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The Situation Room

Questions Grow About Caribbean Boat Strikes; Grim Picture of Affordability; Rhode Island Manhunt. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired December 16, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Happening now: high anxiety in Rhode Island, the urgent manhunt under way for the suspect in the deadly shooting at Brown University.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And breaking news: three major economic headlines painting a very grim picture of affordability in America. How the White House is now responding.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

Happening now: The U.S. military says it conducted new strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats. The U.S. Southern Command says eight people were killed. The strikes happened in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

BROWN: At least 95 people have been killed since the U.S. campaign against alleged drug boats began back in September, and there are mounting questions from lawmakers on both sides about the legality and justification for the attacks.

Both Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed senators just a short time ago and are now preparing to answer questions from House members.

Let's go live now to CNN correspondent Arlette Saenz.

Arlette, lawmakers are just getting out of the briefing. What do we know?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have spent about an hour briefing senators in a classified setting.

And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer emerged a short while ago saying that they did not show the video of that double tap strike that killed survivors on an alleged drug trafficking boat back in September. That is something that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been pressing the Pentagon to give them access to.

Here is what Schumer said, as he noted the administration came empty- handed to this briefing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): ... video of what happened on September 2. He refused. The administration came to this briefing empty-handed. That's the major question that we face. And if they can't be transparent on this, how can you trust their transparency on all the other issues swirling about in the Caribbean?

Every senator is entitled to see it if there is no problem with sources and methods, because the senators will see it in the SCIF. I also believe that every American should see an appropriate version of this, of the unedited -- of -- well, they should see an appropriate version of what happened on September the 2nd.

I saw it. It was deeply troubling. In my Gang of Eight meeting last week, I asked Secretary Hegseth, let every senator see it. He said he'd think about it. Today, he came up with no answer and no tape.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, two Republican senators told our colleagues that this video would be made available to senators on the committees of jurisdiction, so likely Senate Armed Services, potentially Senate Intelligence Committee.

But Democrats and some Republicans have been pushing for this video to be released to all lawmakers, as well as the public. Now, Schumer also said that he did not get a clear outline of the administration's greater plans relating to their actions in the Caribbean and off the coast of Venezuela.

But there was one Republican senator who came out of this briefing, Tim Sheehy, who said that the administration has been illegally justified in their actions, that he did not think any differently after hearing -- appearing at this briefing from Hegseth and Rubio.

But now we are expecting Hegseth and Rubio to make their way shortly over to the House side, where they will brief all members there, as members of both parties continue to have questions about the administration's actions relating to these boat strikes and their greater plans on Venezuela.

BROWN: All right, Arlette Saenz on Capitol Hill, thank you so much.

And Senator, Republican Senator and White House ally Markwayne Mullin had a different account of the briefing from what we just heard from Chuck Schumer. Let's take a listen to that.

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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Isn't your oversight responsibility to understand everything that happened? SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-OK): Each committee? Well, not everybody's on Intel.

(CROSSTALK)

MULLIN: And there's reasons, but not everybody's on Intel. You know that. You have been up here covering that for a long time. You know committees have certain jurisdiction. So the question you're asking is why.

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They don't have jurisdiction over it.

(CROSSTALK)

MULLIN: It is a classification issue. Listen, let's talk about -- let's talk about the whole big picture here. Let's -- no, we do, because I'm on the committee that has jurisdiction over it.

(CROSSTALK)

MULLIN: Not everybody's able to go on the Intel SCIF either. You know this. How long you have been up here covering this.

(CROSSTALK)

RAJU: OK, but this (OFF-MIKE) of the briefing?

MULLIN: But this is a full -- you asked about the video. I told you about the video, why it's not being shown. And if you don't like the answer, I can't help that. I don't make the classification.

RAJU: No, I'm trying to understand it. I'm trying to understand it.

MULLIN: OK. I told you the classification of it. I'm not trying to be combatant here, guys. This is the classification of it. If you don't like classification, talk to the White House about it.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) talk about what the stated goal is.

MULLIN: Let's talk about the whole picture here as a whole. Guys, I'm losing patience on the whole thing, because I think it's ridiculous that we're having this conversation, because, underneath Obama, he had 500 strikes; 3,700 different individuals were killed. There wasn't a big show about this.

