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New Day Sunday

At Least 13 People Shot Overnight in Chicago; Ukraine Aid Frozen After Trump's Call with Zelensky; Activity at Site Linked to Long-Range Missile Launcher Production; Sanders Takes Jabs at Buttigieg During Campaign Rally; Eddie Murphy Returns to SNL As Mister Robinson, Gumby & Buckwheat; Money Moves You Can Make Before the Year Ends. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired December 22, 2019 - 07:00   ET

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

EDDIE MURPHY, COMEDIAN: If you told me 30 years that I would be this boring, stay-at-home, you know, house dad and Bill Cosby would be in jail, even I would have took that bet.

[07:00:06]

I'd say, who is America's dad now?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour now. Good to be with you. I'm Victor Blackwell.

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Happy Sunday. I'm Amara Walker, in for Christi Paul. Happy Sunday.

BLACKWELL: We start this morning with breaking news. There has been a mass shooting in Chicago.

WALKER: Here's what we know. Police tell us at least 13 people have been shot. They say it happened at a house party.

BLACKWELL: Early this morning, we spoke with a photo journalist who was at the scene overnight. His name is Michael Kowal. This is some of what he told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL KOWAL, PHOTOJOURNALIST (via telephone): I was at a shooting where two teenagers were shot and then overheard on the radio traffic report that there was a shooting in the 5700 block of May. Things seemed fairly calm. The police officer entered the house and you could hear some chaos in the background, and immediately following that, you could tell the police officer had the heightened sense of awareness then asked for some extra help.

And soon, thereafter, within seconds, asked for what is called a 101, and a 101 is asking for many police, any available police officer, any officer that is nearby, and several police officers to the tune of 100 or so came from many nearby districts to that scene and, in the interim, they had asked for a couple of Chicago fire department ambulances. They didn't know how many people were shot. At first, that there was one and then two, then five, then eight, nine, ten. And actually at the end here, we find out 11 were shot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: And as you heard, that number is going up. It is now at 13 people shot. Stay with us for more on this. We are expecting a police news conference at any moment and we will have a live report from the scene a little later.

BLACKWELL: President Trump, he's on vacation but not taking a break from his impeachment battle. Speaking to supporters last night, the president falsely claimed the Democrats violated the Constitution when they impeached him last week.

WALKER: Meantime, newly released email show that Trump ordered his staff to freeze the military aid to Ukraine shortly after his call with Ukraine's leader in July.

BLACKWELL: CNN White House reporter Sarah Westwood joins us now from West Palm Beach, Florida.

Sarah, the president, he was again in his element, speaking in front of a friendly crowd in West Palm, slammed the entire impeachment process.

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right. President Trump dedicated much of his lengthy speech to that gathering of supporters here in West Palm Beach to impeachment, and he continued to make the case that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is holding the articles of impeachment, refusing to transmit them to the Senate because in his eyes the Democrats have no case. He's been arguing that the Democrats don't want to send the articles over because they don't have sufficient evidence.

And that's been echoed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who has made a similar argument that Senate Democrats only want to question more witnesses in the Senate trial because they think their case is too weak to go to trial. Now, Pelosi has made the opposite argument the only reason why she is withholding the arguments she wants to make sure the trial procedures won't be rigged in favor of President Trump.

Ultimately, it will be up to Mitch McConnell. He only needs a simple majority to set the parameters of the trial, and while he has begun negotiations with Senate minority leader, the top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, in the Senate, the two headed into the holiday break without setting up a plan for that trial.

But take a listen to some of what President Trump slamming the impeachment and the process last night at this event.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: How about that deal where they had nothing. There is no crime. There is no nothing. How do you impeach? You have no crime. Even their people said there was no crime.

In fact, there is no impeachment. Their own lawyer said there is no impeachment. What are we doing here? The world is watching.

Crazy Nancy. She is crazy. No, no. So now she says she has no case, she has no case, so let's not submit it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WESTWOOD: Now, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that it's really leverage for Pelosi to withhold from the Senate something that the senators would rather not deal with, President Trump actually wants the trial. He does not just want to be acquitted. He wants to be vindicated and White House officials have wanted this to get started as soon as possible, so the president could apply pressure to get that trial started.

Meanwhile, newly released emails suggest that some aides had concerns about the suspension of aid to Ukraine so that is sure to be just another wrinkle that Senate Democrats could be interested in looking at when the trial eventually comes -- Amara and Victor.

