Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Trump: U.S. Military Struck ISIS Terrorist Targets in Nigeria; DOJ Finds a Million Documents Potentially Related to Epstein. Aired 6- 6:30a ET

Aired December 26, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:12]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: All right. That'll do it for us here this week. Thanks for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Rahel Solomon in New York. Have a wonderful weekend. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump ordering a deadly Christmas day strike on ISIS Fighters in Nigeria. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

(AUDIO GAP) -- move from the president, who of course, is gunning for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Hope and frustration for Epstein survivors as they continue their push for the full truth amid delays and distractions.

President Trump has now signed 225 executive orders since returning to office, and that has critics warning of a significant shift in power from Congress to the White House.

Parts of California inundated by record rainfall, triggering flash floods and mudslides.

Meantime, a holiday tradition at the Kennedy Center is canceled. Why the longtime host pulled out of that event.

A good Friday morning to you. Six a.m. here on the East Coast. Here's a live look at New York City, just slowly waking up on this day after Christmas.

Thanks so much for joining us. It is, of course, December 26. I'm Erica Hill, in for Audie Cornish, joining you from New York. We do begin this morning with those deadly U.S. strikes and Islamic State terrorist targets in Nigeria. U.S. and Nigerian officials say they worked together on that attack.

The strikes themselves targeting Sokoto state in the country's Northwest region, which borders Niger.

President Trump says the strikes are a response to the, quote, "slaughtering of Christians" by ISIS In Nigeria. The Defense Department releasing this footage, which appears to show a strike originating from a boat. A top adviser to Nigeria's president telling CNN the two countries are

on the same page in the fight against terrorism.

CNN's Nada Bashir is following these developments for us and joins us now, live from London. So, what more do we know about these strikes and the target specifically?

NADA BASHIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Erica, we had heard warnings from the U.S. president in November, calling on his defense secretary to prepare for possible action in Nigeria.

We've frequently heard from the U.S. president, discussing what he has characterized as the persecution of Nigeria's Christian community by Islamist extremist groups, notably the Islamic State group in Nigeria. And now, of course, we have seen that so-called action being carried out.

Now, an overnight strike carried out by the U.S. in coordination with Nigeria, targeting, as you mentioned, Islamic State extremist groups in Sokoto state, the Northern region bordering Niger.

We have heard from Nigeria's foreign minister. Now, he spoke to CNN just a little earlier, actually confirming that these strikes were carried out in coordination with the Nigerian government, that these were a welcome development, of course, in order to target terrorist cells, as he characterized it.

And we've been hearing, of course, from the U.S. president. We've been hearing from the U.S. Africa Command. I'll just read you this statement from the U.S. president, taking to social media, saying that he had directed a, quote, "powerful and deadly strike against ISIS terrorist scum," in his words, "in Northwest Nigeria."

The U.S. Africa Command has said that multiple ISIS terrorists were killed in that strike. They're not offering any further detail.

We can listen now just to a small soundbite from that interview with Nigeria's foreign minister. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YUSUF TUGGAR, NIGERIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: It was a collaborative effort between Nigeria and the U.S. And President Tinubu gave the go-ahead before it took place.

And we don't see it violating our sovereignty or territorial integrity, which is very important. And it is not about religion. It's about the protection of lives and property of Nigerians, and our neighbors, as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASHIR: Now, of course, while the U.S. president has frequently addressed the persecution and killing of Christians within Nigeria by Islamist extremist groups. It is important, of course, to underscore that Nigeria has a long

history of security troubles with extremist groups. Islamist extremist groups have frequently targeted both Nigeria's Christian and Muslim communities, the two largest religious communities in the country.

We've also heard from the Nigerian president's adviser. He has said in a statement that the U.S. and Nigeria are, in his words, "on the same page in the fight against terrorism."

[06:05:10]

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also commenting on this, saying that he was grateful to the Nigerian government for its support and cooperation -- Erica.

HILL: Nada, appreciate it. Thank you.

Well, President Trump, of course, casts himself as a peacemaker. He touts ending several wars, has also vowed to limit U.S. military intervention abroad.

Yet, from Iran to Venezuela, we are seeing an increase in international escalations. And the president warning, of course, there could be more to come in Nigeria, writing on Truth Social to the quote, "dead terrorists," warning there will be, in his words, "many more if the slaughter of Christians continues."

