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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Trump Rejects Showing Signs Of Aging In WSJ Interview; Rep. Julie Johnson, (D-TX), Is Interviewed About U.S. Says New Year's Eve Strike On Alleged Drug Boats Killed 5, CIA: Ukraine Didn't Launch Drone Attack On Putin's House, Texas Redistricting Sets Up Heated Primary Between Dem. Reps; Cuba Hit By Surge Of Dengue And Other Infectious Diseases; Jack Smith Defends Indictments Against Trump In House Hearing; Trump Ally Boebert Decries Colorado Water Bill Veto; Army Of Dogs Training To Sniff Out Dangerous Mold. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired January 01, 2026 - 17:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Thanks so much to my panel. Happy New Year to all of you. And to all of you watching, Phil Mattingly standing by for "The Lead."

Hey, Phil. Show us what you got.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Jim. Happy New Year, my friend. We'll look for more tomorrow in "The Arena."

[17:00:36]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You still have a few hours to make good on that day. One New Year's resolution. The Lead starts right now.

Brand new from the Wall Street Journal, an interview with President Trump, how he responds to people reportedly close to him saying the president is showing signs of aging. Plus, what he says about getting that MRI, appearing to fall asleep in meetings and more. And a New Year's tragedy at a Swiss ski resort. Some 40 people killed, more than 100 others injured. How champagne bottles lit with sparklers may have ignited the disaster.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZOHRAN MAMDANI, NEW YORK MAYOR: I promise you this, if you are a New Yorker, I am your mayor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: -- Zohran Mamdani begins a new era for New York City politics, the policy ideas that could have a ripple effect nationwide ahead.

Welcome to The Lead. I'm Phil Mattingly in for Jake Tapper. We start in our politics lead. New year, brand new insights today into the health of President Donald Trump. The Wall Street Journal reached out to the White House with reporting that said those close to the president say he is showing signs of aging.

This led the president to give the Journal an impromptu interview, an interview that was published today. Now, the president told the Wall Street Journal his excessive hand bruising is caused by the amount of aspirin he takes, saying it's more than his doctor's recommend. He says he regrets getting advanced imaging because it generated so much scrutiny over his health. He also denies falling asleep during events like this one you see here, saying he's simply, quote, "blinking" while at the same time he admits he's, quote, "never been a big sleeper at night."

Now, we also learn the president will not be exercising as part of his New Year's resolution. He called it boring. CNN's Alayna Treene starts us off today.

And Alayna, let's step back for a moment. What are some of the specific concerns the Journal outlines that people close to the president have had related to age?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, there's a couple of things. One, I mean, the falling asleep, the dozing off. You know, I love that line. It's like I say that when I'm like, can stay up too late with my friends, like I'm just resting my eyes.

MATTINGLY: Yes.

TREENE: But that's part of it. But a lot of it is the heavy bruising. I mean, there was a great anecdote in this Journal piece about how Pam Bondi, the attorney general, she was wearing a ring and like accidentally, you know, grazed the president's hand and he started bleeding from it. They've talked about him having thin skin. That's one example.

But you see the heavy bruising. I mean we have great photographers at the White House all the time capturing heavy makeup, bandages on his hand, him trying to shield his hand from the cameras. That's a sign of concern some officials have said. There's also been swelling in his legs. We know part of that is due to what the White House and his -- the president's doctors have said is his chronic venous insufficiency.

Essentially it's common in older people, but it's when a one way valve that doesn't circulate as much blood going up the legs to the heart. And then another issue that he has as well is the fact that he doesn't exercise as much. That's why he's almost always golfing on the weekends. But when you're older, you know, wanting to be more active and not sleeping as well is a cause for some concern.

But look what I found so interesting about this too. I love that you mentioned it, that you know, they had all this reporting the Journal for the president. He actually does this a lot. If there's a story that he very much wants to weigh in on, even if you had no intention of interviewing him, he will call the reporters.

MATTINGLY: The photo rings.

TREENE: And this is an issue that is so important to him because I remind you, think of all the time he still does this on whenever he has events, campaign style events, but throughout the 2024 election, all he did was go after Joe Biden for who he argued was hiding a lot of his medical issues. He called him mentally unfit and other things for office. And he's very -- the president, very defensive when it comes to question about his health. But that's also led a lot of people, particularly people in the press, but I think the American public too wondering if he's being fully transparent and sufficiently transparent really with the medical information that he provides. So I thought this was a great look at it.

