>> the usps says that you could ship up to saturday and get everything in time for christmas ups says you can do it on the 23rd. so that's really living on the close, living on the edge. that's usps up there. look at those dates. take note ups on the 23rd and then fedex is the one where you're really, really waiting to the last minute. fedex is saying that you could potentially ship on the 24th same day, but of course you're going to be paying for that. i looked at what same day costs are. it could be up to $60 $100, depending how much your item weighs. but of course, if you're shipping yourself, you know those dates, right? but your retailer, the person you're buying from, make sure you cross-reference what they're saying versus what the different shipping options are saying. make sure you really know if you're going to get those gifts in time for christmas, for christmas, for 60 to $100, that might be more than the gift is worth. that probably is right. >> thank you so much, vanessa.

and a new hour of cnn news central starts right now all right. >> developing this morning we just learned that drones shut down airspace over a critical u.s. air base. what will it take to end the drone frenzy and the exit interview before the exile? mitt romney unleashes days before his retirement and then lap pools are for swimming, not diving. and for humans, not cars. so this driver broke the rules on two fronts. i'm john berman with kate baldwin and sara sidner. this is cnn news center. >> happening now. demands for answers and frustrations still building as new drone incidents raise anxieties even higher. this morning, we're learning a critical air force base in ohio was forced to close airspace

for several hours after drones were spotted nearby. military news website the war zone obtained audio of the moment that air traffic control sent out an alert. >> mid-flight at patterson tower. use extreme caution for heavy uas movement on the base. security forces is handling the situation and i got to keep the lights down so that security forces can see. >> ohio is now one of several states reporting drone concerns as scrutiny over the federal response is building. this morning, local officials and lawmakers in new york and new jersey urging more state of the art drone detection tools be sent immediately. cnn's polo sandoval leads us off this hour. there are calls, of course, for transparency, more resources. um, but first, what do we know what happened in ohio? >> also, it's remarkable. >> it started as new jersey, and then you just showed viewers that map and how widespread it is now. >> sarah, you're mentioning wright-patterson air force base in ohio, temporary restrictions, flight

restrictions there because of drone activity. so it's a reminder that here we are nearly a month into this mystery, and there are real implications and potential safety issues when it comes to these drones right now. >> fortunately, the leadership at that base did say that after inspecting the situation, there were no that the incursions did not have any impact on the base here. but as you mentioned, those frustrations earlier today, it's coming from bipartisan leaders right now. and essentially not just the frustration now, but the disbelief that the u.s. government either can't or won't explain who or what is behind this mystery. dhs, fbi, the agency is really leading this investigation, maintaining that at this point, everything that they've seen, they have not concluded or they've been able to conclude that this does not present any sort of safety threat. but then i want you to listen to the secretary of the department of homeland security, alejandro mayorkas. obviously, we've talked about the possibility that many of these are airplanes. but as we heard from the secretary this weekend, he confirms that many are not some of those drone sightings are, in fact, drones.

>> some are manned aircraft that are commonly mistaken for drones. it is our job to be vigilant in the federal government with our state and local partners, on behalf of the american public, and we can assure their safety by reason of that vigilance. >> dhs also confirming that they're sending more equipment, more resources to authorities in new jersey and new york to try to monitor. we also heard from governor, the governor of new york, kathy hochul, over the weekend, who says that they have, in fact, received some of what was described as this sort of high tech equipment, but they wouldn't really go into great detail as to what it is. but you and i have talked about this. they can use radar, they can use acoustic equipment, cameras, many different resources that they have available. and it's certainly something that we've heard not just in new york, but also certainly in new jersey. these officials that are demanding more information but also more equipment so that they can track these things and figure out where they're coming from. >> kathy hochul saying this has gone too far because an airport about 55 miles from new york city had to be shut down for an

hour because there was a drone sighting. there were also, though, arrests in boston this weekend after a drone incident near logan international. what happened there? >> you're referring to a case this past saturday where officials are investigating some drones that flew dangerously close to boston. logan. they were actually able boston pd able to roll out their equipment to monitor these drones, able to track them down and ended up arresting two local men. so again, this is a reminder that there are real impacts here and real safety issues when it comes to this mystery that continues nearly a month later. yeah. incredible. >> yeah, there's a lot that's still unknown and a lot of questions that need to be answered. polo sandoval thank you so much. appreciate it. appreciate it. >> kate, joining us right now to talk more about this is democratic senator from connecticut, richard blumenthal. senator, thank you so much for coming in. you are among the lawmakers who have been demanding answers about these drone sightings. it's now extended into connecticut. there have been some of these drones, big questions remaining still. who's behind them, where they're coming from. i want to play a little bit more. from what we heard from secretary mayorkas yesterday about all of this. listen to

