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Defense Secretary Hegseth Defends Action In The Caribbean; Ukraine Peace Talks In Miami End Without Breakthrough; Minneapolis Unites In Vigil With Mayor To Support Somali Residents; President Trump To Host Kennedy Center Honors Ceremony. Hegseth Defends Action in the Caribbean; Johnson Faces Growing Criticism Within the GOP; Week 1 of Testimony of Brian Walshe's Murder Trial. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired December 07, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:50]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: You saw it. Sunday, December 7th. Welcome to CNN THIS MORNING.

I'm Victor Blackwell. Thanks for joining us today.

Peace talks in Miami end. But big questions still out there. Ukraine and U.S. negotiators could not resolve issues over security guarantees of territory. Ukrainian officials say difficult issues are still on the table as its war with Russia continues.

Anxiety is rising in Minneapolis Somali community as new ICE raids ramp up. President Trump's harsh rhetoric escalates. I'll be joined by community leader on the front lines in the twin cities, who's trying to protect families and push back.

Also, the clock ticking on the college football playoff announcement after the number one team fell and chaos swept through Saturday. The selection committee has some massive decisions to make.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth defends his department's continued actions in the Caribbean at the National Defense Forum in California Saturday night. The secretary compared drug traffickers to Middle Eastern terrorists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: These narco terrorists are the al Qaeda of our hemisphere, and we are hunting them with the same sophistication and precision that we hunted al Qaeda. We are tracking them. We are killing them, and we will keep killing them so long as they are poisoning our people with narcotics so lethal that they're tantamount to chemical weapons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Hegseth is under scrutiny after a follow up strike that killed survivors on an alleged drug boat.

CNN's Oren Liebermann details his other comments.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke here at the Reagan National Defense Forum, and one of the key questions was how he would address the controversy around a double-tap strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean from September 2nd. Well, Hegseth didn't back down at all, he said. These strikes would continue. To date, there have been more than 20 strikes that have killed more than 80 people, and he said they were targeting what he described as narco terrorists and compared the drugs they were carrying to chemical weapons.

One of the key questions about that September 2nd strike was the timeline itself. And that's where we've seen shifting explanations from Hegseth himself. He had initially said that he watched the strike take place, emphasizing the planning that went into it before backing off that and saying he watched the first of what was a double-tap strike and then went to meetings. He justified that decision as he continued to say the strike itself met all the criteria of what he described as a legal strike.

HEGSETH: So, I was satisfied with the with the strike criteria. Yes. Saw the strike itself, which all of you have seen. There was probably 30 or 40 minutes, is what I've been told of dust. And he was on fire for a long time after that.

I stayed for probably five -- five minutes or so after, but ultimately at that point it was a tactical operation. And so I moved on to other things. I shouldn't be fighting tactics as the secretary of war. So, I moved on to other things later on. A couple hours later, I was told, hey, there had to be a re-attack because there were a couple folks that could still be in the fight.

LIEBERMANN: One of the questions about the fallout from the strike itself is, will the Defense Department release the video of the double tap strike? President Donald Trump said earlier this week that he wouldn't have any problem with it being released. But when Hegseth was asked if he would authorize that release, he wouldn't give a firm yes. He said the department was reviewing that and would at some point make a decision. When he was pressed on whether that meant yes or no, he basically said the focus has moved on and is elsewhere.

So, the controversy around the strikes itself and the decision to carry out a second strike that killed the two survivors who were hanging on to the wreckage, that very much remains.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, Simi Valley.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Ukrainian peace talks have wrapped up in Miami without a clear breakthrough in ending the war with Russia. After three days of talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials, there's still some major questions over security guarantees and territorial issues. Meanwhile, in Moscow, the Kremlin says it welcomes a revised U.S. security strategy document, which reportedly stops calling Russia a threat.

CNN's Paula Hancocks joins me now. She joins me now with more.

