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Lawmakers Demand Answers, Action On Unexplained Drones; Biden Admin Says Drone Sightings No Cause For Alarm; American Couple Killed By Armed Gunmen While In Mexico; Trump And Some Allies Will Attend Today's Army-Navy Game; Tech Founders Making $1m Donations To Trump's Inauguration Fund; Trump's Pick For Storied DOJ Civil Rights Division Expected To Fight DEI. America's Game: 125th Edition Of Army-Navy; OpenAI Launches Faster, More Realistic Version Of Sora; Trump Admits Lowering Grocery Prices Will Be Difficult; Trump Vows Tariffs On Mexico, Canada & China On Day 1; NY Gov Says "This Has Gone Too Far" As Drone Activity Temporarily Shuts Down NY Airfield. Aired 1-2p ET

Aired December 14, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:01:11]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

And we begin with this breaking news. New York Governor Kathy Hochul now says drone activity in her state forced an airport to be temporarily shut down. For days, waves of reported drone sightings stretching across several states in the northeastern U.S. have been causing fear and frustration.

Witnesses say they've seen drones some the size of cars, they say, hovering around residential neighborhoods. Restricted sites and critical infrastructure. But the White House continues to say there's no cause for concern. And at the moment, these drones do not appear to pose a security threat.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino is looking into all of this. Gloria, what more are you learning from the governor's comments?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fred, even though the White House officials are telling state and local lawmakers they have nothing to worry about, there is a lot of pushback, and now the governor of the state of New York, where many of these sightings have been reported, has issued a statement saying, in part, that there was a disruption to the airspace over an airport in Orange County, New York, yesterday.

This is a small, local airport that has a military base not far from it. And she said that the airspace had to be shut down for about an hour after there were reported drone sightings. So, in order to respond, she's calling on the Biden administration to take action, and she specifically is asking for support of a federal bill that would enable local jurisdictions to essentially counter and do something about these drones.

That is an area that is currently governed by federal law. So, Governor Hochul, in part, is saying about the bill, this bill would reform legal authorities to counter UAS -- that's an unmanned aircraft system -- and strengthen the FAA's oversight of drones.

It would also extend counter-UAS activities to select state and local law enforcement agencies. And she said that the state of New York needs these powers in order to respond to these sightings. Now, it's important to mention that even though the airspace had to be shut down for about an hour at Stewart Airfield, their airport today tells us that there were no impacts to flight operations during the closure.

Now, we have reported about these sightings not just here in the New York City metropolitan area, but also in New Jersey, in Connecticut, and in Pennsylvania. This is what the governor there had to say about it.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D), PENNSYLVANIA: We're obviously aware of the drones, and we're taking it seriously. Homeland Security at the federal level is determined, and these are their words, not mine, that they do not pose a national security risk. I've directed Colonel Paris and the Pennsylvania State Police to look into this further.

I know they'll be flying helos, they'll be flying helicopters to try and determine where these drones are originating from and what the purpose of these drones are. We've been conducting exercises. We'll be doing more this evening as well and try and get to the bottom of it here in Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

PAZMINO: So, Fred, some of these reported sightings, you know, people have reported seeing drones as large as a small vehicle, as large as a bicycle, sometimes hovering over people's properties. And it has caused a lot of nerves and a lot of questions about exactly what is going on here.

And that is what these law officials, these representatives, are responding to. There's a bit of frustration because they say the federal government is not being forthcoming about exactly what these drones are and exactly what they are doing.

There seems to be a suggestion that the federal government knows what they are, but simply they're not sharing that information. And that is what the pressure is all about here in terms of these local officials asking for more answers.

[13:05:13]

And now the governor of New York putting her support behind federal legislation in order to empower local authorities to respond. WHITFIELD: All right. Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much.

So many are demanding answers. From the White House, CNN's Julia Benbrook is there with more on how the Biden administration is responding. Julia?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Federal agencies are facing intense pressure to give more details about these mysterious drone sightings. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle locally at the state level and here in Washington are pushing for more answers and asking for more transparency from the administration, especially after some of these sightings were near residential areas, restricted sites and critical infrastructure.

