Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

FAA Imposes Grand Delay at Newark; Divisions Over Budget Proposal; Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Meet. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired May 06, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And carefully put the red coagulated blood with the snow in the red Solo cups to then take it eventually to the evidence locker.

Defense, on cross-examination, what kind of a crime scene investigation is this? You're using leaf blowers and red Solo cups. The response is, I was in the middle of a blizzard and I had to do something. I had to collect it.

So, you know, the jury is supposed to use their common sense. They will look at this. Is this the beginning of a really shoddy investigation, or did he do what he had to do at that moment?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, the defense will say it's not exactly textbook crime scene procedure.

Jean Casarez, thank you very much for that.

A brand new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening right now, a new ground delay for flights heading to Newark Airport. Delays and cancellations rising there for the ninth straight day. As we learn of the terrifying moments air traffic controllers at the airport lost communication with planes in the air.

And later this morning, after rebuking President Trump's rhetoric helped him become Canada's prime minister, Mark Carney meets face to face with Trump at the White House as tensions over tariffs threaten to boil over.

And, at any moment, the second day of jury selection for the federal criminal trial of Sean Combs will begin. We are live outside court.

I'm Sara Sidner, with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And the breaking news this morning, an update from the FAA, now putting in place a new ground delay at Newark Airport. And with that, we're also getting some new details in about the scary communication breakdown that set off what is now nine straight days of disruptions at one of the busiest airports in the country. Already today, dozens of flights have been canceled or delayed at Newark. Major airlines like Delta, American, Spirit, all feeling the impact right now. And the FAA says those delays now average more than two and a half hours.

So, all of this comes as this new audio has been obtained by CNN, giving us a glimpse into the moments air traffic control lost communication and radar with planes in the air, leaving them essentially flying blind. The incident on April 28th was so traumatic that sources tell CNN at least five FAA employees have now taken special leave to recover from the stress of it.

Here's some of that audio where the tower tells one plane that radar is down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

APPROACH AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: No, you do not have a bravo clearance. We lost our radar and it's not working correctly. Radar service terminates. Squawk VFR change approved. If you want a bravo clearance, you can just call the tower when you get closer.

PILOT: OK, I'll wait for that frequency from you, OK?

APPROACH AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: OK, no, just, squawk VFR, look up the tower frequencies, and we don't have a radar, so I don't know where you are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNN's Brynn Gingras at Newark Airport this morning with much more on this.

What's it looking like right now, Brynn?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, you know, you talk about what happened to these air traffic controllers. Now they have to take leave. Well, as we are going to day nine of these delays at Newark Airport, people who are traveling through this airport are starting to learn exactly what is going on. And it's not easing any concerns. And, of course, the frustration.

You guys said the FAA has put in a ground delay here at Newark. That means flights coming into this airport are staying on the ground as they try to manage all of the air traffic and all of these issues.

Let's take a look at the boards that were here. These are departures, not flights coming in, of course. Flights leaving from Newark Airport. But you can see the delays are already starting to line up. There are a few that have gotten out, but I can tell you, we were here for a lot of the day yesterday and it just gets worse and worse.

If you actually look at the - online, it says right now there are 104 delays with Newark Airport and 91 cancellations. That number has ticked up since I last checked, really just about 30 minutes ago. So, the situation is certainly not getting better as the day goes on. It's only getting worse.

And you guys mentioned the air traffic controllers. Those five employees, at least, according to our sources, that had to take leave. Well, there's just a shortage all across the country that is affecting not only Newark Airport, but, of course, other airports as well.

But here at Newark, there's also a runway that's down for renovation. Right now it is actually foggy outside, so that's also causing delays. So, it's really a compound of issues.

Again, not making travelers feel any better about it. We talked to a lot of people yesterday who were just so beyond frustrated. I think someone walked by us and said, I could kill somebody. I mean there is just - everyone is on edge right now.

We did see a few people sleeping here, trying to figure out what their plans are because sometimes their flight gets canceled, and you guys probably know the story, you probably have experienced it yourself, and they don't get another flight for a few days out and they've got to switch airlines and they've got to tell work, and it just compounds their issues.

[09:05:04]

So, no relief in sight quite yet. Of course, there are a number of issues that need to be resolved in order to get these delays down, but it doesn't look like that's happening anytime soon, guys, unfortunately.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Exactly.

Brynn, thank you so much for being there. We're going to watch those - kind of this cascading effect probably set in again today.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, joining me now is CNN transportation analyst and former inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Mary Schiavo.

