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Trump Orders DOJ To Investigate High-Profile Dems' Ties To Epstein; House Expected To Vote Next Week On Releasing Epstein Files; Health Insurance Premiums Set To Skyrocket As ACA Tax Credits Expire; Trump To Meet With Saudi Crown Prince On Tues. About Abraham Accords; How Suburban Moms Are Standing Up To Border Patrol. Illinois Community Stand Up to Border Patrol Agents; Trump Scraps Tariffs on Dozens of Grocery Items; Smithsonian Museums Reopen After Shutdown. Aired 1-2p ET
Aired November 15, 2025 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good to see you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We pass off the food, and we're all set.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We pay production assistants and background artists, and then they drive the food from place to place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Salads, tuna fish.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There you go, Jess (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So it started with encampments.
Would you like some free food?
Then it's food pantries, nonprofits, anyone that's struggling with food insecurities.
Here's three meals, and I'm going to get you some sides, too.
Giving someone that's hungry food is the best thing one can do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you so much. God bless you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And that's about 80,000 meals a year that we save from landfills. I feel like my skill set is called to do this. Now more than ever, we have to help each other. (END VIDEO CLIP)
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Wow, so generous. So great. You can go to CNN.com/heroes right now to vote for Hillary for CNN Hero of the Year or any of your favorite top five heroes.
All right, hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
And we begin this hour with a new investigation tied to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. President Trump has publicly ordered the Justice Department to investigate high-profile Democrats, companies, and institutions that he claims had dealings with Epstein.
In response, Attorney General Pam Bondi has appointed a U.S. attorney in Manhattan to handle the investigation, even though the DOJ determined four months ago that nothing in the Epstein files warranted any further action. The latest twist in this saga comes after the President's name turned up repeatedly in just-released e-mails from the Epstein estate.
We get more now from CNN's Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Perez.
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Attorney General Pam Bondi says that federal prosecutors in New York are being tasked to launch yet another investigation of people associated with child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The new investigation comes after President Trump said that he was asking Bondi to investigate Epstein's ties to prominent Democrats.
He named specific names, including former President Bill Clinton. It's yet another extraordinary turn in a political mess that has consumed this White House for months, and it comes just days after Democrats released e-mails from the late Epstein estate that mentions Trump a number of times.
Trump announced his directive in a social media post that accused Democrats of trying to revive attention to his past ties to Epstein, contending that they are, quote, "using the Epstein hoax" involving Democrats, not Republicans, to try to deflect from their own disaster shutdown and all of their other failures.
Bondi responded to the President's post by thanking the President and saying that she would have U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton in Manhattan lead the new investigation. This is the same office that led an early investigation of Epstein and of Ghislaine Maxwell, who worked for Epstein and was convicted of charges that she aided in the trafficking of girls.
We should note that the Justice Department this summer did an assessment of documents in their possession and determined that there were no additional defendants that could be charged with crimes associated with Epstein. And, of course, this new investigation also means that Congress will likely have to wait much longer for any documents to be released. There's an effort gaining steam in the House to force the release of those documents. But during an ongoing investigation, the Justice Department generally doesn't release investigative files out of concern that it would harm any possible prosecutions.
Evan Perez, CNN, Washington.
WHITFIELD: All right, joining me right now to talk more about these developments is Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury. She is a Democrat from New Mexico and a member of the House Oversight Committee that just released 20,000 pages of documents from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein.
Congresswoman, great to see you.
REP. MELANIE STANSBURY (D), NEW MEXICO: Great to see you, too.
WHITFIELD: All right, well, do you think the House vote on releasing the full Epstein files will happen?
STANSBURY: Yes, absolutely. I mean, as far as we know, the Speaker is planning to bring that vote to the House floor on Tuesday, but I really want to emphasize that we have already subpoenaed these files and the White House and Department of Justice have failed to comply with the existing subpoena, which has asked for the full unredacted files.
And I have to say that this latest ploy by the President appears to be another stalling tactic, and we know that they were in a tailspin all week after the result of these estate files being released. And the American people are tired of the lies, the injustice, and the continued cover-up, and so it's time for justice, it's time for the release of the files, and it's time for Congress to take action to hold these people accountable.
WHITFIELD: So you mentioned there's already been a violation, you know, in your view, as you just spelled out, of the White House not complying with the subpoena, so then what can you do?