What you guys are all upset about is the hemisphere that it's working in. The hemisphere is, these are drug terrorist organizations, the same people that Obama went after, some people we have been over for the last 24 years, were terrorist organizations that were wanting to kill Americans.

There has been more Americans killed because of these terrorist cartels drugging our streets, drugging everyone in your old streets, everyone in your old towns, everyone in the audience's towns. We killed -- they killed more people in 2024 on our streets than we lost in the entire Vietnam War for U.S. personnel.

These are terrorist organizations that are poisoning our streets. The president has the authority to do so. The argument is, is this too close to our shores? Does anybody doubt that these are terrorist organizations? Does anybody have a question about these being terrorist organizations?

So what's the difference between Obama attacking these individuals when they were deemed terrorist organizations in the Middle East versus the ones that are here right now poisoning our streets? That's what the whole conversation is about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: All right, you heard that very fiery press conference there in the exchange between our Manu Raju and Senator Markwayne Mullin.

And as questions persist about those boat strikes, and we know that the hearing is happening on Capitol Hill now between Secretary Hegseth and Marco Rubio with now members of the House. So we will wait and see what they have to say on all of this.

And still ahead here in THE SITUATION ROOM: Charges could be filed against the son of Rob and Michele Reiner today, as we learn new details about the hours before their murder.

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BLITZER: Happening now: Investigators say they are chasing a new lead in Saturday's mass shooting over at Brown University. And they need your help.

Police are releasing this new video of a person of interest as being described walking through Providence, Rhode Island, in the hours before the attack that killed two students and wounded nine others. The FBI is also now offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

BROWN: And we're also learning more about the victims.

Ella Cook, a 19-year-old who served as the vice president of the Brown University College Republicans' chapter, this morning, we're learning her home state of Alabama is lowering flags to half-staff to honor her. And Muhammad Aziz Umurzakov, an 18-year-old student from Virginia, an online fund-raiser says that he dreamed of becoming a neurosurgeon and helping people.

So now let's turn to the investigation.

Joining us is John Miller, CNN's chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, and CNN senior law enforcement analyst and former Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe.

John, let's kick it off with you. You can't see the full face here on these new images we're seeing. How helpful can they be in identifying that person?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Extraordinarily helpful, and more relevantly with someone who knows that person, because they might have insight that goes beyond the, wow, that kind of looks like him under all of that clothing and mask too, but they have also been acting strangely or they had a particular animus towards that college or students.

So they're hoping that these will generate that lightbulb moment from someone who say, wow, I think I know who that is. Beyond that, they have other leads, I mean, active leads, promising leads that point to different people.

Now, we know that these are fluid investigations. You can have the most promising lead in the world and that can wash out. You can have nothing and something can come out of the ether very quickly and pan out. And that's basically on day four where we are. They're working those, but they're also hoping this video generates that other call.

BROWN: And the FBI says the suspected shooter in these videos is -- quote -- "approximately 5'8'' with a stocky build." And some have said that person has a distinctive gait in their walk.

You can see that when you look there at the videos. I'm wondering, Andrew McCabe, if you were at the FBI, how important are those details when put in front of the public?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, Pam, they're crucially important and mostly because they're the type of things that someone who actually knows this person might recognize you.

You and I, we don't know him. We might -- that wouldn't stand out to us. But if you knew this person, you are a family member or a work colleague or a friend or something, seeing someone who looks vaguely like the person you know and then realizing they have the same walk, they have a jacket that has the same green and black multiple colored dark front, they're known to wear a mask, those are the sorts of things that people who know will key upon.

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The really important thing right now, though, with these videos is what the FBI and their law enforcement colleagues do with it. This is a tool, and they need to use it as they reinterview every witness they have spoken to so far. They need to get back out into the community in a massive way and interact with as many people as they possibly can who were in that area on Saturday and use this video to prompt recollections of things that people might have seen.

BLITZER: And, Andy, a question from me. Do you believe the 50 -- hold on one second. Just want to interrupt.

