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New Tensions Between Russia and Ukraine; Trump's Affordability Promises. Drone Strike Hits Venezuelan Port Facility. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired December 30, 2025 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:00]
BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: They didn't do.
Plus, a major winter storm snarls holiday travel. And it's not over yet.
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ABEL: Good morning, everyone. I'm Brian Abel, in for Audie Cornish. Thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.
It is 6:34 here on the East Coast. Here's what's happening right now.
Federal resources surging in Minneapolis over a fraud investigation. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security going door to door checking childcare centers. It all started with a viral YouTube video by a creator known for anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim posts. He claims Somali-run childcare centers are committing widespread fraud.
[06:35:05]
The video was retweeted by the vice president. A law enforcement official tells CNN the buildup was driven in part by that video. And now there are calls for Governor Tim Walz to resign. His office says he's been cracking down on fraud for years.
The winter weather that's been wreaking havoc, moving off the East Coast today. But the wind could bring whiteout conditions even in places where the snow has stopped falling. Wind gusts in the Northeast could be up to 60 miles per hour.
Another big risk, ice. It's making for dangerous travel. Look at this. These backups here in metro Detroit. Hundreds of flights have already been canceled and delayed. And yesterday's blizzard warning even stretched to the Texas mountains. Last week, parts of Texas had record-breaking heat.
Drop the confetti. New Year's Eve organizers running their biggest test of the year, the confetti test.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JEFFREY STRAUS, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, TIMES SQUARE NEW YEAR'S EVE: Why do we test confetti? Well, I always explain that the first reason that we test confetti is because it's just fun.
And this year, for the first time ever, we are setting a world record here in Times Square.
We're going to start off at 10:00 p.m. with purple and yellow confetti. At midnight we have a mixture of colorful rainbow confetti. And then to celebrate America's 250th anniversary year, we're going to have red, white and blue confetti, 5,500 pounds.
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ABEL: Come New Year's Eve, three tons of confetti will be dropped in Times Square. Can you imagine that? It's going to be quite the sight.
Well, new tensions are rising between Russia and Ukraine, even after President Trump's talks with both leaders over the past few days. Russia now threatening retaliatory strikes for an alleged Ukrainian drone attack targeting one of Vladimir Putin's residences. Ukraine is calling it an outright lie. President Trump taking Russia's side
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's another thing to attack his house. It's not the right time to do any of that. And can't (ph) do it. And I learned about it from President Putin today. I was very angry about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ABEL: And Ukrainian President Zelenskyy now speaking out, contradicting President Trump after he said Russia wants Ukraine to succeed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: I don't -- I don't trust Putin and he doesn't want success for Ukraine, really. He doesn't want. He can say it. I believe that he can say such words to President Trump. I believe in it, that he can say it -- but it's -- it's not -- it's not truth, really.
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ABEL: And joining me now, CNN's Clare Sebastian in London, covering these latest headlines.
Clare.
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brian, look, I think, clearly, it's a tough position for Zelenskyy. He knows that Trump's support is hard won and that Russia is continuing with its efforts to poison Trump's view of Ukraine. But I think, look, on this alleged drone attack, the Kremlin, this
morning, dismissing a question regarding whether or not there's evidence of this actually happening, saying there's no need for that. They're saying that this is Ukraine's terrorist act designed to disrupt the negotiating process. They called Ukraine's denials of this insane assertions.
But again, there is no evidence. There are no social media videos or images which tend to emerge when Ukraine conducts these deep strikes. There's no real incentive either, it should be noted, for Ukraine to do this, given how the negotiations have been proceeding, given the sort of expressions of positivity and optimism coming out of those talks in Florida. And I think President Zelenskyy was really trying to make that point in an interview that he gave on Monday.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Can we win without American support? No.
Without American support, we can't defend this country (ph). Even now it's very difficult, but American support with missiles for air defense really helpful and strong in any case.
On the battlefield we use some weapon which we buy from America. Some rounds, artillery and et cetera, from Americans. Without it, of course we can't win.
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SEBASTIAN: So, does this alleged drone attack by Ukraine make things harder for it in the negotiating process? Possibly. Russia is now promising to review its negotiating position, though it's hard to imagine how it could be less compromising. But equally, the lines of communication with the U.S. are still open. Security guarantees are on paper, and we expect that talks will continue in the new -- in the new year.
Brian.
ABEL: All right. Clare Sebastian for us in London. Clare, thank you.
President Trump facing growing pressure to address the issue of affordability. The latest CNN polling, it shows 32 percent of people said their main message to President Trump would be about the economy or cost of living.
[06:40:01]
This has been his answer to that so far.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've taken in hundreds of millions of dollars in tariff money.
We're thinking about a rebate because we have so much money coming in from tariffs.
