Azerbaijan Plane Crash: The Plot Thickens
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It is Friday, December 27th, right now on CNN This Morning. A second black box recovered as new questions swirl about Russia's involvement in possibly downing a jet in Kazakhstan. What I think is we need to replace the H-1B lottery system. And culture wars, how a discussion about immigration and visas turned into a referendum on American culture, sparking a MAGA civil war. And later... Feeling devastated, kind of in shock.

Shock at a wildlife sanctuary, the bird flu killing 20 big cats, and experts still don't know how it got there. Then later, who wants to be a billionaire? The Mega Millions jackpot now over $1.15 billion, and that drawing is tonight.

It is 6 a.m. here on the East Coast, and we have a live look right now at beautiful Miami, Florida. I'm sure it's nice and warm down there. Good morning, everyone. I'm Danny Freeman, in for Casey Hunt. It is so lovely to have you with us this morning. We begin here. Azerbaijan Airlines suspending flights from its nation's capital to seven cities in Russia. That's going to the government-owned Azerbaijani press agency after a passenger jet crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day.

A US official is telling CNN that early indications suggest a Russian anti-aircraft system may have downed the plane, adding that it may have been a case of mistaken identity in which poorly trained Russian units have fired negligently against Ukraine's use of drones. But a second black box was actually recovered from the downed plane. Authorities hoping it will provide insight into just what led to the disaster which claimed the lives of at least 38 people.

But officials in the region are urging not to speculate about the crash until the investigations have wrapped up. CNN's Biana Golodryga has more. As investigators race to determine the cause of the deadly Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash, early indications suggest that a Russian anti-aircraft system may be responsible, a U.S. official told CNN.

The aircraft was traveling from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian Republic of Chechnya when it attempted an emergency landing in Kazakhstan. The crash occurred shortly after Ukraine fired drones nearby at southern Russia, possibly leading Russia's defense systems to inadvertently strike the aircraft, the official said. Video from onboard the flight shows panicked passengers praying and holes visible in the body of the aircraft.

The source of the apparent damage has not been confirmed. The airline and Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency initially told local media the aircraft crashed after it collided with a flock of birds, an account disputed by Ukrainian counter disinformation official Andrey Kovalenko. Russian state media also reported that the plane had been rerouted due to heavy fog around Chechnya's capital.

Several investigations have been opened, including one by a joint commission involving representatives from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia. The commission's task is to fully investigate the matter, the causes and all the details of the accident and to inform both me and the people of Azerbaijan.

The Kremlin expressed condolences for those impacted by the crash and urged against speculation into the cause until the investigations have concluded. Of the 67 people on board, 29 survived, including two children, authorities said. In Azerbaijan, a day of mourning was declared for the dead.

Some relatives of the survivors remain on edge, waiting for news on loved ones' recovery. I don't know what to say, honestly. I spoke with my son today. Thank God his condition is good. If everything goes well today and tomorrow, he will come to Baku. Let's see what happens next. For many families of the at least 38 people killed in the crash, answers can't come soon enough. Bianna Golodryga, CNN, New York.

Joining me now, CNN Global Affairs analyst Kim Dozier. Good morning, Kim. Thank you again for being with us. Can you just walk us through what it would mean for Russia if it does turn out they had something to do with this? Well, it is a reputational black eye that once again in Russia's conquest of Ukraine, it has apparently accidentally shot down an airliner or at least caused it to crash.

Of course, the first time this happened was back in 2014 when Russian irregular forces shot down a Malaysian airliner, number 17, with a Buk missile. And the Hague has prosecuted and sentenced three

three Russian men over that galley. This time around, this plane was approaching Grozny at the time when there was also reportedly a Ukrainian drone attack in the area. And apparently it was waved off, told not to land there, and sustained some sort of damage, possibly from shrapnel from a nearby anti-aircraft munition. And that

may have caused hydraulic systems some damage that then led to this crash. But that is all being investigated right now to see if Russia really is responsible. Kim, I want you to take a listen to what one Republican congressman said about these new developments. Take a listen.

This is not the first commercial aircraft that if the reports are true, that Russia did down it, if the reports are true, it's not the first one they did. So again, it's a sitting melting pot without an answer unless we have clearly defined objectives. What's our plan? You know, my position is I don't think Ukraine is ready for NATO. They'd have to do a massive political reform that they're not willing to do.

