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Shutdown Averted; Russia's War On Ukraine; Biden Signs 45-Day Funding Bill To Keep Government Open; New York City Works To Dry Out After Severe Flooding; Pro-Russian politician Wins Slovakia's Parliamentary Election; Jimmy Carter Turns 99, As Celebrations Pour In From Around The World; Harvard University Inaugurates Its First Black President; NASA Eyes October Launch For "Psyche" Asteroid Mission. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired October 01, 2023 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:36]

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes in Atlanta, appreciate your company.

With just hours to spare, the US Senate, late Saturday, averted a government shutdown. By a vote of 88 to 9, senators passed the House bill that will keep the money flowing for another 45 days. The White House sent out a photo of President Biden signing the short term measure into law shortly before the midnight deadline.

The deal came together with surprising speed in the end with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy abruptly changing course and asking Democrats for help. The result was a resounding bipartisan passage of a short term bill. But many lawmakers on both sides are very unhappy. The final bill did not contain additional aid to Ukraine, especially at such a critical moment in the war. Still, Senate leaders were relieved to have brought this showdown to an end.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHICK SCHUMER (D-NY), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: It's been a day full of twists and turns, but the American people can breathe a sigh of relief, there will be no government shutdown. Democrats have said from the start that the only solution for avoiding a shutdown is bipartisanship. And we're glad that Speaker McCarthy has finally heated our message. In the end, more Democrats supported this bill in the House than Republicans, proving bipartisanship was the best answer all along.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: Passing this measure. keeping the lights on will allow us to return our attention to making headway on full year appropriations our colleagues have been working on literally for months. And it will give us the flexibility to meet urgent supplemental priorities both at home and abroad. Therefore, I would urge our colleagues to join me in supporting this important step in the right direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: CNN's Manu Raju now takes a look at how the last minute deal unfolded.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So after a chaotic day and fears of a shutdown gripped Washington for weeks, Congress gave final approval on a bill to keep the government open for 45 more days. This after Speaker McCarthy change plans, reversed course and relied on Democratic votes to get this bill out of the US House. For sometime, Speaker McCarthy had wanted to just pass a bill along Republican lines, just get Republicans on board. But he struggled amid opposition from a handful of conservative hardliners who refuse to give him the votes. Also, the same hardliners warned that if he decided to work with Democrats that could cost him his job as speaker.

At the end of the day, after a meeting on Saturday with his conference, McCarthy decided to roll the dice. Go take on these hardliners directly and tried to keep the government open with Democratic support. That happened. They passed a bill out of the House that had overwhelming support, bipartisan support, half of -- more than half of the House Republican conference voted for it. All but one Democratic House member voted for it as well.

Now, then it moved over to the United States Senate where the Senate approved it overwhelmingly 88 to 8 vote, 9 Republican senators voted against it. But it didn't come without some controversy, namely, the decision by Speaker McCarthy to not include Ukraine aid in this final package. The White House had pushed for $24 billion in Ukraine aid to be approved this year. But the Senate was trying to approve as part of the bill to keep the government open, $6.2 billion of that package. McCarthy had a different idea.

Because of opposition within the conservative ranks of his conference and divisions within the House GOP, McCarthy decided to not include Ukraine aid as part of this package. Leaving open the question, can Congress get behind and give approval to Ukraine at this critical time in its war against Russia? It is unclear if that will happen. But that will be a major point of contention when Congress resumes and deals with this funding issue again in 45 days.

[01:05:05]

This all comes as there is still a threat to McCarthy's speakership. A number of members expressed their dissatisfaction with his handling of the talks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TROY NEHLS (R-TX): I think it's shameful in many, many ways.

REP. WESLEY HUNT (R-TX): We cannot continue to kick this can down the road.

