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The Situation Room

Why Are Men And Boys Falling Behind?; Wolf and Harry: Bills Mafia for Life. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired December 24, 2025 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

SEGUN ODUOLOWU, EMMY AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST: -- a store clerk down on her luck who has a penchant for stealing, a lot of hilarity ensues, but it is worth a watch, it's easy, fun, and the critics don't think it's that bad of a film. Like, critics of Rotten Tomatoes are like, OK, this is passable. I would say, see that.

The crown jewel, though, of the Christmastime movie right now is a Jonas Brothers Christmas. That is great stuff. Whether you're a fan of their music or just the brothers themselves, this is worth the watch because you can't fake the interplay between the brothers. When they're arguing, it feels like you would be at your dinner table around the holiday time talking to siblings. It's cute, they're cute, it's fun, they're fun, the music is great, and it's got just enough whimsy. Can I use the word whimsy?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Of course.

ODUOLOWU: Because no one uses the word whimsy anymore, but it's got just enough whimsy to be worth it. If you are like me who lean more towards the classics, you can never go wrong with "Die Hard." I know people say it's not a Christmas movie, it's a Christmas movie.

BROWN: It's a Christmas movie.

ODUOLOWU: You mentioned "Elf," I would say "Die Hard." And then if you have young kids, go to the old cartoons like "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."

BROWN: Yes. We watched that last night.

ODUOLOWU: And there you go.

BROWN: We did.

ODUOLOWU: Go lean towards those old cartoons that had music, they had fun, the animation is cute. That's what I will always say during Christmastime to watch.

BLITZER: I like "Mission Impossible: Fallout" and James Bond "Skyfall" because I was in both of those movies.

ODUOLOWU: And you consider them Christmas movies?

BLITZER: Great movies any time of the year.

ODUOLOWU: Well, they were a gift to you.

BLITZER: I'm a member of the Screen Actors Guild, so you better show me some respect.

ODUOLOWU: Same here. Look at my sad brother, punch it out.

BROWN: So, you have movie mogul Tyler Perry, he's taking a swing at Christmas romance with "Finding Joy." Talk about the significance of Perry getting into the Christmas movie business.

ODUOLOWU: You are trying to get me banned from the cookout, Pam.

BROWN: Oh gosh, it's not intentional.

ODUOLOWU: I will say this, if you are a fan of Tyler Perry, you will enjoy this movie. It has got beautiful people and beautiful scenery. It stars -- I shouldn't say star. The character Joy is this fashion designer from New York who goes to Colorado chasing after love. And then the love, there's a twist, I won't give it away, but then there's another twist and she finds love in a character that Tyler Perry rarely writes, "Finding Love." So, it's good if you like Tyler Perry. If you're not a Tyler Perry fan, you won't be disappointed either because there's enough stuff to pick at for the people that pick at Tyler Perry movies.

I think it's significant, which was your original question, that he's getting into this genre because the audience that he will bring is hungry, thirsty, and starving to see themselves on screen in these Christmas movies. So, it's a very big deal that Tyler Perry, who has always undoubtedly served his audience with movies where they feel represented, this is a great place to start.

If you like Tyler, go watch it. If you don't like Tyler, go watch it so that you will have something to complain about and more movies will get made.

BROWN: I love your passion. Give me a bump.

ODUOLOWU: There we go.

BLITZER: Segun, thank you very, very much.

ODUOLOWU: My pleasure.

BROWN: Thank you.

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[10:35:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 1ST LT. ETHAN SIRHAL, U.S. ARMY: Hi, I'm First Lieutenant Ethan Sirhal, 38 Alpha assigned to 21st TSC in Kaiserslautern, Germany. I want to wish my friends and family in Barnesville, Massachusetts, a very merry Christmas, happy holidays and a happy new year too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Why are boys and men falling behind? It's a question I'm revisiting from every angle of their development emotionally, academically, socially and more. So, let's do men to the influence of fatherhood on a boy's life. Richard Reeves is a social scientist and founding president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, which uses evidence-based research to understand the challenges facing this population. Reeves says fatherhood is a quote, load-bearing wall for our society and that children, especially boys, need a father figure in their lives to thrive. My conversation with him continues.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: How important are dads in the life of a boy?

RICHARD REEVES, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR BOYS AND MEN: I've come to believe that fatherhood is a load-bearing wall for our society and what I mean by that is that we can hold in our head the idea that there are all kinds of families and I'm sure that people listening to this conversation will become have families in all shapes and sizes, but that nonetheless the role of fathers in the lives of their sons and their daughters, but especially their sons, is absolutely fundamental.

And whilst a lot of what we do as parents is very similar to each other, like most of what parents do is completely transferable. I don't know, you've got young kids, right? Do you believe that?

BROWN: Yes. I always say I'm living parallel lives with all these other parents out in the world, you know, no matter what our background is.

