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Midwest Snowstorm Adds to Travel Nightmare During Shutdown; Interview with Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL): Speaker Johnson Won't Promise House Vote on Health Care Subsidies; Two Cleveland Guardians Pitchers Indicted in Betting Probe; NBA Legend Lenny Wilkens Dead at 88. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired November 10, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: It's a travel nightmare nationwide, more than 1,800 flights have already been canceled today and another 5,000 plus flights are delayed. That's according to FlightAware, which tracks airline traffic. The FAA's limits on capacity at 40 major U.S. airports during the shutdown is not the only reason for the disruptions, a Midwest snowstorm is now adding to the misery.

Whitney Wild is at Chicago O'Hare. And Whitney, how is it looking and what are the travelers there telling you?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it really depends on where you're trying to get to. Well, we've spoken with dozens of people today. Most of the people who are trying to get to New York are having the biggest problems.

One woman I spoke with said she was delayed 45 minutes. Another woman I spoke with said that she had come from Burbank. She went to San Francisco, was supposed to have a two hour layover in Chicago.

[14:35:00]

That two hour layover turned into 30. She found out when she got here that her flight was canceled. And then we spoke with another family who says that their flight to New York was canceled. Virtually as they got to the gate.

So it really depends on what your experience is. Other travelers, though, say that everything's fine. Again, we've spoken with other people who said that they didn't have any travel problems yet. And they all said it just like that, "yet", because they know that there is pressure all across the country on airports for a long list of reasons.

And O'Hare is really the center of it, because as you mentioned, there's, you know, cancellations across the country. There's a staffing issue here. There was a weather event here, a winter weather storm that passed through earlier. And then on top of that, there's ongoing construction here.

So this is the perfect storm for major problems. And I think if you look at the board, it's pretty clear what they are. There are delays all across the country.

Some of the most -- the lengthiest delays that we've seen, it was one flight that was supposed to go from Chicago to LaGuardia. That flight was delayed three hours and 40 minutes. And when we look here at the average delay, it's hovered all day around that 50-minute mark.

But guys, there are hundreds of delays here, hundreds of cancellations. This is a really tough day for travelers coming out of Chicago. Back to you.

KEILAR: Yes, certainly is. A lot of trickle down there. Whitney, thank you for that --Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Let's discuss plans to reopen the government now. Speaker Johnson has told his Republican members that he is hoping for a House vote on Wednesday. The speaker, though, has not guaranteed a vote to extend health care subsidies, which is part of the reason that moderates in the Senate have decided to join with Republicans to vote to reopen the government.

Joining us now is Republican Congressman Randy Fine of Florida's 6th District. Congressman, thank you so much for being with us. So Majority Leader Thune has agreed to have this vote to extend ACA subsidies at the beginning of December.

In light of this deal shaping up in the Senate, does that now have to change?

REP. RANDY FINE (R-FL): Well, no. Look, thanks for having me again. I think what's important is Democrats have given up on their desire to get free health care for illegal immigrants, and we're going to reopen the government.

And now we can have a real discussion about how to actually lower the costs of health care. Because make no mistake, the subsidies that Democrats want simply hide the failure of the Affordable Care Act. Democrats aren't talking about cutting health care costs. They're just talking about hiding them.

And so I'm excited the government will be reopened. And now we can have a much broader discussion about how do we actually tackle health care costs in this country.

SANCHEZ: Democrats have argued that at no point have they sought to provide health care for undocumented migrants with this deal. There is a dispute about whether asylum seekers qualify for certain benefits that they believe they do. The administration has said that they don't.

But to be clear, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 80 percent of all premium tax credits went to Obamacare and release in states that Trump won in 2024. That's 80 percent of all premium tax credits going to Obamacare and release in states, red states. If you don't extend them, do you see that as a political liability for your party moving forward into next year? FINE: Well, no one's talking about extending the credits that were created when the program was created. This is one of the things that tries to get obscured. During COVID, Democrats said we need some emergency extra subsidies because we're in a COVID pandemic. And Democrats chose to have those subsidies end of this year.

Now, COVID has been over. And if Democrats want to have a debate over whether we're still in a COVID pandemic and whether COVID emergency subsidies should continue, they can have that.

What Republicans are focused on is how we actually lower the cost of health care. And there is no Democrat that is pushing for that. All they want to do is hide the cost of the Unaffordable Care Act by borrowing money from our grandchildren to pay for health care today.

SANCHEZ: On the question of making health care more affordable, whether the subsidy started during COVID or not, it seems pretty clear that the cost of insurance premiums is going to go up. And notably, according to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, the weighted average premium increase for ACA enrollees in your state of Florida will be almost $220 per person per month. That is an increase of more than $2,600 a year.

It is effectively going to price people out of these premiums of these coverage plans. What is your message to those folks?

FINE: My message to those folks is that's happening anyway. All Democrats wanted to do was borrow a trillion dollars from our kids and grandkids to hide those increases.

