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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Soon, House Committee Votes On Bill To End Shutdown; Supreme Court Keeps Full SNAP Payments On Hold; Airline Increase Number Of Flight Cancelations Amid Shutdown; Fox Host Clashes With Trump Over Affordability, Economy. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired November 11, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper.

This hour, a key House committee is meeting tonight with the final vote to reopen the government now set for tomorrow afternoon as House members are rushing back to D.C. from across the country. President Trump said today he expects the bill to pass. So, how soon could we see air travel and food stamp benefits and other government services return to normal?

Plus, in the last hour, you heard Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna call for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to step aside over that bipartisan Senate deal. In moments, I'm going to ask another Democrat in the house if he agrees, and how his seemingly fractured party can fix these ugly divides playing out in public.

And on this Veteran's Day, I'm going to be joined by one of the heroes of my 2012 book, The Outpost.

[18:00:03]

Ross Berkoff is out with a new book of his own about his experiences on the frontlines of America's longest war. He is a true American hero. I can't wait for you to hear more of his stories.

The Lead tonight, the longest government shutdown in U.S. history could be over in just about 24 hours or so. In just a few minutes, the House Rules Committee is going to meet to advance that Senate-passed bill to the floor of the House, now barring any last minute shutdown imposed travel chaos. There should be enough House members in town tomorrow afternoon to vote on the final passage. But now bigger questions are hanging over both political parties as Democratic infighting over the Senate defections to pass this bill come to a head and Republicans are facing pressing questions about healthcare affordability.

CNN's Manu Raju is chasing the latest developments on Capitol Hill. Manu?

MANU RAJU, CNN HOST: Yes. House Republican leaders, Jake, are confident that tomorrow they will get the votes to pass this bill through their chamber and ending this historically long and very painful government shut down despite having one of the most narrow majorities in decades. In fact, this majority of the Republicans have will get narrower tomorrow when Adelita Grijalva, the Democrat who won her Arizona special election more than a month ago, will finally get sworn into her seat. She had been -- her swearing in had been delayed by the speaker amid this shutdown standup.

But tomorrow afternoon, she will get her seat informally become a member of the House. That means that Johnson's majority even narrower. He will have -- can only afford to lose two Republican votes on any party line vote. And we expect this vote to be very, very close because Democrats are urging their members, they are whipping their members to vote against this plan because it does not include an extension of those Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at year's end.

Democrats have made that central to their fight that eventually led to the government shutdown, saying that this must be tied to a government funding bill because people are starting to see their premiums increase millions of people as open enrollment season begin. But Republicans said that they would not go along with that, Jake, and ultimately forcing a deal to be cut in the United States Senate for a separate healthcare vote to be taken in the United States Senate by mid-December.

But there are no guarantees that that healthcare vote will actually pass the Senate, much less the Republican in the House where Mike Johnson is not committing to put such a bill on the floor. So, expect a big push behind the scenes by the Democratic leaders to get all their members in line to vote against this bill tomorrow night.

However, there could be some defections on the Democratic side, particularly among some of the more moderate members, one of them to watch, Jared Golden of Maine, who is retiring, someone who voted for the last Republican bill to open the government. He was the only Democrat to do so. And then in the Republican side, there could be some defection as well, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, another congressman to watch, someone who often breaks on spending bills with Republicans.

So, this will come down to the wire, Jake, but still we expect with Donald Trump's support, the far right of the House Republican Conference will fall in line, much of the far right Republican conference will fall in line, and they believe that they can get this bill through the chamber onto the president's desk who plans to sign this into law and end this shutdown until the next fight, which will be January 30th when this bill would extend government funding for most federal agencies.

TAPPER: That's right. This doesn't fund the government very long. Manu Raju on Capitol Hill, thanks so much.

Let's go down to CNN's Kaitlan Collins live at the White House. Kaitlan, Trump predicted that the house will vote positively, that's his term, to open the government. What are White House sources telling you about this lingering issue, major issue for millions of Americans about healthcare affordability and these skyrocketing premiums?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, that's why this government shutdown ending is kind of a double- edged sword for the White House, because, yes, White House officials are relieved that it's coming to an end. They certainly never thought it would stretch on for this long. They only thought it would last about three to five days before those moderate Democrats ended up voting, as they did last night over in the Senate, for this funding bill for the government.

