Take Back the Canal?
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Good morning. It is Monday, December 23rd, and right now on CNN This Morning. We're being ripped off at the Panama Canal. He just said take it back, and it's a good idea. Controlling the canal, Donald Trump's new threat to take it back, and how Panama's president is responding. Plus this. These are people who should never be out of prison. Presidential commutations want a staunch supporter of the death penalty. President Biden now commuting the sentences of dozens of federal death row inmates. And this.

The D brand has been so maligned from the standpoint of it's just it's toxic. Just toxic. Former Democrat Joe Manchin giving his harsh take on the state of the Democratic Party and then later. Activity in the housing sector has been weak. Prices and rates through the roof. The best strategy if you are in the market for a new home in the new year.

6 a.m here on the east coast with a live look at capitol hill chile capitol hill chile washington good morning everyone i'm rahel solomon and today for casey hunt great to be with you a man a plan a canal panama president-elect donald trump is now vowing to retake control of the panama canal while speaking at a turning point usa event in arizona this weekend trump

Trump added the Panama Canal to his growing list of international disputes, many of them dealing directly with U.S. trading partners and allies. Has anyone ever heard of the Panama Canal? Because we're being ripped off at the Panama Canal like we're being ripped off everywhere else. A secure, he just said, take it back. And it's a good idea. Panama's president, meantime, responding to the calls from Donald Trump, saying that his country would not relinquish control of the Key Waterway.

As president, I want to express that every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent areas belong to Panama and will continue to belong to Panama.

The sovereignty and independence of our country are not negotiable. The canal will continue to be in Panamanian hands as the patrimony of our nation and guaranteeing its use for the peaceful and uninterrupted transit of ships of all nations. Trump fired back with a new post on Truth Social. A picture of the U.S. flag flying with the caption, Welcome to the United States Canal.

and trump's latest pronouncement is the latest in a string of statements targeting u.s trade partners and global neighbors in recent talks said mar-a-lago with canada's prime minister trump joked that trudeau could become governor of canada as the 51st state he then followed it up with another antagonizing post on truth social an ai generated image of trump on a mountaintop declaring oh canada

And also attracting Trump's interest again is buying the territory of Greenland from Denmark. While announcing Ken Howery as his chances choice as ambassador to Denmark, he mentioned in passing, quote, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity, a topic which also came up during Trump's first term in office.

The concept came up and I said, "Certainly, I'd be strategically it's interesting and we'd be interested, but we'll talk to them a little bit." It's not number one on the burner, I can tell you that.

Denmark's prime minister, meantime, at the time, responding by calling the idea absurd and adding, quote, Greenland is not for sale. Joining me now to talk about all of this is our panel today. Annie Linsky, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Isaac Dover, CNN senior reporter. Jaime Moore, former chief of staff to DNC chair Jamie Harrison. And Lance Trover, former spokesperson for Doug Burgum's presidential campaign. Welcome one. Welcome all. Great to have you. Lance, let me start with you.

What's Trump trying to do here with these words, with these actions targeted at U.S. trade partners, whether we're talking about Canada, Greenland, now Panama? I mean, what are your thoughts?

Well, I think it's going to be a whole new day in America come January 20th. If you've been not treating America well when it comes to trade, if you've been allowing your borders to be wide open, well, there's a whole new day with Donald Trump coming into office. On this Panama issue, I think we're talking about and has been referenced in there, this is a country that has thrown their arms wide, they have thrown themselves wide open into the arms of China. China controls ports at both ends of the Panama Canal

Panama also severed relationships with Taiwan. And then lo and behold, guess what happens? They become part of the Chinese Communist Party's Belt and Road Initiative, which sees millions and millions of dollars shoved into Taiwan

their country. And so I think this has much to do about China. Former Congressman Mike Gallagher has a really good op-ed on this issue. It's a national security issue for America. I think that's the core of what's going on here. Jaime, let me switch gears and talk a little bit about Mexico. So there was that reporting in the Rolling Stone shortly after the election, which cited Republican sources about military action against Mexico. I want to read for you a part of it. It says,

Another source close to Trump describes to Rolling Stone what they call a soft invasion of Mexico in which American special forces, not a large theater deployment, would be sent covertly to assassinate cartel leaders. Indeed, this is a preliminary plan that Trump himself warmed to in private conversations this year. Jaime, your thoughts. I mean, what do we make and what do you make of everything we've seen so far about how Trump might conduct foreign policy in his next term? Lance just said, you know, it's a new day.

