♪ a trump call recorded again and this time, he is heard pressuring two michigan election workers to not certify the 2020 presidential elections, the call, the promises on the call and the potential fallout today. and president biden heading into the new year with a game plan and campaign target, and as you can imagine, the target is donald trump, and the message he is planning to deliver to voters in key battleground states ahead. if you are traveling for the holidays, take comfort to know that you will be joined by millions of your closest friends that you have not met yet.

the busiest christmas travel season yet is under way and we will track how is it going for you. i'm kate bolduan with sara sidner and john is off today. this is cnn "news central." donald trump, again, recorded pressuring officials in the futile attempts to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 election. first, it was in georgia where he called the secretary of state and everyone heard that phone call. then, it was arizona where he called governor and house speaker, and we have heard that testimony. now the "detroit news" has unearthed audio where donald trump was recorded pressuring election workers there not to certify the election. imagine that phone call. and now, canvassers in wayne county were met to certify the

election for joe biden because he won, but two initially voted no, but then they were chastised by their fellow canvassers. listen. >> those in favor, aye. >> there is no reason under the sun for us not to certify this election. i believe that politics made its presence here today. this is reckless and irresponsible actions by this board. >> those words got some traction. they changed their votes then to yes to certify the election. the next day, they were sent to come back in to sign that certification, but before they signed the papers, the then president donald trump called those workers. the "detroit news" who broke the news said donald trump said how can you sign something that has more votes than people.

cnn does not have the recordings, and we cannot independently listen to them, but the "detroit news" is a great paper, and so with are joined by marshall cohen, and so what else did trump the get caught saying on the call, and what is happening here? >> he said a lot, and it is incredible, sara, to learn what he said. we knew at the time in november of 2020 that he had made these calls, but we didn't know what happened on the calls, and now, thanks to "the detroit news" we know. let me read for you some of the quotes, and this is donald trump on the phone call with local officials in wayne county in detroit. he said, quote, we can't let these people take our country away from us. everybody knows that detroit is crooked as hell. he was pedalling false claims of dead people voting in detroit and shifting the votes away from him and towards joe biden, and of course, that was a complete

lie. this is where it is serious the next quote. r rona mcdaniel who is the chair of the rnc was also on the call and said do not sign it referring to the certification papers, do not sign it. we will get you attorneys, and that is where trump followed up and said, we will take care of that. why do you need an attorney if you are not doing anything wrong, and it is a critical question, and that is why the tapes like these will factor into the criminal trial here in d.c. against donald trump where he is accused of doing stuff just like this to disenfranchise voters and overturn the election that he lawfully lost. >> yep. clawing an attorney is sometimes an indication of guilt as i learned from elie honig, i have learned. and now, for r rona mcdaniel is

the chair of the rnc and what is her camp responding to? >> well, she is saying that she wanted an audit and nothing to interfere. and this is a statement from steven chung the top spokesman for the trump campaign. all of the trump actions were taken in furtherance as duty of president of the united states to faithfully take care of the laws and ensure election integrity, but look, sara, trying to overturn an election, that not election integrity. >> correct, since it has been proven time and again by courts and everyone else that the votes were what they were, and joe biden won the 2020 election. marshall cohen, thank you for all of your great reporting throughout, and there have been so many things dug up, and thank you to "the detroit news" for the exclusive today.

thank you. and with all of this we have matt lewis from the "daily beast" and also the former communications director for ted cruz alice stewart. so alice, coming off of what marshall laid out, what do you think of this? >> well, three things, kate. one, donald trump does not like to lose. two, when he does lose, he likes to deny it, and try to overturn the numbers. and three, win or lose for donald trump, i have full and complete confidence in our election process and election officials across the country and what we are seeing is here is a perfect example of that. look, clearly donald trump and rona mcdaniel didn't like the outcome there in wayne county and she felt there was reason to have an inquiry, but this is not how you do it. you don't get the president of the united states on the line with the people at that level and try and intimidate them and pressure them to not signing off on them. i have been deputy secretary of state, and i have overseen elections at the state level,