That's GOP Congressman Ryan Zinke there. Just what's your reaction to his statement there? Well, it represents one part of the Republican Party that both thinks Russia has...

engaged in aggressive practices, both by invading Ukraine and also by carrying out a number of sabotage operations and disinformation operations across Europe, especially since its 2022 invasion of central Ukraine. But there's also the wing of the party that believes that Ukraine itself triggered this Russian invasion by

signaling that it wants to join nato now the process of joining nato means that you have to have both a professional military and all nato members have to vote to include you in so that's a long process and zinke is referring to the fact that that's going to take some time but it also um points

points out the political headwinds that the Trump administration is walking into. You know, Russia is waging this war and trying to win as much territory as possible before Trump takes office. And this civilian airliner downing could be part of that. Kim Dozier, thank you as always for breaking down the big picture of what may be happening amidst this tragedy. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks.

And coming up on CNN this morning, after a devastating loss, where do Democrats go from here? We need bold, younger generational leaders. The fight to chair the DNC in full swing as candidates lay out their vision for the party. Plus, feel lucky? More than a billion dollars could be yours if you get the golden ticket in tonight's Mega Millions jackpot. And valuing mediocrity over excellence. Well, that's a fierce debate inside the Republican Party that's happening right now over American culture.

Uh, my baseball team came in last. They actually gave you a trophy for that? Well, they wanted everybody to feel a sense of pride and achievement. Where's his head? I smashed it off with a hammer. You only come across an artist like Luther Vandross once in a lifetime. It was the most exciting time in the world. The CNN film, "Never Too Much," New Year's Day at 8:00 on CNN. We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and hire American.

That was President Donald Trump during his first inauguration nearly eight years ago, vowing to hire American as a cornerstone of his administration. But now, just weeks away from his next inauguration, his base and his newer Silicon Valley supporters seem to be feuding over hiring migrants in high-skill positions.

On the one hand, you have the Doge leaders, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who are coming out in defense of tech companies bringing in foreign engineers. Ramaswamy writing in part, "The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born and first-generation engineers over 'native Americans'

isn't because of an innate American IQ deficit, a lazy and wrong explanation. A key part of it comes down to the C word, culture. A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math Olympiad champ or the jock over the valedictorian will not produce the best engineers. Ramaswamy goes on to blame 90 sitcoms like Boy Meets World and other media for celebrating average, saying we need less of this.

"This is me, Mr. Average. My room here is a shrine to my mediocre life." "Let's stop right there, okay? You don't have a mediocre life." "There's nothing about me that separates me from anybody else." And a little bit more like this from the 2014 movie Whiplash. "Say it now!" "I'm upset!" "Carl, start practicing harder, Neiman."

And cue the MAGA backlash. Prominent Trump's allies like Matt Gaetz and Coulter, Laura Loomer, they all jumped on to criticize Ramaswamy's position. Coulter claims tech wants indentured servants, not high-skilled workers. Gaetz said tech bros joined MAGA for economic reasons, and they didn't ask them to engineer an immigration policy. Loomer went a step further, claiming Ramaswamy, quote, doesn't even know what MAGA immigration policy is.

Now, President-elect Trump has yet to weigh in one way or another on this latest skirmish amongst his base, but at times on the campaign trail, he seemed to hint at backing both sides of the argument. I will protect our workers. I will protect our jobs. We will build American, we will buy American, and we will hire American. What I want to do and what I will do is you graduate from a college, I think you should get automatically as part of your diploma a green card to be able to stay in this country.

All right, joining me now to talk about this is our phenomenal panel this morning. We have Stephen Collinson, CNN Politics Senior Reporter, Leah Wright-Regor, CNN Political Analyst and Historian, Jamal Simmons, CNN Political Commentator and former Communications Director for Vice President Harris,

and Lance Trover, former spokesperson for Doug Burgum's presidential campaign. Welcome to you all. We have a full house. I love it here. And I'm excited about this topic. Stephen, let's start with you. What do we make of this online argument breaking out into the open between Trump's base and these Silicon Valley types like Musk and Ramaswamy?

