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More Lawmakers Back Release of Double-Tap Boat Strike Videos; Suspect in Charlotte Train Stabbing Enters No Plea in Court; Poll Shows Majority of Latino Voters Disapprove of Job Trump is Doing. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired December 08, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: ... of these decisions. It wasn't, Habba was the first, but she wasn't the last. It also found to be serving unlawfully are the U.S. attorneys for Nevada for the Central District of California and the Eastern District of New York, Lindsey Halligan. In that case, those two indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and the New York Attorney General Letitia James were thrown out, but the impact of this has caused trials to be delayed, guilty pleas to be postponed, so that causes a lot of havoc. At this point, it's not clear who will be leading the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey at this stage -- Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right, Kara, thank you so much for the latest on that important story.

Years before becoming Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth repeatedly raised the possibility of a president issuing unlawful orders. CNN uncovered the video.

We're going to show it to you right after this.

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[14:35:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Pressure's mounting on the Trump administration to release the full video of that controversial follow- up strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean in September. Some of the lawmakers who viewed the video call it a potential war crime. Over the weekend, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would not commit to the release of the video, but this is all happening as CNN's K-File uncovered new video of Hegseth back in 2016, repeatedly warning about then-candidate Trump issuing unlawful military orders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, CONTRIBUTOR, FOX NEWS: The military's not going to follow illegal orders, and so the Trump campaign was forced to change their position and say, we're going to try to change the law so that the military can operate within the law. That's a tall order also.

Here's the problem with Trump. He says, go ahead and kill the families, go ahead and torture, go ahead and go further than waterboarding. What happens when people follow those orders or don't follow them? It's not clear that Donald Trump will have their back.

Donald Trump is oftentimes about Donald Trump, and so if you're not changing the law and you're just saying it, you create even more ambiguity.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, even if he had their back, they'd be in trouble. I mean, you tell me, I had a dad stop me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: You'll remember, Hegseth recently branded six Democratic lawmakers who urged U.S. service members to disobey illegal orders the seditious six, accusing them of spreading despicable, reckless, and false information.

Let's get some perspective now from Michael Farkas. He's a retired JAG officer and military judge. Sir, thanks so much for being with us. Do you see the remarks made by Hegseth a decade ago or these lawmakers just about a month ago as reckless?

MICHAEL FARKAS, RETIRED ARMY JAG OFFICER AND MILITARY JUDGE: So I don't think it's analogous. I do not think that it's fair to compare the Secretary's statements from a decade ago to what the six members of Congress said last month. His comments were in the context of commentary about statements then, I believe, candidate Trump was making on the campaign trail about things that would have been clearly illegal, and he was commenting in response to that.

What the members of Congress did recently was to put out, you know, a formal, purposeful video. I don't think anybody can argue that it's just a public service announcement, you know, for the good of the force, right? It was clearly a political statement, but what it did, in my estimation, what did indeed make it reckless is that it did not state the law accurately, and what it did not say led -- can lead to so much speculation and potential chaos within the rank-and-file in the military as to have made it a very irresponsible decision.

I'm happy to elaborate further if you like.

SANCHEZ: Yes, please, because I don't think that they specified any protocols in that video or any laws in that video that they believe that the administration had issued that were legal.

FARKAS: Correct, I mean, and that's part of the danger. So what they did was they basically said to everyday service members, many of whom were young, almost none of whom have actual legal training, right? They invited them to start speculating or theorizing about whether their orders in general may be unlawful and encouraged them to think, well, maybe I shouldn't obey them or agree with them, and that is incredibly dangerous and irresponsible for anyone, especially an elected official at the federal level, to suggest for our military.

It goes to the actual core of what good order and discipline is in the military. Now, the actual law is that service members are duty-bound to disobey patently illegal orders, which means obviously, it's so obvious that it's illegal. A very good example would be the My Lai Massacre in the Vietnam War, where soldiers were ordered to shoot villagers, you know, women and children, defenseless, in the village of My Lai.

That is very, very different from orders from the chain of command that have come from the National Command Authority. And we also know that this, when talking about the boat strikes, there is a Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel memorandum, no one's seen yet, but authorizes this use of force to make the boat, you know, the traffickers combatants in an armed conflict. So what service members are actually duty-bound to do under our law is to presume that their orders are legal, and only to disobey patently or obviously illegal orders.

That's a far cry from anything that the Secretary was saying 10 years ago.

SANCHEZ: I wonder separately, sir, on the matter of the boat strikes, as the Secretary says that officials are reviewing whether to release it, what factors they are considering? This is something that the President himself floated was he was open to.