this. >> i want to assure the american public that we in the federal government have deployed additional resources, personnel and technology to assist the new jersey state police in addressing the drone sightings. we have not seen any foreign we know of, no foreign involvement with respect to the the sightings in the northeast, and we are vigilant in investigating this matter. the department of homeland security with the federal bureau of investigation in the lead mayorkas point senator, he says the public should know that we are on it. >> do you believe that? >> you know, i'm like the rest of the public. i have a lot of trouble believing that the federal government is doing enough here because there is a near total absence of relevant and significant information. and that gap in disclosure is

causing or contributing to the alarm that people are feeling. there is technology that can be deployed to follow these drones to trace them. the robin system of drone. specific radar can provide answers to a lot of the questions that have been asked, but there's no evidence that the federal government has been using it so far. and so these kinds of assurances from the secretary of homeland security fall flat. they leave people with even greater alarm. and the agency that's really responsible for our airspace, the faa has been completely silent. and what we need here is not only a focus on the present problem, but also more broadly on the system, the regiment of scrutiny and oversight itself, which right now is really lacking. if you want to fly from new york to washington, d.c., even in a small private plane, a two seater, you need to file a flight plan. the same ought to

be true of some of these bigger drones that are used commercially and even recreationally, and the registration requirements, the altitude restrictions, the certificate mandates all need to be upgraded because there are now a plethora of these drones out there, and they are dangerous, not just because they represent potential surveillance, surveillance and intrusion on privacy, but also at airports and other sensitive locations. they can cause a major breakdown. >> we've already seen that they they're causing disruptions at airports, and they are obviously causing alarm, which is well short of disruptions. but still, can you just help me cut through this a little bit? we've been trying to it's been now i think i've been asking the same questions for a week now. do you think the federal government knows more and is not telling, or that they do not know and they don't want to admit it? >> my feeling is, and it's a

hunch more than knowledge, because we have yet to receive the briefing that i've demanded the federal government knows a lot less than it should, and it isn't a matter of classified information. if there is classified data here, it ought to be released to reassure the public. but my fear is that the federal government knows little or nothing about most of these sightings, because there are no flight plans, and it has not used the drone specific technology that is available. we ought to deploy those resources so that the federal government and our state and local officials know a lot more, mayorkas suggests that part of the problem, and you're getting to it a little bit. >> that part of the problem, he suggests, is that the federal government lacks authority to counter. i'll just broadly call it the problem. he's calling on congress to expand local and state authority, to investigate, to do more, to be

able to investigate drones. so is this a problem of congress's making? >> you know, we're in a new era of exploding drone technology. the numbers of these aircraft are expanding astronomically. it's not just the 800,000 or so that are properly registered, but they're probably hundreds of thousands, maybe millions more your 15 year old neighbor may be flying some of them, but some are as big as cars. and so there is a need for congress to address this new era with a new regimen of scrutiny and oversight. and it is pressing. it's urgent, and congress has to address it with longer term measures. but right now there is alarm and there's danger. there's real jeopardy at airports, military installations that has to be addressed with the authority

that the department of homeland security, the faa, the fbi, the department of defense all have right now. and that's why i'm asking for action, which gets me to when you talk about the real risk here, you have previously said that that if these are in sensitive areas, they should be shot down. >> donald trump now seems to agree in some regards, saying on truth social kind of putting out the same. otherwise shoot them down is kind of how it ended. who shoots them down, not said i. do you think do you really think shooting down drones is the right course of action right now? when you're talking about the risks of everything? we just had a new jersey assemblyman on who says that's the worst thing. that's one of the worst things he could see happening in the skies of new jersey right now there's technology to take down drones without necessarily shooting them kinetically. >> and those means involve electronic jamming, cyber in