I think it's a pretty fascinating glimpse at the fissures in this rather unique coalition that Trump put together in the election. On the one hand, you have the new addition of Silicon Valley pioneers and businessmen, billionaires, many of them. And then you have that stretching across right to the traditional Trump

working class grassroots MAGA base. And that's something the president-elect is going to have to deal with during his administration.

I think that there is a need for a discussion about whether the US education system is turning out enough science and technology graduates that can filter into the Silicon Valley industries. I just think that the way that Ramaswamy approached it was not very artful, and it does show some of his rawness as a politician.

It's not necessarily contradictory that you can discuss the Trump administration's desire to crack down on border issues and undocumented migration and consider the need to get more highly skilled immigrants into the country. You know, immigration legislation has been trying to do that for years, but has always failed because this issue has been so politically polarizing.

but it's just the way that this was brought up, I think, and you saw that on social media, as you mentioned, it's gonna be very divisive in the Trump coalition. Lance, I'm gonna jump over to you. I'm curious, with this Trump coalition actually growing and expanding this year versus 2016, certainly versus 2020, was this conflict inevitable really between multiple sides, especially some folks who are frankly new to the Republican world, like someone like Elon Musk?

Yeah, look, I mean, immigration is an interesting issue here in America. A lot of people have a lot of different opinions. I agree with Stephen. I mean, I think the comments by Vivek Ramaswamy were an artful at best. Look, this H-1B visa program, I think many people would argue, has used by corporations to get these blanket exemptions out there.

And I think the problem is it's taking jobs away from many Americans and particularly minorities. And I think if you look at what the voters spoke to, I think their first and foremost priority is one, stopping the flow of illegal immigration in this country, getting the border closed and under control, and then asking them.

Okay, who's coming into this country? Why are they coming into this country? How long are they coming into this country? That to me is the voters first priority when it comes to that. And then we can have this discussion about H-1B visas as we go along. But right now, the number one priority is that and getting some of these illegal immigrants who have come in over the course of the last several years out.

- I love these moments because when somebody tweets, everyone has to tweet. Nikki Haley also jumped into this battle, slamming Ramaswamy over his comments on American culture, writing, "There's nothing wrong with American workers or American culture. All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have." Leah, I'm gonna toss it to you on this one. Was Nikki Haley being on the same side as Matt Gaetz and Laura Loomer part of your end of 2024 bingo card?

Actually, it was. And let me tell you why. Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley have a very contested relationship. It's often gotten ugly at different points in time, but particularly on the campaign trail. Nikki Haley has come after Vivek before because of attacks, she said, on her children. Vivek has called her a fascist. They have been going at it for questions.

quite some time. And I think part of the tension here too is that as Nikki Haley has fallen out of favor with the Maga Vays, one of the people that she has kind of pointed to is taking, essentially taking her place is somebody like Vivek Ram Swarmy. Her argument has fallen

that he does not fully understand what it means to actually be part of this conservative movement. Because if you think about Vivek Ram Swarmy's actual history and longer trajectory, he is very transactional. He is relatively new to the conservative movement and certainly new to the MAGA movement. That was Laura Loomer's point. That was several other of the kind of high-probability

profile MAGA people who jumped into this conversation. But I would also point out that this larger conversation, as our other panelists have pointed out already, but as this larger conversation comes to a head, it does highlight tensions, pre-existing tensions that have come to the fore, but that were hidden for a long time as people rallied around Donald Trump to elect him to office. Perhaps more importantly, a lot of

have actually, this is why they're putting their hat in with Donald Trump, because they want to offset this kind of pro-anti-immigration, pro-business bent on the base. And that's where the tensions really arise from. Jamal, I'll give you the last quick word right here. Other strange bedfellows, perhaps, got

Governor Jared Polis, Bill de Blasio, both siding with the Doge Bros here and actually agreeing with Vivek and Elon. Are we going to see more strange bedfellows in this coming year? We are going to see a lot of strange bedfellows because what's happening is

The MAGA coalition is building a fault line of anxiety. And you've got cultural anxiety on one side and economic anxiety on the other side. And the problem, the two of those things are grading against each other. They cut against each other. So to deal with the cultural anxiety is really about white, traditional white culture.

