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Trump Picks U.S. Ambassador For Panama After Threats To Reclaim Canal; Chiefs Clinch AFC's Top Seed With Rout Of Steelers; Top 10 Entertainment Stories Of 2024. Aired 7:30-8a ET
Aired December 26, 2024 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[07:30:00]
KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That will be a fairly quiet departure for him after that -- Kate.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's great to see you, Kayla. Thank you so much -- Sara.
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's talk all things politics now with Democratic strategist Matt Bennett and former Republican strategist and pollster Lee Carter. Thank you both for being here on this holiday week.
Let's talk first about what seems to -- it sounds like a little bit of an obsession here. Trump has picked his ambassador to Panama after demanding that Panama hand over the Panama Canal.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board had this to say about Trump's thoughts on Panama. It says, "Forgive us if we missed it, but we don't recall Donald Trump campaigning to invade Panama and retake its famous canal. But there was the President-elect on the weekend, threatening our Central American ally with punishment if it doesn't meet his demands." The board goes on to say, "It's hard to know how seriously to take Mr. Trump's broadsides. But threatening a takeover that would require an invasion may court more trouble than he imagines."
So I guess the question is for you, Lee, what is this recent thirst for land grabs suddenly? Where is this coming from?
LEE CARTER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST AND POLLSTER, STRATEGIC OMMUNICATIONS EXPERT (via Webex by Cisco): I wish I could tell you that I knew where it was coming from. I think with Donald Trump we often don't know where these things come from. But I think he does have this affinity for grand gestures and symbolic moments. I think the Panama Canal, to him, represents a lot of things for America and open trade in winning again, and I think that's what he is after.
It does seem -- like The New York Times (sic) said, he didn't campaign on this so I'm not exactly sure where it came from. But it's certainly in line with the kinds of things that he does. He wants America to be winning again so to speak.
SIDNER: Yeah. Just to be clear, it was The Wall Street Journal and they're not exactly anti-Donald Trump making this statement.
For you, Matt, what do you think this signals as to what the next term is going to look like?
MATT BENNETT, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND CO- FOUNDER, THIRD WAY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, FORMER WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY ASSISTANT, CLINTON ADMINISTRATION (via Webex by Cisco): I mean, it signals chaos. It's as if Trump took out a world map and started throwing darts and decided to threaten whatever country the darts land. I mean, Greenland, Panama, Canada.
No one saw any of this coming because this is what Donald Trump does. He stirs chaos. Sometimes it has strategic value for him because it distracts from other things he doesn't want to be talking about, but sometimes it just seems completely bizarre and made up.
Meanwhile, the world is a very dangerous place. He is threatening to abandon our allies in Ukraine. He's threatening to abandon the work that we've done in Syria to stabilize that incredibly dangerous part of the world where ISIS could be resurgent and threaten the United States. He is threatening to abandon our allies in Taiwan, which produces the ships that we desperately need for our most high tech stuff. And now he's obsessed with Panama and Greenland.
None of this makes any sense. And I think what it signals is that we're back to the Donald Trump that we knew in his first term, which is he wakes up every day and just stirs chaotic, bizarre things and drives the news with that.
SIDNER: I do want to mention former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney sort of put it this way weighing in on Trump's words about Panama this week. I want to play you what he is saying this is all about and get your thoughts on the other side. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICK MULVANEY, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: This is a negotiation. By the way, one of the reasons Trump is so good at negotiating is that it's a -- it's a credible threat if he says look, we are going to have problems with Panama if they don't lower the rates.
I don't envision American troops going in to retake the canal, but you've got to think that someone's out there scratching their head going is Donald Trump crazy enough to do something like that. And it's that viable threat that sort of gives him negotiating leverage that not a lot of other folks could ever come up with.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: I mean, there is some spin, Lee. What do you think of it?
CARTER: Well, I don't think he's wrong. I think this is what Donald Trump does. He throws things out there to negotiate -- to make, as he calls them, deals. And I think we're often surprised with the result. It seems very, very uncomfortable and to many people it seems like he's sowing chaos, but in the end, it often does result in deals being made. So I would agree with that.
SIDNER: All right. I want to move on to what we're seeing with Russia and Ukraine. Russia had this largescale Christmas Day attack on Ukraine really meant to punish the citizens going after infrastructure in freezing temperatures.
Biden says that he directed the Department of Defense to continue its surge of weapons deliveries to Ukraine.
And Trump's pick for special envoy for Ukraine and Russia also criticize Russia's assault saying -- and I'm quoting here -- "Christmas should be a time of peace, yet Ukraine was brutally attacked on Christmas Day."