Federal officials are looking to ease concerns and have told the public that there's no evidence of a public safety threat at this time. While speaking with CNN's Wolf Blitzer last night, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was adamant that his agency has not seen a threat or nefarious activity.

He went on to say that the federal government has sent state of the art technology as well as experts to New Jersey to investigate. And while that technology has not confirmed any of the drone sightings, it has confirmed that some of those reported sightings were actually small aircraft.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: We believe that there are cases of mistaken identity where drones are actually small aircraft and people are misidentifying them. They're very well maybe drones in the sky, of course, but those are commercially available. One can go into a convenience store and buy a small drone. There are also commercial drones as well.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BENBROOK: Addressing calls to shoot down the unidentified drones, he said, quote, "It's not as though anyone can just take down a drone in the sky that in and of itself would be dangerous". Mayorkas pledged to be transparent, promising to provide an update if his team sees any cause for concern.

WHITFIELD: All right, Julia, thank you so much.

And new today, a California couple is shot and killed while on vacation in Mexico. Rafael and Gloria Cardona and their three children were visiting family in the area when gunmen opened fire on their car. The couple's children were not with them at the time in the vehicle.

CNN's Camila Bernal is following developments for us. Camila, what are you learning?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred, so we know this is a California couple. They lived in Sacramento and had gone down to Michoacan on November 30th. They were in the area of Angamacutiro. And according to authorities there, you said they had three children who were not there at the time of the attack, two young children who are with extended family members.

And we do know that the State Department is in touch with their adult daughter. But on Wednesday, the couple, they were on their own and they were gunned down in that area of Michoacan. And according to authorities, the brother of Rafael Cardona spoke to officials and said that they were driving the car of his brother-in-law.

His brother-in-law is actually a Mexican official there in that area and officials saying that they were driving this van when they were gunned down. Gloria Cardona, she died at the scene while Rafael was taken to the hospital and he was shortly after pronounced dead as well.

Again, the children were not with them, thankfully. And officials are trying to piece together exactly what happened here. They have not confirmed the motive, even though we do know that they were driving the van of the government official.

And unfortunately, this government official actually took office because of his predecessor had been kidnapped and killed in that area as well. So, again, no motive confirmed for this. But there are these investigations going not just at the local level in Mexico, but U.S. officials are aware and looking into this as well, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh, this is tragic. And --

BERNAL: Yes.

WHITFIELD: -- I mean, what do we -- I mean, you just kind of painted a picture of the region that, you know, violence has been a problem, even if you're a government official. Do we know, you know, the circumstances of the family being there? Was this just kind of a pre- holiday, just visit family, or what do we know about this trip?

BERNAL: Yes, it appears to have been a family trip for the holidays. And actually in that area, all of the Christmas celebrations have been essentially canceled because of this. There's a mass happening today in their honor. It started just a few hours ago.

And then we also know that this is an area that is plagued with cartels and drug violence. And unfortunately, cartels moved into this area in the 80s. This is a farming area. We know that a lot of avocados are grown in Mexico.

[13:10:02]

And according to a report by Insight Crime, what we learned is that in that area, a lot of the drug traffickers forcing local farmers to essentially grow marijuana and other drugs. So really a lot of violence in that area that could have contributed to this killing.

And when you look at the numbers nationally, Mexico really among the highest when it comes to homicide rate. And then Michoacan, that region, is almost twice as much as their national average. So you can really see what's going on in that region and how troubling it is, Fred.

WHITFIELD: So sad. All right, Camila Bernal, let us know when you learn more.

BERNAL: Yes.

WHITFIELD: All right, still to come, President-elect Donald Trump and his allies are heading to Maryland for the annual Army-Navy football game. Details on the guest set to join them.

Plus, another presidential staff controversial pick. The woman who Donald Trump has picked for a key civil rights role.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:15:36]

WHITFIELD: President-elect Donald Trump will soon be at the 125th Army-Navy football game, which kicks off in just a few hours. This is the fifth time Trump will have attended the clash between the nation's service academies. It's also the first time in over a decade America's game is being played back in the shadow of our nation's capital.

