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Texas Democratic Voters Fights Against Gerrymandering; Late- night Hosts and Comedian Rally Behind Kimmel; Trump Floats Pulling TV Licenses if Networks are "Against" Him; AOC Considering Presidential or Senate Run; Trump Speaks with President Xi to Finalize TikTok Deal; Alex Acosta to Appear Before House Oversight Committee. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired September 19, 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]

GRETCHEN PRUETT, TEXAS VOTER: I just believe that conversation and compromise and seeing all sides of the issue and then making a decision is the best possible form of government. And we're silencing those voices, we're marginalizing them, and my voice is marginalized as well.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And that's what you think they're doing? They're just dispersing Democrats in a way that silences them.

PRUETT: I do believe that, yes. The maps bear it out.

KING (voice-over): Trump's lead role in the remapping makes it sting Democrats like Pruett even more. It is a bold power play, and Texas, by far, the biggest player. But it might still not be enough to keep the House in Republican hands.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING (voice-over): And John, those Texas Democrats say they get it, Republicans control the statehouse, control the legislature. They just think it's disproportionate. If this plan plays out, Republicans pick up five seats, they would control 79 percent of the House districts, 30 of the 38 in Texas. Trump got 56 percent of the vote last year. So, Democrats say that's over the top. But President Trump and Governor Abbott say, too bad, we have the power, we're going to use it.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I got to say, John King, all over the map, quite literally here in Texas, the map and the congressional map all at the same time. Great perspective there.

Brand-new hour of CNN New Central starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: A late-night show of strength and pushback. Comedians laying it out there after Jimmy Kimmel's shocking suspension from Disney and ABC. Protests are scheduled for today outside of Disney offices, and President Trump floats the idea of going even further. This morning, President Trump, speaking of -- is speaking with Chinese Leader Xi Jinping on the future of TikTok and trade between these two world powers. And the U.S. Coast Guard announces it has seized more than 75,000 pounds of cocaine from the Pacific Ocean.

Sara is out today. I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

All right. Let's get to it. The stars of late-night unite behind Jimmy Kimmel, their fellow hosts and comedians offering a major show of force after ABC pulled Kimmel off air indefinitely after facing pressure from the Trump administration.

Last hour, we spoke with comedian Paul Mercurio, who helps warm up the live audience for "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." And here was his take.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL MECURIO, COMEDIAN AND HOST: I've been hearing for three days --

BOLDUAN: There's no misinterpretation.

MECURIO: -- all I was ever saying was a business decision. Hey, listen, it was a business decision the way "The Band Leader" and "The Godfather" made a business decision to let Johnny Fontaine out of his contract. Remember? Again --

BERMAN: Thank you (INAUDIBLE).

MECURIO: Right? Can we stop and just be honest?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Paul Mercurio for you, everybody. Jimmy Kimmel still has not publicly responded to all of this. As for whether he'll return, a source tells CNN that ABC hopes there is a path, but that he'll have to, quote, "take the temperature down." And who decides that?

Meantime, FCC Chair Brendan Carr is suggesting that this may not be, as he puts it, the last shoe to drop. And President Trump said just yesterday and last night that any broadcaster who says things that he doesn't like or criticizes him, he thinks should lose their broadcasting license.

Joining us right now is CNN Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter for more on this. Brian, what's your take? And what are you hearing now? Because the fallout is growing. The president seems to want to take it even further. What do you see?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, there's even a rally for free speech now playing planned for today outside Disneyland in Anaheim, California. You know, so people planning to go ride some rides, go visit Main Street USA. They might see protesters outside, people protesting Disney over this suspension of Jimmy Kimmel's show. And for all we know, the suspension will turn into a cancellation later today. We know that Kimmel was spotted going into his lawyer's office in Hollywood, actually in Century City yesterday afternoon. There was apparently a meeting between Kimmel and Disney leaders and there was no resolution. At the moment, there is no plan for Kimmel to return to the airwaves.