But now that this is coming to an end, obviously, this is still going to be a looming question for this White House now that this has the attention of a lot of voters in the United States and a lot of people whose premiums are going to expire at the end of next month, and what exactly the White House and the Republicans who are in the majority on Capitol Hill are going to do to address rising healthcare costs and what that's going to look like.

It has been an issue that has kind of been looming over the White House for the last several weeks, and it's something that the president has been increasingly asked about, Jake, including in an interview last night, where he hasn't done much to articulate what exactly his plan for healthcare could be going on going forward beyond what he said here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I want -- instead of going to the insurance companies, I want the money to go into an account for people where the people buy their own health insurance. It's so good. The insurance will be better.

[18:05:00]

It'll cost less. Everybody's going to be happy. They're going to feel like entrepreneurs. They're actually able to go out and negotiate their own health insurance, and they can use it only for that reason. That's the beauty, only for that purpose. And if we did that, that would be so exciting. Call it Trumpcare.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Now, Jake, here is the dynamic going forward for this White House, which is the White House has attacked these Obamacare subsidies, said that they do not believe they should be extended. The president himself has made that quite clear in the last week or so. But the question is how are they going to articulate what exactly their plan is going forward?

Beyond what the president said, they're skipping and bypassing insurance companies, providing money directly to the people. It's still a lot of questions over what that looks like, and it's obviously not a comprehensive healthcare plan, and that is something that has really, you know, been a factor of the Trump presidency since his first term in office, Jake, when he wanted to repeal Obamacare, but there was no real replacement there, which is why that did not happen.

And so that's still going to be a big question for the White House going forward and there's been a lot of Republicans saying that they are working on that behind the scenes so that they have policies and proposals, whether or not it's a comprehensive plan remains to be seen. And so we'll be watching that going forward, Jake.

And the other aspect of this government shutdown ending is the vote when it comes to that discharge petition that Manu mentioned there when Adelita Grijalva is sworn in, when she is going -- expected to be the 218th vote, what that means for this White House who obviously has not wanted to talk about the Jeffrey Epstein issue. And so that's a big question going forward after the government reopens and she has sworn in tomorrow.

TAPPER: All right. Kaitlan Collins at the White House, thank you so much.

The House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffrey, is speaking now. Let's listen in.

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): -- but they can no longer hide. The Rules Committee is going to meet shortly and then tomorrow there will be votes on the House floor. And Democrats will continue to press the case, to say to our Republican colleagues, you have another opportunity to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits and make sure that tens of millions of Americans all across the country and communities that Republicans --

TAPPER: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies does not actually sound like a robot. We're having some sort of an audio issue there.

Let's talk right now to Maryland Democratic Congressman Glenn Ivey. He's a member of the House Appropriations committee. Thanks so much for joining us. We really appreciate it, sir.

So, you called the Senate bill that passed last night with the help of eight Democrats, you called it cruel and reckless. You didn't directly blame the Senate Democrats. How do you plan to vote when this comes up, whether it's tomorrow or Thursday?

REP. GLENN IVEY (R-MD): Well, the cruel part for sure with respect to the failure to extend the healthcare tax credits, but also the SNAP issue and what the Trump administration was doing with that. But I'm a definite no on this bill. I think it was the wrong way to go. It's essentially the same vehicle they passed back in March, and they haven't improved it in any way. In fact, it's gotten worse because in the interim, they passed the big, ugly bill and that was the $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid among other terrible things for the American people.

TAPPER: I will say that this compromise does extend SNAP funds through 2026, right? And we know that there's -- we're going to have another shutdown drama in January in all likelihood because this funding bill, even if it passes, it only goes to the end of January. You represent almost 50,000 federal workers in your district in Maryland. Obviously, you're concerned about the SNAP benefits.

IVEY: Yes.

TAPPER: There must be -- I mean, is anybody, any of your constituents happy that at least the shutdown's coming to an end? IVEY: If they are, they're not calling me. The people that I ran into while this was going on, you know, sometimes standing in line to get at the food pantries to get food, we're saying to a person, stay strong. I've gotten contacted by people from other places you know, outside of my district. You know, a lot of them are like, you know, thank God, they worry about their air travel and God bless them. I don't want to keep anybody from getting to where they're trying to go for Thanksgiving. But, you know, there are larger forces that work here in some ways.