[14:40:00]

FARKAS: Right. Well, I absolutely think that the video needs to be released and that Department of Justice memo needs to be released and that Department of Justice memo needs to be released.

You know, it shouldn't shock anybody that if you are a member of Congress from one party and you look at the video, you say this is the worst thing I've ever seen in my public service career. And if you're from the Republican Party and you watch and you say there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. I mean, unfortunately, that's the climate we're in right now.

I think the public needs to see that video and we need to see that memo. I don't quite understand why a memo is confidential or classified when it deals with issues of constitutional law. But, you know, that's just me.

So my point about what the members of Congress put out and stated to the service members of our military is not to suggest that the boat strikes themselves will indeed ultimately be determined to have been legal. That's not the point. I think we have a long way to go before anybody can say that the operations in the Caribbean right now are determined to be legal. But the point is that as of right now, our service members are duty bound to follow that as a legal order of the chain of command up to the National Command Authority.

SANCHEZ: Judge Michael Farkas, we have to leave the conversation there. We appreciate your analysis.

FARKAS: My pleasure. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Up next, the second woman is stabbed on Charlotte's light rail system and we're learning the undocumented immigrant accused in the attack was removed not once from the U.S., but twice.

[14:45:00]

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SANCHEZ: A disturbing incident to tell you about in Charlotte, North Carolina. This man, Oskar Solarisano, is accused of a stabbing on the same light rail train line where a Ukrainian refugee was brutally knifed to death over the summer.

This time, the victim survived, saying he was trying to protect another person when he was attacked. Solarisano, who has no ties to the August killing, is undocumented and had previously been deported. The president is seizing on this case, posting, quote, what's going on in Charlotte.

Prosecutors say Solarisano admitted to the stabbing, but he was asked to not enter a plea when he was in court this morning. CNN's Dianne Gallagher is in Charlotte with the latest. Dianne, what more can you tell us not only about the attack, but the suspect's immigration history?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris, Charlotte and its light rail system finding itself in the national spotlight once again. We were in the courtroom this morning when 33-year-old Oscar Solarisano was told by the judge that he would be held in jail without bond. Now he appeared by a video link listening to a translator as the judge read off a slew of charges that he's facing, including attempted first degree murder.

Now, prosecutors say this all happened around five o'clock on Friday here on the light rail in Charlotte. He got on the train without paying the fare and began drinking alcohol, they said, and yelling at a passenger. He then confronted, according to the district attorney, that passenger and that man, quote, out of fear for his life, pushed Solarisano down, who fell over a seat.

When he stood up, that's when they say he pulled out a large, fixed blade knife and he stabbed the victim in the chest. He then got off at a stop right around here, ran off the platform. Police arrested him a short time later, said he had glassy eyes, smelled of alcohol, and after being read his rights, they say he did admit to the stabbing.

Now the victim is in the hospital. He's recovering, but he also spoke with our affiliate WRAL.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENYON DOBIE, CHALOTTE LIGHT RAIL STABBING VICTIM: My job actually sent me a care package to my house. Everybody has been calling me a hero. I know all the doctors and they keep coming and shaking my hand and saying that it's an honor for them to be helping me recover.

And all my friends and my family said that it kind of like but they're proud that I survived it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: And we also learned today that that suspect had been banned previous to the stabbing from even being on Charlotte transit. This comes on the heels of Operation Charlotte's Web. If you remember, Customs and Border Protection had officers here for about a week, more than 400 people arrested.

Businesses closed down. There were protests. Well, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Solarisano was twice deported.

He was issued a formal -- by a judge back in 2018 order of removal. He was removed in 2018. He then had another deportation in 2021 and then sometime at an unknown time and location illegally reentered the country, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

He does, Boris have an ICE detainer on him at this moment as well.

SANCHEZ: Dianne Gallagher live for us in Charlotte. Thank you so much -- Brianna.

KEILAR: A sweeping poll shows the president's support among Latinos is cratering, and a key reason is his immigration crackdown expansion going beyond violent criminals. A Pew survey finds seven and 10 Latinos disapprove of the way that President Trump is handling his job. And among Latinos who voted for Trump last year, one in three now say they do not approve.

And you'll recall the president made historic gains among Latinos in 2024 specifically with men. CNN exit polls show Trump's support from Latino men surged nearly 20 points between the 2020 and 2024 elections.

