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America's Report Card on Trump; Trump to Address Nation; Barry Markowitz is Interviewed about the Reiner Family; Oura Looks to Stay Ahead of Competition. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired December 17, 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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[08:30:16]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, this morning, the CDC has now officially abandoned long standing guidance of universal hepatitis b vaccinations for newborns that is -- in doing so, the CDC is greenlighting the recommendation that we covered the meetings and the debate over coming from the newly formed panel of vaccine advisers. The hepatitis b vaccine had been recommended for all infants in the United States since 1991. Doctors say it has helped cut infections in children of this dangerous disease by more than 90 percent. This also represents the most significant change to vaccine schedules since Robert Kennedy Jr. took over as health and human services secretary. The CDC's acting director says the point here is to restore informed consent to parents and provide shared decision making with health care providers. Some experts, though, fear it will do the opposite and cause more confusion and potential harm.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump to address the nation tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time live from the White House. It's not exactly clear what he's going to talk about, but one might imagine he may try to tout what he sees as his accomplishments in his first year in office again. What do Americans think about that first year so far?

With us now, CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten.

So, you know, how is he doing? What's the streak like right now?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes, I would say the report card is negative. It's minus. It's no good. And how do we know this? Well, why don't we just talk about Trump's negative net approval rating. Every single day since March 12th, Trump has been in the red, negative. That is days in a row, 281. He has spent more time underwater than Jacques Cousteau, for goodness sake. The bottom line is this, the American people don't like what Trump's doing, and they haven't liked what Trump's doing for a long period of time.

BERMAN: Two hundred and eighty-one days.

So, on what issues? ENTEN: On what issues? All of them. All of them. All the key issues.

Because take a look here. Trump's negative approval rating. He's underwater across the board. Immigration, a key issue for him, underwater by six points. Foreign policy, which has been one of his better issues, underwater by 14 points. Trade and tariffs, of course this has been a key component of Trump's presidency, underwater by 15 points. The economy, the reason Trump got elected to a second term, underwater by 16 points. And the Epstein case, which I think we'll be talking a lot about going into the latter part of this week, underwater by 29 points. Negative, negative, negative, negative, negative. It's just not any good for the president of the United States, regardless of what he says tonight.

BERMAN: Yes, minus 29 --

ENTEN: It's not good.

BERMAN: And then some of the files presumably are supposed to come out on Friday. So, we'll see what happens with that number.

OK, Harry, so, you know, it's 281 days streak he's at right now. He's at the end of his first year in office. Midterms aren't until next November. What does history tell us about how likely it is things get turned around?

ENTEN: Yes, OK. You know, I think if you're a Republican thinking, hey, we still got 11 months to the midterm or maybe ten and a half. You do have ten and a half months till the midterm to turn it around. But if history is any guide, it's not a good one for you because, take a look here, term two, negative net approval ratings at this point went positive by the midterm. Well, we have three examples. Richard Nixon, he was forced out of office, of course. He never went positive. George W. Bush, he never saw positive territory again. Barack Obama, earlier this century, he did not go positive by the midterm. We got the question mark for Donald Trump. But again, negative, negative, negative. It's just negative across the board for the president of the United states. He's again going to have to break history. He's done it before, but he's really going to have to do it if he really wants to give his Republican Party much of a chance come the 2026 midterms because if the numbers look like this, and look like this, well, this will become another x.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you, my friend.

BERMAN: We all wish we could look like this.

ENTEN: I --

BERMAN: Sharp. Sharp every day.

ENTEN: You know what, my girlfriend makes me look so freaking good. She is responsible for this. God bless you, Laura Vigilante (ph). I love you.

BERMAN: Oh, wow.

ENTEN: That's a full name for you.

BERMAN: There we go.

All right, Kate Bolduan, to you.

BOLDUAN: There is no question, Laura Vigilante is amazing. But I will say, HR is calling, boys, and I'm not taking part today. Thank you so much.

ENTEN: Bye, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Joining me now -- joining me now, CNN's Jeff Zeleny and White House correspondent for "NOTUS," Jasmine Wright.

We're going to avoid commenting on Harry Enten's clothing choices today. We will stick with the president's approval ratings.

Jeff, is this White House worrying about those numbers?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: I mean there's no doubt they are because history is always a guide for any White House. And we've heard President Trump, in recent weeks, talking a lot about history, particularly how presidents fare in midterm elections.