CNN's Steve Contorno joining us now from West Palm Beach near Trump's Florida home, where he'll, I guess, soon be getting in the air and leaving, heading to Maryland. So what more do we know about his attendance and who his guests are?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Yes, Donald Trump hasn't made a lot of trips out of Florida since he was elected, but this is one he was determined to make, and he will be joined there by several close allies, including, interestingly, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Now, DeSantis and Trump have clashed at times. He was -- obviously, they had that campaign against each other for the Republican nomination, and DeSantis, though, lately is someone that has been floated as a potential replacement if Trump's nominee for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, falters.

Now, some of that chatter has died down lately, but it's still quite a journey for DeSantis and Trump to get to the point where they are going to be taking in a football game together. His president -- Vice President-elect, J.D. Vance, will be there as well. And Vance invited Daniel Penny to join him at the game.

That is the ex-Marine that was acquitted this week on charges of -- related to choking to death an individual on a New York subway. This is a case that the country has been watching very closely. Republicans have made Penny into a hero of sorts, and Vance, on social media, writing, "I hope he's able to have fun and appreciate how much his fellow citizens admire his courage". Fred?

WHITFIELD: OK. And then his inauguration, Trump's inauguration, just a month away. He is getting some financial help from some pretty big tech giants. Why? CONTORNO: That's correct. We've gotten confirmation that three big- name tech CEOs have donated to Donald Trump's campaign. That includes Open AI, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, the Meta CEO, and Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder.

And we are seeing this sort of warming between Donald Trump and Silicon Valley. In fact, last night, Donald Trump had dinner with Apple CEO Tim Cook. And it's just another example of how Donald Trump has been finding new allies and new supports in areas that he once clashed with.

And it also comes at a moment where there's a lot of questions about how the Trump administration will regulate big tech going forward. There's questions about whether TikTok will need to be sold from China to a U.S. company. Trump can intervene there.

There's also questions about how he will regulate the cryptocurrency industry. He has a lot of allies in that space, as well as artificial intelligence, which is something that Elon Musk is very involved in. So, all of these are just sort of interesting strings to follow as these individuals who are now trying to get favor with Trump are seeing donate large sums of money to his inauguration events.

WHITFIELD: All right. Steve Contorno, thanks so much.

All right, also this week, President-elect Trump named his pick to lead the Justice Department's Storied Civil Rights Division. Trump is tapping conservative San Francisco Attorney Harmeet Dhillon to the powerful position. The Indian-born immigrant is known as a culture warrior and has been active in Republican politics for years now.

Sources tell CNN she is part of incoming new leadership at the DOJ that is preparing to go on what's being called an anti-woke offensive against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Joining me right now to talk more about this pick and what it means for the Justice Department is Joe Garofoli. He is a senior political writer for the San Francisco Chronicle and recently wrote an article on Dhillon.

Joe, great to see you. Am I pronouncing her name right, Dhillon?

JOE GAROFOLI, SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: Dhillon, yes.

WHITFIELD: OK, very good. All right, so Trump's Justice Department, you know, is, you know, preparing what's being called an anti-woke offensive against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. How is it trying to rework the Justice Department's civil rights division exactly?

GAROFOLI: Well, that's what Harmeet's specialty has been in California. That's how she kind of got on the Trump radar.

[13:20:05]

I mean, I don't think any of us had Trump picking a San Francisco attorney to be in his inner circle on their bingo card. But --

WHITFIELD: Right.

GAROFOLI: -- she is no typical San Francisco attorney. She -- a couple of quick fun facts about her. First of all, she is a former board member of the ACLU here in Northern California, which, of course, is anathema to Republicans. But she was doing it to represent her fellow Sikhs who were facing a lot of xenophobic discrimination after 9/11. That was a couple of decades ago.

She also contributed $250 to Kamala Harris's first campaign. She said, you know, in San Francisco, she said you have to pick the most conservative, the more conservative candidate. And in that race, her first race for D.A. Harris was the more conservative.

And she was originally not a Trumper. She was more in the Ted Cruz camp. So these are things you probably won't see in the White House biography of Dhillon. But she ran for office a couple of times here in California. She lost. It's very -- it's next to impossible for a Republican to win here.

And then, but she -- what she -- how she got on the MAGA radar, the Trump radar, was taking on these cases, as you said, sort of aimed at skewering woke practices in California or -- and so, and she -- so, for example, she took on -- she represented a parent in the South Bay here near San Jose who was concerned that their child -- that the school had not told her that their child wanted to be known by different pronouns and different name.

