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Which Dems Will Take on Trump on 2020?; 170,000 U.S. Troops Deployed Overseas This Christmas; Re-Gift or Return? Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired December 25, 2018 - 06:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR: -- on a government building in Kabul.

[06:30:02] A police officer and four attackers are among the dead. The attack happened Monday afternoon when a car bomb blew up at the gates of the building. Gunmen then stormed the building where hundreds were working. The Taliban says it is not responsible.

Te latest government figures in the devastating Indonesian tsunami show at least 429 people were killed. Disaster officials say the massive wave injured nearly 1,500 others. One hundred fifty-four remain missing. Nearly 900 homes and 73 hotels were damaged, displaced some 16,000 people. Officials say the height of the wave varied from place to place, but reached over 16 feet in the area with the greatest damage.

A federal judge has ordered North Korea to pay the parents of Otto Warmbier more than half a billion dollars in a wrongful death lawsuit. The North Korean regime detained Warmbier in 2016 and allegedly tortured the college student over 17 months before returning him to the U.S. last year. The 22-year-old died days later. North Korea did not respond to the suit. Any damages awarded would likely come from North Korea's frozen assets in the U.S.

I'm Manu Raju, merry Christmas. More headlines in 30 minutes.

(MUSIC)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We're only days away from 2019. It's going too fast. Slow it down.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Everything is going too fast?

CAMEROTA: Yes. Let's pump the brakes. But it's not too early to talk about which Democrats may run for president in 2020. Oh, my gosh.

OK, I'm just going to move on. The list includes --

BERMAN: How many voices are in your head right now?

CAMEROTA: A million. Ghosts of Christmas past and future.

Here are some of the contenders. Former Vice President Joe Biden, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, that's just to remain a few. Who, though, is creating the most buzz as a challenger to President Trump?

Let's bring back in CNN political analyst David Gregory.

BERMAN: Who has been imitating Bing Crosby over the last several minutes.

CAMEROTA: I know that, poorly. That's one of the voices in head.

Also, CNN senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson, and let's bring in, CNN politics reporter and editor at large, Chris Cillizza.

OK. Who are you keeping an eye on, David Gregory, in 2019?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Whoever can rule the Midwest. I think Democrats have a fixation on winning the last war and seeing where they have the most potential to take on Trump. I think a lot of them look through the Midwest. Amy Klobuchar, Sherrod Brown, it's also the key to the working class white voter that slipped away from Hillary Clinton. So I think that's a big focus.

But I think overall, there are so many different lanes. You know, who can try to out-Trump Trump, who can deliberately not get into the Trump muck, who can put together a coalition demographically that can deliver, show up and overwhelm Trump. So, you have a president who is losing popularity, who faces the headwind of a potentially declining economy, but a big Democratic field with lots of different lanes including generational lanes to try to figure out, the older and the younger and the in the future.

BERMAN: David Gregory takes the why don't you meet me in the middle, look for the Midwest going forward.

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER AND EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Why don't you meet me in the middle?

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: That leaves out the roughly 36 candidates thinking about running from the left.

CILLIZZA: Yes, and people would say, oh, John Berman, he's exaggerating but really you're not. I counted recently and there are definitely over 30 credible serious people whose names you would probably recognize on a medium to long list. I do think you're going to have a large block of people run to the left because that's where the energy is within the party. Trump has done lots of things but he's polarized -- he has moved the right more left, he has moved the left more left, too.

Now, who is that person? I think Kamala Harris from California has a chance, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, they will always all go for -- I mean, look, almost any candidate --

BERMAN: Beto O'Rourke.

CILLIZZA: They will all go for that. Any candidate outside of Joe Biden who is going to try to find a way not in the middle but the centerish left. I like who David mentioned, Sherrod Brown. I actually think there's real possibility there.

BERMAN: He's both the left and Midwest.

CILLIZZA: Liberal populist, has a proven vote getting record, he was the secretary of state in Ohio before being reelected. You know, look, in 2018, he wins comfortably in a state that Donald Trump won comfortably in the Midwest two years before. Now, can he raise the money? Does he fit what the party wants?

He is a middle-aged white guy. There are obviously problems there, but we can pick apart any of these candidates. He is an interesting dark horse to keep an eye on.

[06:35:00] NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: The question is who brings the excitement. One of the reasons people are talking about Beto O'Rourke, for instance, is because of the excitement he generated in that race. He, of course, lost the race, came closer than people thought he would, but raised gobs of money.

He had people like Beyonce and LeBron James talking about his race and essentially endorsing him. That's one of the things we saw with Obama, a real ability to generate emotion. Donald Trump, too, on both sides of that, who can do that.

