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Trump, Netanyahu Set to Meet Amid Rising Middle East Tensions; Blizzard Conditions, Storms, Tornadoes Slam Parts of the U.S.; New DOJ Memo Details Pipe Bomb Suspect's Talks With FBI. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired December 29, 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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[10:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, full court press. President Trump ends the year with an aggressive effort meant to end wars in both Gaza and Ukraine and make good on one of his biggest campaign promises.

Plus, deadly chopper collision. Two helicopters slam into one another in midair causing both to plummet to the ground.

And a search renewed. It's been close to 12 years since Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 disappeared, but the time isn't stopping a new search effort from getting underway.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Pamela Brown is off today. You're in The Situation Room.

We begin this hour counting down to a critical meeting between President Trump and visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Just hours from now, the two leaders are set to sit down at President Trump's home in Mar-a-Lago amid growing tensions right now in the Middle East right now, as Israel continues its attacks on Lebanon and Syria.

Iran's president is speaking out in a new, very candid interview offering this stark message to Trump and Netanyahu. He says, we are at war, his word, war.

CNN White House Reporter Alayna Treene is joining us. She's here with me in The Situation Room right now. Alayna, this, as you know, will be the sixth time President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu have met just this year alone. What are they expected to talk about?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. This is a crucial meeting, Wolf, and it comes, of course, as we know that many Trump administration officials and those in the Middle East as well as the U.S. allies who have helped broker that initial ceasefire, that 20- point plan that went into effect back in October, they want to move this to phase two of the agreement. That is essentially the disarmament of Hamas, reconstruction in the enclave and setting up a post-war governance between Israel and Gaza. But the main thing is that there's a lot of issues that are still at play. And a lot of Trump administration officials have worried that Israel, and specifically Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is purposely taking steps to kind of slow walk going into this next phase.

I'd note that we know that the president's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, as well as his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, they have had a series of meetings, including some just a week or so ago with the Turks, the Qataris, the Egyptians, to try and really get into this phase two of the plan, but problems continue to persist. Part of this is that Israel has argued that they need the remaining hostages from Hamas, they need the remains of those remaining hostages to be returned. Some people say that's not possible, that they're actually going to be able to find them. There's also been continued fighting. We've seen Israel take out Hamas' -- one of their lead commanders. There's been some attacks on Palestinian civilians. So, that has made this ceasefire even more fragile at this state.

And then Hamas, for their part, they have said that they're willing to potentially store and freeze their weapons. A key question is whether or not that will be enough for Netanyahu. And then Netanyahu is also coming to this meeting today at Mar-a-Lago with the president, with some of his own agenda items, and that includes wanting to ensure that they are taking a strong position toward Iran, which as you just said they say that they can continue to be at war.

So, this is going to be a very crucial meeting. It was one that Netanyahu actually requested himself. But the big priority is to see how close they can get Israel to agreeing to this next phase of the ceasefire plan.

BLITZER: And, Alayna, as you know, there's been a real flurry of diplomacy happening down in Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, over the last 24 hours or so. Only yesterday, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, traveled there to meet with President Trump. What's the White House saying about those critically important talks?

TREENE: Yes. Look, that was a big day as well. And I will say even though Putin was, of course, not in Palm Beach, he didn't get a meeting with President Trump, he was very much present. His presence, I should say, was felt in that more than three-hour meeting with Trump and Zelenskyy yesterday.

[10:05:01]

The president talked to Putin before that meeting. He's talking to him this morning. I was told earlier this morning before all the Israeli news kicks off today.

Look, it was optimistic. We heard both Trump and Zelenskyy emerge from those meetings saying that they believe they're closer than ever than they have been throughout this entire process. But Zelenskyy said he believes that 90 percent of the terms have been agreed to, but it's that 10 percent that is still really the biggest issue. That includes land concession, security guarantees and also what will happen, what is the fate of one of Ukraine's biggest nuclear facilities. So, all of that still kind of leading to some skepticism about where they can actually make these concessions on both sides and how close they are to getting a peace proposal off to the finish line.

BLITZER: Lots going on, a lot of diplomacy right now.

Alayna Treene, you'll stay in touch with us, you promise?

TREENE: Always.

BLITZER: Okay. Thank you very, very much.

Also happening now, investigators are on the ground in New Jersey. They're trying to determine the cause of a deadly midair collision between two helicopters. The crash killed one pilot and seriously injured the other.

