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Inside Politics
Zohran Mamdani to Be Sworn in as NYC's Mayor on January 1; Trump Administration Targets Alleged Fraud in Minnesota After Viral Video. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired December 30, 2025 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:30:00]
ERROL LOUIS, POLITICAL ANCHOR, SPECTRUM NEWS: -- Just a little bit more affordable to be here. And if he succeeds at that, it is going to kind of tear a lot of the myth off of a lot of his critics. It is going to simply show that we've just had a really serious imbalance and mis -- mal-distribution of wealth and that the wealthy in the city have been having a party while the rest of the city has suffered. And it was always unnecessary.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: What's your sense of, you know, there's always this great campaigns, but then you got to govern. The campaign was amazing, but then you got to govern. Governing is hard. Governing takes experience. Governing takes pragmatism on some level.
Mamdani has been very clear, he wants to carry the campaign over. He doesn't want it to stop. He wants it to continue. That's kind of at the core of how he'll be doing things differently on some level. Is that a realistic thing?
LOUIS: Well, look, I mean, what comes with what you just described is the famous saying attributed to Abraham Lincoln that public opinion is everything. Without it, you can accomplish nothing. So he's got to keep a sizable portion of the eight plus million people here in New York City behind him, and that's politics. And I think he can do that.
I mean, he seems to want to do that because he knows it's going to get a lot harder. There's going to be terrible, terrible problems that he's going to confront, some of which have been around for literally hundreds of years. You know, we've had problems with street vendors and what to do about them since the 1700s.
He's going to inherit that problem along with a lot of other ones. Crime is always a problem. It never goes to zero. And it can be heartbreaking when people are hurt or killed. So, he's got some tough sledding ahead of him, and I think he properly understands that. He's got to go in with as much goodwill as he can and get as much done as possible in the honeymoon period. The honeymoon period, I'd say maybe six months, might be a little bit less, but he's got to really hit the ground running.
MATTINGLY: What's interesting when you talk about his economic proposals, look, affordability was the thing. He locked into it and connected with voters in a way that now everyone, both parties, is now desperately trying to mimic going into the midterms. When you talk to economists, regardless of their kind of political persuasion, there are very real questions about the viability of a rent freeze, what he wants to do with free and faster buses. What is the kind of realistic pathway for him on his core policy proposals?
LOUIS: Well, you know, again, a lot of this stuff has already been tried. A lot of this stuff, frankly, Phil, is not all that new. This is partly why he won. It might sound crazy to the outside world or people who are ideologically committed, but we've had three rent freezes in the last 10 years. I mean, the sky did not fall. The rents didn't come down, by the way, but we have frozen the rent.
We currently have a program called the Fair Fares Program, where if you indicate that you're of lower income or a senior citizen, you can get half off every ride on the buses and the subways. And so, that's been around for years as well. So, we have within the tremendous resources of New York, the beginnings of a path forward and all he's talking about doing is moving it forward.
Now, there's going to be some very tough budgets, but that's going to be true across the board based on what Congress has already done. You've certainly reported and analyzed that in great depth. But the basics of trying to make life easier for New Yorkers, what else are you supposed to do?
He comes in with a mandate to do what I think any logical person would do, is look at the situation and say, people are really suffering. We've got to do something to help them. That's the whole point of government.
MATTINGLY: Yeah, there's a logic to his message and his campaign that it's funny to watch political pros try and figure out why and how it worked. It's like, well, because that's what people want on some level.
(LAUGH)
MATTINGLY: But what do I know? I'm not famous like Errol Louis, spoofed by Saturday Night Live. My friend, it is always a pleasure. Thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it.
LOUIS: Great to be with you.
MATTINGLY: Up next, from vaccines to food dyes, how Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reshaped health care this year.
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[12:38:12]
MATTINGLY: From the rise of measles in the United States to debates over children's vaccine schedules, public health took center stage this year. CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks at the top health stories of 2025.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: 2025 was a veritable battleground for public health as it faced challenge after challenge. Mass layoffs, an armed attack on the CDC, and as misinformation gained momentum, once forgotten viruses took hold on U.S. soil. But as always, with science and medicine, progress does persist.
GUPTA (voice-over): It is impossible to ignore the impact of MAHA. It's been the rallying cry of HHS Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Real overhaul is improving the health of the entire nation to Make America Healthy Again.
GUPTA: The main driver of the movement, reducing chronic disease, and a lot of efforts to that end like condemning ultra-processed foods and taking action on artificial food dyes. Those have been largely applauded by public health experts. But other targets of the MAHA movement, those have them worried.
SEN. BILL CASSIDY, (R-LA): We currently have our current vaccine schedule based upon a lot of people who know a heck of a lot, looking at things not to make mandates, but to make recommendations.
KENNEDY JR.: It makes no sense to have fluoride in our water.
GUPTA: This year, we saw some states take steps to ban fluoride in their water supply.
GUPTA (voice-over): Dentists and other public health experts worry that its removal will increase cavities, especially for people without access to regular dental care.
