He Said, She Said
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It's Friday, November 29th, right now on CNN This Morning. He said, she said, Mexico's president refuting Donald Trump's claim that she agreed to close the border. Then, holiday threats, more lawmakers becoming the targets of bomb threats and swatting incidents, the latest in the investigations. And, beg your pardon, could some surprising name soon be up for pardons as Trump returns to office? Plus,

Holiday shopping season arrives. Black Friday is now here. How the day once defined by stampedes and fistfights is taking on a new role for retailers.

It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast, and here is a live look at the Washington Monument here in our nation's capital. Good morning, everybody. Thank you so much for being with us this day after Thanksgiving. I'm Audie Cornish in for Casey Hunt. Now, there are just 52 days until Inauguration Day, less than two months until Donald Trump once again swears to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers and American families. We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies, and destroying our jobs.

Eight years ago, as Trump stood on the steps of the Capitol and spoke of American carnage, he also railed against trade deals that he said were harming American workers. And now, before he's even moved into the White House, Trump is once again threatening to levy massive taxes on products from America's neighbors.

On Wednesday, he claimed that his threat of a 25% tariff made Mexico, quote, agree to stop migration through Mexico and into the United States, end quote. And that turned out to be news to Mexico's President, Claudia Sheinbaum, who said this yesterday.

Everyone has their own way of communicating, but I can assure you, I give you the certainty that we would never, and we would be incapable of it, propose that we would close the border. It has never been our approach, and of course we don't agree with that.

So that brings us to Thanksgiving. And hear me out. Thanksgiving is a time for family, friends, food and goodwill. For President-elect Trump, that goodwill sounded like this. Quote, Happy Thanksgiving to all, including to the radical left lunatics.

As we read that cheery holiday message, we were reminded that Donald Trump actually sat down with CNN 14 years ago for a special Thanksgiving Day interview. And as you'll see, the then businessman Trump's tone was different. His feelings on tariffs forecast actually where we are today. We are losing ground rapidly to other countries, in particular China, but to other countries. I advocated 25% tax on all Chinese products.

products coming into this country. Watch what happens. I hope you can re-branch Kansas in five years. Joining me now to discuss Megan Hayes, former director of message planning for the Biden White House, Erin Perrini, Republican strategist and former director of press communications for Trump's 2020 campaign, Errol Lewis, CNN political commentator and host of The Big Deal with Errol Lewis on Spectrum, and Jeff Mason, White House correspondent for Reuters.

Erin, I actually want to start with you because I think for a long time we tried to understand what a so-called Trump doctrine is or what defines him politically. When it comes to the economy, is it basically tariffs?

No, it's much more than that. But he's been very clear that he considers this an opening offer in a negotiation, right? It's the art of the deal. This has kind of always been Donald Trump's ethos. But he did implement them at one point, right? He did, yes. So it's not as though it couldn't happen. No, it's true. He did. And, but you've also seen Canada immediately reach out to President-elect Trump, and him and Trudeau spoke about being able to address the issues coming across the northern border of the United States. He's clearly had conversations with

When Donald Trump levies the threat of tariffs against countries, you have seen them step up and step in to enter the negotiation table with the United States in a way that you haven't seen with other presidents. - Meghan, I wanna turn to you because the Biden administration kind of went in different directions when it comes to tariffs. Can you help us understand kind of what that relationship is with Mexico, so to speak?

Look, I think that we do have an immigration problem. I think that there have been steps made and bills in Congress to try to help that. But I also think that President Biden probably approaches this a little bit differently. I think he understands that tariffs from different countries will hurt the middle class. I think that Trump's plans, many economists said that it would add $4,000 to working class families'

And so I think that it was just done a little bit differently. We don't know what's going to happen here. We don't know what the negotiations are going to bring to the table. But I do think that tariffs are going to hurt the middle class. And I think that that will hurt working class people in a way that I don't know that they necessarily expected when they voted for Donald Trump. Jeff Mason, I want to bring you into this conversation because obviously all of this conversation around immigration and Mexico in particular, all of this information gets to the idea of what's

what the white house has done in the past when it comes to immigration um um what do we know about this relationship especially with scheinbaum who is a new president yeah she is a new president indeed uh you know it's it's kind of a competing um

description of the calls. And I think it's interesting and important to know that sometimes President-elect Trump will describe not only his own policies, but also his own calls or his own meetings in a way that other leaders or other people will describe differently. Clearly, this is a relationship that's going to be key.

