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Interview with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD): Trump Vows Economic Boom in 2026, Deflects Affordability Concerns; GOP Centrists Defy Speaker to Join Dems on Extending Subsidies; Search for Person Who Crossed Paths with Brown Person of Interest; Trump Expected to Sign Executive Order Reclassifying Marijuana. Aired 8:00-8:30a ET

Aired December 18, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: ... in California, if they would pursue it -- and they have not said how they've decided -- how much, remind people how much that changes this case.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think it changes it significantly. I mean, I think, you know, and just to be clear, the district attorney had met with his staff in March and said in egregious circumstances, they are going to look to pursue it here. There are a lot of other considerations.

This is these are his parents. What would his parents have wanted? Apparently, the parents have helped him all of his life.

And so don't know that they're going to get there, Kate. But I do know that it's a significant charge. It's a lot to overcome.

And I think he's got a lot of tough days ahead based upon what he allegedly did to his parents.

BOLDUAN: Joey, thank you.

JACKSON: Always.

BOLDUAN: A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And we are standing by for new data on inflation out very shortly. Inflation has not fallen since President Trump took office. What these new numbers will mean for the economy was so many Americans saying they are struggling.

Major changes on rules surrounding marijuana could be coming as soon as today. The first whiff of what those changes might be.

And a stolen dump truck takes police on a high speed chase. What could possibly go wrong?

Sara is on the late shift. I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. And this is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: So this morning, we are standing by for new numbers and a new read on inflation coming just about 30 minutes from now. It's been at the same level recently since President Trump took office nearly a year ago. He entered at 3 percent inflation. Last read was 3 percent inflation.

And overnight, the economy is what he focused on in large part in his address from the White House to the nation over the course of 18 rapid fire minutes, touting his economic policies, blaming Democrats, especially Joe Biden, for the rising cost of goods and the rising concern about affordability on everything from health care to home prices.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're putting America first and we are making America great again. Very simple. We are making America great again.

Tonight, after 11 months, our border is secure. Inflation is stopped. Wages are up.

Prices are down. Our nation is strong. America is respected and our country is back stronger than ever before.

We're poised for an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The American people, though, may need more convincing, though. A new Quinnipiac University poll shows 65 percent of people polled of voters believe the economy is not so good or poor. And the president's approval rating, as we have discussed on the economy, it sits at 40 percent.

Joining me right now is Democratic Senator from Maryland, Chris Van Hollen. Thanks so much for coming in, Senator. Appreciate it.

You watched the president's speech and I saw that you said about it or about all of it or him or both. You called it delusional. Why?

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD), APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Well, for the very reason you just indicated, because the president came out and shouted out the camera for about 18, 19 minutes and essentially told everybody how great things were and how he had brought down the price of groceries and how he had stopped inflation. And of course, none of that is true. And it is definitely not what Americans are experiencing every day.

And so that's why it was out of touch. It was it was delusional. Clearly, his team said to him, you've got to talk about affordability.

And he did talk about affordability, but he totally disconnected with the reality that people are facing.

BOLDUAN: It noted that he did not call affordability a hoax being cooked up by the Democrats -- when in this speech. Do you see that as an improvement from the president?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, he didn't use that word, but of course, he went on to talk about how great things were, which is another way of saying that it's a hoax telling the American people, don't believe what you're actually experiencing instead of, you know, saying we've got to do much more. After all, this is the president who said on day one he was going to bring down prices. And by the way, the president who could right now make sure people don't see a spike in their health care costs by extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits, which he said he won't do and which Republicans in Congress refuse to do.

BOLDUAN: There has been a lot of action when we're talking about the Affordable Care Act and the subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the month. A lot of action on Capitol Hill yesterday on health care.

[08:05:00]

The end result, I don't know if we can call it real action, though, but part of it included four moderate Republicans directly kind of rebuking and bucking the House speaker, joining the Democratic effort over there to force a vote to extend those health care subsidies. Let me play what one of those moderate Republicans said leaving a meeting with with the GOP. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE LAWLER (R-NY): I am pissed for the American people. This is absolute bullshit. And it's absurd that we are in a body with 435 members.

Everybody has a responsibility to serve their district, to serve their constituents. So the bottom line to me is put the bill on the floor for an up or down vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Senator, what happens if this -- it's allegedly, supposedly going to go to the floor for a House vote after the New Year? What happens if it passes the House and gets the Senate? Does this, three year extension, just fail again there?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, Kate, I've already called upon Senator Thune, the Republican leader in the Senate, to commit to bringing up this bill when it passes the House. It now has enough votes in the House of Representatives. So he should allow democracy to work its will and set it at a 50 vote margin.