ukraine right now, they're doing it. we can do it here without necessarily deploying artillery or guns to do it. so i do think if they fly over military facilities, installations, they should be taken down or if they pose a jeopardy to flight plans and aircraft and airports. so there's no question that there's a threat here. and in the most extreme instances, they have to be taken down. >> you also said on armed services committee, of course, donald trump's pick to be the next defense secretary. we've spoken about pete hegseth in the past and the questions that you have. hegseth was at the army-navy football game this weekend with trump. and in doing so, donald trump is showing his continued support to have hegseth as his defense secretary. do you think pete hegseth chances of getting confirmed are getting better or worse right now? >> his chances improved last week because donald trump

heightened the heat on a lot of republicans, in effect threatening them with primaries and other retribution if they fail to support hegseth. and so a lot of the republican senators who told me 5 to 10 of them that they thought hegseth was doomed as a nominee, have now changed their story. i think that hegseth still is unqualified on several major grounds. put aside the reports of sexual assault and alcohol abuse, his managerial incompetence is shown by his running two nonprofits veterans organizations into the ground and potentially his exploiting financially those nonprofits. so there is a background check investigation underway by the fbi. my hope is that it will be made available. there's a danger that the trump administration may withhold that fbi investigation. i call

on donald trump to provide that fbi background check, complete and unredacted, to the armed services committee, so we can really consider all of the potential downsides of pete hegseth nomination. he could pose a real national security threat. we need access to that fbi investigation. and i hope my republican colleagues will withhold judgment until they see it. >> let us see how it all pans out in the coming weeks. senator blumenthal, thank you for your time, john. >> all right. this morning, a new cnn investigation reveals that some of donald trump's businesses hired a record number of foreign workers this year, even as he vows to, quote, hire american. new details from a private and, quote, very warm conversation between trump and the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, and a man is rescued after days lost inside a pitch

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business practices. a cnn investigation has found that several of his businesses, including mar-a-lago, increasingly rely on foreign workers, cooks, housekeepers, servers and desk clerks. cnn's sara murray is with us now. sara, what have you learned here? >> well, john, it turns out it can be hard to practice what you preach. 100% of the time. and that's certainly true for donald trump when it comes to this pledge to hire american. you know, our cnn investigates team looked at the government data about trump's hiring at his businesses of foreign workers and found that in 2024, the trump organization businesses were approved to hire 209 foreign guest workers. now, this is more or nearly double the number from a decade ago. it's the highest number we have for the trump businesses for any year on record, according to government data. and now these workers, mostly when it comes to the trump businesses, come through the h-2b program. and that allows for hiring foreign workers when there aren't american workers who are able

or willing available to do this kind of temporary work. so, as you pointed out, people like cooks, people like housekeepers. now, folks who think that america has too much immigration and that even legal immigration should be limited, say, these kind of workers reduce americans bargaining power, that, you know, companies could offer better salaries, they could offer better perks, they could try to recruit workers from other states when it comes to these kinds of seasonal jobs. but we also spoke to a staffing firm in palm beach that says when it is the high season in palm beach, getting enough people to work in these kind of service industry jobs, golf courses, resorts, that kind of thing, it's really difficult. and that's where programs like this come in. and we should note this isn't just something that donald trump or his businesses like mar-a-lago or his virginia winery are doing. our investigation found that there are several trump allies who also employ foreign workers. elon musk is one of them. you know, howard lutnick, who is the donald trump's pick for commerce secretary? subsidiaries of his companies also use foreign workers. so

this is something that is somewhat prevalent throughout the folks that trump has picked to run his administration. >> john, i'll be curious to see if that changes. sara murray, thank you so much for sharing this reporting sara. >> all right. ahead, senator mitt romney says the signs are clear. the gop now belongs to maga, who he says will lead the movement in 2028. and what that means for the next four years and beyond. and the legal strategy for luigi mangione are his lawyers planning an insanity defense? those stories and more ahead andy, take a seat. >> anderson. look at this. you're wet. disheveled. there's debris hitting you. we need to be ready for new year's eve. maybe you are ready. >> new year's eve live with anderson and andy. live coverage starts at eight on cnn. >> hank used to suffer from what felt like a cold and flu medicine hangover in the morning. then he switched to mucinex nightshift. mucinex is uniquely formulated to leave your system faster, so you wake up ready to go try mucinex