to the Trump administration. And the fact that he actually spoke of it in a positive way would indicate at least a positive start between the two leaders, but also the fact that she came out and said something differently about how that call went

uh is instructive i think as we as we analyze what both sides will do going forward but you're right to note that she's that she's new the relationship is new for the outgoing biden administration and will be a pivotal one for the incoming trump administration

Errol, can I bring you to the conversation here just to ask how this can be, I guess, message to the American people who are clearly hearing from a lot of economists and Democrats that this is going to raise prices for them?

Yeah, well, good morning, Audie. I don't think there's anything other than cold, hard reality that will, I think, make clear to people what a tariff is or is not. It is a tax on imported goods. We've seen it before. And look, just from the tweet that the president-elect put out about this, the prospect of this,

caused the stock of General Motors to drop by about 10% in one day. That's about $5 billion of lost capital for that company. And those who own it or have it in their pension funds and so forth took a hit.

That level of uncertainty is really a problem, but we're all going to learn. I mean, a lot of GM trucks, it turns out, are made in Mexico. It turns out that 51% of fresh fruits and 69% of fresh vegetables come from Mexico. If you think your prices are going to go down because we put taxes on these kinds of goods, it's just not going to happen. And I think people will start to understand that as it all starts to play out.

Erin, I want to come back to you for a second because now we have this added element of J.D. Vance and his kind of so-called economic populism, which is, as far as I can read, sort of designed to put pressure on corporations in certain ways to affect labor choices, etc. So are we going to like how do we make sense of what the economic policy will be coming out of this White House?

I think it's going to be very clear that Donald Trump will be driving all policy, including the economic policies. This is the Trump administration. J.D. Vance will play the supportive role of vice president. But I don't necessarily see him moving Trump very far. Trump has been consistent. You just played a clip from almost 15 years ago with the same exact number on the percentage he wants to use on tariffs. Nobody should be confused about where the economic policy is going. He uses tariffs as a pressure point on tariffs.

companies and on countries to stand up and say this is the outcome the United States wants in this instance of regarding fentanyl and closing the border he's using these tariffs as a pressure point to try and stem what are the two big things the American people expected from him they expected him to handle the economy they expected work to be done on tariffs and they expected worked in the first hundred days to be done on immigration as well

Yeah. Jeff, I want to ask you where you think the pressure points might be between the business community and the incoming Trump administration, which obviously we all perceive to be quite close. But now we're going to talk about the potential policies that would affect their bottom line, their labor. Are there any kind of areas of tension you're keeping an eye out for?

Absolutely. And I think the question is spot on. The business community will be looking at how President Trump, President-elect Trump's policies will impact their ability to do business and their ability to hire workers. If you're a company that relies on immigrants, and in many cases undocumented immigrants, to pick fruit.

or to do jobs that American workers don't necessarily want to do, what impact will that have? If the tariff policies impact your ability to do work in other countries, that then

leads to products being imported into the United States, even if you're an American company, including GM, which was a great example. That's something that they'll be watching closely. I also think what we'll be interested in sort of studying is how President-elect Trump's economic advisors shape this policy. It's one thing for

uh... the the president-elect to use the bully pulpit that he now absolutely has uh... since will be coming into office in january to to to threaten uh... to to use numbers and threats like the twenty five percent tariffs uh... is it'll be another thing to see if they're implemented or if they're changed or shaped uh... based on having

the Treasury Secretary and the incoming Treasury Secretary and the other economic advisors who will say, all right, look, yes, let's use that as a way to get to a certain point in a negotiation, but we also want that stock price to go back up or we want these companies to be able to use the labor that they need to do their jobs. Those are all ifs, those are all question marks, those are all factors.

excuse me, going into President Trump's second term. And some of those questions are just ones we won't be able to answer until we watch how his team works and how he works with his incoming administration.