There's even, under consideration, a new concept where we give 20 percent of the DOGE savings to American citizens.
We are sending every soldier $1,776. Think of that. And the checks are already on the way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ABEL: All right, let's talk about this. The group chat is back with me now.
Toluse, I need to go to you first because you have this article that's out here in "The Atlantic," "The Santa Presidency" is the name of the article. And you write about how Trump's different proposals, like tariff rebates and soldier bonuses are all aimed at easing voters' cost of living concerns. Is the real goal here to solve a political problem with cash?
TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, STAFF WRITER, "THE ATLANTIC": That's the broad idea.
ABEL: Throw cash at them.
OLORUNNIPA: I mean the president is pretty transparent about these things. He remembers what happened during the pandemic in 2020, when he was able to give a ton of money to people, sign his name on those checks, and people remembered that and it actually helped his vote total in a number of different communities. And so, he's trying to reprise that approach, talking about the fact that people are worried about affordability. People are worried about the economy. The cost of living continues to be a problem for a lot of people. And so, the very easy solution that he has to the political problem, not to the underlying economic issue, is, let's give people money. Let's give people tariff rebate checks. Let's send people thousands of dollars to pay for health care instead of giving them health care as they previously had in these various subsidies. And so, he's trying to figure out different ways to not only give people money but associate his own name with that money as well.
ABEL: Yes.
And I want people to read your article, but I also maybe want to give a little bit of a spoiler. What are economists saying about this strategy?
OLORUNNIPA: They're saying that it may or may not work politically, but economically it's not really the way that you address the underlying problems that people have with the cost of living. People have structural issues with housing and childcare and insurance when it comes to paying for their health care. And throwing a $10,000 check or a $1,000 check, or a check for $1,776 with great branding may work politically, but it's not going to solve these underlying problems. There are big, structural problems with the economy. Even as we're experiencing growth, there are big, structural problems with people's personal economics that the president hasn't addressed yet.
ABEL: Yes.
Well, we do know, at least politically, that optics is everything, right?
MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.
ABEL: So, how is this being received by the general public? And what's the Democrat's strategy for this?
CARDONA: Well, first of all, not being received well, because the problem with the Santa presidency is that you can't credibly be seen as Santa when you were Krampus to begin with, right? When you are taking away things the moment that you went into office, whether it's firing tens of thousands of people from good paying jobs, whether it's taking away Medicare and Medicaid in his big, horrible bill over the summer that took away health care from 15 million Americans, and most recently, whether you don't agree with extending the Affordable Care Act's subsidies, where millions of people are going to see their premiums shoot up. And in Toluse's moi moi (ph) excellent piece, there is a quote from a businesswoman who says, what good is it for me to get $1,300 check when my premium is going to go up by $1,500 a month?
So, it doesn't make sense politically. He's doing it because he knows he's in big trouble. Republicans know they're in big trouble going into the midterm elections. So, Democrats are going to continue to seize on this very -- what has been a very successful message for them on affordability, on the fact that this president has betrayed the American people and that Democrats are actually the ones that are -- that are looking after for them.
ABEL: I know Bryan wants to respond to that. I do want to talk about -- because this brings into this a little bit this idea of names on checks might be another motivating factor here. We've heard this before and we've actually -- actually heard President Biden give some praise to this concept.
Let's take a listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT (December 10, 2024): You know, within the first two months of office, I signed the American Rescue Plan, the most significant economic recovery package in our history. And I also learned something from Donald Trump. He signed checks for people for $7,400 because we passed the plan. And I didn't. Stupid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ABEL: So, is this strategy a winning one? And are Republicans on board with it?
BRYAN LANZA, SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: Yes, listen, at the end of the day, Republicans are always on board for returning taxpayer money to the taxpayers, right? And so whether it's these checks, whether it's these other components that are taking place, taxpayer funds is being returned back to taxpayers, and that's a good thing.
I do think it will work. I mean, I disagree with President Biden on a lot of things, but he clearly saw the magic, or at least the marketing behind it. We saw the results of it in the -- in Trump's first term in office.
[06:45:02]
People are still talking about the Trump checks that they received.
I think it will work, but also it can't be the only thing, right? You have to do something to address the cost of rising prices in the U.S. I think one of the good things that they're doing -- this Trump administration is doing is you're seeing wages that are outpacing the growth of inflation. That didn't happen under Biden. And Biden you had the price of inflation outweighing the price of wages.
So, there's been a flip. They have more to do, obviously. But the checks are going to work. People want their money back.
ABEL: And we're going to come back and check on you to see if that was the proper -- the proper outlook (ph).
CARDONA: If they get those checks. That's a big question, right?
ABEL: All right, I want you all to stick with me.