Christian heterosexual male culture being able to kind of be dominant in America. On the other hand, on the economic side, you've got to have more diversity. You've got to have more immigration. You've got to go out and recruit engineers from different places. The truth is we do need more engineers. There's a global competition for engineers that's taking place in the country. So if we don't have more talent in the United States and get the talent, more skills and have that talent come from more communities,

It's going to be pretty tough for America to compete on a global scale. So we've got to solve that. But it cuts right against that traditional cultural anxiety that a lot of the folks who joined up with the MAGA coalition are feeling. And it's hard to reconcile those two things.

I think we're going to see these kind of debates quite a lot in the year to come. All right, panel, all stay right where you are. Don't go anywhere. Because after the break on CNN This Morning, we're going to talk about a lot more, including severe storms marching across the southeast, multiple tornadoes spotted in Texas. That's just one of the five things you have to see this morning. Plus, from LeBron making history to Simone's Olympic comeback. Athletes, just made 2024 a stellar year for sports fans. We're going to look back at the biggest moments right up ahead.

It is 26 minutes past the hour right now and we have five things you have to see this morning. First, severe storms pummeling southeastern Texas, spawning rare winter tornadoes. This funnel right here cloud was spotted just south of Houston back on Thursday. And this water spout also forming Harris County, no injuries though were reported.

And a woman crashes her car into a building in Washington, D.C., sparking a fire. You see right there, the driver was momentarily trapped until first responders got her out safely. Fortunately, no one was inside the building, which is home to two daycare centers. And if this doesn't scream Wisconsin, I don't know what does. You're looking right there at firefighters pulling a deer to safety after it fell through ice in a river. The animal was dried off and quickly went on its way. Love that. And it all ends in overtime.

This was wild, a thrilling but confusing end for a bowl game matchup between Toledo and Pittsburgh. Toledo thought they won two different times in overtime, but a flag and a replay review extended the game twice. Toledo was eventually able to officially celebrate after the sixth overtime. 2:30 a.m. she came, pawing at the door, ringing the doorbell, which was Christmas Eve.

Okay, this story's crazy. A four-year-old dog, missing since December 15th, returns home on Christmas Eve. It's a Christmas Eve miracle, but the pup walked up to her porch and rang the doorbell. You saw it right there, letting her family know she was home for Christmas. Love that. Smart dog. Good dog.

Alright, next on CNN This Morning: A bird flu outbreak ripping through a big cat sanctuary as fears of a new pandemic grow. Plus, the DNC, they're looking for a new leader as the party tries to pick up the pieces after Republicans sweep the White House and Congress. I feel that in order for the Democrats to rise like a phoenix from the ashes of our electoral defeat, we need to look at more than just the outer issues.

The epic story. She was going to kill everybody. Do I look like a monster to you? Concludes. The mans are a cult. We need to get her out of there. With one. Look, there she is. Blast. I hear like moaning. Like a porno. Twist. What are you hiding? Can we cut? The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, the final chapter. An ID documentary event. Starts Monday, January 6th at 9pm.

The Democratic Party is looking for new leadership, and self-help author Marianne Williamson is throwing her name and hat into the ring for DNC chair. She ran two long-shot and unsuccessful campaigns for president earlier this year and back in 2020, when she failed to meet the polling qualifications for several debates. We need to transform. In a way, we need to reinvent the Democratic Party in order to counter what MAGA is bringing to the table.

There's a collective adrenaline rush in all of that. And we have to create our own massive psychological and emotional appeal for the American people. And listen, in fairness, even before the election, we heard other Democrats talking about the need for new blood. We need a new generation. We need new blood, period, across the Democratic Party. Put some new ideas and some new blood. New leaders, new blood, a new generation.

Now, Williamson joins a growing field to replace outgoing chair Jamie Harrison. That includes former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, Minnesota Democratic former Labor Party chair Ken Martin, Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wickler, and New York State Senator James Skoufis, and former U.S. Senate candidate for Maryland, Robert Hooten. To discuss all of this, we have the panel back. Let's start with Hooten. He was on CNN last night. Here's a clip from that interview.

We were held hostage by the radical left. We weren't in the toilet. We have the opportunity to move policies that work for the people and we will have credibility, Kate, when we work with the president so that when we fight when he's wrong, we're going to have more credibility and we're going to win on all those issues.

