12/16: The Takeout with Major Garrett

And this has been a highly successful mission that's ongoing and continued. And we're pleased to be here today to update Congress on how that's developing and how that's moving forward. Lastly, story four that has compelled our attention-- Vanity Fair published a blazing two-part article on President Trump's inner circle, wherein Chief of Staff Susie Wiles offered some tart and not always flattering assessments of the president, Vice President JD Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Elon Musk. Wiles also questioned some Trump decisions this year, while hastening to say this first year of Trump 2.0 has been more successful for Trump than some eight-year runs of other presidents. Team Trump, led by the president, swiftly rallied around Wiles. The bias of omission was ever present throughout this story. The reporter omitted all of the positive things that Susie and our team said about the president and the inner workings of the White House. Wiles, who did not deny the quotes attributed to her, nevertheless called the article a, quote, "disingenuously framed hit piece." We start tonight, as I mentioned at the beginning of our broadcast, with Tom Hanson, who joins us once again from Providence, Rhode Island. Tom, what's the latest? Hey there, Major. Well, a few developments coming out in just the last few hours. There have been enhanced photos, enhanced videos, and then FBI's Boston field office releasing a video that basically geolocates where the suspected shooter moved around the campus in the hours before and after. Basically, they are trying to piece together a timeline of his movements before the shooting and after the shooting as far as they possibly can, in order to provide more information and piece together this narrative. Also give the public as many opportunities to hit up that tip line that they've put out there in order to help authorities locate this person who they believe to be the shooter. We spoke with the Rhode Island attorney general today. He said that so far in this investigation, they have received roughly 150 actionable tips to that FBI hotline that was put out at the press conference yesterday. So they are making some progress, albeit slow, and certainly not at the rate in which people here want to see. They want to see this person apprehended and brought in, asked questions, and basically for authorities to learn exactly what happened here. Tom, it strikes me, a couple of things, that the authorities asked for other members of the public to provide any videos they might have, from Ring cameras on their residence or if they have a Tesla vehicle. For those of you who don't know, Teslas have outward-looking cameras that operate all the time. Police use them with some regularity, trying to get video images of a crime scene or something that might be related to a crime scene, and that they're wanting people to evaluate the body movements, posture, and gait of this person of interest. And that the video shown today, 10:30 AM, Saturday, to remind people the first call came in about-- if I recall correctly, Tom-- 2:05 PM Saturday from the Brown University campus. So suggestion-- he was casing things out before the crime itself.

Yeah, that's absolutely right, Major. And that's one of the things that we heard from the attorney general in our interview today, was they are really looking into if this was premeditated or not, what this shooter knew about the building. Now, one thing I want to point out, when you mentioned the cameras and the plea for the public to submit their own video, submit their own security camera footage, it really boils down to the geography of this building. Around Brown University, there are roughly 800 security cameras, we have learned. But most of those security cameras are not located in or around that building, making it very difficult for authorities to piece together his movements in and around the building during the time of the incident. They haven't found any really helpful video from the security cameras in that area. And so that's something where they are now turning to the public. We even saw it ourselves today, authorities going door to door and presumably asking people what they knew, interviewing them, and then, of course, giving them that request for any video that they have for security in their homes. I should also note that that specific building is right on the edge of campus, so that proximity there toes the line between campus property and residential property. So that explains also why they are asking people to weigh in and help and also call that tip line, which, as you heard in that press conference, Major, the actionable tips has actually jumped from 150, which was reported to us earlier today, up to 200. So they are following all those leads and sussing it out. Major.

And a community stressed out around the holiday season, still fearful at the margins, maybe even more than that. An extra police presence provided for schools and other parts of Providence. Tom Hanson coming to us from Providence, Rhode Island. Thank you very much. Jonathan Vigliotti joins me now from Los Angeles. Quick reminder, Los Angeles prosecutors outlined charges against Nick Reiner in the slaying of his parents. Jonathan, pick it up from there. Yeah, a lot to cover from the press conference, Major. We just came from it. Two counts of first-degree murder now charged against Nick Reiner, the district attorney alleging that Reiner used a knife to brutally stab his parents to death, though not making it clear if that murder weapon was recovered from the scene. The police chief also spoke, saying that good old-fashioned police work led them to track him down at a local park across town. What specifically tipped them off to Nick Reiner as a suspect at this point is unclear. I asked the police chief if he said anything when he was taken into custody. This is back Sunday night, 9:15. If he had any evidence of a crime committed on him, he would not comment. The motive at this point still unclear. We got nothing in that line from inside, but we do have a better sense of the timeline, primarily emerging from a day of reporting. Police earlier today confirming Rob and Michele Reiner were discovered in their master bedroom Sunday afternoon. It implies, perhaps, that this attack happened in the early morning, as they were asleep. And why this matters, Nick Reiner was last seen with his parents the night before, Saturday night at a house party, a holiday party hosted by Conan O'Brien where, according to sources speaking to CBS News, there was some kind of heated argument that took place before the family left for the night. Major.