REEVES: And most of it, there's no feminine mystique to changing a diaper, right?

BROWN: Yes, yes.

REEVES: Like there's nothing about that that says, oh, I can't do that, sorry. If I tried that, it's like, sorry, men don't do that. My fingers don't work that way.

BROWN: Right, exactly.

REEVES: So, that's true, but it's also true that fathers do bring something and mothers bring something a little bit distinct to the parenting enterprise, actually, especially when kids get a little bit older, like when they get into teenage years, et cetera. So, it turns out that dads are really important for teenagers and adolescents, girls and boys, but especially boys, getting out into the world, kind of learning how to navigate the world, take some risks. So, again, at the risk of stereotyping, but true on the average, dads are a little bit better at encouraging their kids to take risks. Moms are a little bit better at keeping them safe. And so, the stereotype here would be throwing your kid in the air, right? You throw your kid in the air and catch them. When dads do that, they get a spike in the hormone oxytocin, which is like the bonding hormone. Moms get that spike from being physically close to their kids. Dads get it from throwing them in the air.

Now, I find that a beautiful difference. We can both hormonally change, we can both bond with our children, but we just do it a bit differently. And the case of dads is more through that kind of physicality. It is through some of that play. Not that dads can't cuddle and that moms can't throw their kids in the air. I'm not suggesting that.

[10:40:00]

But I am going to suggest that if you kind of wander around any kind of park like this and you see a parent throwing a kid in the air.

BROWN: Probably the dad.

REEVES: Probably the dad.

BROWN: And it's probably -- I mean, I've definitely been guilty of, be careful, make sure their head doesn't hit the ceiling, you know.

REEVES: That's right. So, you're fulfilling the maternal. And that creative tension between moms and dads, I think it's really good.

BROWN: Yes.

REEVES: I think it's like you need both, right? So, you don't want one parent to be completely reckless. You don't want the other one to be overly safe.

BROWN: Dads are better getting the kids out of the house and engaging in that free play.

REEVES: Yes. Out of the nest a little bit, taking some risks, learning how to kind of navigate the outside world, et cetera. And there's just a tension there. And I think it's a really great and creative tension. And as soon as you get into any of these differences, as soon as you start to say there are some differences in what moms and dads bring or the way men and women are, you really quite rightly run into this suspicion. Where is he going with this? Are you about to say not only is one different, but one's better? Right?

And this is why women should stay in the home, for example. Like women are more caring, so they should stay at home and raise the kids, right? Where are you going with this thought? And because people are afraid that you might be going there with this thought, we actually end up, I think, not being willing to entertain the fact that there are on the average some differences between dads and moms. And they're awesome. And one isn't better than the other, but they complement each other.

If, for example, you're raising kids in the same sex relationship, say two women, the women that I know that I've spoken to about this in that situation work very hard to have father figures in their kids' lives. I find that lesbian couples raising children are actually the least hard to persuade that having some men around their kids is a good idea. They're the ones who are most aware of it, probably because of their own circumstances.

And so, I don't think this has to be interpreted as some sort of traditional nuclear family argument. But I am very worried that we, again, inadvertently send the message to dads, if they're basically just extra moms.

BROWN: So, what is your advice to the dads out there watching this?

REEVES: So, Jonathan Haidt, again, has this really great example where he says, imagine a parent who's pretending to be a predator of their child. There's a parent who's chasing their kid around, and there are tyrannosaurus rex, and they're going to catch them, they're going to eat them. It's always dad.

BROWN: Although I did the tickle monster last night. I was chasing him around being the tickle monster.

REEVES: That is a very fair response. Tickle monster, granted. But tickle monsters don't catch, kill, and eat the child, right? And so, when -- so, if you got some -- if a parent is pretending to be a predator, that could potentially catch, eat, and kill the child. Obviously not for real.

BROWN: For real. Do we have to caveat that?

REEVES: Now, what's happening in the kind of chase around, right, the tyrannosaurus rex is going to catch you and eat you, gobble you up. What's happening there is the child is kind of afraid, but they know it's dad. It's kind of fun. And then he's going to pick them up. But also, like, they're a little bit afraid. And so, they're going through -- they're learning. They're learning a little bit about fear. They're learning a little bit about how to survive in the world where they could, for example, be real predators, right, thinking about this historically. And that's just a great difference that kind of dads can bring, which is there's a certain energy that they bring to the parenting enterprise that is good.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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[10:45:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MASTER SGT. EVGUENI BRUSOV, U.S. AIR FORCE: Hi, I'm Master Sergeant Evgueni Brusov, currently deployed to the Middle East. I'd like to wish a happy birthday to Jesus and a Merry Christmas to my wife, Olga, my kids, Aliyah and Israel, and to all of my extended family at Park Church. Love you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Harry, welcome to Washington, D.C. We're not in Buffalo. We're in Washington, D.C., but we're the home of exiles. This is a wonderful place where a lot of my Bills Mafia folks hang out, especially during games.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: If there's one thing I know about the Bills Mafia, Wolf, is that it travels extremely well, whether it be to New York from Buffalo or all the way down here to Washington, D.C. The bottom line is there are Bills fans across the map.