REP. RALPH NORMAN, (R-SC): I'm disappointed. I wish we had fought, we just didn't fight. REP. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-CO): We should have forced them to come to the negotiating table and come to conference, and hash out our differences.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, none of those members, though, said that they would actually vote the House Speaker McCarthy, I asked every single one of them if they're ready to do that. They would not go there, raising questions about whether the effort to push them out will succeed. Matt Gaetz, the ringleader of that effort has not said explicitly, he will file a vote to push McCarthy out of the speakership.

But this is a threat that has been over the speaker for some time. And when I asked the speaker about this earlier today, he said bring it on. Mana Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

HOLMES: And joining me now from Washington, DC is Maria Cardona, CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist. We also have Jason Osborne, former Republican strategist and ex-campaign adviser to Donald Trump. He joins me from Baton Rouge in Louisiana. Thanks to you both for staying up late for us.

Jason, let's start with you. So, McCarthy got more Democratic votes than he got from his own party. I mean, he relied on the enemy, even some of his own colleagues are saying that where did the events of the last week or so leave McCarthy in terms of his job security?

JASON OSBORNE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, you know, I think we're getting slowly reaching a point where, if I'm McCarthy and other members of his leadership team, I'm going to call Matt Gaetz's bluff on this. Because we can't continue to go down this road where every single time there's a vote or an issue that's coming up, McCarthy has to worry about whether he's going to have a revolt against him within his own party.

I think, though, that I mean, as we're moving forward here. I mean, McCarthy does have 45 days to try and accomplish what he has set out to do, which is to pass 13 appropriations bills out of the House, and hopefully have the Senate get step in and pass them as well, so that we can get that portion of the agenda taken care of.

But I do think that Kevin McCarthy certainly is breathing a sigh of relief today. It's not the way that he wanted it to happen but it happened. And I think he's turning to the next page to go on to the next battle.

HOLMES: Yes. Maria is a Democratic strategist. How should Democrats handle what's happening in a political sense? I mean, heavens forbid bipartisanship became the preferred way of doing things in Congress. What do you think?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think clearly, Democrats did exactly what they had said that they would do for weeks, which is work with a sensible Speaker McCarthy if he was going to bring to the floor a clean CR, which he finally did. And Democrats decided that that was the right thing to do. And, of course, they were going to vote for this to keep the government open.

But they also stressed that this was all wasted energy, wasted time, chaos that was not needed stress on the American economy that was not needed, embarrassment on the global stage that was not needed, if only McCarthy had realized from the get go that he needs to govern by putting country over party, by putting the American people before his own job ambition.

And so, I think Democrats said finally, Speaker McCarthy is doing the right thing. He came to his senses and asked for help from Democrats to pass what we all knew, in the end, had to be a bipartisan bill to keep the government open. But he could have avoided this way before if he had not broken his promise that he made with the White House, and with other Democrats back in May to be able to, again, keep the government open, focused on what they had agreed two months ago.

HOLMES: And when it comes to the system, I mean, the public reaction to the whole political dysfunction is clear. I just wanted to pull up some research from Pew. And, yes, we're just a little more than a year from the presidential election, nearly two thirds of Americans, you see there, 65% say they always or often feel exhausted thinking about politics, 55% feel angry. And there's another one too that says, 8 in 10 Americans, 86% in fact, say that the following is a good description of politics. And I'll quote, "Republicans and Democrats are more focused on fighting each other than solving problems."

Jason, another shutdown, there was a near death default not long ago. What needs to change to have effective governance rather than the nonstop ideological battles and dysfunction that the public clearly hates?

OSBORNE: Well, listen, I mean I've been doing this now for 30 years. I know in the beginning you said former Republican strategist I don't know if I've retired yet.

[01:10:06]

But, you know, since the '90s, at least, and that's what I can speak to is the '90 through now. That congressional approval and political approval or politician's approval is always very low, right? And I don't know that we're going to reach a point where things will change too much, except when we can get rid of some of the folks like Matt Gaetz on our side. And there's a few on the Democrat side that I think are stirring the pot, and making things difficult for people to actually get the job done in many ways.

