>> it's friday, december 13th right now on cnn this morning. >> we're not being told the truth. >> who owns the drones? they're still swarming the skies over new jersey, and no one is saying who's behind them. >> and i'm going to be acting very quickly. >> donald trump, day one. the president elect top priority is including pardons for january 6th rioters. >> plus, we have no indication that he was ever a client of unitedhealthcare. >> the ceo. assassination twist. why would the chief suspect commit murder when he wasn't even a customer? >> and his prices are going to start coming down? >> price tag promise. why donald trump now warns that slashing grocery prices might be easier said than done

at the strip? it's 3 a.m. pacific time there. good morning everyone. i'm kasie hunt. it's wonderful to have you with us. the truth is out there, americans in new jersey would really like to know who is flying. sometimes massive drones over their homes and infrastructure. i think the creepy part is not that it's just a drone, that there's so large. now, some of the things that people are seeing on social media, posting on social media, they have been identified as normal things in the skies, planes, helicopters, but not all of them. one new jersey mayor says the drones have been flying over the state's critical infrastructure. the drones have also been spotted near a u.s. military research facility and over. president elect donald trump's golf course in bedminster, new jersey. and those sightings have prompted the faa to issue temporary

flight restrictions. and according to the associated press, the coast guard says multiple low altitude aircrafts were spotted near one of their vessels. still, they weren't seen as an immediate threat and they didn't interfere with any operations. so what has the white house been saying about all this? >> i don't have anything beyond that. we're tracking this very closely. >> needless to say, new jersey lawmakers who are hearing from their constituents have found the non explanations to be lacking. >> i'm concerned. i issued a letter to ask for more information, and i think there should be a lot more transparency about that. >> are you hearing from constituents? >> yes i am. i've been a little frustrated. there hasn't been enough transparency letting people know what's happening. it's allowing a lot of potentially misinformation to spread, or at least fear. >> so yesterday the white house sent out john kirby. he is, of course, a retired navy admiral and national security communications adviser. to clear things up. >> we have not been able to and

neither have state or local law enforcement authorities to corroborate any of the reported visual sightings. to the contrary. upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully aha! >> so basically, he says, don't believe your own eyes that is ridiculous. >> i would invite mr. kirby to mine hill. come on out, mr. kirby. and let's let's go on out. one night about 930, 10:00. i'll go out behind my town hall and you can count them with me all night. >> so, of course, the question everyone has is, who is doing this? some new jersey lawmakers have been speculating that it's iran or china. those of us who don't live in new jersey are just wondering why new jersey. >> i can't claim to know the motives of aliens, but just being an earthling. but of all

the places to show up on earth, they pick new jersey. that would be odd for me to wonder what the aliens are looking for. no offense to new jersey, i'm just saying there's the whole earth they could have visited. >> all right. joining us now is our panel staff writer of the atlantic, david frum, former federal prosecutor, cnn legal analyst elliot williams, former senior adviser to senator manchin and jonathan cott and republican strategist, cnn political commentator brad todd. welcome to all of you on this friday. what better thing to talk about friday than unidentified flying objects? but david frum, i mean, on its face, what the white house is saying feels implausible to so many people. it's like we can see this, you know, we're not there's a contradiction between the state police have been telling people that these drones have been telling lawmakers up there that these drones are shutting off their lights when they're approached, and that it's dangerous. and yet the white house says nothing to see here. >> well, you can go to the store and buy a drone kit. anybody can. and it's sort of remarkable to me that we haven't had this these claims

and these problems before of nuisance and worse, invasion of privacy. one lawmaker speculated they might be iranian, and that seems to be untrue. it's worth remembering that even if the drones turn out not to be iranian, there are actually teams of iranian assassins operating on the united states soil, and dissidents and human rights activists have been threatened and have been taken to safe houses because of it. so we don't have to have the high tech threats to remember that they're old fashioned threats of men with guns. >> so, senator blumenthal elliott weighed in on this, as well as to like what should be done about this. let's watch what he said they should be shot down if necessary because they're flying over sensitive areas. >> whether it's planes that may be jeopardized or security at military bases, we ought to do a much better job. the biden administration ought to be acting more aggressively against these drones i mean, it raises the question why not shoot them down, right? >> we shouldn't have a practice of willy nilly shooting down unidentified