[07:05:00]

Paula, these obviously, the questions of security ahead. Sovereignty ahead are the major questions

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Victor. And they have been the major questions really since day one of these negotiations, we heard from the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. saying that difficult issues remain. This is after the three days of those negotiations in Miami wrapped up saying that the key points are territory and guarantees.

Ukraine wants strong, rigid security guarantees that they are not going to have to surrender further territory to Russia in the future. There's not going to be further issues when it comes to Russia, and it's understandable that they would say that, given that just in the past couple of days, we've heard from the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, telling reporters in India that he intends to seize the eastern Donbas region by any means.

So, these are really the key obstacles, the longstanding hurdles to secure this peace effort. We have been hearing from both the U.S. and Ukrainian sides, though really every day during these negotiations that they were constructive negotiations. We also heard a statement from the two U.S. mediators. That's the special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and President Trump's son in law, Jared Kushner, saying that both the U.S. and Ukraine agreed that real progress depends on Russia's readiness to show serious commitment.

So potentially, there an acknowledgment, certainly from the U.S. side, that Russia has not budged from its maximalist demands, that there hasn't been this suggestion that there would be any compromise, certainly from President Putin. At this point, we did hear, though, some more promising words from the U.S. ambassador to NATO, for example, saying that he believes that we are closer to peace than we have been at any time before. But these negotiations will continue.

We know that President Zelenskyy of Ukraine spoke with Kushner and with Steve Witkoff after these talks ended, to really get a summary of where progress was made, if any was made, he called those talks constructive. Again, a word that is being used repeatedly by both sides.

So, if we're looking to what will happen over the next couple of days, we know in London on Monday that President Zelenskyy will be meeting with the leaders of the U.K., of Germany and of France -- Victor.

BLACKWELL: Paula Hancocks for us in Abu Dhabi, thank you.

At least 25 people are dead after a fire ripped through a nightclub in western India. A CNN affiliate, News 18, says the blaze broke out after a cylinder exploded in the kitchen area, and then it spread through the club. More than a dozen kitchen staff members were among those killed. Also, four tourists who were visiting the popular resort region. An inquiry has now started to find the cause of the fire, and if building or safety rules were followed.

Authorities in Louisiana have recaptured two of the three escaped inmates who turned tunneled out of Saint Landry parish jail this week. Police say that Keith Ely is the last inmate still on the run after tunneling out through a jail wall and scaling it with sheets out of the other two inmates or escapees, I should say, one is back in custody, while the third died by suicide. Louisiana has seen a string of prison breaks over the last year. Local officials are now trading blame over whether crumbling walls or a lack of guards led to the breach.

A federal judge has blocked prosecutors from using evidence in the case against former FBI Director James Comey. This ruling stops them from accessing emails and computer data tied to Daniel Richmond. He's a longtime friend, former lawyer of Comey. That information was part of what prosecutors used to build the case that was dismissed last week. The judge says that the way agents seized it may have violated the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure. The decision could be a major setback for prosecutors who are already preparing to seek a new indictment.

We're waiting to hear more from the Trump administration about its targeted immigration operations in Minnesota. That's after people in handcuffs were spotted boarding a chartered plane at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Friday. Flight data shows the aircraft came from a Louisiana airport involved in deportation operations.

Joining me now to discuss is Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic relations, also known as CAIR.

Thank you for being with me.

Let me start here with what you know about the footprint of this ICE operation, what you're hearing from people. Obviously, the largest Somali American community in the country.

JAYLANI HUSSEIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CAIR MINNESOTA: Yeah. Thank you for having me.

You know, we knew coming into this operation that they would actually be harassing U.S. citizens since we know majority of Somali Americans are, citizens. In fact, majority of the population is actually born in the United States. And so, we knew that that was going to happen. We heard officially, five Somali Americans have been put into this process. Only after, I think, nearly a week of this operation and you know, we know for sure that this is something that will continue because of the fact that most Americans obviously are not aware of this, but the majority of Somali Americans are actually undocumented, not documented and U.S. citizens.