Certainly with respect to the extension of healthcare tax credits, you've got millions of Americans who could lose their healthcare coverage based on the failure to extend those tax credits. The SNAP issue was sick, frankly. You know, they had the billions of dollars to make the payments so that people could continue to eat. And they kept trying to drag their feet. We had to take them to court on multiple occasions, and I think they're still litigating it, frankly. So, it's kind of unfortunate that that's the way they're choosing to govern, but that's the way they're going about it and we've got to fight them.

TAPPER: So, you sound like a lot of progressive commentators that we've heard from Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, put his frustration with Democrats pretty succinctly on his show last night. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, HOST, THE DAILY SHOW: Democrats, you sold out the entire shutdown not to get what you wanted, but for a promise to not get what you wanted later.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[18:10:00]

TAPPER: So, Speaker Johnson, when I interviewed him yesterday, he would not commit to even having a vote on these Obamacare subsidies. Do you think that your hands as Democrats are just tied when it comes to the healthcare fight?

IVEY: Well, we're certainly concerned and, you know, Jon Stewart put his finger on it. We knew at the beginning that the speaker is studiously can continuously avoided saying anything about any kind of vote on the tax credit extension, maybe because he's worried about we might win, you know, an up or down vote on the floor, they might have defections in addition to Marjorie Taylor Greene.

And so, you know, I'm not sure exactly what he's going to try and do with this. The tax credit party's going to try and pass the bill and move it through quickly, but he's going to have to deal with the Epstein files. And I think there's some efforts on -- bipartisan efforts in small groups to try and figure out if there's a way to do a discharge petition with respect to the healthcare tax credit.

TAPPER: Well, that's what I was going to ask because you got 217 signatures on a discharge petition to force the Epstein files vote onto the floor. That's going to happen when Grijalva is sworn in.

IVEY: Right.

TAPPER: Don't you think that -- I mean, there are 13 House Republicans who wrote a letter to Speaker Johnson. These are frontline Republicans who like are in districts, you know, they're worried about getting reelected and I'm sure some of them are also very sincerely concerned about these healthcare premiums. They want a vote on this issue. A discharge petition, if you have all the Democrats and those 13 Republicans, then you can force a vote on the issue.

IVEY: Well, a lot of them are the same people that wrote a strong letter with respect to the vote on the Medicaid cuts too to the speaker, and they still voted for the bill. So, I appreciate the possibility that they may come around and actually do the right thing on this round of it, but we don't have any guarantee of that. But we'll see.

I think we have to keep fighting, as I said, with respect to extending the tax credits for the ACA. I think we have to try and fight the cuts to Medicaid overall. I think the Democrats need to move forward with an affordability agenda for America that addresses these kinds of things, but the same kind of issues that.

We saw in the gubernatorial races in Virginia, New Jersey, rising cost for electricity, cost of groceries, childcare and the like, rent, mortgage, all of those things. We want to try and push forward on all of those issues going forward. And I don't know that the Republicans are really ready to take all of that on.

TAPPER: Democrat from Maryland, Congressman Glenn Ivey, thank you so much, sir.

IVEY: Thank you.

TAPPER: I appreciate your being here.

We've got some breaking news. The U.S. Supreme Court has just issued an order in the SNAP case. Those details in moments. You were just talking about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:15:00]

TAPPER: We have breaking news in our Law and Justice Lead. The United States Supreme Court just issued a new order when it comes to SNAP benefits or food stamps.

Let's get right to CNN's Chief Supreme Court Analyst Joan Biskupic. Joan, what do we know?

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN CHIEF SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Good to see you, Jake. The Supreme Court's order just now essentially postpones the effect of lower court's decisions that said the Trump administration was required to restart the SNAP benefits. This is the nutritional supplements for what had been known as food stamps for some 40 million Americans nationwide.

The court originally had had an order that would've allowed the SNAP benefits to continue as of about midnight tonight. And because of what's going on the Hill, I'm sure that's the reason, even though they didn't give a justification, they've now extended their order pausing the lower court decision that says the SNAP benefits have to come out. They've paused that until Thursday night, which obviously will allow for House consideration of this new bill for tomorrow, on Wednesday, that would possibly restart the government.

I think the Supreme Court hopes that its involvement, the involvement of the federal judiciary in this issue is soon going to be moot. But it does mean in reality that the possibility that the SNAP benefits would have picked up tonight, as the court had originally signaled, just isn't going to happen. And it's going to be either when the Congress reopens the government and allows these benefits to start flowing out, or Thursday night when the court's order kicks in.

