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Trump Posts About Territorial Wish List On Christmas Day; Trump Taps Ally Kevin Marino Cabrera As Ambassador To Panama; U.S. Official: Early Indications That Russia Anticipate-Aircraft System May Have Downed Azerbaijan Airlines Passenger Jet. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired December 26, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

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PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Today on "Inside Politics," breaking news. A U.S. official tells CNN that a Russian anti-aircraft system may have brought down the Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed yesterday in Central Asia, killing at least 38 people. The official tells us, it may have been a case of mistaken identity.

Plus, they shunned him, but now they're looking to sway him. We've got news CNN reporting on the companies and executives writing 7 figure checks to Donald Trump's inaugural fund. They're expecting in return here.

And the final countdown, new details on how president Biden plans to end his presidency, including a last minute foreign trip and a private meeting with the pope. I'm Phil Mattingly in for Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines, "Inside Politics."

So how did you spend your Christmas day? Hopefully, with friends, family, President-elect Trump, well, he seemed to spend much of it on social media. There was some typical Trumpian boasting, like reminding followers of the Patriot of the Year award that Fox News gave him. There were the memes like this one of himself as Santa on a sleigh and much more.

Many, many more including sardonic merry Christmas messages and also official announcements of new ambassador picks and more talk of his desire to expand U.S. territory into Panama, Greenland, even Canada.

No word on what gifts he may have exchanged with Melania or his children. We start things off with CNN's Alayna Treene who joins me now. And, Alayna, I think the big question when we see something like this is, cut through it what matters? What stood out to you that as a reporter, you're saying that that's something I need to focus on?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, I think, look, as with Donald Trump, it's hard to tell, particularly given he's not even in office yet, whether this is kind of the opening volley for some sort of negotiation that he wants to try and pressure and assert his dominance over these different country's leaders or if this is really red meat for his base in the lead up to inauguration day.

But, Phil, I mean, it is remarkable to see what we have learned over the past week from Donald Trump. He has essentially said that he wants to expand America's footprint abroad in deals that would essentially rival the Louisiana purchase or the deal that netted Alaska from Russia.

Just in the past week, he had said that he has really taunted, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying that, he wants the U.S. to absorb the country as of its 51st state. He's, continued to argue that he wants to take more control over Panama, including taking back control over the Panama Canal.

And he's also reiterated his first term desire, which you actually brought up for the first time in 2019, to try and purchase Greenland. But I do want to start with Panama because we did have a couple of, Christmas Day posts from Donald Trump as you mentioned that touched on this specifically.

He announced to his new ambassador pick, for Panama would be Kevin Marino Cabrera. This is what Donald Trump said in this post yesterday. He said, quote, "I am pleased to announce that Kevin Marino Cabrera will serve as the United States ambassador to the Republic of Panama, a country that is ripping us off on the Panama Canal far beyond their wildest dreams."

Now I think it's clear that Cabrera, if this is successful, he's going to have a lot on his plate, especially if Donald Trump is serious about his, aggressive pursuit of wanting to try and take control of pan the Panama Canal. Of course, it's a U.S. made Panama, but has been controlled by the country for several years now.

Now to give you a little sense of Marino's background. He is a Miami Dade Commissioner. He was elected 2 years ago with the endorsement of Donald Trump, someone who has been very close to Donald Trump's campaign ever since. He also worked on the campaign in 2024. He was part of the Latinos for Trump Coalition.

He also represented Florida on the RNC Platform Committee. And he also had this idea in Miami-Dade County to try and name a street in Miami- Dade after Donald Trump itself. So it's very clear that he is someone who is going to do Donald Trump's bidding, that he is supportive of him. Unclear, though, exactly how he could play in these negotiations with Panama.

Now one thing we just heard moments ago actually from Panama's President, I want to read for you what he said, pushing back on Donald Trump's claims. He said, quote, "There are no Chinese in the canal. It is as simple as that. Neither Chinese or any other power is in the canal." That is playing to Donald Trump's, kind of throwing out there these claims that China is involved and in controlling some of the canal.