And so that's why its failing miserably. We've also heard on the ground that people are being injured. We've had a report of a Somali woman that was sexually assaulted by ICE agents, who is a U.S. citizen. And so exactly what we predicted is happening right now.

BLACKWELL: Of course, this is all coming after the remarks we heard from the president last week calling Somalis garbage. Not making any distinction. Not that its better. Even if he had between undocumented people or Somali-Americans supposed to be a president for all Americans.

How has that resonated? How has that been received in the twin cities?

HUSSEIN: W ell, you know, initially it's been a shock and disappointment. But since then, we've received support. Somali Americans themselves are reacting and responding to this. And I think overall, it has unleashed even a bigger support for the Somali American community.

And I think in this moment, it's a chance for Somali Americans to talk about their experience. You know, I came here into the United States in 1993, and, it's been 30 plus years now. Minnesota is home to me. I sound like a Minnesotan. I talk like a Minnesotan, and deer hunt like a Minnesotan.

And Minnesota has been also enriched by our beautiful culture. Somali Americans have worked really hard, in factories. And now their children are engineers and doctors and everything else.

And that is the reality. We're telling our story. And this is a great opportunity to experience that. And that's something that that the president probably did not respond or did not expect. And it's been interesting also to see how young Somali Americans are reacting on social media.

BLACKWELL: Yeah. I spoke with a man named Salman Fiki on my show yesterday. A Republican there who endorsed the president campaigned for him, held a groups of Somali leaders to tell other Somalis there in Minnesota to vote for the president.

He said that after what he heard from President Trump, not only did he no longer support the president, he disassociated himself with the Republican Party. Those inroads that Trump made in 2024. How much has this last week impacted those inroads that the Republican Party and the president himself had made into the community?

HUSSEIN: Significantly, I think Somali Americans are just like everybody else. You know, they're not monolithic to a specific political party. The overwhelming majority vote Democrat. But there has been a surge of increase of voting for Republicans, including Tom Emmer's district, which significantly have voted for him in the past. And it's been very unfortunate.

You know, Republicans in the state of Minnesota have been aware of what's been going on in Minnesota, including these incidents of fraud, and they're rightfully so to target those individuals who committed that crimes. And the responsibility laying on them. But also in when President Trump attacked our community unfairly and, racially, and disgusting in a way, they championed that instead of, you know, speaking against that. So far in the state of Minnesota, we have one Republican who has actually said something positive. It's been very disappointing. But this is the reality.

And Somali American community, especially in Minnesota and in other parts of the country have a significant, voter bloc. And I think that will impact significantly both in the midterm elections, and we expect it in '28.

BLACKWELL: All right. Jaylani Hussein, thank you so much.

HUSSEIN: Thank you for having me.

BLACKWELL: Border czar Tom Homan joins Jake Tapper and Dana Bash on "STATE OF THE UNION" this morning. That's at 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

[07:15:00]

President Trump's overhaul of the Kennedy Center is almost complete. How tonight's Kennedy Center honors ceremony will be different from those in years past.

More than 60 million people from Texas to Delaware under this freezing fog. It's impacting several states, making travel very difficult. We'll take a look at where the worst spots are coming up.

And the college football playoff field will be set to day. How yesterday's conference championship games could shake up the rankings.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:17]

BLACKWELL: Tonight, the Kennedy Center honors returns, but the attention is on more than just the performers. President Trump is playing a big role in how the celebration is run. Supporters say this is within his authority. Critics say it blurs the line between politics and the arts.

CNN's Julia Benbrook shows us what is at stake.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: While the Kennedy Center honors is a long tradition, one that spans several decades, there are changes this year. The big one is that the sitting president, Donald Trump, is going to serve as the host for the main event set to take place Sunday night. He announced that he was stepping into that role back in August, when he announced the honorees. And as he handed out medals Saturday night, he expressed that he was confident in the job he would do.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I look forward to celebrating with all of you at the Kennedy Center tomorrow, and it's going to be something that, I believe and I'm going to make a prediction. This will be the highest rated show that they've ever done, and they've gotten some pretty good ratings, but there's nothing like what's going to happen tomorrow night. So, I just want to thank you all. I want to congratulate you all.