TAPPER: Joan, was the vote unanimous?

BISKUPIC: No. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, our most liberal member of the court, she dissented. She wanted those benefits to flow immediately. She had originally handled this case. She's what we call the circuit justice from the region that this had origin in Rhode Island. And her original order, it was her order that said that the postponement of the lower court judge's prder that these benefits had to be -- start being distributed, that that should happen tonight. And she voted against any kind of postponement, but her voice was a lone one, Jake.

TAPPER: Joan Biskupic, thanks so much.

My next guest says he lost a leadership role in the Kansas State legislature because he simply opposed President Trump's push to redraw Congressional maps in his state, which would've made it easier for Republicans to keep control of Congress next year.

Stick with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:20:00]

TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, at President Trump's urging, Republicans have launched an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting effort as a way to keep the party's narrow majority in the house in the 2026 midterms next year, prompting Democrats to do the same. So far, Republicans have enacted new Congressional maps in four states, Democrats in two. At least seven other states are in discussion to do so. But some Republicans in Kansas are resisting the push by the White House to join the effort, and according to The New York Times, they're getting punished for it.

Kansas State Representative Clarke Sanders is one of those pushing back. He told The New York Times that he got a call on Friday from Kansas Speaker Daniel Hawkins and, quote, he was told that he was being removed from his role as vice chairman of the Higher Education Budget Committee because he had not agreed to the special session of the legislature to redistrict.

Kansas State Representative Clarke Sanders joins us now. Representative, why did you not agree to a special session?

STATE REP. CLARKE SANDERS (R-KS): Well, several reasons top of the list. I just didn't think it was the right thing to do. Secondly, you know, if we get too cute with this, we have four Congressional districts in Kansas.

[18:25:00]

Number two district is, by no means, a lock for us and a new map we might end up instead of having three Republican districts, so wind up with two because we could potentially lose number two.

But the biggest thing is I think we can win in the district we have as the way it is now, if we get the right candidate. We don't have a candidate. That needs to be our focus, in my opinion.

TAPPER: The Times reports that you got a call from the White House. Is that true? Who was it? What did they say?

SANDERS: Yes. So, I don't remember the gentleman's name, but we had been told that if we didn't sign the petition to agree to a special session, that to be expecting a call from the White House, and indeed a gentleman called me, we talked for about 30 minutes. It was a very cordial conversation. I explained to him my reasons for not wanting to sign. And, you know, he was friendly and he didn't threaten me in any way, shape or form, but he was really encouraging me to go ahead and sign, which I never did.

TAPPER: The New York Times reports, quote, at least six committee chairs and vice chairs were removed from their posts on Friday, and other committee assignments were also reshuffled, unquote. Have you talked to other Republicans who have been removed from their posts? What are they telling you? Was it all the same story? They didn't want to redistrict in the middle of the decade and they got punished?

SANDERS: Well, I'm sure everyone who didn't sign on has their reasons. You know, I would dare say that not wanting to redistrict in the middle of the decade is a big part of it. We just redistrict three years ago, back in 2022. So, everybody had their reasons, but I know the reason that everybody who was removed as either a chair or a vice chair was removed because they didn't sign the petition.

TAPPER: Does this make you mad? I mean, you're just standing up for what you think is right and you're being punished by your party for it.

SANDERS: So, I don't know that I'm being punished by my party, per se. I'm being punished by the speaker. And, you know, it was an amiable conversation we had. I'm not particularly mad at him. I knew that not signing came with a risk and I was just doing what I thought was the right thing to do and he was also doing what he thought was the right thing to do. He thought that he should have loyalty from those of us in leadership positions, and when he didn't get it, he removed us.

TAPPER: Kansas State Representative Clarke Sanders, thank you so much for your time, sir. I appreciate it.

SANDERS: Thank you, Jake.

TAPPER: If the government shutdown does end tomorrow, how long will it take for airports across the country to get back to normal? Could we still see massive cancelations during Thanksgiving week? Hear what Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had to say about it this afternoon, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:00]

TAPPER: In our National Lead, the government shutdown may soon end, but experts warn the air travel chaos is likely to continue, adding the window for everything to recover before Thanksgiving is rather narrow. Today, flight cuts at 40 of the busiest airports increased from 4 percent of flights being canceled to 6 percent of flights being canceled, resulting in more than 800 preemptive canceled flights. The flight cuts will keep increasing until a shutdown deal is finalized, we're told.

CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean is that Reagan National Airport, just outside D.C. Pete, how much worse is this expected to get before the shutdown ends?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy just spoke to this at Chicago O'Hare and he says that controllers are feeling more hopeful now with the end of this government shutdown in sight, probably one of the reasons why the number of staffing shortages listed at air traffic control facilities across the country today was comparatively low. We saw about 40 Nationwide yesterday. That number went down to only five today, notably, including the Air Traffic Control Tower here at Reagan National Airport.

The number of cancelations have also been on the good trend, a downward trend. 2,900 was the number we saw on Sunday. That was the highest we have seen during this government shutdown, went down to about 2,500 yesterday due in part to air traffic control, staffing shortages and bad weather at some big hubs.

Today, the number has been less than half, that it's been hovering around 1,200 all day. 70 percent of that number, though, are the preemptive cancelations that airlines already made to comply with this Trump administration mandate for them to cut flights to siphon off some of the stress on the National Airspace System and air traffic controllers who continue to work unpaid during this government shutdown. The number -- the mandate went to 6 percent. Today, it goes to 8 percent on Thursday, 10 percent on Friday.

And, interestingly, Duffy said that he will be the one to decide when to end this mandated cut to airline schedules, and it won't be the end of the government shutdown, even though the end is now in sight. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: What we see with our air traffic controllers, a good day today, if the House doesn't pass this bill, I think you're going to look at Saturday, Sunday, and Monday as tiddlywinks. It was beautiful. It's going to get much worse than that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: So, a pretty big warning there from Secretary Duffy.

Naturally, a lot of air traffic controllers I'm talking to are riled by this on Truth Social by President Trump yesterday, in which he said that air traffic controllers will get a $10,000 bonus if they showed up during the entirety of this government shutdown, but he also invited them to quit if they have not shown up during this government shutdown.

[18:35:08]

Duffy says he's still considering taking action against controllers. They will get 70 percent of back pay within 48 hours of the end of this government shutdown. Jake?

TAPPER: All right. Pete Muntean at Reagan National Airport, thanks.

Let's bring in Nick Daniels. He's president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. So, first of all, what was your response to the Truth Social post by President Trump yesterday, in which he was really going at air traffic controllers that didn't show up to work, which you and I have already talked about previously many times? A lot of them didn't show up to work because they were, you know, driving Ubers or doing Lyft or Uber Eats or whatever, just to put food on the table for their families.

NICK DANIELS, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION: Well, I appreciate you first of all having me back. One of the things that every air traffic controller in the country has is a level of pride for this job, for our profession and what we do, and we show up, we do show up at every crisis, at every call. In the actions of a few individuals, if the agency or secretary has concerned with them, they are not indicative of this workforce that has suffered and gone through 9/11, clearing an entire airspace. They showed up during the pandemic. When the entire world stayed home, we still moved vaccines and people through the entire national airspace system. The two longest shutdowns in history, these controller workforce has done it and has done it with less staffing.

So, every single time that this country calls on us, we're there. We continue to show up and we know the pride that they take in their job, the responsibility that they shoulder day in and day out, and they need -- they absolutely need to be recognized for it.

Transportation Secretary Duffy said he is considering possibly firing some air traffic controllers who consistently called out of work during the shutdown. He said he is concerned about their dedication and their patriotism.

DANIELS: Yes, there's processes and procedures if there are concerns of those individuals. But, again, those few individuals are not indicative in any way of those men and women that they represent. They are the American patriots. As Secretary Duffy has said many times over, seeing what they've endured, what they've gone through, the mental stress, the fatigue, I mean, we said for 42 days that problems and issues are going to grow every day that this shutdown continues, and they did. And that's exactly where we stand today.

TAPPER: If the shutdown ends tomorrow, if the house votes tomorrow to pass that bill, and then President Trump signs it immediately, how soon could things get back to normal, do you think?

DANIELS: Well, one of the things that I think is important to understand is this isn't a light switch. You don't flip the light switch back on and we reverse 42 days of all the damage that this shutdown has caused. You want to know the way to not have this happen again is don't shut down the government and use air traffic controllers as a political pawn. But we know that we're going to have to pick up the pieces that we're going to ensure the safe movement of the flying public, all the cargo that we want at its destination and on time, day in and day out. And we are going to have to work through it with this administration to make that a reality.

