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Trump Gives First Rally-Like Speech Since Election; Nissan And Honda Announce Plans To Merge; FDA Approves Weight Loss Drug Zepbound For Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired December 23, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:38]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: In his first rally speech as president- elect, Donald Trump took the stage in Phoenix yesterday speaking at a conservative convention. Trump says he was offering up a small preview of his second term agenda from the podium promising his coming crackdown on immigration, promising to "stop woke," and also talking about sitting down very soon with Vladimir Putin.

Trump also pushed back on the refrain that we heard from Democrats really pick up last week about a co-presidency that Trump now has with none other than Elon Musk.

CNN's Steve Contorno has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Speaking from Arizona on Sunday, Donald Trump delivered what his campaign called a rally-style speech in front of a friendly conservative audience -- his first since winning election last month. And it was certainly reminiscent of many of the campaign speeches that he delivered over the past two years with a heavy focus on immigration and his plans for the U.S.-Mexico border.

He did, however, tread some new ground, saying that he was open to allowing TikTok, the Chinese social media company, to continue to operate in the United States. He also considered taking back control of the Panama Canal and suggested that he would meet early in his term with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Ukraine war.

He also pushed back against Democrats' criticism that he has allowed billionaire Elon Musk to become the de facto leader of his party and the country.

Take a listen to what he said.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: They're on a new kick. Russia, Russia, Russia. Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine. All the different hoaxes. The new one is President Trump has ceded to -- the presidency to Elon Musk. No, no. That's not happening. No, he's not going to be president -- that I can tell you. And I'm safe. You know why? He can't be. He wasn't born in this country. Ha, ha, ha.

CONTORNO: During his remarks on Saturday Donald Trump also signaled a show of support for many of his controversial picks for his incoming administration. He stood by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his plan to "make America healthy again." He also gave a show of support for Pete Hegseth, his pick to lead the Pentagon as defense secretary, as well as Tulsi Gabbard, his choice for director of national intelligence.

TRUMP: But to get wokeness out of our military and restore the unquestioned strength and fighting spirit of the American armed forces, I have appointed Pete Hegseth to be our next secretary of defense. He's going to be great.

To make our intelligence community respected even more -- I don't even think the word even is right because we had some bad years with these people. But I've nominated Tulsi Gabbard as our director of national intelligence.

CONTORNO: One thing Trump did not mention, the chaotic end to Congress' 2024 session where Trump nearly caused a government shutdown with his 11th hour demands to push off a debt ceiling vote beyond 2024.

Many of Trump's allies also speaking at the conference threatened Republicans that if they continue to stand in his way, they could find themselves with primary challenges.

Steve Contorno, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Joining me now to discuss, CNN political commentator and former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin, and Democratic strategist Joe Trippi.

I am going to start with Panama because this seemingly came out of nowhere. Trump is demanding the U.S. takes control of the Panama Canal. I will start with you, Alyssa.

Where is this coming from, and why?

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: I take back everything bad I've ever said about Trump. It's hilarious. No. Listen, he says these things. At the end of this first term he wanted to purchase Greenland. These are ideas that float around with him. I'm going to chalk it up to kind of his business background -- that he thinks everything is sort of a negotiation or for sale.

I don't know that this reflects an actual policy position but it shows you sort of the chaotic nature in which he's entering the global stage and where leaders are trying to get a read on where he's going to be, what he's going to do, and what to take seriously.

So obviously, seeing the media pushback -- that no from the president of Panama -- is not expected. I don't think that it means much more than he's kind of just ribbing people.

[07:35:00]

SIDNER: Joe, there is a treaty in place signed by both countries.

What do you make of this? And is this a little more about China because China has some control over the ports in the Panama Canal?

JOE TRIPPI, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, SENIOR ADVISER, THE LINCOLN PROJECT, HOST, "THAT TRIPPI SHOW" PODCAST (via Webex by Cisco): Well, it's chaos. It's interjecting his -- you know, he clearly doesn't understand sometimes how things like treaties -- and by the way, I don't think he really cares about a treaty -- tear it up.

And so it's just him doing this unilaterally. I mean, just making the statement and then watching everybody react and watching the chaos happen. And geez, what could go wrong? It's the Panama Canal. Only so much of the world's good flow through there whether from China or to China -- or anywhere else in the world. Geez, that's not going to help inflation, I don't think.

