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Americans In 1998 Tried To Predict 2025 And Got A Lot Right; Republicans Begin To Consider 2028 And A Post-Trump Era; DOJ: Pipe Bomb Suspect Told FBI He Wanted To "Speak Up" For People Who Believe 2020 Election Was Stolen; Biggest Entertainment Stories Of The Year. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired December 29, 2025 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:30:00]
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: -- they thought that people would routinely live to be a hundred. I think that's more likely now than it was, but not at the percentages that people were assuming. And one thing that they got correct, but it's just fascinating to me because social media was obviously not a thing really in 1998 was less personal privacy. I mean, I think that's also something if you just look back at the last two decades plus has completely dominated everyone's entire lives.
And you look at the stories about Australia banning, you know, social media and the way that I think it contributes to both of your points about Americans being in a darker place. I think this idea of less personal privacy and obviously the rise of social media is probably going to be one of those things that, you know, we'll be talking about looking back on 20 years from now about --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
TREENE: -- how that has impacted daily life and political life for the country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Real quick.
MARIO PARKER, NATIONAL POLITICS TEAM LEADER, BLOOMBERG: One thing, when I was doing the research for this segment, I remembered that Method Man came out with the album that year and --
MATTINGLY: Yes.
PARKER: -- the skit on that album, I mean, if you look toward the future, the skit on that album was Donald Trump calling in with a voicemail saying from -- he was calling in from West Palm Beach asking Method Man to release his album. 27 years later, here we are.
MATTINGLY: The man is ubiquitous and like all faces. We were watching "Home Alone 2" in my house the other night. TREENE: Yes.
MATTINGLY: Like there he is. You're like, man, that --
TREENE: I did.
MATTINGLY: We totally --
TREENE: I was a big apprentice (INAUDIBLE).
MATTINGLY: -- should have seen -- yes, totally should have seen it coming tonight. Turtleneck sweater, cargo pants, Doc Martens, and I'm going to watch "The Last Dance" just in honor of Mario.
All right, guys, thank you very much.
One thing we can risk predicting for 2028, there won't be a Trump or Bush on the ballot. So what do Republicans do right now to prepare? That's next.
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[12:35:54]
MATTINGLY: As Republicans make New Year's goals, CNN's Zachary Wolf has one for the list, quote, "It's time for Republicans to start thinking about 2028 and the post-Trump era." Writing that, quote, "The next election will offer Americans new choices on the right and the left. There won't be a Trump, a Clinton or a Bush anywhere near the ballot."
So what are Republicans considering? Well, Republican strategist Doug Heye joins us now. And you've served as the role of spokesman for the entire --
DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Yes.
MATTINGLY: -- party before, so welcome.
HEYE: Thank you.
MATTINGLY: You're going to do it again right now. I just want to start going into a critical midterm year, before we branch out into 2028. What are Republicans thinking right now?
HEYE: So I think they're realistic. It's going to be probably a difficult year. History tells us that that's likely to be. The number of Republican retirements that we're seeing tells us it's going to be, but let's also be clear on what it's not going to be. It's not going to be 2010, right?
Democrats are not going to pick up 63 seats. So when I see my Democratic friends talking about a wave, I'm reminded of some of the dumb rhetoric we saw from Republicans during the midterm in the Biden White House.
MATTINGLY: Yes.
HEYE: When we're talking about a red wave and then a red tsunami, and sometimes you're an old baseball guy, you know, politics is easy sometimes to talk about it. It's Bull Durham. Instead of promising waves and tsunamis, just, you know, quote, "Nuke LaLoosh" We're going to take this one race at a time and good Lord willing, we'll be there on Election Day.
And if you do that, then you can win the expectations game. But if you're promising tsunamis, you can fire Nancy Pelosi and Democrats can still throw the party. That's what happened in 2022. And Democrats are potentially setting themselves up for failure, even if they take back the House by this rhetoric happening a year in advance.
MATTINGLY: I so deeply appreciate the Nuke' LaLoosh trying to not make news.
HEYE: Might have watched it in the last week.
MATTINGLY: Yes, I was going to say. There will be a constant refrain of midterms first, then we'll talk about the presidential. Nobody's really planning for the -- that's not true. People are planning for a presidential right now. People are pretty sure that JD Vance is kind of the pace car here. What's your read on where Republicans are right now?