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STANSBURY: Yes. Well, there are, you know, legal means to go to a court to deal with compliance issues. But part of why this discharge petition vote is so important is because we know that the President is involved in a pressure campaign of members of Congress. And we think that he believes that if he can get enough Republicans to basically back him, that he can continue to bury these files. But I think we can see the cracks in that strategy.
Late last night, as we know, the President went full-bore attack after Marjorie Taylor Greene, and she revealed that she had been texting with the White House and the President himself. And that the reason why he is going after her and trying to make an example out of her is because of the Epstein files.
And so this does not sit well for the American people. Our gut is telling us something is wrong here, and we know that the White House is engaged in a cover-up. And I believe that this will be as explosive as what we saw in Watergate, not just because of the crimes that are being covered up, but because of the cover-up itself.
WHITFIELD: So in your view, the White House's directive to DOJ, launching this new investigation, I mean, what -- how has this influenced your thoughts on what you had instinctively thought was behind the Epstein files, or perhaps what you now think is behind the Epstein files, and why Trump is acting so worried?
STANSBURY: I mean, let me just say this. We have been engaged in an investigation for months in the Oversight Committee. We have talked to the survivors and victims. We have subpoenaed witnesses, including Alex Acosta, who was the DOJ prosecutor who refused to actually prosecute the original Epstein case that allowed him to continue to abuse people.
And what you see when you investigate this case in depth is that there were thousands of crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein and his associates, and he was never held accountable fully under the law. And literally all of the associates in his circle were never held accountable.
What we saw in the e-mails released by the estate this week is that Donald Trump's name is named over 1,600 times just in Jeffrey Epstein's e-mails. We know that Pam Bondi told the President that he is in the files themselves. We know that Donald Trump was friends with Epstein for decades.
We know that Donald Trump was potentially involved in financial transactions with Epstein, and we know that Epstein was involved in crimes. And so the question comes up over and over again, if there's nothing to hide, then why is the President engaged in such a clear cover-up and pressure campaign of members of Congress.
WHITFIELD: Do you think this is going to be a turning point for Republicans in the House, you know, and what might the costs be that they are weighing?
STANSBURY: Yes, I mean, I think what we have seen over the last 11 months is a, you know, ongoing loyalty to the President and his agenda. And what I have seen over the last week since the explosive release of these latest e-mails is the fissures and cracks in the confidence of the President and the GOP.
In fact, this morning I saw that one of the senators from Utah is openly calling for the release of the Epstein files. That was not happening a month ago. And so it is very clear that the Republican caucus in general is very worried, if not about the crimes themselves and justice for the victims, but the optics of being tied to the cover-up of a pedophile ring.
WHITFIELD: All right. Congresswoman, I wonder if you wouldn't mind if we pivot now to the aftermath of the U.S. government, you know, shutdown. The federal government is now open. National Parks, some museums are back open. Flying is on its way back to some regularity. But at the core of the shutdown for Democrats was extending subsidies for Affordable Care Act. You know, seven Senate Democrats joined Republicans in ending the shutdown with the promise of a vote on ACA subsidies at another time. Do you believe it will happen?
STANSBURY: You know, I hope so. I hope. I want to believe that my colleagues across the aisle engaged in good faith. But I have seen no evidence that they are preparing a health care fix.
And I just want to make a couple of points about this. You know, we're headed into the holidays. Americans are hurting right now. They don't know how they're going to put food on the table. They don't know how they're going to afford their rent. And now they're finding out that their health insurance is going to double and triple.
This is an absolute crisis. The economy is in a tailspin for working people. And the President is more concerned with covering up the Epstein files than he is with dealing with this crisis. And so we need our leadership, whatever, you know, they believe, to focus on the issues that the American people care about.
And that is just being able to survive right now. And so we are going to continue to push them and use every piece of leverage that we have to address the health care crisis. But I think they've already shown us who they are, their big ugly bill this summer, guts not only the Affordable Care Act, but Medicaid and Medicare heading into next year.
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And during the shutdown, we saw the White House and Republicans leverage the hunger of children, of 42 million Americans under SNAP. And now they're talking about kicking everyone off of SNAP and making them reapply right before we head into the Christmas holidays.