But, also, to talk a little bit more about Canada as well, because we also saw Donald Trump post about this yesterday. He's really continuing to taunt, Justin Trudeau, someone who actually flew down here just a couple weeks ago to Florida to meet with Donald Trump.

He talked about wanting to -- having met with, Wayne Gretzky what he called one of the great ones in hockey, saying that he should run, down here just a couple weeks ago to Florida to meet with Donald Trump.

He talked about wanting to -- having met with, Wayne Gretzky, what he called one of the great ones in hockey, saying that he should run, for Prime Minister, and then he also said governor also alluding to that fact that he wants to try and make Canada its 51st state.

All to say, it's very unclear, Phil, how serious Donald Trump is about this, but there's no question that he's really trying to assort his -- assert his authority and his dominance over some of these foreign leaders.

[12:05:00]

MATTINGLY: Yeah. You're certainly seeing that. Alayna Treene, thanks so much.

I'm joined now by some fantastic reporters, Margaret Talev of Axios; noted Ohio State University graduate, Bloomberg's Akayla Gardner, and CNN's Isaac Dovere. I would also note that with the exception of Isaac, either current or former Bloomberg White House correspondents here.

MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT, AXIOS: Bloomberg and House, yes. You feel well left out?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: I worked at Johns Hopkins University.

MATTINGLY: Oh, so that's -- there's the yeah. We're all connected.

DOVERE: -- Bloomberg when he was an mayor (ph).

MATTINGLY: It's so much. I want to talk about the foreign policy aspects here, because I think when you see Trump posting, you kind of have to go through a punch list of, is he trolling? Is he just being funny? And whether you like him or not, like, he could be pretty funny. Does this really matter or is he trying to distract from something? Greenland, Canada, Panama Canal, how do those slot into that?

TALEV: How do you draw a circle around all those things. Right?

MATTINGLY: Yeah.

TALEV: I do think it's been kind of a shortcut or shorthand to say that, sort of America First Trump policies would either be more isolationist or would appeal more to isolationist. And I think what these patterns show us is that it's not really isolationism. In fact, if taken to their full fruition, this would really be expansionist, almost even imperialist in terms of their posture. But it would, set U.S. foreign policy goals on a different footing. It would be less about what NATO wants or what is good for that allied country and more about what's in the U.S. economic interests or sort of geostrategic interest.

Having said that, no, I don't think that Trump can take back the Panama Canal. It is fully turned over to Panama and has been for, like, 30 years. Greenland is not for sale. It's not even clear whether Denmark could sell or give Greenland to the U.S., but Denmark has no intention of doing it. Greenland is not selling itself. Obviously, Justin Trudeau is not going to make Canada the 51st state.

So none of those things is happening. So what is the purpose of it? It certainly seems like this is a few weeks, you know, before, the president-elect takes office, and it seems that he is trying to start both start up sort of negotiations for more favorable trade and tariffs and shipping kind of arrangements and perhaps some partnerships that would block or push China and Russia out in the Arctic Circle.

But I don't know. Who knows? It could also be stoking the base, messaging, having fun, all of those things.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. To your point, you can draw a circle around all of them. It doesn't have to be one exclusively based on what we've known over the course of the last 2 years. Just to give you guys a sense of what we're actually talking about. One of his Christmas messages saying, "Merry Christmas to all, including to the wonderful soldiers of China who are lovingly but illegally operating the Panama Canal.

Also, to Governor Justin Trudeau of Canada, whose citizens' taxes are far too high. But if Canada was to become our 51st state, their taxes would be cut by more than 60 percent. Likewise, to the people of Greenland, which is needed by the United States for national security purposes and who want the U.S. to be there."

There are no Chinese troops in the Panama Canal that you heard Alayna. I'm just talking about the, President of Panama talking about that. There is a Hong Kong subsidiary that operates 2 ports there. But China's influence, to your point, geopolitically is always a concern there.