HEYE: I think that's by and large true. And, you know, we certainly saw a big event for JD Vance with Talking Point -- excuse me, with TPUSA. But I'd also caution folks here because, you know, so often we've started to see people talk about Donald Trump as a lamed up president. Stop that.
Donald Trump, we know we've said so many times he defies the laws of political gravity. He's not like any other president. So why would this one thing make him like any other president? He's never going to go gracefully into that good night. We know that. He's going to do that, whether he's a candidate or not.
And so the only time when I would say that Donald Trump would be a lamed up president is after the elections from, you know, the day after Election Day to 11:59 a.m. on January 20th. And watch him closely because he could do anything. And if you're JD Vance or you're Marco Rubio, whomever the nominee may be, you have to be mindful that Donald Trump can make news at any moment just because he wants to do so. And he does that very effectively.
MATTINGLY: Yes. Put a pin in that. That is a very important statement I hope people remember in the months and years ahead.
You mentioned Turning Point USA. The role of that group, and it's like merge with the Republican Party, which is different than it used to be. RNC was always very cautious with outside groups, sometimes skeptical of outside groups, seems to kind of have become one. Do you think that's the case?
HEYE: I think potentially. Turning Point could be more important than the party. We've seen a real weakening in the parties, Republican and Democratic, over the past 15 years. Part of that is McCain-Feingold. Big part of that is Citizens United.
Once we started opening outside organizations -- and, you know, Brody and Luke Mullins have sort of written about this in their book "Wolves of K Street." Once we started saying that outside organizations could raise as much money as they wanted to, but political parties couldn't, some of this is in front of the Supreme Court right now, we started impacting the power of the parties so that outside organizations have a much bigger role.
When a candidate files, they're not thinking of the RNC or even the, you know, NRCC or NRC, it's, do you have a Super PAC? Even though they can't coordinate, do you have a Super PAC? That's a huge difference between now and, say, 2010.
MATTINGLY: Yes, a lot of skeptics on the ground operation that the Trump team outsourced last cycle. And it worked, by all accounts, in ways that I don't think anybody expected.
[12:40:02]
Doug Heye, always a pleasure, my friend.
HEYE: Thank you, sir.
MATTINGLY: Thanks so much. Appreciate it.
Well, up next, the new details on the man accused of placing pipe bombs at the DNC and RNC headquarters hours before the January 6th insurrection. Stay with us.
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MATTINGLY: We're learning new details about the suspect accused of placing pipe bombs at the Democratic and Republican Party headquarters on the eve of January 6th, 2021. CNN Crime and Justice Correspondent Katelyn Polantz is here. And, Katelyn, Brian Cole Jr. has some complicated politics. Walk us through what we've learned.
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Complicated politics because it's a complicated story that he tells. He tells a couple different stories when he was speaking to investigators for several hours on the day of his arrest. Now, all of this is coming out because the Justice Department wants to keep him in jail.
They want him behind bars because they say that he could be a risk again to the public. He may want to continue to be violent. And this is a very serious crime that he is accused of, planting these two pipe bombs that the FBI believes could have worked, although they did not go off on January 5th on Capitol Hill outside of both party headquarters.
[12:45:14]
The story he tells over this interview is documented in the court filings. At first, he denies planting the pipe bombs and speaks about wanting to go to a protest for essentially election deniers on January 5th in Washington, D.C. And that's when he's talking about somebody needing to speak up if people believe the election was stolen.
But then later in the second half of the interview, so the last two hours or so, the Justice Department says he makes a different point. First of all, he confesses at that point in time, according to the court record. They also say that he explains as far as his motive goes, something just snapped after watching everything, just everything getting worse, that he wanted to do something to the parties because, quote, "they were in charge" and it was about both of the parties.
So a level of political nihilism that he's capturing there in this lengthy interview with the FBI in which he appears to confess to the crime.
MATTINGLY: Which is obviously a pretty significant deal, at least in these filings. Set to be in court tomorrow, what other pieces of evidence have prosecutors gathered so far?
POLANTZ: Well, there's a lot of evidence that they're laying out here just to keep him detained, but it's very likely to become part of this case in itself. One is that they essentially traced his purchases of the individual pieces that he used to make the pipe bomb. And he did speak to them about being online and watching through a video game and then through YouTube how to build something like a pipe bomb whenever he -- they say he confesses to doing it.