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currently being held in a pennsylvania state prison while facing charges in both states. over the weekend, mangione hired a high profile attorney to take over his case in new york. karen friedman agnifilo, who was until recently a cnn legal analyst. joining me now is current cnn legal analyst and criminal defense attorney joey jackson. you will give us a heads up if you end up, you know, always representing someone, a high profile case like this. i want to ask you about the extradition. for a while now, i've been wondering as to whether or not the the sort of slowing of the extradition or trying to fight it was because an attorney had not been picked up here in new york. do you think that that is the case and why it may now be stopped? >> so certainly, you know what, sarah? good morning. >> good morning. >> that could have been a strategic move. now an attorney is in place, which is a very good thing. at the end of the day, though, extradition and the fighting of the extradition is anybody's right to do. but it really is an uphill battle and a losing proposition. why in any extradition proceeding

which he still has the right there anticipating he will waive. right. but he still has the right. you show that the actual governor's warrant is facially sufficient. that means it's appropriate. it's filled out properly and clearly. number two, it establishes probable cause for the crimes of which you're wanted in new york state. and number three, it's your identity. and so all that does is delay the process. but ultimately, he'd be here. now, why the court appearance if he's going to waive it, has to be a knowing and intelligent waiver. the judge has to ask, sir, you know what your rights are. you understand those rights? you're waiving your right to go to new york. so at the end of the day, ultimately, if he waives, he's just here a bit quicker. however, he will be in new york. the question is when. >> so a grand jury has convened according to reporting and looking at evidence now. how soon could something follow there, assuming that they're trying to get an indictment? >> yeah. so it's a process. so just about the grand jury, sara, just what we need to know, right? a grand jury impaneled. and what they do is they hear evidence. a grand jury is really run by a

prosecutor, and they're not impaneled to hear whether you're guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. there's 23 grand jurors that sit a simple majority. 12 have to find simply that there's sufficient evidence to believe that you committed an offense. and if they find that they vote out a true bill. and so that process will play out. the grand jury will hear evidence as it relates to this case, as it relates to specifically what they believe he did. and they don't get everything, even grand jurors, they just get enough right to ultimately vote it out. and so it's a process, but i think it will be sooner rather than later. >> it's an easier burden of proof. but basically, whether they think a crime may have been committed. absolutely. okay. i want to ask you about the legal representation for luigi mangione former chief assistant district attorney for the manhattan da's office. karen friedman agnifilo longtime new york prosecutor described her to cnn as someone who, quote, knows every quarter, every judge, every

clerk in the courthouse, even with that expertise. what do you think the biggest challenge is going to be for her? judging from what the public now knows, are some of the bits of evidence that have been brought together by police and investigators. >> sure. well, first, i think it's a very good thing she's involved. i think you want talented counsel in any case. why? because you want evidence to be challenged. that's the way it should be. you want to scrutinize if there's dna evidence, right? where did it come from? is it actually legit? is it contaminated in any way? if there's photos that would suggest it was him, is there a manifesto? did he write it? everything you want to vet. i think it's good for the process. and i think we need trust in the process. having said that, and she comes from my former office, which is a good thing. manhattan da's office. at the end of the day, this is challenging for any attorney. let's be clear about that. the evidence here, and everyone deserves what we call the presumption of innocence. but it's very compelling. it's very compelling from a circumstantial perspective. right. meaning evidence maybe not direct. and there is direct evidence in this case. right. you have a video of him. you

got the actual shooting. you have his fingerprints on a water bottle, his fingerprints on a cereal wrapper. you have a manifesto, you've got motive. even though you don't need it. you've got a bag that they found. i mean, i could go on and on and on. he goes off the grid. so no matter who's in the case, it's a challenging case. there's no one piece of evidence. i think that is more compelling. all of it's compelling. what i'm interested in seeing is what the actual defense will be. i don't think the dog will hunt in terms of psychiatric insanity. >> i was going to ask you because agnifilo did talk to cnn, anderson cooper, about the possible defense and the possibility of an insanity defense came up. if i'm the judge and i need you to answer a yes or no question, what are the chances that that is the defense? >> i mean, you know what? hard to answer yes or no. but i will say it's just very difficult, sarah. i mean, look, it goes you had a mental break. there was a mental defect. you didn't know what you were doing. this was plotted. it was planned. it was intentional. there was a manifesto. there is nothing more lucid than that. and so now i'm insane. i just don't know that it flies very

