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The Situation Room

Brigitte Bardot Dies; Trump and Putin Speak; Dangerous Products on Shelves Following Recall?; Trump Set to Meet With Netanyahu. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired December 29, 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]

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

Well, so Kroger, which was the chain where our colleague Brenda found this, and noted that -- quote -- "When the recall was issued, we urgently removed the affected product and immediately placed a block at the point of sale to make it impossible for a customer to purchase the recalled item."

So, they're saying that, if somebody had taken this off the shelf and taken it to the register, they shouldn't have been able to buy it. They didn't say why it was still on the shelves there, Wolf.

And the FDA, in fact, says that it sent warning letters to Kroger and three other retailers December 12 after it found that there were still products on shelves across the United States. They said that the 4,000 inspectors, or at least inspections, had been done across the United States, and they found this.

So this is something that is very concerning. There are lists of recalls on the FDA's Web site. And also for consumer products, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, they have a list of recalls. And especially if folks are thinking about buying something secondhand, a baby product, a toy, a sleeping item, something like that, they should check there to make sure it's not on the recalled list -- Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Yes, good point.

All right, Meg, thank you very, very much.

Meg Tirrell reporting.

Also happening now, the CDC reports that flu cases are on the rise across the United States. As of December 16, the agency estimated infections were growing or likely growing, get this, in 47 states and only likely declining in Hawaii. One of the hardest-hit states is New York. The Health Department there has said it just experienced its highest number of flu cases ever recorded in a single week, more than 71,000 new flu cases in New York state.

Just ahead here in THE SITUATION ROOM: President Trump is scheduled to meet with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. That's coming up early this afternoon down at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. Concerns about the cease-fire with Hamas and Iran's growing missile

program are expected to be front and center.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:36:18]

BLITZER: As President Trump prepares to sit down this afternoon with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran is all but certain to cast a significant shadow over their meeting.

In a new interview, Iran's president says he's in a -- quote -- "full- fledged war" with the West and that the U.S., Israel and Europe don't want his country to -- quote -- "stand on its feet."

Let's discuss this and more with the former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren.

Ambassador, thanks very much for joining us.

First of all, what's your reaction to these latest remarks from the Iranian president?

MICHAEL OREN, FORMER ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: Good to be with you, as always, Wolf.

Well, Iranians are reverting to form. Stand on their own two feet means threatening the state of Israel with destruction. It means threatening pro-Western governments throughout the Middle East, threatening them with ballistic missiles, which the Iranians are assiduously rebuilding after last summer's war, which reduced their missile capacity, and perhaps even rebuilding those nuclear facilities that were significantly destroyed or, to use President Trump's word, obliterated.

BLITZER: CNN is now reporting that White House officials think Prime Minister Netanyahu is -- quote -- "slow-walking" the peace process. Trump has even reportedly grown wary of Israel's actions.

What's your response to those concerns?

OREN: Well, I think that they're -- they have a foot in reality, that there are differences of opinion on how to proceed on Gaza.

It's very complicated because the Israeli military is occupying 53 percent of the Gaza Strip. And the other half is occupied by Hamas still. Hamas will not disarm, won't give up its arms. And President Trump wants to show movement.

He wants to show that the international stabilization force, which he has envisioned, will move into that area that is now controlled by Israel. And Israel is basically saying, President -- Prime Minister Netanyahu is saying, that he doesn't want to withdraw IDF forces until Hamas disarms, because you get a situation where Hamas could start shooting over the head of that international stabilization force, using it as a human shield. And Israel will then be in a situation where it is going to be shooting at the force, and not at Hamas. So it gets very, very complicated. There's also a difference of opinion about what constitutes a violation of the cease-fire. If Israeli soldiers are wounded by Hamas, that's a major issue in Israel, whereas, in the White House, it may say, well, maybe that's unfortunate, but it's no reason to break the cease-fire.

So there are many issues relating to Gaza itself, but it's also issues, perhaps difference of opinion over Lebanon and Syria and, as we mentioned earlier, about Iran.

BLITZER: Yes, major tensions between the U.S. and Israel right now.

President Trump is expected to push Prime Minister Netanyahu on what's called phase two of the cease-fire agreement in Gaza. And that would involve Hamas handing over weapons and Israel pulling back its forces. Do you think Netanyahu should agree to this?

OREN: I think it puts Netanyahu in a very difficult position, because, as of today, no one can actually say who's going to take those weapons away from Hamas.

There's a sense that maybe the Iraq -- the Turks and the Qataris, who support Hamas, will be able to pressure Hamas to give up their weapons, but no one's quite certain of that. And so there's a situation where Hamas still has its guns, you have the international stabilization force, which is supposed to move into that area, but can't as long as Hamas remained armed.

So, again, President Trump wants to show movement. He's got his own political issues at home within his own MAGA movement, people saying, why are you spending so much time on Gaza, on Ukraine, on Venezuela and not living up to your promise to put America first? I think President Trump has to show movement.