And this is one thing really quickly, I don't know if we have the quote, but I just need to read it because I think --

MATTINGLY: This could be aspirin on blood.

TREENE: Yes, it's the aspirin on blood.

MATTINGLY: OK. Thank you. Yes.

TREENE: I think this was an amazing quote that Trump gave them because he says he takes -- his doctor said he takes 325 milligrams of aspirin a day. Trump says it's because he wants to thin the blood. He said this to the Journal. He said, quote, "They say aspirin is good for thinning the blood, and I don't want thick blood pouring through my heart." He went on to say, "I want nice thin blood pouring through my heart."

[17:05:00]

Again, he also told them that he's not taking -- or he's taking a higher dose of aspirin than his doctors want. He's also was told to wear compression socks because of the swelling in his legs. He said he tried that, doesn't like it, so he's not doing that either.

MATTINGLY: Can we pull up the full screen real quick of the quote? Because it's at the very end that I think is the best part, where he's explaining his theory of the case. And then ask the reporter, does that make sense?

TREENE: Yes.

MATTINGLY: And you're like, well, I mean, I guess sort of the way you're explaining it, yes, but not according to the medical -- OK, we're just going to let this one go.

TREENE: Yes.

MATTINGLY: This is his theory of the case. He believes it and that's why --

TREENE: Yes. MATTINGLY: -- he does what he does.

TREENE: He also said, which is very true about Trump, he said, I'm very superstitious, which we know.

MATTINGLY: Yes.

TREENE: Trump is a very superstitious man.

MATTINGLY: And he said how he's always taken aspirin.

TREENE: He said, I've always been taking aspirin. He always believed it would help him prevent a heart attack. And so he's sticking with it.

MATTINGLY: It was a great piece. It was a thorough piece. By the way, the president engaging on the piece actually made the piece a lot better, a lot more fulsome.

TREENE: A lot stronger, Absolutely.

MATTINGLY: Something the Biden team could have probably done in the four years prior.

TREENE: Yes.

MATTINGLY: Alayna Treene, appreciate you sticking around. Thanks so much.

TREENE: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: Appreciate it.

Let's check in now with CNN's Kevin Liptak, who's in West Palm beach, not far from Mar-a-Lago, where the president spent some of New Year's Eve blasting out posts on Truth Social, an airing of grievances, festivus type thing, if you will.

Kevin, the president taking aim at political opponents, including those in Minnesota. What did he say?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. Clearly not letting the grievances be forgot this New Year, quite a combative end to 2025 for the president. There was one post about this ongoing investigations into the alleged fraud in Minnesota and some of their social programs involved members of the Somali community. I'll read you a little bit of what the president said. "Much of the Minnesota fraud, up to 90 percent, is caused by people that came into our country illegally from Somalia, quote, "Congresswoman," unquote, Omar, an ungrateful loser who not only complains and never contributes, is one of the many scammers.

Did she really marry her brother? Lowlifes like this can only be a liability to our country's greatness. Send them back from where they came, Somalia, perhaps the worst and most corrupt country on earth." So quite caustic language from the president there. You know, he has been attacking Congresswoman Omar for some weeks now. It is a real scandal in Minnesota. You know, prosecutors have said that billions of dollars of taxpayer money could have been put to this fraud. But there is no evidence that Congresswoman Omar is at all involved in this.

And I think this is just sort of evidence that the president plans to use the scandal to keep going after his political rivals, whether it's the governor there, Tim Walz, or the Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, including using some of this striking, really, you could say, racist language, Phil.

MATTINGLY: Kevin, I think it's a close race right now between Minnesota and Colorado for who the president disdains most in terms of state government. He also wrote a post --

LIPTAK: Yes.

MATTINGLY: -- blasting the Colorado governor and district attorney. There was a veto a couple of days ago. I think that was fascinating in and of itself. What's happening here?

LIPTAK: Yes, that veto is interesting because -- so the president vetoed this funding for a water pipeline project in Colorado. It had gotten bipartisan support in Congress. It passed by a voice vote. And it's drawing accusations that the president is sort of using this as retribution for the state's continued imprisonment of Tina Peters, who is a state election official who was convicted as part of this effort, this scheme to try and prove the president's unfounded claims that he won the 2020 election. And this is what he wrote about this.

"God bless Tina Peters, who is now for two years out of nine sitting in a Colorado maximum security prison at the age of 73 and sick for the crime of trying to stop the massive voter fraud that goes on in her state. To the scumbag governor and the disgusting Republican RINO DA who did this, I wish them only the worst. May they rot in hell. Free Tina Peters."

