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Trump Signs Temporary Bill to Reopen Government 43 Days After the Longest Shutdown in History; U.S. to Mint Last-Ever Pennies After More Than Two Centuries of Production. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired November 13, 2025 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead.

President Trump signs a bill to reopen the U.S. government, ending the longest federal shutdown in history.

Awkward questions for the President about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. We will look at what's in a batch of newly released emails from Epstein.

And this tiny coin is now an historic artifact. You are looking at the last U.S. penny ever minted.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Good to have you with us.

Well, after more than six long weeks, the U.S. federal government is set to reopen. But there's no vacation for lawmakers just yet, as a new set of issues must be addressed before the end of January, or else the country may face another shutdown.

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Just hours ago, U.S. President Donald Trump signed the bill to temporarily fund the government. He once again suggested ending the Senate filibuster, saying Democrats would not have been able to drag the shutdown on without it.

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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: If we had the filibuster terminated, this would never happen again. And don't forget, we have another date coming up in the not too distant future.

We can never let this happen again. And we should be able to pass great, really great legislation. So I say terminate the filibuster because, by the way, the Democrats will do it immediately if they ever assumed office, which hopefully they won't.

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CHURCH: Notably absent from the funding package are any provisions to extend health care subsidies, the major sticking point for Democratic lawmakers. The president appeared to be open to working with Democrats to find a solution while still blaming them for the shutdown.

CNN's Manu Raju has the details on how the bill passed.

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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The longest government shutdown in American history now over after 43 days and a bitter feuding between the two parties and painful consequences for the American public. And we're just piling up by the day that is now over.

The bill passed the House on Wednesday evening. The vote was 222-209. That vote came as a result of six Democrats voting with all but two Republicans.

Those Democrats coming mostly from swing districts, breaking with their party leaders who are trying to push them to vote against this bill because of their concerns that the final product did not include an extension of expiring subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.

It was that fight, that demand by Democrats that ultimately led to this prolonged shutdown fight. Democrats were concerned that if those subsidies were not extended immediately, people would see their premiums skyrocket.

The 22 million people or so who do get their health insurance through Obamacare would be hit hard by those premium increases. And they insisted that any funding bill must be tied to an extension of those health care increases. Well, that did not happen.

In fact, at the end of the day, a deal was cut by the Senate on Sunday night that would not include the health care provisions in that bill. It was now a separate commitment that they got from the Senate Majority Leader to have a vote on a separate bill on health care at a later date.

The question is going to be what will ultimately happen with that bill. It's unlikely to pass the Senate and it's unlikely to even get a vote in the United States House.

Meantime, those Democrats who voted yes are explaining their position and why they broke from their party, including Congressman Don Davis, who comes from a swing district in North Carolina and caught up with them in the immediate aftermath of the vote.

You could have dug in and you could have fought to include this in the bill.

REP. DON DAVIS (D-NC): And I could have reopened the government because a lot of people are hurting right now. And that's what I did.

RAJU: Was the shutdown worth it?

DAVIS: Was it worth it? Again, I'll put it this way. You have to start the process by trying.

You have to allow an opportunity to talk and allow the negotiations to take its place. I mean, did I want more? Absolutely, I wanted to see more. I would love for us to prepare for the holidays and know that people, their minds are at ease.

[03:05:03]

RAJU: But this bill only keeps the government open, a fair amount of the federal government, through January 30th, which means that there will be another fight that will intensify almost right away, beginning in December, over the issue of health care that could lead into the new year. And it could prompt another shutdown fear by early next year. But at the moment, federal employees are breathing a sigh of relief, the ones who can now get paychecks in the aftermath of this feud, where they were not getting paychecks.

Many hundreds of thousands were furloughed, people not getting federal food aid. Now that's coming to an end in the aftermath of this bitter feud leading to a law reopening the government.

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

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CHURCH: Interest is heating up again in the Jeffrey Epstein case. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have released multiple emails in which the late sex offender mentions Donald Trump. He appears to reference Trump being aware that his girlfriend and accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, was poaching girls from Mar-a-Lago to work for Epstein.

