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U.S. Announces New Strike On Alleged Drug Boat In The Pacific; U.S. Carrier Strike Group Enters Caribbean Ahead Of Military Exercises; Border Patrol Begin Arrests In Charlotte, North Carolina; House Set To Vote On Releasing Epstein Files On Tuesday; Old Church Archiving The Web, Aisha Dew (D-ND) State House Interview, CNN Hero Of The Year Finalist, Walking American Couple. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired November 16, 2025 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:32]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: All right. Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me this Sunday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

And we begin with this breaking news. The U.S. Military says it has carried out another strike on alleged drug trafficking boat. This one in the Eastern Pacific. This is the 21st vessel now the U.S. has attacked in recent weeks. And it comes as the U.S. says its biggest aircraft carrier strike group has now entered the Caribbean Sea. The U.S. has already put more than a dozen warships and 15,000 troops in the region, as tensions with Venezuela continue to rise.

We've got full coverage for you. CNN's senior reporter, Betsy Klein, is in Florida, where the president is spending the weekend. Stefano Pozzebon is in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.

So let's go to you first, Betsy. What are you hearing about this latest attack?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, one thing that has been praised by President Trump's supporters and criticized by his detractors is this idea of strategic ambiguity. President Trump likes to keep people guessing. And the reality is we just don't know what he is going to decide to do in Venezuela. But what we do know is that the U.S. has amassed significant resources in the region.

We also know that the president -- that the president has authorized the CIA to operate in Venezuela, and we are now learning about the 21st known strike on an alleged drug trafficking vessel. This one was in the Eastern Pacific. Most of those strikes have been in the Caribbean. It killed three men, according to U.S. Southern Command, and the death toll from these strikes overall now stands at 83 people.

Now, the president has been briefed by his team multiple times in recent days on a range of options for Venezuela and how to move forward. Those options include airstrikes on military or government facilities, as well as drug trafficking routes, as well as the possibility of a more direct attempt to oust the country's president, Nicolas Maduro. The president telling reporters on Friday that he had sort of made up his mind, but not providing additional details.

Now, experts have described this military buildup as a significant one. We have learned that the world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, has arrived in the Caribbean. Today, there are roughly 15,000 military personnel in the region, as well as more than a dozen warships and 10 F-35 fighter jets in the area. We also heard from Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who detailed the plans going forward. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN DRISCOLL, ARMY SECRETARY: I think that the president and secretary of war have spent a lot of time thinking. About what is the best thing they can do for the American people. And I can speak from the Army's perspective, which is we have a lot of training in that part of the world. We're reactivating our jungle school in Panama. We would be ready to act on whatever the president and SecWar needed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But no orders beyond these exercises at this point?

DRISCOLL: We don't talk about those kinds of things, but we would be ready if asked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KLEIN: Now, officially, the Trump administration is going after illegal drug trafficking operations in Venezuela, but regime change could be a key side effect of that. This is very high risk. It's not clear who would fill the power vacuum in Maduro's absence. This is all something that would require a very serious commitment by the U.S. and what the president is weighing as he prepares to return to Washington later this evening -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Betsy Klein, thanks so much.

Let's go to Stefano there in Caracas.

So what is the reaction from the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro?

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, the reaction over the last few hours and days, Fredricka, has been directed at those military drills that Betsy was referring to just now. These military drills that are occurring as we speak and through next Thursday outside the coast of Trinidad and Tobago.

Now Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelago, a small nation made up of several islands, some of whom are less than 10 miles away from the -- from the Venezuelan coast. When I was in the region back in 2017, you could see Venezuela from the coast and the beaches of Trinidad and Tobago. And that is an area that is notorious for narco trafficking. It's frankly infamous for narco trafficking.

And we know that some of the relatives of some of the victims in these more than 20 strikes that the U.S. has conducted so far in the region will have spoken out in the area of the Venezuelan coast that is directly in front of Trinidad and Tobago.

[16:05:08]

So Nicolas Maduro speaking yesterday at a rally here in Caracas, took a direct aim at those drills, saying that Trinidad and Tobago is betraying the unity of Latin America by allowing the U.S. to conduct these drills, which he sees as an imperialistic threat.