And, you know, and she said she accused the school districts and teachers of brainwashing kids to be transgender. And the school district actually settled that case for $100,000. I think they gave to the family. She also took on U.C. Berkeley and said that they were discriminating against conservative speakers by having them speak in daytime hours and on remote parts of campus.

And she again settled. She won maybe 70 grand, I think, it was from U.C. Berkeley. And she also represented -- you see the family of the Hastings -- descendants of the Hastings family used to be called U.C. Hastings Law School. Folks here wanted to change that because of Hastings was involved in racism back in the day, you know, 100 years ago.

And so the name change was -- and she represented the family on that one. And she said it was sort of, you know, she was opposing cancel culture in that way. So she is a culture warrior through and through. She is -- I think the things that she's going to face in her confirmation hearing are definitely the transgender issues where she's represented families.

And she's also going to face it for her representation of Trump and a lot of the alleged election interference cases, which, of course, there were -- there was no findings of widespread election fraud. But she was representing Trump in a lot of states, Arizona among them.

And even she went to dispatch to Arizona this year to sort of prepare for any possible election cases they brought there. So she is very devoted to Trump. She was at a start coming out of a fundraiser at the home of David Sacks, another San Franciscan in the Trump inner circle, whose tax (ph) is going to be his crypto and A.I. is our -- and his house here in Billionaire's Row in San Francisco, where they raised $11 million for Trump.

A lot of crypto magnates were there and Harmeet was there. So she is very much in the Trump inner circle now. He definitely trusts her and often speaks very highly of her because she is very smart. She was admitted to Dartmouth when she was 16.

WHITFIELD: Oh my gosh (ph).

GAROFOLI: So, yes, she is --

WHITFIELD: Yes.

GAROFOLI: -- super smart. And -- but it's -- that the civil rights division of the Justice Department will definitely have a different tone with her.

WHITFIELD: Right. I mean, it's so fascinating all that you just expressed with the background, especially, you know, Trump had a whole lot of criticism for San Francisco by way of Kamala Harris and so many other ways, you know, overall. And now, you know, this pick.

So, in terms of the role with the civil rights division, I mean, it -- isn't it the goal or the mission of the civil rights division, you know, to be focused on equality, not leveraging, but leveling the playing fields that have historically been uneven and discriminatory.

So does this mean with her appointment that there is a new goal or even a rewriting of something that is called the civil rights division? I mean, given the background that you just conveyed for us, for her?

[13:25:11]

GAROFOLI: Right. I would expect that you're going to see -- when we talked to Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the U.C. Berkeley Law School, highly respected, the nationally respected legal scholar, and he said, you know, she's very conservative, obviously. And she will -- it was -- she's not a civil rights attorney in the traditional sense. You know, like we're thinking of Dr. King.

She is very -- it's a very conservative perspective. We're going to see this. So, you know, in the past, we've seen the Justice Department advocating for voting rights issues, to expand the ability for voters in the various states and make it more egalitarian.

You might see that coming from a conservative perspective. And that's one major way that we'll see some changes. And also on transgender issues where the department previously has been trying to support the rights of transgender youth.

And, in particular, that's -- you're going to see it coming from the parental perspective. Or as we -- as Republican conservatives call it here in California, parental rights. So that's the philosophy. She's going to be important to the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.

WHITFIELD: All right. Her name is Harmeet Dhillon. And I guess folks are going to learn --

GAROFOLI: Harmeet Dhillon.

WHITFIELD: Yes. We're going to learn a lot more about her if indeed she becomes, you know, the leader of that civil rights division with the DOJ.

GAROFOLI: She'll be a regular on the show.

WHITFIELD: OK. That'd be good.

All right, Joe Garofoli, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

GAROFOLI: Thanks, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, straight ahead, it's one of the oldest traditions in college football. We'll go live outside Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, where the annual Army Navy football game is about to kick off.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:31:25]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: All right, this just into CNN. The U.S. Secret Service says a person was arrested this morning for attempting to climb anti-scale fencing near the White House.

