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Practical Lessons For Modern Parenting; Pope Leo to Lead Christmas Mass; Nursing Home Explosion Near Philadelphia. Aired 11- 11:30a ET

Aired December 24, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Good morning once again and Merry Christmas Eve. This is a special edition of THE SITUATION ROOM for you. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Kate Bolduan, in for Wolf and Pamela today.

Let's start this hour in Pennsylvania. Everyone is now accounted for after a fiery explosion at a nursing home just outside of Philadelphia. Take a look at that. Tragically, two people are been killed in this disaster; 20 other people are injured.

Let's get the very latest from CNN's Danny Freeman, who's been tracking it all since it all happened yesterday.

Danny, what are you learning?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, I mean, just such a scary and sad evening yesterday in Bristol, Pennsylvania, that's just outside of Philadelphia in Bucks County, after this explosion at this nursing home.

Let me tell you what we know about this so far. So we're talking about PECO because they are the local utility company. They were the ones who said that they first got a report of a gas-like odor from the area around the nursing home. Their crews ultimately responded.

And then just a little after 2:00 p.m., that explosion occurred at the nursing home. There was a massive fire, Kate, as you can see on your screen. And then, first responders, they rushed to try and save some of the people who were inside who were being injured.

And then first responders said there was then a second explosion as well. And you can see on your screen there part of the building actually ended up collapsing.

Now, sadly, two people were killed in this incident, 20 people injured, as you noted earlier, Kate. But the good news at this moment is that everyone else has been accounted for. And I want you to take a listen to how Pennsylvania Governor Josh

Shapiro really described the heroism of those first responders who made it to the scene first.

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GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D-PA): I want to say that, in the immediate moments after the explosion, you saw what real heroism is all about. Firefighters rushed to this scene in order to contain the explosion, in order to put out the fire, and, most importantly, in order to rescue people.

They were quite literally climbing up ladders, handing individuals in this nursing home to police.

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FREEMAN: I mean, just incredibly thankful for our first responders, Kate.

One last thing I will add, we actually just recently got an update from PECO, the utility company, who said it is unknown at this moment if their equipment or gas lines were involved in the incident. They said that the NTSB is now going to be handling this investigation. We reached out to the NTSB for confirmation of that, and we have not heard back yet -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, much more to learn on this, and a tragic night, it was.

Danny, thank you very much. I really appreciate it.

In Washington overnight, the Trump administration is heading back to the drawing board a bit, suffering a rare and major legal defeat before the Supreme Court, the justices ruling against the president's move to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago to protect ICE agents.

It was a 6-3 decision, and the majority citing a law from 1878 which bans the use of the military for domestic policing and writing that, at this stage in the legal fight, the Trump administration had not shown that the statute and issue permits the president to federalize the Guard in the exercise of inherent authority to protect federal personnel and property in Illinois, according to the decision.

The result now potentially throwing into jeopardy President Trump's Guard deployments in other U.S. cities. The White House, though, responding, saying that the ruling is not going to stop their efforts to -- quote -- "safeguard the American public."

Now turning to the major storm that we have been tracking and will need to continue tracking over California. Areas in Southern California are currently up against a high-risk threat for flooding overnight. The entire California coast was hit with heavy rain and wind, just making a mess from this massive storm system that's making its way over the region.

CNN's Julia Vargas Jones is out in it for us.

Julia, the sun is now up, as we have been with you, as you have been with us all morning. What are you hearing from state and local officials about this now?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, just in the past hour, Kate, we're now under a severe thunderstorm warning. The forecast is that winds picking up to up to 70 miles an hour.

This is up until this evening across different parts of Los Angeles. Here where we are in Altadena, what we're seeing as we're driving around these streets is the effects of those winds. We're starting to see more of that, and the rains still intensifying. It's supposed to get worse in the next hour, still more rain at around 9:00 a.m. in the local hour.

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Of course, the major concern here in these burn scar areas is the debris. Up on this way is the San Gabriel Mountains. That's also fire scar, burn scar areas. The debris flow could be pretty damaging here. It could bring down cars, trees, all sorts of debris. And that is what one of the main concerns of officials here. That is why they have ordered some specific homes to evacuate.

And now they're going door to door, those warning areas, telling people of the danger of what they could be facing in the coming hours and in the coming days. This is not supposed to stop, Kate, for another three days. That's where those warnings are going to be into place until Thursday evening.

That's why officials here are saying, look, we know that it's a bummer this Christmas, but if you don't have to leave your house, don't leave your house. Don't risk driving on those flooded roads. Better safe than sorry, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely, taking this rain and -- this rain and storm threat very seriously out in California right now.