Let's talk about it now with Republican consultant Mike Madrid. He's a co founder of the Lincoln Project, and he also wrote the book "The Latino Century, How America's Largest Minority is Transforming Democracy." Mike, thank you so much for being with us.

[14:50:00]

This statistic that really stands out here. 33 percent of Latinos who voted for Trump in 2024 now saying they disapprove of the job that he's doing. Talk a little bit about that number and the reason for it.

MIKE MADRID, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT AND CO-FOUNDER, THE LINCOLN PROJECT: Yes, thanks so much for having me. This is why we're witnessing all of these dramatically wild swings that happened in the 2024 presidential election with Latinos, Hispanics moving historically to the right for Trump and then moving one year exactly later in equally significant fashion back away from Republicans and towards the Democrats. The reason Brianna is actually the precise same reason.

It's overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly about economics and affordability. There's no question that the immigration issue and especially the dramatic overreach that Latinos have been feeling in this country during the Trump administration is having a mobilizing effect, a terrorizing effect in our communities. But those same polls that you cited are saying by various large numbers affordability, cost of living is getting far, far worse under Donald Trump.

They blame him for the economic downturn that we're experiencing and are for the first time in polling history less optimistic about the future in this country generally and about their economic conditions specifically.

KEILAR: I want to listen to part of a message from Florida Republican Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar in the wake of the elections last month. She issued a warning to Republicans about Hispanic support. Here it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR (R-FL): Hispanics want the same thing as any other American, secure borders, a good economy, get rid of the bad hombres, but they also want to give dignity to those who have been here for years and do not have a criminal record, people that may not have a legality, but who have been here contributing to the economy and to the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Mike, what should Republicans who, you know, they have an election, they have a reckoning right ahead of them, what should they be taking away from that warning, from these numbers?

MADRID: Well, they're in deep, deep trouble. I think when you start to see Cuban American Republicans like Congresswoman Salazar finally recognizing that this administration has been hunting people from our community down and trying to now have it both ways from that statement, you realize they're in deep, deep trouble. Miami is about to have a race for mayor tonight.

That could be a significant change in the political direction of the Hispanic Latino community there, led by Cuban Americans. You may see the first Democrat elected in 30 years tonight because of this backlash and push away from it. The main message is that Republicans need to get off of this government overreach, ironically enough.

They need to quit hunting people down. They need to stop militarizing our streets and terrorizing our people and get back to why they were elected by Latinos, by historic numbers, which is the economy, the economy, and the economy.

KEILAR: Yes, and look, they're not pleased because brand new data showing that nearly 75,000 people with no criminal records in the U.S. have been detained by ICE officials between January and October. Immigration isn't the only issue that is affecting this group or upsetting this group, but it's a big one. And I wonder what it could mean, those kinds of numbers, for the slippage of Latino support when you're looking at, say, Texas, where Republicans are trying to redistrict, and the Supreme Court just gave this go-ahead for a new map that would likely flip five seats in favor of Republicans, but perhaps could make some assumptions about the kind of support they're going to get.

MADRID: That's a great question, Brianna. Look, there are some very faulty assumptions based off of these new maps. Of the five new Republican congressional districts, three of the five essentially have Hispanic-Latino majorities. And while it is true Republicans have moved -- Latinos have moved much more Republican in the last few election cycles, the historical trend line, the current polling data, and every election result since Donald Trump was elected has showed a dramatic and bigger shift back to the Democrats.

And keep in mind, we are heading into an even poorer economy. Things are getting worse. They're not getting better.

So all of the headwinds are against Donald Trump. All of the headwinds are against the Republicans. Somehow believing that because of one election cycle, Latinos are now some part of a MAGA coalition is absurd. It's just absolutely false on its face.

And so I think we end up -- we may end up saying one of the biggest dummy-manders in history by making these really bad false assumptions that somehow Latinos are part of this new Republican Trump era when it couldn't be further from the truth.

KEILAR: Dummy-mander. It's a really interesting word, and we'll have to see if that's what's going to happen. Mike Madrid, great to have you. Thank you so much.

[14:55:00]

MADRID: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: Next, the Archdiocese of Boston weighing in on a Massachusetts church's nativity scene, and its political message.

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KEILAR: Here are some of the headlines that we're watching this hour. Industry leaders say the hepatitis B vaccine will continue to be covered by insurance after a CDC vaccine advisory committee voted to end universal recommendations for newborns. The panel's updated recommendation now calls for mothers who test negative for the virus during pregnancy to consult with their doctor before vaccinating their infant.

The Archdiocese ...

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