I mean, I remember back when we had a moderate Republican and we had a conservative Democrat, and those folks tended to band together and respect each other and try and get things accomplished. But I'm afraid that we're at least a year away from shutting the door on some of these more outspoken folks on both sides, quite frankly. But I wish I had a magic wand to be able to answer that question and come up with solutions. But I'm afraid I don't.

HOLMES: Yes. Maria, Senator John Fetterman, I mean, it was interesting. He made the comment I'll just quoting here. He said, pushing the snooze button solves nothing because these same losers will try to pull the same S-H-you-know-what in 45 days. And it really does make the point that we're just talking about that this keeps happening. I mean, looming shutdown is now a routine phrase for journalists these days. And you we're going to an international audience. This stuff doesn't happen in other major countries with the regularity that it does here.

CARDONA: That's exactly right, Michael, and that's why I stressed in my first comments that this is a global embarrassment, because this is not what should be happening in the greatest country in the world and in the greatest democracy in the world. But the fact of the matter is, that our political system has been poisoned by Republican MAGA, what we call MAGA, Make America Great Again, Trump-inspired extremists, who are the ones that were holding Kevin McCarthy hostage in the House of Representatives.

And I agree with Jason, that this is not going to go away until those MAGA extremists are gone. And I know he likes to include Democrats in here but let's be very clear, that is a false equivalency. There is no one on the Democratic side that has ever done anything that the MAGA extremists in the House of Representatives just tried to pull with Kevin McCarthy.

And we have never had a Speaker of the House that has kowtowed to the extremists the way that Kevin McCarthy did. Lord knows, Nancy Pelosi never, never had that problem.

And so, the extremists on the Republican side have to go. I hope Kevin McCarthy is able to continue to put them to the side and make sure that they know that what they need to do as a party is to put the country over party and govern. That is their job. We're going to be in political peril if they don't realize that.

HOLMES: A right of reply there. Jason. I'll let you have your say. But how has McCarthy's deal with the devil if you like the so-called MAGA Republicans to get the job of speaker in the beginning impacted him? And for that matter, how the House run, House is run? What are the risks of that relatively small group of Republicans holding such power in the caucus?

OSBORNE: Well, I think to Maria's point, I mean, I think she is accurate in the sense that on the Democrat side, they've never had to deal with this kind of issue, because they've never had a majority that has been this small, and increase -- and our majority is actually from the Republican side, getting even smaller, given, you know, some folks that are retired and, you know, maybe somebody will be in jail soon, who knows.

But I think the problem that we have is that Kevin McCarthy had to make some sort of deal. And I think at its base, that Kevin truly felt, as with many others in the Republican Party, is that some of these folks that he was making a deal with would understand that in order to govern, and in order to pass legislation, you have to make concessions here and there.

You can fight until the bitter end, but at a certain point you need to understand that the door is going to close and it has to close, and that you can't keep fighting the battle. And that's the problem Kevin had in the last few weeks, is that the ball kept getting moved or the line kept getting moved for Kevin to have to deal with. And so, finally, he gave up and said, you know what, we're going to make this bipartisan and we're going to reach out to the Democrats. And it's going to happen again.

So I don't know at the end of the day, I don't know the caucus has to help Kevin kind of corral these renegades and get them out of the way.

HOLMES: Well, yes. The outset, heaven forbid, they did all work together, wouldn't that be nice?

[01:15:02]

We're almost out of time. But, Maria, I do want to raise Ukraine. When it comes to that, the historian Timothy Snyder, super intelligent guy. He tweeted earlier, and I just want to read it. He says cutting off Ukraine aid makes America unreliable, weakens the cause of democracy, threatens the international legal order, encouraging tyrants around the world and hastens Chinese aggression. Ukraine funding is not in this deal, as we know, despite the majority of House and Senate Republicans wanting continued support for Ukraine.

What message is the -- and it may well come, this aid, but it's not here. And it really does stand out but it's not. What message does that send to Vladimir Putin when a tiny minority threatens that support?

