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One World with Zain Asher

Hegseth: U.S. Has Only Just Begun Striking Alleged Drug Boats; Former Honduran President Released From Prison After Trump Pardon; Luigi Mangione Back In Court For Pre-Trial Hearing; Winter Storm To Strengthen Into "Bomb Cyclone"; Palestinian University Students Return To Class In Gaza; Aired 12-1p ET

Aired December 02, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:20:02]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: OK. We've been listening to the president there convening a cabinet meeting at the White House, where he laid out all

of the business and economic achievements that he said has been made thus far in his administration, words and phrases that we've heard him use

before, talking about how the U.S. is once again the hottest country in the world.

A lot of the tariff deals, and -- and many of them actually, are dependent on what the Supreme Court will be ruling. The president there reiterating

how significant that decision, that looming decision from the Supreme Court, will be.

Obviously, we are all listening in to see what the president will potentially say about the brewing scandal now over that double-tap strike

on September 2nd, first reported by "The Washington Post," of a drug boat in open waters in the Caribbean, where we are just learning new details,

not only of the initial strike, which the White House announced, but then the subsequent second strike that many legal experts say was extrajudicial,

was against military law.

And now you've got members of Congress from both sides of the aisle calling for an investigation into that strike.

All right. And now the president is speaking directly to the defense secretary. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: All right. The most historic levels our country has ever seen. I had a chance to be on an aircraft

carrier, a destroyer over Thanksgiving. The spirit in our ranks, since the election under President Trump, is unprecedented.

I've never seen anything like it as a soldier myself in uniform. And I know a lot of you feel the same way.

We've ripped out the DEI and the political correctness. It's all merit- based at the department. We're getting back to basics, accountability, training, readiness, lethality, and -- and that's reviving that spirit.

Mr. President, we're rebuilding the military historic investments. I just took briefings on the Golden Dome and F-47, next generation capabilities

that are going to make sure that for generations to come, America has the most powerful, most capable, most lethal military in the world, which you

have rebuilt once and we're rebuilding again.

And then we're re-establishing deterrence and credibility. If you look at what happened, we deal with every day the outcome of what happened in

Afghanistan, the debacle under Joe Biden. We just dealt with it in the streets of Washington, D.C., with those two National Guardsmen.

And then what happened on October 7th at Hamas, what happened in Ukraine, a war that never would have started under President Trump. We're having to

rebuild that.

So whether it's freedom of navigation and taking the fight to the Houthis, whether it's midnight hammer, those beautiful B-2s going 37 hours back and

forth, undetected, delivering with precision, and Iran not getting nuclear capabilities, Europe and NATO stepping up to five percent, locking down our

Southwest borders, been an honor to work with Kristie and Tom and everyone else down there to lock it to zero, operational control of our border.

And then it's getting after going after narco-terrorists and designated terrorist organizations in our own hemisphere.

As I've said, and I'll say again, we've only just begun striking narco boats and putting narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean because

they've been poisoning the American people.

And Joe Biden tried to approach it with kid gloves. And allowed them to come across the border, a cartel's takeover community, 20 million people,

hundreds of thousands of Americans poisoned. And President Trump said, no, we're taking the gloves off, we're taking the fight to these designated

terror organizations, and that's exactly what we're doing.

So we're stopping the drugs, we're striking the boats, we're defeating narco-terrorists, and we're standing --

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And you may say one thing that drugs coming in through the sea by sea are down 91 percent. And I

don't know who the nine percent is.

HEGSETH: I'm not sure either, sir, because --

TRUMP: But down 91 percent by sea.

HEGSETH: We've had a bit of a pause because it's hard to find boats to strike right now, which is the entire point, right? Deterrence has to

matter, not arrest it, hand over, and then do it again. The rinse and repeat approach of previous administrations. This is meant to get after

that approach.

[12:25:06]

And I will just end by saying, as President Trump always has our back, we always have the back of our commanders who are making decisions in

difficult situations, and we do in this case and all these strikes. They're making judgment calls and ensuring that they defend the American people.

They've done the right things. We'll keep doing that. And we have their backs, Mr. President.

TRUMP: Good job. Thank you very much. Howie.

HOWARD LUTNICK, U.S. COMMERCE SECRETARY: So we set out to stop the rip-off of the United States of America. This is about global change of trade.

We've been ripped off since 1945 when we set this policy.

So we set out. And together with my partners Jamieson Greer and Scott Bessent, we set out to change that.

So we started -- the first one was the U.K. deal, right? We asymmetric, they pay us 10 percent and we get charged nothing. That allows us to export

and that began the process.

