>> go to deal dash dot com right now and see how much you can save. >> cnn this morning with kasie hunt next it's wednesday, december 18th right now on cnn this morning i want to get ideas from them.

>> look, we want them to do well. >> mission to mar-a-lago amazon. amazon founder jeff bezos visiting the president elect today. >> the latest tech billionaire to make the pilgrimage. >> plus, no one can walk away. >> we must stay in the fight. >> harris's next move the vice president reaching out to young americans. could she be gearing up for another run for the white house? >> and this this was a killing that was intended to evoke terror. indicted for murder. the suspected killer, now facing first degree murder for an alleged act of terrorism. >> 5 a.m. here on the east coast. >> a live look at new york city on this wednesday morning. >> good morning, everyone. i'm kasie hunt. >> it's wonderful to have you with us. another day, another

tech titan making the trek to mar-a-lago. >> today it's amazon founder jeff bezos turn to meet with president elect trump at his florida estate. the ceos of apple, meta, tiktok, and more have already made the trip, prompting this observation from senator bernie sanders just 150 billionaire families spent nearly $2 billion to buy our recent elections. >> this is not democracy. this is not one person, one vote. this is not all of us coming together to decide our future. this is oligarchy for bezos, it seems the calculus is clear he could need help from the incoming administration in his space race against elon musk. >> and he's been publicly singing trump's praises since the election. here was bezos speaking at the new york times dealbook summit. >> i'm actually very

optimistic this time around that we're going to see i'm very hopeful about this. >> his he seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation. >> and my point of view, if i can help him do that, i'm going to help him. >> the president elect, suddenly feeling the love from former critics. and he's wondering out loud why i had dinner with sort of almost all of them, and the rest are coming. >> and this is one of the big differences, i think, between we were talking about it before, one of the big differences between the first term and the first term. everybody was fighting me in this term. everybody wants to be my friend. i don't know my personality changed or something. >> all right. let's bring in michael schnell. >> she's congressional reporter for the hill. >> michael, good morning to you. thanks for being here. i'm not sure it's his personality that changed. what do you make of bezos being the latest to go down to mar-a-lago? what does it say

about where we are and has a tie in to politics here in town? >> i think there are a few things here. a it's the fact that during the first term, the tech companies really did draw a lot of ire from trump and some of his closest allies. so now we're seeing this pattern, as you mentioned, of these tech titans. head down to mar-a-lago, meet with trump, mark zuckerberg going down there donating $1 million to the inaugural fund, jeff bezos now doing the same with amazon, expected to give that $1 million to the inaugural fund as well. so it seems like these tech companies are trying to curry some favor with trump as they head into the next four years. but also, bezos has a particularly other interest in this. and that's blue origin, right? he is in direct competition with elon musk's spacex x elon musk, of course, donated somewhat of $200 million to help trump get reelected. and he's now one of the the president elect's closest allies. so elon musk sort of sees i think i think that jeff bezos here sees that if he's going to be racing against elon musk in this area, he's going to want to try to curry some favor with trump as well. now, the political

ramifications here, of course, there's always oversight on capitol hill of these tech companies and even just trump himself has criticized these tech companies in the past, criticized jeff bezos personally in the past, saying that folks are trying to have a clean slate and head into the second term with a better relationship. that's what trump said himself. the people who were against him first time are sort of changing their tune. this time significantly. >> michael, while i have you, i also want to ask you about what's going on on on capitol hill because you write about the house speaker, mike johnson, and some members of his conference. house republicans are upset with how he is handling the current government funding fight right and you write, it's a, quote, total dumpster fire, end quote, that was actually a quote from a lawmaker, from a lawmaker. >> yeah, right. >> that's what's in your headline. um, are they going to get this done before christmas? and probably more importantly, what does this say about what it's going to be like to govern for them when their majority is even slimmer in the in the new year, they're likely going to get it done before christmas. >> there's no appetite right