All right, so no doubt whoever gets this top job is going to have their work cut out for them in helping rebuild or regrouping at the very least and rebranding the party. Jamal, I'll toss it to you first. What's your thoughts on who's leading this race so far? Jamal, I think we lost your audio, so I'll work to fix that there. Steven, let's go to you then. What's your thoughts? Oh, do we have Jamal? Do we hear him? We got him? Maybe?

Yeah, I'm here. Can you hear me? Oh, yes, I got you now, Jamal. Okay. Go for it. The two parties are fighting between Wisconsin and Minnesota. And I think that the chairs of those two parties are the ones that we are really seeing have this contest. But here's a question for the Democrats. The question for the Democrats is, are they gonna be on the side of the people who feel like they're being left out of the system and they're gonna fight against, try to reform the system? Or are they the people who are gonna try to defend the status quo?

And for too often over the last few years, Democrats have been sort of defending the status quo of the American society when people really thought the status quo was not working for them. So the Democratic chairman can do a little bit on that, but really they've also got to focus on the fundamentals of the party building. Are they making sure that all those fundamentals are taken care of?

organizing places, they've got people on the ground, they're gonna build a national organization that can help win up and down the candidate level and not just be focused on what happens in a presidential campaign every four years. - And then, thank you everyone, we're back with audio, appreciate that, Jamal. I wanna talk about Marianne Williamson 'cause I think this was perhaps a surprising late entry into this race. Let's listen to some impassioned pleas she's made during some of her earlier campaigns.

President Trump did not win the last election. That means we didn't go over the cliff. But I'll tell you something, we're still six inches away from it. Mr. President, if you're listening, I want you to hear me, please. You have harnessed fear for political purposes and only love can cast that out. I'm going to harness love for political purposes. I have had a career harnessing the inspiration and the motivation and the excitement of people. Thank you, Ms. Williamson.

Lance, I'll give it to you. Would you fear a Williamson DNC chair? I love when a Republican gets asked to tell the Democrats what they should do for the next election. Look, I hope Jamal's party continues down the road they've been on. They ignore the Joe Mansions of the world. They ignore the John Fettermans of the world and continue leaning in on this left woke ideology because that's where I see them going. I mean, somebody said, well, go in one of the earlier clips that

Like we've been held hostage by the left. Look who they nominated. Kamala Harris was the most liberal senator when she served in the United States Senate. That's where the Democratic Party has been and where they seemingly continue to want to go. Joe Manchin's out there late earlier this week and talking to Manan Uraju saying, hey, look, we need to moderate on issues. But I'm not seeing that. So, look, I hope they continue to ignore like Joe Manchin, because that's going to make my life a lot easier and my Republican operative friends a lot easier for the next election.

Jamal, your quick response there? Yeah, for my Democratic friends, I just want to say, don't listen to Lance. Nobody's talking about him. This isn't about left versus right. He's a Republican trying to dance in the Democratic primary. We know he's not right. This isn't about left versus right. This is about outsiders versus insiders. And some of these policies are going to make sense because they're going to make sense from the, they're going to be from the cultural left, right? About economic policy, getting people more money for, you know, wages and that kind of thing.

Which means we're not going to talk about some of the issues that have been hot buttons. I think DEI is really important. But the reason why DEI is important is because it's going to make America more competitive and we're going to be able to go out into the world and win and keep our companies as competitive as possible. That's not really a progressive argument, but it is an argument that includes every American, which is what Democrats stand for.

Leah, I want to take a step back here. Do you think that whoever is the next leader of the DNC is really going to be the next leader of the Democratic Party? I don't necessarily know that they need to be the next leader of the Democratic Party. What they need to do is lead, essentially, what is coming to terms with the infrastructure and the institution of the Democratic Party. And from that, we'll begin to see real leadership emerge.

So it's not necessarily about being hailed to the chief or saying that this person that is in charge, but instead, can you lay the groundwork for a new generation of leadership that is actually in touch with the American people, with democratic voters, and then with the kind of

larger orbit of Democratic voters or independent voters, progressive voters, leveling voters, conservative Democrats that have made up the Democratic Party and the Democratic Party has really shied away from in the last couple of cycles.