I've been wondering, you know, oftentimes we hear about Friday night news dumps, you know, companies try to bury bad news on Friday nights. I wonder if ABC is going to try to get this story and get it to go away later today. But we don't know. We don't know what Kimmel's planning and we don't know if there is a path forward for ABC to bring the show back.

In the meantime, they just keep rerunning "Celebrity Family Feud," and I think in some ways that's a useful symbol of what is going on here. President Trump wants dissent to be squashed. He wants his critics to be silenced. He doesn't want to see liberal late-night hosts on TV. He wants to see game shows. You know, he would rather have "Family Feud" reruns airing on broadcast television.

And some of these local station owners are willing to give in because they have business before the federal government and they need Trump administration approvals. I think that's why this story has broken through so clearly.

[09:05:00]

Yes, there have been other examples of media company capitulation, many other examples of Trump's retribution campaign. But this one's really resonating with Americans because the fact pattern is so clear. But let's also be clear about what is at stake. You know, President Trump wants media self-censorship. He's not actually able to turn off a TV station transmitter. He's not actually able to kill a news story that's in the works. What he is able to do is bully the media into submission and silence. That's what he's trying to do by threatening TV station licenses. And that's why this is such an intense and important test for ABC and its parent company, Disney.

BOLDUAN: Brian, thank you so much for your continued reporting on this. Really appreciate it. John.

BERMAN: All right. With us now, Pete Seat, former White House spokesperson for President George W. Bush and Democratic strategist, Julie Roginsky.

I want to read a couple editorials that caught my attention from either the right or the center right on this subject. This is from the Free Press, Barry Weiss' outlet. And that editorial is, it's true, Kimmel's brand of resistance-era humor has aged like milk. His falsehood about Kirk's alleged killer insults the intelligence audience. But when a network drops high-profile talent hours after the FCC chair makes a barely veiled threat, then it's no longer just a business decision, it's government coercion. It is now Trump administration policy to punish broadcasters. Is it now Trump administration policy to punish broadcasters for comedy that doesn't conform to its politics? That's censorship. So, that's from the Free Press.

The Wall Street Journal says, the squeeze on Disney looks to be a case of cancel culture on the right. Mr. Kimmel's comments Monday associating Charlie Kirk's killer with the MAGA gang were false, callous, and stupid. But they weren't inciting violence. And in a free society, they shouldn't be caused for the government to push someone off the airwaves. Julie?

JULIE ROGINSKY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST AND CO-FOUNDER, LIFT OUR VOICES: Well, I'm a free speech absolutist. So, I think Jimmy Kimmel should be able to say whatever he wants to say. And the market can decide whether it wants Jimmy Kimmel to say it or not. In other words, if Jimmy Kimmel's ratings are awful, then Disney has every right to cancel him. But that's not why they got rid of him. They got rid of him because Donald Trump made it clear he doesn't like to be made fun of, as he said consistently, both before and after this.

Look, I'll just caution my friends on the right who are gloating over this. It's a round world, my friends. And if you think this is how you're going to proceed, one day, there's going to be a Democrat who's going to put somebody in charge of the FCC. And that person is going to make a call to Lachlan Murdoch. And he's going to say, hey, if you want your station groups to have any kind of access to Fox on broadcast, maybe get rid of Greg Gutfeld over on Fox News, right, in that comedy show. That's not a road anyone here wants to go down. I feel that Greg Gutfeld has the right to say the stupid stuff he says and Jimmy Kimmel has the right to say the stuff that he says.

And the bottom line is, if that's not how it's going to be, let's get ready for retribution after retribution after retribution, because this is a Pandora's box you're opening up that you don't want to open up.

BERMAN: Look, they're opening it out in the open, too, to use the word open a whole bunch of times here. You have Brendan Carr talking about him wanting to do this. You have the president of the United States, Pete, on Air Force One yesterday saying that maybe licenses should be pulled for networks that broadcast things that are critical of him. Is this the right place for the government to be putting its efforts?

