Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

Today, All Eyes on Hegseth at Cabinet Meeting Amid Bipartisan Scrutiny Over Controversial Follow-up Boat Strike; Trump Pardons Former Honduran President Serving Sentence in drug-Trafficking Case; Witkoff and Kushner Meet With Putin in Russia. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired December 02, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, strike controversy. The White House and the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, now saying it was an admiral who ordered the deadly double-tap strike on an alleged drug boat, but the legality of that order remains in question.

Plus, new details about the 911 call that led to Luigi Mangione's arrest. The suspected UnitedHealthcare CEO killer is back in court this morning.

And bomb cyclone, a massive winter storm causing headaches in the Midwest now barreling into the northeast.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Pamela Brown is off, and you're in The Situation Room.

New this morning, all eyes on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at President Trump's cabinet meeting next hour as the administration ramps up pressure on Venezuela and feels the heat from lawmakers. Hegseth faces bipartisan scrutiny up on Capitol Hill for his role in a controversial follow-up strike against a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean back in September after the initial strike failed to kill everyone on board.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't sound good, and if somebody actually did this, they should be held accountable. And it should be at the top. Not the bottom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Secretary Hegseth is in charge here. He gave the order, so he needs to be responsible for it, or he needs to tell us what it was, and we have not gotten those clear answers yet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to conduct oversight and we're going to try to get to the facts.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: The Trump administration defending Hegseth, and confirming the second strike actually happened. The White House says U.S. Special Operations Command Head Admiral Frank Mitch Bradley directed the follow-up strike. Hegseth was among the top national security officials expected to attend a critical meeting in the Oval Office about Venezuela last night.

Let's go live right now to CNN's Betsy Klein. She's over at the White House. Betsy, what is the Trump administration saying about all of this?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Wolf, the White House is facing mounting scrutiny and questions about the legality of that double-tap attack on an alleged drug boat operating in the Caribbean on September 2nd, as well as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's role in it.

What we know from our CNN reporting is that this boat was struck in the Caribbean, and then it was assessed that there were survivors. A second strike, known as a double-tap, then was launched. Everyone remaining aboard was killed and the boat ultimately sunk.

Now, we also know that Hegseth had ordered that everybody aboard the boat be killed. It is not clear whether Hegseth was aware that there were survivors after that first strike.

Now, I want you to listen --, or excuse me, a double-tap strike is not necessarily illegal. What is important to note here is that if it is determined that those survivors did not pose a threat to the United States, this is a violation of international law and could be considered a war crime.

I do want you to listen to how the White House is talking about this and who ordered this strike.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: On September 2nd, Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes. Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated.

REPORTER: To clarify, Admiral Bradley was the one who gave that order for a second strike.

LEAVITT: And he was well within his authority to do so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KLEIN: Now, the White House says that presidentially designated narco-terrorist groups are subject to legal targeting. The White House, however, has not outlined the legal justification and evidence for this second strike. The president himself told reporters over the weekend that he would not have wanted a second strike. And lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are now calling for the release of the full tranche of video and audio around this strike. They are vowing that there will be oversight here. All of this, Wolf, as the president continues to weigh action in Venezuela after that key meeting in the Oval Office last night with Hegseth, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine.

[10:05:00]

I asked the White House if they had any update on the next steps. They decline to comment for now, but the president is set to host his cabinet in the next hour and we'll see if he takes questions on that.

BLITZER: And there will be cameras and reporters inside that meeting, right?

KLEIN: Yes.

BLITZER: All right. We'll have live coverage of that.

All right, Betsy, thank you very much, Betsy Klein reporting from the White House.

Joining us now to discuss what's going on, Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez of Florida. He's a key member of the House Armed Services Committee. Congressman, thanks very much for coming in.

So, what do you think? Do you have any updates on when your committee, the House Armed Services Committee, is going to receive another briefing on what exactly happened? I know there's a bipartisan call, Democrats and Republicans, they want more information.

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R-FL): Yes. No, we received a briefing on what's what the operations that are going on in the Caribbean were about a month ago before we left before the government closed.

BLITZER: You were getting in daily briefings if not --

GIMENEZ: We have -- I have not received a daily briefing on this, and I don't know. There's nothing on my calendar that says I'm going to get a briefing. Obviously, things can change. I know that the ranking member has asked for investigation. I haven't heard from my chairman yet. But I'm sure that we'll get to the bottom of whatever happened there.

BLITZER: Because the Republican chairman of both the House and the Senate Armed Services Committee, they want more information. They made it clear. This is not just Democrats who are pressing for more information, but Republicans like you as well.