now for a shutdown, particularly for republicans. they want to have a clean introduction to trump's first 100 days. and when they're going to have that trifecta, democrats do not want to have a shutdown. that's typically almost always their position. but this is really forecasting that there are going to be a lot of difficulties for republicans to govern over the next two years. now, republicans are very excited saying they have this mandate in washington with this trifecta, but they still have to deal with extremely slim margins. plus the filibuster in the senate. just talking about the house. for starters, republicans are going to have an even slimmer majority come next year. it's going to be 217 to 215, because matt gaetz is not taking the oath of office to two insane, totally insane, two cabinet members going to the administration. that means that on any party line vote, if just one republican breaks ranks and votes with democrats, it's game over. it's 216 to 216 and the house a tie fails. so if republicans are having trouble right now with this four vote majority trying to pass different priorities, some easy layup items, that should be layups, it's going to be even harder next year when they're

talking about something like tax reform and they're talking about immigration reform debt limit debt may send shivers up people's spines, but debt limit is likely going to come up next year. again, we remember what kind of mess that was two years ago. so absolutely this is forecasting that if it was difficult in the 118th congress, 119th is going to give it a run for its money. >> all right, michael chanel, i hope you get some rest over the holidays because preparation, no rest for the weary in 2025. thank you very much for being here. all right. coming up next here. morning in madison, a community coming together after a deadly school shooting as police dig into the shooter's background. plus, israel's prime minister making a trip to syria as its forces move further into that country following the fall of assad. and kamala harris vowing to stay in the fight, giving a nod to one of her most viral moments you think you just fell out of a coconut tree? >> you exist in the context of all in which you live and what

came before you. >> 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. >> for more than a decade, pozega has been trusted again and again and again. i see god. ask your doctor about pozega. >> can nariva support your brain health? >> mary? janet. hey, edie. >> no! fraser. frank. frank! >> fred, how are you? >> fred? >> support up to seven brain health indicators, including memory. when you need to remember. >> remember nariva when a tough cough finds you on the go. it's would be silly. hey, try new robitussin. sore juice pack with the power of robitussin and every bite easy to take

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foreseeable future. >> the military nostalgia this brings up nostalgia for me. >> i was here 53 years ago with my soldiers in a general staff reconnaissance unit. >> this place has not changed. >> it is the same place, but its importance to israel's security has only been reinforced in recent years, and especially in recent weeks, with the dramatic events taking place here below us in syria, we will determine the best arrangements that will guarantee our security and cnn's max foster joins us live now from london. >> max, good morning to you. our man who looks at optics. wow, that video of netanyahu standing on top of that mountain. obviously there are strategic military issues related to it. but talk a little bit about not just that, but also why it is that netanyahu would want to be seen standing there and talking to the cameras. >> well, he looked pretty thrilled, didn't he? and he

has got history there, of course, because he served there. it was in 1973 that, you know, israel last had control of the mountain after the yom kippur war. and, you know, a lot of hardliners in israel feel they should never have let go of its possession. but this was part of the negotiation with syria, all of which in, you know, netanyahu's view is redundant now because the regime has gone away. so, you know, they have to find a new way of securing their own positions. and, you know, you can just see the views from there. you can see across these countries, you can see crucially across the buffer zone, which is meant to protect, you know, a safety zone really, between syria and israel. if there were any skirmishes. so it's strategically important, but symbolically it's so important as well. and when they talk about staying there as long as is required, until israel is safe, it's going to be very difficult to see a situation where certainly someone like netanyahu or some conservatives in israel would be willing to

give it up again because they've done it before and they feel they shouldn't have done it the first time. >> and max, this, of course, all comes as there seem to be a series of indications that a hostage release deal may actually be at hand. this is the the cnn's. cnn's latest reporting here. quote, hamas has become the latest party to the gaza hostage and cease fire negotiations to voice optimism about the prospects of reaching a deal amid a flurry of diplomatic activity in the region. an official in an official statement on tuesday, hamas said reaching an agreement was possible. a hamas source also added that the talks were positive and optimistic. an israeli source familiar with the matter told cnn that a deal was still potentially weeks away. and hamas also cautioned that hurdles remain, suggesting israel was imposing new conditions in the negotiations. there's also some noise around israel and saudi arabia and potential normalization there.