[11:40:00]

But that movement may be resisted by Prime Minister Netanyahu if he perceives that that movement will endanger Israel's security.

BLITZER: The former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, thanks, as usual, for joining us.

OREN: Thank you. Happy new year, Wolf.

BLITZER: Happy new year to you too.

And coming up: Just hours after President Trump met with The Ukrainian president, Zelenskyy, at Mar-a-Lago, Russia now accusing Kyiv of attacking a residence owned by Vladimir Putin.

More on that coming up. Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: There's breaking news right now.

President Trump just wrapped up a phone call with Russia's Vladimir Putin. And it comes a day after Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Mar-a-Lago to discuss a potential peace deal.

CNN senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen is joining us once again.

You're getting new information, Fred. What do we know about this phone conversation between Trump and Putin and new accusations from Russia right now that Ukraine tried to attack one of Putin's houses inside Russia?

[11:45:13]

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Wolf.

Yes, most of the information that we're getting right now is from the Russians -- from the U.S. side. From the White House side, we're only hearing that the call was positive. The Russians, however, have already held not a readout, but they had a phone call with one of the senior Kremlin aides, Yuri Ushakov, with several members of the press.

And what Ushakov said there is that this alleged drone attack on one of Putin's residences in Novgorod, which is, I would say, about two- thirds of the way between Moscow and St. Petersburg, that that was apparently one of the big topics of this call.

Again, right now, we're only hearing from the Russian side. We haven't heard details from the U.S. side yet. But the Russians are saying that Putin informed President Trump about this attack, that allegedly President Trump was shocked by this attack, and that Putin also said that this attack would not go unanswered, as he put it, obviously alluding to the fact that there might be retaliatory strikes on the part of the Russians on Ukrainian territory.

But, importantly, Wolf, the Russians apparently also saying, Putin also saying to President Trump that the Russians would now rethink and revisit their negotiating position with the Ukrainians. Obviously, that's something that could have big effects on President Trump's efforts to try and end the conflict in Ukraine.

And, again, we're still waiting for the U.S. readout of this call. And at the same time, we do have to point out that the Ukrainians have unequivocally denied being behind any sort of drone attack on a residence of Vladimir Putin, the Ukrainians saying that they believe this could be a pretext by the Russians to strike Ukraine -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Fred Pleitgen reporting for us from Berlin.

Fred, thank you very much.

I want to bring in CNN military analyst the retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton right now.

Colonel, thanks very much for joining us.

What's your view of these latest developments?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, they're quite interesting and quite dynamic, Wolf, because what you're looking at here is, if this attack actually did happen, this attack on one of Putin's residences in Novgorod, that, of course, would be quite an escalation.

Now, there is the possibility of a false flag operation going on here, that the Russians did this in order to delay peace talks and to move things forward according to their timeline. But it looks like there are going to be some real difficulties reaching an actual cease-fire agreement or even a peace agreement just because of these situations that are developing right now.

BLITZER: And after meeting with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at Mar-a-Lago yesterday, President Trump said there are still thorny issues that need to be resolved. What is he alluding to? And are there any indications at all that President Zelenskyy is willing to formally concede some Ukrainian territory to Russia, as the Russians are demanding?

LEIGHTON: Yes, so I think one of the thorniest issues is exactly that, is territory.

And one of the aspects that Zelenskyy has kind of given way on, at least to an extent, is the idea of giving up some territory in the eastern part of Ukraine. But that territory would become part of a demilitarized zone. The Russian forces would withdraw basically to an equal distance as the Ukrainian forces, and that would mean that there would be the possibility of developing an area where there could be peacekeeping forces from a third country or several third countries in there.

So that's the kind of thing that Zelenskyy is looking to do. Whether or not that actually happens really depends on the Russians. And it looks increasingly unlikely that they will agree to that.

BLITZER: While I have you, Colonel Leighton, I want to get to another important topic that's unfolding right now, China's military announcing today it's mobilizing units around Taiwan for -- quote -- this is -- I'm quoting now China -- "major military drills aimed at sending a serious warning against any push for Taiwanese independence."

How notable do you think this development is?

LEIGHTON: I think it's quite notable.

Now, it is basically a rehash of some of the things that the Chinese have done in the past. In the last year, we have had several instances where the Chinese have basically encircled Taiwan, and they have done it with some of their most sophisticated and modern weaponry.

So, what they're doing is, they're testing not only the weaponry itself, but their ability to conduct command-and-control operations and to really control and make possible an invasion -- a possible invasion of Taiwan. So they're definitely practicing for this. Whether or not they actually do that is another issue.

It looks as if President Xi of China is not going to pull the trigger on this right now, but he's definitely getting ready to do so. And the Chinese capabilities are increasing. And they have definitely increased so over the last few years.