Now, today it's a Sunday. We're not hearing from Maduro directly. We're hearing -- we haven't heard from any of his officials yet who instead yesterday were crisscrossing the country and conducting ceremonies where regular people were asked to take an oath to defend the fatherland in case of an attack.

It really feels like, especially from the government narrative, from the state apparatus, that they are preparing, that this country is trying to get up to speed as much as possible, to prepare for what could happen in the next few hours, and perhaps in the next -- in the next few days. Maduro boasted yesterday that up to four million Venezuelans took that oath.

We need to take those figures, of course, with a pinch of salt coming from an authoritarian president who has vastly exaggerated these sort of claims in the past. However, it clearly shows how urgent he feels this threat is for him and for his government -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Stefano Pozzebon in Caracas, thanks so much.

All right. Let's continue the conversation now. With us is retired General Wesley Clark. He's the former NATO Supreme Allied commander.

Great to see you. So this latest boat strike, what intel does the U.S. Military generally need to verify, substantiate before carrying out something like this on international waters?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.). FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: Fredricka, I was also the commander of the U.S. Southern Command before I was NATO commander. So I know the region quite well.

WHITFIELD: And what they're dealing with.

CLARK: I've been in Venezuela, Colombia and so forth. You wouldn't do these strikes normally. I mean, you would stop them and you would search and you would arrest and so forth. So this is an extraordinary effort. But I think to go to the strategic issue that is being raised here, what we haven't talked about is the opposition, the political opposition of Venezuela. And we do know that we have special forces or CIA people on the ground, perhaps they're talking to the Venezuelan opposition.

You know, the figures show that about 60 percent, 70 percent of the Venezuelan population is against Maduro. And the figures show that he basically lost the last election in 2024. He prevented the most popular woman from running. She had a stand in. And so there's a strong political opposition in Venezuela. And so it wouldn't surprise me if there's some relationship between the U.S. buildup and perhaps the political situation on the ground in Venezuela.

We're not talking about it. But when you look at the buildup, it's certainly more than a counter drug enforcement action would be.

WHITFIELD: OK. So I do want to follow up on, you know, the climate inside Venezuela in a second. But first, I want to follow up on, you know, the strikes taking place. You know, what are your concerns about this 21st strike now, and now we understand 83 people killed? Do you have concerns about what has already happened and if there are more strikes that are going to continue?

CLARK: Well, these strikes would be extraordinary without some kind of a declaration of war or some kind of congressional authorization. These strikes wouldn't be normally authorized. Now, what we don't know is whether there's some secret intelligence mission that's going on, that these strikes are in support of a deception mission of some type that's been duly authorized under U.S. law, coordinated with some in Congress, as it's supposed to be the big eight committee chairmen and so forth.

So we don't know about that. So it's a little -- it's a gray area. I hear everybody talking about this being illegal killings and so forth. But, Fredricka, I just have to be careful because we do do things in the United States sometimes that are authorized or the Central Intelligence Agency or National Security Agency or whatever, our special forces, that aren't -- that the president is not going to go out publicly and talk about this in advance.

But for the men and women who are executing the strikes, I just hope they do have the appropriate legal authority.

WHITFIELD: Yes. OK. And I know you're about to catch a flight because we see people behind you who are also doing the same. So real quick to follow up on your bit about the, you know, the climate within Venezuela. You know that the USS Gerald R. Ford and that strike group is now in the area of the Caribbean. What is being signaled in your view to the country and maybe to the world?

CLARK: Well, you would signal to Maduro that you better just sit down and not cause any trouble domestically because if you try to intervene, crush your political opposition or something like this, if they were to call for help from the United States, the means are at hand to be able to stop violence in Venezuela, political violence directed against the opposition, which is actually a majority of the people.

[16:10:14]

So it would be a case somewhat as happened with Gadhafi in Libya. You might try to make that case that you were intervening for humanitarian reasons. That's the lesson. That's the warning of this military buildup. What it means to the rest of the world is a focus on the Caribbean. At the same time, look at what's happening in Ukraine, where Western assistance is desperately needed as the Russians are moving forward under the cover of bad weather to close in on the Ukrainians at the cross. And the United States is sort of standing back from this. We'd like to

see more engagement in Europe, which is clearly strategic. But we also have to understand that something is happening here in the Western hemisphere.