Yeah. Look, I'm not a Republican, but I am an American. And it was clear in this election that I think some of the things that President Trump has been saying over the last couple of days really resonated with Americans. However, when you think about these trade deals, when you think about international turmoil, the one thing that Americans elected Donald Trump to do was lower costs, make their lives a little bit easier, make their health care choices a little bit easier.

and make their costs go down. And so we talk about this international turmoil, it's not just about being strong and making America look great again. This is about real American lives. So I think people really care about making sure that their jobs are there the next day, making sure that their healthcare can be taken care of, making sure that they can take care of their kids during the holidays and going back to schools. And so some of this stuff governing about true social is not gonna be good, even though it's a new day, as Lance said,

It's not good stuff. You've got to make sure as president of United States of America, you're thinking about things that people would like to do and people think cost is still too high and they're still struggling. And so they don't want to care about these things, about closing the borders like Lance said. They care about making sure that their lives are going to be a little bit better and the cost is going to be going down.

Hmm. Well, there's a lot there that we'll have to circle back to. But, Isaac, let me let you have the last word here, and Annie, we'll bring you into the next conversation. One thing that was really interesting this weekend is you saw the president-elect acknowledge the line that Democrats have really seemed to latch on to during the budget negotiations. President Musk, take a listen to one response that the president-elect had. Russia, Russia, Russia, Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine, all the different hoaxes. The new one is

President Trump has ceded the presidency to Elon Musk. No, no, that's not happening. But Elon's done an amazing job. Isn't it nice to have smart people that we can rely on? I said, what do you make of that? I mean, on the one hand, he took the time to respond to it. That one aspect of what was otherwise a pretty, pretty extraordinary week in Washington.

And obviously registered for Donald Trump and got a little bit under his skin that the Democrats have been using that line to say Musk is really in charge. He's the co-president. All the things that they've been doing in a very clear attempt to troll Donald Trump. The question always when people try to do this is, can you out troll Donald Trump? And

Some of this is also just about what happened last week, which is it seems very clear that Elon Musk read or read tweets, at least, about what was in the initial spending bill. And his then subsequent tweets or X posts were part of what

at least temporarily derailed that spending deal from happening. It wasn't until after Musk had turned a bunch of Republicans in the house against the spending bill that Donald Trump weighed in and what Trump asked for, uh, which was a, a long extension of the debt limit or maybe getting rid of it entirely. It did not actually happen. So if you look at some of the, uh, actual things that went on last week, Musk was the one who scrambled the bill. Uh,

He also then said that there shouldn't be anything passed until Donald Trump is president. That didn't happen either. So I think we're at this place where we do not know exactly what the dynamic is going to be between Musk and Trump over the course of the next couple of years. These are two

obviously very powerful men with a lot of entangled interests and Musk looking not just for causing trouble in the way that he is, but looking for things about government contracts and things about the way that electric vehicles will be subsidized by the government. And so all of this is going to play out and we will see what it really looks like. I don't think we know quite yet.

- Okay, panel, don't go far. We'll check back with you shortly. But in the meantime, coming up on CNN this morning, Israeli negotiators say that they are seeing real progress in hostage talks. Ahead, the father of an Israeli-American hostage being held by Hamas will join us live. Plus, drones falling out of the sky at a holiday light show. One young child, one little boy injured. And in 1994, he wrote that the bill that designated dozens of new capital offenses. Now President Joe Biden is looking to change his legacy.

This notion that this is not tough. There are 60 new death penalties, brand new, 60.

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Opendoor is represented by Opendoor Brokerage Inc., licensed 02061130 in California, and Opendoor Brokerage LLC in its other markets. Terms and conditions apply. I'm a death penalty supporter. I'm the guy that wrote this bill. Presumptuous thing to say, but I wrote this bill. My own little hands. And I added into the bill more than 50 death penalties. I support the death penalty. This president supports the death penalty.