Then we did the biggest European Union, 450 million people, $20 trillion economy. They completely opened their borders to us and we charge them 50

percent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. You've just been listening to a bit more of the cabinet meeting taking place at the White House. We just heard from

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He touched on a lot of the controversy surrounding the drug boat strikes, not just their legality and their

effectiveness, which he says have been very effective, just in terms of them being a deterrent, but also this idea of the -- what happened on

September 2nd and the allegations that the U.S. essentially ordered a strike that killed two survivors, which many observers, a lot of lawmakers

are saying may have amounted to a war crime.

It's not just the fact that they struck once these drug boats, but even after knowing that there were survivors who did not pose a threat that they

targeted them.

Again, Pete Hegseth did say that the Defense Department does have the back of their commanders, the -- the admiral, the commander who actually issued

that strike and carried out that strike, has been named as Admiral Frank Bradley. The Trump administration, also saying that he did nothing wrong.

I want to bring in CNN global affairs commentator and former deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh, joining us live now from

Washington.

There is the issue here of transparency, because this idea that -- that -- that -- the idea in terms of what happened, in terms of these strikes, we

don't necessarily know exactly what took place, but also this idea of the legality continues to be a massive question here, whether or not it was a

war crime.

Just give us your take on what the Defense Secretary said there. Your take on whether or not this may have amounted to a war crime. And this idea that

the commander who issued these strikes did nothing wrong.

SABRINA SINGH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, there's a lot of remaining questions that are unanswered. And I think what needs to happen

here is there needs to be a full investigation by Congress.

And the good thing that we're seeing here is both Republicans and Democrats are very confused on what took place on that September 2nd strike. They are

alarmed by some of the reporting that we're seeing from "The Washington Post" and others. And they want answers.

So I think that is a good thing. And hopefully this remains bipartisan so that we can get the facts. But the reality is that -- I mean, it's kind of

shocking that the top of the department, the Secretary of Defense, is trying to now shift the blame and shift responsibility to the SOCOM

commander. And, of course, he was in charge of the operation.

But at the end of the day, a true leader says, you know, the buck stops with me. That's not what we're seeing with Pete Hegseth. And that's one

that's like really abdicated leadership here.

And so there's a lot of questions. And I think you got to this in your -- in your intro here. If there was a strike and the so-called double-tap

strike, which is that second strike to eliminate those potentially two other survivors, that does violate the laws of armed conflict.

If those two survivors no longer posed a threat to the United States or any of our vessels in the region, those survivors should have been pulled from

the -- the boat. And so what the problem now that we have is there's a lot of different statements out there from this administration.

At first, Pete Hegseth was disputing "The Washington Post" story. Now, it's -- he has full confidence in the admiral who authorized the second strike.

So I think what we need to see is a bipartisan investigation, or at least some type of hearing under oath, where all the parties that were involved

in this strike can be questioned. And there's accountability for the American people as well.

GOLODRYGA: What we're hearing is nuance and perhaps room for some legalese and legal maneuvering here, where on the one hand you have the

administration and Pete Hegseth saying, we have the back of our commanders and they did nothing wrong, but we didn't order the second strike.

Couldn't that all be answered with documented video and audio? And do you think we will ultimately hear and see that?

[12:30:07]

And I ask because Pete Hegseth, I believe, on September 3rd or 4th, shortly after the September 2nd strike, when we only knew about the initial strike

and the White House released the declassified video of it, he was on a different network and defending that strike, saying there will be more just

like that as he did here today with the president, and also said that he was there in the room and watched it. So we should know, right, in theory

as to what went down and that being documented.

SINGH: That's right. And I think, you know, Congress at least should get a classified briefing where they will have access to the full video, because

what you saw over there is essentially a surveillance drone capturing the video of the boat being blown up by what is likely a multi-million-dollar

missile. So they'll be able to have access to what that aircraft actually was able to see and then that follow-on strike.

In terms of who's in the room for something like this, I mean, it is obviously, of course, the secretary, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the

commander, in this case, Mitch Bradley. And then there's other components of the Joint Staff, as well as the SouthCom commander who's in charge of

that area of responsibility.

So there are a lot of people, either in the room or on video screens that have access to the full picture of what they're seeing before that strike

happens.

In terms of audio, and in terms of what is given, you know, by the secretary to his, either the combatant commander or the leader of the

strike itself, you know, I don't know what audio is going to be available. And I think that's what Congress is trying to understand is what audio is

available, or is it audio that's actually from the aircraft that's doing the surveillance.

