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Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI) is Interviewed about the Brown University Shooting; Unemployment Rate Rose for November; Kevin O'Leary is Interviewed about the Unemployment Rate; Trump Sues the BBC; New Details in Bondi Beach Massacre. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired December 16, 2025 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:32:45]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, the U.S. military says it carried out strikes against three more alleged drug trafficking boats, killing eight people. The Pentagon says that intelligence confirmed the boats in the eastern Pacific, that they were, quote, "engaged in narco-trafficking." It did not provide detail beyond that. This brings the total killed in this military campaign to at least 95 people dead since it began in September.

Today, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, are set to brief lawmakers on these strikes. The full-length video of these -- of the strike that everyone wants to see more about, that double-tap follow up strike from early September, that is still, quote/unquote, "under review." But stand by to stand by on that one.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here in Providence, Rhode Island, Kate, urgent manhunt now still very much on since the deadly shooting here on the campus of Brown University on Saturday night. Law enforcement has released new videos of the person they are looking for. They say based on what they see here, he's approximately five feet, eight inches tall, with a stocky build. Our Andy McCabe has seen this and said there's a noticeable gait, a way that he walks.

The campus and the community are on edge, which was exacerbated after Sunday when they had a person of interest, as they were calling, in custody. But that person has been cleared and released.

With us now is Congressman Gabe Amo, a Democrat from Rhode Island. His district includes where I'm standing right here on Brown University.

Congressman, good to see you this morning.

Any updates you are hearing on the investigation?

REP. GABE AMO (D-RI): John, thanks for having me.

We continue to hear that the manhunt is ongoing. And, frankly, I think that's got to be the focus of all of the authorities at this moment. There's a great amount of fear, in addition to sorrow, for the loss of two young lives who should be with us here today and those recovering in the hospital. And so, the work of investigating and getting a suspect is mission number one.

[08:35:06]

BERMAN: You said a great amount of fear. Why should people here around Brown and in Providence feel safe with a killer still on the run?

AMO: Well, look, we are a very tight knit community in Rhode Island. It is something that no community wants to experience, this horrific mass shooting. And the fact that someone hasn't been caught, it does inspire fear.

But, at the same time, I know that the authorities are focused on providing as much security, extra police details, and doing everything we can to keep people safe. That has got to be the focus while they track down the person who committed this horrible crime.

BERMAN: Yes, obviously, the focus is on the investigation right now. And anyone who has any reason to recognize the person in this video obviously should contact authorities.

It's also a time, though, to assess security around Brown and maybe up here on College Hill. One question people are asking is, why aren't there more images? Why aren't there more cameras here? What questions do you have about security in the city of Providence and at Brown and specifically?

AMO: Look, I don't have a full visibility into what cameras, what security apparatus is involved there, but those are reasonable questions. Questions that, one, have to be taken in concert with the ongoing investigation, but can't usurp the importance of focusing on this manhunt. There will be time to do a full, forensic auditing of all of the things that are available to the Brown University and broader Providence community. But most certainly, right now, my encouragement to anybody with any semblance of information is to reach out to the Providence Police, reach out to the FBI. This has got to be something that we find as soon as possible. We have to get answers. And I know that that will aid in providing the sense of security that people deserve.

BERMAN: Congressman, I know you've been in touch with city leaders and law enforcement officials, you know, since Saturday night. And it has been this very urgent, ongoing process. There was this news conference late yesterday, I don't know if you had a chance to see some of it, but you can tell that this is wearing on authorities, and you can almost sense the frustration. If not from inside the investigation, the fact that they can't be more public with what they know and what not know -- they don't know. What are you hearing that you can share from us from the people on the inside?

AMO: Well, look, I will continue to let their public statements drive how this moves forward. But they are working as hard as possible. This is not easy work. You know, I've seen across my professional

career the -- this take time. And my focus right now is really supporting the community at this difficult time.

People have questions. That is reasonable. And the most important thing we can do is find this guy and provide that sense of security that people deserve.