I think it's disgusting. And I think that my colleagues need to get their priorities straight and return to why they ran for office and come to the table and get to work for the American people.
WHITFIELD: All right. Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, we'll leave it there for now. Thank you so much.
STANSBURY: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: All right, new today, we're learning more about President Trump's meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince set for the White House on Tuesday. Trump says the two will discuss the Abraham Accords. That's the U.S.-brokered Middle East agreement signed back in 2020. It normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and multiple Arab countries.
Here's what the President said that he hopes to achieve in these talks.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I hope that Saudi Arabia will be going into the Abraham Accords fairly shortly. We've had tremendous interest in the Abraham Accords since we put Iran out of business.
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WHITFIELD: CNN's Nic Robertson has more on the meeting.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, I really don't think that now is the moment that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, MBS as is known, is going to sign up to the Abraham Accords. And there's a number of reasons for that.
Look, he does want things from the United States. He wants a new security treaty or pact, something that's stronger than the agreements he has with the U.S. already. He wants U.S. F-35 fighter jets. He wants U.S. civilian nuclear power plants.
And all of those have been discussed in the past. But the sticking points here for him on the Abraham Accords are a lack of trust in the Israeli government, in the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and many of the members of his right-wing coalition government.
That's a stumbling block for the Saudis. And we can see that in the statements that have been made by MBS over the last two years during the war in Gaza. He's become even stronger in his language about there needing to be a pathway to a Palestinian state.
In fact, we heard it just a couple of weeks ago from a minister within the Saudi foreign affairs speaking at a big conference in the Middle East, saying that the -- that a Palestinian state is a prerequisite for regional integration. So, when you have that aspiration for a Palestinian state put side by side with an Israeli leadership that has indicated it doesn't want to recognize a Palestinian state, the pathway forward for MBS right now to want to sign up to the Abraham Accords just doesn't want to -- doesn't seem to be there.
And I think there's another issue, and of course this will get a good conversation between MBS and President Trump this week, and that is the Security Council resolution that's going to be voted on this week at the U.N. That will be about President Trump's 20-point ceasefire plan, a better envisaging of that, some more meat-on-the-bones details about how that's expected to work.
But I think all the indications we've had so far from the Saudis is they've been diplomatic publicly, but they don't really give the impression that they believe this 20-point plan, the ceasefire, and everything that goes with it, the International Stabilization Force, the police force, the disarming of Hamas, they're not really confident that the detail is there to actually make that plan work and therefore see further instability possibly in Gaza.
Again, making that stretch to a Palestinian state, to their decision and willingness to get on board with the Abraham Accords, just even more unlikely.
WHITFIELD: All right, Nic Robertson, thanks so much.
All right, still ahead, tariff reversal. President Trump's new effort to bring down grocery prices. Will it work?
Plus, chaotic clash, arrests and injuries after protesters and police clashed outside an ICE facility in suburban Chicago. And now Border Patrol agents say they are targeting a new city. We'll tell you which one.
And soaring health care costs. Millions of Americans facing soaring premiums as Obamacare subsidies expire just weeks from now. So how much will coverage cost? We'll break down what you need to know.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My health insurance premium is going to go up from $218 a month to $1,408 a month. Yes. That's a 546 percent increase.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't understand how this is ethical. How are we supposed to do this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am mad, as we all are at the Democrats. But how are we going to get these cowardly people out of office?
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WHITFIELD: All right, well, one thing has ended. Another thing is about to get started. Republicans managed to end the longest government shutdown without giving in on the main issue Democrats were pushing for -- extending the enhanced subsidies for Obamacare. Those subsidies were created in 2021 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Senate Republicans expect to hold a vote on these soon-to-expire subsidies in December, but there's no guarantee anything will be resolved before the subsidies officially run out just weeks from now.
If they do expire, premiums for tens of millions of Americans could more than double, as you just heard. With the midterms coming up and prices set to spike, some Republicans are understandably worried that health care will continue to be a political headache for them. And this concern isn't coming out of nowhere.
A record 24 million people signed up for ACA plans this year. That's up from the 11 million enrolled before the enhanced subsidies went into effect. Of the 24 million, 90 percent received these tax credits, and more than three in four, or 78 percent, live in states that voted for President Trump in the last election.