quickly. i think the jury nullification people love this guy. they love him. he's like a hero. will a jury excuse it because they love him? we'll see. >> all right, joey jackson, thank you so much. i always appreciate you. >> okay, so an unauthorized drone forces officials to shut down airspace over a u.s. air force base this weekend. and now, weeks after the mysterious nighttime drone sightings, sightings began, federal officials are still trying to assure the public we're on top of it. and everybody out of the pool. how and why a car and its driver ended up in this fitness center pool can't fool myself. >> it was the most exciting time in the world. >> his life had extremely joyful moments and some really difficult moments. >> you only come across an artist like luther vandross once in a lifetime. >> luther. never too much new year's day on cnn. >> finish ultimate engineered for the toughest conditions.

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outdoors. >> wrigley field, new year's eve party. >> wrigley field. december 31st blues, blackhawks on tnt and streaming on max. >> a cnn exclusive. now for you, retiring senator mitt romney opens up about his career, lessons learned, his views now on the shifting landscape within the republican party, especially how maga now defines its identity and what all of that means for the future of his party. here he is with my colleague jake tapper. >> oh, maga is the republican party, and donald trump is the republican party today. and if you were to ask me who the nominee will be in 2028, i think it'll be jd vance. all right. he's smart and well-spoken. part of the maga movement. >> you said something pretty harsh about him a few months ago, though. you could not have less respect for somebody than jd vance long ago. >> i'm not going to rehash history, and we've worked together in the senate since then but but i you know that that is what the republican party is. and will the party

need to change? look, the republican party has become the party of the working class, middle class voter and you've got to give donald trump credit for having done that. taking that away from the democrats. democrats pushed him out. all right. the bernie sanders, elizabeth warren faction of the democrat party with some of this, you know, defund the police and and transgenders in or excuse me, biological males and women's sports, all these things had a lot of people in the middle class just flee the democratic party. they're now republicans. now, one of the challenges in my party is that our policies do not necessarily line up with the interests of our voters, and so there'll be some, you know, some reorientation that's going to be necessary in my party. the democrat party is the one in trouble. i mean, i mean, i don't know how they recover. and, you know, i'm not going to tell them what to do because i would begin to have the capacity to do so. but they've lost their base. i mean, union

guys and gals have left the democratic party and are voting republican. and the democratic party is seen not as rich people, but as college professors and woke scolds. and that's not an attractive feature. >> before you ran for the senate, you came forward and gave a very tough speech about then candidate donald trump in 2016. >> what what caused you to to do that at the time? >> i think ted cruz and maybe marco rubio were still in the race. >> that was that difficult to do uh, well, i'm kind of outspoken, and as i've pointed out, given my my history, not terribly concerned about being out on a limb or being criticized or different. >> and and i felt that donald trump was wrong for the country, wrong for our party, that that he wouldn't win. i was wrong about that. and that

i felt that his his record was not adequately being exposed and that people needed to recognize he was the wrong person to be president. i think most people disagree with me. i'm willing to live with that. i just put emphasis on different things, and i think the public at large does right now. and i you know, i look at, at this last election, i shake my head as i look at our democrat friends, how could they have so badly misread the public mood? did they not understand how upset people are about about inflation, with president biden out there saying bidenomics. it's like, really? do you not see what people are seeing when they go to the grocery store, and particularly the grocery store? and then immigration? i mean, the new york times, just yesterday, i think, or the day before, put a piece out saying how many people had come into the country, largest in our in american history by number and by percent. and and this is something the biden administration took

responsibility for. and then finally, the whole transgender issue that president trump was able to promote so effectively at the very end. the democrats have badly misread the direction of the country and the attitude of the country. and president trump took advantage of that as well. he should, in the interview. >> romney also looked back on his long political career, including his unsuccessful run against barack obama in the 2012 presidential election. reflecting on how what was then a huge controversy feels today as, almost in his words, quaint, comparatively speaking. you can watch the full interview right now on cnn.com. >> sarah. all right. thank you kate. joining us now cnn's harry enten chief. >> we're getting there. >> we're getting there. i'm saying it. go ahead. chief data correspondent. um, right now, the end of trump's second term, romney wasn't the only republican, of course, to vote to impeach or convict trump. where are we now? because i do remember this love fest that you spoke of between republicans and trump right

