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Evacuation Warnings in Effect as Storm Slams California; DOJ Says, 1 Million-Plus Additional Documents Found Potentially Related to Epstein; Women's Health Headlines in 2025. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired December 25, 2025 - 10:00   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 ANCHOR: Good morning, and thank you so much for joining us for this special edition of The Situation Room. I'm Kate Bolduan in for Wolf and Pamela today. A very merry Christmas to all of you.

We begin out west this hour. Officials are warning of what they're now calling a dangerous scenario unfolding in Southern California. Millions of people are under a state of emergency and evacuations have been ordered as a powerful storm system just pounds the region. Heavy rain and mudslides prompted rescue operations like this one we're going to show you in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles, a hiker had to be airlifted to safety after getting stranded by floodwaters. It is always remarkable to see them when they're doing these rescues like this.

CNN's Allison Chinchar is tracking this storm where it is now, where it is headed. Allison, was the latest?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. So, we've still got two more rounds of rain that we've got to get through over the next 24 to 36 hours. The focus at the moment is over portions of Northern and Central California, but you can see that line slowly starting to shift a little bit farther southward. So, even Southern California is still going to get plentiful rain as we go through the rest of the day.

Today, you look at some of the numbers that are already in several locations, picking up at least half a foot of rain, knowing that there is even more on the way. So, those numbers are going to tick up as we head through the rest of today and tomorrow.

Here's a look at the focus. Again, you can see some heavy rain and heavy snow across Central California, but farther down to the south, we actually have a flashflood warning in effect. You can see some of these areas that have been. And the main focus here for a lot of those warnings is the burn scar locations. When you get that heavy rain over where we previously had wildfires, that water just runs right off. It does not get absorbed into the ground, like it would in some of the surrounding areas that have more of a lush environment.

We have a level three out of four risk for excessive rainfall today, back down to a level two. But the point is both today and tomorrow have the potential for that heavy rainfall as the system finally begins to finish out. So, you've got the first round that's ongoing right now. The second round will come in later on this evening, likely about 7:00 to 9:00 P.M. local time, continue through the overnight hours and through much of the day, Friday.

By the latter half of Friday, we see the focus now becomes mostly Southern California, where we're going to still be looking at some pretty intense conditions. And then, finally, things start to dry back out by the weekend.

BOLDUAN: Finally. Allison, thank you so much for tracking it all for us. I really appreciate it.

So, the Justice Department, it says it's uncovered more than a million files potentially related to the case against accused sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein that it previously didn't know about.

CNN's Marshall Cohen is following this one for us. This seems like a pretty stunning announcement, Marshall. What are you hearing about this and why it's just now coming to light?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, Kate, you could call it a Christmas bombshell, 1 million potentially new documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. The Justice Department says these documents come from the FBI and the Southern District of New York, where Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, were prosecuted.

Let me read for you what they said and how they tried to explain this. This is from the Justice Department yesterday. Quote, we have lawyers working around the clock to review and make the legally required redactions to protect victims, and we will release the documents as soon as possible due to the mass volume of material. This process may take a few more weeks.

The DOJ pleading for patience, but I don't think they're going to get it. And the reaction on Capitol Hill was swift. This landed with a thud bipartisan anger. House Democrats from the Oversight Committee described this as an outrageous admission. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that he believes the Justice Department is violating the law. And then Thomas Masise, one of the Republicans who has really been leading the charge to get these documents out, he was incredibly skeptical. He posted online, quote, they still expect you to believe this involves only two guilty people.

So, Kate, there is a lot more to come, but we might not get it right away. They are pleading for patience, but there's a lot of folks that said the law was clear, the deadline was last week.

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There was no wiggle room there.

BOLDUAN: Yes. They were already behind schedule even before uncovering what they just have. So, everyone, patience is what is going to be required, even though many say they're already in violation of that law.

Marshall, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Also, this morning, President Trump is re-upping his threats against the media calling for any television network that airs what he considers negative coverage of him to have its broadcast license, quote, terminated.

CNN's Kevin Liptak traveling with the president who's spending the holiday at his home in Florida. Kevin, what's behind this new threat from the president this time?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. He really seemed to be getting into the Festivus spirit, wasn't he, airing his grievances in the middle of the night. He seems to have been watching the Kennedy Center Honors on CBS, which he hosted, by the way. He left the T.V. on after reviewing his performance and did not seem to like what he saw. He wrote at 2:16 A.M., Stephen Colbert is a pathetic train wreck with no talent or anything else necessary for show business success.