PETE SEAT, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SPOKESPERSON FOR PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, VICE PRESIDENT, BOSE PUBLIC AFFAIRS GROUP AND FORMER SPOKESPERSON, INDIANA REPUBLICAN PARTY: I'm not going to sugarcoat this, John. I'm troubled by the comments that the FCC chairman has been making. As it relates to the president, he has been known to wear his emotions on his sleeves, and he doesn't hold back. Whatever is in his head comes out of his mouth. And he does not have a great relationship, to put it mildly, with the media. Most presidents don't. They don't like the coverage that they get across the various networks.

But I think a couple of points are important here. One, ABC and Disney have a history of firing. In the case of Jimmy Kimmel, they have only suspended him thus far, but of firing talent. They did it with Roseanne over a tweet. They did it with an actress on "The Mandalorian" over social media posts. There was also an instance with Nick Cannon getting canned by ViacomCBS for anti-Semitic comments that he made on his podcast, which was not owned or operated by ViacomCBS. So, this is not unheard of. You do have the right to free speech, but employers also have the right to suspend or fire talent if they find some of that speech to be objectionable.

The second point, very quickly, is this timeline. Even CNN's own reporting states that ABC had a conversation during this uproar with Jimmy Kimmel, and they came to the conclusion that he was too hot. He was ready to go on the show Wednesday night and give a monologue that would do even more damage to him. And they made this decision, I think, to protect Jimmy Kimmel from himself.

[09:10:00]

BERMAN: Again, but if we're talking the timeline, it was still after Brendan Carr made the threat of pulling licenses from affiliates and Disney with the Nextstar-Tegna merger in front of him and with ESPN needing football rights. So, again, the timeline here and the government action is what we have the editorials here talking about.

I want to shift gears to Democratic politics if I can, because Julie, I've got your right here with me.

ROGINSKY: I'm right here.

BERMAN: Axios this morning reporting -- Alex Thompson over at Axios reporting that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is making moves for 2028. This is the quote, "Ocasio-Cortez and her team are positioning her to run for president or the U.S. Senate in 2028. That's according to people familiar with her operation."

And then when Alex goes on to write, it seems to actually focus more on the Senate than a presidential run. But running for the Senate would be taking on Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, primary potentially Chuck Schumer, or trying to get him to, you know, muscle him out before he runs. What do you think of that?

ROGINSKY: I think she'd win. I think she'd win in a landslide. And I say that as a New York Democratic voter, because Chuck Schumer has proven himself not up to the task in the moment that we're living in. I mean, Chuck Schumer, I don't know what he's doing. He's sending thoughts and prayers our way, I guess. But I don't see Chuck Schumer taking any kind of affirmative action to fight back against this assault on everything that Democrats stand for, whether it's, you know, protecting democracy, whether it is supporting a continued resolution that funded a lot of Donald Trump's priorities last time around. The fact that he still hasn't said whether he's going to filibuster this or what he's going to do with it.

I mean, you know, Chuck Schumer was a great senator in the '90s, but we're living in a very different world. AOC may not be my cup of tea when it comes to policy a lot of times, but I think her approach is very much of the moment. And I think even Democrats who don't necessarily agree with her on policy want a fighter and they're not seeing Chuck Schumer be that fighter today. I say that with a heavy heart. I think he's been a great senator, but I also think he's just not up for the moment right now.

BERMAN: Quick last word, Pete?

SEAT: I agree. Chuck Schumer is not up to the task. Look, New York City is about to poise to elect Socialist Zohran Mamdani, so why not AOC for the Senate?

BERMAN: All right. Pete Seat, Julie Roginsky, thanks so much for coming on. I appreciate the open discussion here. Kate.

BOLDUAN: We're following some breaking news right now. We've just learned that President Trump is speaking, he's on the phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping this morning in an effort to finalize the deal that has been pushed off again and again to keep TikTok alive in the United States.