BENBROOK: Trump, who currently serves as chairman of the Kennedy Center, said that he was, quote, 98 percent involved in selecting this year's winners. The list includes actor Sylvester Stallone, country music star George Strait, members of the rock band KISS, Grammy Award- winning singer Gloria Gaynor, and actor and Tony award winner Michael Crawford.

Now, during his second term, Trump has taken a special interest in the Kennedy Center and has been working to make various changes. Back in February, he dismissed a slew of Democratic appointees to the center's board of trustees and appointed several aides and allies, including chief of staff Susie Wiles and Second Lady Usha Vance.

Trump was subsequently elected chairman of the board. Just this last week. He referred to it as the Trump Kennedy Center -- Victor.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Julia, thank you very much.

Hey, if you're heading out this morning, take it slow. A dense fog advisory now stretching from Texas to D.C. you see the white house here barely making out the Washington Monument because of some of that fog -- freezing fog. It's forming from northern Alabama all the way into Delaware.

CNN's Allison Chinchar is here.

Causing some big problems. I certainly saw it this morning.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. Same here. It's interesting, you know, because fog is usually a very isolated thing, and you've got a couple pockets here and there this morning, it is impacting over 60 million people. It is very widespread. So, the gray color you can see here those are the dense fog advisories. And many of them go until at least 10 a.m. eastern time this morning.

That teal color you see on the map, that is the freezing fog. So essentially what this is, is if you are driving on the roads, it looks like regular fog, but it instantly freezes when it makes contact with the surface. That could be your car, that could be a guardrail, that could be the ground, the road you're driving on. So, it becomes very, very dangerous and it almost becomes like you're driving straight on ice. You do have to be extra careful.

In addition to that, a little bit farther to the north, we're still looking at some snow showers across portions of Chicago starting to end around Milwaukee, but now it's starting to pick up across Detroit. We're going to start to see it fill in for places like Cleveland, Buffalo, and even into Burlington as we go through the rest of the day down to the south. Rain is the big concern here. You can see that line lifting off to the north. So, New Orleans, Mobile, Pensacola, Tallahassee, all looking at the

rain this morning that is likely to continue into the afternoon because that front just really isn't going anywhere. Here's a look at the remainder of the day. Again, a lot of the same spots. Still looking at rain even as we head into Monday, many of these same places are going to get it. You're also going to see some more snow across portions of the Ohio Valley, as we head into Monday.

BLACKWELL: All right. Allison, thank you.

A husband accused of killing and dismembering his wife is on trial. And this morning's roundup, how prosecutors are building their case for jurors.

And the reckoning of Sean "Diddy" Combs. The focus of a new Netflix docuseries. Why his legal team is fighting its release.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:28:46]

BLACKWELL: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is doubling down on his department's attack on drug boats in the Caribbean. This is him yesterday in Simi Valley, California, at the Reagan Library. He's facing a lot of scrutiny for a follow up attack on a boat on September 2nd.

Let's now talk about this in a morning roundup. We've got "Bossip" senior editor Jason "Jah" Lee, Court TV anchor Julie Grant, and WABE politics reporter Raul Bali.

Welcome, everybody back to the panel. Weve got some veterans here for the conversation.

So, let's start here with Pete Hegseth. This boat, as we've learned over just the last few days from CNN's reporting, not reportedly headed to the U.S., headed to another boat that that was then going to go to Suriname. And drug officials in the U.S. say that that's the route for drugs that are headed to Europe.

So that questions the imminent threat to the U.S., do you think bottom line here that the secretary, his position is any more tenuous than it was at the start of the week, when there were people who were asking about the future of his leadership?