WHITFIELD: All right. Always love having you. General Wesley Clark, thank you so much. But go catch your flight. Appreciate it.

CLARK: I'm going to do it.

WHITFIELD: OK. Take care. Safe travels.

All right. Straight ahead, House Speaker Mike Johnson weighs in on Tuesday's upcoming vote to release the Epstein files.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): President Trump has clean hands. He's not worried about it. I talked to him all the time. He has nothing to do with this. He's frustrated that they're turning it into a political issue. And it's not surprising because the Democrats have nothing else to talk about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Up next, Border Patrol agents arrest dozens of people on day one of immigration enforcement efforts in North Carolina.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:16:14]

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back.

Federal agents now on the ground in North Carolina after executing controversial ICE operations in Chicago. Border Patrol officers arrived in the Charlotte area on Saturday to continue their immigration crackdown campaign. President Trump's top border patrol officer -- official rather Gregory Bovino says dozens of people have been arrested.

CNN correspondent Rafael Romo is here with details.

And how are those arrests going?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It seems like Saturday they had a number of hours where they arrested dozens of people. It was -- it was very striking to see some of the images, the videos that we're getting. And we have reported this before, Fred. The Trump administration has defended unprecedented federal enforcement operations in cities like Los Angeles and Chicago as necessary for fighting crime and enforcing immigration laws.

But people in Charlotte say they are puzzled as to why their city is being targeted because, according to AH Datalytics, homicides, rapes, robberies and motor vehicle thefts fell by more than 20 percent in Charlotte this year compared with the same time period in 2024. Border Patrol agents have been spotted around Charlotte over the weekend, stopping people suspected of being in the country illegally and making arrest while traveling in vans and SUVs, and covering their faces as this video obtained by CNN shows.

In a post on X, top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino said agents arrested 81 people in Charlotte on Saturday during a search of immigration enforcement the Department of Homeland Security has dubbed Operation Charlotte's Web. The arrests, Bovino said, took place during a span of about five hours, adding that those arrested had, quote, "significant criminal and immigration history and are off the streets."

The arrival of the federal agents has prompted at least one business owner in Charlotte neighborhood, where many immigrants live, to shut down temporarily. Manolo Betancur, a Colombian born U.S. citizen, says his bakery is closing its doors only for the second time in 28 years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANOLO BETANCUR, OWNER, MANOLO'S BAKERY: I don't know when I'm going to open back. But I need to protect my customers. I need to protect my people. I need to protect myself and my family. I don't even know who are approaching me and who is going to throw me to the floor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in foreign language)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And we see several incidents caught on cell phone camera show federal agents trying to arrest people, including an encounter with Willie Aceituno, a Honduran man who says he is a U.S. citizen. He told CNN affiliate WCNC federal agents broke his pickup truck window. In a statement to CNN, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that Aceituno acted increasingly erratic, escalated the situation and refused to comply with lawful commands by officers.

In a show of solidarity with immigrants, some Charlotte residents took to the streets to send the message that agents are not welcome there. Others showed up at Manolo's Bakery to support a business and a community they say is being unfairly targeted by the federal agents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANNAH VOISIN, CHARLOTTE RESIDENT: I don't feel that they belong here. I hope that they leave soon. And yes, I definitely think that when people are recording, when there are people out here watching, it makes a difference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And finally, Fred, local officials, including Mayor Vi Lyles, criticized such actions, saying in a statement that they are causing unnecessary fear and uncertainty. And that's certainly the case with what people are saying right now.

WHITFIELD: Yes. You can see it creating a lot of anxiety.

All right. Rafael Romo, thank you so much.

[16:20:01]

All right. A CNN exclusive now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): The most hurtful thing he said, which is absolutely untrue, is he called me a traitor. And that is -- that is so extremely wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: What Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene told CNN about the root of her feud with President Trump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Capitol Hill is gearing up for a pivotal week for the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein saga. On Tuesday, the House will hold a high stakes vote on whether to release more files related to the convicted sex trafficker. A discharge petition has collected enough signatures to force House Speaker Mike Johnson to hold a floor vote, which he's been delaying for months.

