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The Situation Room

Winter Weather; Brian Walshe Murder Trial Continues; Will Republicans Tackle Rising Health Care Costs?; Trump to Rename Kennedy Center After Himself?. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired December 05, 2025 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

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[11:30:06]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: New this morning, you heard that President Trump will be over at the Kennedy Center here in Washington today for the FIFA World Cup draw.

But there's certainly more news about the Kennedy Center that we're monitoring right now. The president let it be known, he slipped that he intends to rename the cultural landmark here in Washington the Trump-Kennedy Center.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: It all comes as a president is on a tear, literally recasting, renaming and rebuilding some of Washington's most revered institutions, including, of course, the White House itself.

So let's talk about all of this with senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes here in THE SITUATION ROOM with us.

I want to start with that not-so-subtle hint about changing the name of the Kennedy Center.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, look, in any other White House, this might be considered a joke or something kind of tongue in cheek.

But when it comes to President Trump, we're literally seeing him rename buildings. He was saying those remarks while he was sitting in the former Institute of Peace, now the Donald Trump U.S. Institute of Peace, which he renamed, saying essentially that he wants to rename it to the Trump-Kennedy Center, and then laughing saying, oh, no, it's the -- it's the Kennedy Center. Oh, that was a mistake there.

But this comes as President Trump has been really fixated on the Kennedy Center. I know from sources that, every single time he's there, which actually is quite a bit -- he goes for different events, not actual Kennedy Center events, but he's held press conferences there, et cetera.

That he asks for a tour. He asks what renovations they're doing. We know that they had put aside $250 million in that budget bill for renovations of the Kennedy Center. That was something that President Trump himself wanted.

And I think we have him here. This is him arriving to the Kennedy Center-right now for that FIFA World Cup draw. And they're going to be pouring money into the Kennedy Center. They have plans for new seating, new carpeting. They have new pillars that they have painted over.

And Trump has really wanted a different kind of entertainment center in D.C. So it's not that surprising that he'd also want to potentially name it after himself.

BROWN: Yes, he likes to put his name on buildings.

HOLMES: He does.

BROWN: Yes.

BLITZER: The Trump-Kennedy Center, not the Kennedy-Trump Center, the Trump-Kennedy Center.

(CROSSTALK)

HOLMES: He said the Trump-Kennedy Center, yes.

BLITZER: We will see if that happens.

BROWN: All right, let's turn to this White House ballroom project. Our understanding is, the president is bringing in a new architect.

HOLMES: Yes, it actually almost feels as though they are layering the architects here for this project. So it comes as I was hearing from White House officials and advisers that there's a lot of tension between McCrery Architects -- James McCrery is the CEO of that -- who had been brought in to do this project, and President Trump, particularly when it came to the scope and size of the project.

As we previously reported, President Trump wanted that ballroom to be even bigger than initially planned, and that was causing some friction between McCrery Architects and President Trump, to the point where I was hearing from White House officials, there was a lot of grumbling that this was going to hold up the project, that there was not enough work being done.

So what we heard yesterday was that they are bringing in a second architect to basically finish the project. Now, White House officials, they say that this is going to be just a part of this process, that McCrery is going to stay on as an adviser.

I was told by one senior official McCrery is pretty much out of the picture, but they are arguing he hasn't been fired yet, that he's still part of the process, just in an advisory role now.

BROWN: Taking a backseat.

BLITZER: We will see how that unfolds.

Kristen Holmes, thank you very, very much.

BROWN: Thanks so much. Great to see you, Kristen.

And just ahead: new immigration crackdowns, the political fight over affordability.

And controversy at the Pentagon. It's been a busy week. And next -- up next, CNN's Michael Smerconish will tell us what his viewers and listeners are saying about all of it.

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[11:38:24]

BROWN: Happening now: Time is running out for Congress to act on a looming spike in health care costs. Faced with a January deadline on whether to extend those enhanced Obamacare subsidies, Republican leaders on Capitol Hill remain far from an agreement that would prevent a steep premium increase for tens of millions of Americans.

Yet Speaker Mike Johnson says a GOP plan to tackle health care could come as soon as next week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): Before the end of the year. There will be a big development early next week.

QUESTION: You're going to have a vote on this health care bill before the end of they year? Is that what you're saying?

JOHNSON: That has always been the plan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, let's discuss this more with CNN political commentator and host of CNN's "Smerconish." Michael Smerconish is joining us right now. He's also the host of "The Michael Smerconish Program" on SiriusXM.

Michael, we're huge fans. Thanks very much for being here.

What do you think -- why do you think, I should say, it's taken Republican lawmakers so long to put a plan together?

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Because we don't have a health care system in this country. We have a patchwork and it's a patchwork that consists of government subsidies and private insurers and hospital systems and patients. And it's a maze, rather than something that seems coherent and deliberative.

It's very complicated, therefore, to come up with a replacement. It's much easier to be critical of the Affordable Care Act than to actually say, OK, and here's the alternative.