and i know how it works, and i support the michigan secretary of state jocelyn beeson who has confidence in how they handled this. this is going to show yet again that regardless of the outcome of these elections, we can look back at the people who are running these elections and certifying the elections doing the right thing and fortunately not being pressured by anyone including the president of the united states to try and change the outcome. >> you know, matt, it is, yes, it is the first time that anyone is hearing these details, but it is more of what everyone knows donald trump was doing after the election. i am kind of left just imagine what it was like, what it is like to be a local republican getting this call. >> i can't imagine it. i mean, obviously, we have seen examples where you have had the poll workers who were intimidated and this is a little different. i think that this is maybe not fear, but it is a sense of almost duty. i mean, if you are a republican

canvasser who when the president of the united states calls you up, and think of the immense temptation, and even if you are not afraid of retribution from a guy who promises retribution, and just the temptation to want to please him, to want to say, yes. i mean, that is really the power differential there is unbelievable. look, it worked to a certain extent, right? they tried to change their vote. i agree with alice. there are a lot of republican officials around the country, especially in georgia who did rise to the occasion and ultimately did the right thing, but i don't just think that it is automatically going to happen that the system will always hold, because when you have a president telling you to do something, you typically do it. >> alice, broaden this out now.

it is new information like this and new reporting coming out that continues to put donald trump's republican rivals in a sticky spot, call him out or don't, and no matter what, and no matter what, ron desantis said in a new interview, it is donald trump again sucking the oxygen out of the primary and it is 24 days to iowa. i want to play what nikki haley is now facing in this. >> i want to subvert you, and i also want to hear from you that you think that there is a danger here. >> i would not be running if i didn't think that he is not the right person at the right time. i have said it multiple times, i don't think it is good for the country for donald trump to become president again. vi i have made it clear, but the problem is that i have faced that anti-trumpers think that i don't hate him enough, and

pro-trumpers are mad i don't love him enough. i just call it like i see it. >> and so i am interested in this of how she responded and what it says about her strategy. >> the standpoint of working on three presidential campaigns and winning three iowa caucuses. >> meaning you have credentials, and keep going. >> but that question is an outlier, and most people in iowa are asking, what are you going to do to help me to put food on the table? what are you going to do to keep things safe? what are you going to fix immigration? how are you going to turn the economy around? and when she gets a question like that, she will address it, but speaking with the campaign ps out there, and most of the questions out there are about the economy and health care and jobs, and when they are asked about it in picking every stupid thing that donald trump does or says or denying the election results, i feel like they have

done what they needed to do is to push back on his statements and his actions, but trying to do so in a way that does not alienate the base, and they have done that, but two weeks out from the iowa caucus, and the gloves are off, and they are becoming a little bit more forceful against donald trump, but again, those aren't what voters in the early states are asking about writ large when they are at the town halls. >> matt, checking with the ron desantis approach in what he is, to your point, and ron desantis will say that he wants to focus on those kitchen table issues, and we have been hearing it from the surrogates on the show, and he is trying to differentiate himself by saying is that trump is not a real conservative or conservative enough on things like abortion, and same time, i am seeing the commentary, like op-eds in new"new york times" making a secret sauce of trump he is a secret moderate looking at the policies and the rhetoric. and please, tell me what you

think about this. >> well, look, it is an interesting thing that ron desantis is doing, right. i agree that donald trump is not an ideologically pure conservative, and not that i would trust him to implement some conservative policy, and i don't think that most voters would care about that, and most voters are more comfortable with donald trump being moderate, and for example on the abortion issue, and so i think that desantis is running ted cruz' campaign, and why would he be doing that though? ted cruz lost, right? yes, he did. but guess what ted cruz won? he won iowa. so everything that ron desantis is doing now is about one thing -- winning iowa. that is what he hopes to do. i think it is a failed strategy if he wants to be the nominee, but right now, he has to live to fight another day, and this all about winning iowa, and this is cruz's play, sorry, desantis'

play. i am confused. >> i know exactly what you meant. they are the same in politics. thank you, thank you, thank you. >> thank you, kate. >> all right. still ahead, two new reports showing that inflation is easing, and people are actually starting to feel better about the economy. we will break down the numbers for you next. plus, president biden's campaign plan to show voters that donald trump is a threat to democracy. we will show you the new strategy coming up for the new yeyear.

