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Netanyahu Warns the Struggle is Not Over; Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) is Interviewed about Israel; New Jersey Gubernatorial Race; Baltimore PD Pilots Save Drowning Victim; Jeremy Zidek is Interviewed about Alaska Storm Devastation. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired October 16, 2025 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:32:46]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is warning, quote, "the struggle is not over," as sticking points have emerged in the ceasefire with Hamas, including the return of all the hostage bodies from Gaza. Netanyahu said, quote, "anyone who raises his hand against us already knows that he will pay a very heavy price for his aggression. We are determined to complete the victory."

Let's get to CNN's Salma Abdelaziz with the very latest on this.

Good morning, Selma.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

As this dispute over the slow release of hostages continues to intensify, rights groups are accusing Israel of using food, water and basic supplies as a bargaining chip. What we know so far is that so far only 19 -- or rather 19 hostages remain inside the enclave. So far nine have been released to Israeli custody. But Hamas now says that it can no longer retrieve any more bodies, that it has done all that it can, and that it needs essentially more support and specialist equipment to locate the 19 remaining in the enclave.

Now, this seems to be consistent with what we're hearing from senior U.S. advisers who also say they do not believe that Hamas is violating the ceasefire and that every effort is being made to find the dead again inside that enclave. Those senior advisers also said that the U.S. is involved now in mediation efforts, in support efforts to provide that logistical and intelligence backing that is needed on the ground. The U.S. is even encouraging Israel to share intelligence about the whereabouts of these bodies so it can be passed on to Hamas. Egypt, one of the mediating bodies in all of this, also saying that this could potentially take many more weeks, John.

Now, part of that ceasefire agreement was supposed to include a task force that would have countries like Qatar, Turkey, the United States and Egypt providing the logistical support that is needed. But in the rush to put this ceasefire in place, none of that task force seems to have taken off the ground.

But in the meanwhile, the consequences are already being felt in the Gaza Strip. The Rafah crossing, which is the main crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, remains closed. Aid was cut in half yesterday from 600 trucks to 300 trucks.

[08:35:06]

Humanitarian workers on the ground say medical supplies are running out and more preventable deaths could be seen in the Gaza Strip. And families inside the Gaza Strip now terrified that war could resume again.

BERMAN: Yes, everything about these next steps, very, very complicated.

Salma Abdelaziz, thank you so much for that report.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you, John.

Joining me now is Democratic Congressman John Garamendi of California. He is a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

Let's follow up on what we're just hearing there from our reporter, Salma Abdelaziz. Trump has weighed in to this, telling CNN that it (AUDIO GAP), and this is a quote, as soon as I (AUDIO GAP) say the word if Hamas won't uphold ceasefire deal that is in play. Are you worried that war could resume again upon seeing what is happening there?

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D-CA): Well, it's certainly a very, very delicate situation. And Netanyahu has been very, very clear that he intends to continue his aggression in Gaza and has made very clear that he doesn't believe it's complete yet.

The ceasefire, it's very tentative. It's very, very important for the president to stay engaged in this. Obviously, he's played a major role in bringing the ceasefire into existence, and he's got to maintain his attention there. And that means pushing back on Netanyahu as well as making sure that Hamas is doing everything it can to find those remaining bodies, wherever they may be. They may be under rubble someplace unknown.

In any case, this is very important that this ceasefire continue, that the necessary support is provided, food, medical supplies, and the rest. Otherwise, this thing could go right back into the very terrible situation we saw in the previous 20 months.

SIDNER: Yes, there's so much desperation there on the ground as all of this is being talked about.

Let me talk to you about where some of the president's attention has been paid now. He has admitted there is a plan for covert CIA action inside Venezuela. And he's already, as you know, authorized strikes on boats he claims are cartels shuttling drugs.

Are you OK with this?

GARAMENDI: No, not at all. The attack on these boats is, I think, contrary to law. There's no firm evidence that there were drugs on board these boats. And this has been the work of the Coast Guard for the last, I don't know, 20, 40 years. And the Coast Guard has been very, very successful at interdicting drugs. They could be even more successful if the U.S. Navy and other assets were coordinated with the Coast Guard. That's how we have done things for years. Tens of thousands of pounds, actually tons of drugs have been seized.

There is no authorization to use force against Venezuela. We do not have a declaration of war against Venezuela. So, what is the president's goal here? What is he trying to accomplish with this ever increasing military action against Venezuela without authorization from Congress? The Constitution says Congress has to declare war. That's not happened here. So, what's the president's goal? What are -- what is this all about? Drugs or more than drugs?

