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Trump Defends Economy, Blames Biden in Address to Nation; Trump Touts Actions in First Year, Teases 2026 Agenda; Search for Person Who Crossed Paths With Brown Person of Interest. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 18, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Why is he yelling at us? One review of the president's overnight speech on the economy. Another, your vibes are off, the economy is fine. This morning, we're standing by for the reality of new data on inflation.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Providence Police are now releasing a new map narrowing their area of interest and pleading for help as the gunman who terrorized Brown University and that entire community is still on the run.

And some wild video out of Florida, a bird's eye view of the Coast Guard rescuing a man found 100 miles offshore. What happened here? We'll tell you.

Sara is working the night shift tonight. I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: And this morning, we are standing by for brand new numbers on inflation, which has not dropped since President Trump took office. This follows new data, which found the unemployment rate is at its highest level in four years. Those are two reasons why the White House might have put President Trump on T.V. last night for an 18 minute speech to tout an economy that many Americans have questions about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Our country is back stronger than ever before. We're poised for an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen. Soon, we will host the World Cup and the Olympics, both of which I got.

When the world looks at us next year, let them see a nation that is loyal to its citizens, faithful to its workers, confident to its identity, certain to its destiny and the envy of the entire globe. We are respected again like we have never been respected before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: It was a starkly different performance than his normal stump speeches. The Washington Post quoted a supporter saying, Trump is speaking so fast, he seems panicked. I've never seen him like this and I've attended 42 of his rallies.

These are the numbers he's up against. A new Quinnipiac University poll finds 57 percent say President Trump is more responsible for the current economy than former President Biden.

Let's get right to CNN's Alayna Treene live at the White House this morning for the very latest on what they're saying there. Alayna.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. Look, I actually think you pointed out the style of this. That was one of the most striking things to me, John, about the president's speech last night. He very much stayed on script. He was reading the teleprompter. That is not a characteristic for this president. And, I mean, that's partly because I think he had 15, 16, this ended up being an 18-minute speech. He only had that amount of time for the television stations to actually take this. But he was rapidly rushing through this, shouting at times, almost trying to convince Americans this is what you need to be feeling right now.

But one of the things, of course, when you get to substance, he did use this, this was a speech meant to tick through his accomplishments. He talked about the Congressional, you know, as the big, beautiful bill that they passed over the summer, his tax cuts, tariffs, that he said all of this going to help attribute to the economy. And that was really the main focus of this speech.

It was very clear what this speech was intended to do, which is to try and get in an issue that has been plaguing this administration and causing a lot of anxieties as they head into 2026, of course, a midterm elections year. He talked about affordability at length, and he really tried to place the blame at the feet of his predecessor, Joe Biden. He blamed him repeatedly, even actually starting to do so in his first sentence. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: 11 months ago, I inherited a mess and I'm fixing it.

This is what the Biden administration allowed to happen to our country.

Under the Biden administration, car prices rose 22 percent, and in many states, 30 percent or more.

Under Biden, real wages plummeted by $3,000.

Electricity costs surge 30 to 100 percent under Biden.

The worst thing that the Biden administration did to our country is the invasion at the border.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: And that was only a few examples of him using Biden's name. John.

Look, I mean, the president also used -- made selective use of some of these statistics.

[07:05:02]

In some cases, they were quite misleading statistics. At one point, he tried to argue that inflation is down. It's actually as of the last numbers we saw. As you mentioned, we're going to see some new numbers today. But it's at the same place we saw it on inauguration day when Joe Biden left office.

He also tried to argue that employment is headed in the right direction. Well, when he entered office, the president -- the unemployment rate was at 4 percent. The most recent numbers we saw put an unemployment rate at 4.6 percent.

But, look, I'll say this, and you could hear it in that clip. He keeps blaming Biden. I have now traveled the country talking to his supporters, the president's supporters about this. I was in Pennsylvania last week when he delivered that speech that was supposed to be focused on affordability, but kind of weaved all over the place.

They tell me that they agree with him, that, yes, maybe he did inherit a bad economy, but they are losing patience. And at this point in time they also say, we're starting to see this being an economy that Trump owns. It's no longer going to be a Biden economy. And so it's very clear that they need to get these numbers in a better place as they head into the next year.

BERMAN: Yes. And needless to say, Daniel Dale had been working overtime overnight, we'll speak to him a little bit about the facts of this speech.

Alayna Treene at the White House this morning, thank you very much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now for more on this is Madison Mills, senior markets reporter for Axios. Thanks for being here, Madison.

What -- give me your perspective. What did we learn from the president in the speech?