Okay, I want the panel to stay with us. We're going to talk more politics this morning, but straight ahead, we're going to talk about a wave of violent threats. More lawmakers emerge as targets of bomb threats over the Thanksgiving holiday surface. Plus, put on notice how the tech world is reacting to Australia's first of its kind social media ban for children under 16.

and potential allies, how Donald Trump's victory may relieve the mayor of New York City from his own legal woes. I noticed the indictment's very old. It goes back a long time. Well, I had the same thing. They went way before the statute of limitations. So I wish him well.

This episode is brought to you by Etsy. Oh. Hear that? Okay. Thank you. Etsy knows these aren't the sounds of holiday gifting. Well, not the ones you're hoping for. You want squeals of delight. Happy tears. How did you? And spontaneously written songs of joy. I am so happy.

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I'm CNN tech reporter Claire Duffy. This week on the podcast, Terms of Service, we're going deep on conspiracy theories. Could AI chatbots really be a helpful tool for pushing back on these false narratives? To find out, I spoke with Thomas Costello, an assistant professor of psychology at American University. It was not so much the AI part, but whether facts and evidence might work to change conspiracy believers' mind, to make them more skeptical. Follow me on Twitter.

Follow CNN's Terms of Service wherever you get your podcasts. Multiple Connecticut members of Congress say they were the targets of bomb threats. The threats actually occurred yesterday while they were home celebrating Thanksgiving with family. Law enforcement determined there was no evidence of any bombs and members report their families are safe. One of the threats was made against Congressman Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

Haim said in a statement, quote, there is no place for political violence in this country. And I hope that we may all continue through the holiday season with peace and civility. Yesterday's flurry of incidents comes just a day after several of Donald Trump's administration picks were also targeted with bomb threats and swatting incidents.

Former FBI director and CNN contributor Andrew McCabe says he's not surprised by the threats, telling CNN earlier this week that they have become commonplace for individuals in high-profile positions.

It presents the same challenge to law enforcement each time someone engages in it. They probably know 90% sure that these threats as they come in are worthless, they are hoax, there's nothing to them, but they can't take the risk of not responding on the off chance that one real threat gets through.

We're going to bring in my panel now. And Megan Hayes, I want to turn to you because, frankly, this is a bipartisan problem. And in fact, hospitals, celebrities, all kinds of people deal with this. It's basically an instrument of harassment. But in the political sphere, how has the White House or sort of what's your sense of how people think about it in terms of political rhetoric?

Or do they see it as part of just a broader problem? I mean, I'm sure it is a broader problem, but it's also gotten so much more attention politically now. And the rhetoric is really heated, as we saw during the campaign with two assassination attempts and other things that are happening. There's just no room for this type of behavior and acts to anyone, let alone politicians. These are public servants. They're dedicating their life to public service for the good of the American people. Agree or disagree with where they stand, they are still public servants.

But I also think they are taking valuable resources away from communities that actually are having a problem. What if someone was in a car accident or someone was having a heart attack and needed these services that are now being dedicated for just threats and things that aren't true? And I think that the community members are the ones that are really suffering from these types of incidents, pulling resources, valuable resources away from things that actually need it.

Now, this is not totally related, but it is connected. And Erin, I want to turn to you. Elon Musk obviously is tasked to be part of this Department of Government Efficiency, but in the process of his talking it up online, he has noted the names of specific workers in the federal government. I think in this case, maybe four women who deal in the area of climate.

It's not doxing, but it's making people public who aren't high-profile individuals. Kind of what's your sense of this? Is this something we can expect in terms of how this works?

pseudo-agency is going to operate. I certainly hope this isn't what we should expect. It's one thing if you name their job titles and you talk about the fact that I believe that this is duplicitous role or this is unnecessary or there's waste. Fine, we can have the arguments about all of that. But to your point, Adi, and I think you hit it on the head, these are just...

random employees of the federal government. But I mean, talking with some Republicans this weekend, I was hearing, look, it's public information. They are government officials. But this is fair game. So I do think that is all factually correct in the terms that this is publicly available information. You can find these people's names. However, they are just random rank and file information.

