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The Situation Room

Netflix Criticized Over NFL Broadcast; Zelenskyy and Trump Set to Meet; Interview With Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired December 26, 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]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: How do you -- how do you answer that when you hear that?

JUAN PERALTA, BORDER PATROL RECRUIT: They didn't come in the right way, so they aren't my kind.

CULVER (voice-over): Juan's story may surprise you. Latino, the son of an immigrant, raised in a border town. But here, we find that's more common than you might think.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many of you are fluent in Spanish right now?

CULVER: CBP says more than half of their agents serving along the southern border are Hispanic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who was born and raised along the border? Yes, good. Good group.

CULVER: To better understand what motivates them to join, we go to El Paso, Texas.

ZIPPORAH RIOS, EL PASO RESIDENT: We have friends who like, oh, they're siblings who are in Border Patrol or like they're going into Border Patrol.

ANGIE PRADO, EL PASO RESIDENT: I have a cousin actually that's in Georgia getting -- doing the training to do Border Patrol, and then come back here.

CULVER: Increasingly, Border Patrol agents are being pulled into ICE operations far from the border, controversial and, at times, violent

(on camera): Is that the Border Patrol you know? Is that what you're accustomed to here?

PRADO: From what I have seen on social media, that definitely doesn't look like something our Border Patrol would be doing or how they would be behaving.

CULVER: And do you think most of them are motivated by it being a good career opportunity?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think so.

PRADO: For sure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

PRADO: For sure.

CULVER (voice-over): And just as they can see why some here sign up for Border Patrol, they also sympathize with migrants trying to do it the right way, legally.

PRADO: And then you see people that are getting arrested at court because they're like going through their...

RIOS: They're trying to go through the process of trying to get their citizenship and doing it the "right way" -- quote, unquote.

PRADO: And they still get detained.

CULVER (on camera): Don't -- no.

PRADO: Sorry. You know, I get emotional.

CULVER (voice-over): We see that in the halls just outside of El Paso's immigration courtrooms where volunteers prepare folks for their hearings.

(on camera): So we're going to go see somebody who just stepped out of court here and might be detained by the federal agents, which is an ICE initiative, but we're told Border Patrol agents are supporting this.

(voice-over): You can hear one of the volunteers praying aloud. They took the son into custody, and then step back out, realizing his mother was also on their list.

SIGRID GONZALEZ, MIGRANT ADVOCATE: And you see the cruelty. I think this is violence. Them just standing right here is violence.

CULVER (on camera): You really wonder, why are they doing this?

GONZALEZ: Yes. I do get upset. And I just tell them, this mom, this family, they're not criminals.

CLAUDIO HERRERA, U.S. BORDER PATROL AGENT: I'm not going after my own kind because my own kind will do it legally.

CULVER (voice-over): Born in Mexico, Agent Claudio Herrera first came to the U.S. as a student. He says it took him 11 years to become a citizen.

And six years ago, he joined the Border Patrol.

HERRERA: I have been asked sometimes before in my -- in my past, aren't you ashamed of being apprehending your own blood?

CULVER: What do you say to that? How do you answer that?

HERRERA: I say, of course not, because I'm protecting my community. My deepest advice to anybody that is coming from Mexico, we know that you want a better future for you and your family. But if you decide to do it illegally, you will only find jail or you will only find death.

CULVER (on camera): We found that even with all the debate and tension right now around deporting migrants, interest in joining the agency has not necessarily dropped off.

But most of the potential candidates we spoke with stressed that deportations are not what's attracting them to border patrol. Instead, they pointed to the new financial incentives, efforts to stop drugs from getting into the U.S., and what one candidate described as a job that means both enforcing the law and, as he sees it, helping migrants navigate legal pathways into the U.S.

David Culver, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And thanks to David for that excellent, excellent report.

Joining us now, the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass.

Mayor Bass, thanks so much for joining us.

Let me -- we have several issues I want to discuss, the major storms in California shortly. But, first, let me get your reaction to that report from David Culver we just heard. What did you think?

KAREN BASS (D), MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Well, in a way, I think it's sad. I think that those Border Patrol agents are going to have a difficult time when they're out in the field and they see what actually happens in real life, separate from their training.

But I do understand that their primary incentive is financial. I think it just speaks to the financial situation that millions of Americans find themselves in. And I definitely am concerned about that report.