Next on CNN THIS MORNING, the CIA carrying out a drone strike inside Venezuela. Is this all about regime change or is something else going on here?
Plus.
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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We've never had a friend like President Trump in the White House.
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ABEL: Intense flattery and a lot of compliments. President Trump and Israel's prime minister score (ph) their friendship, but not much else after their holiday meeting.
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[06:50:38]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And we're going to start doing those strikes on land, too. You know the land is much easier. It's much easier. And we know the routes they take. We think they're building mills for -- whether it's fentanyl or
cocaine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ABEL: President Trump threatened earlier this month to attack targets in Venezuela, and now he seems to have done exactly that. After months of attacks against alleged drug boats in international waters, sources tell CNN exclusively, a port facility in Venezuela has been hit by a CIA drone strike.
Now, this would be the first known instance of the U.S. directly attacking Venezuelan territory. Those sources also tell CNN that U.S. special operations helped the CIA carry out the attack.
But when CNN reached out for comment, a U.S. special operations command spokesperson said it didn't help out. President Trump appeared to first acknowledge the operation late last week during a radio interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And we just knocked out -- I don't know if you read or you saw, they have a big plant or a big facility where they send the -- you know, where the ships come from. Two nights ago we knocked that out. So, we hit them very hard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ABEL: All right. Now joining the group chat, Kim Dozier, CNN global affairs analyst.
Kim, thank you for being with us and joining us.
I want to get your expertise and your thoughts on this first, both on what he said in that interview Friday, but also what he said on Monday when asked about the attack.
So, let's listen to what he said there on Monday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs. They load the boats up with drugs. So, we hit all the boats and now we hit the area. It's the implementation area. That's where they implement. And that is no longer around.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ABEL: OK, so he's talked about this twice now.
KIM DOZIER: CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yes.
ABEL: This is supposed to be a CIA attack, right? The CIA is usually covert, right? DOZIER: Yes.
ABEL: What's going on here?
DOZIER: So, it makes me wonder if this was planned, or he forgot when he was briefed that this was a covert operation.
Now, when something like this takes place, usually certain members of Congress are briefed, certain people throughout the interagency process. And they will keep their mouths shut until the act itself becomes public. And I think that's why you're now seeing the details released because he's just outed what was supposed to be a deniable operation. He's also let the enemy know there could be more of this coming.
So, now you've got Venezuelan operators on the ground thinking about counter drone operations. Apparently, there was no one, according to CNN's reporting, when the strike happened at this facility. You can bet now they're going to have guards at all of these facilities because they're now vulnerable.
ABEL: Well, and that kind of gets to what I was going to ask next, which is, what are -- I don't want to lose sight of -- what are the consequences?
DOZIER: Yes.
ABEL: What are the reasonings for keeping these operations covert? What are the consequences when they become public?
DOZIER: Well, when you have a drone, it's obviously -- that's not going to put troops in harm's way. It is a way of harassing the drug cartels, the Venezuelan regime. It's unlikely to unseat Venezuelan strongman Maduro, but at least it shows that the U.S. is doing something. And it seems it's almost performative. And that's possibly why Trump brought it up in public.
ABEL: OK. So, I do want to hit on kind of the motives here of Venezuela attacks in general because the president has also not shied away from the idea of regime change in Venezuela, right?
So, Maria, what do you see this being here? Is this a regime change? What is the motive in your eyes?
CARDONA: I think that is the big question. What is the motive? And I think this goes to something that Kim said, which is this -- is it planned? Is this just something that Donald Trump blurted out because he forgot it was a covert operation? He first said, as we mentioned at the beginning of this program, that it was all about narcotics. Then they seized an oil tanker, and he talks about how he wants American companies to seize the oil. Then he talks about --
[06:55:00]
ABEL: And Susie Wiles also talking about that in an interview, right?
CARDONA: Exactly. Exactly.
Now it's about regime change. So, what is it? The fear here, I think, of Americans, and I go back to the MAGA base, which is, I think, a big problem that he has, but Bryan knows more about that because this is not what the MAGA base wanted from somebody like Donald Trump, who promised not to get involved in foreign wars. And this is exactly what he's doing now. But what is the strategy? Has he briefed Congress? Is there an out? Is there a plan? There is no plan. And when the American people are hurting about how they are going to make ends meet, this is how they see their taxpayer money being spent. It's not a great political move for the president.
LANZA: Listen, I would add, Kim, you got it right. You said the enemy. Clearly Venezuela is an enemy of the United States. They've made that position abundantly clear. We've now seen reports, you know, in major media outlets that Hezbollah is making inroads in Iran, you know, is making inroads in Venezuela. We know Venezuela plays a critical role to Cuba. And it had always been the U.S. policy of regime change in Cuba. So, all --
ABEL: But we have a lot of enemies. And we're not attacking all of them.