I think the other thing here to keep in mind is that as you hear somebody like Marianne Williamson, who kind of emerges every four years to say these things, we have to remember that Marianne Williamson's biggest endorsers have been billionaires. And that's not actually very much in touch with where the Democratic base wants to be right now, as they said resoundingly in this last election cycle. The person, the people actually that they should be listening to are

Bernie Sanders and Stacey Abrams. Those are the two people who have been very consistent and very in touch with the American public that have been related to the Democratic Party. Those are the people that are going to help pick the leadership of the Democratic Party, or at the very least should be helping to pick the leadership of the Democratic Party as we move forward into this next election cycle.

All right. Thank you all for the smart conversation on this topic. Stephen, I'm coming to you first in the next one. We've got to move on right now. Coming up straight ahead on CNN this morning. Grab your tickets. Tonight, you could become a billionaire. Literally. The Mega Millions jackpot. Now the fifth largest prize ever. Plus, with just days until it is banned, potentially TikTok's final hope is in Donald Trump's conservative-leaning Supreme Court. We did go on TikTok.

And we had a great response with billions of views. Maybe we got to keep this sucker around a little while. This year in sports did not fall short of stars and just truly remarkable stories. From LeBron making history again to the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl win again. Our sports anchor Andy Scholz takes us back to the top 10 sports stories of 2024.

Well, 2024 was a year where the superstars certainly shine bright. LeBron Simone Mahomes, Sheffler, Otani and Clark all dominating their sports. But there were some controversies along the way. Here are the top moments in sports from this year.

We start our countdown with the Boston Celtics returning to the top of the NBA, winning their record 18th title. Jason Tatum, Jaylen Brown and company beating the Mavericks in five games. This at the top of the mountain, but we did it. We won a championship and we almost saw history in the NHL. The Florida Panthers were up 30 in the Stanley Cup final before the Edmonton Oilers stormed back to force a game seven. But the Panthers would hold on to win their first ever championship.

At number nine in college basketball, Dawn Staley, South Carolina Gamecocks became the 10th women's Division One team in history to go undefeated. They were a perfect 38-0 and then capped it off by winning the third title in school history. So excited to share this moment with our team. The Yukon Huskies, meanwhile, becoming the first men's team since Florida in 2007 to win back-to-back titles. Unbelievable. Feels like last year.

At number eight, we had history in the NBA. LeBron James and his son, Bronny, taking the floor together, making it the first time ever a father and son played together in the league. No matter how old I get, no matter how my memory may fade as I get older or whatever, I will never forget that moment. I appreciate the Laker Nation for showing that support for me and my dad.

And at number seven, LeBron with quite the 2024 as he alongside Steph Curry led Team USA to an Olympic gold medal in Paris, beating France in the championship game. It was their fifth straight gold. The women meanwhile winning their eighth straight gold medal behind a dominant performance from Asia Wilson and on the pitch under new head coach Emma Hayes, the US women's soccer team getting back to their winning ways, beating Brazil 1-0 to capture the gold medal for the first time since 2012.

At number six, we also saw amazing solo performances at the Paris Games. American Noah Lyles takes his claim as the fastest man in the world with a thrilling photo finish in the 100 meter dash. Lyles became the first American in 20 years to grab the title of the fastest man on the planet.

Swimming sensation Katie Ledecky becoming the most decorated US female Olympian of all time with 14 medals. I kind of just wanted to be that guy who might be a little bit nerdy, but also really good at sports. That's kind of all I wanted to be.

And Steven Nedorosic, known as Clark Kent, was a true hero, dominating the pommel horse to get the U.S. men's gymnastic team their first medal since 2008. Nedorosic leaving the Games with two bronze medals. Many world records were set, but none more impressive than Sydney McLaughlin-Lavrone, who crushed the field in the 400-meter hurdles. Unreal, honestly. Full circle moment. First, I feel like, full Olympic moment with friends and family there.

At number five, Simone Biles triumphantly returning to the Olympics, proving once again she is the GOAT. The 27 year old winning three gold medals and a silver and in the process became the most decorated US gymnast of all time.

I solely did it for myself and I'm in a really good spot mentally and physically. So doing this for just me and meant the world. Files on the women's team reclaiming the gold. But the Paris games did end in controversy for a member of the team. Surprising turn of events in Paris. American gymnast Jordan Childs has been stripped of her bronze medal. The situation is getting more complicated by the day.