Jonathan, did the prosecutor say anything about evidence at the scene that is related to the charging of Nick Reiner? Hmm. That was a big question. We also wanted to know how long perhaps the victims had been deceased. They remained very tight-lipped. We do not know what evidence they have. We do not know more in terms of the timeline. That's part of this ongoing investigation. And we do hope to learn more when the charging documents are officially released to us.

Jonathan Vigliotti coming to us from Los Angeles. Thank you very much, Jonathan, as always. Whatever the White House says today, trust me, it loves Vanity Fair. The White House inner circle would not grant as many interviews as it did or pose for the wide array of pictures-- you can see them maybe, if we have them-- yeah, lots of pictures of Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff-- you see her there-- without knowing what they were doing and why they were doing it with Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair released a two-part series with many, many photos to go behind the scenes in the first year of the second Trump term. Journalist Chris Whipple had extensive access and documented the interviews. I want to get right to it with our Ed O'Keefe at the White House. Ed, so much to try to get to. We won't get to all of the scintillating quotes in the Vanity Fair piece, but take your pick. Well, just the idea that she suggests, for example, that the president has an alcoholic's personality, which is a notable comment coming from the daughter of NFL and CBS Sports legend Pat Summerall, who famously battled alcoholism, notably earlier today to The New YorkPost. The president, in essence, agreed, saying that while he doesn't drink, quote, "If I did, I'd have a very good chance of being an alcoholic," adding later, "It's a very possessive personality." She makes clear that she had big disagreements with the president on several key policy points. On day one, for example, when he pardoned nearly 1,500 people convicted of January 6 insurrection-related crimes, she suggested that the president should only pardon the nonviolent ones. But the president argued no, even the violent ones were mistreated by the FBI. And so she eventually sort of got on board with that decision. She told the president that after about 90 days, he should give up this retribution focus of his presidency, let it go, and move on. But of course, that's continued. And she conceded that the prosecution, especially of Letitia James, the New York Attorney General, was one rooted in retribution and not much else. On the Epstein affair, she suggested that the attorney general, quote, "completely whiffed on how the public would react to the Epstein investigation" and said the president was not telling the truth about former President Bill Clinton and whether he'd ever visited the private island owned by the convicted sex offender, the late Jeffrey Epstein. So all sorts of examples of things the chief of staff wouldn't normally say while still on the job. Differences of opinion, retelling key moments often comes later in a tell-all book or an interview after they've left the job or after their boss is no longer president. But to do it in real-time and, in essence, provide play-by-play commentary about the year gone by-- which she did, apparently, according to Whipple, in 11 different interviews-- is a departure from the norm and why, especially early this morning, you saw so many key administration figures and the entire cabinet express its support for Wiles on social media, standing by her and doing what this administration does well, arguing that what they said, while perhaps accurate, was taken out of context.

Very quickly, Ed. There's a speech by the president tomorrow night to the nation? Yeah. And as we understand it, this is the traditional year-end address, trying to cap the year that was, the successes, at least, in the eyes of the White House. That's essentially all we know, 9:00 PM Eastern right here on CBS News 24/7, no doubt, and elsewhere. But they've made the official ask for time. And so we are expecting him to talk about the various things, which, as these interviews in Vanity Fair lay out as well, the idea that, in their view, it's been a productive, successful year. Polling and the opinions of Americans may differ on that, but the president is certainly going to try right before Christmas and in the midst of Hanukkah to convince Americans otherwise.