[16:25:06]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNSON: So it will be on the floor again next week. I suspect there'll be lots of votes that will just get this done. President Trump has clean hands. He's not worried about it. I talk to him all the time. He has nothing to do with this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: On Friday, President Trump ordered a Justice Department investigation into Democrats' potential ties to Epstein. Tuesday's vote in the U.S. House will happen despite Trump's repeated attempts to pressure Republicans to vote against the bill. His opposition to releasing the Epstein files has also created a stunning rift with some of his biggest supporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREENE: Unfortunately, it has all come down to the Epstein files, and that is shocking. And you know, I stand with these women, I stand with rape victims, I stand with children who are in terrible sex abuse situations, and I stand with survivors of trafficking and those that are trapped in sex trafficking. And I will not apologize for that.

I believe the country deserves transparency in these files. And I don't believe that rich, powerful people should be protected if they have -- if they have done anything wrong. And so I'm standing with the women and I will continue to do my small part to get the files released.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN's Julia Benbrook is joining us right now.

So, Julia, what more are you learning ahead of this vote?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this effort is moving forward. We do expect next week to see the House of Representatives vote on the release of Department of Justice files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. This push has been led by a bipartisan pair of lawmakers, Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, and Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky.

On their discharge petition that needed the support of 218 members in order to force a vote on this, they only had the signatures of a handful of Republican members, but they are predicting that that number will rise significantly when it goes to the House floor. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): 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.

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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: So Massie has set a goal of getting a veto proof majority. So that would be two-thirds of the House or 290 members if everyone is in attendance. He hopes that that would then put pressure on the Senate to act as well. Once they got the final signatures needed to force this vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that he would move quickly on this. And that's a change in strategy, both for him and for the White House.

A White House official did tell CNN that Johnson and Trump did speak before, and that he knew that this was going to be expedited, that there was a general understanding that this was an inevitable reality at this point.

Now, Trump is not accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein. His intense focus, though, on trying to keep his party looking elsewhere, not going after this vote, has in some ways just drawn more attention to their previous relationship -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Julia Benbrook, thanks so much, in Washington.

All right. What was once the home of a Christian scientist church is now the holy grail of internet history. We'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:33:30]

WHITFIELD: All right, to thumb through the pages of a good book, well, you can check it out maybe at your local library. But what if you're looking for a page from the Web?

The Internet archive team has been preserving Internet history for nearly 30 years now. And CNN went inside to see their innovations for the A.I. age.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just blocks away from the Presidio in San Francisco sits a century-old former church. But what was once a house of God is the holy grail of Internet history. The Internet archive saving a record of the Web one page at a time and now innovating for the A.I. future.

(on camera): There's a bit of a symbolism of having a church be the headquarters for the Internet archive.

BREWSTER KAHLE, FOUNDER, INTERNET ARCHIVE: I think of it actually with the pillars. The idea of the permanence, because it's a reference to the library of Alexandria which was a great project of the Egyptians and the Greeks to build all knowledge. Of course, now, that place is the Internet.

GOLD (voice-over): Brewster Kahle started the Internet archive in 1996, when a year's worth of Websites was just two terabytes which could easily fit on just one of these hard drives. Now, the hum of servers fills the stained, glass-adorned sanctuary, where 150 terabytes worth of the Internet are saved every day.

KAHLE: So, every time a light blinks, there's either somebody uploading something or downloading something from the Internet archive.

GOLD: This year, the Trump Administration deleted thousands of government Web pages.

[16:35:00]

GOLD: When everything from health policies to achievements by minority military members disappeared, the Internet archive was able to help show and preserve what had been removed.

KAHLE: This change was huge. Whole sections of the Web came down. They have a new point of view. And that's why we have libraries to go and have the record.

GOLD (on camera): Do you ever feel that what the Internet Archive is doing is preserving truth?

KAHLE: The Internet archive preserves a record. And whether it's true or not is actually for others to interpret.