The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth emerging from a briefing making this statement. Let's listen.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS) MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: ... and provide updates on this

counterdrug mission, which is focused on dismantling the infrastructure of these terrorist organizations that are operating in our hemisphere, undermining the security of Americans, threat -- killing Americans, poisoning Americans.

And this has been a highly successful mission that's ongoing and continued, and we're pleased to be here today to update Congress on how that's developing and how that's moving forward. As I said, I believe it's our 22nd, 23rd such engagement, certainly at least the fourth or fifth that I have been involved in. And those will remain and be ongoing.

OK?

(CROSSTALK)

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: I would just echo that it. It is the 22nd bipartisan briefing we have had on a highly successful mission to counter designated terrorist organizations, cartels bringing weapons, weapons meaning drugs, to the American people and poisoning the American people for far too long.

So we're proud of what we're doing, able to lay it out very directly to these senators and soon to the House, but it's all classified. We can't talk about it now. We're also going to tomorrow allow the HASC and SASC to see the unedited video of the September 2, alongside with Admiral Bradley, who has done a fantastic job has made all the right calls and we're glad he will be there to do it.

But in keeping with longstanding Department of War policy, Department of Defense policy, of course, we're not going to release a top secret full unedited video of that to the general public. HASC and SASC and appropriate committees will see it, but not the general public.

BLITZER: All right, so there you have it, the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio.

And it's interesting, Pamela. He said the full video, unedited, won't be seen by the American public, but by select members of the House and Senate.

BROWN: Yes, and that is notable. We should note that DOD has been releasing videos of the boat strikes, but they have been edited. He did not clarify whether there could be an edited version of that second boat strike released to the public, but that is definitely news, because there had been calls for the whole video to be released.

Even President Trump initially said the video should be released, and then he backtracked on that and claimed he hadn't said it, even though he had. And so we're getting a bit of news here after this briefing with House members. We will wait to see what the House members think about this.

We just heard from Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, who felt like they weren't being transparent and forthcoming on all the information. BLITZER: Yes, they want these videos to be released. The president

initially said they would be, but then he backtracked after Hegseth said they're not going to be released necessarily, and they're sticking by that, at least for now.

All right, we're going to continue to monitor that. I want to get back to Andrew McCabe and John Miller. We were talking about the $50,000 reward that's now been made available to someone who gives information leading to the arrest of an individual who may have been involved in the Brown University shooting incident.

Do you believe, Andy, that that $50,000 reward will actually wind up making a difference in finding this suspect?

MCCABE: Wolf, I don't have great confidence that it will.

But I tell you, what the reward is for is, first of all, it brings additional attention to the investigation. The simple issuance of the reward attracts eyeballs, which we will then look at and see the photograph and the videos that we're talking about. So it does have a positive impact in that way.

Cases in which the reward is crucial are when you have a -- let's say, a homicide and you think there are people who were involved or involved with the participants who might be motivated by money to basically turn on their associates. That's clearly not what we have here.

I think members of the public, if they have information, are willing to bring it because people want to see that this killer is taken off the street. So I don't know that it'll have that sort of incentive, but it will bring additional eyeballs and attention to the case.

BLITZER: Yes, lots of news unfolding.

All right, Andrew McCabe and John Miller, to both of you, thank you very, very much.

BROWN: Thank you.

Still ahead here in THE SITUATION ROOM: unemployment hitting a four- year high, Americans' spending stalled. What new data out this morning says about the state of the economy.

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BROWN: Breaking news: a warning sign for the U.S. economy and a grim picture for affordability. The unemployment rate hit a four-year high at 4.6 percent, while retail sales were the weakest in five months, a sign that America's economic engine is sputtering.

And paychecks are growing at the slowest rate in more than four years, barely outpacing inflation. This is a much different picture than President Trump is painting of the current state of the economy and affordability.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're getting inflation -- we're crushing it. And you're getting much higher wages. I mean, the only thing that's really going up big is called the stock market and your 401(k).

QUESTION: I do want to talk about the economy, sir, here at home. And I wonder what grade you would give your economy.

TRUMP: A-plus.

BURNS: A-plus.

TRUMP: Yes, A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus.

The word affordability is a con job. They use the word affordability. It's a Democrat hoax. Look, affordability is a hoax.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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BROWN: All right, let's go live now to the White House with CNN's Alayna Treene.