Here you see one of the choppers spitting out of control and falling through the sky. We're going to slow it down right now so you can see it again. Watch this. This happened yesterday in Hamilton, New Jersey. Witnesses saying they could not believe what they were seeing.

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SAL SILIPINO, WITNESS: I saw one go down and then I saw the other one go down and it was a little bit of disbelief. It's like, is that really happening?

DIANA CLEUFF, WITNESS: I hope they don't clip each other. And the minute I said it to myself, the impact occurred.

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BLITZER: The FAA now says only the pilots of both helicopters were on board when they collided.

Also right now, other important news we're following, a very powerful winter storm is moving across the United States, bringing blizzard conditions to Michigan. You see the blinding, the wind-driven snow sweeping through Marquette this morning. To parts of Iowa and Minnesota, where long stretches of Interstate-35, were shut down yesterday. The storm also spawned tornadoes in parts of Illinois, where intense winds ripped in entire roofs off homes and knocked out power. In Indiana, here you see sparks raining down from a transformer amid the swirling winds there. And this morning, more than 30 million people are under winter weather alerts from the Midwest to the northeast.

Let's go live right now to our Meteorologist Derek Van Dam. What's the latest, Derek?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, blizzard conditions, highway closures, power outages, and tornadoes. That's what this storm has brought as it races eastward. Look at the damage coming out of Decatur, Illinois. You can see right through the roofs of these homes that have been lifted off the top, and it's all thanks to this powerful, razor thin, cold front that is not only picking up winds to dangerous levels, but also dropping temperatures significantly.

Columbia, Missouri, yesterday set and tied a record high temperature of 71 degrees. Four hours later, it was snowing in that very location. Right now in St. Louis, it is 50 degrees colder than it was yesterday at this time. It is a sharp contrast and a very powerful system to produce that type of a temperature drop.

Here it is on the radar. Let's zoom into the upper parts of our country. This is Northern New England into the Great Lakes where we have millions under our winter weather alerts, including blizzard warnings and winter storm warnings downwind from Lake Superior and all the Great Lakes as well, reduced the availabilities to under a quarter of a mile in some locations from Traverse City along U.S. 131, southward into Grand Rapids, Michigan, and then a full-fledged ice storm that's already accumulated over a quarter inch of ice across portions of Northern New England into Maine, as well as Upstate New York and even into New Hampshire and Vermont.

So, the favorite snow belt areas downwind from Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. This is where we could pick up, get this, between two to three feet of snow once this arctic blast moves eastward off the eastern seaboard. We'll stay protected from the at least snowfall for the I-95 corridor. It will be rain this morning. But behind it, when the temperatures drop, the winds pick up. And you know what that means on this busy holiday season, Wolf, we have the potential to have some impacts on the major airports here from Boston to New York, all the way to Philly and D.C. with gusts over 45 miles per hour.

And you don't need to be a meteorologist to pick out the cold front on this map. Look at the temperature contrast and what it feels like on your skin. Look at Atlanta compared to Chicago, that's over 40 degrees. Wow.

BLITZER: All right. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam, thank you very, very much.

And still ahead, chilling new details about the man now accused of leaving pipe bombs around Washington, D.C., the night before the Capitol insurrection. What the U.S. Justice Department now says he told investigators about who he was targeting and his motivation.

Plus, we still don't know how long it will take for the U.S. Justice Department to release all of its files on Jeffrey Epstein despite a deadline days and days ago. We're going to hear from an attorney representing several Epstein survivors about where the process stands right now.

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Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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BLITZER: New this morning, prosecutors are now laying out new details about the man accused of placing two pipe bombs here in Washington, D.C., the day before the January 6th, 2021 Capitol riot. According to the Associated Press in a new Justice Department memo, prosecutors say Brian Cole Jr. told investigators he felt someone needed to speak up for people who he believed the 2020 presidential election, which Joe Biden won, of course, was stolen.

CNN Crime and Justice Correspondent Katelyn Polantz is here with me in The Situation Room. Katelyn, what more are we learning about this investigation?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, this is quite a lot of information that the Justice Department is putting out publicly now because they want to keep this man, Brian Cole Jr., detained. They want to keep him behind bars as they pursue a case against him and potentially take him to trial. They say that when he spoke to them on the day of his arrest, they say that while he initially denied being the person who allegedly planted those pipe bombs on January 5th, outside of both political headquarters in Washington on Capitol Hill, he eventually admitted.