BLITZER: I also want to get your reaction, Mayor, to President Trump's decision to send more U.S. National Guard troops to various American cities.

The Supreme Court recently blocked President Trump from deploying the National Guard to Chicago to protect ICE agents. And your reaction to that, and what do you think all this means for Los Angeles, which the president has previously targeted with troops?

[11:35:09]

BASS: Well, first of all, as you remember Wolf, we were the beginning of the experiment before they decided to take it nationally and before they decided to attempt to normalize military intervention in our cities.

So I am pleased at the court decision. We didn't have a similar court decision for Los Angeles, but I certainly hope it means that now troops will not be able to be deployed other areas as well. If they do come back to Los Angeles, I do think that this case would allow us to go back to court.

And, hopefully, this practice will be banned nationwide, because there is not a need in any of these cities to have military intervention.

BLITZER: The Louisiana governor, Jeff Landry, a Republican, just announced that hundreds of newly activated National Guard troops will head to New Orleans before New Year's Eve. Do you think there is any role for the federal law enforcement officials in municipal policing, specifically when the state and federal government are trying to work together?

BASS: Well, absolutely, there is a role. There is a role when it is needed.

The question is that I do not believe in any of these cases that this was needed, because, remember, Wolf, in Los Angeles, on June 5, everything was just fine in our city. Disruption did not begin until there was intervention. And I would suggest that the same thing was true in other cities.

You have the National Guard coming into cities, causing the disruption. And it is not surprising to me that a Republican governor would back something like this. I doubt seriously that the Democratic mayor would do this. And then I think we need to look at what cities he is going after.

They are all Democratic mayors. To me, this is political. It is nothing more than that. And I think its greatest danger is if the American public begins to say, yes, OK, we have the military in our cities, something that has not happened.

As we go into the 250-year anniversary of our country's founding, this is really a time to reflect on what led to our government forming to begin with.

BLITZER: Let me turn to this massive storm that's now hitting various parts of California. The state is bracing for more rain after two major storms have already devastated parts of Southern California on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, for that matter.

Recovery efforts are under way after the torrential downpour caused widespread flooding, leaving cars and homes covered with debris and mud. Mayor Bass, we have seen evacuation and shelter-in-place orders over the past two days. What is the current advice for residents in Los Angeles? You're the mayor.

BASS: Well, fortunately, it is beginning to subside, but you are correct. I mean, this was a great weather event for our city. We haven't had this much rain at this time of the year in decades. And so, needless to say, our greatest concern were those areas that --

where the wildfires were in the city of Los Angeles. That is Palisades and other areas outside of the city. That's Malibu and Altadena. So we were worried about the burn scars and massive mudslides.

I am happy to say that that did not occur, but that was the reason for the evacuation orders. And we hope that this subsides. But this amount of rain over so many days does weaken the earth. And so we will be worried about mudslides for some time.

BLITZER: What resources, Mayor, have been deployed to help with recovery efforts in the L.A. area? And are you in contact with state and federal officials about the response?

BASS: Yes, absolutely. We are in contact.

I issued an emergency declaration a couple of days ago, and that essentially unlocked all of the city resources that we need, as well as called upon the governor to support as well. But, of course, the governor declared a state of emergency as well, which means our two declarations work hand in hand together.

BLITZER: Well, good luck to you. Good luck, Mayor. Good luck to all the folks in Los Angeles and in Southern California.

BASS: Thank you.

BLITZER: We're watching it. First, there were fires, then floods and more rain and all this. It's an awful situation. We need, obviously, some better luck right now.

Mayor, thank you very much for joining us.

BASS: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: And coming up: the key sticking points Ukrainian President Zelenskyy could be shifting his position on right now, as he's pushing to end four years of deadly warfare.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:44:13]

BLITZER: New this morning, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, now says he's preparing to meet with President Trump in Florida on Sunday, this coming Sunday.

Zelenskyy is signaling that Ukraine may -- repeat -- may be willing to compromise on withdrawing its troops along at least some of the front lines with Russia in the east.

Joining us now, retired U.S. General Wesley Clark. He's the former NATO supreme allied commander.

General, thanks so much for joining us.

Are we seeing potentially a major concession here from President Zelenskyy?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, it looks like it might be a significant concession, but, as I read, it also requires Russian parallel withdrawal from the other side.

