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CNN This Morning
Trump's Fight to Lower Energy Prices; 2024 Top Ten Entertainment Stories; Netflix Debuts with NFL. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired December 26, 2024 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:32:49]
DANNY FREEMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Lowering energy costs. That's a promise President-elect Trump made during his campaign. But as he prepares for his second term, experts say that may prove incredibly challenging.
CNN's Bill Weir has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENT-ELECT: Frack, frack, frack, and drill, drill, drill. Drill, baby, drill.
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): On the trail -
TRUMP: We're going to frack, frack, frack.
WEIR: Donald Trump made some big energy promises.
TRUMP: And your energy bill, within 12 months, will be cut in half. And that's my pledge all over the country.
WEIR: What's the reality of that as - as he gets ready to take office?
BOB MCNALLY, FOUNDER/PRESIDENT, RAPIDAN ENERGY GROUP, LLC: You quote Eminem, it's more snap back to reality.
WEIR (voice over): But even Republican experts say don't count on it.
MCNALLY: Having worked for president - President George W. Bush, and having looked, scoured the White House for a magic wand that can quickly lower oil prices or electricity prices, the truth is, it doesn't exist. The reality is that consumers' energy bills, producers, production volumes, they depend much more on the whims of the global marketplace than what any single president can do.
WEIR (voice over): And the U.S. is already producing more fossil fuel for that market than any nation in history. So, drilling on more federal land, experts say, would not affect gas prices.
MCNALLY: Private land and shale is really where the action is. Federal land, you can tinker with things on the margin, maybe get a couple additional 100,000 barrels a day. You're not going to double U.S. production or increase it by even 25 percent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good afternoon.
WEIR (voice over): And remember when the pandemic and OPEC caused oil prices to crash? It was good for consumers, but horrible for U.S. oil companies. So, Trump asked Russia and Saudi Arabia to stop drilling so prices would go up.
TRUMP: Making it so that our industry does well and the oil industry does better than it's doing right now.
MCNALLY: When does an American president call OPEC to cut production to raise oil prices? Answer, never, accept the second quarter of 2020.
Now let me be very clear, from the industry's perspective, President Trump can and will implement regulatory and policy changes that will vastly improve the outlook for energy investment.
[06:35:06]
But in terms of lowering oil prices near-term, electricity prices, that is very, very difficult for any president to do.
WEIR (voice over): Meanwhile, the utility scale renewable energy is now cheaper than oil. China is switching to electric cars with such breathtaking speed and scale it's disrupting energy futures. And around 90 percent of the projects waiting to get on the Texas grid are solar plus batteries.
ANDREW DESSLER, DIRECTOR, TEXAS CENTER FOR CLIMATE STUDIES, TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY: And batteries, if you hook up a battery farm, you just mint money because you charge your batteries when electricity is cheap, and you sell it six hours later when electricity is expensive. I mean it's just a money-making machine. These developers are not Birkenstock wearing hippies who get their VW bugs and drive off. These are Texan energy developers who want to make money. And you make money with renewable energy right now. It's the cheapest energy we have.
WEIR: And can Trump politics get in the way of that, or claw back that momentum in any way?
DESSLER: I think it's a real open question what is going to happen. Everybody needs to understand that a transition to renewable energy will fatten your wallet. You're going to walk out with a - with a better economy, cleaner air, better national security. I mean the benefits of this - from the clean energy transition are enormous for almost everybody. Not if you're a fossil fuel billionaire. They will not be better off in a clean energy. The fossil fuel billionaires will be worse off. And because of that, and because of the enormous political power they have, they have been able to essentially capture the political process to have politicians force us to continue using dirty, expensive fossil fuels.
WEIR (voice over): Bill Weir. CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE) FREEMAN: All right, let's bring in my panel now to discuss and kind of react to what we saw. I'll get everyone's reaction, but I think I'll start with you, and I'll give you the top line thought, just, can President-elect Trump really lower energy prices?
EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CENN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, remember, he didn't say he would lower energy prices. He said he would lower them by half. That is, as he said, an ambitious promise. It is one that he said multiple times over the course of the campaign. He said it was his pledge as you played there in that clip. That is beyond what anyone serious who's looked at the energy situation believes is possible. And as, in Bill Weir's piece there, what it was getting into, it's not like raising energy production in Aerica would be the answer to that. First of all, because there's not that much more to do. And, second of all, because we are already producing so much fossil fuels at this point.