The other question is who comes out first. If you remember, you know, this should probably start happening pretty soon. I think Obama --

BERMAN: Delaney.

HENDERSON: Sorry.

CILLIZZA: Delaney is in.

HENDERSON: Sorry. Who is second?

CILLIZZA: Obama and Hillary to your point February 2007.

HENDERSON: Bill Richardson January 2007. So this is going to happen quickly.

CAMEROTA: Maybe it's not too soon.

CILLIZZA: It is not. Remember it's a titanic task to raise the money, organize, find your message. People always say I can't believe we're talking about it, but the process is a long one that takes time.

One thing I will say with Beto O'Rourke, I think not for everyone, for Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, but for some of those second and third tier people, actually Beto O'Rourke's decision matters, the wait to see what he does because he does take up a lot of oxygen.

HENDERSON: The Bernie crowd, too. CILLIZZA: If he runs, he is a top five contender based on everything

that Nia just talked about. By the way, a young fresh face for a party that right now has the 79-year-old Nancy Pelosi, the 76-year-old Joe Biden, the 77-year-old Bernie Sanders. None of these are to David's point about generational change none of these people represent that.

HENDERSON: Who represents where the party is? If you think of why Democrats were able to win in November, it was because of this sort of Obama coalition, women, African-Americans, Latinos, those are the new faces in congress.

BERMAN: And the suburbs.

HENDERSON: And the suburbs.

BERMAN: Huge movement in the suburbs, which is a segue to the House.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about what the House is going to look like a few days from now. Here are some new committee leaders that will be coming in. Jerry Nadler on Judiciary, obviously that carries a lot of weight because that will begin the task of deciding what to do with the Mueller findings. Adam Schiff on Intelligence, similarly can subpoena people. Elijah Cummings on Oversight, Maxine Waters, Financial Services, Richard Neal, Ways and Means.

David, what do you think we should be looking for?

GREGORY: I think one of the things that Trump has done is overwhelmed the system so that the media really can't keep up, Congress can't keep up. The behavior of some of the cabinet secretaries should be investigated to put them on the national agenda more than they have been, the labor secretary, Pruitt, on down the line. I think Congress can do that under Democratic leadership. The big thing is going to be the question of impeachment and we are just not going to know until we ultimately see a report.

We know how cautious Democrats are going to be because, look, the president is still going into a new year in a strong political position. He will go into 2020, unless something derails that through impeachment, in a strong position. It's hard to take away the presidency from the incumbent.

I think Democrats are going to look to investigate all over the place, to harass him all over the place. They also need to focus on what it is they can actually get done, what they might be able to agree to, to earn national leadership.

BERMAN: Which is so interesting having Nancy Pelosi who we believe will be speaker of the House for the second time. You know, you can argue about her politics, you can argue whether she is a divisive figure, you cannot argue about whether she knows how to do the job.

She has done it. She can count votes. She has an idea of where she wants to push the House for the next two years. HENDERSON: Yes, you know, and how does she see the job? On the one

hand there's this oversight piece of this, but the other piece is what does the Democratic Party stand for? She's going to have all of these progressive Democrats, the new incoming freshmen, pushing her on things like healthcare, things like student loans. Any number of issues that they campaigned on, they want to see something get done.

CILLIZZA: And remember just to add on to Nia's point, Nancy Pelosi in the run-up to the 2018 election was very -- not dismissive but guarded as it related to impeachment. Obviously, there is a -- that will be a story within the party. There are people who wanted Donald Trump within the Democratic Party wanted Donald Trump impeached the day after he was sworn in. She, I think, is waiting for the Mueller report and sort of planning from there, but there will be a push without question to bring that up and she will make the political argument that to Nia's point those are necessarily the issues, the kitchen table issues that will make people vote for a Democratic nominee in 2020.

I don't know if the liberal base will listen.

GREGORY: Well, here is the other point, and it's from an unlikely source, it's the Jim Comey argument, which is basically do not impeachment. Vote him out of office. And everybody who saw the Clinton impeachment can see the beginnings of this now. The persecution complex of President Trump.

HENDERSON: Which he has already even without any of this stuff. Yes.

[06:40:01] GREGORY: Right, and which he will advance. And there will be people who will see it that way, and that's why there could be a push to say, no, get organized and go vote.

CILLIZZA: And remember, by the way, just very quickly, in 1998, '99 the polarization politically was nowhere near -- to David's point, if you thought that period of impeachment was bad --

BERMAN: Who would have thunk when you look back at those days?

CAMEROTA: The glory days, yes.

BERMAN: All right. David, Nia, Chris, thanks very much.

