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Afghans in America Living in Fear As Trump Escalates Crackdown; Black Friday Kicks Off What's Expected To Be Record Spending Period; Trump: Any Executive Order Signed By Biden With Autopen "Is Hereby Terminated." Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired November 28, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:34:12]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: Just in to CNN, SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket moments ago carrying the Transporter-15 mission into space. The rocket carried a payload of dozens of cube satellites and other small spacecraft. There it goes.

After launch, it was expected to deploy those satellites about an hour after liftoff. The company safely landed the first stage of that rocket onto a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean. SpaceX says the Falcon 9 is the world's first orbital-class reusable rocket. We'll keep an eye on that here on CNN.

But also back to the main story we've been following, the president's threat to further tighten immigration policy is fueling fear among Afghan refugees here in the United States. Trump is promising to reexamine every person from Afghanistan who came to the United States under the Biden administration, claiming millions of, quote, "unknown and unvetted foreigners were admitted into the country." There was an extensive vetting process that went on in those operations, we should note.

[14:35:11]

Critics, though, accused the president of using Wednesday's deadly shooting to validate restrictions on immigration policy.

Shawn VanDiver is the Founder of AfghanEvac, a group that helps resettle Afghans who assisted the United States during the war. Thank you for being here. I just want to start by asking, what have you been hearing from Afghan migrants currently in the United States? Maybe even those you've helped resettle in the day after this tragedy?

SHAWN VANDIVER, PRESIDENT, AFGHANEVAC: Thank you so much for having me today.

Look, the first thing I have to say is my heart breaks for the National Guardsman who lost her life and the one still fighting for his. We wish him a speedy recovery.

Look, Afghans are terrified that they're going to be held accountable for this one deranged gunman's actions. And they don't know what to do. They know that it's not their fault. They know they didn't do this. They know that Afghans don't wish to cause Americans harm. And they also know that the president and the vice president and the FBI director are trying to use this as a political cudgel.

Which is pretty crazy, because I know that both the Biden administration and the Trump administration approved various things for this man at any given time. And I suspect what we're going to find is that the reason the Trump administration is lashing out so much is that they dropped the ball. They missed something. They could have seen it coming and dropped the ball in some way. And I think we'll see that in the next couple of days.

JIMENEZ: Well, one of the difficult things here, we're still trying to get to an exact motive as investigators push through that aspect of things. And what you were mentioning is, as we understand from law enforcement, his asylum was granted earlier this year under the Trump administration.

But, you know, when you talk about sort of this vetting process, a senior U.S. official told CNN yesterday this suspect was, quote, "clean on all checks." I mean, you're someone that works very closely with -- with people who would have been vetted and sort of help put them in the next phases of their lives. What does it mean when someone is clean on all checks vetted wise? And is that something you pay attention to and ask about when -- when you deal with -- with Afghans, in this case, trying to resettle them in the United States?

VANDIVER: Sure. Well, Afghans wouldn't know if they're vetted or not, if they're clean on vetting. They wouldn't be here, though, if they hadn't gotten all the way vetted clean, right? And it's a rigorous process. You can go to AfghanEvac.org/vetting to see the full process.

But it's a multi-agency check. It's the CIA. It's the other intelligence agencies. It's the Department of Defense or I guess Secretary Hegseth once called Department of War, Department of Homeland Security, USCIS, CBP, CDC. There's a health aspect to it. Everybody looks at this.

There's international checks. There's local checks, the National Counterterrorism Center, so on and so forth. And look, we know that this guy vetted clean. He must have vetted clean when he -- when he got on the plane to fly to a third country. Then he vetted clean when he got on a plane to fly from there to here. Then he vetted clean when he entered through CBP on parole. Then he must have gotten a re- parole. So, he must have vetted clean again.

And then he applied for SIV. And we're going to break some news right now. He applied for SIV in August of 2022, after he was already here for almost a year. And then he applied for asylum in December of 2024 because SIV had not yet come through. And those were both under the Biden administration.

But wouldn't you know it, President Trump's administration gave him chief of mission approval, so he would have been vetted there. And then he got asylum. Both of those things came in April of 2025. So, we know that this man was vetted over and over and over again. And look, what I would say is I don't think that this is a vetting issue. I think this is a mental health issue.

This man, and there's no excuse, ideology, reason that that gives any quarter for what this man did. He needs to be held accountable to the full extent of the law. But we see people with PTSD do insane stuff all the time. We don't have the resources for them that we need. And what should have caught him is any number of the domestic security programs that President Trump defunded and reallocated all the resources over to immigration enforcement, to stunts at Home Depot, to snatching teachers out of classrooms.

JIMENEZ: You know, at this point, you know, this is -- this is something this is a dynamic. Then you talk about some of the domestic programs. There were many that -- that were defunded earlier this year.

But I -- one of the questions I have for you is, yes, these are things that the vetting process in this context would -- would not have caught, whether it's whether it's a mental health issue, some of the same factors that might drive a United States citizen to do something like this.