bureaucrats in DC to put their names out there in such a heated rhetoric in such a heightened environment it just puts a target on people who didn't step into the public sphere you know Megan and I and you know this as well we're a bit more of public figures and so I've received a lot of threats personally many threats the FBI has been involved twice in threats that have come against me

And it's scary. You wonder if a person in a crowd is somebody who knows you and hates you, somebody who wants to do that. We have to be careful with how we talk about each other and to each other, because I can tell you, not only is it scary for communities and everybody involved when there's a swatting incident or something like any of this,

But it's the family members who are scared too, who are like, "Oh my gosh, my person is now a target." Or there's at least somebody who would consider targeting them. There's just no place for it anywhere in the world, especially in the United States. And it's paramount that at the end of the day, and you heard lots of reporting over Thanksgiving of people, "I don't wanna hang out with you because you voted for Trump or you voted for Kamala."

Put the armor down. We're all Americans at the end of the day. We lived through 9/11. We remember what it's like to have a very united nation. And it terrifies me. It really does. The heated rhetoric. Let me bring Errol into this, because what Erin is saying is talking about a kind of atmosphere. And I'm wondering how you're thinking of that.

given that we're going into this 50 days before inauguration, which I don't know about you, I have kind of the jitters about, given January 6th, and also this past year where there were two assassination attempts on the president-elect.

Yeah, we really want to be very careful. I think Erin's exactly right. We have an open society. If you want to see your member of Congress outside your supermarket on the weekend or coming to a political rally and so forth without a big elaborate security detail around him or her, we all have to fight for and preserve the right to have an open society where we have access to our elected officials, where they're not hiding behind security details, where we do circulate information

the names and addresses, frankly, when it comes to nominating petitions and other minutia of electing people. There are moments where public, you know, we make public the information about where our elected leaders live.

So, yeah, I think that the authorities need to crack down on this swiftly and maybe quietly and make clear to people that this is just not something we're going to tolerate. It's the kind of situation that just can't be normalized. It's got to be something that's treated very, very seriously because it's a crime not just against the person, not just against their family, but against our way of life, against our political system. All right.

All right, friends, stay with us. Ahead on CNN this morning, it's not your father's Black Friday anymore. The CEO of Shopify is here to talk about how the critical shopping day has so radically changed. With millions traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday, it's soon going to be time to head home. But some winter weather is moving in, and that can make the trip a little more difficult in some places. We're going to go to meteorologist Alison Chinchar with the latest.

That's right now. Traveling by the sky actually should be relatively easy today in most locations. It's roadways that are going to have a little bit more of a concern, especially across the Great Lakes region, and that's because we're really going to start to see the first lake effect system of the of the season really begin to take shape for the day today. You can see already some of these bands beginning to cross over the Great Lakes. Those lakes themselves very warm right now.

Then we add in some colder air on top of it, and that's what's fuel for a lot of these areas. You see all these different alerts here in the pinks, the purples, the teals indicating the snow that is anticipated to fall not just today, but through the weekend as well. And some of them you're talking pretty substantial amounts now widespread. A lot of these locations 6 to 12 inches, but there are some spots, especially this location up around Watertown that could end up seeing 3 to 5 feet of snow. Yes,

by the time we get through the end of the weekend. But other areas, this portion of Buffalo back down through the northeastern suburbs of Cleveland, portions of northern Michigan also looking at maybe at least a foot, if not more. Once this system is finally through, but that cold air that's really helping to fuel the lake effect isn't just going to cause lake effects. No, it's also just going to bring frigid temperatures to some portions of the Midwestern region of the country. But those cold temperatures are also going to dip as far south Audi as the Gulf Coast.

Okay, Alison, thanks for that update. Still coming up on CNN this morning, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is facing his own legal woes. Will Donald Trump offer him a way out once in office? Plus, Australia passes a major piece of legislation that has put tech companies on notice.

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I watched about a year ago when he talked about how the illegal migrants are hurting our city and the federal government should pay us and we shouldn't have to take them. And I said, you know what? He'll be indicted within a year. And I was exactly right. I noticed the indictment is very old. It goes back a long time. Well, I had the same thing. They got they went way before the statute of limitations. So I wish him well.

