries, and unidentified, quote, designated terrorist organizations, and it blesses these premeditated killings on that basis.
We haven't seen this memo, don't know the reasoning, don't even know the names of these supposed groups. Okay? And that's why I say it's sort of a legal fantasyland, because it seems divorced from legal reality.
CORNISH: You guys have questions? ASHLEY ETIENNE, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA
HARRIS: No, I mean, I think, you know, in looking at this, my -- my sort of advice to the Democrats would be to pressure a public hearing. There has to be a public hearing about this. The American people deserve answers about the justification for these particular strikes. We need to know more about these memos.
It's not sufficient to have these conversations in closed doors behind -- closed, you know, and --
CORNISH: Yeah. But is there a reason why they might?
FINUCANE: Why they might have closed doors?
CORNISH: Yeah.
FINUCANE: I think there are good reasons for fact-finding purposes. But I agree with you that in terms of helping the public understand the stakes here, and this is absolutely vital, but in terms of drilling down, having transcribed interviews behind closed doors, pretty effective investigative technique. But yes, absolutely need to have public disclosure and public disclosure of the underlying memo, which creates the permission slip for the Department of Defense to engage in these operations.
CORNISH: You know, it's interesting because Pete Hegseth, before he was defense secretary, was a major advocate lobbying for clemency for soldiers who were accused of war crimes.
There are several. There was Clint Lorance, who ordered fire on unarmed men. Matthew Goldstein, who admitted to killing a detainee. Eddie Gallagher, convicted of posing in a photo with a corpse.
He went to Trump and advocated for them, and he has always been a person who has talked about supporting the warrior.
Can you talk about how that message is coming into play in this moment? Like, are we seeing something that makes sense for Hegseth, or does it make sense for Hegseth?
FINUCANE: Well, the secretary of defense has made no secret of his attitude towards the law of war and towards military lawyers. And he's talked about lethality versus legality.
And he's talked -- he's spoken in very derogatory terms about military lawyers. His advocacy for accused and convicted war criminals is well known. And the fact that he fired the JAGs of the service branches early on in his term is also a major factor.
It's had a chilling effect within the Pentagon with respect to JAGs, and they're willing to -- willingness to push back against what they might perceive as unlawful proposals.
CORNISH: Yeah. In his book, he had written that if our warriors are forced to follow rules arbitrarily and asked to sacrifice more lives so that international tribunals feel better about themselves. Asking you, Mike, because this is part of the messaging, "We're
supporting this guy. We're telling him that we have his back."
MIKE DUBKE, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: We are supporting him. But here's why we're supporting him.
CORNISH: Okay.
DUBKE: But this memo does have a lot of implications. And at some point, it will be made public.
But here's the bottom line -- I mean, we are at a war on drugs, not to -- and I understand that that's maybe a communications tool rather than a than a legal tool in your book. But at the point of engagement with these -- with these vessels, this is -- this is taking out drugs that will -- could kill or probably would kill American lives.
So, I think there's a bigger debate here about whether or not we are at war. We have been at war on --
CORNISH: I think Congress is getting to that.
[06:40:01]
DUBKE: They are --
CORNISH: It seems like they're kind of asking like, what's going on?
DUBKE: But we've been -- we've been in this fight since the Reagan administration. And this is, you know, I hear all this. Well, we've got to interdict them and we've got to, you know -- at some point you just have to stop the drugs coming into this country.
CORNISH: So --
DUBKE: At 91 percent to 9 percent, I think, is important for the American people to understand that this is a different means by stopping drugs.
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CORNISH: So, why not release that information? Why not release the evidence of that? What is the messaging point of not ever showing? Because this is what I know from following DEA.
DUBKE: No, no --
CORNISH: Every time there's a drug bust, those guys pose with the drugs. They got the cash on the table. They love showing their busts. Why not show anything?
DUBKE: I am a big fan -- I am a big fan of sunshine here. And the reason why is because you get selective leaks when you don't, when you don't turn over memos, when you don't put the evidence out there, and those turn into a bigger story and conspiracies. I'm a big fan of transparency. ETIENNE: Also, this administration has conflicting messages on this
issue of are we in battle around drugs? Are we -- you know, is there an ongoing drug war here? Especially when the president, as recent as yesterday, pardoned the former president of Honduras. I mean, those two messages --
CORNISH: Convicted of drug trafficking.