The individual did not breach the fence. And there was no further impact to the White House property. The fencing has gone up around the White House complex ahead of next month's presidential inauguration.

And we're just about an hour and a half away from one of the most time-honored traditions in college football, the Army Black Knights taking on the Navy Midshipmen for the 125th edition of this classic gridiron clash.

CNN's Coy Wire is there for all the sights and sounds of this prestigious event.

Coy, the excitement is building and the temperature is dropping, but that doesn't matter. It's going to be a hot game. What's happening?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Oh, no doubt about it. And as you said, dating back to 1890, the rich traditions and pageantry. These games are usually so close, Fredricka.

And this year is the first time in a long time that both of these teams are really good, with some really good players. Army's Bryson Daily is a history making quarterback, 29 rushing

touchdowns, a new American athletic conference record tied for most in the nation. With Heisman finalist, Ashton Jeanty, he led Army to its first ever conference championship.

We caught up with Bryson this week.

(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)

BRYSON DAILY, ARMY SENIOR QUARTERBACK: Listen, I just try to play tough and just do what's needed, you know, to win games. And you know, whatever the team asks me, I'm, you know, willing to do that.

If you're playing for the guy next to you, you don't -- you don't feel anything. You don't feel pain, you don't feel tired, because all you're worried about is playing your absolute hardest for the guy next to you. And so you don't let them down.

(END AUDIO FEED)

WIRE: Now, Coach Jeff Monken said that Bryson Daily epitomizes toughness and intensity. Frederick. He wants everyone on the team to play more like him.

All right, have some fun facts for you about the Army-Navy game. Did you know that this rivalry is credited with the first helmet worn in a game, 1893, Navy Midshipmen and eventual Admiral Joseph Mason Reeves had it made by his local shoemaker.

And did you know that the 1944 Army-Navy game helped to fund World War II? Then President Franklin Roosevelt turned the game into a fundraiser, having fans buy war bonds to attend. They raised 58.6 million bucks in 1944. Army won and went on to win the national title.

Another invention, 1963, the Army-Navy game featured the first use of instant replay.

Going back more than 130 years, Fred, this game represents innovation, honor, and respect. It's a special game played by special players. They're dedicated to their studies, committed, they're willing to sacrifice everything for everyone watching. These are types of athletes we need to celebrate more.

Kickoff is set for 3:00 Eastern -- Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right. Committed to the game, committed to country. I love it.

All right. Coy Wire, thank you so much.

WIRE: Thanks.

[13:34:18]

When we come back, hyper-realistic videos created just from text. We'll take a look at OpenAI's new video generator. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. This week seeing may not be believing anymore. OpenAI has released a new tool, called Sora, which allows its subscribers to create A.I. videos.

I want you to see what I mean. CNN gave the tool this prompt, "Create a video of a cat with a Santa hat climbing the exterior of a brownstone in New York City." And then here it is. This is what you can see Sora created.

[13:39:57]

OK. That's interesting. Here's another one. We asked Sora, "Create a video of a vintage blue car driving on the beach in California on a sunny day, and there are no other people on the beach." And here it is.

This tool lets users create ultra-realistic high-definition videos. Except you see there are no tracks, new tracks being created by that vehicle.

All right, well, joining me right now is Gary Marcus, emeritus professor at NYU and author of "Taming Silicon Valley."

Gary, great to see you.

We, you and I, have talked a lot --

GARY MARCUS, FOUNDER GEOMETRIC A.I., ACQUIRED BY UBER & EMERITUS PROFESSOR, NYU & AUTHOR: Great to be here.

WHITFIELD: -- about the potential of A.I. And now here we see, you know, a new invention, so to speak, a new tool. Should we be excited about this?

MARCUS: I think it's fun, if you want to make a quick music video, I don't think it's going to put Hollywood out of business.

There's still a lot of problems. Like if you look at the cat video, the cat is actually about eight feet tall.

(LAUGHTER)

MARCUS: If you look at the beach video, in addition to the lack of tracks that you noticed, there's actually a passenger at the beginning of the video and then the passenger disappears as it curves around. It goes behind the pillar, and then the person disappears. And that's kind of crazy stuff.

So there's still a lot of problems with physics. There's a lot, a lot of problems also with copyright. So it's easy to get it to make things like Mario characters and Marvel characters and so forth. And so we can expect some lawsuits around it.