But again, this is Donald Trump. And by the way, it's another -- you know, I think we'll see another four years of governing by rally. I mean, where he goes out in these rallies, says provocative things, gets a reaction. And you don't know what's real and what's not real and people are confused by that. It's chaos.

And that's what I think this president sees -- you know, what a lot of us thought was going to happen is happening.

SIDNER: All right, Joe. Stick with me because we heard from outgoing Sen. Manchin who, of course, left the Democratic Party. He said this about the Democratic Party to our Manu Raju. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you still consider yourself a Democrat?

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (I-WV): I am not a Democrat in the form of what the Democratic Party has turned itself into -- the national brand -- absolutely not, and they know that. Here is what I told them. I said you ought to figure out how you lost somebody like me. The brand got so bad --

RAJU: Um-hum.

MANCHIN: The D-brand has been so maligned from the standpoint of it just -- it's toxic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: All right. You hear him saying that it's toxic. He did talk about the Republicans and didn't have very nice things to say about the Republicans either, but he's talking about a party he was once a part of. And it seems he's talking about social issues that the Democrats are trying to push certain social issues to be mainstream ideas that are too far left.

Do you -- does he have a point here? What do you make of his statements?

TRIPPI: No. Look, I worked for Sen. Doug Jones when we -- when we won the election in Alabama in 2017. And you could see -- we just barely survived the toxicity of the national brand of the Democratic Party. And frankly, the demonization of the brand -- some of it self- inflicted -- I'm not denying that -- but the demonization of the brand across a number of networks. And now you have Elon Musk and X as well chiming in. The destruction of the Democratic brand -- and again, where wings of the party add to it, so it gives them fruit and fire and fuels it.

I don't disagree with him at all about that's a big problem. We barely survived it in Alabama in 2017. By three years later in 2020 there was no hope to survive it. And I think you're seeing some of the consequences of that in the 2024 election results.

And I think yes, the party needs to look at -- you know, we have to look at not just how do we rebrand ourselves with the American people but also the messaging mechanisms. I mean, we have to have our own -- there is no sort of -- while they built Breitbart, and X is owned by Elon Musk, and Fox News is out there, there is no real information distrubtion place for a reasonable Democratic message to get out. That has to be built, I think.

SIDNER: Alyssa, I do want to ask you about one of the big issues that Trump won, which was immigration. Now we're hearing from Trump's border czar who says that he is going to go hard. He's going to be very aggressive on immigration, including going into sanctuary cities as they're talking about these mass deportations.

This seems to be setting up a real battle here. How do you see this playing out?

GRIFFIN: Yes. I mean, immigration and border security was one of the primary issues that put Trump ahead in this election. And for years, Republicans were saying it's an issue. Some Democrats in swing states were saying it's an issue and I think Democrats were behind the eight ball in actually doing something.

What I'm kind of trying to see is how much actual shock and awe are going to be? What are we going to see that's out of step with what we've seen in the past? Obama was the deporter in chief -- deported, like, a historic number of illegal immigrants in the country.

But I do know that Donald Trump is going to want to make a splash in the first quarter of the this -- of January -- the first quarter of 2025. I think that his relationship with Eric Adams is interesting. I think that you can expect that you're going to see some efforts in New York City, for example. But expect that's going to be his chief priority is showing he is the border secure president.

[07:40:07]

SIDNER: And the big thing is showing --

GRIFFIN: Yes, exactly.

SIDNER: -- that this is happening.

GRIFFIN: Making sure people see it and feel it.

SIDNER: Yeah.

All right, thank you to both of you. I really appreciate you. Alyssa Farah Griffin and Joe Trippi, appreciate you coming on a couple of days before Christmas. We really, really are glad you're here.

All right, Kate.

BOLDUAN: I call it the extended Christmas Eve, which means when no one should be working. Moving on.

SIDNER: Agreed.

BOLDUAN: New this morning Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan are announcing big merger plans -- a deal that would create the world's third-largest automaker. The new company would be worth more than $50 billion. What's driving it all? The race toward electric vehicles for one.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich has much more on this and she's joining us now. So Vanessa, what else have you learned about this?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, these two companies, Nissan and Honda, have announced plans that they're going to be talking for the next six months to decide whether or not they're going to go through with this merger.

Essentially, they need to remain competitive, and this merger would help them in their fight against other rivals like Toyota and Volkswagen, which have the number one and two spots. And if this merger went through, they would jump to number three ahead of U.S. automakers Stellantis and General Motors. Also involved in this is Mitsubishi, which has an alliance with Nissan.