(CROSSTALK)
ETIENNE: -- are in conflict, right?
DUBKE: Well, look --
ETIENNE: You know --
DUBKE: And I think --
ETIENNE: -- poured cocaine into this country.
DUBKE: And I think we're going to get --
ETIENNE: Those two things are in conflict.
DUBKE: And I think we're going to get an opportunity to talk about that when we talk about the pardon for the congressman later. But at the end -- at the end of the day, this fentanyl conversation, cocaine conversation, whatever it is, drugs kill people.
CORNISH: Yeah.
DUBKE: And that this is an administration that's trying to put a stop to that.
(CROSSTALK)
CORNISH: The question is, are the soldiers allowed to kill people unlawfully? I think these are the --
FINUCANE: There's a world of difference, legally speaking, between a rhetorical war on drugs and a legal war. Okay? And one of them, okay, cremated killing is murder, and another is a lawful combat activity. Okay?
We are not, legally speaking, in armed conflict, okay? Premeditated killing, therefore, is potentially a very serious crime. And that's what we need to see.
We need to see transparency, as you said, we need to see the OLC memo. The memo from the Department of Justice.
We also need to see what's actually taking place operationally, okay? Because there could be a very significant difference even between this get out of jail free card the Department of Justice has furnished and was actually taking place operationally, and hopefully the defense committees will start digging into that today (ph).
(CROSSTALK)
CORNISH: So we just know too little basically.
FINUCANE: Well --
CORNISH: In general.
FINUCANE: We don't know enough. That's certainly true.
CORNISH: Yeah.
Okay, you guys, I want to ask about one more thing. It's a little bit of a kicker, but Congress actually received a classified inspector general report on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's use of the Signal app. Sources tell CNN the report finds that he risked compromising sensitive military information.
They say that the report determined that Hegseth violated security protocols by using the messenger app to share sensitive information. To put you in the Wayback Machine, Signalgate happened back in March, when Hegseth mistakenly shared unclassified messages in a group chat that had highly ranked officials and a journalist.
The information concerned attack plans for targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Now, four sources familiar with the report say that Hegseth could have jeopardized the mission and put U.S. troops in danger if it fell into the wrong hands. We're told the inspector general also notes that Hegseth should not have used his personal device, and stresses better training is needed for defense personnel.
The unclassified version of the report, being released just in time for these other defense questions.
Betsy is a reporter.
I'm suspicious of all things when they get released with this kind of timing. How is the White House reacting?
BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, this is an incredibly delicate moment for Secretary Hegseth, and I just want to rewind. Secretary Hegseth called me a loser at the White House Easter egg roll. He's incredibly bombastic. The president loves that.
And our colleague Stephen Collinson wrote that he is an avatar for the MAGA movement.
So right now, they are sticking by him because what's the alternative politically? They put up all of this capital to get him confirmed. And now what will they do if they lose support for Hegseth? They are standing strong by him.
CORNISH: I'm kind of surprised this came out also because didn't they do some noodling with the inspector generals as well? Like there's -- you mentioned changes to JAG. Have you heard about this, that there were also some inspector general office changes?
FINUCANE: Yeah, there was a mass firing of inspector generals.
CORNISH: I said noodling. You said mass firing. Okay, so, yeah.
FINUCANE: This -- this continues on from a theme from Trump's first term as well. I think there's some significant aspects to this I.G. report. One is it comes right after an Air Force lieutenant colonel was awarded a Silver Star for dodging anti-aircraft fire over Yemen, okay, in the context of this operation. And that underscores that --
CORNISH: So, let's say this again, the exact strikes were talking about, that they're like texting about with fist bumps --
FINUCANE: Yes, Operation Rough Rider, okay? Days later, an Air Force lieutenant colonel is commanding F-16s over Yemen. Okay? And taking anti-aircraft fire, dodging surface to air missiles. Okay?
And he's won a Silver Star, was awarded a Silver Star for this. Okay?
So, the risks for U.S. forces are not hypothetical at all. It's very real. Okay?
But I think it also is a reminder that the U.S. fought an almost two- month long unauthorized conflict with the Houthis for no good reason.