Donald Trump claimed his legal troubles were a result of a political vendetta, and that sentiment echoed by another politician at the center of their own legal battle. CNN's John Miller has more. The ridiculous and baseless indictment of me by the Biden administration's weaponized Department of Injustice

will go down as among the most horrific abuses of power in the history of our country. It's one of President-elect Donald Trump's most common refrains. They weaponized the Justice Department. Every one of those cases was involved with the DOJ. Repeated claims, without any evidence, that the multiple criminal cases against him, even the ones brought by state prosecutors, were ordered by the Biden White House. The Justice Department has consistently denied the baseless claim.

I have devoted my entire career to ensuring that the rule of law

is the rule that the Justice Department applies, that we do not have enemies or friends, that we do not pay attention to the political parties or the wealth or the power or the influence of the people that we are investigating. And when New York's Democratic mayor, Eric Adams, was indicted earlier this year, he pleaded not guilty and began to invoke a similar argument.

I always knew that if I stood my ground for all of you, that I would be a target.

and a target I became. Adams has been indicted on five federal charges related to bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy, and soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals. Prosecutors allege his illegal actions stretch back a decade, but Adams claims that those charges seem to emerge only after he sharply criticized the Biden White House for not doing enough to help New York City with an influx of migrants. The president

And the White House has failed New York City on this issue. Despite our pleas, when the federal government did nothing as its broken immigration policies overloaded our shelter system with no relief,

I put the people of New York before party and politics. If Mayor Adams was taking a page from Donald Trump's playbook, he was also becoming a validator of Trump's claims and Donald Trump became one of the Democratic mayor's most prominent defenders. We were persecuted, Eric. I was persecuted and so are you, Eric. Mayor Adams has been treated pretty badly.

You know, when he said that this whole thing with the migrants coming into New York, this is just not sustainable. He said it very nicely. I said, well, he's going to be indicted by these lunatics. Yes.

A year later, he got indicted. Would the founder of the MAGA movement use his power to rescue a high-profile Democrat from criminal charges and scandal? Sources tell CNN the two men have spoken since Trump's election win, but it's unclear whether a pardon has ever been discussed. Would you accept a pardon if Trump offered it to you? I don't deal with hypotheticals. So can I assume that's a yes?

Nope, I wouldn't do any assumption. I will allow my legal team to handle it. Okay, we're going to bring back our panel. First, I want to start with you, Errol, because I think that there was probably no more consequential sort of political dialogue than the Republican governor sending migrants to Democratic cities and then a leader like Eric Adams really going at the Democratic White House about that. What do you see in this relationship between Adams and Trump?

Well, a lot of things are going on there, Audie. One thing you should never lose sight of is that for a New York City-based developer like Donald Trump, it never hurts to have an alliance with the mayor of New York. So there's some of that as a possibility there. The idea that Trump is using Eric Adams' legal problems to validate his own false claims about being targeted politically, it worked well for him during the campaign.

whether or not it's gonna result in something as sweeping as a pardon or some other kind of relief remains to be seen. The reality is the case has gone pretty far. They just had hearings the other day and a trial date has already been set for Eric Adams. So it would take,

a very substantial intervention. I mean, the grand jury issued the indictment. The prosecutors have exchanged a lot of information with the defense team. They've gone before the judge a couple of times and again, a trial date has been set. It would really be quite extraordinary if at this point the new president would step in and halt that process. But of course, that remains to be seen. Speaking of pardons, Trump hasn't ruled out pardoning Joe Biden's son, Hunter.

Yeah, you know, I hate to think that we're going to see this kind of consideration. I mean, one of the other considerations being thrown around, by the way, is the notion that a friendly relationship between the president-elect and the governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, could be steps towards him hoping for Trump, hoping for a pardon from the governor of New York because the state charges on which he was convicted

He can't pardon himself at all. Those are state charges where he could seek relief from a governor. But all of what we're describing is politics rather than just the facts of each of these cases are supposed to be interpreted and really processed separately based on the facts and the law.

Jeff, I want to bring you in here because I was reading some of your reporting from way back 2017 when Trump was talking about just the power of the pardon. And now here we are, fast forward, and people are wondering whether he would Trump say the January 6th rioters. How does he see this power and like what would he have learned from his last time in office?