CARDONA: The Republican Party is giving him a gift. And I think Republicans really need to be careful about that. And I completely agree with the historian, it's a really bad message to send. But I will say President Biden, the Democrats, and I believe the Republicans in Congress that support funding Ukraine, and let's remember this, Speaker McCarthy is one of them. They need to work in the next 45 days to ensure that support and funding for Ukraine is as robust as it can be, because we are all in the fight of our time for democracy, not just here in the United States but all around the world.

And if we let Ukraine falter, then to the historian's point, that is a huge gift to Putin and to other autocrats around the world, because we're letting them -- we're telling them you can do whatever you want and the United States is not going to do a thing. And that is not something that President Biden is going to allow.

HOLMES: Yes. We were out of time before I even ask that question. But, Jason, I got to give you a chance to mention Ukraine.

OSBORNE: Yes. No, I mean, I don't disagree. I think my concern, I guess, as somebody who is mindful of the US dollar, right, is how much is too much. I think that we have to be in there and supporting Ukraine. I stand by Kevin McCarthy and many others in the Republican Party that do support funding Ukraine. But at a certain level, we need to figure out like how much more are we going to do without other countries stepping up and matching us? Or at least helping us along the way? I don't think now is the time to have that discussion but, you know, at some point we need to.

HOLMES: Well, OK. Yes. Other countries are spending more than the US both.

CARDONA: That's right.

HOLMES: But, Jason -- Jason and Maria, really appreciate the time. We do you have to leave it there. Thanks so much.

CARDONA: Thank you, Michael.

OSBORNE: Thank you.

HOLMES: All right. Ukraine aid takes a hit as we said, and in this move that avoided a US government shutdown. When we come back, we're going to have a look at the impact on Kyiv's war effort and get a reaction from a Ukrainian lawmaker.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:21:31]

HOLMES: Welcome back. And as we've been reporting, Washington has approved a last ditch plan to avert a government shutdown. Earlier President Joe Biden signing the measure into law which keeps the federal agencies running for another 45 days, at least. The continuing resolution, as it's called, was passed by both Houses of Congress on Saturday night. It happened just hours before the deadline and after days of uncertainty.

And as we were discussing before the break, Ukraine got the short end of the stick in that compromise bill. The Senate was originally considering more than $6 billion in new aid for Kyiv. But in the end, the money for Ukraine was entirely left out of this stopgap measure.

Former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney comparing the move with a 1938 speech by the then British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, which is widely seen as part of his strategy to appease the Nazis in Germany. She said in the social media post, that appeasement didn't work then, it won't work now, referring to Putin and Russia, of course.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats say they will keep pushing for more aid for Kyiv Majority Leader Chuck Schumer saying that when it comes to Ukraine, the two top Senate leaders are on the same page.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHUMER: Leader McConnell and I have agreed to continue fighting for more economic and security aid for Ukraine. We support Ukraine's efforts to defend its sovereignty against Putin's aggression. So thank you, thank you to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their excellent work. The bipartisanship here in the Senate set the tone for today's result, and I hope it sets the tone for the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: While Ukraine missed out on some additional US aid for now, it plans to put more of its own money into weapons production. Kyiv says its spending on arms making, as it put it, will increase seven fold next year. Ukraine also hosting an international forum on Saturday to pitch itself as a future hub for arms manufacturing. We have CNN's Fred Pleitgen now reports for. US support remains crucial for Ukraine's war effort.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Ukrainian certainly are aware of some of the skepticism in the United States about funding for Ukraine, especially as far as weapons are concerned. But also, of course, as far as money is concerned as well among congressional Republicans and also, of course, among the US public.

Now, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of the country was, of course recently in the United States, and he was asking for more weapons because the Ukrainians understand that if they're going to stay in the fight against the Russians and make headway against the Russians, they are going to need a lot more weapons.