what do you make of all, of all of it, especially as donald trump's inauguration looms on january 20th? >> we've been here before, haven't we? casey? but what we've got this time is lot's of positivity coming across all the different parties involved here. crucially, between the palestinian areas as well. and israel. so, you know, all the sensitive points are the ones we've talked about before. you know, obviously israel wants to get the hostages out. that's a priority. so which hostages are released? at what point? and during the different phases trying to tie that in with the withdrawal of israeli troops, it appears that on the hamas side, they've accepted that there will still be some israeli troops in gaza after all of this, but they're just trying to agree on which areas they pull out of and which areas the gazans can move back into, into the north, for example. so lots of, you know, the broad principles seem to be there, as they have been for some time. but certainly the

sounds are that they're getting some sort of agreement on those key crucial issues. and who knows? you know, if it speeds up, you could have a donald trump coming into power with hostages being released at the same time. >> well, and he basically donald trump has said if this is still an issue when i take office, i think the phrase was there'll be hell. i think was involved. although, forgive me, i'm quoting off off the cuff, but basically it was a little bit of a threat that seems to have potentially galvanized some of this. max foster for us this morning. max, thank you. i always appreciate it. see you soon. all right. coming up next here on cnn this morning, bragging rights of galactic proportions. a duo of chinese astronauts breaks a record held for more than 20 years. plus we should leave it to the woman we shouldn't have government involved. rfk jr.. meeting with republican senators on capitol hill as they grapple with his views on abortion

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their top priority. the suspect in the gilgo beach killings, now charged with the murder of a seventh woman. the partial remains of valerie mack were found back in 2000, the rest in 2011. on gilgo beach, near the remains of another alleged victim of rex heuermann. he's pleaded not guilty to all charges new dash cam video just in to cnn shows the moment of a deadly plane crash in honolulu tuesday. you can see the flames and the heavy smoke in the distance. the plane was on a training flight when it crashed into an unoccupied building near the airport. two people were killed a new frontier and bragging rights in outer space. two chinese astronauts now have the record for the longest spacewalk going a total of nine hours yesterday. until then, the record was held by the united states with a time of eight hours and 56 minutes. set

back in 2001. time now for weather. windy weather continues in southern california today, but the fire threat expected to clear soon. let's get to our meteorologist, our weatherman derek van dam. derek. good morning. >> yeah. good morning casey. >> residents in southern california know how a small, inconspicuous little fire can turn into a monster. and we obviously saw that with the franklin fire last week. and how dangerous that became and how quickly that exploded, that containment. right now, 78% for the franklin fire in and around malibu. but we're monitoring what is still a very, very small fire. but something i want to show of note, this is the soto fire. it's near riverside. a 20% containment. 30 acres have been burned so far. this is all part of another santa ana wind event that is occurring right now. we have a high fire danger across this area. the santa monica mountains into the santa susana mountains. this is the area that we have our high wind advisories and alerts in effect. wind gusts have gusted

over 60mph in some of these locations. so that northeasterly wind that's the offshore flow. and again, it's all dependent on the exact direction of where that wind comes up. and over the mountain ranges and accelerates down towards the coastline. that will continue to peak this morning. and then the winds will subside later today and certainly into the day on thursday. another major storm impacting the pacific northwest with high winds, lots of energy and certainly lots of rain right along the coastline here of oregon and washington could pick up another 2 to 3in with high elevation snowfall for them. and then i want to point your attention towards the tennessee river valley. this is an area that a cold front is racing through. look at all the lightning about to impact the nashville region. could see some marginal severe weather across the region, but the bigger flash flood threat. here is another concern that we want to keep in mind. memphis to nashville today could pick up some rain that causes some localized flooding. casey. >> all right, derek van dam for us this morning, sir. always great to have you. thank you so much. thank you. all right. still ahead here on cnn this morning falling short. aoc's