So there's a lot of questions that we don't have answers to. But one thing is for sure I think that we can say is that if there were two survivors,

and Pete Hegseth said, you know, essentially, I don't want any survivors to kill them all, that does violate the laws of armed conflict.

And so we do need to have better sense of oversight from Congress to -- to understand what exactly happened on that September 2nd strike.

ASHER: And just in terms of the military buildup taking place in and around Venezuela.

SINGH: Yes.

ASHER: You've got 15,000 U.S. troops. You've also got a number of warships. How does this end? I mean, is this just sort of posturing by the United

States? Or is there actually a willingness to act here?

SINGH: I think it's a bit of both. I think you're seeing the United States posture its military to force Maduro's hand, essentially parking an

aircraft carrier outside the -- the coast of Venezuela with multiple different destroyers that have incredible capability. I mean, these are the

same capabilities that can take out Houthi air defenses that were shooting at our ships.

They are posturing in a way to try and force Maduro to essentially ignite some type of regime change. Whether that means land strikes or boots on the

ground, which I hope that does not the case, they are positioning themselves for some type of regime change to really pressure Maduro.

At the same time, they're also positioning to continue whatever these boat strikes are. Of course, we have no information on who's actually being

killed in these strikes and what drugs are being trafficked.

But what we do know is if this administration is serious about stopping the flow of fentanyl into the United States. Fentanyl is not coming from

Venezuela. It's coming through Mexico.

So, I think their end goal here is some type of regime change. How long this mission lasts? We have no idea. We've been providing no answers.

Congress has questions. So there's a lot of remaining uncertainty on how long our troops are going to be out there.

And frankly, we have more military capacity stationed off the coast of Venezuela than we do in Syria and Iraq right now. So, you know, it is a --

it is a bit concerning of how long this mission is going to go for.

GOLODRYGA: Right. And as we heard from Defense Secretary Hegseth, he said, we have only just begun these strikes and putting these narco boats at the

bottom of the ocean, even joking, flippantly saying that they're becoming harder and harder to find because they are eliminating them or, I guess,

scaring them from -- from smuggling drugs, wherever they say they are smuggling them. Again, no information as to who is on these boats and what

is on the boats as well.

Sabrina Singh, thank you so much. Really appreciate the time and your analysis.

We'll be right back after a break.

SINGH: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:35:22]

GOLODRYGA: All right. Welcome back to "One World." I'm Bianna Golodryga.

ASHER: And I'm Zain Asher.

Former Honduran president convicted of conspiring with drug cartels to move cocaine into the U.S. is now a free man. That's after Donald Trump formally

pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez.

GOLODRYGA: His lawyer says Hernandez has been released from prison in West Virginia where he has been serving a 45-year sentence. He was sentenced

only last year over drug trafficking offenses and was ordered to pay an $8 million fine by a U.S. judge.

Maria Santana is following the story for us. A lot of concern about this decision from the president and raised eyebrows about the logic here, and

on the one hand, going after a narco-terrorist, as President Trump calls Nicolas Maduro, and then releasing one that has found been -- has been

convicted and found guilty of just that and pardoning him by a U.S. jury and prosecuted with a lengthy -- lengthy list of -- of evidence.

Can you just talk to us about the reaction thus far? I know that his ex- wife had spoken with CNN and said that he plans on remaining in the U.S. for the time being.

MARIA SANTANA, CNN ESPANOL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That's right, Bianna, Zain. How are you?

Well, this has been a pretty stunning development in this case, giving the Trump's administration's aggressive anti-narco crackdown in the Caribbean,

including what we just heard in the previous segment, those controversial airstrikes on suspected smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern

Pacific.

And amidst these escalating tensions with Venezuela, the administration has designated Nicolas Maduro and his top allies as members of a foreign

terrorist organization, intensified efforts to force him from office.

[12:40:01]

But the allegations long made by the United States against Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela mirror many of the charger's prosecutors successfully brought

against the former Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernandez.

And the condemnation has been bipartisan in Washington. Many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle saying that this sends a very dangerous message of

this pardon to leaders of foreign countries who are engaging in drug trafficking activities and many also pointing out the -- what they say is

the hypocrisy in the United States' position against Nicolas Maduro and now Juan Orlando Hernandez.

He walked out of a federal prison late last night, according to his lawyer. And I sat through the many weeks of his trial. He was found guilty of

working hand in hand with some of the hemisphere's most powerful cartels, helping move more than 400 tons of cocaine towards the United States and

pocketing millions in bribes, accepting bribes from the cartels and using that money to pursue his political career, cling to power in Honduras.