TAPPER: You heard Pete Muntean report that Duffy said he thinks controllers could get 70 percent of their back pay within 48 hours of the government reopening it. Will that be enough?

DANIELS: That will be a dramatic change from what we saw in the 2019 shutdown. It took care of traffic controllers almost two and a half months to get back and made whole from the shutdown that they endured at that time. So, if we're talking 70 percent of their pay, it can't come fast enough and we absolutely welcome the money being in their pockets so they can not only pay off all their debt, clear all their credit cards before the interest starts hitting them, and they have to deal with that aspect as well.

TAPPER: All right. Nick Daniels, thank you so much. I really appreciate your time today.

Hear what President Trump said when he was pushed by someone from his favorite channel on voters' concerns about the cost of living. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:00]

TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, President Trump is sticking by his claim that the economy is thriving and prices are down. This, however, is not the reality facing anyone who goes to the grocery store. President Trump was pushed over this division in terms of his perception and the American people's reality on, of all places, his favorite network.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: And why are people saying they're anxious about the economy? Why are they saying that?

TRUMP: I don't know that they are saying that. I think the polls are fake. We have the greatest economy we've ever had.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Xochitl Hinojosa and Joe Moreno joins me now. And I should mention on this Veteran's Day that Joe is a veteran, and there's a picture of you and your veteran wife in Iraq in 2004. Thank you to both of you for your service.

JOE MORENO, FORMER REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Thanks, Jake. And my wife actually is the true hero. I was trying cases back in Kuwait most of the time. She was driving trucks in Iraq, so she's the real American hero here.

TAPPER: Well, salute to both of you and thank you so much for what you've done for us.

Let's turn to a less pleasant conversation, which is that President Trump does not seem to accept the reality that a lot of grocery prices are still going up, to the point that even Fox people are now pushing back on him.

MORENO: Well, for good on Fox. Yes, right? Sure. I mean, like, you know, once in a while it's good to have, you know, an enemy territory and actually being called out. That's great. Look, he's a politician. He is not going to admit anything that, you know, all of us might actually feel.

But if I had to say there's one thing that Americans will punish an incumbent on, it's prices, it's inflation. We had 20 years where we got away with no inflation. Now we have it. People feel it. They punished Biden or Harris over it, and they're going to punish Trump over it if, in fact, things aren't better, starting with the midterms next year.

TAPPER: And one of the things, it's interesting, is how much President Trump sounds like Joe Biden on this, and I know that a lot of people from the Obama White House looked at how the Biden people handled the cost of living issue, which was, it's kind of crazy to think about it now, but in the summer of 2023, he Bidenomics and he stopped doing the monthly press conferences on the jobs reports and the price reports and such. And the Biden people were like no. When we ran for reelection in 2012, we said, there's still work to be done. There's still work to be done. We're going in the right direction. There's still work to be done. Why -- I mean, why wouldn't President Trump just take that very basic, obvious message?

[18:45:04]

XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, there are two things that are happening with Trump. Trump does this thing where he says a lie or something that's not accurate so many times, hoping that everybody will believe it. But now, the network that most favors him is actually calling him out, which I find interesting.

At the same time, he understands that price is an issue because he's going off and he is Truth Socialing the fact that he wants to give people $2,000 in revenue from the tariffs, right? Which is not necessarily possible, but at the same time, he gets that the American people need some sort of relief. And I think he is trying to figure out, how do I do this with my agenda?

He knows it is not popular. So, I think there are two things happening with Trump. He understands the politics of the midterm elections and what's coming, and it's all going to be about prices. But yet he feels like if he repeats it, you know, over and over and over that someone will believe him, that, you know, the economy is doing well.

TAPPER: And as you noted, it's not Trump who, as far as I know, is never going to run for anything ever again. It's lawmakers in 2026 who are going to face the wrath of this.

Take a listen to this. This is Congresswoman Meeks of Iowa, facing some angry constituents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BOOS)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Liar, liar! Pants on fire!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: "Liar, liar, pants on fire" was being said to Congresswoman Miller-Meeks. People started to walk out.

How concerned are you as a Republican about how this is going to be used -- these prices, how Republicans are going to be held responsible for them?

MORENO: Well, of course, they will. First of all, putting aside the possibility that those were trolls and that was a setup, but let's say -- let's say those were good faith constituents that were really upset at what they were hearing from their elected official. Of course it is.