GIMENEZ: No. Look, you know, it is what it is. Whatever happened, we need to go to the bottom of it. There are reports. I mean, some of the reports say that the objective was not achieved on the first strike, which was disabling the boat, destroying the boat, and so that the second strike was ordered. So, you know, I guess it all depends on the circumstances and then we'll get to the bottom to get the answers, and then we go from there.

BLITZER: Was it fair, do you believe, for the White House to single out Admiral Frank Bradley for directing that follow-up strike, the second strike on that boat, that had been damaged but not completely destroyed?

GIMENEZ: Well, I mean, who was the person that gave the order. I mean, that's the key thing here. Secretary Hegseth, from my understanding, gave the okay to go ahead and utilize, you know, a kinetic strikes against these --

BLITZER: So, it was Secretary Hegseth who ordered Admiral Bradley to go ahead with the second strike?

GIMENEZ: Well, no. Secretary Hegseth, look, okay. There's a boat. We know that it's a terrorist organization. It's bringing drugs into the United States. Those drugs have the capacity to kill hundreds of Americans, therefore, we are going to take it out. And so go ahead and launch your operations.

BLITZER: That was the first strike?

GIMENEZ: That's -- yes. And so then the operation is destroy the boat. And so now it's up to the admiral to determine, okay, what -- in what way he's going to carry out that mission. And so that's a mission. The mission is destroy the boat and make sure that none of the drugs can reach the United States.

Now, the admiral thought that it would -- it took, it would take two strikes, or at least after the first one, it needed another strike in order to accomplish his mission. So, that's what we need to get to the bottom of.

BLITZER: But if there were survivors on that boat clinging for their lives right now, they were injured, but they weren't killed, was it legal to go ahead and kill them?

GIMENEZ: The issue is the mission itself. What is the mission? The mission is the destruction of the boat and the destruction of all the drugs. Then, yes, okay, that's the mission. And so the, if the mission was, well, now we, you know, just to have a second strike to kill -- just to kill the, you know, survivors that is --

BLITZER: That potentially could be a work crime.

GIMENEZ: That's questionable. And so, again, what is the mission and well, what did the admiral think? What is he carrying -- I'm confident that the admiral thought he was carrying out his mission, which is --

BLITZER: Why is it questionable? Why is it questionable to order a strike to kill individuals who were survivors?

GIMENEZ: These are terrorists, okay? These are absolute terrorists. I didn't see this kind of scrutiny when the Obama administration was launching drone strikes against terrorist organizations in the Middle East. I mean, that happened all the time, okay? And so, you know, I didn't see this kind of scrutiny about the survivors, et cetera. These are terrorists. They're bringing poison into the United States. They have killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. And we need to understand that killed far more Americans than Al-Qaeda or --

BLITZER: So, let me just be precise with you, Congressman.

GIMENEZ: And so I have no problem with the kinetic strikes that are happening in the Caribbean killing and destroying the drugs that are killing American citizens have been killing American citizens for years.

BLITZER: But if they're injured in the initial strike and they're surviving and they're clinging onto this boat, do they represent a threat to the United States?

GIMENEZ: Well, it depends on what the mission is. And the mission is the destruction of the boat and all the drugs that are on it, and that maybe some of these drugs can be picked up by another boat, yes. And so, again, this is all speculation. We need to get to the bottom of it. So, I'm not going sit here and second guess.

BLITZER: But the admiral order was legitimate, it was not a war crime, is that what you're saying?

GIMENEZ: All I'm saying, what I'm saying is I'm not going to second guess the admiral right now.

[10:10:00]

We need to get to the bottom of exactly what happened, what the orders were, and what the objectives were, and then we'll determine what can go on from there. But right now everything is speculation.

BLITZER: But -- and I just want to make sure that when you say speculation, you have not received specific evidence backing up your position, right?

GIMENEZ: I haven't -- nobody's seen --

BLITZER: You haven't gotten a full scale briefing?

GIMENEZ: Nobody's had any briefing backing up any position. And so that's what we need to get to the bottom of, to determine what exactly happened. Everybody right now is speculating. Everybody, and I'm including everybody is speculating --

BLITZER: Including the president of the United States?

GIMENEZ: No, I'm not saying the president of the United States. He probably has all the facts, okay? But everybody else outside of that circle, they're probably speculating as to exactly what happened and why the orders were given. I'm saying I'm going to give the admiral the benefit of the doubt, a patriot that he is carrying out his mission. And so I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt because I think he deserves it.

BLITZER: And if the defense secretary, Hegseth, ordered him to do so, he was following the order from the defense secretary?