Now, there are some items that the Ukrainians have said in the future will be absolutely key to them. Like for instance ATACMS missiles is definitely something that they want. And, of course, in the future, also F-16s to essentially rebuild their air force according to NATO standard. They also think those jets are a lot more capable than the ones that they're flying right now.

But in the short term, the Ukrainian say, it really is ammunition that they need, and they certainly need a lot of them. One of the interesting things that Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a point of doing is saying, look, there has been some talk about possible corruption within the defense ministry here in Ukraine. He said nothing had to -- of that had to do with weapons that were provided by the United States.

[01:25:02]

And one of the things, of course, that he also did is he replaced his defense minister pretty much right before coming to the US and took that new defense minister to the United States to reassure the US that if it gives weapons and when it gives weapons to Ukraine, it would be a transparent process.

The Ukrainians fully understand that without further weapons from the United States, and also its partners, they're going to have a very difficult time sustaining some of the high level operations that they're conducting right now. Fred Pleitgen, CNN in Eastern Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: But one Ukrainian lawmaker says sustaining the ongoing operations, there's only one side of the problem, he says. The other side is that Russia will see the US congressional vote as a green light of sorts to step up its attacks on Ukraine. Ukrainian parliament member, Maryan Zablotskyi, spoke to CNN's Jim Sciutto a bit earlier. Jim asked him if he believes Congress will approve more aid in the future.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARYAN ZABLOTSKYI, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: We are very grateful for the aid already received. But for us, it's a measure for survival. Without US aid, unfortunately, our country will most likely be occupied and very likely genocide will happen. So this is a matter of survival of a European nation.

I'm actually surprised that our army was able to achieve what it already achieved by breaking some of the lines. We have no air dominance, so we can we cannot use any air cover for our troops. And unfortunately, the amount of equipment still provided to Ukraine is very tiny compared to what Russia still has within its means. So it was mostly done with the bravery of our soldiers. And I commend them for having at least some progress.

But unfortunately, if there will be an interruption in aid, we will definitely go back on just trying to keep our positions. We are very grateful for all the previous (inaudible) and for providing aid to Ukraine. Without that our country would have probably been occupied and probably millions with have been killed in genocide.

This is extremely important that we keep the world order and show that no big country can do something better other countries, because it will also not just results in the deaths of millions of Ukrainians. It will be a signal to China and other countries that you can do that to the weaker nations if they have smaller military power or smaller economic power.

I'm very grateful for the aid provided so far. Please keep doing that because unfortunately even listened to eruption will for sure result already in the hundreds. Ukrainians probably (inaudible) on skills that's whose lives probably could have been saved if Ukraine continued to have full support.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: That was Ukrainian parliament member Maryan Zablotskyi.

The US may have averted a disruptive shutdown, but the government is not out of the woods yet. Coming up, we'll have a look at the outstanding issues that must be addressed in the next 45 days.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:31:44]

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. You're watching CNN Newsroom with me Michael Holmes. Collective sigh of relief right now after Congress narrowly averted a government shutdown, which many were expecting until just a few hours ago. The breakthrough came earlier on Sunday when U.S. House Speaker Kevin

McCarthy gave up trying to appease the far-right members of his caucus, instead turning to Democrats for help passing a stopgap measure. Here's what the speaker had to say afterwards about the small group of Republicans who have been giving him so many headaches.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN MCCARTHY, U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: You have members in your conference that won't let you vote for appropriation bills, doesn't want an omnibus and won't vote for a stopgap measure. So the only answer is to shut down and not pay our troops. I don't want to be a part of that team. I want to be a part of a conservative group that wants to get things done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Congressman Ken Buck admitted that 45 days isn't very long, but said it was doable. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN BUCK, U..S HOUSE SPEAKER: I don't think it's a bad thing to have bipartisan votes on some issues. I think the Democrats are going to join with moderate Republicans anytime we're talking about spending a huge amount of money. I think that Kevin McCarthy's problem really is the lack of passing 12 bills on time and then getting jammed at the last minute with this.