[06:45:02]
Why was the U.S. going to war with the Houthis under this administration? Questions the administrations never adequately answered.
CORNISH: I think it's interesting. Also, you have people like Laura Loomer who are online saying like, hey, this Venezuela, like, what's going on here? And it has put the administration at odds with that faction of MAGA, which is always changing a little bit of people who are like, are we going to war? Because we said we're not doing foreign conflicts?
DUBKE: Well, we're not nation-building is what was really --
CORNISH: You think that's the distinction?
DUBKE: I think --
CORNISH: I thought it was just even doing stuff for --
(CROSSTALK)
DUBKE: I actually think -- well, maybe for Laura Loomer, but I think for the for -- for MAGA at all and for the Trump administration, it's nation building. They see themselves as a differentiator from the neocons in that sense. But going back to what Betsy was saying about being bombastic, I do
think that that is part of the reason that Hegseth has the support of the administration right now. I also think it's the dirty little secret of Senate confirmations.
We -- if you want to push through X, Y, and Z through the Senate, you do not have time for another round of Senate confirmation hearings for the secretary of defense or secretary of war or whatever we're calling his death at the moment. That is a real distraction. And so, this is what the administration --
CORNISH: So, this is not a military term, but you're saying -- they're SOL, like basically there's no other options out there.
DUBKE: They're better -- there are no better options at the moment. And depending on how all of these death by a thousand cuts of Secretary Hegseth are going to mount up, at some point, they may make that decision. Right now, they're not there.
CORNISH: In the meantime, this poor admiral is the one who's going to have to answer for all this. What's one question do you think they should ask him?
FINUCANE: Who are the targets? Are the targets the people aboard these vessels? Or are the drugs or the vessels themselves?
CORNISH: Okay, Brian Finucane, thank you so much for being here.
FINUCANE: My pleasure.
CORNISH: OK. If you missed any of that conversation, it was a really good one, or any other part of the show, know that we're a podcast. Scan the QR code now. You can find it. You can share it. CNN THIS MORNING is available anywhere you get your podcasts.
And next on CNN, Democrats looking for an edge ahead of the midterms. Is being more normal the way to win over the middle?
Plus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a conservative Democrat. And I work across the lines.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: A new pardon from the president has some people in his party scratching their heads
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[06:51:48]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to thank President Trump for this action that he took. On behalf of my wife and my family, I want to say thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Republicans are fighting to keep their slim House majority. So, could the president's pardon of a sitting Democratic congressman turn things around for them? Well, Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife were charged last year for allegedly accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes from a foreign bank and an oil company. Now, with Trump's pardon, there are questions about whether Cuellar could itch parties. His district has already been targeted by the state's newly drawn congressional map.
I want to take this to the group chat.
Texas, Texas, Texas. This map redrawing, all the -- it's a little bit of a struggle because they have a ton of people retiring. They're losing a lot of power in their delegation. And then --
DUBKE: Fire power.
CORNISH: Yes, like --
DUBKE: But they've already lost that power.
CORNISH: Yes, yes, but the point is, like, OK, now you're doing this. Why?
DUBKE: I think there is a through line through a lot of these pardons. And this is what we were talking about with the president of Honduras. That the -- President Trump, as he's looking at Biden's DOJ, and who's -- who Biden's DOJ has gone after, he's looking at each one of those episodes in a --
ETIENNE: But the investigations --
DUBKE: In a -- in a -- in a --
ETIENNE: But the investigation of the former president of Honduras started under Trump.
DUBKE: Started.
ETIENNE: Yes.
DUBKE: But it finished under the Biden DOJ.
ETIENNE: OK, but it started under Trump.
DUBKE: That's fine.
ETIENNE: OK, I think I know where you're going with this.
DUBKE: But this is -- this through line is where I'm going with this. So, I know that Speaker Johnson expressed last night a little, maybe not anger, but angst with this -- with this pardon of the congressman, but we're -- I think we -- there's a very distinct through line through all of these pardons that we've seen lately.
ETIENNE: (INAUDIBLE) the bad guy. What's the through line?
DUBKE: Well, no, the through line is that he --
CORNISH: Well, hold on one second.
DUBKE: He feels like, much like himself --
CORNISH: Hold on one second.