[11:45:00]

And, of course, President Zelenskyy doesn't really have the constitutional authority to agree to a withdrawal from terrain. So this is part of the ongoing negotiating process. And, Wolf, it's a very interesting process, because President Zelenskyy knows he has to work with President Trump.

President Trump just wants an agreement. It's up to President Zelenskyy and our European allies to make sure that agreement is enforceable and will endure. And, on the other side, Putin will take what he can get. He doesn't want to get backed into a corner.

He'd love to have all of Ukraine. That's still the objective. And so -- but he doesn't want any tougher action against him by President Trump. So it's a sort of three-quarter game, with the Europeans on the outside the sandbox right now helping Zelenskyy.

We just don't know how this is going to end up.

BLITZER: Good point.

As we see these negotiations over Ukraine slowly making, at least we hope, some progress, there has been a little further discussion about Ukraine and NATO. You're the former NATO supreme allied commander. What does that say to you and does it concern you?

CLARK: It's in the Ukrainian Constitution to eventually become part of NATO. So we're a long way from getting an agreement, Wolf.

Really, this is -- if you look at how Putin would view this, he uses diplomacy to split the United States from Europe and from Ukraine. And so, for him, it's a game. Now, if he gets something out of it, that's fine. But the ongoing process, it reinforces Russian power over the negotiating adversaries.

And he gets information from this and he hopes to divide people. Maybe he gets something. So we're a long way from this. But I do think, ultimately, that Ukraine will be part of NATO if it's to have a viable security architecture in Europe.

BLITZER: And I'm sure the NATO allies, at least most of them, want Ukraine to be a member of NATO. But we shall see.

No matter what the U.S. and Ukraine work out right now, General, is there any indication that Russia is ready to budge on its demands?

CLARK: There's really no indication of this, and -- but various Russian spokesmen always sort of hint, well, we will take this seriously, we will look at it. And then the next one will come and say, no, that's preposterous. We would never agree to it. And then, if necessary, President Putin will say, no, it's absolutely unacceptable. And so it's a game. It goes back and forth. And the whole idea is to put pressure on Ukraine, to distract, to divide, to weaken the will to resist. And then, of course, if Ukraine's government collapses as a result of this, it's great for Russia.

And -- but they're losing nothing from it, whereas it's a continuing, daily challenge for Ukraine and European allies.

BLITZER: After the Zelenskyy meeting with President Trump on Sunday in Florida, the president is also expected to meet the next day with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, also in Florida. Is this a kind of a punctuation mark on Trump's foreign policy during this first year of his second term?

CLARK: He's certainly done a lot, Wolf.

And the thing about it is, there's a lot of movement, but there's not a lot of, let's say, finality, final, real progress. If you take Gaza, for example, Hamas is reconstituting. Israel's still going after Hezbollah. Iran still wants its nuclear program back.

So it seemed like a lot happened and there was a cessation, a certain phase one there, but it wasn't finished. The danger is, if this goes to Ukraine, of course. And as the Ukrainians always say, if they stop fighting, there's no Ukraine.

If you want the war in Ukraine to end, all Putin has to do is stop fighting. It will end immediately. So it's the way President Trump is juggling balls. He's pushing things. He's saying things that make it look like there's progress.

And we can only hope that there will be progress. But if you look around at Rwanda and the DRC, they're still fighting, in Thailand versus Cambodia, active tensions there. So many of the areas where he has claimed progress, it's progress, but it's not solid and it's reversible at any time.

Even in the case of Kosovo, for example, there's reported to be a group of Serbs who fought with the Russians in Ukraine come back and set up a battle plan in Southern Serbia to be able to reconquer Kosovo, which has people in Kosovo concerned.

[11:50:07]

So it's an unstable time geopolitically around the world. And we haven't talked about Venezuela yet.

BLITZER: Yes, well, give me a thought, a quick thought, on Venezuela.

CLARK: It's possible that the pressure will force Maduro to leave, but he's got a lot of running room before he does that.

So I think we're going to see a continuing presence of U.S. forces there, continuing to chase oil tankers. Hopefully, putting financial pressure will get him out of there, but it's a very expensive operation for the U.S. military down there. And that aircraft carrier needs a break, got to get it back into port and do some servicing.