Sure. Well, now I'm going to have to go back and read that story, Adi. I mean, I think he sees that power as absolutely one thing in his toolbox that he can use to

advance his own agenda, to advance his own goals, to advance the things that he finds important. And I think the January 6th example is a good one. That's a group of supporters that he has engaged with rhetorically for the last four years, ever since the storming of the Capitol took place. And that's certainly something we'll be watching closely to see if he makes good on some of his promises to all

all or part of the groups of people and individuals who have been prosecuted since then. I thought the fact that you raised the possibility of a pardon of Hunter Biden is fascinating, and fascinating in part because I've had a conversation with at least one conservative who thought that that was something that the

president-elect not only would consider, but would likely do. And I thought that was really interesting that there might potentially be support among some conservatives for the incoming president to do something against an individual who

many conservatives and MAGA supporters have targeted over the last several years. Of course, that being Biden's son. - Yeah, Meghan Hayes, that's kind of a sensitive topic. I mean, of all the people we've talked about potentially getting pardons, even Biden has said probably not when it comes to his son. Why do you think that is still, I don't know, an issue in play?

Where the president's not going to... Where President Biden won't... Or even that Trump would say, well, maybe I'll do it. I mean, I think it's... Because we're all talking about it. It brings attention. It would be an unusual thing. It would be an incredible sign of unity, I think, for the president-elect to do that. I mean, he was the one who targeted him...

greatly during the 2020 campaign and after. I don't know if he will actually, if Donald Trump would actually do that. I think it's a nice gesture. It'd be something that would be welcome, I think, but I don't know that that'll actually happen. Erin Priney, how does Trump see the power of pardons? Because obviously he was very frustrated in his first term with all the investigations that were happening.

He sees there's just another tool that's a possibility for being able to remedy what he sees as a weaponized justice system against people

wrong or right, right? He feels that there has been a weaponization in some cases. That has borne out where you've seen that there has been targeting of conservatives. So he definitely sees this as a tool in the toolbox for him. However, I think the one question we're not addressing right now is who's Joe Biden going to be pardoning? Because you're looking at the very tail end of his administration right now. Normally, these are things that do happen at the tail end. Bill Clinton pardoned his brother, I believe, at

at the end of his administration. - Yes, but every president there's always a handful of pardons. - There's always a handful. - And always a controversial one. - Right, and Joe Biden has said to this point, probably not on Hunter, but also we're looking at the very end. And if Donald Trump's considering it as well, I would not be shocked to see that pardon come through from either of them as of this morning. - Interesting. All right, still ahead on CNN this morning, first of its kind ban for kids and social media passes in Australia.

what the rest of the world might learn from the crackdown on tech companies. Plus, we're also going to talk about Black Friday. While it might be less chaotic than in years past, it's still a critical day for retailers looking to turn a profit.

Thanksgiving is behind us and this means that holiday shopping has begun today with Black Friday. But the day once defined by chaotic stampedes and fistfights for the best deals seems to be changing along with the shoppers preferred ways to pick up those must have items. According to the National Retail Federation, more than 183 million people are expected to start their shopping during the five day weekend.

But only about 65% of Black Friday shoppers are planning to go in person today. And for some shoppers, the change is basically a letdown from years past. One retired Black Friday shopping fan tells the New York Times, quote, shopping has really changed, said Max Fraser, pointing out that most sales today occur online. And I guess we're a little nostalgic for the fun times.

the fun we used to have on Black Friday because that doesn't exist anymore. Joining me now to talk about how Black Friday is changing but still critical to retailers is Harley Finkelstein, president of Shopify's, the global e-commerce company. And Harley, I want to start with that idea of

how the digital marketplace has changed all of this. We've been living with Cyber Monday for a long time, but when you look at this five-day stretch, what's the kind of important thing to pay attention to?

