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Barry Manilow Says He Has Been Diagnosed With Lung Cancer; Millions to Face Higher Premiums When ACA Tax Credits Expire; Atmospheric River Dumps Heavy Rain, Snow in California; Bodycam Video Shows Shoplifting Suspect Pull Out a Gun; Military Families Worry About Impact of Possible DHS Rule Change. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired December 22, 2025 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:31:07]

ERICA HILL, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": This just coming into us here at CNN, Barry Manilow says he has been diagnosed with lung cancer. The singer revealing that diagnosis in a statement posted to his Instagram account a short time ago. He says, "I feel great and have no symptoms. I'm thankful my doctors were proactive and ran tests that typically wouldn't be done. They caught it very, very early."

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Manilow is planning to undergo surgery here in the next few days to have the cancer removed. And he's also already planning a return to the stage. A schedule of 10 arena concerts initially scheduled for January has been rescheduled for March and April. We certainly wish him the best in his recovery.

Some congressional Republicans are blasting party leadership for sending members home without voting to address Obamacare first. This is a decision that will force millions of Americans to be uninsured, to go without insurance or to pay a lot more for higher insurance premiums with those enhanced subsidies expiring next week.

But some GOP centrists are signing on to a Democratic push to force a vote on extending the subsidies when Congress reconvenes. Here's Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries making a prediction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAKEEM JEFFRIES, (D) HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: House Democrats are going to continue to fight to get this extension through the Congress on our side. It will pass with a bipartisan majority, and then that will put the pressure on John Thune and Senate Republicans to actually do the right thing by the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: We're joined now by Republican Congressman Mike Haridopolos of Florida. Congressman, thank you so much for being with us. You've said you don't want to rubber stamp a broken system, but policy debate aside, the dollars and cents of this are that you have 90,000 people in your district, according to KFF, who receive these subsidies and are about to pay a lot more for health insurance here in nine days. What are they telling you?

REP. MIKE HARIDOPOLOS, (R-FL): Well, we're all concerned about the healthcare costs that the Democrats created many years ago, and all the subsidies aren't making up for the fact that Obamacare has been a colossal failure. They said the prices would go down, you get to keep your doctor, and they'd take away power from health insurance companies. The exact opposite has happened. We have passed a bill in the House that will actually reduce Obamacare costs by 11 percent.

Unfortunately, as you know, Brianna, during the budget debate in July, the Democrats actually used what's called the bird rule in the Senate to take those provisions out. We put them back in. We hope that the Democrats will support our effort to actually reduce premiums, so that we can all benefit, not just Obamacare beneficiaries, but all Americans are being hit hard by the failure of Obamacare.

KEILAR: I think anyone who has had to deal with health costs will tell you they're a problem. It's been 15 years though, since Obamacare passed. That's a lot of time to try to address the costs of healthcare, isn't it?

HARIDOPOLOS: I couldn't agree with you more. What has happened every time we try to push together some different ideas, like we did again this week in the Congress, with Republicans pushing an idea that actually reduce costs and give more people options as opposed to just Obamacare. As I mentioned, I hope that people look back at July. We passed a measure that would actually reduce Obamacare by 11 percent.

The Democrats actually fought it, which is shocking to me because they, like us, said they wanted to reduce costs.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Let me stop you there. We're talking about addressing healthcare costs, right? And I certainly hear your concern with Obamacare. But if we're talking about addressing health care costs, those have been a problem prior to the passage of Obamacare. They've continued to be a problem after the passage of Obamacare.

And I hear what you're saying about this past summer, but it has been 15 years. So when you're talking about trying to address only now these issues of costs, why let these subsidies expire if you don't have a solution, and your party has had a decade and a half to try to come up with one?

[13:35:00]

HARIDOPOLOS: Well, that's a fair question, Brianna, and that's the reason why I ran for Congress last year. In Florida, we've been doing innovative things to reduce costs, and the reason why so many people want to move to Florida is because we are an efficient state. And as you and I have discussed before, Brianna, as you recently saw with the GAO Report, one-third of all the people on Obamacare could be what they call basically mystery persons, meaning that they're people who are phantom enrollees, where their fraud there is so rampant.

And for us to just rubber stamp it, I think, is the wrong thing to do. We have put a proposal out that actually reduces costs in the short term, and in the long term, it starts to reform a system. Because what I'm worried about is not just the 24 million people on Obamacare, there's 165 million people who pay full freight, meaning around $2,000 a month for a family of four, and pay higher taxes to subsidize those 24 million of people on Obamacare.