In fact, more than half of all ACA enrollees live in Republican congressional districts. Meaning, that if these subsidies expire, most of the people who will see the cost of their health care coverage skyrocket live in red states and red districts. The nonpartisan health policy research group KFF estimates that on average, subsidized enrollees will see their annual premiums more than double, with the average increase around 114 percent.
Here's what they estimate that could look like. A 27-year-old who's aged out of their parents' policy and makes roughly $17 an hour will go from paying about $50 to $168 a month. A 35-year-old single parent with one child making $50,000 a year will see their monthly premium go from $144 to $331. And a 60-year-old couple nearing retirement but not yet eligible for Medicare, making a combined $85,000 together, could see their monthly premium skyrocket from $602 per month to more than $2,000.
These kinds of increases could push many people out of the market entirely. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that around 4 million Americans might lose health insurance if the enhanced subsidies expire. Current enrollees told CNN that they genuinely don't know how they'll be able to stay insured without the extra help.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just impossible. There's no way we're going to have to give up our health care.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I have a federal pension and my Social Security check. And together, the increase in the health premiums would be half of my income. It's literally rolling the dice on whether we live or die at this point.
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WHITFIELD: A real gamble, giving up health care altogether. Open enrollment for the 2026 ACA coverage ends in just one month, on December 15th.
All right, coming up, confronting the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get back, or I'm going to shoot you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What? You're going to (INAUDIBLE) shoot me? Hey! Hey!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get back.
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WHITFIELD: What in the world is happening there? How a group of suburban moms are using whistles and phones to keep tabs on Border Patrol operations and their tactics.
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WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. A lot of officials and residents in Charlotte, North Carolina, are now bracing for what they understand to be federal border patrol agents arriving to their city. When word of that move broke on Tuesday, it came to a surprise to many Charlotte officials, including the Mecklenburg County Sheriff, whose office told CNN that they had not heard from anyone on the federal level.
The plans have put many in Charlotte on edge. The mayor is asking residents to refrain from sharing unverified information about enforcement activities, which create more fear and uncertainty.
Meantime, residents in the city of Evanston, just outside of Chicago, Illinois, are sending a message to border patrol agents attempting to round up undocumented immigrants there.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fuck you. You piece of shit!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
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WHITFIELD: Ordinary citizens turning on cell phone cameras, blowing whistles and confronting agents, directly telling them that their tactics are not welcome.
CNN's Shimon Prokupecz has more on this fight.
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SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): David Brooks captured this border patrol arrest on Halloween. Then came the real horror.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, she has a citizen of the United States of America.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get back or I'm going to shoot you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What? You're going to (INAUDIBLE) shoot me? Hey! Hey!
You're going to (INAUDIBLE) shoot me? All right, tough guy.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Look again from another angle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fuck you. You piece of shit!
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Border patrol had just been involved in a crash. Cell phone video shows them taking a woman out of a red car and pinning her to the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey. Hey. PROKUPECZ (voice-over): As a crowd gathered, Brooks filmed as people were detained, then stared down the barrel of an agent's gun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shoot me?
PROKUPECZ: What was that like for you?
DAVID BROOKS, EVANSTON RESIDENT: Frightening, surprising, shocking. Nobody was threatening violence. There was a lot of yelling, a lot of screaming. It was a charged situation, but I don't think it was anything that would warrant trying to control a crowd using a gun.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, don't put your hands on people.
PROKUPECZ: Here's how the Department of Homeland Security says things unfolded. That their Border Patrol agents were in an SUV and that they were coming up this street, they were trying to make a U-turn here, and that's when the red car slammed into the back of the SUV. However, witnesses here say that's not how things unfolded.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): They say the SUV, driven by those Border Patrol agents, purposely slammed on its brakes, causing the crash. DHS says its vehicle was being aggressively followed by the red car and called those who rushed to the scene agitated.
PROKUPECZ: Their argument is, well, go mind your business.
BROOKS: The crowd was annoying. And you don't beat people up because they're annoying you. It's a protest.
AMANDA BROOKS, DAVID BROOKS' WIFE: Let's say we have a legal right to protest.
D. BROOKS: Yes.
PROKUPECZ: Yes.
A. BROOKS: We do not have a right to break the law, but we have a legal right to protest.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): From Border Patrol caravans through the streets, to spot checks of landscapers. Here, top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino walks the streets wearing a long gun. It's perceived intimidation these families say they're fighting.