[07:05:14]

BLACKWELL: Sarah Westwood for us in West Palm Beach, thank you, Sarah.

WALKER: All right. So, let's get back to those highly sensitive emails that were released. They are important because they give us new details about when aid to Ukraine was put on hold and why.

They show that the Pentagon was told to freeze the military funds right after the July 25th phone call between President Trump and the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and that at least one White House official at the Office of Management of Budget was concerned about the news spreading.

I'm joined by Siraj Hashmi, commentary writer and editor for "The Washington Examiner", and Julian Zelizer, historian and professor at Princeton University.

Welcome to you both.

Julian, let's start with you first, especially regarding this new time line that we are seeing. I mean, this just adds to the evidence for the Democrats even though just last night, you have President Trump falsely claiming that Nancy Pelosi put the articles of impeachment on hold because the Democrats have no case but the case seems to be building still.

JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Absolutely. That is not why the speaker put the case on hold. She is negotiating what the trial is going to look like and is concerned before the trial started, Republicans made a series of statements essentially saying they are not prepared to look for the evidence. This new story points to yet more data that there were concerns about why this money was being withheld and that within OMB, there was a pretty big debate that unfolded when the president moved forward with this action.

WALKER: And this political appointee at the OMB is Mike Duffey. He's one who wrote this letter to the Pentagon, also said, look, let's keep quietly. Obviously, you know, he was concerned it could raise concerns. Senator Chuck Schumer had been pushing to get Mike Duffey to testify and after these new emails came out, Senator Schumer tweeted this, quote: This email from Michael Duffey, approximately 90 minutes after President Trump called the president of Ukraine, is all the more reason why we need Duffey and others to testify in a Senate trial, the sensitive nature? What is that about?

Well, obviously, Senate Republicans, Siraj, have said that they don't plan to call any witnesses and that's highly unlikely that we'll even hear from Mike Duffey.

But do Trump when the Republicans need to worry about more revelations like this coming out and impacting public opinion?

SIRAJ HASHMI, COMMENTARY WRITER & EDITOR, WASHINGTON EXAMINER: No, not at all. In fact, this trove of emails that were published by the Senate for public integrity isn't really a big bombshell. Anybody who works in foreign policy service, specifically the State Department operate on a need to know basis.

So, the fact that they are talking about aid or withholding aid or giving out aid, people not involved in that don't need to know about it. The sensitivity around the topic is justified in this regard.

We're talking about Senate Republicans calling up witnesses, you know, pitching this over to Mitch McConnell in the Senate, he has the option to drag this out as long as possible that could hurt Democrats in the long run because the longer this trial draws out, it hurts senators like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders who are campaigning to be president and Iowa caucuses will be in early February. And if they can't campaign or be where they need to be, and instead ruling on what they might vote on which is, obviously, to remove President Trump, that could actually hurt them in the long run.

WALKER: I mean, look, it's crazy times right now. We all agree with that, especially with this highly polarized nature in Congress and the country with this impeachment.

And, Julian, you wrote a piece for CNN.com about this that a lot of Americans are nostalgic. They're wishing to go back to the days of normalcy and stability. Do you see that as a wave or a ticket that opens the door for Joe Biden who is talking about, look, I'm going to bring this country back to its normal values that it was founded on?

ZELIZER: Yes. I mean, my argument in the piece was that Biden's nostalgic especially just to govern in a normal way and to bring some kind of stability has actually become a bold promise and it's only a bold promise because of the way in which President Trump has governed, in the way that we have seen Republicans on the hill support this kind of governance, things are so off kilter right now in American politics that Biden has immense strength simply by standing on the debate stage and saying, I'll govern like any other president you've seen in the past. And I think that is at the heart of why his polls remain very strong.

[07:10:00]

WALKER: Despite it all, the economy is strong, unemployment at the lowest it's been in, what, five decades. The markets are at the highest it's ever been. At the last debate the Democratic candidates were trying to downplay there and denial the economy is doing well. Is this a message the Democrats should be sending?

HASHMI: Right now, Democrats are not winning on the economy message because they are trying to make the case that the numbers don't matter, that their, quote/unquote, fake news and you have Andrew Yang, for example, who's saying that the economy isn't working for most Americans.