I, like you, want to work on a long-term solution. I know these are difficult spots for some people who've got reduced cost because of the COVID subsidies, but COVID is over and we can't just continue to throw money at a program that's clearly broken.

KEILAR: It seems prudent to ask questions about fraud and inefficiencies that cost taxpayers money, certainly does. But even these subsidies have been in effect for years, and the peak of the pandemic has long passed. So, why now addressing it without dealing with the dollars and cents of this increasing the cost for 90,000 people potentially in your district?

HARIDOPOLOS: Well, again, I'm sympathetic to those 90,000 without doubt, but I'm also sympathetic to the other almost 700,000 people who are paying overall health care costs. We've been pushing for years to push for more accountability. The Democrats don't want to do it. And as you know, when the Democrats had power in '21-'22, they did nothing to address these costs either, let alone not reducing taxes on overtime, tips, let alone Social Security.

We're trying to make things more affordable, but we have to look at the entire system, not just 24 million people who've been helped by the subsidies that were put in during the COVID years. So all we're doing is rolling back the COVID subsidies because COVID is over, and hopefully this will do the very thing you're asking me.

Let's reform the health care system in a fundamental way and move away from this current system that's clearly not working. And I'll add one more thing, Brianna. We actually want to allow people to work together, so they can leverage those health insurance companies that are currently leveraging them, because at the end, it's been health care companies that have really done well the last 15 years.

KEILAR: Yeah, I mean, there's been discussion from the jump of this passage about how you do that with health insurance companies, how you bend the cost curve. Republicans have also been in power multiple times since then. So I take your point of pointing at Democrats, but if people want to point at lawmakers, they can point at everyone, right, when it comes for addressing the cost curve.

This isn't something that you can just blame Democrats for, right? Republicans have to seriously think about what they have and have not done, because it's not like you just had an opportunity to do this. I mean, you could have joined with Democrats to address this cost of health coverage.

HARIDOPOLOS: Well, if I joined the Democrats, we'd be continuing to subsidize a broken system where one-third of the people on Obamacare could be phantom enrollees. I'm not going to do that. But I will say this, in July, I can't just point fingers one way, but I can bring up this point, Brianna. In July, we had a measure and these CSRs would have reduced the cost of Obamacare.

The Democrats fought it. I don't understand why they would fight something that would clearly reduce rates. Even the CBO, which I don't like, agreed that they would reduce rates. So let's look at those starts. And I think that a lot of us new members feel like Republicans and Democrats have both fumbled the ball on health care. It's the reason why we have a new leadership team led by Mike Johnson and John Thune.

And they've done things to actually reduce costs. We see gasoline prices down. We see the border secure. We see that interest rates are down, the stock markets at levels. Give us a chance to let our policies be truly enacted. And I think that people will see that they have more money in their pocket. And we want to take on this health care system. That's why we passed a bill last week. We hope that the Senate Democrats will say, you know what, this is better than nothing. Let's take the Republicans offer. At least that reduces rates by 11 percent.

KEILAR: A lot of concerns, certainly though, about coverage and how it does affect a lot of people with health insurance. Congressman Mike Haridopolos, thank you so much for being with us.

[13:40:00]

Some bodycamera video showing a man accused of shoplifting, pulling a gun on an officer. We're going to have more on this close call next on "CNN News Central."

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HILL: (inaudible) some of the other headlines we're watching for you this hour. Intense flash flooding out west as an atmospheric river pumps heavy rain and snow into parts of California. Take a look at this street. This is in Redding, California, in the northern part of the state. You see that water shooting up like a geyser in the middle of the road as cars are trying to navigate around it. This is another driver passing what appears to be the water getting very close to the underside of the bridge. We do know at least one person has died as a result of the flooding.

[13:45:00]

Meantime, about 150 miles west of there, the floodwaters were so high, some officers were actually chest deep as they tried to rescue people. Others on their jet skis looking to help people trapped in their homes and their cars. And there is unfortunately more rain in the forecast throughout the week.

We also have this dramatic bodycam video to show you. So this captures the moment, you see it there, a shoplifting suspect pulls out a gun. So this happened inside a Walmart in Canton, Ohio last week. Authorities say there were two suspects being questioned when the 21- year-old man "attempted to shoot the officer."

Now, thankfully, that gun did not go off. The officer and as you saw there, a store employee, both jumped on the man who is now being held on a $1 million bond and facing attempted murder and other charges. Brianna?