But why are they doing this? Well, of course, they want to remain competitive. They said in their press release that they need to increase and boost sales. Also, Nissan is on very shaky financial footing right now. A lot of people expect that they could file for bankruptcy soon. So a partnership merging with Honda would be very good for them.

Also, Nissan does have better EV capabilities right now compared to Honda, so that would -- that merger would create a better sort of business model for the two companies to, as you said Kate, compete in the electric vehicle market.

And what does this mean for consumers? Well, it's good to know what's going on in the car market. BOLDUAN: Yeah.

YURKEVICH: But it's also interesting to note that if they do merge, the idea is that maybe some prices could come down on those vehicles because they would have sort of a bigger global powerhouse. And you can see Honda and Nissan trending behind Toyota there. Lower prices -- does that mean more sales? Of course, that's what they're hoping for if Honda and Nissan end up merging.

This would really go into effect in 2026 and there would be a whole new -- there would be a whole new company trading on the stock market because of this merger.

So a lot of changes but a lot of people in the car world say that this is not only going to happen, but it has to happen for these two companies to remain viable -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So interesting. Great to see you, Vanessa. Thank you so much -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Just ahead this morning holiday travel in full swing, as it should be. It's shaping up to be a record-breaking week. Get ready for the crowds.

In the North, winter weather has already caused some delays. And in California, a series of storms could trigger severe flooding or flash flooding.

Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is tracking it all for us. We know we should plan extra time for travel, Derek.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah.

SIDNER: So tell us what we're in for.

VAN DAM: Well, that's just it. When you've got 120 million Americans traveling today either by -- well, this week, I should say, either by a car of a plane or a train, you've got to pack your patience. And any wiggle with the weather -- that could cause kind of that knock-on effect in terms of how we get to grandma and grandpa's house, how we get to our family and friends' house.

And we do have some of those -- what we like to call a close call, right? Nothing major in terms of storm systems but there's enough to cause some disruptions across the Great Lakes where we could see some minor weather delays in and around Chicago O'Hare. This system will move to the East Coast and bring some festive flakes on Christmas Eve morning for the Big Apple. But it's also going to play some potential havoc in and around our nation's capital.

There it is moving to the East Coast. Sara mentioned the potential for flooding. This is because a series of storms moves over the same areas across the southern Mississippi River Valley through the course of this week.

Look at tomorrow though, Christmas Eve. And this is very interesting because what do we have here? Some delays in and around Washington, D.C. It is because of the storm system that will bring that two to three inches of snowfall today across the norther tier of our country. There it is on the radar. It is not a big precipitation maker, but it will gather some steam and pick up some moisture.

And we also have these winter weather alerts that are in place now for Maryland, the District of Columbia. This area, in particular, Tuesday morning as you head out to family and friends, look at this. Here comes that system.

And then notice that shading of pink right over the nation's capital. That's a mixture and perhaps maybe even some light freezing rain. It only takes a little to cause a big mess on the roadways and at the airports. So we want to keep that in mind, especially with the volume of people traveling this week to get to their loved ones.

[07:45:00]

In terms of the precipitation through the next several days, taking you through the holidays, the snow and the guaranteed white Christmas -- uh, where you'd expect it -- northern New England and Michigan. But here's the rainfall. That certainly will not bring a white Christmas to places like Texas and Arkansas. They've got a lot of rain ahead of them and the potential for some stronger storms as well.

So be weather aware. That's all I can say.

SIDNER: I'm going to say this, Derek. Dare I say I always give you a hard time for bringing us a forecast that's difficult. This looks pretty freaking good for the winter. This looks pretty good, right?

VAN DAM: I would say it's about as good as it can be with the asterisk --

SIDNER: OK.

VAN DAM: -- of Washington, D.C. tomorrow morning. We'll put that there.

SIDNER: All right, we'll watch it.

VAN DAM: Merry Christmas.

SIDNER: Meteorologist Derek Van Dam, thank you so much. Appreciate it -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Don't call Washington, D.C. an asterisk. Don't you dare.

Coming up for us, director and actor Justin Baldoni now dropped from his talent agency just after Blake Lively accuses him of sexual harassment.

And a police pursuit ends with a car crashing into a busy Texas mall. What we now know led up to this terrifying incident.