BLITZER: All right, General Wesley Clark, as usual, thank you very, very much.

And, to our viewers, we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:55:20]

BLITZER: Football fans had some notes for Netflix after the streamer's NFL broadcast on Christmas Day appeared to leave some viewers rather frustrated.

One issue fans appeared to take issue with, a mid-game interview with former players.

Joining us now is Emmy Award-winning journalist Segun Oduolowu.

Segun, thanks so much for joining us.

This isn't the first time Netflix has found itself in some hot water over its live broadcast coverage. So where does the streamer go from here?

SEGUN ODUOLOWU, JOURNALIST AND MEDIA PERSONALITY: Happy holidays, Wolf. Thank you for having me.

And you are 100 percent correct. Netflix as a streamer is dipping its toes into the live broadcast, and it's been having problems because the system is crashing, especially with something as big as the NFL, as big as the Dallas Cowboys, and also the teams it's putting together to cover these games.

I think because they only do a couple games once one time a year, they need to go back to the drawing board and look for chemistry. The best NFL broadcasts have groups that have been together for a long time. They do it week in and week out. And Netflix only doing it on Christmas needs to figure out who's going to work best in the booth and who's going to work best on the field.

BLITZER: Yes, good point indeed.

Do you expect to see more games and more live events on the Netflix platform?

ODUOLOWU: Absolutely. They are the biggest, baddest bullies in the block. There is a lot of eyeballs, which is what crashes the system, and they're never going to go away from having eyeballs.

We have seen it with the Jake Paul boxing. We have seen it with live comedy shows, and the NFL is the biggest sport in America, so you -- and they have paid a lot of money for these games, so they are going to keep showing live sports. There's a lot of money, as I have said, invested in that.

They're going to also have to reinvest money into who is calling the games and the overall production to make it better.

BLITZER: Yes, good point indeed.

While some spent their holiday watching sports, I was among them, others went to the movies. What stood out at the box office over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day?

ODUOLOWU: Well, if the NFL is the biggest, baddest sporting event in our country, "Avatar" is the biggest movie in the world right now. It's pushing past the $500 million mark. It dominated Christmas Eve. It's dominated since it came out a week ago last Friday, and it's not -- there's no slowing down.

It is the third installment. It is beautiful. It is big. It is everything you want in a holiday movie that has intellectual property that we have been following. And, again, audiences are flocking to it. We have had this conversation before, Wolf.

There isn't a lot out there to challenge it. Timothee Chalamet has a movie, "Marty Supreme," that's out there that has fared kind of wealth in its smaller release, but nothing is touching "Avatar." "Fire and Ash" is burning down the landscape.

BLITZER: While I have you, Segun, I also want to talk about another story we have all been following over these past several days, the tragic, very sad death of the Hollywood icon Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele.

Director, Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese penned an emotional op-ed of "The New York Times" on Christmas Day.

And he writes -- and I'm quoting now -- "What happened to Rob and Michele is an obscenity, an abyss in lived reality. So like all of their loved ones and their friends, and these were people with many, many friends, I have to be allowed to imagine them alive and well and that one day I will be at a dinner or a party and find myself seated next to Rob and I will hear his laugh and see his beautiful face and laugh at his stories and relish his natural comic timing and feel lucky all over again to have him as a friend" -- end quote.

How are these deaths shaping Hollywood right now and beyond, for that matter? What do you think?

ODUOLOWU: Wolf, as you can see, I'm not in studio with you. And behind me, I'm in my living room with our Christmas tree and pictures of my family.

You took the quote that I was going to speak about. The obscenity of the deaths of the Reiners is hitting Hollywood so hard because, at this time of year, this is when families come together. This violent act has torn a family apart and torn apart the fabric of Hollywood with a person that's been at the center of it for decades and through his family even longer, for more than half-a-century.

[12:00:05] And so you're seeing this outpouring of love. You're seeing this outpouring of remorse because this is the time of year that we remember and we're thankful for what we have. Now we're sorrowful for what we have lost in the deaths of Rob and Michele Reiner.

BLITZER: Yes, we are.

All right, Segun, thank you very, very much. Always good to have you here with me in THE SITUATION ROOM. Appreciate it very much.

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

"INSIDE POLITICS," today with our friend and colleague Phil Mattingly, starts right now.

Have a wonderful weekend.