[07:35:05]
I am curious from you, Bennett, what you think of this? And does this signal that maybe there will be a change in how Donald Trump deals with Ukraine compared to what a lot of people think he's going to pull back on things like weapons?
BENNETT: I certainly hope so. I mean, it was the first good sign that we've heard out of the Trump camp about Ukraine basically ever. I mean, J.D. Vance made it clear. He said, literally, I don't care what happens to Ukraine, and Trump said the same thing essentially all throughout the campaign and through most of the transition.
Meanwhile, as you point out, Russia is engaged in this incredibly barbaric war where they are attempting to inflict maximum pain on the most innocent people.
There is no ambiguity about what we should be doing here. All of our allies agree we should be arming and helping the Ukrainians as the Biden team has done -- probably even more than the Biden team has done. But Trump has threatened the opposite, and you know how close he feels to Vladimir Putin. So I think the prospects for Ukraine are very grim unless -- let's hope this signals some kind of change.
SIDNER: Lee, what are your -- what's your take on this -- just that there was a comment made by someone who will be involved with Ukraine and Russia?
CARTER: You know, I agree it seems like a good -- a step in the right direction as far as Trump goes when it -- when it comes to Ukraine. But I also know that Donald Trump does use the tough rhetoric that he does as ways of negotiating, as we were just talking about.
And so when he talks about if he were in office Putin would never have done this, when he talks about saying he's going to walk away, I think a lot of that is signals to Putin on how things are going to be. And I think he's going to -- he's trying to say that it's going to be a very different moment when he comes into office. And I think he does believe that he's going to be able to make change over there through negotiations rather than having to invest all the money that we've had to invest over time.
But it does seem now that there is a change in direction here that he is looking and might support Ukraine more than they expected him to.
SIDNER: All right. Speaking of tough language or mean-spirited, depending on how you see it, Donald Trump's annual Christmas message focused on grievances. He started yesterday saying Merry Christmas to the radical left lunatics, then went on to criticize Biden's commuted death sentences saying about the inmates, I refuse to wish a Merry Christmas to those lucky souls but instead will say go to hell. That was his Christmas message.
President-elect Donald Trump says he will direct the Department of Justice also to vigorously pursue the death penalty after that pardon from Joe Biden by almost all -- less than three -- 40 -- 37 of the 40 federal death row inmates.
I'm curious -- to you, Matt. The law dictates what offensives are eligible for the death penalty, so what do you think this means?
BENNETT: I don't think it means anything. He doesn't understand what the law dictates pretty much on any topic, certainly around the death penalty where there are very strict rules about which crimes are eligible for the death penalty. But I do think it means that he is going to bring it back the way he did in his first term.
Remember, most death row inmates are in state prison, not federal prison.
SIDNER: Right.
BENNETT: Most executions happen at the state level. But under Trump there were executions in federal -- in the federal system. Biden paused those and we're going to be back to killing people as a matter of state policy at the federal level.
I think it is of a piece with the kind of campaign he ran, which was about retribution and being tough, and I think he views the death penalty as part of that.
SIDNER: Lee Carter, Matt Bennett, thank you both so much for coming on. And I know it's a holiday week and you could have been doing a whole lot of other fun things, but you hung out with us, and I appreciate it.
All right, over to you, Kate.
BOLDUAN: Thank you so much.
Coming up for us a disturbing discovery on a tarmac in Hawaii. A body found in the wheel well of a plane. The investigation now to figure out how this happened.
And the Mega Millions jackpot is now even bigger than a billion dollars. One heck of a late Christmas gift still up for grabs.
(COMMERCIAL)
[07:43:35] BOLDUAN: So Christmas Day was chock full of gifts, of course, but including gifts on the gridiron. Netflix pulling off its highly anticipated Christmas Day NFL doubleheader, and then Beyonce just blew off the roof.
CNN's Coy Wire watching all of it for us. And Coy, some big wins but clearly, you know what I was focused on.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah, I do, and we will get to that, Kate. I promise.
Kansas City fans -- they got a big old gift from their team on Christmas Day. The two-time defending Super Bowl champs clinching home field advantage in the playoffs and getting a bye in the first round.
Patrick Mahomes and company racing out to an early 13-point lead and they were never really threatened by the Steelers. Mahomes throwing three TD passes, including one to his favorite target Travis Kelce.
Travis' 77th career touchdown catch early in the fourth breaks Kansas City's all-time TD receptions record. And then he dunked it to pay tribute to the former recordholder Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez.
The Chiefs win 29-10.