GOLD (voice-over): To protect against future threats, both physical and political, the Internet archive has copies of its servers in multiple locations around the world.

GOLD (on camera): Are you concerned at all that you guys will be targeted at some point?

KAHLE: Let's go and make it so that there is different points of view stored and made permanently accessible in different environments. So, libraries have always been under attack, now more than during my lifetime. But let's go and live up to the moment.

GOLD: We're seeing the rise of A.I. Should we be recording something that was created by A.I. in the same way we record things that were created by humans?

KAHLE: We're starting some experimental programs, because so many people are turning to the chat bots as a news source. And so, they're going and just typing these things in. It's a preliminary project still to go and record what did the different chat bots say about the current affairs? So, we want a record of our times and this is just another aspect of it.

GOLD (voice-over): And they don't just save Web pages. Libraries, museums, or really anyone can ask the team to digitize and help preserve physical records, such as music, T.V. and books.

KAHLE: This is 1947. We had electricity already.

Let me show you what happened in 1927.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

KAHLE: So, this is what 1927 sounded like.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

GOLD: Books are carefully photographed page by page, digitized and posted online.

KAHLE: Here we go. Point (?).

GOLD: Even entire vintage video games are preserved, playable without the need of old consoles.

KAHLE: My browser is going to be running a JavaScript IBM PC (?) and using the Internet archive as a giant floppy drive.

GOLD: The archive has recently emerged from years of legal battles over copyright claims and is celebrating saving more than 1 trillion Web pages, meeting their fans and supporters offline.

ANNIE RAUWERDA, INTERNET ARCHIVE SUPPORTER: There are a lot of people that are just passionate about the cause. There's a cyberpunk atmosphere.

MARK GOLDMAN, INTERNET ARCHIVE SUPPORTER: Yes. In this day and age, when truth is becoming increasingly hard to find, it's nice to have a hard copy of something that was actually, you know, out there.

GOLD: A party they hope to host again with the next trillion pages. Hadas Gold, CNN, San Francisco.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Hadas.

All right, still to come, we'll bring you the story of a couple with a goal to promote positive change in the world, one step at a time. They'll join us live in a few minutes.

[16:38:06]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Today, federal agents are ramping up their enforcement of President Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown, zeroing in on Charlotte, North Carolina.

Border patrol says more than 81 people were arrested Saturday. That's leading to increased anxiety across the city, as Charlotte's mayor says the immigration operation is causing what she calls unnecessary fear and uncertainty.

Joining us right now to discuss, North Carolina State Representative Aisha Dew. She represents the Charlotte area. Representative, good to see you.

So, several incidents have been caught on cell phone camera, showing federal agents trying to arrest people, including an encounter as you're seeing right there, with a Honduran man who says he is a U.S. citizen. He had an encounter while in his red truck there.

He told CNN affiliate WCNC that federal agents broke his -- the window of his pickup truck, as you see there. And in a statement to CNN, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that the man, and I'm quoting now, "acted increasingly erratic", end quote. And then, "escalated the situation", quote, unquote. And refused to comply to lawful commands by officers.

Homeland Security says this operation is intended to ensure Americans are safe and public safety threats are removed. So, what's your reaction to all of that?

REP. AISHA DEW (D), NORTH CAROLINA STATE HOUSE (via Webex): You know, what I've seen so far seems much more like a witch hunt, based off of racial profiling. You know, essentially, the Supreme Court made it a --

WHITFIELD: We're so sorry. It looks like our signal is not reliable. But wait a minute, I think -- I think we're going to try it again. OK, Representative, we'll try that again. Go ahead.

DEW: Can you hear me?

WHITFIELD: Yes.

DEW: Yes. So, I don't think that we have the number of violent offenders and criminals that they're really looking for. One of the statistics I saw, through one of the raids, was that only two percent of the people that they captured were violent offenders, and I think that that would probably end up being the same thing here.

[16:45:00]

DEW: Of course, we want to get rid of violent offenders. However, what we don't want is for people to just feel unsafe.

WHITFIELD: And what are you hearing from your constituents?