You can't take him seriously because he is running on a message of giving out money to Americans really as a campaign ploy to buy votes. This is one of the things that is not realistic policy because where is that money coming from? You're going to end up raising taxes as a result, which stifles the economy, slows it down, leads us into a recession.

And while President Trump may not govern the way that most Americans are used to, he is getting results and the thing is the economy is doing better than it's ever been in five decades and you could chalk it up to the fact he is a Republican or you could chalk it up to the fact that he's actually undoing a lot of burdensome regulation that were implemented by the previous president.

WALKER: We have to leave it there, gentlemen. Thanks for the conversation.

Siraj Hashmi, Julian Zelizer, thank you.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

HASHMI: Happy holidays.

WALKER: You too.

BLACKWELL: Next, what new satellite images out of North Korea are telling experts. Plus, why Kim Jong-un met with his top military officials. Could the country be inching closer to making good on its Christmas gift promise?

WALKER: Plus, after 35 years, Eddie Murphy returns to "Saturday Night Live" and talks about how his life has changed dramatically.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MURPHY: If you told me 30 years that I would be this boring, stay-at- home, you know, house dad and Bill Cosby would be in jail, even I would have took that bet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:37]

WALKER: CNN has obtained new satellite images out of Pyongsong, North Korea. The picture on the right was taken on Thursday and it shows the expansion of buildings associated with developing missile launchers. Compare it to the one on the left and that was taken August of last year.

We've also learned that Kim Jong-un met with his top military leaders. You'll remember earlier this month, the country sent a stark warning to the U.S. threatening to send a Christmas gift.

Joining me now to discuss is David Sanger. He is a national security correspondent for "The New York Times" and CNN political and national security analyst.

And, David, you broke the story for "The Times" last night. Good morning to you.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Good morning, Amara.

WALKER: What should we make of the new satellite images coupled with, you know, the war of words, et cetera?

SANGER: Well, here's what we know, Amara. The first thing we know is in the 18 months since President Trump met with Kim Jong-un in Singapore, which I think was a good and breakthrough initiative to have an American president meet a North Korean leader for the first time, the North Koreans have dismantled nothing. In fact, they kept building.

In the story that we have this morning in "The Times", we quote Siegfried Hecker, the former head of the Los Alamos national laboratory, one of the great few Americans who have been inside North Korea's nuclear production facilities, is estimating that they now have the fuel for 38 nuclear weapons. At the time in Singapore, they probably had between 20 and 30. So, they've had a rapid expansion of the nuclear arsenal.

As your photos show, they are continuing to build the missile launchers, the mobile missile launchers. And those are important because you can hide them away in caves and rolled them out with solid rocket missiles -- solid fuel missiles to be able to launch them on very short order. That makes them much harder for the U.S. and others to detect.

So, what we have seen is that President Kim is building up.

WALKER: Yes. And it doesn't look like the diplomacy efforts are really working.

The last time we saw Kim Jong-un and conduct long-range missile test was back in 2017. And, of course, you might remember that led to President Trump's fire and fury threats. But then since then, there has been, what, three face-to-face meetings and still really no breakthrough.

So, let's say there is a Christmas gift in the form of an ICBM test or nuclear tests. What options does the Trump administration have left?

SANGER: Well, they do have, of course, the option that was considered and rejected by Presidents Bush and Obama trying to take the missile on the pad that could, of course, lead to a war. President Obama, as we reported two years ago, had a program to use cyber to try to disrupt a lot of the missile launches that had mixed results.

But we don't see any plan on the part of the Trump administration right now to trial to disrupt this launch, if it happens. It would probably be one of those high arc launches so they wouldn't be dropping the simulated war head off of the coast of California but instead demonstrating that if you flatten this out, it could make it all the way to the United States.

The big problem for the president is political. He has always said the suspension of these tests is the biggest sign that his diplomacy was working.

WALKER: Good point. David Sanger, we will leave it there. Thank you so much.

SANGER: Thank you, Amara.

BLACKWELL: All right. More on the breaking news in Chicago, now at least 13 people shot in a single event, a mass shooting there at a party overnight. We've got the latest details after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:23:11]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We don't have a super PAC. We don't want a super PAC. We don't go to rich people's wine caves. This is a campaign of the working class of this country by the working class and for the working class.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: That is Bernie Sanders there taking jabs at Mayor Pete Buttigieg during at a rally that was in California. He was invoking a fund-raiser that Mayor Buttigieg held in a wine cave and heard a lot about that during the debate last week.