Now he's been going after the governor there, Jared Polis, again for weeks now for not releasing Peters from prison. President Trump actually issued a pardon from the White House for Peters, but of course she has been convicted on state crime so that pardon cannot get her out of her imprisonment. I think both of these instances just evidence that the president continues to go after some of these Democratic states and will continue to go after them into this New Year. Yes.

MATTINGLY: If nothing else, we know that will be consistent as all get out. Kevin Liptak in West Palm Beach, thank you my friend.

Well, now to our world lead, the U.S. military on New Year's eve conducted a strike against two alleged drug trafficking boats. It killed five people according to U.S. Southern Command. Now this of course follows separate strikes that targeted three boats on Tuesday. CNN Zach Cohen has been following all of this. And is more -- right now, Zach, this has been something consistent that we've seen now for a matter of months. What more are we learning about these strikes in particular?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Phil, the U.S. military killing at least eight people in the last two striking alleged drug boats on New Year's Eve, killing five, as you mentioned, and also targeting a, quote, "convoy of vessels" that they say were traffic -- or moving along a known trafficking route in international waters.

[17:10:11]

And like you said, this has been a pretty steady occurrence here since early September when this campaign around Latin America started. It's interesting, though, because the strike on Tuesday is a little bit unusual compared to the strikes that we've seen previously. First, the Pentagon proactively disclosing that there were survivors of the initial strike. They say that these individuals jumped overboard into the water and swam away from the vessels before U.S. forces conducted a second strike, destroying those ships, presumably that they say have drugs on board. But when you compare it to the other cases where we know that there were survivors, it's an interesting contrast.

We know that September 2nd strike where the U.S. military effectively carried out a double tap strike, killing the two survivors on board there. Then in a subsequent operation, there were survivors who were briefly detained on a U.S. Navy vessel before being repatriated back to their home countries. And in a third instance, the U.S. military basically called up the Mexican authorities and said, hey, we conducted a strike in your backyard. There's a survivor in the ocean somewhere. It's up to you to go find them.

So in this case, on Tuesday, the military says it called the Coast Guard and initiated a search and rescue operation. I'm told that that operation is still ongoing. We're about 72 hours since that strike happened. The whereabouts of those survivors still very unclear.

But this is not happening in a vacuum. This is all going on as President Donald Trump is not only continuing to strike boats international waters, but we reported last week that the CIA conducted a covert operation inside Venezuela itself, which represents really a significant escalation connecting both the drug -- counter drug operation and this pressure campaign on Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. So going into 2026, that's really going to be the thing to watch. How does the Trump administration continue to push that ball forward? I mean, not just connecting to parallel kind of missions.

MATTINGLY: Can I ask, on the boat strikes, since you cover this stuff so closely and your sources are watching all this play out, have you seen an evolution strategically of how they've been conducted, changes they've made, maybe due to some political pressure as well, or they just kind of distinct in and of themselves?

COHEN: Strategically no, they're essentially doing the same thing that they've done since early September. But the handling of the survivors is an interesting evolution in that you go from conducting a double tap strike to making sure there are no survivors, to calling up the Coast Guard and having U.S. forces try to recover these individuals. So that's something that only came after pressure from Capitol Hill when that --

MATTINGLY: Yes.

COHEN: -- when those revelations came out.

MATTINGLY: Yes. It'll be interesting to watch going forward. Zach Cohen, appreciate, man, thank you.

Well, CNN is now on the ground in Switzerland just hours after that devastating New Year's fire at a ski resort. Some 40 people killed, more than 100 injured. We'll go live to the scene next. And later, a big interview behind closed doors released on New Year's Eve. By design, I'd say, how former special counsel Jack Smith defended the two criminal cases built against President Donald Trump.

Here are Smith's words for yourself. That's ahead.

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[17:17:05]

MATTINGLY: A deadly fire tops our world lead. Dozens of people, at least 40, are dead and more than a hundred injured after a fire swept through a New Year's party at a popular tourist bar at an upscale ski resort in Switzerland. Local residents describe people screaming, struggling to escape, and calling for help as the fire spread. CNN's Nic Robertson is near the scene.

Tragic, sounds horrible, Nic, you've been talking to some of the locals. What are they telling you?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, they were telling us about the bar last night. They were saying there was a $60 entrance fee to go in. They're familiar with the bar. A downstairs basement bar had a very narrow staircase going into it, wooden ceilings and this is what we've heard described by other witnesses, the wooden ceilings catching fire, because it appears a barmaid was astride the shoulders of another barmaid. The barmaid closest to the ceiling was holding a champagne bottle that had sparklers in it. Part of the celebration, that caught the ceiling on fire.