We heard from a cooperating witnesses -- witnesses, drug traffickers who said they paid Juan Orlando Hernandez to protect their drug routes through

Honduras, through Mexico and into the United States.

He was sentenced to 45 years in prison. The jury only took nine hours to find him guilty on all charges given the power and the strength of the

evidence that the United States presented, the prosecutors presented.

And, you know, it also comes at a time when Trump has been openly trying to influence the presidential election in Honduras. He backed Hernandez' ally,

Nasry Asfura the night before Sunday's election there. He's a right-wing candidate.

So, obviously, this is also meant to disrupt and have some influence there in the country in Honduras as he tries to influence the presidential

elections. Bianna and Zain.

ASHER: Yes. It's interesting because those two candidates are literally neck and neck. Last I checked, they're separated by about 500 votes. And

Donald Trump, not so long ago, coming out and saying, look, there must be vote rigging in this election. Those are the president's words.

So not only is he backing a particular candidate pardoning a former Honduran president, but now saying that there must be fraud in this

election if these two candidates are neck and neck.

SANTANA: Right.

ASHER: Maria Santana, live for us. Thank you so much.

And Luigi Mangione is back in court today for a pre-trial hearing. He's accused of gunning down Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in

Manhattan last year.

GOLODRYGA: His lawyers are trying to get some key evidence thrown out arguing that it was obtained illegally. The first day of the hearing

revealed new details about the days before police detained Mangione, including the 911 call that led directly to his arrest.

CNN's Kara Scannell has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For the first time yesterday, we heard that 911 call, and it's not formally entered into evidence and available to

the public or else we would play it for you.

But on that call, we did hear the manager at the McDonald's speak to 911 dispatcher in a very calm voice saying, I have a customer here that some

other customers were suspicious of. And he looks like the CEO shooter from New York. She described what Mangione was wearing, saying that he had a

medical mask on.

And so the only thing she could really see of his was his eyebrows. So that was the first time that evidence came in.

We also saw for the first time the full video of the shooting of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, as well as the surveillance video

inside that McDonald's when the police first arrived on scene, approached Mangione who was sitting at a corner table in the back.

And there's no audio, but we could see that that crowd of officers grew from two to more than eight before he was arrested and taken into custody.

We also heard testimony from two corrections officers who were on what's called constant watch, watching Mangione when he was held at the state

prison in Pennsylvania. And they discussed -- they said they had some discussions with Mangione. And they told the judge what Mangione said to

them. One of the officers said Mangione was talking him about his travels in Southeast Asia. He said they also discussed the difference between

private healthcare and a nationalized healthcare system.

A different officer was on the stand and he said that Mangione volunteered to him that he had in his backpack, a 3D printed gun, a magazine of

ammunition, as well as other items. And so that is evidence that Mangione's lawyers want to keep out of this case. They don't want a jury to hear that.

So we will hear from additional witnesses today. They're not previewing who they're calling, but we have yet to hear from the police officer who

initially spoke to Mangione, which is the question there of did he read him his Miranda rights? And also the officer who searched the backpack in the

McDonald's. Those two officers have not yet been called.

We're hearing that the -- the prosecutors could call as many as two dozen witnesses. We heard from five yesterday. So we're expecting a number of

witnesses on the stand today as all of these details will continue to come out and we'll learn a little bit more about what those early moments were

when Mangione was first approached and then taken into custody.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[12:45:09]

ASHER: Kara Scannell reporting there.

All right. After the break, the weather outside is rightful. At this East Coast sees a bomb cyclone building as temperatures plummet. We'll have a

live forecast for you after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASHER: All right. Around 50 million people in at least 15 U.S. states are under -- under winter weather alert today, as the third winter storm in a

week moves across the country. The current storm is set to strengthen rapidly into a bomb cyclone as it moves up the East Coast today.

GOLODRYGA: You are very interested in knowing what exactly defines a bomb cyclone. We're going to find out. Intensifying arctic air winds could

shatter dozens of records later this week, plunging temperatures, into the double digits below zero from Thursday morning.

ASHER: All right. For more on what to expect from this freezing weather, you've got Derek Van Dam, like -- warm in the studio in Atlanta, of course.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. But you -- you're wondering what -- what constitutes a bomb cyclone.

ASHER: Tell me.

VAN DAM: Well, it's -- yes. It's -- it's actually a meteorological term. It's -- it comes from a term called bombogenesis. And it really indicates

when an area of low pressure or a storm system deepens or strengthens very rapidly.

So there's a criteria that it has to meet, and when it does so, then we can officially call it a bomb cyclone. So now you know. The more you know,

right?