There we go. Cheers.

BLITZER: Cheers.

ENTEN: To a Bills Super Bowl.

BLITZER: God willing. Let's hope.

ENTEN: I feel like this could be the year, but I feel like that's every year.

BLITZER: Every year we wake up and we say the same thing, this could be it. The Bills could go all the way. Every year we say that, and then there's a little bit of disappointment.

ENTEN: That is true, but when it's too tough for them, it's just right for us.

BLITZER: And we're old enough to remember when the Buffalo Bills went to four, not three, but four Super Bowls in a row.

ENTEN: Yes.

BLITZER: And we lost four Super Bowls in a row.

ENTEN: Yes, but no other team has been to four Super Bowls in a row. So, when you look at it that way, we're pretty gosh darn good run.

BLITZER: You're very optimistic.

ENTEN: I'm always optimistic. How can't you be with Josh Allen, quarterback in the team?

BLITZER: He's the big, beautiful Bill, as we say.

ENTEN: Oh, very, very nice.

BLITZER: The big, beautiful Bill Josh Allen.

ENTEN: You know, I guess the question I have to ask you is, you know, the Bills, as we said, never won a Super Bowl. Why do you continue to root for the Bills? BLITZER: Because I grew up in Buffalo and I'm a very sentimental kind of guy. When I was a little boy in Buffalo, my dad would take me to the old stadium and we would go to the Bills games. We didn't have great seats. We were usually in the end zone someplace. But we loved watching, you know, a bunch of players like Cookie Gilchrist, if you remember Cookie Gilchrist.

ENTEN: I know Cookie Gilchrist.

BLITZER: Elbert Dubenion, people like that. I grew up watching them. And so, I became obsessed with the Buffalo Bills and I love the Buffalo Bills.

ENTEN: You know, when I went up to Buffalo, one of the places I visited was the Anchor Bar, home of the original Buffalo wing. And look at what we have right here.

BLITZER: Thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you, my dear friend.

BLITZER: Now, in case you've never seen this before, these are Buffalo chicken wings.

[10:50:00]

ENTEN: I -- you know what? I have heard of the Buffalo chicken wing. It's pretty gosh darn good. I think it was created at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo in, I think, 1963 or '64.

BLITZER: Have you been there at the Anchor Bar?

ENTEN: I have. I was up there a few weeks ago. I was up in Buffalo. I saw a Bills game while I was up there. I was able to go onto the field after the game. I was able to do a snow angel in the end zone.

BLITZER: Oh, you were.

ENTEN: It was one of the best experiences. I met Thurman Thomas while I was up there. Hall of Fame running back for the Buffalo Bills. He and his wife, Patty, are the nicest people, which, again, goes to the fact that the people in Buffalo are as kind as can possibly be. Should we try one of these buffalos?

BLITZER: Now, let me just point out to you, in case you don't know this. When you eat Buffalo chicken wings, you use your fingers.

ENTEN: Yes.

BLITZER: No knife and fork. I did that, and I got a lot of criticism.

ENTEN: But you know what? Now, you're going in. Now, I like my --

BLITZER: I dip it. You like it plain?

ENTEN: I like it naked. I like my wing naked because I like to taste the sauce. Let's have a bite of this. It's some good stuff. I mean --

BLITZER: Very tasty.

ENTEN: It's easy to see how you can get addicted.

BLITZER: Now, you know why we love Buffalo chicken wings.

ENTEN: So, I got to ask you a question. You think the Bills are going to go all the way this year?

BLITZER: I think so.

ENTEN: Why do you think they're going to go all the way?

BLITZER: Because we got a great team. Not just Josh Allen, who's great. James Cook, our running back.

ENTEN: Correct.

BLITZER: Do you know that the Bills, a few weeks ago, in connection with the holidays and everything, sent me James Cookies? Have you ever had those?

ENTEN: I've never had a James Cookies.

BLITZER: They were delicious.

ENTEN: I've only had Josh's Jacks, the cereal, which of course has been sold in Western New York before. I love any of the Bills cereals. You know, I grew up in the '90s. I remember Flutie Flakes. I remember the Josh's Jacks. You know, I used to say, and this is, I think, the thing that defines all Bills fans, is that you're with them win, lose, or draw. I think we got a couple of these Jacks. Oh, here we go. Look at these Josh's Jacks right here. This is what I'm talking about. This is the breakfast of champions soon to be.

BLITZER: Number 17.