BLITZER: On that point, the Chinese military also said these exercises seek to deter what they call external forces from interfering with Taiwan.

Who are the Chinese talking about here and how do you expect the United States could respond?

LEIGHTON: So the United States is definitely one of those external forces, and it is actually the main external force that China is focused on. They're also focused on Japan, because the Japanese under the new prime minister have made some moves that indicate that they would support Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.

[11:50:04]

But as far as the United States' response to something like this, the most bellicose response, if you will, would be for the Seventh Fleet, which is the fleet that's stationed in the Pacific, to move into that area and to basically prevent the Chinese from moving forward. That's a lot harder to do than it was in 1996, when we actually did that under Bill Clinton as president.

But the U.S. has the possibility of responding that way, or they also have the possibility of not doing anything. And that's definitely one of the things that concerns Taiwanese leaders right now.

BLITZER: Potentially a very, very dangerous situation unfolding right now.

Before I let you go, Colonel, President Trump said the U.S. had taken out what he's describing as a big facility last week as part of a pressure campaign against Venezuela here in the Caribbean. We don't have many details on this, but how significant of an escalation potentially could this be?

LEIGHTON: It depends on the nature of the facility and what it is. If it's an intelligence site or a military site, that could be something that would implicate not only the U.S. in going after a possible cartel, but also going after the Venezuelan government.

And if there were others that were involved, such as Cuban intelligence operatives and people like that, that were targeted as part of this, that could escalate tensions not only with Venezuela, but also with Cuba. So this is definitely a development to watch for and to see whether or not there is going to be more of an escalation in the Caribbean.

BLITZER: Yes, lots of tensions around the world right now.

All right, Colonel Leighton, thank you very, very much. Happy New Year to you.

LEIGHTON: Happy New Year, Wolf.

BLITZER: And still to come, a look back at the life of an icon, Brigitte Bardot, how she reshaped fame, beauty and rebellion during her 91 years.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:56:22]

BLITZER: Finally this hour: The legendary French actress and animal rights advocate Brigitte Bardot has died.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, called her a legend of the century and said she embodied a life of freedom. Bardot was 91.

CNN's Stephanie Elam has a closer look at her life and career.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Brigitte Bardot attacked everything she did in life with brute force and fierce passion, and it was that quality, along with her flawless face, that made her one of the most captivating in the world.

BRIGITTE BARDOT, ACTRESS: Always, I am myself, really myself. Even when I am playing, I don't play, I am myself.

ELAM: A testament to her exceptional star power, the French icon didn't need to come to Hollywood to capture the hearts of American audiences. She played only bit parts in a few English-language films, including 1956's "Helen of Troy"...

BARDOT: Shall I tell the king you said that?

ELAM: ... and 1965's "Dear Brigitte," in which she played herself opposite Jimmy Stewart.

BARDOT: May I join you?

JIMMY STEWART, ACTOR: Well, you certainly may.

BARDOT: You know, I haven't met a fellow out here in more than a year that wasn't flat broke.

ELAM: Always one to leave them wanting, the actress turned her back on the flashing lights at age 38, making her final film in 1973. But her star continued to shine. Bardot's effortless glamour situated her among art and fashion royalty.

It was her influence that brought the bikini out of obscurity. Her classic bouffant still inspires copycats. Her face inspired Warhol and became the likeness of France's national emblem, Marianne, goddess of liberty.

Bardot first became an international sensation after starring in Roger Vadim's French New Wave film "And God Created Woman."

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: You'd make a good wife, wouldn't you?

BARDOT: I suppose so, someday.

ELAM: Vadim, so enchanted by the young siren, married her when she was just 18 years old. The marriage was her first of four. But Bardot's most famous relationship was with a man she never wed, the legendary musician Serge Gainsbourg.

The brief coupling led to the creation of several songs in the '60s and ;70s. In 2003, she incited anger and disappointment among many fans by writing a book, "Un Cri Dans Le Silence," which took aim at France's unemployed, gays and Muslims. Bardot was several times convicted of inciting racial and religious hatred, paying her largest fine in 2008, over 23,000 U.S. dollars.

She was also feverishly passionate about the rights of animals. In 1986, she established the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals. And in 2013, the aging star threatened to leave France and move to Russia in protest of the pending euthanasia of two zoo elephants suspected of having contracted tuberculosis.

As proof of her everlasting influence, the elephants were granted reprieve. Bardot said in a 2019 memoir that she felt suffocated by her fame, but that a love of animals gave her comfort and a new calling. "Humans have hurt me," she wrote, "and it is only with animals, with nature that I found peace."

As an activist, as an artist, Brigitte Bardot played her parts to the fullest by being true to herself.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And our deepest condolences to her family. May she rest in peace, and may her memory be a blessing.

Thanks very much for joining us this morning.

"INSIDE POLITICS," today with our good friend and colleague Phil Mattingly, is coming up next.