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all right. >> 5:30 a.m. here on the east coast. this is a live look at the snow covered streets and christmas trees, christmas decorations in downtown des moines, iowa. we'll be back there in approximately four years. good morning, everyone. i'm kasie hunt. it's wonderful to have you with us. with the future of the democratic party up in the air. vice president kamala harris signaling she's not going anywhere. while the electoral college gathered in all 50 states to make her election loss official. harris gave a pep talk to a gathering of young democratic leaders in maryland yesterday. during her remarks, she urged everyone who supported her to stay engaged. >> folks who have said to me that they're not sure whether they have the strength, much less the desire to stay in the fight. >> but let me be very clear. no one can walk away no one can

walk away. we must stay in the fight. >> every one of us. >> all right. joining us now to discuss jaron gainer, white house correspondent for the grio. jaron, good morning. nice to see you. you of course covered quite a bit of kamala harris's campaign. and she obviously sort of stepped back after the loss. her team has been sort of grappling with why it happened. what did you hear in those remarks there? and what do you think the future is for her in politics? >> you know, what i heard was not only the vice president thinking a critical part of her base of support. i mean, she won the youth vote, the 18 to 24, in that 25 to 30. she beat donald trump in those categories. and i saw a vice president who is trying to engage a base that she will need if she wants to run again for president. there's been a lot of reporting about the vice president weighing whether or

not she should run for the nomination in 2028 or run for governor in 2026. and, you know, the youth vote is a critical for her because she's been engaging young voters even before she was the nominee in the 2024 election. she went on her fight for our freedoms college tour, going around the country, engaging them on gun violence and climate change and reproductive rights. >> but she lost ground among young voters compared to democrats past. >> she did. but i think, you know, part of one part of that speech that was really, i guess the humor part of that speech was when she talked about the context in which you exist, this this reference to the coconut tree meme. >> let's watch that part of the speech. we actually have it. take a look. >> stay true to your spirit and your sense of purpose that you will continue to fight for the promise of america and i ask you to remember the context in

which you exist. >> yeah, i did that ha ha. >> yeah. so what did she do? she was referring back to this viral moment, basically about a coconut tree. take a look the thing is, in context, my mother used to. >> she would give us a hard time sometimes. and she would say to us, i don't know what's wrong with you young people. you think you just fell out of a coconut tree? you exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you you could really see there the you could see the defeat right around her in this, in this speech yesterday, as she's trying to kind of rally folks, it's a little tough, but that said, you know, still harkening back to what she viewed as a as a top moment for her on the campaign. >> yeah. because young people were really the drivers of

these viral moments for her on tiktok and other social media platforms. and to your point, while she kind of receded in some of that youth support, you still need your base support. if you're going to even expand on that support, if you're going to run for 20 in 2028. she made similar remarks as she made to young voters yesterday to a group of black supporters. she hasn't made a lot of public appearances, but she has made in-person public appearances in rooms to young people, to black people. she surprised a room of black state legislators and told them the same to stay in the fight. and i think that the goal is to not only thank them for supporting her. she won the black vote. nearly 90% of that vote. but to engage them, even as the democratic party is now pointing the fingers in terms of who is to blame for her loss. when i talked to democrats, very few of them are pointing the finger at kamala harris herself. they believe that given what she was handed, a campaign designed for an 81 year old white man now given to

a black and indian woman in 107 days, no less. they feel that she ran a pretty strong campaign. when i asked them, though, do you believe that she can win the nomination? that's where you get some mixed reactions from democrats. we haven't seen in modern history a democrat become the nominee, lose and then run again, and then successfully win that that primary. i think everyone understands that there are a crop of democrats who plan to run in 2028 and will not stand aside as they did in this year's election, so she probably will have to win in the primary. but when you look at polling, she is overwhelmingly the favorite democrat amongst democrats. but that could change, obviously, because we're just days after the election, one of the best known, of course, because of the campaign that she just ran. >> jaron gainer for us this morning. thanks very much for being here. i appreciate it. all right. let's turn to this story. the suspect in the killing of unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson, now indicted for murder as an act of