Julia, thank you very much to you and your crew to bringing us that report.

The NFL has quickly upheld Monday's decision to suspend a player after an altercation with a fan, and it could cost him a whopping $45 million in future contract guarantees. Yes, this all happened Sunday. I'm sure you have seen this video played out in full view of the CBS cameras.

Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver D.K. Metcalf appears to grab the collar of an opposing fan, and not just that, then takes a swing. What's still not clear is what exactly triggered the incident. Regardless, Metcalf has now been slapped with a two-game suspension without pay. And the timing here is really going to be quite impactful.

Do you believe in holiday miracles, my friends? You may need one to win, but someone has to eventually. There's the kind of dreamer in me with this. A $1.7 billion jackpot is up for grabs tonight in an eye- popping Christmas Eve lottery drawing. That would be the fourth largest payout in Powerball history.

And maybe it was the Grinch, or that's who we're going to blame, who crunched these next numbers for you. Your odds of winning tonight's jackpot are at one in $292 million.

To Rome now. Just seven months into his historic papacy, Pope Leo is preparing to lead his first Christmas Eve mass as pontiff later today at St. Peter's Basilica.

CNN Vatican correspondent Christopher Lamb joins us from Rome for much more on this.

Christopher, what are you hearing is in store with what will be a historic mass?

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, I have been down to St. Peter's Square, and there's a large nativity scene set out there.

There's also an exhibition of hundreds of other Christmas crib scenes, including the Chicago nativity, representing Pope Leo's hometown, and another nativity from Peru, of course, where Pope Leo was a missionary for many years.

So everything is set and ready for what will be the first Christmas that Leo will celebrate as pope. We're expecting him in his messages to emphasize the importance of peace and dialogue. He's already said he's distressed that Russia is not appearing to observe a Christmas cease-fire in its war with Ukraine.

So, Leo will be celebrating a mass tonight in St. Peter's Basilica, and then another mass in the morning on Christmas Day, and then deliver his Christmas message. So, it's quite a packed schedule of services for Leo, people expecting him to deliver a strong message about how Christmas and the meaning of Christmas can be applied to the conflicts taking place across the world -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Great to have you there, Christopher. Thank you so much. Something to look forward to this evening.

And it would not be Christmas Eve, of course, without Santa Claus. The NORAD Santa Tracker is up and running, my friends. Since 1955, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD, has helped children all over follow a live, updating map of Santa's travels, even offering a gift counter of how many presents have been delivered.

Santa has already started making his way from the North Pole. NORAD reports that Santa usually goes this route, visits the South Pacific first, then New Zealand, then Australia, then shoots up to Asia, across to Africa, then on to Western Europe, Canada, the United States, Mexico, and the rest of Central and South America. But you never know what Santa's going to do this time around. Still to come for us, the perfect segment for this Christmas Eve,

focusing in on the importance of family. Rahm Emanuel and one of his two other famous brothers join the show to discuss how to raise great kids in today's crazy world.

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A special edition of THE SITUATION ROOM is back after a quick break.

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STAFF SGT. MALCOLM BROWN, U.S. ARMY: Staff Sergeant Malcolm Brown here currently on rotation in MKAB, Romania. I'm from Atlanta, Georgia, and wishing my family a happy holidays.

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: On any given day, parenting can feel like you're at the top of your game or you can't get a win.

While there may not be a secret sauce to gain it right, a few lessons can go a long way. According to our next guests, that includes sharing family meals, staying present in your kids' lives, telling them often that you love them, and nurturing their interests.

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Joining us now are brothers Rahm and Dr. Zeke Emanuel. Rahm shared his parenting principles with "The Wall Street Journal" and is also a CNN political and global affairs commentator and former mayor of Chicago and former White House chief of staff under President Obama. Dr. Emanuel is a former Obama White House policy adviser and renowned oncologist, as well as author of the upcoming book "Eat Your Ice Cream: Six Simple Rules for a Long and Healthy Life."

OK, so I have been so excited to do this segment. Rahm, I have been talking to you for months about doing this and getting you together with your brothers. You have another very successful brother, Ari, who couldn't join us.

But I just thought, oh, my gosh, what did your parents do? By any measure, you all have reached success in life, not just in the public sphere, but also with your families. And so, Rahm, I loved reading your op-ed for "The Wall Street Journal" and your first guiding principle centers around the table.

Explain why you say meals matter so much.