That was then-Senator Joe Biden boasting about the 1994 crime bill, his 1994 crime bill, which added a list of federal crimes punishable by the death penalty. But new this morning, President Joe Biden now announcing that he is commuting 37 federal death row inmate sentences to life in prison without parole. The move fulfills a promise that he made on the 2020 campaign trail.

President Biden has made clear, as he did on the campaign trail, that he has grave concerns about whether capital punishment, as currently implemented, is consistent with the values that are fundamental to our sense of justice and fairness.

But there are three names that are notably absent from this list of commutations. Convicts like the Boston Marathon bomber, Charleston church shooter Dylan Roof, and Tree of Life synagogue mass shooter Robert Bowers, all excluded from this list that was released this morning. They were left off due to their crimes being terrorism or hate-motivated mass murder.

In a statement, the president said, quote, Make no mistake. I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss. But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice president and now president, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.

in good conscience, I cannot stand by and stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted. All right, we have our panel back. So Annie, let me start with you. What do you make and what do you think triggered this shift in position from Biden profoundly supporting the death penalty as a senator to now commuting dozens of death penalty sentences? We obviously heard in that statement there on him sort of outline all of his different political experiences. What do you think?

Yeah, good morning. I think that this move by the president is driven by one of the main things that he is considering and thinking about in his final weeks as president, which is his legacy. You know, shortly before this election,

move was announced, the president's schedule added an additional trip, which will be going on to Italy, where the president is going to be meeting with the Pope. And just weeks ago, the Pope called in a prayer on World Peace Day for specifically death row inmates in the United States for their sentences to be commuted. So a major piece of this is the president thinking about

how history will remember him. Our reporting has shown that he was stunned by the negative reaction by other, some of his, you know, by U.S. senators to his sort of broad pardon of his son. And I think this move from a political perspective, he is hoping will change the record a little bit and

give him sort of a broader thing to sort of hang a legacy on rather than the hunter pardon. But it really is stunning how much he has shifted on this issue from that 1990s clip that you just played. Yeah, yeah, it is. And I mean, Biden, of course, a devout Catholic. So you have to wonder sort of how much his religion played into this as well. Lance, let me get to you. Biden changed his stance, obviously, as president from when he was senator. Donald Trump, meantime, has called for prosecuting more

death penalty cases and carrying out executions for death row inmates. And I'm hereby calling for the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer. We are an institute and a powerful death penalty. We will put this on. We have to bring in the death penalty if we want to stop the infestation of drugs coming into our country.

Lance, I'm curious how you think Trump's death row stance may appeal to people who perhaps voted for him on the basis of things like the economy, the number one issue for a lot of people, but maybe didn't pay as much attention to this issue necessarily. What do you think?

I think Donald Trump is the most out there and open candidate we've ever had for president in the history of the country. It's not like he hides where he is on these positions. Unlike Joe Biden, I mean, Merry Christmas to child killers out there. I mean, this is absurd. It's reprehensible. Two days before Christmas and he is pardoning. But this is classic Joe Biden-esque in the final waning days of this sad

presidency that he's had. On one hand, he says he supports law and order in this country and then pardons his son for 11 years worth of crimes, crimes that he pled guilty to. On one hand, he again says, I support law and order and then pardons a bunch of child murderers out there, but then leaves three others to stay on the death row. It makes absolutely no sense. It makes me wonder who is actually making these decisions at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in the waning days of this administration, because it sure does not seem like it's Joe Biden.

Jaime, let me let you have the last word here. I see you shaking your head in response to what Lance is saying. Yeah, look, I don't want to take cheap shots at the president. I think Joe Biden has been a fantastic president on many accords. But look, we know two things about Joe Biden. He cares deeply about his fate. And to Annie's point, he's allowed his fate to help him make these decisions. And secondly, one thing I really love about Joe Biden is when he is wrong, he's willing to say it. He's willing to evolve. He's willing to grow. And so this is an evolution of thought.