just in, well, the state of the economy is looking good in

the neighborhood and consumer sentiment is soaring 14% in december reversing all of the declines from the last four months. those new numbers from the university of michigan is showing that consumers' worries of inflation is fading. we bring in vanessa and the reason is that the fear of inflation is coming down? >> well, it is a good analysis, but we want to know how people are feeling, and this report is telling us essentially that you are seeing a huge jump from consumer sentiment from november to december. in november it was up 13.7% up from the month before. as you said, this is led because people are feeling better about inflation. those cooling numbers and potentially cooling prices and a little bit, and even the expectations in the report of how people are feeling about the

future of economy and feeling better about it, and the outlook is good, and that is important, because so much can change in such a period of time, and we have good indicators of what is going on in the economy, and especially in the federal reserve which is projected the rate cuts in 2024 which is encouraging news, and maybe people are taking it in a little bit. >> you are looking at the fed's favorite inflation gauge, the price index. what is it telling us? >> pce, the personal consumption expenditure, and potentially why we are seeing the good consumer sentiment numbers is because of a report like this. so we are actually seeing the cooling in november, and the first time we have seen that since april of 2020 when the pandemic began. that annual rate, 2.6% is cooling from what the reading was the month before. we are in the 2.0s and that is good news. that is where the fed wants us to be in the 2s and we have a

way to go, and the fed has made it clear that the fight against inflation is certainly not over yet, but we are moving in the right direction and potentially the way that americans are feeling about that is catching up to all of this data. >> i can tell you from the personal experience having lived in california for a long time, the gas prices are so much better than they were and that is all anyone talks about it, and when you are feeling like you are paying less for gas, you are going to be spending it at somewhere else, and for me, it is usually at starbucks. thank you, vanessa. kate? this time, we look at the e.g. carroll case against donald trump. could this end up in the supreme court. and now, targeting financial institutions that support the country's military to hit russia from another angle. details on that ahead.

this morning, we are getting insight into the new details of president biden's campaign strategy headed into the new year. it won't surprise you that the gop has not picked a candidate yet, but the biden team is setting its sights on president trump as everyone else is looking at the numbers as the inevitable nominee. part of the plan is to convince voters in key states that trump is a threat to democracy. key political analyst for the associated press simon kim is

joining us now. you know, as biden is heading into 2024, it is going to take two tacts, and one is reproductive health, and the attack and assault on that, and the other is really about the democracy in this country. how do you see them tackling this, because it is two things that polling wise he is doing pretty well in, correct? >> right. they certainly are in terms of president biden and his team. you can actually lump the two issues together in the overall concept of freedom which is kind of the theme that, if you will recall back to april when president biden launched the re-election campaign and did so with an ad, and freedom whether it is democracy in the classic sense or freedom of reproductive freedom, and that is the overarching theme, and that is what you will be hearing the democrats hammer for months up until november, because they feel it is a contrast that works and resonates with a broad swath

of voters. >> okay. so, i want to move on to something else, and what you think about this polling that has come out, because we have been talking a lot about the information coming out of gaza right now, and information coming out of israel as they are trying to get some of the hostages back, but the humanitarian crisis there has hit some democrats very hard and made them think about even being part of the biden administration as well as the voters are very loud and clear. for example, in a place like michigan where you have the highest population or the second highest population of arab americans who are looking at this and could potentially pendulumly vote, and looking at this, 72% were shown to be disapproving of how biden was handling the war, and is this is going to be playing a role in the swing states like michigan as we go further, and obviously, we are just under a year out from the election.