LANZA: Yes, but not in our hemisphere like that. These guys are in our hemisphere. And what we've always done in the history of the United States is when somebody -- somebody comes in our hemisphere and threatens our hemisphere, we flex our muscle. And we -- and we should never apologize for flexing our muscle in our hemisphere. And that's -- and that -- and so I think there's multiple things going on with Venezuela, obviously. There's the drug component that allows them to come in and do something. There's the regime change component that is critical. But dislodging Maduro does so many more things for the region, Cuba, for other things of having these, you know, dictators in the region that are welcoming our enemies, that are welcoming North Korea, that are welcoming Iran, that are welcoming, you know, Russia, that are welcoming China. Like, that doesn't work in our hemisphere. We have a president who's finally saying, you know what, enough.
And whether he briefed -- I think he will ultimately, you know, more and more people will be briefed because there is a case to be made. But I think it's incremental, you know, pressure, more and more pressure, we're going to see that. And now that we're talking about it, there's going to be more debate about it. And there is a story that they can -- the president can tell of why this is needed.
(CROSSTALK)
ABEL: And I do --
CARDONA: He -- you just did it more eloquently than he ever has. And I don't think he's going to repeat what you just said.
ABEL: And -- well, maybe he's watching.
LANZA: He probably is (ph)
ABEL: I do want to talk about regime change a little bit more.
But Toluse, I want to ask you, is this regime change? Is this oil? Is this drugs? Could it just be all of the above?
OLORUNNIPA: It depends on who you're talking to. Within the administration, you have multiple people around the president, and a lot of them have different strategies and different end games, and they're all in the president's head. The president is listening to all of them, taking a little bit from each piece.
It is important to note that regime change is difficult. It's harder to do in practice than it is in theory. What comes after Maduro? And if America comes in and does decide to replace the leader of Venezuela, we are then going to be responsible for what happens after. And that is a messy situation that all -- often --
LANZA: Well, I would add to that --
CARDONA: We've seen that picture before, I think.
LANZA: Well, I would add, regime change in Latin America has always worked to the benefit of the United States. You have Panama, you have other countries where they've been involved and had the regime change. It's, you know, the regime change in Muslim countries becomes a little bit more difficult because that becomes a religious strife that's easy for the -- for the opposition and insurgents to get there. But I think, you know, in our own hemisphere, where there is some shared values, I think it becomes a lot easier.
DOZIER: Arguably, a lot of the regime changes have put in place right wing regimes that have disappeared people, tortured people, left behind instability that we've then had to deal with in the form of criminal networks, the drug cartels, et cetera.
ABEL: That vacuum.
LANZA: Yes. I mean (INAUDIBLE) now. People are disappearing now.
DOZIER: Nobody is rooting for Maduro. But --
ABEL: And Maria Machado is in hiding as a result of what's happening there as well.
LANZA: Yes.
ABEL: We don't want to lose sight of that.
DOZIER: But the longer the operations in Venezuela go on and the more they take on the tenure of this historical CIA regime change operation that has been conducted over and over in the past, it's going to create antibodies worldwide to the U.S. administration, to the U.S. reputation. And that doesn't do anybody any good.
CARDONA: Well, nothing is indicating that Maduro is anywhere near close to leaving.
DOZIER: Unfortunately.
ABEL: And, guys, you know, kind of to Kim's point of having global, you know, aftershocks to any action like this, isn't that one of the reasons why Congress usually is involved in this?
CARDONA: Yes, exactly. And that's, I think, one of the biggest problems here is that Donald Trump doesn't give a crap about Congress, and Congress is -- the Republican-led Congress is acquiescing all of their power to Trump. And it's one of the reasons why they're in political turmoil right now and in political peril going into the 2026 elections.
ABEL: Bryan, we've got about 40 some seconds.
LANZA: I would say Congress doesn't always get it right, but I -- but I think what's critical here, I'll go back to the thing, is, Venezuela's a known actor in our hemisphere that is -- just wants to cause disruption, that wants to invite our enemies to have closer access to the United States. We -- you know, Kennedy, you know, a very, you know, well-known president, a historical president in moder -- in our history, said that himself.
[07:00:05]
He goes, we cannot have, you know, you know, undemocratic forces in our hemisphere. And so, Trump is echoing that and doing very similar things. And I think the American people will be, at the end result, a regime change if it takes place, they'll be satisfied with it because it'll be a safer hemisphere with Maduro out of here.
ABEL: And we are going to have to leave it right there.
Thank you all. Thanks to our group chat.
CARDONA: Thank you, Brian.
ABEL: And thank you for waking up with us. I'm Brian Abel. The headlines are next.