SIDNER: All right, let me ask you about the shutdown. We're now gone past two weeks. Families are definitely suffering through this. I want to just replay what your Democratic colleague, Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, said in a CNN town hall last night on what it will take to get a deal done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): I think we need to see ink on paper. I think we need to see legislation. I think we need to see votes.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): We're going to do everything that we can to bring an end to this terrible shutdown.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: They are talking about ink on paper when it comes to health care and the subsidies and the spending for the Obamacare. But House Speaker Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Thune have insisted they will not negotiate with Democrats over health insurance funding until the government is reopened.

Do you stand with Sanders and -- and AOC on this idea that you want to see an actual agreement signed by the president before you will go forward and say, yes, all right, we will vote with you on opening the government?

GARAMENDI: Well, we've been very, very clear for the last, well, forever here. First of all, let's understand that the big, beautiful -- the big, ugly bill had no negotiations with Democrats at all. The enormous tax cut for the wealthy, paid for by elimination of medical programs for everyday Americans. The first thing to be eliminated is the subsidy for the Affordable Care Act insurance premiums, of which there are about 24 million Americans that received those notices, or are going out today, that those premiums are significantly increased. [08:40:16]

In many cases, doubled or tripled. Unaffordable. People will not be able to afford the health insurance that they presently have.

And so, task one is to continue the subsidies and to continue the affordability of the health care insurance program that's been in effect now for actually more than a decade. The enhanced premium for the last four years, that's what we want. If -- and that can be done immediately. It takes about one paragraph added to the continuing resolution that the subsidies would continue on into the year or two ahead.

Now, there's a major problem coming up in 2026, and that is the Medicaid cuts. And that's over $800 billion, $900 billion of cuts that will devastate Americans all across the nation.

And so, it's very simple. This can end now. And, in fact, Senator Thune says we will negotiate after the shutdown is ended. And we go, let's negotiate now. If you're waiting, and we're going to continue this, we've got seven weeks. Week one, two, three, four, five, six, no negotiation. Week seven, just before Thanksgiving, we go back through this whole game all over again. Let's get it done now. Let's continue those subsidies. And the shutdown will end immediately. It's all it takes, one paragraph.

SIDNER: Congressman John Garamendi, I do appreciate you taking the time this morning.

Kate.

BERMAN: All right, we have brand-new polling out of one of the most closely watched races in the country.

With me now, CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten.

Really, you know, three weeks away, Virginia and New Jersey, big governors' races. Everyone watching them. In Virginia, you and I both hear a lot of whispers. People whispering, hey, the race is close, the race is close. What do the polls say?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: OK, so, you know, in New Jersey, I know that my Democratic friends, there's been a lot of bed wetting. But I'm here to tell you, don't trust the comment sections online because what do we have going on here in New Jersey?

All right, Mikie Sherrill is the Democrat. Jack Ciattarelli is the Republican. You go in July and August, Sherrill was ahead by eight points. There's been all this talk, oh, Ciattarelli is really closing the gap. Well, maybe a little bit. But if you look at the average, what you see is that Sherrill is still ahead by six points. That's a pretty significant lead. Look, Ciattarelli has a shot, but it is very clear that Mikie Sherrill leads this race when you look at all of the data.

And why does she lead in the great state of New Jersey? Well, the reason she leads in the great state of New Jersey is rather simple. If you know that Kamala Harris won the state back in 2024 by six points, then what Jack Ciattarelli needs to do is he needs to win over some of those Harris voters. But what we see at this point is Mikie Sherrill leads among the Harris voters by 87 points, according to a recent Fox News poll. And look at how Jack Ciattarelli is doing among Donald Trump voters. He's leading them by 86 points, which is basically equal to the 87 points. But when you know that Kamala Harris won New Jersey by six points, he can't just be matching this margin. He needs to be eating more into Sherrill's base than she's eating into that Donald Trump base that, of course, Jack Ciattarelli is reliant on. And simply put, at this moment, Jack Ciattarelli, at least in the polling data that is public, the non-internal polling, is not doing what he needs to do in order to win in November.

BERMAN: If this holds, this does not get you to the promised land for Jack Ciattarelli.

ENTEN: No, this does not get him to the promised land during our holy times.

BERMAN: What does history tell us?

ENTEN: OK, what does history tell us? We look at the polling data here. But I think that there's a key nugget from history to understand why Mikie Sherrill should be favored in this race and why it's an uphill climb for Jack Ciattarelli.

You go back and you look at who was the last Republican to win a gubernatorial race in the great state of New Jersey when there was a Republican president. You got to go all the way back. You got to go 40 years back to Tom Kean, who, of course, was massively popular, was the massively popular incumbent in order to find the last time that there was a Republican elected governor of New Jersey when there was a Republican president.