And so Joe Biden feels the same way he's felt about his fate for many years, but this is an evolution of thought and he feels very strongly about bringing some equity to this process. - Okay, we'll leave it here, but panel, I will see you shortly. Stick around, thank you. And still ahead on CNN this morning, stranded on the lift, more than a hundred people rescued from gondolas in Colorado. That's one of the five things you have to see this morning.

Plus, if you are looking to become a homeowner in 2025, you know it is rough out there. I have the best strategy if you are hoping to buy. We'll get into it. 25 minutes, almost 26 minutes past the hour, and five things you have to see this morning.

US launching a round of airstrikes targeting an Iranian-backed group in Yemen. US Central Command says that the strikes were directed at a missile storage facility used to target US Navy warships and civilian cargo vessels in the Red Sea. Thieves in Canada drive a car right into a jewelry store before stealing tens of thousands of dollars worth of gold. The store owner did try to fight back, but thieves smashed every case in the store.

Texas officials identifying the man who rammed his truck into a mall over the weekend. 53-year-old John Darrell Schultz led police on a 19-mile chase before crashing into the mall, hitting several people. Officials ultimately shot and killed him.

Not how you would expect to get off of a gondola. More than 170 people had to be rescued after a lift broke down at a Colorado resort. Ski patrol brought each person down. You see certain fear one by one by rope with rope. It took more than five hours. And a proud tiger after this play from 15-year-old Charlie Woods.

Charlie's first hole in one at the PNC Championship. Now, despite that stellar shot, the father and son duo did not take home the win. But I'm sure a clearly special moment between the two. And we all know that 2024 was...

A wild ride. We can call it a wild ride. A year filled with both great and not so great moments. So be sure to join CNN's Tom Foreman and his special guests for all the best, all the worst this Thursday at 11 p.m. And up next on CNN this morning, high prices, sluggish sales. U.S. housing market faced a tough year in 2024. What could help improve things in the new year? Plus, today the House Ethics Committee is expected to release their report. Former Congressman Matt Gaetz says he weighs what's next.

Many have asked which perch I will be fighting from next. And some of you throughout this conference have even given me a few suggestions.

This week on The Assignment with me, Adi Cornish. Christina Binkley is going to help me out with this assignment. She's editor-at-large at Vogue Business, and she says tariff people are the secret weapon of fashion industry accounting. Cloth-soled shoes have a lower tariff than any other kind of sole. So you can get around paying that tariff if you just put a piece of gauze on the sole that wears off by the third wearing. That's...

I don't even know how to feel about that. Listen to The Assignment with me, Audie Cornish, streaming now on your favorite podcast app.

I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. I'm also an optimist. Dr. Francis Collins is someone who's had a tremendous impact on me. But I think it also is a call to action for all of us to begin to re-anchor ourselves in truth and science and faith and trust. In his new book called The Road to Wisdom, Dr. Collins explains why he wants people to keep believing in facts and science and goodwill. Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now, wherever you get your podcasts.

Together, we will deliver low taxes, low regulations, low energy costs, low interest rates, low inflation so that everyone can afford groceries, a car and a home. Common sense.

And it's been a tough year in the housing market. High prices, high mortgage rates, sluggish sales. President-elect Trump says he's going to change that. But the average rate on a standard 30-year fixed mortgage was 6.72% last week. That was up from the previous week's 6.6%. And here's the thing. Rates are actually expected to stay higher than 6% over the next two years. Joining us now is Rachel Siegel. She covers the economics of real estate and housing for The Washington Post. Rachel, great to have you.

Good morning. Thanks for having me. Good morning. So I think for those of us who are looking for a house and may have caught Fed Chair Powell's press conference last week, it wasn't the greatest news in terms of 2025, in terms of the outlook. I mean, what's ahead as far as what we can tell so far?