(COMMERCIAL) [07:50:45]

SIDNER: Well, the Cowboys held off the Buccaneers under the Sunday night lights dinging Tampa Bay's playoff chances in the process.

Carolyn Manno joining us now with this morning's CNN sports update.

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Sara.

SIDNER: Lots of things happened and I will discuss the game I went to after you finish.

MANNO: OK. I look forward to it.

SIDNER: That's my tease.

MANNO: We'll start with the Cowboys.

SIDNER: OK.

MANNO: I mean, eliminated from playoff contention hours before their game in primetime even kicked off on Sunday. They ended up playing some of their best football with absolutely nothing at stake. No pressure, right?

Dallas never trailed last night but the Bucs kept it close in the fourth quarter. Baker Mayfield's touchdown pass to Ryan Miller cut the Dallas lead to just two with less than three minutes to play. Now, Tampa did get the ball back with a chance to win the game. Mayfield trying to avoid the sack, flipped the ball to Rachaad White who turned up the field. But Dallas ended up forcing a fumble and the recovery sealing the 26-24 win costing the Bucs control of their playoff fate.

It was also a memorable moment between father and son during Sunday's final round of the PNC Championship. I don't know if you caught this but Charlie Woods, the son of legendary golfer Tiger Woods, teeing off with a seven iron here on the par 3 fourth and ended up hitting his first hole-in-one. It was really cool.

His dad -- his teammate at this particular event -- right there to embrace him shortly afterwards. And that might be the first of many aces for the 15-year-old. He just resembles his dad in almost every way on the course. They walk the same. They talk the same.

The Woods family ended up losing to the Langers in a playoff, but Charlie said it was the most fun round he's ever had. And Tiger said that moment right there with his son was the thrill of a lifetime.

And a big congratulations to Penn State head coach Katie Schumacher- Cawley and her women's volleyball team on winning the national title. The Nittany Lions did not need to look far for motivation. Schumacher- Cawley was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer back in September. She has continued to coach through chemo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KATIE SCHUMACHER-CAWLEY, HEAD COACH, PENN STATE: I'm inspired by the young kids that are sick. You know, I told you I did my -- I'm doing treatment at UPenn and every time I walk into the hospital I walk right past the children's hospital. And so, you know, sure -- if I can be an inspiration to someone then I take that. But I feel good and I'm lucky to have the people around me and I think that's why we're successful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANNO: With Sunday's win, Coach Katie, as she is known, also became the first female coach to win an NCAA volleyball championship. She won it as a player in 1999. A big moment for her.

I want to hear about your experience.

SIDNER: As a player, first of all, just to Coach Katie, just -- I cannot --

MANNO: Amazing.

SIDNER: -- be more proud. It is really, really hard and it takes a lot out of you being on chemo and doing your job, but it also helps. And to have that support of the team, great.

Secondly, I went to a Jets game -- my first.

MANNO: Oh, wow.

SIDNER: It was 15 degrees. And I have two things to say. One, the Rams were playing. That's why I was there -- my husband and I -- because that's our team. Two, Jets fans are true fans.

MANNO: Oh, yes.

SIDNER: They go through so much heartache and heartbreak and yet they still show up when it's --

MANNO: They show up.

SIDNER: -- freezing cold. And they also chant something I hadn't heard in other places. They chant "Sell the team" over and over and over again.

MANNO: Can you blame them with what they've been through? Those poor fans. Those poor, poor fans. Happy holidays, Jets fans.

SIDNER: But you've got to give it to them. They show up even though they know they're going to get their hearts broken.

Carolyn Manno, thank you so much.

MANNO: Thank you.

SIDNER: You did not break our hearts today.

MANNO: Thank you.

SIDNER: Kate.

BOLDUAN: You are so funny. The entire crew is, like, yes, Sara -- yes, yes.

SIDNER: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: And also just to return back to something else, I, too, know someone who is an inspiration to everyone around them for how they keep going in the midst of treatment and -- treatment and challenge. So I think I'm looking at her right now.

SIDNER: Thank you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Let's go to this. A holiday light show gone very wrong in Florida. It happened Saturday night when several drones collided and then started falling from the sky. A child was injured in this incident -- a 7-year-old hit in the chest by one of the drones.