So how is the White House responding to these new numbers, Alayna?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, look, I mean, we knew that these reports were going to be delayed. These were reports that came because the government had been shut down. We're now getting this data from October and November.

But what they confirm is what a lot of economists have been warning about, this idea of a softening labor market. Now, we did hear from the president's national economic director this morning, Kevin Hassett. He essentially argued that case, that point. He said, essentially, that because the government was shut down, he argued that some people, he said -- quote -- "just sort of hold off on hiring."

He said there's high economic uncertainty during the period when this data was being gathered. And so he blamed it on that, arguing that, in the future, we should see some changes, some more improvement in the job market.

But I think the most troubling sign for the administration is that number that you have really underlined, this idea that the unemployment rate had rose to a four-year high of 4.6 percent last month. That is not a good place for them to be. And it adds to a lot of the concerns we know that Americans are having about inflation, about unemployment, about wages and jobs overall.

Something I have been hearing repeatedly, because I have been doing a lot of coverage of this issue, affordability, as has been the buzzword of recent months, Pamela, is this idea that Trump administration officials argue that things will improve next year, that Americans' average wages are rising faster than the rate of inflation, that some of the president's policies, like his tax cuts, need time to be baked in.

That is actually going to be the message that you're going to hear the vice president, J.D. Vance, deliver in Pennsylvania today. He's slated to begin his speech any moment now. And, really, from my conversations, what I think a lot of people are looking for is for him to make more of the nuanced and empathetic kind of case for the economy under the Trump administration than what we heard from the president, kind of declaring it stronger than ever.

He's going to try to argue, look, we know you're in pain, we hear you, give it some time. We will see if that works, because this is a huge issue that this White House has, and they know it, before the midterms next year.

BROWN: Yes, Alayna Treene from the White House, thank you -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And there's more breaking news we're following. Two days after the deaths of Hollywood director and actor Rob Reiner and his wife Michele, their son Nick Reiner, 32 years old, is set to make his first court appearance in Los Angeles.

Police say Nick Reiner is responsible, their words, is responsible for the deaths of his parents in their Brentwood home. A source says he was seen arguing, arguing with his father Saturday night.

BROWN: Let's go live now to see him CNN's Stephanie Elam right outside that courthouse in Los Angeles.

Stephanie, what's the latest there?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The latest is that we're waiting for the district attorney's office to actually get the case from the Los Angeles Police Department.

And once they do that, then we could probably -- in that time, we will learn more about what charges Nick Reiner may be facing, right? Because right now, we do not know -- have a motive, nor do we even know how the Reiners were killed.

So it is possible that we may learn more at that point about how this transpired and why. This is less about who did this at this point, based on what we have seen, how they have worded things from the LAPD, saying that he was -- quote -- "responsible" for the deaths of his parents, and more trying to figure out what the motive was, was it in cold blood, was it in a moment of passion, those kind of things that we really just don't have any information out about at this time.

We're still waiting to hear. We keep checking in to see if we can get more answers. But, obviously, over these last couple of days, we have been trying to get more information about the timeline of what had occurred. So you heard about that Saturday night party at Conan O'Brien's house, where Rob Reiner and Nick Reiner reportedly got into a loud argument. No, it's not clear on whether or not they left together. We also know

Michele Reiner was there at that party as well. We know that the police did get to the scene in the 3:00 hour at local time p.m., and that Nick was arrested in the 9:00 p.m. hour on Sunday and then booked into jail early Monday morning.

So that's what we know so far. What we need to know now is what else happened and any more details that come out of the Los Angeles Police Department handing over to the district attorney.

BLITZER: All right, Stephanie, Stephanie Elam, reporting for us. Thanks for that update.

And only moments ago, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, spoke about their first of two briefings up on Capitol Hill about the very controversial September boat strike in the Caribbean.

BROWN: CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju joins us.

So what did you take away from their comments, Manu?

RAJU: Yes, there was a lot of controversy emerging from these -- classified briefing because of the decision by the secretaries not to show the full, unedited video of that September 2 boat strike, the multiple strikes that occurred that day, and very specifically that follow-up strike that occurred that killed survivors in the Caribbean.