Lots of photographs in Vanity Fair and interviews as well. Ed O'Keefe, thank you so very, very much. Coming up, New York Republican Congressman Mike Lawler on House GOP leaders ditching a vote on health care matters. He joins me next. [THEME MUSIC] Welcome back to TheTakeout. Thanks for hanging out with us. House Speaker Mike Johnson said today there will not be a vote at all this week in the House on a bill extending Obamacare tax credits. Earlier, I discussed the implications of that with New York Republican Mike Lawler. Here's our conversation. Congressman, give me your unfiltered opinion of the decision of the House Republican leaders not to have a floor vote on extending enhanced Obamacare tax credits. It's idiotic, and it's political malpractice. The fact is that we have a time-sensitive issue, which is the expiration of these enhanced premium tax credits that were put in place during COVID. We can all agree that Obamacare has failed to reduce health care costs across this country. And in fact, since Obamacare took effect, health care premiums have risen 96% at minimum. So we need to address the longer term issue of health care costs in this country. But to allow these subsidies to expire without even having a vote, to me, is foolish. And it's why I am fighting for an up or down vote. We worked in a bipartisan way, a group of us-- myself, Brian Fitzpatrick, Jen Kiggans, David Valadao, among others-- over the last few weeks to come up with several compromise pieces of legislation. And we have signed discharge petitions to force those to the floor. And yet, on the Republican side, they don't want to bring the bills up. And on the Democratic side, you have Leader Jeffries, who doesn't actually want to pass something. He wants the issue. He wants it to fail so that he can use this as a political bludgeon in the next election. It's why he and Leader Schumer put a three-year clean extension with no reforms on the floor in the Senate and as a discharge petition. They don't actually want compromise. And so those of us who are trying to actually legislate and get something done here are left fighting back against the leadership of our respective parties. And so, to me, this is the height of absurdity. It is precisely why things don't get done in this place. Because people would rather the upper hand, or the issue, or the political win, rather than the hard work of bipartisan compromise. And that's what I am focused on, on an issue that is critical for millions of Americans. Is the idiotic party engaging in political malpractice the Speaker of the House or the President of the United States? Well, look, Congress has to act. And we have a responsibility to advance legislation forward.

Right, but you know, Congressman-- This bill is going to require-- --if President Trump endorsed what you're talking about, that would dislodge the House Republican leadership. He's sort of been on the sidelines throughout all of this in the last couple of weeks. Well, with all due respect, we have members who have strong positions on the ACA, on Hyde, et cetera. We have been trying to work through these issues for the last few weeks. I and a number of my colleagues met in a bipartisan way to come up with real reforms, including income limits, elimination of zero premium plans, expansion of HSAs, and PBM reform, to actually start to reduce the cost of health care. The challenge is that it doesn't have Hyde language in it, which is why many of my colleagues on the right won't support it. And on the left, if you put that language in, they will revolt. And so you're betwixt and between, trying to solve a problem. The White House put out a framework that was rejected by the Speaker and others. And so, we're trying to work through this. My point is, we have a time deadline. We can get to 218 in the House. We can get to 60 if everybody recognizes it's going to take bipartisan support. It's going to take compromise. That is what I've been working towards. That's why I'm fighting so hard to get this done.

Let me just help my audience with a couple of things you referred to. You mentioned Hyde. That's the Hyde Amendment, long-standing policy. Federal funds do not go directly to provide abortion services. You mentioned HSAs. That's Health Savings Accounts, alternatives to the Obamacare exchange. So those are things I just want to let my audience understand, as they go along with the terminology. There are Senate negotiations that the Senate Majority Leader, John Thune, this afternoon said he hopes have promise of creating an alternative remedy to this in early January. Do you share his optimism? Well, look, we obviously have a immediate deadline with the expiration of these tax credits. We have the longer term issue of health care costs in this country. I think everybody should be able to acknowledge that Obamacare has not fulfilled the promise that was made to the American people, that it would reduce health care costs. It has not. And so the question is, how do we deal with that? We have a number of pieces of legislation that are coming for a vote this week in the House that do start to chip away at some of the problems, including associated health plans, which will allow small businesses the ability to collectively negotiate health care plans. But that alone is not going to solve the problem. And so you have to start to work in a bipartisan way to get this done. Anybody that thinks you're going to jam through health care policy in a partisan manner is kidding themselves. We saw what happened when Democrats did that 15 years ago-- in a bill that was written by the insurance companies, by the way-- and it has not actually produced results. All it has done is driven insurance premiums sky high, record profits. And meanwhile, the American people are struggling to afford their health care.

What will this mean to your constituents on December 31? And there's some reporting out there that some constituents are having a hard time reaching you on this or something like that. Do you want to respond to that? No, they're not having a hard time. That's put forth by the Democrats trying to Astroturf everybody and gaslight everybody. I've been leading on this issue. I'm the one actually trying to negotiate a bipartisan deal. Again, you can look back to my exchange with Hakeem Jeffries during the shutdown, when I asked him to sign on to a clean one-year extension, and he refused. The fact is, they don't actually want to solve this. They want the issue. And that's why I've been working in a bipartisan way with rank-and-file members to actually negotiate a deal and try to force both of our leaderships to deal with the reality.