Let's get right to the White House. CNN's Betsy Klein is standing by. Betsy, what are you learning about this? This is a very important phone call between these two world leaders.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: A very critical, closely watched call, Kate. A White House official telling me that that call between President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China got underway at 8:00 a.m. Eastern time just about an hour ago. And we are pressing the White House for more details on when exactly that call wraps as well as a readout. We are also very closely monitoring the president's social media channels for his reaction to this call.

But according to officials, the president and Xi are expected to discuss trade as well as the finalization of a deal that would sell most of TikTok's assets to American investors. And of course, this comes after Congress in January passed that bipartisan bill requiring that TikTok to cede most control of its assets to the U.S. or risk being banned.

There was a meeting in Madrid earlier this week between top U.S. officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and officials from China, aimed at really securing a framework for that deal. And what we understand so far is that about 80 percent of the ownership of TikTok will be under this consortium of American investors to include Oracle, Andreessen Horowitz, as well as Silver Lake. There will also be a board comprised of a majority of U.S. members, as well as someone that is appointed by the Trump administration.

And Trump and Xi are also expected to discuss the possibility of an in-person meeting in the coming weeks, a deal on TikTok. making that more likely if they are able to do so, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Betsy, thank you so much for jumping on. Great reporting as always. Betsy Klein at the White House for us. Much more to come there.

Also breaking overnight, a massive cleanup effort underway in California after mudslides just wipe out homes and cars. And mortgage rates are at their lowest level in a year after this week's Fed rate cut. Could we see them fall even further?

And do you trust A.I.? There has been a major shift in how Americans view its impact on society.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:00]

BERMAN: All right. That's a live look at Capitol Hill this morning. You can see the U.S. Capitol still very much there. Set to testify soon, the former U.S. attorney who negotiated the controversial plea deal for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein back in 2008. It was this plea deal that made him a convicted sex offender. Let's get right to CNN's Annie Grayer, who is on Capitol Hill this morning for what we can expect in this.

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, we are expecting this closed-door interview to go for hours and could be pretty contentious, John, because both Republicans and Democrats have been waiting to speak with Acosta about his role when he was U.S. attorney back in 2008. He gave Epstein that plea deal that avoided a federal trial, and Epstein at the time only served 13 months in prison. Then, of course, in 2019, when Epstein was arrested and charged for participating in a sex trafficking ring, Acosta came under renewed scrutiny for his plea deal back in 2008.

Now, in 2019, Acosta was serving as President Trump's labor secretary in first term and ended up resigning because of the controversy around this. So, now, Acosta is back in the hot seat as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are pushing forward with their investigation into Epstein.

I want to play for you in a moment Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, who has been leading the charge on the Republican side to push for more transparency and get the Department of Justice to demand for all documents to be released. That effort has still not come to fruition. We're still waiting for more documents from the Department of Justice. Take a listen to what Massie had to say.

[09:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): Yesterday, I told Kash Patel he has 20 names in his files that he hasn't released. It seems as he didn't know he has those 20 names, either that or he doesn't believe that the victims are credible. I believe that Trump is trying to protect rich and powerful people who are his friends, and that is why this material is not getting released.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRAYER: Now, the Hill is getting some documents from Epstein's estate from the Department of Justice. They're cooperating with the Treasury Department, but they're Republicans like Thomas Massie, who will not rest until all documents related to the Epstein case have been released. John.

BERMAN: It's pretty interesting to hear from Thomas Massie right there, pretty bluntly stating he thinks that the president is protecting his friends there. Annie Grayer on Capitol Hill, great to have you this morning. Thank you. Kate.

BOLDUAN: Also breaking overnight, a massive cleanup effort is underway in Southern California after heavy rains triggered some pretty severe mudslides. Roads were just covered. Homes got buried in this mud. Video can just show you just the rushing -- how powerful that rushing muddy water was. CNN's Meteorologist Allison Chinchar tracking this one for us. And, Allison, what are you seeing?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. So, again, I think the key takeaway from a lot of this was how quickly this rainfall came in. When you look at a lot of the rainfall totals, most of these areas saw an inch or less, but it was in such a short period of time that it led to scenes like this. You can see the water racing incredibly quickly down into these flows and picking up debris along the way, and then that debris gets spread elsewhere into roads and homes and businesses and things of the like.