>> well, certainly, when you are talking about these swing states such as pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin and every vote is really going to matter. especially when the battleground, and those contested states are not that big. you are looking at the blue wall, and certainly biden's campaign is looking to retain georgia and arizona and they have their eyes set on north carolina and carefully watching nevada to make sure they don't lose that state, but every vote is going to matter, and watching discontent among the young voters and the arab american voters after the israel war, or the israel hamas war broke out in early october. i think that they are -- there is two thoughts. obviously, people generally feel that these are not votes that are necessarily going to donald trump, and the biden campaign has been highlighting that obviously in the last several weeks. looking at their, you know, you are looking at their reminders

to voters of the muslim ban that president, then president donald trump tried to implement plemted in the first weeks of office, and the disconsent of they don't like donald trump, but they don't like what biden has done in office, so it is the apathy that is making sure that the discontent does not spill over into next year when they start to vote. >> they may not go to polls for donald trump, but may not go at all, and if they can't live with that decision at all, and that may be damaging to joe biden overall. so bigger picture, if donald trump becomes the nominee for the republican party, what kind of change can they make, can the biden administration make to pull up their numbers against him or people like haley or

desantis, and you know, what i cannot stomach another trump four years, and i will go ahead to put my vote in for biden? >> well, i think they in terms of the polling, and how to make their case with the voters, the biden strategy is twofold. one is to continue in whatever way they can to communicate biden's accomplishments to the voters and make sure that the voters connect the accomplishments to what biden has done. looking at the research, and the democrats will tell you that if you are looking at the research and tell you all of the things that president biden has been able to get done in his first two to three years in office, and looking at the prescription drugs issue, in particular being very popular with the voters and the infrastructure law, and the other provisions of the infrastructure reduction act, and the voters have to make the connection of the popularity of the acts and the voters themselves. and the other big prong of that

is to continue to make the contrast of donald trump that we are talking about this morning. looking at the expensive campaign memo that julie rodriguez distributed to allies last night, and hammering away that democracy versus autocracy has not only been a pillar of the president biden's foreign policy agenda, but a hallmark of the campaign when he argues over and over that donald trump is going to be a threat to the democracy. so that is the two broad pillars, and i don't believe you will see that change. >> and especially the former president donald trump saying that he would be a dictator at least for the first day. that is certainly going to help the biden administration to prove a point. thank you, seung min kim. >> thank you. and now, another case yet may go to the supreme court, and another difficult position for the juststices that t is p putt them s smack dab in the middlel

a popolitical elelection.

donald trump is once again asking a court to delay one of his trials. this time it is the defamation trial brought by e. jean carroll, and the trial date is set for next month. his appeals attorneys have asked to push it back so they can consider other options including taking the case or trying to anyway to the supreme court. the federal appeals court ruled

that he waited too long to invoke the immunity allegations that stemmed from statements that he made in office. kara scannell is joining us now, and i mean, this could add to the supreme court's docket which is already growing and growing and growing, and just on the issues of donald trump, and what do you see happening? >> well, this is another one of the cases, and it means that another trial could potentially get delayed in a campaign year where really, the calendar is pretty full. there is not a lot of room there, and trump is asking the appeals court to say, i know that you ruled that i cannot use presidential immunity as a defense in this case, because i did not bring it in time, but can you give me more time, 90 days to decide what to do and that is asking the full appeals court here in new york to weigh in or go to the supreme court and see if they will take up the case, and this is about using the e. jean carroll's defamation suit of what he said while president. the trial judge said for several years and this is 2019 that she

brought it, and this is the the end of 2023 that he never raised presidential immunities until the last year, and he waited too long, and the appeals court agreed with that, and now this is where we are, and this trial is set for january 16th, and this appeals court is going to have decisions to make soon if they are going to entertain this or if they are doing to let their mandate telling the trial court judge proceed with the trial to stand. so, a little bit of the waiting game. and carroll's team has long avoided any delays, and they are both defendants in the late 70s and there needs to be justice and happen now, and trump had been found liable for defamation and sexual assault, and the second lawsuit that carroll brought, and it is not so much on the damages, and not so much on the defamation that has been established, but it is on damages. and how much he has to pay, and the jury award her $5 million and now she wants more than $10 in this separate action. >> it is the case of the