In another email, Epstein refers to Trump as the dog that hasn't barked, despite years of investigation.

Donald Trump has always denied any wrongdoing and has never been charged with a crime in relation to Epstein. The next step for the House is a vote next week on a bill to release the Epstein files, which seems to have bipartisan support.

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REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): I think there's going to be a deluge of Republicans. The longer this goes on, the more support we gain. And I think the Speaker recognized that.

And that's why after months of trying to stop us, he's decided to accelerate the vote because he knows we're going to get votes, and that's going to carry momentum into the Senate. I think there are people who are criminally implicated that aren't Donald Trump, but they may be his friends, and I think that's who he's trying to protect.

REP, RO KHANNA (D-CA): We're talking about rich and powerful men who abused young girls and told people in junior high to go recruit others to be raped or abused. That's what we're talking about.

And we're saying that these victims want to expose the men who did this to them, some of these men still have buildings named after them, some of them still have scholarships named after them. Enough.

And so I think when it's actually a vote on the House floor, do you want these files released, Republicans and Democrats are going to vote yes.

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CHURCH: The White House claims the newly released emails prove absolutely nothing, and President Trump calls the renewed focus on the Epstein case a Democrat hoax to deflect from the government shutdown. CNN's Jeff Zeleny has more.

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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: An all-out White House pressure campaign was underway throughout the day on Wednesday trying to get Republicans to not sign on to a discharge petition in the House of Representatives to move forward and call on the Department of Justice to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.

An extraordinary meeting took place on Wednesday in the Situation Room here at the White House, a room that is generally reserved for national security matters. Well, this was not that meeting.

Lauren Boebert, a Republican congresswoman from Colorado, she was summoned here to the White House to have a meeting with the Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Deputy Attorney General, the Director of the FBI.

They were trying to urge her to not sign on to this so-called discharge petition. She did not do that. She said she does believe the Epstein files should be released.

So now there will be a vote of the full House of Representatives next week, Speaker Mike Johnson making that clear, and that pressure campaign is going to continue apace here with the White House very focused on what the margin of that vote may be, how many Republicans would in the end sign on to that.

Now, this is all coming as there are new revelations about the president and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Of course, there is no specific example of wrongdoing, but there was much that is learned from troves of emails, some 20,000 documents that were released. It's going to take some time to go through those, but one thing is clear, the relationship between the President and Jeffrey Epstein.

Of course, Donald Trump at that point was just a celebrity on Celebrity Apprentice, but this has effectively dogged him. And during the presidential campaign, he said that he would be supportive of releasing these documents.

Now this White House is doing anything they can to try and stop that. So the open question, how many Republicans are going to join on the Epstein files, now it's unclear if this will ever go anywhere, if the DOJ will release these files? But for now, at least, the White House once again dealing with Jeffrey Epstein.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.

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CHURCH: Joining me now from Colchester, England, Natasha Lindstaedt is a professor of government at the University of Essex. I appreciate you being with us.

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROF. OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Thanks for having me.

CHURCH: So the longest government shutdown in U.S. history is now over, but what exactly was achieved by the Democrats and the Republicans given the pain felt by so many Americans during those 43 days?

[03:10:09]

And how did each party come out of this?

LINDSTAEDT: So very little was achieved by the Republicans. And for the Democrats, of course, there's been a lot of criticism of the fact that they spent 40 days trying to get some kind of concession on health care and didn't get anything, particularly from more progressive wings of the party.

If we look back, historically speaking, it's been very difficult for a party to leverage keeping the government funded in exchange for some kind of policy concession. Look back to 2013 when Obama was in power. The Republicans tried to do this and tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

And 16 days later, they caved on the shutdown. So it's not usually successful, but I think what the Democrats should be looking at instead is that they were able to highlight the importance of health care, the fact that you have maybe 24 million people that are going to see their premiums go up. And they also shed light on the fact that Trump just was sort of cruel and callous.