Then he starts getting into the veterinary euphemisms. He says, CBS should put him to sleep now. It's the humanitarian thing to do. He followed up a few minutes later saying, shouldn't their very valuable broadcast licenses be terminated? I say yes.

Now, it's not the first time the president has said that some of these networks should have their licenses revoked. He says it's a decision that's up to Brendan Carr, the chair of the FCC, although Brendan Carr just said this month that, in his view, the FCC is not an independent agency. So, how all that works out remains to be seen.

The president did seem in a slightly jollier mood. Yesterday afternoon, he was at Mar-a-Lago taking phone calls from kids who were tracking Santa. He told one guy from Oklahoma that he wasn't going to let bad Santas infiltrate the U.S. He corrected another little girl who was worried about getting coal in her stocking that she actually meant clean, beautiful coal. But the president was in a good mood. He said he could be doing it all day.

But late last evening, he was sort of back to form issuing his now traditional Christmas message, saying, Merry Christmas to all, including the radical left scum, doing everything possible to destroy our country.

So, really, Kate, quite a classic Mar-a-Lago Christmas.

BOLDUAN: I mean, Kevin, bringing in the greatest hits for us today, my goodness. It's good to see. It's good to see you, Kevin. Thank you so much to you and your crew there.

All right, now to the very merry, actually Merry Christmas that one lucky winner is having a ticket sold in Arkansas is the single winning ticket of the $1.8 billion Christmas Eve Powerball jackpot, the second largest jackpot ever in the United States, according to Powerball. And eight other tickets are the winners of a million dollars from last night's drawing. Those tickets were sold in California, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. So, lots of happy Christmases for lots of people, it seems.

The jackpot now resets to $20 million. The next drawing is set for Saturday.

Today is big day for foot for football as well. The Detroit Lions are facing off against the Minnesota Vikings for a chance at the playoffs. And there are three rivalry games actually set to air on streaming platforms for a Christmas triple header. So, you're welcome, America, apparently.

The Lions and Vikings kickoff at 4:30 Eastern this afternoon. The Cowboys and the Washington Commanders play at 1:00 P.M. Both of those games will be airing on Netflix. And the Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs then kick off tonight at 8:15 on Prime Video.

Still to come this -- on this Christmas edition of The Situation Room, a special report on women's health, the advances and the big changes that came this year.

We're back in a moment,

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From the postal team at USAG Black Sea, we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it may be an understatement to say that this year has seen some dramatic changes in healthcare under the Trump administration and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. But advances in women's health are still lagging. One of the biggest moves we did see was the removal of black box warnings by the Food and Drug Administration about the risks of hormone replacement therapy for menopause symptoms, saying the benefits outweigh potential risks for most women.

We're going to discuss this and much more with Dr. Mary Claire Haver. She's an adjunct associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Medical Branch, and an expert on menopause and all things perimenopause. She is also the author of The New Menopause, Navigating Your Path Through Hormonal Change With Purpose, Power, and Facts, and the host of the Unpaused Podcast.

Dr. Haver, thank you so much for being here. There has been so much going on in the women's health front this past year, and one of the biggest developments was that the black box warning that was added more than two decades ago was removed. I know you were part of that effort to remove that. Tell us more about why that was such a big decision this past year.

DR. MARY CLAIRE HAVER, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDICAL BRANCH: So, the black box warning was added in 2003 due to the Women's Health Initiative study and. Since that time, multiple factions of that study have been walked back. And what we know is that for -- especially for vaginal estrogen, for local estrogen products, there should be no warnings whatsoever, because it's not systemically absorbed.

And when we look at the nuance of the actual data, you know, having at this black box warning was really an overhaul. So, for decades we've actually asked the FDA through multiple administrations to have this removed, and so excited that, finally this year, we were able to get it now.

There are warnings for all medications, as there should be. There are risks and benefits to all patients, and those are still in the labeling.

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But the big black box warning, which was dramatically overstating concerns, has been removed.

BROWN: And it is significant. And also there's a lot of nuance to this, right? I know we have discussed that previously.