RAHUL BALI, POLITICS REPORTER, WABE/NPR NEWS: The only person that matters to is the president of the United States. You know, Pete Hegseth's position is safe as long as the president of the United States believes it's safe. You know, you could see action by Republicans in Congress, you know, asking questions. But again, in the end, it falls on the president.

BLACKWELL: Let me ask you about this video. I want to play what I played at the top of the 6:00 hour here, Jah. This is the president on Wednesday when people asked, are we going to see the video of the subsequent strikes? And then this is the secretary yesterday at the Reagan Library. Let's play it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You released video of that first boat strike on September 2nd, but not the second video? Will you release video of that strike so that the American people can see for themselves what happened?

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I don't know what they have, but whatever they have, we'd certainly release, no problem. You know, we stopped every boat we knocked out. We saved 25,000 American lives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump said he would have no problem if the full video of the strike is released. When can we see that video? When will you release it?

PETE HEGSETH, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We're reviewing it right now to make sure sources, methods -- I mean, it's an ongoing operation, TTPs. We've got operators out there doing this right now. So, whatever we were to decide to release, we'd have to be very responsible about. So, we're reviewing that right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: President unequivocal. Not so much from Hegseth. Do you think we'll see it?

JASON "JAH" LEE, SENIOR EDITOR, "BOSSIP": It sure sounds like it. It sounds like there's one person who is kind of in CYA mode and someone else who is willing to throw everyone to the wolves, so to speak. I would be surprised if we didn't see this video. Not that I think that Trump is particularly concerned about what the American people think from the standpoint of whether he's doing something wrong. But he certainly seems willing to let this video fly and let the people think what they want.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

JULIE GRANT, ANCHOR, COURT TV AND FORMER ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Victor, if these are the narco-terrorists, as they are said to be, I mean, I think we can't lose sight of how bad and violent and dangerous these people are. We've seen a lot of news stories about Tren de Aragua gang members, and that's exactly who they're saying these people are. I'm seeing a lot of misinformation about there about all them being fishermen or this wasn't a drug boat. And if it was, I think this is something we can't lose sight of, how violent and dangerous these gang members really are and that they are a threat to the homeland and our security here.

BLACKWELL: Well, there are a lot of questions of the ifs, right? Because there are members of Congress who say that after this was launched, within 30 days, there's a report that's due to legislators that the administration has never handed over. And so, there are questions about -- I don't think anybody questions whether this was a drug boat, right? The question was the then follow up. The Coast Guard has a way to interdict these boats. They then seize the drugs if they are indeed illegal drugs, take them into custody and start the due process. So, there are a lot of questions here about if and what happens next. But I don't know anybody's question that if they're drug boats.

Let me ask you about Speaker Johnson facing some pushback from his own conference. They wanted him to be more aggressive. They wanted him to go head on on the question of affordability, which the president is now called a Democrat scam. As you pointed out, the person who counts here is President Trump. If he starts to lose his own conference, do you think the president's going to save him? I don't know. I genuinely don't know.

BALI: Look, and I think Speaker Johnson's problems are even before the midterm. Right now, he's got 220 Republicans. He's going to lose one with Marjorie Taylor Greene resigning in January. That's 219. That's a very slim majority to even work with, to even get things done.

Look, I remind people all the time, yes, inflation, those issues started before the Trump administration, but Donald Trump ran on fixing those issues. When you look at the polling, it's about 40 percent of the people went to vote on that issue. I think that's why you're seeing Republicans starting to really worry about and seeing some of those election results that we had this year kind of pointing to that issue of affordability.

LEE: Well, I'm currently watching a show on TV called "Welcome to Dairy," and it's about the beginning of the clown, terror, horror character IT. I imagine that discharge petitions are it for Mike Johnson. He's seeing all kinds of pushback about everything from Russian sanctions using discharge petitions, the subsidies at ACA.

BLACKWELL: Jeffrey Epstein.