RAHM EMANUEL, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, that was something both parents, but my mother required of us.

And it matters because you build a family there. You build a sense of unity and also the kids get confidence in that process. And I think meals matter because, as I say throughout the piece, that being present in a child's life is more important than this whole idea of quality time versus quantity time.

And meals matter. My mother's other piece was, we always had a roundtable. Nobody was ahead of the table. And it gave us confidence to speak up and defend. I think probably, on the confidence part, my parents probably overshot the runway with the three of us.

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R. EMANUEL: But that was important. And we have kept that tradition as a family. And I think that's very, very important in just that simple way.

There are other simple things that are -- can be done that don't make it complicated.

BROWN: Right.

R. EMANUEL: And I do want to do a shout-out while we think about ourselves, but there's this great book called "Two-Parent Premium." And I think that's really important to understand the value that comes from a family structure in a child's development, not only educationally, but their moral character.

BROWN: Well, I think that's so important. And there's...

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DR. ZEKE EMANUEL, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SPECIAL ADVISER: Can I just add that...

BROWN: Yes, get in here. Jump in.

Z. EMANUEL: There are two pieces of science and data that support this.

The first one is that actually if you have family meals, kids eat better. So they eat less ultra-processed food, more fruits and vegetables, more nutritious items. The second is that they actually do better in school and life. So they achieve better in school, less interaction with the criminal justice system and less problems, psychological and other problems.

So, eating together is 100 percent healthy and healthy for the long haul of children. So I totally -- Rahm talks about how we were. My family, when I had children, we had 14 out of 21 meals together every week, breakfast and dinner.

BROWN: Wow. Wow.

Z. EMANUEL: And it's really -- for the long haul, there's very little else that you -- I mean, there are other things, but it's one of the best investments you can do in your kids.

BROWN: And I love the little anecdote in your...

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BROWN: Oh, go ahead. You guys just should just go, and then I should just not even be part of this segment, I feel like. Just talk.

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R. EMANUEL: I do want to say, I don't want to get -- look, first of all, like every parent, this is hit and miss. You make your mistakes along the way. So I don't want to get kind of a hazy picture here of the Emanuel family.

Second is, I mentioned my father used to say, he never met -- as a pediatrician, never met a child that was spoiled because they were told they were loved too many times. I do want to say, with his three kids, we were called schmucks and then a good hit on the back of the head. That never applied to us.

And then the second thing I used to say to my mother: "You love Ezekiel more than you love me." She said: "That's not true. I hate you all equally."

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R. EMANUEL: And so I don't want to get this glossy sense of our childhood. But -- and I would just say, as a father -- and I'm very, very proud of my three kids. If I start talking, I will get choked up.

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R. EMANUEL: But I did want to throttle them, like every other parent wants to throttle their own kids.

But there are basic things to do that are meals together, telling your children you love them, being present in their lives, reading. I joke, I never have finished "Goodnight Moon." I have fall and -- fall asleep. I have never gotten to the end of it.

But being with your kids in those kind of simple things can really add up to the moral and educational development of the children.

BROWN: I love that. And, by the way...

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Z. EMANUEL: One other thing I think is...

BROWN: Go ahead.

Z. EMANUEL: I just want to add, I think unsupervised playtime of children with no TV...

R. EMANUEL: Yes.

Z. EMANUEL: ... no computers, no cell phones, where they're just playing and doing stuff and having to initiate and negotiate social relations.

Rahm, Ari and I, we had a room. We all slept together in one bedroom for 10 years. And then we had a separate room that had desks, each of us for -- had a desk as a young kid. And we played there all the time. And then my mom would shoo us out of the house, and you guys go outside and do whatever you're going to do and be back 6:00 for dinner.

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Z. EMANUEL: And that was very, very important.

First of all, it allowed Rahm, Ari, and I to bond.

R. EMANUEL: Yes.

Z. EMANUEL: And, second of all, it made us figure out what we were going to do, negotiate among ourselves, negotiate with neighborhood kids.

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BROWN: Go ahead.

R. EMANUEL: Yes, but I do want to, again, not glorifying how great the Emanuel house -- we had a bunk bed for Zeke and I and Ari had the crib. We used to jump in the crib to see how high the baby would bounce, so not exactly, again, a perfect childhood.

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R. EMANUEL: It was -- the survival of the fittest was more closest to identification.

Z. EMANUEL: That's why he's so strong.

R. EMANUEL: Yes.

BROWN: But I'm sure it toughened you up for real life, right? I mean, there's got to be...

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R. EMANUEL: No, but I did...

