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FBI Arrests 4 People in Alleged New Year's Eve Bombing Plot; GOP Lawmakers Rebuke Trump for Rob Reiner Post; Hollywood Mourns Deaths of Rob Reiner and Producer Wife Michele; 15 Killed in Antisemitic Act of Evil in Sydney. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired December 15, 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]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Tell us how you're seeing the scope of these alleged plans and this group behind it.

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: It's really a classic FBI operation. You can tell there are incredible details in the complaint, which has now been unsealed by virtue of the fact that these folks have been in court. Now this is a serious plot that included not just, you know, I'm talking about just one lone actor here, but actually four separate people, potentially a fifth person in another city, who are working together.

They were fully aware of what was happening. Fortunately, the group had been penetrated by FBI informants and possibly an undercover agent as well. And so you have, the FBI's got an amazing access to their communications, a private signal group that they had put together for the purpose of coordinating their preparation for this attack.

They actually participated in a trip out to the desert where the subjects started to prepare the IEDs. They took out the PVC pipes and the material that would go inside them and kind of set up a workstation and sort of wiping things down and cleaning them. And then of course, the agents came in and affected the arrest.

So there seems to be a pretty clear case here of a very serious plot to leave IEDs around several companies in Los Angeles on New Year's Eve and great work by the FBI and their local partners, I'm sure, to get in front of this thing before it could really turn into something dangerous.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Andrew McCabe, thanks so much for sharing your expertise.

Still to come, he gave us some of Hollywood's most memorable and quotable moments on screen. We're going to look back at the life and legacy of filmmaker Rob Reiner.

[14:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: President Trump issuing a provocative politically charged reaction to the tragic deaths of legendary director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele.

KEILAR: In this True Social post, the president calls their killings a sad thing, but then he suggests that Rob Reiner's death was the result of, quote, anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind-crippling disease known as Trump Derangement Syndrome. That post drawing intense backlash from other Republicans, even.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is with us now from Capitol Hill. It's a hard post to read, Arlette. How are you hearing reaction up there?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, a number of Republican lawmakers have started to criticize President Donald Trump over these posts that he made relating to the death of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner. We have heard from both centrist and conservative lawmakers who have said the president crossed the line with these types of comments turning to politics instead of focusing on the tragedy at hand.

Congressman Mike Lawler, who's from a swing district in New York, posted on social media, quote, "This statement is wrong. Regardless of one's political views, no one should be subjected to violence, let alone at the hands of their own son. It's a horrible tragedy that should engender sympathy and compassion from everyone in our country, period."

Lawler is one of the president's closest allies up here on Capitol Hill. We've also heard from Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has recently become more critical of the president, who wrote, "This is a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies."

Then you have Congressman Thomas Massey, also someone who is frequently critical of this White House saying, Regardless of how you felt about Rob Reiner, this is inappropriate and disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered." He challenged some of his Republican colleagues to come up with some explanation to defend the president here, but so far, it doesn't seem like that has happened.

Now, just a short while ago, House Speaker Mike Johnson did comment on the death of Rob Reiner, expressing sorrow for the incident, but he notably did not answer reporters' questions about President Trump's post relating to Reiner as he alleged that he had died due to Trump Derangement Syndrome. Now, Rob Reiner was very active in Democratic politics and was a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, but even some Republicans have said that the president simply went too far with these posts on True Social this morning.

SANCHEZ: We'll see if anyone takes up Congressman Massey on that challenge. Arlette Saenz from Capitol Hill, thank you so much.

Those who make and love movies around the world are grieving the loss of the Reiners.

KEILAR: That's right. SANCHEZ: Rob Reiner's vision helped create a wide range of award- winning and adored movies, from the epic courtroom drama A Few Good Men to the coming-of-age classic Stand By Me.

KEILAR: I know, they're such great moments. I thought we were going to hear one right there, and we all know them, right? It's the, of course, funny love story when Harry met Sally that set the standard for rom-coms.

Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILLY CRYSTAL, ACTOR, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY: I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend a day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes.

And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:40:00]

KEILAR: Now, it turns out that that happy ending was actually inspired by Reiner finding his own true love with Michele. He told The Guardian in 2018, quote, "Originally, Harry and Sally didn't get together. But then I met Michele, and I thought, OK, I see how this works."

Dominic Patten is with us now. He's an executive editor with Deadline. That is a beautiful anecdote that he shared there. This is sort of, you know, it's just hard to describe, I think, what's happened here and understand why.