[08:35:02]

He really is bringing it up in many appearances, in the Oval Office, in the cabinet room, saying, I can't quite figure out why presidents and their parties always seem to lose seats in the midterm elections. So, there's no doubt that they are looking at that. But of course, this president, like many others before him, think that they can be the one to defy the odds here.

It's one of the reasons that President Trump is addressing the nation tonight. The White House advisers hope he talks about the economy, hope he talks about his policies and how they're trying to help bring down prices. But that jobs report yesterday and the unemployment rate now at 4.6 percent, really complicates all of this for the president.

So, look, we saw the president out in the country last week talking about the economy a little bit, but talking about everything else for about an hour and a half. Tonight is a 15-minute scripted address, likely from the Oval Office. So, he'll talk more about the economy. The question is, are people going to feel some of these changes? Are his policies actually going to do anything to bring about lower prices or lowering inflation? That's very much an open question here as the economy is weighing heavy on everyone's mind.

BOLDUAN: Yes. I mean, and, Jasmine, let's be honest. If the president doesn't focus almost entirely on the economy, wouldn't that -- isn't -- would -- isn't that the entire headline tomorrow morning?

JASMINE WRIGHT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "NOTUS": Well, I think the president is going to talk about things that his administration feels are going well, namely immigration. That is one thing that we know the president returns to time and time again. We saw him return to that when he was in Pennsylvania, supposed to be talking about the economy, because that's one place where they can show tangible results on an issue that they very much so believe helped them win the election in November.

And so I think you're going to hear him talk about the economy -- the economy, but you're also going to hear him talk about immigration. You're going to hear him talk about his terrorist platform, basically trying to tell the American people that things are going OK in that department. You're going to hear him talking about jobs, particularly, I think, this tout -- this statistic that they keep touting, which is that jobs are no longer going to foreign born nationals, they say, but instead the job gains are happening among American born folks. And so, I think you're going to hear him really talk in totality about the things that they believe are going well.

But, of course, like Jeff said, the president needs to convince people that the economy is going well. I think when I talk to his allies, folks who are talking to him outside of the White House, they talk about the fact that he necessarily hasn't done a great job of touting what his administration has done so far to bring down prices and what is to come. And so I think you're going to hear a lot of not just about the last 11 months, but you're going to hear a lot about next month, something that the administration's been talking about a lot also is the fact that they believe that tax returns are going to be very huge for Americans because of some of these things that haven't happened yet in that one big, beautiful bill.

And so, I think you're going to hear a mix of it, but it's not just going to be about the economy, because they know that they want to point to other places where they feel like they've really run up some wins.

BOLDUAN: It does -- and, look, we'll wait to hear what he says, right, Jeff? But there is -- there -- it's giving some vibes that feel kind of Joe Biden-era-esque, right? People aren't feeling good. People aren't buying what we're selling. People aren't listening to the data points that we're putting out there of what we're doing. Him saying affordability is a hoax, but people aren't believing it. Inflation, I'm saying, is over, but clearly it is not. So, let's make a speech from the White House about it. I mean, what are the -- what are the landmines here for the president?

ZELENY: Well, look, the landmines for the president are really not feeling the economic pain of Americans, not really appreciating or empathizing with what consumers are going through.

The unemployment rate is a significant challenge here. The underlying fundamentals of the economy are weaker than they, the administration, would like them to be. There's no doubt. So, the landmines, I think, are not acknowledging some of that.

And we've really heard the difference between the president and the vice president when they were out there talking. Vice President J.D. Vance, just yesterday in Pennsylvania, was essentially imploring Americans for a little bit of patience. Yes, they blame the Biden administration for the economy. I think the shelf life on that is running out a bit. But they're, you know, effectively asking for patience. We've not heard President Trump really do that. He does not really acknowledge that the economy is not so going.

BOLDUAN: But, Jeff, isn't that also the right and only answer? I mean, instead of blaming the Biden administration, I mean, yes, they didn't say that. They said they were going to fix it on day one. But isn't that just like economics 101? You can take the economy real quick, but it's going to take you a while to fix it.

ZELENY: Sure. I mean, and the underlying thing is, the tariff policies and the Affordable Care Act, the health care subsidies that are likely to expire at the end of the year, as Congress is leaving town just in a couple days. So, there is a lot on the plate here. But there is no doubt the president even acknowledging some of that, I think, would go a long way toward at least shoring up people who were inclined to like him.