MADISON MILLS, SENIOR MARKETS REPORTER, AXIOS: Well, the President touted this kind of victory lap on the economy, which is very out of line with the data and what my sources on Wall Street and economic experts who I speak with every single day tell me is actually happening. We have this huge disconnect between the message that the president is talking about, which is, you know, he talked about prices going down grocery costs plummeting, electricity costs going down. Just fact-checking electricity that's up 13 percent over the last year, and he said those costs are already coming down. And I could really fact check every single comment that was made about the economy. So, that just points to the disconnect here.

I do know that the White House understands it has an affordability crisis on its hands. There's just a disconnect right now between how the president is addressing that affordability crisis and how people are actually feeling at home. BOLDUAN: And so what is that going to look like going into the New Year, right? Like this was a -- here's how we're ending up this year as we put -- there's a lot not said and not announced in this. What then is this going to look like, or they -- is the White House hoping and expecting is going to happen with the economy come Jan. 1?

MILLS: Well, Trump talked about this affordability that's coming, that all these costs are going to be coming down. He touted something in there about housing and how there's going to be some huge push for affordable housing. I'd be very curious to hear any specifics on that, also talking about these dividend checks, utilizing some of the tariff revenue to pay out veterans. And then also, he's obviously talked about these $2,000 tariff stimulus checks.

BOLDUAN: But did not announce that either.

MILLS: Didn't announce it. And also you would need a lot of Congressional approval for that, which, again, my sources tell me is not going to happen. They can't even agree on a budget, much less tariff dividend checks. So, unclear whether or not to kind of price that in from a market's perspective if we don't have that clarity at this time.

BOLDUAN: So, there is a lot of question marks going into what does this look like as we head into the new year in terms of the White House approach. But let's talk about just today. We had the new jobs, delayed jobs data that came out this week, 64,000 jobs added, but as Alayna Treene was talking about, unemployment rose to a four-year high. And now we're getting another delayed because of the government shutdown bit of data, important data on consumer pricing coming today. What are you hearing about this?

MILLS: Yes. This will give us the inflation data, but at this point it's so backward-looking.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

MILLS: When we take a look at the options pricing in the market, it looks like investors are not pricing in major moves coming off of this report. So, it's not necessarily going to move markets very much. It is obviously very important to get the data as soon as you possibly can to get insights into where we're at with inflation. I mean, the president was talking about inflation coming down, but we haven't gotten the data. So, it's difficult to know where we're at with inflation. And, again, this will be very backward-looking.

So, I'm eager to get into the New Year where we can start getting our data on a regular cadence again, and we can actually have insight into how things are doing in our economy.

BOLDUAN: That would be great. I think many people would appreciate that.

It's great to see you, Madison. Thanks for coming in this morning.

MILLS: Thank you. BOLDUAN: All right. Coming up for us, a new map and new photos, day six of the manhunt for the suspect who carried out that deadly shooting at Brown University, where police are focusing their search now today, and as we are hearing from someone who was inside the building as that attack was carried out.

There's also new detail coming in from the double murder investigation of Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele. The surveillance video showing their son, Nick, on the night of the killings, just seconds really before he was arrested.

And let's take a look at this. That is not the actual Statue of Liberty. That is Crazy winds is what that is in Brazil ripped the replica of Lady Liberty right off its base.

[07:10:03]

That and much more ahead.

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BERMAN: This morning, the big news in the investigation into the mass shooting at Brown University seems to be that authorities are now searching for a person who may have crossed paths with the individual seen in videos casing the area for more than five hours before the attack. Also, there are new accounts emerging from the time of the attack.

[07:15:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARJUN PURI, HID DURING BROWN UNIVERSITY SHOOTING: A student who was in engineering lab kind of stuck his head out and told us like, there's a situation going on. You guys should go like hide. We heard a scream saying, run, from the floor below us, and then we all ran to the back corner of the building. So, we all hit out in a classroom in the back corner of Barus and Holley. We were there with the lights off and the curtains down for about 45 minutes until the police came and they got us out after that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: We are also seeing pictures texted from one of the students killed, Mukhammad Aziz Umurzukov sent pictures from the class inside. This was well before the shooting took place. He said he was dragged to the economics review session.

But let's get back to the investigation and the manhunt, CNN's Michael Yoshida on the ground in Providence with the very latest. Michael, bring us up to speed.

MICHAEL YOSHIDA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, John. And you mentioned it, police now expanding their search, their investigation, continuing to ask for the public's help as we enter the sixth day of this manhunt out in our latest update from investigators, they do say eye witness accounts of the shooter involved in this mass shooting. They do match the descriptions of that person of interest, that individual they've been putting out these enhanced images, enhanced videos of. We also now know they have physical and DNA evidence.