Justin Trudeau is dealing with his own set of domestic issues right now. I think Trump is strolling a little bit on that. And then Greenland, Akayla, on some of it, like, he's announcing -- he announces the ambassador to Denmark, he announces the ambassador to Panama. And in the announcement, he's like, oh, by the way, here's a hand grenade. Enjoy your assignment.

AKAYLA GARDNER, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, BLOOMBERG: Yeah. I think Donald Trump likes to negotiate in public, and I think that's exactly what we're seeing him do here. Yes, a lot of these ideas are somewhat observed. But he's strategically thinking about when he's walking into those conversations.

He knows that all of these countries want to maintain a relationship with the United States. And although he might not acquire Greenland or he might not take control of the Panama Canal, he might be able to negotiate lower tariffs, say, in Panama Canal. He might be able to have more investment in terms of those strategic minerals that are in Greenland.

So these are the conversations that he could really use, and of course, he still has that tariff threat over Canada. But I think some of that is also just taking advantage of the political challenges that Justin Trudeau is having and sort of trying to drive the news cycle even Canada there.

DOVERE: Can I add another to your punch list --

MATTINGLY: Please.

DOVERE: -- of possibilities here, which is that Donald Trump may be not well informed or operating in a sense of reality that is not the reality that the rest of us live in, given what you just said of where the situation actually is with Panama, with Greenland. And we saw this through the campaign?

You remember, like, that famous moment in the debate with Kamala Harris where he talked about them eating the pets in in Ohio. And he said, well, I saw it on TV. Right? He sometimes is operating in the strategic way and has got something else going on. And he sometimes is hearing things that are not true. And then basing things off of that. He may have heard that there are Chinese troops in the Panama Canal, which I guess would be a concern, and then there's something to do about it.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. It's an important point. There's always a thread. When you see something like that, I think, including the pets thing, it's like something that he has a threat of, and he takes it to a degree that isn't necessarily the case. And I think China's influence in Latin America generally has been a widespread concern, particularly amongst, conservatives.

[12:10:00]

I think one of the interesting things and I've been trying to square this. Like, he had the painting of Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office, very prominently placed. He mentioned the Monroe Doctrine, like, a UN General Assembly speech in 2018. Like, expansionism and kind of manifest destiny is something that, like, clearly appeals to him on some level. I'm not saying he's a historian, or a deep reader of presidential text, but, like, it's in there somewhere, and he talks about it on some level, especially on these three issues. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND CURRENT PRESIDENTIAL- ELECT: We will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America in full quickly and without question. Why are we paying Canada a 150 billion? Essentially, we're paying Canada, and we love Canada. I have so many friends there. I love Canada. I love it. Essentially, it's a large real estate deal. A lot of things could be done. It's hurting Denmark very badly because they're losing almost $700 million a year carrying it. So they carry it at a great loss. And strategically for the United States, it would be nice.

MATTINGLY: So now that I've, cited Jacksonian democracy and the Monroe Doctrine, which Isaac pre butted by saying don't do that. Essentially, we should also note that Trump on holidays traditionally goes down a path like this, including, "Happy Thanksgiving to all, including the radical left lunatics who have worked so hard to destroy this country." That was, just last month.

I would like to wish you an early New Year salutation to Crooked Joe Biden and his group of radical left misfits and thugs. That was summer of 2023. Happy Mother's Day to all, in particular, the mothers, wives, love and lovers of the radical left fascists, Marxists, and communists. That was May of 2023.

TALEV: That's the holiday spirit. And really is --

MATTINGLY: You kind of wait for it on some level. Like, you're so used to stuff like that on every holiday. Like, all right, where's it going to come and how are you going to love it?

TALEV: Exactly. What's going to be the mean -- the mean tweet of the day? Actually, as you were showing those video clips, there was one where he was standing in front of Marine One and talking about, it's a good real estate. There's a real estate deal to be made here.

The New York Times seized on this, I think quite accurately to say that when you think about things like the theoretical acquisition of Greenland, it is for Trump, a real estate developer, the idea to the Times' point was to have the world's largest military behind you as a as a force of leverage. I thought that was a interesting way to think about this.

