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Trump Says He Will Honor National Guard Shooting Victims at White House; Trump Says Pause on Asylum Decisions May Be Indefinite; Lawmakers Warn Second Boat Strike Could Be a War Crime; Surveys Show That Americans Paid More, but Got Less for Their Money on Black Friday; White House Says Trump Had Cardiac MRI, Which Showed Excellent Health. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired December 01, 2025 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:33:48]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": President Trump says he will honor the two National Guard members shot last week here in Washington, D.C. when the time is right for their families. Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe remains in critical condition. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, who died in the ambush-style shooting, was honored in her hometown over the weekend.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem says the suspect in the shooting was radicalized in the U.S. after arriving from Afghanistan in 2021.

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KRISTI NOEM, (R) UNITED STATES HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We believe he was radicalized since he's been here in this country. We do believe it was through connections in his home community and state, and we're going to continue to talk to those who interacted with him, who were his family members, talk to them. So far, we've had some participation, but, anyone who has information on this needs to know that we will be coming after you and we will bring you to justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: We're joined now by former FBI deputy Director, Andrew McCabe. He's a CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst. Andy, great to see you as always. What do you make of the secretary here describing him as radicalized? What exactly does that mean? How is evidence gathered to prove that?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: So, it's really important that we're precise with those words and I'm not sure that the statements we heard over the weekend are exactly that.

[13:35:00]

Typically when we say radicalization, we're talking about somebody who is becoming more extreme in their religious or political beliefs until they reach the point that they actually resort to violence to pursue those beliefs. When we're talking about this individual, there's a question. He went through some process since he's been here in the United States that took him from ally of the U.S., somebody who fought shoulder to shoulder with our folks in country, in Afghanistan for years to becoming someone who picked up a gun and pointed it at, used it lethally against service members here in the United States.

It may not have been a traditional radicalization path, but clearly he experienced something that brought him to that terrible moment.

KEILAR: So emails obtained by The Associated Press paint to a picture of a person unable to hold a steady job or commit to his English courses while he was alternating between periods of dark isolation and reckless travel. What do those kinds of things tell you about this suspect and that kind of path that you're talking about?

MCCABE: Yeah, so a couple things. There's no indication that this individual was radicalized or sympathetic with terrorist organizations, the Taliban, Al-Qaeda before he got to the United States. Had he been, he never would've been approved to work that closely with the CIA and with our Special Forces folks over there. So, what investigators are looking for now are communications and contacts to people who might have been associated with those groups. So far, we haven't heard any evidence in that category whatsoever.

But what we have heard is a lot of things about his life here in the United States that may have precipitated a devolution in his mental illness. So, you have someone who served overseas in an incredibly high operational tempo, use -- engaged in violent combat on an almost nightly basis. He did this for eight years on behalf of U.S. interests, fighting with our soldiers. He's then transported to the United States, cut off from his culture, cut off from his extended family, cut off from his mentors, loses his military career, his esteem, all those things that he had spent eight years creating in his home country, finds himself in Bellingham, Washington in substandard housing, driving food delivery to try to make ends meet for his wife and five children.

We know he suffered financial distress, lost his work permit, so couldn't even do that anymore. So you can see these sort of life stressors stacking up on this individual. Understanding that, the idea that he may have had some sort of a break that led him to this horrible, horrible, violent decision, that picture seems to come together a little more clearly.

SANCHEZ: To what you were just describing, There was a community advocate who apparently reached out to a refugee organization for help fearing that the suspect at one point was becoming suicidal.

MCCABE: Yeah.

SANCHEZ: As you hear the secretary there saying that they're going to interview folks that interacted with him, what would you ask them?

MCCABE: Well, these -- that's exactly what you want to do. You want to talk to family members, anyone he may have interacted with, either in his neighborhood or at work or something like that. You want to just get a sense of what sort of things did he say? What did he do when he wasn't working? What -- how did he occupy his time? Was he somebody that spent all his time scrolling on his phone, looking at terrorist propaganda or violent images? Is he somebody who you could interact with on a social level?

People who progress towards that very isolated, disconnected place that sometimes leads to violence start to lose the capacity to make -- to conduct social interactions, to develop friendships, to participate in community events. So, it's really much more of a holistic view than a very specific, did this person talk to an ISIS recruiter?

KEILAR: The White House Press secretary just addressed this at the briefing. Let's listen into what she said.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Here are the facts. The terrorist who was gunned down -- who gunned down American soldiers, blocks away from the White House in an ambush was an Afghan national who was flown into our country by Joe Biden's administration in September 2021 in the chaotic wake of their botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, one of the most embarrassing moments in the history of our great country. Joe Biden's historic failure in Afghanistan continues to haunt this country, and our men and women in uniform.

