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Jobs Report for November; Manhunt Continues for Brown University Shooter; Casey Jordan is Interviewed about the Brown University Shooting; Susie Wiles Gives "Vanity Fair" Interview; Nick Reiner to be Charged in Parents' Deaths. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 16, 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]

GARY, "ZOOTOPIA 2": Finally be able to come home.

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, so popular that now people are buying venomous snakes. It's mostly happening in China, and it happens to be the year of the snake in the Chinese zodiac. "Zootopia 2" has become China's top grossing foreign animated film of all time. It's gotten so big that Chinese media is now issuing reminders to people that this real-life snake is not a harmless, trendy toy. Oh, Gary.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

Newly released surveillance images of the suspected shooter who killed two students, injured several others at Brown University. Big questions today swirling about the investigation as the manhunt enters a fourth day after fresh snowfall and delays.

Just moments ago, a new jobs report showing the unemployment rate hit a four-year high in November. The U.S. economy adding 64,000 jobs last month.

And the son of Rob and Michele Reiner expected to be formally charged in his parents' deaths. The 32-year-old is seen -- was -- there is also new reporting of the 32-year-old being seen arguing with his father just a day before the couple was found dead in their home.

I'm Kate Bolduan. John Berman is on the ground in Providence, Rhode Island. Sara is out today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

The breaking news just moments ago, a fresh look at the U.S. economy. Long awaited data on the labor market showing that unemployment -- the unemployment rate rose to a four-year high last month.

And while the economy did add jobs in November, data shows that there have been job losses in three of the last six months. Right now, 7.8 million Americans are out of work.

CNN's Matt Egan has much more on what really has been a flood of data that came in this morning.

What else are you seeing in this report, Matt?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Kate, this report really confirms that the U.S. job market remains in a precarious place. Unemployment is rising and hiring is sluggish at best.

Now, the big number here is 4.6 percent. That is the new unemployment rate as of November, unexpectedly jumping from 4.4 percent in September. Now, 4.6 percent, that's the highest level in just over four years. You can see on that chart how there has been this steady increase in the unemployment rate over the last year or two.

Now, we also learned that the U.S. economy, during the month of October, lost jobs. Lost 105,000 jobs. Now, this was driven entirely by the government, and largely by the fact that DOGE had a federal buyout program for federal workers. And those workers came off the payrolls at the end of September. So, we were expecting a significant drag from the government in October. And we did get that.

Private sector hiring in October was positive. This was all about the government. In November, the only piece of slightly good news here is that hiring did rebound during the month of November. The U.S. economy adding 64,000 jobs. That's a bit ahead of the forecast of 40,000.

However, there were also more negative revisions. September was revised slightly lower. August went from negative 4,000 to negative 26,000. So, when you look at the trend here, and you can see on that chart, it's really been very bumpy recently. In fact, the U.S. economy has now lost jobs in three out of the past six months. That's after going more than four years without any months of job loss.

In fact, when you look at the year-to-date average, it's about 55,000 jobs per month that the U.S. economy has added this year. That's very low. In fact, that's the lowest since 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. And before that, you have to go back to 2009. So, on track for a very weak year of hiring.

And just quickly looking at the sectors here, the good news is that health care continues to add jobs, adding another 64,000 jobs in November. Construction was up as well, but government continues to shed jobs. Leisure and hospitality, that's bars and restaurants, down by 12,000. Transportation and warehousing also negative. And so was manufacturing.

So, Kate, when you put it all together, this paints the picture of a job market that continues to really stumble here. Back to you.

BOLDUAN: Yes, Matt, thank you so much for pulling it all together for us. A lot more to come from this data just released this morning. We're going to look at that.

But in the meantime, let's get back to John on the ground in Providence, Rhode Island, this morning.

J.B. [09:05:01]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, the manhunt still very much on here, Kate. The gunman, still at large after the mass shooting here at Brown University inside the engineering building, which is behind me. You can still see the police tape right there. Two people were killed, nine injured.

And what you're looking at now is the video that was released late yesterday. This is newly obtained video by law enforcement showing three different angles of the person they believe connected to the shooting. Some of this video from before the shooting, and some from after. This is the person police are now looking for, and the FBI is asking the public for help. By looking at this video they say he's about five feet eight inches tall with a stocky build. Our Andy McCabe has seen this and said he's got a distinguishable gait. You can see that two-toned green and black jacket as well. Maybe there's something identifiable here. Officials are hoping that people see this and recognize the individual. They do say at this moment he should be considered armed and dangerous. And they don't know whether he's still in the area. The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward in the case.