Thank you so much for being here.

First and foremost, to those folks who are the flying public, including myself, do you recommend right now, don't fly in and out of Newark?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Yes, absolutely. And, you know, it's not just this - this terrifying loss of communications and air traffic control on the 28th, but there are many things going on at Newark, not to mention the least of which is construction. Whenever there is construction at an airport, including a major runway is closed, the FAA air traffic control often slows down traffic so they can handle the traffic because construction causes confusion among pilots, confusion among controllers. So, you not only have these terrifying communication failures - and, by the way, there's another facility involved in that - you also have construction. You have this shortage.

Newark - Newark is supposed to have 30 - according to the FAA - 37 controllers. They're at 33. But the facility involved in this was Philadelphia. So, they moved the control of New York - New York. It's called a TRACON, Terminal Radar Approach Control, who funnels the traffic into your airport? Well, in this case it was Philly. And so, they also have a problem. And they are the ones that actually lost communications. And that affects Newark. It affects Teterboro. It affects Morristown, Essex County.

So absolutely, yes, avoid Newark and the slowdown. And the cancellations are actually meant to save lives. So, if the FAA can't keep the planes apart, you don't know where they are, they have to cancel them. And that will be safer for you, the traveling public.

SIDNER: Yes, we - I think you'd rather be delayed or canceled than something much, much worse.

I do want to get into this loss of communication because you talk about this. This actually happened at the Philadelphia control.

SCHIAVO: Right.

SIDNER: They didn't have radar. And you hear them saying, I don't know where the planes are. How dangerous is it at that moment with all of that going down, not only the first bit of radar, but the backup also didn't work?

SCHIAVO: Right. Total lack of communications, radar, communications. And that's very important now because airplanes are literally flying computers. That's what - that's what we fly. That's how we fly. And so, what you're doing is, by law, if you're a commercial airliner carrying passengers, you have to be under air traffic control until you're given visual clearance to land.

And so, what that means is, basically you're a UFO. And the only thing you have is the onboard collision avoidance system. But that requires all aircraft in the airspace to be squawking or - or putting out a radio signal that allows them to see and be seen. And then that also means if something happens, the pilots have to take evasive action. So, they're going off their assigned altitude or heading.

And so, what this means is total chaos. This - even the systems we have without air traffic control do not work when you don't have communications. And then they put in this - this private plane that was flying in the system who was expecting air traffic control and all of a sudden gets told, you're VFR, which is Visual Flight Rules, and that is old fly by the seat of your pants flying, meaning you just see in, avoid. I see you. I'm going to fly around you. That messes up air traffic control even worse.

So, it's a very bad situation because we're now flying in the 21st century. Even in - in my family's little plane, a little twin engine Cessna, we have the glass cockpit. You can't fly without communications. It's impossible. SIDNER: Well, Mary Schiavo, thank you for breaking that all down. And

also, thank you for getting the red memo today. We are both dressed in all red, a lot.

That is the only good news of this report.

John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, key members of President Trump's cabinet headed to Capitol Hill, taking questions from lawmakers as the administration's new budget proposals sparked division, even among some Republicans. Overall, the president wants to slash $1.7 trillion from the discretionary budget.

Let's get right to CNN's Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill.

What do we expect?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we expect that Democrats are going to have really tough questions for some of these cabinet secretaries because it's the first opportunity that they will have to really push them on why there are some unilateral freezes on programs that Congress already appropriated money for. So, it's not just about talking about the president's cuts that he wants to make on the domestic spending side, but it's also about questioning the secretaries about why exactly there have been freezes on programs that Congress wanted to fund.

[09:10:08]

That is something that has united both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill as both parties have been really frustrated with some of those actions.

We also expect today that this is going to be an opportunity really to push Trump's secretaries on a series of other policy issues. Kristi Noem, who's the secretary of homeland security, she's going to face tough questions from Democrats, especially about the president's immigration policies. Also, she has going to - she's going to face some tough questions on slashes to FEMA funding, given the fact that we expect that that disaster aid could run out of funds by the end of the summer. So, those are just a couple of areas.

Meanwhile, Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, is also expected to testify on Capitol Hill today. Expect that Democrats are going to have a lot of questions for him about when he expects the country to reach its debt ceiling later this summer. There's been a lot of speculation that the Treasury Department is going to put out guidance on when they expect, after tax receipts, the country to hit that so-called x date. That's going to be something that Democrats are going to be pushing them on again, because Republicans are hoping to move forward with the debt ceiling on their own. But if they can't get unification around that mega bill that they're trying to push through the House right now, which is giving them a little bit of heartburn, then perhaps they might need some Democratic support.