PROKUPECZ: The Brooks family is one of many families that is using their phone to keep an eye on where ICE could be here. And one of the things they tell us their concern is, is the presence of ICE outside schools like this.
MAYOR DANIEL BISS (D), EVANSTON, ILLINOIS: So, on Halloween, I was communicating with the superintendent. They decided rightly to have indoor recess, to not let kids out because it wasn't safe because of armed federal agents attacking people on the streets. PROKUPECZ (voice-over): When they spot immigration officers like here outside a Home Depot, they blow whistles to warn others.
SAVANNA ESSIG-FOX, CO-FOUNDER, PINK POSTER CLUB: We do three short whistles if we think we see ICE, and that helps to alert your neighbors.
EMILY MILLER, CO-FOUNDER, PINK POSTER CLUB: Yes.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Savanna Essig-Fox and Emily Miller started Pink Poster Club. They hang flyers with information on civil rights, and run a grassroots network of residents keeping tabs on ICE. Most are moms. We first met some of them in front of their local school.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My son, anytime one of his friends is not at school, he comes home and he says, I'm so afraid they took him away.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): When sirens go off, they check their text messages.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They say there might be a suspicious car.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very much.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Amanda Brooks runs to protect kids on the playground.
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MILLER: People all over Chicago and Evanston hear a whistle, and they run to them --
ESSIG-FOX: Yes.
MILLER: -- with their phones ready to film and to witness.
PROKUPECZ: Why is this an issue for you guys right now?
ESSIG-FOX: We have white skin. You know, we were born here. Like, we -- there's a level of privilege we have. We have comfortable lives here in Evanston. Like, there is a safety that we have, and that privilege we can use to do some good.
MILLER: In order for me to be able to enjoy my kids, and enjoy my other hobbies that I never do anymore, like reading or knitting or whatever. I can't just pretend something's not happening and go about my life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is wrong. How can you live with yourself?
PROKUPECZ: Can we show your arm? Is that OK? Do you mind?
JENNIFER MORIARTY, EVANSTON RESIDENT: Yes.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Jennifer Moriarty shows us the bruises on her arm, those she says she got while being detained during that confrontation on Halloween.
PROKUPECZ: What was the point of you being at this scene? MORIARTY: It just happened in front of me. It just -- I was walking with my phone out like this, about ready to hit record on the video, and then I was dropped on my back.
PROKUPECZ: Did you ever hit anyone?
MORIARTY: No.
PROKUPECZ: Did you ever threaten to hit anyone?
MORIARTY: No. No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is wrong with you? Why would you do this?
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): She shot this video from inside the car. Her hands coughed in the front. She was able to still keep her cell phone. She was one of the three people detained that day. That's her leaning out of the vehicle as agents pinned down another person.
MORIARTY: They put us in the vehicle. They didn't frisk anybody. They didn't arrest us. They didn't Mirandize us. I had access to my phone in the car.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Help us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Help us, please.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Open the door.
MORIARTY: I'm surprised that they hurt the young man like they did, quite frankly.
PROKUPECZ: Was it hard to see, to sit there and see him --
MORIARTY: It was very hard to see. His left eye, it was super black, and it was getting very large. He was very distressed.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): DHS said that man grabbed the groin of one of the agents while being arrested, though that's not evident in the videos. The man who was detained with Moriarty didn't want to talk to CNN. But in that video from inside the car, he said he didn't know what he did wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was just trying to help. I didn't even do anything.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Neither did I.
PROKUPECZ: How long did they hold you guys?
MORIARTY: Five hours. And most of that was driving around.
[13:35:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stupid mother --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shut up, dude. You are shameful.
MORIARTY: We were kidnapped. Absolutely. Absolutely. There was no arrest. It was as if to make an example, like no one is safe.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): The local mayor says all three were released without charges.
MORIARTY: I wasn't afraid. There was no fear for me that day. It was anger. But I'm also super enlightened and motivated by the people, the community. I mean, that was a crowd of probably 70 percent women. And these men were out there pulling their guns and trying to mace people. They're afraid of communities who are on alert.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Shimon Prokupecz, thanks so much for that reporting. And we'll be right back.