You can understand the campus and community being on edge. Most students seem to have gone home. One of the things that added to the anxiety -- what you're seeing right now on the screen is interesting. This was late yesterday. Police coming back to this neighborhood and going back over some of the houses at the scene there. You can see them brushing off snow. It snowed on Sunday, after the shootings here. One might think that some of the snow covered up some of the evidence there.

Let's bring in CNN's see Waldman, who's been -- CNN's Leigh Waldman. It's been a long few days for all of us here. Longer for you, Leigh, who's been here since Saturday night.

Bring us up to speed on where we are now.

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We know that in addition to these officers canvasing this neighborhood, inside of that building itself agents from Quantico, the FBI, are reconstructing that scene, going over the evidence that was left behind, the physical evidence. But the attorney general said that they're also poring over any kind of electronic evidence that they're trying to garner here.

The images that were released yesterday, let's pull them up again, because they're asking anyone who might recognize this man -- and we can kind of kind of see his face here, to call and give any kind of tip that they have. I asked the attorney general, this is now the first time we're sort of seeing his face. How vital is that to solving this case?

Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER NERONHA, RHODE ISLAND ATTORNEY GENERAL: The prosecutors today have been working with the law enforcement agents and police officers to advance this investigation. And I would describe today's work as making steady progress to identifying the person that we saw in the video that was released yesterday. And the sooner we can identify that person, the sooner we can, I think, blow this case open. But that's work that has to happen in the next 24 to 36 hours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALDMAN: Now, he's expecting the amount of videos that they're receiving from the public to really ramp up over this next week because people are back home from the weekend, people who are here, people who are nervous to be here now. We learned some other new details in that press conference. A nine-millimeter firearm was used in this shooting. And the police chief says that this was a targeted attack against this university.

BERMAN: Yes, you bring up the idea that they may get more video still. This is sort of a -- of a patchwork community here. The college, the university, I should say, all through here, some churches. But also private residences. So, you go sort of lot to lot and there's a different owner there. Maybe there will be people who realize they have video that didn't know before. Is that what authorities are hoping?

WALDMAN: Exactly. And a lot of people were closed over the weekend if they were businesses. There's businesses intertwined in between houses here. So, people who were maybe closed or gone for the weekend, they're coming back. They're looking over what they might have. Police are trying to piece together his timeline. The video is two hours before the shooting. This could be immediately after the shooting. So, they're trying to piece together his timeline, targeting which houses they're knocking on, trying to get more video to really give us a full picture here.

BERMAN: All right, Leigh Waldman, great work here in Providence. Thanks so much for being with us this morning.

With us now, Casey Jordan, a criminologist and host of the "Criminal Appeal" podcast.

Casey, great to see you this morning.

The way that authorities have handled this, particularly the last 24 hours since they had to almost relaunch the investigation, what's your assessment here of how they're treating this suspect? What are they trying to do now?

CASEY JORDAN, CRIMINOLOGIST AND HOST OF "CRIMINAL APPEAL" PODCAST: Well, these images are game changers. And that's the really good news. But the bad news is, they're coming out, you know, 65 hours this morning since the shooting. And they really would have benefited from having these images earlier, from these residence's Ring cameras and security cameras.

I mean the bottom line is that now we have a lot more to go on. And it's a little late in the game because the first 48 hours are key. But we now know it was a nine-millimeter gun. We have an idea that he's about five foot eight. We could tell that he was stocky.

[09:10:00]

But now that jacket, now that we have good images of it, we know that it's two-toned and that the front bib of it is like a dark army green, a grayish green. That's more distinctive. The gait of this particular culprit, if this is indeed our suspect, is distinctive. He seems to have an issue with his hip, a little knee-knocking. Maybe a little problem with his left leg.

And all of this is super important because somebody out there is going to see these images, and it's going to remind them of someone they know. And that person that they know may have a beef with Brown University. Because one thing the police are now saying is that they do believe Brown University was a specific target. This was not just random venue, that he just walked in off the street. That something about Brown attracted the shooter to that classroom on that day.

Now, they're not saying there was a specific class or a specific person in there, but think of anybody who fits this description who may have a conflict or a beef with Brown.