Well, first of all, I heard your comment on the quote where shopping is less fun. I totally disagree with that. I actually think we are sort of reliving in a golden age of retail. I think things are way more fun. And it's also not just online or offline. There's a lot happening here. But let's walk through it. And I just have to say, if you're buying something today from your favorite brands, there's a very good chance you're buying from a Shopify store. But there are some changes. And the changes, I think, are remarkable. One thing that is obviously clear is that you

consumers favorite brands are selling in a very different way. They're using social selling, they're using community driven commerce, it's online and offline. - And when you say social selling is this, Harley sorry, social selling you mean when it's like a TikTok made me buy it type of thing?

Exactly. 57% of 18 to 24-year-olds tell us that they're likely to buy something this season on Instagram, 56% on TikTok. And we're seeing brands on Shopify like Liquid IV, BK Beauty that are doing these massive sales directly on TikTok shops powered by Shopify.

But you're also seeing companies like Gymshark, which is famously an online brand, a huge online brand that has now set up a 12-week holiday pop-up in New York City. So it's not just online, it's offline as well. They're also using AI. You're seeing consumers use AI to sort of play the role of a shopping concierge. And you're also seeing merchants on the other side using AI to create great content and even create better media. So, you know, the best brands in the world are rolling out new ways to

for consumers to shop. And I think it's leading to some of the biggest holiday shopping days we've ever seen ever. - Okay, so the flip side of this, recent earning reports from major stores like Target and Best Buy basically missing their earnings goals.

Yeah. I mean, look, I think we have millions of stores on Shopify. What we're seeing is the ones that are most successful, they're going to where the consumer is. If the consumer wants to buy online, that's where delivering. If they want to buy offline, that's where they're doing it as well. But from our perspective, we are seeing incredible sales across millions of stores on Shopify. In fact, we've actually built something so the whole world can watch live shopping right now in real time. If you go to shopify.com slash Black Friday, I actually check the stats right now as we speak.

We're currently seeing 898,000 sales per minute, 7,900 orders per minute. And there are currently 13 million shoppers. And we're looking at this right now. So these little comet things I'm looking at, those are purchases. This is not as fun as watching people stampede towards a television. I'm going to tell you. Oh, I think this is way more fun. It's got its moments. I think this is way more fun. I'm fine.

Yeah. Now, Adi, one thing you have to see also on this globe right now, you'll see these little fireworks. Every single one of those fireworks is a brand new entrepreneur getting their very first sale. What's amazing about this is these are people that in five years from now, when you invite me back on your show, they may be some of the biggest brands. So direct-to-consumer is happening. Consumers are voting with their wallets to buy from brands they love. And we're seeing that already. I mean, we're seeing some trending products right now, Thrice,

Thrive Cosmetics, selling their liquid lash mascara, Cozy Earth with their bamboo sheets, and Merit Beauty with Flush Bomb. The categories right now as we speak that are the highest trending product categories, skincare, t-shirts, makeup. And one thing that I'm really excited about is these little fireworks, these brand new entrepreneurs. But it is a golden age of retail and it's happening on Shopify right now. Okay. Harley Finkelstein, thanks so much. Thank you so much, Adi.

Okay, it's 51 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani wants his baseball cards back. This week, he filed a court action seeking his former interpreter, asking his former interpreter to surrender $325,000 worth of memorabilia that is, quote, wrongly possessed by his interpreter. He actually recently pled guilty to bank fraud charges after stealing nearly $17 million from the unsuspecting athlete.

We've got another lot of raw milk testing positive for bird flu. California health officials say it came from Fresno-based Raw Farm. Consumers are being warned not to drink it. The company issued a voluntary recall earlier this week when another batch was detected with bird flu. Now, no human bird flu cases have been linked to the tainted milk.

And a stowaway made it from New York to Paris after evading multiple security checkpoints. The individual didn't have a boarding pass, but made it through security and bypassed two additional screening stations to eventually board the aircraft. A passenger on the flight said the individual apparently hid in the bathroom during takeoff.

And it's a world first. Australia is now banning children under the age of 16 from using social media. The new law requires tech companies to take, quote, reasonable steps to prevent young children from accessing their services. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, Snapchat and X all are expected to be affected and could face millions in fines if they do not comply. And it's a change that Australians seem to be well on board with.