after the election and before the election as well? >> i mean, look, it's donald trump's party and his gop opponents can cry if they want to. >> to borrow some words from lesley gore, look, gop voted to impeach or convict trump. you go back to january or february 2021. it was 17 republicans there. adios, amigos. goodbye. see you later for the most part. >> now, just five of them. >> just five of them remain in congress. just two in the house. three in the senate. the bottom line is this trump had a big control over the republican party before, but now it is even stronger. there are very few folks who dislike donald trump on the republican side, who are still in the united states congress. he should be able to ram through legislation, and at least on the ones in which he just needs republican votes. >> and we're seeing the pressure campaign for his cabinet picks right now on the hill there. there were some anti-trump sentiments going on among gop voters during his first term. what does it look like now for his second?

>> yeah, i mean, look, it's just it's the same basic thing that we see in the united states and the united states house. >> all right. republicans on the trump transition. you go back to january 2017. it was 80% approved. now that's not bad. >> but oh my goodness gracious. >> look at where we are now. it's 96%. i mean you can't get any more universal basically than 96% those that disapprove. >> look, it was 10% back in january of 2017. >> now it's down to get this. it's down to just four. it's down to just four. so look there are no gop opponents in the united states congress. there are very few among republican voters. this is trump's party. mitt romney 100% correct on that. folks like romney just really don't exist in the gop electorate or in congress anymore. >> so he makes this statement that i think a lot of people thought, yeah, yeah, sort of stating the obvious. obvious. what about 2028? is there any sign that that's going to change? yeah. >> look, if you're a gop opponent of donald trump, maybe you hope the future is somehow brighter for you. not right now. look, it's still very,

very early, but look, the top chances to be the 2020, 2028 gop nominee, based upon the polls and the betting markets jd vance trump jr. ramaswamy. look, it's still very early, but this looks like trump's party for now. and it looks like it will be for the foreseeable future. >> and romney said he believed it would be jd vance, which would be the obvious, would be the obvious. >> and he is number one right on here. >> he's number one. all right. those betting markets, you see them every day walking down the street in new york. they just have them up on billboards and they pop up. it's a don't spend your money that way. that's all i'm saying. >> i'm spending it on gifts for you. >> thank you. john, this is to you too? >> yes. some were. ron desantis is crying, by the way. looking looking at those three faces and noticing he's not among them. all right. with us now, cnn senior political analyst mark preston and cnn chief media analyst brian stelter. and broadly speaking, you're both here because i want to talk jumping off the mitt romney interview about what clearly seems to be people modifying their behavior in advance or calibrating their behavior in advance of this new trump administration. and,

mark, since we just covered the mitt romney thing, what jumped out to me most of all in that interview was romney, who had been a little bit unplugged for a few years, seemed to be pulling some punches there. i think j.d. vance is going to be the next republican nominee, and i'm not going to go back over the things that i said about him just a little while ago, by the way, not like 20 years ago, but like two years ago when i said i, you know, couldn't possibly respect anyone less than j.d. vance. people are modifying their behavior. mark, why? >> well, i mean, look, the reality is, is that mitt romney knows that this is donald trump's party. i mean, that's no surprise. he also knows that the future of the party is not necessarily him. now, at 77 years old. i feel like i could take him in a street fight still. but at 77 years old, i mean, he you would never expect him to be somebody who would be fading away. but i think mitt romney is smart enough to know that he's done what he can do. look, he's been in politics since 1994. i worked for senator edward kennedy in 1994 when mitt romney ran against him. i was with mitt romney in

the 2007 election when he lost that in 2010 was at his house as he was talking to reporters about running in 2012, mitt romney was always the right person, the wrong candidate at the wrong time. and right now is certainly the wrong time for anyone in the traditional republican sense. >> we should all look as good as mitt romney does at age 77, right? all right, brian, when i talk about modifying, you can still take him, no doubt, when we talk about modifying behavior. abc news settled this defamation suit with donald trump. it was over comments that george stephanopoulos had made about the e. jean carroll case settled for $15 million. now, i don't want this to be a legal discussion, but you can find legal analysts who say that abc could have won the case had it gone to court. others say maybe not. that may be a reason to settle in and of itself. if you're afraid of losing. however, there are others who say there were other reasons why abc news was settling this prior to inauguration day. what would those be?