[14:40:00]

But for you, resettling is one thing. But once they're here, what are the difficulties that -- that Afghans might actually face in trying to actually integrate either into U.S. living or just try to get their lives started here in a new country?

VANDIVER: Well, look, we don't fund resettlement well enough. There's resettlement agencies all over this country that are doing everything that they can with very little resourcing and even less now because President Trump ended it all just like he did in his first administration. There's not enough mental health resources.

SNAP is now no longer available for refugees, again, because of President Trump and Republicans in Congress. The one big, beautiful bill.

Look, these folks, it was hard for them during the last administration, but they at least had resources. They had legal support. They had all sorts of -- all sorts of resources that could have supported them. And it's just rough, right?

But Afghans are resilient people and they do not deserve to be held accountable for this one deranged man's insane behavior. And it's incumbent upon all of us, our leaders, our community leaders, all the stakeholders that are involved in this, to make sure that we give no ground.

President Trump and Kash Patel are trying to cover up their mistakes by vilifying an entire population and not just Afghans, all refugees, all people from the 19 countries and the travel ban. And they announced that they were doing this crackdown last Friday. They're not doing anything in response to this. They're just using this to justify what they've been doing all along to screw our wartime allies.

JIMENEZ: Shawn VanDiver, I got to leave the conversation there, but thank you for being here. Appreciate the time and perspective.

VANDIVER: Thank you so much.

JIMENEZ: Of course. All right. Coming up, the World Health Organization says decades of progress made against measles in peril as cases surge, including in countries where the virus have been considered eliminated, coming up.

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[14:46:24]

JIMENEZ: The Black Friday spending sprees are underway. Check out the early morning lines and crowds at stores in New York City and at the Mall of America near Minneapolis. A lot of people, a record number of shoppers actually are expected today through Cyber Monday. I am talking 187 million.

And for the first time, the National Retail Federation is forecasting that holiday spending through December will surpass one trillion dollars. This is also the first holiday season since President Trump imposed his sweeping tariffs. But the Retail Federation says stores stocked up in preparation.

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MATTHEW SHAY, CEO & PRESIDENT, NATIONAL RETAIL FEDERATION: Retailers are purchasing inventory many months in advance. So, a lot of lots of these goods were brought in in advance of tariff implications. So, they were brought in at pre-tariff prices there. They're able to pass along those savings and discounts to consumers.

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JIMENEZ: Joining me now is Consumer Spending Analyst Hitha Herzog. You just heard the National Retail Federation CEO there talk about sort of that stocking up in that preparation. But should shoppers still expect to see higher price tags on goods they want to buy this Black Friday?

HITHA HERZOG, CONSUMER SPENDING ANALYST: Your shoppers are seeing a bunch of different prices. It's sort of all over the board, and that has to do with dynamic pricing.

So, I have a big number for you. It's fourteen point two billion dollars. That's how much shoppers are expected to spend on Cyber Monday. But because of dynamic pricing, you could see one price that was implemented on November 20th and have it change from Black Friday all the way to Cyber Monday, which is December 1st. So, it isn't really so much about whether or not the product is going to be there. I believe Matt Shay, certainly retailers have stocked up. They were well aware of what might be happening with tariffs and potential runs on specific products and maybe those not being there. But it's the pricing that consumers really have to be aware of.

JIMENEZ: And you know, Black Friday has changed so much over the years. We've also got Cyber Monday deals on the horizon. I mean, how should shoppers be thinking about these promotions? Like when is actually the best time to shop?

HERZOG: Right, exactly. Shoppers, especially with younger shoppers, they're very stressed about what they may or may not be able to afford. According to the study that Afterpay did, the holiday survey for 2025, about 35 percent of shoppers are stressed about holiday expenses, about other expenses coming down the pipeline.

So, what I'm telling people is that if you can afford it, if you can afford it, buy the toys now. That's going to be the ones that have the most discount. And when I say most discount on the big box stores, right, you're talking Walmart, Amazon, Target. You're seeing discounts of up to 50 percent.

You're also running into the potential problem of if you're shopping overseas and having those smaller items, those toys come in, they might be caught up in customs. So, if you shop big box, you want to look for discounts of up to 50 percent and toys. And of course, I'm going to reiterate, you need to be able to afford that with electronics, especially televisions. You want to wait until January because consumer electronic show is going to be happening. The newer models of those TVs are going to roll out.

So, the older models suddenly go on mass discount. And then, of course, apparel, if you're into buying sweaters or anything for winter or for yourself or gifts, you want to wait until next week, maybe take advantage of that for Cyber Monday. And those discounts are going to run somewhere between 20 to 30 percent off.

JIMENEZ: You know, shopping between Black Friday and Christmas, you know, we laid out some of the forecasts, but it will be a test of sort of America's economic strength and also an embodiment of where consumer sentiment is right now as well. What do you expect we're going to see coming up here?