Eyewitnesses say that fire spread so quickly, within 10 seconds, they say it was engulfed. I'm just going to step to the side here, and Clay is going to zoom in there. At the end of the street, that's where the bar was. You see the white fence around it earlier on this evening, that was lit because there were police forensic teams in behind there. They appear to have stopped for the night.

That the police say their primary focus right now is to identify not just all the dead, but to identify some of those in hospital who they still do not know much, if anything, about them other than their injuries, and try to communicate this to the families at times of extreme tragedy, according to the Swiss president. And, of course, the nature of this bar itself, a downstairs bar with a narrow staircase and a wooden ceiling is raising questions that the prosecutor was asked at a press conference earlier today about the capacity, about how many people were in there. And he said then that he still doesn't have a handle on it. These are all details that are being worked out. It is very much an -- not just an ongoing investigation, but an ongoing effort to kind of relieve some of the pain for some of the families who still don't know what's happened to their loved ones.

Phil.

MATTINGLY: Yes. Nic, just for clarity on this, it's been almost 24 hours. They still don't know all the people who were there. They don't know all the people who were in the hospital. This seems extraordinarily tragic.

ROBERTSON: Extraordinarily tragic. And I think it speaks to the speed with which the fire ripped through this enclosed basement bar area that perhaps had several hundred people in it. The literature that the bar puts on its website indicates that it can have a capacity for about 300 total upstairs and downstairs. So there are questions about that. And the prosecutors don't know how many people were in there at this stage, nor can they say what the regulation capacity would be.

[17:20:12]

But that's the crux of it. The fire ripped through with so many people in there caught unawares. And the nature of the injuries is such that it is taking a long time, maybe days, the police chief said, to really identify everyone.

MATTINGLY: Horrific. Nic Robertson in Switzerland, thanks for your reporting.

Well, also in our world lead, a fire that started shortly after midnight destroyed a historic church in the heart of Amsterdam. The Neo-Gothic Vondelkerk was built in 1872. Investigators have not said how the fire started, but the Netherlands traditionally rings in the New Year with people setting off their own fireworks. Two people died in fireworks accidents this year and there were scattered instances of violence.

Well, ahead the simmering tension between the United States and Venezuela. How far is Congress willing to get involved as President Trump pushes for Nicolas Maduro to leave office? A lawmaker on a key committee will join me next.

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[17:25:18]

MATTINGLY: Back with our world lead and a busy few days of foreign policy for the Trump administration international waters. We've already noted the U.S. strikes on a convoy of alleged drug boats. Then a Venezuela bound oil tanker the U.S. was chasing last week turned up in the Black Sea with a Russian flag. And speaking of Russia, the CIA says Ukraine was not behind an alleged drone attack on Russian President Vladimir Putin's home despite Putin telling President Trump they were. Lot going on.

Joining us now, Democratic Congresswoman from Texas, Julie Johnson. She's also on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Congresswoman, again, a lot of moving parts here. We try and drill down on a few of them. To start with on Venezuela, there are some Democrats, including Senator Ed Markey, who say the CIA strike on the Venezuelan port serves as an act of war. How do you see it?

REP. JULIE JOHNSON (D-TX): Well, it's certainly looking that way. You know, the Trump administration is escalating in a way with seizing oil tankers, attacking Venezuelan boats, now attacking a port. Those are certainly very warlike aggression moves. But only Congress has the power to declare war. The president does not have that.

The executive branch does not have that. And it looks like Trump is doing everything he can to try to seek a regime change. I mean, I believe he even gave a quote about that he was trying to end the Venezuelan leader's time in office. And so he's going to do everything he can. But unfortunately he does not unilaterally have the ability to do that.

MATTINGLY: Is it your sense that they're trying to do everything in their power to circumvent the need to go to Congress to actually hit that threshold?

JOHNSON: Well, that's what the administration has been doing all year, right? They have consistently tried to circumvent Congress in a number of ways through empowerment through and many other actions. So they have not taken the role of the congressional oversight seriously. And honestly, that's a failure of Speaker Johnson by failing to insist that Congress exercises its role. He's been incredibly weak as a speaker and holding this administration accountable in terms of empowering Congress's role to exercise its functions of oversight over the administration.

So I hold the speaker just as much responsible as I do for the rogue president that we have.