Joining me now in the group chat Seung Min Kim, CNN political analyst and White House reporter at the Associated Press; Ashley Davis, former George W. Bush White House official; and Eugene Scott, contributing columnist at "The Boston Globe" and visiting fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Agora Institute.

It's nice to see all of you this morning.

Seung Min, when we look at where things stand, the fact that the president really has cast himself as this peacemaker; often talks about the wars that he says that he has ended. And yet, we are seeing this approach not just in Nigeria, but in other pockets around the world.

How do we square what we hear from the president and what we see on the ground?

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, how the administration squares it is that this is all part of President Trump's strategy, his foreign policy doctrine of peace through strength, obviously.

However, you have -- you know, on the one hand, you have, you know, him touting all the conflicts that he has helped resolve abroad. But then, you see a lot of offensive military action abroad.

And, you know, the -- his -- his aides don't see that necessarily as a contradiction. They say that part of -- part of keeping broader peace is making sure that, you know, these people, you know, these targets abroad, know that the U.S. is willing to strike, if necessary. But I also think that this is a contradiction that -- that you're

going to be hearing on Capitol Hill, particularly as it relates to these strikes. And, you know, and -- and the strikes that we've been seeing elsewhere, you know, elsewhere in the country.

You have -- you know, you had the Pentagon saying yesterday that, you know, they did this in coordination with Nigeria's government.

However, you know, you're already starting to hear from, you know, Capitol Hill: what about coordination with us? Did -- is this something that, you know, lawmakers should have authorized? And I think that tension, that conflict is also what we're going to be hearing in the next coming weeks.

HILL: Yes. One way to anticipate that, especially, we'll likely hear a little bit of it today, but certainly, once lawmakers return from their recess.

It's -- it's also interesting the president has -- this is not the first time he has called out what he says are targeted attacks on Christians.

It's important to note the country itself is about split between Christian and Muslim faith. And the data doesn't necessarily support the presidents claim that Christians are being disproportionately targeted.

Ashley, this has been -- the religious persecution has been a really animating subject matter, if you will, for many conservatives.

Does it matter to them that the data doesn't line up? Because that is a significant issue?

ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER GEORGE W. BUSH WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL: Well, good morning, Erica. Nice to see you and hope everyone had a great Christmas.

But I think that it's really important that we need to realize that there's two things. One, that we did coordinate with the government of Nigeria.

And two, Nigeria is a really complicated country that we've been dealing with. I mean, I'm a national security hawk. Go back to George Bush administration. There's been terrorists breeding in that region for a long time.

What I just learned this morning was the fact that we coordinated, which makes it less complicated than before.

But I'm very happy that -- that the administration is actually striking in -- abroad than rather than them coming and striking us in our country.

In regards to the -- the -- the Christian and Muslim controversies, I mean, I don't -- we don't know what we don't know. It's so complicated. There's a lot of national security complications that are overlaid between the two groups that -- that the ISIS and terrorist groups are hiding behind the Muslim religion.

And so, I think that we need to be very cautious that this is -- including with the president -- that this is a religious attack.

HILL: Yes, caution definitely. I will just say, just based on our reporting, the data does not support the claims that Christians are being disproportionately targeted.

To your point, there are a number of disputes internally. It's not just religious. It's -- it's communal. It has to do with ethnic tensions, farmer herder disputes. There's a lot happening in Nigeria specifically.

You know, when we look at Eugene, when we look at the way that this is playing out, well, we're also looking at new movement off the coast of Venezuela.

What does this tell you about the focus moving forward when it comes to not just where the U.S. is leaning in internationally, but what it could mean in terms of support domestically when there are these questions continually raised about Congress and even notifications.

[06:10:08]

EUGENE SCOTT, CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST, "BOSTON GLOBE": Well, that is one of the main questions many lawmakers have, including some on the right.

There seems to not be some consistency in terms of vision. If there is a foreign policy agenda, which obviously there is, it hasn't been communicated in a way that it's clearly understood and supported with even some of the people in the president's base.

I've talked to voters, and they're very concerned sometimes that they don't know what the next move is going to be from this president in terms of global conflicts and international affairs, and how inconsistent it seems to be with what he campaigned on.

Part of that is because we know that the president's support is actually more ideologically diverse than I think a lot of people outside of his camp realize.

And so, there are some issues that are of concern and major priorities for one segment, such as perhaps Christian conservatives, and not others, which might be some of the individuals who want to see America pull back from some of these types of interactions.