He does have that real estate developer background. He also we're all waiting to see how he actually treats Russia and Vladimir Putin. The whole, we're going to resolve, you know, Ukraine war in 24 hours, That seems to be sort of moving to the background now. But Putin certainly has expansionist or, you know, recapturist, sort of instincts.

And I don't think that Trump is going to seize Canada and make it the 51st state, but it does sort of seem like he wants to show some flex too about what the U.S. power or might could do or the idea of recapturing some glory days from 200 years ago. I don't know how much of it is just him sort of scratching that itch and how much of it is intended as signaling and if it's signaling to whom he's trying to signal it.

But you'll know that all of this is taking place in the weeks before he's actually inaugurated. And that is important because this is a test period where he could still be in campaign mode or nothing really counts. Where it's like, well, you know, Biden's the president. I'm just here, the president-elect. And he's thrown a lot of stuff at the wall in these final weeks before he actually takes the office. MATTINGLY: And we got to go, but it's interesting kind of to Kayla's point. Seeding the ground for things that he may want in the future. Darien Gap also related to Panama, really important for immigration enforcement. The fees, the ports, tariffs, the national security apparatus in the Arctic Circle, these are all things that matter. How connected they are to these tweets? We'll find out.

All right. Up next, breaking news on what brought down a passenger plane over Kazakhstan yesterday. A U.S. official now says it may have been Russia.

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MATTINGLY: We have new details on the cause of yesterday's Azerbaijan Airlines crash in Kazakhstan. A U.S. official telling CNN there are early indications that a Russian anti-aircraft system may have downed the plane. Russia denies those allegations, blaming the crash on a bird strike.

CNN's Oren Lieberman joins us now. Oren, walk us through kind of what's happening here, what we actually know right now.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Phil, this is the first time we have seen the U.S. weigh in on this. Over the course of the past 24 hours, it was the U.S. more in an information gathering mode and waiting to see what investigators from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia had to say.

But now a U.S. official familiar with the matter says the early indications are that it was a Russian anti-aircraft system that may well have downed this Azerbaijan Airlines flight. The flight was on its way from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny in Russia when something forced it down and it crashed in Kazakhstan about 3 kilometers or so from the city of Aktau. At least 38 of the 67 people on board, died in that crash according to Kazakh authorities. And, of course, the investigation underway to figure out exactly what happened.

There is video from the aircraft itself that shows holes, what appear to be shrapnel or debris that punctured the side of the aircraft, but until now, it was pure speculation. Now the U.S. stepping in here, that official saying the early indications are that it was some sort of of Russian anti-aircraft system that may have struck and downed this aircraft.

Again, the investigation here, the U.S. looking at this as well, so there could be an update and a further assessment here. There's also no indication as to what type of system it may have been, whether it was a long range ant antiaircraft missile, something like an S-300 or an S-400 that we've seen used in Ukraine, or much more localized, something that is a shorter range anti-aircraft system that may have downed this aircraft.

[12:20:00] Phil, it's worth noting, not the first time we have seen this. It was about a decade ago that a Russian backed separatist in Eastern Ukraine fired a missile that downed Malaysian Airlines Flight 17. So we have seen Russian missiles take down commercial aircraft in the past.

MATTINGLY: All right. Oren Lieberman, keep us posted if you learn more. Thanks so much. Joining me now is Max Boot, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of the very good book "Reagan: His Life and Legend".

Max, one of the things, you know, Oren just said something that immediately comes to mind, I think, probably for everybody, which is the MH-17 shoot down back in 2014, which caused international outrage and then a sanctions regime. There were sanctions left out by the EU and the U.S. and, less than 10 years later, Russia invaded Ukraine.

It didn't seem to do anything deterrence wise, it didn't seem to do anything to change behavior. What is the international community, if this ends up being the case, what Oren was just reporting, supposed to do here?

MAX BOOT, COLUMNIST, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, that's a that's a great question, Phil. And it certainly does seem to fit a pattern with the Russians, if this is in fact a Russian anti-aircraft battery that shot down this airplane from Azerbaijan. The Russians kind of shooting first and asking questions later and then lying about it.