ENTEN: That's exactly right. Number 17, Josh Allen. He's our Superman. There's no one else I want quarterbacking the team. When he's the QB, you're never at him again.

BLITZER: And you think he'll be MVP again this year?

ENTEN: You know what, he's the MVP of my heart. And you know what, I know a lot of numbers about the Bills, and I'll give you one mathematical equation. Josh Allen, plus James Cook, plus Dalton Knox, plus Dalton Kincaid, the wide receivers, and that offensive line, that equals my dear friend, Wolf Blitzer, that equals an offense that nobody wants to mess with. And when you combine it with a defense that makes the stops when it's necessary, I think that that is a winning combination.

BLITZER: And when I see Josh Allen run, he's the quarterback, he gets the ball, and then he's pretending he's going to pass it, but then he runs to the outside and scores a touchdown. How exciting is that? ENTEN: I will tell you, when I was in Buffalo to watch those games, he had a run, a 40-yard run against the Cincinnati Bengals. And you, the crowd, I lost my voice for four or five days because it's just so incredible. You're watching one of the best quarterbacks, in my opinion, of all time. And I just go to myself, man alive, we have been waiting for someone like this for such a long period of time. Or James Cook, he runs in and slivers.

BLITZER: James Cook is amazing.

ENTEN: He slivers in there.

BLITZER: Yes.

ENTEN: And, you know, Allen throws these passes and it's like, whoosh.

BLITZER: And you know what else I love? Especially when Josh Allen does the tush push.

ENTEN: I think they call it -- what is that? The snowplow. We call it the snowplow.

BLITZER: I call it the tush push.

ENTEN: You call it the tush push like Philadelphia. He goes and -- you know, and he always goes off center, usually the left, and he dives over. It's like, what I like to say is the Bills, when they need four yards and it's third down, just run the snowplow twice. They'll pick up two yards.

BLITZER: It's a special moment for all of us.

ENTEN: Can I ask you your favorite Bills memory?

BLITZER: A lot of them. But I loved my -- before there was Josh Allen, it was Jim Kelly, a great quarterback.

ENTEN: Of course.

BLITZER: But I don't know if you're old enough to remember Jack Kemp.

ENTEN: Sure, who then served in the Bush administration.

BLITZER: He was a member of Congress after he retired from the Bills. He was a great quarterback. And I got to know him, not as a Bills quarterback, but as a member of Congress. I would go to his office and interview him. And we were talking about the Bills. And he then was a representative in Congress for my parents' district in Western New York, outside of Buffalo. And we would always talk about it. And he was just a great guy. So, I always remember Jack Kemp and Darrell LaMonica. Of course. Cookie Gilchrist. I don't know if you remember a guy named OJ Simpson when he played for the Buffalo Bills.

ENTEN: I do know. He was an MVP with the Buffalo Bills. And I remember Cookie Gilchrist, of course. BLITZER: He was a great running back. And I loved the Bills in all those years. And I knew all the players. And it was just an exciting time for me as a kid growing up, watching my Buffalo Bills. And I still feel like I'm a kid watching my Buffalo Bills.

ENTEN: It's exactly right. They won two AFL titles in the 1960s. A lot of people don't know that. They won in '64 and '65. And you were watching them at War Memorial Stadium.

BLITZER: Of course.

ENTEN: I think about the memories that I have. And I think to myself, my father, you know, I grew up in the Bronx. So, my father was not a natural Bills fan.

[10:55:00]

And you think about all these weird memories. And I remember in 2014, my father passed in 2015. So, the 2014 season was the last season in which my father was with us. And I remember the Bills had, they brought in Kyle Orton, Kyle Orton is the quarterback. And they were playing, I think against Minnesota and Teddy Bridgewater. And there was like two seconds left in the game. And the Bills had like one last chance to win it. Maybe there was five seconds, whatever it was. And he goes back and he throws a one-yard touchdown pass to Sammy Watkins in the end zone.

And I remember my father who at the time was 87 years old. I think I literally grabbed him and knocked him onto the couch. He was fine, but it was just one of those great things because the Bills, you know, they're just a part of our lives. They're part of our family.

BLITZER: And they've been so welcoming to me. And I love Buffalo, love everything about Buffalo. It was a great place to grow up. And it's a great place to visit. People haven't been there. Go to Buffalo. Not very far by the way from Niagara Falls. You've been to Niagara Falls.

ENTEN: I have been in Niagara Falls. You can hit up a wonder of the world. And I dare argue that Josh Allen is another wonder of the world as well.

BLITZER: He certainly is.

ENTEN: So, Bills win this year.

BLITZER: Let's hope.

ENTEN: There we go.

BLITZER: Let's have some chicken wings.

ENTEN: Sounds great.

BLITZER: And remember, Go Bills. ENTEN: Go Bills.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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