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TSA to Start Charging New Fee; Responsibility for Boat Strike Shifts; High-Stakes Meeting with Putin; Bomb Cyclone Slams Northeast; Testimony Resumes in Walshe Murder Trial. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 02, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Though, for security lines? Because that really is always the question.

CNN's Pete Muntean tracking this one for us.

Pete, what are you learning about all of this and this rollout?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, 20 years since Real I.D. was signed into law, started being enforced seven months ago, May 7th. Now, not only with those without Real I.D. have to pay, but they could be surprised by this new rule at maybe the worst possible time, in line at a TSA checkpoint. Worse yet, the agency says this whole process could take you an extra half hour. Talk about a bad travel day.

The Trump administration just made this new announcement. Those who have not yet been to their state DMV to update their license will have to log on to a new TSA web portal, verify they are who they are -- who they say they are, and then pay a $45 fee. That fee, valid for ten days. So, theoretically, it can be used for your return trip as well. But the TSA says, if you try to fly after that ten day window, you'll have to pay the $45 fee again. TSA says this all covers using the back end technology that they're using. It's called Confirm.i.d.

The agency says the good news is that 94 percent of travelers are Real I.D. compliant. But that leaves about six percent of travelers who still don't have one. We're talking about millions of people here.

There are some other ways around this. Probably the best advice, using your passport at TSA if you have one. Some -- still some big questions though about how this will work when this all goes into effect in two months on February 1st. The TSA says, interestingly, the process will differ airport to airport, and it's working with private industry to provide online payment options so you can verify your non-compliant I.D. before getting to the airport. Any way you slice it, just more inconvenient if you don't yet have a Real I.D.

BOLDUAN: Yes, especially when you say it's going to differ airport to airport because you know what that screams? That screams no snags in the process at all.

It's great to see you, Pete, though. Important information. MUNTEAN: We'll be watching.

BOLDUAN: Exactly, regardless. Thank you.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, the blame game has begun after the White House admitted there was a deadly double strike against an alleged Venezuelan drug boat. The defense secretary doubling down overnight, the White House deflecting responsibility onto a Navy admiral.

Now, we are standing by for a critical meeting any moment now between President Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Will they hammer out a deal to end the fighting in Ukraine?

And the warning from officials in Ohio, if you don't need to be out, don't. Millions of Americans now under severe weather alerts as a bomb cyclone bringing fast falling snow and dangerous conditions. We're tracking the very latest.

I'm Sara Sidner, with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, shifting responsibility and evolving narratives. The White House is distancing itself from a deadly attack in the Caribbean that has raised questions about possible war crimes. It has now confirmed that the U.S. military did launch a second strike on a boat allegedly tied to a Venezuelan cartel on September 2nd. Sources told CNN there were survivors hanging on the disabled boat after the first attack, and that a second strike killed them all.

The White House is drawing a distinction here, saying the final order for the follow up strike did not come from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying instead it came from U.S. Navy Admiral Frank Mitch Bradley. The White House is defending Bradley, saying his actions were lawful. Hegseth posted this on social media, "I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made on the September 2nd mission and all other since."

I'm joined now by CNN chief national security analyst Jim Sciutto.

I do want to note, Jim, in "The Washington Post" there were all kinds of blind quotes from people saying -- inside the Pentagon concerned that the administration is scapegoating Admiral Bradley here.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes.

BERMAN: What are you hearing?

SCIUTTO: It's not just inside the Pentagon, John. I spoke to a member of Congress and a senator yesterday, both on the relevant committees, the Armed Services Committees. And both of them said to me, they view this as the administration throwing Admiral Bradley under the bus here. And that Admiral Bradley should be concerned going forward.

And look at that language that you cited. John, combat decisions he, look at the gentleman there to the right of me on the screen, that he has made. And given that early on, even the president himself said, no, he would not have ordered that second strike. Even the president himself has said publicly that that second strike in some way was problematic to him.

And after the initial denials where they claimed "The Post" was making this up, and other journalists, et cetera., now the administration said, yes, this happened, but it was not our decision.

[09:05:01]

It was not the president's decision. Not the defense secretary's decision. It was Admiral Bradley. That's notable. And we should watch that space going forward.