The bottom line is this, Mr. Berman, the polling right now favors Mikie Sherrill. The history favors Mikie Sherrill. That doesn't mean Jack Ciattarelli can't win, but it certainly means at this particular point that Mikie Sherrill is in the driver's seat. And, of course, she'll make sure that there's a gas attendant who fills up her car in New Jersey because they cannot fill it up themselves.

BERMAN: That's right. Back in 1985, as you know, New Jersey was also a red state.

ENTEN: That is exactly right. It's a red state. And at this particular point, it is a blue state. And one that Jack Ciattarelli has an uphill climb in order to win come November.

BERMAN: Harold, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: Monsieur's Berman and Enten, thank you so much. All right, police department helicopters usually used to support

officers on the ground. But a few months ago, two officers from Baltimore PD's Foxtrot Aviation Group used it for something else.

[08:45:01]

They made an unusual stop. They looked down to save an unconscious man who had just been pulled out of a pool.

CNN's Ryan Young has this heart pounding story in this month's "Beyond the Call of Duty."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's (INAUDIBLE). He's probably not going to stop.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Police helicopters are known for aerial pursuits.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bailout. Smither (ph) Street. Let's get over here. Bail out. Smither (ph) Street.

YOUNG (voice over): Using their eyes in the sky to track stolen vehicles or alleged criminals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Number one, male, white tank top. That's him.

YOUNG (voice over): But on July 26th, the evening took a wild turn for Baltimore PD's Andre Smith Junior and Craig Hoover.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were working a call. There were multiple individuals engaged in a pretty big street fight.

Hey, yes, they're going at it pretty good here.

YOUNG (voice over): Then, an unusual dispatch came in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a water rescue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have a water rescue?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ten-four, at Walter B. Carter Middle School. It says drowning arrest out of water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I'm like, OK, we need to go check that out. It's like your spider senses go off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm in route.

YOUNG (voice over): Once overhead, they saw a young man who had snuck into a pool and drowned.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He didn't look good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This guy looked like he's not breathing, not moving. He's in cardiac arrest. Have a medic get here ASAP. YOUNG (voice over): But the pair realized ground units would not

arrive in time. They needed to do something.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you take CPR and, you know, after four minutes the brain starts to die. And so you need to get oxygen to them pretty quickly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told my partner, I said, we -- we need to get down. Can you get me down?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're putting this helicopter down.

YOUNG (voice over): Officer Hoover went for it, landing the chopper in the middle of the city. Smith sprinted to the pool and began CPR. Perfectly suited because, as a teen, he had been a lifeguard for the city of Baltimore.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's Foxtrot. Dre is administrating CPR right now to the victim.

YOUNG (voice over): He was able to revive the man, saving his life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's by the grace of God that we were there at the right place, right time. We had a field we could land in. And Dre was an ex-lifeguard that could do CPR. All that lined up so we could help save him.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Just amazing, amazing people.

This is also amazing. Imagine laying in bed when all of a sudden this happens. It happened to a woman in Nashville. The video, you just got to see it. We'll play more for you in a second.

And a legal battle is brewing over peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The copycat concerns that have led to a very serious lawsuit.

We'll be right back.

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[08:51:52]

BOLDUAN: This morning, the government shutdown enters day 16 and it's also become, well, "Groundhog Day." House Republicans are expected to speak. The Senate is expected to vote. And none of it is expected to go anywhere.

One thing that has changed is a federal judge has halted the president's plans to lay off thousands of federal workers in the midst of this shutdown. The judge calling the plan politically motivated in the order put out just yesterday.

The ruling comes after the White House budget director made it very clear that while some workers have received notice already, they are hoping it goes much, much further. The goal being that more than 10,000 federal workers would be laid off as a result of this shutdown. And 1.4 million federal workers have already been furloughed or are working without pay. And that fight remains -- the fight, though, at the center of this remains the same, Republicans want to extend funding as is, Democrats, who have some leverage because Republicans need their votes in the Senate, they want to extend health care subsidies set to expire at the end of the year. Same, same, same all throughout this shutdown.

Now, Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, they are weighing in, in a CNN town hall last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the Republicans are so insistent on sticking it to their own voters on this issue, why don't the Democrats just let them?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): One of the things, and this really annoys me about Trump, he's dividing this country. Why would I not?

You think I would feel OK if somebody in a Republican state died because they couldn't get health care? I would hope not. I would hope nobody feels that way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what do you suggest government workers do for food money when the paychecks stop coming?