[08:40:02]

The rest of the country, almost half of the country, of course, would not. But shoring up some of his base would certainly help him with some of these economic numbers.

BOLDUAN: Yes, I guess. Let us see.

Jasmine, I got to get your take on this Susie Wiles interview. That -- this -- the extensive on the record interviews, on the record kind of sessions she gave with Chris Whipple. Eleven interviews, he said, over 11 months. All of them he said were -- they're recorded. She knew they were on the record. And now the interesting way that President Trump and basically everyone around the White House are responding is publicly defending her after she kind of like set off this explosion. Why do you think that is?

WRIGHT: Well, I think that they realize that they need Susie Wiles. The president, yesterday, going to "The New York Post" to say, yes, I do have an alcoholics like personality. She didn't mean it in a negative way, and I don't take any offense by it. That is astounding because that would not have happened in term one. I think that that's reflective of the fact that he personally likes her, and that people around her, even if they don't necessarily personally like her, which when I talk to folks in and around the White House, they're kind of hard to find, those people. But even if they don't personally like her, they view her as somebody who has done a great job of keeping the White House focused, keeping those policy -- I mean those personal fights that we saw in the first term to a minimum and getting everybody rowing in the same direction.

I talked to one source yesterday who was in communication with the White House, who basically said it was an all hands on deck effort yesterday trying to get folks to circle the wagons around her, making it clear that there is no blood in the water, that there is no -- that there is no separation between her and the president, and that she's going to stay in the job. And I believe that to be true no matter what the fallout continues to be. I mean I think it was easier to count who in the administration or who of a close ally of President Trump didn't actually tweet or issue some grand note of positivity towards Susie Wiles versus who didn't. And so, I think that folks are trying to put a united front up against what they claim is a -- quote taken out of -- taken over 11 months out of context. And that is just a symptom of the media being targeted against the president.

Now, one other thing, though, Kate, that I did hear, in addition to we're circling the wagons around her, is kind of a question of, but why did this even happen? Why go to "Vanity Fair"? Why talk to a reporter over 11 months on the record while she's doing things like doing her laundry or just in her office? And I think that that is a question that if, you know, despite the fact that the White House has basically said to everybody, get in line, people are going to still wonder, right, what was the point of this? Was it legacy building? Was it her trying to consolidate power? I think that those are the kind of questions happening underneath the surface. But on the surface, you're really seeing a united front from the White House.

BOLDUAN: You know, I think --

ZELENY: The one thing we didn't hear --

BOLDUAN: Yes, go ahead.

ZELENY: The one thing we didn't hear, we didn't hear her say, I didn't say it. So, the bottom line is, she said these comments.

WRIGHT: Or I was misquoted.

ZELENY: The comments weren't -- the comments weren't as surprising as the fact that she said them on the record. So, the bottom line, as Jasmine is absolutely right, the president is almost certain to not take this out on her. He likes her. He needs her. We'll see how this is going forward. But she said what she said and she didn't say she didn't. She just said it was taken out of context.

BOLDUAN: The intrigue, though continues of the why of it all for long after the "Vanity Fair" piece leaves the interwebs.

It's good to see you guys. Thank you so much.

So, lawmakers shouting, shoving, pulling each other's hair. What went so wrong here to ignite this?

Plus, in today's new episode of "Actors on Actors," two people you may have heard of, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEONARDO DICAPRIO, ACTOR: I think a lot of my propulsion to want to act was to get out of my neighborhood. Like, that -- you could do that for work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[08:48:55]

BERMAN: We are standing by for Nick Reiner, the son of Rob and Michele Reiner, to make his first appearance in court. The younger Reiner is now formally charged with first degree murder in the fatal stabbing of his parents. This morning, we are learning more about his demeanor just before the attack this weekend. A source tells CNN that just hours before the murders, Nick Reiner stood out among the guests at Conan O'Brien's holiday party for how little he was engaging with anyone.

With us now is someone who knew the Reiners well and stayed at their home very recently, Barry Markowitz. He was a cinematographer on the film that Nick Reiner co-wrote, "Being Charlie," which was loosely inspired by his experiences with addiction and directed by Rob Reiner.

Barry, we're so glad to see you and we are so deeply sorry for the loss of your friends.

Just tell us how you're doing this morning.