flying objects over domestic soil. however, in in the event that they are flying over sensitive places. absolutely. you know, they can be engaged. you know, i think the issue here far more perhaps, than any actual threat that's posed, posed is the inconsistent messaging that seems to be coming out of government. i think what people are frustrated by is that they don't seem to be getting a consistent or plausible answer as to what these things are, and i think the longer it's going on, the worse it's getting. and that seems to be the bigger. yeah. >> and this was congressman van drew, this one to the to to our messengers over here on this side of the table. he was the one congressman van drew was the one who floated the iranian theory, which was quickly, no pun intended, shot down by the pentagon. but here's what he said more recently. watch. >> we're not being told the truth. they are dealing with the american public like we're stupid. they don't know what it is. they don't know what

it's about. they haven't taken one down to analyze it. they have no idea where it comes from, but they know that. it's not that. i mean, that's nonsense. they do not know what they're doing. why don't they take one of them down, analyze it, and let us know what's really happening? >> so i have to say, i mean, you know, there's like a laughing element to this in some instances, but it's very it's actually very serious. right. like that the american government doesn't know what this is. and the fact that the biden is the biden administration building confidence with the nobody believes that the government doesn't know what it is. >> that's the thing. only the government is trying to convince us that. but i will note you have a republican congressman and a democratic senator from new jersey. bipartisanship may. break out everywhere at a divided time in washington. perhaps we need drones to unite us. >> no, ufos are the one thing that can bring america together. >> well, you know the old saying, nothing unites the people of earth like an invasion from mars. so maybe that's what we're dealing with here. >> jonathan, it doesn't help when the defense department, the fbi and the white house

say, don't worry about it, but we won't tell you what it is, and we don't know what it is that that is what is troubling. and that's why you get people like the congressman going out there and saying, oh, i have this super secret source that i can't tell you about, who tells me it's iranians and trusts me on that, but don't trust anybody else. and when there is a void of information, stuff like that gets out there. so somebody at the defense department or the white house needs to say what these are very quickly, or the people of new jersey are going to start shooting them down. that is not the state you want to fly over for a calm group of people who will casually just let them fly past you and not do anything. i say that as a new yorker, so well, did you see there's a guy in florida who was just had he resolved the case that that he had because there was walmart was testing a drone next door. >> he took out a shotgun, took out the drone. >> yes, this is true. now, you know, to neil degrasse tyson's question of why new jersey. well, it is the garden state rolling hills for miles and

miles, some from new jersey. >> okay. they're not paying. >> beautiful sandy beaches, golf courses in new jersey. >> bruce springsteen is going to be so mad at us. excuse me. dana is going to be mad at us. she's like the proudest daughter of new jersey. >> but all of this hate for, you know, america's most densely populated state because people want to live there so badly. it's really just hard to listen to. >> and they really they want to live in philadelphia, actually, like, i'm sorry they do. oh my god. oh my god. pennsylvania. >> in the early days of facebook, there was a group member. there were facebook groups. one was we're from new jersey. don't worry, we hate you too. >> so okay, coming up here on cnn this morning, new search warrants targeting the alleged killer. later, michael smerconish will be here to talk about the internet's obsession with the suspect. luigi mangione. plus, fresh allegations sean diddy combs hit with a new wave of lawsuits and top priority. trumps plans for the first nine minutes of his second term. >> they had to release the six