We're going to see at least four appropriations bills in the next two weeks. Hopefully those pass at that point we'll have eight or nine of the 12 bills passed and that would be a real relief to a lot of us. This 45 days will come a lot quicker than people anticipate. And we'll be faced with another crisis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Millions of Americans can breathe easier tonight knowing their paychecks will keep coming at potential crisis averted at least for a short while. But as CNN senior White House correspondent MJ Lee tells us there are still questions that need to be addressed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Just hours ahead of a midnight deadline for a government shutdown, President Biden signing into law a government funding bill that would fund the government for 45 days, but the White House had made a deliberate decision some time ago to take a hands off approach as the process unfolded on Capitol Hill.

The messaging that we have been hearing from the White House over the last few days has really been this is the House Republicans problem to solve. They made a political calculation that if the government were to shut down at midnight, that House Republicans would end up shouldering much of that political blame. Of course, there is a sigh of relief tonight here at the White House,

but a government shutdown has been averted. But there are two very big outstanding questions. First is how the government is going to potentially secure more funding for Ukraine. That has been a big priority for many Democrats and White House officials as well.

And it's also just not clear whether or not a situation like this is again going to unfold exactly 45 days from now, but again, there is a huge sigh of relief that a government shutdown that the White House had been bracing for and how I've been preparing for has now been averted. CNN, MJ Lee, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[01:35:07]

HOLMES: So as MJ just said it could be less than two months before the U.S .faces the threat of a shutdown again. CNN economics commentator Catherine Rampell looks at how it could endanger the economy and diminish America's standing in the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR (on camera): So far, we have gotten relatively lucky as an economy in that we have escaped a recession, which historically doesn't happen when you've had an extended run of elevated inflation. Historically, that ends in a recession and you know, knock on wood, we have avoided one so far.

More recently, though, there have been a number of shocks to the U.S. economy. None of them on their own seem large enough to cause a recession. But piled up, especially if we had a government shutdown, the outlook starts to look worse.

So I'm thinking things like the UAW strike, student debt repayments, restarting there's a childcare cliff that's looming, as well as an oil shock. Of course, that's affecting the world.

So all of those things together, do put more stress on the economy and a shutdown would have exacerbated that stress. The fact that we don't have it certainly is welcome. Part of the reason why yet another ratings agency downgraded the United States earlier this year, was specifically government dysfunction, that there was a growing consensus essentially, that we are ruled by politicians who have very little interest in governing, very little interest in getting our long term deficits under control, which is specifically why that might affect our credit rating, which has to do with our ability or willingness to repay our debt for that matter.

And so more dysfunction doesn't make us look any better, at the very least, and it just feels like over and over and over. We replay these dramas, these completely unnecessary dramas. And we look like a basket case, frankly, before the rest of the world, which you know, even if it doesn't directly affect economic outcomes, it does drag on confidence, and it does drag on confidence specifically in the United States as a responsible player on the global stage.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Catherine Rampell there. Now, in August, Fitch Ratings downgraded America's credit rating to double A plus after the most recent debt ceiling debate.

Still to come. New York City and the surrounding areas are drying out after record flooding. Our report on the day after is coming up.

Also the U.S. has not seen the last of extreme heat for the year. We'll go to the weather center for look at the week ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:41:26]

HOLMES: President Joe Biden has signed into law a short term spending bill to keep the government running for another 45 days. Congress passing the measure on Saturday night just hours before federal agencies were set to shut down. In the house, 90 Republicans voted against it. So to a single Democrat Mike Quigley. Earlier he spoke with CNN about the lack of unity in Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE QUINGLEY, U.S. HOUSE DEMOCRAT: I saw people patting each other on the back and clapping and saying this was a bipartisan victory. Let's look at the record. Recently, we came within an inch of defaulting on our debt. We just now came within inches of a shutdown. This is not how the most important democracy in the world should function. Our dysfunction. Our inability to govern is a national security threat. Beyond all the other reasons we shouldn't shut down. It's a scary time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now the stopgap spending bill includes more for natural disasters but nothing for Ukraine. Lawmakers say they will try to approve a separate funding bill to help give at a later date.