BERMAN: The mayor, Brett Smiley, yesterday, told me, he said the investigation had been continuing even when that person was in custody. So, he said the investigation wasn't set back, but he did call it "an emotional setback." What have you sensed on that front?

AMO: Well, certainly the emotions are high. You know, on Sunday night I was at a vigil with members of the community about a mile and a half from where you are now, and people were gathered moving to the healing process and mourning the two young lives lost, the sense of real fear that had dissipated a bit because someone had been found. So, the emotional blow is real.

Now the fact is, the manhunt will continue. Everybody will continue to be on high alert. And so that, of course, for our community, this Providence, Rhode Island and Brown University community, are deeply affected. And not just physically there, but people connected around this country who I've heard from.

So, of course, this is a difficult time, but we have to stand together.

[08:40:01]

The process of healing is going to take a long time. And that will be something we will focus on as well.

BERMAN: It will be a difficult holiday season for people here in Providence and for the students who've already gone home.

Congressman Gabe Amo, we do appreciate your time this morning. Thank you so much for the update.

Kate, I want to go back to you for some breaking news.

BOLDUAN: Thank you, John.

Breaking moments ago, we are finally getting some answers on what is happening with the jobs market here in the United States. New data just in showing that the U.S. economy added 64,000 jobs last month, slightly beating expectations. There's some context around this because it's one of those, yet another, Matt Egan, unique jobs report because of the delay that was brought about by the government shutdown. What are you learning?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENOR REPORTER: Well, Kate, we did just get a lot of new information on the state of the job market. And it's mostly disappointing here. First off, the unemployment rate unexpectedly jumping from 4.4 percent

in September to 4.6 percent in November. You can see on that chart it's clearly moving in the wrong direction. In fact, this is a fresh, four-year high. And it reflects the fact that hiring has been low in the job market. It's taking a very long time for people to find jobs.

Now, we also did learn that the U.S. economy lost 105,000 jobs during the month of October. Now, that largely reflects the fact that a significant number of federal workers came off the payrolls because of the DOGE efforts to slash government spending. Like, these are workers that took federal buyouts. They came off the payrolls, and that caused another month of job loss. That's October.

The only slight piece of good news here is that November, the job market did bounce back. The U.S. economy adding 64,000 jobs. That is ahead of the estimate of 40,000. Still, though, when you zoom out and you look at the trend, we now have job loss in the U.S. economy in three out of the last six months. You can see it on that chart. This is after a streak of more than four years without any months of job loss. You now have three out of the last six months with the U.S. economy losing jobs.

Now, all of these numbers were delayed, as you mentioned, Kate, by the government shutdown. Because of the government shutdown, we don't have an unemployment rate for the month of October. The workers who would normally do that survey were not available. So, we only have this new number on unemployment for November, which again shows that the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.6 percent.

And digging into some of the sectors here. In the month of November we saw that government lost jobs by 5,000. Also, private sector -- total private sector jobs, they did pick up by 69,000.

One last point for you, though, Kate, is that during the month of November, manufacturing lost another 5,000 jobs. And that continues this trend where manufacturing, the sector that's supposed to be helped by tariffs, continues to actually shed jobs.

Back to you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Matt, thank you so much for pulling it together. A lot more to look through this kind of flood of data that's come in.

Let's do it together.

Joining me right now is Kevin O'Leary, CNBC contributor, chairman of O'Leary Ventures, and also, my sources now tell me, a new star of the new film "Marty Supreme" with Gwyneth Paltrow and Timothe Chalamet. Congrats on that.

KEVIN O'LEARY, CNBC CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you very much.

BOLDUAN: Movie star, once again. Thank you for coming in.

Jobs day with a twist. What do you think it -- what do -- you see these numbers coming in. What do you think? O'LEARY: I think it supports the Fed 25 basis point rate cut. However,

this data is soft and slightly inaccurate because of the 43-day shutdown. Everybody realizes that.