There's a bit of a two-sided story here. On the one hand, Powell's message was that the economy is strong. They made progress on inflation. The job market is good. All of those are things that the Fed wants to see. It also means that they are not in a huge rush to take pressure off of the economy. And that means that they are expecting to cut interest rates fewer times than they thought just a couple of months ago. Right now, they have two interest rate cuts penciled in for 2025. That could change for any number of

reasons, but we're going to see some pretty direct consequences there for the housing market as well, just because they're not going to be in a rush to lower those rates anytime soon. And for those looking to purchase a home, obviously part of the issue has been the lack of supply. And if you're in a home and you're locked in at 3%, some people even have sub 3%, some lucky folks have sub 3%. You know, there's not really much of an incentive to buy in this market unless you have to. What's the strategy in the new year?

You're referring to this thing called the lock-in effect, where there's a huge part of the housing market that is essentially frozen up for the reasons that you just listed. There's a huge push, and this was a big debate during the election, to build more houses. But as you said, there just aren't enough houses to go around. And that can mean that people who really are still trying to get into the market next year are going to have to face this reality of rates that might feel higher than they're used to feeling. They're not historically astronomical, but they're also not the 2%, 3% from early in the pandemic.

I think the advice that I get from people that I'll call will say, you know, if you find the right house, buy it. Don't necessarily fixate on the rate if you can afford it. And that's the key thing here. Don't overextend yourself, but don't necessarily hold your breath for rates to crater the way we saw during a really serious emergency.

Yeah, it's an interesting point you raise that 6% sort of historically is not really high. I think the issue is that if you remember a few years ago when rates were 3%, sort of relatively speaking, it feels really high. And it is really high compared to what we saw a few years ago. Rachel, let me ask, Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said that he will not resign. He was very clear about that when asked. And legally, he doesn't have to. When asked if he would step aside, here's what he said. Take a listen.

Some of the president's elects advisors have suggested that you should resign. If he asked you to leave, would you go? No. Can you follow up on it? Do you think that legally you're not required to leave? No.

And Rachel, that sort of went on. I mean, he was very, very clear. But Trump's promises in regulatory policy, like hefty tariffs, could make the job of the Fed pretty challenging, more challenging. And his term doesn't end until May of 2026. So how do you see this playing out?

Well, there's one thing that President Trump has forgotten a bit when he's promising lower mortgage rates, which is that he doesn't set them. He doesn't set interest rate policies either. There are actually a lot of homebuilders who are quite optimistic about his term. I talked to people all over the country who are excited about lighter regulations, what they think is going to be just a broader economic boom. But that just

That just does not solely rest in President Trump's hands. He can try to build more houses, but he can't lower interest rates. And we've also seen, and I think what that clip represents, is that Powell is not going to bend to what the president wants. We saw that in the first term. It's something that Powell has been extremely clear about. And for the time that he remains in office, he's going to see interest rate policy through based on all sorts of things in the economy with this longer run vision for what's best for the country. Rachel Siegel, good to have you. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, turning now to Capitol Hill, though lawmakers have largely left to go home for the holidays, CNN has learned that the House Ethics Committee is set to release its report and to former Congressman Matt Gaetz sometime today. The years-long probe investigated numerous allegations against Gaetz, including sexual misconduct with a minor and illicit drug use.

Gates, Trump's former Attorney General pick, denies all allegations, calling them a witch hunt. One of his former Republican colleagues giving CNN a glimpse last year into what we could hear. As far as Matt Gates himself,

You got to think about this guy. This is a guy that the media didn't give a time of day to after he was accused of sleeping with an underage girl. There's a reason why no one in the conference came and defended him because we had all seen the videos he was showing on the house floor that all of us had walked away of the girls that he had slept with. He'd brag about how he would crush ED medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night.

All right, let's bring back our panel. Isaac, let me start with you. This is obviously a reversal from the committee to even release this report. Remind us how we got here, but also how significant these findings could be for Gates.