Because remember, a decade ago after the Malaysian airliner, the Russians claimed it was all a CIA plot. And now, of course, they're saying it was the plane just ran into a bunch of birds, which is doesn't sound very credible.

But you're right to raise the question, what is the international community going to do about it. I think clearly what we need to do is to double down on supporting the Ukrainians and making the Russians pay a cost for their unprovoked aggression, whether it's against Ukraine or with shooting down evidently these civilian airliners.

Are we going to do that? I don't know. We may go in the other direction once, President Trump takes office.

MATTINGLY: What's your sense? I mean, I think that's one of the biggest questions out right now is, how his administration is going to kind of approach this issue. The President-elect was very clear about what he thought could happen a few months ago. That seems to have shifted on some level. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: That is a war that's dying to be settled. I will get it settled before I even become president. I think the Middle East is -- will be in a good place. I think, actually, more difficult is going to be the Russia-Ukraine situation. I see that as more difficult.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MATTINGLY: It one, I think, Middle East is a high bar. I have no idea

how it's going to work, the I'll get it done before the, inauguration day or the day of, was never realistic. But I'm trying to read through who is going where personnel wise, who may be thinking what, because the teams aren't necessarily monolithic in terms of his advisers. What's your sense of things right now?

BOOT: I think it's very hard to make sense of it because as you say, there are certainly conflicting views in his administration from people like Marco Rubio, the designate for the Secretary of State, who was pretty hawkish on Russia and Ukraine, to people like J.D. Vance, the Vice President, who has said he doesn't care about what happens to Ukraine.

Clearly, Trump is not going to negotiate it into the war before he takes office in less than a month. The question is, will he have any success once he takes office? And I think that remains very much an open question because, you know, it's easy for the United States to coerce President Zelenskyy and Ukraine because we are their main suppliers of weapons.

But how is Trump going to coerce Putin and convince Putin whose forces are actually advancing right now in Ukraine to adopt a cease fire? And it's -- it has not been encouraging to see that Trump is very critical of president Biden's decision to allow the Ukrainians to use US made weapon systems, the ATACMS, ins inside Russia, because that is exactly the kind of leverage that we need against the Russians to convince them to stop advancing.

And yet Trump, basically is willing to sacrifice that leverage before he even becomes president. So that raises the question of how is he going to convince Putin to reach any kind of deal which doesn't simply result in the surrender of Ukraine?

MATTINGLY: To the point of leverage, I think this has been -- you know, we're just talking about how the President-elect views things as a real estate transaction often, which obviously tracks with his career. You mentioned long range weapon systems, ATACMS.

Obviously there's a massive sanctions regime which is both EU and U.S., kind of a whole Western alliance, Japan as well as in there. What are the points of leverage could Trump have if he wanted to try and kind of move Putin on this?

BOOT: I think sanctions are a big point of leverage. And now you see President Biden very belatedly moving to toughen sanctions on Russian oil, which is something that Biden was reluctant to do earlier because of the threat of sparking further inflationary pressure in the United States and possibly a political backlash.

But now that the election is over and inflation seems to be under control, that seems like a more enticing policy option to do more to turn the screws on the Russian oil industry, which is really the providing the spigot of cash that is funding Putin's war of aggression.

[12:25:00]

But is Trump going to continue with those, whatever sanctions, you know, Biden will impose between now and January 20th? We really have no indication. And this is kind of the problem with having a president come into office without any detailed plans. He just makes these very ambitious promises about ending the war in 24 hours and kind of leaves it to his subordinates to fight over how to implement that vision.

And so I think there are an awful lot of question marks about where the Trump administration will head vis-a-vis Russia and the war in Ukraine.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. What they want to do with the sanctions regime, my newsroom colleagues will tell you I've been fascinated with this for months now. Haven't really gotten many answers on it. We'll have to wait and see. Max Boot, appreciate your time. Thanks so much.

BOOT: Thanks for having me.

MATTINGLY: Up next, how President Biden plans to spend his remaining 25 days in office and what he can still do to solidify his legacy. Stay with us.

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