BERMAN: Yes, from the very beginning one of the open questions was, how did anyone know that there would be a class on a Saturday. A Saturday afternoon in any college is not usual to have a review session like that inside a building like this. So, did this person know or was it just a target of opportunity? That's one of the open questions here.

Casey, based on your years of experience and seeing manhunts in the past before, when people are on the run, does this person on the run know these images are being released? Is he watching or learning about this coverage saying, hey, now they've got these new pictures of me, I've got to act differently?

JORDAN: Absolutely. We know this. We know this from the D.C. snipers. He is watching the coverage every single day, which is why it's important not to say provocative things, not to call him a coward or anything like that. He is watching this obsessively.

And if he has a family, a wife, an ex-wife, lives with his parents, they will know that he's watching obsessively and probably was very agitated starting Saturday afternoon, anxious, watching TV constantly.

Now, the thing about this is that I do think this person has some affiliation, probably a former affiliation, with Brown. Could be a disgruntled employee. Could be a former student. About one third of these shootings are committed by current students, but another 10 percent are committed by former students or employees. So, this person who has a beef with Brown may be talking smack about Brown for years now. Maybe he got fired from there. Maybe he failed out. Maybe didn't win an award when he was there. So, we need to collectively, as a public, not just look at these images, but link it together with anyone we know who is agitated on a Saturday afternoon, may have missed work, may have been AWOL, may have been acting oddly. And collectively, I think that the public, with the police help, with these constant clues and hints coming in, we will find the shooter soon.

BERMAN: Yes, great points, Casey. Don't just look at these new pictures, but maybe reassess what you've seen in the days since Saturday, who you've spoken to, if they've been acting in any unusual way.

Casey Jordan, as always, thank you for your help.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, a brand new and truly eye-opening and revealing interview this morning from someone you do not hear from publicly very often. President Trump's top, closest adviser, Susie Wiles. What she is now telling "Vanity Fair" in lengthy interviews, weighing in on everything, from the Epstein investigation, Pam Bondi's handling of it, and also even Venezuelan boat strikes and the message, really, to Maduro. Much more to come on that.

Plus, as soon as this morning, charges could be brought against legendary director Rob Reiners's son, Nick Reiner. What we know about what happened at a party the night before his parents were found dead in their Los Angeles home.

And nearly a week after former -- now former University of Michigan coach Sherrone Moore was fired and arrested, you're now hearing from the interim coach. He says the players feel betrayed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:18:18]

BOLDUAN: This just in, a revealing new interview with really the most powerful person in President Trump's White House beyond him. Chief of Staff Susie Wiles commenting and going there on a wide range of topics, it seems, with "Vanity Fair" in a new series of interviews from the handling of the Epstein investigation, to her assessment of the big names on Donald Trump's team.

Let's get to CNN's Alayna Treene, who is at the White House. House.

There seems to be a lot in there, Alayna. What is your big takeaway?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: I mean, look, I've covered the president and I've also covered Susie Wiles for years now, Kate. And this is one of the most candid interviews and stories that she's offered -- an interview she's offered, really, from the entire time I've done that. This is incredibly candid, some of the things that she was admitting.

Because I will tell you to, Wiles is someone who often likes to operate kind of in the shadows and quietly. She doesn't like to draw attention to herself. And that's why I think some of what people are waking up and reading this morning is so stunning to hear about. But let me get into some of the main things that I found very notable from what Chris Whipple, who works with "Vanity Fair," detailed from their conversations.

One is that Wiles referred to President Trump as someone having a, quote, "alcoholic personality." She also talked a lot about the vice president, J.D. Vance, someone who I should note, you know, had this conversion that Whipple noted as well from never-Trumper to a MAGA acolyte. Susie Wiles essentially said that that change, that conversion has been, quote, "sort of political." And she said the vice president has been a, quote, "conspiracy theorist for a decade."

She also talked about Russell Vought. He is the White House budget chief, but he's also, of course, one of the architects of that notorious Project 2025 conservative blueprint for the future of the Republican Party, something that Trump had previously, of course, disavowed.

[09:20:10]

She argued that Vought is, quote, "a right-wing absolute zealot." And then she also got into a number of different things. One, she talked about, Pam Bondi, the attorney general, someone who was one of her closest friends, I should note, in this administration. She argued that Bondi, quote, "whiffed, completely whiffed the handling of the Epstein file."