WALKER: Yes, the South Bend mayor is inching ahead in some state polls and Iowa caucuses are less than seven weeks away. Both candidates held events on Saturday. Sanders was joined by, as you see there, by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at two of his events.

But they weren't the only candidates rallying for support this weekend.

BLACKWELL: Former Vice President Joe Biden made an appearance in Iowa on Saturday where he is hoping to regain some momentum in the polls.

CNN's Arlette Saenz was with him there. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Joe Biden is in two-day swing through Iowa, making his way across the state through that bus bearing the "No Malarkey" slogan. Biden was here in Creston, Iowa, making the case about uniting the country, saying that consensus is necessary, even if Democrats disagree with Republicans.

Take a listen to what he had to tell voters.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is no one running for president who has more reason to be upset and angry with Republicans. There is no one running who has had their family and their only surviving son attacked viciously.

Look, I don't say this because I think we are all holding hands and sing kumbaya together when this is over, I don't think that's going to happen.

[07:25:05]

But I say it because the only way to get anything done. I say it the way because it's designed the way to get our government to work.

SAENZ: Biden going on to say that consensus is necessary in order to unite the country.

Now, Biden is still leading in national polls but here in Iowa, it's a big different picture as Mayor Buttigieg is ahead in many polls at the state. Biden is going to be spending a lot of time here on the grounds in January, shake hands, taking selfies with voters as he is trying to make his case heading into the caucuses which are just over a month away.

Arlette Saenz, CNN, Creston, Iowa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Arlette, thank you.

Let's turn now from the primary match up to the general election matchup in those 2020 battleground states. One of them Wisconsin. If you look back to 2016, President Trump won Wisconsin by less than a point. We're talking 23,000 out of 2.8 million votes.

Joining me now, Barry Burden. He's an expert on swing states and voter turnout, political science professor at the University of Wisconsin Madison.

Barry, good morning to you.

BARRY BURDEN, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, UW-MADISON: Good morning. BLACKWELL: So, let's start here broadly, because I want to come in

specifically to Wisconsin in just a moment. But there's a new CNN poll out this weekend that shows in the 15 battleground states, states in which in 2016 the decision was made by fewer than eight points, President Trump is within the margin of error or ahead when he is matched up with the top four contenders. That is despite being under water nationally on approval, despite plurality of Americans think he should be impeached and removed from office.

Explain what we are seeing here at least in the battle grounds.

BURDEN: Well, it looks like in recent days, its look like the voters have rallied to Trump's offense. His approval ratings have ticked up just slightly in the head-to-head matches that you mentioned there have also showed him competitive and in some cases ahead in the swing states. That appears to be Republicans really coming home and defending him in the midst of the impeachment battle.

BLACKWELL: Let's now focus in on where you are, Wisconsin there. The president, as I said, just edging that out with less than a point, a victory in 2016. But you believe that some of the support in the state has waned.

Who is backing away from the president?

BURDEN: Well, remember that as you said, he won the state just narrowly in 2016. So it would be an uphill battle to put together that coalition again in 2020. Rural voters were really important to his victory here. They were not the majority of votes but an important bloc that moved in his direction after many had voted Democratic for many election, particularly the western part of the state, but those votes have softened in recent polling on their support for Trump and he will need to do some things to win them back over this election season.

BLACKWELL: Yes, speaking of softening, the question is -- if they have softened, will they vote for potentially the Democratic nominee? I want you to listen here to Bill Boyd. He's a farmer. He's in Pennsylvania. He voted for the president in 2016.

Here's what he's saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL BOYD, PENNSYLVANIA FARMER: I think he sort of backstabbing the main people who got him into office in the Midwest. All of those Midwest states helped to vote him in and also Pennsylvania, and he just left us down.

REPORTER: Will you vote for him again in 2020?

BOYD: Unless they come up with better alternative, I'm going to vote for him again.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLACKWELL: He says the president has backstabbed those rural voters. He's let them down. But unless there's a better alternative, he'll vote. Are Democrats making inroads with these voters at all? Do you have any evidence?

BURDEN: They are making some inroads in part because of the things Trump has done in office. I think his tax cut is viewed as mainly advantaging higher income voters and not rural income voters, and the trade deal and the tariffs I think have also hit farmers, especially dairy farmers in Wisconsin putting them in somewhat of a difficult position. But the alternative for those voters, whoever the Democratic nominee will be, at the moment is not appealing.