But they also have the documents of each individual piece he bought at places like Home Depot, Lowe's, Walmart. And then they found things like that in his house. They searched him, his home, his car, his workplace, and also seized his phone. So they have a large amount of evidence already building this case against Brian Cole Jr.
MATTINGLY: All right. We'll watch tomorrow. Great reporting as always, my friend. Thanks so much.
Well, Taylor Swift's engagements, Sydney Sweeney's denim ad. These stories all have one thing in common. What is it? We'll explain next.
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[12:51:47]
MATTINGLY: From a comedian being targeted by the Trump administration to a music mogul being sent to prison, the entertainment industry made major headlines in 2025. CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister breaks down the biggest moments of the year.
ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: From Hollywood's battle with Trump to courtroom drama and the engagement we were all waiting for. Here are the top 10 entertainment stories of 2025.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Number 10, a supersized controversy.
BAD BUNNY, PUERTO RICAN RAPPER AND SINGER: I'm doing the Super Bowl halftime show.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Bad Bunny is named halftime headliner, delighting his global fan base.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bad Bunny is slated to become the first Latino male artist to headline the Super Bowl.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): But some others blasted the choice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This guy does not seem like a unifying entertainer.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): The Trump critic decided not to tour the U.S. mainland amid ICE raids, opting for 31 shows in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And, by the way, ICE did show up in -- during his shows. So he did not want to have that happen for the Latino communities here in the United States.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): In response, conservative group, Turning Point USA, is producing their own halftime show.
Number nine.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's get to know each other, and thanks for watching.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Artificial intelligence invades Hollywood. Meet Tilly Norwood, a British actress who's not real.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Real life Hollywood stars are condemning the project.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a rip off.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): But AI is coming to Hollywood.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Michael Caine and Matthew McConaughey have partnered with 11 labs that will allow the voice cloning company to use AI technology to replicate their voices.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): And Disney, while suing one AI startup, is licensing its characters to another.
Number eight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't I know it?
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): The box office roller coaster. As "Minecraft" and "Lilo & Stitch" wipe away early year box office bombs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Listen here, this ain't no house party. WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Beyond "Sinners and Weapons," many original stories failed to hit big. Theaters turn to special events to fill seats.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, it's Taylor.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): A Taylor Swift album party and a K-pop demon hunter singalong prove that fans can be wooed into theaters.
Number seven, the Sidney Sweeney saga.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not here to tell you to buy American Eagle Chance.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Sweeney's American Eagle ads led to a political firestorm.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Genes are passed down from parents to offspring.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sidney Sweeney has great jeans.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You see what I did there, right?
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: The ads featuring the blonde, blue eyed actress generated a storm of criticism accused of promoting eugenics.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): The Internet blew up with calls of racism and Nazism. The ads spawned endless parodies.
SANCHEZ: American Eagle's stocks soaring up 35 percent.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): American Eagle had the last lap. The jeans sold out within a week.
Number six.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are houses on fire.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): The L.A. fires ravage Hollywood. Celebrities like Mark Hamill and Dick Van Dyke fled for their lives, while Jeff Bridges, Billy Crystal and Paris Hilton are among those who lost their homes. Actor Steve Guttenberg sprung into action as fires raged.
STEVE GUTTENBERG, ACTOR: I was helping people in wheelchairs and there were mothers who were hysterical.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know one guy that lost his entire studio, burned.
[12:55:06]
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Award show producers had a dilemma. Should the show go on?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a sense of community right now in Los Angeles that I personally haven't seen before.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): The Grammys did go on honoring firefighters and raising millions for victims.
Number five, the war for Warner Brothers.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: It's a mega deal that could reshape the entire entertainment industry.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Netflix wins a bidding war for the storied film studio in HBO. The streamer could change how we watch legendary titles like "Batman," "Harry Potter" and "Game of Thrones."
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Paramount CEO David Ellison is turning up the heat, launching a hostile takeover bid.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Taking its bid for Warners directly to shareholders. Any deal needs federal approval.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's a lot of markets here, so we'll have to see what happens.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Number four.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's Taylor Swift!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my god!
TAYLOR SWIFT, SINGER-SONGWRITER: Hi.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Another year of Taylor mania.
ALL: This is so good!
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): First, her engagement to Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Posting their engagement on Instagram today with the caption, "Your English Teacher And Your Gym Teacher Are Getting Married."