So, as we celebrate the holidays we want to keep in mind the troops serving overseas to protect our freedom. We're joined by General Mark Hertling. He'll tell us how we can brighten their holiday season, next.

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BERMAN: One hundred seventy thousand U.S. troops are deployed overseas and more than 150 countries this Christmas, far from family, friends and loved ones. So what's this day like for them and is there anything we can do to help them cope with being away from home for the holidays? Joining me now to discuss is CNN military analyst, former army

commander general of Europe and 7th Army, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling.

A string of titles, well earned and deserved there, General. You and I have had a chance to talk about this before, being away from family for the holidays, serving overseas, you absolutely miss your family, would love to be home, but there is a different side of it as well. Explain.

LT. GENERAL MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, it's an emotional roller coaster, John, that's for sure. You're missing, you are a little bit lonely, but you're trading your biological family for your military family, truthfully, and the leaders and your fellow soldiers, sailors, air men, marines, coast guards men, they all make the best of what some might consider a bad situation, but truthfully I have never seen in my almost 40 years in the service anyone complaining because they had to serve on this day.

[06:45:00] You know, you've got marines at embassies, guarding today while other people are off. You got soldiers and sailors and air men all fighting fights, doing the kinds of things, doing engagements, but certainly they know that their duty comes first and truthfully, they're proud of that, but no doubt about it they miss their families and they take a little bit of time to think about those on this very special day.

BERMAN: And I know it varies from posting to posting whether or not you are in an active war zone or not, but walk me through a typical Christmas Day overseas for someone serving in the military.

HERTLING: Well, it depends. If you are in a combat zone literally nothing changes. It is -- it's not Christmas day, it's Groundhog Day. If you get a great meal, which is a focus by a lot of people to ensure, people who are deployed get a great meal that day and they do have a chance to come together and reflect, it's a good thing.

I guarantee you that soldiers or sailors have made Christmas trees, either they've received it from home in a package or they've made it out of something they found around their environment and I've seen a lot of strange Christmas trees made in weird places. That's part of the focus.

And they give each other gifts. If it's your favorite MRE potentially or even something that you have had shipped from home, you go I have it to your fellow soldiers and it becomes a brightening of the day. But there is that moment of sadness, you're hoping for some kind of contact, either through a Skype call or maybe a telephone call, depending on where you are, all of that becomes extremely important.

But they're doing their duty. They're serving. Commanders will come around and perhaps deliver the meal to someone on a post or a guard station or they might just bring some cookies or baked goods if they are in a peacetime environment and their spouses have made that for other people, they will deliver them to the soldiers under their command. In some cases, the junior leaders knowing that some of their junior

soldiers might not be able to go home or have contact, they will invite them into their homes to experience a family environment that they might not otherwise have, get them out of the barracks and dormitories and have them with the sergeants or lieutenants that have the ability to do that.

BERMAN: You're talking in some cases about 18, 19 year olds, 20 year olds who may not have been away from home for Christmas, period, let alone in a war zone. I am curious you mentioned you give each other presents, is there any present you remember receiving overseas in a war zone from another soldier?

HERTLING: I do, actually, John. You know, as long as you brought it up, in 1990 we deployed right before Christmas, right after thanksgiving, right before Christmas to Desert Shield which would eventually become Desert Storm. I was part of an advanced party on a cavalry squadron. A bunch of us were standing around in the cold of the Saudi Arabian desert with no one else around us, we didn't have a mess hall, all we had was MREs and someone gave me what they knew was my favorite MRE which happened to be -- well, I won't tell you what it is.

BERMAN: Come on, it's a cheeseburger MRE, right?

HERTLING: Yes. No, no, it was not a cheeseburger MRE, it was ham and pork slices, that was my Christmas dinner, and it was disgusting but that was the thought that counted, I guess.

BERMAN: I thought everyone referred MRE was a cheeseburger MRE.

General, what can we do at home if we are lucky enough to be at home or in country with our loved ones, what can we do for the troops who are overseas on the holidays?

HERTLING: Well, the ones that are parts of units, this he usually have families within their post camps or stations that are taking care of them, but the ones that concerned me the most when I was active duty were the national guard members or the reservists because they are scattered all over the states and sometimes their family members are forgotten, truthfully. So, if you know a family member of a national guardsman or reservist who is deployed, make sure they're taken in and you wish them a merry Christmas.