They forced him to go to court to deny low-income Americans access to SNAP benefits while he is having a Great Gatsby party and then trying to build a ballroom at the White House. And then I think one of his suggestions recently was that people should take out a 50-year mortgage. So he seemed really out of touch and almost just not caring about the real needs of the American people.

So the Democrats put the Republicans in a corner and now the issue of health care has been elevated to the importance of other issues like inflation and affordability.

CHURCH: And, Natasha, how likely is it that the country will experience another shutdown after funds run out on January 31st if Republicans fail to extend health care subsidies or offer some viable health care alternative?

LINDSTAEDT: I mean, that's what we would predict. We're going to see another shutdown potentially happening.

There is some movement on the Republican side. There were some reports that some Republican House members had sent a letter to Mike Johnson that they were really worried about the health care subsidies expiring and that they wanted this issue to be brought to the fore. So it's not that clear that all the Republicans are going to be getting in line in this as they're seeing public opinion on this issue being overwhelmingly negative for the Republicans.

And do they have some kind of alternative? And we've seen some of these town hall meetings where Republicans have been in the front of really angry town members just saying, you know, what is the alternative? What do you have in exchange for that, repealing these benefits?

So this is going to be a thorny issue for Republicans. They may decide to get in line with what Trump wants them to do and remain loyal and then we're going to see another shutdown take place. I think the Democrats faced a lot of pressure, those that eventually caved in because of all the travel disruptions as well right during the busiest seasons in the U.S. with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up and New Year's.

So maybe that same type of pressure won't be there. But I would predict, given the style of government that Trump tends to lead at this point, that we're going to see another shutdown.

CHURCH: All right, we'll see what happens on that issue in December. Natasha Lindstaedt, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it.

LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.

CHURCH: Still to come, President Trump has a unique request for the Israeli President. What he's asking Isaac Herzog to do, that is next.

And later, it's the end of an era as the penny has finally run out of luck in the U.S.

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.

President Donald Trump has written a letter to Israel's President Isaac Herzog asking him to fully pardon Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his ongoing corruption trial. Netanyahu has pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust and is currently testifying in court.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond has details.

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TRUMP: Mr. President, why don't you give him a pardon?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What began as an astonishing request at the Israeli parliament podium in October now inked onto formal White House letterhead.

The President of the United States urging the Israeli President to fully pardon Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Prime Minister, writing, "While I absolutely respect the independence of the Israeli justice system and its requirements, I believe that this case against Bibi is a political unjustified prosecution, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname."

Netanyahu welcoming the incredible support, writing, "As usual, you get right to the point and call it like it is."

Trump's attempt to interfere in a sovereign country's judicial system marks an extraordinary breach of diplomatic protocol. But it is also the culmination of Trump's frequent criticism of the case. He first began floating the idea of a pardon for Netanyahu in June, calling the case a ridiculous witch hunt against their great wartime Prime Minister.

TRUMP: We'll be involved in that to help him out a little bit because I think it's very unfair.

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DIAMOND (voice-over): The Israeli Prime Minister has been on trial for more than five years. Amid a slew of delays, he only took the stand for the first time late last year, the first sitting Prime Minister to do so in Israel's history.

He is facing charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust in three separate cases. In one, he is accused of receiving cigars, champagne and other expensive gifts from wealthy businessmen in exchange for political favors. In the other two, he is accused of discussing quid pro quo arrangements to receive more favorable coverage in Israeli media.

Netanyahu maintains his innocence and hasn't asked for a pardon. While the Israeli President does have the power to issue pardons, his office says that can only happen following a formal request from the person seeking it.

TRUMP: It's a little risque. I'm bringing up a pretty sore subject in Israel. But the people were fantastic.

DIAMOND (voice-over): By wading into one of Israel's most divisive issues, Trump is putting his own sky-high approval among Israelis on the line.

In a country where the mere mention of Netanyahu's name --

UNKNOWN: -- to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu--

DIAMOND (voice-over): -- often triggers a charged reaction.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Indigenous protesters are defending their decision to storm the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Brazil.