And afterwards Mahome said he was just keeping a holiday promise to his wife, Brittany. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATRICK MAHOMES, QUARTERBACK, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS: I thought it was full team performance. Defense stepped up. Offense stepped up. Everybody had their imprint on the game.
And I told my wife -- my pregnant wife I was the number one seed so we can go have that baby. So I got the -- we got the one seed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: All right. It was a very merry Christmas for the Chiefs. And even Santa was there to help them celebrate in the locker room. Kate, this is actually head coach Andy Reid. And then how about a jolly old elf showing up give coach, AKA Santa, the game ball after his Chiefs earned a franchise record 15th win on the season.
[07:45:13]
The Baltimore Ravens flying high in the second game against the Texans. There was no stopping Baltimore QB Lamar Jackson. He threw two touchdown passes. But we all know he can run like reindeer, too. He went dashing and dancing for 87 yards in this game, including a 48- yard score reaching a top speed of more than 21 miles per hour.
And then Lamar ran into the record books right there in third, moving past Michael Vick at the top of the all-time rushing list for quarterbacks. Baltimore wins 31-2. They improved to 11-5 in the season and they're one game up on the Steelers for first place in the AFC North.
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEYONCE: Singing "Ya Ya."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: Oh, yeah. There you go, Kate. Fans also getting treated to a halftime performance from 32-time Grammy winner Beyonce. Queen B rocking her hometown of Houston performing songs from her "Cowboy Carter" album in front of a live audience for the first time. She had Shaboozey, Post Malone, and her daughter Blue Ivy there rocking alongside her.
They even teased a something special coming January 14. We don't know if it will be a new album, maybe a tour date release. We shall see, Kate.
BOLDUAN: I mean, it was so good. It was, like, gives you chills type of good. I really enjoyed that.
And I will also say the football was decent. It was decent as well, Coy. Did you see those --
WIRE: It was.
BOLDUAN: -- Netflix got them jackets -- those big old puffy red jackets? You saw Mahomes wearing it.
WIRE: Yes.
BOLDUAN: I saw that, and I was like you would look so good in that, Coy. You would look so good in that jacket.
WIRE: Challenge accepted, and we only have 364 days until you get to see it.
BOLDUAN: No worries. Good to see you. Thank you so much, my dear.
Sara, you would also look amazing in that jacket.
SIDNER: OK, here's the thing. We need to have one for our show.
BOLDUAN: No. It's one because you know my discretion of the temperature in this studio.
SIDNER: We can all fit into one of those.
BOLDUAN: But also, it was -- we would look great. I mean --
SIDNER: I agree, Kate. I think maybe the bosses --
BOLDUAN: Netflix -- they're handing them out.
SIDNER: -- are watching and they could just give us some like Netflix gave to -- but I have to end on Beyonce. That was better than most Super Bowl halftimes. Like, I was like just keep this going because the game was pretty much over, you know, by halftime anyway.
BOLDUAN: It was so good. The beginning -- I was, like, she was riding a horse.
SIDNER: No. The whole thing was --
BOLDUAN: Then Blue Ivy came out. I was -- I was -- I was -- I was literally here for all of it and my daughters were as well.
SIDNER: It was so good. Shaboozey and all of the young country singers that she had alongside her. I'm still glowing from it, I'm just saying.
BOLDUAN: Yes, yes.
SIDNER: And so are you, Kate.
All right. This morning, ahead, there is new legal trouble for actor and director Justin Baldoni. Why his former publicist is now suing him.
Plus, a health alert that you've got to know about this morning. Whooping cough cases surging once again. How you can protect yourself. That's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL)
[07:53:06]
BOLDUAN: So this morning there's more fallout for Justin Baldoni after his former "It End With Us" co-start Blake Lively filed a complaint against the actor. She was -- is -- was alleging sexual harassment and a coordinated plan seeking to destroy her reputation.
Well, now Baldoni is facing his first formal lawsuit -- this one from his former publicist. It's a tangled web but it's -- and it's -- but it's wild how it is unfolding. In the lawsuit, the publicist accuses Baldoni of breach of contract and accuses him of orchestrating the smear campaign against Lively behind her back.
This legal battle is just one of the big entertainment stories shaking up Hollywood of 2024, and CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister is counting down the top 10 of the year.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: From big stars in big legal trouble to big movies, concerts, and a "brat summer" our top 10 entertainment stories start with the wicked boost at the box office. Number 10: the glicked pairing of "Wicked" and "Gladiator II" formed
this year's "Barbenheimer." With over $150 million in opening weekend ticket sales the two films energized the typically slow post-summer box office.