WHITFIELD: Oh, yes. MARCUS: And then there's a problem with economics, which is it's actually very expensive to run. They haven't published figures, but they're limiting how much access people get. You get a certain number of credits per day. And I think that's because it's very expensive to actually run these systems.

WHITFIELD: So these two dogs 00

MARCUS: It's cute.

WHITFIELD: -- picnicking, I mean, that's not real. This is A.I. generated. Right, it's cute. It may be fun and all that.

But are you worried about, you know, how people are going to have a difficult time discerning reality versus, you know -- you know, fiction, especially in this day and age where people are getting rather confused about what to believe.

MARCUS: I think we have to worry a lot about a society where nobody can really trust anything. And even though this can't make a full feature film, it can be used for the purposes of misinformation.

There were some incidents in the election campaign. There will probably be more incidents in future election campaigns. And I think people are starting to feel like they can't trust anything.

There's also the flip side, which is if somebody is accused of a crime, they'll be like, well, that was deepfake, even if it wasn't. And so I think there is a cost to society in losing a handle on truth.

WHITFIELD: OK. So then, how is this instructional or helpful overall?

MARCUS: In -- how is it helpful?

WHITFIELD: Yes.

MARCUS: I mean, I think that, you know, these tools are great for making music videos and kind of giving people who have no artistic talent a little opportunity to play around.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: Oh, OK.

All right. Well, here's another example. And this is kind of worrisome for some folks, right? Because it's a CNN anchor in a New York City studio, but it's really not a CNN anchor because that's not even a person. It was A.I. generated.

So then here comes some of the worries. Some folks are going to be a little concerned that, you know, people could be replaced.

MARCUS: I -- they might be eventually. You know, voiceover actors are already in trouble because of these tools.

If you watch this video carefully, there are also telltale. So there are shadows and reflections and things like that that aren't real. But nobody's going to notice that if they watch it in a short clip that's shared on social media.

In the long run, I think that if we allow these companies to use all kinds of copyrighted materials without licensing, we're kind of giving up the game and allowing almost everybody's employment to be threatened.

I think we, as a society, have to say, no, you need to pay to license somebody's appearance. You need to pay to license to use some of these videos that they've created, their music and so forth.

So there's a huge question in front of society right now about what is proper compensation? When should people be allowed to train these models? Especially because they can duplicate things almost exactly in some cases.

So, you know, a real artist, if you say, draw me an Italian plumber, is not going to draw Super Mario for you. But if you say make me a side scrolling platform game, it's going to probably give you Mario from Nintendo's franchise and just come very close to what was already there in its training data.

So there is a question of plagiarism and things like -- plagiarism and a question of fair compensation for artists and creators, and eventually TV anchors and voiceover actors and eventually, really for all of us.

We have to decide, as a society, we're going to give away this stuff for free? That's what the big companies want. Or are we going to demand payments so that people can keep their employment and get something for the work that they've done?

[13:45:02]

WHITFIELD: All right. The terrain has gotten really challenging.

All right, Gary Marcus, thank you so much. Great to see you.

MARCUS: Thanks, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Have a great holiday season.

MARCUS: Take care.

WHITFIELD: All right, we're taking a break. But when we come back, President-Elect Donald Trump says it will be, quote, "very hard to make groceries more affordable," but insists that he will get it done. His plans to deliver on that campaign promise, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, President-Elect Donald Trump officially reclaims the Oval Office in just 37 days. But he seems to be tamping down expectations now for one of his key campaign promises.

[13:49:59]

Speaking to "Time" magazine for his Person of the Year interview, Trump said this about the price of groceries:

"It's hard to bring things down once they're up, you know, it's very hard. But I think that they will. I think that energy is going to bring them down. I think a better supply chain is going to bring them down. You know, the supply chain is still broken."

Those sentiments, offering a much softer tone than what he repeatedly said on the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to get the energy down. We're going to get the food prices down.

But prices will come down. You just watch. They'll come down and they'll come down fast. Not only with insurance, with everything.

So vote Trump and your incomes will soar, your net worth will skyrocket, your energy costs and grocery prices --

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: -- will come tumbling down.