DEW: They do not want border patrol here. I've said it before. We don't have any borders that need to be protected. We don't need to be protected from South Carolina, Tennessee or Virginia. And we don't have people coming on boats to Wilmington.

So, overall, North Carolina is a pretty safe place.

WHITFIELD: What can you do to allay concerns of your constituents as a state representative? What do you feel, you know, you have the power to do to respond to the attention now that the Charlotte area is getting from the President's immigration push?

DEW: I lost part of the question. But I think that what we're trying to do for our community members is to let them know their rights. And also, to keep anyone who's participating in any type of protest or protecting their neighbors to also be calm and to remain peaceful throughout this process to the best of their ability.

I.C.E. Border Patrol, they should not go into private citizens' homes.

WHITFIELD: All right, we lost that signal. But I think we all got the gist of what she was saying there. North Carolina State Representative, I thank you so much.

All right. Voting is underway for the 2025 CNN Hero of the year. And we're reintroducing each of the top five heroes. Hollywood Productions involve hundreds of people working behind the scenes, often fueled by gourmet meals provided on set.

Well, assistant director, Hillary Cohen, has always been pretty disturbed that a lot of that leftover food ended up in the trash so she took action.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY COHEN, FOUNDER AND CEO, EVERY DAY ACTION: Working on a film set, it's this whole team of people, a prop department, the costume department, an electric department, and a lot of people that need to be fed. There's just so much food that's available. Steak and salads, so much good food every day. When lunch was over, they would just throw it out. It doesn't make any sense.

I really was always told, we can't donate the food. It's too hard if someone gets sick. It's a liability.

As an assistant director, I was the logistical planner of a set. This is just the logistical problem. I think it's so easy to solve.

Every Day Action picks food up from film sets, corporate events, grocery stores to deliver the food to those in need.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Awesome (?) food, guys.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nice to meet you.

COHEN: We're the Grubhub. We take it from point A to point B. At the beginning, it was just me and Sam, one of my co-assistant directors, in the heart of COVID. We had this big cooler from Wal-Mart, thermal bags, just picking the food up.

I always like to see what the fancy meals of the day.

Film and T.V. set, that's like our bread and butter. All you have to do is give us a call sheet, sign liability over and the foods ours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For decades, it broke my heart to throw food away. So, we're happy to do it. It's just like clockwork. They show up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, it's so good to see you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We pass off the food and we're all set.

COHEN: We pay production assistants and background artists, and then they drive the food from place to place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have salads, tuna fish.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There you go, Justin (?).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

COHEN: So, it started with encampments (?).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you like some free food?

COHEN: Then, it's food pantries, nonprofits, anyone that's struggling with food insecurities.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here's three meals, and I'm going to get you some sides, too.

COHEN: Giving someone that's hungry food is the best thing one can do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, God bless you. Thank you.

COHEN: And that's about 80,000 meals a year that we save from landfills. I feel like my skill set is like called to do this. Now more than ever, we have to help each other.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Good food, warming hearts. 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.

[16:49:25]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. They have walked 6,500 miles, and they will walk 5,500 more. Meet the walking America couple. In May of 2022, Torin and Paige Rouse began their journey to walk across the U.S. with their backpacking gear, $200, and a mission to change the way people think about their lives and connect with one another.

Well, since then, they have traveled through more than 25 states and stayed in over 450 strangers' homes, all while spreading their message of positivity.

The walking America couple, we are lucky enough, they've walked right in front of a camera for us to talk to us from Elk Grove, California. Great to see you, smiles and all. It's a little cool where you are but you're here to warm our hearts.

Paige and Torin, thank you so much. So, you're walking from Canada to Mexico. But you have been all over the country. So, Paige, you first.

[16:55:00]

WHITFIELD: You know, when Torin first said, hey, let's walk across America. What was the impetus of the idea? The goal? Your reaction?

PAIGE ROUSE, CONTENT CREATOR, WALKING AMERICA COUPLE: Before we were even officially dating, he said, you should sell everything you own and move into a backpack with me. So, I knew it was leading this way, but it took me about a year to come around. But we made it here.

WHITFIELD: So, describe then, Paige, what have these walks been like?