John.

BERMAN: Yes, shaping up to be an interesting summer, shall we say.

All right, Laura Fox on Capitol Hill, thank you very much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, coming up for us, a White House meeting that would, in any other era, be kind of non-news. Now, hugely front and center, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is scheduled to meet face to face with President Trump today for what could be tense talks on tariffs and if Canada wants to be America's 51st state.

And breaking news, we are learning that Israeli attacks are underway in Yemen's capital city. Dozens of explosions reported. We have the very latest coming in. That's next.

And a scary moment in Los Angeles after a car crashed through the gate of Jennifer Aniston's home while she was inside. What we're learning this morning about that suspect.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:16;52]

SIDNER: We have breaking news for you now. Houthi-run TV reporting that Israeli attacks on Yemen's capital of Sanaa have begun. The Israeli military had issued an unprecedented evacuation warning earlier for the airport.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Jerusalem for us.

What have you learned, Jeremy?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, the Israeli military now confirming that it carried out a series of airstrikes in Sanaa, including at Sanaa's international airport in Yemen. The Israeli military now saying in a statement that those strikes have, quote, "fully disabled the airport." We have not yet independently confirmed that, but we have seen images from inside of Yemen, of a large plume of smoke emerging from the area of that international airport.

The Israeli military insisting that the Houthis were using that airport and that they had, quote, "terrorist infrastructure" at that airport, which is what the Israeli military targeted. These are the second round of strikes within the last 24 hours, all in retaliation for that Houthi ballistic missile attack on Israel on Sunday, which struck right alongside Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport.

The overwhelming majority of Houthi missile attacks against Israel have been intercepted by Israel's air defense arrays, but not this one on Sunday, as air defense systems failed to intercept it. Luckily, it did not strike the airport itself, which could have been a very, very deadly incident. But it did provoke quite a strong reaction in Israel, which is why we are seeing the Israeli military carrying out some of the most significant strikes in Yemen that we have seen from them to date.

The question now is whether Israel will continue to carry out these strikes. That much remains unclear. Also unclear whether Israel will target the Iranian regime directly, as well as Israeli officials have blamed Iran for sponsoring the Houthis, holding them directly responsible for these ongoing Houthi attacks.

Sara.

SIDNER: Jeremy Diamond, with the very latest. Israel saying it has struck Sanaa and the airport there. Thank you so much, live for us from Jerusalem.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: In about an hour from now, President Trump is expected to be welcoming Canada's new prime minister, Mark Carney, to the White House for their first ever sit down meeting. The face to face coming amid serious tension between the two leaders and the two countries over Donald Trump's tariffs. Canada was one of his first targets. The president set a 25 percent tariff on many Canadian imports, including cars, steel and aluminum. Canada has responded with tariffs of its own. As for what this meeting is about, here is the president's take.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESET: I don't know. He's coming to see me. I'm not sure what he wants to see me about, but I guess he wants to make a deal. Everybody does. They all want to make a deal because we have something that they all want.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Some - I was thinking, like, NFL football, because Roger Goodell is standing right by him.

Joining us right now is CNN senior political commentator Ana Navarro and Republican strategist Doug Heye.

Ana, what is the best case scenario you think coming out of this meeting?

[09:20:04]

ANA NAVARRO, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, God, best case scenario? That maybe Donald Trump stopped calling Canada the 51st state and goading Canadians, antagonizing them needlessly, trolling them.

Look, the reality of the matter is that as much as there may be no love lost between these two, Canada is our neighbor, is our ally, is our trading partner, has been with us every time we've gone into some sort of war and sort of - or of incursion somewhere.

We can't have this, you know, impasse, this fight going on with Canada. It is ridiculous. And let me just tell you a little story. Last week I ran into a couple

I know. She's French Canadian. He's French. They were planning a big wedding in Florida. They're no longer getting married in Florida because their relatives and friends don't want to travel to Florida. So that's money lost for the florist and the caterer and the venue and the parkers and the airlines and the airport workers and the drivers all in Florida. And it's happening in Maine. It's happening in so many states that are feeling the pain of Canadians not wanting to come to the United States.