LEE: Jeffrey Epstein. All type of things that his own party is using to basically usurp all the things that he doesn't want to talk about, he doesn't want to vote on. And so, it will be very interesting to see how it plays out for him, because he doesn't feel like he has anybody's hard core support inside the party.

BLACKWELL: Oh, remember, he got the gavel after they went through a list of people, and McCarthy was ousted in the last conference.

[07:35:00]

BALI: And I don't think Republicans want to go through that again.

BLACKWELL: Want to go through that again. Yes.

BALI: for sure.

BLACKWELL: Julie, let me come to you with what has gotten the attention of so many people across the country, this trial of Brian Walshe. He's the man who, right before the start of the trial, he pleaded guilty to misleading law enforcement about his wife's death, and, um, but he did not plead guilty to first-degree murder, which he's on trial for now. You've been watching this. This is your story of the week. What do you see?

GRANT: Victor, I see a problem here. The problem is, can prosecutors prove that he murdered his wife, Ana? Common sense and evidence tells us he likely did, because of the aftermath, as you pointed out. We know that he dismembered her body. He's admitting to that. We know he's scattered her remains around the town where they lived together. He's admitted to that. He obstructed justice by lying to police. I mean, the lies ran so deep in the cover-up to try to convince people that she just was a missing person.

However, his legal team has found a genius path to possibly an acquittal, dare I say it, because prosecutors have to prove that he caused her death. There are no witnesses. There is no body. Causation is an essential element, Victor, of any homicide case. And here -- you know, criminal homicide case, I should say. Here, we have a situation where his legal team is saying she just died in the bed, that he went upstairs and found her unresponsive and was already dead.

So, with that, what they've done is they've taken away any possibility that there was a fight, there was a struggle, anything like that. And prosecutors definitively don't know, because there's no medical examiner who can say, I can see how she died. This is how she was killed.

BLACKWELL: Because they haven't recovered her body?

GRANT: You got it.

BLACKWELL: Yes, you can't do that without the body. All right. Everybody stay with us. We got a lot more to talk about in the roundup after the break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:40:00]

BLACKWELL: Welcome back to the morning roundup with Jason Jah Lee, Julie Grant, and Rahul Bali. Jah, starting this half with you. And your story of the week, "Sean Combs: The Reckoning." This four-part docuseries now on Netflix. I have watched it. You've watched it?

LEE: Yes.

BLACKWELL: This is your story of the week. Why?

LEE: I just -- there's so many elements at play. We could talk about this for an hour. But I think the thing that stood out to me the most is that the footage that they have, that's being used in this documentary, of him talking to his lawyers, talking about strategy. Clearly, it appears that this was supposed to be a kind of a PR thing for him. That he maybe was recording ahead of time, trying to get ahead of it. He even talks to his lawyers and admits that, you know, we're losing this. People in the public are looking at this and they're saying, hey, this guy looks crazy. But it was interesting to me that, although he thought he was probably documenting a comeback, his resilience of sorts. He's had so many legal issues that he's gotten past over the years. He probably thought this was going to be another one. And ultimately what he was documenting was like a Greek tragedy that was scored by the music of the artist that he helped create.

BLACKWELL: We have a clip of it. So, this is some of the video that's been included and is now at the center of a legal fight. Here's some of that video from the documentary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN DIDDY COMBS, RAPPER: Lawyers --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's just not true.

COMBS: OK, So, -- no, no, no. Let me tell you something. Let me say this. I'm not a referee. So, I'm going to get off the phone right now. Listen to me. I'm going to get off the phone right now and I am going to let you professionals look at the situation and come back to me with a solution. No matter what nobody said, let's just -- here and there, you are not working together the right way. We're losing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Now, according to the documentary, that's six days before his arrest. Julie, I want you to take us into this fight. Combs' attorneys call this stolen footage that was never authorized for release. The director, Alexandra Stapleton says, it came to us. We obtained the footage legally and have the necessary rights.