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Then came the number one album of the year, "The Life of a Showgirl," which Swift announced on a record breaking podcast with Kelce.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do I have to wait until October 3rd?
TRAVIS KELCE: CHIEFS FOOTBALL TIGHT END: Yes, you do, Jason.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is unfair.
SWIFT: Yes.
KELCE: You're not special.
SWIFT: We don't trust you at all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The album is a coda to her biggest year yet. She finished her record shattering Eras Tour. She announced in an Instagram post that she owns her master's.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Cementing her as the most influential celebrity in the world.
Number three, shocking celebrity deaths.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Hollywood legend Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, found dead in their Los Angeles home, an apparent homicide.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 9:15 p.m., a suspect arrested the couple's son, Nick Reiner.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reiner had well-known battles with substance abuse, but by 2015, he said he was clean and co-wrote the film "Being Charlie," inspired by his own experiences with drug addiction directed by his father.
ROB REINER, FILMMAKER AND ACTOR: It forced me to have to see more clearly and understand more deeply what Nick had gone through.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This actor, writer, director, producer, political activist, Harry Shearer, one of the stars of "Spinal Tap," said this is unspeakable. The stuff of Greek tragedy.
ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: We begin this hour with the shocking death of actor Gene Hackman.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 95 year old Hollywood icon was found dead Wednesday inside his New Mexico home, along with his wife, Betsy Arakawa, and a dog, according to officials.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): The mystery ended when the cause of death was finally revealed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Betsy Arakawa Hackman died from the Hanta virus. When she died, authorities say that Gene Hackman was unable to care for himself. He had advanced Alzheimer's.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): "French Connection," "Unforgiven," "Crimson Tide," Gene Hackman's legacy will endure. The deaths of Hollywood legends brought the end of an era.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How much can you tell me about Deep Throat?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How much do you need to know?
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Robert Redford transcended the screen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He had the heart and soul of an artist.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Oscar winner Diane Keaton.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Along the way, she became an icon of beauty and fashion, of eccentricity and humor.
WAGMEISTER: Ozzy Osbourne, the eccentric rocker turned reality star. RIKI RACHTMAN, FORMER MTV HOST: You know, when he put out a record that had like Post Malone, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck it's like, look at all these people that want to work with Ozzy Osbourne. There's a reason for that.
WAGMEISTER: Number two, late night chaos. Jimmy Kimmel pulled off the air by ABC.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The decision to pull the show came hours after Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr publicly pressured the company to punish Kimmel for recent comments he made about the reaction to Charlie Kirk's shooting death.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a tremendous backlash to this, not just among the left. You saw people on the right saying you can't -- the government can't do this.
JIMMY KIMMEL, TV HOST AND COMEDIAN: I'm happy to be here tonight with you.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Six days later, ABC put Kimmel back on the air. The return set a ratings record for Kimmel. But that wasn't the only late night drama in 2025.
STEPHEN COLBERT, COMEDIAN AND WRITER: Next year will be our last season.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: CBS said it is canceling the late show with Stephen Colbert.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): CBS said the show was too expensive. Critics called it political. Coming two weeks after, CBS settled a lawsuit filed by President Trump. Colbert was later crowned with an Emmy.
KIMMEL: Stephen Colbert.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): And after the Kimmel saga, the hosts made history, appearing on each other's shows on the same night.
KIMMEL: Say I've never been happier to lose the Emmy.
COLBERT: I was never been happier for you to lose the Emmy either.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Number one, the trial and downfall of a music mogul.
TAPPER: Sean Diddy Combs told the judge, quote, "I'm a little nervous today," unquote. He should be. Jury selection started this morning.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): It was the trial that had everyone talking, as shocking details came out on the stand.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She described the freak-offs in lurid detail.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): The verdict was mixed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The most serious charges he has been acquitted on.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): But Combs was found guilty on prostitution charges.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sean Diddy Combs was sentenced to 50, 5-0, 50 months in prison.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): From billionaire to behind bars.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's never going to be who he was again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the dirtiest of dirty.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): A Netflix doc produced by his longtime rival, 50 Cent, further tarnished Diddy's legacy, capping off a stunning fall for the man who once sat atop the music industry.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WAGMEISTER: And with Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni set for trial next year, it'll be another year with Hollywood in the headlines.
MATTINGLY: Thanks for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts right now.