New York Republican Congressman Mike Lawler, thanks for the time. Appreciate it. Thanks, Major. [THEME MUSIC]

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth says he will not-- not-- release the video of the deadly follow-up strike on a suspected drug boat, but Congress still seeking answers. More on all that next right here on TheTakeout. [THEME MUSIC] Welcome back. Lawmakers are still seeking answers over September's deadly follow-up strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug boats. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth briefed senators and House members on the Hill today. Hegseth says the video of the mission will not be released to the public. In keeping with longstanding Department of War policy, Department of Defense policy, of course, we're not going to release a top-secret, full, unedited video of that to the general public. HASC and SASC and appropriate committees will see it, but not the general. Quick acronym watch-- HASC, House Armed Services Committee; SASC, Senate Armed Services Committee. We try to deal with acronyms as best we can on this program. Always Nikole Killion on Capitol Hill. Nikole, just to remind our audience, December 3, president of the United States on the future of this video. Let's watch.

Will you release video of that strike so that the American people can see for themselves what happened? I don't know what they have, but whatever they have, we'd certainly release, no problem. Certainly release, no problem. But now there's a problem, Nikole. Yeah, that's right. Well, as you heard Secretary Hegseth there say, he believes this information is top-secret. That's why he doesn't believe it should be made public, although he did acknowledge that members on the committees of jurisdiction, House Armed Services, Senate Armed Services, will get an opportunity to see that video. In fact, we're expecting Admiral Bradley to be back here on Capitol Hill. He's actually the one who oversaw that controversial September 2 strike. So he is expected to brief both House and Senate Armed Services Committee members on that, along with that video. That being said, though, we certainly saw differing reactions from lawmakers as they emerged from these briefings. Of course, by and large, many Republicans defended the administration's actions and authority that they have to carry out these strikes, whereas many Democrats feel that Congress is being bypassed in this process, that the administration may have overstepped its bounds. And they specifically would like to see that video made public.

Very quickly, Nikole, Lindsey Graham, Republican from South Carolina, went to the big picture on this. Is this actually more about the future of Nicolás Maduro than drug interdiction? I want to play that sound bite from the senator. So I asked the question, what happens when he leaves? And they say that this is counter drugs. It'd be nice if he left. That's not a good answer. I want to reassert again, you cannot allow this man to be standing after this display of force. And I did not get a very good answer as to what happens next.

That really does seem to be the meta question around all of this, Nikole. I wonder how many other lawmakers are asking it. Yeah, that's right. Well, I mean, if you saw Secretary Hegseth there in that bite you played-- I was standing right next to him, and that was precisely the question I tried to ask him. But he nor Secretary Rubio took questions about what is the endgame here. Is the ultimate goal regime change? And certainly, that's the point that Senator Graham made, saying, look, if that's the goal, just say it. So he was still very supportive of the administration, but feels that both secretaries really needed to address that question. And he said he would welcome them to come back to the Hill, potentially even for additional briefings.

If that's what you mean, just say it. Nikole Killion, thanks so much. [THEME MUSIC] Subsidies under the Affordable Care Act are all but guaranteed to rise at the end of this month. White House Speaker Mike Johnson says there won't be a vote on that. You're watching TheTakeout. [THEME MUSIC]

Welcome back to TheTakeout. Those of you who are eagle-eyed-- and there are many in the audience who fit into that category-- might have noticed during the Mike Lawler interview in the wide shots these cookies on the set. They've been here all show. Here's how it got there. I invited members of our DC crew on a voluntary basis-- stress voluntary basis-- to bake holiday cookies so we can have them each day this week. We had some last night, but my plans to highlight and explain all this, this festive little diversion, well, they were overtaken by breaking news. It happened. So tonight, we have butterscotch clove gingerbread cookies with some added pecans, courtesy of Mab with the Crafty Carny. She is the partner of one of our floor crew members, William [? Bowman. ?] So we are very happy to have her cookies, homemade cookies each day this week to celebrate the season, part of my never-ending quest to keep food central to TheTakeout experience. Oh, now, back to the show. Let me introduce our reporter panel. Please move the copy up, so I can get the names. Please, thank you so much. White House correspondent for NPR, Deepa Shivaram, and Juliegrace Brufke, who covers Congress for 24sight News. All right, Vanity Fair and the heavily present inner circle of President Trump posing for picture after picture. Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, 11 interviews. Deepa, you're over in the building. What's the-- I think that the-- --blast radius of this Vanity Fair piece? Yeah, the thing that stood out to me is the president's schedule is so tight, there is not a lot of time. If you work for the president, arguably, you almost have less time as the White House chief of staff. Clearly, here, a priority was given to sit down and give 11 interviews, take over a whole photoshoot situation. This is a lot of time that was invested in a story that they say now lasts a lot of projects.