You know, if it wasn't for that, I'd say the data set trend is definitely for higher unemployment, which is one of the big mandates for the Fed. But they're in a very difficult boat now because inflation is still at 3.1 percent. Every rate cut now is going to be heavily scrutinized and debated. They had a lot of dissent. Three out of --

BOLDUAN: A lot, yes.

O'LEARY: Yes. And so, that's -- that really is what the market cares about, can we get more rate cuts in the other side of the year end. And I'm not sure.

BOLDUAN: You know, there is looking at the U.S. economy and the issues facing the U.S. economy as a politician, and then there's looking at it as an investor. And those two things are -- I would -- I would argue quite often not the same lens through which to look at the U.S. economy, right?

O'LEARY: You're correct. Yes.

BOLDUAN: When you have -- which is why you may have the president talking about affordability, saying affordability is a hoax, because he does not like the narrative that it presents and the negative feeling that it brings. But when you have people saying they are hurting, you see polling data that says that it doesn't feel better for them. And you have, you know, numbers coming in that, I don't know -- I don't know what we do with them half the time. How do you look at this when you talk about the affordability crisis and people not being able to pay for what they need, dealing with not enough wage growth, and you're looking at sticky inflation, how do you look at it through the lens of an investor and how that's different from a politician?

[08:45:14]

O'LEARY: Well, first of all, you're correct, I look at it through the lens of an investor. I invest in all 11 sectors of the S&P. And most of it in companies between five and 500 employees. So, I have a pretty good read of what their concerns are.

Input costs. So, we don't talk about tariffs that much. But the truth is, many of them have not resolved yet in terms of input on goods and services that we don't make here in America. Things like bananas and pineapples and potash and bauxite for aluminum. Why tariff things we don't have? That's one question that people are starting to ask. It makes no sense. So, that policy on tariffs, I would have thought, would be resolved by midterms, which to me are starting to come into the focus starting January, February. We need more work to finalize reciprocal tariffs. That will show up -- because they're so high in some cases, that's why there's inflation. I know there's a debate about it. You talk to my companies that are buying stuff --

BOLDUAN: But, again, that's a political debate more so.

O'LEARY: Yes, but if you're making houses or you're part of the housing sector, which is giant, and your softwood lumber is tariff to 25 percent, that's an input cost. I got to see that fixed. If you're making aluminum for car parts, bauxite, 25 percent tariff. That makes no sense. So, it's time to focus down on that. And I think the administration will do that because I'm not the only guy whining about it.

BOLDUAN: For -- to say the least. You also have a Fed chair who said, I actually just pulled it up, that "it really is tariffs that's causing most of the inflation overshoot."

O'LEARY: That's right.

BOLDUAN: So, you've got the Fed chair -- I mean, facts are facts. Data is data.

O'LEARY: I mean I can show it to you. Even my watches, which really make me crazy, you know, we're supposed to drop that down to 15 percent. It's still at 39 right now.

BOLDUAN: You talked about auto parts. I am really fascinated about this announcement from Ford. They are pulling back on their investment in EV. They're going to take a nearly $20 billion hit for the fourth quarter because they're pulling back. Tax credit -- the EV tax credit ran out. Trump is rolling back environmental regs that push people more towards EVs, from the Biden administration. And, at the same time, you've got China, which I don't -- no one here talks enough about, looking at the data and the commentary of how China -- basically a lot of people think China has already won the EV race. Do you see it that way?

O'LEARY: Well, that's a loaded question. First of all, let's come to the domestic situation and talk about the billions lost. This is not a political issue. It's a bad policy decision. And I'm not a -- I don't shill for politicians, I shill for good policy or bad policy. The last administration, and even to a certain extent prior ones, put a lot of subsidy into let's call it "green technology," including talking about battery, electrical distribution, charging centers. That was just all bad policy because no one asked the consumer, do you want this stuff at that price?

BOLDUAN: It led the wrong direction.