KEILAR: A proposed change in a federal immigration rule has military families alarmed that some of them could be separated from loved ones. The rule could require immigration authorities to deny admission to foreign nationals who are at risk of becoming a public charge, that is relying on food stamps or some other government benefit. Advocates worry the rule makes no exception for military families, many of whom are of mixed immigration status.

They worry that if a spouse who is not a citizen follows their service member overseas or leaves the country to visit their family, they could be blocked from re-entering the U.S. A spokesperson for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services writing the rule is not final and is subject to revision following public comments during the rulemaking process. Any media speculation on exceptions is ill timed and misinformed. This proposed rule aligns with the longstanding national policy that aliens in the United States should be self-sufficient and should not depend on U.S. taxpayer resources to meet their needs and that the availability of public benefits should not be an incentive for immigration to the United States.

I'm joined now by Maria Donnelly, President and Co-Founder of the Military Family Foundation. She is also an army spouse. Maria, thank you so much for joining us in studio.

MARIA DONNELLY, PRESIDENT AND CO-FOUNDER, MILITARY FAMILY FOUNDATION: Thanks for having me.

KEILAR: And just first off, how are advocates worried that this rule change could affect some military families?

DONNELLY: So, a lot of military families use earned benefits like child care subsidies, and a lot of military families are reliant on programs like WIC or even food stamps. And so, a lot of military members using programs that are either just there to make ends meet or that are retention programs to actually make military service easier could, by using those programs, put their immigration status at risk. And so, if they are determined to be a public charge, they might not be then eligible to get a green card or become citizens despite their service to this country.

KEILAR: I mean, child care, for example, that is so real, that shortage in the military. If you can't find child care on base, there's a subsidy program that so many people use to get it in a civilian community. Is that considered kind of a welfare program or is that considered like a supplemental earned benefit?

DONNELLY: Well, this is the concern about this rule change specifically, because until this year, previously it was only those direct cash payments, which a lot of military families don't use. Fewer than half a percent of military families would have been affected by that. But the way that this rule expands the definition of these public benefits, any program that is means-tested would be affected by this. And so, that includes things like child care subsidies, and that includes anything else where you are looking at how much money someone makes and then changing the amount of the benefit based on that.

KEILAR: And obviously, military spouses are like woefully underemployed, unemployed. We talk about that a lot on this show because of all the constant moving. So, do we know like how many families we're talking about here? How many people this could impact?

DONNELLY: So as many as four percent of active duty service members are immigrants. Five percent are immigrants, four percent are non- citizen immigrants. And as many as 10 percent of military families have an immigrant family member in their household.

KEILAR: That is a lot. That's a lot of people, right? So, the Trump administration previously had an exception for military families in the first term. Was this potential crack that we're now seeing in this rule, because it sort of is in progress, the public comment phase --

DONNELLY: Yes.

KEILAR: -- I think just ended, right? Was this potential crack that military families could fall through their intention? Is that clear to you?

DONNELLY: I really don't think it was the intention. I think that when the rule initially, in 2019, did have this exemption for military and veteran families, but then in 2022, when they removed the exemption, it was because military families weren't using these programs.

But now, they're taking away kind of the guardrails that would -- now that would affect military families, but they're not putting back the exception. And this is again, this could affect anyone who's even a secondary dependent, like parents living in a military member's household who's using childcare, where the childcare subsidies, it could affect an immigrant spouse. It could even affect an immigrant service member.

KEILAR: So that's a big number. That kind of surprised me actually, when you're talking about how many people could be affected by this. We should also note there is this proud tradition of immigrants to America.

[13:50:00]

And you hear often a lot of them saying they want to sort of pay back in a way to America. But there are a lot of immigrants who have served in the military. They've joined in the military. It is an all- volunteer force. Are there concerns about cutting off that pipeline in an all-volunteer force for either immigrants or people who are in mixed status families?

DONNELLY: Well, I think the biggest concern is that retention is a perennial problem in the military, and a lot of these programs are actually created as retention programs or readiness programs to make military service a little bit easier, because there's a lot of things that I think a lot of Americans don't understand about military service.

And whether or not someone is an immigrant or was born in the United States, they face similar challenges in military service. And what's frustrating is that even if this wasn't intentional, some of these mixed status families or immigrant families who are serving their country, regardless of where they were born, they're trying to serve their country, but not being able to use these benefits would make a lot of these just continued service untenable. Like, these families might not be able to afford to serve.

KEILAR: Yeah, that's really interesting. Maria, thank you so much. Obviously, we're going to continue to follow the story, and it's great to have you again. Thank you for joining us --

DONNELLY: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: -- and for all you do as a military spouse, we appreciate it.