So, the question that is in front of President Trump and is in front of the country, as they evaluate what he does on this promise, is not what benefits energy companies, but what is actually going to be in the lives of people, consumers, everyday Americans who voted, thinking that they were voting about pricing and what it would do to their own personal economy. What happens for them and whether they believe that getting to any kind of energy savings matters ultimately. It's a big cost. Everybody who owns a home or a business knows energy is a big part of what those costs are. And we will see now how - how much President Trump can get to cutting things by half. If he gets to half. I think he will, as I said, surprise a lot of people. And then what sort of accountability there is for that very central promise of his campaign being there if it's not fulfilled.
FREEMAN: Yes, what do you think, Max? I mean is the risk if this does not come to fruition in any sense, let alone certainly to the level of half that Isaac was noting there?
MAX ROSE (D), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Sure. Look, you can campaign in contradiction, but you certainly can't govern in contradiction. The difficult situation that Trump is in right now is, let's say he actually did fulfill his promise of lowering energy costs by 50 percent. He would actually catalyze a depression amongst the U.S. energy business at the same time, which relies on high energy costs causing massive unemployment amongst his very base political states.
So, this is illustrative of the fact that very quickly the Trump administration is going to come head on into the difficulty of obtaining their campaign promises. And in fact, in many instances, such as this energy promise, it's utterly impossible.
FREEMAN: Leah, do you think -
DOVERE: And - and - if can -
FREEMAN: Oh, yes, yes, please, Isaac, yes.
DOVERE: Just one - one of the things to point out over the last couple of years is that this is something that Joe Biden never really figured out how to do. He would talk about dropping costs. But at the same time that energy prices were going up for Americans, profits for these energy companies were also going way up.
[06:40:06]
So, they have made a lot of money. And that's one of the things that President Trump is going to run up against too, as Max is saying.
FREEMAN: Leah, along these lines, I mean, do you - do - you know, we hear it. Trump says it all the time, drill, baby, drill. That's the whole policy. Is there a genuine concern that in this - in - if he does try to tackle this that I mean any progress made on climate could be rolled back?
LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST AND HISTORIAN: Yes, so I think that, to Isaac's point earlier in our conversation, you know, the United States has never been drilling at a higher production than we are right now. So, the irony of saying, you know, suggesting that, oh, we'll bring drilling back when we're already at the top peak of drilling is one that I -
FREEMAN: He said that - he's like, we're already at that - at that point. There's no - yes. Y es. Go on.
RIGUEUR: We're already at that point. And I think, you know, the secretary of the Interior, I think the secretary of Energy both understand that - or the - the newly appointed - the nominated secretaries understand that.
What is more interesting, I think, right now is the fact that, under Biden, these kind of energy policies, particularly under the Inflation Reduction Act, have actually been deeply beneficial to red states and blue states, but in particular red states, in some cases rescuing manufacturing, rescuing energy production, rescuing all kinds of industry.
And so there is a push amongst Republicans, particularly Republican congressmen, to keep those acts and to keep those things in place. So, I actually wouldn't be surprised if the Trump administration tries to take advantage of the benefits that are coming as a direct result of Joe Biden's energy production and energy laws and infrastructure that he has been put in place, but that Democrats actually have not taken advantage of over the past several years, at least in terms of messaging.
So, I wouldn't actually be surprised to see that because there's very little that Donald Trump can actually do to increase that won't actually offset or create a depression or create a recession, will cause the loss of jobs and will hurt actually those red states that he claims that he wants to protect. I actually think that this is far more of a PR campaign on the part - in messaging on the part of Donald Trump and taking - really taking advantage of the work that the Biden administration has been putting in place.
The last thing that I'll say here, too, is that it also matters that Elon Musk is a huge proponent of clean energy and of these infrastructure because he takes advantage of it with Tesla and his other clean energy projects. So, I would - I would pay attention to that too, what does Elon Musk think on these issues, because that's probably the direction that the Trump administration will be going in during these first couple of months.
FREEMAN: A fascinating conversation. Again, another area we're going to talk about quite more.
Panel, stick with me.