I might be mistaken in this. I don't think that I am, but I don't believe that there was a Republican Party platform that presented an alternative to the Affordable Care Act.

[11:40:02]

So this is what comes with governing. You have criticized it. Now tell us what you're going to do. If I could just make one other observation, a lot of the attention relative to health care these days pertains to the subsidies.

I hear from a lot of radio listeners who are not dependent upon the subsidies, but they are nevertheless seeing a spike in their own premiums. So this is across the board. It's not just that -- I myself have a 20.6 percent increase come January in my family's health care.

BROWN: That's an important point to make, right?

BLITZER: It's a lot of money, yes.

BROWN: That even those that haven't been getting the subsidies are impacted.

So, if Republicans don't address health care, how badly do you think it affects them in next year's midterms?

SMERCONISH: I think it's a problem because the perception -- and we saw this in the polling pertaining to the government shutdown. Even though I think the real answer was more complicated in terms of who to blame, in polls that I saw, people were blaming Democrats -- Republicans, pardon me, more than they were blaming Democrats.

And I think the reason is that the perception is the GOP controls the White House, they control the Senate, and they control the House of Representatives. Therefore, it's incumbent upon them to get it done. But there really hasn't been any policy advancement on the big-ticket items by Congress.

We have not done anything about immigration. I mean, the president has sealed the border. I give him credit for that. But where is the path to citizenship or path to something for people who are here and have kept their noses clean? There's nothing. There's not a plan on health care.

The debt is $38 trillion. There's been nothing significant relative to how we're going to bring down the debt. At a certain point, I think the party in patrol gets blamed.

BLITZER: I want to get your take, and I think this is significant, on these controversial U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.

Yesterday, a U.S. Navy admiral who oversaw a second strike on a boat that killed survivors said Defense Secretary Hegseth did not issue an order to -- quote -- "kill them all." But the exact language of Hegseth's orders remains unclear. Are Hegseth days as the defense secretary numbered? What do you think?

SMERCONISH: Not necessarily because of this issue. What I think is that I just spent two hours on radio today combing through the CNN coverage, "The New York Times" coverage, "The Washington Post" coverage, "The Wall Street Journal" coverage, and synthesizing for my audience all the nuggets that are contained in each of those reports about the tape.

The tape yesterday was a Rorschach test. Republicans came out and they said there's nothing to see here. Democrats came out and they said they're horrified. When do we get to see the tape of the second boat strike? I think we're entitled to see it. It seems like we have been privy to all the other recordings, but not this one. It exists. Show us the tape.

BLITZER: Is that what you heard from your listeners as well?

SMERCONISH: Absolutely.

People want to know. They don't know who to believe because it's so diametrically opposite when you read the stories and the accounts of individuals who were in the room. What's so frustrating to me, and it reminds me of a Supreme Court confirmation hearing, where is the one individual who will step out of their tribe?

Where's the one Republican who says, holy crap, I looked at that tape and it was really stunning, or the Democrat who said I was predisposed to think that there was a war crime, but, frankly, when I listen to the admiral, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt?

There's just no exercise of independence on anybody's part in this.

BROWN: Yes. If I had one of them on today, I actually was going to ask that exact same question. Is what you're saying because you're part of the tribe and you want to stick with the tribe, or is it your independent judgment of what you saw on that video?

And we should also note the Pentagon has released -- we just showed on September 2, that first strike. They just released a strike of another boat just recently. Why hasn't it released the strike of that second strike that everyone's been talking about? And the president himself said it should be released.

I also want to follow up and ask you, Michael. The same admiral also told lawmakers that he had consulted with the uniformed lawyer on duty before approving that controversial second strike. I wonder if that changes anything, in your view, in terms of what we're hearing from some of the lawmakers who are very concerned about it.

Some have even said they believe it could be a war crime. And I also want to hear what else your viewers are saying about these strikes. Are they popular?

SMERCONISH: Well, there's a memo. Well, I will tell you what the popular position is, I think the position of saying it's time we have done something, something, and gotten aggressive with drug interdiction.

I mean, people seem to like that the Trump administration is trying to be tough on these matters. Then comes discussion of the second strike and the eyewitness accounts via who watched the tape and who didn't, but the people who watched the tape saying that he had two guys and they're shirtless and there's not a phone and they're struggling to stay afloat, et cetera, et cetera.

It sounds like that second strike crossed the line because it fits in the shipwreck category. Angus King was on the other night with Kaitlan Collins and reading aloud from the manual. And it seems pretty clear that the hypothetical that they said would be an illegal order is exactly what played out.

[11:45:12]

We will know better when we watch the tape.

BROWN: Yes.

I'm just curious, though, from your viewers, for the layperson, they say well, look, this the strike was supposed to be lethal. And they may not know all the details of the war manual at the Pentagon. So...

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SMERCONISH: Well, but, Pamela...

BROWN: Go ahead.