Here's the boy's mother.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADRIANA EDGERTON, SON INJURED AT HOLIDAY DRONE SHOW: One of the drones just, like, lost it I guess went haywire. It literally looked like a bird that was diving for fish. Not only is he laying there -- like, the EMTs are trying to help but he was losing consciousness. His heartbeat kept stopping. I was freaking out that I was going to lose my baby because he was losing consciousness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:55:10]

BOLDUAN: Terrifying.

His mother also told CNN affiliate WESH 2 that her son is now undergoing heart -- open heart surgery because of this.

The FAA and Orlando city officials are now conducting an investigation to find out exactly what happened here.

In a new civil rights complaint, actress Blake Lively is accusing her "It Ends With Us" co-star and director of sexual harassment and retaliation. Lively claims that Justin Baldoni and his team launched a smear campaign to destroy her reputation after she accused him of misconduct on set. Now, the complaint alleges that Baldoni and another man repeatedly violated physical boundaries and made sexual and other inappropriate comments to her.

In a statement to CNN, Lively says this. "I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted."

Baldoni's attorney denies the allegations, calling them completely false and outrageous.

And officials are now investigating what happened at a popular Colorado ski resort that left more than 170 people stranded for hours. You see the end result there. This is how they got there. The gondola lift at Winter Park automatically stopped when it detected a crack in a structural piece of the lift just after noon on Saturday. That's according to a spokesperson with the Winter Park Resort.

It eventually forced the resort to evacuate all the skiers and snowboarders who were stuck, lowering them down by ropes -- a rescue that took about five hours to get everyone down safely. Thankfully, no one was injured -- thankfully -- Sara.

SIDNER: That looks scary, I'm just saying. I don't want to be lowered down by a rope. If I can avoid it, I will.

All right. The FDA has approved the weight loss drug Zepbound for obstructive sleep apnea. It's the first prescription medicine to be approved to treat moderate to severe forms of a sleep condition closely associated with obesity.

CNN's Meg Tirrell has all of the details. Is this beyond obesity because, of course, Zepbound helps people lose weight? That this drug works in conjunction with that?

MEG TIRRELL CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, you're exactly right, Sara. So this has been approved for people with obstructive sleep apnea and obesity. Those two conditions are very closely related and so often you already see that weight loss is recommended to reduce the severity of obstructive sleep apnea.

And so what we're seeing here is one of these very popular GLP-1 medicines. This one is the drug tirzepatide. The brand name for weight loss is Zepbound. It's made by Eli Lilly. They did these trials, and they showed that this drug through helping people lose weight most likely really helps them with their obstructive sleep apnea as well.

And this is a common condition. It can affect an estimate 30 million people in the U.S. and perhaps even more. A lot of folks don't even realize they have it. It's characterized by these sleep disruptions that you get because the airway starts to close, and you can feel really sleepy when you're awake. You can snore. But it's a lot stronger than that and can have really severe health impacts on folks.

And so what they found is that in this clinical trial they ran two trials -- one where people were already and CPAP machines. These continuous airway pressure machines that keep your airway open while you're sleeping.

And even on top of that therapy they found that people on average started with 50 of these breathing disruptions per hour overnight. And after a year of treatment of people taking the drug, even on top of CPAP, had 29 fewer per hour. So more -- a reduction of more than half of those events. And a lot of people saw even greater results than that. They also saw this on top of the weight loss we see with these

medicines about 18 to 20 percent of their body weight lost over a year. That equates to about 45 to 50 pounds.

And so while these drugs are already approved for people with obesity what I'm understanding about this is that it could potentially improve insurance coverage for some folks because that can still be really difficult, particularly on Medicare -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, our Meg Tirrell. Thank you so much for bringing us that. Really interesting -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: We're also learning new details about the man police say crashed into a Texas mall on Saturday and continued driving, hitting several shoppers as he was being chased by police. This happened just outside of Austin. And police say officers eventually shot and killed the 53-year-old driver inside the mall.

CNN's Camila Bernal has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This all started when a Texas Highway Patrol trooper was trying to stop a pickup truck in Belton, Texas. This was after they received a phone call of someone possibly being intoxicated. That suspect did not stop and instead, this became a 19-mile police chase.

At some point, the suspect exits the highway and goes into the parking lot of the Killeen Mall, but he does not stop. Instead, he drives through the entrance of the JCPenney, driving through glass doors and continuing to drive through the store hitting multiple people. We know at least four people were injured and taken to the hospital. One other person went to the hospital on their own. And authorities saying the victims range in ages from six to 75.