Not only did this surrender lead to a suicide bombing that killed 13 American heroes in Kabul, but now, National Guard troops were shot on U.S. soil by the same kind of enemy. We continue to live with the deadly consequences of Joe Biden's horrific leadership. Nearly 100,000 Afghans were recklessly released into the United States with little to no vetting. There was no regard for the disorder and violence that this would unleash on American communities and American culture.

[13:40:00]

Reportedly, thousands of these strangers and unknown individuals were flagged to the Biden administration for national security, public safety and fraud concerns. But the terrifying truth is that the Afghanistan debacle is just a small part of Democrats' complete and total betrayal of the American people during the Biden years. The tragedy that we just witnessed the day before Thanksgiving is a reminder that untold thousands of terrorists, gang members, and criminals were invited into our country and remain here to this very day.

The border is now secure, thanks to President Trump, but the threat in our interior remains real and urgent. These public safety threats are already inside our land. And President Trump was elected on a promise to find and remove them, and he has already taken significant steps and made significant progress towards fulfilling this promise. But there is more work to be done because President Trump believes that he has a sacred obligation to reverse the calamity of mass unchecked migration into our country.

As a result, the Trump administration is now actively re-examining all of the Afghans imported into the country by Joe Biden. Any individual who threatens our national security or our citizenry will be subject to removal. President Trump has already permanently paused migration of foreign nationals from third world countries that pose a very high risk to the United States. For too long, past American presidents supported self-destruction -- self-destructive immigration policies that allowed foreigners who outright hate our country and have no interest in assimilating into our culture. They've allowed these individuals to flood peaceful American communities.

This disastrous approach has drained our welfare program, driven up the cost of housing, suppressed wages, and jeopardized the safety of law abiding American citizens. In fact, according to a new bombshell report from The New York Times, Somalian migrants in Minnesota have defrauded nearly $1 billion in taxpayer funded benefits under Democrat Governor Walz's leadership. President Trump is putting an end to this dangerous America Last approach. His position is rooted in common sense.

In the wake of last week's atrocity, it is more important than ever to finish carrying out the president's mass deportation operation. America cannot allow millions upon millions of unvetted illegal aliens to be rewarded with amnesty after they broke our nation's laws to come here, they must go back to their home countries. It is also essential to immediately address the massive fraud and corruption that has been going on for decades in other aspects of our immigration system, most notably, when it comes to asylum claims. Millions of people who have come here under false pretenses are told blatant -- and told blatant lies now enjoy temporary legal status.

President Trump is ending this scam as well. And I would point out that the Democrats have tried to block this administration from doing so at every term -- turn with lawsuit after lawsuit. The hard truth is that even when it comes to our legal immigration system, past presidents --

KEILAR: Karoline Leavitt saying a lot there not -- a lot of it does not reflect the reality of this particular individual.

MCCABE: That's right.

KEILAR: And that does not make what happened here in Washington any less alarming.

MCCABE: Absolutely.

KEILAR: We have to be very clear about that.

MCCABE: Absolutely.

KEILAR: But she's talking about little to no vetting. I mean, that's not the case with this individual. This is someone who worked for years on some of the most sensitive operations in Afghanistan, with U.S. forces.

MCCABE: At the direction of U.S. forces, shoulder to shoulder.

KEILAR: Correct. During multiple administrations, including the first Trump administration, which I think is why this is particularly alarming, because this is someone who applied for asylum in 2024 under the Biden administration, was granted asylum during this latest Trump --

MCCABE: That's right.

KEILAR: -- administration and yet still gets through the cracks.

MCCABE: That is why it's so important for us to figure out how this happened, what led to this. We know that this, to get vetted to work with the CIA and with Joint Special Forces Command in Afghanistan, there could not have been any information that he had any terrorist leanings whatsoever. He worked in that capacity for eight years. He earned the opportunity to come over here because as a partner working in that function, he would've been number one on the Taliban's kill list once they took the government over.

So, he comes back to the United States with a, we can only assume, a clean record and somehow goes from that to being someone who attacks and tries to kill our own patriotic servicemen here in the United States. We have to figure out why that happened. The information we have right now points to a reasonable and likely conclusion that some sort of mental distress was involved here.

[13:45:00]

There is, to our understanding so far, no information about a connection to terrorism. So, starting our speech by referring to him as a terrorist is a fundamentally misleading statement.

SANCHEZ: Let's go back to the presser at the White House because Karoline Leavitt is now answering questions about potential U.S. strikes inside Venezuela. Let's listen.

LEAVITT: -- terrorist groups are subject to lethal targeting in accordance with the laws of war. With respect to the strikes in question, on September 2nd, Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes. Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated.

And I would just add one more point to remind the American public why these lethal strikes are taking place, because this administration has designated these narco terrorists as foreign terrorist organizations. The president has a right to take them out if they are threatening the United States of America, and if they are bringing illegal narcotics that are killing our citizens at a record rate, which is what they are doing. And under the previous administration, there was enough fentanyl trafficked into our country to kill every American man, woman, and child many times over.