O'LEARY: And, obviously, they made a huge mistake, and Ford is writing off close to $20 billion. Ouch, that hurts.

China is heavily subsidizing low cost EVs. They're dumping them all over the world. China is a different situation. I have nothing against the Chinese people, but the government there, make no mistake, is our economic enemy, could be our military enemy, our A.I. enemy. They want to dominate the world. I don't know why we're messing around with them. We should be squeezing their heads like a teenage pimple right now. BOLDUAN: Or trying to -- or take the policy, if they have -- this

industrial policy that the United States cannot match, because the United States government would not do what China has done in order to control industry and push industry, is it rather than squeeze, what you said, squeeze a pimple, or start working together and take a different policy approach?

O'LEARY: Here's what has to happen and will happen. And this is controversial. The North American economy itself is a behemoth. If you take the Canadian economy with goods that they have and commodities that they have is everything the largest economy on earth, the U.S., needs. No tariff between those two countries. Unify the currency, then tell the Chinese, we're the largest economy on earth, don't mess with us or we will squeeze. We will squeeze you hard.

We need to bulk up and be bigger. Now, right now that's not popular politically. And there's a lot of animosity between the two nations. That's going to go away based on necessity. The enemy is China economically. We have to get bigger. And we've also got to beat them on A.I. They are going to win wars ahead of us unless we get some data centers, and they're building them every day with coal plants.

BOLDUAN: And they produce now twice the amount of electricity as the United States right now. I mean they've got a -- they've got a decades --

O'LEARY: You don't need a -- you don't need a permit in China. The big guy says, put a coal plant here, put a data center there. It takes us five years to get cleared. This is coming right to the -- I think it will be an election issue in the midterms.

BOLDUAN: It's going -- it's a -- it's a reality issue that is going to be hitting people in the face pretty hard if it isn't addressed in a way.

O'LEARY: Yes. And it's time to call China what it is.

[08:50:02]

They're not good guys.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, Kevin. It's good to see you.

O'LEARY: Take care.

BOLDUAN: I mean, movie star Kevin O'Leary gracing us with his presence today. Thank you so much.

O'LEARY: Take care.

BOLDUAN: So, President Trump is now taking on the BBC, launching a defamation lawsuit against the British news giant for $10 billion over a documentary that he says was selectively edited. The president says the BBC cut together specific parts of the speech that he delivered on January 6th, saying they deliberately omitted a section in which he called for peaceful protests. The BBC has acknowledged and apologized to President Trump, even admitting the error in judgment over the way the clips were edited, though they say that the president has no legal basis to sue them.

But where does this go now? CNN's chief media analyst Brian Stelter is following this one very closely for us.

Brian, what do you see here?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Number one, a year ago it was unheard of for a sitting American president to file a lawsuit against a news outlet. This never happened before until President Trump returned to office for his second term. But now, this year, he has sued "The Wall Street Journal," "The New York Times," and as of this morning, the BBC. So, he is charting a new course, trying to take his war against the news media to court.

And it's going to be very difficult for him to do so, but he's trying anyway. Even if these lawsuits are just PR stunts, he is getting the headlines he wants. He is charging defamation against the BBC and arguing that Florida is the appropriate venue for a lawsuit.

I spoke with numerous legal experts, media law professors overnight who are very skeptical of Trump's chances, in part because it's going to be hard to prove that he was actually damaged in Florida. But like I said, the headlines might be the point.

Here's what Professor Dylan McLemore told me overnight. He said, "the decision to file in Florida goes back to the question at the heart of all the president's suits against media companies, is he filing them to win in court or to create headlines and chill critical speech from the press?"

That is a question in some ways answers itself. So far the BBC not saying much about this suit, Kate. But the BBC has vowed to fight if Trump sues, as he has now done.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Brian, thank you so much for being all over this. Much more to come here. I really appreciate it.