GIMENEZ: He was following the orders of the defense secretary saying that this is a threat to the United States. That boat with those terrorists on it are a threat to the United States. We've known that these drugs have killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, and so now we're going to destroy that boat so it never gets the chance to come to America, and those drugs never get the chance to kill any Americans. That's the order. Destroy the boat, destroy the drugs. That's what I would assume would be the order given to the admiral. And then the admiral carries out the orders to the best of his ability.

BLITZER: But you're anxious to get a lot more information in a full- scale briefing from the Defense Department.

GIMENEZ: Yes, absolutely.

BLITZER: And that hasn't happened yet?

GIMENEZ: That hasn't happened yet.

BLITZER: I understand that you support the ousting of the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, but what do you say to all those Americans who voted for President Trump because he vowed on the campaign trail to end wars and to stay out of foreign wars?

GIMENEZ: Well, look I look at Nicolas Maduro and that regime as a threat to the United States, a direct threat to the United States. He is the leader of the Cartel de los Soles. The Cartel de los Soles has been designated a foreign terrorist organization. And like I said, these foreign terrorists, these narco traffickers, have killed hundreds of thousands of Americans in the last five years, far more than any other terrorist organization.

And so Nicolas Maduro is a threat to the security of the United States. And so I have no problem in Nicolas Maduro leaving. He's also the illegitimate ruler of Venezuela. There were free elections last year. He lost. He refused to turn over power. And so, you know, I think the Venezuelan people deserve freedom and democracy. But I also believe, because I do represent the United States of America, I'm a U.S. congressman, Nicolas Maduro is a threat to the safety and wellbeing of the American people.

BLITZER: So, I just want to be precise, Congressman. Yes or no, is the Trump administration pursuing what's called regime change against Maduro in Venezuela?

GIMENEZ: I haven't gotten a briefing from the Trump administration as to what it is they're pursuing right now. I'm going to take them at their face value, which is they're protecting the American homeland from these narco-terrorists, and they've designated Nicolas Madura as the leader of the Cartel de los Soles. There's a $50 million bounty on his capture. So, he's a criminal and also a number of his henchmen are also -- they have bounties on them too.

And so I would support the American -- you know, President Trump, his efforts to remove Maduro from power and bring him to justice. That's what I would support.

BLITZER: And would you support to do so, not just airstrikes from the U.S. aircraft carrier battle group, et cetera, but ground troops going in, a land war?

GIMENEZ: I would support, you know, the removal of Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela. It is the right thing --

BLITZER: So, you're saying the U.S. troops --

GIMENEZ: It is the right thing to do for the -- to protect the American homeland and the American people, and obviously the right thing to do for the Venezuelan people.

Now, what it's going to take to do that, he's asked him, you know, a number of times you need to leave because you're not legitimate and you need to leave, Maduro hasn't taken up -- taken him up on that. And so, you know, I do support Nicolas Maduro no longer being the leader of Venezuela.

BLITZER: Do you have any concerns that President Trump's decision to pardon the former Honduran president who was serving, what, a 45-year prison sentence here in the United States for drug trafficking offensive undercuts his administration's justification for these lethal strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean?

GIMENEZ: I wish that I knew more about him, okay?

BLITZER: The former president.

GIMENEZ: I really don't know much about him, or what his --

BLITZER: He was convicted here in the United States.

GIMENEZ: -- and what his circumstances were. You know, I'm not crazy about pardons by anybody. And so I haven't spoken to the administration as to the reasoning behind it. And so, you know, that's my position on that.

But, you know, I go back to Nicolas Maduro, and, frankly, not only Nicolas Maduro, but all the cartels that are working in the entire area that have been a threat to the United States and our security and have killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.

[10:15:12]

We haven't -- we have done a woefully inadequate job of protecting the American people.

So, actually, I applaud the president of the United States to actually finally taking some decisive action to stop this flow of poison that's been coming into the United States. And it's not just in Venezuela. Obviously, we know that, you know, a lot of it is produced in Colombia and a lot of it is also facilitated by the cartels in Mexico. And so I want a more direct -- I want a more direct action against those people that have been killing Americans.

BLITZER: And with all due respect, do you want the U.S. to expand its military operations, not only in Honduras, but in Mexico and Colombia as well?

GIMENEZ: I would expect that I would want the president of the United States talks to the president of Mexico and asked the president of Mexico to take a more direct stance and more decisive action against the cartels that control her northern border. Those cartels were responsible for flooding America with millions of illegal immigrants. And those cartels are also responsible for flooding America with lethal Fentanyl that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, and those cartels are in cahoots with China, because China produces 97 percent of the precursor drugs that make fentanyl. And so China's also involved in all this.