And so, that's why you've seen a drastic difference in this administration's policy with respect to the last, and it's one of the many reasons the American public re-elected this president and support this Secretary of War in conducting these strikes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So to be clear -- to clarify, Admiral Bradley was the one who gave that order for a second strike?

LEAVITT: And he was well within his authority to do so.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And a separate question on the president, several days ago, said it was his intention to pardon --

SANCHEZ: We've been listening to Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt at the White House there. She confirmed what reporters had been asking the administration regarding this strike against a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean, one in which CNN and other outlets reporting indicates was initially targeted, was struck, and then as survivors, according to The Washington Post, were still clinging to the wreckage of it, was struck again, was some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have described as a potential war crime, a violation of international law.

There, the press secretary is saying that that is not the case, saying that Secretary Hegseth designated Admiral Bradley to handle that strike and that Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority because these, the suspected drug traffickers have been designated as narco terrorists. We'll, of course, continue watching the press briefing at the White House and a meeting that we're expecting later in the Oval Office where the president is set to discuss Venezuela. We'll bring you the latest as we get it. Our thanks to Andrew McCabe as well for answering our questions. Stay with CNN.

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[13:51:58]

SANCHEZ: As you take stock today of all the gifts you purchased on Black Friday, you should keep in mind that new numbers show Americans spent more on this year's busiest shopping day, but we actually got less for our money. That's according to several analysts who monitor American spending. CNN's Matt Egan joins us now live from New York. Matt, walk us through how Cyber Monday will compare to Black Friday.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, Boris. Well, as you mentioned, Americans are paying more and getting less, and that's really because of inflation. Now, at a high level, the numbers from Black Friday, they did look pretty solid. Americans spent $18 billion online shopping on Black Friday alone. That's up by three percent versus last year. That's according to Salesforce. Now Adobe Analytics, they've estimated an even bigger increase of about eight or nine percent versus last year.

All of that is pretty solid given all of the gloom and doom in the surveys, and crumbling consumer confidence. However, these numbers, they don't factor in higher prices and when you do that, the numbers don't look nearly as good. So Salesforce says that on average, selling prices were up by seven percent online shopping on Black Friday. That's more than twice the overall rate of inflation. And because of higher prices, they found that order volume was down. So yeah, people paying more but actually getting less for their money. And Salesforce, they pinned at least some of the blame here on tariffs, noticing, they pointed out that price increases really accelerated as the year went on, as tariffs continue to kick in.

And some of the categories seeing the biggest price increases on Black Friday include clothes, electronics, and also home goods like furniture and appliances up by 24 percent. And it's worth noting that all of these categories are things that are exposed to tariffs. Now, President Trump, this spring, he did warn that his tariffs could mean that people end up getting less stuff and paying more. Take a listen to what the president said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know? And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EGAN: And so, this does seem to be something that is in fact playing out, Boris, where people are paying more because of higher prices, they're getting less stuff, and tariffs do seem to be at least partially to blame for this.

SANCHEZ: Matt Egan, thank you so much for that. We actually want to go back to the White House because Karoline Leavitt is also answering questions about President Trump's statement that he got an MRI but not on his brain. Let's listen to this.

LEAVITT: Right now, I think my team has it teed up for all of you. I'll read it for you and then you'll get it physically as well. As part of President Trump's comprehensive Executive Physical, advanced imaging was performed because men of his age group benefit from a thorough evaluation of cardiovascular and abdominal health. The purpose of this imaging is preventative, to identify any issues early, confirm overall health, and ensure the president maintains long-term vitality and function.

[13:55:00]

President Trump's cardiovascular imaging was perfectly normal. No evidence of arterial narrowing impairing blood flow or abnormalities in the heart or major vessels. The heart chambers are normal in size. The vessel walls appear smooth and healthy, and there are no signs of inflammation or clotting. Overall, his cardiovascular system shows excellent health. His abdominal imaging is also perfectly normal. All major organs appear very healthy and well profused. Everything evaluated is functioning within normal limits with no acute or chronic concerns.

In summary, this level of detailed assessment is standard for an executive physical at President Trump's age and confirms that he remains in excellent overall health. Again, we will provide that to you. I think that's quite a bit of detail and in the effort of transparency, the president promised it last night and we have delivered today. So there you go. Danny? SANCHEZ: You heard it there from the press secretary after President Trump made that odd remark that he had gotten an MRI, but that it wasn't of his brain, not really answering what he had imaged. The press secretary saying that this was a preventative MRI of his cardiovascular system and of his abdomen, both of those tests coming up normally.

Stay with CNN, a new hour of "CNN News Central" starts after a quick break.

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KEILAR: President Trump will soon hold a meeting in the Oval Office to talk about the next steps on Venezuela, as the administration launches strikes on alleged drug votes in the Caribbean and threatens direct action on land. --