>> yeah, and i spoke with lawyers over the weekend, media lawyers who said exactly what you just articulated, john, that abc may have had a strong case, but they decided to settle for unknown and kind of mysterious reasons. >> maybe abc was worried about embarrassing emails and text messages coming out through the process, or maybe more simply, abc's parent company, disney, wanted to get rid of an ugly battle with the president elect. >> basically, make this go away by paying $15 million to his future presidential museum. now, there are those on the right saying this is good. it's accountability for a mistake or a lie. on abc's air. >> a lot of trump critics on the left are saying, this seems like abc bowing to trump for political purposes. i think we can all sense there's a little bit of a chill in the air. >> sometimes a chill in the air means it's about to snow, a few flurries. other times it can mean a blizzard is on the way and we just don't know what's on the way right now. when it comes to trump using the courts, maybe to punish media outlets, we just don't know. is it going to be a few flurries or a blizzard and just to torture the metaphor a little further, john, some people love when it snows, and

for other people it's a huge headache. i think that's where we are right now. there's a chill in the air and lots of companies are acting accordingly. that's why jeff bezos is heading to mar-a-lago this week. that's why apple ceo tim cook dined with trump the other night. as you said, these ceos, these companies are recalibrating to the new reality. >> i'm just so glad you didn't say some people like the rain, but that's a whole other matter right there. so, mark, we've seen it. we've seen it in politics. we're seeing it here in media. and brian brought up the ceos. i mean, there are people changing their behavior or modifying it or pulling punches or behaving a certain way because the question is, how long will that continue and what would it take for it to switch back? >> i don't know if it's ever going to switch back. i think we're in in the new reality, you know, the new new. you could even argue that our behavior has changed over the last ten years. it just hasn't been so pronounced or certainly hasn't been as violent. but i mean, think of all the times that you would be out with neighbors or what have you, and

political discussions would lead to fights and friends no longer become friends. and, you know, over ridiculous, you know, discussions that have, you know, no basis to be discussed. anyway, at the ball field, when your kids are playing. i'm just saying that i think that what we're seeing now is people are starting to act on these, and that is when it's when it crosses the line and it's going to take donald trump, someone like donald trump, specifically donald trump. if you're listening, donald trump, listen to me here, donald trump, you can tone down the rhetoric. you can help tone down the rhetoric. but if you don't help tone it down, it's just going to get louder and more dangerous. >> and that comes from someone who declares that he can take 77 year old mitt romney. mark preston, brian stelter. great. great to see you both this morning. thanks so much for being here, kate. >> so it was a very scary moment for miami dolphins player grant dubose this weekend. taken off the field on a stretcher in houston and hospitalized after a really hard hit to the head. it was also just one of several injuries that happened during the nfl games this weekend. let's get to cnn's andy

scholes. he has much more on all of this for us. what are you learning, andy well, kate. >> yeah, it was, as you just mentioned, ruff ruff day for injuries across the entire nfl. >> you know the chiefs, they were able to beat the browns to get to an nfl best 13 and one. >> but all eyes now are on patrick mahomes ankle. >> mahomes legs rolled up on here as he was making the throw in the fourth quarter yesterday. >> got up was able to limp to the sidelines. >> he did not return to this game. and here was mahomes afterwards on his ankle. >> it's hard to say right now. i mean obviously he's still adrenaline rolling. and usually it's kind of the day after when you kind of get a good, good sense of it. but i felt like i could have finished the game in different circumstances. but i thought the smart decision, i think we talked about was to put carson in, and he's played a lot of football, and he and he finished the game well. >> yeah. short week for the chiefs. >> they host the texans on saturday. then they play at the steelers christmas day now in houston meanwhile very scary situation. >> dolphins receiver grant dubose took a very hard hit from the texans caleb bullock

on this play. he was motionless on the field. medical personnel immediately got out there, removed his helmet. they even cut off his jersey to attend to him. he was taken to the hospital where he is in stable condition, dolphins coach mike mcdaniel said after the game. there was positive feedback after dubose underwent head and neck imaging. here was fellow receiver tyreek hill on that frightening play it's scary. >> you know, just to, you know, be on the field you know seeing it and then actually seeing you know one of your brothers you know laying you know the way he was laying. it's it's scary man. um people don't understand the sacrifice that we, you know, have to make, you know, to play this game. and, you know, we put our bodies through, man. but the word is, you know, he's in good spirits right now. you know, he's moving. so that's all that matters, man. >> and we wish him well in his recovery. and the injury bug also continuing to hit the lions defense. they lost two more players for the season, including khalil dorsey who suffered a gruesome leg injury had to be carted off after that play. now as for that game josh allen, he pretty much locked up