GRANT: Wow. So, this is quite a little, a little problem for Diddy. So, -- and you can't unring the bell. It's out there. We've all seen it. Everybody's watching the doc talking about it. So, even if they get it back, I don't know what the remedy is here.

LEE: The damage is done.

GRANT: Right, right. You know, and my understanding is that 50 Cent, who we know executive produced this project, got the video because there were two videographers filming Diddy. My understanding is that one of them was paid for his work. One of them was not. The one who was unpaid --

BLACKWELL: And then sold it. Apparently.

GRANT: Yes, right.

LEE: And that's the part that kind of is -- it also -- outside of all the other moral things that undercut what we're seeing from Sean Combs, the thing that I found interesting was that as a -- he's been acknowledged as a shrewd businessman for so long. And so, the idea that he could record this very sensitive, intimate material and not have the business in order to where he actually owns that footage outright so that this couldn't happen, it kind of undercuts his whole image as being this top-notch businessman with all this acumen. I don't understand how he even allowed that to happen in the first place.

[07:45:00]

BLACKWELL: One thing that's interesting here is that you said it appeared that he was trying to record his comeback. A spokesperson for Combs said that Sean was making his own documentary since he was 19 years old and this footage was commissioned as part of it. So, now in his 50s apparently there is I guess this vault of video of Sean Combs according to this spokesperson.

Next story, a lot of stuff people are watching this time of year. This is going to be a swing but stay with us. Christmas movies and according to a survey from Pixel Parade, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" tops the list of favorite movies. They asked nearly 2,000 people their favorite Christmas movie from a list of 27 films released in the last 50 years. Surprised?

GRANT: No, not at all.

BLACKWELL: Yes?

GRANT: I love "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." Yes, I've watched it twice already this season, Victor.

BLACKWELL: I mean, I've certainly watched several Christmas movies. I've watched it and it still holds up.

BALI: I think it's a realization when you look at all those movies that during Christmas people want to escape, whether it's escape their families or escape what's going on.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

BALI: I mean, there's only like -- of the top five like only one was like a kind of a serious.

BLACKWELL: Yes, you've got "A Christmas Story," which is my favorite of the of the list of options as to you've got "Home Alone," "Elf" and "Polar Express."

LEE: You know I don't often -- I'm not a wealthy man, I don't often get to call myself part of the 1 percent. But in this Pixel Parade, 1.6 percent of people said that their favorite Christmas movie was "Die Hard."

BLACKWELL: I knew you would say it. I knew it.

LEE: I am now part of the 1 percent.

BLACKWELL: I knew it.

LEE: I am now part of the 1 percent. BLACKWELL: I knew we were going --

LEE: Please don't judge me.

BLACKWELL: -- "Die Hard." Speaking of Christmas season, I guess some people are going to be getting beanies for Christmas. A$AP Rocky, who's also married to Rihanna, an artist in his own right, is now selling these. These are roller set beanies on his website. They're part of his album "Never Dropping" merch. Apparent joke that he and Rihanna have about the ongoing break from the music industry. These are just rollers. They're $100 each and they're sold out.

LEE: I'd rather get coal for Christmas than get this roller beanie. I Googled last night just to see how much do rollers cost. I've never used rollers before. I saw rollers that were as cheap as a set for like $4. And this is $100 beanie. In this economy, $100.

BLACKWELL: Well, you know, my fantastic team has found that is the only roller men that we acknowledge. Big worm from Friday. I mean, Julie?

GRANT: A$AP Rocky stole his look. That's what happened here. I got to tell you and I live for A$AP Rocky and Rihanna on the red carpets. Every time they're out and about like -- I mean they do fashion so well. They're innovative, they're gorgeous. This I think is a swing and a miss and it's too expensive.

BLACKWELL: He's also now an ambassador for Chanel. So, he knows something about fashion.

GRANT: Yes.