"Wicked," starring Golden Globe nominees Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, stayed strong through the holiday season, while "Gladiator II" excelled overseas. The pair set the table for the Thanksgiving box office with "Moana 2" joining to set an all-time record for the holiday weekend.
Number nine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe now people can understand history.
WAGMEISTER: Television takes on the Menendez brothers' case pushing prosecutors to take action.
[07:55:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe that they have paid their debt to society.
WAGMESTIER: Then-Los Angeles district attorney said public attention factored into his decision to re-examine the case and recommend a reduced sentence that would allow the brothers to walk free nearly three decades after they were sentenced for murdering their parents in Beverly Hills.
The Hollywood production spotlighted abuse the brothers say they endured at the hands of their father, with even some of the victims' family members calling for them to be released.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thirty-five years is a long time.
WAGMEISTER: Ultimately, the judge delayed a decision while a newly elected district attorney reviews the case.
Number eight: the hip-hop feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: This may be the hip-hop equivalent of asking to speak with the manager.
WAGMEISTER: In November, Drake filed a court petition accusing a record company is using bots to artificially inflate Lamar's song "Not Like Us" on Spotify. It's the latest chapter in the ongoing feud between two of the industry's biggest names who once toured together as rising stars.
Each claims the other dissed them in song lyrics with one question at the heart of the feud: Who is hip-hop's biggest star?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who would have thought it would potentially end a courtroom?
WAGMEISTER: Number seven: A pop star ignites a brat summer. Charli XCX's album "Brat" not only storms the charts, it propels an online political movement.
CHARLI XCX, SINGER-SONGWRITER: Very honest. It's very blunt. A little bit volatile.
WAGMEISTER: With that description the singer declared "Kamala is brat" on social media spawning a torrent of memes that kicked off Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential run and a lot of questions amongst a certain generation.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: So is the idea that we're all kid of brat and Vice President Harris is brat? I don't know.
JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I don't know if you're brat.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: You don't just become brat.
TAPPER: I will -- I will aspire to be brat.
WAGMEISTER: Number six: Alec Baldwin's courtroom shocker.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dismissal with prejudice is warranted.
WAGMEISTER: A judge dismissed the case against the actor accused of involuntary manslaughter when the gun he was holding on the "Rust" movie set fired killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding the film's director. The judge's decision came less than a week into the trial citing the prosecution's improper handling of new evidence in the case.
The ruling paved the way for Baldwin to return to the limelight, appearing on "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" as former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Number five: Charles filed in the death of Matthew Perry. Two doctors and Perry's assistant are among five people charged in connection with his overdose death. One of the doctors allegedly said, "I wonder how much this moron will pay for ketamine prescriptions?"
Three people have pleaded guilty. One of the doctors is awaiting trial along with an alleged dealer prosecutors say is known as the "Ketamine Queen."
The Perry family relieved that charges were filed nearly a year after the beloved actor died in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home.
KEITH MORRISON, MATTHEW PERRY'S STEPFATHER: People who have put themselves in the business of supplying people with the drugs that'll kill them, they are now on notice that it doesn't matter what your professional credentials are. You're going down, baby.
WAGMEISTER: Number four: Beyonce goes country.
BEYONCE, SINGER-SONGWRITER: Singing "Texas Hold 'Em."
WAGMEISTER: The superstar bends genres with the release of "Cowboy Carter," which debuted at number one, including on the Billboard country chart, making Beyonce the first Black woman to do so in the chart's 60-year history.
Beyonce's mega year wraps with what some call the second Super Bowl -- a halftime performance on Christmas Day during the NFL's first-ever games to stream worldwide on Netflix.
Number three: The death of pop star Liam Payne. Fans held vigils for days in Argentina where Payne fell three stories from his hotel balcony.
ONE DIRECTION, POP BAND: Singing "What Makes You Beautiful."
WAGMEISTER: The 31-year-old British pop star rose to fame in the boy band One Direction. He went on to have a solo career and spoke openly about his struggles dealing with fame and substance abuse.
LIAM PAYNE, ENGLISH SINGER: I was I need to fix myself.
WAGMEISTER: Toxicology reports found cocaine, alcohol, and prescription antidepressants in Payne's system.
With more than 70 million One Direction albums sold Payne's impact on fans was undeniable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So to me it feels like -- I guess, like the end of us growing up together, which is really -- that's what makes it so hard.
WAGMEISTER: Number two: The end of the Eras Tour for Taylor Swift.
TAYLOR SWIFT, SINGER-SONGWRITER: Singing "...Ready For It?"
WAGMEISTER: The nearly two-year tour wrapped in Vancouver on December 8. Estimated to have made over $2 billion, it's by far the most successful concert tour of all time.