USA Gymnastics says its appeal for Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles to keep her bronze medal was denied. It's definitely been a really hard year. At number four, Shohei Ohtani had a season in baseball that will never be duplicated again, both on and off the field. Just one week before opening day, a stunning scandal has erupted in Major League Baseball. The interpreter for LA Dodgers player Shohei Ohtani

fired amid allegations that he stole millions of dollars from the Japanese superstar to cover a gambling debt. The whole controversy, though, did not affect Ohtani one bit on the field. He went on to have the first ever 50-50 season in baseball history. He ended up with 54 home runs and 59 stolen bases. The Japanese star then went on to win his first World Series as the Dodgers beat the Yankees in five games. Woo!

At number three, the PGA Championship getting off to a rocky start. We're following major drama at the PGA Championship in Louisville, Kentucky, where top-ranked golfer Scotty Scheffler was arrested and detained just outside the course where he would tee off only a few hours later. I feel like my head's still spinning. I can't really explain what happened this morning.

I did spend some time stretching in a jail cell. That was a first for me. Despite being arrested before round two, Scheffler still finished tied for eighth at the PGA Championship. And he went on to have one of the best years in golf history. Scheffler won nine times, including his second Masters in three years and gold at the Paris Games. I'm just a kid from Texas who loves playing golf and just trying to get the most out of myself. And this year's been really fun.

At number two on our countdown is Kaitlyn Clark mania just taking over the country. History truly in the making and so far out by the way, Iowa Hawkeyes superstar Kaitlyn Clark breaking the NCAA women's basketball all

an all-time scoring record. I don't know if you can really script it any better. Clark wasn't just setting scoring records. Attendance and viewership were at all-time highs whenever Clark stepped on the floor. Her rematch against Angel Reese in LSU was watched by 12.3 million people, making it the most watched women's college basketball game ever.

Kaitlyn Clark is headed to the WNBA as the number one overall draft pick. Just getting to enjoy it and soak it in, I think is the biggest thing because like this is once in a lifetime. Clark's remarkable year ended with her winning the WNBA Rookie of the Year and leading the Fever to the playoffs in 2024. It was certainly an extraordinary year for the WNBA, the league setting records for attendance and viewership and in the end it was the Liberty winning their first ever title beating the Lynx.

And finally, our number one sports moment of the year belonged to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.

With Taylor Swift in attendance to cheer on boyfriend Travis Kelsey, the Chiefs beating the 49ers in an overtime thriller in the first ever Las Vegas Super Bowl. Mahomes, Kelsey and company winning back-to-back titles in their third in five years. I'm so proud of the team, so proud of the guys, and to battle to the very end, I mean, that was a microcosm of our season. It really is special just to be able to say we're back-to-back champs. And as we head into 2025, the Chiefs are looking to become the first team ever to win three straight Super Bowls.

Alright, it is 52 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. This morning, the man accused of burning a woman to death on a New York City subway is expected in court today. Earlier this week, he was arraigned on charges of first and second degree murder and arson. Officials say this was a random attack.

And the CDC is now reporting a serious bird flu virus case found in a person in Louisiana is showing signs of a mutation. A sample of the virus from the hospitalized patient found a change which potentially makes it easier to spread among humans. But the agency says the risk to the general public still remains low.

And 20 big cats are now dead after a bird flu outbreak among the animals at a wildlife sanctuary in Washington state. That's more than half the center's population. The facility says the deaths started around Thanksgiving, and it's still unclear how the cats contracted the disease. And who wants to be a billionaire? Today, the Mega Millions jackpot is worth $1.15 billion! So go and get your tickets, because if a winner is declared, this will be the fifth largest jackpot in the game's history.

We turn now to the Supreme Court, where the justices are preparing for a series of blockbuster cases in the new year that could significantly transform the lives of the nation's young people and teenagers. The court set to hear oral arguments about the controversial law that says TikTok must be banned unless the company is sold by its Chinese parent company just days before the ban is supposed to take effect on January 19th.

Justices will also decide in the coming months whether the FDA can regulate e-cigarettes, a product that, like TikTok, immensely popular amongst young people. The court's so-called teenage term is coming at a time when its approval among Americans aged 18 to 29 stands at just 44 percent, lower than any other age group. And some people wondering what things might look like for them if the decisions do not go their way.

TikTok is getting banned and I'm not gonna have a job next month. That's facts. So how do I become a farmer? If I go to the bank, how do you think that's gonna go? Like, hi, I would like to take out a small loan. What for? Um, to stock up on vapes because they're going out of business. Do you think they would laugh at me?