[12:40:00]
GUPTA (voice-over): But, supporters of these bans point to studies that found children exposed to higher fluoride levels have lower IQs and more neurobehavioral issues.
GUPTA: But, as with so many things this year, there is important nuance. Those studies looked at levels much higher, almost double than the levels found in the majority of public water systems. In fact, another study found that fluoride at the recommended levels in drinking water did not negatively affect cognitive ability.
DR. MARTY MAKARY, FOOD & DRUG ADMINISTRATION COMMISSIONER: There may be no other medication in the modern era that can improve the health outcomes of women on a population level than hormone replacement therapy.
GUPTA: In November, the FDA announced that it was taking steps to remove what is known as a black-box warning for many hormone treatments for women with menopause symptoms. Now, while this change is expected to give women more options for treatments, I do want to stress that it needs to still start with a conversation with your doctor. ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR OF "ANDERSON COOPER 360": President Trump and Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. today publicly linking the rise in the number of cases of autism to the use of acetaminophen or Tylenol by women during pregnancy.
KENNEDY JR.: Today, the FDA will issue a physician's notice about the risk of acetaminophen during pregnancy and begin the process to initiate a safety label change.
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Don't take Tylenol. Don't take it.
GUPTA: Now, the FDA was much more nuanced in its warning, saying that pregnant women should use the lowest effective dose for the shortest necessary duration and only when treatment is required. However, there is decades of evidence that Tylenol or acetaminophen is among the safest options for pregnant women dealing with fever or pain, and that it does not cause autism.
DR. EDITH BRACHO-SANCHEZ, PRIMARY CARE PEDIATRICIAN: I understand the risks of a fever and pregnancy, which is risk of miscarriage, risk of birth defects, and I said, no way am I taking that risk.
TIM ANDREWS, RECEIVED A KIDNEY TRANSPLANT FROM A PIG: It may shorten your life, but you're going to do something for humanity.
GUPTA: This year, we follow the courageous journey of Tim Andrews, the fourth living patient in the United States to get a genetically- modified pig kidney transplant. It's a process known as xenotransplantation.
ANDREWS: And the little pig is right there, so I can pat it.
GUPTA (voice-over): Tim lived with a pig kidney for a record 271 days and while they did have to have it removed, his case helps move this field farther into the future, especially as larger-scale human clinical trials are just on the horizon.
GUPTA: When do you think this might be available for the average person?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think less than five years.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: We just learned that Robert Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services, will announce huge layoffs today, some ten thousand jobs across the agency, and this comes on top of some ten thousand employees who left the department voluntarily.
GUPTA: Thousands of jobs, billions of dollars in research funding stripped, it's almost unimaginable to predict the long-term impacts of the Trump administration's cuts to public health.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is going to make it more challenging to bring the best new treatments for children with cancer.
GUPTA (voice-over): And the cuts extended beyond America's shores.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Withdrawing from the World Health Organization.
GUPTA (voice-over): Global programs like Gavi and USAID also had funding pulled by the administration.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please just give us medication. We still want to survive.
MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: In Milwaukee, one kid was found to have really elevated blood lead levels and that sparked this whole public health investigation.
GUPTA (voice-over): And that Investigation led them to Milwaukee's public schools and several other children who had elevated blood lead levels.
GUPTA: For the first time, they were able to link lead poisoning in children to the city's aging schools.
GUPTA (voice-over): The problem we found when traveling there is that most of the school buildings were built before 1978. That's before lead paint was banned.
GUPTA: And to further complicate the city's efforts to handle this crisis, those cuts I was just talking about, that left the city without federal support.
DR. MICHAEL TOTORAITIS, MILWAUKEE COMMISSIONER OF HEALTH: Investigation into the potential chronic exposures of students at the districts is a part that we were really looking to the CDC to help us with. And unfortunately, HHS had laid off that entire team for childhood blood exposure. These are the best and brightest minds in these areas around lead poisoning and now they're gone.
SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The FDA just did something that could be a game-changer for people living with pain.
GUPTA (voice-over): For the first time in more than 25 years, the agency approved a new class of pain medication.
GUPTA: It's called Suzetrigine. It's not an opioid.
GUPTA (voice-over): It works by preventing pain signaling nerves around the body from firing in the first place, so that message of pain never makes it to the brain.
GUPTA: And even cooler, this medication was actually discovered after researchers learned about a family of firewalkers in Pakistan that lacked a gene allowing those pain signals to be sent.
[12:45:00]
Those people, they could walk on hot coals without flinching.
GUPTA (voice-over): A new FDA-approved blood test could help diagnose Alzheimer's by detecting certain biomarkers of the disease.
GUPTA: It will still need to be used alongside other diagnostic tools like neurological exams and brain imaging.
GUPTA (voice-over): But Preventive Neurologist, Dr. Richard Isaacson says that he thinks blood tests will be a great new option for screening.
DR. RICHARD ISAACSON, NEUROLOGIST: I believe this is a screening test that may predict if a person is going to be more likely to be on the road to Alzheimer's or dementia in 10 20, 30 or 40 years.