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They clash with security guards on Tuesday, demanding climate action and forest protection, specifically in the Amazon, where their communities live. The protesters say they wanted to gain the attention of world leaders because they were excluded from the summit.

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UNKNOWN (through translator): They aren't concerned about our struggle.

What they say is that we're against the government. On the contrary, we're not against the government. We need the government with us, but it must be honest with everyone.

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CHURCH: The indigenous communities joined the People's Summit, which runs parallel to COP30. They took part in a 200-boat convoy in Belem, Brazil. Thousands of activists and environmentalists are attending in an effort to express their commitment to climate and social justice.

Three original paintings by renowned T.V. artist Bob Ross have fetched a total of $662,000 at auction. Two of the pieces, sold in Los Angeles on Tuesday, were created on Ross's PBS show, "The Joy of Painting," which aired from 1983 to 1994. In all, 30 paintings by the late artist will be sold.

Organized by American Public Television, or APT, the sale aims to support U.S. public T.V. stations amid recent federal funding cuts.

Coming up, America's most advanced aircraft carrier is now positioned near Latin America. We'll go to the streets of Caracas to see how Venezuelans are feeling about the increased tensions with the United States.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHURCH: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom," I'm Rosemary Church. I want to check today's top stories for you.

President Trump has signed a bill to temporarily fund the U.S. government and end the longest shutdown in American history. The bill does not include anything about subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, a point Democrats had been pushing to address. But House Speaker Mike Johnson says he has already been in touch with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries about possible fixes.

The House is expected to vote next week on a bill to release all the Jeffrey Epstein files. Democrats have made public several emails from the late sex offender in which he mentions Donald Trump. The President has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has never been charged with a crime in relation to Epstein.

Russia and Kazakhstan are boosting their partnership in the oil industry amid the fallout from U.S. sanctions on Russian oil companies. The leader of Kazakhstan says they also agree to strengthen their ties around coal, electricity and transportation. The talks come as Russia faces limited prospects due to international sanctions for its war on Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says America's recent military strikes in the Caribbean did not come up during his meeting with G7 foreign ministers in Canada. When asked about European concerns regarding the attacks on alleged drug boats, Rubio said they shouldn't have a say on how the U.S. defends its national security.

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MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I don't think that the European Union gets to determine what international law is. They certainly don't get to determine how the United States defends its national security.

I do find it interesting that all these countries want us to send and supply, for example, nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles to defend Europe, but when the United States positions aircraft carriers in our hemisphere where we live, somehow that's a problem.

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CHURCH: Venezuelans are expressing concern, fear and skepticism as tensions between their country and the U.S. intensify. America's most advanced aircraft carrier is now in the Latin American region, while Venezuela announced a massive mobilization of military forces. Stefano Pozzebon takes us to the streets of Caracas for a look at life there now.

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STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Some of the people that we spoke with earlier today throughout the last couple of weeks since I've been here have been telling us that they believe that the only way to launch Maduro out of power is an intervention from the American armed forces.

Other people instead are saying that they see this imperialistic threat, which is the language that the government of Nicolas Maduro uses to refer to the presence of General Ford in the Caribbean waters, where they see in this deployment an imperialistic threat and meddling from Washington in Venezuelan affairs.

But at the same time, I want to bring you these images. We are in Caracas. We're in a fairly quiet area of the city.

Of course, it's almost 4 p.m. here, so people are going in and out of work, leaving in their evening commute, leaving their offices perhaps. Life is going on here in Venezuela. Life goes on.

People are not stopping their day-to-day activities to look after themselves in front of that threat. It's not because Venezuelans do not care or are not aware of these geopolitical tensions. It's simply because after more than 10 years of strict authoritarian rules under Nicolas Maduro, not many people here believe that this is really the end of that chapter of Venezuelan history.

Not many people here believe that this is the moment where the United States would operate an attack and because of that, the government would change.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Still to come, a penny for your thoughts on the last ever pennies made in the U.S. Details on the final minting after the break.