Well, we got here from what Matt Gaetz has been accused of by a number of people in this long process that went to the House Ethics Committee. And then when he was nominated to be attorney general by Donald Trump, there was this question of whether that would stop the report from being released since he wasn't a current House member. A number of Republicans seemed like they were leaning toward doing that, especially if he was at the moment when it seemed like he was going to be going through a confirmation process. But once he...

was removed from the the nomination as attorney general and pulled back from that and trump pulled back from that then uh that that

the idea of releasing the report gained some new life. Now what will be in there? Uh, we will find out, but what we know is that Matt Gates himself last week when CNN broke the news about the report being released said that it, he said, look, I've sent money to women, uh, some that I've dated, some that I haven't, he didn't specify what dating meant there. Uh, he said that he'd womanized too much and drank too much and smoked too much. Uh,

when he was a younger man, when he says he doesn't live that life anymore. The time that he's referring to is when he was in Congress. It's not when he was in college or high school. So this is just recently, the last couple of years that this behavior was going on. And as that former colleague of his was saying, when he was in the House,

It was known that he was up to a lot of things because he would show videos and pictures to colleagues and to other people of what was going on. So that's all that he's admitted to already. And now we don't know what more than that will be in this ethics report, but it's certainly more than I think most people would expect would be part of the everyday life of a member of the House of Representatives. Yeah, and again, we're expecting that report sometime today. Annie, obviously Gates is no longer Trump's pick for attorney general.

That said, I mean, he was at one point. How do you see this report fitting into the larger conversation around Trump's cabinet picks? Well, look, this is a cabinet pick who is, you know, famously in Washington, presidents, one of their one of their cabinet picks is shot down. And so this is the first to to be shot down. But I think that, you know, looking at what he's been accused of, it's not it's, you know, having sex with girls.

and bragging about it. And it's really reprehensible behavior at any age, whether he's in his 20s, 30s, or just a few years ago. So I think that the sort of overall bipartisan disgust for this behavior is reasonable. And I think we'll be seeing exactly what's in the report. But paying people to have sex with them, there is a word for that.

Lance, let me get your take on—we also heard from Gates at that conservative Turning Point USA conference yesterday, where Trump also spoke. Take a listen to some of what he said. LANCY GARCIA: Some of you throughout this conference have even given me a few suggestions. My fellow Floridians have asked me to eye the governor's mansion in Tallahassee, maybe special counsel to go after the insider trading for my former colleagues in Congress.

It seems I may not have had enough support in the United States Senate. Maybe I'll just run for Marco Rubio's vacant seat in the United States Senate and join some of those folks. Lance, your reaction, I mean, would running for Rubio's Senate seat be a good idea, given what we might see, expect to see in this report a little later today? I'm not here to make predictions about what Matt Gaetz is going to do next. That's certainly up to him. If he wants to run for office, he's entitled to do it.

I just want to go back to this ethics thing real quick. And I just don't know, he's denied criminal wrongdoing. And while acknowledging that some of his behavior wasn't quite appropriate, probably for a member of Congress or anybody out there. But my issue has always been and still remains with this ethics committee. I'm not sure why they wanted to release this report now for a former member of Congress. It has been their policy for 30 or 40 years to not release reports like this. And so I

I just kind of see it as just a means of maligning a former member right now, other than really serving any good purpose out there. I know that the Justice Department had investigated some of this stuff and declined to prosecute him as well. So that's my issue. I think it just hurts the credibility of this committee in Congress. Do you think the American people shouldn't see it?

I think if the ethics committee has a policy that has been in place for 30, 40 years of not releasing reports about former members of Congress, certainly if he were a sitting member of Congress, then that report could get released. If he were going for attorney general, then I could see an argument for that. So but if that's been their policy, I'm not sure why. If that's the case, then they should just release all of the reports that are out there on every member that they've ever investigated over the course of the last several years.

Okay, we'll leave it here. Panel, thank you. Stand by. Up next on CNN This Morning, held captive for over a year. The father of one Israeli-American hostage joins me next with their hope this holiday season. Plus, a child injured after drones began falling out of the sky at a holiday light show. His mother now speaking out. And Donald Trump's second term beginning in less than one month. Why one Democrat says that the freakout is not helpful.

If you're rooting against the president, you are rooting against the nation. And I'm not ever going to be where I want a president to fail. Welcome back. New this morning, several Israeli families of hostages have received signs of life from their loved ones held captive by Hamas in Gaza. That's according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. Now, the forum would not disclose how or when families receive these signs of life,

But the news does come as both Israeli negotiators and U.S. officials have said that they have seen progress toward reaching a hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza. Just last week, President Biden reaffirmed his commitment to getting a ceasefire deal done. But I know this year's Hanukkah falls on the hearts that are still very heavy. It's the second Hanukkah since the horrors of October 7th. Over a thousand slaughtered, hundreds taken hostage, unspeakable sexual violence, and so much more.