So, I think there's an opportunity for Democrats to pull back some of those voters into their camp but many of the rural voters are sticking electric with Trump and view the impeachment procedure as a pride and kind of coming to his defense.

BLACKWELL: Yes, that's where I want to go next. I mean, we've seen the polarization up in fights to this point and Kavanaugh nomination and now, as the impeachment process continues. Has this impeachment moved anyone off of or out of those corners?

BURDEN: No. I think it's really solidified voters positions and your analogy to the Kavanaugh battle is really apt because exactly what we saw in polling in 2018.

[07:30:03]

The Kavanaugh contests rallied Democrats first as they became concerned about Kavanaugh's nomination, but then later, Republicans came around and viewed it largely a test of their loyalty to the president and to the party.

That seems to be what's happening with impeachment in Wisconsin and elsewhere. Democrats have been supportive of some kind of impeachment action for a while. Republicans just in the last month or month and a half, again, in Wisconsin and nationally, have come around to Trump's defense and view this as a distraction and part of what is wrong with Washington and a part of what is wrong with Democrats.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Barry Burden there from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, good to have you giving us some insight on what will be a very important state as we head toward November 2020. Barry, thanks so much.

BURDEN: Thanks very much. Thank you.

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Eddie Murphy made his long anticipated return to "Saturday Night Live" with some of his iconic characters, but did it live up to the hype?

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: All right. We've got more on the breaking news now.

Police say at least 13 people have been shot. This was after a dispute at a house party that spilled onto the streets. They gave a news conference was given just a few moments ago. Watch.

[07:35:01]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRED WALLER, CHICAGO POLICE: I want to give you some details of an incident that occurred this morning at about 12:34 this morning at the address of 5724 South Main. We had an incident where there was a party at that address. Inside there was a dispute where shots were fired inside, several shots.

The people started to spill out and I'm going from what I saw in the pod video now. People started to spill out. As they spilled out, more shots were fired. We saw an individual on the pod firing.

At that time, more shots were fired at another location, so we have about three scenes of different shell casings and different scenes where people were shot but it was right there in that location and stemming from that party. We have, at this time, 13 victims ranging in the age from 16 to about 48 years old. We have about four of them are critical, the others are stable, different and various gunshot wounds to their -- to their bodies. This is --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: All right. We have 13 people there shot in what seemed to be a chain of events there. Isolated incident. We, of course, will get you more as we get it here.

But 13 people shot overnight. We will keep you up-to-date on the conditions of those victims as the chief there said four people in critical. More to come throughout the show.

Let's turn now to what happened last night. Eddie Murphy returning to "Saturday Night Live" after 35 years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EDDIE MURPHY, COMEDIAN: I have ten kids now, 11 if you count Kevin Hart. I'm kidding. I love Kevin Hart. I'm just teasing. My kids are pretty much my whole life now.

If you told me 30 years ago, I would be this boring, stay at home, you know, house dad and Bill Cosby would be in jail, even I would have took that bet! I tell you who is America's dad now?

This is why I came back to "Saturday Night Live" for moments like this. When is the last time we was together like this?

CHRIS ROCK, COMEDIAN: Last Thursday at Sinbad's!

DAVE CHAPPELLE, COMEDIAN: All right. Now you're looking at half of Netflix budget here on set.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: So much fun.

Comedians Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, and Tracy Morgan joined him for his opening monologue.

Let's talk more about his return with Brian Stelter, CNN chief media correspondent and anchor of "RELIABLE SOURCES."

Good morning to you, Brian.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, good morning.

WALKER: So, what did you think? I mean, did Eddie Murphy live up to the hype?

STELTER: I think this was an "SNL" episode 35 years in the making. It reminds us why this show can be so extraordinary. Yes, "SNL" is often criticized. People say the best years are in the past and not as good as it used to be. It's not funny.

But you know what? They are able to tap into the past once in a while and give us a treat and they are able to remind us why the show is legendary on network television and why it's great to still have it around, I think. You know? I think they are probably still partying in New York after this episode of "SNL" because it was so highly anticipated and Murphy was bringing back characters in the past like his version of Mr. Rogers that is Mr. Robinson's neighborhood.

You know, this is something people were looking forward to a long time.

BLACKWELL: All right. So, let's watch a clip of that sketch.

STELTER: Great.