And just as the Republican mentioned, the congressman mentioned, we should allow democracy to work. And in the Senate, that means we should set the vote at the majority vote of 51. Look, this is a perfect example of how Republicans could address some of the increased costs that the American people are feeling, just as the president could reduce his tariff taxes.

I mean, that's the other factor that's pushing all these prices up on the American people. There are lots of things that they could do that they just apparently won't do.

BOLDUAN: What do you think about the warrior dividend that the president announced yesterday? Just under $2,000 going to one and a half million members of the military as a way of giving them some relief.

VAN HOLLEN: Well, I certainly support that, Kate. I mean, what he's doing is essentially giving them some additional bonus that will help compensate them for all the increased prices that they've experienced because of his tariffs. Really, he should do that for the whole country in the sense that the whole country is feeling the pain of his tariff tax.

I mean, everybody has seen their prices go up, despite what the president claimed last night. But the better way to deal with that right now is to get rid of all the tariff taxes that are driving up prices.

BOLDUAN: Would you sign -- I mean, the president's T is like a $2,000 rebate for kind of like all Americans. He hasn't proposed it, hasn't asked for it. And everything I've seen is that it would require Congress to actually make it a reality.

Would you be in favor of that?

VAN HOLLEN: It would require Congress to do that. I have other proposals. I think that we should provide, you know, middle class folks and folks who are just struggling to make ends meet with a tax cut.

And we should ask, you know, folks who are making millions and millions of dollars a year to put in more. So, look, I'm happy to look at any proposal the president actually submits to the Congress, Kate. I do think that we need to provide relief to working Americans.

But again, we have to provide relief primarily because the president's policies like the tariffs are driving up prices. And so the fastest way to deal with that is to get rid of his tariff tax.

BOLDUAN: Let us see what the new year brings on that front. The president says that is his favorite word, though, so it does not indicate that he is ready to change course. Senator Chris Van Hollen, thank you for coming in, Senator.

Really appreciate your time -- John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, authorities looking for a new person following the shooting at Brown University. A person who may have had contact with the individual here seen casing the area before the attack.

And new surveillance footage shows the son of Rob and Michelle Reiner in the moments leading up to his arrest.

And then this one is scary. A woman arrested for putting razor blades inside loaves of bread at Walmart. The latest on this investigation. [08:10:00]

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BERMAN: All right, this morning, authorities in Rhode Island are searching for a person who may have information about the person of interest at the center of the Brown University manhunt. They've released all this video of this individual casing the area where the shooting took place.

Let's bring in CNN law enforcement analyst, senior law enforcement analyst, Andrew McCabe. Andy, good to see you this morning.

So this was interesting and maybe a little unusual, where authorities late yesterday said, look, we want to talk to a person who might have had some contact with the person, the person of interest that we see in all the videos walking around the neighborhood where the shooting took place. What did you think of that ask from authorities?

JOHN MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, John, it's entirely appropriate for them to want to talk to this person if they think that they interacted with the person of interest or maybe even just saw them were close enough to see them close up. They want to know if this the -- the let's call him the unidentified man -- if he knows the person of interest, if he spoke to him or if he remembers anything distinctive about him. It's a little bit odd to me that they are basically asking the public crowdsourcing the identification of someone who is not thought to have been engaged in any criminal activity at all.

And it could bring some risk to that person by putting his image out there, which they did at the press conference yesterday. It is a full face, fairly recognizable image. You run the risk of really setting the Internet sleuths of the world loose on this person for no apparent reason.

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There also may be other ways to figure out who he is. If you'll recall in the January 6th investigation, the FBI used AI driven biometric software to identify people who were captured on surveillance video inside the Capitol.

That same sort of software, I hope, has been used in this case before they taken the step of casting this unidentified person's image out to the world for scrutiny.

BERMAN: So and even watching all these news conferences very carefully, the one again late yesterday, what did it tell you about where they are in this case right now?

MCCABE: Yes, John, so there are -- they are in the slow grind of what could be a very long investigation here. They're doing the right things. They have mapped out an extensive perimeter around the location of the shooting. They are going through a very careful and detailed canvas of everyone in that area, every business, people who live there, people to find potential witnesses to the person of interest. That is -- that's totally understandable. One of the things, though, that really jumped out at me yesterday was when the colonel who was representing the police department in Providence indicated that although they had asked for the roster of students who were present in the room where the shooting took place, they still had not received that from the university, which is really odd to me.

By this point, they should have the rosters of every single scheduled meeting of students in that building on that day, and they should be proactively reaching out to each one of those students, not simply waiting for students to contact them if they wish to do so. So that raises some concerns on my part about what is the real nature of cooperation between the university and the investigation?