DUBKE: Yes, he was targeted by Biden.
CORNISH: And he's not the only one pardoned.
DUBKE: Yes.
CORNISH: There was a real estate executive charged by Trump's Justice Department, indicted by a grand jury. So Thom Tillis, I think we heard from him earlier, but he's asking the question I think a lot of people have in Congress. Here he is.
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SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): I want to know who is responsible for making the pardon recommendations, what they're thinking. Again, the president is not going to review the pardon applications and go through all the details. He's going to take a recommendation from his staff. Many of the things that I think are going on in this administration that I have a problem with are not with the president, they're the advice that the president's being given.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: I hear this a lot. It's the people -- like whenever supporters of Trump are confused about what's going on, they're like, oh, there's some people around him that are doing x, and y. Is that the situation here?
KLEIN: No, that is absolutely ridiculous. The president is the decision maker here. I mean, what do you think?
DUBKE: I think the president -- ultimately the president is the decision maker here. But again, he also feels -- I mean, when you've got -- when you had Willis, when you had Bragg, when you had James, the attorney generals coming after him, you know, that lawfare, that -- Democrats, I don't think, understand that targeting Trump, in the way that they did, to embarrass him the most just before the primaries, because they waited three years to come after him, this -- this --
[06:55:02]
CORNISH: So, is this magnanimous?
ETIENNE: Let's --
CORNISH: Like, look, I care about lawfare. So, even a Democrat shall be primaried (ph).
ETIENNE: Can I step in here? I --
CORNISH: Yes, go ahead.
DUBKE: Absolutely. Yes, absolutely.
ETIENNE: Yes, Mike, I -- let me save you for a second. So, here's the real reality. Nothing come -- everything comes at a cost with Donald Trump. So, he's not giving this pardon to Cuellar for no reason. Cuellar of all -- I'm a -- I am a Texan and I've -- and I worked in the state legislature when Cuellar worked there. He's always had a reputation for sort of riding this fine line between Democrats and Republicans many times, criticizing Democrats in the interest of Republicans. He, of all Texas Democrats, is, I think, inclined to switch parties. So, I think he's --
CORNISH: Though he's said, look, I didn't get anything for this, and I didn't ask for this.
ETIENNE: No. Of course not. But there's always an expectation with Donald Trump.
CORNISH: Can I put this in the to be continued column.
DUBKE: I --
ETIENNE: It's -- there's always expectations with Donald Trump.
CORNISH: OK, to be continued to be continued because I've got to ask about Democrats for a second.
ETIENNE: Sure.
CORNISH: We talked about Republicans a lot today.
California Governor Gavin Newsom says his party needs to do more in order to succeed in future elections. During his book tour with "The New York Times," Newsom says, it comes down to, you know, just being normal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): I think there's a broader narrative that we have to address. That is, we have to be more culturally normal. We have to be a little less judgmental. We have to have -- be a party that understands the importance and power of the border, substantively and politically. We have a party that I think needs to design and develop a compelling economic vision for the future, where people feel included to reconcile the fact that if we don't democratize our economy, we're not going to save democracy. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: OK, we know Newsom has been positioning himself as a leader.
Ashley, as you look at the field of people, whether it's Shapiro or Newsom or I don't know what, AOC, what are the lanes you see that are being established at this point?
ETIENNE: I mean, I think Gavin Newsom is the leader of the opposition for the Democratic Party right now. I mean he is really, I think, developing a new playbook on how to oppose Donald Trump. He's turning the mirror on Donald Trump, mimicking many of his, his attacks. And his --
CORNISH: Which he was asked about, yes.
ETIENNE: Right, which is actually working. It's activating our base. Secondly, he's going after him in the legislature. He's going after him in the courts. I think he's absolutely the right person at this time.
The question is, whether or not he has the stamina to keep this up for two or three years. But he makes a really excellent point. The same point that I made to Chuck Schumer a couple of weeks ago when he called me. And that is, it is time now -- and I made this point to Ken Martin too, the head of the party. It is past time for Democrats to launch a proactive agenda. You've got to give people something to rally around, something for people to support.
CORNISH: Well, there's more than enough people actually saying stuff.
ETIENNE: Not just -- not just something against Donald Trump.