P. ROUSE: They've been very, very eye opening to how much we can grow ourselves, to what the world is really like. How much more love and kindness is out there. How much we can connect with people so unlike ourselves.

WHITFIELD: So, Torin, I mean, you're lucky. Paige is just, like, hey, OK, I'm on board. This seems pretty easy. And you both seem really easygoing. But -- and I think, you know, a lot of folks can relate to, hey, life is nuts right now for just about everyone. It's very stressful. It's expensive. Taxing. With, of course, underlying, you know, moments of beauty.

But was this, in your view, kind of an effort to get back to the simple things? You know, appreciation, you know, seeing leaves changing, all that? I mean, what was your goal?

T. ROUSE, CONTENT CREATOR, WALKING AMERICA COUPLE: You know, I think, in many ways, we've stumbled into a philosophy we didn't know we were necessarily walking into. My original goal was to just figure out how to be content, because I was pursuing all the things that were kind of pressed to in life. You know, typical nine to five. Have a couple of cars and some extra room in the house. But I definitely wasn't happy.

And, over time, I began to learn that contentment was far more counterintuitive than I realized. I eventually got rid of everything I owned and backpacked a few hundred miles through the mountains. That was some time before I met Paige, though.

WHITFIELD: Wow. So, what were -- what do you think have been the moments of affirmation that, you know, this is allowing me to find that contentment? I mean, was it -- like, we're looking at some of the pictures. Was it seeing the majestic mountains? Was it seeing these incredible, you know, tree trunks? I don't know if that was the Redwood Forest there. But, you know, what have been those moments of affirmation for you?

T. ROUSE: You know, really it's experiencing life in a different way. We often avoid discomfort at all costs. We're spending our lives chasing as many pleasures as we can. But what I found was that even though I was incredibly uncomfortable there in the mountains when I first backpacked, and I didn't have any of the things that I thought were supposed to make me happy, I was finding more fulfillment and more satisfaction in my life.

And that's really what we've gone on to talk to people about. You know, the way that we acclimate, according to the circumstances that we accumulate for ourselves, you know, in our situation. And how very quickly dissatisfaction can creep in. Even though we might actually be in a wonderful position, it's our perspective that determines our interpretation of it.

WHITFIELD: Paige, what about the people that you've met? We're looking at this video where it looks like you've, you know, run into a family. And now, the kids are walking with you for a few paces there. Talk to me about, you know, the people you've met and what those moments have been like for you.

P. ROUSE: People have been so friendly. California was especially. I think, surprisingly, we have been more welcomed than we expected, too. Just recently, in the -- oh, what town was it? We went out to eat at a local restaurant, and we were welcomed by the owners and our host. And a bunch of local people came over to greet us.

T. ROUSE: The city of Ranch --

P. ROUSE: And we talked about the journey.

T. ROUSE: -- the city of Rancho Cordova, and we headed over to the city hall to say hello.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. I mean, it sounds like it's been transformative.

P. ROUSE: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: So, Torin, through it all, you know, while you've gotten a lot of press, you know, hence, here you are with us, too. You haven't accepted any sponsorships, I understand. You know, tell me why it's been important to, you know, fund your journey through donations and share your content really for free.

T. ROUSE: It's really because of the experiences that we've had with people. When we set off on this journey, we were expecting to sleep under a lot more bridges like this. But throughout the course of the journey, people were coming out of the woodwork to help us along the way. This was before we had any social media presence.

So, when we created it, we decided, you know what? We've received freely. We're going to give freely back. So, no paywalling our content for the duration of the walk. No sponsorships. No business deals. Just altruistic.

WHITFIELD: Very fun. Paige and Torin, thank you so much. Paige and Torin Rouse, appreciate it. Happy trails. Thanks for stopping to talk to us.

T. ROUSE: Take care.

WHITFIELD: Take care.

All right. Take an intimate look into the extraordinary political career and life of New Zealand's former prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, in the new CNN film, "Prime Minister." "Prime Minister" premieres tonight at 9:00 Eastern and Pacific on CNN, and next day on the CNN app.

And thank you for joining me today.

[17:00:00]

WHITFIELD: I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The NEWSROOM continues with Jessica Dean right now.