She also talked about how the president, who came in and offered a series of pardons to really roughly a thousand people who were convicted for their crimes on January 6th, she essentially admitted that she had urged the president not to pardon those who had committed violent crimes on January 6th and on the Capitol attack. She also talked about how she disagreed with him sometimes when it came to tariffs, saying that she had urged him to delay some of the tariffs that he ultimately announced.

And it goes on. There's a lot of other areas where she kind of talks about kind of disagreeing with him, but also ultimately her role as a facilitator rather than, you know, past White House chiefs that we've seen, notably people like John Kelly during the president's first administration, who at times tried to hold him back. She sees as her job trying to kind of shape what he does, but also not preventing him from doing what he wants to do.

One very notable quote as well that stuck out to me, just given the context of what's very much in the news right now, is Venezuela. She admitted publicly that one of the goals of this administration and the president is actually to see regime change in Venezuela and oust Nicolas Maduro. I should note that is not what the White House line has been on this. The White House line has been that this is all about trying to crack down on narco terrorists and illegal drug trafficking. She essentially said this on Venezuela. She said, quote, "he wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle. And people way smarter than me on that say that he will." Again, a major contradiction in what we've heard from the White House on all of this. And the last thing I just want to quickly point you to. There's a lot

in this. I do encourage our audience to actually go and read these very lengthy and detailed articles from "Vanity Fair." But she talked about retribution. And she said that she had some sort of agreement with the president that she didn't want him to be focused on score settling. That she was going to give him 90 days and then he kind of had to move on from it.

But she also acknowledged that some of the recent indictments we've seen against some of the president's political foes, people like the former FBI director, James Comey, or the New York attorney general, Letitia James, both people who we've seen this Trump administration now bring indictments against. She admitted that, yes, that kind of is political. She said the James -- the Letitia James indictment specifically, she said that one you could call retribution.

And so, incredible stuff in here from Wiles, who, again, one of the most powerful people, if not the most powerful person in this White House, apart from Trump, being very, very candid in this interview, Kate.

BOLDUAN: A lot more to come.

TREENE: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Alayna Treene, thank you so much. Important that you're hearing publicly, really for the first time, someone as high up as Susie Wiles saying that the point is to take Maduro -- to get Maduro out, not just stop drug trafficking from the nation. This is an important development.

It's good to see you. Thank you so much for jumping on.

Also today we may learn what charges Nick Reiner will face after he was arrested and accused by LAPD of being responsible for his parent's deaths, Rob and Michele Reiner. Police expected to turn over the case to prosecutors as soon as this morning. So, a lot can happen today here.

There are also new details today about the hours before. Nick Reiner seen having a heated argument with his father at a holiday party on Saturday at Conan O'Brien's house. The couple was found dead Sunday afternoon.

CNN's Stephanie Elam is in Los Angeles tracking each one of these developments as they come.

What more are you learning, Stephanie?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, everyone is waiting today, Kate, to find out what the district attorney is going to do once they are handed the information that has been compiled in the investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department, which, remember, in their press release, they did say that Nick Reiner was, quote, "responsible" for the deaths of his parents. So, that is noteworthy that they've worded it that way. But we still don't know the manner in which they died. And we still

need to know if there is a motive here. And in that -- for that reason, maybe we'll get more information when the district attorney's office gets this, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office gets this case, which we believe will be at some point today. So, we're waiting for that.

But at the same time we're learning more about what people thought of the Reiners in their neighborhood. And there's one man who worked for the Reiners. Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TREVOR TAUFAHEMA, FORMER REINER FAMILY EMPLOYEE: They were just the nicest, sweetest people, you know? Like, you would never think this would have happened, you know? Like, I never thought in years that this would have happened.

I never saw any violence with Nick. Yes, you could tell something was a little off about him, you know? But, I'm not the one to judge, you know?

[09:25:01]

Every family has their, you know, their problems with whoever they have with and, yes, it's just sad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: Now, Nick Reiner has been open about his battles with drug addiction and has spoken about how he has fought with his parents at different times over the years. The first time he went to rehab, he said he was 15 years old. But still, none of that explains how this could have happened and how he's now the suspect, the one who's in custody for the deaths of his parents.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Stephanie, thank you so much for that.

Still on alert. Concerns about safety remain for the Brown University campus and everyone living nearby. And the -- and the wider community. The suspected shooter still at large. Why the FBI needs the public's help now and hopes these new videos will crack the case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:30:09]

BOLDUAN: So, we're standing