MATTINGLY: Yes, House Republican appropriators too. That part is wild to me on the impoundment front. On the supposed drone attack on President Putin's house, the one he told President Trump about. President Trump said that was where he first heard it. The CIA now says Ukraine was not responsible.

But I want you to listen again to what the president said on Monday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I learned about it from President Putin today. I was very angry about it. You're saying maybe the attack didn't take place? It's possible too, I guess. But President Putin told me this morning it did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Congresswoman, today the Russian Defense Ministry says it handed the U.S. Embassy data supporting its claim. Has there been any reporting to Congress about what actually happened here?

JOHNSON: Not that -- no, not that I'm aware of. Certainly no reporting has been issued to me on this issue. But the CIA clearly denounced that report. They said that absolutely there was no attack on Putin's residence or anything of the sort. This is another act of war that happens in the war process of Ukraine fighting back against Russia, and they had a successful drone strike.

And Putin is using everything he can to try to derail the peace process. It's no secret that Putin is not interested in an ultimate peace with Ukraine. He has a vested interest to keep this war going and is going to apply whatever misinformation.

Again, the distressing part in this whole thing is why is President Trump listening to Putin and not his own CIA, not the administrative counterintelligence officers that we have on the ground that sole mission is to protect the United States?

MATTINGLY: I want to switch now to politics because, you know, your home state of Texas, particularly in the redistricting battles that have been playing out, certainly has been front and center heading into the midterms. You're not running against congresswoman -- Congressman Colin Allred for the new 33rd district in the Democratic primary. You're no stranger to hard races. What are you telling Texans? What are you telling your constituents in the district of what you can offer that Congressman Allred can't?

JOHNSON: Well, you know, we have a strong record of getting stuff done. You know, I've been in Congress for one term so far. I filed over 15 pieces of legislation that are going to materially impact the lives of Texans, addressing housing affordability, increasing the minimum wage, immigration issues and many issues like that, health care access. I think I'm just on the ground really in tune with the constituents of the 33rd district and really trying to address the needs and being very effective in that process. And so I have bipartisan legislation that I'm very hopeful that we're going to get passed that's going to really make it easier for people to live.

[17:29:57]

You know, people are really struggling out there. And I think people see I have a lot of support in this race. People understand that I get what they're going through and that I understand their pain. And I think people feel like I'm well suited to try to address the problems that they have.

MATTINGLY: One last one on the Texas front, Jasmine Crockett. There's been some Democrats that have expressed some frustration about kind of her timeline, how she's operated over the course of the last couple of weeks in terms of the decision to file for her Senate run. Where are you on that? JOHNSON: Well, you know, I was certainly frustrated with the last

minute hourness of that whole decision. But everyone has right to make their decisions about where they run. You know, just like I had the right to decide where I'm going to run. I've known and I've worked with Jasmine. I've known and I've worked with James Talarico. You know, we have a bounty of riches. And those two candidates, they both have a lot to offer. They both have very different paths to winning. It's going to be very interesting to see who ultimately prevails in that race.

But, you know, I'm kind of focused on my own race. We have a lot of support on the ground. A lot of people are excited about the possibility of me representing them in this new 33rd district. And it's going to be an interesting political cycle. It's 60 something days till the Texas primary. You know, hold your hat on. It's going to be a wild ride.

MATTINGLY: I was going to say interesting, maybe slightly, a bit of an understatement there, but you've got the days already being counted. Texas Democratic Congresswoman Julie Johnson, really appreciate your time. Thanks so much.

JOHNSON: Absolutely. Thank you so much.

MATTINGLY: Well, up next, the virus plaguing one Caribbean island that people describe as a living hell. The extreme measures to make sure that virus doesn't adhere to the states.

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[17:35:37]

MATTINGLY: What you might call a case of unintended consequences tops our health lead. The U.S. maintains a comprehensive economic embargo on Cuba in the hopes of changing the behavior of its government. But because of that embargo, ordinary people are suffering, especially now as they can't get basic medicines like painkillers to combat a widespread outbreak of painful mosquito borne disease. We asked CNN's Patrick Oppmann to look into the crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDEN (voice-over): This is the front line of Cuba's war against mosquito borne diseases. It's a war the island is losing. As World Health Organization data shows, infection rates of illnesses like dengue, chikungunya and oropuche are soaring. Part of the problem is that as Cubans confront the worst economic crisis in decades, there are fewer resources to combat and treat the rising number of cases that are spread by mosquitoes.