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and neither is his mother. sources tell cnn. authorities in new york have executed at least three search warrants in the case against luigi mangione. at least two of the warrants include the backpack found in central park and the burner phone found near the crime scene. abc news reports that prosecutors in new york have begun presenting evidence against mangione to a grand jury. david frum, how are you thinking about this as we learn more about this, this detail that he was not a member of unitedhealthcare seems to make it honestly more political and less personal to him. specifically. >> i think everybody in america, everybody in the world, needs to have a screensaver on their computer or a message on their phone that would say, today would be a good day. not to say something sociopathic on social media. and tomorrow, also a good day not to say something sociopathic on social media. now, i don't know that we've had any real social trend. it's just it becomes we have created this fantastic technology for the diffusion of sociopathic messages, and maybe there's a constant number of

sociopaths in society at any given time. it's just easier now for them to find each other. but really, there's a murder by the motives for murder are never that interesting, because murderers are just murderers. and the message some in congress have defended the message. you can only push people so far. that is the that is the thing that every estranged husband says before murdering his wife and children. the alimony pushed me so far and i killed the killers. kill because they're killers. >> yeah. i mean, one thing i will say, though, and, you know, i was i was talking with jonah goldberg about this on the show earlier this week because i was raising this question, actually, brad, let me let me ask you what you think about this, because you're referring to what elizabeth warren said, which we did play yesterday. there was also an interesting moment on joe rogan's podcast, where a guest that he had basically, you know, disparaged the insurance companies. and rogan functionally agreed with him and said, like, this is a dirty business. this is terrible. and

there have been some on the right who have portrayed what has happened on the left in a negative way, saying, don't do it. but there have been some right wing commentators who have seen their own comments filled with people who are writing to them and saying that, you know what? you're elite too. you don't get it. it sounds like we have those. can we play the the warren bite? what she had to say. and then let's play joe rogan. and what happened on that podcast is kind of two very distinct sides of american politics. but not, you know, they sound almost the same. watch what happens when you turn this into the billionaires run? >> it all is they get the opportunity to squeeze every last penny. and look, we'll say it over and over. violence is never the answer. this guy gets a trial who's allegedly killed the ceo of unitedhealth. but you can only push people so far. >> i don't think anybody's going to, like, be crying too

hard over that guy. >> maybe his family, but that's about it. yeah, it's a dirty, dirty business. the business of insurance is gross. it's gross. and especially health care insurance just the gross. >> in some ways, i'm reminded brad of, you know, i attended dozens of bernie sanders rallies, many voters there in places like michigan who said that if they don't get a chance to vote for bernie sanders, they're going to vote for donald trump. what's going on here? >> well, populism exists on both sides of the american political spectrum. it's not an ideology. it's an animating spirit. and you certainly see that most expressed against health insurance companies. they're right at the top of that. but i think once this all settles out, i would think republicans would welcome a discussion of how the government's own federal government's own incentives have created a behemoth in the health care industry. the affordable care act paved the way for really, really large health care companies, insurance companies without much competition. i think that'd be be a great subject for congress to take up. >> look, i think in politics raging against something and and having an enemy is healthy.

and that's how you get people out. and that's what campaigns do. and i think you're seeing it from both sides, like bernie sanders and elizabeth warren have that argument donald trump tapped into that people are angry at rich elites who they think have done them wrong, taken their jobs. they're the reasons they're not successful. if only i had been able to do this. and that is what you're seeing. that's why this venn diagram of so far left and so far right are actually coming back around. but i think everybody needs to say killing somebody and violence is the wrong way to do it. we can be mad at the system and mad at how it's being done without going that far. >> yeah, no. and for the justice he will face ultimately why he did it ultimately doesn't matter merely. and this is your point, david. it's merely the fact that in the state of new york that he killed someone intending to do so will get him convicted of second degree murder. the fact that he seemed to have been targeted, or the suspect seemed

to have been targeting a health care ceo. certainly that's animating for the public, but doesn't matter in the eyes of the law. killing is killing, right? >> of course. and we're again, very clear on that. trying here to just explain and understand what it is that's motivating and animating people. all right, panel, we'll be back in a few minutes. still to come here on cnn this morning. vaccines and trump's second term. the president elect now says he's open to getting rid of child vaccine programs. plus, no, a man who was not santa stuck in a chimney. one of the five things you have to see this morning i had the worst dream last night. >> you were in a car crash, and the kids and i were on our own. >> that's awful. >> my brother was saying he got life insurance from ethos, and he got $2 million dollars in coverage, all online. >> life insurance made easy. check your price today@ethos.com. >> dare to compare. bob's playdate versus my competitors,