The trauma of that day and its aftermath is still raw and ongoing. I've gotten over 100 hostages out. I will not stop until I get every single one of them home. And joining us now is Jonathan Dekelhen. His son, Segi, is currently being held hostage by Hamas. Jonathan, appreciate you being here today. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for having me. So how are you feeling on this morning with these renewed hopes of a deal?

Well, you know, there's certainly a new kind of vibe in the air, and that's been going on for nearly three weeks now, three weeks exactly since President Trump put out a statement demanding that the hostages be released.

For us families, though, it's just another day in hell because the days have passed and continue to go by. And every day there's even more danger for the well-being of our hostages that might still be alive and the recovery of those who have already been murdered by Hamas. - Yeah. Do you have any new information on how your son might be doing?

No, we do not. The last proof of life that we have is from over a year ago when the first batch of hostages, over 100 hostages, President Biden mentioned that in his words just before. And when they came home over a year ago, we heard from a number of them that

that they had seen Segui, but they saw other people as well from our kibbutz community. And many of those have been murdered subsequently. So the fact that any hostage was known to be alive a year ago means very little right now.

Fair enough. Can you share with us what it has been like for you, for your family since October 7th? I mean, I know you said every day feels like hell and no one can understand what you're going through. But help us if you can. Sure. I'll try. It's hard to put into words, as you can imagine.

Sagi grew up and we continue to live on a small community called Kibbutz near Oza on the border with Gaza. And that day our home was assaulted by a couple hundred heavily armed terrorists and perhaps up to a thousand looters.

destroyed our homes, traumatized those who did survive. We're in a community of a little over 400 people. 59 of them were murdered that day. 79 were taken hostage. We still have 29 hostages of the total 100 Israeli hostages who are still being held.

Sagi has three little girls, one of whom he's never met. She was born two months after the massacre. She, her mom, and her two sisters survived miraculously. It's almost hard to believe that they survived that living hell that they experienced that day. So we've been dislocated for the last year, kind of refugees in our own country. Unclear if ever we'll be able to go back

to live in our home which was more or less burnt to the ground, the entire community. So it's an everyday challenge to do the basic things in life and we're doing the best we can with our kids and grandkids and in my case

in full knowledge that this madness, both for the families of the hostages and for the people of Gaza, could end tomorrow if Hamas and the Israeli government simply can get to yes on this agreement that's being negotiated. And it appears that we are the closest we have been, certainly, since the last agreement. Jonathan Deckel-Hen, we appreciate your time today. Thank you for helping us understand a little bit of what you have been through. We're thinking about you. Thank you.

And 53 minutes past the hour, here's your morning roundup. Drones there falling from the sky during a holiday light show in Florida. Video showing multiple drones colliding, then crashing down into the crowd watching below. A seven-year-old boy hit in the chest by a drone had to undergo open heart surgery, according to local reports. My daughter found my son on the floor, unconscious, blood coming out of his face.

And then it was just like the worst because not only is he laying there like, you know, the EMTs are trying to help, but he was losing consciousness. His heart beat kept stopping. He was stopping breathing.

The FAA says that it is now investigating. A man accused of setting a woman on fire on a New York subway, burning her to death, is now in custody. Officials say that the man approached the victim, did not say a word, and then lit her clothes on fire Sunday morning.

Today, Luigi Mangione, the suspect in that fatal shooting of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, is expected to be arraigned in New York. The 26-year-old is facing 11 counts, including first-degree murder and state terror charges. He's also facing federal charges.

And a congresswoman from Texas is experiencing, quote, dementia issues. Republican Kay Granger's son is telling the Dallas Morning News that his mother now resides in a senior living facility. The 81-year-old representative has not voted in Congress since July.