Outside hospitals in Havana, we find many people waiting to be treated who say they are still suffering the after effects of chikungunya, which originally was first identified in Africa and whose name means bent over for the severe joint pain the disease causes for weeks and sometimes months.

It was terrible, very strong pain. This virus is a living hell, this man tells us.

So far, the Cuban government says the health crisis has cost the lives of at least 55 people. The majority of the deceased are children, they say, but the true toll could be far higher as many hospitals are overwhelmed and unable to test for the viruses.

Video posted to social media shows waiting rooms in government run hospitals overflowing with patients. The painful aches and pains of chikungunya seem to go away and then return, causing people to seek treatment again and again, Cuban health officials say.

Chikungunya is very explosive, she says, with lots of symptoms and it lasts long. The Cuban government acknowledges that their inability to provide many basic services, like picking up trash that now covers whole streets and many neighborhoods across the island, is also fueling the outbreak.

OPPMANN: One byproduct of Cuba's economic collapse is that the government no longer has the trucks or even the gasoline to pick up the garbage. And these piles of trash that you see nearly everywhere you look have become the ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes carrying dengue, chikungunya and other diseases.

OPPMANN (voice-over): In treating those illnesses in a country where basic medicines are increasingly scarce, a crisis the Cuban government blames on U.S. economic sanctions only contributes to the misery. I had a lot of pain in the joints, a fever that was higher than 39 and a constant pain in the body, this man tells us, who said he used homemade remedies since no painkillers were available to treat the virus's symptoms.

The spread of these viruses is unlikely to stay within Cuba's borders, especially as Cubans living abroad return to the island over the holidays. Countries like the U.S. and Spain are warning travelers heading to Cuba to take precautions against mosquitoes to reduce the risk of infection and the further spread of an already deadly outbreak. Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Nevada.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: Our thanks to Patrick Oppmann for that piece. Well, up next, two politicians with some very strong words about President Trump. One of them, California Governor Gavin Newsom, maybe no surprise there. The other, though, Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, a longtime MAGA loyalist, how they're both taking on the president in very different ways. That's next.

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[17:43:06]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK SMITH, FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL: The decision to bring charges against President Trump was mine, but the basis for those charges rests entirely with President Trump and his actions. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MAATTINGLY: in our Law and Justice Lead, that's newly released video, former special counsel Jack Smith defending his two cases against President Trump, the mishandling of classified documents in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election. That video was a deposition with the House Judiciary Committee behind closed doors that took place last month, an interview that lasted more than eight hours. The committee released the video and the transcript yesterday.

Joining now is CNN's Evan Perez. Evan, you covered every element of every twist and turn of these two cases. What stood out to you?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, what stood out is the fact that Jack Smith can't talk about the one part of the investigation that is still under seal essentially from a judge. This is the classified documents case and the report that he completed at the end of that investigation that remains under seal by a judge in Florida.

And so as a result, all we had was eight hours of testimony over the January 6th case, which we've already known a lot about because the special counsel released a report. There were, of course, indictments in there that he had filed against the president.

And of course, we heard him defend those charges that they brought against the president, for instance, saying that President Trump knew he had lost the election or at least acknowledged that he had lost the election to a number of people that he had spoken to.

Also that Rudy Giuliani didn't really believe the vote fraud claims that he was pushing forward. All of those things we've heard before. But the thing that we all wanted to know more about, of course, was what did he find in the classified documents case? What evidence did they not get to present?

[17:45:05]

Because those cases never went to trial, thanks to the way the end of the election happened in 2024.

MATTINGLY: Do we have any sense, Evan, will any of that ever be public? This is Aileen Cannon's decision. Is there some process that plays out here that could end up making it public?

PEREZ: Well, I think there's a lot of efforts, including from the media, to try to get the judge to recognize that this is in the public interest for us to know what happened in that case. And so there's a lot of effort. There's going to be lawsuits and so on that will possibly change the course of that. But until the judge changes her mind or whether the Justice Department decides to put its force behind that, it's very unlikely to happen.

MATTINGLY: All right, Evan Perez, thanks so much. Well, in studio now to discuss this and much more, it's our panel.

MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Happy New Year, Phil.

MATTINGLY: Happy New Year to both of you guys. Thank you for coming in. Maria, I know this isn't the most important element of what Evan was just discussing, but like the timing of the release of the film -- of the video and the deposition in general, like, I'm fairly cynical at this stage in my Washington career, but like New Year's Eve, late afternoon, New Year's Eve, do you think that was intentional?