BARRY MARKOWITZ, FRIEND OF THE REINER FAMILY: Yes. I'm broken. I'm so broken. You know, I lost my two best friends who just would non-stop give me love. I was witness to them when I -- whenever I went to L.A., they insisted, Rob and Michele, Romi (ph), everybody in the family insisted that I stay over.

[08:50:15]

You know, they said this -- you can't stay in a hotel because there's no refrigerator. You can't stay in a hotel because there's no food. You can't stay there because, Rob used to tell me, we have the best toilet paper in town. So, you know, hard to make a joke now, but that was Rob and the whole family. Positive. Taking me into their family. It's eight years. Every time I go there, they insist I stay there.

We eat together. They're old school family dinners. Sitting on the couch, watching TV, watching basketball and movies. And everybody laughing and just yelling at the TV simultaneously. You know how families do. Just incredible people. I was lucky to meet him on "Being Charlie." That was the first one. And then "Shock and Awe." And then another one we did, "LBJ" with Woody Harrelson.

And I was like, you know, in a dream world. You know, my parents went to the Holocaust Auschwitz, and so did Michele's parents. And I grew up speaking Yiddish. And Rob knows Yiddish. And so we, you know, it's like, who's this Jew from Brooklyn? So, we got along terrific. And we did good work. And I watched the master. And, you know, it was just -- it was a dream.

BOLDUAN: Now --

MARKOWITZ: And when this -- when I got back to Israel, because that's where I'm living now, my friend called me and told me, bad news. And it's like -- I was there just yesterday. It seemed like yesterday because it was three weeks ago, but it seemed like yesterday, you know?

BOLDUAN: And that's what -- we -- and we wanted to ask you about that, Barry, because you were just -- you stayed with them just weeks ago.

MARKOWITZ: Right.

BOLDUAN: How did the family seem? I mean how -- were they all together? Was Nick there as well?

MARKOWITZ: They seemed like -- yes, Nick was there. And he looked great. And, you know, we were -- he was with us, as he always was. And he was -- he looked great. And he was, you know, talkative and helping out, you know, as he always did with, Barry, you want some more, you know, some more lean pastrami, you know, and it was just -- I -- it's like I'm so broken. I'm so freaked out, like, everyone, and -- that this happened. I mean, I knew there were issues because he's had them for a long time, but he was on the up, you know? He was just the sweet -- he's such a freaking great person. It's hard for me to even comprehend this stuff.

But mental illness is a terrible thing. And it's, you know, it's -- I don't know. I'm lost for words. I -- there's so many stories, great stories. But family wise, this was like my family. My parents passed away. They were my parents, in a way. The kids were my kids in a way, with the dog and everything. You know, it was like -- it was like a fantasy.

And working together, you know, Rob used to say, Barry, two Jews, three opinions, you know? He was like, he was, he was incredible. And we grew up in the same -- I'm a few years younger, in the same, you know, time slot. So, I knew who he spoke about, the old comedians and Dick and, you know.

But the family was just always there. There was nothing, and I say nothing, that that family would not do for their children. They lived for their children.

BERMAN: Barry, it's hard, I think, from where we're standing because I think all we want is to hear these awesome stories about Rob and Michele Reiner.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BERMAN: Because they're so much fun. So, you know, you're making us laugh. And at the same time it's just devastating to have to come to terms with the fact --

MARKOWITZ: It's laughter -- it's laugher through -- it's laughter through tears.

BERMAN: Yes.

MARKOWITZ: That's what we call it. Laughter --

BERMAN: Barry --

MARKOWITZ: Laughter through tears.

BERMAN: You worked on the film "Being Charlie," which, of course, was written by Nick, directed by Rob, about Nick's struggles with addiction and mental health.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BERMAN: So, what was it like to really be in the middle of that during that time?

MARKOWITZ: Well, let me tell you, for somebody like Nick to expose himself and his -- the horrors that he went through and put it out there to the public is a huge, huge, huge step.

[08:55:07]

Nobody wants that. That's behind closed doors, that stuff. But he put it out there with his dad, trusted his dad to do the right thing, which he did, gave him all the respect.

Rob was the director, but Nick, it was his story. So, you know, it's like having the writer on the set, which you never do. You know, that's a verboten. But they worked together. We had laughs every day and cried every day. And there were heavy scenes. And you should see the film. You'll see what I'm talking about.