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nonviolent, i think they've been greatly punished. trump and his allies have been making false claims for years about the capitol riot, arguing that law enforcement officials purposefully bungled their intelligence, even using paid informants to rile up an otherwise peaceful, peaceful rally to create a violent insurrection fbi operatives were organizing the attack on the capitol on january 6th. >> three police officers were caught instigating the crowd, chanting and urging them to go into the capitol. >> an fbi informant, who is reported to have, quote his quote. under oath, marched to the us capitol. >> there was antifa and there was fbi. there were a lot of other people there, too, leading the charge. >> so a brand new report from an independent justice department, justice department

watchdog concludes this quote. we found no evidence in the materials we reviewed or the testimony we received showing or suggesting that the fbi had undercover employees in the various protest crowds or at the capitol on january 6th. let's bring in former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe to discuss. sir, always grateful to have you on the program. thanks for being here. >> thanks, casey. it's good to be here. >> what is your takeaway from this report? and i mean, what can you tell us about these theories about whether there were informants, et cetera.? >> yeah. well, i guess my my top line takeaway, casey, is that i'm not surprised at all. this is exactly what we expected. this is what the fbi has been telling us since january 6th about their own activities with informants. and to be clear, what the ig determined was there were no fbi undercover employees, not a single one at the rally or on

the capitol that day. there were three informants. these are private citizens who provide information to the fbi under their own, you know, for their own reasons. three who were actually sent asked to attend the rally and went and reported back on the domestic terrorism subjects that they were that were under investigation and who we knew would be there. and there were an additional 23 informants who just went, because that's what they do. they are people in these communities, in these extremist groups who also report and provide information to the fbi. and they spend time with these people. so about 26 in total, many of them provided positive reporting back to the fbi. i think only four actually entered the capitol on that day, and none have been accused by prosecutors of doing anything violent or committing crimes. so it is a the truth. once again, very different from what people have been hearing

on right wing television and from republican politicians. >> so yeah, just just to clarify here, i think it's important you said these informants are not bureau employees. they are people who give information to the bureau. and then can i just ask for those of us who don't work in the in the field that that you work in, what could you expect an fbi informant to be doing in a situation like this? right. if you have an informant that's inside one of these groups that's actually working with the us government, what would their observed actions look like on that day? >> yeah, sure. that's a great question. so first of all, the fbi has many informants in extremist communities around the country and around the globe. that's what we do as an intelligence organization. you have to recruit sources of information. you have to convince people who are members of these groups to report back information to the fbi. and and they do it for all sorts of different reasons. once someone

is an informant for the fbi, they are admonished that they have no authority to engage in any criminal activity, and that if we find them committing crimes or participating in criminal activity, they will be arrested. just like anyone else. so people on that day who might have been asked, hey, you are helping us in the investigation of a particular domestic terrorism subject. we know that that person is traveling to the capitol to attend this rally. why don't you go with that person and let us know what they're doing? it's a way of keeping track of people who you think are potentially engaging in violence. it's a way of understanding what they're doing and giving you the opportunity to prevent acts of violence and terrorism from taking place. so they they'll, you know, under those circumstances, that person would travel with the subject of the investigation and make phone calls or send texts back to a handling agent saying, here's where we're going to