CARDONA: A little bit. A little bit. Look, I think that this is yet another effort to kind of COVID up from all of the other things that the Trump administration wants to dragged from. Because I think what's clear from both the video as well as the transcript is that Jack Smith followed all the protocols. He followed all of the legal laws and things that he needed to follow in the case that he prosecuted against Donald Trump.

And what is most interesting to me, and I think really is merits underscoring, is that all of the evidence, all of the people that spoke during this case for Jack Smith were not Democrats. They were not progressives. They were President Trump's allies. They were Republicans. They were conservatives who knew every single thing that President Trump was trying to do. And many of them even said what he is trying to do is illegal. He is trying to overturn a fair and legitimate election.

And so I think that is damning for the administration. I think that will continue to underscore for the American people exactly what Trump tried to do in 2020, which I don't think any of us should forget. And I think going into the 2026 midterm elections, it certainly is not going to be the number one issue that voters vote on.

But I think it will sort of under lie the kind of issues that voters have soured on Trump for, which is he doesn't care about affordability, he doesn't care about families bottoms -- bottom lines. He doesn't care about our democracy. He doesn't care about, you know, trying to really make ends meet and bringing down prices, which is what he promised during the campaign.

So I think all of that is going to be really helpful for Democrats going into the 2026 midterm elections.

MATTINGLY: The -- the issue itself, Jack Smith in particular, became kind of a red team, blue team thing a long time ago, for better or worse. And I would argue the latter. But what was interesting about reading the deposition or seeing some of the video is wondering, does this make people see Jack Smith through a new light? You are a lawyer. You have significant expertise in this space. What was your read on Jack Smith coming out of this?

It's puzzling that House Republicans would call him to testify because if you recall a year ago when we got the special counsel report, which was required by regulation. So now you've given Jack Smith two opportunities to publicly state why he believed he had cases and evidence with that are beyond a reasonable doubt would have convicted Donald Trump. And normally you would never hear this from a prosecutor. If a case is

not brought, whether it's before procedural reasons or otherwise, that's it, the files are sealed and prosecutor would never, ever talk about it. And I was very critical of some of these cases against Donald Trump. I thought the Alvin Bragg and Letitia James cases in New York were absolute nonsense.

The Jack Smith cases were not nonsense. They were legitimate cases. And he was hyper aggressive. I think he made some missteps. But at the end of the day, he had legitimate cases. And there's no telling had Donald Trump not been elected or reelected in 2024, it's very possible he would have been convicted one or both of those prosecutions.

MATTINGLY: And I think that also answers why they released all this stuff on New Year's Day.

CARDONA: Exactly.

MATTINGLY: Belatedly realized exactly what you were saying. Like, oh man, maybe we should not have done this. OK, I got to ask about this longtime ally, President Trump, Lauren Boebert, slamming his first veto, a veto on a noncontroversial bill that I'm a fairly astute watcher of the legislative branch, wasn't even aware it passed, but it passed with unanimous support to fund a Colorado water project.

[17:50:02]

What Boebert said is this. I must have missed the rally where he stood in Colorado and promised to personally derail critical water infrastructure projects. My bad. I thought the campaign was about lowering costs and cutting red tape. She goes on to say, quote, I sincerely hope this veto has nothing to do with political retaliation for calling out corruption and demanding accountability.

Now, Boebert was one of the four Republicans who were instrumental enforcing the Epstein vote. There's also the Tina Peters elements of all of this as well with Colorado that are going on. How big a deal is this?

CARDONA: I think it's a pretty big deal, Phil, because even in that quote that you just quoted from Boebert, she underscores what I just said about the problem for Trump and Republicans going into the 2026 elections. He promised so much in the campaign in 2024 that he was going to bring down prices on day one, that he was going to work on inflation, make sure that was down on day one.

And he has -- and in fact, everything that he has done the opposite. Right? The tariffs have exploded prices. His mass immigration, criminal, divisive, cruel raids have exploded prices. And he is now showing the country vividly, something that Vice President Kamala Harris talked about during the campaign, too, which is when he gets into office, he's not going to be focused on families, bottom lines.

He's not going to be focused on helping middle class voters make ends meet. He's going to be focused on his enemies list. And because Colorado has been one of these blue states that has pissed him off. And I think, you know, Ms. Boebert is exactly right. This is about vindictiveness.

I do think it's about her. I think it's about all of the Democrats that are in Colorado because there are other things as well that he is taking away from Colorado. Transportation grants, Interior grants. So I think this is going to be yet another one check mark that Democrats can use in their messaging.