BERMAN: Yes, it's interesting. This was an open review session where students could choose to come or not come. And the understanding is there was no sign in necessarily at the beginning.

But nevertheless, on day six, you would think they would know who was in the room. And the idea that the law enforcement in charge there didn't have a solid idea of who was in the room exactly or how many people understandable that that raised some alarm bells with you and others.

Andrew McCabe, good to see you this morning. Thank you very much.

All right, just minutes from now, brand new data on inflation. What it will tell us after an Axios reporter described the president's speech last night as telling Americans, your vibes are off, the economy is fine.

And a huge change in the rules surrounding marijuana could be coming as soon as today. What does this mean for where and how and if you'll be able to use it?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: So a major change could be coming to U.S. drug policy today. President Trump expected to sign an executive order to reclassify marijuana as a low risk substance, essentially loosening restrictions on it. But clearly, lots of questions around what this all means.

CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is here. And one and one of the many things that you have done so much research on and work on is you've done so much reporting when it comes to cannabis and marijuana. What is it, seven documentaries that you've done on the topic, Sanjay?

What do people need to know ahead of this move? How is marijuana classified now and what's changing?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, this is something that people have been talking about for a long time. The basic way to think about it is that there are controlled substances and they are scheduled. So there's a scheduling of these substances.

And cannabis, marijuana, has fallen into the most restrictive, least permissive schedule for a long time. So it's called a schedule one. I want to put this up on the screen because I want you to see the language here specifically, especially that top line.

No currently accepted medical use. And I think that's what a lot of people have been focused on for some time. But also calling it a substance that has high potential for abuse, similar to to heroin, LSD and ecstasy. So that's schedule one -- there are five schedules, by the way.

What we think may happen here -- we'll see what happens later on this afternoon. But it could go to a schedule three substance.

And if you look at the language there, it's different. It's more permissive, less restrictive, moderate to low potential for dependence. They still say examples, ketamine, anabolic steroids and testosterone, but also some potentially accepted medical use.

So those are the big things. It's still a controlled substance. So this isn't something you can suddenly go buy over the counter or gas stations or things like that.

But it's going to be much more permissive in terms of research, obviously people's access to it for medical purposes. But also this idea that I think for the first time in a long time, this acknowledgment that cannabis can be a medicine. We've seen it in the seven documentaries that you talked about.

But actually, you know, having it changed at a federal level would make a huge difference -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: And that's what I was going to ask you, because people -- I mean, everyone knows someone who has been -- has likely know someone who has used cannabis for medicinal reasons. There are -- you have done so much work on why people need it and how amazing it can be in many circumstances when it comes to medical reasons.

GUPTA: Yes.

BOLDUAN: So what does this mean from a federal level if this changes?

GUPTA: Yes. So first of all, on this first point, you know, there's no question, Kate, that the lines between what is considered a medicine and when it becomes recreational are fuzzy. You know, if you have anxiety, things like that. Are you using it for medicinal purposes or recreational purposes? I get that.

But I think what people have sort of focused on over time are really, really clear objective signs of the medicinal use of this. So I spent some time, as you may remember, Kate, with with a little girl named Charlotte Figi, who was emblematic of a lot of children who had these intractable seizures -- you see her on the screen there. They had gone through a process where they tried all these different

existing epilepsy medication, seizure medication, several generations of them. And they didn't work.

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And that's when her mom, Paige Figi, basically turned to to CBD, a strain of cannabis to basically try and treat her seizures. And it really, really helped. And I think, you know, you started to accumulate this objective evidence.

And as I said, she was emblematic of so many other children. So it was one child representative of others.

I think that that's that's really what's driven this for some time now, this idea, this acknowledgement that this could be used as a medicine. But also, you know, what has been a challenge, I think, for people in the field is that if it's a schedule one substance, that makes it very hard to study.

But without those studies, it was very hard to think of this as something like a medicine. So you see how challenging it was by rescheduling it to a schedule three. Hopefully that'll make it easier for researchers as well to study this and get some of the evidence that people understandably want.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Just seeing her face again brings a smile to mine. And knowing that and watching that connection that you two formed over such a long period of time, it was so special.

Sanjay, thank you so much.

GUPTA: Sweet girl.

BOLDUAN: Such a sweet girl. Thank you.

Still ahead for us, breaking news overnight, a new strike by the U.S. military on an alleged drug boat in the eastern Pacific. Four people killed in that, says the Trump administration, as President Trump has also been promising to move strikes on land for months.

But how real is that threat after making that threat for so long?

New video capturing the moment police officers rescue three people who were in a car crash and then found themselves trapped in freezing water. We'll be right back.

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