BERMAN: Now, all of this, Jim, is happening in this theater where there are 15,000 U.S. troops now stationed, you know, in the Caribbean, off the coast of Venezuela. There has been talk of possible operations on the ground there in Venezuela. You know, President Trump has spoken to the Venezuelan leader, Nicolas Maduro, by phone.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BERMAN: You've got some reporting on the opposition there. What are you hearing?

SCIUTTO: I spoke to David Smolansky. He is a member of the opposition. Also adviser to the opposition -- opposition leader Machado. I asked him two things. One, I asked him, does -- does the opposition support this expanding military action? At least the threat of military action on the ground in Venezuela, but also these deadly boat strikes? He didn't want to say no. And I asked him multiple times. He said they support pressure. Didn't say specifically military action, but pressure.

But I also asked him, given that they are in close conversation with the Trump administration, did the administration fill them in on the content of Trump's conversations with Maduro? And here's what he said to me. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Has the Trump administration at all updated you on the content of the president's conversations with Nicolas Maduro? What have they spoken about?

DAVID SMOLANSKY, VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION POLITICIAN: We have. We have information about it. It was brief call. And Maduro has options on the table. So, we'll see.

Last year, again, he was offered a way to exit before the election, during the election, after the election. The thing that I can say is that Maduro has always used negotiations to gain time to fracture the international community and to demoralize (ph) people. He has used that over a decade. So, we have to --

SCIUTTO: Are you saying that he was offered a way to leave the country?

SMOLANSKY: Apparently, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Options on the table, John Berman, and a way to leave the country. The question, of course, is, does maduro take those options? It seems that the administration's hope is that all that military pressure, at least the threat of military action, will be enough to force him out. But he was quite public in the streets in the last couple of days, Maduro. At least for now, he's not taking one of those options.

BERMAN: It seemed quite purposeful to be public like that.

Jim Sciutto, terrific reporting, thank you, on all these fronts. Appreciate it.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, at any moment in Moscow, President Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It's a critical moment in the Trump administration's efforts to secure a peace deal. This time they're working to sell Putin on the new terms of the proposal to end the fighting in Ukraine. The meeting comes as Putin hopes to negotiate from a position of strength on the battlefield because Russian military officials say they are gaining ground now in Ukraine, claiming to have taken the key strategic city of Pokrovsk.

CNN's Matthew Chance is joining me now from Moscow.

What are you learning about talks that will happen today?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that claim by the Russians earlier today, Sara, that they've taken Pokrovsk is a sort of -- sort of underlines the Kremlin's narrative. On the battlefield they're making advances. They would like to have a peace deal, but only if it delivers them the kind of victory that they're sort of determined to get through military means. And so that's what the backdrop is to these meetings, these important meetings. Steve Witkoff, the U.S. president's envoy, has arrived here, along with Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law, of course.

There's been video that's emerged of them on Russian state media being escorted in a motorcade from the airport into the center of Moscow. Sort of leaving a restaurant where they've been having lunch with Kirill Dmitriev, who's the Kremlin sort of presidential envoy who's got a close relationship with Steve Witkoff and Kushner as well. And they've been seen walking across the cobbles of Red Square into the Kremlin compound itself. We don't know yet whether the meeting with Putin has actually begun yet, but it's expected to begin around about now.

What the outcome is going to be, obviously, is the big mystery. The intention is to present the Kremlin, to present Vladimir Putin with some of the sort of potential concessions that have been hammered out between U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators over the past week or so of intensive negotiations in Geneva. And then at the weekend in south Florida as well, across the table between the U.S. and the Ukrainian delegates that were there. And compromises that could potentially sort of tiptoe around some of the most sensitive issues, like Ukraine's desire to join NATO. Like the call for Russia, for Ukraine to surrender territory, that it's annexed inside eastern Ukraine but not yet conquered. These are red lines and sensitive areas for both sides.

[09:10:02]

And so, you know what Witkoff and Kushner are trying to do, we think, is to present some of those potential compromises to see if with the Kremlin -- to see if the Kremlin goes for it. Obviously, the Kremlin, again, have said, they will go for a peace deal, but only if it meets their basic war objectives.

Sara.

SIDNER: Yes. I mean we cannot forget those who are in the war, the civilians who are being repeatedly bombed. There is just so much at stake here.

Thank you so much, Matthew Chance, for your reporting on this. Do appreciate you.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: And joining us right now, CNN military analyst, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. It's good to see you again.