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They say that he waived his rights. And when he was shown an image of himself on surveillance video that they say he was planting the bombs, he was speaking to the agents after two hours paused and then said, yes, it was him. He also admitted to being the owner of those Nike shoes. He said he threw them away, the shoes, that, for a very long time, the FBI was trying to point people to watch.

Now, the politics of this is very interesting as well. The FBI, the Justice Department, they've done an extensive amount of investigation around the alleged pipe bomber. And they say, this man, Brian Cole, living in Woodbridge, Virginia, was interested in the politics because he was watching YouTube and the internet leading up to and after the 2020 election and that he decided to go to this protest for Donald Trump knowing that his family did not know that he was doing that, and that he was doing it because he was interested in history, specifically things like the troubles in Ireland and wanted to take part in this idea that the election was stolen, that he was going to that protest specifically because he wanted to check it out.

They also have an extensive amount of information about the purchases he made and about those alleged pipe bombs, saying that he was shopping for them for years and bought all the parts in Virginia at places like Home Depot and Lowe's. Wolf?

BLITZER: I remember that day very vividly. I was obviously right here reporting what was going on. It was very, very scary, indeed.

All right, Katelyn Polantz, thank you very, very much.

Coming up, what we now know about the new effort to find Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 more than a decade after the plane disappeared without a trace.

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[10:20:00] BLITZER: More than a decade after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vanished from radar shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's Transport Ministry has now announced that a private marine robotics firm will resume a deep sea search for the Boeing 777 tomorrow morning.

CNN's Tom Foreman is joining us. He's here with me in The Situation Room. So, what's this new search about, Tom? How is it different from all the previous searches?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In some ways, it's the same. Ocean Infinity is the company behind it. They did this back in 2018 with no results. We don't have details on why exactly they've narrowed it into this one area, which is about the size of Connecticut, a little bit bigger, so pretty big but comparatively small for all the space out there. They will be using a fleet of underwater drones to look after this, and this is called a no fine, no fee deal. If they find something, they get $70 million. If they don't, they get nothing, as they try to take on what has become an enduring mystery.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Goodnight, Malaysian 370.

FOREMAN (voice over): Goodnight. Those were among the last words from the cockpit of the Malaysia air jet with 239 people aboard, the last words before authorities say it took an unexpected turn, flew out over the Indian Ocean and disappeared from radar.

HISAMMUDDIN BIN TUN HUSSEIN, MALAYSIAN ACTING MINISTER OF TRANSPORTATION: We are trying to do everything in our powers to find where the plane is.

FOREMAN: A massive international search followed with planes and ships scouring thousands of square miles, each development bringing hope to desperate families.

SARAH BAJC, PARTNER WAS ON BOARD MISSING PLANE: If it's the plane, then we'll all be devastated, but we can at least grieve properly and go on with our lives.

FOREMAN: But hours turn to days, days to weeks, still nothing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm looking for my husband and I want to know what happened to him.

FOREMAN: The search moved underwater with high tech robotic subs and sensors probing the rugged darkness almost three miles beneath the surface of the Indian Ocean. The government reached for answers. Families grieved even more.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They really don't care about how we feel or what we have to say.

FOREMAN: An official report laid out what was known, but --

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR AT LARGE: What it doesn't tell us is who did what, where, when, and why on the night.

JIM TILMON, AVIATION EXPERT: I've been trying to come up with every scenario I could to just explain this away, but I haven't been very successful.

FOREMAN: The theory seemed endless. The captain had a flight simulator at home. For a while, questions swirled around whether he and the co-pilots might have cut communications and intentionally ditched the plane. The idea of a hijacker or terrorists taking over and crashing, it came up too. Mechanical questions appeared in media everywhere. Did batteries in the cargo hold catch fire? Did the pressurization fail? What if all the power went out, everything went dark and everything failed? There was no proof for any of it. Just scattered evidence coupled with speculation about how long the jet flew, which direction and where it might have come down. More than a year after the disappearance, a few parts washed up along the African coast.

BAJC: Well, if ultimately this is a piece of the wing, then that little thread of hope that I've been holding onto will have to break.

FOREMAN: But still no answers about a plane that vanished 39 minutes after takeoff.