I also want to talk about the increasing attention on menopause in relation to heart and brain health. There's this new research highlighted the impact of menopause on cardiovascular disease, visceral fat, and insulin resistance, bone loss, cognitive aging, and the risk of Alzheimer's. That's a lot. What more can you tell us about that?

HAVER: Yes. So, you know, forever, the research on menopause focused on hot flashes and how to relieve them, which is an important aspect of menopause because they can be really life disruptive. But in the last, you know, decade, we've really -- research has really been trying to dig into what are also the cardiometabolic, the neurologic impacts of losing our estrogen levels. And what we found is there are estrogen receptors in every organ system of our body, and all of these organ systems are affected.

So, one of the great things about social media is women sharing their experiences. So, for example, the discussion around frozen shoulder, the discussion around palpitations, the discussions around having to really has, you know, led a lot of researchers to say, hey, you know, we have tens of -- these symptoms during menopause. Let's dig into the research and see what we can find.

BROWN: And I love that perimenopause is finally getting the tension it deserves as a woman in her 40s right now trying to navigate what's going on. And it's -- you know, it's a real physical transition, one that affects mood, cognition, sleep, metabolism, and emotional regulation. Yet many women are misdiagnosed, told it's psychological rather than hormonal and placed on antidepressants, or perhaps someone thinks it's perimenopause, but it's something else. But there's been almost no research on this. What's going on there?

HAVER: True. So, I'm -- we are going to be publishing the new perimenopause, the sister book to the new menopause early next year. And when I was digging into the research, so for pregnancy, for example, we have about 1.2 million articles with the word pregnancy in it. When you look at menopause, we have about 98,000. But when you look at perimenopause -- and articles.

Now, that being said, I am seeing day after day, I check the research every day of things that are published. Perimenopause is really starting to surge. I feel like we're about three years behind where we were with the menopause conversation, that perimenopause is really starting to get some of the attention it deserves.

BROWN: As it should, right, in my humble opinion, because it can last. And this was a surprise to me. It can last up to ten years and there's research showing --

HAVER: Yes, seven to ten years.

BROWN: Yes, I was shocked to learn that. And also that if you go on hormone replacement therapy in that timeframe, that that is really beneficial, right?

HAVER: It can be, especially in the mental health space. Some of the most of surprising research to me, but it really makes sense now that I just treat perimenopause and menopausal patients, one of the biggest findings we see is a doubling in the depression and anxiety rates across perimenopause. And so many women are finding that their hormones through the transition, they are having better cognitive outcomes and better mental health outcomes than rather starting them with an antidepressant or any anxiety medication first.

BROWN: Okay. And this was also the year that the crisis in funding women's health finally broke through, and you were just talking about, you're seeing more and more studies, for example, on perimenopause. There was this McKinsey report that found that diseases that mainly affect women, including women in menopause, receive far less research funding than male-dominated diseases. It found that federal investment is stagnating as the need accelerates.

HAVER: Yes.

BROWN: But Melinda French Gates committed a hundred million dollars to women's health innovation, which is very exciting.

So, overall, where are we on funding for women's health in this country?

HAVER: So, historically, it's not been great. You know, to quote Dr. Lisa Mosconi, women are owed centuries of research in diseases that primarily affect women. But also when we look at cardiovascular diseases, women have heart disease differently than men. And, you know, we're underrepresented in studies. We're underrepresented in clinical trials for certain medications. And so we're just taking how the drugs affect men and applying it to women, and we're seeing very different outcomes.

But the good news is that a lot of private entities are stepping up to start to fund women's health because when we have healthier women, we have a better population overall. You know, women are the wisdom keepers. Women are, you know, at this time of their lives, in their menopausal years, where they are trying to be CEOs, run companies, you know, manage families. And when they're healthier and have better cognition and mental health, they -- the whole population does better. So, it's a great investment.

BROWN: And to that point, more workplaces are making accommodations for women who are in menopause, right?

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Tell us about that.

HAVER: We are, right. So, we're seeing large companies starting to add menopause benefits to their care packages, which could include, you know, helping -- you know, we have a big -- we have -- we're underserving women in the menopause space because we don't have enough trained clinicians. So, we're seeing investments in companies providing menopause care. We're seeing companies starting to provide more menopause benefits, time off, resources available. And so it's pretty exciting.

BROWN: Yes, it certainly is.

All right, before I let you go, I also want to get your thoughts on how you think women could be impacted by the major cuts to Medicaid spending in rural communities.