terrorism in new york. luigi mangione, now charged with 11 counts facing life in prison. the murder charge filed against the 26 year old last week was upgraded by a manhattan grand jury yesterday. >> this was a frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation. this was a killing that was intended to evoke terror, mangione is due back in court in pennsylvania tomorrow, as prosecutors work to extradite him to new york. >> it is a process, his lawyer tells cnn that he is no longer going to fight. cnn legal analyst joey jackson joins us live now. joey, good morning. always wonderful to see you. so the nypd commissioner, at that same press conference condemned what we are seeing in terms of the glorification of what mangione did that we are seeing online. let's watch what she said. >> we have seen a shocking and

appalling celebration of cold blooded murder. social media has erupted with praise for this cowardly attack. we don't celebrate murders and we don't lionize the killing of anyone and any attempt to rationalize this is a vile, reckless and offensive to our deeply held principles of justice. >> joey, first of all, what do you make of the upgraded charges? and then, of course, what she discusses there? um, i'm honestly interested in how the way that this is manifesting, the way people are saying they feel about this is going to affect a jury or could play out in the context of a jury. >> yeah. casey. bingo. good morning to you. so in terms of the upgraded charges, i think they're appropriate. prosecutors generally charge in two ways. number one, the relevant conduct. what was your conduct and how does the law

apply to it? and if you look at the relevant conduct, which is number one and then number two, what case you can prove beyond the reasonable doubt, it demonstrates why they presented this to a grand jury. now grand jury doesn't decide guilt or innocence. of course. it's made of 23 people. a simple majority say there's reason to believe that a crime was committed and you did it. but if you look at this, what it allows prosecutors to do is to introduce the motivation. generally speaking, you do not have to establish a motive for a crime, just the fact that a crime was committed. here. they're introducing that as prosecutors. they've introduced to the grand jury and will introduce to a trial jury what motivated him. the issues of the health care system, his feelings underpinning that, how he attempted to shock the public, et cetera.. number two, to the core point you make, which is an excellent one. this is about a jury. people are saying that he's saint luigi. they're loving him, saying, you know what? i should have done it instead. et cetera. i can't believe the social media. when you look at it, the level of support for him out there. and if you get a jury that buys

into those notions, can you now have a jury that knows he did it but excuses it, something called jury nullification? i doubt it, but anything is possible, particularly in this climate where there's so much distrust and concern about the government, governmental actors, health care systems, et cetera. so it's a big development. >> so we've also learned, of course, joey, he's not going to fight extradition any longer. what's behind that and what what's next for him in that in that regard yeah. >> so extradition fight is an uphill battle. there's not really much to fight. right. you get the governor's warrant, which if it's filled out and it's technically effective, right. meaning it's not facially deficient. it's it notes what the source is. and we're looking for you. number one, there's probable cause for the crimes you're committed. and number three, it pertains to you. you're coming back. and so really, fighting extradition is just a delay ploy. the reality is, is that his attorneys are in place. he knows they're certainly looking at the defenses that

they want to put forward in light of this new indictment. and what's next is that he'll appear in court. he'll be notified officially of what the charges are. there'll be a number of dates set moving forward. the attorneys will get all the discovery, which is the information they need to fight the case, and then it's game on. any motions to suppress or evidence meaning to take it out of the jurors view will be made. the judge will make a decision. and eventually, unless there's some plea, as we look there at all the evidence collected. et cetera. then there's going to be a trial. and he'll have, at that point, an opportunity as jurors to defend him against what we know is the public evidence, which seemingly, casey, is pretty compelling. >> all right. joey jackson for us this morning, sir. always grateful to have you on the show. thank you for being here. thanks. all right. still ahead here on cnn this morning, rfk jr. makes his pitch as trump's choice for health and human services secretary. his stances on a wide range of issues raising eyebrows on both sides of the aisle. plus, milwaukee bucks lean on star power and

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cnn. >> closed captioning brought to you by aarp. join and get instant access to member benefits. >> join aarp for $12 for one year and get instant access to member benefits and social programs. join and get an insulated trunk organizer. free plus aarp, the magazine robert f kennedy jr. now making the rounds on capitol hill as he looks to become the next health and human services secretary. >> his stances on a wide range of health topics have, of course, garnered considerable attention from democratic lawmakers who are critical of his vaccine skeptic views but recently resurfaced interviews show he might also make some republican senators unhappy on the issue of abortion. >> i wouldn't leave it to the states right now. i would i would say completely. >> it's up to the my belief is we should leave it to the woman. >> we shouldn't have government involved, even if it's full term, even if it's full term.