And I think to your point, it much, much smarter than simply looking taxpayers in the eye and telling them what you see is not what you should believe. Don't believe your eyes.

Get down. Be honest with them. Say, look, the president can't flip a switch. You can't change things overnight. It's a long battle. But I understand your pain and I'm working on it.

I think you've got a lot more traction with voters than basically trying to tell them that the prices they're paying are not actual reality.

TAPPER: Some of the some of the prices, not all of them, but some of the prices that they're paying -- bananas, coffee -- HINOJOSA: That's right.

TAPPER: -- wine is because of tariffs.

HINOJOSA: It is because of tariffs. And, you know, Republicans said a few months ago, they warned members don't go out and do town halls because they're worried about things like this.

I remember when I worked on the Hill, the safest thing to do is do a tele-town hall because you can somewhat control the questions and you don't necessarily have to face potential protesters or other people who are angry about it.

But I do think that members of Congress, while Trump, is not going to run, members of Congress need to have sort of a come to Jesus with the White House to be like, what can we pass? They control everything. What can we do in the next year to show people that we are doing something about costs and your tariff agenda? While this is like Trump's bread and butter and he loves it, he absolutely -- he's been obsessed with tariffs, is not working for the American people.

TAPPER: You have this Obamacare subsidies issue that's not going away. Democrats obviously in the Senate are going to get a vote on it. They're not going to get it attached to the government spending bill. And but this is going to be what Democrats talk about from now until next November.

Democratic Senator Patty Murray, she's a member of the Democratic leadership. She did not vote for this compromise. She said Donald Trump sent more money to bail out Argentina than it would have cost to extend the ACA, the Obamacare tax credits, for just one year. I don't plan to let anyone forget it.

This is going to be -- what -- I mean, first of all, let me. Kudos to Murray. Just as a politician going after Trump, so many Democrats are attacking each other right now. And I just think, boy, you guys are stupid.

But beyond that, like, this is going to be a big issue.

MORENO: Of course, it is. Look, it affects 44 million people all in. It's 12, 13 percent of the population. It's a real issue for those taxpayers. Absolutely. And it's not going to go away.

Now, Democrats shouldn't have held the entire government hostage as a result. But its not going to go away. They're going to have to deal with it. I wish they had dealt with it in the proper order of things, but, you know, it will come up in January. It's not going to go away.

TAPPER: Thanks, both of you. Appreciate it. And happy Veterans Day again to you and especially your wife.

On this Veterans Day, I can't wait for you to learn more about a friend of mine who's a veteran. He's a true American hero, Ross Berkoff. I told his story in part in my book, "The Outpost", which came out in 2012. Ross now has his own memoir of war and service. That's next.

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[18:53:28]

TAPPER: In our national lead, while writing "The Outpost", a book that came out in 2012 about Americas efforts during the war in Afghanistan, a young intelligence officer named Ross Berkoff with the 371 Cavalry reached out to me, and Berkoff wanted to make sure that my book, which at that point was only about the battle in 2009, he wanted to make sure it didn't just tell the story of that one battle. He wanted me to tell the story of what the U.S. was trying to accomplish in Afghanistan, and the origin of Combat Outpost Keating, and he wanted me to tell the stories of his fellow servicemen and women who fell while he was there in 2006, 2007.

Ross Berkoff has a brand-new memoir out. It's called "Beyond the Outpost: An Army Cavalry Officer's War Diary on the Frontlines of Afghanistan".

And in it, Ross Berkoff offers a gripping firsthand account of what it was like to be as an officer in America's longest war, and Ross Berkoff joins me now.

Thank you so much. The book is fantastic, "Beyond the Outpost". Or can I hold it up. There, it is "Beyond the Outpost". Look at that.

ROSS A. BERKOFF, AUTHOR, "BEYOND THE OUTPOST": Hold it up.

TAPPER: The imagery is beautiful. What is that picture?

BERKOFF: Humbled to be here.

That is a painting from Lady Butler of the British withdrawal, retreat from Kabul in 1842. I love the watercolors, and it's set in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, a place that I know well. And this British surgeon, weary from this retreat, is returning to his outpost. And I dubbed in the chinook for effect.