We will end inflation and make America affordable again. It's not affordable.

Prices will come down and come down dramatically and come down fast.

Bacon is through the roof. They're all through the roof, the milk. Everything is bad. And we're going to straighten it out. We're going to bring prices way down. And we'll get it -- get it done fast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Here with us now is senior political writer for "Newsweek," Katherine Fung.

Katherine, great to see you.

Do you hear any contradictions there?

KATHERINE FUNG, SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER, "NEWSWEEK": Hi, Fredricka. Thanks for having me.

Yes, I know he promised on the campaign trail that those prices at the grocery store would come down. But in the latest "Time" interview that you pointed out, he's saying that they are very hard to bring down once they're up.

He's clearly optimistic that his energy policies will bring those down. But I think he is admitting that it's going to be difficult to change those. WHITFIELD: What do you believe the reaction will be among voters if it doesn't happen quickly?

FUNG: Yes, I mean, that's definitely not going to make a lot of people happy. A lot of people voted for him based on his promises that the grocery prices, the fuel prices, those would all come down.

People are not going to be happy if those go up even higher. And that's kind of what could happen if the tariffs go into place. You know, we know so much of our agriculture industry is imported from Mexico and Canada. Those are two of our biggest trading partners.

So that could be -- you know, it could definitely hurt the pocketbooks for a lot of Americans.

WHITFIELD: Trump is pledging mass deportations and the tariffs that you speak of on some of America's biggest trading partners, Canada, China. How could this directly impact this quest to reduce prices?

FUNG: Right. So, you know, he's hoping to kind of bring up domestic production. And that's definitely something that analysts think will happen.

The problem is it's not going to be great for the economy as a whole, because the gains that producers are making are not going to be as great as the losses that a lot of consumers will be facing.

WHITFIELD: That 25 percent across-the-board tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, and then further tariffs on China, I think to the tune of like 60 percent, I've seen in some of the numbers.

FUNG: Yes.

WHITFIELD: I mean, that has a lot of economists worried. So many products are expected to see price increases, especially as it pertains to electronics, machinery parts, et cetera.

Are people going to be paying more before they pay less?

FUNG: Yes. I think you brought up a really good point, and especially in electronics. You know, that's one of the things that economists are especially worried about.

So, you know, Smartphones account for a 10th of all the goods that we import into the United States. And 80 percent of those Smartphones come from China. So, you know, take something like an iPhone 16, which is $1,000 right now, you're looking at adding $300 onto that.

And things like laptops, tablets, gaming consoles, those are expected to increase in price by 25 to 40 percent.

And you know, you also mentioned cars. The automotive industry is going to be one of those things that are greatly impacted, whether it's replacement parts, transmissions. New car sales are expected to go up 1000 to $5000.

WHITFIELD: That's pretty significant.

One top Canadian official said his country may retaliate against these tariffs by cutting off energy sources they send to parts of Michigan, New York and Wisconsin. That would be pretty painful.

FUNG: Yes, it's definitely going to cost a little bit more for gas. It's -- their economists are estimating about a couple cents per gallon. And you know, even if that does boost domestic production in the U.S., we're not sure that consumers are going to feel that.

Because U.S. companies may not be, you know, changing the prices so that the regular American is seeing lower prices when they're pumping their -- their tanks.

WHITFIELD: All right. Katherine Fung, thank you so much.

FUNG: Thank you.

[13:54:49]

WHITFIELD: Next, more on our coverage on the sightings of mysterious drones across several states in the northeast. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Hello, again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

And we start with this breaking news. A new alert from New York Governor Kathy Hochul after a drone sighting forced an airport in her state to temporarily shut down.

Lawmakers have grown -- have grown very concerned after weeks of mysterious drone sightings across several states in the northeast U.S.

Witnesses claim they have seen drones as large as cars hovering around residential neighborhoods, restricted sites and critical infrastructure.

But the White House has been downplaying any potential threats these drones may pose, saying they have no reason to believe that they are nefarious.

[13:59:59]

CNN's Gloria Pazmino is live for us in New York, where the governor put out a statement a short time ago.

What more is she saying?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fred, definitely, a bit of an evolving mystery here in the tri-state area --