BROWN: Yes, go ahead.

R. EMANUEL: Pam, what I want to say, when I wrote this, because we all get the same question, when you kids -- I want to talk to you guys. I want to talk. There is no secret sauce.

And I say this. Our father passed away five years ago. I went to see my mother yesterday. She's 93. You had -- the best example, if I could say, is, one, is, your role model of your parents. Two kids, kids may not listen, but they are watching you.

And, three, it's the simple things, meals, reading, being present in their lives in the sense of one-on-one time, telling them you love them, but setting high expectations. Those are things that parents -- and we have to be -- acknowledgement.

Not every parent has kind of -- even though Zeke and I and others have very busy schedules, they have also economic pressure and doing things that you can -- every parent, regardless of background, can do to help in the education of and socialization of their children.

And that's important as we try to -- all of us struggle.

Z. EMANUEL: Can I pick up one thing that Rahm said?

R. EMANUEL: All of us struggle to find the right kind of combination to the lock as they develop.

BROWN: OK, go ahead, Doctor.

Z. EMANUEL: So, he -- Rahm mentioned that kids watch. They do watch. They learn by bumping up against things and finding the limits.

And one of the important things I think we watched of our parents and I think all of us have tried to emulate is, life is more than just worrying about yourself. Life is about interacting with other people, taking care of other people, doing good things for other people.

And we had a lot of lessons of that. My mom would always bring people in, help them, support them. When we were on a bus and a woman came on, a pregnant woman or an old lady, any woman, we had to get up off the seat and offer it to them. It's those kind of small things.

We had to go to our friends and shovel their walk way in the winter in Chicago. We had to do things for other people. And I think that's one of those things where kids are very, very carefully watching their parents and seeing, how much is it all about them and how much is about helping the rest of the community and the world?

And I think that is another lesson that we tend to lose today and is so important for children. I was walking down the street with two big bags coming from the grocery store home, and a kid who was 16 years old said: "Can I help you?"

And I was knocked off my feet. I was like, nobody's asked that question to me in 20 or 30 years.

BROWN: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

Z. EMANUEL: And it was a reminder that that kind of caring for others is important.

BROWN: Rahm? R. EMANUEL: Yes, my -- our dad was a pediatrician in Chicago, and he

always said -- and each of us went on rounds with him. He never rejected a child because his parent couldn't pay. And he still did house calls when it wasn't economic or fashionable.

Our mother was the director of Congress on racial Equality in Chicago and did the integration of housing and beaches. And we were brought on demonstrations with her, efforts to integrate Chicago's beaches and housing.

And so the example that, obviously, the closeness of the family, but watching our parents and the values that they kind of used and applied in their professions also applied to how we grew up with those values and then hopefully as successful parents pass them on to our own kids, which I think hit and miss, again.

Each of our kids have also done stuff that their responsibility is to make the world better, and they found it.

BROWN: I love that, so inspirational, and also just a great time of year to remind everyone around the holidays about the example parents set for their kids, that the holidays this time of year is really about giving back, right?

I have been trying to instill that in my kids. I think they may still be a little young because they're really into getting their presents this Christmas, but...

R. EMANUEL: Never too young, Pam.

Z. EMANUEL: Well, one -- one -- again, one of the things...

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R. EMANUEL: They're never too young.

BROWN: OK. OK. I got to go, but we're going to take this offline, because there is so much more to talk about.

Dr. Zeke Emanuel, Rahm Emanuel, thank you both.

We will be right back.

EMANUEL: Happy new year, Pam.

BROWN: You too.

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MASTER SGT. QUASONDRA COBB, U.S. ARMY: Hi. This is Master Sergeant Quasondra Cobb. I'm from Waycross, Georgia.

I just want to say happy holidays and Merry Christmas to my family and friends back at home. Love you all. Miss you all.

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BROWN: Well, I'm here with my dear friend Rene Marsh.

And we were just talking about how this is a time of year that's full of a lot of joy, but also it can be full of heartache and grief.

So, Rene has a new book that she wrote, "The Nature of Change." And it can help any family, whether you're an adult or a child, navigate times of uncertainty, times that are tough, and it's something that all of us experience at one point in our lives, right?

And it feels like sometimes the holidays can be especially rough for people who have had loss in their lives. I know you have and I have as well. So tell me a little bit more about your book.

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

I mean, so this book, "The Nature of Change" -- and I'll hold it up so that we can see it here -- you know, it was born out of this space of my journey with grief after -- you know the story publicly shared about the loss of my son, Blake, to pediatric cancer.

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