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FOREMAN (on camera): The thing is there have been consistently small clues, Wolf, that have pointed to this thing or that thing that haven't been able to be entirely dismissed, nor have they led to an answer.

[10:25:02]

But I want to point this out because it's an interesting measurement. This thing is two and a half miles down, even if they search an area as big as Connecticut and do it very, very well. Remember, the Titanic was much, much bigger and it took 73 years to find that, and they knew where it went down.

Yes, technology has advanced a lot, but this is a big challenge. So, it's good they're looking again. I would not think people should get their hopes up.

BLITZER: Excellent reporting, as usual. Tom Foreman, thank you very, very much.

I want to get some more analysis right now on what's going on. Joining us, the CNN transportation analyst and former Transportation Department inspector general, Mary Schiavo. Mary, thanks so much for joining us.

So, so many years later, where does a search like this even begin?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Well, the search begins really where it left off with the mysterious pings, with what we called back then the handshakes from Inmarsat with great amounts of data all analyzed by computers, which literally get better by the minute, and then, obviously, some additional information that was provided by the Coast Guards of the world, including the United States Coast Guard, about drift theories and where things could have drifted over time.

So, this new search picks up what left off with computer-assisted data, and that's where it's going to resume, hopefully with much better data to help them analyze where to look. And then they have new submersibles, which is a tremendous improvement.

BLITZER: So, Mary, realistically, is there any chance of finding something new right now? Didn't investigators use underwater drones last time around?

SCHIAVO: Yes, they did. And I guess the big -- one of the biggest issues last time around was, of course, that the Malaysian government, there was this, you know, big announcement that it turned off, the communications had been turned off. Yes, you can't tell that unless you find this -- you actually find the systems and they lost contact with it when in fact it was visible on military radar. A huge difference between what was originally reported and how the facts came out. So they have analyzed that.

And what they hope to find is any clue what happened to the plane and what happened to the people and even pieces and parts. Remember when they found the flapper on a few years ago, was a piece of the wing, and that was hugely important because it showed signs of twist and it showed sign perhaps of a violent crash from the air, not quietly settling on the ocean sinking down. Any burn marks on any piece that they can find will be very helpful because those lithium ion batteries remained a huge issue.

And if they would get so fortunate to find parts of the plane, you know, was the cockpit door still findable and locked? And everyone, of course, always talks about the black boxes. If they could find them this many years, you know, over a decade underwater, if they could find them and get any data, it would be a remarkable record-setting thing, but that's very, very doubtful. They're not very big and seawater has made its intrusion by now.

BLITZER: What lesson, Mary, do you think the aviation industry has learned from this?

SCHIAVO: Well, they did learn some lessons. We can honestly say that some things have changed. There are now new tracking rules as you fly around the world. Most countries put in strict limits on lithium ion batteries in a cargo hold. Remember, this cargo hold was full of them, that and mangosteens. So, those requirements have increased.

While there is absolutely no evidence, there's a lot of speculation that it was pilot suicide, more emphasis has been put on pilot mental health after this accident, of course, then German Wings, the suicide accident. So, some things have changed. I mean, what hasn't changed is the ocean. It's big and vast. And if people who are supposed to monitor the planes and follow that radar aren't at their duty stations doing their jobs, all the equipment in the world isn't going to help when you have to go look for a plane in a vast ocean, you know, in the dark underwater.

But some lessons have been learned and applied, but there are a lot more improvements that can be made.

BLITZER: One final question, Mary. This was a Boeing 777, a 777, a state of the art jumbo jet. What lessons has Boeing learned from this?

SCHIAVO: Well, hopefully, many. But at that time, there were -- you know, there were some issues, this was over ten years ago that there had been some breaches, antennas had torn away and stopped the power system allowed rapid decompressions, et cetera. There were other issues concerning the communications and the security, the cockpit door, which, of course, is not relevant if this was not an act of suicide. And, again, there was no concrete evidence of that.

But, you know, Boeing had this lesson where Boeing really was -- it was part of the investigation team. But because there was no aircraft, the focus really wasn't on Boeing. I think Boeing learned a lot more lessons after the crash of the two 737 MAX 8s.

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But for this one, the focus was, you know, unfortunately, on the pilots and the pilot suicide theory, and on the reason why it was technically missing and why they allowed --