So, let's talk about this meeting with -- between Putin and Witkoff and Kushner. President Trump, CNN has sources saying, that considers his son-in-law a closer when it comes to foreign policy deals, which would be why he would be there, along with -- alongside the special envoy. But when it comes to Vladimir Putin and Ukraine, do you think this is different from other foreign policy deals?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I think it could be very much, Kate. It's good to be with you.

One of the key things here is that Putin is also a master negotiator. And the deal that we're looking at here really involves a lot of concessions from the victim. And the victim in this case, of course, being Ukraine. So, when you look at, you know, somebody like Jared Kushner coming into this, it's one thing to do -- to conduct peace negotiations in the Middle East. It's quite another thing to conduct negotiations in Russia. The styles are different. The way the people operate is different. And in this particular case, you actually have a -- the major power, in this case, Russia, engaging in a war with a lesser power. So, there are, you know, maybe a few similarities between what Jared Kushner has been able to accomplish in the Middle East with things like the Abraham Accords, but it's a very, very different environment. At that particular moment in time, there was no active shooting war. Now we have a very active shooting war. And that is a very different thing.

Plus, Putin is also very focused on his interpretation of history. And that is something that I don't think either Kushner or Witkoff are really familiar with.

BOLDUAN: That's a great point.

If I could also ask you about the other big story that we are covering when it comes to U.S. military assets. This in -- the military buildup off the shores of Venezuela. This distinction now coming from the White House that, yes, the defense secretary authorized the initial strikes on alleged drug boats, but it was the call of the commander overseeing operations there to carry out the second strike on that one boat in early September.

"The Washington Post" is reporting, and the way they put it is that that distinction elicited a furious backlash within the Defense Department. Jim Sciutto just said that he's hearing some -- is hearing this as well. One official telling "The Washington Post," "it's throwing us, the service members under the bus. This is a -- this is protect Pete B.S.," meaning protect Pete Hegseth.

Do you see that? Do you see this as potentially throwing that commander under the bus?

LEIGHTON: Yes, I think there's a great potential for that, Kate. I -- the way this is characterized was kind of interesting because when Secretary Hegseth made his announcement via tweet, basically saying that he backs up all the decisions that Admiral Bradley made. The real underlying current here seems to be the fact that the decisions were Admiral Bradley's. And Hegseth himself is not really taking responsibility for these actions.

But the fact of the matter is, these actions were carried out at the behest not only of Secretary Hegseth, but also of President Trump. So, they are ultimately responsible for how the military carries out these missions. They have to not only ensure that these orders are carried out, if they want them carried out, but they also have to make sure that those orders are lawful. And if you don't make sure those orders are lawful and people engage in these kinds of attacks and the so- called double tap attack, that would be a significant, not only breach of the laws of war, but it is also potentially a war crime. And that's the kind of thing that we're looking at here.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And that's why more and more calls for investigation and clarity and transparency in what really happened, who ordered what and when.

Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you very much.

Sara.

SIDNER: You are looking behind me at Buffalo getting blasted with snow. Ohio is being buried. A record-setting storm is barreling into the northeast. Snow, sleet, freezing rain, 50 million people are under winter weather alerts today.

And day two underway in the criminal trial of Brian Walshe, the man accused of murdering and dismembering his wife. What we could learn today after he explained, his attorneys anyway, as to how they say she died.

[09:15:06]

And Costco is taking the U.S. government to court. Why the store is now demanding millions of dollars.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: So, right now, snow and ice are making for a treacherous morning commute as an already powerful winter storm is expected to strengthen into what's called a bomb cyclone. Around 50 million people from Kentucky to Maine are under winter weather alerts today, with snow rates possibly topping an inch an hour in parts of Ohio. Officials there urging people to please stay off the roads.

The Missouri State Police say officers responded to, get this, more than 350 crashes and helped more than 200 stranded drivers yesterday as they saw this system come through.

So, what is now in store for today? CNN's Derek Van Dam is tracking this one for us.

And, Derek, what are you expecting?

[09:20:01]

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, this is where the storm actually started to garner some strength yesterday across Missouri, with all the crashes. Very slick roads.

Check out what Topeka, Kansas, had to deal with as well. State troopers there helping vehicles that slid off the sides of the highways there. Minor accidents. But yes, this is just kind of what people had to contend with.