SMERCONISH: Pamela, I have to tell you, there's also a sentiment in the country -- I mean, I love what I do for a living because I answer the phone for a living and I talk to people all across the country, and I want to hear all the different perspectives there.

BROWN: Yes.

SMERCONISH: There's a sentiment out there that says, I'm just going to tell you, screw these guys. They were bringing drugs into the country, and good for Trump that he's blowing them out of the water. That mind-set exists.

BROWN: Right.

SMERCONISH: And I share some of that.

But then the lawyer in me says, oh, wait a minute. We got to parse. There was no due process. And we need to parse what happened in that final tap.

BROWN: I think that point is really important and that context is really important. And that's why we love having you on, Michael Smerconish. Thank you so much.

SMERCONISH: Thank you.

BROWN: You can watch Michael every Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m. right here on CNN.

BLITZER: And I do.

Also happening now, a key investigator in the Brian Walshe murder trial is back on the stand. What he's telling the jury about some of the evidence in the case. We have more details coming up.

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[11:51:22]

BROWN: Right now, testimony is under way in Brian Walshe's murder trial after jurors heard from the man having an affair with his wife, Ana Walshe.

Real estate broker William Fastow is a key witness for the prosecution, as his testimony could offer jurors a possible motive. Walshe says he did not kill his wife, though he pleaded guilty to illegally disposing her body and misleading police.

Let's go live now to CNN correspondent Jean Casarez, who is following the trial from New York.

What have you learned, Jean?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, today is Connor Keefe. He's a Massachusetts state trooper. I think we just saw him on the screen there. He's testifying on cross-examination right now.

And we can't forget the defense in all of this, because you never know what a jury is going to do, despite these facts being pretty horrendous on their face. On cross-examination, what the defense is trying to show, because there is no direct evidence of premeditation to murder her, and that's the charge.

There isn't researching how to kill somebody. There isn't anything involving that. So the defense is trying to show in those final moments of her life how it was seemingly a normal couple, I mean, talking about that, on December 25, he called her because she didn't come home on the 24th, which would be New Year's Eve, and Christmas Day, the 25th, because she was with the man she was having the affair with.

So he contacts her by e-mail, saying, I haven't heard from you. Are you going to come today? And then he says, where are you? And then she replies by saying, my flight was canceled. I'm driving in.

But what he does at that point is -- and there are some text messages right there showing that. He begins to make a dinner reservation for just the two of them on the evening of January 1. She had wanted a Porsche, so he started researching Porsches for her. He also had over an hour phone call as she was driving, an hour and 23 minutes, and then another extensive phone call, so they were in a lot of contact.

And we do know that he had made that reservation for dinner because Ana Walshe, on December 31, went to a nail salon. She sat next to a lady who testified yesterday, and she said, Ana said that her husband had made dinner reservations January 1. It was just going to be the two of them.

So the defense is trying to show here that the investigation is not the whole story. You have got to look at everything.

BROWN: All right, Jean Casarez in New York, thank you for laying all of that out. We appreciate it.

BLITZER: And there's more news coming up here in THE SITUATION ROOM. A blast of arctic air is sending temperatures plummeting across much of the country.

A closer look at how long this colder-than-normal weather could last.

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[11:58:52]

BROWN: Happening now, areas across the mid-Atlantic are seeing a burst of snow this morning, including where we are here in Washington, D.C.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: It was a little dusting. It wasn't much snow.

BROWN: I know, but I'm going to -- I love snow. I'm excited. I'm excited about it.

BLITZER: It was a little bit of snow. Not much.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar is joining us right now.

So what are we looking at for this weekend, Allison?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right.

Yes, I mean, this is a look outside probably what you guys can see right out your window. It's absolutely beautiful. We have got snow still coming down. That temperature is right about 28 degrees. With the wind, it feels closer to just about 20 degrees. But you can see some of that snow, pretty heavy at times, across even portions of Maryland, even into Delaware, as that line continues to slide off towards the east.

It's all rain a little bit farther to the south, where the temperatures, I wouldn't necessarily say are warm, but warmer, at least enough to be able to make it all rain. Here's where you still have the winter weather advisories in effect for a few more hours, until that system can finally slide out over the water.

Look at some of these temperatures, though. These are the high temperatures. This is all the warmer it is going to get for today, 32, the freezing mark in New York, 28 in Buffalo, 28, same thing in Chicago, even a place like Atlanta barely going to get to 50 degrees, Jackson, Mississippi, not even going to get that warm.

[12:00:03]

Here's a look at the system. Again, you will notice, as we go through the rest of the evening, the bulk of that snow from the system begins to slide back out. Once we go into Saturday, we have still got a few areas of snow showers around the Great Lakes region, but now we're making way for the next system that's arriving from the West.

That's going to push into areas of the Midwest as we head into the day on Saturday and especially into Saturday evening, whereas we have some rain showers across portions of the Gulf Coast.

BLITZER: Allison, thank you very, very much.

And, to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us.

BROWN: "INSIDE POLITICS" with our friend and colleague Dana Bash starts now.

Have a great weekend.