presidential power and whether you can do similar things or not, and similar case that the supreme court is looking at in a much bigger case. and goodness, so much to get through. and kara scannell, i know that you will be studying the whole holiday. thank you for being here. kate? >> and stopping by to talk more about this is the former deputy general of the united states, tom dupre, but starting with this latest of the e. jean carroll case as kara was laying out, and now, the trump team is asking for a delay to consider the legal options. what do you think that the legal options are? >> well, the options are to try to push this immunity issue as far as he can take it, and he has a few cards to play in court of appeals and he could get the supreme court interested in the case, and the strategy is to say, get me and my legal team a little breathing room to figure out the options and what we want to do and then potentially take the issue to the supreme court which could potentially, again, delay this trial.

>> we have known for quite some time that the former president's team is pushing for a delay as kind of like a broader general strategy with a lot of, if not all of the cases that he is up against. is there a limit to this? >> i think that there is. with the supreme court justices, i cannot believe they have a desire to jump into all of the trump legal challenges that they are presented with, because they have a limited docket and other important cases and issues to decide, and there hesitance to get involved in the political disputes, because inevitably no matter how they go or decide, a significant portion of the country is saying that is a political decision, and what business does the supreme court have to weigh in. so they are cautious and hesitant to get involved, but frankly, a lot of times they have no choice, and no shortage ofcations for them to take. >> and walking through some of

it, and i mean, looking at the paper, i wanted to apologize to people about it, and the position that the supreme court finds itself in to being asked to decide whether or not donald trump is covered by absolute presidential immunity in the federal election subversion case, and asked if the obstruction charge which is the core the january 6th cases, including trump's is viable, and likely to be asked if donald trump should be on the ballot in colorado after the insurrection decision there, and then possibly asked to weigh in on the e. jean carroll civil defamation case, and that is a lot. how do you see this happening here? what position does this put the court in really? it is really unprecedented. >> it is unprecedented. and you go back to look at the nation's history and say bush v. gore where the country was somewhat shocked that the united states supreme court would get involved in quote, unquote deciding a presidential election and that is one case. now as you have noted, we have

six, seven, eight possible cases going up there. it is a safe bet, they won't take all of them, but at the same time, they will take one or two of the case, and particularly that colorado case going up to the supreme court. they understand that every time they get involved in the political fray, there is somewhat of an institutional price to be paid for it. they will be cautious, judicious, and take some of the cases, but certainly not going to take all of these cases. >> it is great to see you, tomment thank you for coming in. >> thank you, kate. >> interesting conversation, kate. great. coming up, did you stay up late to catch the last meteor zha shower of the year? i can answer for both of us, no, we did not. so we can now look at the unbelievably beautiful pictures of the heavens. we will be right back.

white house officials are saying that president biden is planning to sign a new executive order with the goal of strengthening the sanctions against russia. senior administration officials are saying that the secondary sanctions will target the financial institutions that support the russia military and the war against ukraine or as another official said to pour sand in the gears of the military logistics. priscilla alvarez is live outside of the white house this morning, and this is something that the biden administration can do without congress to help fund the war in israel and ukraine at the same time, and so, tell us more about what is actually in the order and how it might work. >> well, as you mentioned there,

sara, the focus is on the secondary sanctions to go after the financial institutions, and the resounding message there being to disincentivize the type of behavior that furthering russia's ability in this war in a way that the senior administration official characterized it is that it is going to provide the u.s. a way to target institutions, goods, financial services in a more quote surgical way. so, again, it is strengthening the sanctions, but trying to fine tune them enough to crank it up on russia. the national security adviser jake sullivan said this in a statement. he said that the new sanction authorities will make clear to foreign financial institutions that facilitating significant transactions to the military bases will expose them to the sanctions risk, and we are sending an unmistakable message to the unlawful war effort is at risk of losing access to the u.s. financial system. but, while the u.s. can take