>> one senator says that kennedy has been reassuring republicans that his words there would take a back seat to whatever donald trump prefers. >> we talked about abortion and big, big thing about abortion is he's telling everybody, he said, listen, whatever president trump, i'm i'm going to back him 100%. >> all right. joining now to discuss amber phillips, washington post political reporter, author of the five minute fix newsletter. amber, good morning. good to see you. so of course, rfk junior facing criticism kind of from all sides in many very directions a little bit the way his political views can seem to to cross party lines. and you wrote in your five minute fix newsletter about what could actually happen around, especially the vaccine situation. you write this the government can't ban vaccines, but state and local communities have the power to set vaccine requirements for public schools. the federal government can make vaccines easier or more difficult to get ahold of.

the government can scrutinize new vaccines and refuse to offer approval, or even try to yank existing ones from the market, though that would almost certainly lead to court challenges. i think it's worth noting that on this vaccine point, republicans some republicans have voiced some skepticism. john kennedy, louisiana among them, about what rfk jr. would do in this regard. what more are you reporting on this? >> yeah, well, he's an unpopular pick on capitol hill, like you said, casey, from all sides. right. and that's part of who rfk jr. is. but i think it's super notable that top republicans like you said, including senate minority leader mitch mcconnell, have raised questions about his vaccine policy, which indicates to me they don't think it's a good idea to try to limit or cut vaccines. and you've pressed him on this, right? in interviews at cnn. and so as a parent, i just thought it was very interesting to take a look at like what this might mean for america. and essentially, public health experts tell me that while trump and kennedy can't just ban vaccines, and they're saying what they need to say on capitol hill, by the way, to get the support, like

kennedy saying, hey, republicans, i will absolutely back abortion bans or whatever we want to do to limit abortion. and also, i support the polio vaccine, is what he said this week on capitol hill. but there are lots of other ways, and he has a lot of wide latitude to make vaccines really difficult to get here in america. he could study them to death and he could try to prevent new ones. excuse me from coming on the market. like last year, the government approved an rsv vaccine for kids and babies and older adults as well. he could stop those from coming to the market, and then he can essentially, with the wave of a pen change recommendations, as this is really key for what we as parents should get our kids vaccinated every year on. right. >> it's called the vaccine schedule, and it's kind of what we all go by, right? >> he's questioned that a ton almost every time he talks about this. he said, i really want to question whether our kids and our babies are getting too many vaccines. in fact, my colleagues at the washington post reported he sat down with

with ceos for drug companies and trump and mar-a-lago and raised this point. and so i, the science, public health experts stress is safe stress that vaccines are safe, effective and that the vaccine schedule is the right thing to do to keep america safe. but he could, with the wave of a pen, make all of us question that this bully pulpit. >> yeah. so let's talk for a second about trump, though, and the willingness of republicans to buck their incoming president elect, because i think the reality is going to be it's going to be limited. are they going to spend that capital on rfk jr. or not? >> hard to predict anything. i think i would be surprised. let me say that if any of trump's picks get voted down by senate republicans, and that's for one simple reason, is trump is as popular as he's ever been right now. he's got tech titans, ceos, parent companies, and leaders of media companies coming to support him. cnn