President Biden also being briefed on the historic flooding in New York City. Friday storms dropped the most rain ever recorded at JFK airport. The area is under state of emergency for the next six days. And while some flood warnings are still in effect, what a difference a day makes. CNN's Polo Sandoval reporting from New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, there's certainly a sense of normalcy that's been restored in New York City after Friday made for an absolutely nightmarish day for millions of people in America's largest city with record rainfall soaking the region right here on the ground at the entrance to the New York City subway system, at least one of them. There is also that sense of normalcy in New York Governor Kathy Hochul

confirming on Saturday that the transit system is back up and running after parts of it were essentially paralyzed by Friday's weather event. The governor also taking the time to commend not just the responders but even the people themselves, many of whom were actually listened to some of those mornings and many of them staying off the streets.

KATHY HOCHUL, NEW YORK GOVERNOR: And I want to say this, because New Yorkers heated our warning. And when they could they stayed home. And most importantly, they stayed off the roads. What had been described by myself as a potentially life threatening event ended up being a play at a time. When people listened. They reacted properly, they took precautions, and no lives were lost.

SANDOVAL: So this weekend, there's certainly a sense of pride coming from officials and some relief but also some serious questions that are being asked about what can be done to limit the impact. The next time we see an event of this magnitude as we heard from New York City officials say on Friday and again on Saturday.

They believe that climate change is certainly a factor here that we are likely going to see these kinds of weather events and they hope that infrastructure will be able to keep up which is why they are calling on more investment and that system. Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Well the calendar may now say it is October but parts of the U.S. will see record high temperatures until at least mid-week. As meteorologist Allison Chinchar shows us there is a change coming after that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST (on camera): In total more than 30 potential records could be tied or broken starting Sunday all the way through Wednesday of this week.

[01:45:03]

And you'll notice it several different regions of the US that are looking at those potential records. Now for some portions of the central U.S. those records actually began on Saturday including the area around Brownsville, Texas, which means they can end up breaking records three or even four days in a row before we finally start to see those temperatures dropping back down towards normal.

Take, for example, Sioux Falls, going from a high on Sunday of 93 degrees back down to only 76 On Tuesday, keeping in mind however, that that 76 is still actually above normal for this time of year just not quite as extreme as the high temperature will be on Sunday.

Another location looking at that big drop St. Louis going from a high of 91 on Sunday down to the low 80s Thursday before dropping back below average into the low to mid 70s once we finish out the rest of this week.

Farther down to the South Dallas also looking at several more hot days looking at highs in the mid-90s once all the way through Tuesday of the upcoming week before finally dropping back into the 80s by the end of the week and possibly down even into the low 70s once we get some rain back into the forecast next weekend.

Now this heat is going to stick around it's just going to start to shift as we head into the latter portion of the upcoming week. So you'll notice it starts to recede from the central U.S. really starting to focus more across the Northeast in the mid-Atlantic as cooler air begins to push into the central U.S. by Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

That means into the Northeast those temperatures are actually going to be warming looking at all buddy going from 78 on Sunday back into the mid-80s by Tuesday. Similar scenario for Boston going from 73 on Sunday up to the 80s once we get to the middle portion of this week.

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HOLMES: Allison Chinchar there. Now in Slovakia the party of a pro- Russia lawmaker has won this weekend's parliamentary election. Former Prime Minister Robert Fico's party has taken more than 23 percent of the vote. That's with 99 percent of districts recording.

Now, Fico has a chance to regain office but he will need coalition partners since his party obviously didn't secure enough to win the vote outright. He has vowed to end military support for Ukraine and wants to block Kyiv's ambitions to join NATO.

Another quick break on the program. When we come back, Jimmy Carter turns 99 today. We'll take a look at birthday greetings from around the world for Americans 39th President.