They don't actually want to tackle that. They just want to hide it. If we don't continue -- if we continue to do that, we will bankrupt the country.

What we want to do is reopen the government as Democrats are finally allowing us to do after 40 days.

[14:40:00]

And then think about how do we actually reduce the cost of health care in this country? Republicans are up for that challenge. And we're going to deal with that once the government is open again.

SANCHEZ: I do want to ask you about this bipartisan premium tax credit extension act. About 14 Democrats, 14 Republicans have signed on to this bill that would sort of create an extension to these ACA subsidies while eventually phasing them out. It's co-sponsored by Virginia Republican Jen Kiggins.

Have you heard of this piece of legislation? Would you support it?

FINE: I haven't. But look, what one of the issues that we have is that a large percentage of people that are now on zero premium COVID era Obamacare plans don't even know that they're on them. 35 percent of people on one of these plans didn't even make a claim last year. These plans have been vehicles to enrich insurance companies. And that's why President Trump has said we need to bring this thing in for a landing. I don't want to hide the cost of the failed Obamacare plan.

I want to reduce the cost of health care. And I think you're going to see Republicans tackle that once Democrats finally relent and allow us to reopen the government.

SANCHEZ: Congressman, I do want to pivot to a battle inside the conservative movement. You've exchanged some words with commentator Tucker Carlson after his recent interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes. I want to play this for our viewers who may not be aware of what he has said about you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUCKER CARLSON, HOST, THE TUCKER CARLSON SHOW PODCAST: We have a member, a sitting member of Congress, I spoke to the Speaker of the House about this today. We have a sitting member of Congress from Florida called Randy Fine, who has literally texted or put on Twitter, we should kill them all. Every single one.

Someone texted a picture of literally of a dead baby and he laughs at it. And it's like this guy's a lawmaker who's appropriating money to a military committing genocide. And that's cool.

It's not cool.

MEGYN KELLY: No.

CARLSON: And let's just be honest, that is much worse than anything Nick Fuentes has said, period.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: What do you make of what Carlson told Megan, Megyn Kelly there?

FINE: Well, I think he's delusional. I could take an hour to dissect that. But in the short time we have, I would say this.

I did say we should kill all Hamas terrorists, and I stand by that. And what I laughed at was a fake picture that was sent to me where people tried to claim that Israel was killing babies. But what they sent me was a 10-year-old photograph of a baby being killed in Syria by Muslims. The point was, if this was real, you wouldn't have to generate fake pictures.

But what I would say is, even if all of the things that he claims I did were true, to say that is worse than someone who said the Holocaust didn't happen, that women should be raped, that says the most horrific things said -- the most horrific things about Black people, when you will equate that and you'll say that's not that bad, we've got a real problem. I've said Tucker Carlson is the most dangerous anti-Semite in America, and I stand by that.

SANCHEZ: Do you believe that President Trump needs to give a more forceful condemnation of Nick Fuentes?

FINE: Well, I think President Trump has done that. Look, American Jews --

SANCHEZ: Has he?

FINE: -- have had no greater friend than Donald Trump. I mean, everyone talks about how he's a friend to Israel, and he is.

But what he has done to tackle anti-Semitism where it matters on our college campuses has been extraordinary, and I'm grateful for what he does every day. People need to remember, this affects Donald Trump's family personally. He has a Jewish daughter and he has Jewish grandchildren, and I know how seriously he takes it.

SANCHEZ: I've not personally seen President Trump unequivocally condemn Nick Fuentes recently. I did see the Vice President, J.D. Vance, suggest that these staffers among Republican congressional aides were making light of Hitler and making all sorts of comments, and the vice president seemed apologetic about that, seeming to suggest that it was just kids, even though some of them were 30 years and older. I mean, do you not think that the administration needs to explicitly state where they stand on this?

FINE: Well, I think the administration has stated explicitly where they stand on it. And what the vice president was saying is we're focusing on young people, and young people do believe some dumb things when there are crazy things that active sitting members of Congress like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib have said that no one seems to be bothered by.

Look, anti-Semitism is a problem in the left widespread. It's becoming a problem on the right, and people like me need to speak out about it, and I'm going to continue to do that.

SANCHEZ: We have asked those members multiple questions about their views on Israel and anti-Semitism generally, just to point out that fact. Congressman Randy Fein, we have to leave the conversation there. Appreciate your time.

FINE: Thanks for having me.

SANCHEZ: Still to come, how prosecutors say the two major league pitchers rigged bets during games. The latest gambling scandal to hit pro sports next.

[14:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: There's another betting scandal that is rocking professional sports, and this time it's two Major League Baseball pitchers who are accused of fixing the outcome of so-called prop bets. Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz of the Cleveland Guardians have been indicted and could face years in prison. The two allegedly agreed in advance with their co-conspirators on which pitches to throw outside the strike zone during games.

That's information that would be used to place hundreds of fraudulent bets. Federal prosecutors say Clase's involvement started in 2023.