As congressional Democrats prepare for a GOP-controlled Washington next month, some prominent voices are hoping that the party charts a different course in the new year. Outgoing independent Senator Joe Manchin delivering this parting message about why he thinks some voters this November followed him in abandoning the Democratic Party. I am not a Democrat in the form of what the Democratic Party has turned itself into, the national brand. Absolutely not.

And they know that. That's what I told them. I said, you ought to figure out how you lost somebody like me. The brand got so bad. The D brand has been so maligned from the standpoint of it's just it's toxic. And the Democratic Party, the Washington Democrats, have tried to mainstream the extreme. All right. Our panel is back for the last time. Annie, let me start with you. I mean, it was crazy.

quite an interview. Mahanu did a great job. They covered a lot of ground. Manchin could not have been stronger in terms of how he feels about the Democratic Party calling it toxic, essentially saying they've lost their way. Talk about a mic drop. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think Manchin in some ways is channeling the frustration and the confusion that many actual Democrats, he's no longer a Democrat, but how many actual Democrats are feeling right now. I mean,

As Donna Brazile said in our newspaper today, if you ask 10 Democrats what to do about the future and how to redefine the party, you're going to get at least 12 answers. So this is like one of the main questions that Democrats are wrestling with.

Many Democrats that I talk to say that they think that Trump is really going to be how their party is redefined and the reaction to Trump. And they're saying that, look, in the next two years, we're going to be looking at where, in their view, he overreaches and really playing on that. And so in many ways, you know, Trump, as he has since 2015, may be the answer for Democrats.

Jaime, your thoughts to this, and specifically Manchin's thoughts that they have taken sort of the more progressive parts of the party and tried to make it the mainstream part of the party or the mainstream part of the country. Your thoughts?

Look, I respect the senator a lot, but he's not the Democratic prize. I don't think he's a bellwether for my party. But look, a couple of things are happening. I think Annie's right. I think Donald Trump has been a galvanizing factor for Democrats for the last eight to nine years. And so you'll see that start to happen again. But more importantly, when you look at what happened over the weekend in Congress and see the leadership that Hakeem Jeffries was able to display in spite of the gridlock that

that Congress was under almost shutting down the government under Republican leadership. And so I think there are a lot of things that we're going to be able to do to rebuild this party. I do not believe that we have to run away from the policies that we present. I do think we have to run toward voters. I do think we have to run toward what people care about most. The economy obviously was the big factor. If you look at Joe Biden's record, the economy has gotten better over the last four years and will continue to get better.

as Donald Trump takes office. But I don't think Manchin's correct about the party being toxic. I think the Democrats think they believe that they stand for people who are marginalized, people who can't speak for themselves. And I don't believe Democrats will stop doing that. And they won't do it because Joe Manchin told them to. Lance, let me give you the last word, and we only have 60 seconds here. To be fair, Manchin, I mean, he had some strong thoughts about the GOP, too. He said they haven't taken responsibility for the national debt. And he said they lack common sense on the issue of guns.

Politico has a story out this morning where they did a big focus group. And in that focus group, they were Biden voters who switched to Trump or Biden voters who didn't vote in this election. Consistently, time and again, it was because the Democratic Party has skewed so far left on all these woke transgender issues and the like that the American public is just not buying into. So, I mean, that's fine. They can ignore Joe Manchin and say he's not the party. They can ignore John Fetterman all they want. Because, I mean, and I get it. They

They want to let Trump derangement syndrome and now this Elon derangement syndrome kind of be their driving factor going forward. Then they should do that. But that didn't work out so well for them on November 5th. And I would just point to their idea of moving this country forward in the last week has, in their own words, been to get under Donald Trump's skin by calling Elon Musk the president.

So I don't think that's what voters are looking for. The Wall Street Journal has a story out this morning that says a blue state governor did a poll two to one. Voters want people to work with Donald Trump. They want Democrats to work with Donald Trump. So that's it's going to be up to the Democrats. Far be it for me to give them any advice at this point. Isaac, we ran out of time, but great to have all of you. Thank you for being with us for the full hour. It's been a pleasure to be with you as well. I'm Rahel Solomon. CNN News Central starts just about right now. I'll see you tomorrow.

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