How's Hollywood reacting to this, Dominic?

DOMINIC PATTEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DEADLINE: Well, Brianna, they're reacting like everybody else, with the exception of Donald Trump, as you guys reported earlier, shock and horror. I mean, this is unbelievable. This is unbelievable that this happened.

I mean, Rob Reiner was 78 years old. Certainly a man of his age you could expect to maybe hear some fatal news. But the way in which this has happened, the way in which we understand this has happened, a family, just horrible on every level.

And the reaction, you're seeing people from as far on, say, the progressive side as a John Cusack, who worked with him, to someone like a James Woods, who's very conservative, all coming together in terrible, terrible shock and horror about this, and with tremendous appreciation for this man, for his wife, Michele, and for their family as to what they're going through, which just must be unfathomable.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Dominic, I wonder if you could speak to the range that he had as a director, as a creator, making films like Stand By Me and A Few Good Men and This Is Spinal Tap, just a very diverse body of work. I wonder if you see a through line in it.

PATTEN: Well, I think if there's any through line in this, Boris, I think you need to kind of go back a little bit, you know. If Rob Reiner had just merely been the son of Carl Reiner, we would probably be talking about him. If he had just been meathead on All in the Family, we would probably be talking about him.

But the fact that he is the director of all these films that you named, as well as The American President, as well as Being Charlie, which is a film he co-wrote with his son, Nick, about a young man struggling with addiction issues, and he said helped bring them together. I think the people I've spoken to and people I've spoken to in the past have told me one of the reasons they liked working with Rob Reiner, one of the reasons I think he had this great scope across so many genres, including like Stephen King's Misery with Kathy Bates and James Caan, is I think that he was in many ways an actor's director because he had been an actor. So he understood the process from that side of the camera.

He had that empathy and that connection with them about playing it out. Remember, too, he was also an actor well into his later years. He appeared, for instance, with John Travolta and Emma Thompson in primary colors as a radio disc jockey.

You know, he appeared in Spinal Tap as the director of the mock documentary. So this was a man who I think understood that. And I think for that range that you discussed and all those films you mentioned, you know, Academy Award nominees, many of them, he had a deep understanding of not just the process, but of the people in the process.

KEILAR: Yes, he was just on the recent season of The Bear, you know, it was like, oh, my goodness, you know, there'll be these fun appearances. And he really brought a special thing to those episodes that he appeared in. And it's interesting.

Of course, we talk a lot about Rob Reiner. But Dominic, we should also talk about Michele. These two met on the set of Harry Met Sally.

They were partners in life, also in business. Tell us about their collaborations.

PATTEN: Well, I have to admit, Brianna, I'm not incredibly well versed on that. But what I know about their collaborations as a couple transcend just the industry. They also look into what they were involved with in terms of philanthropy, in terms of pushing educational reform here in California, in terms of their political views.

And they were very active in all of that. We know Deadline has reported on that many times. You know, they were recently just at a DNC event here in Los Angeles last week together.

You know, this was a very tight couple. You guys mentioned earlier about how, you know, the end of Harry Met Sally was supposed to be very different, which is a very different movie. But that Ryan and Rob Reiner saw a change when he met her.

You know, he'd had his previous marriage to Penny Marshall, you know, and they hadn't adopted daughter out of this. They had three children out of their marriage and all the years they were together, they were very, very close. I think in a town where divorce is very, very common, this couple came across as soulmates, many people's estimation.

And that's a beautiful thing on all levels.

SANCHEZ: You mentioned Rob's relationship with his father, the comedy legend Carl Reiner, the creator of The Dick Van Dyke Show, among many other hits. What do you think about Rob's upbringing helped inform his career in Hollywood?

PATTEN: Well, you know, Boris, I think it's very interesting. A lot of times we see people who are the sons, daughters of people in these industries, of all industries, actually, and they at some point go in their parents' footsteps. What's interesting here is he went in his father's footsteps.

[14:45:00]

He learned, you know, he has said himself, Rob Reiner, that he basically grew up on sets and watched all this happen. And he learned a lot from his father. What was interesting is he took that and created his own identity out of it.

I mean, I wonder sometimes, you know, of a certain age, how many people realize that Carl Reiner is Rob Reiner's father? And I think to that, it allowed him again, because Rob -- Carl Reiner, though mainly known for comedy, has had a great stretch in his own career, just the Ocean's Eleven movies in the past two decades. I think that was part of what informed his son's ability to, as you said, transcend genres and transcend many different films.