go tomorrow. we're going to stop here for breakfast, and then we're going to walk to the rally. here's what i'll be wearing so you can identify me. here's what the other person looks like. just basic information that allows agents to keep some understanding. maintain an understanding of what a subject of an investigation is doing, and to potentially collect evidence of that person's wrongdoing that might be necessary later in a criminal prosecution. >> so, andy, the vice president elect, jd vance, he reposted someone else that excerpted details on this report and what that said was this quote for those keeping score at home, this was labeled as a dangerous conspiracy theory. months ago, this idea that there were human sources at the capitol. what is your i mean, i think we've dug into this a little bit, but do you have a response to the president, the vice president elect specifically? >> you know, this wasn't. ever labeled as a dangerous conspiracy. the fact that

informants were involved in this activity, the fact that informants might have been reporting on subjects of investigation, as is their job, that's their role with the fbi. that's not a dangerous conspiracy theory. that's the truth. that's how intelligence agencies collect information on people who might be ready to hurt us. the dangerous conspiracy theory was propagated by people like the vice president, who have been saying for years that the fbi incited this riot, that the fbi sent informants or undercover employees onto the capitol or into the rally that day for the purpose of fomenting the riot, getting people fired up, starting the violence. and that absolutely did not happen. and now you have the inspector general who absolutely would have reported that if they found it in their investigation that included hundreds of interviews and many, many years to complete, which is a

separate problem. so, yeah, the dangerous conspiracy theory here is what you've been hearing from right wing commentators that the fbi somehow had an interest in in creating the riot on the capitol and starting an insurrection that absolutely did not happen. >> all right. andrew mccabe, very grateful to have you on the show today. thanks very much. >> thank you. >> all right. let's turn now to donald trump at the new york stock exchange yesterday, where he rang the opening bell after being named time's person of the year. the president elect also sitting down for an interview with the magazine. he was asked about one of his biggest campaign promises lowering grocery prices. he was asked, quote, if the prices of groceries don't come down, will your presidency be a failure? he answered it this way. quote i don't think so. look, they got them up. i'd like to bring them down. it's hard to bring things down once they're up. you know, it's very hard, but i think that they will. i think that the energy energy is going to bring them down. i think a better supply chain is going to bring them down. but while at the new

york stock exchange, he seemed adamant that prices will come down once he's in office. >> i tell the story about a woman who an old woman. an old woman. no money, went to a grocery store, had three apples. she put him down on the counter and she looked and she saw the price. and she said, would you excuse me? and she walked one of the apples back to the refrigerator and came back to pay for the two apples, and she left with two apples, and the woman at the counter said, that was so sad. and when i heard about the story, i said, that should never happen in america and it's not going to happen in america. we're going to do it right. >> so this, of course, always a difficult challenge for any president on the economy. david frum, this, of course, took place while he was at the new york stock exchange ringing the bell and was basically greeted like as a hero by many people that were on the floor of the exchange. >> you know, there is a way for him to keep his promise to bring down grocery prices, and that is to bring modernization to america's ports. some of the least efficient ports in the world, made inefficient by

terrible, backward, unionized practices that defeat modern technology. but unfortunately, just yesterday, president elect trump said he's not going to do that, that he's going to defend the longshoremen's union and keep america's ports the least effective in some of some parts of the developed world. so it's not like some unfortunate thing is happening to him that is going to make him break his promise. on grocery prices. he has embraced um, technological backwardness, opposing medical technologies like vaccines. trade protection point every element of the donald trump program is designed to make sure that people pay more. and when prices stay high as they do, people need to remember it's not some terrible misfortune that he inherited. he's the one who's preventing reports from becoming more efficient. he's the one that is going to impose duties on foreign goods, destroy american supply chains. that's his choice. >> but i do say i will say i am i. i don't understand how grocery prices are going to go down if we put massive tariffs on mexico, for example. >> well, wait a minute. i want