[14:50:11]

HERZOG: I think we're really going to see what is indicative of the K shaped economy. And I know we're probably hearing this over and over again, but we have a higher income spender that is really being able to spend on their credit cards and then pay that off immediately. They are price agnostic. It doesn't matter if the price of strawberries are going up or a price of a handbag is going up.

They do not feel the pinch. Meanwhile, the lower income spenders, the ones that are a little bit scared of putting things on credit cards. In fact, according to the same after pay study, Gen Z is actually feeling it out by credit cards.

They tend to go into buy now, pay later, much more so at a cadence of 44 percent versus others. So, that lower income spender is going to be the one that's really feeling the pension pulling back.

JIMENEZ: Yeah.

HERZOG: So, what is that telling us? The economy is being driven by the high-income earner. And those that are putting things on credit cards and not paying that off, they're going to be hit hard as we get in January and February. If they're not paying those credit cards off, that interest rate is rising. That might hurt them in the long run.

JIMENEZ: Hitha Herzog, appreciate the insight. Thank you for being here. And I guess we're about to get into it now. Let's see what happens with the season.

HERZOG: Absolutely, thanks for having me.

JIMENEZ: Of course. All right, coming up, it's poised to smash auction records. Why a rare Faberge egg is expected to go to the highest bidder for an extraordinary amount of money. It's pretty good to me.

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[14:56:17]

JIMENEZ: We want to bring you some breaking news. In a Truth Social post shared moments ago, President Trump says he's terminating and therefore making ineffective any documents signed by former President Joe Biden with an auto pen. Trump also warns that if President Biden objects, he will be charged with perjury.

OK, a lot to unpack here. Kristen Holmes is near Mar-a-Lago, where the President is spending the holiday. I mean, Kristen, can you just bring us the details of what this post says and what do we expect this to mean for the White House here?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Omar, what expect -- what do we expect this to mean is still in question. I mean, we're going to have to have lawyers look at this to examine what is actually legal here, of what it is that he is saying beyond these perjury charges. He's talking about essentially reversing 92 percent of things that President Biden put into effect.

So, I'll read you what this post says exactly. It says, "Any document signed by sleepy Joe Biden with the auto pen, which was approximately 92 percent of them' -- I am not sure where he is getting that number, just to be clear, 'is hereby terminated and of no further force or effect.

'The auto pen is not allowed to be used if approval is not specifically given by the President of the United States. The radical left lunatics circling Biden around the beautiful Resolute desk in the Oval Office took the presidency away from him. 'I am hereby cancelling all executive orders and anything else that

was not directly signed by Joe Biden because the people who operated the auto pen did so illegally.

'Joe Biden was not involved in the auto pen process and if he says he was, he will be brought up on charges of perjury. Thank you for your attention to this matter."

OK, so again, it's not entirely clear a couple of things. One, this 92 percent number of things that Joe Biden signed that he is now saying are ineffective. We don't know what falls under that 92 percent. We also don't know legally if President Trump is allowed to do this to essentially reverse 92 percent of the things signed by Joe Biden.

This other part here where he is saying that it's not just Joe Biden complying, but that if Joe Biden says that he was part of the auto pen process, that is what's going to get him brought up for perjury charges.

Look, there are a lot of questions here. We know President Trump has been fixated on this idea of the auto pen. He has been saying both publicly and privately that this is the biggest scandal of all time. And we know even in the White House, he replaced the portrait of Joe Biden and put a picture of a pen or an auto pen.

So, it's not that surprising that he would go all in on this idea of the auto pen as the president often does. But I do just want to be very clear. It is not clear what is actually in this, what this means, and also whether or not legally he can take this step.

JIMENEZ: Yeah, and we'll be talking to a lawyer about some of the implications here coming up. And I should mention that President Biden has defended his office's use of the auto pen, saying he was the one in charge of the decisions previously.

But Kristen Holmes, thank you for bringing us that breaking news. A lot to unpack there, which again, we'll get into again in a few minutes.

Let's get you to some other headlines we're watching right now. One of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy's closest aides has resigned just hours after anti-corruption agencies raided his home. As chief of staff to Zelenskyy, Andrii Yermak is often considered Ukraine's second most powerful man. He's been leading Ukraine's delegation at peace talks with the United States in Geneva. Yermak's resignation comes just two weeks into a sweeping investigation into an alleged kickback scheme involving Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

The upcoming auction of a rare Faberge imperial egg could go for a record-breaking $26 million. The 1913 winter egg showcases snowflakes engraved into a clear quartz exterior and is adorned with around 4,500 tiny diamonds, give or take. It also features a bejeweled basket of flowers inside.

[15:00:18] Only 50 of the eggs were made for two Russian czars between 1885 and 1916. Most are in museums, institutions or just lost. Only a handful are still in private hands and this may be one of the last times one of the legendary Faberge eggs goes up for auction.