There is a pursuit on the high seas happening right now as the U.S. targets yet another oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. We'll have new details ahead on "CNN News Central."

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[13:55:29]

HILL: There are so many holiday debates. I can settle some of them for you. Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? Yes, without question. What is the best Christmas song? I have a long list, you pick yours. Best Christmas cookie? What about a real versus an artificial treat? I take it, one of each. CNN's Chief Data Analyst, Harry Enten, is digging into all the numbers though to see where Americans stand. Harry?

HARRY ENTEN, CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas, Erica Hill, and Happy Hanukkah to those of you out there who celebrate the Festival of Lights, such as myself. Now, of course, Erica Hill, when we're talking Christmastime, we got to talk about the tree. And when it comes to trees, I was interested. Do folks actually have a real one or an artificial one or maybe no tree at all? And the numbers surprised me. Why do I say they surprised me? Because get this.

Yes, the majority of Americans do in fact have a Christmas tree, but the majority of Americans have an artificial tree at 55 percent. We're talking about just 22 percent who have a real Christmas tree. I, not one of them, but I see them all the time out there, out on 10th Avenue here in New York City, people lining up to buy them.

But those who are buying them are actually outnumbered by a margin of greater than two to one who have the artificial tree. And then you get 22 percent who don't have any tree at all. Now, if you have a tree, you got to put gifts underneath the tree, right? So what happens though, when you get a gift that you don't like? Look, it happens to all of us, right? This leaves us in a bit of a dilemma.

Do you, A, keep it? B, return it? Or C, re-gift it? Well, it turns out, get this, 49 percent of Americans actually keep a gift that they don't like. What are we, nuts? This is nutter butter out there. We shouldn't keep gifts that we don't like.

Then we're talking 31 percent who return it. I think this is the best option, right? 31 percent though, less than a third actually do what, in my opinion, is the right option. Then we get 16 percent who actually re-gift a gift that they get that they don't like. Now, if I were to look on the positive side of the ledger, that is, I am spreading joy to others in my life, right? By giving them a gift.

If I were to look at the negative side though, Erica Hill, what I would say in this situation is we're giving somebody else a bad gift. We're giving them a bad gift, a gift that we know is no good. But you know what? It's the holiday season. So I'll say we're giving, we're spreading joy. We're spreading joy.

Now, beyond gifts, right, we always like to watch a good Christmas film. What are our favorites? Well, let's take a look here. Number one, not much of a surprise. "It's a Wonderful Life" coming in at 9 percent. I mean, it's a classic, right? With Jimmy Stewart, it's a classic. Coming in at 7 percent, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." It's a pretty gosh darn good film. I remember seeing it in theaters with Jim Carrey. Then tied, 7 percent "A Christmas Story."

I mean, you know it repeats on cable every single year. There's no way -- there's no way you can miss it during the Christmas time of the year. I know I've seen it multiple, multiple times on cable.

Now, if you're going to watch a Christmas movie, right? One thing you absolutely need to have is something to nosh on, something to eat. How about a good old Christmas cookie? And what are our favorite Christmas cookies? Well, chocolate chip comes in at number one. I mean, that makes a lot of sense, right? But it's not actually -- favorite, sugar cookie, that comes in at number two.

But I mean, who can forget breaking open the Pillsbury, right? Then having a little cookie dough before you actually put the cookies into the oven and then waiting for it, waiting for it, waiting for it. And then you get that nice, delicious sugar cookie.

Then finally coming in at number three, how about a fudge cookie? You know what? I like chocolate. I like chocolate. So, you know what? I think I'd probably rank sugar as number one. Chocolate chip is number two. I think fudge is pretty gosh darn in the right place at number three.

Now, finally, you'll notice, you know, I'm wearing the Christmas sweater, but I'm also wearing -- also wearing the Hanukkah hat that says, oi to the world, oi to the world. And you know what? Here's an oi to the world stat for you. Google searches for latke. You got to have a potato latke during the Hanukkah season, right? And during Hanukkah, get this, Google searches for latke is through the roof, up over a thousand percent in a given year.

And finally, the last thing I'll note, I spelled Hanukkah a little interesting here. There's no right way to spell it. There's no right way to spell it. I like it with a Q. I'm a little bit different, but all of us, those who are different from each other can all come together during the holiday season. And I wish you and yours a very great seasons greetings. Back to you, my friend.

HILL: A beautiful message from the very lovable Harry Enten. Happiest to you as well, my friend. A new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.