Obviously, that could be key once they track that individual or another individual down. And as you mentioned, we did learn yesterday from investigators, they're now trying to track down and seeking the public's help finding someone they believe who may have crossed paths with this person of interest, hoping that they may have noticed something, may have seen something that could lead investigators in the right direction.

And we also learned more about the area where this shooting happened, that this was a study session that was going on in that classroom. So, investigators telling us that there was no registry of who was supposed to or not supposed to be there. They weren't needing to check in. So, that obviously is complicating it a little bit in terms of figuring out just who was in that room, what, who all the students were.

But back to that person that police hope they can find, that may have seen or had an interaction with that person of interest. Here's what the police chief had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OSCAR L. PEREZ JR., PROVIDENCE POLICE CHIEF: We have video footage of that determines to us and the detectives that can tell that this person was in the vicinity where the subject of interest was that we wanted that we actually have an interest on. Of course, close enough that we feel that we need to speak with them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOSHIDA: And as this investigation moves forward, really expanding out from this campus, take a look at this map. It shows just how expansive it is beyond the Brown University campus into broader Providence community. You can see the streets where the person of interest was seen in the hours before the shooting, as well as after.

And police telling us yesterday this really is a combination of 21st century modern policing with technologies, knocking on doors as well, that old school approach to try and find any video evidence, any other clues that they can to help them track down the shooter, obviously waiting for further updates from investigators here on Brown's campus. John?

BERMAN: Yes. I mean, old school would include knowing who was in that classroom by this point, and I know there's not a roster, but you would think that they can ask around and get a good sense of who was there.

Michael Yoshida, great to have you there continuing this reporting.

All right, worried that A.I. is coming for your job. Now, there might be an obstacle in its path. And new video overnight of a Coast Guard rescue, a man pulled from a boat on fire 100 miles off the coast.

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[07:20:00]

BOLDUAN: So, tonight, a lot is on the line as the Rams face off against the Seahawks in primetime.

CNNs Andy Scholes is here with much more on that. And what's going to happen, Andy?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, Kate, I mean, this is as good as it gets for Thursday Night football, the Rams and Seahawks, both 11-3, first place in the NFC and a potential bye in the first round of the playoffs on the line.

Now, the Rams dealing with some old holiday travel issues yesterday. Their plane had mechanical problems. They had to switch planes delaying their arrival to Seattle. And it's going to be cold and rainy tonight for this huge matchup.

Now, Ram's quarterback Matthew Stafford right now, he is the big favorite to win MVP. A great game tonight, could seal the deal. Stafford says he's pumped for this one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW STAFFORD, L.A. RAMS QUARTERBACK: It's a big one. You know, they all are at this point in the season and, obviously, we know we're playing a team that's had a ton of success this year. It's a tough place to play. It's a tough team to play because of who's on the field and who's coaching them. We understand that, you know, and this is what you love playing NFL football for. It's a quick turnaround to get this one going, which is sometimes difficult, but you know, we'll be ready to rock and roll.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: All right. In the NHL, meanwhile, the defending champs staying hot. This was the start of the third period. Panthers were up to one. Brad Marchand gets it to Sam Bennett. He scores just ten seconds into the period, and that would end up being the winning goal. Florida wins 3-2. They've now won six of their last seven.

All right, and, finally, Florida Gators fans all pumped up last night because freshman center Olivier Rioux got in at the end of their game against St. Francis, and the 7'9 19-year-old getting his first collegiate bucket, throwing this one down right here. His teammates, everyone in the arena just jumping up and down, going nuts. Rioux, the tallest player ever to score in a college game. It's third game he's played in, first bucket though, Kate. Congrats to Rioux for getting in there and slamming that one home. Certainly fun for all the fans.

And, you know, he was 7'5 by the time he was 15 years old. I mean, just incredible.

[07:25:00]

BOLDUAN: 7'9? I mean, does he even need to jump to dunk?

SCHOLES: No, absolutely not. But, I mean, imagine he has -- imagine trying to just run up and down at 7'9. It can't be easy.

BOLDUAN: I mean, I could just run probably through his legs, like the man is very tall.

SCHOLES: If we wanted to give him a high five, you'd have to get on my shoulders, Kate.

BOLDUAN: I mean, I'm always up for a challenge. We will probably be breaking and fracturing limbs, but let's do it. I'm going to have to measure out where 7'9 is in the studio. I'm now must know.

It's great to see you, Andy. I'm going to. This is because I have all this extra time. Thank you so much.

All right, so coming up for us, fact-checking the president's speech, what was said, what the data shows and what that means for every American watching and looking for some economic relief right now.

And a renowned nuclear scientist at MIT shot and killed in his home. There are big new questions swirling as police search -- police are searching for his killer.

We'll be right back.

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[07:30:00]