Here's a look at those overall totals. Yes, we had a couple spots, especially well east of Los Angeles that picked up over two inches, but the vast majority of these areas picked up an inch or even less than that. But it was a lot of moisture that surged in. This is a look at the last 36 hours, and you can see wave after wave crashing into portions of Southern California with all of this tropical moisture now then spreading into Arizona, Utah, Nevada, the nearby states.

We do still have flood watches in effect, and it's because it takes time for that water to recede. So, you're still going to see it on some of the roadways and businesses, even though it has stopped raining effectively in most of these places, it takes time for that water to go away.

If you look at the forecast radar, no rain is still in the forecast for much of Southern California for the remainder of the day today. But we do have rain in some of the nearby states as that system continues to spread off to the north and east.

So, again, these are -- this is the damage that we have been seeing from a lot of these areas from that rain from overnight last night and last evening as it kind of pushed into a lot of these areas, taking the debris with it. But it's able to pick up some significant amounts of objects, not just trees, but also cars, as you can see from the videos.

BOLDUAN: Allison, thank you so much for reporting on this. John.

BERMAN: All right. We do have breaking news. A surprise twist at this meeting of vaccine advisers for the CDC. They just made a vote. Let me get right to CNN's Medical Reporter Meg Tirrell to explain what they voted on here, because this really did come as a surprise.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. So, the vote that they were expected to take this morning was about the hepatitis B vaccine and specifically the dose that right now is universally recommended to be given to newborns while they're still in the hospital to prevent chronic infection with this virus that can cause liver damage and cancer and be really devastating if you get a chronic infection.

And so, they had been planning to vote on whether to delay that first dose of this vaccine for babies whose mothers test negative for the virus to at least one month of life. We were expecting that vote this morning. It was a very controversial vote. And then the committee started discussing the language of the vote.

One member on the committee -- remember, this is a committee put entirely in place by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., suggested that we weren't pushing that birth dose off far enough. She wanted to push it out to maybe even two or three months, suggesting that there are safety risks, things that other members of the committee and external liaisons disputed. There were some people who felt very strongly that we shouldn't be taking this vote at all or changing anything.

And so, then one member suggested that the vote be tabled because there are enough uncertainties around this. And so, now they are essentially indefinitely delaying this vote on the hepatitis B vaccine. This will not happen at this meeting. And we don't know if it will happen or if it will be in a different form, perhaps at a future meeting. So, that is one of the votes they took this morning.

They also retook a vote that they had taken last night on the combination measles, mumps, rubella and varicella or chickenpox vaccine, essentially for a program called Vaccines for Children, which provides vaccines for free to low-income kids. It's a very important program for vaccine access. And they had taken a sort of strange vote last night that seemed to be in Discord with their actual recommendation, which is that kids under four shouldn't get this combo vaccine. They should get them as a separate vaccine where chickenpox is given on its own.

[09:25:00]

So, it's a lot of sort of bureaucratic stuff, John, but it just shows the chaos of this committee where five new members were appointed just days before the meeting this week. There are a lot of questions about process, a lot of questions about implications, but probably from the public health world's standpoint, most importantly, a lot of questions about how the science is being interpreted here and concerns that it's being misinterpreted.

So, the rest of the day, John, is going to be about COVID. And we will bring you -- we don't even know what they're going to vote on yet, but it's expected by about 3:00. We'll bring you all the news.

BERMAN: I got to say, you're doing a great job explaining this. And if it sounds confusing to people, it's because the people in that room making those decisions very much appear to be a little bit confused about the process and the whole thing, retaking votes, delaying votes that they knew were coming there. Meg Tirrell, it's great that we have you there to watch this because this really is fascinating to see. Appreciate it.

All right. Several Texas teachers facing disciplinary action for some comments that they made, people complaining or turning them in. And an intense rescue as officers rushed to pull a driver to safety after a crash and car fire.

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