And, you know, it was great. We had steadicam. We put it on Nick. He was running around with the steadicam. It was like -- it was like that on every Reiner shoot. But this one was a little more sensitive.

BERMAN: Yes.

MARKOWITZ: And you never knew it in the sense of attitude. Everybody was positive. We were doing great things. A good story is being told in the right way. And we were all in good hands.

BOLDUAN: Well, Barry, it's -- it's everything, right? Like, we can hear your pain and we also can hear the joy and love that you have for this family. And we are so sorry because you're in the middle of it and dealing with what really is impossible to kind of comprehend in this moment about people that you just saw weeks ago, and a family that you loved so dearly.

Barry Markowitz, though, thank you so much for spending some time with us and sharing your stories. We really appreciate it.

BERMAN: Thanks, Barry.

BOLDUAN: Goodness.

All right, let's turn to this and some of the other headlines that we're tracking today.

Grammy Award winning artist, The Weeknd, just inked a standout catalog partnership deal. He signed with Lyric Capital Partners in what is one of few known deals to be valued at $1 billion. The only other artist deals to reach that level, Queen, selling its masters to Sony and Sony when the company picked up Michael Jackson's recorded masters by buying a 50 percent stake in the Jackson Estate.

And new this morning for us, Oura, the company behind the popular sleep tracking ring that has been seen on, well, everyone, from celebrity, to the regular joe, trying to stay ahead of the growing competition in that space.

CNN tech editor Lisa Eadicicco joins us right now with much more on this.

And you spoke to Oura's CEO about what -- so what are the plans?

LISA EADICICCO, CNN TECH EDITOR: Absolutely. So, we spoke recently. And what we're really seeing here is the continuation of what Oura and other companies in the space have been trying to do for a long time, which is move from a world where wearable devices are just telling you stats about your workouts and your heart rate towards a world where they can actually provide deep insights and predictions about your health trends and proactive advice. And A.I. is playing a big role in that, and that has a lot to do with what we talked about. And part of his forward-looking vision for the company is this idea that not only are you incorporating data that your smart ring is gathering, but maybe one day you're combining that with medical records and blood tests and all of this other information and imagine what kinds of predictions you can get about forward-looking health trends when you have all of that data put together.

BOLDUAN: That's fascinating (ph).

EADICICCO: And another interesting thing is the Oura ring measures statistics from your finger, but there are lots of other parts of the body where you can get really vital readings. And the company is thinking about, or at least interested in, and this is not definitive, but kind of a forward looking plan, or forward looking area of interest, is partnering with other companies that make devices that are maybe worn on the ear or the chest.

BOLDUAN: Like other parts of wearable devices.

EADICICCO: Exactly.

BOLDUAN: How much competition is there in this space now?

EADICICCO: There's a lot of competition. So, Oura is a relatively big name in this space.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

EADICICCO: But Google, through its Fitbit brand, has made a lot of progress following that kind of direction of making kind of -- instead of just reciting statistics, making recommendations. And Fitbits doing a lot in that space.

They also have an A.I. health coach, kind of like Oura's. We also have Apple updating the Apple watch with new things as well. So, there's a lot of competition for sure.

BOLDUAN: As you can see, Oura fighting hard to stay ahead of the game.

It's great to see you, Lisa. Thanks so much for that.

EADICICCO: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: John.

BERMAN: I want to wearable tiara to track my various bodily functions.

BOLDUAN: Working on it.

BERMAN: Thank you for that.

All right, a brand-new episode of "Actors on Actors" premieres in just moments, exclusively on the CNN app. You may have heard of the people this time, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence. DiCaprio, who stars in "One Battle After Another," talked about his early drive to be an actor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEONARDO DICAPRIO, ACTOR: I think a lot of my propulsion to want to act was to get out of my neighborhood, Like, that -- you could do that for work.

JENNIFER LAWRENCE, ACTRESS: Right.

DICAPRIO: My stepbrother did a lot of commercials. I was like, wait a minute, you get paid to do that?

LAWRENCE: Yes.

DICAPRIO: I'm going to get out -- I got to get out of this place. Yes. So, I was the stage mom.

LAWRENCE: Right.

DICAPRIO: I was pushing my parents to take me on auditions. I'm like, you know, my school is this far away.

[09:00:02]

When you pick me up, we can stop at a couple auditions on the way home.

LAWRENCE: Yes.