But coming up next on CNN THIS MORNING, an overdue honor, if you ask me. After nearly 250 years, America officially has a national bird.
Plus, Beyonce just the gift that keeps on giving. Her holiday halftime show rivaling a Super Bowl performance.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEYONCE: Hello, girls.
GIRLS: Hello, Beyonce.
BEYONCE: Hello, fellas.
FELLAS: (INAUDIBLE) swell (ph).
BEYONCE: Those (INAUDIBLE) can't touch me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:47:28]
FREEMAN: Blockbuster movies, court cases, and, of course, Era's Tour all making headlines this year. And CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister counts down the top ten entertainment stories of 2024.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: From big stars in big legal trouble, to big movies, concerts and a brat summer. Our top ten entertainment stories start with a wicked boost at the box office.
Number ten, 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 the truth.
WAGMEISTER (voice over): Television takes on the Menendez brothers' case, pushing prosecutors to take action.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe that they have paid their debt to society.
WAGMEISTER (voice over): Then Los Angeles district attorney said public attention factored into his decision to reexamine 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 (voice over): 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 (voice over): In November, Drake filed a court petition accusing a record company of 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.
WAGMEISTER: 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?
[06:50:02]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who would have thought it would potentially end in a courtroom?
WAGMEISTER (voice over): Number seven, a pop star ignites a brat summer.
Charli XCX's album "Brat" not only stormed the charts, it propels an online political movement.
CHARLI XCX, MUSICIAN: It's very honest. It's very blunt. A little bit volatile.
WAGMEISTER (voice over): 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 kind of brat, and - and Vice President Harris is brat? I don't -
JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Well -
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: I don't know if you're a brat.
GANGEL: Two of - right.
COLLINS: I think you aspire to be brat.
GANGEL: Two of us - right.
COLLINS: OK, you don't just become brat.
TAPPER: I will - I will aspire to be brat.
WAGMEISTER (voice over): Number six, Alec Baldwin's courtroom shocker.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dismissal with prejudice is warranted.
WAGMEISTER (voice over): 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 prosecutions improper handling of new evidence in the case.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bobby.
WAGMEISTER (voice over): 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, charges 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, quote, "I wonder how much this moron will pay for ketamine prescriptions."
WAGMEISTER: 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.
WAGMEISTER (voice over): 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 will kill them, that they are now on notice that it doesn't matter what your professional credentials are, you're going down, baby.
WAGMEISTER (voice over): Number four, Beyonce goes country. 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.
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, MUSICIAN: I was like, all right, I need to fix myself.
WAGMEISTER (voice over): 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, for me, it feels like, I guess like the end of like us growing up together, which is really - that's what makes it so hard.
WAGMEISTER (voice over): Number two, the end of the Era's Tour for Taylor Swift.
The nearly two-year tour wrapped in Vancouver on December 8th. Estimated to have made over $2 billion, it's by far the most successful concert tour of all time.
Not only that, she released a new hit album, "The Tortured Poets Department."
All this and she's still the darling of the NFL, cheering on boyfriend Travis Kelce in February to yet another Super Bowl victory for the Kansas City Chiefs.
And the number one entertainment story of 2024, the fall of music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs after a flood of civil lawsuits alleging Combs sexually assaulted dozens of people, federal investigators raided the hip hop stars homes, signaling a federal indictment was imminent. Then CNN released this video of Combs assaulting his former girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, at a hotel in 2016. The shocking video prompted Combs to speak out for the first time since he came under fire.
SEAN "DIDDY" COMBS, MUSIC MOGUL: I mean, I hit rock bottom. But I make no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable.
WAGMEISTER (voice over): But it only got worse for Combs with a September federal indictment, charging him with racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. The case is sending shockwaves through the music industry.
[06:55:03]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The names that we're going to name are names that will shock you.
WAGMEISTER (voice over): Jay-z was named in a civil suit alleging he assaulted a 13-year-old girl with Combs in 2000, charges he vigorously denies, questioning why there was never a criminal charge.
WAGMEISTER: Combs has also denied all of the allegations against him, saying he never sexually assaulted anyone. His criminal trial is set for May of 2025, and he faces at least 30 civil suits, ensuring that Combs' legal troubles could be big news for years to come.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FREEMAN: It is 55 minutes past the hour. And here's your morning roundup.