Or you can, you know, have a young soldier that's in your community who is about to deploy come together with your family, if that's possible. Or just truthfully just raise a glass to them when you're standing around and enjoying your Christmas dinner or say a prayer for them. I think that's the most important thing to do and just remember that, you know, the members of the military are serving, there are others that are serving, fire departments, police departments are all out serving people on this day. The security of our nation doesn't stop just because it happens to be a holiday and those people in all different walks of life who put on a uniform in one way or another and some that are nurses and doctors are also doing the same.

So treat all of them as servants and community members that you're thankful for and give them a thanks.

BERMAN: General Mark Hertling, our thanks to you. Thank you for being with us this morning. Thank you for your service. Thanks for making our lives here so much better at CNN. Appreciate it, sir.

HERTLING: Merry Christmas, John.

BERMAN: You, too.

CAMEROTA: Such great reminders from him. Yes, that was beautiful.

All right. Have you opened your gifts yet? Are there some you just don't like?

[06:50:03] Well, Christine Romans has great tips about what you should do now.

BERMAN: She won't let me buy her presents, you know.

CAMEROTA: Why?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: OK. Time for CNN business. They say it's better to give than receive, but why not kill two birds with one stone by regifting that hideous gift your aunt just gave us?

CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans is here.

Where are you on regifting?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I think regifting is fine, just make sure you regift it to somebody who the first person doesn't find out.

BERMAN: Take the card out also. My advice, I know from experience, you need to take the card out.

ROMANS: It's the thought that counts of course, but, look, I don't want that reindeer sweater with jingle bells, right, so some retailers have a no questions asked policy to return, others have strict rules that make returning purchases frustrating or impossible.

Here is what you can do to make returns easier, OK? Don't open the box ever. Don't remove the packaging on a gift you don't want.

BERMAN: Ever.

ROMANS: Look, you risk a restocking fee if packaging isn't intact, I'm mostly talking about electronics here. If product tags are missing, you're going to be stuck with that item.

Keep the gift receipts, don't throw them out with the wrapping paper. Some retailers will not let you return your gift without one. Some will, though, thank you, Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Others may give store credit instead. Check return policies, note time limits, you can check return policies in the store and online.

[06:55:03] Now, during the holidays, some retailers are going to extend their deadlines often until late January.

Also, bring your ID. Victoria's Secret, they use computer models to detect abuse, they can also tell which customers are often returning things over and over again, this he might ask you for an id.

CAMEROTA: Then what happens? Handcuffs like come out of the cash register?

ROMANS: No, they're going to will ask you some questions to make sure they can keep your fraud down. It's an art giving a gift that's not going to be returned, right? So here is what people are actually giving, what's popular this year, clothing and accessories are the top gift, gift cards are number two, the national retail federation says more than half gift givers will give four gift cards on average, toys are next, then books, music and movies.

Now, do you know what is the top -- well, we are showing you right now.

CAMEROTA: Wow. Great.

ROMANS: Barbie is number one.

BERMAN: Barbie.

ROMANS: And for boys?

CAMEROTA: Ken.

ROMANS: No, Ken is not on the list.

BERMAN: No, if I wait long enough -- Legos.

ROMANS: Yes, lead you to water and you will drink it. Yes, Legos are the number four gift for girls, too, number one or boys. The girls top three are doll derivatives. Interesting, right?

CAMEROTA: It is interesting because I didn't know that Barbie was still a top seller.

ROMANS: Barbie and Legos since we were wee little.

BERMAN: Very quickly, explain to Alisyn why you don't want me to buy you presents.

ROMANS: Well, here's the thing, I did bring Alisyn a gift but I didn't bring you one this year.

BERMAN: What?

ROMANS: John and I have an arrangement.

CAMEROTA: I know you do. ROMANS: The arrangement is several years ago I was overwhelmed on the

holidays, I said, look, you are a good enough friend, please, your gift to me is not giving me a gift and I won't give one to you. You know what he did? He brought me a gift any way to make me feel price as guilty.

BERMAN: Exactly.

CAMEROTA: You bad man.

ROMANS: My gift to you is something that comes in a pretty box that you can regift and something that you can consume and enjoy, doesn't clutter up your house.

CAMEROTA: Godiva chocolate. I love you.

ROMANS: I put it on my expense account.

CAMEROTA: I don't care. I don't care how you paid for it. Thank you. I love this.

ROMANS: Merry Christmas, John, to you and your family.

BERMAN: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: How is it working that you're not getting presents?

BERMAN: I don't really know. She really just bought only you a present.

ROMANS: We have this arrangement.

BERMAN: All right.

ROMANS: Right, John?

BERMAN: Christine Romans, merry Christmas. Appreciate it.

All right. Up next, overcoming tragedy during the holidays. We're joined by two pastors whose congregations are dealing with unthinkable loss.

Stay with us.

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