MORENO: Yes. You know, it's funny because I think whether you like Trump or not, he has done some truly astounding things in his creation of his political career coming out of nowhere back in 2016. And yet once he's elected, he seems to act so radically and so emotionally.

And so I know a lot of his supporters like to say he's always a few steps ahead and he's playing 3D or 4D chess or whatnot. But I have to think Congress will override his veto. So rather than just take credit for it and kind of I have it as a layup he picks this fight that he's going to lose ultimately. So I can't help but think he just acts really emotionally and he's not several steps ahead like his backers like to claim.

MATTINGLY: I mean, the best part is going to be to your point, they can override the veto. That vote is going to suck for Republicans.

CARDONA: Oh yes. Which is why --

MATTINGLY: They're going to be like, oh God, I got a vote against him on this.

CARDONA: I'm not so sure that they will override it, especially because of that. But we all know that Donald Trump's most important thing is his ego.

MATTINGLY: Yes. Yes.

CARDONAL That's the problem.

MATTINGLY: OK. I want to ask about Gavin Newsom. California Governor Gavin Newsom responding to President Trump's announcement yesterday that he's withdrawing the National Guard from L.A., Chicago and Portland. Posting quote, we won in court and forced him to. Trump's rambling here is the political version of you can't fire me, I quit.

You have had a very -- we talked about this last time you were on and have a very kind of astute and nuanced view of how these deployments were playing out. But the overriding kind of Newsom taunt here, how does it throw into that?

MORENO: It's a shame because as a native New Yorker, I saw for 20 years after the September 11 attacks, we had National Guardsmen posted at, in Penn Station at the Midtown Tunnel. And it was completely noncontroversial. Right. The president, the governor, the mayors, different, both different parties all agreed.

And so the fact that now, 25 years later, Donald Trump has made this so contentious and has forced the fact that he was essentially shot down in his decisions to deploy the guard, it's going to make it so much more difficult for future presidents to make this argument that's a legitimate use of the military. Because now the Supreme Court itself has said Donald Trump lacked the basis for doing this.

MATTINGLY: Yes. Precedent is set. Thanks to you both. Really appreciate.

CARDONA: Thank you, Phil.

MATTINGLY: Well, coming up, canines on a mission. We're talking puppies. Not need to say more. It is a must watch. And it's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:58:02]

MATTINGLY: With rain and flooding, another risk can strike mold in your house that can be hazardous to your health. But now there's a potential solution to sniff out that moldy smell. CNN's Randi Kaye explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This German shepherd puppy is the newest member of an army of dogs trained to sniff out mold. His name is Spore.

SEAN GALAVAN, CO-OWNER, PAWS ON MOLD: That's a good boy. Starting a dog from the puppy is huge. We don't want a dog that's going to be terrified going into places like that. So getting a dog their head inside pipes like that is going to be imperative.

KAYE (voice-over): Sean Galavan, co-owner of Paws on Mold, uses dog treats as a training tool to encourage Spore to follow the odor inside the pipe.

GAVALAN: Good man.

KAYE (voice-over): Florida is the number one state for mold risk. For little Spore, that's pretty good job security.

GALAVAN: We have aspergillus, we have plutonium. Every -- every mo -- black mold. Our dog is on all of them.

KAYE (voice-over): Sean spent four years in the military. He's worked with dogs who can sniff out explosives and drugs, too.

GALAVAN: After I got out of the military, I started working at the airport for explosive detection. As long as it has a chemical compound, the sky is the limit when you're dealing with dogs.

KAYE: Spore is about eight weeks old, so he's in puppy kindergarten right now. But in about a year and a half, he'll be fully trained and ready to go out in the field homes and businesses here in the state of Florida and sniff out mold. And he'll be on his best behavior. KAYE (voice-over): Until then, Paws on Mold will rely on other pups

like Zuko, whose olfactory system has been sniffing out mold for some time now. Dogs noses are believed to have up to 300 million scent receptors compared to about 5 million in our noses.

Watch when Sean hides synthetic mold, which is safe in the scent wall or the odor box during more advanced training. The reward for Zuko's hard work, a ball, which Sean releases using a remote.

GALAVAN: You can't really drop anything out of this because it's not going to come out. So it's a ball popper, and it just literally shoots a ball up. So when the dog goes to the right one and indicates on the right one, the ball is going to come right from the source of odor.

[18:00:05]

KAYE (voice-over): When the dog's alert for mold at someone's home or business --