And so we've been turning a blind eye far too long to the murder of American citizens. The number one job of the government is to protect its citizens. And we knew exactly where this was coming from and, frankly, we haven't done a very good job of protect the American citizens. I applaud the president of the United States now taking a more direct action to protect America.

BLITZER: But it sounds like you would even want more action.

GIMENEZ: Oh, yes, believe me. Hey, you know, I've seen what's happening. I know what's happening. You know, everybody in this country knows somebody who has died from a drug overdose. It's the number one killer of young, you know, men and women, 18 to 34, is drug overdoses. All of it fueled by these cartels, all of it with chemicals that were produced in China, all of them, you know, distributed by all these cartels. And for years, we did nothing or very, very little. Obviously, what we were doing wasn't working, or else we'd have 500 to a million more Americans alive today if we had done something about it.

BLITZER: Congressman Carlos Gimenez of Florida, thanks very much for coming in.

GIMENEZ: My pleasure.

BLITZER: We'll continue this conversation, to be sure.

GIMENEZ: Thank you.

BLITZER: And right now, negotiators -- U.S. negotiators are in the Kremlin preparing to meet with Vladimir Putin. Can these talks actually shift the war?

And a massive bomb cyclone taking shape right now, the record-breaking storm burying the Midwest, causing hundreds of crashes as it barrels east with 55 million Americans in the crosshairs.

Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:00]

BLITZER: Happening now, the White House special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow just two days after they met with the Ukrainian delegation in Florida. They're trying to get Putin on board with an updated version of a peace proposal that some saw the original version that is as favoring Moscow.

But major obstacles clearly remain. Russia wants territory from Ukraine, while Ukraine wants guarantees that Russia won't attack in the future. And just moments ago, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this. He said, more than ever, there is a chance to end this war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: America's taking serious steps to end this war one way or another. And our task, and I'm sure that this is our common task for everyone in Europe, is to really end this war, their war, not just to get a pause in the fighting. We need a decent, dignified peace. And for that to happen, everyone must be on the side of peace, everyone in Europe and all nations that value peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's go live right now to CNN's Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Matthew Chance. He's joining us live from Moscow right now. Matthew, the U.S. delegation says there's room for optimism right now. Is that a view shared by the Kremlin?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, that's a good question because both the U.S. and the Ukrainians are speaking very positively after the outcome of those intensive negotiations that they had in Geneva last week, in South Florida at the weekend, to try and forge a common position that might be able to get around some of the most difficult obstacles in the U.S.-backed peace plan, things like NATO, membership for Ukraine, which it constitutionally wants to have, you know, things like, you know, the size of the army, the other issues that have been real obstacles the territorial surrenders as well, the fact that Russia wants Ukraine to give up territory that has been annexed by Moscow, but not yet conquered by its military.

The big question is, though, will the compromises that have been discussed and talked about between the U.S. and Ukraine be acceptable to the Kremlin? Because even though the Kremlin has welcomed the idea of a U.S.-backed peace effort, they've called it, you know, an important initiative, they've made it very clear that unless that initiative delivers to them what they regard to a victory, all of the objectives of the Ukraine war, what they still call here the special military operation, then they're just going to reject it and they're going to perceive with the military campaign on the ground.

So, it's an important day for U.S. diplomacy. Steve Witkoff, the Trump special envoy, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, they arrived here a couple of hours ago.

[10:25:00]

There are pictures on state television of them sort of, you know, taking a stroll through Red Square, looking at a New Year's market before entering the security gates of the Kremlin compound.

It's not clear yet whether the meeting has actually started. The Kremlin said it was going to begin around about 5:00. It's now 6:30. President Putin is notoriously late for events like this. And actually at 6:00, he was still delivering a speech to an international investment forum several miles away from the Kremlin. So, we don't know, you know, whether the meeting's underway yet. If it's not underway, it will be soon.

But we're all watching very closely to see what the outcome is, whether this is -- you know, whether the Kremlin sort of comments positively about what's being presented to it today or whether, you know, the U.S. delegation, Witkoff and Kushner, are going to leave empty handed. Wolf?

BLITZER: Well, we'll find out fairly soon, I'm sure.

Matthew Chance and Moscow for us, Matthew, thanks very much.

Coming up, a historic garden bulldoze, a White House wing reduced to wreckage and flashy monuments muscling their way onto the map. New CNN reporting just how aggressively President Trump is reshaping the nation's capital in his image.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:00]