this on, strengthen the sanctions, it does not stop the war in ukraine, and that is also something that senior administration officials underscored, and that is what the white house is focused on going into the new year and that is getting the supplemental funding, the billions of dollars to ukraine to help them in the war against russia. >> all right. i do have to ask you a question about the biden administration is up to, and they are set to commute, i think 11 people, for non-violent drug fooffenses, an what are you learning about the commutations? >> this is what happened when the president pardoned some sentences, and in a people for serving disproportionately long sentences for long sentences, and others, but he said it is time we right these wrongs from president biden. >> thank you, priscilla alvarez

for the reporting on those twofronts. appreciate it. and now, two days before christmas, a check-in for you at the airports and as what is expected to be a record-setting week for travel is very much under way.

so, the last meteor shower of 2023 is lighting up the skies just in time for the holidays. at its peak, it is offering stargazers and just look at the pictures, they have a chance to see between 5 and 10 meteors per hour shooting across the sky. let's get over to derek van dam, and i have not seen it yet, but

it is so pretty from the images coming out. talk to us about it. >> for your celestial viewing pleasure, mother nature is giving us her last departing gift of 2023 just in time for the holiday season and here it is, the last meteor zhaoer of the year, so get outside away from the city lights and peer towards northeast. this is where we would typically look to find the big or the little dipper. so that is where you will have the highly likelihood of seeing the streaks of the ursid meteor shower where you will see the most likely probability of seeing 5 to 10 meteors in an hour. again, away from the city lights and clear open skies. this is peaking this week, and tonight is the night to see it peaking at midnight actually, and we have had meteors from the ursids in the last week, but

tonight, it is the highest likelihood to seeing the most number of meteors. of course, you have to have clear skies for that to take place. so if you are in the sout southwestern u.s., you are out of luck or the great lakes, but the east coast like my friends kate and sara, just get away from the big apple and head inland, because it is going to be pretty nice. >> if i must. now it is an assignment that i have to get out of the city. >> per the weatherman. >> and it would be very weird if you were not an outdoor enthusiast. but as a meteorologist -- i am just a little struck by that. thank you, derek. we will. >> now i am messing with the executive producer and messing up the time here, and this is not a nice christmas present. >> no, it is not. >> but when that meteor zhshowe is going full blast i am going to be looking at something more beautiful which is the back of my eyes, because that is the better place for me on the weekend.

>> i support you in the endeavors, doi do. >> let me know how it looks. >> the iphone pictures are going to be so much better than what we are seeing out there from the professional photographers. >> i am being wrapped. i will listen to them today, because it is the holidays. >> just do it. >> and the bearing gifts traverse from afar and millions of americans are traveling this weekend. and american airlines the largest carrier, they expect today to be the biggest of the holiday travel period, and airports nationwide are bracing for potentially record-breaking numbers again. we just need to get out as they want to avoid the disastrous travel from last year. no one wants to relive that. pete muntean is live where he probably has a whole pad to live in at reagan international airport. and pete, what are you looking at right now, and how do the airports prepare, because there are staffing issues an top of

all of us trying to go to the airport to go somewhere to see the family? >> well, it was a tough lesson for everyone to learn especially southwest after the 10-day meltdown that started pretty much a year ago today. 16,900 flights cancel and 2 million passengers left in the lurch. southwest says it has turned the page, and more deicing available, and war games behind the scenes have been done, and so far, things are smooth. at reagan international airport, the security line has taken people less than five minutes to get through. the number yesterday was anticipated 2.5 million at airports across the country according to the tsa but we exceeded it to 2.64 million people screened nationwide and today, it is bigger and closer to 2.7 million and 44,000 flights, and there is a little bit of a warning here from the faa that we could see ground stops as the day develops, because of the storm in the