to correct something that david said there, that donald trump's agenda is first and foremost. the first thing is to bring the price of energy down. energy is one of the biggest drivers of all costs for companies that make consumer goods. joe biden, on his very first day, issued executive orders that on purpose pushed energy prices up. if you bring energy prices down, you can bring the price of goods down. that's number one. number two, regulations are strangling the american economy. donald trump is going to embark on a big deregulatory campaign that also can help bring prices down. so i take issue that his agenda is to bring prices up. it's just not correct. a lot of the port problems in california due to gavin newsom's regulations on who can back their truck up to that port, like there are things donald trump what pardon regulations endorsed now by donald trump. there are environmental regulations driven by the state of california that makes california's ports less efficient than the others on the east coast. >> but the tariffs? no. i mean, at the end of the day, it's not is that all not counteracted by, i think certainly mexico is a valued trade partner on agriculture and food products. >> donald trump has said he doesn't want to put tariffs on

mexico. he only wants to put tariffs on mexico if they won't control the border. this is a negotiating strategy. all right. >> coming up next here on cnn this morning, the internet rallying behind the man accused of assassinating a ceo, raising thousands of dollars for his legal defense. michael smerconish is here to discuss that after the break. plus, unexplained phenomenon drone sightings ticking up in new jersey. sam morris, the mayor of mine hill, new jersey, joins us next it would be odd for me to wonder what the aliens are looking for. >> no offense to new jersey. i'm just saying there's the whole earth. they could have visited. >> you didn't get where you are playing it safe. you seek opportunities. others don't. your growing ambition needs a partner built for growth. with markham now a part of cbis, discover new ways to accelerate growth. from insights that drive the bottom line to

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explain how i feel for you. you got me. dizzy and feeling blue one more

cable can't beat. start watching at fubo tv.com cnn news central next. >> closed captioning is brought to you by uqora. help maintain a healthy urinary tract with uqora. >> i keep having utis for ten years. at uqora, we make uti relief products. >> we also make proactive urinary tract health products. >> uqora is a life saver. try it today at uqora. com. >> went outside to prove my point. and this is over my house right now. what is that floating white spots on a black background. >> a chilling image that cannot

be faked unless you close your eyes and push on your eyelids a little bit oh, god. they're back yeah, and they're gone. and they're gone. and they're back new jersey residents and officials continuing to scratch their heads and demand answers as the drone sightings across the northern part of the state remain unanswered. >> our next guest has been meeting with law enforcement this week about the sightings, and has captured some of these drones on video himself it was a pair of drones right here in front of me. >> once hovering this one you can see, of course, still a little grainy. and this one keeps moving to the north. and there was another one that just went off to the north. you can see this red blinking light. it's a little hard to see, but the drone is right by the light all right. >> joining us now is the mayor of mine hill, new jersey, sam morris. sir, welcome to the program. thanks for being here. >> good morning. thanks for

having me. >> so i want to play for you a little bit of what john kirby, the white house communications director for national security, said about these drones yesterday, and ask you about it on their side. let's watch what he said. >> we have not been able to and neither have state or local law enforcement authorities corroborate any of the reported visual sightings. to the contrary. upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully. >> sir, is that true no. >> it's blatantly not true, mr. kirby has given us the swamp gas. scenario. i guess, uh, in the briefing on tuesday with the state police, they told us they had engaged with drones. they told us that the drones react to their engagement, which is when they get close to them, they turn off their safety lights and

they pretty much start scurrying away or taking off. that was directly from the state police on in a briefing with 250 mayors. so we have witnesses. and for mr. kirby to say that no state officials concur, i think he said, corroborate this, uh, just means he hasn't talked to the new jersey state police, uh, which is kind of ridiculous, considering this is where it's all occurring. >> so what do you see at night? we played a little bit of your video there um, last night, for example. >> so so the governor um, and also mr. kirby have said that people are mistaking man. they say manned aircraft, they mean small planes or even big planes. um, for drones, the there is some of that. there's probably 50% of that because people aren't getting any answers. they may be confusing things, but when you go out into the last night, for example, um, went out in the parking lot here at town hall and you can see there are there are airplane routes that go