[18:55:00]

TAPPER: That's pretty incredible. And it does illustrate kind of this Afghanistan, a place where empires go to die, or at least to not succeed. So, you take us to the front lines. You tell the story of veterans who served in Afghanistan. This is not a normal thing for a veteran to do, to write a book. I mean, everybody probably has one in them. But you actually sat down and did it. Why was it important for you to write this?

BERKOFF: So this book really came about through a collision of tragedies in my life, one very personal and one international. About five years ago, I lost my stepdad, Bill Jack, who was my stepdad since I was 11, to a very aggressive cancer that he contracted while inhaling some of the toxic dust and fumes at Ground Zero 20 years earlier. We didn't know at the time, but he spent his nights sleeping on his Weehawken, New Jersey office couch, so that by the day, he could help the city clean up the mess. And he lost his battle very, very quickly to cancer in 2020.

And then a few months after that, I started watching on the news, along with a lot of veterans of the Afghanistan War, the security situation quickly, rapidly, deteriorating in Afghanistan.

TAPPER: Yeah.

BERKOFF: The withdrawal of our forces, the terrible attack at the Abbey Gate and then the Taliban's quick retake of power. You know, I was an intelligence officer, like you said, and the Taliban, to me, was known as shadow governments. And all of a sudden, they're out in the open.

TAPPER: Yeah.

BERKOFF: They're real.

TAPPER: Yeah.

BERKOFF: They're holding international press conferences. And this was hard for me and for a lot of veterans that I connected with. The withdrawal, really, it hit us in an unexpected way.

So, we, you know, I think watching it unfold over the news, it was a little bit like watching part of our lives unraveling. It opened up some old wounds and a lot of veterans in my community -- we started asking ourselves, well, what was it all for? What did we just go through all of the time and blood and resources and money and battles and lives lost. What does it mean?

TAPPER: So, this book was an attempt to answer that question. Is that right?

BERKOFF: It was. It was, you know, when -- after I kind of grappled with all of this, I went to my notebooks. So, over the course of 25 months in Afghanistan, I chronicled everything that happened to me. Every convoy operation, every tragic rollover of a vehicle, every helicopter crash, every Taliban prisoner that I encountered or corrupt warlord, every soldier, comrade that I lost, a friend. And I lost nine of them during my second tour.

So, I took these stories. I dusted them off and compiled them together with some modern day perspective, some hindsight, and it's now a book.

TAPPER: Yeah. And it's very lovely.

Your daughter Eliana. She participated in a Veterans Day essay contest where she wrote about a veteran from Virginia that inspires her. She goes to school in Virginia, and she chose you as the veteran who inspires her. That must have felt pretty cool.

BERKOFF: Oh, yeah. You know, the prescribed essay was name a veteran from Virginia, and she first thinks of George Washington, dad?

TAPPER: Sure.

BERKOFF: And I said, well, yeah, I was honored that she chose her old man and that she wanted to read "Beyond the Outpost" and learn about my story. And then we just got word from the governor's office that her essay was selected, and she's been invited to come down for the ceremony.

TAPPER: That's fantastic. Well, the book is "Beyond the Outpost: An Army Cavalry Officer's War Diary on the Frontlines of Afghanistan, 2003 to 2007". It is really well written, very compellingly told. And I hope everybody out there goes and checks it out.

Ross, so good to see you again. Thank you so much.

BERKOFF: Thank you, Jake.

TAPPER: Also on this Veterans Day, former President Barack Obama is sharing this video.

He surprised Korean War veterans and Vietnam War veterans on an honor flight to D.C. last weekend. You can see the expressions of shock and delight on some of their faces as he greeted veterans and their families on their way to D.C.

In just moments, an auction near and dear to my heart will open on eBay. It is the Ninth Annual Homes for Our Troops celebrity eBay auction that I'm hosting with George Clooney and Winona Judge. All of the proceeds go to help build specially adapted custom homes, mortgage free for wounded veterans, severely wounded veterans and their families.

Just a few of the items you can bid on this year. An exclusive set visit to season three for the show "Severance", and a meet and greet with director Ben Stiller. You get two tickets to jellyroll sold out New Year's Eve concert in Vegas, or a monogrammed and signed Louis Vuitton purse signed by Jennifer Aniston.

Zoom calls with some of your favorite CNN anchors, or Jon Stewart, and so much more. The auction is open through November 21st. In just a few seconds, you can go to the eBay homepage. It's ebay.com/hfot. That's Homes For Our Troops, HFOT.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts now.