(LAUGHTER)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MURPHY: So much a changed since we last spend sometime together. My neighbor has gone through so much. He has gone through something called gentrification.

Can you say that, boys and girls? It's like a magic trick! White people pay a lot of money and then, poof! The black people are gone!

Y'all probably wondering how Mr. Robinson can afford to live in this fancy neighborhood. Well, that is the word of the day. Squatter's rights. It's like finder's keepers but for other people's houses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

BLACKWELL: I think it was great is about the original was 35 years ago was that it's not only funny but it's relevant, right? He raised some important issues to discuss.

STELTER: And that's what we need from these shows, which makes them more interesting. By the way, the original sketches of him with his Mr. Rogers' version are up on "SNL's" website and they are just as relevant today. To your point, they are worth rewatching and revisiting.

I love that in this age of overexposure with every celebrity trying to squeeze all the time they can out of 15 minutes of fame, Eddie Murphy does the opposite. You know, as he said, he is at home with his kids now as he said. You don't see him out very often. He didn't come back to "SNL" for 35 years.

He is promoting a new Netflix movie "Dolemite is My Name", but he mostly lays low and that's what made this even more special.

[07:40:4]

WALKER: Yes, sure thing. Let's take a look at another clip. Here's Eddie Murphy as Gumby.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MURPHY: How the hell are people not knowing who I am? I am Gumby, damn it. I -- let me tell you something -- I saved this show from the gutter and thanks to me. This is the thanks I get for saving the show? Shame on you, Lorne Michaels. Same on you, NBC. Shame on you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, Gumby, just calm down. Calm down.

MURPHY: Don't tell me to calm down, trailer boy!

I got to sit and listen to this black bastard telling me people don't remember who I am?

You know why you don't come out behind the desk? Because your jokes don't have legs, you schmucks!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: I love when they start laughing too.

STELTER: Right, totally.

WALKER: I do want to mention, though. You heard Eddie Murphy say when he was a cast member, he was credited with saving "SNL." I mean, how exactly did he do that?

STELTER: I think because he was bringing such a unique energy, such a passion to the show. That kind of energy he was bringing in the '80s he brought that energy last night or later on in the Gumby sketch, he joked about Gumby being a Christmas character. You know, I think he has earned it. Bringing the classics back especially at Christmastime, I think he has earned that ability.

I believe he was the only "SNL" cast member ever to fill in as host while on "SNL" in the early 1980s. He had that kind of claim when he was on the program. Like I said waiting 35 years to return as host, pretty baller move.

BLACKWELL: Velvet Jones and Buckwheat, it was great. It was great.

Stelter, thanks so much.

STELTER: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Be sure to watch Stelter's show "RELIABLE SOURCES" today at 11:00 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

WALKER: 2020 is around the corner. If you're thinking of ways to get your finances in order before the year ends, we have some practical money moves you can start making them right now. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:46:15]

BLACKWELL: OK. Thanks for the countdown.

All right. Ninety-nine million people are planning to make financial resolutions for 2020. We've all heard put more money into your 401(k) or max out your workplace retirement account.

WALKER: But the truth is, the average working class family is living paycheck-to-paycheck so there isn't any extra cash to make year end money moves.

Our next guest says there are both practical and doable ways to take advantage. With us now, personal finance columnist for "The Washington Post", Michelle Singletary.

Good morning.

MICHELLE SINGLETARY, PERSONAL FINANCE COLUMNIST, THE WASHINGTON POST: Good morning.

WALKER: So, I guess -- I mean, you always hear, at the end of the year you to max out your 401(k). Like I said a lot of people just can't afford to do that.

What are some realistic things we should do to get our finances in order?

SINGLETARY: Yes. I wrote a column for "The Washington Post". My column is "Color of Money", and I thought about this, that there is all of this advice. Max out, do this, and people like, yes, say if I had the money I probably would do it already.

So, one of the things I asked, I think people should do is pull your bank statements and your credit card statements for the year. And look at how you spent. So that way going into 2020, you can have an idea of what where you need to pull back, because oftentimes, people will tell me, I don't eat out that much, I don't really shop that much. When in, in fact, I look at their bank statements and that is not true at all.

BLACKWELL: Yes, when you look at that budget, you see how much money you're spending.

But if people want to go into the new year on a high note, collecting a list of your debts, is that really the way we want to do that?

(LAUGHTER)

SINGLETARY: That's what I said.