And a mission like no other, NASA moves forward with plans to reach a far flung asteroid. We'll get a preview when we come back.

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[01:51:34]

HOLMES: U.S. lawmakers have avoided a government shutdown for at least another 45 days. Just hours ago the Senate passing a stopgap spending bill to keep the government's doors open until November 17. For now, millions of government employees and active military members will continue getting paid.

President Joe Biden quickly signing the bill into law. He blames the near shutdown squarely on hardline congressional Republicans saying they created a manufactured crisis by walking away from an earlier budget agreement that they had signed on to and by demanding drastic cuts in the words of the President.

And birthday greetings keep on rolling in for former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. The White House put up a huge birthday cake on the grounds that he called home for four years. The former president turns 99 on Sunday. Carter late largely remained out of the public eye since he started receiving hospice care at his home in Georgia seven months ago. Meanwhile, country singer Willie Nelson sharing a birthday message for his longtime friend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIE NELSON, COUNTRY SINGER: Happy Birthday President Gardner. I'm thinking about you love you. We miss you. I hope you have a real good one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The Carter Center are arranged for 14,000 people around the world to send messages of appreciation thanks and birthday wishes to President Carter.

For the first time in its nearly 400 year history, Harvard University has inaugurated its first black president. Claudine Gay also became the second woman ever to lead the Ivy League school and she is the 30th president since Harvard's founding in 1640.

In her inaugural speech, Gay says she is humbled by the prospect of leading Harvard and has for the students and faculty the consensus is gays appointment is long overdue.

NASA moving forward with plans to launch a spacecraft called Psyche to an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter. It would take years to get there but it could be very well worth it with the asteroid believed to contain about 10 quintillion dollars worth of metals. Here's Lynda Kinkade.

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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): A NASA spacecraft named Psyche is about to embark on a 2.2 billion mile journey that's 3.6 billion kilometers over the next six years. The destination, a metal rich asteroid named 16 Psyche that orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.

The asteroid whose diameter is roughly the length of Massachusetts will be the first metal space object that humans have ever visited. Scientists hypothesize its Psyche was formed when a rocky planet lost its surface after colliding with other bodies, exposing the metallic core, one could almost call psyches mission a journey to the center of the Earth, even though it's in outer space. Since humans cannot drill a path to the Earth's core, asteroids like Psyche may be our only chance to visit something like it.

LINDY ELKINS-TANTON, PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR OF PSYCHE MISSION, ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY: So we're going to learn about when we get to psyche a previously unstudied ingredient that went into making our habitable Earth and that is the metal that is now in the earth's core and the cores of all of the rocky planets. Course that we can never visit but course that we want to learn about.

[01:55:07]

KINKADE: The psyche spacecraft is expected to reach the asteroid in 2029. And during its six-year journey, it would travel from Earth to Mars then slingshot from Mars into the asteroid belt before arriving at Psyche. It will then orbit the asteroid for more than two years, taking images mapping and studying the metallic object. The metal and Psyche is estimated to be worth as much as 10 quintillion dollars. But the scientists who came up with that value points out the number is somewhat meaningless.

ELKINS-TANTON: Both so we were able to actually bring Psyche back then it would flood the metals market and it would literally be worth nothing.

KINKADE: The mission is set to lift off a 12 a SpaceX Falcon heavy rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as early as October 12. Lynda Kinkade, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: So what happens when a shark shows up in the middle of a fever of stingrays? We'll have a look at the video just captured off the coast of Florida. And you can see one shark approaching hundreds of stingrays and suddenly the shark starts chasing them. A drone operator said he planned to capture videos of dolphins and sharks for his video blog, but his jaw dropped when he saw this mini stingrays instead.

According to local news reports the footage has already racked up nearly a million and a half views and counting.

Does doesn't look like he's got one. Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes. Stick around. I'll be back with more CNN Newsroom in just a moment.

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