into newark, teterboro, morristown. we all know that. right? but then there are anomalies that go in other directions. and last night there was a something went through here that had 8 or 10 lights on it. the lights flash red and green and white. um, planes have a blue light, i think, on the right wing, what we would call the right wing. um, and these drones do not have those, those colorings. so that's what you see when you go out there. it's something that just doesn't make sense. and it stands out and, you know, it's not a plane sir, is there any suggestion or what have you heard from your state officials about what they think that it could be and whether they think the federal government knows more than what they're telling people? um, i think the federal government knows more than they're telling people. i certainly wouldn't speak for the new jersey state police or the governor's office or anyone like that. um, they have not speculated that when any meetings and conversations we have, they they just they

won't speculate. but i think that i think that mr. kirby knows more than he's telling. um, and i, i'm pretty offended. and i can tell you a lot of my constituents are offended that they basically made light of this, that, well, this is this really isn't real. and when he says it's not corroborated, that's just a falsehood. um, so i think they need to consider walking that back and being a little more honest with all of us. >> all right, mayor sam morris, keep us posted. come back if you need to appreciate your information. thanks for being here. all right. thanks so much. all right. let's turn back now to this story. it's really captivated the country. the manhattan da presented evidence to a grand jury in the case against luigi mangione. according to abc news. abc news also reporting that, quote, law enforcement officials are worried that mangione is being turned into a martyr as a wave of internet supporters donate to defense funds for the 26 year old suspected killer, including one online defense fund that has raised more than

$50,000. news, nation cameras even capturing this expression of support from inmates at the pennsylvania prison where mangione is being held struck three luigi. free luigi. it's friday, which means it's time for michael smerconish, cnn political commentator, host of cnn's smerconish. michael, welcome. always wonderful to see you. happy friday. uh, let's start with what we saw there. the news nation cameras outside that prison. people yelling free luigi. that makes a real statement so on wednesday, i was in new york city to do my radio program at sirius xm. >> and in the 6 a.m. hour, i walked on 54th street between sixth and seventh avenue. not because of some morbid curiosity, but because that's where i stay when i'm in new york city. that's my route.

and what i found jarring was the lack of any kind of a memorial where this assassination took place. in other words, i'm walking on the sidewalk where one week prior, in the exact same hour, the 6 a.m. hour, this health care ceo father of two was gunned down in cold blood. and there's no remembrance. there's no recollection, there's like nothing. people are just going about their business and leading their lives. and i thought, this is so telling of the reversal of sympathies that i find appalling. and by the way, we can do two things at once. we can we can mourn the decedent, the man who paid with his life unnecessarily. and we can recognize the errors in our health care system and try and work to bring about change. i've never seen casey in the three decades that i've been behind this microphone, taking telephone calls from across the country. i've never seen the visceral reaction as i have in this case, my callers

appropriately mourn the loss of life, and at the same time say, but, you know, i've got a relative who can't get coverage or i've had this issue of my own. we can do both things. i would like to think that change comes from it, but for goodness sakes, can we please be appropriate in how we recall what happened a week ago wednesday? because it was god awful? >> yeah, of course it was absolutely god awful. i one kind of question i've sort of wrestled with a little bit is whether this may because it's exposed all this anger ultimately lead to some change, some political change. because obviously that would suggest that violence in this case affects political change, which is not a place we want to go in american politics. but that said, clearly there are millions of americans. and honestly, i can't find anybody. i'm pretty sure everybody sitting at this table, i have my own story about dealing with these health care companies. right. and how hard it is. >> i think that you've really put your finger on the