BOLDUAN: The dynamic between these two leaders specifically is going to be an interesting one because the - Mark Carney, I mean he - I'll play it, but just the lead-up is, Mark Carney, when he won, his victory night speech, he had - he went directly at Donald Trump, had harsh criticism for him, was not holding back at all.

Let me play this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK CARNEY, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us. That will never - that will never, ever happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Compare that just to one example, because we've seen this over and over again, of how many world leaders go to great lengths, some maybe falling over themselves, to compliment Donald Trump when he's sitting there just because it works they've seen.

I was thinking back to when the - when Keir Starmer was in the Oval Office.

Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEIR STARMER, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: This is really special. This has never happened before. This is unprecedented. And I think that just symbolizes the strength of the relationship between us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: You never know what's going to happen. Maybe Mark Carney acts like that in the Oval Office this time, but I just don't think it's setting up to be that kind of dynamic.

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: No, and it's too soon, right? We often joke, oh, too soon, we can't go there. This is something that just happened. And so for Carney to make that kind of a change, it would just be too abrupt.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

HEYE: And his own voters would say, this isn't what we voted for. As a lot of people are saying about Donald Trump quite often now.

I expect he's going to be firm and resolute. But it's also - the speech that we saw him make was the last of the campaign speech. He's now in a governance mode, and he knows that. So, he's going to be strong, he's going to be firm, but he's not going to antagonize or poke the bear very, very strongly with Trump. Now, Trump may try and poke him, in which case we've seen what happened with - with Zelenskyy. That possibility is still there.

BOLDUAN: Yes, I mean -

NAVARRO: Yes, I guess best case scenario is that he doesn't get thrown out of the White House, like Zelenskyy did. But, you know, when -

BOLDUAN: Bar low.

NAVARRO: That video you just showed of the U.K. prime minister -

BOLDUAN: Yes.

NAVARRO: I guess the meaning of success, some say, is when you can fake sincerity. I'm not sure he was that successful in faking sincerity there. And what he was doing, and I think is - is visible to, you know, the naked eye, is playing Donald Trump. Because remember, that was in the context of trying to get him to be nice to Zelenskyy, to play ball with Zelenskyy.

And so, yes, how do you - how do you get to Donald Trump? How do you make a deal with Donald Trump? You stroke his ego, whether you mean it or not, because that's the only thing that matters to him.

HEYE: The Niagara Falls accords are going to be amazing if this is what comes from this.

BOLDUAN: Will be absolutely amazing. I want that assignment.

OK, there's another thing that - some news that came out yesterday was that Georgia's governor, Brian Kemp, very popular governor, he has announced that he's passing on a bid for Senate. This is a big blow for Republicans. They thought this was a really big opportunity, if he ran for Senate, to pick up what is currently a Democratic seat. And this is the fourth time this year a term limited governor is saying a hard no to the Senate. And the way "Axios" highlighted how this trend that we've seen over really decades of governors going to the Senate is the trend rather than senators going to governorships, which is - we're starting to see kind of this trend reverse. Why do you think that is? What's - and what's the impact?

HEYE: Two words, Washington stinks, and everybody knows that, right? So, every time we see Chris Sununu come on TV and flirt with running, he was never going to run for Senate. Brian Kemp was never going to run for Senate. And, you know, Democrats have a lot of hopes on having Roy Cooper, the outgoing governor, run. And that would be a top tier Senate race. It probably is anyways against Thom Tillis. But if you're Roy Cooper, you have a good life right now. Do you want to go to terrible Washington and start as a Senate freshman? No. NAVARRO: And let's remember that Brian Kemp is - is not a Trumper.

BOLDUAN: Right.

NAVARRO: Is not somebody that has been, you know, MAGA his entire career.

[09:25:03]

This is somebody that stood up in Georgia in 2020 and said, you lost the election. And so, as governors, they're the boss of themselves. You go to Washington. Donald Trump is the boss of you if you are a Republican in the Senate or in Congress.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Yes, Brian Kemp was very unique in that because he was so popular in Georgia that he could do that and Donald Trump couldn't do anything about it.

NAVARRO: And still win.

BOLDUAN: It's good to see you guys.

HEYE: Thank you.

NAVARRO: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

John.

BERMAN: This morning, three people are dead, several missing, after a boat capsized off the coast of California.

And, quote, "I'm a little nervous." The new admission from Sean Combs to the judge in the sex trafficking trial against him. Why one legal analyst says he should be.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:30:03]

BERMAN: We are standing by for the second day of jury selection in the criminal trial of music mogul Sean Combs. He pleaded not guilty to all.