SANCHEZ: The DOJ says betters won at least $400,000 using inside information on his pitches. Ortiz is accused of joining the scheme in 2025 when he was allegedly paid $12,000 to intentionally throw a ball instead of a strike in two different games.

Major League Baseball released a statement to CNN saying, quote, "MLB contacted federal law enforcement at the outset of its investigation and is fully cooperated throughout the process. We are aware of the indictment and our investigation is ongoing." End quote.

We're joined now by Bomani Jones. He's host of the Right Time with Bomani Jones podcast.

Bomani, great to see you as always. Given these allegations coming on the heels of various other allegations across NBA players and a coach as well, I wonder if you think professional sports has an illegal betting problem and also what you think these players and these folks accused of this get out of it if they make millions of dollars a year legally via their contracts and yet are getting paid a few thousand to throw a ball instead of a strike?

BOMANI JONES, HOST, THE RIGHT TIME WITH BOMANI JONES PODCAST: Well, I mean, I think that this is an interesting question and it depends on which stories that we're talking about. So do I think that the leagues have an illegal betting problem? In all likelihood, because anytime it comes up, it becomes a giant problem for the league, right?

So I think it's fair to make that point. But what I think is important to note here is what we're talking about by and large is shenanigans with prop bets. Now, with Chauncey Billups, the coach of the Portland Trailblazers, who's accused of running rigged poker games or being part of an operation that ran rigged poker games, you have to ask yourself, what are the potential consequences of having a head coach who is in the pocket of the mob, allegedly? That is, I think, a question you asked there.

With Terry Rozier in that same sport where he was accused of doing what we're talking about in baseball, which is doing weird things involving prop bets. He clearly got caught under a lot of money.

He's got tax lien on his house. He had to put his house up for bail under this case. He doesn't owe -- he just doesn't have the money for it.

This baseball situation seems to be strange because, one, we're not talking about a fringe player in Clase. He's one of the best players in baseball.

Two, he was probably headed down the line to make over $100 million in a contract that would be coming, though he hadn't made huge money yet. He'd already had, you know, salaries around $3, $4 million up until this point. I think the betting houses are the ones that have a bigger problem for what we're talking about in this particular case.

The problem is they should not be allowed to have prop bets to the level that they do. What the accusations are on this in baseball is whether a pitch was going to be a ball or a strike or what the velocity of that pitch was going to be.

That's something that allows a player to say to himself, I'm not fixing the game here if I decide to throw a ball here or I decide to throw a cutter instead of throwing a slider or vice versa or something like that. This is the sort of thing that people are going to try to do because it seems so obvious that it's something that you could get away with.

Now, if too many people try to bet, obviously, people then get caught. But the question we have to ask ourselves is, why are you able to bet on something that is so easily manipulated by the players?

KEILAR: Yes, that's a really good question. And as you have these leagues and some more than others, right, are really leaning into the betting and making it part of the game. How do they -- how do they kind of reevaluate their relationships with legal sports books that are estimated by one expert to be worth more than a billion dollars annually?

JONES: I can only assume that they have decided that this is going to be the cost of doing business. Like nothing that we're talking about here is unforeseen or something that someone could not have predicted after COVID, where these leagues lost a lot of money because of games being canceled and everything else. We started seeing everybody push for sports gambling and we started seeing the implementation of it from the leagues. We see it all over the place with the networks that broadcast the games that, you know, this is the way that they've decided that they were going to make money.

What's going to happen every now and then, though, is you're going to have a story like this where somebody gets caught doing something stupid, right? Once that happens, you as a league have to answer for it. The question comes back to them with not the relationship, but just the simple question of are prop bets worth the stress or at least prop bets on the granular level that some of these are offered by these betting houses.

To me, it seems obvious that they are not. But it's not my money.

SANCHEZ: Bomani, we only have about 10 seconds, but I'm curious to get an abridged version of your thoughts on this ESPN report that there have been back channels between the commander's ownership group and President Trump. He's trying to get the new stadium apparently named after him in D.C. What do you think?

JONES: I mean, that sounds on brand. I just look at that and I think about it. And I don't think that's going to be something that Donald Trump actually wants.

It sounds like a really good idea. But an application would typically have some people named stadiums after you. I would not want that. KEILAR: That's an interesting point. Always with the hot takes, Bomani Jones. Thank you so much, really appreciate it.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. NBA legend Lenny Wilkens has passed away at the age of 88. Wilkens was a nine-time All-Star as a player, also a three-time inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame, not only as a player and as a coach, but also for serving as an assistant coach on the 1992 U.S. Olympic Dream Team. He led the Seattle Supersonics to their only NBA championship title back in 1979, retiring ultimately in 2005 as one of the winningest coaches in NBA history. Wilkens' family has not yet revealed the cause of death.

Also, consuming three or more alcoholic drinks a day on a regular basis is linked to earlier and more severe brain bleeds, according to a study in the journal Neurology. Heavy drinkers experience so-called bleeding strokes about 11 years earlier than lighter drinkers. The research found that high blood pressure worsened by alcohol and drug use ...

END