My panel is back with me to talk about all this. Stephen, we're going to start with you, as promised. Looking at the big picture here, break down what are the broader political and cultural implications for young people when it comes to these cases before the court?

Well, apart from the individual cases, which are all interesting, this shows the fault lines in many ways of society and our politics right now, because you're going to head into a period where the court, as you say, is already underwater in opinion among younger people.

you are going to have and you do have a supreme court majority which is older uh more religious uh very conservative and that is going to have a great deal of sway over the lives of young people who potentially are more progressive or moderate more secular for decades what does that do

to the aspirations of younger people, does that create a political backlash? Is it something that the Democrats can exploit? Does that lead to more organization, political organization among young people? So this could have far reaching effects, notwithstanding the fact that there was some evidence that some younger people gravitated towards the right in the last election towards Donald Trump, especially younger males.

Leah, the Supreme Court also heard arguments this month about gender-affirming care for minors, another issue of particular interest for Gen Z. And at the core of that case, the vaping case, there are these questions about lawmakers and whether agencies overstepped when enacting policies to say that were designed to, in their words, protect young people. From a historical perspective, who usually wins when it comes to these sorts of debates?

Well, it depends on what you mean by when, because oftentimes what we see is that the culture is at direct odds with the court. And oftentimes the court will rule in a way that is directly at odds, again, with young people or young passions or young positions. But ultimately, what we also see is that young people often invest themselves in political movements and

in social movements and cultural movements that end up changing the zeitgeist or the cultural components. And then the courts, the federal governments, these various agencies are forced to catch up. But oftentimes things that we see that we have defined, say, as the radical left or left-wing progressivism actually are coming directly out of young people in young people's movements. Think free speech, for example, during the 1970s. Think anti-war movies.

anti-war movement during the 1960s and into the 1970s. You can think about the cultural moments and the cultural lifts of the 1990s. All of those things are born out of differences, political and legal differences that come from young people. So what I wouldn't be surprised, particularly around now that, particularly now that much of the Supreme Court

rulings that we're going to see or the cases that we're seeing come in front of the Supreme Court around young people actually have to do not only with young people and content creation and cultural creation, but actually have a monetary factor to it. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a political movement on the ground around youth culture, irrespective of what decision the Supreme Court makes on many of these issues. I want to play a little bit of sound, Lance, for you to get some reaction to about President-elect Trump and how he has spoken about TikTok in the past. Take a listen.

We'll take a look at TikTok. You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won youth by 34 points. And there are those that say that TikTok has something to do with that. I'm going to have to start thinking about TikTok. I think we're going to have to start thinking. Because, you know, we did go on TikTok and we had a great response with billions of views, billions and billions of views.

Just quickly, Lance, what do you think? Is a president like Trump gonna help save TikTok?

Well, he certainly got a lot of younger voters that moved in his direction during the last election. My guess is knowing Donald Trump and being kind of a student of his these last several years, he probably believes there's a deal to be had with TikTok and figures he can probably help solve that issue. I certainly wouldn't underestimate him on this. Let's remember, though, what really if ByteDance would sell TikTok, TikTok does not have to go away. It's that simple. I know that I'm making it simplistic, but that's really what needs to happen here. And TikTok doesn't need to go anywhere.

All right, Jamal, your last thought. Are we going to see TikTok sold in the new year? They want to stay in business. I think they're going to have to sell. I think the national security environment, they will be pretty clear about selling TikTok.

First of all, Donald Trump also did not win youth by 34%. That's just quite a way not true. So we should all remember that. Lastly, for the Democrats, the Democrats are looking for a place to be reformers. It's not about left versus right all the time. It's about insiders versus outsiders. Reforming the Supreme Court is one of these issues that's very hot with young people. If Democrats pick up that mantle, it's a way to get on sides with the voters they need in the future.

All right. Thank you to our entire panel. Thank you for joining us this morning. Appreciate the conversation. I'm Danny Freeman. CNN News Central is going to start right now. Welcome to Times Square. Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen are back together to ring in the New Year. That's not in my life. And anything could happen. Oh, my gosh. That's perfect TV. New Year's Eve Live starts at 8 on CNN.