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[13:40:00]
WHITFIELD: Amid mounting pressure to tackle rising prices at the grocery store, the Trump administration says it's taking action. On Friday, President Trump signed an executive order allowing dozens of products like coffee, bananas, and beef to be exempted from his sweeping tariffs. The move marks a notable reversal for Trump who has repeatedly insisted tariffs are necessary to protect U.S. businesses and workers.
Let's discuss now with journalist Rick Newman. He is a former Yahoo Finance columnist who now authors the Substack -- hey, newsletter, "The Rick Report." Hey, how are you, Rick? Thanks for being with us. So, is this potentially going to make an impact?
RICK NEWMAN, AUTHOR, "THE RICK REPORT" NEWSLETTER AND FORMER YAHOO FINANCE COLUMNIST: I don't think anybody's going to notice, to be honest. So, just to underscore what you just said, Fredericka, Trump is removing his own tariffs on what is about, I don't know, looks like a couple hundred products. You can find the whole list of products.
I mean, Trump says he's focusing on stuff that you can't easily grow or produce in the United States. So, it's coffee. That's important. Coffee's up 19 percent year over year. It's bananas. It's pineapples. It's mangoes. It's cinnamon. It's cumin. It's capers. So, all he's doing is taking away the tax that he imposed on those products earlier this year.
I don't think those products or at this point I don't even think groceries really are the main thing that is what people think of as the affordability problem. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that --
WHITFIELD: That's a good part of it. NEWMAN: -- has been getting more expensive and going up in price by more than income. And Trump has not said much about a lot of that stuff yet.
WHITFIELD: I mean, groceries is just one of the many things that, you know, is hitting people hard. I mean, it is why folks are unable to save. They're spending most of their earnings. So, the Trump administration's, you know, trade representative, Jamieson Greer, was asked yesterday whether the president's tariffs have raised costs on Americans. And this is what he said.
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JAMIESON GREER, U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: It depends what the importers do with the tariff. When you look at the overall price trend, it hasn't been because of tariff. It's been because of these other events going on and just supply and demand.
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WHITFIELD: Is he right?
NEWMAN: That's careful parsing. There are a lot of things that put that affect prices and inflation. Tariffs is one of them. I mean, there are many economic analyses that are nonpartisan on this. And they find that, you know, Trump's -- let's say Trump's tariffs as they exist today, if they stand in place for a year, they're going to add something like $1,500 or $1,800 or $2,000 to the cost of a typical household.
So, tariffs -- just we go back to basics, tariffs are a tax that the importer, which can be Walmart, Target, a wholesaler or any kind of company, that company -- that American company has to pay the tax to the U.S. Treasury. So, their costs go up and they try to pass as much of those costs onto their own customers as they can, all the way down to you and me. Now, their alternative is just to have higher costs and lower profits, but no company wants to do that. So, this is affecting companies and consumers no matter how you parse it.
WHITFIELD: Yes. And then there's new data, you know, showing how tough this affordability crisis is for so many Americans. An analysis by Bank of America released this week shows nearly a quarter of U.S. households are living paycheck to paycheck this year. They spend over 95 percent of their income on necessities like housing, gasoline, groceries, child care, utilities. So, is that startling to you?
NEWMAN: Yes -- no, I mean, it's worrisome for sure. But so, we're calling it the affordability crisis in 2025. Much of this is not new. I mean, the tariffs are a new type of pressure and Trump rolled those out at about exactly the wrong time. But this is wealth inequality and income inequality that we've been talking about for a long time.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
NEWMAN: I mean, we've got a shareholder class in the United States and we have a working class in the United States. And if you're lucky enough to own stocks and own a home and you bought that home and you were able to refinance at 3 percent on a mortgage, then you're in good shape. But if you are trying to buy a new home, you're priced out. If you living if you're living on a paycheck and you don't have financial assets, you don't feel like you're getting ahead.
So, these are these are long term problems that seem to be intensifying. And Trump is now the one stuck having to deal with it. And so, far he is. He's been very tone deaf to what is a really serious problem for millions of Americans.
WHITFIELD: Yes. Seriously. Tough times for a lot of people. All right. Rick Newman, thank you so much.
[13:45:00]
NEWMAN: Yes.
WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up, open for business. Smithsonian museums are welcoming visitors again after the end of the U.S. government shutdown. And yes, the panda cam. There it is. It is back too.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:50:00]
WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back some of the country's national parks and Smithsonian museums are open again after being shut down for a little more than a month during the U.S. government shutdown. And also one of the most popular destinations in the nation's capital, the National Zoo. It's also welcoming visitors again to see the pandas and everything else there.
And that's where we also find CNN's Julia Benbrook in the nation's capital at the National Zoo. Always a great destination for tourists, people who live in the area any day of the week. And already it looks like folks were anxious to get back there again. Tell us what's happening.
JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. So, the Smithsonian Institute, it's the largest museum complex in the world, and it includes 11 museums along the National Mall, as well as other properties in the area, like the National Zoo, a big fan favorite here.
And these museums, they receive federal funding. So, when the government shutdown started, they were able to keep the gates open for a little bit using funding from previous years that have been closed for several weeks now. And as I spoke with people who were here today on the reopening day, some people were just surprised. They didn't even realize it had been closed. They got lucky. Others had been counting down the days.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LINDSEY TEPLESKY, VISITING THE NATIONAL ZOO: You've been just patiently waiting, right, for the right time.
ISAAC TEPLESKY, NOT PATIENTLY WAITING FOR THE NATIONAL ZOO TO REOPEN: I wouldn't say patiently, but yes, we have been waiting. We plan to go everywhere in the zoo, except for the birdies, but we don't like the birds. But everywhere and see everything. Stay at the pandas for three hours. And yes.
BENBROOK: Maybe get some hot chocolate. Hot chocolate and what else? More shopping?
I. TEPLESKY: Merch.
L. TEPLESKY: Yes, and merch.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BENBROOK: I love that, and merch. I might have to go get some of that myself. But also, yesterday we had some other big openings, the National Air and Space Museum. And CNN was there speaking with director Christopher Browne, who said that his team welcomed over a thousand visitors within the first 30 minutes. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTOPHER BROWNE, DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM: We found out pretty much when the American public found out when the continuing resolution was passed. And that was our signal that we could reopen. And here we are today. We've greeted over a thousand people already, and we're only 30 minutes into our reopening.
This is why we're here. It's to serve the American public and our visitors and showcase the collection, their collection, the largest aerospace collection in the world. And so, when we're closed, we're not doing our job. So, it means everything to be reopened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BENBROOK: So, here is what opened on Friday. The National Museum of American History, the National Air and Space Museum, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, the National Zoo, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Museum of African Art, Museum of Asian Art, and the Museum of Natural History. Those opened up today.
So, not everything is open yet. They're opening on a rolling basis until Monday. So, make sure you check the listing before you go visit your favorite facility. But we're getting closer now.
WHITFIELD: Oh, that's so great that people are, you know, flooding the museums that are open and obviously the zoo where you are too. But then how about for the folks who really do like to peek in on the National Zoo through the Panda Cam because they can't necessarily get there in person, that's up and running now?
BENBROOK: It is. The Panda Cam and the other animal cams are back up and running. Those were closed down during the government shutdown because they take federal resources as well. And some of the staff that make that happen were deemed non-essential.
I do want to point out specifically, though, that throughout all of this, the animal care part of it is essential. So, those workers were in here taking care of the animals, but visitors weren't able to enjoy it in the way that they normally get to. And they can now.
WHITFIELD: Oh, good. Well, thank goodness. The animals, they didn't feel the effects at all. Just, you know, fewer people looking at them, but at least they had their support staff. All right. Julia Benbrook, thanks so much.
All right. Still ahead, a new reaction from Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene after her public falling out with President Trump over the Epstein files. What she is now blaming Trump for, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:55:00]
WHITFIELD: All right. In recent weeks, the Trump administration restricted the number of refugees to the U.S., with a notable exception when it comes to white South Africans.
There have been accusations of persecution against this group. And in a new episode of The Whole Story, CNN Senior Correspondent Donie O'Sullivan traveled there to investigate these claims. He sat down with the father of Elon Musk in a wide-ranging interview about politics and race. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: America, in the next 20 years, will become for the first time in its history a minority white country.
ERROL MUSK, FATHER OF ELON MUSK: Well, that will be a very, very bad thing to happen. You want to see the U.S. go down? Why? You don't like cars and electric cars and you don't like technology, or what is it? Do you want to go back to the jungle or --
[14:00:00]