A recent YouGov poll found that 77% of Australians support banning children under 16 from using social media. Even higher numbers support stronger penalties on companies that do not comply with the law. Now, this historic change, coming after a number of tragic incidents,

in which Australian parents said their children were driven to suicide by bullying exacerbated by social media. And here's how one father who lost his son to bullying described his feelings at the law's passing.

The platforms and the accessibility to him and the vile threats and intimidations, the stalking component around that, if that was in place today, I know he would be alive. And that's the guilt that I have to live with every day. I'm proud to be Australian today.

all the government and the politicians from both sides to unite on such a front. I think, you know, even that could be a first for a long time. We should be just all applauding each other and acknowledging that we're tackling in a situation that's just destroying so many lives and especially our young children.

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says it was parents like that who helped get the bill signed into law. Look, the consequences I've met with parents have lost and buried their child. It's devastating. We can't, as a government, hear those messages from parents and say it's too hard.

Okay, I want to bring our panel back. And Jeff, I actually want to start with you, especially we heard about Mark Zuckerberg meeting with the president-elect. And we know at one point, I think it was this year or the year before, Zuckerberg apologizing to parents in a hearing over a sort of social media safety. Is this something the industry is worried about the U.S. might be interested in legislating further?

Well, a couple of things. I think, number one, certainly it is interesting to see social media companies reacting to this, and some have suggested that Australia has gone too far or that the implementation is unclear. And also one warning that children would just

go into other deeper, darker areas of the web. You know, I think the question will be how it's implemented and what the results of that are. But to bring it back to U.S. and to your question, let's keep in mind some of the people who are in President-elect Donald Trump's inner circle. One of them is Elon Musk.

who owns the platform formerly known as Twitter, now X. He's going to be whispering in his ear, certainly about an issue that could affect his company. But other social media companies will be no doubt lobbying and doing the same.

The flip side to that is you also have this incoming, potentially, if he's confirmed, Secretary of Health and Human Services in RFK Jr., who has also shown to want to sort of shake things up, and that could include health-related to social media companies as well. I don't have any reporting on that, but I just think it's interesting that there may be some

competing forces within the new president's administration on this issue.

Erin and Megan, I want to turn to you because in some ways this has been a bipartisan issue because parents have brought it to the forefront and you've seen a different wild mix of lawmakers interested in it. Do you see it as a movement that can be empowered by something like this, what happened in Australia? Or as Jeff alluded to, are we going to see different influences weigh in more heavily with the president-elect?

I think that you will see those influences. You will see people try to lean in. But congressionally speaking, they did ban TikTok in the United States. We have seen now it hasn't gone through yet. And there's still, you know, whether or not they were very reluctant to say age limits or something like that. Right. Like there's a moment for the U.S. where we say we don't do that here. Yes. The United States has had a very hard time.

stepping, especially with social media and how to regulate it, how not to regulate it, what this should look like. This has been a constant struggle for Congress over a decade. So at this point, they could legislate this. I don't know how successful they will be, but if something big happens, if there is a groundswell movement in the United States, if this becomes the next parent-forward issue, then absolutely I would see Congress forward. I like that. Thank you.

I agree with you. And I just, I don't think it will be at 16. It will probably be a younger age that they will be in it from. And I think maybe 12 or 13. So I do think there'll be something. I just don't know how severe it will go. Okay. Errol, last word to you.

They could have done it a long time ago. They should have done it a long time ago. We don't let our young children have unfettered access to pornography or explosives or alcohol. And yet they in Congress have just proven to be utterly ineffectual at this. Australia is leading the way. Should have happened a long time ago. Basic age gating. Just ask how old the person is. It's really not that hard.

We should note in a statement, Meta responded to Australia's law saying we're worried that the process to pass this was rushed, that it didn't take enough time to look at the evidence, consider what the industry is already doing to create safe age appropriate experiences or listen to the voices of young people. And of course, once that law goes into effect, we'll find out if it

can be effective, right? And then people will have some evidence, so to speak, to point to. I want to thank my panel for being here today, Jeff, Errol, also Erin and Megan. And I want to thank you for joining us. I'm Adi Cornish, and CNN News Central starts right now. This holiday season, CNN Underscored's got you covered with the top Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals so you can shop smarter, not harder. See all our expert recommendations at underscored.com.