And so, I think what will be really interesting moving forward when the new year begins is seeing what is laid out, what type of vision is communicated, and how the president is able to get different sects within his tribe on the same page.

HILL: We will be watching for all of that. Group chat, I know you're going to stick around for a lot more to come in the hour.

Ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, the Justice Department says it has found a million more Epstein files, but it's going to be a little while before they're released. What this means for the survivors. We'll hear directly from one survivor.

Plus, a tragic update on that UPS plane crash in Louisville last month as authorities continue their investigation.

Plus, Southern California still under the threat of flash floods and mudslides.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPTAIN ADAM VANGERPEN, LOS ANGELES CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT: So, the ground is already saturated. So, we just really want people to know that, if you get an order to evacuate, you need to heed that and leave immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:16:04]

HILL: Fifteen minutes past the hour now. Five things to know to get your day going.

Firefighters rescuing a man who fell through the floor of a vacant mill. This happened in Providence, Rhode Island.

Officials say the 36-year-old plunged 12 feet. The man, who was homeless, told fire officials he had actually been trapped since Wednesday evening. He was taken to the hospital with serious injuries.

The death toll in last month's UPS plane crash in Louisville, Kentucky, now 15. The victim, who suffered severe injuries at the time, died on Christmas day.

The plane went down just after takeoff in early November, killing the three pilots on board, as well as 11 people on the ground that day.

A preliminary report from the NTSB found that hardware, which kept the left engine attached to the plane, had failed.

Millions of Californians this morning remain under a state of emergency as powerful storms continue to slam that state. In central California, fierce winds were the culprit here, ripping that canopy off a gas station.

All along the Central Coast, violent weather has closed roads, toppled trees, and damaged homes and businesses throughout the region.

The National Weather Service is warning of more strong winds and flooding rains in Northern and Southern California, which has also seen intense mudslides. A federal judge blocking the Trump administration from withholding

disaster funding from Democrat-led states. The judge ordered DHS and FEMA to return the more than $230 million the agencies were holding because of the individual states' immigration policies.

The Trump administration says it plans to appeal.

If you are one of the many fans waiting years for the final episodes of "Stranger Things," well, you probably had to wait a little bit longer than planned after Netflix crashed on Christmas day when the platform dropped three new episodes of the popular show.

Fans, perhaps not surprisingly, taking to social media to complain. Netflix did eventually get Eleven back on screens.

Still ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, the U.S. economy's growth stronger than expected. And yet, many Americans, strained by high prices, say they just don't feel it.

Plus, federal officials say 1 million Epstein-related documents still need review, as critics question why those files are just now surfacing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:22:23]

HILL: The Justice Department says it needs a few more weeks to go through more than a million recently uncovered documents potentially related to Jeffrey Epstein.

The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and the FBI turning those documents over to the DOJ on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear how the documents were discovered, what might be in them.

The Justice Department, though, is, of course, under scrutiny after a week of intermittent releases. Some of the pages, of course, looking like that: just all blacked out.

Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who co-wrote the law which requires the release of the documents, expressing concerns about what he says is a possible coverup, writing, quote, "the DOJ claims the Epstein-Maxwell file exceeds 1.7 million documents, and they still expect you to believe this involves only two guilty people."

Former federal prosecutor Alyse Adamson is joining the chat. So, Alyse, first, let's look at this. I think it was surprising to a number of people that, all of a sudden, there are another million documents here that they will need to go through. Did that surprise you?

ALYSE ADAMSON, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, Erica, I think from a process standpoint, this seems to indicate more of a diligence issue than a cover-up. Look, the amount of documents don't surprise me, because what's

happened here is the searches have expanded. We aren't talking just about narrow searches related to a case against Jeffrey Epstein. We are now talking about searches related to every possible mention of Jeffrey Epstein.

So, when this law was passed back in November, DOJ was going to have to cast a wider net for all possible relevant documents. So, we knew that there were going to be -- there was going to be voluminous.

The issue is timing, because they've had over a month, and we're now hearing that there's over a million documents. So, for me, sloppy, maybe suspicious, not necessarily.

HILL: But let me just follow up on that point, because based on your experience, right, as a former federal prosecutor, given the fact that, yes, the law was passed in November, but DOJ essentially knew this was coming. They knew that there was this push. It had been going on for months, even though it took a while to get there.

Is this something that, in your experience, if there was a big issue coming down the pike, that DOJ would have been preparing for and would have been reaching out to the SDNY, for example, to say, We need you to just start getting ready?