the mvp award with another stellar performance. ran for two touchdowns, threw for two as well. bills dominated the lions, winning 4842, snapping detroit's 11 game winning streak. buffalo has scored at least 30 points in eight straight games now. and finally, it is a rough morning to be a colts fan. third quarter jonathan taylor runs for a 41 yard touchdown here. but wait he drops the ball before he crosses the goal line, celebrating early. just unreal. so instead it's taking a touchdown to lead the game. no back at broncos ball. and then look at this play going for the old trick play. but nick benito picked it off. went the other way 50 yards for the score. so denver ended up winning that game. guys 31 to 13. and i just can't believe kate that in this 2024 players are still dropping the ball before they score the actual touchdown. it's blowing my mind. i can't believe the coaches just beside themselves. >> i'm sure beside themselves. think about the poor freaking player. you know that. he's like, oh my god, what did i

learn in peewee football? like, seriously? oh, and of course i'm from indiana and love the colts and married to a lions fan. and it's just all it's all going down on a monday in your household. all going down on a monday. let's just call it guys. andy. thank you though. thank you so much, sarah. >> kate, what did we learn? children don't celebrate before you've actually finished the thing, but at least do the celebration. yeah, you got to get in the end zone with the ball. just. i mean, i'm no big football player or one at all, but i know that part. i know that that's important. >> no, thanks. >> thank you. kate. survivors of a devastating cyclone say it looks like an atomic bomb hit their islands. now, officials fear the death toll could be in the thousands there. and he was trapped in a dark cave for days. how rescuers were able to get him back to the light. look at those pictures

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>> new year's eve live with anderson and andy. live coverage starts at eight on cnn in gaza, at least five people were killed, including a journalist, after israeli airstrikes sunday. >> the photojournalist for al jazeera was killed, and it was one year after an attack killed one of his colleagues. al jazeera is accusing israel now of targeting its journalists, something israel denies. the idf, though, confirmed the strike, saying the area was being used as a command center for hamas. cnn's jeremy diamond is in tel aviv. has much more for us. jeremy, what are you learning well, this was one of several deadly israeli airstrikes inside of the gaza strip yesterday. >> in this particular one in central gaza. the offices of the gaza civil defense in nuseirat, in central gaza, were struck by the israeli military, killing. ahmed al-sharaa, a palestinian photojournalist working for al jazeera. he was

39 years old, and he was one of five people who were killed in this strike. he had been covering civil defense efforts to rescue a family injured in an earlier bombing. the israeli military is claiming, without offering any proof, that alu was a terrorist who had previously been part of islamic jihad. the israeli military has made these claims before about palestinian journalists it has killed in the gaza strip. very few of those claims have actually, though, been substantiated. and we should note that alu is one of more than 100 palestinian journalists, 129 palestinian journalists actually, who have been killed in gaza and the west bank since the beginning of this war. elsewhere in gaza, in southern gaza, the israeli military also struck a un school compound where displaced palestinians were housing. the israeli military said that it was being used by hamas as a command and control center. but all of this, of course, contributing to taking up a deadly year in gaza. the death toll now reaching more than

45,000, according to the palestinian ministry of health. we should note that those figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but the united states and other nonprofit organizations have previously said their numbers have stood up in previous conflicts. the israeli military disputes those numbers, of course, and has said that they have killed more than 17,000 militants in gaza. but we do know that there are negotiations now underway to see if that carnage can be ended, to see if the hostages can also be brought home. the israeli prime minister saying that he spoke over the weekend with president elect trump. we know that the incoming trump administration and the current biden administration have been coordinating closely over the potential for negotiations. the u.s. national security adviser, jake sullivan, was just in israel last week, and all of this is leading to quite a lot of momentum. and the israeli defense minister today saying that he believes that that we are closer than ever to a potential deal. but again, we have been close before, so we will see in the days ahead if progress can truly be made.