conundrum for politicians, and that is how do you take action but not be perceived as responding to the violence and therefore rewarding it? i'm sure you're aware of the fact that there are wanted posters being placed in midtown manhattan as we speak, that are identifying corporate ceos and health care individuals. i mean, it's it's it's horrific. and we don't we don't want to condone and encourage that sort of behavior. so how do you strike the balance and say, this man's murder was was horrible and and we're going to deal with it legally and through the law enforcement system and at the same time, be responsive to the concerns that so many have. there's nothing more important, right, if you don't have your health. what's the old adage, you have nothing if not your health? so i get it, but we've got to be able to do both. >> all right. michael smerconish for us, sir, always grateful to have you on the program. see you next friday. thank you. nice to see you. >> thank you. >> our viewers. don't forget,

tune in to smerconish tomorrow morning, 9 a.m. eastern, right here on cnn. all right, let's turn to this story. president elect donald trump signaling that he is open to changing childhood vaccination programs once he receives a safety review from rfk jr.. his pick for health and human services secretary. trump telling time magazine in an interview released thursday, quote, we're going to have a big discussion. the autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible. if you look at things that are happening, there is something causing it. i sat down with rfk jr.. last year, i asked him to clarify his position on vaccine mandates. so do you think schoolchildren should not be required to be vaccinated in public schools? >> no, i would be against mandates at all for any vaccines, for any vaccine. >> it's important to note that multiple health agencies have found vaccinations are not associated with autism spectrum disorder. our panel has

returned. there's also a noteworthy story that just came out in the new york times an hour or so ago, looking at the lawyer that rfk jr.. works with apparently very involved with the transition and hiring. and they say that this lawyer has asked the fda to revoke approval of the polio vaccine. now, this happened a couple of years ago. this was back in 2022. but he has petitioned the government to revoke the approval of the polio vaccine, which for decades has protected millions of people from a virus that can cause paralysis or death. that campaign is just one front in a war that the lawyer, aaron siri is waging against vaccines of all kinds. much of mr. siri's work, including the polio petition, has been on behalf of the informed consent action network. it's a nonprofit whose founder is an ally of mr. kennedy, and this is also the lawyer that represented kennedy during his presidential campaign. this is a significant stuff. >> donald trump has always been an autism hoaxer. he he tried

in his first administration in 2017 to bring rfk jr. in. then trump has often said things that imply completely falsely, that saving children from measles and other deadly diseases is the reason that autism occurs, which is, by the way, a slur on autistic people. it's not a tragedy that there are autistic people. measles is a tragedy. um, it's it's ignorant, it's emotive. it's something. it's it's it's anti-science. but that's been donald trump's position on this all along. >> and rfk jr. undertake operation warp speed. >> he he certainly that certainly happened during his presidency. that's true. >> and he did not admit that he took that he got the shot and the virus and then never talked about it because his supporters hated it. and he got booed off the stage when he admitted he got the booster. >> if you do the searches, you will find many more anti-vax statements by donald trump. going back before he was president, going back to his first term. you know, we're going back to barbaric ignorance. and that's that's sort of the price we pay. >> well, i mean, kamala harris said she was not going to take the covid vaccine. she's the

original anti covid vaccine. so i mean we have a lot of there's and there's anti-vax sentiment on the left as well. of course we don't need to get rid of the polio vaccine. and also of course we do need to look into autism more like the diagnosis of autism is radically on the rise. it would be the best thing ever if the department of health and human services could get spend more resources on diagnosing that problem. >> i think we lost our minds during the pandemic and the as a country and the the fight over vaccines has now led to people seriously talking about ending the polio vaccine. and it's sickening. >> yeah, i'll just say that i would like my children to be able to receive the polio vaccine. um, and i've actually already tried to call mitch mcconnell's office about this. >> your children will, but you like the other children in the class. also, not to be spreaders of polio. >> well, and that's why that's why i asked rfk jr. about mandates, because that is, you know what? what enables public schools to say to their to people, hey, you got to protect your kids to be here. guys, thank you for being here on a friday. i appreciate it. thanks to all of you for joining us as well. have a wonderful weekend. i'm kasie hunt. don't go anywhere. cnn news central starts right now.