ADAMSON: Well, Erica, that's an interesting question. I think, look, they did know this was coming down the pike. That's why I said this was a diligence issue. Right?

Would it have made sense, especially knowing that the legislation was likely to pass, to get everybody at the ready? You know, DOJ saying they have hundreds of attorneys working on this around the clock. So, it would have made sense to do those things earlier.

[06:25:11]

You know, and in my experience, we -- we were extremely diligent.

But that being said, the DOJ was not required to do this until the law passed, and now they have to comply. And it seems like their compliance has been hindered by those internal processes.

So, it's very hard to speculate. And, you know, it's hard to draw comparison, because this is an unprecedented situation.

But that being said, to say you now need more weeks to comply with the law where the deadline was December 19, again, indicates that they have not been as diligent as they should be, and they should be continuing to work around the clock to satisfy their obligations under this law.

HILL: And Ashley, there's been a lot of pushback on that, that this, in fact, is an unforced error. Specifically, if we just look at it from the perspective of survivors.

I've spoken with a number of survivors, both prior to the release and then in the last week since these documents have come out, as well as their attorneys.

Their frustration is that they're hearing from Todd Blanche. This is all about transparency, and we want to protect the victims. They were not notified. They have not really, they feel, been considered in all of this.

Is this -- I mean, I guess I go back to Ashley. Is this an unforced error?

DAVIS: Well, first of all, I think you're exactly right, Erica. The survivors are the most important part of this story. And protecting them is absolutely the -- the No. 1 priority.

But however, I don't know if you've seen -- I'm sure you have -- is that they've been asking for volunteers of former law -- people that are in the prosecutor's office or formerly in the prosecutor's office, to work over the holiday to try to speed up these new million documents that were given to them from the Southern District of New York and the FBI.

I think that, as was mentioned, that you had to wait until the law was passed. They weren't going to redo it.

But the bottom line is this just feeds into this conspiracy theory that has been starting. Listen, the Republicans started this, that this -- there was a lot there. There's more there. We should do this. And so, it's just continuing that story, which, you know, is not good at all, I think, for the survivors.

HILL: Not good at all for the survivors. Eugene, is it also, in some ways, based on what we're seeing, the delays that we've seen -- now, the new documents.

Eugene, is it also taking away from perhaps what should be the focus, which is maybe there's a frustration with the -- with the DOJ and its conduct. But this is about Jeffrey Epstein's conduct and the impact that it had on hundreds and hundreds of women.

SCOTT: Well, I think there's actually enough time to focus on both of those issues. We're talking about victims here who feel like they've been violated and not respected by their government or their elected officials, that some of them, I imagine, support it with the hope and belief that justice would be served.

But the ongoing concern, since before Donald Trump even returned to Washington, that the Justice Department would be more focused on working for him instead of the American people. It's just one that is not anywhere near close to being addressed, or at least eradicated, considering this.

Concerns about transparency, concerns about honesty and independence are being questioned even on the right. Even some of the people who wanted to support Trump and believe that he would handle things in a way that doesn't seem like he currently is. And so, I think both of those issues are issues that will continue to

-- continue to see people face and address as we move forward in the new year.

HILL: Seung Min, despite this being, obviously, a popular discussion point on the campaign trail, it seems the White House is almost continually surprised by the reaction, not just from lawmakers, but frankly, from the American public.

Would you agree? Is that what you're hearing from officials in the White House?

KIM: Well, I think that the White House is really trying, and the president is trying to really deflect the attention of these Epstein files away from himself.

And you saw that initially with -- you saw that with the initial document release that happened on December 19. A lot of White House officials were emphasizing the photos of former President Bill Clinton that were found in these files.

And you saw the message that the president had late last night. I don't remember if it was late last night or early this morning talking about the Epstein files and saying, you know, Everybody's trying to blame Trump. This is another hoax. I, you know, cut Jeffrey Epstein out of my life long before others did.

But the fact remains that this, you know -- and we should emphasize, obviously, the president, the current president has -- has not been associated with any wrongdoing in this matter.

But the fact remains that this, for process reasons and just for the optics reasons, remains a terrible -- you know, a terrible conundrum for the Trump administration.

And they're facing, you know, a lot of pushback on Capitol Hill. It's not just the one lowlife Republican, Thomas Massie, that the president points out.

You're having Lisa Murkowski, for example, also pushing for an inspector general investigation at the Justice Department of how they've complied with this law.