GUPTA (voice-over): And that means patients, including myself, who went through a battery of tests with Isaacson, can get a baseline for their risk and they can also track their progress while applying certain lifestyle interventions.
ISAACSON: Your numbers went from, huh (ph), to faster and better than your age, that you're actually six years younger in your age.
GUPTA: Six years younger?
Have you ever seen measles before?
DR. JENNIFER SHUFORD, COMMISSIONER, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF STATE HEALTH SERVICES: No, and I'm an infectious disease physician.
GUPTA: Wow.
SHUFORD: I've never diagnosed a case.
GUPTA: That's incredible.
SHUFORD: It's because, you know, measles was declared eliminated --
GUPTA: Right.
SHUFORD: -- from the United States back in the year 2000 because of the effectiveness of that vaccine.
GUPTA (voice-over): A measles outbreak that started in Texas earlier this year.
GUPTA: It signaled a worrying trend as cases continue to grow across the country, putting the U.S.' elimination status in jeopardy.
GUPTA (voice-over): But this is also symbolic of the larger fight over vaccines, especially as the RFK-appointed members of the highly influential Vaccine Advisory Committee to the CDC has pledged to re- examine the entire vaccine schedule, even for shots that have long- established safety records.
DR. PAUL OFFIT, DIRECTOR, VACCINE EDUCATION CENTER AT CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: The ACIP is full of people who are anti- vaccine activists and science denialists, so you know that the decisions that they're going to be making are not science-based. GUPTA: As always, we'll continue our reporting and we'll bring you everything you need to know when it comes to your health in 2026. See you next year.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: Up next, the growing calls for Governor Tim Walz to resign, the latest on the viral video that put a national spotlight on a massive fraud investigation in Minnesota.
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[12:51:25]
MATTINGLY: Right now, Republican lawmakers are asking Minnesota's Democratic Governor, Tim Walz, to resign after renewed focus on a state fraud investigation. A viral YouTube video by a creator who has shared anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim videos in the past, put a major national spotlight on the investigation. The video claims Somali-run childcare centers in Minnesota are committing widespread fraud and provides limited evidence to support the allegations.
It was a video that was amplified by Vice President J.D. Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Elon Musk. Now, the FBI and DHS say they are surging resources into Minnesota, including at those childcare centers.
CNN's Whitney Wild is in Minneapolis. Whitney, what are you hearing from officials there?
WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's one agency saying, basically, today, that they are concerned about some of the tactics that the video shows. But at the same time, they take all allegations of fraud seriously. This has been a problem in Minnesota for many, many years. You can look it up yourself. There are stories about alleged fraud at daycares stretching as far back as 2015.
There were a round of indictments back then. Fraud continues to simply plague the Minneapolis area and Minnesota at large. There have been, in recent years, Phil, dozens of indictments, at least 80, for various types of fraud, COVID relief fraud, you know, other types of housing fraud. And federal officials basically call this like an ongoing fraud investigation.
If you look, the latest press release from the U.S. attorney's office here in Minnesota says six more indictments in this ongoing fraud investigation. So, this has been going on for quite some time. Local news has been all over this, producing award-winning series on fraud issues in Minnesota. But even still, it wasn't until, as you point out, that video that this fraud issue in Minnesota really exploded. I mean, that video from Nick Shirley has more than 115 million views.
It has now caught the attention of very powerful voices in America. Here in Minnesota, we are asking leaders what is going on and what the impact of that video has. So, here's our interview with Speaker Lisa DeMuth. She is a Republican. And explain to us why it is so important for a national spotlight to be shined here on Minnesota.
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REP. LISA DEMUTH, (R-MN): STATE HOUSE SPEAKER: These are state dollars, but a lot of these programs have federal dollars in them too. So, we have had a lot of assistance from the U.S. attorney's office, where they have been noting almost $9 billion of fraud across multiple programs, not just childcare, but non-emergency medical transport, autism services, adult daycare, that we have been getting that attention a little bit more from the Feds now and it is needed.
The question begs, though, is why have the Democrats in Minnesota, because they've been the ones in charge, they've been in control of state government, why have they ignored it for this long?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILD: Speaker DeMuth is running for governor. She is hoping to unseat Governor Tim Walz. Walz, for his part, is saying this. "The governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and has asked the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action. He has strengthened oversight, including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed. He's hired an outside law firm to audit payments to high-risk programs, shut down the housing stabilization services program entirely, announced a new statewide program integrity director, and supported criminal prosecutions."
[12:55:00]
But again, Phil, this is a problem for Gov. Walz he just cannot shake. CNN wrote about this in October of 2024. I mean, this has been extensively covered. And you heard Speaker DeMuth, who says that the responsibility here lands squarely on his shoulders because he has not done enough to hold leaders accountable. Back to you.
MATTINGLY: Whitney Wild for us on the ground in Minneapolis. Thanks so much. And thank you for joining "Inside Politics." "CNN News Central" starts after a quick break.
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