CORNISH: Right.
ETIENNE: We've got to start that right now. We've got to start drawing this contrast around the economy.
CORNISH: Which is something that Josh Shapiro has been saying as well, the Pennsylvania governor. He's hinted at running. And he has talked about Democrats needing to focus less on battling Trump and more on just gaining supporters.
KLEIN: I also think that a lot of Democrats are going to raise their eyebrows at Newsom trying to rewrite his biography here. Like, Newsom came to the forefront of national politics back when he was performing same sex marriages as San Francisco mayor. And that, at the time, was considered pretty woke. So, now him going -- making this case for cultural normalcy, I think, is going to raise some questions.
DUBKE: You don't like watching reinvention in real time on public television?
CORNISH: It's a rebrand. It's a rebrand.
DUBKE: It's a total rebrand. ETIENNE: He was -- he was ahead of -- he was ahead of his time. And
that's where the country was at the time.
CORNISH: Look, Marjorie Taylor Greene can do it. Lots of people can do it.
ETIENNE: And now we're here.
DUBKE: Yes.
CORNISH: All right, what's in your group chat this week? I know we're at the end. Dubke, what are you talking about?
DUBKE: Well, I was talking about the raccoon, which the trash panda, which I learned is now a term --
ETIENNE: Flashback to your college days.
DUBKE: Yes. I mean, I do appreciate that the panda made it -- or the panda. The raccoon made it to the toilet and a trash can.
CORNISH: Hold on. I just want to show everyone. This is images of this drunk racoon in a liquor store in Virginia.
KLEIN: This racoon is innocent.
DUBKE: He has made bad life choices.
CORNISH: Are you a raccoon truther now, Betsy Klein?
DUBKE: Yes.
KLEIN: I might be.
CORNISH: Is this where this is going?
KLEIN: This raccoon could not be reached for comment.
CORNISH: Yes. This actually -- this raccoon was reached for comment. I don't know, do we have any comments from the raccoon?
See.
ETIENNE: After he sobered up.
CORNISH: Yes. Yes. He was talking -- he was texting with Pete Hegseth and --
DUBKE: I was a little upset that he went to the lower shelf rather than the top shelf.
CORNISH: A man of the people you are, Mike Dubke. Man of the people.
ETIENNE: There's where we all start, lower shelf.
DUBKE: If you don't want the hangover, you go to the top shelf. That's the lesson I have taught my children.
CORNISH: Oh, my God, we're so desperate. We're desperate for laughs.
Did anyone else have any good group chat?
KLEIN: Spotify wrapped. I am apparently --
CORNISH: It's Spotify wrap time of the year already?
KLEIN: It is time. But this year it's new. They give us --
CORNISH: I thought people were suing them over this algorithm?
KLEIN: They give us an age. And I would like to sue them because I am older than my parents.
CORNISH: How old are you?
KLEIN: I'm 69.
CORNISH: Oh, my God.
KLEIN: And my parents are --
CORNISH: But in White House reporter years, you're 32. You're not --
KLEIN: I've aged.
CORNISH: You've aged. Oh, my goodness.
Why would they do that?
ETIENNE: I mean, I'm not interested in it at all.
CORNISH: How old are you?
ETIENNE: Oh, the one thing -- can I just say what's going on in my chat?
DUBKE: Ashley didn't look.
CORNISH: Oh.
DUBKE: She didn't -- she refused to look because she doesn't want us --
ETIENNE: Because I'm holding at 35.
DUBKE: Yes.
[07:00:01]
ETIENNE: It doesn't matter what Spotify says.
Can I just say what's in my chat? I'm a Texan. You know, we talked about Cuellar. The question is whether or not Jasmine Crockett should run for U.S. Senate.
CORNISH: Ah-ha.
ETIENNE: That is the biggest question on the table.
CORNISH: And that is a Republican dream.
ETIENNE: There has never been a more, I think, fertile time for a Democrat to win this seat. You've got a primary race happening within the Republican Party. The economy's in the -- in the tank. You've got a failing governor. I think it's time for her.
CORNISH: OK, you just got a shot in the arm there from Ashley Etienne.
You guys, thanks so much to the group chat. Thank you for waking up with us. I'm Audie Cornish. The headlines are next.