And Juliegrace, these photos are very, very artistic, stylistic. You don't shoot those photos with an iPhone glancingly. These are set-up things-- again, allocation of time and intentionality.

I mean, I don't think I've seen a member of the administration be this candid since maybe The Mooch with that Ryan Lizza article back in the day, but this was obviously more intentional with 11--

That would turn out to be a career-ender. These will not. Yeah, I mean, the administration is definitely rallying behind Susie Wiles. But it's-- yeah, I mean, definitely some shocking-- you wouldn't expect it to be on-the-record comments. [LAUGHS] [INAUDIBLE]

Candid, but I didn't feel-- and Deepa, I'd like your impression of this-- that she was throwing anyone under the bus, maybe the attorney general about mishandling the Epstein matter. But that's sort of accepted wisdom within the West Wing, anyway. I was going to say, I don't think this is normal for any president chief of staff to do, but it may be kind of normal for Trump's chief of staff to do. This came across for her as someone who's obviously very in-the-know and willing to confidently say what she thinks out loud, which I think is really in line with the way the president himself functions. Outside of some of the tidbits of gossip about Elon Musk and things like that, she had some air of authority about what she was talking about. And I think that's what the White House can lean on. And Juliegrace, it also seemed, if you're going to think about this, why would they do this? Is there a strategy behind it? Maybe it's to say, there are disagreements here. They can happen. You can have a disagreement with the president, still keep your job, so that it's a functionality sort of story, even though she, Susie Wiles, tried to push back on the selective quotation therein.

But I mean, I think that very well could have been the strategy. I mean, it's kind of interesting, some of the more inflammatory things that people pointed to online, her saying that Trump has the personality of an alcoholic. He came out and talked to The New York Postand was like, I don't disagree with her. So that's--

He said that about himself many times. "It's a good thing I don't drink like my brother did." He learned lessons from his brother, who did have an alcohol abuse problem. Said that if I did, I would probably be having kind of a manic personality. Trump's acknowledged that. I didn't even think that was a headline grabber, Deepa. No, I mean, it was, again, that kind of honesty that, I think, works with his base, right? They see things like this, and they say, well, that's a president who's telling the truth. That's a chief of staff.

And even JD Vance embraced that she said he's a conspiracy theorist.

He did say that. Today-- he was in Pennsylvania. He was like, yeah, the ones that are true. Ha-ha-ha, nudge, nudge. I mean, it was kind of interesting. I think that the one thing that Susie Wiles pushed back on were the Elon Musk comments, which then, later, the audio was sent, I believe, to The New YorkTimes. But I mean, I feel like that was also kind of a thing that's kind of been common knowledge about Elon Musk out there.

Yeah, said he takes ketamine a lot and that he-- that's one thing I didn't know, that he slept in a sleeping bag in the executive office building (WHISPERING) during the day.

That part I was not aware of either. Deepa? Work hard, play hard, question mark? Like, [LAUGHS] yeah. Sometimes I could use a work nap, too. I kind of get it. [LAUGHS] Very quickly, Juliegrace. We have a decision not to act, even bring anything to the floor on health care. Moderates are not happy. So Nick LaLota was just in the Rules Committee about an hour ago, trying to push for the Fitzpatrick language. And--

Some alternative, something to get on the floor. Some alternative, yeah. And I was just talking to Speaker-- Because the moderates are desperate to vote for something so they can tell their constituents, at least I tried.

Absolutely. And there's talk of these discharge petitions of trying to kind of side-skirt leadership on that. And leadership is very dug in on, we want this to go to, essentially, HSA accounts, instead of health insurers, to bring down premiums. But I know moderates are very worried about it, and they're very worried about how it will impact their races. And Deepa, the White House is going to have to do something about this once the premiums go up in 2026, because it's not going away as a political issue.

No, especially ahead of the midterm elections. This is obviously something Republicans across the country are going to have to grapple with and deal with, and they're going to be looking to the White House to signal on that messaging. I think you might start to see Trump go out on the road a little bit more. He's giving a speech later this week-- Tomorrow night, yes. --and tomorrow night as well and-- Prime time address to encapsulate the year that was from his perspective.

And also sell his message. And I'm there'll be a lot of A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus references there. Right.

Deepa Shivaram, Juliegrace Brufke, thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Have some cookies. They don't eat themselves. Happy Tuesday, everyone. This is TheTakeout, relentlessly curious, reliably civil, occasionally clever. DailyReportcoming up next. [THEME MUSIC]