Well, you know, I'm looking at it this way. When you drive there is a rearview mirror. It's there for a reason so you can look back and see what happened and what is going to happen so what you need to do with your finances. Look back to see what happened. Because a lot of times we are in denial about what is going on with our money.

I need people to live their financial truth. Yes, you are in debt. Yes, you have no savings. Yes, you are crazy shopping right now where you should be just listening to CNN all day long and just stay in.

And so, the whole idea is you can't make progress going forward like in a car. To change lanes, you need to check out what is going on and what I need you to do with your finances, so you go into 2020 with a realistic look. How much do I have in debt? How much do I have in savings? What is my retirement account look like?

I mean, all through the year, we tell them, you know, don't look at it because the mathematic is going to be crazy all year. Now is the time to look. So that maybe going into 2020, you can increase your contributions to your retirement plan.

You can finally put some money, some real money in that emergency fund. You can save your kids to go to college so they can get out of your house!

WALKER: I think for a lot of couples, you don't want to go through finances with your husband or your spouse. I know my husband will say, I told you, you shop too much, I told you we were eating out too much. You also say we should do a net worth statement, figure out what our net worth is?

SINGLETARY: Yes, yes.

WALKER: I'm feeling depressed into the New Year.

SINGLETARY: Most people have never done their net worth statement. All that is you look at your assets and minus your liabilities, because sometimes you're so focused on the debt that you don't realize I'm actually worth something or you have a house and you got equity in the house,. I'm doing OK. I have a lot of people -- my husband and work with our church, we have

a financial ministry at our church and meet with couples at our church. Hey, First Baptist!

BLACKWELL: Hey, First Baptist.

SINGLETARY: So, what we find is, that people think they a lot of money and they don't. They don't have liquid cash. They have equity in their house but they don't have savings.

[07:50:02]

And the thing about that is, yes, sure, your house may have equity, but how do you get to that money? Either take out a loan or sell. I need you to have some cash.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

SINGLETARY: So that if something happens, you don't have to put it on a credit card.

BLACKWELL: Take a very sober look at your finances. Nothing will get better if you don't assess what you have and don't have.

WALKER: Got to face the truth.

SINGLETARY: Absolutely.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

SINGLETARY: You've got to face your financial truth. And with that truth, you can make real resolutions for the New Year that you actually can accomplish.

WALKER: Michelle Singletary, I appreciate you joining us. Thank you.

SINGLETARY: You're welcome.

BLACKWELL: All right. And speaking of the New Year, ring in 2020 with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen. "NEW YEAR'S EVE LIVE" starts at 8:00 p.m. on CNN.

All right. Nothing says Christmas like an ugly sweater. Up next, the fashion trend that comes back every year.

WALKER: And you wore an ugly sweater. I'm so proud of you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Three days until Christmas now and that means time is running out for you to get an ugly sweater. Why do people do this?

[07:55:00]

WALKER: I'm with you on that. BLACKWELL: I was talking about doing it this year. This is a picture

of me with a sweater draped over me. I actually wore the sweater earlier in the day.

And here's Coy Wire.

WALKER: By the way, you didn't look that bad. It wasn't a very ugly sweater.

BLACKWELL: It's a hideous sweater.

WALKER: And also, Allison, there's your fellow meteorologist Bob Van Dillen, we have him a few seconds ago.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Here's my weather producer, Haley (ph). Obviously giving a shout-out again for the amazing tree. She's got icons on her ugly Christmas sweater, too.

BLACKWELL: I don't understand ugly Christmas sweater parties.

WALKER: I'm not into it either, but I know you are.

CHINCHAR: We take our holidays very seriously in the weather department. It probably started from the ugly sweater your grandmother or somebody would give you and it became the pride of wearing them and just owning it. I don't know, it's weird, you walk into stores and there's so many of them there.

BLACKWELL: I don't know if wearing something intentionally that's ugly is fun.

WALKER: I totally agree with you on that. That's our time. Before we go --

BLACKWELL: Yes, we have to say good-bye to our director Jeff. Jeff now leaves me as the last man standing. He's been on the show for almost seven years now. He has always made us feel safe on air. That's our entire team giving him the thanks that he deserves.

Jeff, thank you so much.

WALKER: All the best to you.

BLACKWELL: Thank you for spending your morning with us.

"INSIDE POLITICS WITH JOHN KING" is up next.

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