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[03:35:00]

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CHURCH: Welcome back to CNN. This is your Business Breakout. We are keeping an eye on financial markets across Asia for reaction as the U.S. government shutdown ends, you can see all in positive territory there.

And these are the business headlines.

The U.S. government is open again. The Trade Association Airlines for America says flights will likely return to normal before the busy Thanksgiving holiday, airlines released statements saying the end of the shutdown will restore stability and predictability for travelers. The FAA cut back flights at the top 40 U.S. airports due to staffing shortages.

A source tells CNN that the BBC held a surprise board meeting on Wednesday to discuss a legal threat from President Donald Trump. A recent "Telegraph" newspaper story detailed a serious editing error in a 2024 BBC documentary about him and the President is demanding a retraction. Two top executives have already resigned over the controversy.

Apple is launching Digital I.D., a new way for users to verify their identity when travelling in the U.S. Users can upload their passport or driver's license information. TSA checkpoints at more than 250 airports are set to accept the Digital I.D. for domestic flights, but it's not a replacement for a physical passport so it can't be used for international travel and border crossings in place of a U.S. passport.

The American penny is officially out of luck. The U.S. has minted the final pennies at its production facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but they won't be going into circulation. They will be auctioned off instead.

Here's CNN's Danny Freeman in Philadelphia.

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DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, penny pinching took on a whole new meaning Wednesday in Philadelphia. That's because after more than 230 years, the penny finally was retired.

Five final pennies were struck and they were made here at the U.S. Mint behind me here in Philly, and it really is the end of an era. But let me explain why the Trump administration decided to take this action.

Basically, the administration says that Americans have been short- changed because the price to create pennies has tripled over the past decade, but the demand for use of the penny has plummeted seriously as well over many years. Now, the U.S. Treasurer says, though, that in return for stopping the creation of new pennies, that they're going to be saving taxpayers more than $50 million a year. But make no mistake, there's still going to be challenges with this phase-out.

Retailers, for example, are going to have to start making hard decisions of if they want to round up to a nickel or round down to a nickel, and folks in that space have said that that can cost a lot of money for either consumers or businesses.

[03:40:00]

So still some challenges to be worked out there, but the administration really wants to emphasize this doesn't mean you should throw out your pennies. There are about 300 billion pennies still in circulation. They are all still legal tenders, so do not toss away any pennies that you might find in a jar, in a coat, or somewhere else in your home.

A few quick notes to wrap up here. The Secretary of Treasury, Scott Bessent, was supposed to be at the event in Philadelphia on Wednesday, but he had to cancel at the last minute, so the U.S. Treasurer was ultimately the one who stamped that final penny.

The last thing I'll note, the big question is, where are these pennies going? Are you and I going to be able to scratch off lottery tickets with these five final pennies? Well, the answer is no. Those five pennies will ultimately be

auctioned off, and actually, interestingly enough, most of penny production stopped way early in the year, back in June. These five were just the final created, though if somebody does get their hands on them after the auction, they can use them for any different miscellaneous option, if they so choose, because they will technically be in circulation.

But of course, the biggest victim of all of this are those of us who love penny-related puns, penny-related phrases, and of course, me, myself, I have my lucky penny.

So, penny for your thoughts now has to be nickel for your thoughts. Penny wise, pound foolish.

Nickel wise, pound foolish. Penny saved, penny earned. Nickel saved, nickel earned.

I don't know if I'd buy all of it. It might take some time, but either way I know being at the event here in Philadelphia really historic and worth every penny.

Danny Freeman, CNN, Philadelphia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Well, a stunning light show is on display above our planet. This is footage of the glow from these southern lights over Australia's state of Victoria. And the rare aurora borealis painted the sky red over the Matterhorn Mountain on the Swiss-Italian border Wednesday.

Dazzling waves of color are lighting up the sky across North America as well. The northern lights fill the skies in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin Wednesday night. And this was the scene in Iowa.

It's all due to eruptions of energy from the sun interacting with the Earth's magnetic field. So if you can, do step outside and take a look.

I want to thank you so much for your company, I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. "World Sport" is coming up next.

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(WORLD SPORT)