There are times when you can pass on, as they say, sometimes the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Sometimes the apple falls, builds a whole new tree. And I think that's what happened here.

KEILAR: He certainly blazed his own trail. Dominic Patten very well said. Thank you so much for being with us.

PATTEN: Thank you.

KEILAR: Still to come, we have the latest details on the man being hailed as a hero for his actions in the face of a deadly mass shooting in Australia, and how the country is reacting to this tragedy.

[14:50:00]

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SANCHEZ: Australia is mourning today after 15 people were killed and dozens injured in the country's worst mass shooting in nearly three decades. Police say a father and son opened fire as hundreds gathered yesterday to celebrate the beginning of Hanukkah on Bondi Beach in Sydney.

KEILAR: And we're also learning new details about the hero who disarmed one of the suspects. You see video here, heart-stopping video, showing Ahmed al-Ahmed sneak from behind a car and wrestle that gun away. The 43-year-old is recovering after reportedly being shot several times in the shoulder.

CNN's Lynda Kinkade is with us now. Lynda, what more are you learning about the suspects, the victims, and this hero?

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR: Hi Boris and Brianna. Well, I mean, I've been speaking to family and friends in Australia where the grief and the shock is profound. And the big question is, how could this happen in a country that has such strict gun laws?

Well, the investigation is being led by the anti-terrorism police. They've named a father and son duo as the main suspects. The father is Sajid Akram and son Naveed.

Now, the father immigrated to Australia back in 1998. He legally owned six firearms and was shot dead by police. His son is a 24-year-old, Naveed.

He was previously assessed by ACO, which is the Australian Domestic Terrorism Organization. Looking at his links back in 2019 to two radicalized individuals who were in jail, but he didn't pose an imminent threat at the time and there was no other further assessment.

Now, in terms of the victims, it's horrific. The youngest just 10, the eldest 87 from a multitude of countries, not just Australia. Victims were also from Israel, from Ukraine, from France. The youngest was 10- year-old Matilda and her aunt spoke about the beautiful smile and the joy that she brought to her family.

There was also Peter Meagher, who is a former police officer, and he worked as a volunteer and a manager at the Randwick Rugby Football Club, where people, they described him as an absolute legend.

Dan Elkayam is a 27-year-old French citizen. He is a former engineering student from Paris, where his former professors described him as bursting with talent. He played in the Premier League in soccer in the south of Sydney.

40 people were also hospitalized, including two police officers. The youngest was a constable, Scott Dyson, and according to New South Wales police, he was shot multiple times.

He's undergone surgery and he was only just four months into the job -- Boris, Brianna. SANCHEZ: Our thoughts are with their loved ones. And Lynda, Australia

already has strict gun laws in place, and now they're discussing tightening them even further.

KINKADE: Yes, that's right. About 30 years ago was the last major massacre, the Port Arthur massacre, which led to the establishment of really strict gun laws. In that massacre, 35 people died, including children.

And the prime minister at the time, Australian prime minister John Howard, came out and established a national registration for guns. They banned semi-automatic weapons and called for a buyback where anyone with a gun had to hand in their gun. They were compensated and hundreds of thousands of guns were destroyed.

Well, now there's cause to make those laws even stricter. They want to look at the licenses that gun owners have. They want to shorten the length of time people can have a license before they need to renew it.

And they want to put a cap on the number of guns any gun owner can have in Australia. I mean, people are horrified and there is great support for stricter measures when it comes to gun ownership in Australia -- Boris, Brianna.

SANCHEZ: Lynda Kinkade thank you so much for the update there.

Still to come, we have the latest on the investigation into an alleged New Year's Eve bomb plot, where the FBI says the suspects were targeted.

[14:55:05]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. U.S. officials describing significant progress surrounding talks to bring Russia's war in Ukraine to an end. We're told the proposal includes certain security guarantees for Kyiv, an offer that would not be on the table forever.

This follows two days of discussions in Berlin between officials from Europe, Ukraine, and the United States. President Trump was represented at the talks by his foreign envoy Steve Whitkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. The president set to discuss the agreement with European leaders later today.

KEILAR: Also flash floods caused by heavy rainfall in Morocco's port city of Safi have killed at least 37 people, according to state television. Cars flipped over after floodwaters pushed mud and debris into city streets there. All schools have been closed as the recovery effort gets underway.

And sources tell CNN House lawmakers will receive a classified briefing tomorrow on U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. We're told Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will be among those providing the update. Rubio and Hegseth will give a classified briefing to all senators tomorrow as well, according to Senate ...

END