But this is the result of a bomb cyclone. Unfortunately, this is when it was kind of in its early stages of developing, but it caused so much

problems on the roadways.

In fact, the Missouri state troopers talked about how they responded to over 350 crashes from the storm system yesterday as it was forming. Now,

it's racing off to the eastern seaboard, and it's producing significant snowfall for the interior of northern New England.

Really low to coastline though. This is a different story. Let me zoom in a little bit closer and show you the difference. So the green, obviously the

rain, the purple shading here being that mixture of rain, snow, and ice. And then to the north that is all snow.

And look at the major population areas. Boston, New York, Philadelphia, to Baltimore and the nation's capital. That's the I-95 corridor. A large

majority of our population resides here.

Well, this is mostly a cold rain, but you don't have to travel that far. Just a few kilometers to the north. You start getting elevation change. You

start dropping the temperatures. And that's where the precipitation changes over to snow. And, of course, it's more impactful for travelers when you

start traversing roadways that are snow-covered.

[12:50:07]

So there it is. This is a current temperature, of course, 32 degrees being freezing or zero Celsius. So Boston's actually above that, but this is

Hartford, Connecticut, I believe, so 29. They're seeing snow. This is the Hudson Valley. They're likely seeing snow.

But Long Island down to New York City, Philadelphia, this I-95 corridor right here, it is all rain. And that was what was advertised and that's

what we expected. So glad to see that this is panning out in this particular way, because it's a completely different story when that

freezing rain line moves down further away from the coast and we see all snow in the major cities.

Now to the south, it's all rain. And we put together this fancy graphic for you, Zain and Bianna. This is the official criteria of a bomb cyclone. It

needs to drop 24 millibars. That's a unit of strength in 24 hours. And then, of course, you can call it a bomb cycle. So now you know.

ASHER: So has to intensify rapidly. So I learned something. Thank you.

VAN DAM: Great, exactly. There you go.

ASHER: That's a great definition.

GOLODRYGA: It made us smarter, Derek, and colder -- and colder.

VAN DAM: I appreciate that. And colder.

ASHER: All right. Still to come here on "One World," the lecture rooms are packed and the students are determined as education resumes, rather, among

the rooms in Gaza.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASHER: All right. President Donald Trump hosted a VIP round table at the White House on Monday to promote a project that was included in the

Republican domestic policy bill.

GOLODRYGA: A $1,000 investment account, dubbed Trump Accounts by the White House, which will be created for all American children born between January

of 2025 and 2029. The president was joined by executives from Uber, Salesforce, Goldman Sachs, and a number of other companies.

Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell Technologies, said that his company would match every dollar the government puts into accounts of children born to

Dell employees. It's a big donation there.

ASHER: It's about eight weeks into the Gaza ceasefire, and we are seeing students head back to class at the Islamic University of Gaza.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. They may be surrounded by rubble, but their goals and dreams have survived two years of war and destruction.

CNN's Oren Liebermann went to meet some of them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NADA QUWAIDER, GAZA STUDENT (through text translation): I never imagined that I would return to university and continue learning. I had dreams that

I am now surprised could be coming true.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For two years, Gaza's students thought they would never return to school. Since the war

began, schools turned into shelters for the displaced.

[12:55:02]

Amid the rubble wrought by Israeli airstrikes, Gaza's Islamic University is now reopening.

TALEEN HUSSEIN, GAZA STUDENT (through text translation): My feeling is very sad seeing the university like this. All the beauty, its architecture, and

its wonderful buildings, to see it now destroyed like this.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): More than 90 percent of the school and university buildings in Gaza were either damaged or destroyed by Israel's bombardment,

drawing accusations of scholasticide. Education became virtually impossible.

Israel has always maintained that Hamas embedded its military infrastructure within schools, an accusation the militant group has denied.

TAL AI-MADANA, GAZA STUDENT (through text translation): We tried, with the bare minimum of resources, to carry on, because we have this passion to

keep going and to become something in the future.

I hope to become a major and successful architect and to achieve all my dreams.

DR. BASSAM AL-SAQQA, PROFESSOR, ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF GAZA (through text translation): Honestly, it a very, very, very wonderful feeling that we, as

the people of Gaza, are starting to return to normal life. The first thing to come back in Gaza is education.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GOLODRYGA: Our thanks to Oren Liebermann for that report. And that does it for "One World" today. I'm Bianna Golodryga.

ASHER: I'm Zain Asher. Appreciate you watching. She'll be back with "Amanpour" after the short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:00:00]

END