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): The best and most important solution to this is making sure that we reopen the government, not accept the inevitability of this, and come to a resolution as quickly as possible. Extending this shutdown would be a choice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And about the accusation that Republicans have leveled and tried to push, that undocumented immigrants are going to be the ones to benefit from the health care extension, AOC responded with this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My question is, do you think that taxpayers should be paying for the medical care of immigrants that are in the country illegally?

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): This is a common lie that Republicans have been repeating, that this shutdown is about Democrats trying to provide health care to the undocumented. And -- and we all know -- we already know that it is federal law and federal statute that undocumented people cannot be covered by the ACA, they cannot be covered by Medicaid, they cannot be covered by Medicare, period.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: If you could choose, do you believe that the federal law should be changed on that?

OCASIO-CORTEZ: I don't -- I believe in a single payer health care system where if you go in and you need a doctor, you can get the medical attention that you need. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Both AOC and Bernie Sanders also hammered House Republicans, particularly Speaker Mike Johnson, for keeping the House out of session throughout this shutdown. Johnson, as I mentioned, expected to speak again at 10:00 a.m. this morning. Again, welcome to "Groundhog Day."

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, this morning, hundreds of people in Alaska are being evacuated from their villages after a devastating storm ravaged coastal communities and swept away homes.

[08:55:07]

Across the region, more than 1,500 people have been displaced. The residents are being flown over 500 miles away to Anchorage. Officials calling it the most significant airlift in the states entire history. This morning, officials believe two people are still missing.

Joining me now is Jeremy Zidek, the public information officer for the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Thank you for being here. I know this is a difficult time there.

Can you give us a sense of how these missions to get people to safety have occurred because this is the most significant airlift, the most that they've ever done there in Alaskan history?

JEREMY ZIDEK, ALASKA DIVISION OF HOMELAND SECURITY AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Yes, it has really been a herculean effort to get resources out to the communities to both perform the search and rescue, but also to airlift people out of their communities that have been devastated, to more safe accommodations, and then get them into our larger population center here in Anchorage so we can provide them with kind of robust services.

One of the biggest challenges in Alaska is our distance. You mentioned the 500 miles between Anchorage and the area that's been impacted. But the next closest community with really services for people is about 100 miles away by air. There are no roads to these communities. So, we have to rely on aircraft. And in Alaska, with our poor weather, flying can often be very difficult.

SIDNER: Yes, you can't send things on the ground to these communities. And we're looking at some of the pictures of the devastation where the water has risen way up into these buildings, sweeping some of these homes away.

Can you give us a sense of what is needed now, because you have all these residents who have been flown out of -- of their villages with, I imagine, almost nothing.

ZIDEK: Yes. The top priority is caring for people. The evacuation process is still going on. There's folks that -- that are in Kipnuk and Kwigillingok that need to move out. We're moving them to Bethel, staging them there, and then we're moving them further to Anchorage. We're looking at other places in our state where we can put them. As a small state with a population around 750,000 people statewide, this is a state twice the size of Texas. We don't have a lot of resources to -- to put towards this -- or -- we don't have a lot of accommodations easily available to us. So, we're searching for those, building out our capacity to shelter people now and then we're moving people from those communities to -- we did that yesterday and moved 264 people out of Bethel to Anchorage, sheltered them here, and we're expanding our shelter capacity so we can bring more in.

SIDNER: Just give me some sense of whether or not the federal government, have you asked for funds? Are you getting help from the federal government now because you said you just don't have the resources for all these people and to deal with all this damage right now.

ZIDEK: Yes, we've been -- we've had the FEMA in our state emergency operations center for some days now. The FEMA IMAT team is also in Anchorage. We haven't called upon them. We have the FEMA Region Ten in Bothell, Washington, that's been communicating with us. It's really not a matter of what federal resources we could use, it's getting those resources out to those far flung areas of our state.

We have the equipment to do that. It's really the shelter capacity to absorb so many people in such a short time with the resources that we have in outside of those communities. So, we have plenty of aircraft to go in and -- and do these missions. It's just the distance that is required and all of the logistics that need to go into caring for people when we get them out of their community.

SIDNER: Yes, and I know at this point you don't know when, how and if people are going to be able to go back, how long that might be. But the devastation is extensive. It looks like it's going to be quite a while.

Jeremy Zidek, thank you so much for explaining what is happening there and giving people an idea of what is going on there in Alaska. Appreciate it.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: There are new developments this morning in the case of a missing Philadelphia woman.

[09:00:01]

Twenty-three-year-old Kada Scott was last seen on October 4th leaving work at an assisted living facility. Her family reported her missing the next day.