HAVER: I -- you know, we already struggle across the country in smaller populated areas with having enough providers and enough expertise to treat women. You know, menopause affects all women if we live long enough. That's 51 percent of the population. And it's even in New York City, even in major metropolitan areas, it's difficult to find an educated provider. When we look in the rural areas, it's next to impossible.

One of the things I think that is exciting in this space is that these telemedicine companies are being developed specifically to serve women in perimenopause and menopause. And I think that's going to go a long way to help women get the care that they need.

BROWN: All right. Dr. Mary Claire Haver, great conversation, so important. Thank you so much, and happy holidays.

HAVER: You're so welcome. You too.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up, 2025 has been a big year for us here in The Situation Room. A look back at some of our favorite memories and a look ahead to 2026.

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STAFF SGT. MALIK CUNNINGHAM, U.S. ARMY: Happy holidays and Merry Christmas. My name is Staff Sergeant Malik Cunningham. I'm from Marietta, Georgia. Shout out to my mom, my dad, my wife, my brothers and sisters back at home. I hope to see you guys soon right after this rotation.

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BROWN: From the battle with stubborn inflation to a deceiving jobs market, 2025 had no shortage of major headlines from the world of business and finance.

BLITZER: So, which story came out on top? CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich counts down the top ten stories in business for 2025.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Trump's trade war sends shockwaves across global markets. Two popular companies made changes that court controversy. While another is facing its own challenges as its CEO goes DOGE, and the oracle of Omaha takes his final bow. These are the top business stories of 2025.

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YURKEVICH (voice over): Number ten, Warren Buffet retires. In May, a surprising announcement from America's most admired CEO.

WARREN BUFFET, CEO, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY: The time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer.

YURKEVICH: Buffett is stepping down after more than 60 years at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway. The famed investor is a towering figure in American finance. Now, 95, Buffett said no magic moments sparked the decision.

Number nine, a corporate facelift becomes an about-face.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't like it. I wish that they would keep the way that it is.

YURKEVICH: A new logo was a no-go for Cracker Barrel. It quickly backpedaled in August after online backlash, even from the Oval Office expressing outrage at the updated look. The company also canceled restaurant remodels, part of a turnaround plan for the struggling brand.

Number eight, target tanks. It was a walk-back of a different kind that put target in the crosshairs after a rollback of so-called DEI initiatives in January.

REV. JAMAL H. BRYANT, LEADING TARGET BOYCOTT OVER DEI POLICIES: It'd be less expensive and a less cost if they would just do right by humanity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Allow them to see our power.

YURKEVICH: Foot traffic fell 9 percent year-over-year in the next month due to a consumer boycott, another dent to earnings amid slumping sales and tariff pressure.

The company still hasn't recovered and CEO Brian Cornell is stepping down after 11 years on the job.

Number seven, Elon goes DOGE. It's been a tumultuous year for Tesla too. Elon Musk's company suffering slumping sales, stock price volatility, protests, and at times even vandalism.

Consumer backlash was aimed at must work with President Donald Trump's administration as part of the Department of Government Efficiency.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: He can't be penalized for being a patriot, and he's a great patriot.

YURKEVICH: Musk stepped away from the government in May. But despite a rocky year this fall --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With over 75 percent voting in favor.

YURKEVICH: -- Tesla shareholders showed a vote of confidence in the CEO, awarding him the biggest pay package in corporate history.

ELON MUSK, CEO, TESLA: If there's something incredible has done that competition should match, that something incredible was done.

YURKEVICH: That puts Elon Musk in the express lane to potentially become the world's first trillionaire.

Number six, sticky inflation.

TRUMP: Prices are coming down very substantially on groceries and things.

YURKEVICH: Despite what the president says and despite being a major factor in last year's election, inflation is still above 2 percent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With tariffs and all the things that are happening, there's a rise in cost.

YURKEVICH: Consumer sentiment is near record lows as Americans struggle with affordability.

Number five, the K-shaped economy or America's uneven recovery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're at the top of the K, you're pretty wealthy and you are doing pretty good right now. Stocks are near and all time high, and that's padding your bottom line. But if you are making less than a hundred thousand, you're not in that category.

[10:30:00] Inflation is really taking a bite and you are making some very difficult financial decisions right now.

YURKEVICH: Higher earners are weathering higher price --