LEE: Well, the worst part about this is that Rocky has hair. Lots and lots of hair. He could just put his hair in rollers as a fashion statement if he wanted to, but instead, capitalism demands that we sell everything --

BLACKWELL: And it is selling.

LEE: -- and it's selling.

BLACKWELL: Well, Julie, this color, is it Cloud Dancer that you're wearing?

GRANT: I tried Victor, I tried to get on track with you. I heard you were talking about it.

BLACKWELL: The 2026 Pantone color of the year is essentially white. They say at this time of transformation when we are reimagining our future and our place in the world, Cloud Dancer is a discreet white hue offering a promise of clarity.

LEE: With all due respect to your beautiful outfit --

BLACKWELL: Is it the color of the year? LEE: -- is it the color of the year? Like what things have been white this year that have been big in pop culture or politics or anywhere else that have set off this trend of -- I don't get it.

BLACKWELL: Rahul does not participate in the fashion part.

BALI: I don't. I don't. I mean, the closest thing I've got is, you know, white Chinese spy balloon. You know, that's the closest I've got.

BLACKWELL: Rahul, Julie, Jah, thank you all. It's been fun.

BALI: It's been great.

BLACKWELL: We'll be back with sports.

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[07:50:00]

BLACKWELL: Final college football rankings out today. Andy, what are we looking for?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, Victor, one fan base could be quite mad by the end of the day, and it could be the Alabama Crimson Tide. The big question is, you know, will the college football playoff committee punish the Tide for losing in the SEC title game and leave them out of the playoffs? Georgia just dominated the game, exercising some demons in the process.

Head coach Kirby Smart, he was 0-4 against Alabama in the SEC title game and just 1-7 overall coming into this one, but Gunner Stockton threw for three touchdowns, and the vaunted Georgia defense, they held Alabama to negative three rushing yards. The Dawgs would win 28-7. Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer afterwards said the 21-point loss still should not affect his team's playoff chances.

Now, there is a chance that the ACC conference gets completely left out of the playoffs, and that's because unranked Duke upset Virginia in the title game. This one went to overtime. N-O-T, Darian Mensah rolling out, eventually hit Jeremiah Hasley for the touchdown there. Blue Devils go up by seven. Virginia, on their next possession, they tried to run some trickery on this play. Chandler Morris gets it back, but his pass picked off. Duke wins 27-20 to claim their first outright ACC title since 1962.

[07:55:00]

Now, in the Big 10 title game, we had number one, Ohio State versus number two, Indiana. Heisman Trophy was likely on the line, too, in this one for the two frontrunners, the Buckeyes' Julian Sayin and the Hoosiers' Fernando Mendoza. Third quarter, Indiana was down 10-6, and Mendoza, he finds Elijah Sarratt there, a little back-shoulder action for the touchdown. Hoosiers take a 13-10 lead, and after Ohio State missed a game-tying field goal, Mendoza put this game away with a beautiful pass to Charlie Becker. Indiana wins 13-10. They snap a 30-game losing streak to Ohio State. They complete their first-ever undefeated 13-0 season. The Hoosiers, Big 10 champs for the first time since 1967. They're going to be the top overall seed in the playoffs.

Texas Tech, meanwhile, finished off their best season in school history with their first-ever Big 12 title. They just stomped BYU yesterday, 34-7. Red Raiders are dominant. They've been beating every single team they've played by at least 20 points. Their only loss came when their quarterback was out. Tech will certainly be getting a top- four seed and a bye in the first round.

Victor, the top-five-ranked conference champs get in. Tulane, they won the American. James Madison won the Sun Belt. They're likely in. What to look for today at noon, the 9-10 spots. Two spots for Alabama, Notre Dame, and Miami.

BLACKWELL: We will be watching.

SCHOLES: We'll see what happens.

BLACKWELL: Andy, thank you.

SCHOLES: All right.

BLACKWELL: All right. Thanks for watching this weekend. Inside Politics with Manu Raju is up next.

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[08:00:00]