And unfortunately, that system, as it moves eastward, will bring the potential for more travel chaos, especially along the roadways of inland interior New England, OK.

So, this storm is closing in on some of the big cities. And the temperature at the surface makes all the difference in terms of what types of precipitation we're going to experience. And you can see, just outside of New York City, we're about 40 degrees. So, just north of the New Jersey turnpike, this is where we get that changeover to snow. Looks like Hartford should be in snowfall into the Hudson Valley. Northeastern sections of Pennsylvania. This is where we expect some of the heaviest snowfall that will actually take place.

And then further to the south, along that I-95 corridor, really all rain. But in the higher elevations of western Virginia into West Virginia, this is an area that could see over a quarter inch of ice that is going to cause problems on the roadways.

So, Kate talked about a bomb cyclone. Basically a fancy term for when an area of low pressure strengthens rapidly over a 24-hour period. Sometimes we see that happen along the eastern seaboard. The difference here is there's not a lot of wind associated with this system, but certainly plenty of precipitation. But rain along the coast, where most of us -- most of us reside, and snow for the ski resorts to the north.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Derek Van Dam, thank you so much.

VAN DAM: You got it.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you. Kate.

Court is back in session this morning in the criminal trial of Brian Walshe, the man accused of murdering and dismembering his wife in 2023. Now, in opening statements Monday, the defense, for the first time, gave an explanation for how his wife, Ana Walshe, died. Walshe has already pleaded guilty to moving her body and lying to police investigating the case, but he still maintains he didn't kill her.

CNN's Jean Casarez is joining me now with details.

So, what is the reason the defense is giving for how she died?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sudden, unexplained death. That the early morning hours of January 1st, they were in bed. He decides he's going to go downstairs, wash the dishes, clean up the kitchen. He comes back. He nudges her. She doesn't move. He nudges her again. And then she falls off the bed because the nudge was so hard. And he realized she's gone. And that's when he panicked. And that's when the defense attorney said in opening, it became very, very dark, talking about that dismembering, I think.

You know, they've started court today, Sara, and it is the lead investigator for the missing persons case. Brian just said on that recording that what are you going to do that -- that January 1st if she hadn't gone missing? Well, we probably would have gone to my moms. It would have been a family get together.

The prosecution, however, gave that opening statement yesterday because they have to show premeditation. And they went into some Google searches we had never heard about before.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREG CONNOR, ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Websites visited included those as, whether it is better to throw away crime scene clothes or wash them. One site was entitled, "you want to get away with murder? Use a special detergent."

LARRY TIPTON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Sudden unexplained death is known within the medical community. You will hear evidence. Brian Walshe never imagined somebody suddenly died. One hour he's with her. He cleans the kitchen. He comes back up and she is dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: Now, once this lead detective gets off the stand today, we're going to learn about the Google searches, the searches on the cell phone, iPad, and the mini iPad of his oldest child.

SIDNER: Jean Casarez, thank you so much for those details. They really are quite stunning. I really do appreciate your reporting on this.

John.

BERMAN: All right, the record-setting donation that is changing the future for some medical students.

And the kick that went so wrong, right. OK. That was so wrong, they didn't even know how to score it during the game.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:28:48]

SIDNER: In just a few hours, President Trump is set to convene a meeting of his cabinet. And it comes as questions are growing about the U.S. attack on the alleged drug boat in the Caribbean. The White House now confirming there was a follow up strike on that boat. Sources have told CNN there were survivors hanging on the disabled boat after the first strike and the second strike killed them all. But the White House says that final order did not come from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, but rather from a U.S. Navy admiral.

Joining me now is Congressman Brad Schneider, a Democrat from Illinois.

You are on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. You know, we heard from the White House spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, confirming basically that there was this double strike on the suspected drug boat. But she denied that it was Defense Secretary Hegseth who gave the kill everybody order that "The Washington Post" first reported. Do you think that whoever ordered the second strike should be charged with a war crime or potentially murder?

REP. BRAD SCHNEIDER (D-IL): I think there has to be an investigation. And one thing I am certain of, that this administration in particular, Secretary Hegseth, hasn't (ph) earned the benefit of the doubt to just take what he says for granted. We need to understand exactly what happened.

[09:30:01] And the order to kill them all is an order that does violate the law.