polling from last week showed he's a majority of americans giving the benefit of the doubt that he's going to secure the border, that he's going to tamp down on inflation, and that his nominees, even though americans say they they'd like for them to have more expertise. and senate republicans say that as well, they're going to give him the benefit of the doubt that he's going to pick who he wants. and i think if these a lot of these people get through what i've written as well in the five minute fix is that americans elected, this is, i think, the bottom line, a president with clear authoritarian tendencies and are giving him a lot of latitude to carry it out, including having the senate install a lot of loyalists in his government. >> all right. we shall see. amber phillips for us this morning. very glad to have you on the show. hope you come back. all right. time now for sports. the bucs dominate the thunder to win the second annual nba cup in vegas. carolyn manno has this morning's cnn sports update. carolyn good morning. >> good morning. >> well last night's win doesn't count in the standings, but it could be a turning point for a team that got off to a two and eight start to the season and were written off by a lot of

pundits. giannis antetokounmpo leading the way with an mvp performance last night. he finished with a triple double, 26 points to go along with 19 rebounds and ten assists, and damian lillard also going to work, adding 23 points. the bucks connected on 17 threes. they played stifling defense as well, holding the thunder to a season low 81 points and on the podium after the game, giannis told the crowd that the 9781 win is the spark that will light the fire for the rest of the season we played great team basketball. >> we were moving the ball. guys were making shots, but most importantly we were competing defensively. the team scored only 14 points. that's who we are. that's who we are. that's who we're going to continue to be. >> and the job's not done. >> we have a lot of basketball in front of us. we have a lot of things that we got to improve. we are going to improve and we're going to stay locked in because job is not done. >> about 30 miles up the road, the crypto.com showdown, also taking place in vegas, with two of the top golfers from the pga tour, rory mcilroy and scottie scheffler, taking on two of the top live tour golfers, bryson

dechambeau and brooks koepka. scheffler and mcilroy racing out of the gates from the get go, taking home $10 million in cryptocurrency. and scheffler, who is the number one golfer in the world, has now earned just over 62 million in winnings this year. not too shabby. meantime, after another subpar performance in the falcons 15 to 9 win over the raiders monday night, the team is sending quarterback kirk cousins to the bench for sunday's game against the giants. veterans had one touchdown and eight interceptions in his last five games, and that clears the way for the rookie michael penix jr.. atlanta selected him with the eighth overall pick in the draft, despite signing cousins to a four year, $180 million contract back in march. the falcons seven and seven right now, one game behind the bucs for the nfc south lead. >> and lastly for you this morning, miami and iowa state will square off in the pop-tarts bowl on december 28th for a trophy unlike any other, this one featuring a fully functional toaster with two pop-tart sized slots in the top bowl. >> organizers put together a parody of the oppenheimer movie

trailer for its unveiling. or should we call it oppenheimer it's happening, isn't it our work here will ensure mankind will believe in itself moving forward we have turned the trophy. >> into a toaster i don't know how you don't absolutely love this. >> it's the internet's favorite bowl game. >> every time there's a new pop-tarts bowl story, i just get so excited. it's just good stuff. >> uh, yeah. i mean, i still feel a little sad for the pop-tarts. is that weird? i don't know somehow that makes feelings mixed feelings for the pop-tarts into human like forms. it's very strange.

anyway. all right, carolyn, thank you. i really appreciate it, as always. see you soon, i hope. all right. in our next hour here on cnn this morning, she's boycotting congressional committees, and she won't caucus with her own party. republican congresswoman victoria spartz will join us to talk about why she's unhappy with her leaders in congress. plus one by one tech ceos head to mar-a-lago to make good with the president elect. today, it's jeff bezos turn steven porter. >> trump's been very busy. >> by tomorrow, he'll have met with executives from meta, apple, google and amazon. >> when you heard that nicolas cage was like meta, apple, google, amazon, the clues were there all along no i saw it. >> you make good choices. they've shaped your journey to leave all that your life built rock solid for generations.

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>> i think those people committed a major crime, and cheney was behind it. >> a criminal probe. house republicans siding with donald trump, calling for their former colleague liz cheney, to be criminally investigated. plus, we must stay in the fight. >> every one of us. >> a rallying call. kamala harris promising to keep fighting as questions swirl about her political future and the first term, everybody was fighting me in this term. >> everybody wants to be my friend. >> a tech trek jeff bezos. the latest in a long line of tech ceos trying to make nice with the president elect. plus, we will never be the same