New overnight, three people shot at the Phoenix airport. Police say it started as a family dispute at a restaurant outside the security perimeter. The argument then spilled into the parking garage where one person was stabbed. One female juvenile was detained.
And a gruesome discovery after a nine-hour flight to Hawaii. A dead body was found in the wheel well of a United Airlines plane when it landed in Maui. The plane was coming from Chicago. United says it's working with officials to figure out how that body ended up there.
And the bald eagle now officially the national bird of the United States. It's about time. President Biden made it official while signing a flurry of bills into law on Christmas Eve. The bald eagle has been featured on the great seal of the United States since 1782.
Netflix, they made its NFL debut with the coveted Christmas Day games. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mahomes, rifles. Touchdown!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boom!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He hits Watson for the score.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Kansas City Chiefs are clicking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two very strong drives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FREEMAN: Both the Chiefs/Steelers and Ravens/Texans games airing on the platform as part of its recent three year deal to broadcast the league's Christmas Day matchups. It's the company's latest venture into live events. The broadcast starting off a little bumpy with some technical glitches. But what was really the main event went off without a hitch. Beyonce's halftime performance featuring her daughter, 12-year-old Blue Ivy, and a few other surprise cameos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BEYONCE: To the left. It's a real-life boogie and a real-life hoedown, don't be a, hey, come take it to the floor now. Woo.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FREEMAN: So freaking good. My panel is back.
All right, raise of hands here, everyone on the panel, did anyone - who watched any of the Netflix games yesterday? Did - we had people watch?
All right, Leah, I'll start with you. What did you think? What did you think? How was - how did Netflix do in its debut?
RIGUEUR: So, I think Beyonce bowl was fantastic. It was great. And Netflix did an exceptional job. But it's noteworthy that Netflix kind of had to do an exceptional job given how poorly they did with the Mike Tyson/Jake Paul fight from about a month ago, right, which - which was note - was marred by glitches, by problems. And people were saying, I didn't pay all of this money just to sit around and watch a bunch of, you know, watch a computer crash. And so when you have your biggest challenge, which is not actually football, it's actually Beyonce coming out and putting on a 13 minute concert, they proved that they are up to the task. And so, I wouldn't be surprised to see not only this kind of partnership, which runs through 2026 with the NFL, but also to see similar kinds of concert events broadcast on Netflix because they've just proved that they can handle it.
FREEMAN: Yes, and I'll be honest, I was - I was white knuckling it. Like I was worried that there was going to be more glitches throughout. But, I mean, everything seemed pretty smooth.
Former congressman, what was your take on it?
ROSE: Yes, look, media is changing. Everything's changed and we're not going back. So, I found the concert awesome, the games awesome. But what was intriguing to me were the commercials, right? It was a fantastic media presentation. And then you turn - you see the commercials and it looks like - there was one commercial where it looked like a couple of guys from queens made an underwear company two days ago, and they filmed it on their iPhone.
So, you know, I think that we're seeing the production level rival that of network news now at this point, or networks writ large, but we're not seeing the media buy-in and the commercials move that way. But certainly, considering the audience levels, we will soon.
FREEMAN: All right, I'm going to go to actually play the second shot (ph) here. I'm going to skip Mariah Carey for the moment. I apologize to Mariah Carey, because Netflix used the opportunity to also tease some promotional material. Can we cue that up? Is that all right?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ON SCREEN TEXT: Season's Greetings from Netflix.
And a Happy New Year.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's great to see you back, Mr. Gilmore.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Happy Gilmore 2.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): Oh, oh, oh, it's magic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FREEMAN: Isaac, you get the last word on this. Just a few more seconds left. "Happy Gilmore 2", good thing?
DOVERE: I - for a lot of the "Happy Gilmore" fans, certainly.
[07:00:03]
Look, Netflix has had this deal with Adam Sandler for years. And it's been - it's done well for both of them. And, obviously, we're seeing Netflix continue to expand in what it's doing. And Sandler was part of that even before they got their glitches worked out for the live events. So, we will continue to -
RIGUEUR: Exactly.
FREEMAN: All right, well, thank you all to our panel so much. Really appreciate it. And thank you at home for joining us today. I'm Danny Freeman. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" start right now.