There's also new details coming in about the suspects in the anti- Semitic terror attack in Australia. Police say the two men were motivated by ISIS. New video also coming in of bystanders trying to disarm the gunman just before the attacks began.

And police raced through the Florida Keys, 122 mile per hour car chase. The dash cam video that you really need to see of the terrifyingly chaotic scene.

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[08:55:58]

BOLDUAN: This morning, we are learning new details about the alleged gunman behind the shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, that left at least 15 people dead. Twenty-two people are still in the hospital. According to the Australian prime minister, the father and son, those

suspects, are accused of carrying out the Hanukkah attack that -- says now that they were motivated by the Islamic state, by ISIS, by Islamic state ideology, is how he put it. Police found two homemade Islamic state flags inside their vehicle.

Joining us right now from Sydney, Will Ripley is on the ground for us. Tell us more about what you've learned and how this has really changed

over the last day.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we looked at a piece of tape, Kate, which has -- appears to show that there were more heroes in the first minutes of this attack than previously known. This footage, taken on dash cam by a passing taxi driver, showed what appears to be an older couple confronting one of the gunmen. The older gunman, as he was coming out of his car with that ISIS flag draped on the windshield. He was holding the giant rifle. You can see a man in a purple shirt, he grabs the rifle from him and then he tries to swing the rifle and almost hit him with it, like it's a bat. Apparently unaware that the shooter actually had many more rifles packed in the vehicle because he went in the vehicle, grabbed another weapon, pointed it at both the man and his wife, and shot them dead right there on the street. And they -- and they were seen just laying next to each other on the ground. They're believed to be the first victims of the shooting.

So, more heroes who tried to stop the bloodshed. Unfortunately, they failed. Although the hero who did succeed later on, Ahmed al-Ahmed, he is continuing to recover in the hospital. He still needs more surgery for the multiple gunshot wounds that he experienced when he grabbed the rifle from them.

We're also learning that these two shooters, they actually traveled recently to the southern Philippines region of Mindanao. They flew into Davao on November 1st. What's significant about them traveling to the southern Philippines, Kate, is that this is a region where there have been known incidents of ISIS-inspired violence. The Philippines government says they received four weeks of military training in the southern Philippines before flying back to Australia, just about two weeks before opening fire on the innocent Jews who were celebrating the first day of Hanukkah here at Bondi Beach.

So, now they're looking into exactly who may have trained these people, how wide this organization is, and whether there are any other suspects that they need to track down. Although at this stage, Kate, they do believe that these two were acting alone. That's the latest information they have right now. But, obviously, this investigation is still in the very early stages.

BOLDUAN: To say the least, that's for sure.

Will Ripley, thank you so much for that.

Let's turn to this right now. At least six people are dead after a private plane crash occurred near Mexico City. The aircraft departed from Acapulco with eight passenger, two crew on board. And you see what happened there. Mexican authorities now say a crash -- the cause of the crash is being investigated, but yet to be determined.

Also, watch this video. Newly released dash cam video shows the moment that police were led on a high-speed chase -- an emphasis on high speed -- 122 miles per hour at points, in the Florida Keys. Deputies say a 23-year-old started the chase after authorities tried to pull him over for driving erratically. Multiple -- after police tried multiple maneuvers to stop him, the driver ended up crashing his rented Range Rover into a trailered boat. You saw that. That's how that finally came to a stop. Investigators say that he told deputies, this doesn't make tons of sense, but that he told deputies that he'd taken Adderall. But no alcohol was found in his system.

Also this, the "Zootopia" effect. This may be one of the more unusual unintended consequences of a Disney movie ever. The adorable snake, Gary, has become such a breakout star from the animated movie "Zootopia 2," that there's now a surge of people buying actual venomous Indonesian pit vipers as pets.

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GARY, "ZOOTOPIA 2": Hey, guys, I have to set things right. And when I do, my family will finally be able to come home.

[09:00:04]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Woo. Hops and Wiles (ph). Dream team.

(END VIDEO CLIP)